"I didn't say that he was responsible for that, only that sometimes it's just easier to ignore your grandmother. Ron learned at eleven," he said with a shrug. "She's nice most of the time, so it can't be that bad." Aunt Petunia had always been nasty and she was a bad person, but Molly was amazing. "Although it sort of is under his control. The Hat wanted to put me in Slytherin. I most certainly told him that it wasn't happening and I wanted to be in Gryffindor. You can argue with the Hat if you want to. Still, I'm not saying he did anything wrong, but parents or grandparents aren't perfect. You ignore the faults."
He snorted. "If they are out to get you, you must certainly aren't paranoid. There's an actual clinical reason but I don't know it. Hermione was rambling about it once. Also without knowing her explanation, it's more being prepared. Constant vigilance is just that." None of that seemed that important when he heard all of the rest. Harry looked at the tablet and then at Jamie. "This book has to do with Voldemort. I can't tell you the details, but I don't know why we'd reference this particular book when we went out of our way to make it disappear unless we thought there was some kind of dark magic in the mix. So much about this isn't making any sense, but I guess we'll need to find the others."
He let Jamie deal with the tablet, since he was more equipped with this. "I trust you," he said instead. "But Jamie, there are different levels of trust. Ron and Hermione? I trust them with almost everything, because they have been there for everything, but I keep things from them. Draco sees a different part of me, but there are certainly large parts of my life that he doesn't see. I trust you to do whatever needs to be done to protect people in general and family in particular and I trust you to do the right thing. Taking away those memories isn't because I don't trust you, but because they put at risk the world and you at the same time. It doesn't matter that you wouldn't betray us, it doesn't matter if you think that you'd rather die than divulge the information. People will say anything under torture and people will say anything with the right spell. I didn't want to take all of the memories, just the ones that could put everyone in danger."
He put his hands in his pocket, smiling a little. "Is this where I say 'I told you so'? Although I'm not sure that you actually got what I was trying to say, because I suck at this. I've tried to tell Lilu too and went just as well I think. It's normal to look at me and see your father, just like I look at Mum and Dad and they are my parents, even though they never had the chance to raise me. I don't think any of us will ever be able to separate versions of people as much as we'd like. Also blood magic is powerful and I don't mean just the spells we cast but the bond that exists. Sometimes I think that so much went wrong because so many people were intermarried and the bond was stretched, pushed and torn apart, screwing up people. But here we are and you are older than me, but don't think for a second that I wouldn't give my life for you, or Al and Lilu. I will protect you to the best of my abilities, and while I can't give you the childhood you wanted, I can show you what I enjoy before things went so horribly wrong. Honestly, they were starting to, before I got here. The closer I got to that job as Head Auror, the more I drank. The undercover work- it didn't help. You do all sorts of things to keep your cover and when you don't have anyone else waiting for you- it's hard to remember how to deal with normal people. So I'm sorry you didn't get a Dad who could do normal things with you, and I can't do many normal things even now, but we can do magic, and flying and Quidditch. The things I do like."