Chapter 3
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. Anything you recognise belongs to the amazing imagination of JK Rowling. I do however own this story, I wrote it and I do NOT give permission for anyone to post it anywhere else. If you want to share it post a link.
Hermione was accosted as she left the Leaky Cauldron. Luckily Hedwig had chosen to fly to Hermione's and Tom had come upstairs with her and shrunk Hedwig's cage and Harry's trunk for her to put in her pocket. "One tap of a wand will return them to normal" he said.
"Where's Harry?" Ginny demanded.
"Why would I tell you even if I knew? So you can harass him again?" Hermione asked scathingly. "So your Mum can yell and scream at him for saving your life and demanding that he pays them compensation for not letting you die?"
"That's not what it's about. I wouldn't expect a muggle born to understand" Ginny said scornfully.
"I understand just fine. Unlike you I've actually seen a healer about the stress a life debt can place on my magical core and do you know what they told me?" Hermione asked. "They said that the only way to clear a life debt is to save the person's life. That bullying him into a marriage he doesn't want would only do more harm to your magic. That the only thing we need to do to keep our debts to Harry from damaging our magic is to try to avoid deliberately hurting him."
"You're lying!" Ginny yelled, attracting her brothers' attention.
"Hey Hermione. I hear you kidnapped Harry?" Fred, or at least she thought it was Fred, said.
"The question is, if you're here?" the twin she thought was George began.
"Where's Harry?" Fred asked.
"And what have you done with him?"
"Good work by the way..."
"...Getting him out of there"
"Of course you might want to get going..."
"...before Mum gets back"
"She was right pissed"
"Ron's not too happy with you either"
"Thinks you should have taken him with you too"
"Of course, he's pissed off at Harry too"
"So it wouldn't have been a good idea"
"Do I even want to know what he's angry at Harry and I about now?" Hermione said wearily, too tired to yell at them for finishing each other's sentences like that.
"Well he was rather put out that Harry tried to turn down...
"...the honour of becoming his brother-in-law"
"And the fact that you didn't owe him..."
"Instead of Harry..."
"...a life debt for rescuing you from the troll at Halloween...
"...especially when he had to leave the food to follow Harry...
...never mind he was told by Dumbledore to leave the food to go back to the common room"
"And then you dragged his best mate off heaven knows where without asking him to accompany you" George finished.
"Oh for heaven sakes, we caught a muggle train and then a muggle bus to my parents' work, surrounded by muggles the whole time. Then my Dad was really upset about this whole life debt business and to be honest Ron's attitude would've made things a lot worse" Hermione said exasperated.
"So Harry's staying with you?"
"Didn't think your Dad would be too keen..."
"... on having a wizard around after all that debt business..."
"... even one as unassuming as our Harry."
"He's not staying with us. He just needs a break from your Mum and Dumbledore" Hermione said tiredly. "I wish he had parents, he desperately needs someone to have his best interests in mind to support and advise him."
"He doesn't need parents for that..." Fred started to console her.
"He has you." George finished.
"How can I know what's best for him. I'm just a muggleborn thirteen-year-old. Nobody tells me what's really going on. I knew nothing about those debts before your Mum blindsided him with them, trying to get him to sign that bloody contract" Hermione exploded.
"We're you telling the truth?"
"That marrying Harry would harm Ginny's magic?"
"Well no not necessarily, if when they're old enough he falls in love with her and wants to marry her it wouldn't do any harm at all" Hermione said. "But even that wouldn't satisfy the debt. And even then, she'd have to be careful. She'd still owe him a life debt and deliberately hurting him in any way such as leaving him or cheating on him would hurt her magic. I wouldn't risk it."
"But Harry isn't in love with Ginny…"
"…he barely knows her"
"No and to be honest at the moment all he can see is that your mother and Dumbledore are trying to control his life and take the choice of who he marries away from him. Harry's spent most of his life living with relatives that don't even like him let alone love him and he's always dreamed of one day having a loving family of his own. He sees signing that contract as giving up on those dreams. Your Mum is pressuring to sign and the whole situation is really upsetting him and if magic decides Ginny is part of making him so unhappy then it could be really bad. Nobody really knows a lot about like debts like this. Ginny's debt to Harry is huge they both really almost died, and from what the healers said his magic still isn't recovered" Hermione tried to explain.
Fred and George nodded, for once too serious to annoy her with their twin double speak.
"We'll try to talk to them" one promised.
"Maybe we should talk to Dad first" the other suggested. "She's more likely to listen to him."
-o0o-
"What's bothering you today?" Charles Abbot asked his brother. "It's not like you to even take a lunch break when your working, let alone invite me out for lunch. You look tired. Are you well?"
Healer Simon Abbott cast a very strong silencing charm around them causing Charles' eyebrows to rise. "I have a problem that I think someone really needs to know about probably the DMLE that I can't tell anybody about because of the patient confidentiality oath" he said bluntly. "Has Hannah told you anything about her school year?"
"Not much other than general complaints about her potions professor, I expect Marian knows more, are the two related?" Charles asked alarmed.
Simon tried to answer then stopped and started again. "I'd be interested in hearing what happened this year" he said non-committally.
"Come for dinner with us tomorrow. Hannah's friend Susan and her parent's will be there. Edgar's brother is Amelia Bones so if anything comes up he could inform her. I'll have a quiet word to him when he arrives."
"Thanks Charles" Simon said relieved. "Hopefully they can tell us what happened."
"Since you obviously can't" Charles said. "If nothing else Marian and Hannah will be pleased to see you."
Charles went home and spoke to his daughter about the school year, after asking a third time if anything unusual had happened, Hannah got a little annoyed. But later speaking about the year she mentioned how relieved her friend Justin had been to hear that exams had been cancelled since he missed so many weeks of school.
"Why did he miss school? Was he called home to his family?" Marian asked.
"No, he was in the hospital wing petrified" Hannah replied. "Oh! Why couldn't I tell you about that before?"
"Was anyone else petrified?" Charles asked sharply.
Hannah looked confused for a moment but didn't answer.
Charles began to ask another question but Marian stopped him. "She can't tell us" she whispered frightened. "Someone's charmed her not to tell us."
"Simon tried to tell me something about this too. He thinks it's important to tell the Aurors but he can't. In his case, it's his patient confidentiality oath that's stopping him from saying anything. I invited him for dinner tomorrow with the Bones. I thought if something came up Edgar could pass it along to his sister-in-law."
"I think you'd better floo Edgar and ask him to invite his sister-in-law to dinner too" Marian suggested.
"I will as soon as we finish eating" Charles replied.
He made the call and convinced his friend to bring her sister to dinner explaining that while he didn't know exactly what was going on since the people who know magically could not tell him he hoped that having them together would allow enough of the story to come out.
Neither of them slept well that night.
-o0o-
"Welcome, Susan Hannah's up in her room if you'd like to go find her" Marian greeted the Bones family the next night.
Edgar watched until his daughter was out of earshot.
"Well can you tell me what all the cloak and dagger is about?" Amelia asked briskly.
Marian sighed, "I wish I could?" she said. "Charles had lunch with his brother Simon who works as a healer at St Mungo's. He said Simon was worried about something he thought you should know but his healer's oaths prevented him from saying anything directly, he then made some mention of concern about Hannah's year at Hogwarts. So, last night at dinner we asked Hannah about her year and she insisted nothing unusual happened but when she was talking about one of her friends she mentioned him missing a lot of school because he was petrified. When we asked about it directly she couldn't tell us. So we were hoping between what little Simon can say and what little Hannah can say we can piece enough of the story together for you to investigate."
Amelia and Edgar both looked concerned. "Susan hasn't mentioned anything unusual happening at school this year" Edgar said.
"Let's hear what Healer Abbott has to say before we call the girls down" Amelia suggested.
Simon arrived and was led into the parlour for a predinner drink. "Of course, you remember my friend Edgar, this is his sister Amelia Bones, head of the DMLE. Madam Bones I'd like you to meet my brother Simon Abbott."
"Pleased to meet you Madam Bones" Simon said relieved.
"Since I spoke to you yesterday we found that Hannah had trouble telling us what happened at school this year, but did manage to mention while talking about something else that her friend Justin had been petrified. She couldn't tell us any more than that.
"It is not commonly known that the reflection of a Basilisk's gaze can petrify" Simon said pointedly.
"You're saying that there is a Basilisk at Hogwarts?" exclaimed the Abbotts and the Bones.
"Was not is" Simon replied, "Of course I can't tell you anything about the student that allegedly killed it."
"Do you know how many students were petrified?" Amelia asked.
"How in Merlin's name was nobody killed?" Marian asked in horror.
"Apparently, by some miracle, nobody saw it directly until after its eyes were destroyed" Simon said.
"And you are absolutely sure the Basilisk is dead?"
"I believe the person who told me about killing it" Simon replied.
"Is there a way I could meet this person?" Amelia asked carefully.
"Do you investigate allegations of child abuse in muggle homes?" Simon asked seemingly unconnectedly.
"Not personally but child protection often ask for our help to make an arrest in such cases" Amelia said frowning.
"I believe healer Sinclair or Healer Mattias will make a report of a teenager they believe has been seriously mistreated in the next day or so" Simon said, "If you were to interview him about the abuse he'd probably tell you about his other injuries too, for exclusion purposes."
"Hmm" Amelia said nodding, and mentally planning out how she could explain taking over a basic child abuse investigation.
They sat down to dinner and oblique questioning couldn't get the girls to tell them anything more until Amelia cast listening charms on the lounge and suggested that Susan and Hannah try to talk it over together seeing as they both already knew about what happened the charm they were under shouldn't prevent them from talking to each other. That way they got the whole story as far as Susan and Hannah knew it, including the names of those petrified. The two girls ended up arguing, Hannah insisting that Susan's aunt be told that Harry Potter was the heir of Slytherin and behind the attacks and Susan pointing out they had no actual evidence and she didn't believe that Harry would have attacked his best friend.
-o0o-
Hermione arrived home to find her parents waiting for her at the kitchen table. "What's for dinner?" She asked surprised she couldn't smell it cooking. She put the shrunken trunk and owl cage on the table. "Tom shrunk them for me, I'll put them in my trunk."
"We'll call for pizza delivery later" Emma Granger said dismissively.
"Take a seat Hermione" Daniel ordered.
"What's up?" Hermione asked anxiously. Were her parents going to tell her she couldn't spend time with Harry.
"We want you to transfer schools" Daniel said bluntly. "We were talking about emigrating to Australia before you got your Hogwarts letter and after everything that's happened there we think it's a good idea."
"You can still study magic if you want to. I'm sure there's a magical school in Australia" Emma said placatingly. "Otherwise their school year starts in February. We could get you some tutors and you could spend the time catching up on one year of the regular schooling you've missed and only be six months behind everyone else. There's some school books on your desk for you to get started reviewing."
"I can't just leave" Hermione protested, searching her mind for a reason her parents would accept. "You signed a contract to send me to Hogwarts."
"We spoke to the healer about that while you were talking to Harry. The contract is to send you to Hogwarts for the next three years until you sit your OWLs. But the healer told us that the contract is valid only while we live in the United Kingdom. If we move out of Hogwarts catchment the contract would automatically be void because they don't take international students."
"I can't just leave my friends" Hermione protested getting upset.
"You'll make new friends" Emma said gently.
"I never have before" Hermione scoffed.
"You're older now and you know how to make friends. It should be easier" Emma said beseechingly.
Hermione rolled her eyes disbelievingly.
"Hogwarts isn't safe and your father and I really don't like the way that when you were in a coma for more than a month, we weren't even told until we contacted Professor McGonagall to find out why you stopped writing. Not to mention you nearly died being attacked by a troll in your first year and we didn't hear anything about it at all. How many other dangers have we not being informed of?"
"I can't abandon Harry!" Hermione stated almost hysterically. "I'm the only person he trusts. His muggle relatives are horrible to him and you heard about what happened today with the only two adults he had thought cared about him."
"He's probably exaggerating about his relatives" Emma replied.
"Harry doesn't exaggerate, of anything his stories about stuff that's happened downplays the enormity of the event" Hermione argued.
"Are you positive you're not overreacting" Emma asked. "You do tend to overdramatise things."
"You saw how small he is. He really doesn't look like a thirteen-year-old at all. And his muggle clothes are so awful, they're practically rags and his trousers are so big they're tied up with string" Hermione complained to her parents.
"Are you sure that's not just a fashion statement" Daniel asked derisively.
"I'm sure it isn't. Harry always takes great pains to look neat and tidy when he's wearing his uniform and he'd the only student I've never heard complain about having to wear it. He wears his uniform everywhere; the other girls tease him about it, but then they tease him about his regular cloths as well and that seems to embarrass him."
"If his relatives are as bad as you say they are, something should be done about it" Daniel Granger said. "I say we go and meet these relatives and if there's anything to these allegations then we'll report them to the authorities."
"Then what will happen to Harry? He's terrified of being sent to an orphanage and not being allowed to go back to school" Hermione asked.
-o0o-
Knowing how much Harry hated being in hospital and how much he relied on the companionship of his owl over the summer, Hermione sent Hedwig to him each day with short notes about her day. She didn't tell him that her parents were trying to withdraw her from Hogwarts. She was still hoping she would be able to change her parents' minds before she had to say anything.
Harry was glad to see Hedwig. He was lucky to be in a room with a real window so she could come and go. The staff grumbled a bit but Hedwig was too much of a lady to make a mess indoors.
Hermione also spent most of her free time reading the muggle textbooks and working through the homework assignments her mother's friend had given her. At first, she started studying them to placate her parents but it didn't take long for her need to learn everything possible about everything to kick in and she became enthusiastic about learning the things she'd missed by choosing to go to Hogwarts.
-o0o-
Amelia consulted with the Department of Wizarding Child protection about the abuse report. The child protection worker was surprised that she already knew about a complaint that hadn't even been processed yet but once she saw the victim's name she was glad to hand it over to the DMLE. She surely didn't want to be the one to have to tell the Wizengamot that the-boy-who-lived was possibly abused.
Reading through the medical report she wondered how injuries this severe had been missed by the Hogwarts Mediwitch and the child protection assessment when he was placed with his Aunt and Uncle.
It took some time for the Healers to agree to let her speak with Harry. "He has two core breaches and is still suffering from being poisoned. He must not become distressed" the healers warned her. "If we feel he's getting upset by your questions we will ask you to come back when his treatment is complete."
"When will that be?" Amelia asked.
"Three weeks" the healer replied.
"Harry, Madam Bones from the DMLE wants to talk to you" the healer said leading the red-haired woman in her fifties into the room.
"Hello Ma'am. DMLE?" Harry asked politely.
"Department of Magical Law Enforcement, though today I'm also representing the Department of Wizarding Child Protection" Amelia explained.
"The healers told you I'd been abused" Harry said sighing, "I don't know why. Nobody else has ever cared about it."
"You've tried to tell someone you were abused?" Amelia asked.
Harry shrugged, "A teacher at primary school, she seemed to believe me at the time but nothing ever happened and she was nasty to me after that. I asked Professor Dumbledore if I could stay at Hogwarts for the summer. He told me that he was sure that my relatives loved me and refused to listen. Madam Pomfrey must have seen the scars but she never asked what happened or who had done it."
"For the record, we are going to have to go through each injury and you tell me how it happened and who was responsible. We can stop any time you need a break. The healers will be very angry with me if you allow yourself to become too upset" Amelia said gently.
"They're overly concerned" Harry replied. "I've lived with a lot of this damage for months and believe me when I say that Uncle Vernon and his sister Marge went out of their way to upset me."
"Be that as it may, the healers will force me to leave and will probably sedate you if you become upset so please let me know if you need a break" Amelia said dryly. "I'd like to avoid that if we could and I'm sure you would too."
Harry nodded and they began, Amelia reading out a description of a wound and Harry explaining how he got it with an auto quill recording the questions and answers.
Eventually they got to the hole in his arm. "That's where the basilisk tooth got me while I was shoving the sword through the roof of its mouth" Harry said.
"And where exactly did you encounter a basilisk?" Amelia asked.
"In the chamber of secrets. You needed to be a parseltongue to open it but one of Voldemort's supporters managed to slip a diary he'd enchanted somehow onto a first year and it possessed her into letting the Basilisk out."
"What happened to the girl, and they diary?" Amelia asked.
"I stabbed the diary with the Basilisk fang I pulled out of my arm and then she was alright. She had no memory of anything she'd done. It wasn't her fault" Harry said hurriedly.
"Where is the diary now?"
"Well I gave it back to Mr Malfoy" Harry said.
"Can you prove that Lucius Malfoy gave that diary to the little girl?" Amelia asked hopefully.
"Not prove, but he was touching her books in Flourish and Blott's the day we bought them and Ginny found the diary in the books" Harry said. "When I gave it back to him he threw it aside as if he didn't know what it was but the elf he had with him was the one that came to my Aunt and Uncle's house over the summer and warned me that something terrible was going to happen at Hogwarts this year. He tried to stop me from going back to school. I put a sock in the diary and he caught it when Mr Malfoy threw it. Mr Malfoy tried to attack me when he found out I'd tricked him into freeing his elf but Dobby blasted him backwards down the hall."
"Were there any witnesses to this attack?" Amelia asked.
"Only Dobby" Harry replied.
"Harry I'm afraid if I even tried to have Lucius Malfoy arrested for attacking you he would order the elf killed. Elves are not allowed to attack witches or wizards" Amelia said gently. "That doesn't mean you shouldn't be very careful never to be alone with Lucius Malfoy in future. He is an extremely dangerous man."
"He drove Dumbledore out of the school, threatened the board members into sacking him" Harry said. "Of course, once Ginny was taken into the chamber the board came to their senses and sacked Malfoy instead."
"Then you've made a powerful enemy" Amelia warned.
"Is he magically powerful? Because his son isn't really" Harry asked.
"About average. He doesn't need to be magically powerful, his money and his connections give him a political power that makes confronting him dangerous" Amelia replied. "Though I can't say he had the wrong idea wanting that old fool to retire, I doubt we'd like his replacement if it was left up to Malfoy."
"Things won't change much if McGonagall takes over either, she doesn't listen to me anymore that Dumbledore did" Harry replied.
"There's a way for me to view the memory of what happened in the chamber, just let me ask the healers if it's safe for you" Amelia said.
The healer reluctantly nodded and Amelia showed Harry how to extract a memory, practicing on memories of his life with the Dursleys as Amelia had suggested using memories he didn't care if he remembered. Once he'd got the hang of getting the entire memory he extracted the memory of entering the chamber of secrets, the attack by Lockhart, the basilisk, Fawkes and the discussion with Voldemort and what happened when he stabbed the diary.
"Thank you, Harry. I'll give you the memory back when I'm finished with it."
"I can still remember it" Harry said.
"Some memories are like that" she said sympathetically. "They have such an impact on us that our brain saves them more than once."
"What are you going to do about it?"
"Well I for one want some confirmation that the safety of students is being taken seriously before I send my only niece back to Hogwarts"
"Good luck with that. All I ever get is the platitude that Hogwarts is the safest place in the wizarding world and that my aunt and uncle do really care for me deep down. But he doesn't have to listen to me, I'm just a student without a parent or guardian that cares whether I'm safe. I don't know why the other parents haven't complained though."
"Susan and her friend Hannah couldn't actually talk about the students being petrified" Amelia replied.
"Why not?" Harry asked.
"I imagine they were spelled not to think about it. When they were worrying specifically about their friend Justin catching up on all the classes he missed they knew what happened to him but when I ask if anyone else was petrified they forget" Amelia explained.
"Hermione and I were able to explain all of it to the healers, and to you" Harry replied.
"Yes, but you were both directly affected, it would take a lot more power and be more noticeable if you were to forget" Amelia explained.
"I don't know if I like the idea of someone playing with all the student's memories. How do we know that things like this haven't happened before? Like Voldemort possessing professor Quirrel. I understand that not everyone knows the whole story but he died. Was it investigated?" Harry asked.
"Professor Quirrel?" Amelia asked.
"He taught defence against the dark arts the year before last" Harry replied. "He was possessed by Voldemort and was trying to steal the Philosopher's stone. He crumbled to ash when I touched him. Dumbledore said it was my mother's love protecting me but I'm not sure I understand."
Amelia sighed, "Can you tell me about it from the beginning?" she asked.
Harry told her about it and then at her request gave her the memory. "I can still remember that one too" he said.
"I'm not surprised" Amelia said shuddering. "I could murder Albus for hiding the philosopher's stone in the school. Surely he knew it would cause trouble."
Harry nodded thoughtfully. "He used it as bait, I wonder why he did it?"
"Rest assured Harry, Hogwarts will be safer next year or I'll have his bony arse in Azkaban until Susan's grandchildren graduate Hogwarts" Amelia said determinedly.
"Thank you for believing me, Madam Bones" Harry said gratefully. He didn't know whether the woman would succeed in making the school safer but he was sure she would genuinely try.
"You're welcome Harry. Thanks for trusting me with all of that" Amelia said taking her leave.
Harry didn't argue when the healer came over and insisted he lie down and take a nap. The revelations of the morning had exhausted him.
-o0o-
A/N: Thank you to Rori Potter, Locket1, starboy454, Guest, KasumiKeiko, Kaorilamb, Onlyabrit, Cheryl (Guest), rb2312, Sword Hallow (Guest), Ale1oo4, gabrieljuarezl, Village-Mystic, ctc1000, lia (Guest), HiddenYori, Fallow53 (Guest), Kris (Guest), PreciousJewelLake, I-AM-THE-LOVE-MONKEY, archangel uriel, Lizairy Cullen, Aille, Col. Hammer, Crazily Insane One, Ryu-Tsui-Sen, Oogies4u, angelusjmw, tecmo33, Ambeth, shadowcaster01, shoelessjoe87, NATASHAMAY, steellord, klester, kamenraider, gryhndsr4us, WitchSorceress49, live4040, jinxgreen101, jman197, phoenixflamemarauder, cozmic, Batre, tsmuckitelly, Katzztar, carrico, LeeArt, NASCARluver2013, Emdee, Forthwith16, vukovinik, Eppsilon7, diamondrose57, anitafdz, IceAngel1982, murphy9202, Starlitmagic, Quibbler78, Hericus C, Athrun434 and kira690 for your support.
A/N2: for those reading "The Last Straw" I havent abandonded it, I'm just a bit stuck with the next chapter.
