Hi ho! How ya all doing? Me, I'm doing just fine. Three chapters for you today, and this takes us over the three fourth mark of this fic. Less than 20 chapters left to go in this one.
Part 58/?
The next two days were a waiting game. Nothing seemed to be different at the Dursley's house outside of their nightmares. The first night, when Dudley woke screaming Vernon had originally thought Harry was back and headed in to teach him some manners before realizing who it was. He'd tried several times to get into Harry's room, trying to break down the door or climb through the windows, but the locks that were still in place had stopped him. He'd even pulled out his shotgun and tried shooting out the door lock, but it just ended up damaging the walls and calling down Petunia's wrath upon his head.
By the third morning, all three Dursleys looked ready to collapse from exhaustion. Dudley was complaining that the food tasted bad and his father actually snapped at him for it. It was into this situation that Harry confidently walked. The fact that he was far less confident than he seemed was a secret shared only by the snake around his neck and hidden under his jacket.
"Boy!" Vernon yelled, exploding from his seat and sending the chair backwards onto the floor. "Where have you been and what have you done to us?" he roared.
"What are you talking about?" Harry asked innocently. "This is the first time I've been in the house for three weeks. I just came back to get the locks I'd left on the room and make sure I didn't leave anything else behind. After all, there's no reason for there to be anything magical in the house now that I'm no longer living here."
He walked out to check his special hiding spot in the cupboard. He was pretty sure he'd removed everything from in there ages ago, but it was better to be safe than sorry. He raised an eyebrow at the spiders which were already about twice the size he remembered them to be and noticed the pictures used in the sympathetic spell were hidden behind a broom. He quickly moved them to the space behind the loose board after he had checked that it was empty.
Vernon lumbered forward with the full intention of pushing his nephew all the way into the cupboard and locking the door behind him, but Flick hissed a warning, and Harry eeled his way out before he could. He then reached out to grab hold of Harry's jacket's lapels, only to pull back with a curse as Flick raised her head and hissed in his direction. Pulling herself from around Harry's neck she unfolded her pleated wings and hovered in front of Harry. Vernon might not have any idea what she was, but that she was dangerous he had no doubt.
"Petunia! Bring me my gun! The boy has brought some kind of dangerous creature in here!" As the family was running all over the house, either trying to get away or to get something to threaten him with, Harry moved into the kitchen. He had his own contribution to make to the 'let's drive the Dursleys insane' scheme. Quickly he pulled a vial from within his jacket pocket and poured several drops into every liquid container in the room. Not just the drinks, like milk and soda, but cooking oils and sauces as well. He then pulled forth a packet, a powdered form of the potion, something he had been working on with Draco's help all week. They'd run it by Severus when they'd finished and he'd actually praised their work, still something that didn't happen very often. He sprinkled the powder into the tea and coffee containers as well as the sugar and flour ones. He wanted to make sure they kept getting it for a very long time. He wanted to see how well they'd get on, once they were forced to tell the truth at all times.
Only moments later, Vernon came into the kitchen, gun first, only to find Harry had moved out into the living room. It had taken a while to find his gun since Petunia had hidden it after his last try at getting into the boy's room. Petunia and Dudley were gathered in the doorway watching the confrontation.
"Get that... that... *thing* out of here before I fill it full of lead!" Vernon ordered.
Harry glared at him. He might be used to threats against himself, mainly carried out, but he would not accept threats against his friends. And unlike Hedwig, Flick could more than take care of herself.
Flick decided to prove it, darting forward and spitting venom at the gun barrel. Vernon stared in utter confusion as it began to melt, the acid eating away at the metal.
"I'd drop it Uncle," Harry suggested. "She probably didn't use enough venom to eat through to your hands, but I wouldn't take any chances if I were you. There's no antidote for the toxin of an Alaspinian minidrag."
"And you brought that... that freak of nature into our house!" Vernon bellowed, but Harry noticed that he did drop the shotgun.
"Why not? She won't hurt anyone who's not threatening me. Besides, we were just leaving." Harry turned around to walk out the door.
"No you don't!" Petunia snapped. "Not without taking this spell off of us! We haven't gotten a decent night's sleep in a week!"
"I don't know what you're talking about, I haven't been back here for almost a month." Harry reminded her. "So what do you think is magic, this time?"
"Those nightmares about your life," Dudley spoke up, brave in the presence of his parents. "As if your life could really be all that bad."
Harry glared at him and crossed his arms. "Oh really? Having to live in a cupboard, wear your old rags, do all the work, not get enough food, getting bullied by you and your cronies, and then getting beaten for any slight thing that went wrong, no matter who's fault it was, wasn't a bad life? You know, I told someone some of the highlights of my life and you know what he said? He said that you must think I'm a god. After all, everything was my fault. Your car broke down in the middle of town, and it was my fault even though I was at school. A dog dug up the garden and it was my fault. Heck, it rained while you were out on vacation, and it was my fault even though I was staying with Mrs. Figg and half way across the country!" He started stalking forward, getting more mad by the minute. "I was a kid! I wasn't some ultimate evil or something put on this earth to make your lives miserable, I was just a *child*!" He stared at Petunia. "Do you know why I'm so small?" he asked harshly. "After all, both my parents were at least half a foot taller than me, but I'm not expected to grow more than another inch, two at the most. And do you know why?"
"Why are you blaming me?" Petunia asked shrilly, backing away.
"Who else is there to blame? I'm so short because I never got enough to eat growing up. Malnutrition stunted my growth and by the time anyone at school had realized it, I'd already passed through most of puberty and there was nothing they could do anymore."
"We were only trying to get the magic out of you," Vernon growled.
"Well, congratulations Uncle, you almost managed it... twice that I know of."
Vernon looked proud.
"Of course, magic is actually life energy, and the only way to beat the magic out of me was to beat the life out. And you almost managed that... twice." Harry's voice was almost clinical. "As for it not being as bad as you've dreamed?" he turned to Dudley, ignoring Vernon's paling face. He sniffed silently, like it was a surprise the man had almost killed him. "Actually, from the way you all look, I would say none of you have dreamed my worst memory."
"And what would that be?" Dudley scoffed.
"Are you sure you want to know?" Harry purred in a dangerously soft voice as he petted the snake once more curled around him.
"It *can't* be all that bad," Dudley sneered.
"You asked for it," Harry murmured. "Sit down," he said, pointing at the couch. "You don't want to be standing for this."
All three had a disdainful expression on their faces as they sat where he'd told them. Harry stood before them, his eyes looking out into the distance, before he snapped out of it.
"First, I think you need to have some background information. Twenty years or so ago, there arose a Dark Lord. Dark Lord is the name given for a very powerful wizard who wants to use magic to take over the world and there tends to be a new one every fifty years or so. Voldemort and his followers, called Death Eaters, were convinced the world would be better off if all Muggles and Muggleborns were dead. Muggleborns are people who are born able to use magic even though both of their parents aren't. Or half-bloods have one magical parent and one Muggle one."
"So your mother was one of those Muggleborns," Dudley remarked.
"Actually, no," Harry shrugged. "Your mother is a squib. Which is a person who can't use magic born into a family of magic users." He thought for a moment. "Well, that's not exactly accurate either, since neither of their parents or grandparents could use magic. However, their great-grandparents, our great-great-grandparents were all wizards and witches, two very prominent wizarding families as a matter of fact."
"I'm not descended from unnatural people!" Petunia retorted.
"Would you like me to go get the books with our genealogies in it? I wouldn't have said it if I didn't have proof." Harry answered back. "Anyway, for some reason still unknown, Voldemort decided my family had to go. Whether it was because my parents were high ranked Aurors, which are a wizarding police force," he explained, "or because he knew I was a mage, is still unknown. And before you ask, a mage is to a wizard as a wizard is to a Muggle. After Voldemort killed my parents, he tried to kill me, but it didn't work. The backlash from the spell destroyed his body and gave me my scar." He reached up absently to touch it. "It also linked us, something that didn't really matter until he got enough energy to try to come back. During my fourth year he managed to capture me and a friend of mine. He had Cedric killed, and then used my blood to help create a new body for him." His eyes were bleak and his face pinched as he remembered that.
"So that's your worse memory?" Dudley prompted, caught up in the story.
Harry shook his head. "No, it's not. I told you that Voldemort and I were linked. Before he got a body back, it just meant that my scar hurt when I was in the same vicinity as him. Once he got a body though... I could sometimes see and feel what he did. Especially when I was sleeping and if he was doing something really awful. Every curse he threw, I felt an echo of it in my body. There is one curse, called the Cruciatus. It's one of the three Unforgivable curses, the ones that will send you straight to Azkaban, the wizarding prison, if you were found to use it. It's a torture curse. The worse pain you could ever imagine, and it just goes on, and on, and on. I know someone who's parents were put under it for too long... they're in the insane asylum.
"Voldemort loved torturing people, and regardless of the hype, he really didn't care who they were. Muggles, Muggleborn, his own people, he didn't care. That summer it seemed as if every night he'd have someone who he felt deserved to be cursed. And every time, I could feel an echo of the curse in my own body. Not quite as strong, thankfully, or I'd be completely insane by now, but still pain beyond imagining. Even that however, wasn't as bad as the real torture I sometimes had to watch, that I couldn't pull myself away from."
He told them about the night some of the Death Eaters brought in a family of Muggles. A mother, father, fourteen year old girl, nine year old boy and five year old girl. He told them exactly what happened to that family, every minute of every thing they endured. He explained about the Imperious curse and what it did, and what it made them do. About how they finally died and the one who had been placed under Cruciatus until she died and everything he felt during that time. By the time he finished explaining, Petunia and Dudley had both had to leave to throw up, Petunia was currently sobbing and even Vernon was looking green.
"So that's your worse memory," Dudley muttered, all disdain driven from him.
"Oh, you don't think it's done do you?" Harry's voice finally gained some emotion, anger. "No, no. You see, I was *here* that night." Their faces got even paler, for suddenly all three of them knew exactly what night he was speaking of. "That's right. I lived through that torture only to *finally* be able to wake up. And what did I wake up to? My dear uncle standing over me with a belt. To a beating that broke three of my ribs, gave me a concussion, a sprained ankle and a whole lot of bruises and cuts. In fact, when Drake and Sev healed me and took care of my scars, they weren't able to completely heal one I got that night.
"You know, I guess I should be glad you kept me locked up in there. It was the only time I've ever seriously tried to kill myself. Since it was all I had, I drank my entire collection of sleeping draughts at once. If I'd been in a place where I could have reached a knife, I wouldn't be around today. Not that you would have cared," he muttered.
"How can you say that?" Petunia sobbed.
Harry glared. "Thanks to those sleeping potions, I lay in that room for a week straight! Did you even notice? The only good thing was that the sleep was so deep, I didn't have any visions the entire time."
He looked at them all, sitting there. "Do you have any idea what it's like living with people who would prefer you were dead? Who can't quite bring themselves to actually kill you, but seem determined to drive you to suicide? To know there's a madman out there, looking for your blood and that all he would have to do would be to offer your guardians some money, and they would gladly hand you over?"
"We wouldn't have!" Vernon seemed to be getting his composure together.
"Do you really believe that?" Harry said. "I don't." With that he turned and walked away, activating the emblem portkey the moment he was outside the door.
Within seconds he was cocooned within the two sets of arms that would always mean safety and love to him. A glance to the side showed the viewing mirror, still watching from the mirror above the fireplace in the Dursley's living room. The Dursleys were still sitting there in shock, but he closed his eyes and turned away, burying himself deeper in the embrace of his lover and father. They didn't matter anymore. This was all that mattered. He reached out and grabbed Draco's arm, pulling him into the embrace. And this was all the family he needed.
Part 59/?
Harry was curled up next to Lucius on the sofa in their suite. Lucius was playing with his hair which was back to the long length it had been most of the time they'd been staying there. Harry still wasn't sure if he was going to keep the length until he went to school. Lucius really seemed to like it, but taking care of it was a complete pain. Maybe if Lucius promised to take care of it for him, he might consider keeping it. More reasons to share a shower or bath was not a bad thing.
"Do you think they'll show up?" Harry asked lazily. He found he didn't really care. He'd done what was necessary and felt a lightness of spirit he hadn't felt before. He was through with the Dursleys. The others could do as they wished to them. Well, no, he didn't wish for them to be dead, which would be the final outcome if he let any of his family have free reign over them.
Lucius looked down at the head of the boy on his lap. He had a good idea of what Harry was feeling. He also knew that a good bit of it was false. All of Harry's issues and problems weren't gone just because he had finally stood up to the bastards that were his biological family. He wouldn't suddenly turn into a self-confident and secure young man just because he'd fought one of his demons and won. Lucius knew without a doubt that if he asked right now if Harry trusted they would last, he still would not get a positive answer. Not that he would ask right now. There was no way he was going to do anything to puncture the well-being Harry was feeling at the moment. "You know them better than I do," he finally replied. "What do you think?"
"I doubt it," Harry admitted. "He's too much of a coward when it comes to magic. He'd be scared of what I would do to him." He was silent for a while. "Drake really was surprised by their reactions wasn't he?" he asked thoughtfully. "Mine too I think." He thought back to earlier that afternoon.
/Flashback\\
Draco slammed into the conservatory where Harry was sitting in the sunlight reading.
"What's the matter?" Harry asked, sitting up in surprise.
"Those... those..." Draco's voice was actually shaking with anger as he tried to think of some term bad enough for the people he was talking of.
"I take it you're speaking of the Dursleys," Harry murmured, putting his book down and moving over to give Draco room to sit down on the bench next to him.
"They're already saying that it wasn't that bad and it was..." his voice dropped off.
"That it was probably my fault in the first place?" Harry sighed.
Draco nodded his face down.
"Why does this surprise you? You didn't expect that?"
"You did?"
"They're the masters of the 'not-my-fault' self-delusion. I honestly would have been surprised if they reacted any other way. Just wait. Once they start feeling the effects of the truth potion, things might change. It's not likely, but it is possible."
"But if you didn't think it would change anything, why...?" Draco began.
Harry shook his head. "It was never about them. It was something I needed to do. And it felt very good."
"So it helped?" Draco asked softly.
Harry looked thoughtful. "Yeah," he admitted, "it did. If only to show me that I could put them behind me. And really, it's not all my fault. I think today, telling them that, was the first time I really, truly believed it."
Draco decided to change the subject. "I'm surprised that the old guys are leaving you alone," he grinned.
"Your observation skills obviously need work," a dark voice said from behind him.
Harry chuckled and nodded. "He's been back there the whole time," he agreed. "You really should have noticed him. Constant vigilance!"
"Unlike Mad-Eye Moody, I see no need for extreme paranoia," Draco said haughtily. "Especially in my own house."
"And if I had been an assassin wishing to end the Potter or Malfoy line?" Lucius growled in Draco's ear.
"Then Flick would have warned us before you even got close," Draco grinned slightly.
"And if Flick was out getting something to eat?" Harry asked, joining in.
"Then you'd deal with it," Draco seemed completely sure.
"You've got an awful lot of faith in me," Harry smiled happily.
"Yep," Draco answered back easily. The two of them just grinned at each other for a long moment.
/End Flashback\\
"Surprisingly considering he is my son, Draco occasionally seems to believe that everything will turn out right."
"I think it turned out as right as could be expected," Harry remarked.
"I agree. But then, I truly don't care about how they took it, only how you did. Even if they had suddenly done a complete turnaround, admitted it was all their fault and begged on their knees for you to forgive them, you never would have trusted them, and I sincerely doubt you ever would have moved back in with them."
"You got that right," Harry agreed vehemently. "I did kind of hope to open Dudley's eyes a bit though."
"Why?"
"I just got to thinking, what if he has a kid that is a wizard or witch? How would they be treated? It's entirely possible after all; he is descended from the same people my mom was, so it could show up in his kids or grandkids. I just don't want another kid, especially one I'm related to, growing up to think he's a freak like I did."
"I understand," Lucius said softly. "If it happens, we'll deal with it. We'll keep an eye out."
"Do I want to know what you've got planned if it happens?" Harry asked.
"Probably not," Lucius admitted.
There was silence in the room for a long time, the two just luxuriating in their closeness. "They're late," Harry finally said calmly.
"Yes, they are," Lucius agreed just as calmly.
Harry turned over until he was lying on his back with his head still on Lucius' thigh. Imperiously, he beckoned to the cordless phone on the side table and it obeyed, flying into his hand. He dialed a phone number.
~ "Dursley."~
"Vernon," Harry purred. "I'm here, but you're not. More importantly, Harry Potter isn't here. Did I not make myself clear?"
~ "I talked to my lawyer!" Vernon yelled over the phone. "If you try to fire me for something like that, I'll sue!"~
"Vernon, Vernon, Vernon, did I really look that stupid? I'm sure if I looked, I could find some reason to fire you, and if not, I can always shut down the entire company. Nothing in the contract with the previous owners said that I had to actually try and keep the business running. I can always convert it to a magical manufacturing facility."
~ "I'll tell the authorities!"~
"Haven't you threatened that before?"
~ "The boy is sixteen, legally old enough to leave, so the authorities wouldn't do anything to me. He left of his own free will. There's nothing *magical*" he sneered the word, "left in my house."~
Harry... laughed.
~ "What the bloody hell is so funny?" Vernon roared as he heard the laughter pouring through the phone lines.~
"What you just said is funny," Harry chuckled. "The only way for there to be no magic in your house is if you burn it to the ground, and I'm not positive even that would make sure of it."
~ "He left those... those abnormalities in my house?" Vernon bellowed. "I knew his freakishness might be catching, I should have sent him to an orphanage as soon as he was brought here. Or maybe just dumped him in a dumpster somewhere."~
All traces of amusement fell from Harry's face and his eyes grew cold. Lucius was looking down at him with an inquiring expression on his face, asking him if he wished for the older man to take over the call, but Harry shook his head. It seemed he still had more things he wished to say to the bloated idiot who'd ... raised him. "Actually," he said in a cold voice, "*you* have magic. Your wife has magic, your son has magic. Your dog, cat, hamster, bird, whatever has magic. The insects in your walls, the mold in your refrigerator, all have magic. The plants out in your garden, the grass in your lawn and every organism around has magic, and your nephew has nothing to do with any of it. You don't like magic? Well, I'm happy to tell you that every single person you have ever met, talked to or seen on the street has magic. Magic exists in every single living organism on the entire planet. A wizard isn't a wizard because he has magic, but because he can use the magic that is inherent in everyone. Next time you see your son, remember, he's got just as much magic as his cousin does. Next time you see yourself in the mirror, you're looking at a person who has magic. A magic you will never be able to use. But then, it sounds like you always were envious. I believe one of your Muggle poets is the one who said 'Methinks thou doth protest too much'. Is that your problem? Have you always wanted to be a wizard and hated them because you couldn't be one?"
Vernon was sputtering with rage.
"As for magic in your home..." Harry grinned although the one he was grinning at couldn't see the shark-like expression. "There's more there than you think, and there are more ways to get revenge than a Muggle like you could ever imagine. Enjoy your life, if you can." His evil chuckles were the last thing Vernon heard before Harry hung up the phone.
"Okay," he said to Lucius. "Am I the only one who wants to be in front of a viewing mirror when they wake up in the morning?"
Part 60/?
Harry wandered into the Malfoy study and meandered over to where Lucius was sitting. Almost listlessly he settled himself onto Lucius' lap without a word. Once there, he sighed deeply.
Lucius looked down with a slight smile. He noticed that Harry hadn't even sent a look towards the mirror over in one corner, turned so that he didn't have to look at it while he was working. The morning after the phone call had found Harry in a glamour as a boy while he, Severus, Lucius, Draco and the three Weasleys gathered around the mirror, waiting gleefully for the Dursleys to wake up. It had been everything they had expected. Petunia's screech could have been heard three streets away at the very least. The seven guys had almost laughed themselves sick as they watched her trying desperately to get the color off of the walls. When a couple of giant spiders, about twice the size of a normal tarantula got out of the cupboard, thanks to the imp who was finally given free rein, the hilarity grew even stronger. Dudley's shouts as a giant cockroach ran across his body while he was in bed was a joy to hear. Hearing him complain about the food was music to Harry's ears. Hearing Vernon tell him exactly what he thought of him, thanks to the truth potions that was in all of their food, was even better.
Vernon had lost his job two days later. There was, after all, only so much truth that could be taken by a company, especially when it came from a person like Vernon. He couldn't seem to stop himself from telling everyone, customers and employees alike, exactly what he thought of them.
The first couple of days, they would check the viewing mirror at least once an hour, just to see what was going on. What had started out as hilarity though, had changed to just plain sad. They pretty much just checked once a day to see if they were still there. None of them seemed to be getting any sleep, Dudley wasn't eating, Petunia was trying desperately to put her house and garden back in order, though the gnomes and imp did a good job of keeping it a mess, and with Vernon having lost his job, he spent most of his time at home drinking. It was not a good situation for the Dursleys.
And of course, they were blaming it all on Harry.
They had figured out that they were under a truth spell of some sort, and so the fact that they *could* blame it all on Harry meant that it truly was all Harry's fault, at least in their minds. You're only not allowed to lie when at least in some portion of your brain, you know you're lying. Since they believed it was Harry's fault, they could say it was Harry's fault, which just confirmed to them that it was, indeed, all Harry's fault. Circular arguments could really mess up truth potions.
Harry himself, had grown more aggressive, liable to jump Lucius at a moment's notice as long as he was somewhere considered safe, the Manor or the suite while they were in it. Lucius wasn't complaining too much, though there were occasional mutters about the stamina of teenagers. They still hadn't gone all the way, having decided to leave that until the night of their promise ceremony. They'd done pretty much everything else though.
Right now, however, he didn't seem to be in the mood to jump anyone, instead settling himself on Lucius' lap with numerous sighs. Finally, knowing it was the wrong thing to do but not seeing any alternative, Lucius asked, "Is something the matter?"
"I'm bo-ored," Harry sing-songed with a pout.
Lucius froze. He'd never heard those words or that tone from Harry before but he had from his own son and if there was one thing he had learned it was that *those* words in *that* tone meant trouble with a capital T. His mind darted around, trying to come up with a suitable diversion.
"Why don't you go flying? Or ask Draco for another riding lesson?" he offered.
Harry reached up and turned Lucius' head towards the windows, letting him see the torrential downpour that excellent magical soundproofing had kept out of his consciousness.
"Okay, how about swimming? I haven't seen you in the pool lately," Lucius suggested.
Harry sighed. "It's too much trouble with all this hair."
Lucius frowned. "You shouldn't have to give up something you like to do just because I like your hair. I'm not going to complain if you cut it. It is your hair, you know."
Harry shook his head. "I said I'd keep it until after the dance if you helped me take care of it and you've been doing a good job. It stays." He pouted harder.
Lucius started to get desperate. Harry said he'd read all the good books, finished his homework and finished his part of the lab work for TiP. He had created a paper on which only the truth could be written. Draco's part was more difficult, because he was trying to make a paper that would accept anything written on it, but change the ink of any lies to a different color when touched with a wand and the password being spoken. That way owners could tell if their employees were lying to them without letting said employees know that there was anything wrong.
Harry's eyes opened wide and he jumped off his comfy seat. "I haven't shown you the newest thing!" He ran out. Minutes later he was back with a blank piece of parchment, a pot of ink and a new quill. "I asked Siri and Remy how the created the marauders' map and they sent me the directions. I've changed a couple of things, but I think it'll work. May I? Please? ?" he begged.
"Stop!" Lucius barked, pleased at the instant silence he got in reply. "Now, what *exactly* do you want to do?"
Harry stopped babbling and took a deep breath. "I want to create a map of the Manor like the Marauders made of Hogwarts."
"And what is so special about that map?"
"The map would have *every* room and passageway, including the secret ones, with passwords where necessary. It will tell who is in the house and where and can't be fooled by glamours, polyjuice or animagus forms. Actually, it could be set to map the entire estate if you wanted."
"And what about security? That is obviously not something I would wish to fall into the wrong hands."
"Well, dad's map is password protected; you turn it on and off by touching it with your wand and saying the activation phrase or the deactivation one. If it's not activated, it just looks like a normal blank piece of parchment. We could do that easily enough."
"Normally," Lucius said thoughtfully. "I would say no"
Harry interrupted before he could say anything else. "It could be really useful. Like if someone snuck in, like Rita Skeeter who's animagus form is a beetle, it would tell you about it, and where she was."
"If you'd waited, instead of jumping in," Lucius said sternly, "you could have heard the rest of it."
Harry blushed. "Sorry," he muttered. "Go on please."
"Normally," he repeated, "I would say no. *However*, legend has it that there is a secret location, somewhere on the grounds, with books and artifacts that I would like to see. Therefore, I will allow you to do it as long as the security measures are to my satisfaction. If not, I will destroy it after it is made. Is that understood?"
Harry nodded, brightening. He really wanted to do this, both to see if he could and because it was something his father had done before him. "Okay," he said thoughtfully. "First I need to find the middle of the Manor."
Lucius stared at him. "The middle, or the center?"
"There's a difference?"
"Besides the fact that it would be virtually impossible to find an exact middle in a place like this and even more difficult in someplace such as Hogwart's. The center however, would be the *magical* center. The place where the magic seems to naturally pool."
"How can we find it?" Harry wondered. "And yes, now that you mention it, he did say center, I just didn't realize there was a difference."
"Where does most of the magic seem to gather?" Lucius asked.
Harry thought of everything he knew about the Manor and where, besides the workrooms, most of the magic they'd done came from. Suddenly he got it. The emblem portkeys came from the study and returned a person to the study. The viewing and calling mirrors were set up in the study. Even the fact that it was the most comfortable place in the Manor made sense to him now. He'd obviously be more comfortable the more magic there was for him to draw on if necessary. "Here," he answered confidently. "The center of the magic is this room."
Harry didn't waste any more time. He walked to the middle of the room and with a quick gesture rolled up the rug on the floor. He carefully chipped off some of the stone on the floor, making sure it was in an easily concealed spot. He powdered the stone before mixing it in with the special ink he had already created.
He placed the blank parchment on the floor, dipped the special quill into the ink and started murmuring spells as he placed the quill on the parchment and let it go. Lucius watched with interest as the pen started drawing and only his self control kept his eyes from popping open in disbelief. If this was correct, it was unbelievable. How could there be a complete level below the basement and he never knew about it? Next came the basement level, and another room off to one side, not actually a part of the Manor, but on a part of the grounds he'd been over dozens of times without ever knowing there was a hidden room there. With every level there were new rooms he had never seen or heard of before.
Harry opened eyes he had closed as he poured energy into the spell. "Did it work?"
"Better than expected," Lucius murmured, still shocked.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked worriedly. Lucius' tone of voice had been... strange.
"According to that map you just made," Lucius muttered, "There are two libraries I didn't know about, three sets of workrooms, a second tower, a place called The Dark Lord's Common Room, whatever that is, and a honeymoon suite."
Harry blinked in surprise. Then he grinned seductively. "Want to go find it?"