Unseen Scars

"It's Harry's birthday, Ron," Arthur said slowly. "We thought you wouldn't be back for months."

"We wanted to surprise you," Hermione replied, frowning at Harry. "That's not what Ron meant."

"Why isn't he in Azkaban yet?"

"What the fuck are you on about?" Harry demanded. "Azkaban? I haven't done anything even remotely illegal!"

Ignoring the Cruciatus he'd cast on Carrow because he'd spat at McGonagall.

Ron looked much like he had when Harry's name came out of the Goblet of Fire, and Hermione's expression was disapproving and disgusted.

"Parseltongue," Harry guessed flatly. They both looked surprised. "Yeah, I know you don't like that I can speak it. It's not like I can control it."

"Just don't speak-"

"It's a FUCKING LANGUAGE, Ron!" Harry snapped. "I'm not going to use it for evil! Maybe I like being able to talk to beings that don't judge me for something I can't control! Or judge me at all, actually!"

"Oh," Molly whispered behind him.

"How did you know we don't like Parseltongue?" Hermione asked sharply.

Harry sneered back at them. "After the war ended," he said, "I was able to actually think, without classes and Quidditch and Voldemort trying to murder me, and I realized Dumbledore wasn't all he was cracked up to be. In fact, I'm pretty sure he orchestrated most of my life."

Harry wasn't expecting the panicked expression on Ron's face and Hermione's unreadable one.

"You knew," he whispered. "You knew he was manipulating me, and was planning for me to die."

Molly gasped in anger and shock.

"No!" Ron protested quickly.

"Shut up, Ron," Hermione hissed at him.

"Get out," Arthur said sharply.

"Dad?" Ron asked in surprise.

Arthur strode forward, and Harry saw the furious expression on his face. "I don't care about Albus' reasons for hurting a child, what he did, and what you have done, is not acceptable. If you still agree with Albus' plans, neither of you are welcome in this home."

"Mum?" Ron pleaded, turning to Molly.

But Molly was just as outraged. "Harry has saved our family more than once!" she screeched at him. Harry stifled a flinch. "He saved Ginny's and Fred's lives! He has treated us with warmth and kindness and love, and you tried to get him killed! GET OUT!"

Ron and Hermione bolted out of the house, looking shocked and outraged.

"Harry, what do you mean, Dumbledore orchestrated your life?" Arthur demanded, looking concerned and furious.

"Remus and Sirius need to hear this, too," Harry sighed. "I would have told them earlier, but Remus feels indebted to Dumbledore, and Sirius isn't great at judging people."

Molly and Arthur exchanged worried glances but followed Harry through the Floo.

"Harry, what's wrong?" Remus asked in alarm when he saw their expressions.

"Hermione and Ron came back," Harry said sourly.

"They weren't writing to you on purpose?!" Remus exclaimed, eyes flickering between green and gold.

"Yes, and they were helping Albus control Harry," Arthur said darkly.

"What?" Sirius and Remus said in unison.

"I can explain that, but it's a long story," Harry sighed, sitting down in an armchair. "Kreacher?"

The house-elf cracked into view and looked at Harry expectantly.

"You should hear this, too," Harry explained, pointing at the couch.

"Yes, young master," Kreacher said hoarsely, popping next to Remus. Sirius sat down on his husband's lap, and Molly and Arthur took the other two armchairs.

"I didn't figure this out until after the war ended," Harry said tiredly, leaning back in his seat. "Previously, I'd been too busy avoiding Voldemort or whoever was trying to kill me that year-" he shot Sirius a dry look, and the man looked sheepish "-doing schoolwork, playing Quidditch, and surviving the Dursleys."

Remus' eyes flickered gold again, and the other three adults scowled. Kreacher's lips thinned.

"But since I was free of all of that, I was finally able to look over my life and realized there was something off," Harry said.

"At the end of my first year, I begged Dumbledore to let me stay at Hogwarts for the summer. I didn't tell him everything the Dursleys did to me, but he knew the gist. Almost any other adult would have immediately tried to find a safer family for me to live with, but Dumbledore didn't. He said it was just a misunderstanding, and that the Dursleys loved me. He promised to tell them to treat me better, but I couldn't be moved because I had to stay with a blood relative of Lily's, and Petunia was the only living relative she had."

Remus frowned. "Her parents didn't die until you were four! You could have stayed with them."

"I didn't know that then," Harry said dryly. "Actually, as an eleven year old, I believed Dumbledore, and willingly went back to the assholes.

"I tried at the end of second year, as well, knowing Ron had told you-" he turned to Molly and Arthur "-that they'd put bars on my bedroom window and had been starving me, but he gave me the same answer."

"Albus told us you were exaggerating," Arthur admitted, "like children usually do."

Molly hissed like a tea kettle.

"Realizing that made me go over my school years with a fine-tooth comb, and check over everything Dumbledore told me," Harry said, giving the two a forgiving nod.

"I got my letter to Hogwarts a week before my eleventh birthday, but Uncle Vernon took it before I could read it. It was addressed to the cupboard under the stairs."

The four adults gasped, and Kreacher looked alarmed. "The Heads of House are supposed to check over the letters for things like that!" Molly exploded.

"I asked McGonagall that," Harry agreed, "and she said she always lets Dumbledore read over her share of the letters because she had three jobs at school and didn't have time."

"So Dumbledore knew," Sirius whispered. Remus' eyes were glowing now, and he was growling.

"Vernon decided that I had outgrown the cupboard," Harry said sarcastically, "and gave me my cousin's second bedroom." He ignored the second set of gasps. "Instead of sending a teacher to check up on me -- or even to guide me through Diagon, because that's what they're supposed to do for Muggle-raised wizards -- the school just sent more letters, until about a thousand letters were sent two days before my birthday.

"The Dursleys took me on a wild trip to try to escape the letters, but they always caught up to us, and we ended up on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean in a very old shack. An actual person was never sent, at least not until my birthday, when Hagrid broke down the door to said shack."

"Hagrid?" Sirius said in surprise. "They're supposed to send a teacher, not the groundskeeper."

Harry snorted. "I actually don't mind Hagrid being sent, because he's still very sweet and slightly naive, but yeah.

"Until then, I thought my parents had died in a car crash-" gasps, and a snarl from Remus "-and Hagrid was not the best person to explain that to me from my adult perspective, but the perfect person from Dumbledore's perspective, because it planted a seed of anger that would turn into the desire for revenge. I'm pretty sure my parents wanted me to actually live, not try to kill myself while trying to kill a dangerous Dark Lord."

"I would have to agree," Remus admitted. "Sirius and I weren't happy that you wanted to do that, either."

Harry snorted. "Well, that's because Dumbledore explained the prophecy in a way that seemed there was no other choice. Most of that was me trying to defend myself."

He returned to his first year. "Hagrid was also the right person, for Dumbledore's plans, to be obvious that he was retrieving the Sorcerer's Stone from Gringotts. He didn't tell me what it was, but Hagrid is very much not a Slytherin."

Sirius sniffed, and Remus nudged him sternly.

Arthur snorted. "I can see your visit now."

"The eleven-year-old me was very curious about 'you-know-what in vault you-know-which-'" Remus looked incredulous and exasperated "-but it wasn't quite enough to spark my own investigating.

"I met Draco Malfoy that day, although I didn't learn his name until the train. He came off as arrogant and rude, and I was immediately reminded of my cousin, who encouraged his gang of friends to help him beat me up."

Two growls this time.

"I told Hagrid about it, and asked what Quidditch and Slytherin were, and he explained it as 'a game played on broomsticks' and a House whose students always became evil as adults. I was a bit skeptical, but I was also eleven, so I didn't protest.

"Ron sat with me on the train, saying everywhere else was full, which I doubt now. He, like Hagrid, disliked Slytherin House and raved about how awesome Gryffindor was, and gave me a more in-depth explanation about Quidditch. Malfoy visited our compartment somewhere down the line, along with Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, and I thought my cousin had become three people -- stupid, big, and spoiled.

"I didn't really care about which House I got at that point, at least until Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle sorted into Slytherin. I asked the Hat to put me in literally any other House, and since I wasn't particularly studious and had a hard time trusting people, they picked Gryffindor.

"On the last day of my first week of school, I happened to visit Hagrid on the day the goblins were talking about the break-in in the Prophet."

"'Happened to?'" Molly repeated.

"Dumbledore suggested to Hagrid the first Friday back, after the Prophet had been released, that he invite me over for a cup of tea," Harry said. "Hagrid hadn't finished reading the newspaper yet, so I read that article and noticed the break-in had happened on my birthday, the same day Hagrid had removed whatever the object was.

"Again, I was curious, but I just wanted to experience the wizarding world without getting in danger, so I just went back to doing schoolwork.

"Then I found out that Dumbledore had a Cerberus in the school, and he was standing on a trapdoor."

"What!" Remus exclaimed. "A Cerberus! That's far too dangerous to put in a school!"

"Dumbledore told the students to stay away from that corridor, but he did it in a way that would just make them more determined to explore it," Harry drawled. "I did ask Fred and George about it, though, and they said they tried to go there on the first night, but there were spells on the door keeping them from picking it."

Molly looked exasperated. Sirius snickered.

"I think Dumbledore specifically had spells on the door to keep everyone but myself, Hermione, Ron, and Quirrell/Voldemort away," Harry explained. He paused. "And Neville, the night we discovered it. The Fat Lady was gone when he came back from the hospital wing," he explained to Remus, who looked confused as to why Neville of all people would break the rules.

"That made me want to investigate, but I did it in a way that wouldn't put me in danger," Harry said. "The only reason I was up that late in the first place was because Ronald dragged me there, after Malfoy challenged him to a duel. He didn't actually show up, but he did tell Filch, so the four of us had to run." He frowned. "I was following Ron," he said quietly. "I think he led us to the forbidden corridor on purpose."

Arthur was angry again, and Molly looked like she wanted to cry and/or curse Ron.

"You all know about Halloween," Harry said wryly. They nodded, looking annoyed. "I suspected Snape at that point, because he'd stopped Quirrell and got bitten in the process. Ron only agreed because Snape treated me worse than he treated every other person-"

"What!" Remus exclaimed, eyes gold again. Sirius was furious -- and, Harry, thought, a little smug that he had an actual reason to hate Snape now.

"Stop that," he snapped at Sirius. "I'll explain most of his behavior when I get to his memories."

Harry explained the end of his first year and then his second. "I really don't think Lucius Malfoy would be stupid enough to give a child a deadly magical object," he said when Arthur was outraged. "Cissa would probably murder him. I think Dumbledore did something to make him do that -- he has plenty of hiding spots in his house that only he knows about."

Arthur snorted.

"Oh, and he knew that Lockhart was Obliviating before we did," Harry recalled. "And did fuck all about it. I don't know why, we'll probably never know since Lockhart still doesn't remember anything."

There was a pause, and then Remus' eyes widened. "Wait. Albus -- he knew Sirius was innocent for more than a year before he was removed from the Wizengamot, but he never ordered a trial!"

Harry smiled thinly. "Actually, he knew Sirius was innocent long before that."

"What?" Sirius and Remus chorused, outraged.

"I think I should probably start with the prophecy," Harry decided. "I did some research about staff interviews, partially because I was thinking about applying for the Defense position after retiring as an Auror, partially because I was going over Dumbledore's statements with an adult perspective. Dumbledore is only supposed to hold interviews for any staff member in his office or school board headquarters, with a member of the school board present. Instead," Harry said coldly, "he held Trelawney's interview in the Hog's Head, with no witness, on the night of my mother's bridal shower, so he knew Snape would be there."

Remus' eyes were gold again.

"How did Albus know Severus would be at the Hog's Head then?" Molly frowned.

"Snape was in love with my mother," Harry said blankly. "That, or he considered her a sister."

Remus and Molly exchanged worried and knowing glances. Harry ignored them. Sirius didn't notice, but Arthur did. 

"The prophecy is fake?" Sirius whispered.

"I'm pretty sure it is," Harry agreed. "It is possible that Dumbledore already interviewed her and she gave a different prophecy, but he decided it didn't fit in with his plans and made it happen differently."

"What did the fake prophecy say?" Arthur asked quietly.

"'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies,'" Harry quoted. "Snape only heard the part about vanquishing and the circumstances of the birth, but he told Voldemort anyway.

"He was alarmed when Voldemort immediately decided I was the one in the prophecy," Harry added, "which makes sense, because half-bloods aren't products of incest and are more powerful than most purebloods, and Snape went to warn Dumbledore, since he was no longer on good terms with my mother and never on good terms with my dad.

"Dumbledore told him he would protect my parents, and told James and Lily to go into hiding. He suggested the Fidelius Charm. They couldn't pick Remus as the Secret Keeper because he was spying on the wolf pack and didn't even know they were under the Fidelius. That left Sirius and Peter.

"Dad immediately picked Sirius for multiple reasons: he'd done a Purification ritual-" Sirius grimaced "-which, contrary to pureblood belief, doesn't remove Muggle blood, but removes issues of incest; he was raised Dark, so he knew how the enemy worked and was very good at fighting them; Dad considered Sirius to be his brother; and Peter had been seen as 'weak' by the Order, and not as powerful as Sirius by the Marauders. Mum also didn't trust Peter," Harry added.

"What?" Sirius said in surprise.

"I didn't know that," Remus said slowly.

Harry smiled thinly. "They wrote wills. Dumbledore told you they didn't, but my mother wanted to make sure the Death Eaters didn't get their things, and that I wasn't raised by Petunia."

Remus, Sirius, Arthur, and Molly looked shocked.

"Also in the wills," Harry added sourly, "was the fact that James and Lily had changed their Secret Keeper to Peter a week before they wrote them. They specifically changed the wills because Lily didn't trust Peter. Dumbledore stopped the previous Potter Accountant, Thorneye, from publishing them."

Remus was snarling quietly, and Sirius didn't bother calming Moony down this time.

"I don't have proof of this next bit," Harry admitted, "but I think Dumbledore was responsible for Sirius' injury, the one that made you decide to switch to Peter."

Sirius gaped at Harry, as Remus spun on Sirius. "You didn't tell me you were hurt!" Remus growled.

"I think Dumbledore subtly manipulated the four -- well, three of you to distrust Remus," Harry said dryly. "Also, Sirius is an idiot."

"I am not! Shut up, Moony," Sirius snapped at Remus, who was raising an eyebrow in disbelief. "How did you know I was hurt?" he asked Harry.

"Poppy Pomfrey," Harry replied. Sirius went a little pink.

"I don't know whether Peter was spying for Voldemort or Dumbledore, but Dumbledore knew Peter was a Death Eater anyway," Harry continued. "So, my parents were killed, and I was sent to the Dursleys.

"When Snape found out, he went to confront Dumbledore. The headmaster told him that he couldn't control my mother's death, but that her son was alive and still in danger. He manipulated Snape into making a vow to 'protect Lily's boy.' When I saw that memory, I knew Snape had no idea about what the Dursleys did to me, otherwise his magic would have killed him."

Most of the other adults went gray, while Sirius looked torn between horror and anger.

"Fourth year," Harry continued, "there was no way Dumbledore didn't know Moody was an impostor, because he was very close to the man. He actually couldn't get me out of the Tournament, but he'd been trying to pit me against Voldemort anyway, so he didn't try.

"He was also glad Voldemort used my blood for the ritual, because that was the only way past Lily's protection," Harry continued. More growls.

"That summer was shite. I kept having nightmares about Cedric and the whole ritual, as well as the Dursleys being themselves, and yet nobody wrote to me. Not even you," he said quietly to Sirius. Sirius looked pained. "You didn't know how bad my summer was, so I forgave you for that a long time ago. I think Ron and Hermione did that on Dumbledore's orders, however," Harry said sourly. "Make me more dependent on them, or some fuckery."

"Fuckery," Arthur mouthed with a bewildered look on his face, as Sirius muffled snickers into his hand and Remus looked both embarrassed and amused. Molly looked exasperated.

"I mostly blame the Ministry for that shite show of a trial," Harry continued, "and had I had my adult mind when that happened, I would have sued their asses for giving a minor a full criminal trial. They didn't even investigate like they were supposed to, since I used a spell that is only used in self-defense.

"Fifth year was fucking shite, and I'm pretty sure Dumbledore knew about the Blood Quills-"

"Blood Quills!" everyone but Kreacher exclaimed, and Harry remembered that he hadn't told them about Umbridge.

"Uh... so Umbridge made me use a Blood Quill every detention she gave me?" Harry said hesitantly.

Remus' eyes went gold again, and he tried to stand up. Sirius was still on his lap, though, so they ended up on the floor.

"Get off of me," Remus complained. Sirius responded by flopping onto him more.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Could you two act like actual adults for two minutes?"

"Hark who's talking," Sirius retorted.

Arthur cleared his throat, and they turned to him. "Sixth year?" he asked quietly.

"Almost there," Harry sighed, as his honorary parents scrambled back onto the couch. "When Dumbledore was kicked out of the school, he went searching for Horcruxes-"

"What!" Sirius sputtered.

"What are Horcruxes?" Remus asked cautiously. Molly and Arthur also looked confused.

"I thought your dad was Dark," Harry frowned at Arthur.

"Borderline," Arthur said, "and I wasn't allowed in the library."

Harry nodded and turned to Remus. "I don't know what Dark families know about Horcruxes, so I'll just tell you what I learned through Dumbledore. Meaning Slughorn's memory."

"That's why he hired that spider of a man?" Sirius complained.

"I didn't like him either," Harry admitted. "A Horcrux refers to an object in which you place a piece of your soul. There's a ritual you have to perform, but Slughorn didn't tell teenage Voldemort how to do it."

"It's not just a piece," Sirius said bluntly. "Every time you perform the ritual, it splits your soul in half."

"What the fuck?" Harry exclaimed. "Some shite must have happened to Voldemort if he was that desperate not to die."

Remus frowned. "You mentioned he was in a Muggle orphanage? Do you know when?"

Harry blinked. "Voldemort was born on 31 December, 1926, and graduated Hogwarts in 1945. Wool's Orphanage was located somewhere in London."

The werewolf went gray. "The Great Depression lasted from the end of 1929 to the beginning of 1933. Then the second Muggle World War happened and Muggle London was bombed, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941. A lot of students were panicking because their parents lived in that area, and a lot of people died, on both sides of the war."

"What the fuck," Harry muttered, as the others in the room looked nauseated. "Well, he made six on purpose, because he wanted seven pieces of soul."

Sirius looked shocked.

"On purpose?" Arthur said sharply.

"Well, by the time he tried to kill me," Harry said with a sigh, "he'd made five Horcruxes, so his soul was pretty unstable. When his Killing Curse hit me, it rebounded, because of Lily's Life-For-Life sacrifice-" Sirius' eyes widened "-and hit him. If what Sirius says is true, then half of his already tiny soul broke off and latched onto the only other living person in the room."

Remus went gray.

"You're a Horcrux?" Sirius cried in alarm.

"I was," Harry corrected. "The goblins think the Horcrux died when I was bitten by the Basilisk, because that was the first time I died after I became one. Which meant I didn't need to be killed by Voldemort," he added sourly.

More growls.

"Regulus stole one of the Horcruxes," Harry told Sirius, who looked surprised. "He told Kreacher to destroy it."

"Kreacher failed," the elf whispered.

"I should have let you destroy it, instead of Ron," Harry sighed. "I'm sorry, Kreacher."

"Kreacher is not mad at young master," Kreacher retorted.

"What were the Horcruxes?" Remus asked.

"Slytherin's locket, which is the one Regulus stole, Ravenclaw's diadem, which he hid in the Room of Requirement, Hufflepuff's cup, which the goblins found in Bellabitch's vault and destroyed (they apparently hate Horcruxes), Voldemort's diary-" Molly made a little sound of shocked horror, and Arthur turned gray "-the Peverell Heir ring, which killed Dumbledore via a very nasty curse, and Nagini."

Arthur winced a little and rubbed his arm.

Harry yawned suddenly. "Fuck, I wasn't done."

"We get the gist, cub," Remus said quietly. "Who else have you told about this?"

"Nobody, really," Harry said tiredly. "Luna knows, though, because Luna."

Sirius snorted.

"Time for bed, cub," Remus insisted, and Harry found himself being carried up the stairs.

Bloody abuse, Harry grumbled to himself; he would always be slimmer and shorter than he wanted to be....