Chapter Text
The secret was never supposed to be discovered. When fate caused two heartbroken young women to bump into one another one winter day and for a terrible secret to form they never expected that one day that secret would be exposed. Of course they expected to survive the war, to continue to guard their secret. Unfortunately that did not happen for either one of them and so they took their secret to the grave, leaving no one alive who knew the truth. No one who could stop it from coming to the surface. Because often times even the deepest, darkest, most hidden secrets have a way of coming to the surface.
***
Harry James Potter groaned as rolled over in bed. He’d been woken up by a loud pounding and an insistent shrieking outside his door. It was a reminder that today was Harry’s first day of summer. Most teenagers loved summer the chance to sleep in and a break from schoolwork. But not Harry. For Harry summer meant an endless list of chores, meager meals and the loving company of his relatives, the dear sweet Dursleys.
Not wanting to but having no choice Harry rolled out of bed and fumbled with his glasses before opening his eyes. However something strange happened when he opened his eyes. His surroundings were incredibly blurry. Frowning he pulled off his glasses to clean them. They must have gotten smudged or something when Dudley pushed him into the bushes in front of the house when they got back yesterday. Once his glasses were off he realized he could see perfectly. His jaw hanging open in shock Harry quickly lifted his head to look around the room in awe of being able to see so clearly without his glasses. Then just like that everything was blurry again and he had to put his glasses on once more. Confused and worried that maybe he was going a bit mad he shrugged it off and trudged downstairs to start breakfast.
The incident was soon forgotten until he woke up several days later in the middle of the night to extreme cramps. His whole body was tingling and tensing. It felt like he was being stretched and it was painful. There was nothing he could do about though and so he simply tried to relax and get back to sleep. He brought it up with his aunt the next day and she hardly spared him a glance before saying he probably just hit a growth spurt. Harry did notice that he was a few inches taller. He’d always been average in a height, maybe a little on the short side, but average nonetheless and gaining a few inches was exciting to him. However he wasn’t quite sure that you were supposed to grow several inches in just one night.
He decided to send a letter to Sirius just mentioning it. Who knows maybe puberty was more severe and happened more quickly for wizards than muggles. Harry smiled to think that he had someone, an adult someone, that he could confide in and ask questions to. Sure he’d only met Sirius this past year and for most of that year he’d thought he was a crazed murderer but he was the closest thing Harry had to a parent and who actually wanted the role.
As Harry waited for Sirius’s response he noticed other changes about himself. His hair wasn’t quite as messy as it was before. In fact it was such a small change that he wasn’t sure if it actually was real or if he was just making things up and he was making more out of these physically changes than there are actually were. When Sirius’s letter finally arrived it said something along those same lines. He assured Harry that everything was fine and it was a natural part of growing up. Harry had to agree and tried to calm down. Being cooped at the Dursleys was making him crazy. For once was just a normal boy going through normal changes. He sent Sirius a thank you letter and a request for some stories about his dad as teenager.
His feelings of peace all changed when a week later Harry was working in the yard and everything suddenly went blurry. He took off his glasses and everything was once again in perfect clarity. Feeling extremely strange Harry rubbed at his eyes and blinked a few times to see if it would go away. It didn’t. He stood there not knowing what to do. Harry wasn’t quite as smart as Hermione or had as much experience in the wizarding world as Ron but even Harry knew that going from being as blind as a bat to seeing in perfect detail wasn’t a normal part of growing up, even for wizards.
“Boy what do you think you’re doing just standing about?” demanded Aunt Petunia.
Harry turned to look at her still at lost for words as to what was going on.
“What have you done to your eyes!?” she shrieked, her voice shriller than normal.
“What? What’s wrong with them?” Harry gasped his hands immediately going to his face. He looked around for a reflective surface he could look into. What could possibly be happening to his eyes?
“We told you, you couldn’t use any of that freakishness here!” she shouted.
“I didn’t do anything. I swear. Aunt Petunia what’s wrong with my eyes?” Harry begged feeling his panic rising.
For once his Aunt seemed to take pity on him or else even her prejudiced mind was able to realize that her nephew was truly terrified about what was going on.
“Your eyes are blue,” she said.
“Blue?” Harry said feeling off.
“Yes, well send a letter off to those other freaks then. I’m sure they’ll know what’s wrong with you. I won’t have whatever freakish thing that’s wrong with you affecting my Diddykins,” she said dismissively, seeming to have reached her kindness level towards Harry for the day.
Harry raced to do just that before realizing that Hedwig was still off delivering his most recent letter to Sirius. He didn’t know how else to contact anyone. He tried not to panic. It couldn’t be anything too serious it wasn’t even harmful. It was actually sort of a good thing being able to see without his glasses. He walked to the bathroom and looked into the mirror. Harry stared into his newly acquired bright sapphire blue eyes not really knowing how to feel about them. Was this permanent or would they be able to change them back into the vibrant green of his mum’s? Everyone always said he had his mother’s eyes and he didn’t want to lose that.
Shaking it off he informed his aunt that because Hedwig was gone the call would have to wait and then went back to the yard work. It was an hour or so later that his body was hit by a wave of painful tremors. They sent him to his knees and through a blur of pain he managed to get back into the house. With his last bit of strength he called to his aunt hoping that she’d think of something or at least be able to put him out of his misery before he collapsed into blissful nothingness.