Chapter 1

Avada Kedavra.

Harry saw Voldemort's mouth move and a flash of green light, and everything was gone.

Harry woke up in a bright mist which resolved itself before his eyes into a wide open space which looked remarkably like a much cleaner version of Kings Cross Station. As he got to his feet he saw a beautiful red haired woman charging towards him.

"Harry James Potter. Do you have any idea how angry I am with you?" The next instant he had been swept into a hug and for the first time in his memory he got to experience his mother's embrace.

"Mum?"

"Of all the asinine stupid things you've done in your life, this one really takes the cake. What on earth were you thinking letting him kill you like that?"

Harry was shocked and confused to say the least, on one hand his mother had still not let go of him and on the other she seemed to be really angry with him. He had no idea how to deal with a woman who seemed to be berating and loving him simultaneously.

"But... Dumbledore said I had to die because of the Horcrux in my head" explained Harry, a bit sheepishly.

"Dumbledore said. Dumbledore said. Who cares what Dumbledore said? What on earth has he ever done for you that made you trust him with your life? For that matter why would you trust anything that you got from Snape? Snape, hasn't he made it obvious he hates you, and you already knew from your experiences with Slughorn that memories can be faked," said Lily.

"But..." protested a shocked Harry. His mind was reeling, hadn't the ghosts of his parents approved? He had seen them in the forest... Why was his Mother suddenly so angry with him? None of it made any sense.

"Okay, quick question Harry. What's a Horcrux?" asked Lily.

"It's part of Voldemorts soul that's he's severed and placed inside an object so that he's immune from death."

"Right and how do you destroy one?"

"Well you've got to use basilisk venom or Gryffindor's sword to destroy the container. Nothing else seemed to work," answered Harry.

"And you have one in your head right, that's what Dumbledore told you, so why didn't you stab yourself in the head with Gryffindor's sword or a basilisk fang? Wouldn't that have been an equally ridiculous thing to do? What made you think the killing curse would destroy it? The killing curse does not destroy a person's body Harry, nor does it have any effect on your soul, all it does is kill a person painlessly. So why would you believe that the Killing Curse would have any effect on a soul fragment? Your body is still perfectly intact after all. For that matter, what if Voldemort had... I don't know, simply decided to blow a hole through your chest with a blasting curse. Would the Horcrux have been destroyed then? But... all of this is so... so besides the point that I could just scream. The main thing is Dumbledore... You followed DUMBLEDORE'S plan... WHY? WHY would you do that? Why would you believe in anything that came out of Dumbledore's mouth?"

"But…"

"But nothing Harry. Think back. When has he ever done anything for you? Have you ever thought about who's been to blame for all the misery in your life? You crappy childhood with the Dursleys. The danger you were put into every single freaking year at Hogwarts. Everything... And don't even get me started on how horribly he's ruined my sister's life"

"Ruined her life? What about me. She was horrible to me. She's hated me my entire life. She and Vernon made my life at Privet Drive hell."

"And that's Dumbledore's fault as well."

"WHAT?"

"Think about it Harry. For once just use your brain and stop just believing what people tell you. You have to learn to think for yourself" said Lily.

"What are you talking about Mom? The Dursleys were horrible people, they hated magic. And they hated me" said Harry.

"No they didn't, at least not originally. Sure they were uneasy about magic, but any muggle would be, faced with people who can kill you with a word, control you, make you do anything and make you forget about it with a memory charm, I'd say they had every right to be uncomfortable with magic. She was my sister Harry. She may have been a little jealous of me but she also loved me, there's no way she would have treated you the way she did if Dumbledore hadn't put a compulsion charm on her"

"What? But why would he do that?" asked Harry in shock. His mind was reeling from his mother's revelations.

"He wanted to you weak and easy to manipulate. He wanted you to see him and the wizarding world as your salvation from the horrible muggles. If you'd been brought up in a proper environment with loving parents do you think you'd have had so much faith in him? He wanted a puppet that he could use as a weapon, and let me say he succeeded very well. Just look at your blind loyalty to the man. Have you ever really thought about why you believe in him so much? He's probably been feeding you loyalty potions from the day you stepped into Hogwarts" said Lily.

"He compelled poor Petunia and Vernon to be as nasty as possible to you. This went so against their actual natures that they ended up overcompensating with Dudley and wound up spoiling him rotten. In fact I think he probably had something to do with that as well, just to make you more miserable. No parent in their right mind would spoil a child like that while also abusing another. Didn't you think it odd that they bought him so many presents on his birthday, and gave into all his demands whenever he threw a tantrum? No parent is stupid enough to do that Harry. He dumped you on their doorstep without any warning, he couldn't even be bothered enough to sit down with Petunia and let her know in person that her sister had died. He placed a compulsion charm on them so they would be unable to show you even the slightest bit of affection while also adding an aggression ward to the house so that any muggle living there would act as nasty as possible. As a result my poor sister has been changed into a miserable nasty person. On top of all that he didn't even give them the child support they were entitled to from the Potter trust" said Lily.

"I always assumed he kept my trust fund secret to protect it from the Dursleys" said Harry.

"Yes, I'm sure that's what he led you to believe. The Potter trust was iron clad Harry, there was no way Vernon would have been able to spend a knut of it if you hadn't authorized it. It was absolutely safe until you started handing your keys out willy-nilly to the Weasley family. It's probably been stripped bare by now. After all they weren't planning on you surviving the battle were they, so why wouldn't they steal everything they could?"

"Why would he do that?"

"Why would he do anything he's done over the last 17 years Harry? Isn't it obvious? He's evil."

"Evil! But he's Dumbledore. He defeated Grindlewald, everyone's always looked up to him."

"Well, let's start from the beginning. What did he tell you about the prophecy? I know you think that you and Voldemort were destined to fight and all that rubbish. But don't you think that it wasn't just a bit coincidental that there just happened to be a Death Eater listening in when the prophecy was being said. Don't you think that's pushing coincidence just a little too far? Why would a Death Eater listen in on a school teacher's interview anyway? Don't you think they had better things to do with their time? And why wasn't the interview held at the school like they always are? What did he tell you, that he went to meet her because it was raining or some such rubbish? Why couldn't she have flooed directly to his office? Think Harry think. Put yourself in his place. Dumbledore was leading the war against Voldemort and it was not going well. Then he hears a prophecy that states that the ONLY one that's able to defeat Voldemort is about to be born. What is he going to do? Is he going to wait seventeen eighteen years for the baby to grow up? No. What would be the GREATER GOOD? To let the war drag on for another eighteen years or to try and negate the prophecy by having Voldemort kill a couple of babies? With Dumbledore the ends always justify the means" said Lily.

"He engineered the leak. You never cross checked the date on the prophecy did you? He heard it a month before the so called interview in Hogsmeade. Once he heard it he knew that he wouldn't be the one to defeat Voldemort and the so called savior of the wizarding world couldn't stand the thought of someone else stealing his thunder. He couldn't take the chance that you would grow up to supplant him, nor could he wait for you to grow up, so he tried to have you killed when you were a baby. He couldn't get his own hands dirty of course, no no, that's not the way Albus Dumbledore operates, he always manipulates other people to do his dirty work for him. He knew Snape was a Death Eater. He planted a compulsion in Snape to be there at that time and place, then he imperiused Trewlaney to repeat the prophecy when she did. He's such a master manipulator that he's the one who planted the idea in Sirius head to make Peter the secret keeper. A few well placed comments on how Sirius was obviously the only one that we could trust with the secret, and Sirius came to the conclusion that he was too obvious a choice. He's so good at it that Sirius always thought it was his own idea. He's also the one who convinced your father to hide in Godric's Hollow. The Potters had many properties that would have been much, much more secure for us, we could have left the country for that matter, its not like we needed to work for a living or didn't have the money to go anywhere in the world we wanted to, but unfortunately your father believed in him. I always had my suspicions but your father was so blinded he refused to listen to me, and well, I let myself be influenced by your father's faith as well. Well your father paid for his loyalty with both our lives. Sirius paid for it by spending 12 years in Azkaban followed by living a dog's life and then being trapped in his apartment with that horrible Molly Weasley. Have you thought about the Longbottoms? Isn't it a bit of a coincidence that Death Eaters managed to find the other child that the prophecy could have referred to just a few days after we were betrayed? Dumbledore was responsible for that as well" said Lily. She was on a roll and it didn't seem like she was going to stop anytime soon.

"Think about the rest of your years in Hogwarts. Think about first year, do you really think he didn't know about Quirrel and Voldemort. He placed the philosopher's stone in a school; put hundreds of children at risk. Why? He wanted to entice Voldemort to the school. I don't know if he wanted Voldemort to kill you or whether he just wanted to test if your protection was still active. Even before that, he knew that Petunia wouldn't have told you anything about your heritage thanks to his compulsion charms, did he send a qualified teacher to your house to inform you about the wizarding world like every single muggle born gets? No. He sent Hagrid, a grounds keeper. Don't get me wrong. Hagrid may be a lovely person and a good friend to you over the years, but he was absolutely unqualified to prepare a child for Hogwarts. He didn't even tell you how to get onto the train for gods sake. Right from the beginning you were kept as ignorant as possible" said Lily.

"In your second year what did he do to stop the rumors about you being the heir of Slytherin? Nothing! What did he do to protect you and the rest of the school from a basilisk? Nothing! Children were getting petrified all over the place and the man did nothing. Any halfway competent headmaster would have evacuated the school right after Filch's cat was petrified, but the great Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to care at all, did he? No, he went right on letting children get petrified. They were only muggleborns after all. Who cares about them? That's what he thought" said Lily.

"Think about the Triwizard tournament. Barty Crouch Sr. was imperiused into insisting you had to compete but Dumbledore would have known that since you hadn't put your name in the goblet yourself that you didn't have to compete. Magical contracts just don't work that way. There's no way he would have missed the fact that Moody was a polyjuiced imposter. He still forced you to compete just so he could use you as bait for Voldemort yet again. He didn't even let the rest of the school know that you were being forced to compete. He wanted them to think you cheated your way into the tournament and despise you for it; he wanted you friendless and alone. If it wasn't for the polyjuiced Moody Barty Crouch Jr. helping you in secret you would have died during those tasks. After all, its not like he or any of those incompetents they call teachers could be bothered to help you. They pitted you against a dragon. A DRAGON! and what did you do? You went back the next year and asked for more" said Lily.

"Then after Voldemort's resurrection, why didn't he just force Fudge to view your memories in a pensieve. He was the head of the Wizengamot at the time. Do you really think he was as powerless as he made out? He could have easily called for a hearing and made you testify under Veritaserum as well. No he wanted a weak ineffectual Ministry, so that Voldemort could rise again and he planned on being the one to defeat him when he did."

"In fifth year, did he do anything to protect you from the ministry, did he give any interviews letting people know that he believed in you. No, he let them slander you and paint you as a delusional glory seeking fool. Do you really think he was unaware of Umbridge and her blood quills? He let her torture you, and did nothing about it. The only reason he didn't do something about your little study group is that he didn't expect you to succeed at it at all. He fully expected you to fail and perhaps get expelled from school for it. Then he would swoop in and save you somehow, making you view him as your savior."

"It's only after he got himself cursed by the ring that he started being straight with you, and even then he did nothing to prepare you. Showing someone the equivalent of a bunch of home movies about Voldemort does not prepare them to face a powerful homicidal psychopath. And making Snape the defence teacher at a time when you needed to be trained in defense more than ever. Inexcusable. That man is totally incompetent as a teacher and Dumbledore knows it. Even when he was dying he could not bear the thought of you winning where he had failed so he set you up to die. Did he even tell you how to destroy the horcruxes? No, that was yet another thing you had to puzzle out for yourself. If you really had a horcrux in you then why didn't he do something about it? He had years to research horcruxes and ways of removing them, did he do that? No, he just let you know that the only way for it to be destroyed was for you to be killed, and you - fool that you are, you believed him" said Lily not pulling any punches at all.

"I'm sorry Mum, but... the things is...and I say this with all due respect. I'm feeling a bit... you know...put upon here. I was simply trying to do the right thing and... I was hoping for a heaven, frankly I would have even settled for oblivion, finally some peace you know... but an afterlife in which my Mother screams at me and points out all the mistakes that I've done... I've got to say, not really the best... Besides, you're almost literally flogging a dead horse. I mean... It's not like I can do anything at this point... I'm dead" said Harry.

"Oh for god's sake Harry... I mean, really? Why do you think I'm here? Why do you think I'm being so hard on you Harry? Do you think I'd be talking to you like this if we couldn't do something about this sorry state of affairs. What we are going to do now is that you are going to listen to your mother and you're going to do what I tell you. By the time I'm done you're going to be healthy, happy, strong and you will never ever let anyone manipulate you ever again. That's what we're going to do."