Charlie rolled his eyes at his best friend as he was handed the book without her asking whether he even wanted a turn, but this time in particular it wasn't worth starting an argument over, so he flipped to the right page and began reading the chapter title.

"Sounds like we're going to hear about accidental magic," Ron chuckled as he thought a few times he'd made a few things vanish, like Percy's glasses once when he'd been telling Ron off last night. They'd found his glasses out in the garden an hour later, but it had been funny to see his brother stumbling around until then.

Harry and Hermione watched him in confusion, they had no idea what he was talking about, but Charlie wasn't paying them much mind.

"How come they wouldn't have any pictures of you up?" Tonks asked him in surprise.

Harry gave her a very strange look back, wondering why they even would?

When he didn't answer, Charlie glanced from the pages to Harry and back and started to get an uneasy feeling about the boy who lived. Kids his age should be huge balls of energy, constantly talkative and the likes of all his brothers. Yet Harry had only spoken once so far, and only when spoken to. Charlie's mind flashed back to that first chapter, and how uneasy those relatives of Harry's made him feel because they'd taken in a virtual stranger. Now here, in the first paragraph, he was already seeing that they didn't exactly seem to have gone out of their way to treat him as they would Dudley.

The silence kept dragging on, and so Charlie just decided to keep reading when an answer clearly wasn't coming.

Remus huffed in outrage, his eyes narrowing shrewdly like he was glaring at Petunia for yelling at Harry like that first thing in the morning. What had he done to deserve that?

Sirius cocked his head to the side in confusion, the first sign if anyone had been watching for it, that he was actually paying attention to them. He couldn't help it though, his attention was finally dragged away from studying Harry, and not liking one bit what he was seeing, to wondering why the boy could hear something like that. It wasn't that small of a house, he shouldn't have been able to perfectly hear that from up the stairs.

"How could you remember such a thing?" Ron chuckled, as he could never remember where he left his socks, let alone a memory of so far back.

"There's all sorts of studies on what the unconscious mind can bring up while you're asleep," Hermione began explaining with a bright smile. "Perhaps Harry was thinking of something just before he dozed off that-"

"Alright Hermione," Tonks cut her off with a friendly smile, getting the feeling she'd have to be doing this quite a bit. "That's interesting, but let's keep things on point."

Hermione flushed and sat back, feeling chastid. Tonks felt bad at once, she hadn't meant to upset the kid, but Charlie kept going.

"You cook around there often?" Remus asked in a friendly enough, conversational tone.

Harry looked at him in surprise, there was something he was trying to hide in his voice about that question, but he'd never been told not to say anything about this so he shrugged and muttered, "yeah, most mornings."

Remus kept the smile in place even as he turned flashing eyes towards Dumbeldore, a dark questioning look that he knew Dumbleodre would pick up on. Something about this wasn't sitting right with any of them.

Dumbledore didn't exactly acknowledge it.

Harry couldn't stop a groan as his mind flashed back to almost a month ago now and Dudley's most recent birthday. Whatever this book was fixing to show, please let it not be that one.

Ron shivered and leaned a little bit closer to his dad in disgust at the thought of finding a spider in one of his socks. He'd have his Mum burn the pair.

"How can you get used to that?" Ron demanded in disgust.

Harry gave an absent shrug, not understanding how to explain that they were just commonplace where he slept.

"You don't like spiders?" Hermione asked gently, to break the awkward silence of Harry not answering again.

"I hate them," Ron declared. "My brother once turned a toy of mine into one accidentally while I was holding it and-" he broke off with another shiver while Arthur gave him a gentle rub on the back and waved Charlie on. Ron was clearly embarrassed by his outburst when he noticed Hermione trying to suppress giggles.

Charlie gaped down at the words he'd just read with open mouthed shock, not understanding for a second how a kid could be forced to sleep there! His reaction was nothing to the shouting that quickly erupted.

Sirius had surged to his feet, growling like an animal as he shouted at Dumbledore, "are you kidding me! You put him there, and that's how they treat him!"

Remus moved towards him with a demonic look as he snapped "Why are you pretending to care? This is your fault! You got his parents killed," he shoved him so hard he crashed back into the wall, "your the reason he's living there instead of with them! You-"

Sirius tried to dart past him, but Remus grabbed his shoulder and tried to spin him back around, he had a lot more yelling to get out of his system, but then Sirius headbutted him so hard in the nose Remus crashed back clutching the blood spurting out. Sirius then darted out of the room through the door.

The moment he was out of sight, the book nearly slammed shut on Charlie's fingers and would have removed one of them if he hadn't gotten it out of the way in time. He tried to pry it back open but nothing was happening. He glanced back up at the others to see Dumbledore following Black, and Tonks hovering uneasily over Remus.

She pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and began trying to push his hands out of the way, wiping at the blood trying to leak into his mouth as she hissed in pity and told him, "you're going to have some wicked black eyes for this." She paused and cocked her head to the side as she studied him and added on, "on top of the circles you've already got. When's the last time you have some decent sleep?"

"Well it won't be happening any time soon," he groaned, still keeping one hand in place on his misshapen nose and suddenly blank eyes on the door.

There was a long beat of silence while no one in the room spoke, no one knew what to say to what just happened, until Tonks walked towards that door as well, grabbing Remus' sleeve to take him with her as she said, "lets see if we can't find a bathroom in this place, get some water to help with this."

The door dropped them into a kitchen area with a long table and all the set up one could ask for a meal of nine like they would later be needing. Tonks dragged him over to the sink, began properly washing the blood off his face, then turned towards the fridge looking rather impressed. "I suppose this is why our magic was turned off. On Top of not killing each other, they stuck appliances in this place. Charlie's dad's going to go nuts when he sees this." She opened the freezer attached to the refrigerator and began digging around for some ice, talking over her shoulder, "well what we just heard does explain a bit about that Harry huh. Can't imagine what else they're doing to the poor boy while they have him sleeping in-"

"He didn't fight back."

Tonks turned around with a fist full of ice to see Remus still watching the hallway with unfocused eyes. Without a bit of prompting on her end, he kept talking, "I just realized, hadn't even crossed my mind before, but he didn't fight me when I was attacking him when we first got here."

"Well he was in Azkaban for how many years?" Tonks recalled as she wrapped up the ice and tried to place it on his nose. "I've heard that place sucks the life out of you, literally, so maybe he-"

Remus flinched away from the cold on his face, and focused back in on the sixteen year old menstruating him. His body caught up to where his mind had been stuck on, and before he even realized it he'd pushed past a protesting Tonks and snapped at her to stay here while he continued on into this place.

Past the kitchen was a hallway that seemed lined with doors, certainly enough sleeping space for all of them if they each housed a bedroom, and it wasn't hard to find the one Sirius had tried to slip into and Dumbledore had followed. The door was left wide open and Remus watched as the two at first looked like they were squaring off, but then he really saw.

Sirius had his back against the wall, his eyes vacant and sweat running down his face as he continued breathing heavily. Dumbledore was looking straight at his eyes with a look of intense concentration, and Remus had seen Legilimency in action enough times to recognize Dumbledore was prying a memory out of Sirius and watching the whole thing.

When finally the headmaster's eyes returned to a more normal focus, all he muttered was, "oh," as Sirius slumped to the floor in a dead like faint.

Even with every murderous, hateful thought he'd had towards him over the past ten years, Remus still had to fight the impulse not to rush to Sirius' side and instead stood in the doorway and watched his head bounced on the ground as he lost consciousness. Remus instead turned his attention to Dumbledore and asked, "oh?"

Dumbledore spoke every word slowly and carefully, "I am afraid Remus, that I have made a terrible mistake, and cost an innocent man everything."

Remus blinked several times, but nothing was changing. Dumbledore didn't crack a smile like he was making a joke, the room didn't suddenly twist on it's head leaving a terrible pit where he was standing, nothing had actually changed, but something inside Remus did as his mouth flopped open and he looked from Dumbledore to Sirius and back without stopping. "You, what?"

Dumbledore finally turned to look at Remus, who was terrified to see his blue eyes too bright. "Sirius was acting in a terrible state, muttering death threats against Harry's relatives and I feared for Harry's and everyone's safety in this place. I told Sirius that I would not allow him to continue saying these things while in front of the others and Sirius seemed likely to turn violent any moment as he told me that he'd finally at least be in prison for a murder he did commit. Something, I can not explain what, but something in me told me to use legilimency on him to understand why he would say such a thing, and Sirius was surprisingly unresistant to my attempts. Why this magic has worked and none others have, I can only speculate."

Remus hadn't realized his knees were shaking until he started sliding down the wall, still watching Dumbledore's face, unable to look away no matter how much he wanted to, because he just couldn't understand what Dumbledore told him next. "Remus, Sirius is not the one who killed all of those innocent people, including Lily and James. It was Peter Pettigrew."

It seemed to take Remus forever to hit the floor, where he sat in a frozen stupor as he watched the unconscious Sirius for what could have been years. The past ten years of his life flashed before his eyes, every foul thing he'd ever thought being contorted beyond recognition and misplaced, all because of...

"Remus," Dumbledore tried to keep his attention, tried to instill some action into him rather than shock. "You know what we must do, when we get out of here we can-"

"You told me it was him." Remus did not sound like himself, but a deep, guttural, primal voice as he did look at Dumbledore with the most hate he ever had at anyone in his life. "You convinced me, after I swore it couldn't have been, you told me it was him! That there was no other possible way!" He was back on his feet before he knew it, pulling out his wand on instinct and trying to throw a curse, but of course nothing happened.

Dumbledore stood there calmly, his face unbelievably passive even as Remus continued shouting every obscenity he'd ever heard. When he finally ran out of steam, he tightened his hands white knuckled at his side, trying to remind himself that it would be a bad idea to rip Dumbledore's head off, though he was quickly losing that fight.

"Get out." He stated flatly, gesturing with a trembling hand back at the door.

He advanced a step to emphasize his point, but then Dumbledore did indeed leave, which left Remus standing in the middle of the room, feeling empty. His eyes went back to Sirius, and for the first time really looked at him.

He'd seen him asleep more times than he could count, yet if he wasn't looking for the details he wasn't sure he could spot this stranger as Sirius. His hair had always been long, but well managed and groomed. Now it was nothing but a matted tangle falling well past his elbows that made a rats nest a kind comparison. The face was skeletal and without the rise and fall of his chest, you'd think it really was devoid of life.

Just for the sake of looking anywhere else for a moment, Remus' eyes flickered around the rest of the room and found it mostly bair except for a bed in the corner. He quickly made his way over and stole the pillow, before walking over to Sirius properly for the first time, gently raising his head, and placing the pillow underneath. Remus had only ever had legilimency performed on him once, and he knew it could be an excruciating experience on the mind. He had no idea what it must have felt like to Sirius, after being surrounded by dementors for so many years.

His thoughts were disjointed at best, trying to form something but always cutting back to Sirius was innocent. That Remus had been blaming him for over ten years for something that Peter had done. He didn't get too long to stew in his silence, as Sirius groaned to announce his awakening.

Remus stayed where he was near the bed, watching his eyes flutter being the only moment of life before they focused on the ceiling, then he sat upright and saw the look on Remus' face.

Everything that flashed across Sirius' happened too fast for it all to be taken in, hope, shock, integrated hatred, but finally he settled on a glare as he snarked, "come to strangle me some more? You just missed a perfect opportunity."

Remus couldn't think of anything to say. If he'd just gone to visit Sirius once over the years, he knew Sirius would have tried to tell him the truth, but Remus had been too much of a coward to face him. Remus couldn't blame this on anyone but himself for having to learn this secondhand. When he didn't say anything, Sirius hoisted himself to his feet and walked out of the room, and with no clue what else to do, Remus followed.

Sirius stopped in the kitchen, grabbed a rag of the counter and went into the freezer to try and find some ice.

"What are you doing?" Was the first thing he first really said to him.

"Getting some ice," he snapped back without looking up. "Not as good as a numbing charm, but-"

"I meant why-" Remus interrupted, trying to figure out if Sirius had hurt his forehead when he'd slammed it into Remus' nose or something.

Sirius turned back to look at him, held up his bruised hand that Remus had tried to crush under his boot, and stated, "it's swelling."

He gingerly placed the ice on his knuckles and walked past Remus toward the reading room without another word.

Remus decided he still had no choice but to follow.

Sirius was stalking back towards his corner space of the room by the time Remus had shuffled in behind him, but Dumbledore tried to gently say, "Sirius, you can sit-"

"I am not sitting somewhere I'm not wanted," he barked back.

Dumbledore sighed but didn't look like he was going to argue the point, but Sirius hadn't quite made it past the last chair when Harry blurted out, "but you're innocent, right?"

Sirius froze, and even with his back to them all they could see some of the tension start to edge out of his shoulders as he turned back around to face the boy with a questioning look, but agreed, "that's right."

"I told him," Dumbedore explained. "I told them the truth, as I will to the Ministry when we get out of here."

Sirius curled his lip up with pure cruelty as he snapped at him, "yeah, I'll believe that when I see it."

He still wavered for a few moments, his eyes on Harry which matched him with curiosity. All Dumbledore had said of him was that Sirius had wrongly been in prison for a crime, but when Hermione had asked for details Dumbledore had looked at Harry first before quickly saying it was something that they'd have to get into later. Dumbledore had then tried to ask Harry about his stay in the cupboard when Sirius had come back in, so Harry didn't really want the conversation to turn back to him when he'd spoken to the man who seemed so outraged on Harry's behalf. If he could keep him talking, maybe any more of the Dursleys' problems with him wouldn't come.

The staring between Harry and Sirius finally broke though, as what Harry saw as shame swallowed those dark gray eyes and he still went back to his corner of the room. Harry didn't understand why, what did he have to feel shameful for if he hadn't done anything?

Charlie still looked uneasy, but was finally able to reopen the book and start flipping through a few pages to find his spot.

Before he could keep going though, Remus did drag his attention away from Sirius long enough to ask, "Harry why did they have you sleeping in a cupboard," in a too tight voice that still promised violence, though at least no longer at anyone in the room.

Harry flattened his hair nervously, avoiding all eyes as he whispered, "that's, just where I slept. Don't know what to say."

Remus, nor anyone if Harry had been looking, looked particularly pleased with such an answer, but clearly they were frightening the boy. He looked ready to run out of the room next if anyone asked him another thing, so Charlie hoped that reading a bit would help him relax.

Arthur was so concerned with what he'd just heard about something happening to an innocent kid, it hardly registered that he wanted to ask for details about a computer. He'd have to get to that later.

Hermione flushed pink and gave Harry a pitying look. She hated bullies, had been a victim of them her whole school life, and couldn't imagine having to live with one.

"Merlin, he actually hit you!?" Tonks snapped as she eyed a faded bruise on Harry's jaw.

Harry just shrugged noncommittally.

"Too much practice," Charlie huffed.

Remus and Sirius had the same look flash across both of their faces, like someone had just smacked them upside the head as they thought back to the first time they'd seen James, how scrawny he'd been before he'd filled out; and he'd grown up in a loving home! Harry was somehow even smaller, and they didn't particularly enjoy knowing why.

All of their faces flushed in shock as they looked at Harry again and quickly away. Well that certainly explained the way he was dressed now, in close that would be too big on Charlie.

Ron wanted to tug on his father's sleeve again, ask why this book would be describing something like that when they could see Harry and he looked like that now, but when his father didn't respond to him he sat back and let it go, clearly he and the other adults were still upset about something.

Remus made a terrifying noise, already entirely sick of hearing about Harry being treated like this and frustrated beyond all reason he'd never bothered to go and check on Harry. Nobody had! Harry had been treated like a piece of garbage for the past ten years while Remus had been sitting around whining about his own life. That was going to change though. The moment he had his magic back, the first thing he'd do was see to all of these wrongs.

Ron sat up just a little straighter and tried to eye Harry again, trying to find the scar he'd heard so much about in the hairline again, but Harry didn't notice. He was running his fingers along the mark now, so Ron still didn't get a proper look.

"That lying sack of-" Sirius began, getting to his feet again at once in a temper.

"Sirius," Dumbledore cut him off before he could keep going, "there are children around. Mind your manners."

Sirius worked his jaw furiously for a few moments, like he wanted to say something to Dumbledore now that still wasn't age appropriate, but then his eyes flickered to Harry who was watching him with those dark green eyes of Lily's. Sirius could just imagine what Lily would be saying to him right now, telling him off for nearly cursing in front of her son, wanting to shush him so that Harry could hear more about what really happened instead of Sirius' mouth running. He still couldn't bring himself to sit back down on the floor, but Sirius had remained quite so long that Charlie kept going.

Hermione's mouth flopped open in shock as she couldn't imagine such a thing. The only reason she wasn't blurting out a million questions to those around her was the still ingrained fear of them all being strangers, but even that was starting to pass as they kept talking. Her parents had always encouraged her to ask any question that came to mind, that was how she learned. Poor Harry must have had such a quiet life.

Remus made a wet noise that confused the others, though they ignored it. Remus couldn't help it, he was trying to stifle a laugh about the many times he remembered James ruffling up his hair on purpose just to agitate those around him, could imagine him doing that and much more to a man forcing his son to live in a cupboard.

Harry had many years of training his expression not to scoff at that, but instead only mentally supplied what he really thought Dudley looked like.

Harry flushed in shock and tensed in unease, waiting for someone to start shouting at him for saying a word against Dudley, but instead what he heard was Ron and Hermione giggling and everyone else that was older actually smiling. Harry sat there and watched them all in utter confusion, he'd never seen this reaction before to anything he said or thought.

"Who remembers something like that?" Ron asked in shock. He'd recognized at a young age that he was happy to be getting the presents he did on his birthday instead of hand me downs like he usually required for other things.

"Ungrateful children," Arthur scoffed, thinking Dudley more than deserved a good smack for saying something like that.

"Bloody hell, she sounds like she's encouraging him," Tonks raised a disbelieving brow.

"From what I've heard so far, she's not going to deter him," Charlie scowled.

"Wow he's a little brat," Hermione yelped, knowing if she'd ever thrown a tantrum like that her parents wouldn't have stood for it.

Harry again just shrugged in response, finding Dudleys behaviour all too common to really see how bad it was.

"Isn't he your age," Ron spluttered in surprise, "and he can't count?"

Again, Harry shrugged for an answer, confused why all of these people were so confused about this. Harry did Dudleys homework for him, so he'd never had a need to learn.

Arthur huffed and shook his head in despair, blown away by these so-called parents. Treating Harry the way they were was already terrible enough, but they were certainly doing a number on that boy as well.

Arthur did have the state of mind this time though to make a mental note of all those things he wanted to ask about, now hoping that he could talk to Harry specifically about them later. He was hoping maybe he could get the boy talking about something that would be normal to him like all of these muggle things, maybe then he'd relax a bit and talk more.

Harry now sighed and avoided all questioning eyes. He'd been having his suspicious since he heard about all of Dudley's birthday presents again, but now it was confirmed, this was indeed Dudley's most recent birthday, so far the only one Mrs. Figg hadn't watched Harry for. Great, now everyone in this room was going to get to see how much of a freak he was on his first trip to the zoo. He didn't notice all of the curious looks of why anyone would have to take him at all.

No one noticed the way that Dumbledore was now holding himself, as casually listening as he was before, but now with just a touch more unease. Arabella had sent him numerous owls in the beginning when she'd started watching Harry, telling Dumbledore all of the things she both suspected and knew that the Dursleys were doing to Harry, but Dumbledore had never let her intervene nor had he done so himself on her request. Even if the Dursleys weren't treating Harry as Dumbledore had wished, he was still safer there. Arabella had followed his orders, as he knew she would, but Dumbledore very much hoped that the book wouldn't go into too much detail of her true reasoning for living there.

"And I thought Aunt Murieal was bad," Charlie shuddered at the idea of that horrid time happening to any kid.

Sirius felt his mouth do something, like a twitch that went along with something he was feeling but couldn't identify. His mind tried to offer up the word, laughter, like he should actually find something funny about planning to break someone's leg to get out of anything...but he couldn't hold onto it for any longer.

He had no idea that Remus was thinking the same thing, his mind flashing back to the same thing, of the time the Marauders had actually considered trying to break Filch's leg rather than let him catch them in the act again. Remus actually did smile, for what felt like the first time in years, at how reckless they'd been back then. Not that it had done them any good as the plan hadn't worked.

Everyone else just felt confused at Petunia, unless Harry was deeply hiding some sociopathic tendencies, he seemed like a quiet and well mannered kid. Why would that be her first thought?

All eyes quickly swiveled to Harry again in pity, but he clearly was trying not to look at any of them and instead kept that same neutral expression in place. At least this explained why the boy was so quiet if this was how he'd grown up being spoken about, but it was only managing to increase the fury of every one of them the longer this went on.

"They wouldn't!" Arthur snapped heatedly.

Of course they would, Harry mentally corrected, they did it all the time when they had no choice but to take Harry somewhere like the store but instead left him in the car anyways.

"Oh yes because the car was the important part of that statement," Remus snarled.

Sirius was still pacing furiously against the shadowed wall, muttering things under his breath that no one really wanted to know.

Remus and Sirius' agitation somehow managed to ramp up even higher than before to everyone's confusion, wondering why such a comparison would bother them so deeply, but since they both looked likely to kill at any moment not even Dumbledore would dare to ask what their problem was.

"I've never been to the zoo either," Ron told Harry when he noticed the boy was fidgeting and looking upset at this fact being declared, "but my parents were talking about taking my little sister sometime soon. Could Harry come along Dad," he quickly directed at his father.

"I don't see why not," Arthur agreed with a smile.

"I've been loads of times," Hermione jumped in as she finally found something she could try to talk to them about. "I love reading the plaque cards in front of all the exhibits, and the bears always have a toy they're playing with."

Ron was frowning at her in agitation, thinking she was only making things worse by rubbing it in that she'd been, but Harry looked intrigued and may have actually spoken back if Charlie hadn't decided right then that they'd paused long enough and kept going.

Now everyone was tensed and glancing fearfully at Harry, they really didn't like the way Harry's face gave a minute twitch as he remembered that.

Several mouths flopped open in shock at such a declaration, everyone wanting to ask but no one able to find it in themselves to demand if that was true. Even if Harry had answered, all he could have said was 'so far, yeah it's looking that way.'

"That's just your accidental magic kicking up," Tonks told him kindly, trying to get rid of that look now on Harry's face. "All young wizards go through it when they're scared or angry, high tense emotions."

Both Harry and Hermione looked at her in puzzled confusion, their minds flickering around to a few times this had happened to them, and unbelievably relieved when they realized that this could mean they weren't actual freaks if this had happened to others.

Remus felt his stomach trying to lurch out of his body as the first thought that came to his mind was that James would have had a heart attack at anyone doing that to his hair, let alone his outrage at someone forcing that on Harry.

Harry unconsciously tried to flatten his hair as he kept eyeing Tonks, waiting for her to say 'oh never mind, that's not normal after all,' but she instead just kept smiling like this didn't surprise her one bit. That must have been an incident of his accidental magic then, which really meant that he was a wizard as well!

"You what!" All of the adults spluttered in outrage while Harry flinched back at all the yelling and would have jumped behind the sofa to hide if he hadn't frozen in shock.

"Harry, how often did they lock you in there as punishment?" Remus demanded, though he realized in a still to harsh tone as Harry simply tried to sink further down into his seat without looking at anyone.

Remus' shoulders slumped in defeat and no one decided to press the boy further, he looked so terrified of all the comotion it would only make it worse if they kept badgering him.

Sirius did come to actually sit near the group then to stop his manic pacing and have a better opportunity to keep a better eye on Harry, but he instead perched on the arm of the sofa rather than taking the only seat left next to Remus.

"Never should have been to begin with," Arthur seethed to himself, holding Ron just a little closer to his side in agitation of picturing that happening to any kid.

"How much is terrible trouble?" Ron asked in surprise. He'd always thought a smack on the bum was bad, but what he was hearing really surprised him as it had never crossed his mind he'd be punished for such things.

Harry met his eyes briefly, considered for a moment, and then practically whispered back, "just had to do some extra chores really," and a day without food, Harry finished in his head though knew better than to say that aloud as the Dursleys had always promised a terrible reconing if Harry ever went into too much detail of his punishments at that house. Food and where he slept were most frequently warned against in particular when he first started school.

The adults watched Harry in surprise, Remus and Sirius in particular wishing Harry didn't look like a kicked puppy as he spoke, but no one pressed him for more.

"Nah, levitation isn't too uncommon," Charlie said briskly as he realized, like his brother, speaking normally to Harry seemed to get the best results out of him rather than demanding. "Our brothers were on top of the broom shed one time, and Fred accidentally pushed George off, normally would have broken his leg, but his accidental magic kicked in and he floated instead."

Arthut looked at Charlie sharply in surprise, the parents had never heard of this instance, but Harry looked both relieved and intrigued so Arthur didn't say anything.

If Ron hadn't already, Arthur would have certainly been hoping Ron would invite Harry over by now. That poor boy clearly needed an out of that place.

Tonks let out a throaty whistle in pity for all that complaining going around a kid, and as Harry watched her eyes flipped from purple to blue, then back again so fast he was sure he was imagining it.

Everyone jumped at Charlie having read that at the top of his lungs, Sirius startled so badly he fell into his seat proper and nearly landed on top of Remus. Sirius quickly darted back away onto his perch, but nobody noticed the twos interaction because they were all glaring at Charlie, who had a small smile on his face. It had felt good to shout for a moment, release some of the tension around Harry and put it on him for a moment.

Then Charlie really did feel bad for his moment of fun, because he'd just done what Harry's Uncle always did when Harry spoke up, and Charlie didn't want that. As his eyes flickered to the boy he decided right then he didn't want any more shouting to really go on, not if Harry was going to get like this.

"More like you'd share those dangerous ideas around Dudley," Tonks sniffed, as far as she could tell Harry's relatives didn't care one bit about Harry, but what he did around Dudley.

"Ooh, I like those," Hermione told Harry with a smile, trying to at least get him to give a small smile again.

After a few moments of hesitation, he did indeed grin at her, which made them feel a bit better.

All of the kids let out surprised snorts of laughter and appreciation at the comparison.

Harry's smile grew rather triumphant at the reminder, that hot and mostly melted ice cream that even Piers hadn't wanted because it had sat out in the sun while they'd eaten had been the best dessert Harry had in awhile. The look quickly faded away though when he remembered what was about to happen next. No one had found his other strange happenings bad though, so surely this one wouldn't be either.

"Now why did that feel ominous," Arthur muttered.

— Hermione was rather impressed that Vernon knew the correct way to get a snake's attention. Though they didn't have ears, they felt vibrations through their jaws, so if they wanted the beast to move Vernon was doing the smart thing.

Most likely, Hermione realized, the snake was just too used to the noise and gave it no attention unless its feeder opened a certain panel.

"That does sound pretty bad," Tonks nodded in sudden pity. She normally liked going to the zoo as well to see all the exotic creatures, but she'd never considered that.

"Oh no," Charlie snapped to everyone but Tonks' confusion.

She tried to fain innocence anyways, "what are you on about?"

"I know that look, you are not going to the zoo to break all of the animals out," Charlie told her with a straight face.

Tonks tried to keep up an innocent pretense as she said, "I have no idea what-"

"We had this argument last week about the dragon sanctuary," Charlie cut her off again, "and we're not having it a second time. These types of places are good for them."

Tonks puffed up her cheeks, her every visage saying quite clearly she did want to keep at her friend for this, but then Arthur cleared his throat and gave the two a look, so Charlie was more than happy to move on.

Any amusement that Charlie and Tonks had provided drained back out at the reminder of what a miserable life Harry really had. He was the one who really needed to be broken out of his environment.

Ron blinked in surprise, wondering what Harry standing there doing nothing had done to get the attention when nobody else had.

"Snakes can't wink," Hermione blurted aloud this time. "They have a scale above their eye to protect from irritation."

Harry just shrugged, it had looked like it blinked to him, but maybe it had been a trick of the light.

Now everyone was frowning in confusion, as this didn't feel like normal snake behaviour. Maybe it did tricks? Could you even teach a snake tricks? No one in here knew enough about them to be sure.

This time Harry really did consider sprinting from the room at all of the shocked faces now looking his way, his feet were about to hit the floor running when Ron blurted out, "your a parseltongue?"

Harry froze, dithering for a moment before shrugging and saying, "I don't know what that is."

"It means you can talk to snakes," Charlie told him. "If your talking to this snake, then that makes you a parselmouth."

"But, but James couldn't do that," Remus spluttered, "and that's a skill through bloodlines."

Harry still looked very uneasy, everyone kept looking at him now like they expected him to grow fangs and start attacking them, but then Dumbledore cleared his throat and calmed them all. "This is indeed an odd thing to occur, but I see no reason to pressure young Mr. Potter about it for now. Mr. Charles Weasley, if you would continue."

Charlie still looked flabbergasted, but headed his headmaster, no one noticing how Dumbledore was now watching Harry with a very peculiar look indeed.

"You were being rather calm about this," Hermione told Harry, she didn't find it any stranger than any of the other odd magical things she'd heard of lately. "Has this happened to you before?"

"No," Harry shrugged, "first time I've met a snake, but I liked talking to the spiders sometimes too, even though they didn't do anything back like this snake. It wasn't any more odd than anything else," he finished with an uneasy shrug, still feeling too hot around the face from all of the staring he was receiving. Clearly he'd been wrong, and this was odd even by these odd magical standards, which was making Harry feel very uneasy.

That distracted the adults from whatever coiling fear they had about Harry Potter having some ability so associated with the Dark Arts. He was still an innocent kid, who had just been punched for no reason, and that shouldn't be allowed!

"The vanishing glass," Tonks chuckled.

"Thank you for that astute observation," Charlie rolled his eyes at her.

"Can't honestly blame them," Arthur nodded fairly, he knew he'd be freaking out with a snake being on the loose and his kids around.

"Did it really get away?" Hermione asked in surprise.

"As far as I know," Harry shrugged. The two of them, and Dumbledore, were the only ones who hadn't flinched in surprise of actually hearing of a snake talking like that.

"Wherever it wanted to," Tonks smirked.

Without looking up this time, Charlie reached over and pinched her, to which she swatted him for.

"A memorable experience for them, they're welcome," Tonks shot off again, ignoring Charlie giving her the stank eye.

That made even Charlie and Tonks' good mood vanish faster than that glass, they didn't want to know more than anyone else what Dudley's parents would do when they realized it had been Harry's fault this happening. Charlie read out the next part in trepidation.

"Why?" Remus snapped so forcefully, Charlie flinched in shock and it hadn't even really been directed at him. Remus couldn't help it though, he didn't want to know what Vernon was going to do once a witness was gone.

Harry still said nothing, not looking up to reacting to anything any time soon. His throat was swelling so tight he didn't even look like he was breathing, and he really hoped the book would stop soon, he didn't want to relive what happened the rest of this night.

"No meals!?" Arthur yelped, looking like someone had punched him in the gut. "You must be joking, no one would starve a child!"

"Are you kidding me," Sirius snarled, looking very much like a deranged animal as his claw like hands twisted into fists. "Look at him, he's skin and bones! When's the last time he's eaten period!?"

Harry's lower lip was wobbling, he looked terrified someone was going to come at him any second. Dumbledore cut in when someone else looked to start shouting as well, "that is enough. We will discuss this-"

"You're damned right that's enough," Remus barked at him. "Bloody hell Dumbledore, how long's this been going on? You said he was safe there, and they're treating him like-"

"I said that is enough," Dumbledore told him with a much more stern tone.

Remus' mouth snapped shut on instinct, crumpling under Dumbledore so as not to correct him and disappoint him, but then his eyes went to Harry again. He looked diminished, broken. Remus hadn't even looked that bad at his age because despite his disease, at least his parents had still tried to love him and care for him. His temper flared right back up, fully prepared to take Dumbledore's head as he chewed him off, but then Arthur stepped in, in only a slightly more controlled voice. "Really you two, I'm angry as well, but yelling in front of him like this is hurting him." All Arthur had to do was gesture at Harry, and it really sank into Remus and Sirius that they were causing more harm than good right then.

"How much is there left Charlie," Arthur asked.

Charlie swiftly said, "less than half a page."

Arthur nodded and said, "let him finish, then we'll discuss this, calmly," he emphasized at the end.

Charlie still looked several shades pailer than he should have in shock for this happening to a kid, but heeded his father and tried to finish without shouting in anger.

Harry couldn't repress a shiver as he remembered the rest of that night, hoping the book would stop already. For some reason he still couldn't understand, these people around him seemed to yell the loudest whenever the Dursleys usual punishments came up, and he didn't want it to just get louder after the brandy had been in Vernons system.

Remus felt a choking noise trying to close off his throat, remembering back to all his years in school and James practically living down in the kitchens as much as he snuck down to them. The mockery of that situation on Harry now was sharper than anything Remus had ever felt.

Ron couldn't help the little niggle of intrigue he felt at hearing that, still wanting to ask Harry if he remembered anything else, like what You-Know-Who looked like, but now he realized Harry clearly didn't.

Sirius felt a crushing blow trying to drown him, as he knew exactly what Harry meant. Those dementors had left a permanent chill over his skin, even though he'd already been away from them for about an hour it still hadn't left, but that was nothing compared to the gaping chasm of his mind. Sirius had hardly been able to recall what his best friend had looked like until he'd seen Harry in the flesh when they appeared in this room. Had only remembered the exact shade of Lily's eyes when he'd looked at her son. Because of those dementors, Sirius now hardly had more of a clue about Harry's parents then Harry.

Remus flinched like someone had just slapped him, he wished someone had, because that would have felt better. He now regretted the past ten years of his life with a vengeance, as clearly he'd made the wrong decision in trusting Dumbledore when he'd said he was looking after Harry's well being.

"Thought you said no one knew where Harry was?" Sirius asked slowly to try and stop himself from strangling Dumbledore. "What was to stop a Death Eater attack Harry instead of those random people?"

"So long as Harry remained where he was, no one could physically harm him," Dumbelodre said with the utmost assurance. Even now, as he heard first hand of how the Dursleys had been treating Harry, Dumbledore couldn't bring himself to think he'd made the wrong decision. He regretted it yes, as his mind flashed to Ariena and how she'd been treated because of how different she was. Still, he had to think longer than that, to keep himself assured that this was for the better of everyone. Harry was safe so long as he called Petunia Dursley's house home, so that was where he would stay. He would have to make them realize this. For now though, Dumbledore did not elaborate, and though Charlie wanted to crack his headmaster over the head with the book he was so mad at what he did not consider an answer, he finished.

"There," Charlie snapped as he closed the book and glared at Dumbledore.

Remus and Sirius puffed up at once like they were going to start digging into Dumbeldore that second, but Arthur quickly intervened and said, "Ron, why don't you, Harry, and Hermione go have a poke around through that corridor, explore the place a bit?" His eyes lingered on his other son with a questioning look, but Charlies face remained impassive to show he wasn't going anywhere. Arhtur wasn't going to argue with him, his son was of age now.

Harry looked more than relieved to hop to his feet and nearly sprint out of the room to avoid all the shouting he could feel was coming, it was rolling off of Remus and Sirius in waves, and Hermione was quick to follow as she felt bad for the poor boy who was getting so much unwanted attention. Ron hesitated, feeling left out and wanting to snap that he wasn't so young and he shouldn't just be kicked out, but then his father got a stern look across his face and Ron decided against arguing when his dad got that look on his face so he followed the other two out morose.

Didn't mean to make the interlude of where they found out Harry was sleeping a whole one-shot worth of notes on it's own, but I like where it fits and I'm not moving it around. Hope you liked it.