A/N – Harry Potter and the world, locations and characters his story is set in belong to JKR.
Thanks for all the reviews.
Thanks to my beta Alex Lilly Potter.
Chapter 12
Harry made his way over to his desk, chuckling under his breath as Hermione veered off to look at the books in the bookcase, knowing full well that the interrogation was only being delayed by a few minutes.
'Are these all yours Harry?' Hermione asked after a moment.
'Just the ones on the top shelf.' Harry replied. 'Remus supplied the rest. I'm not actually sure if they are his, or if he borrowed them from someone else. I didn't ask.'
'Oh.' Hermione said. 'I've not read all of these. In fact, there's a few here that I've not heard of before.
'He must be very well read to have been able to supply you with these.'
'Well he is tutoring me this summer, in all subjects.' Harry replied. He continued on when Hermione looked over at him and raised her eyebrows.
'We had a, chat, a few days ago about my grades and things.
' started going over all the first and second year stuff, making sure I understand it all properly. He's also got me practicing with a quill to improve my handwriting.
'He wasn't pleased when he saw the letters I wrote for you and Ron.
'Called my handwriting a disgrace and that both my Mum and Dad would have been horrified with it.'
'That's great Harry.' Hermione gushed. 'When we were introduced to him when we arrived, he just said that he was an old friend of your parents and that he was helping you this summer.'
Harry grimaced and she made her way over to the desk and sat down next to him.
'Harry, I think it's great that someone is taking the time to help you.' Hermione said.
'And we both know that you could be doing much better at school than you are.'
Harry looked at her in surprise.
'I do have eyes Harry.' she said. 'You couldn't do as well as you do on the practical stuff, if you didn't understand the theory.
'Which means that you're either struggling on how to put that knowledge down on paper, or you're deliberately holding back in class and the exams.'
Harry's eyes widened.
'Knowing you.' she continued. 'It's probably a bit of both. I doubt if anyone's ever taught you how to properly write an essay. And you're worried about how Ron would react to you spending time studying and doing well in class.'
'How?' Harry was too shocked to be able to say any more. But Hermione understood what he meant.
'I might not have really thought about it at school Harry, but that doesn't mean I didn't see what you were doing. I just didn't pay it as much attention as I should have. Too busy with other things I guess.
'But once I was back home, I was worried about you.
'I was trying to think about how I could get my parents to help you, or even just let me pay you a visit. So I was thinking over everything you had said about your relatives and your home life, and how you behaved around people and started putting things together.'
Hermione looked at him with something in her eyes he didn't recognise.
'Harry, aren't you wondering why both my parents are here with me?' she asked.
Harry just stared at her, confused at what seemed like a sudden change in topic.
'I was worried about you Harry. And when I got your letter and thought that it had been dictated to you, I was even more worried.' Hermione paused and took a deep breath.
'I told my parents that I thought you were being abused.' she said in a rush. 'And convinced them to visit you to see if they agreed.'
Harry just sat there, speechless.
'If they agreed with me, we were going to take you home with us and contact the police.' she finished up.
Harry stared at her as what she had said slowly percolated its way through his mind.
Hermione was trying to help him he realised. She had worked out something was wrong and had decided to do something about it. For the first time in his life that he could remember, someone had decided he was worth helping simply because they knew him and thought what was happening to him was wrong.
Oh, Ragnock, Amelia and Remus were helping him now. He was well aware of that, and was very grateful for everything they had and were doing for him.
But they were helping him because laws had been broken or because they had been friends with his parents. There were politics, money and old grudges involved in their reasons for helping him. Even if they did appear to like him and think him worth helping now that they had met him.
But Hermione was doing this simply because she was his friend. She didn't care about his status in the wizarding world, not since the troll in first year, and she didn't know about the money he had. To her, he was just Harry, her friend.
Tears started to form in his eyes as he looked at her. And then she was sitting on his lap with her arms around him as he cried.
Ten minutes later, with his emotions back under control and the two of them back in their own seats again, Harry decided to get it over with and tell Hermione everything that had happened.
'It all really started when we got to the car.' he began.
'A man called Scribeshank, who was really a goblin under a glamour charm, met us and said that I had a meeting at Gringotts about my inheritance.
'The next thing I knew, my aunt and uncle had been led away and Scribeshank took me to a warehouse somewhere where he did something he said was checking for tracking charms.'
'Oh yes,' Hermione interrupted him. 'They did that with us as well, before they brought us here.'
'Well,' Harry continued with a mock glare. 'After that, we portkeyed into a room here in Gringotts and I was taken to the Healers Ward they have in the bank for a check-up.
'Once that was done, they gave me some dinner and then took me to a meeting with Ragnock, Amelia and Remus.'
Hermione opened her mouth to speak, but Harry gave a shake of his head and continued, wanting to get this bit out before she interrupted.
'Once there, I found out that the Headmaster had had my parents Will sealed, and blocked it from executed. I also found out that the Potters are one of the oldest Families in Britain and my parents wanted me to take up the position of Head of the Family by my fourteenth birthday if anything happened to them.
'My godfather has been illegally imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. And it was specifically stated in the Will that I was never to go to Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon. I was to go to an orphanage rather than them.'
Hermione was visibly shocked at what he was saying.
'But... The Headmaster...' she started.
'Has been stealing from me for years.' Harry interrupted her. 'Heirlooms that have been in my family for generations, money from my vault.
'He's not on the list my parents provided as a potential guardian for me, but he stood in front of the Wizengamot and claimed they wanted him to look after me.
'He's hidden me from the magical world, but he's also hidden the magical world from me Hermione. Even though he was never supposed to be my guardian, by claiming that status, he was legally required to ensure that I, as the Heir to the House of Potter, was taught what that meant and everything I would need to know in order to take my place as the Head of House Potter on my next birthday.
'He's not only not done that. As best as we can tell he appears to have gone out of his way to make sure I didn't have the opportunity to learn it on my own.'
'But...' Hermione started. 'How?'
'The Healers found a few compulsion charms on me.' Harry explained. 'One was to make me more impulsive. I'm not really naturally inclined to go running into danger for someone I don't really know. Jumping that troll, or going after the basilisk just isn't me. Not after the way I was brought up. I might do it for someone I knew and liked, but not someone I didn't know.'
Hermione thought about that for a few seconds before nodding to him to continue.
'Another one stopped me investigating my family.' he said. 'Before I got to Hogwarts I was really keen on looking up my family and asking the teachers for anything they could tell me about my Mum and Dad.
'But once I got to school I didn't do anything about it. They think it was supposed to make me less curious about my family and the details of the wizarding world in general.
'But Remus reckons it had a knock on effect on my studying as well, 'cause before I arrived at Hogwarts I was almost as eager as you were to learn everything I possibly could about magic.'
'That makes sense actually.' Hermione said. 'It would be really difficult to make a spell that reduces your curiosity about one thing not bleed over into affecting others.' She bit her lip.
'Are you really sure it was the Headmaster Harry?' she asked. 'I mean... he's the Headmaster. And he always seemed to really care about you.'
'It was his magical signature Hermione.' Harry said gently.
'And he knew exactly how my aunt and uncle were treating me all these years.'
Harry saw the questioning look in her eyes.
'He had a Health Monitoring Charm on me as well. It was developed about eight hundred years ago to keep an eye on the muggleborn children after they had been identified and before they started Hogwarts, and when they went back to their families for the holidays. So that steps could be taken and the child removed from the family if they were abused.
'This was back when the muggles were still really superstitious and often reacted badly to magic. It fell out of use about a hundred years ago.
'He knew every time I was beaten up Hermione, or one of my bones was broken, or when my uncle whipped me with his belt till my back was raw.'
There were tears in Hermione's eyes now.
'And my aunt and uncle confessed that he met with them every six months before I started Hogwarts and at the end of the summer holidays last year and reported to him about everything they had done to me and how they had treated me.
'He knew what they were doing Hermione. He knew about it and encouraged them.'
They were both crying this time when Hermione once again landed on his lap.
It was beginning to get late now and both Harry and Hermione were becoming aware that Hermione would have to leave soon.
They had talked more about everything that Harry knew Dumbledore had done regarding him, and also the things he knew that Ragnock, Amelia and Remus had done for him so far.
Now they had moved on to what the Healers were doing.
'So, you've been on various nutrient and healing potions for the last week and a half and they vanished one of your bones and re-grew it on Monday, and plan on doing the same tomorrow.' Hermione stated.
'Yeah,' Harry replied. 'It was originally planned for today, but the Healers didn't like my reaction to the Skele-grow on Monday, so they've arranged for a new batch, specially brewed for me, which will be ready for tomorrow.'
'But, why vanish the bones? I thought Skele-grow was supposed to fix broken bones.' Hermione asked, confused.
'It's because they weren't set right after they were broken.' Harry explained. 'They gave me the option of doing it this way, or having the bones re-broken and properly set before taking the Skele-grow.'
'Oh, that makes sense then.' Hermione replied. 'I think I'd take having them vanished as well. I don't think I'd fancy deliberately having bones broken.'
'Anyway, the last of the bones gets vanished and re-grown on Saturday. They give me a day off between. And then we start on removing the bindings on my magic on Monday.' he grinned.
'We're hoping to have all four done over the next week and a half, but there's plenty of leeway in the schedule 'cause they want to be sure I'm recovered fully between each go.
'After that, I have about a week for let my magic settle down and then we do the ritual to remove the soul fragment.'
Telling Hermione about the soul fragment had been hard. Even harder than what Dumbledore had done, and harder than talking about what his aunt and uncle had done to him. But once he'd started it had all come pouring out. Hermione had been horrified, and then promptly promised to anything she could to help.
When he assured her that the best experts Gringotts had were working on it, she had made him promise to let her know when it was scheduled for. And to try and arrange for her to there when it was done so she could be with him afterwards.
She had initially tried to talk him into letting her convince her parents to let her stay here with him while they went on holiday to France, but he had refused. Telling her that he wasn't about to have her lose out on her time with her parents.
'Then,' he continued on. 'Once the Healers clear me, Remus is going to start going over all the first and second year spellwork. And help me get used to the extra magic I'll have access to and learn to control it.
'He thinks I'll find the spell casting much easier once the bindings and soul fragment are gone, but I'll need to work on not pushing my magic as much to make it work. Otherwise I could end up doing some damage to something or even hurt someone without meaning to.'
Just then they heard noticed the adults starting to get to their feet.
'Oh, it must be time for us to head home.' Hermione said. An intense look came over her face then.
'Harry?' she asked. 'What do you think about me coming back tomorrow and spending the day with you?'
Harry paused and thought about it briefly.
'If you want.' he replied. 'But I'll just be lying around in bed most of the day. It'll be pretty boring for you.'
'And what do you think I'll be home?' Hermione asked. 'My parents will be at work all day, and I'll just be sitting around reading.
'If I come here, I can keep you company, and you've got all those books on your bookshelf that I can read.'
'Ah, that's it.' Harry laughed. 'I should have known. You just want access to my books!'
'Prat!' laughed Hermione. 'So... What do you say?'
'You'll need to check with Amelia and Remus, but it's ok by me.' he replied and watched as Hermione crossed over to her parents and spoke quietly to them, before turning to Amelia and Remus.
A few words were obviously exchanged before Hermione turned to face him, a huge smile on her face and nodded excitedly.
