True Reflections: Scars Saga 3

Temporarily Homeless

Chapter 3

Temporarily Homeless

I'd written to Sirius first thing upon returning to my chambers, and he agreed. I shouldn't return to Privet Drive that summer. But Privet Drive, as dull as it was, was my home. So I wrote to Remus as well in hopes that he would say Sirius and I were overreacting. No such luck. He agreed with Sirius. Of course, his concern was more for Jonathan than it was for me.

Still...I was temporarily homeless.

29 June 1995

I dropped the latest letter from Sirius and Remus on the bed before scooping up a pile of clothes and packing them away in my trunk. I was trying to convince them to let me return home first, but they were being very adamant that I not.

The knock on my door came as a welcomed relief.

"Harry, come in," I said as I ushered him into the room. "Please excuse the mess. Packing is taking a little longer this year."

"I haven't even started," Harry said.

"I can't say I'm surprised. James was always a last minute packer too, only he was less of a packer and more of a throw-everything-in-and-hope-to-Merlin-it fits kind of person. You'd be surprised how many times we came back to school and he'd have a shirt washed and folded on his bed that he'd left the previous term."

Harry smiled faintly.

"You didn't come to discuss packing techniques though. So what can I do for you?" I asked as we sat down in the lounge.

Harry had a couple of false starts before asking, "Why did you do it? Why did you take the curse for me? You knew what it was, right?"

I sighed. "Yes, I knew what it was."

"Then why did you do it?"

"Why does there need to be a reason, Harry, other than the simple fact that I love you? You've always been more than just James' son or more than my nephew to me. I have always tried, to the best of my ability given the circumstances surrounding us, to treat you like my own son. And what's more, no fifteen year old should have to know what the Cruciatus Curse feels like. No adult should have to know either."

"Well, you were too late for that," he said after a slight pause. "Voldemort had already used the curse on me...in the graveyard, after I refused to bow to him. He tried to make me with the Imperius Curse, but I threw it off."

"You threw off the Imperius Curse when Voldemort cast it? Not one of his followers?"

"No; it was Voldemort. He wanted to do it himself. He told the others not to help."

"Just when I thought I could be any more impressed with you."

"What do you mean?" He asked, scrunching up his face.

"It is no easy feat to throw off the Imperius Curse, let alone for it to have been cast by Voldemort."

"I'm sure you can do it; you're brilliant at magic."

I smiled slightly. "I'm flattered at your confidence in my skills, Harry. At one point yes, when I was much younger, I could throw it off. But that was when Moody was the one casting it. He thought it necessary that we know what it felt like should we encounter it on our missions. But I never had to fight against it when Voldemort was on the other side. Now...now I feel so broken I don't think I could fight against a first year."