Dumbledore after leaving the excitable matron had made it back to his office and remembered he needed to send off a letter. He looked at his familiar. "Fawkes, I need you to take this to my old friend Horus." he said smiling Fawkes looked at him with a look of mistrust and turned away. Dumbledore tried again but this time his familiar flashed out in a ball of flame. "Horus" was the penname of a contact Albus had developed in the previous year. From what Albus could gather of his tracking spells, "Horus" was in fact a female who seemed quite insistent on learning of Albus' beliefs and helping in any way she could. She seemed a bit unsteady but Albus valued control and if he could extend his hold to include this person then all the better for his plans.
Albus looked over and saw the Sorting Hat laughing at him. "Is something funny dear hat?" he asked angrily. The hat sobered and looked at him. "Yes, Headmaster there is. Finally your plans are about to come crashing down on your head and you can do nothing to stop it. I have told you time and time again that a Headmaster or Headmistress is picked to guide and protect the students of this school, yet you take that to the next extreme and not only do you do what you want, you ruin lives and that is not something that can continue to happen." the Hat said.
"Now look here, I know everything is still going to plan and there will be nothing that will stop my plans. This is the last we will speak of this." Dumbledore said and left his office in a huff.
The next morning, Madame Pomfrey woke the boys with a gentle shake and small smile.
"Good morning boys, time for your checkup and none of that grouch and grumbling if you please Mr. Potter" she said fixing her eyes like lasers on the scowling raven haired boy. Poppy slid her wand down from her hidden holster and scanned the boys, clucking her tongue like an approving mother hen Pomfrey began to speak.
"Well boys, from everything my scans have told me, you are in better health than when I first saw you, you are free to go, but I don't want to see either of you back here for a long time.
"We understand Madame Pomfrey." Neville said with a small smile before dragging the still groggy Harry out of the room and down the hallway so that Harry could escape the smell of potions and sterility of the Hospital Wing.
"Come find us we're hidden and can only speak to you for a few minutes right now." Spoke a disembodied voice coming from the walls.
Harry turned to Nev to see if he heard the same voices coming from nowhere at all.
"Did you hear that?" Harry asked Neville with a confused scowl on his face.
"Yeah, I think that voice sounds familiar." Neville said. "It reminds me of second year with the Basilisk." Harry said frowning deeper and pulling Neville closer to him to protect the boy.
"Do you think they, whatever it is can hear us?" Harry asked.
"I don't know it's worth a try." Neville shrugged and grinned softly.
"Where are you?" Harry asked feeling dumber than he ever had before.
"We do not know, all we can tell is it's dark. We hear people talking but we cannot understand them." the voices said back.
"Well at least we know they can understand what we say." Harry said with a stupid, sheepish smile.
"Umm, can you at least give us a hint as to where and what you are?" Harry asked pushing the voices further for more information.
"We can only tell you when you are close. We know one of you have been here recently in the past year. As to what we are, we are special books of magic and history which are important to all the Old Families."
"Have you been anywhere without me and what do you think the voices could mean about magic family books?" Harry asked Neville with a quick glance.
"No, but I know you have been to the Headmaster's office a lot over the past year with that ruddy tournament to deal with." Neville replied.
"As to what they are, they are called Grimoires. Each of the Old Families had one; they are sacred books of power and Family Magic. The Old Families are the original families that magic herself blessed, these include the Malfoys, Longbottom's, Potters, Blacks, McGonagall's, and Smiths. At the name McGonagall, Harry cocked his head in question to which Neville replied with a nod as if saying "Yes, that McGonagall." Harry, Each of the families holds a special seat on the Wizengamot and help decide laws to benefit the Wizarding World as do all the other families who have seats." Neville finished explaining and rubbed a spot of dust off his robes.
"The Longbottom Family Grimoire has been missing for the past 30 years now ever since my dad was a little boy."
"According to the voices, the Grimoires should be in Dumbledore's office." Harry said
"It wouldn't hurt to walk by and check right?" Neville said with a puzzled look on his face.
"That's true, we should look there. I wonder what other things Dumbledore has hidden from me about my heritage" Harry snarled quietly to himself. Harry had started losing faith in Dumbledore and his protection ever since the Tri-Wizard Tournament, Harry never wanted to compete but the Headmaster made him. Now, with the final betrayal of his so called friends freeing him from their control, Harry was ready to fight for his independence.
"The weird thing I can't figure out though is how Dumbledore has your Grimoire, Grimoire's are usually locked in Family vaults or kept in sole possession of the Lord or Lady of the Line. Gran told me the history of my family after visiting with the doctors at St. Mungo's, she seemed heartened by something and was kinder to me than I remember her being in years." Neville finished with a slight cough to cover the emotion he was feeling before locking eyes with Harry again.
Going first to Gryffindor Tower, Harry and Neville stopped to grab the Marauder's Map, so that Harry could monitor the locations of potential dangers like the Headmaster, Filch, or Snape as the boys looked for their property.
The boys walked up to Dumbledore's office to see if Neville was right about the voices coming from his office.
"Hurry young ones we can feel you getting closer." The voices seemed to urge out of nowhere.
Harry stopped outside of the hallway leading to the gargoyle statue and looked at Neville saying "Hey Nev I wanted to thank you for what you did for me yesterday. It feels good to have someone to stand up for me and not have to be strong for everyone all the time."
"No problem Harry, I'm glad I could help I always saw you as someone to look up to." Neville replied as they finished walking the last few feet down the hallway and stopped just outside the Headmaster's office.
"How are we supposed to get up there?" Neville asked, his confidence which had carried him this far starting to fail a bit. Harry opened his mouth to speak out a random sweet when the gargoyle moved out of their way and they walked up the spiral staircase without another thought. Passing through the main chamber with the Headmaster's floo, Harry and Neville walked into the office proper. Sound seemed to explode around them alerting them that they were in the right location, now just to find the books.
"Alright Nev, you check by the Headmaster's desk, I'll see if they're in his room." Harry told his friend.
They were about to get onto their individual tasks of searching the office when they heard someone clear their throat.
