#I mean straight guys stalk me too and one boy almost sexually assaulted me in a Jungle Java but I don’t hate straight men

[theres-whump-in-that-nebula]

I walked way out of town when I told my parents I wasn’t going far because I’m an adult and can do whatever the hell I want. I’m also pleasantly surprised that it’s foggy outside.

[viouez]

Saved from Assault | T.W

synopsis. saving a woman from a traumatic experience was not what namjoon had in mind, but he happened to bring her home and start a family debate after learning the disgusting truth

pairing. seokjin/reader, namjoon/reader, yoongi/reader, taehyung/reader | genre. angst , trigger warning ahead !  au. hybrid!au, serialkiller!au (none of the boys are the killer. contents. trigger warning. there is talk of sexual assault and murder. nothing is actually written out but you know. note. this is supposed to be a story where there is a serial killer in a small town type situation going on but i realized how dark that is and thought that i’d just make it a small little thing. (it was supposed to be the first chapter to first snow)

entire playlist.

all rights reserved © viouez | the reposting, modifying, and/or translating of any kind on any medium is allowed. the reposting, modifying, and translating of my work without explicit permission from me is technically a criminal act under the law but will not be dealt with legal action because i would enjoy my ideas to be distributed. 

a loud scream had filled the forest, catching a certain hybrids attention. he had only been out for a hunt but what caught his attention was that he usually left around three in the morning, the time where most humans were asleep. this scream had meant either someone was in trouble, or, the person who screamed wasn’t human. 

the hybrid, now trying to find his way towards the noise, lifted his head into the air and took a whiff, seeing if he could get a scent from here. no such luck had been on his side tonight, well, besides having the scream fly through the air again. 

he only walked another mile before the scent of the person came to his senses. whoever the person happened to be was definitely human and in definite danger. the smell of blood gave this away. he stalked through the trees until a truck came into view, this confusing the hybrid. 

instead of trying to figure out how the truck got out this far, he found himself walking into the line of danger, wanting to know what the screaming was from. though, this didn’t take long.

a smaller hand slammed against the truck window before it was yanked away, blood smearing as it pulled away. eyes widening, the hybrid snapped its body forward and ripped the door open. the sight in front of him only freezing him in his tracks. 

a woman, half-naked, laid across the back seat of the truck while a man kneel between her legs, naked and fingers wrapped around what looked like a pocket knife. the scene by itself gave away what had been happening. he would never want to put what he saw into words, this by itself was traumatic to see, let alone live through. 

“help me.” the woman begged, hand grabbing ahold of the hybrids wrist while the man held the knife towards him. 

“get away if you know what's good for you, mutt.” the man groaned out, calling the hybrid out. 

the words he spoke only angered the wolf, hands grabbing onto the females underarms as he pulled her up from her position, getting her out of the truck with ease. he knew pulling her out was too easy, constantly moving back before the male could attack him with the knife. 

“you’ll regret this.” the male spoke again, now standing on the outside of the truck, pants covering his lower half.

he assumes this is why it was easy to get the girl from the truck, he was too big of a pussy to fight naked. the girl only leaned against the hybrids side, the wound on her body keeping her from being much help, physically.

“he.. he has a hurt shoulder, he struggled picking me up, he has an easy spot.” the girl mumbled before her body slid down the wolves, the last of her strength being used up. 

thankful for the new information, the wolf found himself walking towards the man, head cocking to the side with curiosity, “what? scared of a little mutt?” 

at the use of his own words, the male swung his hand towards the hybrid, only to have the hybrid grab his wrist and twist it with ease. he groaned out, hand tightening around the knife's blade. 

within seconds, the hybrid slammed his hand against the males shoulder with a brutal snap, the strength from his hybrid side practically cracking his shoulder blade. the male cried out in anguish, pulling away from the hybrids grasp, falling onto his butt as he tried to lessen the pain. 

“now, tell me, are you going to get into your truck and go, or am i needing to take your life as well as your arm?” the hybrid threatened, eyebrows raising.

he only shook his head, body scooting back towards his truck. the hybrid could almost smell the fear radiating from the male, this had him smiling as he turned back towards the female, who now lay unconscious. 

“jesus christ.” he commented, stepping up to kneel beside her.

as the truck behind him started up, the hybrid quickly rose the female into his arms and found himself slipping behind a few trees in case the male tried to hit him. he knew the male wasn’t dumb enough to try and cause anymore issues, knowing the second he attacked the wolf, his life would be gone as well. 

though, the hybrid will admit, he wouldn’t be able to take someone's life no matter how disgusting they were to him. unlike his animal counterparts, he had a genuine heart. granted, his heart just ended him with a wounded female who was most likely just assaulted and was going to be a victim of murder if he didn’t show up. how would he explain this to his housemates?

the entire walk to his house was quiet, except the groaning from the female in his arms and the sound of his stomach rumbling. he was more than thankful that he was able to save someone but this did put a dent on his feeding time. he would never regret this night, he just wished he left earlier for a hunt so he could’ve eaten too. 

once he stepped foot on his land, he could sense that the other hybrids were awake and awaiting his arrival home. the first hybrid to spot him was the samoyed, who sat on the porch as he waited. he wanted to have a word with said hybrid, seeing as it is under fifteen degrees outside. 

“namjoon hyung?” the hybrid called out, nose scrunching in disgust at the smell.

as the hybrid turned to see the wolf, his eyes widened and he instantly called out for the eldest hybrid. though, the reaction he got once the fox stepped outside was not one he was assuming he’d get. 

“are you absolutely nuts? you hunted a human? do you want to end up killed?” the fox snapped out, climbing down the stairs to smack the wolf on the back of the head.

“i didn’t hunt her. i kinda.. i saved her from being killed?” the wolf debated on the word to use, but still looked at the fox with a sympathetic smile. 

“oh. why didn’t you just say so? you could have called out for us to know.. i’m so sorry.” 

the fox shut its mouth and allowed the wolf to bring the woman inside, the wolf dropping her off on the couch since they had no idea what to do with her at that moment. they’d need to call taehyung for help with wounds, none of them really knew how. 

“taehyungie will be here in a second, he’s grabbing supplies.” the samoyed from before bounced into the room just to groan at the smell.

“for a dog, you really hate the smell of blood, don’t you? thought they would’ve liked it.” a deeper voice chimed in, signaling the big cats entrance with materials the fox called for.

the moment they realized the cat was here, taehyung stepped into the room and smiled at the others, but ignored them as he went straight to work with the female. turning towards the fox, namjoon decided it would be best to explain the situation at hand and what dangers it could have brought onto him.

“she was being attacked by some guy in a truck when i found her.. i really don’t know what the hell was happening but she was half-naked and he was fully naked and.. and.. it smelt horrid. i could smell how scared she was, hyung, she smelt so bad.” he whined out, rubbing at his nose at the thought of her smell.

“well, i’m grateful you were smart enough to not leave her there. but this also means he’ll either be back or he’ll hurt someone else because you stopped him.” yoongi cut in, the big cat being as blunt as he could. 

“we can only hope he’ll come back, right? that means we can deal with him before he hurts someone else.” seokjin mumbled, patting the wolf's head with a small smile, “good job, joonie.”

all the attention turned towards taehyung, who was still working on bandaging up the female and inspecting her body for anymore wounds. once he pulled his own attention from between her legs, he only gave a small sigh, rubbing his eyes with annoyance. 

“we can only hope he won’t go after anyone else. he sexually assaulted her. the trauma to her thighs and pelvic area is crazy bad. i’d say that before he was in the woods.. he had her captive or something. or they had extremely rough bdsm sex. we can’t rule out that it wasn’t consensual at first.” taehyung commented, pointing at the marks up her thighs. 

“with how i saw it, nothing done to her was consensual. she grabbed me and asked me for help. there’s no way what he was doing was something she could’ve condoned even at first.” namjoon instantly denied his words, motioning towards how the female looked, even bandaged.

“he has a point, joon, we don’t know how the two of them started out. we can hope it was consensual because that means she may know who he is. granted it will be worse on her end for trauma, it can help us figure out who he is and how to deal with him.” seokjin cut the younger boy off, shrugging his shoulders.

“so, we’re just going to act like some type of fucking bodyguard because joon decided to help her out? did you guys forget we’re hybrids? the second we say anything about a rape and attempted murder, they’ll blame us and we’ll be the ones put down.” yoongi almost growled out at the words but he knew they were true. 

all four of the men stared at one another, realizing the severity of the situation they were just put into. the man could have been a one-time offender or a serial-offender. this man could go find someone else to do the same to or maybe he’ll try and come back for her. hell, they could hunt the guy themselves and get justice for the girl or they could go to the cops and possibly get arrested as the suspect.

“how about this, okay, we wait for her to wake up, yes? okay, you’re still with me. then we ask her about it. we’ll see if there’s anything we can do for her to keep her comfortable and if she asks for help, we should be there to offer it. she just went through a hugely traumatic event, so stay calm and don’t freak her out.” taehyung smiled widely as he stood from his spot next to her. 

yoongi soon piped up, saying something that wasn’t quite expected, “i say we just dump her out in the woods and let her deal with this on her own. we can’t help someone when we don’t know who they’d look at us once she sees that we’re not fully human. we could be falling into a trap that we don’t want to deal with.”

“just.. let’s wait until she wakes up and we’ll deal with it when it comes, okay?” seokjin sighed, ignoring the big cat.

a.n. please don’t take this as something i love writing about. i can understand the trauma that goes with such assaults, i have been through similar situations and i’d never wish this on ANYONE. i got back from counseling and this topic was fresh in my mind. i was venting and decided to write something involving it. 

[jbankai89]

The Stag and The Snake Part I, Chapter Eight - Time

My good friend and braintwin @kuriquinn suggested I try posting my actual fics on Tumblr, rather than just linking them, so I'm giving it a try. For those of you following my work on AO3 or AFF, these will be reposts until I'm caught up and everything is posted. :)

Title: The Stag and the Snake

Author: JBankai89

Status: Complete, Part 1: 12/12 Part 2: 22/22

Rating: Part 1: PG-13, Part 2: NC-17 Fandom: Harry Potter

Pairing: Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin

Achievements: None

Warnings: Violence and Gore, Violent Sexual Assault, Minor Character Death

Summary: Vernon Dursley is enraged with the prospect of raising a boy he never wanted. Petunia recalls something that might help them get the child out of their hair more quickly. Overcoming their recalcitrance for anything magical, they invoke The Rite of Betrothal. Who will Harry be forced to marry, and will he be able to cope with all the demands it will entail?

Word Count: Part 1: 46 772 Part 2: 85 442

Other Links: AO3, AFF, LJ

Notes: Please note that this fic also contains Evil!Snape, which is a trope I hate, because Sev is my favourite character, but for the purposes of this story, he worked best.

This fic is based on the story of The Swan Princess, which I will be following the canon of in conjunction with the HP canon. Canon divergences include Voldemort is definitely dead, Lucius Malfoy is a bit OOC, and Sirius did not go to Azkaban. Because most of the story takes place before and after Hogwarts, a lot of the Hogwarts years are glossed over. I tried to keep the links and stuff organized how they did it on the old LJ group MyChemicalSlash, so I hope this is clean enough for you guys to follow easily.

Previous Chapter

Fic Masterpost

A/N: Because so much of this story takes place before and after Hogwarts, I really struggled with how to portray the Hogwarts years without it seeming like I skipped over them, or didn't give them the right amount of attention. When I initially wrote this chapter, I rewrote it 3 or 4 times to get it to a place where I was happy with it. This is the last time jump of Part One of this story. I hope you guys enjoy it :)

Chapter 8 – Time

When Harry was younger and Hagrid had told him about Hogwarts, Harry thought that it would be brilliant.

But time was a strange thing, and coupled with the chaos of each passing year, he felt as though everything was going too fast, and despite Harry's desperate exclamations, it wouldn't slow down.

Amidst summers with the Dursleys, then the Malfoys for one horrible week, then finally with Sirius and Remus, every year the betrothal came closer, and every year he hadn't the nerve to tell his two best friends about it.

At the same time, he had been subject to what it felt like to have real parents for the first time in his life—in particular, the nagging part.

Harry, (Sirius wrote,)

Whose brilliant idea was it to fly a Ford Anglia all the way to Hogwarts, yours, or Ron's? This is a whole new plateau of stupid for you...

Harry,

What the hell were you doing outside, out of bounds, with Snape and Remus during a full moon? You're damn lucky none of you were turned or killed, you wait until I get hold of you...

Harry,

Did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire? I know you wouldn't be daft enough to go looking for trouble...

Harry,

Are you deliberately trying to break your contract? Talk to Draco again outside of your supervised time together, and there will be hell to pay...

Harry,

Do you plan on performing your Bonding in detention? I know Umbridge is unpleasant, but you need to try to resist the urge to antagonize her...

With each letter that Harry got from his godfather, the less he sounded like the Sirius Harry had known, and the more he began to sound like Mrs Weasley. It was unnerving, and the overbearing protectiveness was exhausting to deal with. Along with the letters, Sirius included gentle suggestions that Harry should maybe consider telling his friends about his impending post-secondary nuptials.

Harry,

Your Bonding is in four years. I know you don't want to hear this but it will be better to tell your friends soon, instead of springing it on them. Maybe once things have settled down after the Tournament...

Harry,

I know you haven't told Ron and Hermione yet about your Bonding. Would you like me to help you decide what to say? After your OWLs we can discuss it...

Harry,

You need to tell Ron and Hermione about the bonding. Perhaps at Slughorn's Christmas Party (I know he invited you, don't deny it) maybe it'll be easier to tell them after a few glasses of eggnog...

Harry,

Next year's Lughnasadh Ball where your Bonding will be announced is going to be extremely public. Daily Prophet reporters will be there, and it's not something we'll be able to keep quiet...

Where had the time gone? Harry felt as though he was watching water trickle through his cupped hands, and suddenly he found himself staring at an empty dormitory, with the Hogwarts Express ready to take him back to King's Cross for the last time. He felt cornered, with his bonding, wedding, whatever, looming before him like some great beast. Harry still had no idea how to break the news to Ron and Hermione, much less the fact that he was queer and that it was Malfoy on top of everything else.

While it was one thing to know that the wizarding world had no issues with sexuality, it was quite another to really know it. He had spent a good chunk of his childhood and adolescence being subject to Uncle Vernon's absolute disgust for nancy boys, as he called them, as well as the nasty barbs thrown his way when they had realized that his betrothal partner was not, in fact, a girl.

Dudley was curiously absent whenever he was around after that. Not that Harry really minded so much, it wasn't as if Dudley had ever significantly impacted Harry's life—not counting the times his fist impacted upon Harry's face.

Remus and Sirius had done their best to quell his internalized homophobia, but at the end of the day, Harry knew that it was something he'd have to work out for himself. Having them around for a good chunk of the year had helped, but he still struggled with that last tendril of shame that clung to the corners of his conscience, and refused to accept his inclination towards boys.

In spite of everything, he was almost too excited to care. He was going home, his real home, finally. He never had to see the Dursleys again. Sirius and Remus had broken the news to him a few days before he was due to leave for the start of his seventh year, and that fact alone was almost enough to make him forget about the Lughnasadh Ball. Almost.

“Harry?” Ron's voice snapped him out of his daze. Harry turned to see him standing uncertainly on the stairs that led out of their seventh year dormitory. “You coming?”  

“I—yeah,” Harry forced a small smile, “in a minute.” Harry watched Ron eye him curiously, then disappeared down the tower's staircase. Harry turned back to the empty dormitory, and felt a small pang in his chest. Empty wardrobes, stripped four-posters, and yet Harry could all but see the mad memories he had made in this room. Insane wrestling matches that never ended well, swapping chocolate frog cards, Christmases long past...Harry couldn't stop thinking about everything. It had gone by so quickly, and he almost felt as though he'd never stopped long enough to appreciate the years he had spent in the castle.

But now, it was all over. He felt as though his entire life had been leading up to the first of August. What would happen after, he had no idea. He'd been so busy trying to not think about August, and Draco, and the stupid betrothal, all his determined not-thinking seemed to make it come closer in leaps and bounds.

And of course, things with Draco had been weird all year to begin with.

Sirius had informed Harry at the beginning of the autumn term that given that now that he and Draco were both of age, the Contract viewed them both as adults.

“This means,” Sirius had said, “that you and Draco can associate with one another outside our supervision, if you want to.”

Ha! Harry almost laughed at the memory. As if he had a burning desire to spend more time with that git.

Unfortunately, Draco seemed to see this new freedom rather differently. Though far from his usual attitude of humiliating or ignoring Harry as he'd done in summers past, he instead sought out Harry's company when he knew Harry would be alone.

The first few times, Harry had genuinely expected the other teen to hex him, or attack him, or something. Instead, the silver-white Slytherin would stalk forward, all smooth, languid movements, and  pin Harry to the nearest flat surface. He learned early on that Draco was an amazing kisser.

The problem was, Harry didn't want to like Draco, or his kissing, or anything else about the little shit.

He'd spent years being harassed by him, and suddenly Draco wanted to kiss and make up? It was deeply unsettling.

“I can't help it Potter,” Draco would purr after Harry had wrenched himself away from him, “you grew up pretty.” He would smirk in that self-satisfied Malfoy sort of way, and stalk off without a backward glance.

The Pretty remarks left Harry feeling both hot all over, and deeply ashamed. In many ways, he felt like that descriptor absolutely didn't apply to him, and it also felt demeaning. Girls were pretty, not boys. Did Draco see him as some kind of...womanish man?

With or without the cutting remarks, Harry struggled to completely stifle his growing desire every time they shared an encounter. Puberty had not been entirely unkind to Draco, and more than once the Slytherin had snuck in to Harry's more erotic dream sequences, which always made him wake up gasping and sticky.

Lost in his thoughts, Harry hardly noticed where he was going as he descended the steps of the dormitories and slipped out of the portrait hole for the last time, barely glancing up as he went. He did, however, notice when he walked straight into someone, they holding their ground so firmly that Harry lost his balance and fell back onto his buttocks.

“Damn, I'm sorr—” Harry cut himself off as he looked up and saw Snape in front of him, towering over him with his arms crossed and regarding Harry with a cool, blank stare. Much to his surprise, Snape reached forward and dragged Harry to his feet.

“Perhaps in the future it would be advisable that you watch where you are going, Mr Potter, instead of studying the intricate details of your shoes.” Something in Snape's normally scathing tone seemed muted, somehow, and Harry eyed him quizzically. Snape's hand was still lightly grasping his forearm, and he seemed almost reluctant to let go. He narrowed his eyes at Harry, and Harry swallowed, refusing to let Snape intimidate him, not anymore.

“I'll try and remember that, sir,” Harry said in as even a tone as he could manage, while he pulled his forearm out of the man's grip, and the gesture seemed to anger the Potions Master for some reason. Harry hesitated for a moment longer, then hurried past Snape and rushed to the carriages waiting outside.

~*~

The ridiculous nostalgia of the seventh years on the Hogsmeade platform was enough to temporarily distract Harry from his uncertain future. People hugged, cried, and made empty promises of staying in touch, and Harry exchanged more than one bewildered look with Ron as Hermione got particularly teary as she hugged Parvati and Lavender (much to Harry and Ron's dual shock) goodbye. Harry glanced away from the scene and his eyes momentarily caught Draco's through the cluster of over-emotional bodies, and he gave Harry a small nod and a wink. The fact that Draco had slipped into his dreams again the night before definitely didn't help him keep his composure, and he quickly looked away.

“Harry, are you all right? You look very red.” Harry spun around and saw Hermione eyeing him with concern and thinly veiled suspicion.

“Er, yeah, I'm fine,” he said quickly as panic began to bubble in his chest again. I suppose it's now or never, Harry thought as he climbed onto the train with his trunk and Hedwig, and struggled to get a handle on his flush. Ron and Hermione followed him onto the train, more slowly as they tried to navigate through the clusters of bodies, trunks, and cages.

Harry found a compartment near the back of the train that was completely empty, brushing off more than one person along the way who had attempted to join them. His frayed nerves left little room to feel guilty about the hurt looks Neville, Ginny, and Luna gave him at his brush-offs. Ron and Hermione followed him in, and he stacked up his trunk and Hedwig's cage near the window. He opened and closed his fists repeatedly in an attempt to quell the trembling, though it did very little to actually calm him down.

Harry took every excuse that presented itself to postpone his Big Reveal.

He bought everyone pumpkin pasties, he played several games of Exploding Snap with Ron, while Hermione buried her nose in a thick volume and tutted as their games grew more and more raucous with every rematch.

Harry glanced up after the fifth game, and felt his throat tighten. They were already halfway to King's Cross, and Harry felt himself wondering again, where had the time gone? He pulled back from the game, and raked his fingers through his hair, making it even messier than usual.

“Er, I have to tell you guys something,” Harry said suddenly, and Ron looked up from the cards he had been shuffling, his brow furrowed, and Hermione's face emerged from behind her book. “I—I've been trying to figure out how to tell you for a while, but I, er, didn't exactly know how.” He paused, gnawing the inside of his cheek nervously. Was he really ready to do this?

“Spit it out Harry,” Ron said after a moment of tense silence, “you look like somebody died.” Harry almost laughed. Yeah, I wish.

He swallowed thickly and took a deep breath to steady himself before he finally began to speak.

“When I was little, my aunt and uncle signed me up for a—er—Rite of Betrothal,” Harry said, and he could feel himself going red, and he buried his face in his hands. The only sound that Harry could hear was the steady chug chug of the train, and the muffled chatter of people outside their compartment.

“What? Harry are you absolutely sure?” Ron sounded aghast, and for once, Hermione was quiet. Harry nodded mutely, his face still in his hands.

“Wait, betrothal? Harry, you're engaged to someone?” Hermione sounded confused, and Harry could hear Ron sputter with shock.

“It's more than that Hermione,” Ron said seriously, ignoring the fact that Harry still had his face buried in his hands in an attempt to hide the fact that he had gone bright red. “It's a binding magical contract set up by Harry's guardians and the Ministry. There's absolutely no way to break it. I've heard of people actually dying when they tried to break their contract, or if they postponed the bonding ceremony for too long.”

“Oh Ron, don't be so dramatic,” Hermione said dismissively, “it can't be that bad, can it Harry?”

“Believe me,” Harry mumbled into his hands, “it's bad.”

“Who's the lucky bloke?” Ron asked, and at this Harry's hands fell from his face, and he jerked so sharply at Ron's words that he almost toppled out of his seat in shock. Ron didn't even have the good form to hide his grin.

“How did—I mean,—why did, I mean—”

“Harry, breathe,” Hermione said gently while she reached forward and gripped one of his hands in an attempt to calm him.

“You don't think you weren't being discreet about it, did you mate? You checked out Diggory's arse enough times in fourth year.”

“This is a nightmare,” Harry groaned, and buried his face in his hands again. Hermione huffed impatiently and pried his hands away from his face.

“Really, Harry, you're being ridiculous. Just tell us: who is it?” She asked, and Harry looked from Ron's amused expression to Hermione's concerned one and back again. Was he really going to do this? He felt like he had better chances of facing off with a horde of Blast-Ended Skrewts and coming out alive.

“Er, Draco Malfoy?” His voice sounded very small.

Their reactions were so predictable that if Harry hadn't been so mortified by it all he might have laughed.

Hermione's eyes went wide and she clapped her hands to her mouth, and Ron's mouth dropped open, doing a remarkable impression of a basking shark.

“Harry, are you sure?” Hermione asked.

“Draco Malfoy?” Ron sputtered.

“Why didn't you tell us?”

“Draco effing Malfoy?!”

“It's not like I had a choice!” Harry snapped more angrily than he had intended, and they both went silent.

“I've been forced to hang out with him for one week a year for the last twelve years,” Harry raged while he threw up his arms in frustration. “We loathe each other. When I was five, he led me into the woods and left me there. When I was seven, he stole Lucius's wand and set my hair on fire! When I was twelve he almost got me killed by his mother's prized venomous tentacula! Do you think I'm happy about this?” Harry couldn't remember when he had stood up, or when he started yelling. Both Ron and Hermione had gone very quiet.

Harry sat back down, breathing deeply in an attempt to calm down, though it didn't help much. “I don't want to do this. The only good thing that ever came out of this whole mess is that I got to start living with Sirius and Remus when I was really small. Before that I was living in a fucking cupboard.” He looked out the window, and away from their mute shock. “I don't want to do this,” Harry repeated, though more softly. “I really don't, but I have absolutely no choice.”

“What about Sirius?” Hermione asked in a very small voice, clearly afraid that Harry would start yelling again, “he can't be exactly happy about this. I mean...” she trailed off, and watched him cautiously.

“Even if he wanted to do anything, he can't. Y'know, unless he wants to off his godson,” Ron cut in, and Hermione rolled her eyes. The ginger offered Harry an apologetic half-smile.

“Sirius said he tried to stop it,” Harry said, “but since he's not my legal guardian, there wasn't much he could do. Maybe if Dumbledore—” he cut himself off and shook his head. His feelings towards the old headmaster were so conflicted that he had no idea how to finish the thought.

“Dumbledore was only doing what he thought was best,” Hermione said, her voice soft and sad. Not that he could blame her, the man had been dead for almost a year, but it still felt like a bad omen to speak ill of him. “I'm sure he didn't mean for things to turn out this way...”

“Yeah, I'm sure it was a brilliant idea to let me stay with people who hate me, and treat me like crap, and then tell my...tell Sirius and Remus to not tell me anything about the wizarding world. It makes no sense, Hermione.” Harry wasn't entirely sure why he was suddenly so angry, but he was secretly grateful that they had deviated so far from his revelation. He wasn't exactly keen to talk about it.

“I'm with Harry,” Ron said, unwrapping a chocolate frog as he spoke, “what kind of kid wants to grow up like that? Even if Harry had known about everything, it's not like he's daft enough to go looking for trouble.”

“I never had to,” Harry replied with a small laugh, “trouble usually finds me.”

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