The Darkening of Your Soul

Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Harry remembered McGonagall’s absolutely gobsmacked look when Harry had been sorted into Slytherin. This was how Harry imagined his own expression right that moment; as though someone had smacked him in the face with a dead mackerel.

“Harry,” Neville huffed as he made it to the Slytherin table. “Harry, I just saw.”

“I swear my aunt never mentioned any of this,” Susan assured him when she and the rest of Harry’s Hufflepuff friends arrived.

Harry barely heard them as he stared at the page before him, heart hammering in his chest, ears buzzing. Of all the things he had anticipated going differently since he got his do-over, this wasn’t what he’d expected. At all.

A sharp sting of worry shot through Harry’s body when he realized this may very well be Dumbledore’s doing, a bizarre plot to bring Harry to heel. But no, that didn’t make any sense. Harry hadn’t really done anything yet to warrant such erratic behaviour from Dumbledore. Sure, the old man might try to manipulate Sirius into making Harry do what Dumbledore wanted, but Sirius himself was a bit of a wild card, having always been something of a rebel going against expectations. Not to mention a decade of dementor damage wouldn’t be doing Sirius’ ability to be an obedient pawn any favours either.

No, the more Harry considered it, the more convinced he became Dumbledore had nothing to do with this. Harry glanced up at the head table, where he found Dumbledore’s chair empty.

“Wow, I did not see that coming,” Blaise mumbled as he read the article over Harry’s shoulder. Theo occupied Harry’s other shoulder and made an affirmative sound.

The mirror heated up in Harry’s pocket, which meant Tom had also seen the Prophet and probably had as many questions as Harry did.

As much as Harry wanted to believe this was Tom’s doing, as a nice surprise for his soulmate or something, Harry knew Tom wouldn’t do something big like this, something so life-changing for Harry, without consulting his soulmate first.

Because right there and then Harry realized his life might very well change for the worst if Sirius tried to get custody of him.

Harry squeezed his eyes shut. How fucking ironic was it that for years and years in his previous life he’d wanted nothing more than for Sirius to come take him away from the Dursleys, to have Harry live with him so he’d finally have a real home where he was wanted and cared for. And now when it had a real chance of finally happening Harry didn’t want it anymore.

He was no longer a child longing for a home. He was a young adult with plots and plans that required him to come and go as he pleased during his time away from Hogwarts. If he lived with Sirius during the holidays that could very well be impossible and Harry’s plots and plans were ruined.

Not to mention Harry planned to spend quite some time with Tom and how was he supposed to explain that to Sirius, that an eleven-year-old boy wanted to spend unsupervised time with an unrelated grown-ass man just for fun. Yeah, that might give his godfather some very worrying ideas.

“Harry,” Neville said, placing a gentle hand on Harry’s shoulder. “Harry, you can always go to the hospital wing if you need some peace and quiet.”

Harry finally snapped out of his musings and realized he must appear to be in absolute shock to his friends. Not that he wasn’t really in shock, because fucking hell. But instead of being in shock about learning the truth about his parents’ murders, Harry was frantically trying to come up with ways to keep his life on the rails now that something so unexpected had happened that might very well turn his life upside down if he let it.