I do not own Harry Potter. If I did then there would be a lot of changes, like having the twins or Luna for minister and having Remus and Sirius and Tonks live long, happy lives with many children and Harry and Hermione would be together. Since I don't they didn't and that's all there is to it. For those of you who think Harry was being an idiot in the last chapter, well, I'm sorry but that's how I think of him and that's how he'll be for a little bit until he gets his head on straight. Also, sorry this took so long, my computer died and I had to recreate everything I had on it about this story because I'm an idiot who doesn't keep back ups of what I'm working on. I'm also moving at the end of August to continue my scholastic career- joy. Sorry to all ya'll who wanted the bracelet to block Dumbledore's memory charm but that's not what the bracelet does.
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"I'm afraid I cannot risk your actions changing anything," Dumbledore said, his voice still kind, "I'm sorry my dear boy but oblivate."
"I believe that Madam Pomfrey will be able to release you now." Dumbledore said and Harry blinked.
"Sorry, what were you saying Professor?" Harry asked and he looked around. How did he end up in the hospital wing this time? He looked around and noted that Snape was there and hoped that someone had managed to get pictures or something. Whatever knocked out Snape was worth hearing about!
"I was just saying that you were quite lucky that you didn't inhale more of the fumes from Mr. Longbottom's potion than you did my dear boy." Dumbledore replied with a smile. Harry tried to remember the last time he went to potions class but his mind was blank.
"Right," Harry nodded anyway, not wanting to be in the hospital wing any longer than he had to. Dumbledore stood up, still smiling.
"Now then, I must get going, there are several things I must take care of." The old headmaster informed Harry. He started to leave but paused long enough to whisper something to Madam Pomfrey. A sour expression appeared on the nurse's face but she nodded and continued to scowl long after the headmaster left.
"Well Mr. Potter, the headmaster, despite my better judgment, has insisted that I allow you to continue to your next class." The nurse told him and he smiled.
"Alright," he started to get out of bed when he realized something and he turned to the formidable master of the hospital wing.
"Er, what's my next class?" he asked and tried not to wince at Madam Pomfrey's smirk of triumph.
"Obvious head trauma, you can't leave the hospital wing just yet then." She said with satisfaction.
"What head trauma?" came another voice and Harry turned slightly and smiled at the sight of Hermione, though his smile faded when he saw that not only were her arms laden with more books than she should be capable of holding without dropping something but her bag was also full almost to the bursting point.
"My. Potter is displaying signs of memory loss, obviously caused by the head trauma he sustained in potions class. While he may be better off than Professor Snape, he should still stay at least until tomorrow so I can observe him for any other things I might have initially missed." Madam Pomfrey explained and Harry eyed her suspiciously, wondering if he was just imagining the smug undertone in her voice. It wasn't like Madam Pomfrey liked him to be in the hospital wing all the time, right?
"Aren't you missing class Miss Granger?" Madam Pomfrey asked just as Harry opened his mouth to ask the same thing.
"I went to Professor McGonagall and I have a pass for the rest of the day to stay with Harry and help him with the list of homework assignments that she gave me to give to him. If he has been hurt more than you originally thought then I should definitely stay to make sure that he can do this." Hermione replied quickly and Harry bit back a groan as he looked at all the books again. It was only the first month of the new school year! He watched as Hermione looked around the hospital wing, as if making sure that no one would over hear whatever she was going to say. Harry felt slightly confused but ignored it when Hermione cast some sort of spell. She began pulling books from her bag, a smile on her face.
"Now that we won't have any interruptions for awhile, we can start going over some of the journals." Hermione explained, handing him a small book. The cover glittered slightly, but only in certain places, as if it had been dipped in paint and now the paint was chipping. It felt strange, as if it was made of lizard skin.
"It's a record of how some of your ancestors used magic." Hermione explained, her eyes glittering.
"Where did you get this?" Harry asked, leafing through the book absently, not noticing the strange look Hermione gave him.
"You gave them to me to translate," she answered, a worried expression appearing on her face and she reached out to put her hand against Harry's forehead, "Maybe Madam Pomfrey was right and you did sustain some when you fell."
"Hermione, what are you talking about?" Harry demanded, waving her hand away from his head, "I never gave you any books and even if I did, where would I have gotten books from my ancestors? I didn't know anything about my family, besides the Dursleys, or have anything from them until I was eleven." Harry looked at the book in his hands with a new point of view. This book was from his family.
"Harry, don't you remember meeting with the goblins this summer? Do you remember any of the things you told me?" Hermione asked and Harry frowned.
"Hermione, I have no idea what you're talking about," Harry confessed and Hermione frowned again and looked at him closely.
"Your pupils look fuzzy, what were you and Dumbledore talking about?" Hermione asked him and Harry frowned as he tried to think.
"He was telling me I was lucky I didn't inhale more of whatever it was Neville made." He answered finally and raised a brow at Hermione triumphant expression.
"You were oblivated." The bushy haired witch informed him and Harry frowned and shook his head.
"That can't be right, and besides, who would oblivate me?" Harry countered and Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Harry, it doesn't have more than half an hour to tell someone they were lucky they didn't inhale more of anything. You remembered everything else just fine before entering the hospital wing which means either Dumbledore oblivated you or Madam Pomfrey or someone came in here while you were unconscious and I wasn't here. Since Madam Pomfrey is sure to know the dangers of performing a memory charm on anyone with even a suspected head injury, her oath would have prevented her from doing such a thing." Hermione reasoned and Harry frowned.
"What oath? And why would Dumbledore of all people put a memory charm on me?" Harry demanded, feeling something heavy in the pit of his stomach. Dumbledore couldn't have used the memory charm. He looked at Hermione's expression and noted that she looked like she was about as sick as he felt at the idea of Dumbledore oblivating him.
"The Hippocratic oath Harry, all healers take such an oath. In the magical world it's even more serious since the magic of the person forces them to make sure they follow it or they risk various consequences, losing their magic being one of the more merciful. If she did oblivate you then the oath should have made such a spell turn back on her. As to why he would do such a thing, well, I honestly have no idea." Hermione answered, "But I think I have a way to undo it."
"You do?" Harry asked, slightly disbelieving.
"Yes, well, maybe," the witch told him with a slightly sheepish expression, "You see, two of your ancestors, a Reyna and Mero, were experts at mind magic. I think I might be able to use a few of their techniques to help you. My great-grandmother, Nana Kim, let me practice a little bit on her, but I'm not so sure that the same sorts of things that helped her will help you." Hermione trailed off and looked at him with wide eyes.
"What exactly does this technique do?" Harry asked her, deciding to think about Dumbledore's betrayal and what it was that had provoked such an action later.
"The human mind is capable of thinking of several things at once, even without a person consciously realizing it. So we start by talking, mostly about subjects related to the memories that you lost. I'll be sort of watching for those memories." Hermione began.
"Wait, you're going to be reading my mind?" Harry yelped and then quickly looked around to see if Madam Pomfrey had noticed his outburst and was relieved to find that she had not. Hermione shook her head,
"No, I won't be able to do anything like that. It's more like," she grasped for the word she wanted and after a moment she gave up and went on with a shrug, "well, the human mind is too complex for me to do that unless we're specifically concentrating on each other and deliberately trying to share thoughts. What I'll be doing is sort of feeling your memories, the emotions, the colors and such things related to them. When I think I feel something that's related to what you've lost, I'll send a tiny shock of magic through your mind, just a little one mind you, and that should bring what you've lost back to your conscious mind." Hermione explained and then she frowned, "The problem is that your ancestors never worked to bring memories back after they've been magically removed, or if they did then they didn't record it, so I'm not sure that I'll be able to do this for you." She confessed.
"I thought you said you practiced on your great-grandmother." Harry pointed out and then cowered back slightly at the ferocious glare that Hermione turned upon him.
"Harry, I'm surprised at you!" Hermione scolded, "I wouldn't memory charm someone who trusts me, at least not without their express consent and a very compelling reason. Nana Kim is just very old and she gets rather muddled easily and the medication the doctors have prescribed for her do her mind more harm than good so she didn't mind if I practiced on her."
"All right, I'm sorry," Harry said before she could go any further with her little tirade. Hermione smiled slightly.
"So, how do we get started then?" Harry asked.
"Just by talking, trying to draw the memories a little further out of your subconscious then they are now. If it doesn't work very much now then we might just have to keep trying. The memory charm is new, so I'm not sure how that will affect the success of this technique." Hermione answered him and looked at him expectantly. It took Harry a moment but he caught on.
"Oh, so, um," Harry wracked his brains for something he could talk about that might be related to whatever he lost. Finally he came up with something.
"Why did I give you those journals anyway?" Harry asked and Hermione chuckled slightly.
"I guess the spell is still affecting you. As I said, you gave me the journals so I could translate them. They were in some language that neither of us had ever seen before. It looked almost like the ancient Norse runes but there was a rather Chinese influence too. Since I'm not familiar with either of those and since they're both rather complicated, it took me a good long time to crack it, though once I did the actual translation started to come together. I actually haven't quite finished yet." Hermione answered quickly.
"And you said I saw the goblins this summer? What about?" Harry asked and Hermione looked at him shrewdly.
"If I tell you everything then there's no point in me trying to retrieve your memories." She said rather waspishly and Harry nodded.
"Right, sorry," he said and shrugged, "I just can't really think of anything else to talk about, though why would it be a bad thing if you just told me what I'm missing?" Harry asked.
"Because there may be some details that you failed to mention to me, not thinking them important or because you forgot. It would also be a good idea for you not to rely on my memory in case you told Dumbledore what I suspect you told him and he finds out that I know it as well. He'd most definitely oblivate me too." Hermione answered and then her eyes lost focus. She reached out, as if trying to touch something that he couldn't see. Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his head.
"Ouch!" he yelped and Hermione snapped back into focus.
"Sorry, I'm so sorry!" Hermione gasped, "I forgot that the first time I do that rather hurts." They sat there in silence for a moment before finally,
"So, do you remember anything new?" Hermione asked. Harry closed his eyes and thought for a moment.
"I think I remember something new," Harry said slowly, "I dunno where this came from but I can remember a girl. She's wearing black robes, looks a bit like McGonagall but a lot younger, maybe eighteen. Her hair is in a ponytail. There's something weird about her and she seems really angry."
"Well, that's a start Harry." Hermione replied after a moment, an encouraging smile on her face,
"Now, let's try to figure out some more." She went on and Harry nodded. He took another look at the journal in his hands and frowned when he saw something glinting at the edge of his sleeve.
He pulled his sleeve back and his eyes widened as he looked at the strange bracelet that covered most of his upper arm. Why hadn't he noticed that before?
"Hermione, what's this?" Harry asked, raising his arm so Hermione could get a better look at the bracelet and the strange markings on it. Hermione frowned,
"That's your arm Harry." She replied, sounding slightly unnerved. Harry blinked and looked at his arm. The bracelet was right there, as plain as day.
"I was talking about the bracelet." Harry prodded and Hermione stared at him blankly.
"Harry, you're not wearing a bracelet." Hermione informed him and then a worried expression appeared on her face,
"Maybe we should stop. I must have done something wrong when I pulled that memory up." She told him, wringing her hands in frustration and guilt.
"No!" Harry barked, startling the bushy haired girl.
"No," Harry said again, this time more gently, "Forget about what I may or may not be seeing. Remembering whatever it is that Dumbledore made me forget is important and unless you're sure there's no other way…" he trailed off and looked at Hermione expectantly.
"There's not another way that will leave your mind fully intact, providing I use this technique correctly. Just breaking Dumbledore's charm would take more power than I have and if I did break it then I might leave you a vegetable. The technique of your ancestors circumvents the charm so your mind will be whole." Hermione explained, still looking worried.
"There you go, and we need this information," Harry said confidently, "there's no other way and this information has got to be important." He looked at Hermione who nodded in confirmation, "Then let's get on with it." Harry finished.
They continued talking about whatever crossed their minds and occasionally Hermione's eyes would grow distant again and Harry would feel that sharp stab in his mind, though as Hermione had predicted, the pain continued to decrease as they went on.
He gained a number of memories, though very few of them seemed to have anything to do with what he might have forgotten. He remembered his mother singing to him. He remembered his father waving a stuffed snitch in his face and explaining quidditch to him, his mother shaking her head and laughing in the background. He remembered a man with long dark hair carrying him and taking him into the sky on a flying motorcycle and he remembered his mother yelling at the man afterwards.
He also gained a few memories of the strange girl and a few other people who he had no idea about. There was a man who reminded him of the Hufflepuff seeker, another much larger man who rather disturbed him and a third, much older man who reminded him or someone, he just couldn't remember who. There was also a little elf creature, Dobby, with huge, tennis ball like eyes.
Finally, Madam Pomfrey came over to them, a positively murderous expression on her face.
"I've been more than lenient Ms. Granger. It's time for you to go back to the Gryffindor tower." Madam Pomfrey declared. Her expression just dared the two second years to contradict her. Neither of them took the dare.
"I'll see you tomorrow Harry, we can keep going with this then." Hermione said rather cheerily and she gathered most of the books and papers together and left Harry to the mercies of the school nurse.
Madam Pomfrey pulled a short brown bottle from a pocket in her robe and pulled a spoon out from another pocket. Harry wondered if it was right for her to look so darn cheerful while she was doing this.
"Open wide Mr. Potter, this potion will get rid of any swelling in your brain and let you get a good night's rest." She said and Harry opened his mouth to protest. Before he could even make a sound, Madam Pomfrey struck and stuck the spoon and the nasty potion into his mouth.
He chocked and sputtered but swallowed it all under Madam Pomfrey's smug expression.
"There you go, I'll let you go tomorrow but for now you just rest." Madam Pomfrey told him and he saw darkness begin to creep into his vision. His eyelids felt tired and his head began to wobble with the effort of holding it up.
Suddenly, he felt as if he was swimming through something very thick, like syrup. He tried to look around but he didn't see anything but gray smoke. He tried to move, or rather swim, forward but he seemed to be unable to get anywhere.
"You absolute idiot!" snarled a voice that seemed almost familiar. He tried and actually succeeded in turning and he cocked his head as he tried to figure out who the girl in front of him was. Suddenly, recognition bloomed in his mind.
"You're that girl!" he yelped, "The one that looks like McGonagall!"
The girl looked distinctly unimpressed with his memory.
I," she began in a venomous tone, "have been watching over Potter men for generations, for longer than you can even imagine and never, never in the entire history of your family have I ever had to guard over one who is as positively thick as you seem to be! You stupid Potter men keep marrying the smartest, most stubborn women of your generations, why in the world can't that intelligence ever pass down?"
"What do you mean?" Harry asked, wondering how a girl who couldn't have been more than eighteen could have possibly known his family for so long. She sighed,
"And once again I get to explain it," the girl rolled her eyes and collapsed onto the smoke which formed a chair around her. She looked at him with a piercing glare.
"Once again, and I swear this will be the last time I ever introduce myself to you or I will personally torment your soul for the remainder of eternity, my name is Mina."
"Right, Mina, got it," Harry gulped, trying to shrink away from the furious woman.
"You pretty much failed at life several times already. Do it again and I'll be demoted. If you manage to get it right, and that means beating the snake freak, marrying and having lots of little Potters for me to watch over and not dying until you reach some ridiculously old age, then I'll get promoted. I really want to be promoted." Mina informed him. Harry nodded.
"I took Voldemort's soul fragment," she stared and held up a hand to forestall Harry's questions, "Talk to Hermione about that, I don't have the patience to repeat it. I took the soul fragment from your head. I gave you a way to safely dispose of the others, the little box in your pocket. I gave you that bracelet to help you get over what the Dursleys did to you and to unlock your potential and your champion friends' potential. I even shielded your mind myself and you can't seem to go more than a bloody month without getting into some danger that would have kill you. To make it worse, you almost killed Snape."
"Why on earth would that make things worse?" Harry demanded, feeling a horrible rage at the mention of the greasy professor.
"His guardian doesn't like me and the greasy git needs to survive at least until your seventh year. I don't know why, nor do I care since he isn't my charge but if you make things any more difficult, the previous threat remains. Got it?" Mina snarled at him. Harry nodded weakly and Mina grinned.
"Fantastic. Now, I've run out of time. Good bye Harry, good luck, don't trust Dumbledore with anything important and if you ever need me, well," she paused and for a moment Harry could have sworn that her face flickered between a normal face and a skull, "just use this." Mina said and started to hand him a slip of paper. Harry almost had it when she pulled it away,
"But only use it for emergencies. Anything other than an emergency and you're due to a good hundred years of soul torment." She warned him. Harry gulped and nodded and Mina gave him the paper.
"Alright then, good luck." She chirped and the grey smoke swirled around her and in moment she disappeared. The boy-who-lived sighed and started to try to walk through the murky smoke. Just as he thought he was making some progress, a sharp pain stabbed him in his stomach.
Harry shot up in his bed and tried to see what had happened but everything was blurry. He groped around for his glasses, a strange vibration making it difficult, but he finally found them.
When he could focus he saw the little elf jumping on the bed. When the little elf noticed that Harry was look at him he stopped and hunched over, his eyes even wider than normal.
"Dobby is so glad to see Harry Potter sir awake." Dobby groveled, "Dobby has been so worried about Harry Potter sir."
"What are you doing?" Harry demanded.
"Dobby is here to ask Harry Potter sir to please to be going home. Hogwarts is dangerous for Harry Potter sir." Dobby said earnestly and Harry shook his head.
"I'm sorry Dobby, but I can't. I won't go to the Dursleys anymore than I have to, especially not when I could be at Hogwarts." Harry replied firmly and he saw tears form in the elf's huge eyes.
"Then Dobby is very sorry Harry Potter sir but Harry Potter sir must leave Hogwarts." The elf replied and with a snap he disappeared, leaving Harry alone in the dark hospital wing.
Then, with nothing better to do, he cast a lighting charm and began to go through the books that Hermione left and he did his best not to look at the scrap of paper that had definitely not been there before.
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And there you have it. I sincerely hope this was worth the wait and I thank you all for being so patient with me. This chapter is dedicated to my grandmother since it's her birthday, and I'll take this space to wish my dad, brother, cousins, aunt and other grandmother a very happy belated b-day.
I'll try to get the next chapter out faster.
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