The Blessing of love
It was the morning of November 1, 1981, and in a suburb of London, the residents of a house on Privet Drive were awakened by the cries of a baby on their doorstep. The two adults, Vernon and Petunia Dursley, went to look at the source of the noise. Having read the attached letter, they were not impressed, and after a short conversation, decided to drop the child off at a nearby orphanage.
That afternoon, Sr. Mary, the new head of the St. Dominic's Orphanage, was walking around the building with a young toddler in her arms. Sr. Mary was a young nun, on her first assignment for her order, having just finished University with a degree in Child Psychology. Fortunately for the toddler, whose name was Harry Potter, she was also a squib, and having kept abreast of news in the Wizarding world, knew who the child with black hair, green eyes and a lightning shaped scar was, and his importance in the Wizard world.
Unfortunately for the plans of various powerful wizards, she was also a strong believer in her new faith of Christianity. As such, she was quick to bless the toddler, using the holy water kept at the entrance to the Church to make the sign of the cross on his forehead, coincidentally on the scar. Within days the scar started to heal. By the time Harry was baptised a month later, the scar was completely healed. As the toddler grew, he spent most of his time with Sr. Mary, and like her, he grew strong in his faith. When he had accidental magic, she explained what it was to him, and told him to consider it a gift from God. At his primary school, she pushed him to do well in his classes, and was quick to chastise the teachers who allowed students to act as bullies. An interesting effect of his magic and his faith was that both relied strongly on a person's beliefs in intangibles. In Harry's case, his strong belief in magic and his faith, caused his magic to affect his prayers positively. Basically, he prayed for something and it happened. Sr. Mary realised it, but neither encouraged or discouraged it, as she was concerned about the attention it would bring. She however encouraged him to pray that God would help destroy those who wished him harm, and to do this every day.
When he turned eleven, his Hogwarts letter, addressed to Harry White came. Sr. Mary, who had been born a Black, had changed her name upon leaving the magical world, and had adopted him using her new name. She had aslo explained to him the fame, legends and dangers associated with his old name, and asked him to respond only to his new name, with the absence of the scar and with his hair kept very short, and using brown coloured contacts, he should not be recognisable as Harry Potter. The first test of this came, when Mrs. McGonagall came to introduce him to the magical world and take him to Diagon Alley. Sr. Black cut her short and told her she was a squib, and had realised that Harry was a wizard and told him about magic. She did not add that they had also visited Gringott's and revealed Harry's true identity to the Goblins and gotten keys to his vaults, his mail rerouted and access to his vaults by anyone else blocked. She just stated that they had picked up some galleons in anticipation of the shopping trip for his supplies, so a visit to Gringotts was unnecessary. After discussion, it was eventually decided that Harry would go to Diagon Alley, the wizard shopping district, with Mrs. McGonagall, on August 1, when she was taking a group of muggleborn for their shopping visit.
That day, he met and became friends with Hermione Granger, Dean Thomas, Hannah Abbott and Sally-Ann Perks. After questioning Mrs. McGonagall, he found out that there were no religious services at Hogwarts. She told him however that there was no ban on a student conducting a service, so he started making plans to have consecrated host delivered to the castle weekly, and he would conduct the services himself.
September 1, came quickly and the group of friends met at Kings Cross at 9:30am, by 10am goodbyes were said to family, and they crossed the barrier to Platform 9 ¾. They found a compartment together and sat down to enjoy the trip. Within an hour of the trains departure, Harry asked the other occupants if anyone objected to his giving a blessing on them all. No one objected, so he said a short prayer, asking for Gods help to make their studies productive. It was his concluding prayer that however surprised Hermione, the only person who was a regular Church attendee. That prayer asked God to protect them all and individually from any being that meant them harm in any manner, and for God to judge such persons and carry out his judgement on them before their plans could be implemented. The blessing ended with the joint refrain, "so say we all, so shall it be".
The first sign that anything untowards was happening was when the door was opened by a young pale blonde haired boy accompanied by two much bigger strapping boys. The first boy looked around the compartment, opened his mouth to say something and promptly passed out. His companions, after a few moments, picked him up and left.
The only other student interruption they had was a boy their age, who knocked, opened the door, introduced himself as Neville Longbottom and asked if anyone had seen his missing pet toad. No one had, but after leaving two girls behind to keep any eye on their belongings, the others went to help him. Rather than going to every compartment however, they went looking for a prefect, who after doing a point me spell, located the missing pet.
By the time they heard the announcement that they were approaching their destination, they were all tired from the long trip. The conversation had switched to Hogwarts and what to expect it to be like, but as first years, they had no real knowledge of the place. Only Hannah and Susan Bones, a friend of hers, who had joined them, had knowledge of any of the Houses, and even then only of one, the Hufflepuff house.
By the time the train reached Hogsmeade, it's destination, Harry had decided to try for Hufflepuff, mainly due to lack of knowledge about the other Houses. As they left the train, they heard a loud voice asking for all the first years to gather around the speaker, a rather large man. Once they had gathered, he invited them to follow him down to the lake. At this point the large boys who had been with the boy who fainted in their compartment, called out to the man, who had identified himself as Hagrid, and told him that their friend was unconscious. Hagrid told them that he could do nothing, so to bring the boy to the school, and let the Healer there look at him.
When they reached the school, they were met by a stern looking lady, who introduced herself as Professor Mcgonagall, the acting Headmistress. The two boys from before showed her the comatose boy, and repeated their story, pointing at Harry and his friends, stating that it was in their compartment he had collapsed. The Professor asked if they had cast a spell, they stated no, and added that the boy had come into their compartment without knocking, looked at them, sneered, opened his mouth and fainted, they never said or did anything to him. She then asked the two boys, who she addressed as Crabbe and Goyle, for their version of the incident. They stated that it was as the boy, pointing at Harry, stated, adding that they saw no one with a wand out. The Professor thought for a moment, then cast a spell quietly, causing a silver coloured vapour to go through a door behind her. She then told them, aloud, that she had asked the Charms professor to join her. She then asked all the persons who were in the compartment when Malfoy fainted to hand her their wands, including Crabbe and Goyle. They were soon joined by a short man, who she called Professor Flitwick, and a woman, who she referred to as Healer Pomfrey. She looked around the first years and called out to a Ms. Greengrass and a Mr. Weasley to join them, a blonde girl and a red haired boy came forward. She told those two students that they were there as witnesses to what was going to be done. She then summarized what had happened to Professor Flitwick, and asked him to check what spells if any had been cast by the wands she had taken from the students, with Greengrass and Weasley witnessing the results of his checks.
Professor Flitwick cast a spell on each wand as she handed it to him, saying the spell aloud. All the wands came back negative. Professor Flitwick then asked anyone who could cast a Lumos spell to cast it. The Greengrass girl took out her wand and cast it, held it for a few seconds, then cast nox, to turn it off and handed the wand to the Professor, who cast the revealing spell again, this time there was a result, with both the spells she had cast showing up. Professor Mcgonagall thanked them all for their patience, and added that hopefully they could all agree that whatever had happened to Mr. Malfoy, no one should accuse the persons in the compartment of having cast a spell at him.
At this point, Harry said loudly, "I am sorry Professor, but you missed one wand". The Professor looked at him annoyed, do one of you have more than one wand, "No" Said Harry, "but would Mr. Malfoy not have a wand, and should it not be checked also" The Professor looked upset, but responded " I doubt he did this to himself, but in the interest of transparency, we will check his wand also." She waved her wand and a wand came out of Malfoy's robes and she caught it with her other hand, and gave it to the other Professor.
He in turn pronounced the revealing spell again, but unlike the other children who were in the compartment, a number of spells showed as having been done by the wand. Both Professors gave a gasp of surprise when they saw some of the spells, and McGonagall waved her wand, to conjure a piece of parchment with writing on it. She handed this to the red haired boy, who she asked to read the list of words and confirm that they matched the spells shown, after he did this, she passed the list to the girl, Greengrass, asking her to do the same. Professor Flitwick then conjured a self inking quill, and asked the two children to sign the parchment as confirmation that it represented the spells they saw.
After this was done, Professor Flitwick took the wand and the signed parchment and left the room, whilst Prof McGonagall asked them to organize themselves as they were to follow her into the Great Hall, to be sorted into their Houses. The students slowly got into a line, with the group that had formed around Harry staying together. They all walked into the Great Hall, admiring the ceiling and floating candles. When they reached the front of the Hall, they were asked to line up in front of the teachers table, and McGonagall placed a hat on a stool between them and the student's tables. She then turned to the new students, and told them,
"When I call out your name, walk up to the stool, sit on it, and I will place the hat on your head. The Hat will examine you and call out loud the name of the House you have been sorted into. You will stand up, hand the Hat to me and proceed to your House table. Please wait quietly, until your name is called"
She started calling the students' names in alphabetical order, with Hannah Abbott being the first name, after a short period under the hat, the Hat called out Hufflepuff and the group from the train, as well as one of the tables cheered her as she walked over to the table. The next name called was Susan Bones, and she was also sorted into Hufflepuff. The next name they were interested in was Greengrass, Daphne, and they cheered her sorting into Slytherin. Grainger, Hermione was then sorted to Hufflepuff also. By the end of the sorting, all of Harry's friends, except for Dean Thomas were in Hufflepuff and he was in Gryffindor. Those in Hufflepuff however agreed to continue seeking him out and to make friends in the other Houses also.
After all the students were sorted and seated, Prof. McGonagall, went and sat at the throne like chair in the middle of the Teacher's table. She let the students settle for a minute then tapped her chalice and stood up to address the students. Al the students went silent and turned to pay attention to her. She then started talking " As the older students would have realized, we are missing three teachers tonight, the Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, the Potions Master and Head of Slytherin, Prof. Snape and the new Defence Master, Prof Quirell. Unfortunately, they all collapsed around midday, and are currently under the care of our Healer. We have asked the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, to send us two Aurors to temporarily teach Defence and Potions, until our Professors have recovered. In the meantime, I will act as Headmistress, Prof Vector will act as Head of Slytherin and Prof Sinistra will act as Head of Gryffindor, I am sure you are all anxious for dinner, so any additional notices will be given after dinner."
After dinner, she again gave a short speech, this time reminding all students on the rules. During dinner she had thought of Dumbledore's plan to hide the Flamel's possession in the school, and had decided not to continue with that plan. As such she told the students that Dumbledore had been conducting an experiment on the third Floor, and until it was dismantled, that area was out of bounds, as it posed a danger to the students, she asked Flitwick to place an age line of at least 21 years, and to put warning signs to block students from going near the area. She then dismissed the students, reminding the fifth year prefects to lead the first year students to their House dorms, and back down again in the morning, and that timetables would be distributed in the morning.
The group of first year Hufflepuffs were led to the basement and told the secret of finding and entering their dormitory. By this time they were too exhausted to continue chatting, so agreed with the prefect to be awake and in the House Common Room by 7:30 the next morning. As Hermione was in her bed, going over the day's events as she drifted off to sleep, she thought of Harry's prayer, and the fact that four persons had fallen into a coma. From listening to the older students during dinner, she realized that Prof Snape was antagonistic to the students, whilst McGonagall had indicated Dumbledore was running a dangerous experiment in the school, the Malfoy boy had looked as if he was going to say something unkind to them, just before he collapsed. She wondered if God had judged them, and found them wanting, and put them in a coma, or was it just a coincidence. She decided to wait and see, but to also be careful not to get on Harry's bad side. As he was a pleasant and helpful person, she did not see any problems remaining friendly with him.
The next morning they were up, dressed and waiting on the prefect at 7:30, to be led back to the Great Hall for breakfast, after eating, the prefect then showed them the route to their first few classes, reminding them that the armour/statues and paintings tended to move, so using them as reference points could be problematic.
After the tour, the students returned to their common room, and after a short discussion, went to get their texts for the first few classes to prepare for the first few classes. After consulting with a couple second years, they based their preparation on what the opening classes dealt with the previous year, although all they could do for Potions and DADA was read the opening chapters. The next day they were up early again and after advising the waiting prefect, bravely ventured forth to find the Great Hall on their own. They made it, without being lost, and thanked the prefect, who had followed them at a safe distance. After breakfast, they collected a group of Gryfindors and went to find the greenhouses for the Herbology class. Classes proceeded smoothly and the students started to learn about magic and how to use it. Fortunately or otherwise, the comatose persons remained in their comas, and the year passed quietly. Without Snape or Malfoy, the first year Slytherins were not ignored by the Hufflepuffs, who invited them to join in on weekend cooldowns (relaxation events) and thus made friends amongst the group, who would then join in the study sessions.
The year quickly passed, with only the upper years and the staff realising that the year was quite peaceful, with no major spats between the Snake and Lion houses. Opinion was nearly evenly split as to if the reason for peace was the absence of Snape or the presence of Vector. The year ended with Hufflepuff topping the House points and the first year academic results. Granger and Potter leading the charge. On the train trip back to London, the group agreed to meet for Harry and Neville's birthdays and to shop for supplies for second year.
After getting only one response, from a G. Lockhart, to her ads for Potions or DADA professors, she asked the aurors to stay one, but switching positions, for the next year. At the orphanage, Harry was puzzled, as his mail was non existent, fortunately he could contact Hermione by phone, to stay aware of the group's plans.
The birthdays came and went and the group got together on July 30 and had fun. Their next meeting would be in mid August, assuming their school letters reached before that date. Curiousity was expressed about Harry's missing post, but Harry was not overly concerned, as he told them that no plans against him would succeed as God was his protector. When Hermione heard that she thought again of the four comatose persons and decided to have a chat with Susan, to hear if there had ever been any similar occurrence in the past.
The get together in Diagon Alley was going smoothly until the bookstore's tranquility was interrupted by the sound of a fight between two wizards, a red haued and a blonde. As the fight ended, the blonde picked up a book that had fallen out of one of the red haired wizard's children's cauldron and the blonde then fainted.
The wizarding police, aurors were immediately called in and started getting statements from everyone present. After Hermione gave her statement on what she had seen, she then asked who the blonde was, and a brief background history on him, as she had a theory on what happened. When she heard about his being an alleged death eater, or follower of Voldemort, as they explained the term to her, she asked that he be checked, as she could not understand why someone would be fighting one minute and helping pick up his opponent's books the next minute. A search of the blonde revealed a small book which turned up positive for dark magic. As both the red haired wizard and the bookstore owner denied knowledge of it, it was seized to be sent for further investigation, whilst the blonde wizard, now identified as a Malfoy, was sent to the hospital.
The second year also passed quietly, the only hiccup was when Hermione asked Susan what was the result of the investigation on the book. To get a response from her aunt, she explained her theory that the group had activated a protection spell around themselves, and that persons meaning harm were promptly knocked out. She used the example of Snape, Dumbledore and the younger Malfoy. When Susan explained the reasoning behind her request for information on the little black book to her aunt, who was the head of the Department on Magical Law Enforcement, her aunt made enquiries of the Unspeakables, who as per their remit, were investigating the magic in the book. She however also made enquiries of Quirell, as he had also collapsed, but apparently without reason. When the turban was removed, the second face was seen, and the Unspeakables called in again. By this time, they had identified the magic in the book, and connected the name on it, Tom M Riddle, to the former Dark Lord Voldemort. When they saw the face, some aurors who had seen Voldemort in the later stages of the war, recognised him. They told Mme Bones and explained that the soul anchor in the book was most likely keeping him alive. Mme Bones asked if destroying the book would finish him or release him to prey on others. When assured it should finish him, unless he had other anchors, she started a search for other anchors.
Working on the assumption, thst like the diary, he had secured other anchors with prominent followers, she conducted searches on the homes and Gringott vaults of other followers. The hunch was good, as she turned up anchors at the Black home and the Lestrange vault. She then went to some foreign divination experts, as she was aware of the poor reputation of the Hogwarts Divination Professor, and got additional ideas from them. The Slytherin line was traced to the Gaunt family, and another anchor found in their former home. After talking with the Hogwarts ghosts and the elves, another was found at Hogwarts. According to the Divination experts, these five were all that existed.
After consulting with the Unspeakables,Mme Bones decided that since Quirell wold die once he was dispossessed, they would not try to remove Voldemort, but destroy Quirell, Voldemort and the anchors simultaneously. So said, so done. During the long vacation between Harry's second and third year, the anchors, Quirell and his possessor were destroyed by Fiendfyre. All the Government officials were happy to see no wraith escape. Unfortunately, where some persons were concerned, a side effect of Voldemorts destruction was that his marked followers also died. Surprisingly all the non marked comatose persons recovered simultaneously. When advised that Sirius Black did not suffer the same fate as the other followers, his case was reopened, and his case finally brought to trial. Upon questioning under Veritaserum, he was found not guilty and freed of all charges.
Poor Dumbledore was in shock when he awoke to realise that two years had passed and Harry Potter had not come to Hogwarts and the only other person who was aware of his importance in the fight against Voldemort, Snape, had also been in a coma and was now dead.