Chapter 6 - Albus the Manipulator
Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Potter universe!
AN: Just thought that I should explain this, ok…
"<TEXT>" - Normal Speech
'<TEXT>' - Peoples Thoughts
'<TEXT>' - Link Talk
Oh, yes and before I forget, I have had a couple of people ask me how Harry blocked the unforgivable at the start… well if you re-read it… he didn't block, he accidentally apparated away… he didn't know how he did it though.
Oh and thanks to Turnlach for his BETA work as usual :P
*SSSSS*
Recap
"You'll be fine… just remember to keep your shield up at all times." Hermione said to Harry.
"I guess… I will see you soon then… are you going to wait up?" Harry asked.
"Of course I am!" she said, before smiling at him and kissing him chastely on the lips. "For luck." she said.
"See you soon." Harry said before making his way to the headmaster's office. Reaching the stone gargoyle Harry quickly re-enforced his Occlumency shields before speaking the password, and riding the stairs up to the door. With a knock the headmaster's voice came from inside.
"Enter."
*SSSSS*
Harry walked into the room, looking around. He didn't know what it was, but he could… feel… that someone else was in the room. Looking towards the front Harry looked directly into the twinkling eyes of the headmaster and instantly reinforced his Occlumency shields when he felt the headmaster probe start to slowly enter his head.
If Dumbledore was surprised he didn't show it, his face remained neutral the whole time. Dumbledore waved Harry towards the seat in front of his desk and offered him a lemon drop, which Harry declined.
After about a minute Dumbledore leaned forward on his desk and looked sternly at Harry.
"Where were you this summer Harry?" Dumbledore asked, eyes twinkling away.
Blocking the probe again, Harry just looked the headmaster in the eye. "I left before Vernon killed me sir."
Harry felt a spell hitting his shield which Harry quickly absorbed into his shield, instead of making it bounce off; after all he wanted the old bastard to think that it had worked.
"Come now Harry, they're your family! They would never intentionally hurt you… you are much safer with them after all, and should have stayed." Dumbledore said firmly.
"I guess you're right." Harry said, trying to keep his voice neutral, instead of telling the old man, 'to shut the fuck up'.
"Of course I am… now Harry, it's important that I know where you were during the summer." Dumbledore said in a very caring voice, though Harry could easily detected the deceit in it.
"After a left the Dursleys… I was going to head to the Leaky Cauldron, but some Death Eaters apparated out of no where… then I accidentally apparated to Hermione's house." Harry said.
"You should have contacted the Order Harry. You should have known we would have been looking for you." Dumbledore said rather firmly.
"I was going to sir… but then I realized that only Order members knew where I lived during the summer. That would mean that at least one of the members were Voldemort's spies, and if I contacted the Order, they would have told Voldemort and put Hermione and her parents in danger." Harry said strongly. Dumbledore regarded Harry for a little while, as if contemplating his next move.
"Yes, yes that is a problem I must look into then. Thank you for the observation my boy." Dumbledore said beaming down at Harry. Harry then had to absorb another one of Dumbledore's spells before he continued, "But now that you understand the danger people are in around you, don't you think that it would be wise to stay away from Miss Granger? Her parents are muggles and have no way of defending themselves against Death Eaters."
Harry was now, very, very angry. The old fart was trying to control every aspect of his life! He tried to calm down though it was rather difficult and he thanked god that studying Occlumency helped with masking your emotions.
"I guess… you're right sir…" Harry said softly, trying to look hurt, though inside he was sure he had enough anger to cast a hundred Unforgivables.
"Of course I am my boy!" Dumbledore said before asking his final question, "You seem to have developed some skills in Occlumency over the summer, did Miss Granger help with this?"
"Err… no I didn't even realized I had developed any skills… all I have done is clear my mind before heading to bed each night…" Harry said trying to put on a confused face.
"Well then congratulations, you will be no longer be needing lessons with Professor Snape, your shields should be able to block out Tom." Dumbledore said, "Though you need to keep clearing you mind before heading to bed."
"Yes sir." Harry said tiredly.
"That is all Harry, good luck in class." Dumbledore said.
Harry left the office appearing calm, though his insides had turned to ice, leaving a cold hatred that was directed at the old manipulative bastard. Harry wondered if Dumbledore had acted the same way to Tom Riddle while he was at school, since Harry was really tempted to kill the old man after what happened tonight.
Entering the common room, Harry saw the most beautiful sight; Hermione was curled up on the couch, book in her arms, softly sleeping. Walking over, Harry sat down next to Hermione, running a hand through her hair. He kissed her softly on the forehead, waking her up.
Hermione slowly woke up and when she realized that it was Harry next to her and snuggled into him a little more, letting out a contented sigh.
"How did it go?" she asked softly. Looking up into his eyes she could see the slowly dieing down rage. "That bad, huh?"
"Bloody bastard tried to make me leave you, tried Legilimency and some sort of mind altering charm also. So yeah, that bad." Harry said angrily though he calmed down when he looked at Hermione.
"So he actually tried to alter you mind, to distance yourself from me?" she asked and Harry only nodded his head, "Well… I guess he is going to find out his little plan didn't worked as planned since I have no plans on distancing myself from you." she said before she buried her face into the crook of his neck.
"I guess so…" Harry said softly before capturing her lips. He slid his tongue across her lips, asking for access, which she happily allowed. She let out a soft groan as their tongues connected in combat, duelling each other. Not breaking the kiss Hermione moved herself so that she was sitting on Harry's lap, while his arms encircled her, slowly moving up and down her spine, which sent a tingling sensation through her body.
After about ten minutes they broke the kiss, panting heavily. Hermione leaned into Harry, and buried her head in his neck and closed her eyes. Harry kept running his hands up and down her spine, just happy to hold her in his arms. They stayed in the common room for another hour, kissing and holding each other before they decided to go to bed.
*SSSSS*
The next morning both Harry and Hermione woke up late, they had slept in and they rushed to the great hall. Composing themselves Harry and Hermione walked into the hall and headed for the Gryffindor table. They could feel the eyes following them, hear the whispers… but they reasoned it was a little suspicious that they both happened to be late, and then arrive at the same time.
Once they sat down, everyone seemed to go back to their meals and act normally again. Harry and Hermione started dishing out their breakfast, using there link to ask each other to pass what they wanted; they were trying to develop the link as much as possible.
To the people watching them, it would look amazing, passing bowls and plates of food between each other, not uttering a word, and it seemed to be exactly what the other wanted. Half way through breakfast Ginny moved down the table and stood near Harry. Harry looked up at Ginny to see she had a very determined look on her face.
"Harry… could I talk to you for a minute?" she asked sweetly.
"Err... sure Gin, shoot." Harry said, just a touch nervous.
"Umm… I was thinking if we could maybe step out in the hall…" she said.
Harry looked down at his food and silently communicated with Hermione.
'Help me please!' He hissed to her through the link.
'Nope… you're going to have to turn her down without any help from me', she said silently laughing at him.
'What if I decided not to turn her down.' he asked cheekily.
'Then, well you don't want to know what I'll do to you.' she said seriously, and a little angrily.
'Whoa! It was a joke; do you really think I could ever choose someone over you?' He said sweetly and Harry could see the side of her mouth tug up in a little grin, while she was eating. Looking back at Ginny he let out a silent sigh.
"Ok come on then Ginny." he said standing up and walking just out of the great hall, Ginny following behind him.
Once the door closed behind them Harry turned around to Ginny, a 'fake' friendly smile on his face, best to get this over with quick he thought to himself.
"What did you want to talk about?" Harry asked.
Ginny slowly walked up to him, "Well…" she said and then grabbed the front of his uniform and quickly went to kiss him. Harry wasn't the youngest seeker in a century for nothing and quickly moved out of the way of the kiss.
"Ginny… I umm… you're like a sister to me… I-I don't feel that way about you, I'm sorry." he said softly, he really didn't want to hurt her.
"It's her isn't it!" Ginny hissed at him. This caused Harry to look up at her quickly, he didn't expect the raw hatred to come through her voice.
"What?" he asked in his moment of shock.
"It's her, Hermione, bloody fucking Hermione, the good for nothing bucktooth bookworm, mudblood Hermione!" Ginny hissed, "Is she any good? Is that why you're with her, she puts out for you whenever you want…" Ginny trailed off as she noticed Harry's eyes start to softly glow green, and his aura started to become visible. She gasped and backed away in fear when the magic pouring off them hit her senses.
She then let out a scream and ran for into the great hall as every glass object in the hall shattered. Inside the hall all conversation stopped when they felt a wave of magic pass over them. Most looked around but Hermione however looked to the doors where Harry and Ginny were. Then the sound of glass shattering echoed though the hall, causing everyone to duck and yell.
Hermione watched as Ginny came in screaming just as everything shattered, she now had a pretty good idea what had happened; Harry got angry… very angry. Hermione quickly left her seat, grabbing both Harry's and her stuff before leaving a shocked hall. When she got out she could see glass everywhere but no Harry.
'Harry, where are you?' she asked through the link, putting as much concentration in it as possible, hoping that Harry would be able to hear it.
'Ouch! Damn… no need to scream Hermione…' he said a little grumpily 'oh and I decided to go to Defense early.' Harry said through the mental link.
Hermione then started to head off to find Harry and ask him what had happened.
*SSSSS*
That night Harry and Hermione had snuck out and went to the Room of Requirement. Harry had refused to tell Hermione what had happened and said he would explain it tonight. Now Hermione was sitting on a couch in the middle of the room while Harry paced in front of her.
"Just tell me Harry, come on…" she said softly. She knew Ginny had said something that had really, really pissed Harry off.
"Well… she tried to kiss me, and I stopped her saying that I didn't have those feelings for her. She then started to rant on about you, she called you names… she even went as far as to call you a mudblood…" Harry said, anger lacing his words.
Hermione growled under her breath, she had thought Ginny really only hung around her to get gossip on Harry. But she never thought that the red head hated her. "Don't worry about it Harry. She's just acting like a two year old that lost her toy." she said. Harry just nodded and sat down next to her, "I know… I just hate it when people call you that… name." Harry sighed.
"It's not important…anyway I found out something useful." she said. This seemed to peak Harry's interest.
"What would that be?" he asked raising an eyebrow.
"Well… you remember when you told me about your meeting with Dumbledore? And how you said, you could 'feel' that someone else was there?" Harry just nodded at what she was saying, "Well, I was sure that I read something about that somewhere and I found it. It's called aura detection, it's a part of aura magic. Some wizards can train themselves to detect magical auras, can learn to see them. I'm guessing that's how Dumbledore can see under an invisibility cloak, and they can also learn how to mask there aura. But from what I read it's supposedly impossible to totally mask it."
"Cool… so what do you have to do? How to you learn it?" Harry asked, easily seeing the advantages this would give.
"Well it's not that hard, but it depends on how powerful you are to how successful you will be… you practice it through a special type of meditation." Hermione began, "It apparently relaxes you magic and spreads it out so that you can sense others. After you learn it, it becomes easier and you can do it without relaxing your magic, it becomes like a sixth sense." She said.
"Ok then, let's give it ago shall we?" Harry said. Hermione nodded and started to explain the procedure.
*SSSSS*
It had been another week and everything seemed to be going fine. The headmaster had left them alone, they were doing great in class and they were progressing in leaps and bounds in Aura magic. Harry had mastered it already and Hermione wasn't very far behind. Harry seemed to be doing the impossible again as well. When masking his aura, he could get it down so small that it would sometimes disappear completely and he had been practicing to make it completely disappear. Though they didn't know why everything seemed to be coming easily to them, they hadn't really thought about it much.
Their new relationship was also progressing steadily, though that had kept it a secret. It wasn't that they were ashamed, they just liked for their private life to stay that, private. So basically everything seemed to be going nicely, but of course all good things come to an end. Dumbledore had finally summoned Hermione to his office; they knew that they couldn't play along anymore. After all, they weren't really playing along now. One of Dumbledore's main commands had been to not see Hermione again, and they were always together.
"Are you sure you can do it?" she asked him.
"Yes I'm sure, you can't even sense me, and I don't think that Dumbledore will actually be looking for me either." Harry said giving Hermione a small kiss on the forehead.
"Ok then… but you only come in if things start to get ridiculous, not if he's only asking about summer, ok?" Hermione ordered sternly.
"Yes, ma'am!" Harry said saluting her, before wandlessly making himself disappear. Hermione could feel his magical presence slowly disappear until it was completely gone. She then started to make her way to the headmaster's office.
Knocking on the door, Dumbledore's voice came from the room asking her to enter. She opened the door and felt Harry briefly brush past her, letting her know that he was in the room, before closing the door and taking a seat. Sitting down she carefully expanded her senses. She could detect another person in the room other than herself and Dumbledore and from the feeling of it, it wasn't Harry either.
"How are you my dear?" Dumbledore said smiling down at her, the twinkle in full bloom, which caused Hermione to reinforce her Occlumency shields.
"I'm good… Classes have been good also; it's nice to have a good defense teacher for a change." Hermione replied honestly.
"That's good to know… now there is actually a good reason I asked you here today." Dumbledore said seriously.
"I figured as much, sir." she said smiling up at him.
"Yes, well, I'm afraid I have some concerns with the relationship between yourself and Mr Potter." Dumbledore said seriously.
Hermione hid the sneer she wanted to throw at him before hexing the old coot, "And may I ask why you have such concerns?" she asked.
Dumbledore was silent for a moment before answering her, "There are things in Harry's life that you are not aware of, it would be too dangerous for yourself and your parents to get involved with him." Dumbledore said.
"I know all about Voldemort and his attraction to Harry headmaster. Harry and I have been friends since his first year if you remember correctly; I'm not going to abandon him because of it now." Hermione growled.
Hermione then felt a spell hitting her Occlumency shields which she absorbed, just like Harry had told her to do. Dumbledore then started to be more direct.
"You would do well to do as I say Miss Granger. Stop this silly relationship between yourself and Mr Potter, in fact stop seeing him altogether! After all, Miss Weasley has always liked him and you know she would be better for him. And Mr Weasley has always had a thing for you and would do you good." Dumbledore said.
"Excuse me? But who are you to make such demands, you can't tell me not to see someone." Hermione growled at him, and hid a smirk when Dumbledore's eyes widened in surprise.
"It seems I have underestimated you Miss Granger. I haven't met anyone that has been able to block my spell." Dumbledore said eyeing her carefully.
Dumbledore then jumped in surprise when Harry removed the invisibility charm he had been wearing.
"I blocked your little spell headmaster." Harry spat, "So this is the real Albus Dumbledore, behind the mask." Harry said and continued when Dumbledore didn't say anything in return.
"So, how long have you been manipulating my life?" Harry spat. Dumbledore then made a signal and Mad-Eye Moody came out from behind a portrait, wand held pointing at Harry's chest.
"Put the wand away, you senile old fool before you hurt yourself." Harry said to Moody.
"You forget who you're talking to Potter." Moody said before he started to cast a spell. But didn't get time to complete it as Harry had this wand in his hand and sent a banishing charm, sending Moody back into the cabinet, knocking him unconscious.
"Well, Headmaster? Are you going to answer my questions or not?" Harry said darkly. Harry could see that Dumbledore was thinking fast, and almost fell down laughing when he heard his excuse.
"As your guardian I am responsible for you Harry! I will do everything in my power to make sure that you are safe! Since you won't stop seeing Miss Granger on your own, I must order you to stop seeing her!" Dumbledore said seriously, trying to keep calm, though Harry could hear the panic in his voice.
Dumbledore started thinking that what he'd said might have worked when Harry didn't say anything for a full minute. His hopes were crushed though when Harry let out a deep laugh.
"By gods man… you are good, I'll give you that much. But seriously, my guardian… you couldn't come up with something better than that? I know who my guardian is old man!" Harry said the last bit, letting his anger into the words.
"What are you talking about? I am your guardian, explain yourself." Dumbledore demanded. Harry just cracked a smile at the old man.
"The goblins and I… have an understanding. They found it highly strange when you demanded to be the one to inform me about Sirius's will and the letter he left me. So naturally they investigated." Harry said, in an amused voice.
Harry took pleasure in watching the emotions crossing the old man's face, though the he did something that Harry wouldn't think he would do. Before Harry could do anything the old man had whipped his wand out.
"Novo Mentis!" the headmaster yelled, and a bright light filled the room. When the light cleared Dumbledore had a smug expression on his face, which soon fell however as he found himself with two wands pointing at him.
"Now that was a stupid thing to do." Hermione stated matter-of-factly.
To say Dumbledore was surprised would be an understatement, though he quickly regained himself.
"And what do you think you are going to do?" Dumbledore sneered, something that really didn't suit him, "Do you really think that anyone would believe your cock and bull story? And even if they did, do you really think that the Aurors could do anything? I suggest you take the charms, or else you won't like the results…" Dumbledore said in a deadly voice.
"Are you threatening us?" Hermione asked in an angry voice.
"That's exactly what I am doing Miss Granger, trust me when I say you won't like what I can make happen." Dumbledore said.
"Get screwed old man, we're not anyone's pawns!" Harry hissed, while Hermione nodded in agreement.
"Fine! Get out of my office now! But don't think that I didn't warn you!" Dumbledore said sitting back in his chair as Harry and Hermione left his office, heading for the Room of Requirement.
*SSSSS*
"I can't believe him! I can't believe I ever trusted that goat-fucking bastard!" Hermione started to yell, while random glass objects around the room were shattering. "And the Order's in on it to! Well at least one member is!" she yelled in frustration. "Who else is? Or who else is his puppet." she let out a sigh of defeat and sat down on the couch.
Harry sat down next to her, patting her back as she curled up next to him, "It's going to be ok Mione." he said softly.
"What do you think he's going to do to us?" she asked.
"Its you I'm worried about… after all he needs me, his bloody weapon, wouldn't want to break it." Harry said in disgust, "I would understand if you wanted to keep away from me." Harry said softly looking away from her.
"Harry… I meant what I said, I'm not going to abandon you now, not after everything we have been though together…" she said softly giving him a small kiss, "What do you mean by weapon anyway?" she asked eyeing him.
"The prophecy… Trelawney made it before I was born… Dumbledore was the one to hear it…" he said softly then told her the prophecy;
The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord approaches...
Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...
And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, But he will have power that the Dark Lord knows not....
And either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives...
The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies....
Hermione looked thoughtful for a little while before speaking, "How do we even know it's real? And not one of Dumbledore's manipulations again?" she reasoned.
"Well the main reason I think it is real is because I can't imagine why else Dumbledore will go to these lengths to control my life…" Harry said softly.
"Harry… as much as you hate it, you're a hero. You defeated Voldemort at age one… that alone would be enough incentive, a good public figure." she said softly smiling slightly at him.
"I guess… though it doesn't really matter if it's real or not. Voldemort won't stop hunting me until I'm dead anyway." Harry sighed, and Hermione just hugged and kissed him.
After about ten minutes Hermione got up off the couch, determination etched into her face. "Come on Harry, time to work on our wandless dueling." she said pulling him up from the couch.
After another two hours, an exhausted Harry and Hermione made their way back to Gryffindor tower and to bed.
*SSSSS*
Two weeks passed with no incident. Hermione's new determination was advancing them faster than ever in wandless duelling and aura magic. Both of them could now duel fairly well wandlessly, and both could now completely block their aura, while still looking for other magical presences. They were going deeper and deeper in the dark arts books, looking at more deadly spells and even making some of their own.
They could feel their morals slowly changing; when they first started looking at the dark arts books, they found the idea of actually killing someone reproachful. Now though, they could see how it was sometimes necessary and at times unavoidable. After all, the good of the many outweighed the good of a few.
Harry and Hermione walked into the great hall together as usual, no one actually knew if they were dating or not, but there were rumours. Sitting down at the table Harry felt a little uneasy at the way Dumbledore was looking at them. He pointed it out to Hermione as she also noticed the look of… victory, in his eyes.
"Its probably nothing." she reasoned though inside her guts were clenching, something wasn't right. They started to eat breakfast when the morning owls started to fly in; Hermione got her copy of the Daily Prophet and paid the bird. She unrolled the paper and looked at the front cover and gasped. This caused Harry to look up at her in concern; he could see the tears coming to her eyes. She then threw the paper on the table and ran out of the hall.
Harry quickly grabbed the paper, and gasped also. The picture was a house with the Dark Mark hanging above it. He knew the house, it was Hermione's… looking up at the teachers table he caught the headmaster's eyes and could see the look of triumph in his eyes. Harry then quickly left the great hall looking for Hermione.
Harry knew where she was, their link had developed a lot over the last couple of weeks and he could sense her presence even if she were on the other side of the castle. She seemed to be heading towards the Room of Requirement. Harry started to run after her and when he finally made it Hermione had only just entered. He followed her in only to watch as a green bolt shot across the room and hit Dumbledore. He was speechless for a second as he watched Dumbledore fall to the ground, though understood when the image disappeared. He had also come to the conclusion that Dumbledore had played a hand in this.
Hermione then fell to the ground sobbing and Harry quickly rushed to her side, bundling her up in his arms while she clung to him. She was crying for about thirty minutes straight before she quieted down into soft sobs.
"I'm going to kill him!" she said angry, "I don't care if you help me or not, but Dumbledore's dead" she said.
"You know I will be there every step of the way… they treated me like a son. I will see that Dumbledore and Voldemort pay." Harry said in determination.
"For some reason I don't think that Voldemort had much to do with this one… you saw Dumbledore in the great hall." Harry continued, as another series of sobs racked her body,
"I don't see Dumbledore working with Voldemort… they're both as power hungry as each other." she said.
"You know… we're going to need more professional training if we plan on killing Dumbledore." Harry said softly.
"I know… we will think of something." she said before hugged him again. "I don't want to leave here today." she said softly.
"Then we won't… I don't think the teachers will expect you in classes today and I think they will understand me not being there also." Harry said softly, though Hermione had already fallen asleep in his arms.
*SSSSS*
Later that day Dumbledore held a meeting in his office. Mad-Eye, Ron, Ginny, and Lupin were sitting in front of Dumbledore's desk.
"Everything went as planned did it Remus?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes… the guards on duty did the work, then set off the dark mark and came back to headquarters." Lupin said.
"Good, good." Dumbledore said before turning to Ron and Ginny. "This is the time to get back in Harry and Hermione's good books. Play the sorry friends, find out where they were and what they learnt over the summer." Dumbledore said.
Ron looked unhappy about the idea and started to complain, "I don't want to hang around bloody Potter again! I'm sick of being in his shadow!" Ron argued.
Dumbledore regarded the boy for a little while, he knew how to play Ron's ego, "But think of the glory that you will receive when Harry dies in the final battle while you come out a hero." Dumbledore said seriously and Ron's eyes seemed to brighten at the prospect.
Dumbledore then turned to Ginny, "You have to try and get in Potter's good books. Get him into bed for all I care." Dumbledore said.
Ginny just shrugged her shoulders, "Guess it wouldn't be bad to be the one who shagged the famous Boy-Who-Lived." she said absently.
"Good. Miss Granger should understand what kind of danger being with Harry is now and should hopefully back off. We need to gain control of the boy again!" Dumbledore said, while the others in the room nodded. "Remus, start owling Harry, ask him to come to number 12 for the holidays, see if you can get him to trust you enough to tell you where they were during the summer and what they did." Remus just nodded, "Good, well that's all, good day." Dumbledore said. The four left the office.
Dumbledore sagged back into his chair and pulled out a bottle of Firewhiskey and a shot glass from his desk drawer. Pouring himself a glass, he slammed it down and poured himself another.
AN: Another chapter down! Hope you liked it. Anyways… don't forget to review! I may not reply to all of them but I read each one and it only encourages me to write more! Oh and don't forget to check out my new webby if you haven't already!, the link can be found in my profile!
Luke