Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or its character, those belong to J.K. Rowling.

Rated M For mature themes

"Spoken dialog."

'Thoughts' / internal thinking

Midnight Gold, the Rise of the Forgotten Lord

Chapter 11: Binding Oaths

Rewritten Edition

Reposted 28th April 2013

Revised andBeta by Joe Lawyer

A week had passed since his chat with Daphne, to say it was eye opening would be an understatement. He knew that magic could be used to make different types of magical oaths, as well as to bind others to another from his conversation with Bloodmoon during the summer. But he had never realized that magic would create debts by its own unwritten rules of seeking a balance. Fortunately for him, Daphne was willing to fill in the gaps that Bloodmoon missed or had overlooked the previous summer, and had explained that magic itself was more like a primal force. That it always worked to create a balance, that it was neither living nor dead, not good or evil, it just simply existed.

Therefore magic, by its own unwritten laws of seeking a balance, creates 'life debts' between individuals as a reward for saving another person's life at the risk of their own life without any thought of reward. Of course, by this magical law you couldn't create or engineer a dangerous situation in the hope of gaining a reward; the possible debt under those circumstances would be forfeited due to your own involvement and culpability. Naturally, you could lie and trick the individual to achieve the same results, but magic itself would not enforce the debt.

In short, youcouldn't have any role in setting the events into motion and your actions had to be selfless and pure in the saving, hence making a true 'life debt' a rather rare thing.

A natural extension of this is that a healer couldn't receive a life debt for treating the dying or the sick, due to it being their job to heal. The same went for aurors since they were charged with the duty of protecting their fellow magicals from danger, it was what they were paid to do after all. Both positions, by their very nature, invalidated the selfless and pure motivation required for the saving.

Naturally this led to him having dozens of questions on the subject, trying to gain a greater understanding about life debts and the complex magic behind them. In short, he lived up to his Ravenclaw reputation quite well, however Daphne knew better than to allow him to get on a roll with his questioning, and had instead pointed him towards the bookshelves of the school library and stated rather coldly, "Look it up for yourself, I'm not an encyclopaedia," thus ending any thoughts he had of quizzing her endlessly.

Letting the matter drop for a bit, he carried on reading before asking several careful questions testing the proverbial waters. Eventually Daphne reluctantly admitted that she didn't really know, "This is all mainly speculation, wizards and witches from the start of time have tried to define exactly what magic is, before the druids finally settled on the general idea of it being a balancing force. And this idea and concept behind the life debt, was accepted as the best answer available to them."

The only real thing he could say to that was, "interesting," but that was an understatement in itself. After all it was a bit like the debate surrounding the big bang theory for the creation of the universe, no one really knew for sure, it was just based on the visual evidence available. In the end, it was just like all other theories floating around trying to explain away something beyond our current understanding, all designed to give people some measure of comfort and semblance of control.

"Most wizards and witches just accept that magic exists, without question," Daphne added, whilst at the same time giving her own viewpoint before suddenly adding. "It's a bit like whether you believe god exists or not, you just don't know for sure, so the best thing you can do is get on with your life the best you can and not worry about it overmuch."

Smiling at Daphne's argument, he quite agreed with the slytherin for a change, "Yea, I know what you mean." Harry voiced in agreement, having already thought over the issue of religious faith, before suddenly remembering the witch hunts. "So what is the main faith then of the magical world?" he probed, wondering just what magicals believed in, because he hadn't encountered any texts on the subject of magical faith, and from what he knew of the Christian bible, witches were considered to be in league with the devil.

"Everyone is different," she answered back carefully, surprisingly diplomatic. "But most magicals don't believe in God like the muggles do. The witch hunts and being burnt at the stake saw to that, but most follow a mixture of Pagan and Christian beliefs and see magic as a primal energy, a Force, just like how muggles see their monotheistic God."

'A bit like Star Wars then,' he thought, immediately seeing the similarities in her explanation, whilst remembering Obi-wan's talk about the force binding all living things together in Episode 4. Naturally this led to him asking about ghosts and spirits, since the castle was full of them.

He watched how the slytherin rearranged herself at this question, her shoulders becoming straighter, showing that Daphne felt far more confident and sure about this particular subject. "Ghosts are just imprints of a soul's magical energies, like an echo. These echoes remain for some unknown reason, though oftentimes it's believed that they stay due to an uncompleted task that they failed to complete in life, something terribly important to them, consciously or unconsciously. Like a murder victim's echo staying behind, until its murderer was caught, or they received some type of justice."

Of course, this just gave him more questions to ask, but Daphne stopped him before he could get started "You have to learn for yourself what you believe in, I can't tell you. All these things are just theories that past wizards and witches have passed on. If you wish to debate this, find a theologian, or read a book'. He acknowledged this as a fair point, after all she couldn't tell him what to choose to believe, nor would he let her.

He only had one more question that he wanted to ask her, and it was about her own personal beliefs, however he resisted the urge to just blurt it out since it was a rather personal subject. Her answer was short and to the point, "I follow the beliefs and practises that my ancestors did; you could say I am a druid or a naturalist, this is one of the reasons why my family is considered dark by some. Because we don't follow the modern ideas, and still partake in traditional druidic rituals which are considered dark by some of the 'lighter' families."

He nodded in acceptance, it was a reasonable explanation. After all no one ever had the definitive right answer when it came to these things like this. This was probably the reason why he leaned more towards cold logic and science to dictate his actions, even if that had been thrown significantly off balance with the discovery of magic this past summer, which defied rational logic and reasoning most of the time.

Now he was faced with the problem of what to do about Penny and Hermione, and their respective life debts. After all based on how Daphne had explained it to him, it would appear both of them had a debt to both him and Neville, and possibly Ron as well in Penny's case. Since he wasn't the reason why Penny was there and thus her life threatened, it was possible a life debt had been created; Penny was there trying to calm Hermione down due to her duties as a school prefect. He wasn't too sure if Neville had his own life debt with Hermione, since his actions or lack thereof, could have caused Hermione to be put into that dangerous situation in the first place.

Sure, Ron was the source of the problem with his bullying of Hermione, which had lead to Penny being in that bathroom in the first place to comfort the Gryffindor, but the issue was magic didn't think that far ahead. It was simple, Ron had, in some small part, saved her life. Meaning he had some type of hold on her, even if it was only a partial one at best. Even then, that debt could have been forfeited when he refused to get her help that night, but there was no way to know for sure.

'Damn,' life debts were some awfully confusing and nebulous things, he mentally ranted.

He could just forget about it and hope for the best, but as Daphne had explained, the 'debt' being left unfulfilled could influence the person in many unforeseen ways. Such as Penny being incredibly helpful, far more than what normally would be expected from someone. It also meant that if he was ever in a life or death situation, Penny would be compelled to risk her own life for his. Simply put, she would take a killing curse for him without hesitation, simply due to the debt demanding equal payment. Therefore debts could be very dangerous if left unresolved. And he didn't particularly like the idea of one of his good 'friends' endangering themselves for him, due solely to some magical debt influencing their judgement and actions.

Thankfully, previous generations of wizards and witches, through trial and error, had developed ways to cancel out such debts, since money fails to solve this type of problem. After all, pureblood wizards didn't want their children staying indebted to other families of lesser stock and 'breeding,' especially rivals ones as the debt could be easily turned against them. A son or daughter with such a debt could be compelled to betray their own family's secrets if their 'saviour' demanded such action in payment.

There were several other ways this debt could be used for less than honourable deeds as well, such as forcing one into permanent servitude as a bound slave.

If it had just been him the life debt was potentially owed to, it wouldn't have been a problem, since he could just ignore it for the most part. Penny then would have just been more loyal or trust worthy. But now, with a possible three way life debt in play, it was basically first come, first served. And only one of them could ultimately 'claim' the reward for their heroics. So it was either him, Neville or Ron. Both of them were unknowns really and both were pureblood, they would probably at some point in the future hear about life debts, if they hadn't already. They would remember the troll incident and possibly call it in as was the standard practice for purebloods, and personally he couldn't see them forgetting about the troll.

As much as he hoped that they would be 'noble and honourable' like their famed house, he didn't put it past them not to use it for some malevolent end. He didn't like the idea of Penny being turned into a 'sex-toy' just because of their teen hormones in later years, or even her being turned against him, taking many of his secrets with her. She was his friend and ally, and he would protect his friends against any that would do them harm.

So he was faced with a difficult choice, act first and seal Penny's and possibly Hermione's loyalty to him? Or hope that the lion cubs would live up to their reputation for nobility. Lions were far from being clean cut though he reminded himself, his godfather had betrayed his parents and he was a lion. Then there was the Headmaster to consider, his current magical guardian, and the possible mastermind responsible for robbing his vaults and his placement at Dursleys, proving that lions were not all the upstanding individuals the world believed. Therefore, logic dictated that he should act first before anything could happen and the choice be taken from him. There were several ways to go about claiming the debt. One was marriage, which he rejected immediately; since he felt he was far too young for that. He could magically bind her himself and effectively claim her as his. But he rejected that as well, after all, she was his friend. He had been treated like a slave himself for most of his childhood, he would never force it on another, especially someone who had never done anything to him to deserve it.

So the best and safest thing he could do, for both her and him, was to claim the debt for himself by demanding a lesser payment. Penny could swear an 'Oath of a Companion' to him. This would effectively ensure that Penny would remain herself, but would be entirely loyal to him. Effectively, she would be considered a vassal, and truthfully he considered himself a better person than both of the lions combined, plus as the saying goes, 'better me than them.' So now he just had to talk to Penny and explain what he had learned about the possible life debt. That would certainly be a difficult conversation. Hopefully he could get this sorted out before they left for Christmas break, giving her a chance to come to terms with it over Christmas.

He expected she wouldn't take it too well, but hopefully she would agree to it willingly rather than risk other, less kind oaths possibly being forced upon her by the others involved. Worst case scenario, he could just force the issue; it was a necessary evil and hopefully it would prevent a worse one from ever happening to his friend. For now, he would just make sure that he had all the facts and that they were correct and accurate, before he made such a life-changing decision. This would affect both his and Penny's life forever. If he went through with this there would be no turning back.

So that meant he would spend the rest of the week in the library, checking over everything he had learned about debts and oaths. He just hoped that he was above abusing the Oath and that that power didn't corrupt him. After all, as the saying goes, 'the road to hell was paved with good intentions.' He couldn't help but wonder if 'road to heaven was paved with bad ones?' Why couldn't everything just be simple he thought, before shaking his head in frustration.

Midnight Gold

Another night in the library's legendary Restricted Section had given the same answers; his facts were correct as least as far as they could be confirmed with his limited resources.

But this wasn't his only problem of late; Professor Snape had taken to regularly trying to probe his mind, resulting in his ring heating up at least once per lesson at random. He couldn't help but wonder why the sudden interest in seeing into his mind, surly he knew the heir ring would warn him. After all the man was the Head of House famous for following traditions, and their practise, surely the head of house would know of the protective magics of the ring?

That meant one of two things. He either didn't know and thus thought he could get away with it, which he sincerely doubted was the case. Or, he was somehow protected against being prosecuted by the law, since using legilimency was illegal without a license and explicit authorization from the head of magical law enforcement. Using it on underage wizards and witches was considered bad enough to land one in Azkaban for a rather long stay. And he doubted the head of magical law enforcement was interested enough in school gossip to risk her career authorizing it.

So by process of elimination that meant it was illegal usage of the ability and that Professor Snape believed he was protected from the consequences. And since it obviously wasn't the ministry involved, it meant that it was probably Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot Albus Dumbledore who was protecting the potions master from the law.

After the whole troll incident and how that entire event was kept quiet and out of the newspaper, it was made clear to him that it was probably better to bypass the staff all together in reporting this crime. Otherwise it would just be buried and subsequently forgotten about.

Fortunately for him, the Head of Magical Law Enforcement currently had a niece here at the school, and could be used as an intermediary to get in contact with her aunt. Hopefully he could then provide evidence to start an official investigation. He would also try to get the newspaper involved and thus get the public behind it, to prevent it from being kept quiet again.

He was now waiting outside the Puff common room for Susan Bones to appear so that she could hand-deliver his letter to her aunt. He didn't trust school owls to deliver the letter, since mail filtering wards were probably set up to intercept any mail sent directly to the DMLE at the ministry.

He didn't know how long he had been waiting outside their common room door, but it didn't matter as he had no other plans for today and this was important. So he was in no rush. Plus it allowed him to collect his thoughts and feelings while practicing mind magic. Eventually the red-headed girl appeared, being escorted by a handful of other puffs. Not really surprising considering the puffs generally travelled in packs, rather than risk being ambushed alone. After all, most houses considered the Puffs weaklings and therefore easy prey for bullies.

Ravens and Puffs were allies to a point; both respected each other for their own merits, such as ravens being knowledgeable and Puffs being hard working. But that didn't mean that one house didn't try to take advantage of the other; it was a quiet alliance at the best of times, as both houses walked between the lions' and snakes' long rivalry. All while trying not to get drawn into the crossfire.

Standing up from his sitting position against the wall he spoke, "Miss Bones, I hope I could ask you to deliver a letter to your aunt for me," he started, before observing her escort, only two of which he had ever had the pleasure of talking to before. One was Hannah and the other was Erin, neither of them were outright knowledgeable, but they weren't annoying or lazy either, so he had no issue working with them if need be in class.

"May I ask why you wish me to give this letter to my aunt?" she replied with a bit of curiosity.

He went with his prepared response, "Well, I am in need of some advice about the law and as your aunt is the head of the DMLE, I'd wish for her guidance on a certain sensitive matter. The specific matter relies on the utmost discretion and secrecy," he replied cryptically.

"Why not just use an owl?" she shot back, watching him carefully.

"Well, I believe someone will attempt to intercept the owl... Frankly, I believe some staff members may be involved in a criminal activity. And since I can't leave the castle, my choices are limited. Hence, why I asked you for assistance," he answered back to the silent puffs.

Several minutes passed before Susan managed to compose herself, "Well, I think I can understand why you'd ask me then. Are you certain this isn't some type of prank being played on you?" she asked seriously.

Shaking his head, "No, not to my knowledge. I just wish to get some answers. I don't want to cry wolf, by mistake, I am sure you understand what I mean," he replied, wondering if she understood the reference to the muggle bedtime story.

"Ok, give me the letter and I'll pass it along, as long as it doesn't get me into trouble," Susan answered carefully, before seeing a nod from her housemates.

Reaching into his robes he pulled out a sealed letter with the Potter family crest proudly displayed on it, and passed it to her, "I would make an oath if required," he replied seriously, hoping it would reassure her that he was being genuine.

"I don't believe that would be necessary" she replied, taking the offered letter.

"Thank you Miss Bones, I hope you have an enjoyable Christmas break," he replied.

"Call me Susan, we're classmates," came the reply.

"Only if you call me Harry," he said with a smile, wondering if he could get an ally in Hufflepuff house out of this.

Midnight Gold

Night before Christmas Break

He was currently playing a game of chess against Padma, and it was a rather equal match up for a change. Since Padma had taken up a new style of play to combat him specifically she had thrown him off balance. She called this new style of chess 'Blitz Chess.' He had missed these matches; with all the recent events which had required his attention, he had hardly had time to enjoy the little things.

At the moment they were playing Blitz Chess, which as the name suggested was a rather fast paced game, with a 15 second time limit between moves to make it more interesting. Since it limited his ability to think 6 six moves ahead all the time, he no longer had the time to study the board extensively between moves. Blitz chess was all about making quick decisions and taking calculated risks, where the wrong moves could end the game in minutes. Normal chess was mostly about foresight and planning, which he could normally win by default considering his proficiency with the mind arts. Blitz chess on the other hand required much faster thinking and the ability to adapt on the fly to a fast changing situation. He had a feeling this type of thinking and decision making would be far more useful to him throughout his life.

Checking the door, he wondered how long it would be until Penny turned up. "Looking for someone," Padma inquired between moves, obviously noticing him checking the common room on a regular basis.

"Yea Pad, I need to talk to Penny this evening," he replied, before making a move, designed to counter her knight.

"What about?" she asked, before making her own move.

"Bit nosy tonight, aren't we," he replied cheekily.

"Like you said, knowledge is power," she replied, with a small smile.

"Well, if you must know, it's about the whole troll incident," he replied, before making his move, which unfortunately resulted in his bishop being taken.

"Oh," she replied. "Is this about the possible life debt," causing his head to shoot up fast from the board.

"How do you know about that, Padma?" he asked, before making his own move, trying to counter her rook.

"Well, I am a pureblood after all," as if that was an acceptable answer before explaining further. "My father taught me about such things before school, whilst my sister was busy with our mother clothes shopping. Plus, I saw some of the books you've been reading, about debts and magical oaths, so I put 2 plus 2 together to get 4," she answered smugly, happy to be using muggle sayings like that correctly.

"Well, please keep it quiet. I want to explain it to Penny first, and wouldn't want someone else to mislead her," looking around the room, wondering if anyone else had heard them speak of this sensitive topic.

"Sure, I just hope whatever oath you picked is reasonable; she is our friend after all," she replied seriously. "If you're a bastard about this, I guarantee the female population of Hogwarts will make sure you regret it," she said threateningly, yet knowing deep down that while Harry could be rather mercenary and ruthless at times, he was good to his friends.

He just nodded to his friend's threat, "Do you think anyone else knows about life debts?" he asked, wondering just how common the knowledge was.

"I doubt many would know about it until it happened to them. I think only purebloods would know about it, but only due to their parents teaching them about common oaths and stuff. Wouldn't surprise me that only sixth years and above know of such things." She replied seriously, before making her own countermove.

"Why do you say sixth years and above then?" he asked, making his own countermove, and wondering why Daphne knew about it at her age then.

"Simple, most households start training their children after they have completed their OWLs," she replied, moving her bishop to check his king. "Check."

"Then why did your father teach you then?" he asked seriously, before moving his king accordingly.

She moved her knight, "Checkmate," she stated smugly, before explaining. "A couple years ago my brother almost died and was in a coma for a long time. Therefore I was the heir to the family name, if the worst happened, hence my education started earlier than normal, due to the fears of my brother's death. It forced me to take up his duties in his place, otherwise it wouldn't have happened until I much older. It's probably the reason why I'm a raven actually. I was forced to grow up earlier during the eight weeks he was in the coma; my father didn't know whether my brother would live or die," she admitted soberly.

He knocked over his king in a sign of defeat, before responding, "Sorry to hear about your brother Pad, fancy another game?" hoping to avenge his defeat after realizing that Pad had slyly used the conversation to distract him from the game. Padma's explanation had also explained why Daphne knew about such things; she was the heiress to the Greengrass name. It reinforced his decision to act now; Longbottom was in the same situation as Daphne and could have already been educated about such debts considering he was the sole heir to his family name.

Just then Penny walked through the common room door, heading in their direction, before sitting down beside him, once again almost sitting on his lap.

"Penny, could I talk to you sometime this evening, after you're done packing? There is something I seriously need to talk to you about," he asked, trying to be as discreet as possible in this open of an area.

"Sure, I am already packed anyway, we can talk now if you'd like," she stated.

He looked at Padma, who just nodded that this was fine, "Let's go then," he said, before offering Penny a hand.

Dorm room

"What do you want to talk about then Harry?" Penny asked, after she finished putting up a silencing ward on the room, as Harry had asked, before sitting on the corner of his bed, flashing him a bit of her smooth, well-toned legs in the process.

"I don't know where to begin Penny. What do you recall about the Halloween incident?" He asked carefully. No matter how much he had thought this conversation through or researched the subject, he was still uncomfortable with it.

"Not much, just that you, Neville, and Ron saved my life." She said with an unsure smile.

"I wish it were that simple, however it is much more complicated than it would seem," he said, rising from his chair to take out the books that he had smuggled out of the library over the course of the week, before handing them to a now visibly concerned Penny.

"I've marked the parts that you need to read," he said seriously, passing her close to a dozen books in total. He would not risk getting this wrong by relying on only one resource.

He all but threw himself into the chair next to his desk; he didn't know how much time had passed as all he did was watch as his friend's expressions worsened with each book she read. Her expression turned gradually into one of despair, before tears began to appear. Making his way over to his bed he sat down, pulling his friend into a tight hug while trying to comfort her as best he could. "Take some deep breaths, we need to talk this out," he said carefully, before pulling her into an even tighter embrace.

He didn't care much for time, he just sat there holding her tightly for as long as she needed it, eventually the tears beginning to lessen. As soon as Penny had calmed down enough, he spoke, "The crux of the problem we're facing is that this is possibly a 3 way life debt; if it was just me, it wouldn't matter, I wouldn't use it against you or demand any kind of payment, but we don't know what the others might do," this caused her tears to start flowing again.

"Shhh, don't cry, nothing has to change. I found an oath which could be used to solve this," he said in his best reassuring tone, his magic unknowingly filling his words, a result of the charged emotions of the situation.

"Oath?" Penny asked uncertainly, between the tears and gasping breaths.

"Yea ... its call a 'Companion Oath,' in short you become my vassal and ally, bound to me by magic so that you could never intentionally betray me." He said carefully, while loosening his embrace of her, "And I become bound by magic to protect you as best as I can," before carefully handing her the book containing the oath. "It's actually quite a reciprocal relationship in some ways."

Penny continued reading while he spoke, "This is the best oath I could find; I looked for the last week going over all the references on the subject in the library, trying to find a way out. There was one other way, but I doubt you want to get married this early in life, especially to me, merely in satisfaction of a debt."

"All the other oaths were darker in nature, or in some way influenced you too much for my liking. I have no desire for you to be turned into a mindless slave, and I have no desire to watch someone else do that to you either. I will make a magical vow to you right now, if you ask it. I just want to keep you from a possibly worse fate," he said carefully. "Just be glad that it's not Malfoy or someone like that that you're indebted to; you know their views on first-generation witches and wizards." He said, before deciding to tell Penny about his childhood, to reinforce why he would never abuse his position and authority over her this oath would give him.

"Penny, let me tell you something that I've told no one else," this caused Penny to look up from the book. She knew that Harry would never share something personal or damaging unless he felt it was terribly important or the person had his trust. She suspected it was a bit of both in this case.

"After my parents were murdered, I was given to my mother's sister to be raised. From the day I arrived in that house I was abused, beaten, starved, and mistreated. I was treated and worked like a slave from the moment I was old enough to follow instructions. I had no birthdays, no Christmases, I didn't even have a name other than 'freak' or 'boy' until I started school," he said calmly as possible, before looking back at Penny, whose whole attention was on him.

"They spread rumours about me, being mentally damaged, violent and ungrateful for their generosity to cover the abuse; I still have scars covering my body. They allowed me to be bitten by my aunt's dog and left in a tree overnight," pausing to pull up his trouser leg to show the bite marks. "I suffered. They were scared of my magic, and they knew I was a magical before I could even speak. My magic would heal my wounds, heal my broken bones, so there were never any visible marks or a need to take me to the hospital where questions would be asked. Just for the cycle to repeat itself the next time my uncle had too much wine, or had a bad day at work," he said coldly, but internally raging at the memories of abuse and helplessness, his magic churning powerfully around him begging for release, to tear and rend.

"My uncle took it as a challenge, so the beatings increased in regularlity and intensity. I was locked in a cupboard under the stairs; that was my bedroom you see, whilst my cousin had his own bedroom and a playroom. This lead, among other things, to my eyesight being damaged, I recently found out. Many nights I fell asleep in a pool of my own blood, just to be forced to clean it up the next day as if I had made a mess to intentionally sully their home." He got off the bed and took off the t-shirt he had been wearing to reveal the scars he carried with him always, to the shock of Penny.

"These scars have faded a bit due to the fact I've been taking an extensive regimen of potions to fix the damage since the start of term, but simply put, the medi-witch that confidentially treated me said that I would have died if I had been a non-magical child. But these scars I visibly carry are but a fraction of the total damage done to me. The medi-witch report said that I have internal organ damage, 60 bone fractures and other malformed bones, due to them having healed incorrectly. In short I'll be taking several powerful potions a day for the next couple of years before I am anywhere near healed.

Looking back at Penny before continuing his speech "I suffered greatly, not just my body and health though, but also up here," Pointing to his head. "I was never loved. I was just hated. I never got a bed time story, I got beatings. I never got toys, I got chores. Where others got support and encouragement, I was told that I was worthless and useless and cost them money. I never had a happy childhood. Other people's nightmares were my day-to-day life," before taking one of her hands and running it along one of his scars, knowing it would have a far greater effect this way.

He looked into Penny eyes, "That was my life before I ran away. I wouldn't force that on anyone and someday I'll return and have my revenge for what they took from me," He said angrily, his eyes dancing with fire, before calming himself when he realized he had said more than he intended to and continuing in a calmer manner, hoping to distract her from what he had just said.

"My one escape during this was my mind. No matter how much they beat me, no matter how weak I was from them starving me, it didn't stop me from learning, from trying to become more, trying to prove that I was worth something. The first friend I ever had was Padma. My cousin scared away any children who tried to befriend me, do you understand now why I would never abuse that oath?" he asked her in an almost desperate tone.

"Yea I do, I didn't know, I'm sorry," she said before tears once again began to form.

Walking over he took hold of her hands once again, "You have nothing to be sorry about, you didn't know because I didn't tell anyone. Pad only know pieces, due to catching me in a moment of weakness. You didn't do this to me, you weren't my neighbours who ignored me, and bought my relatives' lies. I just don't want you going through something similar due to this stupid life debt," he spat, before sitting down next to her.

They just sat there as the evening passed by, both thinking about everything said, "Ok, what do I have to do?" She asked quietly.

"I'll state that I desire payment in the form of the Companion Oath for saving your life, then you answer by acknowledging the debt, then swearing the Oath; this will complete the ritual and settle your personal life debt arising from this incident for all time. It will also prevent anyone else from claiming you, now and in the future. No matter what happens this means, no future life debts, no bonding rituals can be used against your will. Do you understand?" he asked carefully to receive a nod.

"Ok, follow me," climbing on to the bed, so he was on his knees facing Penny, Penny did the same, but was still taller than him by a head and a bit, forcing him to look up or stare into her good-sized chest, grasping her arm in a warrior-type hold.

"Let's go through the words once, so we don't make any mistakes," he said nervously, causing them to both practise their parts. After all one wrong word could totally change the meaning of the vow.

"Are you ready to begin?" he asked nervously, this being his first ritual after all.

"Yes, let's begin, before I lose my nerve," she replied.

"I, Harry James Potter, Call In The Life Debt Owed To Me By Penelope Clearwater For Saving Her Life," he stated, causing a faint silver glow to begin circling them, with a faint breeze rising, before he nodded to Penny to speak her part.

"I, Penelope Clearwater, Acknowledge the Debt Owed and Offer the Companion Oath in Payment for My Life," she began; causing the glow to increase in intensity and the speed it circled them.

"I, Harry James Potter, Accept the Offered Companion Oath in Payment; you may begin your oath," causing their joined hands to begin pulsing with magic.

"I, Penelope Clearwater, Vow to be Your Companion in Life, to be Your Friend, Your Advisor, to Support You in Times of Need, and To Never Intentionally Reveal Your Secrets, I Offer Myself as Your Vassal, Do you Accept This Vow, My Friend," she offered. Causing static to charge the air around them, their skin tingling with the powerful feeling.

"I Accept this Vow in Payment, May our Friendship Stay as True as the Day This Vow Was Made," his last words caused the energy in the air to discharge, both glowing in synch for a second, before it too began to fade away. It also gave him a killer headache causing him to collapse backwards onto his bed, just to look up to see Penny's concerned face hovering over him.

"Are you alright?" she asked in a panicked voice.

"I'm fine, it's just one of the known side effects of the oath," he answered to the concerned Penny.

"What do you mean by side effect, do we need go to hospital wing?" she questioned.

"Na, this is what happens when you bond with someone who is more powerful than you," he offered in explanation, still looking up at Penny, seeing drying tear tracks. Looking into her eyes like this, he saw she also now had a faint hint of green around them, the green which matched his own eyes acted like an outline. This wasn't present before the ritual.

"Ok, what time is it by the way?" she asked.

"Late," was his one word reply as he continued to look into her expressive eyes. He could see loyalty, friendship and comfort in those eyes; he knew she would always be there for him. They were connected now for life, deeper than any normal friendship.

"Funny," she replied in a sarcastic tone, before casting a spell to tell the time, revealing that it was half past 11. "I better head back to my dorm" she began before getting up and heading towards the door.

"Wait a sec, Penny," making his way over to his chest, getting out his family's book 'Discovering the mind' and handing her the book.

Looking over the offered book, "Mind arts?" she asked, curiosity clearly in her voice.

"Yea, it helps one develop one's mental defences, and protections against allures and external penetration from other wizards who are trained in attacking one's mind, such as Professor Snape. In addition it has the effect of enhancing the mind and memory, it's all explained in the introduction, but it's considered a borderline dark art as it can be used to invade another's privacy, as well as influence their mind," he lectured.

"Oh, I've never heard of it before," she replied, once again looking over the book with interest.

"That's because it stopped being taught at Hogwarts close to a century and half ago, only pureblood families know of it now. In fact it's one of their greatest advantages to help keep them on top, but so few of them now even attempt to learn it. But it's extremely useful; all the most powerful wizards and witches in the last century have all been masters of the mind arts. So if you learn it, it will give you a great advantage over your peers. All the many perks are listed at the beginning of the chapter; I just ask you to keep quiet that you're learning it, because the book will probably be confiscated. It's rather rare and several centuries old, a book from my family's personal library; I'd rather it didn't end up in some pureblood library." He said seriously, "But consider it lent to you over Christmas, so that you can start the process as well as note down the necessary steps."

"Thank you" Penny replied, excited at the possibilities this unknown magic was capable of.

"You're welcome; consider it a perk of being my friend, as well as my Vassal and Companion. I'll show you my family's library sometime, it puts Hogwarts to shame," he said with a bright smile. "And the knowledge there is not just what the ministry approves of."

Midnight Gold

Percy Weasley had been having a very bad year; he had thought it to be the year he finally stepped into his own and out of the shadows. However, things had most certainly not gone as he had originally planned. First, he had no respect as a prefect, and often was ignored completely and targeted for pranks even more than he previously had been.

Then Penny had all but rejected him. Rejected Him! A model student! Surely the muggle-born had realized that he was the best choice for her future. They both wanted to work in the ministry, but instead she was hanging around with Potter. His mother had said the family had gone dark at the end of the last war. And now he believed it, Potter was often the source of his problems.

The worst thing about it was Potter kept acting like the bigger man, yet he was the source of the problems. Then the bastard had to go and save Penny's life and steal his chance to shine! He was the lion, Potter was meant to be the bookworm in the library, not fighting trolls.

Ron had said that the brat had just stood back and watched as he and Neville battled the beast, and then stole the credit for it.

He would have to talk to his mother, surely she would have a plan. Maybe she could brew a love potion for him just to get the process started... After all, he had it all planned out, they would start dating this year, both would be model students, then the Headmaster would give them the Head Boy and Girl positions, before getting a nice steady job in the ministry.

Eventually they would get married, have children, she would stay at home and raise his sons and daughters, whilst he'd climbed the career ladder eventually to become the Minister of Magic himself. Then his brothers would see who was truly the most successful of the Weasleys!

Midnight Lord

"You wished to see me Headmaster," Severus asked smoothly.

"Please sit down my friend, lemon drop?" he asked out of habit.

"No thank you, I have no interest in drugged sweets. What did you want to see me about?" The potions master asked coldly, wanting this meeting to be over with as quickly as possible.

"First, the mirror has arrived, I had planned to show it to Neville, but he's returning home this Christmas, so it will have to be done later. Does the boy know about the stone yet?" he asked calmly.

"Indeed, the lion is playing his part as you predicted and hoped for; he is just trying to find out what the stone does now. I expect he will find out by the end of the Christmas holiday," the head of Slytherin house answered smoothly.

"Excellent, everything is proceeding as I have foreseen," he replied confidently, before moving to the window to watch the fresh snow gently fall. "What of Potter, have you managed to discover anything?" he asked his assistant. As the muggle saying went, he was the good cop and Severus was most certainly the bad cop.

"No progress, the brat is wearing the Potter Heir ring; it's blocking all of my attempts. In time I'll be able to overcome them, but I expect the brat knows about the attempt and what the ring does, since he never makes eye contact anymore with me. It would, could cause problems if the DMLE ever found out. You know Bones would love a chance to get me into the interrogation room," Severus replied with practiced smoothness, simultaneously reminding the Headmaster how many secrets he knew and that it was in the headmaster's best interests to protect him.

"Yes, yes, that's unfortunate, but unlikely to matter; I'm his magical guardian after all. I'll just drop the charges on his behalf if any appear, so feel free to carry on, worst case scenario I'll call in a couple favours and it will be buried, seemingly lost in the system never to see the light of day again. If that's fails to stop it, I'll just have Bones replaced or disgraced with someone more amenable to persuasion," he replied before slipping back into his own thoughts.

It was all for the greater good that he kept his friend free he thought. He needed his spy when Voldemort inevitably returned. Severus provided an in-road into the remaining Death Eater ranks, allowing him some warning of their many schemes, as well as provided him with a unique viewpoint on issues that could only be seen and understood from a darker perspective.

He had already heard from the portraits in the corridors outside the Puff common room that Harry had asked Susan Bones to deliver a letter to her aunt, since he rightfully distrusted the school owls. He was a smart boy to not trust the school owls, but like many other students before he had forgotten about the paintings...he was sure the boy would realize his mistake in the end, he was just too smart not to, but for the meantime it didn't matter. He would just have to use the information discreetly and ensure that there was another explanation in place besides the paintings to keep the method from being discovered sooner than expected.

It didn't really matter in the end that the goblins were investigating him either; he had covered his tracks too well by using the dwarves and the appropriated identities of long dead men. In short, the only way the Goblins would be able to prove it was him was if he confessed himself, and that wasn't going to happen. Worst case, he would just allow laws to be passed making goblin evidence unusable in wizard courts, the dark families were always trying to get that bit of nonsense passed.

Besides, he had discreetly let slip to the dwarves that the goblins were arming themselves for war against them, as his spies within the bank had reported to him. It would result in both of them having a long, bloody, drawn-out war, weakening them both greatly before the end, since both species were too prideful to call a truce. This would ultimately restore the balance of power in the wizards's favour. If need be he could then use their weakness against them by launching his own attacks through the Ministry to restore control of the economy back to the wizards.

That was if he could remove Tom first. If Tom came back during the future goblin-dwarf war, it would keep both parties out of the wizard war. Ultimately the wizards would rise to the top, under his guidance of course, with his Order of the Phoenix being the sword. If Neville was still alive, he would play the hero, the champion of his army, bringing light to the Goblins' dark tunnels, and bringing order to chaos.

"Is there anything else, Headmaster? I have papers to mark." Severus asked coldly, reminding the Headmaster of his presence.

"Oh, sorry my old friend, I was lost in my own thoughts. Yes, you can go," dismissing his friend and watching his friend leave before turning back to the window.

When Tom finally returns he would need to act fast, he wouldn't allow that darkness to return on his watch again. Two had almost died already due to Tom's follower's actions.

Pacing over to pet his familiar, he could feel approval for his plans rolling off his friend; after all, some deaths were necessary for rebirth. Whenever the forest grew too large a wildfire would burn it down, making the soil fertile again with the rich ash, allowing new growth to take hold. Muggles often blamed these fires on campers, but in truth it was Fawkes starting the process of rebirth, allowing the new to replace the old.

In the last war he'd been too slow to act, too passive, too bound by his own fears. This time he would act both quickly and decisively. In hindsight he could clearly see how the mistakes he had made had cost lives needlessly. The Potters had been right, he wasn't a General. But hopefully this time, he could be...

The Death Eaters had been given their second chance, they had had over a decade to reflect on their ways and seek penance for their actions. This time he wouldn't hold the Order back; all the old death eaters would be put to the sword if they took up their old ways. Whilst the young they had corrupted would be imprisoned. If that failed, he would up the stakes.

He was sure that after several of the newer generation saw a few of their friends suffer the kiss, they would repent. After all, it was their very soul on the line and sometimes darker deeds needed to be done to save the rest of the herd.

End of Chapter

Author Note: Not much changed in the way of story content, increase worked on trying to improve the grammar. Added about 1.5k words