Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
More Important Than Any Broomstick - Chapter 42 - Experimental Magic
Suddenly everyone was staring at Harry, whose face had turned white. Hermione, with a horrified expression on her face, took Harry's hand, knowing that if he ever needed her support, it was now.
"Wh-What?" asked Harry, hoping he had misunderstood.
The gazes all shifted back toward Dumbledore, who said with a sad expression, "You heard me correctly Harry. Your scar is a Horcrux." The old man looked on the verge of tears. "I'm afraid that you'll have to die before Tom can."
"Wait a minute!" shouted several people angrily.
Dumbledore put up his hands. "I wasn't proposing we kill him now. We'd be as bad as Voldemort. I'm just saying that while Harry lives, Voldemort can't fully die. We can try to delay his return to power, as Harry did with the Philosopher's Stone and the diary. I suggest we concentrate our efforts on the remaining unidentified Horcrux."
Sirius had to speak up. "Isn't there some way to destroy the Horcrux without hurting Harry?"
Dumbledore shook his head. "When a Horcrux is inside a living thing, be it plant, animal, or human, it survives off of the host's life force. As long as that life force exists, so will the Horcrux."
Harry took on an angrier expression than he'd ever had before. "That bloody son of a…"
"Harry," said Hermione desperately. "Calm down. We'll find a solution." She then turned back to Dumbledore with a light of hope in her eyes. "Headmaster, is there a way to…transfer the Horcrux to something else?"
"I'm afraid not, Miss Granger. No spell exists to transfer a Horcrux."
"Then, maybe I can do it wandlessly, without a spell."
"To attempt to transfer the Horcrux from Harry without damaging him would be far too complex to do without a spell. There are too many factors to consider, the most important part would be Harry's mind."
"His mind, sir?"
"Yes, his mental health. He has hosted, however unwillingly, a piece of Voldemort's soul inside him. It has been a part of him almost his entire life. It is a part of him, infused in his magic and mind."
"You mean I get my powers from Voldemort?" asked Harry, still angry judging from how red his face was.
"Some of your powers, such as Parseltongue, but I don't believe all. Your parents were both powerful, so naturally you'd be powerful in your own right. However, some of your power may come from the Horcrux. However, it's just as likely that the Horcrux is holding back some of your own power."
"Holding back?" asked Harry, clearly not fully understanding.
Hermione explained, "Binding your magic. Harry, don't you remember what Professor Vector said in class a few weeks ago about magical potential?"
He blushed at momentarily forgetting his arithmancy that he'd worked on so hard to learn so he could drop divination. "Oh yeah. If something is binding magic, the victim's potential is limited, so some of their spells will have less affect while others won't work at all. There are spells and cursed objects that can do that."
Lupin said with a smirk, "It's theoretically possible that if you lost the Horcrux you could lose some power and gain the same amount back."
"And come out even," said Harry unemotionally.
"But I'm afraid that all of that is pointless speculation," said Dumbledore firmly. He looked into Harry's eyes and said, "I'm very sorry Harry, but as long as you live, Voldemort can't die."
"But that's not what the prophecy says, sir," Hermione stated. "It says `neither can live while the other survives,' not `the dark lord can't die while the other survives.'"
That put a spark of hope in Harry, which Albus shot down immediately by saying, "Prophecies can come true in many ways that we can't predict."
Hermione looked upset, but instead of yelling or arguing, she simply said, "If you'll excuse us, I think Harry and I need some time alone to talk about this."
"That's fine," said Dumbledore in his grandfatherly voice. "It is a lot to take in."
"By the way," said Hermione as they reached the door, "Don't forget to try to find that book for me."
"Of course, Miss Granger. Good day."
-
A few minutes later, Hermione had practically dragged Harry to the Room of Requirement. "I don't want to talk about it!" he said once they were inside. He hadn't wanted to contradict his girlfriend in front of everyone, nor had he wanted to accidentally let the whole school know about the Horcrux in his head by arguing with her in the halls.
"But you need to talk about it!" she said firmly. "I can't imagine how I'd feel if I were you right now! I won't say I understand, but I will say that I love you and want to help!"
Harry had been ready to argue that she didn't understand, but she'd already covered that argument. He sighed as a couch appeared behind him, and sat down on the far right. He didn't say one word, instead looked in her eyes as she sat as close to him as possible without being on his lap.
After she felt she'd given him enough time to speak, she said, "Can you try to tell me what you're feeling?"
He took a deep breath and gave her a small grin. "I suppose the only way I could get out of this conversation is by running away."
She grinned back at him. "You'll never go where I can't find you."
"I suppose not." He sighed. "I don't know what I feel. Violated, used, dirty, angry…scared. I guess they'd all apply. Does this mean Voldemort can possess me like the diary possessed Ginny? One day we could be snogging and all the sudden Voldemort will take me over and I'll kill you because of his stupid prejudices. That monster used my body to keep his Horcrux! But how could he?! I would think my murder is what he'd use to split his soul, not use my body to house the fragment!"
Hermione's eyes widened. "What if that was his plan?"
"Wh-what do you mean?"
"What if he'd done whatever ritual was needed to make a Horcrux prior to the murder before he came up the stairs. He shot his death curse at you, but your mum jumped in front of it, becoming the source for his soul split. At that moment, he knew he'd have to make another Horcrux quickly, and so he chose to hide his Horcrux in you. At that moment, he may have planned to kidnap you and raise you as his servant. Only when he put the Horcrux in you after your mum died to save you, something went wrong because of the protection and he was vanquished." She gasped. "Maybe you didn't survive the avada kadavra curse like everyone believes! You and Voldemort are the only people alive who were there, you don't remember, and Voldemort isn't giving interviews."
"He marked me instead of trying to kill me!"
"As his equal…with a part of him inside you."
"But the last line doesn't make sense! He can't die while I'm alive!"
She smiled at him. "Not unless the Horcrux becomes irrelevant. If we can remove it."
"You heard Dumbledore!" he said, getting frustrated again. "No spell can do it, and it's too complicated to do it without a spell."
"Like a computer program," Hermione said. Harry looked at her like she'd grown a second head. "It's possible to tell a computer every little thing you want it to do one command at a time in what's known as machine language. That's similar to our working magic without wands. However, it's a lot easier to use programs, which are basically a set of commands. That's like a spell - a series of individual magic commands put together in one program. A wand acts like an operating system like Windows or Linux."
Harry was just staring at her, almost completely confused.
"Never mind. I was just comparing magic to a muggle programming book I read last summer. My point is that if we can figure out everything that needs to happen to remove the Horcrux from you, and we get that book from Professor Dumbledore, we might be able to create a spell to do that."
"So all we have to do is make a bunch of Horcruxes out of guinea pigs and keep trying to move them until we get it right?" he said sarcastically.
She glared at him for a moment, and then smiled wickedly. "Sure. Let's kill Snape for the first one."
He chuckled. "Sounds like a plan to me."
"Seriously though, I think we should find out everything we possibly can about Horcruxes and their affect on living things. Maybe how to detect souls. If there is such a test, you should register as having more than one soul."
"More like one and a half."
Hermione smiled. "Exactly. Detecting souls would probably be the first step in the spell. I wonder if I could do that now."
Harry took a deep breath as he paled. "You can try," he said a bit unsteadily.
Hermione got up and stood in front of Harry. She closed her eyes for a moment to focus herself. Then she looked at Harry, concentrating on seeing his souls. She could now see through his skull as though she were giving him a magical x-ray. Harry didn't feel affected at all as a small bright white ball of light appeared inside his transparent (to Hermione) head between his nose and mouth. Hermione thought to herself that `The soul is close to the mouth. No wonder Dementors suck the soul out through there.' She also saw a much smaller, sickly yellow ball of light inside Harry's forehead, right behind his scar. Her stray thought of removing it right then caused it to glow brighter as Harry winced in pain and reached for his scar. She immediately stopped.
"Ouch!" Harry screamed as he rubbed his scar. "Be careful!"
"I'm sorry," she said as she sat on his lap and began to rub his forehead. "I got overzealous after I saw the Horcrux and tried to remove it. I promise I'll be more careful, even if I have to do a few more experiments."
"Yes Dr. Frankenstein, I do your bidding," said Harry bowing in a bad imitation of a servant in an old horror movie.
She slapped his arm. "I am not Dr. Frankenstein, you prat."
"No, you're Mine."
"Harry, I just remembered! We need to call Mrs. Weasley about the underage magic law!"
"I don't feel like going back to Dumbledore's office. Let's write a letter and send it with Hedwig."
-
A few days later, the Potter Press ran an article about it.
"Underage Magic Law Proven to be Prejudiced
By Anna Jesse
The law called the `Reasonable Restriction of Underage Magic' has resulted in hundreds of Hogwarts students receiving warnings about it - five actually expelled. It is interesting to note that every single case has been a muggle-raised student - all but one of them was muggleborn. That exception was of course Harry Potter, who used to live with his Aunt and Uncle. Some may say that this means that muggleborn children are out of control and can't stop themselves from using magic. The fact of the matter is that this is not the case.
The ministry simply cannot track who performs magic, only where it is performed. This means that any child who lives in a wizarding home may or may not be practicing magic outside of school, but will never get in trouble with the Ministry if they do. This not only gives muggleborn children a distinct disadvantage academically over pureblood and half blood students that are aware of this (some may simply experiment one time and find out they weren't caught, and therefore get in the habit) because they can't practice during the holiday, but it also persecutes them unfairly.
All that it would take is for a muggleborn child to perform magic, which becomes second-nature during the school year, twice, and they'd be expelled. They are never allowed to show their parents what they've learned in school, which leads to their parents not really understanding what or even if their kids are learning at Hogwarts. The `Hogwarts' Happenings' article in this paper contains interviews with several muggleborn students about misunderstandings they've had at home because of this law. Some muggleborn students have even been pulled out of Hogwarts because their parents can't understand the point of learning magic if you can't use it at home. We at the Potter Press suggest that this law should be modified to allow magic to be performed in the home as long as it's only not in front of anyone who's not aware of magic. Of course, that particular offense would be covered by the statute of secrecy anyway, so there would be no point in the law at all… "
The article was distributed to nearly every student at Hogwarts at breakfast, who read it with much interest. Many of the students seemed both upset and happy about this information, as the conversations got louder and louder until finally, the headmaster felt he had to do something. He put down his fork, wiped his mouth, and walked up to the podium. "SILENCE!!!" he shouted, causing the whole hall to quiet down. "I gather that the cat is now out of the bag. I can assure you that the reason we announce the underage restriction every year is because the ministry tells us to. Many laws have been written by bigots who are against muggleborn witches and wizards. I have a feeling that this particular law will be modified soon. What I want to do is stress to you that even if you end up with fewer restrictions on your use of magic, you must exercise common sense and not hurt yourselves by performing dangerous spells. In the meantime however, I must insist that you keep the noise level down to a low roar.
-
A few days after the article came out, Hermione, Harry, Neville, Ginny, Sirius, and Remus were dueling in the Room of Requirement when Dumbledore walked in carrying an old book. This round was everybody but Hermione, who was researching on her computer, against Harry. The room hid Dumbledore as he observed for several minutes as Harry fought, avoiding spell after spell until finally a stunner from Neville's wand got him when he was caught between all four wands.
"Bravo, bravo!" said the headmaster. "Well done Harry for avoiding getting hit for so long, and well done Neville for finally stunning him. I must say Mr. Longbottom, that you and Miss Weasley are as good of duelists as most of the professors here."
They both blushed at the compliments. "Thank you, sir," said Ginny.
"You're most welcome, Miss Weasley. The reason I'm here is to loan this book to Miss Granger."
Hermione, who'd been studying from her laptop, looked up and smiled widely upon seeing the tome in the headmaster's hand. She got up and walked up to him. "Thank you very much, headmaster. Let me copy it onto my computer."
She took the book and performed the spell to scan it. "I've been wanting to speak with you sir," she said nervously.
"Oh," he said happily.
"I want to create a spell for transferring Horcruxes and wanted you to tell me everything you believe would need to be done."
The aged professor sighed heavily. "I already told you that I don't think anything can be done for Harry. I…"
"Harry?! What about Harry?" said Ginny, who'd been standing nearby.
Dumbledore's face turned red. "My apologies, Miss Granger. I'd assumed you'd informed them."
"Well," said Hermione as Harry walked toward them. "Harry's been sort of reluctant. He's afraid Ginny and Neville will be afraid of him and not want anything to do with us anymore."
"Why would I be afraid of Harry?" asked Ginny, "unless the…you wanted to transfer a Horcrux…why would you…unless." She turned to face Harry with a look of sympathy in her eyes as she looked at his scar. "D-Did Tom put a Horcrux i-in you?"
He hung his head in shame. "Yes," he mumbled.
Ginny walked up to him and hugged him with tears flowing from her eyes. "How can you think that of us? I'm the last person to judge you about that!" He returned the hug, and after a few moments, she let go of Harry and faced Albus. "Hermione is trying to find a way to help Harry and you won't help her?"
"I'm afraid I don't want to give Harry false hope. I…"
"SO INSTEAD YOU WANT HIM TO HAVE NO HOPE AT ALL!!!!"
"He may be seriously hurt or even die if Miss Granger attempts to…"
"I will die before Voldemort can if I don't do anything! If I'm the only one who can kill Voldemort, and he can't die while I'm alive, he's guaranteed to win! According to the prophecy, I have a fighting chance! There has to be a way to eliminate this Horcrux without killing me!"
"But dying while removing the Horcrux could count as dying by his hand!" argued Dumbledore.
"I want my godson to try this," said Sirius, joining in the conversation, "and I'd appreciate it if you help Hermione in any way you can, thus increasing the odds of her success. But with or without your help, we are going to do this!"
Albus saw the determined look on Harry's guardian, and sighed. "Very well, I'll tell you everything I know about Horcruxes."
-
In between classes, Hermione worked relentlessly on first reading and rereading that book, and then on creating the spell. She barely even noticed the article from the Potter Press that said the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Magic had been revised to make it illegal for a minor to perform magic outside of their home or in the presence of muggles unaware of the existence of magic. Now muggleborns can demonstrate magic for their parents, and practice all they need to over the holidays (not to mention do their chores magically). A house rule the reporter suggested is not to perform magic in the house if there's a visitor there.
After a month of Harry hardly being able to snog his girlfriend, where more often than not, when he was alone with her, she'd perform experiments regarding his Horcrux (that she'd stop the moment it got painful), Hermione announced she was ready. On a Saturday morning, Dumbledore insisted that they have Madam Pomfrey monitor Harry's life signs during the spell. She'd been told only that they'd discovered a dark curse inside Harry's scar, and that Hermione was attempting to remove it. A nurse from St. Mungo's was running the Hospital Wing while Madam Pomfrey, Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, Dumbledore, Black, Lupin, and Brooks were in the Room of Requirement.
Harry was lying comfortably on a bed, and Madam Pomfrey was standing beside him, not very happy that a student, no matter how bright, was performing the spell. However, Dumbledore had told her to allow it, and to do her best to help Harry afterward.
Hermione performed very complex wand movements while muttering an equally difficult incantation. A few moments after she began, Harry's eyes closed and he looked peaceful for about two minutes. At that point, his eyes opened wide as he screamed. He started shaking and sweating, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. Hermione continued the spell. After five agonizing minutes, his body relaxed again and his eyes closed. About two minutes after that, his eyes opened and he started screaming. At the same moment, a green vapor started seeping out of his scar and into a Kleenex tissue Hermione had placed beside Harry. His scar began fading as the vapor left his body. When it was over, the scar was barely visible upon close inspection.
Madam Pomfrey ran a diagnostic spell on Harry, looking for anything that could be wrong with him while Dumbledore took the Horcrux tissue. "Well, he's stunned right now, so an enervate should wake him. It seems his magic is unstable as well. Professor Dumbledore mentioned the possibility that this curse had been affecting Harry's magic." She then revived Harry, who blinked and looked around.
"H-Hermione?" he said when his eyes rested on his girlfriend.
"How do you feel?" she asked.
He gave her a grin. "Light-headed." He put his right hand on his scar. "It feels, different. Does it look different?" Madam Pomfrey conjured a mirror and handed it to her patient. "It's a lot thinner and lighter, less noticeable," he said with a grin.
Madam Pomfrey asked, "Do you have your wand? I'd like you to attempt a spell."
Hermione handed him his wand. "What spell do you want me to perform?"
"We'll start with a simple first-year spell. Levitate this quill." She put a quill on a table.
"Harry confidently pointed his wand at the feather, did the swish and flick with his wand and said, "Wingardium Leviosa." Nothing happened.
-
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