Chapter Eleven: Save Yourself From Everything You Have Learned
Harry stared at the doorknob, and then tried again.
The door did not budge.
"Sit down, Harry, I'm not quite done yet," Dumbledore said. Harry's hands tightened around the doorknob, his knuckles turning white. He clenched his jaw and tried to slow down his breathing.
"Let me out," Harry snarled, thanking Merlin and Morgana that his voice didn't shake.
"We are not done with this meeting. Sit down," Dumbledore ordered again. Harry's breath hissed out between his teeth.
"No. You will let me out," Harry replied, focusing on the doorknob and shaking as his body flooded with adrenaline.
"You will sit down and behave, Mr. Potter, while we finish the meeting," Dumbledore reiterated.
"Albus," Snape said. "He has made it perfectly clear that he does not want to be here. Release us."
"After the meeting is finished," Dumbledore replied.
"The meeting is more than finished," Snape said, this time glancing at Harry. Harry himself met Snape's eyes for a moment, and in those eyes he saw an internal battle. What it was, he really had no idea, but he turned his attention back to the door.
"I am not unlocking that door until Mr. Potter sits down and finishes the meeting," Dumbledore said. He began to pull his wand. Harry tensed, feeling the change in intentions in the room, and turned around, wand already in hand.
"Languesco!" he yelled and the spell connected with Dumbledore. Then Harry turned and pointed his wand at the door, blasting it with a blast of concentrated willpower. It merely slammed open. He raced out of the room and down the stairs, tearing through the halls that were still empty for lunch. He tore outside through one of the side exits, running across the grass and around the Lake. He sprinted straight into the forest, not pausing until he had found a spot to curl up next to a tree. It was a little hollow in the roots of a tall, mossy tree, sheltered from the light breeze blowing through the trees, and he had a clear view of the Lake. He sat there while shaking and staring out at the lake. His breathing was ragged and he was coming down hard from the biggest adrenaline high he had had in ages.
The sky was mostly clear, but there were clouds blowing in over the mountains. It was tinged grey, almost like it was holding its breath. The Black Lake was still and calm, and occasionally Harry caught sight of the giant squid near the surface, or some fish broke the water. Once, Harry swore the squid was waving at him.
He pulled the over-large clothes of his cousin close to him, his breath beginning to steady. The forest was quiet except for the occasional birdcall.
He had been sitting there for a couple hours- or had it been more than that?- when he heard footsteps. Immediately alert, he drew his wand and whirled to look for who was coming.
Susan threw her hands in the air as he pointed his wand at her, and she took a step back. Slowly, Harry let his wand drop.
"We've been looking for you," she said, coming closer. Harry looked away at the Lake.
"Sorry," he muttered.
"When you hadn't come back from the Headmaster's office for an hour, Blaise said he was worried. Apparently you don't have the most genial relationship with him," she replied, sitting down and pulling him down to sit next to her. For a moment, she hesitated, and then pulled him in to her side, and they cuddled together. The warmth of her next to him was soothing.
"You could say that," he finally replied. She started to rub his shoulder with her hand.
"He's too powerful for his own good," she said, and Harry nodded into her side.
"Well, the one good thing that came from that meeting is that I know who my magical guardian is now," Harry replied.
"Megan said she wouldn't be surprised if he was," Susan replied. "You should tell Auntie about what happened up there, if it was so bad you disappeared for hours."
"He wouldn't let me out," Harry muttered, narrowing his eyes and turning to look away. "He kept insisting that I sit down, and he had locked the door. His eyes were twinkling so hard they were giving me a headache…"
"His eyes twinkle bright enough to give anyone a headache," Susan replied, and then she stiffened. "Wait. Wait, twinkle… Headaches…" She stood up, pulling him up with her. "Come on Harry, we've got some Ravenclaws to find!" She grabbed Harry's hand, and started leading him at a run back towards the castle. They passed several other conspirators, who shrugged and followed them. They ran up to the library. They slowed down enough to not get thrown out by Madame Pince, and they headed straight for where Lisa Turpin sat with Morag MacDougal and Padma Patil.
"Guys," Susan said, breathless. "Can Legilimancy cause someone's eyes to twinkle?"
Lisa, Morag, and Padma exchanged looks. The petite blonde raised an eyebrow, the Indian witch shrugged, and the redhead turned to face Susan and Harry.
"You'd be better off talking to one of the older students, we barely know beginner's Occlumency, and nothing about Legilimancy," Morag replied, and Susan nodded and headed over to where Penelope Clearwater was studying. Harry followed diligently, his curiosity rising.
"Penelope, can Legilimancy cause someone's eyes to twinkle?" Susan asked her. Penelope frowned.
"I think so," she replied, tapping her chin with her forefinger. "Try Deepest Mind Arts or Breaking into Minds. Both are in the restricted section, but if you get a teacher to sign off on them…"
At that moment, Theo entered the library, followed by Snape and Hannah. Susan hurried over to Snape- still not releasing Harry's hand- and stopped in front of him.
"I need you to sign off for me to borrow Deepest Mind Arts and Breaking into Minds from the restricted section," Susan said, pulling a piece of parchment and a quill from her pocket.
"And why do you need me to do that?" Snape asked, taking the parchment and quill. He had another 'internal struggle' look on his face, and Harry filed away that little piece of info- why was Professor Snape so conflicted over him?
"Twinkling eyes," Susan replied as Snape signed off. He fixed them with a calculating stare, and then handed over the slip. Susan thanked him, and then led Harry over to hand Madame Pince the slip. She frowned at it, and then walked off. She came back a little later with two thick books. Susan took the books, and only once they were set down at a table the rest of the conspirators claimed did she release Harry's hand. Lisa, Morag, and Padma all walked over.
"So why do you need to know about Legilimancy?" Lisa asked, sitting down next to Hannah. The table magically expanded to fit the three Ravenclaws.
"Can any of you cast a privacy charm?" Susan asked, and Draco nodded.
"Muffliato," he said, waving his wand. "It will make anything we say in here sound muffled and distorted out there."
"Okay, I think Dumbledore uses Legilimancy on students and that's why his eyes twinkle. During Harry's… Meeting… With him, Harry says he got a headache." Harry nodded, and Susan gestured at him.
"Looking into his eyes made my head hurt- sharply," he expanded.
"Definitely Legilimancy," Blaise said, looking thoughtful. "Or some sort of invasive mind art. Let's study."
Lisa pulled the first book over and opened it up, while Daphne took the other book. Morag and Padma pulled out parchment and quills, and took notes as they read. Harry wrote down everything he could about both meetings, and after he finished that Susan handed him back the letter he had given her for Amelia that she hadn't had a chance to send. He added a postscript about the meeting and who his magical guardian was, and then resealed it. Susan took it back.
The group didn't even break for dinner. Grudgingly, Madame Pince called for a house elf to bring sandwiches for them if they promised to pay for any damage a mess might cause.
"This book is really interesting, and some of these powers and abilities could be really useful," Lisa said after a while. "It touches on Occlumency and Legilimancy, but it goes in depth with different other arts. You can train your mind to see ambient magic- and feel it! You can train yourself to be an empath, or learn something called Far Sight. Or, there's even a form of mind-to-mind communication."
"That does sound really useful," Draco agreed.
"Hey, guys, I got a mention on the twinkle," Daphne said, and waited for everyone's attention to start reading it aloud.
"Compulsions can be cast straight into the mind using a branch of Legilimancy. A side effect of casting these Legilimancy compulsions is that normal Legilimancy will take on some, but not all of the tells of Compulsions. A Compulsioner's eyes will twinkle like stars when placing compulsions and their eyes will eventually begin to twinkle when using regular Legilimancy. If that tell is taken on, the only way to discern Compulsions from normal Legilimancy is how it feels when resisting. When resisting Compulsions, there will be a sharp, stabbing pain in one spot of the head, like a migraine. Light will begin to hurt and sound will be painful. One's neck and back may hurt as well, depending on the strength of the Compulsion. When resisting normal Legilimancy, it will be a broad headache without as much pain, and you may find yourself remembering things you normally wouldn't," Daphne finished reading, and set the book down. Harry felt frozen to his seat. Susan picked up the piece of paper Harry had written everything down on, and then slammed it back down onto the table after reading most of the way through.
"That man," she growled, "is horrible."
"Who knows what damage he's done," Morag agreed. "You must have pretty strong natural Occlumency shields to resist a Compulsion like that."
Harry wasn't really hearing anything.
Sensing their friend's distress, the conspirators cleaned up the table. Susan handed the books to Padma- Lisa was a little unpredictable with books and Morag didn't like carrying too many- and the Hufflepuffs headed downstairs with the Slytherins while the three Ravenclaws headed to their tower. The Slytherins fell into a sort of formation after the Hufflepuffs departed and they were joined by Crabbe and Goyle who had been pretty much guarding them. Millicent and Blaise took hold of Harry's arms, keeping him upright because his legs were threatening to drop him to the floor, while Draco led the party. Tracey and Daphne flanked him while Theo and Pansy walked behind Harry, Blaise, and Millicent. Crabbe and Goyle were on either side of the trio in the middle.
When they entered the common room, the majority of Slytherin House noticed how closed off and defensive they looked. The Quidditch team was the first group over, along with the prefects and older students.
"What happened," Lissabetta Hellion, one of the seventh year prefects, asked. Aleksander Laurel, the other seventh year prefect, stood right next to her, while Grace-Marie Jameson and Dorian Callahan, the sixth year prefects, flanked them and Marcus and Anna were standing next to the group.
"We just figured out that Albus Dumbledore regularly uses Legilimancy and quite possibly Compulsions on students," Daphne said, stepping forward. "Most recently, he attempted to Compel Harry during the meeting in his office today."
The looks on the faces of the Prefects promised war. Aleksander and Lissabetta made their way to the front of the common room, by the fireplace, and called the room to order.
"Does anyone know if anyone is absent," Lissabetta demanded.
"Maddy and Orchid are down in our dorm," Mason said.
"Rick is in detention with McGonagall," Terrence added.
"Dorian, go collect Rick. Make sure McGonagall knows it's a House emergency. Mason, go collect Maddy and Orchid. Grace-Marie, you're on Snape hunting duty," Aleksander ordered. "We'll wait until they're all here to start."
A low murmuring swept the room as people speculated as to what was happening. Mason returned first with her twin and Pansy's older sister. Dorian and Rick were next, and finally Grace-Marie came back with Snape, who just looked somewhat intrigued.
"Shut up!" Lissabetta yelled, and the common room effectively silenced. "We just received troubling information. I believe all of you are well aware of Dumbledore's excessively twinkly eyes?"
The Slytherins nodded in assent.
"We just learned that his twinkly eyes are a result of his using Legilimancy," Aleksander said.
The room almost blew up.
Miles swore so bad that Terrence blushed. There were quite a few screams of anger and upset.
"QUIET!" Lissabetta yelled. "Yes, that is very disturbing news. What is even more troubling was that it was our first years that had to discover this." She turned to Daphne. "Does anyone else know?"
"Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott, and Megan Jones of Hufflepuff, along with Lisa Turpin, Morag MacDougal, and Padma Patil of Ravenclaw," Daphne replied. "Susan was the one who got the first hint."
"Ah, yes. Miss Bones did ask me to sign out two books on the mind arts for her," Snape added.
"Padma currently has the books, as the Ravenclaws were the only ones with their bags with them," Daphne said.
"We've been learning many disturbing things this past school year," Lissabetta continued. "Not least is the fact that, for every single house, visualizing transfigurations in the Transfiguration classroom is many times harder than outside the classroom. Now we learn about how our Headmaster is using mind arts on us- and even worse, on first years."
"Defense Against the Dark Arts, History, and Divination have always been hailed as horrible classes," Aleksander said. "Now we learn that Transfiguration isn't very good, either."
"I, for one, am losing my faith in the school," Lissabetta added.
"Wait- the mind arts thing isn't the only crime being committed by our Headmaster," Tracey interjected. "He's either ignored or was directly involved in placing blocks on Harry's magic and mind. Not to mention there's a mail redirection charm tied to him, most likely cued to Dumbledore. And Dumbledore is most likely the one who put him with the muggles."
That declaration stunned the Slytherins for a moment… Until Marcus started cursing just like Miles had been. Lissabetta and Aleksander called for silence again.
"This is even more disturbing," Aleksander began.
"From now on, anyone who does not have basic Occlumency training will begin learning," Lissabetta ordered. "If you know Occlumency, help teach someone who's not as talented as you yet. Work together on building shields. And let whispers of this reach the other houses, too."
"Every one of you who has a parent on the Board, have them kick up a little hell," Aleksander continued. "If you have connections in the Ministry, or even in the ICW, call them in. This is a horrible breach of our privacy, and a terrible shattering of our trust."
"Together, we are strong. If we stand united we can stand against anything," Lissabetta said. "You are dismissed. Rick, go finish your detention."
Rick groaned as everyone slowly dispersed to the dorms. The first year boys once again formed a protective knot around Harry, and the older boys formed a protective knot around them.
No one slept very well that night.
Uh well my name is not Joanne... So I guess I can't be JK Rowling. Aww, dangit.
There, resolved that cliffie from last chapter. After, you know, letting you guys hang for a bit. I was going to post on Friday but then I thought 'nah'.
Question: Hmm... What house is everyone's favorite House to put Harry in? Probably Slytherin, since you're all reading this...
Next Time: Gryffindors sit with Slytherins, the unholy powers of the gossip queens are unleashed, and the boys attempt to flee.