His Secret

Reminders

DEDICATED TO RINABEAR FOR HER JUST PLAIN AWESOMENESS!

A silence filled with agony. A child locked in a dark cupboard. It's whimpers unheard in the beautiful darkness. The whispers for help. The cries of pain. All unheard in the beautiful darkness. The child's piteous sobs quietened. The echoing silence inviting. The haunting monster approaching. Light. Sound. The child had adapted to the darkness, to the silence and begins shivering. The monster was back and the light which showed his wounds and burnt his eyes, the noise which was of shouting voices and reminded him. He was weak. Useless. A burden. A freak. The pain was back and the boy wished for the beautiful darkness, the inviting silence, but he did not want to find it there, anywhere but there.

"He should be in here, Alohamora." Fred's voice cut sharply through the thick silence. As the cupboard door swung open to reveal Harry, arms wrapped firmly around his legs which were drawn tight against his chest. He was shaking.

"Harry, it's okay it's me George." George whispered as he noticed Harry jerk away from them.

"I don't want to go back." Harry breathed his voice weak, eyes wide and frightened.

"You won't have to, your safe now, we're at Hogwarts." Fred tried to console the terrified boy.

"Cupboard. Dark. Uncle." Harry continued to mutter as he edged slowly out of the cupboard.

"Harry, listen. Nobody will ever lock you in a cupboard again. Ever. You hear me?" George said clearly, looking Harry straight in the eye. Harry nodded mutely and slowly raised to his feet.

"Come on lets go back to the common room. Harry you look like you could use some sleep." Fred said walking towards the door with George and Harry following.

Harry walked straight passed all the piercing stares in the common room and then went straight to bed.

"HOW DARE YOU! AFTER ALL WE'VE DONE FOR YOU, YOU ARE STILL A FREAK!" Uncle Vernon spat as an eleven year old boy cowered in front of the fire, shivering in spite of it's warmth.

"Please, sir, I didn't mean for this. It's not my fault." he whimpered.

"EVERYTHING IS YOUR FAULT, FREAK!" Vernon roared.

"I'm not a freak!" the small boy yelled back before covering his mouth in horror. He didn't know why he had said that. Why did he say that?

"What did you say?" Vernon breathed, his voice dangerously low.

"Nothing." Harry whispered.

"You are a freak. I think I must leave you with a reminder. Think of it as…a going away present. From me." Vernon smiled maliciously. Harry closed his eyes; he knew what was coming. Sure enough he felt the searing burning, pain numbing all his senses. He couldn't even hear his own screams. Slowly everything went black, but as he was about to give in to the welcome mute darkness and place of no feeling, he felt a glass of iced water hit his face. Of course, I need to feel the pain to learn it.

"Harry! Wake up." Ron shook his friend, desperate to wake him from his nightmare.

"I'll go get McGonagall." Neville said before running out of the dorm. Seamus and Dean stood there, not knowing what to do.

"Dean, go get the twins. Seamus, go get Ginny and Hermione." Ron ordered as he continued to command Harry to wake up. Both boys nodded and scuttled out of the room, terrified.

"Freak." Harry mumbled.

"No Harry, you're not a freak." Ron muttered back. Harry sat bolt upright, eyes wide.

"Mr. Potter, are you all right?" McGonagall had rushed in, tartan dressing gown slung carelessly over her long night gown. Harry stared ahead of him, unseeing.

"Harry!" the twins burst in both very pale.

"Harry!" Hermione and Ginny came running in, Ginny ran and kneeled next to Harry, whispering incomprehensibly to him. McGonagall tried to coax Harry into coming with her but he shook his head and somehow the twins managed to convince her to leave and let them deal with her little lion cub. Finally after about an hour of Ginny's reassurances Harry fell asleep.

"So, what do you think it was about?" Fred whispered as to not disturb the four sleeping boys.

"I dunno, but he kept whispering freak." Ron shrugged.

HPHPHPHPHP

The first day of lessons passed uneventfully for Harry. The new Professor, Umbridge, seemed to take a disliking to Harry, but Harry ignored it. He was used to it after all.

At seven o'clock that night the whole school was gathered in the Great Hall, eagerly awaiting Dumbledore's announcement.

"I am sure you have waited long enough. For the next month we are trying something that we haven't tried for a while here at Hogwarts. Each and everyone of you are going to share your biggest insecurity. What I mean by this is, you will have what you are most ashamed or embarrassed by pasted on your back, tonight the House Elves will take your robes and use their own special brand of magic to find your biggest insecurity. Tomorrow I will expect each and every one of you to be wearing your branded robes, if you are not you are automatically going to be the first on the list. This means you will be the first, at the end of the month, to give a speech about your insecurity which each of you will have to do. The last time we did this, it worked wonderfully, it helped almost the whole school and created a strong bond between the students, something we needed at the time and it is what we need now. You are dismissed." There were loud screeches as the benches were dragged away from the table, but they were barley heard over the nervous chatters of the students. Nobody was looking forward to the next day, but no one was dreading it as much as a certain Harry Potter. He could see his robe now, ABUSED. Another reminder.