Harry Potter Breaking Free

After catching each other's eyes, the two Veela decided not to comment. It would've been a waste of time anyway as Harry had started walking away already, and they were forced to jog to catch up with him. As they walked along, Harry began to talk again but for the first time since they'd met him he was noticeably avoiding making eye contact.

Slowing almost to a stop, Harry turned to look at the Delacour ladies before staring down at his feet again. "I uhhh. I want to explain something before we go any further... The rest of my memories are neither heroic nor brave nor anything even remotely comparable to those two words. I'm just a weak little boy with no means to defend myself, and I'm under the care of my... relatives."

At the tail end of Harry's explanation, he found another black book called The week of the Hogwarts owls. He grunted in a particularly grim sort of way, picked up the book as if he was tearing off a bandaid and they were immediately launched into the memory...

Harry Potter had received a Hogwarts acceptance letter by owl delivery of all things. The boy didn't even know what the letter contained yet, but what he did know was that its contents had earned him a severe beating that left him crawling into the safety of his cupboard. The next day it became clear that this Hogwarts place wasn't going to give up that easily. Four letters were owl-delivered this time, instead of one, and Harry was once again savagely beaten. The day after that, ten letters arrived, and the two Veela were forced to watch as Harry was cut to bloody ribbons with a metal coat hanger pulled straight...

The next day letters began coming out of every nook, cranny and hole in the Dursley's house, exploding onto every exposed surface available. At the sight of it all, Harry broke out into mad, out of control laughter because of the silliness of it all, before he was once again beaten to a bloody mess by the infamous coat hanger.

These events repeated themselves daily for the next week, and by the end of it Harry could barely move due to partially healed lacerations and bruises collecting all over his body. Hundreds of owls were now sitting on the roof of number four Privet Drive, and in response Vernon was approaching Harry with murder in his eyes.

Petunia, ever the voice of reason, stopped Vernon from his course of action because he'd stain her new carpet with all of the blood. She quite calmly explained that they'd go somewhere remote to finish the very necessary deed. Harry was unceremoniously trussed up like a pig for slaughter, put in the boot of their car, and taken to a small island just off the coastline.

Later that night, when Vernon started to drink himself into an incoherent rage, Harry knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was just minutes away from death.

That is, of course, the exact moment when Hagrid knocked the cabin's front door right off of its hinges, interrupting the Dursley's little party.

Harry would always be grateful that Hagrid had come to fetch him, inadvertently saving his life in the process. Hagrid was far too decent a bloke to understand the Dursley's true intentions that night, and Harry never had the heart to inform the rather naive giant about the truth...

Once again, Fleur and Appoline were expelled from the memory onto their feet only to find Harry dropping to his butt on the floor. This time was worse than the last few memories however, as this time they found Harry shaking and shivering against a railing.

Despite his obvious discomfort, Harry rapidly changed the memory into a pebble and then stashed it in the sac with the rest.

Appoline and Fleur quickly moved over, bathing Harry in positive emotions and smoothing over raw hurt with everything they had. At this point, they both began sending out feelings of love and affection without even having to think about it. When Harry's head slowly rose up from his chest and he smiled at the two of them, they didn't know how to react at all. All they knew for sure was that they'd hugely underestimated the depth of Harry's suffering...

"Despite Hogwarts's many, many faults, I like it there," Harry whispered, as he rubbed at his temples with his palms. "Hogwarts is dangerous, of course, but I'm not a helpless victim there. I'm allowed, and even expected to, defend myself there. It... is... refreshing."

Harry looked exhausted at this point, but that didn't stop him from pulling himself back to his feet. "Let's move on shall we?"

Despite their growing misgivings, the lady Delacours could only follow along as Harry walked further into the library.

Appoline was the one who saw the next memory book. When she pointed it out, Harry smiled, which surprised the two Veela. "This memory was a milestone for me," Harry admitted, as he gazed down at the book. "It's not a well known fact, but I'm a parseltongue. I know it's supposed to be a dark skill but I've always been one and it's actually helped me out in the past. This memory is indeed painful, but it's also important." Harry picked up the book and they fell away into the memory.

....

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