Harry Potter Breaking Free

Turning back towards the teenaged Veela, Harry made a point to have Fleur catch him rolling his eyes in a way that screamed "typical bitchy Fleur." While he did understand the complex feelings that were driving her passive aggressive behavior, that didn't mean he had to like it, or condone it as if he deserved it. The location that they were about to visit was quite literally the most intimately private place Harry could possibly imagine. With that much in mind, he didn't have the time or the patience necessary to endure Fleur's barbed commentary.

In the end, that's the reason why, when Fleur looked like she might snap at him for rolling his eyes at her, Harry held up a hand to get ahead of her. "Fleur seriously... Just shut up... You volunteered for this, I hope, out of a desire to support me... Please don't make me regret your presence."

Fleur recoiled as if Harry had struck her.

After an extremely bizarre moment in time, during which Appoline had to figure out where she stood on this matter, she beamed an extremely proud smile at Harry for telling her daughter where to put it. She was legitimately happy that Harry was finally learning to assert himself, because Fleur would walk all over him if he wasn't careful, and now that wasn't such a concern. Appoline really did want Harry and Fleur to become friends at some point, but she wanted them to become REAL friends. Fleur didn't need anymore of the mindless toadies she seemed to collect over at Beauxbatons.

With his unhappy deed accomplished, Harry abruptly turned away from a visibly guilt-ridden Fleur, flew towards a massive random boulder, and pushed it over as if it was as light as a feather.

Appoline and Fleur stared at the boulder in their surprise. To them the stone hatch clearly looked like it weighed about ten tons. Underneath the boulder was a stairwell leading down into the earth. The two ladies shook their heads at the lengths Harry had gone to...

Fleur, Harry and Appoline ventured down the stairs and then entered a simple but imposing looking elevator. Harry pressed the M Button on the elevator's wall panel and they immediately began descending.

"How deep, 'Arry?" Appoline was leaning against a small window panel that was displaying layers of the planet's crust blurring by at amazing speeds.

"Three quarters of the way to the core of the world," replied Harry. "We should be there in about a minute."

Snapping her fingers in realization, Fleur started laughing. "Core of the world... magical core... Cute."

Harry smiled happily at Fleur's much more natural interaction even as he stuck his tongue out at the girl. "You can't argue that I've created some great natural defenses. You could wander around in my Mindscape for years and find absolutely nothing of value."

Both ladies just nodded. Fleur couldn't have argued with that even if she wanted to.

Soon enough, the three of them arrived on the memory floor and the elevator came to rest with a soft melodic ding. The door slid open to reveal what would under normal circumstances be an extremely opulent library, except for two things. It was huge beyond measure, going on for miles, and the books were lying around everywhere, scattered across the floor.

When Fleur and Appoline looked back at Harry, Fleur had her hands resting on her hips. "Please tell me you did something intelligent to make this go faster."

Having never set foot in his library before, Harry was currently looking at his own handiwork in satisfaction. "As a matter of fact I did. When I mentally decided that my memories would look like books, I made a color code. The darker the color of the book the worse the memory involved. Black books are seriously bad memories. Now I just need to grab them, experience them and file them away. I'm happy to have the healing and support when I exit the books, but I have to warn you. I suspect my reactions are going to become pretty ugly."

At Harry's words, Appoline stepped closer, caught his attention and then shook her head. "Arry... I had no idea you expected us to wait out here while you relive the memories alone. That's just not a possibility at this point. We are both empathically linked to you right now. While you will be the one reliving the memories, we will witness them as well."

Swallowing heavily, Harry looked down at his feet. He hadn't realized just how exposed he was about to become. It would be the very first time in... ever that he allowed anyone to know, to understand. Then he was shaking his head and turning away. "I'm not sure that I can do that Appoline. I... I'm ashamed of how weak and defenseless I am in almost all of these memories. I didn't know this would be a viewing gallery. I'm also afraid that you'll take damage just by witnessing the things I've experienced."

Raising her hands palms out, Appoline smiled softly as a soothing, sense of calm and love began radiating out of them. "You want the magic hands that will heal your psyche and help you keep moving, 'Arry? Then you need to suffer the knowledge that we find out about you. My daughter and I are strong 'Arry. We can handle it. You called me family 'Arry... Let me help you."

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