Breaking the Silence

I'd tried to shove it to the back of my mind, but it was impossible to ignore. Harry Potter was real. He was a real person and he was suffering. Could I really just sit back and let his relatives hurt him? Could I abandon someone in harm, knowing I could make a difference?

No. No I could not. I might not be the most morally upright person in the world, but I damn well wasn't someone who'd sit back and watch someone I knew suffer when I had the means to help them. So come hell or high water, and against my better judgement, I was getting involved in Harry Potter's life.

And from what I'd seen so far, he was going to need a lot of help.

The next morning, I got up a couple minutes early so I could help Harry with his homework and other issues. We would meet up in the library, like we'd done yesterday, and I would help him as best I could with his various problems.

Helping the Boy-Who-Lived with his academic stuff was only a small part of what I hoped to do for him. I planned on getting him bulked up somewhat because he was far too skinny for his own good. And maybe a bit of help with social interactions. I only had a year to work with him, but I was going to do the best I could with the time I had.

"Morning, Harry," I said, greeting the younger boy as I stepped into Woolingsby's library. He looked up, a flicker of apprehension in his gaze, but he wasn't flinching like yesterday, so I took it as a win.

"Morning," he said slowly.

"So! Let's look over your math homework first, shall we?" I suggested, and he nodded, pulling out his worksheets.

I glanced over them, my Occlumency helping me read them faster than normal, and I pulled out a pencil and delicately marked down spots where he'd gotten some stuff wrong.

"Alright, you did pretty good. Math is mostly just remembering the rules, so once you have that down, you'll be on the right track," I said.

As we worked, I heard a loud grumble come from Harry's stomach, and I frowned, giving him a concerned look.

"Are you hungry?" I asked him, and he shook his head quickly.

"I'm fine!" he responded. "I ate breakfast today!"

"The way you said that makes me think you don't eat breakfast every day," I replied shortly, which made him hunch over and curl up in on himself.

"Hope you like bologna, cheddar, and mayo," I said, making a snap decision, and reached into my backpack, extracting the sandwich Inky had made for my lunch. "Eat. Go on, do it. I don't care if we're in the library right now, you're not going to class hungry, and I can always buy my lunch from the cafeteria."

Harry recoiled, taken aback that someone was taking such an interest in him and his wellbeing, and hesitantly took the offered sandwich. Despite his best efforts to resist, it smelled good, and he scarfed it down in less than a minute.

'Okay, definitely telling Inky to make me two lunches from now on. And an extra breakfast,' I thought to myself as I watched him eat like a starving person. Which, come to think of it, he just might have been. I also brought out the bottle of water, apple, and bag of chips I'd brought with me to accompany my lunch, and slid them over to where Harry was sitting.

I quietly held back my anger at the Dursleys and Dumbledore, and instead pretended like I wasn't watching him eat as I went over his history homework.

My feelings of concern over my decision to get involved with Harry dwindled even further.

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