Shedding
Chapter 21: Shedding
When he wakes the next morning, he decides the others need to know about Quirrell and Dumbledore as soon as possible. Last night's events have brought him a new perspective. He knows the costs of being naive and yet he still fell prey to it, he refuses to be caught out like that ever again.
He rolls out of bed and pulls on his clothes, choosing a pair of denim jeans that have little purple and green snakes embroidered on the pockets (Luna has become deeply obsessed with embroidery and she keeps stealing his clothes and adding little designs) a soft purple T-shirt and then his favourite deep blue hoodie that Blaise got him for Christmas.
He goes and brushes his teeth and takes his hair out of the silk head scarf he uses at night time to keep his curls from frizzing, and then finally he straps the leather wand-holster on his wrist.
He hears the quite brush of scales on the bathroom tiles and feels Selena slowly wind her body up his leg. “It is better in this castle. You do not look like you are a snake who cannot shed.”
“Huh? What do you mean? Humans don’t shed.” He hisses in confusion, looking at his reflection in the mirror; he barely recognizes himself anymore. His clothes do not drown him, his bones no longer poke out, he’s grown an inch or so as well and his eyes are brighter. Between the daily consumption of professor Snapes nutritional potions, Blaise making sure he eats at meal times, and buying clothes that actually fit him… well it’s starting to pay off. He looks healthy, normal, alive.
“Your relatives.” He shivers at the mention of the Dursleys. “They force you to be less than you are… in more than just your magic, Star. They did not want you to have smooth and shiny scales, they wanted you to be dull, grey, dry, like the strange stone paths they drive their human carriages on.”
While he does not have scales, he gets the gist of what Selena is saying. They wanted him to be frail and weak, unimportant, forgotten, alone, silent. They wanted him to be less than unremarkable they wanted him to be… nothing.
But here since joining the Wixen world he can be more than the things they forced him to be. While this new world has many downsides, he cannot deny the fact that this is the only place he has ever felt alive.
“Yeah.” He breathes out softly. “Yeah, Selena, you’re right.”
“You deserve more than what they forced you to be, Star. Do not forget it.”
She rests on his shoulder and pokes his face with her nose, he strokes her head fondly. “I know.”
He glances at his reflection one more time before heading out of the bathroom to call an emergency meeting with his friends.
~~~
He uses the locket to call Luna, she answers with a smile. “Good morning, Harry.” Then she frowns softly, “You are surrounded by Nargles, this morning.”
“Hey Luna. I’m not surprised in the slightest, I have lots to think and tell you all about. Can you and Hermione come to our dorm?”
“We will be there in twenty-three minutes.” She says with a hum. “I’ll bring something to keep the Nargles at bay.” The mirror goes blank. Harry turns his attention to his still sleeping roommates.
~~~
He woke the others by shouting; ‘Wake up! We have been naive for too long’. The other boys had woken with various levels of annoyance weariness and confusion (Blaise tried to hex him, George lobbed a pillow at Harry, and Fred buried himself under his quilt)
Now Harry has taken to pacing the room back and forth as he waits for his friends to all be in one place so they can address the problems at hand and try to fix the fact that they are all prey surrounded by blood thirsty sharks.
“Calm, Star. We are safe here.” Selena hisses softly.
“That’s what a rabbit thinks when they hide in their burrow. Then a fox digs its way in and kills the rabbit and its whole family.” He replies darkly.
Finally, the door to their dorm opens and Luna meanders in with panda resting on her head. Hermione follows close behind looking less than pleased to be dragged out of her bed at 7am on a Saturday morning.
“Thank Merlin you’re here.” Fred groans. “Harry has lost the plot.” He sits on his bed still wrapped in a quilt so only his face is visible.
“I have not lost the plot.” He gives the red head a glare, and shoots zapping sparks of magic from his finger tips towards him.
“Oi!” Fred exclaims when the sparks hit his forehead.
“I don’t know mate.” George grumbles. “You did wake us up by shouting at the top of your bloody lungs that we have been ‘naive for too long’ I think Fred is pretty spot on.”
“I was only speaking the truth! We have been stupid, foolish, naive, idiotic-”
“Salazar snakes, potter.” Blaise cuts in. “Calm down. And stop insulting me.”
He feels a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Sit down Harry, pet panda, and maybe stop screaming.” Luna says, leading him to the rug and firmly pushing him down until he is sat. Then she pulls what seems to be a small onion on a string out from the pocket of her bright blue jumpsuit that is embroidered all over with pink flowers. She slips the strange onion on a string around Harry’s neck and ties it like a necklace.
When he looks at her quizzically, she simply pats his head and says, “Gerdiroots help ward off Nargles.”
“Oh. Ok. Are they… gone?” He asked uncertainly.
She stares down at him for a moment, her blue eyes unblinking. “No. But they will leave soon.”
He nods and then taking a much calmer approach addresses the room. “We have a problem. Actually, we have many problems.”
Hermione comes to sit down next him and Luna sits down too leaning her head on his shoulder. Hermione looks more awake now and undoubtedly worried.
“Would you quit being dramatic and just explain what has possessed you to wake us up at 7am on a Saturday and pace the room like a mad man for the past half an hour.” Blaise says, looking down at Harry from his bed, laying on his stomach with his chin resting on his hands idly.
“Dumbledore.” Harry blurts out before he can stop himself.
“Dumbledore?” Hermione asked bemused.
Harry puts his face in his hands and sinks to the floor until he is staring up at the ceiling, his head in Luna’s lap. “Tell them Star.” Selena hisses into his ear.
He decides he might aswell start from the beginning. “Last night I couldn’t sleep, so I put the cloak on so I could go for a walk and clear my head. But then I bumped into Snape and Quirrell-”
“Quirrell!?” Fred George and Hermione exclaim in unison.
“I thought this was about Dumbledore?” Blaise says blankly.
“Jesus, I'm getting there.” Harry huffs.
Luna begins to stroke his hair.
“Snape was threatening Quirrell, he seemed to think Quirrell has been killing unicorns.” All his friends look horrified, quite rightly so - to kill a unicorn is a terrible thing. It's abominable.
Tears appear in Luna’s eyes. “I dreamt this.” She whispers. “I dreamt of dead unicorns.”
He takes her hand softly in an attempt to be comforting. In recent weeks he’s been getting better at physical touch, a few months ago he would never have thought he could offer comfort like this, or be able to reach out to hug someone without them reaching out first. But he’s learned to love the comfort of Luna’s hugs and the way she holds his hand, the way the twins bump shoulders with him affectionately, when Blaise pokes him softly on the forehead when he’s trying to further a point, or when Hermione links their arms when they walk between classes or hugs him so fiercely that it feels as if his ribs might crack.
Harry pushes on with his story. “Then Snape left and I was alone in a corridor with Quirrell, and he... he looked at me. His eyes flashed red and he looked directly at me even though I was under the cloak. So, I turned around and ran.” While all this is worrying it's the next part that is the most concerning. “As I was escaping him, I passed this... door. I didn’t know at the time but it was covered in compulsions.” There’s a collective intake of breath. “The magic drew me into the room. I was in some sort of trance, Selena was warning me and trying to get me to snap out of it, but I couldn’t.”
“It was not your fault, Star.”
“In the room there was a mirror. It was practically dripping in a very powerful compulsion. It shows your hearts desires.”
“The mirror of Erised.” Blaise breathes out. “That is an extremely dark artifact.”
“Yeah, I figured as much.” Harry says drily. “Anyway... Selena bit me in the neck and I snapped out of it.”
“Your highly venomous boomslang bit you!” Fred exclaims. “Harry! How the hell are you not dead.”
“It's fine. She didn’t use her venom.” He waves away their concern.
“Merlin save us.” Blaise mutters.
Fred unravels himself from his blanket cocoon and stumbles over to the potion station he and Harry set up in the corner of the dorm. He picks up a small glass vial with an orange-coloured potion inside, and makes his way over to Harry. “Here. Put it on your neck.”
“What is it?” He takes the bottle and inspects it curiously.
“Essence of dittany with powdered clove and turmeric.”
“So, it will heal the puncture wounds and flush out any infection.” Harry muses. Fred nods.
“I still don’t understand how dumbledore fits into all this.” Hermione says. She has deeply contemplative look on her face. “Unless... no.” He sees the moment realization dawns. “Dumbledore set the compulsions.”
Harry sighs wearily. “Yes. Yes, he did.” He slips the potion into his pocket.
“But why?!” George exclaims horrified.
“Yeah, why would he lure an eleven-year-old to an ancient dark artifact?” Fred frowns, looking confused.
“Because I'm not just an eleven-year-old Fred. I'm the ‘saviour’ of the Wixen world.”
“So modest.” Blaise deadpans.
Harry smirks, grateful for some normalcy in the face of such daunting problems.
“What does that have to with anything?” George asks.
“Everything.” Harry sighs. “I didn’t realise how known I was to the world, or maybe I just didn’t want to realise... I don’t know.” He shakes his head feeling stupid and oddly vulnerable. Everyone is looking at him, listening intently to his words, he turns his head to stare back at the ceiling. It's easier to speak about this when he doesn’t have to look at anyone. “Harry Potter is known. He is in books and newspapers and probably in children's bed time stories.” He laughs humourlessly. “Did you know that's not even my name?”
“Really?” Hermione sounds shocked.
“Really.” He replies quietly.
“What is your true name, Harry?” Luna asks softly.
“Harrison Evans Charlus Potter.” He smiles ruefully. “That's my name. But to them - to Wixen. I’m Harry potter the boy who saved them from an undefeatable dark lord, I-I'm a symbol. A symbol that the dark could not win against the light.” He takes a breath in and says the worst thing in this whole conversation. “But now the idea... the image they had, has begun to crack.”
“Oh.” He hears Blaise exhale softly. The silence is stifling.
“I was supposed to return to the Wixen world, and become what they envisioned me to be. Gryffindor. Brave. Proud.... but I didn’t. I’m not confident and proud to be their boy saviour. I don’t enjoy being watched and known. I’m a Slytherin. I Have a snake familiar. They expected me to befriend people from light families but instead I am friends with Blaise who is from a grey family. Hermione who is a muggle born Ravenclaw and the smartest witch in our year. Luna whose mother is from a dark family. Fred and George who are the first Weasleys to ever be in Slytherin.” He lists each thing off slowly. “In their eyes I am something entirely unexpected, it’s likely they believe that I am turning dark... maybe even that I will become the next dark lord.”
He sits up from Luna’s lap to face them. “They fear me, and what I might become.”
He looks around at each of them. They don’t look scared. He had expected them to maybe not want him anymore, now that they know the depth of his position in this world. It’s a lot to place on them, he would not blame them if they wanted nothing to do with him.
But no... they do not look scared. They are not running away. Each and every one of them look focused, thoughtful.
Fred has the same expression he wears when playing a particularly complicated game of chess.
George has his head tilted to one side slightly and he looks as if he is picking apart each word Harry has said and evaluating it closely.
Hermione is frowning, a particular frown that he only sees when she is reading a book on a subject she has yet to understand.
Luna has a faraway look on her face as if she is watching things no one else can see.
And Blaise... well Blaise he looks down right sinister. As if he’s plotting a particularly complicated murder.
He finds that he cannot get a single word out of his mouth. It is utterly baffling to him how he has ended up with a group of friends this wonderful after all these years alone.
“Okay.” George says simply.
“O-okay?” He asks incredulously. “That's all you have to say? Okay?”
“Yep.” George smiles.
“Actually, I have something to add to that.” Hermione says, fixing her eyes on Harry. “What do you think Dumbledore wants with you? He can’t have lured you to the room for no reason.”
He stops looking at George, he feels a bit dazed. Like he’s gone through some sort of dimensional shift. “If-if I had to guess I would say he sees me as a pawn. A tool he can use to if another war arises or if the dark lord ever returned. I think he will try and get me back into the good books of the Wixen public. I think he will push me into the role of Hero.” He decides now is not the time to mention the conversation he had with the headmaster last night or the fact that dumbledore is the one who placed him with the Dursleys. “I don’t know how he plans to do that though.”
“He is dangerous. A wolf in sheeps clothing.” Selena says, slipping from his neck to make her way over to the hearth. “Tell your friends to be cautious.”
“Selena says to tell you to be careful. She says he is dangerous.” He adds.
“If he is willing to use compulsions on a child... he is in fact very dangerous.” Blaise says drily.
“This is not good.” Fred says, he flops down onto the rug next harry. “Very not good.”
“Quirrell and now dumbledore.” Hermione shakes her head in disbelief. “Are all the teachers out to get you Harry?”
He shrugs, smiling slightly. “Seems like it.”
“We need a plan.” Luna declares.
“Yes!” George says a grin appearing on his face. “A plan to combat all the plots against you.”
“A plan made by four Slytherins and two Ravenclaws.” Fred adds nodding his head in agreement.
“And a great and powerful serpent.” Selena hisses, indignantly.
“I agree. It’s best to be prepared.” Hermione mutters, her eyes sharp.
“Okay then... Let's make a plan.” Harry smiles, he can’t help but feel as if this is the beginning of something. Of what he does not know. But whatever it is there is no stopping it now.