Secrets To Keep

1st Year

The next morning, Molly came downstairs to see Harry rocking Teddy. She glanced at the clock and noticed it was 5 a.m. She approached Harry carefully, placing an arm on his shoulder. He stiffened slightly, but hid it quickly.
"Hello, Harry, Dear. What are you doing up this early?"
"Hmm? Teddy woke up and I came down here to calm him down so I wouldn't wake everyone else up. Ron gets kinda cranky when he wakes to a baby at 5 a.m." Harry chuckled.
"Are we continuing with your childhood today, Harry?" Molly asked.
Harry shrugged. "If you guys want. I figured we'd start with first year."
She nodded.
"Should be a couple minutes until Hermione gets down, Dear."
"Thanks Molly. I was thinking...what d'you think I could do?"
Molly looked confused.
"Well, I mean, I need to get a job eventually. Depending what I want to do, I'll decide if I go back to Hogwarts."
"What do you want to do, Harry? We'll be proud whatever you do."
He shrugged. "I-um wanted to be an Auror before...but now...I've got Teddy. And I'm not sure I want to be an Auror anymore." He sighed.
Arthur walked in. "Harry, Molly, Teddy. What are we talking about today?"
"Harry's asking about career advice." Molly explained.
"Oh?" Arthur asked.
Harry nodded.
"Yeah. I wanna do something I'm good at and love. But, I also need to take care of Teddy."
"Play to your strengths Harry. What do you like doing?"
"I like flying, but I don't wanna play Quidditch for a living. I also really liked teaching. But I'd be far from Teddy. Besides, I doubt I fit the qualifications."
Arthur and Molly smiled.
Arthur shook his head.
"Y'know, you'd be surprised, Harry. Now, let's get everyone up and finish your first year."

"Okay," Harry began once everyone was seated. "First year. I met Ron on the Train. I met ''Mione too, but we didn't get along yet."

Hermione scowled before laughing with the other two boys. The Weasleys were shocked. They were practically inseparable!

"Anyway, Malfoy and his 'Goons' came in, insulted us, then Ron and I finally got them to leave."

"That's also when you refused his hand of friendship and became enemies." Ron said mock cheerfully.

Harry grinned. 

"Okay, we got to Hogwarts, I argued with the hat to put me in Gryffindor-"

"You had to argue with it? I thought you were an easy Gryffindor?" Percy said, obviously surprised.

"Er- yeah. Doesn't really matter-"

Bill smiled. "Harry, it's okay nobody's gonna judge you." He said. 

Harry nodded and smiled at him.
"It said I had all the house qualities, but I'd do well in Slytherin. I refused and was eventually put in Gryffindor."

They were all slack jawed. The adults recovered first. Ron exclaimed, tactless as usual, "Slytherin! Bloody hell, Harry! That's where Voldemort's from! All evil wizards go there!"

Harry rolled his eyes.
"Not true. Merlin was from Slytherin. Not all evil wizards are from Slytherin.  Pettigrew was a Gryffindor, and you know him..."

They were shocked as they noticed for the first time how cold and hard Harry's previously warm and soft looking eyes were.

He quickly cleared his throat and continued.

"Anyway...obviously I was famous...quite distracting, really. When you're trying to study, that is. Sna-Snape hated me from the start. Obviously."
Harry chuckled.
"Malfoy tricked Ron and I into meeting him in the trophy room after curfew. Mione and Nev came too. We ran into a three headed dog, name's Fluffy. Then Halloween," he paused here, to grumble to himself, "worst holiday there is..." then continued in louder tones, "we were eating at the feast, Quirrel came in, said trolls were on the dungeons, and everyone went to their common rooms. Thing is, though..."

Percy yelped.  "Hermione's still in the girl's restroom!"

Harry nodded. "So, with my, as Mione calls it, 'Saving people thing' we went to save her. Tackled the troll, stuck wand up its nose, Ron made the club hit him, he fainted  and we got outta there asap!"

"Quidditch match, do the Quidditch match now!" Yelled Ron

Harry rolled his eyes, but obeyed.
"Basically, we played a good game and I caught the Snitch in my mouth. Mirror of Erised next, I suppose...for this, I'm in my invisibility cloak. I got it that Christmas. Oh, and I visited the mirror Christmas Day..."

George and Bill squeezed his shoulders. He got up, drank some water, and went for a chair, but George made him sit on his lap again.  He chuckled, along with the others.

"So..." Harry tapped his fingers nervously.

"The Mirror of Erised. Mione, you know what that means?"

She shook her head.

"Okay, here's a hint. Inscribed on the mirror, " he scribbled on some parchment, then read aloud, " Erised stra  ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on woshi. Got it now?"
Harry smiled gently.
They were all still confused.

"Read backwards, it says, 'I show not your face but your heart's desire.' So, like, your deepest desire, something you really want. And, it showed, my family."

They smiled sadly, yet fondly at him.

"Eventually, we found Dumbledore's Frog Card...with Nicholas Flamel on it. Dumbledore and Flamel worked on the Philosopher's Stone together. We were trying to find that out all year, and found it on a frog card...then, layer on we went through the trapdoor, faced tons of challenges, but I'm not gonna go through those and give you heart attacks, and I faced off with...Voldemort. I went back to the Dursleys to await second year."

Harry took another swig of water.

They left silently, thinking over everything they'd been told.