Follow Me

A/N: Thank you to all those that are reading and reviewing my work, and another thank you to those that have encouraged me to continue. I just noticed that with this chapter the story is over 400 pages long. I never realized how huge this thing was getting. Dont worry I fully intend to continue this story and yes there are actually two sequals that are in the works.





[...] or {...} = mindspeak

~...~ = parletongue

\'...\' = thought



Chapter 37



Severus was practically seething. How could he have not seen it? How could he have been so blind? He trusted that old man, how is this all possible? Severus mentally berated himself for not seeing the patterns sooner, for allowing Dumbledore to control his life to such a magnitude without ever even realizing it.



“All right…” Hermione stood up and started pacing. “Let’s put all the pieces together.” They had all been sitting at the table going over several things for what seemed like hours. Everyone was getting tired and testy, but no one wanted to leave or let this drop now that they were so close.



“Since the center of all these events appears to be Harry we will focus on his life and the things that are directly associated with him. The first thing we have is the prophecy. Prior to Harry’s birth, Sibyll Trelawney, went to Dumbledore for a job. During the interview supposedly she had a miraculous premonition involving the then rising threat, Lord Voldemort. She was immediately hired on, although since that date she had yet to produce another accurate prediction. Which is honestly suspicious in itself.” Hermione stated as she paced the length of the table and back.



“The next series of events honestly takes quite a bit of planning. First there are two women that are currently members of the Order that are pregnant and due to give birth as ‘the seventh month dies’, Alice Longbottom and Lilly Potter. Both have fought against Voldemort several times, hence they both “have thrice defied him”, again as the prophecy stated. Also both women were carrying sons, as the prophecy clearly states the one with the power to kill the Dark Lord will be a male.”



“Next somehow this amazing prophecy gets ‘accidentally’ leaked over to our up and coming evil one. Oddly enough only part of the prediction is actually given to Voldemort. The part about ‘the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal’ was suspiciously left off.” Hermione paused for a moment in consideration before continuing. “Because of that ‘leak’, Voldemort starts looking for this child that will have the power to kill him. For some reason he focuses on Harry Potter, although why specifically Harry and not Neville…let alone all the other babies that were born on or around the last of July I don’t know.”



“The only interest that Voldemort appears to have towards the Longbottoms is when they are captured by death eaters and tortured into insanity by being held under the cruciatus curse for an extended period of time. Franklin and Alice Longbottom suffer from permanent brain damage but their year old son, Neville, is not touched. Neville is given to his grandmother, Franklin’s mother, to raise.”



“Anyway… that brings about the next string of events. After the attack on the Longbottoms, James and Lily Potter are told about the prophecy and hence go into hiding with their son who had just turned a year old as well. They put their location under a Fidelius Charm, with Sirius Black as their secret keeper. However, after speaking to their dear friend Albus Dumbledore they decided to change their secret keeper to Peter Pettigrew. Dumbledore apparently used the logic that Sirius’ brother was already in service to the Dark Lord and that the Black family was full of dark wizards… So they change their secret keeper to Peter Pettigrew who, oddly enough, was actually in service to the Dark Lord, while Sirius was not. Of course Voldemort was thrilled with the information and immediately attacked Godric Hollow, killing both Lily and James Potter.” Hermione once again paused in her pacing to think for a moment, then shaking her head she began again.



“Unfortunately, things didn’t quite go as they were planned. Lily being quite gifted at charms put a protection spell around Harry, changing the Avada Kedarva some how so that the curse was reflected back to Voldemort, altering his form. Leaving him something along the lines of a disembodied soul, although not dead.” She would have to look that one up at sometime, Hermione thought silently to herself.



Even though Hermione was much younger than most of the individuals in the room, even Severus could appreciate her ability to think logically and recall details that at times seemed minuscule thus he nodded at her comments, encouraging her to continue.



“With James and Lily dead, Harry should have been placed in the care of Sirius, as per the Potters’ request. However, Peter Pettigrew strikes again, this time framing Sirius for his murder as well as the death of thirteen muggles.” Hermione stopped her pacing for a moment to look over at Sirius who was listening intently by this time. “Something I never understood…as the chief wizard of the Wizengamot why did Dumbledore not insist on the use of Veritaserum to prove Sirius’ innocence.”



Remus was the one to speak up at this point. “Because Dumbledore knew that Sirius would be found innocent, and take custody of Harry. By not allowing a trial, Sirius would have no options; he was found guilty and sentenced.”



“Right,” Hermione continued as she resumed her pacing, “So it must have been his intention to remove Sirius from the picture before hand. He knew that the only other person, other than the Dursley’s, that could take Harry was you.” Looking over to Remus. “But because of the laws against werewolves, there was no chance that you would be granted custody so you were no threat…but Sirius was. So conveniently enough Pettigrew framed Sirius who was sentenced without trial, and since the only way for him to maintain his sanity while in Azkaban was to remain in his Animagus form…Dumbledore never worried about Sirius telling anyone about what really happened, since he would either be insane at the time or in the form of a big black dog.”



Molly looked over to Arthur who sat slumped in his chair, sadly shaking his head in disbelief. How could this treachery have gone on for so long without anyone questioning Dumbledore? She had trusted him with the lives of her children. They all had trusted him. Reaching over Molly took Arthur’s hand in her own. Feeling the warm touch of his wife’s hand Arthur looked over and graced her with a sad half smile, letting her know how much he appreciated her being there.



“Dumbledore could have had himself listed as Harry’s guardian, but he didn’t. Instead he placed Harry with the Dursley’s, even though he knew from Lily that they hated magic, and anything to do with magic. So for the next eleven years Harry was beaten, abused, starved, and… worse…” Hermione couldn’t bring herself to mention the sexual abuse that Harry had eluded too earlier. “During those eleven years Dumbledore never sent anyone over to check on Harry, never tried to make sure he was ok and never once tried to help him. We know that Dumbledore knew how Harry was being treated by the way his first letter was addressed… “the cupboard under the stairs” … he knew then that Harry was not being taken care of, that he was not loved, that he wasn’t even given the most basic of necessities. When Harry arrived at Hogwarts it was easy to tell that he was smaller than the rest of the kids, practically skin and bones. Every year Harry begged not to be sent back, and every fall when school started up again he would be skinnier than he was when he left. Unlike most students who gained weight and grew during summer hols, Harry actually lost weight and almost never grew any during his time away from Hogwarts. His second year not only did he tell Dumbledore about how he was treated, but so did Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. The bars on the windows, the forced rescue, the locks on the outside of his bedroom door and again the starvation and bruises. That is also the year that Madam Pomfrey found out about when Vernon broke Harry’s arm and never took him to the doctor. That was also when she did the full diagnostic and found out that he had had eighteen broken bones over half of them had not been properly healed.” Molly gasped at this information but didn’t interrupt.



“The only reason that I know about all of that is that Madam Pomfrey asked Ron and I, if Harry had ever mentioned having any problems at home. And before we would tell her anything we made her tell us what she had found. We also made her promise to go to Dumbledore if we told her. After we told her what we knew, she did go to him, because he came to talk to us. He told us that there were blood wards on the Dursley’s house and that it was the only safe place for Harry to be and that if we make a fuss that they wouldn’t let him come back, and hence put him in danger.” Hermione explained.



“Yeah…he said that even if the Dursleys was not the best place for Harry to be, that it was the safest, other than Hogwarts that is. When we asked why Harry couldn’t stay at Hogwarts during the summer like he did during the winter hols, Dumbledore said that each summer they reset the wards around the school and so it was practically left defenseless on and off during the summer as they would take one or two wards down at a time then rebuild them. From the way he made it sound it took most of the summer to reset the blasted things. We didn’t want Harry to be in danger so we didn’t press it none. We just made sure that we snuck him some food and stuff so he wouldn’t go hungry, and that we made him write us at least once a week…just to make sure he was ok. It was all we could do….” Ron’s voice fell silent with the last words. He now knew how bad Harry had been treated, and he hated himself for not trying harder to protect his friend. He had learned earlier this year just how horrible it was to be alone, and he never wanted Harry to be forced to go through that.



Hermione walked over and placed her hands on Ron’s shoulders, letting him know that she understood the pain and regret he was feeling. “We have to assume that Dumbledore intended for Harry to be treated like that, since he knew about it and did nothing to stop it. Even if the Dursleys was the safest place for Harry to be, he could have had someone checking up on Harry, making sure he was safe. He could have put special warning alarms up so that when ever Harry was being hurt that the Order or the Aurors would know and come to help. Hell…he could have paid the Dursleys money to guarantee Harry’s safety and that he was well cared for. He had options even if Harry had to stay at the Dursleys; Dumbledore still had options… he chose to ignore those options. Hence we have to assume that he wanted the Dursleys to treat Harry that way, in fact he was practically encouraging it by threatening Vernon if anything were to happen to Harry.”



“But why, that doesn’t make sense?” Ginny asked. She understood everything that had been explained so far but she still didn’t understand why Dumbledore was doing it all.



“Well…Harry was practically treated like a house elf the entire time he lived there. Cooking, cleaning, doing chores and the lot. He was beaten and…molested…” Hermione paused when Molly gasped at the use of the word. “When Harry came to Hogwarts he had practically no self esteem. He thought of physical and verbal abuse as something that was common. He accepted pain, never complaining. He never argued or tried to defend himself, even when he knew he was in the right. He saw himself as worthless and a freak, a burden, and so no matter what he never complained. He learned to accept someone else controlling his life and him and thought nothing about someone using guilt, fear or pain to manipulate him…he was used to it. By forcing Harry to stay with the Dursleys, Dumbledore created the perfect slave.”



This statement brought about a roar of comments and arguments from everyone.



“Now wait a minute, Harry is no one’s slave!” Fred called out.



“Yeah, he isn’t some sap that just does what everyone tells him too!” George added.



Sirius yelled out his agreement, Harry may have his moments but he was not a weak person…even with all that has happened to him.



“Wait! Wait!” Hermione tried to calm everyone down, unfortunately that took a minute or two. “I am not saying that Harry is a slave, what I am saying is that that was what Dumbledore’s intentions were…to create the perfect slave.” This announcement calmed everyone quite a bit, although the Weasley twins and Ron were still a little rattled.



“When Harry came to Hogwarts, he had his first real meal. He was sleeping in a real bed for the first time in his life. He had friends, something that Dudley had made sure he never had before. He was safe…or reasonably so. Harry saw Hogwarts as his new home, more of a home than he had ever known. Hence he saw Dumbledore as his savior. From the moment he came here, Harry idolized Dumbledore. Even when he didn’t agree with what the headmaster was doing he never lost faith in him, he never wavered with his loyalty. Harry would willingly give his life if it meant saving Dumbledore.” Hermione paused for a moment, listening to her own words. Suddenly realizing just how much the betrayal of Dumbledore will truly affect Harry, how much pain he would soon face. Hermione felt Ron’s hand squeezing hers, bringing her thoughts back into focus.



“Ok…um…like I was saying. Um…oh yeah. Harry’s first year at Hogwarts he meets Quirrell, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who Dumbledore hired just a month prior. Oddly enough Quirrell had no previous teaching experience, and was… limited … to his magical abilities. Definitely not the best person for the job, but Dumbledore hires him anyway. What most people didn’t know was that Quirrell was playing host to the parasitic form of Voldemort at the time. However, from Dumbledore’s own words we know that the wards are tuned so that he is made aware of the presence of dark magic, as well as the presence of Voldemort. So Dumbledore had to know that Quirrell and Voldemort were sharing the same body. Even if Voldemort didn’t have his own body, he was still the same person, still had the same magic. No, there was no way he didn’t know.” Hermione patted Ron on the shoulder and then turned to once again pace the length of the huge table.



“Harry was forced to face Voldemort for the second time in his life. And again Harry destroyed the body that housed that evil bastard but Voldemort escaped and once again he was a disembodied essence. The most powerful Dark Lord in existence, beaten by an eleven-year-old boy with practically no training. Three first years worked together and were able to break the riddles, crack the codes, and solve the mysteries. But it was Harry alone that faced Voldemort, and Harry alone that destroyed Quirrell.” Hermione paused as a young female elf that she didn’t know brought in some more tea.



After a quick introduction Hermione found out that the girls name was Shayna, Hermione asked Shayna for some juice, since all this talking was making her throat rather dry and she just wasn’t in the mood for tea right now. After a quick nod, Shayna disappeared into the kitchen but quickly came back with a tray carrying a crystal pitcher and several glasses. Hermione smiled as she sipped the sweet liquid, even with all the new and interesting things they had been introduced too since arriving there was still something perfect about an ice-cold glass of pumpkin juice.



“Delicious.” Hermione licked her lips and sighed with pleasure, after hearing a chuckle from the direction of the table, Hermione blushed, quickly cleared her throat and continued. “Second year.” She began. “Although the specifics are unknown to me, somehow Lucius Malfoy suddenly became the proud owner of one of Voldemort’s prized possessions; a diary, Tom Riddle’s diary to be exact. Instead of doing the logical thing and putting the diary away somewhere for safekeeping, he slips the diary into the cauldron of one Ginerva Molly Weasley. While his original reasons are still a mystery, the end results were that the sixteen-year-old manifestation of Voldemort, aka Tom Riddle, took control of our beloved Ginny’s body and terrorized Hogwarts, opening the Chamber of Secrets and releasing a Basilisk.”



Ginny shivered at the memories of that horrible year. Blaise leaned over and put his arm around the young Weasley, even though there were a few glares directed his way from across the table.



“For the third time Harry faced off against Voldemort. This time Harry was practically on his own. I was petrified and laying in the infirmary, and Ron was trapped on the other side of a wall of rock with a mind wiped Lockheart who was even more useless than normal and a broken wand. Not only did Harry have to face Voldemort, but he also had to battle a sixty-foot Basilisk that could kill by simply looking in its eyes as well. Did Dumbledore come to Harry’s rescue this time? Did he try to help him in any manner? No, he left Harry to battle it out on his own once again.” Hermione huffed with frustration. “Dumbledore claimed he had no way to get into the Chamber of Secrets, but that was a lie. Since Fawkes, Dumbledore’s phoenix came to Harry’s aide even if Dumbledore did not. Fawkes blinded the Basilisk, which gave Harry a fighting chance, and brought Harry the sword of Godric Gryffindore. Harry used the sword to kill the Basilisk but not before he was bitten, as he knelt dying from the poison, once again Fawkes came to him. Fawkes cried on the bite, healing the wound and ridding Harry of the deadly poison. Then using pure instinct, Harry destroyed the diary and the sixteen-year-old manifestation of Tom Riddle, using the broken basilisk fang that he had removed from his arm. For the third time Harry defeated Voldemort and survived, for the third time Harry almost died, for the third time Dumbledore had done nothing to save him.”



“Wait a minute, there was no way that Dumbledore could help. The only one that could open the Chamber of Secrets had to be a parselmouth.” Bill exclaimed, trying to understand everything that Hermione was saying.



“Actually that isn’t quite true.” Ron started. “How do you think Fawkes got into the Chamber and how he flew me, Lockheart, Harry and Ginny out?”



Bill shook his head, looking slightly confused.



Hermione smiled at Ron’s brother then explained. “There are actually several entrances to the Chamber of Secrets. One of them is in the third floor girl’s bathroom that is inhabited by Moaning Myrtle. One entrance is just inside the Slytherin’s common room, behind the tapestry of Salazar Slytherin. One is deep in the forbidden forest just outside of the lair of a giant acromantula by the name of Aragog. Another is about halfway down the cliffs above the black lake, which is the one that Fawkes used to get everyone out. So you see Dumbledore could have easily had Fawkes take him through that very same entrance and helped Harry but he chose not too.”



“How do you know that it wasn’t Dumbledore that sent the phoenix in to the Chamber to rescue Harry and Ginny?” Charlie decided to play the devil’s advocate for the moment.



“That’s simple, when Harry confronted Dumbledore about it…Dumbledore stated that Harry ‘must have shown him great loyalty down there… nothing but that could have called Fawkes to him.’ Dumbledore stated that Harry called Fawkes not that he had sent Fawkes.” Hermione explained then continued on her line of thinking.



“On to third year. That one was quite interesting. Sirius had managed to find out some about how Harry was being treated and that Voldemort was still alive and hunting his godson down, so he managed to escape Azkaban and came searching for Harry. It honestly didn’t take long for him to find him, but Sirius was not sure if Harry would accept him and he was still a wanted man so he stayed in his animagus form while he investigated what was going on.” Hermione began, looking over to Sirius for confirmation of her statements. Sirius nodded and leaned forward in his chair slightly, making sure the young witch had his full attention at this point.



“Dumbledore knew about Sirius’ escape and was afraid that Sirius would come after him or even worse try and take control of Harry. So… he looked up one of Sirius’ old friends, Remus Lupin. Dumbledore knew of the incident at the Whomping Willow between Severus and the Marauders, he also knew that Remus was still very much in love with Severus and that if it came down to it that Remus would do anything to protect Severus, even if that meant killing an old friend.” Hermione looked over to Remus who was blushing slightly as he glanced over to Severus. “Dumbledore called an emergency Order meeting and informed everyone that Sirius had escaped and that he was probably looking for Harry, to kill him. He told them all about how Sirius had betrayed his friends and had killed Pettigrew as well as thirteen muggles and had spent the last twelve years in Azkaban planning his revenge for his incarceration. No one doubted Dumbledore’s words, the way he made it sound…. it was the Great and Mighty Dumbledore once again trying to protect his Golden Boy. Everyone was on the look out for Sirius, and because of his love for his adopted son, Mr. Weasley warned Harry about Sirius’ escape and his supposed association with the death of Harry’s parents.”



Arthur looked into his now cooled cup of tea, realizing that he too had been a victim of the Headmaster’s manipulation. He had worried about Harry’s safety, after all…Dumbledore told them all that Sirius was out undoubtedly searching for Harry to finish of the job he started all those years ago. He had warned Harry, and in doing so he had created a fear within Harry; a fear of Sirius, the one man that had the legal right to take Harry away from it all.



“The school year was a mixture of fear and curiosity. Harry realized, thanks to the Marauders Map, that Peter Pettigrew was still alive. Which put into question everything that he had heard about Sirius Black. At a final confrontation Pettigrew was revealed to be Skabbers, Ron’s pet rat…also know as Wormtail, Voldemort’s right hand rat. Who had oddly enough been Percy’s rat originally, although I don’t know how significant that is at this point.” Hermione mumbled that last part as if she were saying it to herself. “Anyway…once Harry found out the truth Dumbledore had the opportunity to set things right. Remus, Professor Snape, Harry, Ron and myself had all seen Pettigrew alive and…ick… well… so we could now prove that Sirius had not committed the crimes that he was accused of.”



Remus nodded silently, what Hermione was speaking of now was something that had his hackles up since Harry’s third year. He had been a fool and listened to the old man all those years ago, he had believed what Dumbledore had told everyone about Sirius. He had turned his back on his friend and on Harry, when they needed him most. Every since he had found out the truth Remus had been internally beating himself up over not trusting his friend, and not trying to help him more. Now as he sat comforting his old friend he new that forgiveness had been given a long time ago, all though it would be a while before he could forgive himself.



“Instead of helping clear Sirius, Dumbledore encouraged Harry and I to help Sirius escape. Sirius and Harry had just started getting to know each other and both of them were immediately drawn to each other. Harry had something he had always wanted, he had a family again, and Sirius…well his love for his godson had never diminished not even after twelve years in Azkaban. Sirius offered to take Harry with him and become his guardian once again. Unfortunately, instead of clearing Sirius and allowing the two of them to start over, Dumbledore arranged for Sirius’ escape… making him a hunted man. Dumbledore knew there was no way that Sirius would be able to take Harry with him if he was on the run, so he made sure that the Aurors were always just one step behind Sirius so that he never felt confident enough to take Harry with him.” Hermione sighed, she knew how much Harry had been hurt when Sirius had refused to take him with him that year. She also knew that he had never told Sirius how the Dursleys had treated him, so the Sirius never really knew how his actions had truly hurt Harry. Hermione knew that after he had heard how the Dursleys had treated Harry, that Sirius was suffering horribly with the guilt, knowing he could have prevented at least some of it.



Sirius couldn’t help but wonder exactly when the…sexual…stuff… had started. How old was Harry when those bastards had started hurting him. If he had taken Harry back when he had escaped, would they had the chance to do that too him. Did it happen before or after he had abandoned his godson to those monsters? Sirius felt the tears slowly falling down his cheek. It was his fault as much as it was theirs… he abandoned Harry. He had to accept responsibility for that. Harry needed him and he let him now.



“Before anyone gets too carried away…” Severus spoke softly as he looked over to Sirius and Remus. “May I remind you all, that none of us knew the extent of what was happening to Harry. I treated that boy with nothing but resentment and indifference for all these years. I should have seen the signs of abuse. I am a teacher; I am trained to look for such things for Merlin’s sake. I sit here and I have to ask myself if I actually saw the signs and just chose to ignore them? I knew that Harry was not the attention grabbing, spoilt child that Dumbledore encourage me to believe. He knew of my feelings towards James Potter and he frequently pushed the connection so that I would never take the time to get to know Harry and not Potter.” Severus lowered his head but continued. “I trained Harry in Occlumency, I saw some of his memories. I saw that blasted cupboard that he spoke of. I thought that perhaps it was some form of punishment that he had earned; I never thought for a moment that it was where he lived. Even though I had seen his memories, even though I had heard his words, I never questioned him… I never asked if he was being abused. I ignored what I saw, what I heard…in favor of century old resentments. I allowed Dumbledore to use my hatred for James Potter to hurt Harry.” Severus’ words were strained as he finished.



“Wait… please.” Hermione began. “Over the years I have heard Harry berate and blame himself for things that happened to other people. Most of the things he had no control over, but he still felt guilty. No one here should blame himself or herself for what has happened. We were all manipulated, coerced, and used in one manner or the other. We cannot allow ourselves to take responsibility for those things that we were not aware of, or the lies that we have been told. All we can do is learn from the past and try and make sure that this vicious cycle stops here, today.” In the past Hermione had felt helpless, unable to do anything about what was happening. Today as she listened to her best friend share the horrors in his life she hated herself for not being stronger, for not seeing it before. Now her anger knew a new direction, so much had been revealed… soon it would be time to take action…soon.