Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 45: The Visit
Ron stared down at the chessboard with pure shock on his face. "H-how…?"
"What do you mean?" Harry didn't understand the confusion of his friend at first. "If I move my knight here, it's checkmate. There is a discovered attack with my queen an—"
"Not that!" Ron exclaimed. "I know it's checkmate, but…" He glanced at Harry. "When did you get so good at this? You never won a single game against me before."
'I told you to let him win.' The voice of V resounded in his mind.
"Oh, that…" Harry realized his mistake.
In the frozen world, playing chess had been one of the few ways he would spend his time when he wasn't learning some piece of magic.
Since V didn't have any limbs, mental games were the only ones they could play together, and in total, they must have played billions of times.
It was normal for his chess skills to improve, especially when he had V to teach him, who was already a skilled player during his time as a human.
However, to Ron, this had been a sudden change. He had gone from completely crushing Harry in every game to being the one on the receiving end, and he didn't like that.
"This makes no sense," Ron said. "Let's play another one."
"We already played three games. Can't we do something else?" Harry sounded bored. He didn't want to outright say it, but he didn't find Ron to be a very fun opponent.
"Hmm?" Just then, Harry felt a fluctuation of magic in the air and knew he wasn't going to have to play another round of chess.
"He is here," V said.
Ron stared at the hat. "It's talking again. Wait… who is here?"
"Sirius," Harry responded.
"Hm? How do you know? I haven't heard anything," Ron said. "Are you hearing strange things aga—"
"Harry!" The powerful voice of Molly Weasley was then heard. "Sirius is here to see you!"
Harry stood up. "Excuse me," he said to the confused Ron before leaving the room.
When he went downstairs, he found Sirius sitting at the dining table.
"Harry!" The man stood up and approached with a smile.
"Sirius, hello, ehm…" While he was thinking about what to say to the man, he received a warm hug from him.
"I'm glad to see you doing well. And that you don't need to go back with those Muggles," Sirius said.
"Right." Harry knew that Sirius was referring to his aunt and uncle, but he had been unable to find any memory of his time in their house.
Whatever happened there had not been something that Harry wanted to remember, so those memories were long gone.
However, he still got an unpleasant feeling when thinking about them, so he didn't feel like trying to dig any deeper into that subject.
"Why don't we go for a walk outside? There is something I wanted to talk to you about," Sirius suggested.
Harry noted something in his godfather's eyes as he said this, and could tell there was something important he wanted to discuss.
He nodded, and after excusing themselves from Molly, they went onto the large field surrounding the Weasley property.
"You know… I always wondered why they didn't make the house any bigger," Sirius commented. "They have a massive property, and yet they all live cramped in that small house."
"I don't know. I guess they find the small home more cozy," Harry said.
He personally didn't like staying in big rooms, as it made him feel more alone.
When he created his tower, he designed the rooms to be just big enough to serve their function, but not so big that they would give him that unpleasant feeling.
"You may be right." Sirius gave Harry a knowing look.
"How much did the old man tell you?" V asked.
"Ah… almost forgot about you." Sirius glanced at the hat. "You can really talk and look very animated while doing so."
"He is more than animated," Harry said. "V is a living being. His body is a magical construction, but he is still as alive as a person."
"I see… we can talk about your hat a bit later." Sirius walked toward the apple tree in the distance. "But first, I wanted to talk about what happened to you in the Ministry of Magic. That incident in the Room of Time."
"Did Dumbledore tell you everything?" Harry asked.
"I don't know about everything. The old Headmaster is always very secretive. But as your godfather, and the closest thing to a magical guardian you have, he thought it would be appropriate for me to be informed of your current situation."
"I see…" Harry muttered. "I don't know what to say… is there something you want to ask me?"
"Ask you, no… I mean, if there is something you want to talk about, I'm willing to listen. I just wanted to make sure you were doing alright." Sirius made a complicated expression. "I know it's not exactly the same, but I did experience what it feels like to live in isolation for over a decade. That kind of experience can really mess with your mind. What you went through was on a whole different scale of time."
"I'm fine," he responded.
"Harry…" There was a hint of a warning in V's voice.
"I'm doing better," Harry rephrased it. "It was very hard at first… when I finally understood there was no way out and I would have to spend an unknown amount of time in that empty world… I…"
Sirius listened to Harry speak about his experience without saying a word. He just remained silent and listened.
"Things got much better after I found V." Harry pointed at his hat. "I was no longer alone in there. It became kind of fun to explore the world and learn things once I had someone to talk to."
Sirius smiled. "I can imagine." His eyes moved to the hat. "Thank you for that." He sat down next to the tree. "Why don't you tell me a bit about some fun adventure you had while in there? I bet there are a few stories."
Harry felt a tinge of excitement at the prospect of sharing this with someone.
"Oh, I have a lot of them."
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