Harry reappeared in his room at Hogwarts; it was the only place safe enough to reflect on what had just happened. First of all, he tried to calm down as quickly as possible. He had important things to think about, and if he continued to be so nervous, he wouldn't be able to do anything. For that, he called a House-Elf and asked for a cup of strong tea, then sat down so he could reflect.
He had known for months that this day was going to come; in fact, he knew more or less why it was going to happen and where. Whichever way he looked at it, he knew that he would have had to have been prepared to be discovered, and even so, it was still a hard blow for him. He took a sip of his tea before thinking about how he should act from that moment on.
He was no fool; he knew that Dumbledore was desperate. The war had gone on too long, twenty-four years was a long time, and the wizarding community was too weakened and tired to last much longer. He had known for a long time that the only reason the Ministry had not lost the war was because of the Order, and because Voldemort himself had not decided to apply himself strongly—he did not yet believe he could completely defeat the community, and failure was something that had never been allowed. The Headmaster also knew all that, and he wanted the war to end before that happened, but… instead of wanting to form a partnership with the wizards who could help her, she wanted to lead them; she wanted to be the King in the great chess game that was that war, and that all the others were the pawns, because on her board there were no rooks, no knights, no bishops or Queen, only him to lead them all in his comfortable tower at Hogwarts where he sent his pawns into battle.
He refused to be a pawn and also refused an association with the old manipulator. For many years, he had seen how the old man had been making his family what he wanted. He had seen how Brian's already considerable ego had increased, and then how he had abandoned him after learning that he was not the pawn he needed. He was not going to give him that power over himself; the old man would have to understand that he was an independent agent, either by hook or by crook.
With this in mind, he left his shelter and went to the Great Hall for breakfast. With his many ruminations, he had spent the night; of course, it was also late when he returned, and surely, he had slept something.
As soon as he entered the Dining Hall, there was a loud silence at the teachers' table, while they stared at him. There were a large number of members of the Order within the faculty, and after what happened the night before, they could not believe it despite knowing Harry's abilities and power beforehand, but it had still taken them by surprise.
Ignoring the looks, Harry went to his old table where he was in the habit of taking his meals and, sitting down with his former companions, began to have breakfast quietly. He was aware of the looks, and although they made him nervous, there was little more he could do.
"Mr. Potter, I'd like to speak to you in my office as soon as you've finished breakfast. I'm sure his teacher won't mind." The Headmaster said, passing by him after breakfast. This was not a request, but an order, and it had been arranged in such a way that he could not refuse it.
"Very good," he replied with clenched teeth, and when he saw that Dumbledore did not give him any other direction, and that he was leaving, Harry added, "Excuse me, Headmaster, but you have not given me the password."
"Oh yes, I neglect mine… The password is Kojak."
"Thank you."
The moment the Headmaster left, his friends turned to him with curious expressions. Honestly, he was not what one would call eager to explain what had happened, since his own carelessness filled him with an indescribable rage. Even so, he began to tell them what had happened the night before, under the watchful eye of his friends and the anger at having been discovered by people who wanted so little for their friend's well-being.
After breakfast, the boy went to the Headmaster's office almost as if he were heading for the gallows; and that reality, at his point of view, was not very misguided. Although luckily, for his peace of mind, his teacher found him at the gargoyle that led to the office, obviously a desire to give him all the support possible.
When they entered the room, it was more crowded than Harry thought possible, since he was with all the leaders and advisors of the famous and at the same time accursed Order of the Phoenix, who passed through the door and looked at him as if he were an appetizing prey.
"Ah, Harry… and Severus, please take a seat. We were waiting for young Mr. Potter to finish his breakfast."
"What did you want to talk to me about, Headmaster? As you know, I'm pretty busy."
"We just wanted to know…" The old man began, suddenly becoming serious. "How is it that you were in Godric's Hollow last night, in the middle of a Death Eater attack?"
"Why do you ask what you already know, Headmaster?" the boy replied in turn.
That answer caused the great majority of those present to begin to reproach him for his words, while the Headmaster adopted an expression of hurt; not that it deceived the boy, nor Snape, who glared at everyone present with his now famous look: "I'm going to cut you into pieces and use you as ingredients, if you don't stop right now."
"Harry, I don't think you know how important it is that you have so much power, or that you can transform into a white phoenix. Thirteen years ago…"
"Thirteen years ago a prophecy was made about the white phoenix; it is nothing new to me. It's also not new to me that he thought it was my brother Brian, and that it was because of that prophecy that everyone ignored and neglected me."
"Harry!" cried a present Lily Potter. "Don't talk to the Headmaster like that! Apologise!"
"I have every right to speak to him like this, since he was the one who urged and favoured with his behaviour that I be treated as it has been done. And you have no right to tell me to apologise."
"I'm your mother!"
"In name only. You never behaved towards me as such. Now that you remember that I exist, do you want me to consider you my mother? Ginna has been much more of a mother than you, and let's start with Father," he said when he saw the man open his mouth. "James Potter has never been a father to me, but Uncle Remus has."
Silence had taken over the office as James and Lily turned drastically pale. Harry looked at everyone present and adopted a disdainful expression.
"Now, now, Headmaster, you have discovered that the prophecy was talking about me, and you have realised that you played your cards very badly… Well, I'm very sorry, because I'm not going to allow him to manipulate me, and I'm not going to be his perfect little weapon."
"Harry, I don't think you understand…"
"No, I understand very well. According to prophecy, I must defeat Voldemort, and believe me, I will." Before the smile that was placed on the old man's face, he added, "But remember, Dumbledore, I am an emancipated minor; I must not answer to anyone except my Master, and only in matters related to my mastery. I will do this, but in my own way, not yours."
After that, the teenager got up and, with all the dignity possible, left the Headmaster's office and made his way to his teacher's rooms. If she began to get to know the man, she would soon be with him to talk about what had happened.
As he imagined, he didn't have to wait long; just fifteen minutes later, Snape walked through the door and sat right in front of him.
"Why hadn't you told me anything about all this?" Snape asked.
"I didn't want anyone to know before I could be free… My 'parents' would have done everything possible to control me in order to remain the parents of the child in prophecy."
"So that's why you asked for emancipation."
"Yes, sir."
"You knew this was going to happen, you knew you were going to be discovered, and you still went to stop the attack."
"I couldn't allow innocent people to die… So I took the right steps."
"You'll have to be careful. When I left, I left Dumbledore talking with your parents about how to get you to agree to do what they want."
"Pffft! Good luck if you get it. They have nothing to catch me for… They don't know me, and the only one who could make me think about it is on my side. So, they have it bad."
That way, if before the young wizard was quite elusive, it was nothing compared to the following days, where the only place where they could be seen was during the Potions lessons he gave with his Master. His friends, accustomed as they were to seeing him during his meals, found that from then on, if they wanted to see him, they had to come and visit him in his personal room, because outside it was almost impossible to see him.
Of course, he wouldn't have been so elusive if the Headmaster hadn't tried to drug him and force him to follow his orders and those of his followers. Of course, the plan failed miserably; not for nothing, the boy was the youngest apprentice of the last thousand years. He was also a prisoner, because when the drug failed, what the old man tried to do was to bewitch him… Well, saying the old man wasn't correct, because despite being urged by the Headmaster, it had been his own "father" who raised his wand against him and tried to curse him.
He also learned a week later that the old man had come to contact Remus in a desperate attempt to convince the teenager to submit to his control. Something that also failed in a totally resounding way, since as expected, Remus clearly and categorically refused.
It was getting to such a point that the boy was considering confronting that crazy psychopath once and for all, if it were only to have a little peace and tranquility, and surely he would have carried it out, if it had not been for the fact that it was a potentially problematic and very dangerous idea; but if they continued to bother him in that way, he would consider it much more seriously.