4-06

"I get that you were trying to help, Harry," said Remus from his slot on the expended mirror, to his left was Sirius and below Moody and to his right left and empty patch. Harry let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair as his mind tried running across everything that had happened in the past few hours.

"But something like this…" Remus sighed.

"It just doesn't make sense," Dudley said to my side, reflect a thought running to my mind. "You didn't tell me about this."

"Yeah," I said. "I mean, there's a reason in my head why I didn't bring you along but the fact that I didn't tell you is strange. Not to mention the fact that I brought two people I don't entirely trust along too."

"You're thinking someone messed with your mind?" said Sirius.

I shook my head. "My Occlumency is crude," I told them. "Because of…reasons. But I've worked it so that it gets stronger with the passage of time. Every day I check of the layers, looking for the damage of an attack and after doing that because of all of this I haven't found anything."

"Could be too subtle for you to note," said Moody. "Tell us again what happened, Potter."

I took a breath and nodded, recounting my memories of the event. I'd known from Dumbledore's hand that he would die within a year, something I didn't like and had been thinking about a while on how to counter it. It was made easier when I learned that how the stone worked was making transfigurations permanent.

"And who told you that?" asked Moody. "You make it sound like it's recent information."

"It is," I said. I took a breath, closed my eyes and I found the memories. "It was today that I found out and it was from Divina."

"But why would Divina tell you that?" asked Dudley. "It's not exactly a conversation that would evolve naturally except if it was shaped that way."

"Perhaps this Divina was the one who shaped the conversation?" said Remus.

"But to what end?" I asked. "She's been adamant that she doesn't want to get involved in everything when we last met."

"That's what I'm having trouble figuring out," said Dudley.

"Go on with your recount," said Moody. "Maybe it will all become clearer as things move on."

I gave a nod and continued. Telling them that I didn't have Dudley or Hermione go with me because I knew they would want the stone which would mean us not getting it because of the magic in mirror. Divina and Lily were good choices because…

"I've reached a blank, there," I said. "I have no idea why I would think they were such a good choice. Lily, sure, because she a good fighter but if with the memories being foggy I wouldn't neccesarily think I would need to fight down there. There are challenges and given that I have a cheat sheet I would be able to move through the without trouble."

"I still think someone must have done something to your mind," said Remus. "You'll have to talk to Snape, Harry. He's the foremost expert of Legillimency currently in Hogwarts. If someone tried and succeeded in breeching your mind he'll be able to detect them."

"Snape probably hates me right now," I muttered.

"Snape most probably hates everyone in the world," Sirius quickly returned, a smirk on him.

"But that doesn't mean he can't be professional," Remus said. "If you have someone else in Hogwarts to worry about, then it's better we know now so we can handle it rather than wait for them to go on the offensive."

I gave a nod. "What about the stone?"

"Give it to Nicholas before there's hubbub over the thing," said Moody. "He knowns enough about everything that you can tell him you're investigating why you took it in the first place."

"What about using it to heal Dumbledore, though?" asked Dudley.

"We'll talk to him about it," said Remus. "He's more lucid than before. Hopefully it's enough that he'll give this some thought."

"Now that that's done," said Dudley. "What are we doing about what the Ministry is trying with Harry? Sullying his good name and all that?"

"Nothing's going to come of it," said Moody. "It's probably best you know this now before you hear if from the news, but someone tried to break into Gringotts. They were possessed from what the Goblins are saying. We were lucky the Thief's Downfall broke the connection and alerted the Goblins of what was going on."

"Voldemort," I said.

"That's what we thought," said Moody. "He possessed Quirrell. He's putting out the same trick again, but this time he's going into Gringotts."

"He's searching for the Horcruxes," I said. There were nods from the other and I felt my stomach twisting and turning. "Please tell me we have a way of getting that damned thing before too long?"

"I'm working on it," said Sirius. "I'll be leaving tomorrow. Heading for the Goblin Nation. Hopefully I can buy some people there that might better facilitate the break in. It'll be easier for them than us."

"But it'll be time consuming," I said. "The Goblins have a sense of patriotism. Stealing from one of their own for a wizard undermines everything they believe in. Everything they are."

"Which is a layer of protection for us," said Remus. "The Head of Gringotts will think along the same lines in regard to disseminating that information."

"Heads will roll, though," said Moody. "If this ever gets to us or Albus then there's the chance that we might have a war on our hands."

"The chance of one war, while trying to avoid another," said Dudley. "I don't like all of this."

"At this point we don't have much choice other than to break in ourselves or break my dear cousin out of Azkaban," said Sirius. "And no, Harry, that's not saying your idea is any less insane than when we first heard it."

"All of this would have been over by now with my idea," I said. "And we would have raised question about that. Whether the Dementors are involved or not, and whether it's a good idea to let them continue to guard the place in the present climate."

"Smart," said Moody. "But we have to take everything in context. Another disruption above everything else is sure to send widespread panic."

"Probably true," I said. "I'll get to reversing the damage I've done, then."

"Stay safe, Harry," said Sirius before the image blinked off.

"Are you coming with?" I asked and Dudley nodded. "You've been working pretty quickly," I said. "People keep talking about my army for some reason."

"That was sort of the thing I put up front," said Dudley a little sheepishly. "Common thread amongst everything is that you're important to most people. Thought I'd use that and it worked. Most of the people agreed with that being the selling point."

"But they keep saying it's an army," I said.

"My wording might have been off," said Dudley. "Just… I said we would be more combat orientated than the Society. But still, the main idea was the sharing of ideas."

"It doesn't matter at any rate, but the Society members are antsy. At least from what Blaise said, but we can't bet on that, it might as well be misinformation."

"Yeah," Dudley said as we turned a corner. "Are we actually going into the Slytherin Common Room? Because I really want to visit that place."

"No, we're heading further into the dungeons. Snape skulks there."

"You're really not looking for this, are you?"

"Not at all. If I know Snape well, he'll make me regret this," I said and feeling a bit of anger slipping through. I took a breath and pushed forward, this was for the better because more than the hostility I had for Snape, there was also the curiosity that indeed my mind might have been breached without my knowing.

I knocked when we stood in front of the door and in a sultry tone Snape said, "Enter."

Another breath and then I pushed the door open, walking in. Snape was just turning my way when a mirror directly opposite me cracked with a loud sound, the cracks only dominating the reflection of me with parts scattered around Dudley.

"Stop," said Snape, a mild panic in his voice. "Both of you."

"Aren't you supposed to at least hear us out before you refuse us?" I asked, resentment in my voice.

"Harry," said Dudley, elbowing me to shut. "Professor," he said, taking a step in the office. Snape was immediately on his feet, wand out and pointed in our direction. As if I expected this my wand was already out while Dudley was jumping back, pulling his sword from his breast pocket.

The shield was up before Snape could even fire a curse. Not that he would have, from the way he moved. It had been too slow, too predictable and given off enough time that we reacted.

"I don't know the function," said Snape, "but the both of you are infected by a curse."

What?

Snape turned, looking at the mirror, cracks had spread out further and as he walked within the frame, a few moved over his reflection. "And it seems even speaking to the both of you means the curse is passing on to me. Lock yourselves away while I setup a means of protection. Three doors down, bar the doors until you get my Patronus."

Dudley and I nodded, quickly moving away before we could do more damage.

"It's them isn't it?" said Dudley. "Either Lily or Divina."

"My guess on the matter," I said. "But what does the curse do? And if it happens with me being around someone, does that mean it infected Sirius, Remus and Moody?"

"Better to tell them that it might have and not to talk or be around anyone else," said Dudley.

I nodded, summoning three Patronii and sending them off with the message.

The room was on the larger side but it was bare, with nothing but a window that showed an image of the Forbidden Forest beyond. Sometimes the geometry of Hogwarts could be the strangest thing, but how a place with so much magic concentrated in it couldn't be strange would have been stranger still.

When we entered the doors closed with a loud thud, golden lines stretching out through the room. The thought to conjure something to seat on occurred to me but it felt more natural to pace.

"What do you know about curses?" Dudley asked me, he stood still though I could see the anxiety in his features.

"Not enough unfortunately," I said. "They're like Charms but they're malignant. They're easier to do but harder to break and I'm fortunately I'm not the sort of person that breaks them. An expert I know personally is Bill Weasley but Merlin knows where his is right now."

"Snape? Does he know anything about them?" he asked.

I shrugged. "There's a lot to Snape that I don't know," I said. "But he has a fascination with the Dark Arts. That means he might know a way to counter. That mirror isn't something I've ever seen."

"Me neither," said Dudley. "Try to think back. When could they have cursed? Especially without you knowing since you say it's unlikely that they broke through your mind."

"I don't know."

"Are you sure that it's unlikely that they entered your mind?" Dudley asked. "They could have built the mental barriers back up after decimating them."

"That would have at least taken half the day," I said.

"I haven't seen you for much of the day," said Dudley.

I reach into my pockets and pulled out a small bag. I reached in and pulled out a small egg. "Finite Incantatem," I said and tapped the egg. Nothing happened. It was real.

"No, what I did was real, unless they're really pedantic about the small details at which point I'd won't have a place in the Quidditch team."

"I don't see how those things connect," said Dudley.

"Rest assured they do," I told him. The lights turned on, lines drawing themselves across the room before the door opened. Snape stood beyond.

"It seems that the curse on the both of you is fast acting," the man said, strutting into the room. "In the time I've been gone it has fully consumed me."

"Do you know what it does?" asked Dudley.

"Mental magic," the man said. "I tried to stop it but it was beyond my grasp. My memories have been changed. Who did this to you, Potter? Who could have this sort of power?"

"Either Divina or Lily, I think it might be the former," I said.

"I'll enquire about this," said Snape. "I suggest you stay here, keep the amount of infected people to a minimum. The man left, his cloak billowing at the exit."

"It scares me the amount of power that would have to go into a spell that would get past even Snape's mental barriers," said Dudley.

"Tell me about it," I muttered under my breath.

888

Thirty minutes and the lines drew themselves across the room. Snape along with Lily and Divina entered, the girl looked regretful with her expression turning into guilt when she looked in my direction.

"I'm sorry about all this," she said. "I thought the magic of the spell would be cleaner than this. Alleviate your suspicions but I guess it didn't work out too well."

"What were you trying to do?" I asked, feel a lot less anger that I thought I'd feel with being cursed.

"Make my transition seamless," she said. She sighed and said, "I Divina Runcorn, once went by the name Davie Runcorn."

As soon as the sentence was complete everything made sense. Memories became clearer with a thread of thoughts I'd had coming back to the fore.

"That's some magical feat," I said. "Fidelius Charm?"

"A variant," she said. "Something like that would take a lot out of me and violent means would mean a lot more people detecting it. This way people's memories reshuffle. I've made little impact through the past week and the month before so there won't be that many people as affected as Harry and Lily were."

"Why didn't you tell us about this before?" said Dudley. "It could have helped with our problem."

"This bores me," said Snape. "Listening to your overinflate drivel. Ms Runcorn, we'll have to speak at some point. It would be…a pleasure to hear your theories on crafting a spell of this magnitude."

"Of course, Professor," the girl said.

Again the man left with a dramatic flair.

Divina sighed. "I didn't get involved before because it would have messed up with my spell," she said. "It was better not to get involved."

"It's okay," said Lily. "Everyone in here is pretty much here for themselves. You were doing what's good for you."

Divina gave Lily a small smile.

"But you can act now, right? Make sure that they are off our radar if only a little," said Dudley.

"They're likely to have countermeasures in place," said Divina. She sighed again. "But yeah, I could. As thank you."

"Do that," said Harry. "But I want to be part secret keeper."

"That seems unfair to everyone else," she said. "And it seems like I'm siding with you. I don't want to fight, I still mean that, but I do want to help us. Knowing Hogwarts it's likely that this conversation will be known by the others in a matter of hours. I'd like to be relatively safe when that happens. Even out the playing field."

"We'll be safer at least," said Dudley. "Do it."