Chapter 4
Chapter four: At Flourish and Blotts
Fred and George came into Ron's room as he and Harry were sitting on the floor, playing cards.
"Oi," grumbled Ron, "Don't you ever knock?"
"Seriously," Ron grumbled. He looked at Harry and Hermione, "They do this all the time."
"Sorry," said Fred.
"But this is more important." George said, seriously.
"What's going on?" Ron asked them, worriedly.
They sat down on the floor with them, and then turned towards Harry.
"Harry," Fred said, frowning. "Listen mate, you don't have to tell us if you don't want to, but we would really appreciate it."
Harry looked at them confused, but with an increasing sense of trepidation.
Harry had a feeling what this was about, and he wanted nothing more than to run away.
"Back at the Dursleys, in the cupboard where we found your trunk," George said gently. "We found a sign on the inside door."
By this point, Harry was deathly pale. His eyes were wide.
"Harry, why did the sign say, 'Harry's Room'?" Fred asked softly.
Growls echoed off the stone walls. Arms reached for Harry, but pulled back almost as fast when they saw him flinch.
Harry was looking at them in terror, his breath coming in small gasps.
Harry was unintentionally copying his future self step by step.
Toni came over, and slowly approached Harry like he was a cornered animal.
"Harry...?" Toni said in a gentle tone. Harry twitched in her direction. "Harry, it's Toni. Your mother. Harry you're safe, they can't get to you. No one is going to hurt you any more. I promise."
As Toni spoke, she slowly got closer to Harry, and even slower wrapped her arms around her child. After ten or so minutes of Toni just holding Harry, and whispering comforting words into his hair, he was able to calm down.
"Harry?" Ron asked, concerned. But underneath that, the anger he felt at what this new piece of information insinuated grew.
"Harry, are you all right?" Fred asked.
"We only ask, because we're worried about you." George said.
"You can't tell anyone!" Harry said in a panic.
"What? Why-" Ron said.
"Please! You can't tell anyone!"
"Harry, you know it's not healthy to keep all of this in. You need to talk to someone about this." Hermione counseled.
Harry shook his head, "No one ever believes me."
This statement was followed by silence.
"Well, we believe you." Ron said with furious conviction, that was repeated all across the hall.
Harry looked at his friends first. Then at his parents. Then at the rest of the hall. Everyone - with the exception of certain students and staff, you know who they are - had the same response to this as Ron did. As Harry looked at all of them, and one by one saw the support and how angry they were on his behalf, something happened that hasn't happened in over four years.
