Patience is not Harry's virtue. In the wizarding world, nearly everyone who'd known his parents informed him that he inherited that particular trait from his father. Still, he manages to refrain from sighing or letting said impatience show; he knows how hard this is to hear. He still can't believe he's in this situation where he has to explain to his godfather.
"Well," Harry says, wondering how to succinctly sum up the next sixteen years of his life. "He was weakened and nearly ruined; he went into hiding for the next several years. In my first year at Hogwarts, he'd...merged himself with Professor Quirrell. The next year, his diary nearly killed Ginny Weasley and reopened the Chamber of Secrets."
Harry pauses, knowing what he must now explain to his godfather. "The next year is when I met you, back home." Merlin, but how is he supposed to explain to his godfather, almost as young as he is, that he is to spend over a decade of his life as an innocent prisoner in Azkaban? "And you told me Peter Pettigrew had been the one to betray my parents, disguising himself as a rat after a confrontation with you."
He swallows, blinking back tears now. That night had been so bleak and yet so full of hope all at once. "You told me that I could come live with you once you cleared your name, that I didn't have to go back to my aunt and uncle's," he has to bite on his lip and close his eyes so that he doesn't start all out crying. "But the Ministry were a bunch of...couldn't see reason," he amends, though he doubts Sirius would actually take offense to what he had been about to call the Ministry.
"Peter ran back to Voldemort, and helped to revive him fully. I was there," he adds, darkly. "Because he'd needed my blood. They killed Cedric, because he was 'the spare.'" He can still picture Cedric's body lying prone on the ground, broken beyond all repair.
"So Voldemort returned. And took over the Ministry. There was war," he adds, unnecessarily, and deliberately avoiding mention of Sirius' own death at the hands of his cousin, Bellatrix. "But the prophecy was right. I was Voldemort's downfall, in the end."
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Date: 2016-02-07 12:24 pm (UTC)"Well," Harry says, wondering how to succinctly sum up the next sixteen years of his life. "He was weakened and nearly ruined; he went into hiding for the next several years. In my first year at Hogwarts, he'd...merged himself with Professor Quirrell. The next year, his diary nearly killed Ginny Weasley and reopened the Chamber of Secrets."
Harry pauses, knowing what he must now explain to his godfather. "The next year is when I met you, back home." Merlin, but how is he supposed to explain to his godfather, almost as young as he is, that he is to spend over a decade of his life as an innocent prisoner in Azkaban? "And you told me Peter Pettigrew had been the one to betray my parents, disguising himself as a rat after a confrontation with you."
He swallows, blinking back tears now. That night had been so bleak and yet so full of hope all at once. "You told me that I could come live with you once you cleared your name, that I didn't have to go back to my aunt and uncle's," he has to bite on his lip and close his eyes so that he doesn't start all out crying. "But the Ministry were a bunch of...couldn't see reason," he amends, though he doubts Sirius would actually take offense to what he had been about to call the Ministry.
"Peter ran back to Voldemort, and helped to revive him fully. I was there," he adds, darkly. "Because he'd needed my blood. They killed Cedric, because he was 'the spare.'" He can still picture Cedric's body lying prone on the ground, broken beyond all repair.
"So Voldemort returned. And took over the Ministry. There was war," he adds, unnecessarily, and deliberately avoiding mention of Sirius' own death at the hands of his cousin, Bellatrix. "But the prophecy was right. I was Voldemort's downfall, in the end."