"Here we are" Dumbledore said as he, Snape and the other aurors arrived inside Harry's mind. He looked around and he saw that Harry's mind barrier was in the form of Hogwarts, that didn't really surprise him, many students had Hogwarts's as their mind barriers. He knew Snape and Tom both did the same.
"Impossible" Snape breathed
"Severus, what is it?" Dumbledore asked
"This...is my mental barrier...but better"
"Severus, I'm sure you and Harry have both simply just chosen Hogwarts and..."
"No, I'm positive it's mine" Snape interrupted "I've spent so much time working on my mental barrier that I know it better than the back of my hand. For example, that small Slytherin symbol on that tree" Snape pointed at a tree near the lake "I used that in my defences as a shortcut in case I ever needed to bring someone into my mind"
"Well, let's test your theory" Dumbledore frowned as he, Snape and the aurors walked over to the tree. Snape tapped his wand against the tree three times in a row and soon all of them were transported straight to the Slytherin common room entrance
"Is that part of your mind as well?" The auror pointed to the 'don't enter' written in blood on the room door
"Defiantly not" Snape glared at the auror who cowered under his glare like a first year Gryffindor
"Well, let's try and get in" The headmaster said "hopefully Harry hasn't installed a password. Or a trap" He added the last part to himself, but the others still heard it.
Fortunately for them, there were no traps or passwords and they managed to get in, though what they found was definitely not the Slytherin common room. In front of them was a row of plain houses, they appeared to be in a muggle street.
"Definitely not mine" Snape muttered. Dumbledore, was thoughtful, he recognised this place, it was privet drive. Funnily enough, he saw that number four was right in front of him.
"What about that?" One auror pointed to the darkening sky, clouds formed as the sounds of lightning and thunder were heard
"Quickly" Dumbledore said, realising that one of Harry's defences were activating "to that house" He said, leading them all to number four
"Why this house?" Snape asked
"Because this is the one that Harry was supposed to live in" Dumbledore said as he magically unlocked the door, he was surprised that there were no traps or defences, he expected better from Harry. He opened the door, and was about to step in when the sight in front of him caused himself and everyone else to jump back in horror. It even managed to spook those watching from outside of Harry's mind.
A small boy, about four or five, was in the doorway. He had blond hair and was quite fat for his age, but that was not the shocking part. The shocking part was the fact that the boy was hanging by his neck thanks to a piece of rope. Everyone was feeling a bit nauseous, and uneasy but powered through. They walked in to the house, past the hanging body and began looking around.
"Headmaster" Snape's voice came and Dumbledore followed it into the living room where he found whom he presumed to be the boy's father, a rather large man with a large mustache sitting in a chair. Horrifyingly for Dumbledore, the man had a knife lodged right in his forehead and blood dripping down to the floor.
"Sir!" One auror shouted, Dumbledore, Snape and the others quickly came to the location of the auror who shouted and found him pointing at a cupboard under the stairs. Dumbledore felt his heart beat faster when he saw the words written in blood, written in blood on the door were the words 'Harry's room'.
"Open it" Dumbledore said, his wand aimed at the door, ready for traps. The auror nodded and fired an unlocking charm at the door, it opened and something fell out. Correction, someone.
A burned and charred body landed in front of them, it was hairless, the mouth was still open. Judging by the clothes it was female, she wore an apron and had expensive earrings. The urge to vomit was present amongst many, including Dumbledore who realised that this was in fact Petunia Dursley.
"W...what's that sound?" One auror asked, and sure enough everyone listened closely for a sound. A sound was heard, from inside the cupboard, the sound of a child.
After a brief moment of hesitation, Dumbledore entered the cupboard, the others followed shortly after and they all found themselves in another place. There were no buildings, or visuals. Everything was pitch black, apart from in the center, a bright light shined upon a crying child with black hair who had his knees tucked into his chest and his arms around his legs. He couldn't have been older than four or five.
'Poor child' Dumbledore thought as he and the aurors walked towards the boy. Dumbledore always knew that compassion and sympathy were the cures for problems, not violence. He would show that to be true now.
They came closer, when they realised something important, the boy was no longer crying. No...his crying had turned into laughter. They stopped right in their tracks when they saw the black haired, green eyed child look up at them with an unbelievably happy expression. Dumbledore was more unnerved by this young Harry Potter than the current one.
"Hello!" Harry Potter laughed "welcome to my version of hell! Here, I'm the devil! I hope you enjoy your stay!" He cackled with laughter "I really do hope so...because if you don't" His laughter slowly died down "tough luck. Gather around kiddies, gather around for the story of Harry Potter"
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