Harry Potter: Beneath The Skin

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 11: Return

"So… this is Hogwarts…" Harry was resting on top of a boulder and observing the magnificent castle in front of him.

Of course, he already had the memories from the original Harry Potter, so he knew the castle quite well, but seeing it in person was a different experience altogether.

After cleaning up that girl's mind from any trace of what had transpired, he left Azkaban behind and went to wander over the land with his flying broom.

He had to see with his own eyes how much the world had changed over the past five hundred years.

After getting a good look at the countryside, he spent several hours thinking about his situation and what to do from now on.

The sun was starting to peek on the horizon by the time he appeared here.

His decision about returning to this place had been a carefully considered one.

For one, he was still a magic student, and according to what he knew from the current magical society, a student who had yet to pass his O.W.L exams was not allowed to use magic outside school without breaking the law.

And he was not just any student… people called him 'The Boy Who Lived' because of something that had occurred when he was a baby. He was very famous… it would make it difficult to blend into this society and do whatever he wanted to do.

So in the end, he decided that the best would be to keep the façade of being the Harry Potter they knew while working from the shadows to recoup his power and build a group of followers.

Once he was ready, he would take back his fortress, but for now, he would be a Hogwarts student.

'This would have been much easier if I had been reborn in the body of an absolute nobody,' Harry thought for a moment. Although there was nothing he could do about it.

Considering that it took his children five hundred years just to find this body, there was no way to tell how long it would have taken if he had to wait for another one.

He looked down at himself. He was as dirty as his robes… given the night he had, this was normal.

But for the story he planned on telling, this was not going to be enough.

The first thing he did was to hide all his belongings inside his leather bag and then shrink the bag so it could be well hidden inside his clothes.

He then found a sharp rock on the ground and used it to tear his robes, as well as inflicting a few cuts and bruises on his body.

'That should do it.'

Harry walked up to the gates and entered the school.

It did not take long before some students spotted him and ran to warn the teachers.

He was ambushed by a group of alarmed instructors before he even made it to the main hall.

"Harry!" Professor McGonagall ran to him. "By Merlin! What happened to you?" She looked at his torn clothes and bleeding wounds with concern.

"We must take him to Poppy immediately!" Pomona Sprout exclaimed.

"Hold on, let me see him first." The voice of Albus Dumbledore resounded in the hall.

He was approaching at a hurried pace, with Severus Snape following right behind him.

"Harry, my boy." Dumbledore grabbed his shoulders. "What happened? Where have you been?"

Harry had been expecting that question and prepared an explanation for his absence.

"The cup was a trap, Professor… it was a portkey."

"We know that part already, Potter." Snape huffed in annoyance. "Do you have any idea of the troubles you have caused?"

"Severus, please. Let Harry explain himself," Dumbledore insisted.

"Albus, can't this wait?" McGonagall asked. "The boy is clearly injured. A healer needs to see him."

"In a moment, Minerva," Dumbledore responded. "It is crucial that we learn what has transpired so we can take appropriate action."

"Well… I was in some sort of cemetery," Harry explained while keeping an expression of uncertainty and fear.

"There was a man there, I think… I think he hurt Cedric, and then…"

"And then?" Dumbledore leaned closer.

"Sorry… I don't remember what happened next… it's all blank." This wasn't completely a lie.

He had a few fragments of what had transpired during the boy's last moments, but most of that encounter was missing. Likely a side effect of being hit by the Killing Curse.

"Blank?!" Dumbledore exclaimed with clear surprise. "No, no… there must be something more that you remember. Who was this man that attacked you? Where was this cemetery?"

'Oh… what a bastard.' Harry could feel the intrusion of a Legilimency attack. And he could tell that the man in front of him was very skilled at performing it without the use of a wand and without giving away what he was doing.

But that was not going to work against him, for he was also a master of the mental arts and could protect his secrets against any attack of this level.

Dumbledore found nothing but what Harry wanted him to find. He saw the moment when they arrived at the cemetery and Wormtail using the Killing Curse on Cedric, before turning to Harry and stunning him.

After that, there was nothing else, and then he saw Harry waking up in the Hogwarts fields.

"No… this can't be." Dumbledore looked confused and disappointed.

"The boy is clearly lying. Tell us what you did!" Snape shouted.

"Severus! Behave yourself," McGonagall snapped. "That is no way to talk to an injured student."

"Yes, the boy is clearly traumatized," Pomona added. "As I said before, we need to take him to the infirmary immediately."

"Albus?" McGonagall turned to Dumbledore.

"Yes… I believe that will be for the best. Let Harry get some rest… perhaps he will remember more afterwards." Dumbledore turned to Snape. "Come with me, Severus. We have much to discuss."

As the Headmaster was leaving, McGonagall and Professor Sprout escorted Harry to the infirmary, where the school healer could check his condition.

Harry watched Dumbledore and Snape walking away. Even without the boy's memories, he could have told instantly that the old man was a dangerous foe.

A very skilled and wise wizard that he did not want to have as an enemy.

'I may have to get rid of him first,' Harry thought.

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