Chapter Text
The next day, Harry couldn’t hold his excitement in— he felt like the time he got his invisibility cloak as a present— and so he woke up as quickly as possible, and reached for his phone on the bedside table, and unlocked it. His eyes instantly widened at the sheer number of notifications he received from Reddit. The light from the screen glowed, causing the blue glimmer to nearly blind his eyes in the pitch winter darkness of his bedroom.
“Bloody hell…” Harry murmured aloud as he continued to scroll through his Notification Centre.
Ginny shifted in the bed next to Harry, shuffling back and forth for a couple of moments, before she shifted her gaze towards Harry and began to move in closer, cuddling him.
“Harry, what are you doing up?” Ginny murmured. She squinted sleepily at Harry’s phone, her eyes flicking over the large white numbers in the centre of his screen. “It’s four a.m…” Ginny hugged Harry tighter, chest up against the side of his torso, and she pulled the duvet over themselves so that they would stay warm. As she closed her eyes again, Harry kissed the top of her head softly.
“I’m checking out the Reddit post me and the kids made yesterday.” He whispered, stroking Ginny’s hair with one hand. “I’ve gotten a lot of responses.”
Ginny smiled, eyes still closed. “Mhm.”
“I got thirty four comments, and over two hundred upvotes, which isn’t a lot but…”
With a start, Ginny’s eyes opened. “Seriously?” She asked, lifting up her head to properly look at Harry’s screen.
Harry nodded in affirmation, and opened the actual Reddit app, and began to scroll through his own post, until he reached the comment section. Ginny sat up properly at that, and together, the couple began to scroll through the various comments, replying to each of them, and trying not to laugh too much at the sheer absurdity of some of the other replies, while not forgetting to send an owl to someone after a very suspicious response. While there were some YTA responses, the overwhelming consensus was that Harry was not that asshole, and that he did need therapy. Harry tried his best not to cry. But there were some sniffles, and Ginny hugged him, as they went through the rest of them. Soon…
“You see Harry?” Ginny finally whispered an hour later, as they were finally done, cuddling together on the bed, phone left forgotten on the bedside table. “No one blames you, really, for what happened with Quirrel when you were a kid.”
“I always felt sick to my stomach whenever I thought of him, my first real murder, but I feel slightly better now. And I…” Harry paused, and Ginny blinked at him expectantly.
“Yeah…?”
Harry smiled at Ginny, a real, happy smile. “I don’t really blame myself for it anymore. ”
Ginny blinked at him.
“…And I’ll try therapy.”
Ginny smiled, placing her head on Harry’s chest. “Good.” She whispered. “I’m glad.
“Glad to know that Reddit strangers are the answer to all my husband's trauma!”
Harry groaned. “Oh, sweet Merlin,” he said, gazing at the ceiling with exasperation.
He groaned even louder when he heard Albus and Lily bang on the door, asking for any updates on the post. For once, he was glad that James was off doing something with his friends for the holidays, rather than joining along with his siblings. Albus and Lily were upset at not being included in the replies, but they soon brushed it off as they read all the replies, together, as a family. Harry’s goofy smile widened.
Maybe, posting on Reddit was a good idea after all.
Comments
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u/Sea_Witch65
NTA! what the fuck kind of school do you go to?? Why did your headmaster not know something was going on? What's with the obstacle course? OP, your wife is right. You definitely have trauma from this. Hopefully that's the last time you encountered that level of danger.
u/boywholived
Maybe you’re right. Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind
u/Commander-L
NTA your parents murderers your rules
u/boywholived
Fair enough.
u/Fullstackmcpuffin
YTA. Should have been killed. Or worse, expelled.
u/Misery-and-Scratches
Man what kind of School did you go to?
This could qualify as a whole ass novel.
u/boywholived
It was a boarding school for children with ‘special abilities.’
My name was put down for the school before I was even crawling
u/Gifted-Snail
INFO: was there something special about this fire you used? Burn marks are bad, but just a burnt face shouldn't kill a person, especially not immediately (I mean it could get infected and kill via sepsis)
u/boywholived
State secrets
u/Gifted-Snail
It was acid wasn't it
u/boywholived
…something like that, yes
.
u/Gifted-Snail
I'm not convinced that was what killed him, but YTA for disfiguring
someone's face with ~acid over a piece of gold
u/boywholived
Fair enough. Cheers
u/FishKebab
Not sure why you thought your chemistry teacher was sus but NTA, this school sounds questionably run. You definitely have trauma though, I'd reccomend therapy.
u/boywholived
I mentioned earlier that he was apart of the death eaters prior. A lot of stuff
happened that year, and my post was getting too long. Thanks for the advice— maybe
I should get therapy.
u/FishKebab
Sorry, must have missed that but, gl with therapy
u/AdrashDRadish
NTA The teacher was to blame for it. Your relatives sounds like Ahs though
u/boywholived
That’s putting it mildly. Thanks
u/DemilLLL
YTA You destroyed the gold that was already safely guarded. Also the defence professor might have deserved a second chance.
u/boywholived
I always think that, yes. Thank you for your input
u/HairyHorcrux
You should get therapy for that and the other things that happened to us, it really helps with the Nargles. -LS nee L via RS
u/boywholived
Thank you L
u/Always-bi
YTA. What on earth possessed you to do that??? You were a child, and you risked your life (and your friends’!!) for a chunk of gold that got destroyed anyway?? The lack of defences was on the people who were guarding the gold, you shouldn’t have messed with them, it was none of your business... What if you or your friends had gotten shot? Can you imagine the ensuing lawsuit?
u/April-is-simple
NTA, but info: why the fuck do you keep using the word "stone" when you said chunk of gold? Surely your headmaster wasn't guarding some random pebble?
u/boywholived
Nah, it was gold. Stone was just easier to type, I’m on mobile
u/Ethnafia
Wow, I'm not going to give you a judgment because you were 11 years old. It seems to me that every single adult in your life failed you. I'm so sorry that happened to you! Hugs! I do think your wife is right, tho therapy can help you deal with the trauma you were subjected to. It's especially important to do that if you have kids. You want to be the healthiest person you can be for your family, and that means dealing with past trauma. Hope you find the healing that you need!
u/
ThomasTheTankEngine
So reading between the lines a bit you have a boarding school you attend based on a family legacy, gang warfare between the death eaters and your parent’s gang, and state secrets. This seems a lot less like secret government operations and a lot more like you’ve been indoctrinated into a cult. For the sake of it, I’ll point out that committing some act which goes against your normal code of ethics is usually part of cult indoctrination. It’s a little like self hazing and helps to draw a line between “us” and “them” along with “who I was” and “who I am.” To me it seems like burning this guy was a contrived blooding for you. You absolutely should get therapy and look into cult deprogramming options. My heart goes out to you and the suffering you’ve no doubt gone through after this event. I’ve tracked your IP and requested a cult response squad investigate your area. Hope that helps.
u/
Ice-Spice
NTA. OP sounds like you need therapy. Lots of therapy.
u/Mughlian906
ESH, honestly, what possessed you to even go and stalk random people just because they were "suspicious"? Also, what kind of school allows this kind of stuff to happen? I'm honestly wondering if you're just making this up for the karma OP.
u/Brown-babe
Nta. Tommy boy had it coming as far as i know for an 11 year old. Maybe as you get older you'll know why he did it and why he was like that. Nta though
u/Tricky-Rest-2647
NTA! The Head Teacher is, for not making a bg check dude. By the way, by any chance, would your last name start with a P? Coz I have an elder sister in a highschool cum uni in France, she had heard from her seniors who attended some interschool academic competition something similar. She also heard that something like a giant snake was found under the school, if the stories can even be believed.
u/MulberryShortcake
Why the fuck was your headteacher so invested in a drug gang war? Why the fuck did he store a chunk of gold in the school? What was it's purpose? And on what Kind of a Trip was He for making an obstascle course around it? Why was there No Background screening for your self defence teacher? Just what Kind of fucking school did you go to? NTA, and I hope you go look for some help
u/BlankYandereStaring
YTA, you should have been wearing proper protective gear when handling open fire, and I can't forgive that level of criminal behavior. Oh, and you seem to be a bit of a murderer as well, and should probably work on that. Have you even tried to apologize to the dead man's next of kin?
u/Electricty?I’mARubberDuck
NTA! The guy attacked an 11 year old so clearly nothing of value was lost. Your school is weird, also who cares about a random chunk of gold that much. Between that and hiding it in a school I feel like there's gotta be something really important being left out. Don't suppose your school had an unusually good physics department?
u/Idgaflol
No fucking way this is real, there’s no way in the realm of reality this happened. Look, I know the U.S has some gang problems, but this is too much. Total karma chaser.