THE LIGHTNING LORD

Chapter 45 : Secrets unveiled P2

Anyway, where was I?" said Harry. "Oh yes, after Voldemort was vanquished, Hagrid appeared on the scene on the orders of Albus Dumbledore to retrieve me. He took me outside and that's when Sirius came too. Sirius asked Hagrid to give me to him as he was my oath-sworn godfather, but Hagrid refused. I can't really blame the guy; Hagrid is, well, not very intelligent and would even lay down his life without a second thought for Dumbledore, so it was futile to argue with him. Sirius realised that as well, so he went to chase Pettigrew instead. Hagrid brought me to Private Drive where Dumbledore and McGonagall were waiting for him"

Harry's eye twitched when he remembered the memory. "I was asleep then, but with a lot of effort, I was able to listen to the memory of all those years ago. McGonagall noticed a scar on my forehead and asked Dumbledore if he could heal it; our amazing headmaster said that he wouldn't, as scars were meant to be seen! How wonderful! I had just survived the killing curse; the aura of the curse was probably all around me! Did he take me to a healer to get me checked out? No! Do you know that they had the gall to leave me on the fucking doorstep of the house like a milk bottle in the middle of the night, with only a letter for explaining to my aunt what had happened? A letter! He knew that Petunia hated magic, it was written in my parents' will. And yet he left me there, that too in the middle of the night! I could have died of pneumonia! What was worse was that he took my blood as well. I only found out about this much later. He took my blood, tied it to my aunt and the house and created an intent based ward. It was nothing spectacular, let me tell you. It was as useless as the Fidelius charmed house I had just come from. And he used the rest of the blood to power tracking and monitoring charms."

"But that's illegal!" shouted Daphne.

"I know, but who knew about that? Remus Lupin was long gone, Sirius was in Azkaban, Frank and Alice Longbottom were tortured into insanity, Amelia Bones was busy with the war effort and was later blocked at every turn, and people like Minerva McGonagall just didn't seem to care. It was perfect."

"But life at the Dursleys was anything but good, it was actually hell on earth. From the memories I later accessed, I found out that I had been crying for my parents and was having nightmares of my mother's death for several weeks after the incident. After the first night of me crying, the Dursleys couldn't take it anymore and they stuffed me in a boot cupboard under the stairs. The darkness and lack of ventilation only added to my suffering, but it's not like anyone cared. The rest of the wizarding world was celebrating while I was crying out of hunger and for my mother" said Harry bitterly.

"But that's when the trouble started. I started performing accidental magic again. Uncle Vernon didn't like that, he didn't like that at all. He then decided to beat the freakishness out of me, a two year old boy. Unfortunately, the more I was in danger, the more magic I used to perform to save myself. So naturally, the beatings increased. They told me that my parents were drunken bums and that my useless father and my whore of a mother died in a car crash" said Harry angrily. Daphne tightened her grip around him.

"I still marvel at the fact that I didn't die in those attempts of curing me of my magic. Really, muggles don't know anything about trying to raise a magical child! They think they're the children of the devil or whatever. Like so many of the muggleborns around the world, I too was tortured beyond belief. But after my sixth birthday, I had finally unravelled enough memories to find out that I was a wizard; I could do magic. So I had discreetly started practicing magic, and keeping it away from the Dursleys. So far, it was the same. But about a month before my seventh birthday, everything changed"

Harry took a sip of water and continued "Uncle Vernon was hosting dinner for his new client or boss or whatever; I didn't particularly care. I had been locked in my cupboard for more than a week without food and I was starving, not to mention angry. So I extended my senses, and wandlessly cast the bowel loosening hex at the three of them and that was enough to clear his guests. Vernon was furious, so he dragged me out and started beating the crap out of me. I used the banishing charm to get him away from me. But that only made him angrier, so he took the kitchen knife next to him and stabbed me in the stomach"