Pendulum by HeartFailure

Chapter 3

He wasn't much of a social person. Sure, he was more confident, could command a whole squad of Aurors and dance the political ballet when it was needed. Nonetheless, his perfect week-end was spent inside his apartment reading old books in pyjamas or having a nice dinner at Hermione and Ron's house with their children. He chose his company wisely and couldn't be bothered with big parties.

It was just hard for him to make new connections, to share something when the other party was aware of his whole life before meeting him. So he stopped trying and even caring a little bit.

Some believed he lived a lonely life, or that he spent too many evenings in his office pondering on open cases. Harry was relieved that Witch Weekly stopped their gossiping once they discovered that it bored people to read about their former hero shopping at the local market.

Of course some nights he longed to be with someone that understood him and his complicated past. In the end, it just was easier for him to stop being disappointed with dating, talking about nonsensical stuff and pretending that the person interested him.

Perhaps he was just being too picky. Or he just had standards.

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They walked in silence inside the corridors of Hogwarts, the sounds of their steps and the portraits snoring echoing loudly against the walls. Dumbledore tried to appear calm but Harry caught him glancing around, walking faster than ordinary. His wand lit the way and Harry recognized the unique shape of the Elder wand between his fingers. This Dumbledore was more cautious than his own, or he lacked the skills to conceal these obvious signs of distress. Or Harry was now Head Auror and not some angry teenager.

Thinking back to the infirmary, Harry prayed that his father did not follow them. He could not deal with him at the moment and thoughts of saving him and his mother, and their friends so that they could grow up like normal people who would not be willing to give their life for what they believed in.

Harry grasped the pendulum swinging gently around his neck and took a deep breath to slow his pounding heart. His mind needed to be clear for the conversation ahead otherwise he could lose the faint trust that had seemed to light within Dumbledore.

Seated inside the Headmaster's office, he felt as though electricity was coursing through him as his legs jumped and fingers tapped a nonsensical rhythm on the armrests. He looked around and attempted to point the differences from his time in his head. A trinket on the shelf that was on the desk at the moment, a landscape hanging off the wrong wall, or Fawkes' perch closer to the window.

While his gaze grasped everything, he could sense Dumbledore solely looking at him. Although he loved the attention, it was unnerving him more and more as time passed in silence.

'How did you come by this knowledge ? It is very peculiar that someone who seems to appear from nowhere knows so much about Voldemort.'

Well he did not beat around the bushes. Harry thought he proposed some tea. At least. He tried to come up with some mysterious and enigmatic sentences but his true nature came back to hit him in the face as usual and all that came out of his blasted mouth was "When someone tries to kill you as much as he did, you start to fight back".

His laugh died as soon as he realised the stupidity of what he did. The silence in the office was deafening, allowing Harry to reflect on how dumb he was, how he could be dumber and if he really deserved his position as Head Auror. He then remembered that he was trained for this and Dumb Harry needed to ovary up or else.

"You see, my family wants to remain neutral in this conflict and do not want to lose more loved ones, what with Grindelwald's doings not so long ago ! So when Voldemort's people started to recruit, you can imagine they didn't take no as an answer..." he paused and briefly glanced at Dumbledore to check if he was buying this crappy story. The old man seemed interested, but kept his guard. "We hid as best as we could but I couldn't just let it go, nobody threatens my family and get away with it !"