disclaimer:
I believe it was plato who once said… "JK is the author of Harry Potter, thou shalt not charge money or attempt to unlawfully profit off of her intellectual property." … Well, maybe I'm making that up, but it's just so much more fun to do this stuff for free anyway!
Author's note:
I've been messing with XML to make it easy to post to my own site, the evil site and portkey using different layouts. I'm not 100% confident that it's all working the way it should yet, but I haven't been able to see any more glaring mistakes. Please let me know if you find something wrong. :)
Harry stepped up to the front gate of Grimmauld Place and let himself in. It was his house after all.
He approached the door and tried to turn the handle. It wouldn't budge.
'Great how do I get in now?'
"erm Let me in?" Nothing. "Open Sesame?" Nope. "Alohamora?" Nope.
Harry blinked and got out the lock picking kit and in half an hour, he let himself in. He was surprised that the lock gave at all, given that he had guessed it was magically locked in the first place. He shrugged it off.
The foyer looked the same. Nothing had changed. He hated this place, but it was his. This was Sirius' house; it should still be his, but for now for now it was Harry's haven.
"I'm not going to leave this house without my own consent." Harry mumbled to himself.
He ducked down to the kitchen and raided the carefully stocked kitchen, making a beeline for the pumpkin juice. He winced as he grabbed the bottle, opening the wounds on his hands.
With a glass in his hand, he made his way up the flight of steps and to one of the spare bedrooms, one where nobody normally stayed.
He found one bedroom, at the other end of the building where nobody ever went to his knowledge. It was dark, unlit and showed a sign of aging. Unsurprising then that Harry was almost convinced it was the black master bedroom. Sirius certainly wouldn't have slept there. 'But no reason why I should have the same convictions.'
Inside the room were spider webs and evidence of doxies, the bed was in very bad repair and Harry was half expecting a bogart in one of the wardrobes.
One thing was for certain. It would be a hard slog to clean this up for himself. He shook his head and moved to find a broom and then had a thought.
"Kreacher!" He yelled. "Get your arse out here!"
There was a small pop behind him and Harry spun around. "Kret-- Dobby?" Harry jumped back.
"Harry Potter sir! What is you be doing here?"
"I escaped." Harry replied simply. "And I've decided to live here for a bit I was going to ask Kreacher to clean this room for me, but it's ok."
"Dobby will help Harry Potter!" He said with a huge grin on his face.
"Wait- Dobby- don't!" But it was too late, Dobby was off and cleaning.
Harry growled and stepped in to lend a hand, much against Dobby's protests, but it gave Harry something to do.
"Dobby, where is Kreacher?"
Dobby was wrestling with a doxy. "Kreacher was taken in front of the elves union for betraying his master. He was a bad elf. Dobby won't miss him, no."
Harry smiled. That house elf was just evil and deserved what came to him. Harry shook his head. He shouldn't think thoughts like that. He was free from Vernon and didn't need to have such spiteful thoughts any more. He was free. How he savoured that word.
He would throw out that book when he unpacked his trunk. The thought cheered him immensely.
Harry asked Dobby if it would be too much to organise for new furniture for the room. While Dobby could not withdraw money from any of Harry's accounts without being bonded to him, Dobby was however, quite willing to nick off with one of the beds from another room, which suited Harry just fine.
Along with a bed came a study desk, rug and wardrobe. Dobby carefully put the ones that they removed into a nearby room while trying to avoid disturbing anything that may have been in them.
By the end of the day, Harry was feeling exhausted, but still cheerful, and was happily removing things from his trunk when he pulled out the Dark Arts book. It would be relatively easy to get rid of the book Harry mused, but what was the best way to do it?
While pondering it, Dobby re-entered his room.
"I wonder if it's ok to burn a book like this" He mused.
"Harry Potter sir wants dobby to burn a book for him?"
Harry wondered if a Dark Arts book would be enchanted with dark spells and decided that it would be much better to keep it around until he could safely dispose of it without being caught.
"Dobby, can I trust you?" Harry asked the little elf.
"Harry Potter can trust Dobby with anything!" The elf insisted.
"I mean it Dobby, I need to make sure you won't tell anybody, not Dumbledore, not Winky, nobody"
"Dobby feels he owes Harry Potter a life debt. I is your house elf even if I is paid to be at Hogwarts."
Harry nodded slowly and hoped that it was enough. "Then don't tell anybody about this book alright."
"Of course." The elf said with a goofy grin.
Harry truly did trust Dobby and it hurt to suggest that the elf would betray him, but until he could sort out whether he was crazy or if someone really had obliviated everybody he knew.
Harry left his room and went to hide a tree in a forest.
The Black library was vast, and Harry knew it would carry books on all topics. He searched the library for the section on Dark Arts, and as he suspected, it didn't take long to find as it was quite extensive. Harry put the book on a shelf that wasn't completely full and before leaving the room, he stopped by to see if he could find any books on occlumency.
Finding one, he took it back to his room and put it aside while he wrote a letter to Hermione.
In his letter, he thanked her for her gift and asked if they could meet up at some point in the near future. He told her that he was where he belonged and hoped that she would be able to figure it out.
With Hedwig out delivering his letter, Harry thanked Dobby, showered, ate and went to bed feeling satisfied with his day.
Harry awoke to the sound of loud voices from the floors beneath. He begrudgingly got up out of bed and moved downstairs to a very stunned group of order members.
"Hey everyone." He said in a morning stupor and went to the kitchen to grab some breakfast. He noticed that Narcissa's sandwich was there.
"H-Harry!" Tonks yelled. "What the fuck are you doing here!?" She yelled at him.
"I left." He replied as he put some toast over the stove. He flexed his hands a bit, testing to see if they were any more usable than they were the day before, instead he opened the wounds again and they started bleeding anew. Sighing, he reached for the medicine cabinet and pulled out a bandage to put around his fingers.
"Harry! You ran away from home!" She exclaimed as more people entered the kitchen.
"No," He replied calmly. "I ran away to home. Dumbledore can talk about protection from Voldemort all he likes, but at least Voldemort would kill me outright rather than torturing me day to day!" Everyone flinched at the casual use of his name.
He glared at them all. "You're not taking me back there. I refuse to go." He told them as Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry entered the room.
"It is for your own good Harry,"
"Headmaster" Harry fumed. "How is THIS for my own good?" He waved the bloodied bandage under the older man's nose.
"Their treatment of me is nothing short of criminal! I sent you letters! I know that someone here has seen them! I asked for help! And nobody helped. Some protection you guys are."
He turned his head in disappointment, grabbed his piece of toast, which had burned during the exchange and left the kitchen. As he moved up the stairs, he heard the order members start mumbling again, but the last thing he heard was professor Dumbledore saying, "It has to be his own choice, Grimmauld Place may be his house by deed, but he has no family to call his own here."
Upon hearing this he shook his head. 'How dare he.' Harry muttered to himself. 'Kreacher would be closer family to me than the Dursleys.'
He mused how the last thing his Aunt Petunia had said to him was "Freaks don't need food." Two days before he left. It had been the last time he had eaten with their permission.
'How is that family?' he asked himself as he moved up to his room and started reading his occlumency book.
Studying from a book was probably nowhere near as effective as having your mind raped by Severus Snape. As Harry read through the book, he realised that by having his mind attacked, it would create a mental barrier that was instinctive, but impossible to control.
He read that there was a decent possibility that forced instinctual barriers had the possibility of hampering a person's ability to efficiently analyse situations, effectively reducing their ability to learn.
He shook his head at what he was reading. There were much better ways to go about this.
Someone knocked at his door. Harry closed the book, making note of the page number and answered his door.
Professor Dumbledore stood in the doorway looking kindly at him.
Harry awoke the next day feeling very confused. He remembered nothing of the previous day after Dumbledore had knocked on his door.
The back of his mind held the answer he needed. Someone had obliviated him. It was that simple. He struggled to remember, but it just escaped him.
He found on his desk, Hedwig, with a letter attached to her leg.
Harry,
I'm glad that you're safe. My parents had asked me a few days ago to go to Paris with them, but I've asked if I could spend the time studying instead.
They've allowed me to go thankfully and I'll be coming to your place tomorrow.
I look forward to it, we have a lot to talk about.
Hermione
Harry sat back in his chair. It would be nice to be with someone who believed him. With what happened the day before, Harry was almost positive that not only had he been obliviated, but someone had tried obliviating Hermione also.
He was also sure that the person handing out obliviations like they were lemon drops, was none other than Albus Dumbledore himself.
Harry frowned and started to pace the room. What was he to do? Harry was very sure that the memory charm had not worked as he had planned it.
Harry knew deep down that the kind and caring Headmaster was not what he seemed. The fact that he had been obliviated to cover up the whole issue with the Ministry and Sirius, made Harry wonder if Dumbledore had infact been successful at charming him when he was younger.
'How much of my life is all a lie?' He asked himself. 'Isn't it my life to live? Why should he get to choose the things I remember!?' He clenched his fists. 'I've got to stop him!'
It occurred to him that there was no way he could possibly talk Dumbledore out of modifying people's memories, all Dumbledore had to do was charm him and there was every possibility that he would succeed. At the very least, he would forget the events of the day until his brain caught up.
Harry paused with that train of thought. 'In order to stop him, I'm going to need that book damn!'
"Dobby!" Harry called. "I need you to do me a favour can you? Let me know if anybody comes to the house."
Dobby eagerly nodded and asked if Harry wanted anything to eat. Harry smiled at him and insisted that the little house elf didn't need to go that far.
Wandless Magic is a very difficult skill to master, requiring a lot of magical potential to do consciously.
One of the biggest advantages of wandless magic is that spells which operate directly on wands is of course nulled by the absence of a wand, such as prior incantato.
New wands in particular, until they are worn in have an easily recognisable signature which is easily tracked.
The easiest of spells to do with a wand are very difficult to the wandless beginner. Somewhat similar in relation breathing around your home is to breathing around the mount of a volcano.
Magic itself can be likened to water in a faucet. A wizard or witch's wand is the handle that you turn to get water out of the faucet.
If you remove the handle from the faucet, you are left with a peg with a square end which is difficult to turn with one's hands.
The concept then of wandless magic is to re-forge that peg to have it's own handle without having a removable one. This is achieved using spells of increasing difficulty at regular intervals until turning the faucet is as easy as it was using a wand.
This process however is very difficult to do by the standard wizard.
'That means that the ministry is tracking my wand If I could actually do this wandless magic thing, it would mean that I could practice things without anybody knowing' Harry mused to himself.
He stretched out his hand before him. "Lumos!" Nothing happened.
"Lumos!"
Harry became rather frustrated after half an hour of trying. He supposed that what he was doing was trying to cast a spell by sheer brute force.
Harry pictured the tap in his mind. He pictured himself turning the tap. In his mind, the tap resisted, which surprised Harry. It should be easy for him to turn an imaginary tap.
As he tried in his mind to turn the tap, he held out his hand. "Lumos!" The tap budged and a slow drip started. His hand developed a light glow.
"No way!" He exclaimed. He lost his concentration in the euphoria and the light disappeared, but this didn't matter. Harry knew he could do this. Just wait till he showed Hermione tomorrow.
Harry tried doing his magic and managed to get his hand glowing to the point of it being that of a glow-worm before Dobby announced that Nymphadora Tonks was downstairs.
Harry snapped his book shut and put it away before Tonks had the chance to come looking for him. He reached for an occlumency book and sat down with it and started to read.
Tonks knocked on the door a few minutes later. "Harry? Dumbledore said that he'd talked you into going back to your relatives Are you ready to go?"
Harry blinked at her. So, Dumbledore wanted him to go back to his relatives did he? Harry wouldn't do that. But he couldn't flat out refuse without giving away the fact that the memory charm had failed again.
"To be honest Tonks, I wasn't thinking when I said it I don't mean to go back on my words, but I promised Hermione that she could stay with me while her parents were away."
"But Harry! They're worried sick about you!"
Harry just about gagged. He certainly choked down his surprised. They missed him? More like they missed abusing him.
"I'm not ready to go back there Tonks, not until my wounds have healed."
"I'm sorry you have to go through all that, but your Uncle Vernon has promised that he'll catch the kids who did it to you."
Harry tried not to yell, he tried not to scream at her. It wasn't her fault
"When I see Professor Dumbledore next, I'll tell him that I'll go back once Hermione's parents are back."
Tonks nodded. "Alright then Harry, if you've made plans like that then we'll just have to work around it. I'll let your aunt and uncle know that you're ok though, alright?"
Harry nodded and watched as she turned and apparated away.
Harry ground his teeth.
"LUMOS!" He yelled, and his whole body glowed brightly for a moment until he calmed down.
"Damn you Dumbledore. I'm going to show you how unpredictable someone who has forgotten their past can be."
Hermione arrived by taxi the following day.
Harry heard the door shut on the car outside and immediately intercepted her before she opened the door.
"Hey! You're here." He grinned. "You still remember the Ministry and that don't you?"
"I'm still sane Harry," She replied wryly. "How have you been, have you been holding up ok?"
He nodded in response. "I've been passing the time studying." He gestured inside and suggested that she take the room next to his. People seemed less likely to go down that part of the house.
It seemed that Dobby had the same idea too and had surprised Harry by having the room next door already cleaned before Harry had even opened the door.
"So you've been studying huh?" Hermione grinned as she unshrunk her trunk. "Are you sure that you're sane?"
"I've never been more sane Hermione." He replied seriously. He was fully aware that she was trying to show she was happy to be here, but Harry was in no mood for jokes.
"Studying what then?" She asked as she opened the trunk and took a few of her clothes out of the trunk.
Harry grinned. "Just working on some occlumency and stuff like that. Accio teddy bear!" The bear zipped into his hands.
Hermione stared at him. "Harry! You're not of age!" Then she gaped. "Harry! Where is your wand?"
"It's in my bedroom." He grinned as he put the bear on her sheets.
"So then you did wandless magic? Consciously?" She shook her head. "That's quite an achievement Harry."
"It's not easy, but I can show you how I learned it."
After they had emptied Harry's best friend's trunk Harry set about explaining the tap and faucet theory that he had read.
Hermione had a lot less luck than Harry did, not even managing to imagine a tap that had resistance to turning.
"Perhaps you're imagining the wrong kind of tap." Harry replied nonchalantly.
Hermione sighed. "Perhaps I'm just not able to do wandless magic." She replied with a faint whiff of despair.
"I'm sure you'll manage, I think you just need your epiphany to get it."
After lunch, Hermione wanted to work on her holiday assignment, Harry however wanted to work further on his occlumency, and so they went their separate ways for the afternoon.
Despite the fact that Harry had said he'd work on occlumency, he spent most of his time trying to improve on his wandless magic and got as far as making diffindo slice the legs off a chair and was very close to having reparo work.
"Harry, you're not studying" Hermione said sternly as she entered the library.
He grinned sheepishly. "I've kind of been so excited I can't bring myself to do any more reading for a bit." He turned back to the chair. "Reparo!" the rest of the cut sealed itself and the chair was whole again. "Phew, got it."
Harry sat down on the chair to prove to himself that he had gotten it right and Dobby popped up as if on queue to deliver sandwiches and pumpkin juice to the teenagers.
"I will admit that I'm impressed, but what I'm curious to know is what got you studying wandless magic in the first place?"
"To defend myself. If I can do magic under the ministry's nose, then if Dumbledore forces me to go back to the Dursleys, I can make sure that if Vernon tries anything cruel to me again, he'd regret it."
"Dumblydore cannot force Mister Harry Potter sir from his own house. There is ancient magic in the house of Black." Dobby told him as if that explained everything.
Harry raised an eyebrow. 'Well that's something that works in my favour for once' He reached for a sandwich and winced once more as his hand wounds opened once more. "Good, because I'm not going back there."
Hermione frowned as she saw blood pool into his bandages. 'Why would Dumbledore want to send him back there so badly?' She wondered to herself.
"Dumbledore tried to obliviate me again a couple of days ago." Harry said suddenly without looking up from his sandwich.
Hermione looked at him as if she'd just tasted slugs in her sandwich. "No way Harry! Professor Dumbledore wouldn't do that!"
"Well, I'm not a hundred percent sure, but he's the last thing I remember seeing. I'm sure that he tried to remove the truth about Sirius from my head again, but all that happened was that I have a large blank in my mind from when I met him in my bedroom doorway till the time when I got up the next morning."
"It usually takes time for the brain to assimilate the memories given in an obliviation, but if what you're saying is true, then it would seem that your brain is discarding whatever it is they are trying to put in there."
"Don't forget that you've survived an obliviation too."
"Yes, and I have a large gap in my memory as well. I will admit that Dumbledore is the last person I remember seeing, but that's hardly proof that he did it." She told him.
Harry nodded.
"Dobby has seen professor Dumblydore put Mister Harry Potter to sleep two sleeps back. He told Dobby that Master Harry was sick from worrying about Sirius and needed to rest. Then Dobby went to get Master Harry a wet towel for his forehead."
Harry scowled. An eyewitness. It was Dumbledore.
"He needs to be stopped." He growled.
"Harry, we don't even know precisely what he's doing!" Hermione replied, exasperated. "We can't confront him without knowing what he's doing!"
"Hermione! He's made Sirius death to be an accident! He was murdered Hermione!"
"To what end Harry!?" She replied. "I know that what he's doing is wrong! What we need to know is why!"
Harry glared at her and punched the table. He badly wanted to scream at her and tell her she was wrong, but he knew that it was a useless argument. She was level headed.
"Just give it some time, we'll find out what he's up to. But first, I want to find out why it is that you and I aren't affected by the memory charms." She said as she rose from her seat and started browsing the library. "In the meantime, you should probably fake and make everyone think that you're ok. Well, ok by their standards."
Harry huffed and pictured his tap. "Accio Occlumency book!" He snapped, leaving a large hole in every wall between Harry's bedroom and the library.
Harry had calmed down considerably by the time that Ron suddenly popped into the house via the fireplace. Harry had blinked in surprise when he saw that Ron had his trunk.
"Ron? What's up? What are you doing here?"
"Ron!" Hermione squeaked.
"You wrote and asked me to come." Ron replied. "Don't you remember?"
Harry was about to snap at him when he saw Hermione glare at him from the side. "Sorry man, I'm just having a hard time over the last couple of days." He gestured out of the kitchen and up to the room He and Ron usually stayed in.
"To be honest, I can't even remember what I wrote I was so out of it."
"Yeah, you seemed kinda ditzy in your letter. I suppose loosing Sirius like that is a real blow huh? Poor guy, didn't deserve to go like that."
'Even if you don't realise how he went, you got that right.' Harry thought as he sighed.
"You get the room for yourself; I've taken another room for a bit. Why don't you unpack your stuff and meet us down in the kitchen for some lunch."
Harry left Ron to it and went down ahead of him to the kitchen.
"What's he doing here?" Hermione asked.
"He'll be down in a minute. I think Dumbledore has tried to get him to spy on us, whether he knows it or not." Harry sighed. "I'm going to try to just leave things as they are for now, he doesn't deserve the anger I feel."
After a few minutes of silence, Ron came down his room and helped himself to some cake.
"That disgusting sandwich is still in the fridge?" He asked whoever was listening.
"We're saving it for when we see Aunty Malfoy next." Harry replied.
"Aunty Malfoy?" Ron just about choked on his cake.
"It was a joke Ron."
After lunch, Ron pulled out his chess set and challenged Harry to a game.
Harry lost. After the third game, he was seriously thinking about wandlessly moving around a few of Ron's pieces while he wasn't looking.
All in all, things were relatively peaceful at Grimmauld Place. It was hard for Harry to see Dumbledore strutting serenely around the house like he owned it whenever he was present.
Harry tried his hardest to make it seem like he was 'recovering' from his ordeal over Sirius, but for every day that he had to fake it, the harder he studied at 2am from the Dark Arts book.
Harry's birthday passed with mild interest. Ron and Hermione had given him a cake in his honour, but all in all it was a rather abysmal birthday.
It was a far happier day on the first of August when their OWL results came in together with 6th year prefect badges for both Hermione and Ron. They threw another friendly party for Hermione getting straight Os through her marks.
Harry had not done nearly as well, but had passed Potions, much to his surprise. Ron had failed which left him feeling rather bad, but the amount of food that Dobby cooked up for them left all three in high spirits by the end of the night.
Three weeks after Ron had moved in, Hermione came into the Drawing room one day a few minutes after Ron had gone to bed. Harry was meditating, in an attempt to move to the next stage of his personal occlumency lessons.
Harry raised his eyes to meet her. "Everything ok?"
"Better than ok!" She replied with her biggest smirk. "Lumos!" Her hand glowed gently.
Harry's eyes lit up. She could do it! "Hermione! You did it!"
She laughed. "After all that Harry, you were right. I was imagining the taps like we have in my parent's house, but my tap is a very old 1930's style tap, I had to find it in a book, but I got it as soon as I found it!"
Harry blinked. He was right?
Harry was happy for her. He knew that Hermione hated it when she couldn't do something.
From that day forward, Harry coached Hermione with her wandless magic in secret whenever nobody else was around. Life was pleasant, with the exception of Ron bringing up Sirius at the most inopportune times which did nothing for the anger that was building in Harry, threatening to explode at any moment.
One week, three days before the train left for Hogwarts, Harry's life took a turn for the worse.
The day had gone beautifully, Harry was confident by this point that he was developing a decently strong mental barrier, though he wouldn't know for sure until someone tried probing him.
Harry was about to walk past the drawing room on the way to the kitchen when he heard the distinct voice of Dumbledore.
"It bothers me Miss Granger that you appear to have been unaffected, your resistance is curious indeed. Doubly curious is the fact that Mister Potter also resisted, but he is fine now. I must have been tired when I did you both."
"Why are you doing this Professor?" Hermione asked. "I trusted you, the whole world trusted you!"
"Oh, don't you worry miss Granger, in a second you will trust me again, just as the whole world has. There is no need to explain my motives to someone as you. Obliviate!"
"Ah-!" Hermione's scream was cut short before it could grow in volume.
"You're such a bright student Miss Granger. I'm so proud of you. I'm glad that we could have this chat. I have it on good authority that Mister Weasley wishes to ask you a question tomorrow, be a good girl and give him a chance. He has such a fragile heart and is easily angered.
"You look tired, I think you could do with an early night."
Harry hitched his breath and with a quiet pop, he knew that Dumbledore had apparated Hermione upstairs.
He let out a breath and though shaking, went to the kitchen trying to look inconspicuous. He would need to wait until Dumbledore was gone before he could check on Hermione.
Harry took a glass of Pumpkin Juice up to his room, where Dumbledore was just closing Hermione's door.
"Ah Harry. Miss Granger seemed very tired tonight I hope that she is ok. And on that note, how are you faring my boy?"
"I'm fine sir." He forced himself to answer. Harry was becoming very good at hiding his anger behind his occlumency shield.
"Are your holidays essays finished?"
"Just about sir, I just need to proof read them."
"Excellent!" He beamed.
Harry felt something brush against his shields.
"And I see you have been learning occlumency very effectively! Well done my boy. Who was teaching you?"
"Myself sir." He replied honestly. "The Black Library had a few really good books on the subject."
"I have not had a chance to read through any of the books there. I hope I shall get to some day soon." He twinkled.
"Miss Granger's parents will be back from their trip tomorrow won't they?"
"Yes sir."
"I suspect you'll be ready to return to your family by then?"
"We'll see sir," Harry replied. "I'd like to finish off my assignment before heading back." Harry replied using the first excuse he could think of.
"Very well my boy, that's reasonable."
Dumbledore disappeared from Harry's vision with a pop.
"Dobby?" Harry whispered.
"Harry Potter sir?" The house elf appeared at command.
"Is anybody else apart from Ron in the house?"
"No sir, everybody has left for the night."
"Make sure that Ron doesn't leave his room Dobby." Harry said darkly as he pushed open Hermione's door.
Hermione was sitting on the bed, her eyes wide open and flickering around the place uncontrollably.
"Hermione!" He called. "Hermione! Snap out of it!" He shook her gently.
He held her hand for a long moment while painfully watching her. Would she remember their shared past when she caught up?
Harry raised his hand and pictured his tap. Perhaps if he could see what was going through her mind he would be able to help her some how.
"Ligilimens!" He could not turn the tap. That spell was still out of his reach. It was to be expected. He had only practiced the movement, but had never used the spell himself. He shook his head and left the room, closing the door behind him.
He immediately went down to the library and got out his book once more. Tonight, for the first time, he used one of the spells. His favourite target, the chair, was reduced to ashes. If it had been a real person, the spell would have burned their blood dry.
He kicked the ashes and scattered them about the room and he screamed, and then he cried.
Harry awoke with a start. His head was resting on the book he had pulled out to study for his assignment. He saw Hermione standing over him, her hands still on the blanket she was putting over him.
"Oh, Harry." She said smiling weakly. "I didn't mean to wake you."
"Hermione" Harry blinked. "Are you alright?"
"I I don't know" She replied. " I don't remember anything from last night."
"Do you remember the ministry?" Harry asked, using their common point of reference.
"Ye-Yes. Was I memory charmed?"
Harry broke down crying. "Oh Hermione! I was so scared! I heard him say it! I heard him say it and I didn't do anything!"
"It's ok Harry, there was nothing that you could have done. You didn't break your cover did you?"
"N-No." He sniffed. "I waited until he was gone to check on you, but there was nothing I could do. You just laid there! Your eyes were so wide open, and your pupils darted around your face as if as if I don't know!"
"Harry, its ok I'm fine I remember everything."
"Don't leave me Hermione!" He pleaded. "Your parents are back from their holiday today! Please don't go!"
She shook her head. "It hurts to stay with them Harry. I love them more than anything, but when they look at me as if I were a sick child, I just can't take that."
Harry's heart swelled. He wouldn't be alone after all. He hoped that she had a good excuse to use.
"They'll be here in an hour. I'm going to wait outside for them and read a book."
"I'll wait with you!" Harry exclaimed.
"No Harry, don't leave this house until we leave for the train. If you leave this house, the order could forcibly take you to your aunt and uncle."
Harry wiped his eyes and his face hardened. He couldn't allow that. Hermione got up and left to wait outside.
It was an hour and a half later that she came back inside the house looking very relieved. She explained that she told them that she would love to spend the time with them back home, but she couldn't pass up the opportunity to study from the library here.
Her parents had understood and allowed it, thus ensuring that Harry had a good reason to stay in this house for the rest of the holidays. He let loose a breath of relief.
Harry had been finishing off his final essay when Hermione came into his bedroom crying.
She stuttered badly and told him that Ron had asked her out. Hermione couldn't bring herself to say 'yes' to him. So she told him that she had to figure out her feelings first.
Ron had accused her of being in love with Harry and then started yelling at her for every thing he found wrong with her.
"He said he loved me." Hermione sobbed. "But does he really? Is that really what Ron feels? Or is it just what that bastard old man wants him to feel?"
Harry held her until she felt better and apologised for being so emotional.
As Harry watched her leave his room. He realised that he was close to snapping. He had to calm down or he'd do something he'd regret. They were still no closer to finding out what Dumbledore's game was.
He began his meditations once again.
The week went by slowly, and Harry was starting to think that he'd never be able to pick up a wand again. Would he remember how to use it? His tap had its own handle now, was it even possible to use a wand to open it?
He had almost finished his Dark Magic book and had spent the past couple of nights perusing the Black Library for a couple of new Dark Arts books.
In the cold of night, on the 31st of August, Harry grabbed three books and placed them into the bottom of his trunk before wandlessly packing his trunk.
Author's note:
I'm not a fan of Author's Notes. I feel like I rushed the last bit a little, but I wanted to make sure that
I had this chapter done at a reasonable hour. I'm probably not going to make a habit of replying in-story to people
who post reviews, that's specifically what I put the forums linked below up for. It's anonymous posting, so
I'll answer everything there.
Having said that, Thanks go to LegalAlien and Jayu for the very first reviews I've ever received from people I
don't know in real life. I hope I've lived up to your expectations.
--Steven