Insanity

Chapter 4: Conflict and Confrontation

The next morning, Harry woke to Hakkai's mental voice gently prodding him awake. Come on, Harry. You're the one who knows his way around this damn castle, not me.

At the wry amusement lacing his guardian's voice, Harry woke just enough to form a vaguely coherent response. Ah, f'ck off, 'kai. Y'should know th' way t' breakf'st, anyway.

Hakkai laughed. Yes, but you need to wake up regardless. We get timetables today, and you have a class first period. We're already dressed, so you just need to wake up enough to get some of the coffee.

Harry yawned widely and took control of his body. As he slipped into the Great Hall, all noise stopped for a moment as the students stared at Harry, then began again as the whispers started.

Harry twitched slightly, then tried valiantly to ignore them, walking calmly to his habitual spot at the Gryffindor table. As soon as he sat down, he was accosted by Ron and Hermione, who began bombarding him with questions.

"What in the bloody hell-" "Barely responded to our owls-" "Never told us anything-" "Worried sick-" "Mum was about to have a cow!"

Harry winced slightly, especially at the last. "Look, I'm really sorry about that. It's just that, with a certain snake-head and followers running around trying to kill me, I didn't want it to get out before absolutely necessary. Bad enough it had to get out now, but before… well, you understand, don't you?"

Hermione looked around for a moment before hissing furtively, "You could have at least let the Order know! They could have helped you!"

Harry gave a short, bitter snort of laughter. "Think about it, Hermione – I just found out there's a person in my head who can take over my body at will. You really think they'd be okay with that, after the ministry incident? Maybe, oh, the whole 'Voldemort possessed me' thing? It was bad enough last year, when they only suspected it was possible. How do you think they'll react now?"

The next thing he knew, his cheek was stinging from the slap delivered it by Hermione. She looked horrified at what she had done just moments later, but hissed, "You couldn't have trusted us?"

Harry laughed dryly, no humor evident in his voice. "And what would you have done if I had? Can you honestly say you wouldn't have run off and told someone first thing?" He paused, sighed. "I suppose I can't blame you, after what happened at the Ministry, but- Hell. I wasn't thinking straight." He winced again, rubbed his still-stinging cheek, and laughed again, this time rather ruefully. "I suppose I deserved that. Look-" he lowered his voice, "Meet me in the Room of Requirement after classes let out today."

"I'll explain. I promise."

A/N: Awp, this is short. Thing is, a) school is devouring my soul, and b) I'm having a hell of a time getting a handle on the voices and personalities of the HP characters. Of course, it doesn't help that Harry, especially, changes so much in the last few books.

A note: this is now officially AU after OotP, and a few minor details have been changed to reflect this. Pieces of HBP may or may not get worked into the story, depending on how things work out.

Concrit and nitpicking are welcomed, even if it's some tiny little error, and especially if it's feedback on the voices: despite being an HP canon-freak, I have no clue whether or not I'm getting them decently, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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