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Other People's Choices	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > General > General Views: 24374 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 5
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this story

Chapter List
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Chapter Forty-Three—Meetings, Speeches, Dodges
“I think you’ll be very pleased with my choice of Mind-Healer for Sirius, Harry.”
Harry doesn’t say what he’s been thinking, which is that no, he won’t. He just inclines his head and makes his smile as real as possible. “What’s their name, sir?”
“Miriam Hawksgift. She knew Sirius at school, briefly, although she was a few years ahead of him so they didn’t spend much time together. She is brave, honest, and loyal. Some Mind-Healers get accusations that they spill the secrets of the people they spend time with, did you know that, Harry? But Miriam has never had someone accuse her of that.”
“Was she a Gryffindor, sir?”
“Why, yes, she was. That’s one reason she got to know Sirius as well as she did. He and James were the most popular students in Gryffindor for a few years. Let me tell you about the time they managed to sneak a Continuous Laughter Draught into the juice that all of the staff were drinking…”
Harry nods and smiles through the rest of Dumbledore’s speech, even though it’s a prank that he’s already heard about from both Sirius and Remus. There’s a soft ache in the bottom of his stomach.
Everything is falling out exactly as he predicted. Dumbledore isn’t outright saying that Harry will owe him for getting Sirius a Mind-Healer and Harry will have to listen to him again, but he doesn’t like saying that kind of thing anyway. It’s what he means, though. And Harry will have to go along with it.
Just in case Dumbledore takes this Hawksgift person away, and Harry never has a chance of living with Sirius and being loved for just himself.
“Are you listening to me, Harry?”
Harry sits up and plasters a smile on his face. “Oh, yes, sir. But I was just thinking that I haven’t finished my essay for Professor McGonagall’s class yet, and…”
With a chuckle, Dumbledore waves him away. “And you perhaps already heard this story from your godfather. It’s a good sign that he’s coming back to himself, Harry, if he remembers the past so well. Things that he probably wouldn’t have reason to dwell on when he was in that prison cell.”
But he can still think of things that hurt me.
Harry shoves down that thought and stands up. “I’ll see you later, sir. When is the Mind-Healer supposed to start visiting Hogwarts?”
“Oh, she wanted to wait until she could be sure that Sirius was in recovery. But I think now, with the ability he has to focus on the present and hold conversations and think about the future instead of the past, I can tell her that he’s ready.”
You mean that you can tell her everything’s ready because I agreed to it. Harry nods and smiles and walks towards the top of the stairs. His head feels peculiar, as though he somehow has a cold without a nose that’ll run.
I don’t want to see things like this. I don’t want to think like this.
But when he thinks about it, Harry realizes that he wants something else more. He wants to be able to go through his day without everyone trying to bloody manipulate him.
That isn’t going to happen as long as he’s the Boy-Who-Lived and stands up to some people, though. Which means it’ll never stop happening.
Harry bows his head, and keeps moving.
*
“Something’s wrong. What is it?”
Harry blinks at Blaise over the top of the book that he’s found on Arithmancy somewhere in the library. “What are you talking about? Nothing’s wrong.”
Blaise snorts and flings himself down on the couch next to Harry. Theo is across the common room, working on Ancient Runes homework, but he tilts his head when Blaise glances at him. Blaise stretches out his arms, casually, and says, “It’s the way you go around scowling and sighing. And won’t talk about it. If it was just Trelawney or something, you’d mention it.”
“I’m fine.”
“Do you realize you say that every time someone asks you something, whether or not it’s about your health?’
“So what? It’s true. I’m fine.”
Blaise Summons the Arithmancy book. He’s got a lot better at Summoning Charms since the study group started using them, and he’s better than anyone else. Granger accused him of being lazy because he wanted to learn that charm first so he wouldn’t have to keep getting up to fetch things. Blaise can absolutely admit that.
“Blaise. Give it back.”
“Such threats.” Blaise places his hand over his heart. “There’s no need for threats, you know. Not as long as you tell me the truth when I ask you a question.”
“I will kill you.”
Blaise leans back on the couch and looks patiently at him. Harry picks up his wand, but he’s not worried. He knows the Shield Charm pretty well, too, and he knows that Harry isn’t going to hex him with something permanent the way his mother would.
Just as Harry aims the wand, Blaise says, “Hex me and I won’t tell you where your Christmas gift is.”
Harry pauses. “I told you that you didn’t have to get me one.”
“And I told you that I did, it’s just taking it a while to get here.” Blaise sighs. That’s true, but he doesn’t understand the look on Harry’s face. “A trade, right? An answer for an answer. You tell me what’s bothering you, and I tell you where your gift is.”
“You think you can bribe me?”
“Not with Galleons.”
Harry scowls at him, but puts his wand slowly away. Blaise wants to crow. He doesn’t, because that would defeat the purpose. He knew he would win this contest by appealing to Harry’s curiosity before anything else. “All right.” Harry glances around and lowers his voice. “Dumbledore is choosing the Mind-Healer for Sirius.”
Blaise almost twists himself off the couch. “What? That’s illegal!”
“Why would it be?”
“Because he has no authority! He was the one who had the power to call for a trial originally, and he didn’t. Or didn’t you wonder why he’s been virtually left out of this trial that Black’s getting now even though he’s the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot?”
Harry’s face says he didn’t wonder. But he pushes on. “But he’s the one who can find a Gryffindor Mind-Healer.”
“Why does it need to be a Gryffindor?”
“Sirius isn’t going to accept anyone else.”
“All they’d have to do is find someone who didn’t go to Hogwarts. Or who was a Hufflepuff or a Ravenclaw—”
“No. He told me. He feels it has to be a Gryffindor. He doesn’t think that other people can—understand him.”
Blaise pauses with his throat jumping. He’s sure, he’s just sure, that this is part of Dumbledore’s manipulation. He wouldn’t even have to manipulate Black very much. All he has to do is suggest that a former Slytherin can’t understand anything about a former Gryffindor, and Black will agree. Blaise has watched with narrowed eyes as Harry spends more time with his godfather. He seems to be urging Harry to forget his new House affiliation.
“This is all Dumbledore’s business. You have to know that.”
Harry stares off into the distance for a second. Then he looks at Blaise and nods. “I do know that. But I want Sirius to get better. I want to live with him. And he’ll refuse to get better if he has to work with a Mind-Healer who was a Slytherin.”
Blaise sighs. The best thing he can do is make sure that Harry keeps talking to them and doesn’t go into a little shell because Black is an arsehole. “All right. Your gift is a book. It’s just taking a while to get bound and copied.”
“A handwritten book? What kind of book is it?”
Blaise meets his eyes. “I’m not telling you the subject yet. It’s just a book that can’t be copied by magic, because it’s old and it basically has protections against that. You’ll see it as soon as the people I paid to copy it are done.”
“People?”
Sometimes Harry is annoyingly perceptive. “Yeah. It’s also something that it wouldn’t be good for one person to copy all at once. There are—things in it that aren’t exactly—palatable to some people.”
Harry doesn’t ask the obvious question, whether it’s illegal or about the Dark Arts, but Blaise can see the curiosity shining in his eyes. He smiles slightly. He’s about to say something else when Theo interrupts.
“I wonder, Harry. Why do you want to live with Black so badly? You know there are people who would take you in an instant. You could even spend the summers with different people, the way you did with my father last summer. Perhaps this summer you could stay with Weasley, and the Christmas holidays with Draco, and so on.”
“Because Dumbledore would interfere in it,” Harry says, as if Theo should have known that already. Well, maybe he should have, Blaise admits to himself. “He was already unhappy that I couldn’t go back to—the Dursleys. Sirius is my legal godfather and he’ll have the ability to make Dumbledore happy and me once he’s better.”
“Cleverly argued,” Theo says softly. “Not clever enough, though. Come, Harry. Tell me why you’re so desperate for Black, why you aren’t considering alternatives when I know you can see the Headmaster’s hand behind this.”
Blaise leans back. He thought of saying for a second that they shouldn’t make Harry defend his choices, but he thinks now that if they hadn’t, then what Harry was concerned about might have slipped straight past him. Let Theo do the questioning, for now. He might have better luck.
*
Harry straightens his shoulders. He’s going to tell the truth, of course he is, but he’s also going to make it clear that this is not their business. He holds Theo’s eyes and waits.
“What is so special about Sirius Black?”
“He’s my godfather. Come on, Theo. Use that cleverness that you’re so proud of.”
Theo gives a faint smile. His head is cocked as if he’s listening to something Harry can’t hear. His fingers were tapping on his Ancient Runes parchment, but now he’s stopped them. “I want to know why that matters so much.”
“Theo—”
“You didn’t know him for most of your life. Of course you would want to see justice done for him, but that’s being done now. Why do you have to be so concerned about him? Why not wait until the Mind-Healer sets his thoughts to right? Which could take years.”
“It can’t take years!”
“Why not?”
Shit. Harry calms his face and drops his shoulders from the hunched position they’ve almost taken around his ears. He wants to go somewhere else and stop reacting this way and apparently stop giving away clues every time he moves. But it’s too late for that. “Because I want to have somewhere to stay for summer hols.”
“And I’ve told you, you have other places you can go.”
“I don’t want to intrude on anyone.”
Theo pauses, and then smiles. “That’s true, but it’s not the only truth.” His voice is soft but penetrating, and Harry realizes that he must have cast a Privacy Charm around them. He wouldn’t be speaking like this otherwise. “Come on, Harry. Can’t you tell one of your friends? Are you afraid that I’m going to betray you to my father?”
“No. Not—that.”
“Then come on, Harry.”
Harry reaches for and finds the courage to refuse, one more time. “You would tell me that I’m being stupid and I should go and talk to Snape. And I don’t want to do that.”
“Hmmm. That’s harsher than I think we would be.” Theo moves his eyes over to Blaise, but his head doesn’t move. Harry realizes that Theo is kind of creepy. Maybe not as creepy as Daphne and that cold smile like glass she gave him the other day when he thanked her for the pendant, but pretty scary right now. “Why would we tell you that? Unless it is a stupid plan. Something a lot stupider than you’ve done in the past.”
Harry grinds his teeth. But he’s kind of got them off the track. They think it’s something he’s going to do instead of something he thinks. “Keep dreaming, Theo.”
“We’re your friends. We won’t call you stupid.”
Harry sighs and stares at the wall for a second. “Listen, can I have time to think about it? I just—I know you and Blaise and Ron and Hermione are fine, it’s some of the others that worry me. Gryffindor and the whole school turned on me half the time I’ve been here…”
“So you’re still a little paranoid.” Theo relaxes. “All right, a few days. But then we are going to ask. No matter how you want to phrase it.” He hesitates, then adds, “You can phrase it as clumsily as you want. We aren’t going to care.”
“That’s—big of you,” Harry says, and it actually is. He gets up, claps Blaise’s shoulder, and goes over to do the same to Theo. Theo is watching him with narrowed eyes now, as if he senses the truth behind Harry’s ploy: the few days will let him make up a convincing-sounding lie about the “plan” that he didn’t want to tell them about. But Harry smiles, and Theo seems willing to let it go. “All right. Thanks, you lot.”
“It’s fine,” Theo says, and goes back to his homework. Blaise continues thoughtfully studying him. Harry decides that it’s probably time to go up to his room and get some early sleep.
And work on his lie.
He can’t tell them that it’s because he wants someone all to himself. It’ll sound selfish and, yes, stupid. But a lie that they “know” about will be fine.
*
“You don’t think he was telling the truth,” Blaise says once the door to their bedroom closes behind Harry.
“Of course not.” Theo examines the last rune he drew while listening to Blaise’s and Harry’s conversation, and frowns. He’ll have to redraw it. The leg is crooked. “But we’ll have the truth out of him sooner if we hold back and don’t push.”
He looks up to see Blaise’s eyebrows rising. “I suppose that could work,” he murmurs.
“It’s going to work. I thought it up.”
“Oi, Nott!”
Theo cancels the Privacy Charm and turns his head slowly. Flint hasn’t given Harry any trouble lately, and he’s left the rest of them alone, too. Then again, he doesn’t often have any interest in someone who’s not standing in his way or making fun of him. “Yes, Flint?”
Flint’s grin is ugly, but then again, there’s not a lot about him that isn’t ugly. “You might as well know that you and your daddy aren’t going to survive long.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, Nott. There’s those who don’t like traitors, like you and your daddy. Traitors to the true Dark. Traitors to Slytherin House. You’d best think about that.”
“What fascinating fodder you’ve given me for thought, indeed, Flint.” Theo turns back and erases the crooked leg of the rune.
“Aren’t you listening to me, Theodore? I said—”
Theo’s vision blurs and his thoughts rush. So does his body. When his sight comes clear again, he’s standing across the room with his wand pressed to Flint’s throat. Flint’s eyes are watering and he’s leaning desperately back in his chair. Theo doubts that it’s really his wand that’s causing that. Instead, it’s probably the knife he drew on the way, which is pressing against Flint’s groin. Not that most people sitting across the common room would be able to see that. And Blaise will only know it’s there because Theo has done this before.
“You were saying, Flint?” Theo asks, and his voice is a clotted snarl.
Flint’s eyes widen and some more sweat leaks down his face. “Sorry,” he whispers. “Theo.”
“That’s better.” Theo moves backwards and tucks the knife away before he makes his way back to his seat. Some of the firsties have shaking hands and wide eyes and whispers going on. Theo ignores them. No one’s been stupid enough to call him Theodore so far this year, so it’s the first time they’ve seen it. As long as they’re smart enough to pick up the lesson, then he doesn’t care what they do.
“Your own fault, Flint,” Blaise says over his shoulder, and goes upstairs, shaking his head. Theo focuses on the rune in front of him until his crazily slamming heartbeat calms down and he can concentrate again.
Around him, the common room is as quiet as a bone under skin.
*
Draco sits up when he sees Harry come into the bedroom. It’s not often he’s alone without Blaise and Theo around lately, and of course when they’re in the library the big study group is always around them. Well, Draco’s not wasting this opportunity. “Time’s up, Harry. I want the answer to one of my three questions.”
Harry stops walking for a second. Then he shakes his head and goes over and sits down on his bed. “Just one?”
“Yes,” Draco says, a little unnerved. Harry seems weirdly unconcerned. “It’s an important question. And you have to answer it truthfully, and you can’t leave out important details.”
“You and I might disagree on what’s important.” Harry faces him with his arms folded. “Fine. Ask.”
Draco breathes out slowly and does. “Exactly how badly did your family treat you?”
He sees the frozen expression on Harry’s face and winces a little. He knew this would get a bad reception. But he wants to know.
And he waits, and Harry glares at the wall, and Blaise comes into the room and Draco grinds his teeth, but Harry glances at Blaise, and Blaise leaves, and then Harry turns to Draco and begins to talk.
*
Kain: The artifacts are both costly and made with illegal processes and ingredients.
Draco's turning point might be these questions, depending on what he hears.
Blaise would be a little horrified to know how much he's changed already. On the other hand, he doesn't love his parents like Draco and Daphne do, and he's not acting against his mother (yet) the way Theo is against his father.
And yes, Sirius is immature at the moment, anyway, and not ready for a child. But on the other hand, Harry is looking for someone loving. It honestly doesn't have to be a parent, it could be a brother. "Family" is all he's thinking of.
I lied, sorry, the Severus-Sirius fight is the chapter after this one. This one rather got away from me.
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