So Many Secrets.

Dumbledore.

"You're here for a reason, Harry," Dumbledore says. "Why?"

"I... I don't know." I fumble with my sleeves. "Just..."

"Just... what?"

I shrug. "I... I feel weird. I can't... put it into words..."

"Try," he says. "Try to." He gives me a piece of gum. "Chewing gum helps me think, Harry, maybe it will for you as well."

"I... I'm so alone, even though I'm really not..." I mumbled a few moments later. "I have friends, there are always people around me, but I feel so alone all the time and it's... just..."

"Lonely?"

"Yeah... Stupid, I know-"

"Not stupid, Harry, not stupid at all," he says. "Loneliness. One of the worst feelings anyone can feel. You want to feel included, feel like you're a part of something, yet no matter what you try you can not?"

"Wow... Yeah, I guess... I mean, I even have the Quidditch team now, and they're all so nice, but I... I guess it's like I'll always be apart from them..."

"Your first game is tomorrow, yes?"

I nod. "Yeah. Flint says I'll do great, that I'm the best Seeker Hogwarts has ever had. I've barely played, he can't know that..."

"Have you always felt so alone here, Harry? Or is this recent?"

"Recent."

"Huh..." He starts sucking on a Lemon Drop. Nasty things, they're way too sour. "Would you mind explaining more?"

"I... It wasn't so bad before. I knew I was different, yeah, but I was still... I was still a part of Slytherin, a part of Hogwarts and stuff, but now... People know and it feels like I'm being singled out and suddenly the only thing people care about is that I was a-"

I stop talking.

"...Abused?" he asks lightly. I nod. "It's... People care about you, Harry. Not just the abuse. Your health, mental and physical, is important. Especially the mental aspect of your health, which reminds me about something I wanted to ask you."

"What, sir?"

"Harry, I think you should see a Mind Healer-"

"No."

"Please let me finish, my boy."

"...Okay."

"As I was saying, I think you should see a Mind Healer. Now, I am not in anyway a professional on this subject, but I know from years of teaching that abuse is never just physical, Harry, it always mentally scars the survivor."

"Survivor?"

"Yes, survivor." He pops another lemon drop in his mouth. "Or victim. Victim or survivor, it is your choice."

"Oh... either's fine, I... I guess no one's ever referred to me as a 'survivor' before."

"Again, as I was saying, it always has mental side affects. And even though you do talk to me and young Malfoy, you do not let everything go. I can sense it, how you bottle everything up, my boy, until you are like a volcano, waiting to explode. I have heard of your outbursts, Harry."

"My what?"

"I have a feeling that Severus took away a coping mechanism and now you bottle things up instead? Dangerous, Harry, that is dangerous."

I have to bite my lip to stop me from yelling at him.

Snape told.

He. Told. Dumbledore.