Chapter 10

Justin

For the first time since being freed, I completely ignored the idea of a shower when I woke up. I was too busy focusing on another two firsts: waking up on the couch and to the heavy smell of cooked food in the air. That was weird for me, normally I'm up long before anyone else, even the elf, and I was always careful to sleep in my silence warded room. It threw me off a little bit, though the why came crashing back a moment later.

"Aauhh!" Groaning, I pulled the blanket off of me and took a look at my body. I'd been injured really badly, it was best to know what I was dealing with. However, I was actually pleasantly surprised to find the bulk of the damage had healed. My foot, hip and shoulder were still complaining quite irritably, but even they were nothing on what I was expecting. I'd have to thank the others for that.

But still, my belly was making even bigger complaints, especially with the scent of food in the air, so, carefully, I pulled myself up onto my good foot and hobbled toward the dining room, latching onto the walls and furniture for support. It took a while to get there and both my foot and hip were screaming at me, but the smell of food was only getting stronger and that was all the encouragement I needed to get through that door.

"Justin?" Well, I got to leaning against it on my own before having to stop. Looking up, I found Harry was the only one there and already springing from his seat. "Justin, you should have called one of us." He scolded lightly as he reached me. I just smiled appreciatively at him and leaned in as he pulled my arm around his shoulders, helping me to a chair. "You're still hurt."

"Nothing morphing won't fix." I completely shrugged it off as I sank into a chair. Instead, I tilted my head up and sniffed the air. Whatever was cooking smelt delicious.

"Yeah, just don't do that until well after you've eaten." I grinned a little at the sigh of defeat that left his mouth at that. It wasn't often that I got to bring it out of the stubborn mule. Then it turned into a full grown smile as a large helping of beef stew was placed in front of me, courtesy of Kreacher. I only paused long enough to say thankyou before diving in at a pace that would make Ron impressed.

"...There's more in the pot if you're still hungry after, just so you know." Harry muttered, staring at me with both amusement and amazement. I simply looked up and grinned at him while my mouth was full before turning my attention back to the food. It was so good and I was so hungry! I could eat it all day.

It wasn't until I was halfway through my first helping that every detail clicked back into place for me and it was enough of a surprise that I actually stopped eating with my fork halfway to my mouth. Putting it back down for a moment, I looked back up to where Harry was engrossed in the Daily Prophet to find a picture of the Ministry under a huge headline involving the words vandalism and pandemonium, but that seemed to only be the things I knew.

"Hey Harry?" I asked softly, not entirely sure I wanted the answers. Still, no backing out now, Harry had drop his paper immediately and either way, I needed to know. "How did we escape? Are the others ok?" My voice almost disappeared completely at the second question. If my actions had got them caught or killed, or...

"We're all fine." Harry answered quickly, with a small grin, immediately calming me down to the point of sinking into my seat as I sighed in relief. "Your magical whammy definitely made things more complicated, but so did Umbridge and the horde of over panicked adults trying to bring the roof down on themselves. I guess you decided that the floor would be he easier way to go." He added with a small chuckle as I bit my lip and stared at him apologetically.

"I didn't mean to. I just...wanted to protect everyone and get away myself."

"So you went and took out Umbridge. And half the floor." Harry nodded, his eyes alight with mirth. "It's fine, it's caused even more problems for the Ministry, which is very good for us. But to answer your other question, after we managed to reach you, and stop Controllers who were about to infest you, we had Kreacher apparate us out."

"Seriously?" Say what? I couldn't believe my ears. "You mean that we spent all that time freaking out over the lack of escape options and we could have just called for your House Elf at any time we wanted?"

"Well, to be fair, it's pretty clear no one ever thinks of that option." He muttered sheepishly, scratching his chin as his eyes flickered back to the table. "Otherwise, places like the Ministry would have wards in place to prevent even their transportation."

"Oh God, how is it that no one's ever broken out of Azkaban before Black?" I cried exasperatedly, shaking my head. "House Elves are get out of jail free cards, literally! How stupid is this society?"

"I've been asking myself that very question a lot lately." Harry grinned wryly. Sigh again at the stupidity of this world, I gave him a shake of my head before turning my attention back to my food.

"So where are the others now?" I would have thought I would have seen them by now.

"Ron's throwing a Quaffle around in the back yard and Hermione's in the library, looking for information on Horcuxes." Harry replied, scowling at the table. "We tried to destroy the locket this morning, but even our best spells didn't leave so much as a scratch on the bloody thing! We don't have a clue how to get rid of it."

"Well, at least we have it." I said between mouthfuls. "That's enough for now, right?"

"Yeah, I guess." The way his whole body practically collapsed on itself suggested otherwise.

We fell into silence for a while after that, our attention returning solely to our food and paper respectively. It wasn't until I finished and looked up at the clock that even one word was muttered.

"It's eleven thirty? In the day?" I cried, staring wide eyed at the clock. "How long was I asleep?"

"Nineteen hours." Harry replied with a shake of his head. "We were a little worried about that, but we figured that you might need it. There was a reason, beyond being an early riser, that you were always up first, wasn't there?" He asked, turning a raised eyebrow to me. "And before you answer, Hermione checked your room and found the Silencing Charms."

"Great to know my privacy's respected." I shot back, raising an eyebrow of my own, before caving in. "But yeah. I have nightmares every night, though they're more memories. Bits and pieces of everything that's happened to me from..." My breath hitched at that and my eyes grew itchy as my vision started to blur, but I pressed on. I had to get it out. "From the moment 'Law Enforcement' burst in on my family and...and killed them before taking me away, up to...up to my time in Azkaban."

Tears were pouring rivers down my face now, but I made no move to stop them, just letting them fall. Harry didn't say anything, he just wrapped an arm around me and pulled me to his side. It hurt for a moment, he accidentally put pressure on my injured hip, but I easily adjusted myself and accepted the physical comfort. Truth be told, I really missed it, it felt good to be held like that again.

"I watched them both die, you know." I went on, not really able to stop that I'd started. "It was so unnecessary! They couldn't do anything to protect me, they weren't even given the chance to try. The Snatchers just appeared and fired on them, let me watch, before stunning me. I wasn't revived until I was chained up in the Waiting Chamber of the courtroom, where they dragged me before Umbridge. She accused me of stealing magic and took pleasure in all her crap. Then she...she declared me guilty and...and snapped my wand right in front of me." I had to stop there for a moment, my body was racked with sobs. It was so hard, so painful, relieving these memories again and again. I still just wanted to shove them to the deepest part of my mind and forget them, but I couldn't. And now, the fact that I hadn't dealt with it all properly had hurt and endangered by friends repeatedly. I couldn't let that happen ever again. If that meant that I had to face all this, admit to it all, well...I'd just been consciously forced to face it again just yesterday and I'd faced it in my dreams every night since it happened. How much harder could it be to consciously face it willingly now?

"After that, well, you know what the average day at Azkaban would be like." I went on, shrugging with fake nonchalance once I'd calmed down again. "Forever facing those memories and a few choice others. But...there were other things too. The Death Eaters and the Snatchers...they came through a lot. Dropping off new victims and taking away the dead. They...liked to torture us on the way through. Listening to other people's screams was bad enough, but when they went after me...there was a particular witch who enjoyed tormenting me."

"Justin..." Harry's grip only grew tighter as I talked. He was going to leave more bruises for me to morph away on my shoulder, I was sure. "It's ok. You don't have to go into it. I understand."

"I'm sorry." My voice croaked as I forced the words out and my body trembled. My tears had long since soaked Harry's shirt, but he didn't seem to care. "I'm sorry about yesterday. I'm sorry, I almost got us caught and killed, I lost it completely, I'm sorry I-"

"Justin! It's ok, really! It's not your fault." Shushing me, Harry moved his hand to rub circles in my back, using his other hand to pull me into a full hug as I cried into his chest, burying my face away. "It's not your fault. It's everyone's. You only wanted to help us. We led you to a place you weren't ready to return to. We led you to the Dementors. We knew you couldn't be as...mentally ok as you were making yourself out to be, we knew what you had been through would be too much too soon and that you needed time to sort it out. Hermione confronted me about brining you on that mission, said it was too risky to your wellbeing. I didn't listen. You told us time and again that we were being far to reckless and impatient and regardless of the fact that we've won big yesterday, it was still all thanks to luck. You were right, we weren't actually prepared, we ignored too many details, the biggest one being what we were likely to throw you in with. I promise, I'll never do that again. Next time you tell me I'm being to rash and reckless, I promise I'll listen. I'm the one who's sorry Justin."

"You shouldn't be." I muttered, looking up at him in perplexity. "I kept my issues to myself. Even I thought I could handle seeing the Ministry, even if I never wanted to go there ever again. How could you expect-"

"Hermione predicted it." He reminded me, shaking his head before looking me right in the eyes. "And I've had some pretty similar experiences to yours, remember? Everything mentioned when we formed the DA? The crap I took in second and fourth year?" Yeah, both of those made me feel really crap right now. I should never have doubted him. "All the crap Umbridge and the Ministry put me through? Losing Sirius, thanks to my recklessness and 'hero complex ' as Hermione puts it? Watching helplessly as...as Snape killed Dumbledore? And don't get me started on the Dursleys! I may not know exactly what it's like spending weeks with Dementors is like, but I do have an idea of what you've been feeling and I know that you don't respond with violent anger like I do. I should have seen it. Now I've been slapped in the face with it, I do see it. And I'm going to help you with it however I can."

I was touched. I thought he'd be mad at me for endangering them, but to apologise for not noticing? For not listening to my advice, even though we won? To promise to help me instead of kicking me off the team? I didn't know what to say. How had I managed to find such an amazing friend? Nothing could express how grateful and happy I was, even as tears kept falling down my face.

And you know what? I felt a lot better. I'd been confronted with the worst possible things in my life and faced it. I even got to strike Umbridge with what seemed to be the magical equivalent of a bulldozer, that thought brought a smile to my face. Who didn't wanna do that? And after that, I slept better than I had in weeks. I admitted everything to Harry and now I felt lighter, less burdened. It felt easier to smile and grin again. I liked that. I liked being happy and I liked being infectiously so even more. I think I could be that way again.

I wasn't sure how long we stayed like that, Harry hugging and soothing me, before I pulled away, but when I did, I actually felt a big smile grow on my lips, which only became easier to grow when Harry stared at me in surprise.

"Thanks Harry, it means a lot. Now, do we have any normal cards around here?" I asked brightly, my smile turning a little mischievous. "I haven't been able to play a good, old fashioned game of poker in forever. You do know how to play, right?"

"Yeah. I'll track down some cards. You stay here and let go your food go down. Don't get up and don't morph, or Kreacher will freeze you in place." He ordered, pointing a finger at me and flicking his eyes over to where Kreacher was doing the dishes, making sure he heard the order, before getting up. I couldn't help but snicker a little as Kreacher nodded his head and both of them gave me that 'listen here sonny, I'm warning you' look my dad used to give me when I was being a terror. It was like I'd been declared the baby of the family.

Still, as long the 'family' doted on me like I was the baby brother/son too, I couldn't say that I minded. It always felt good to know that someone could help you with your problems.

And it was good to have a newspaper informing you that even with your problems, you could still be helpful. Man, we really messed up the Ministry. Looking at the picture, it seemed like an earthquake had crashed through the place.

I caused most of that. I was actually pretty proud.

AN: And that's the end of MA2. I hope you all enjoyed it. Thanks again to everyone who favourited and/or reviewed this story, I really appreciate it. well, see you next time.