3rd May 1977
I've lost it, I know I've lost it. I realised today that I have naturalised, and I've picked up the institutional stupidity that I've been deriding through my schooling. Oh, retrospect is still fine, though I can't promise that I'll still be like this in 5-10 years' time. But at the moment I can still recognise that today I gave absolutely no thought to how monumentally dangerous the artefact we were looking at actually is, or how it's just kept in a store room with other equally dangerous artifacts. The soul defences between these artefacts and the wider school population, secrecy and a locked door. No wards, alerts, password, portrait, or even a physical marker to show that someone has been in unauthorised.
What is so dangerous you ask? We were investigating the rune work on the Mirror of Erised as part of our NEWT runes class. It's an artefact that has a mild compulsion to look at it, coupled with an illusion that makes the viewer see something that they deeply desire. The longer they look at it the more detailed the illusion becomes, and thus the more compelling the image. Our professor summed up just how dangerous it is with one sentence, "Many a witch and wizard has wasted away in front of this mirror pining for the unattainable desires that it shows.". All I could think of at the time was "This is really good rune work, I wonder how they did x.".
I think I know where this mindset comes from, it's the fact that if it's not instantly fatal or in some way cursed, there's nothing we come across in day to day life that can't be fixed by an overnight stay in the hospital wing at worst. Lost your leg, no worries we'll have you a new one grown while you sleep. Blinded by a potions blowback? You'll have a new set of eyes by tomorrow evening. It's only spells like that one that Snape designed last year that even come close to causing problems, of if too much time passes between injury and treatment. Madam Pomfrey said something about how the body reflects the soul which reflects the body when I asked her while visiting James earlier in the year. I can't say I really understand what she meant, but I assume that it's something that would be covered in depth if I took up healing as a career.
This has been a longer entry than normal, and so I need to head to bed.
It took Albus a frustrating week to arrange a meeting where both he and Petunia didn't have prior commitments for a few hours, but eventually he had the two of them sat in front of him in his domain. He quickly looked at Harry's scar to ensure that legimancy was still working on it, which it was before he began.
"Petunia, thank you for coming, sorry that we couldn't arrange this sooner."
"Thank you headmaster."
"Before we begin, would you mind assuaging an old man's curiosity?"
"Not really." She responded, letting a little of her old self out in her voice.
"Very well. I'll get right to the meat of the matter then. Since I left Harry in your capable hands I have been working on a way to remove the tainted magic from his."
"Her." Petunia interrupts.
"Excuse me?"
"She is sitting right next to me, and is clearly a girl, so the correct pronoun is Her."
"Sorry, her scar. Earlier this year I had a break through, and found an obscure reference to a ritual that would allow me to move it to something else. I can't promise that it would be painless, but it shouldn't cause him any lasting."
"Her"
"Her any lasting harm. Indeed it may well be that he notices an improvement in cognitive abilities and suffers less pain.", he was pleased to see that Harry flowed back into his proper form.
"And how soon do you think you could do this?"
"Pending any emergencies, I could do it this weekend."
"Harry, what do you think? Let the headmaster do the ritual or ask St Mungo's or the goblins if they could do it for us?"
"I don't know m Aunt Petunia."
"Of course, once I've verified that it has been removed correctly, I'll have no further objections to a mind healer visiting on a weekly basis."
Petunia looked sharply at Harry and raised an eyebrow, to which Harry nodded.
"Very well, I'm willing to let you do this, but I'd like Healer Gosling present to monitor Harry's health in case something goes wrong."
"I'm sure that can be arranged, though you'll need to arrange to pay for her time."
Petunia glanced at Harry again, concern flickering across her face, "We can do that."
"Then it's agreed, will you be ok with doing it this weekend?"
She glances at harry who gives a small nod, "Pending Healer Goslings availability, we should be able to do so."
"Then I'll move onto the other reason I had to see Harry. His invisibility cloak." He takes the cloak out of the drawer and puts it on his desk.
Looking upset Harry opens his mouth and closes it again when Petunia gently puts her hand on his leg.
"May I ask why you did not inform me during our Floo calls that you were holding onto a Potter Family heirloom?" Petunia sits up straighter and her voice takes on a more formal tone.
"It was found at the top of the Astronomy tower, where we believe it was used by a couple of students out of hours."
"That doesn't explain why you failed to inform Mr Potter's magical guardian that you had possession of a family heirloom, or do the school rules not apply to Mr Potter?"
"I must confess Madam, that I am not aware of which rules you are talking about."
Petunia pulls out a folder of paper, each page embossed with a paper stamp, before flicking through.
"Here we go, 'Where a known family heirloom comes into the possession of the staff, they will ensure that it is returned to the current head of house, the Regent, or the current legal guardian of the child who owns the item. Along with this they will provide an explanation of how it came into their possession so that punishment can be meted out if it is deemed necessary.'"
"Madam, what document is it that you are referring to?"
"This is a certified copy of the Hogwarts charter, copied from one that the Grangers found in a secondhand bookshop. It only cost a sickle to have the goblins certify it."
Albus remembered something about a copy of the charter having being found, but for the life of him he couldn't remember when.
"Is there any reason why we don't have a copy?"
"I believe the Deputy Headmistress does, and there's also one copy in each house. None of which are certified though."
"Very, well, I'll leave this in your care then." He hands the cloak over to Petunia.
"Thank you, if there's nothing else I'll escort Harry to the entrance hall, and see myself out."
"No that's all".
As they left he slumped back in his chair, why did they have to bring up the rules? He had the original copy in his chambers along with the student copy that should be in the Library. He also distinctly remembered misfiling the Ministry copy back in the 50's when he'd first become headmaster. He put his head in his hands as he realised just where the extra paperwork had come from, if Minerva has a copy of the rules.
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Once they got past the Gargoyle Petunia swept Harry into a hug.
"Oh my dear heart, I'm sorry that you had to go through that. He had no right to keep referring to you as something you weren't at the time."
Harry melted into her female form and started crying in the hug as the tension she'd felt started to let go.
After a moment Petunia pulled away slightly, "Harry, would you mind showing me to the McGonagall's office, as I need to arrange for Dudley to attend next year, he and Ginny have been doing really well, and so I'm going to try and take him in far enough to allow him to use a wand without being dangerous." Harry nodded and dried her eyes with a hankie before leading her through the school.
"I've managed a few layers. How about you guys?"
"We keep falling asleep because we're still practicing with the others, and then need to go to bed to keep up appearances."
"Depending on how they're doing, why not broach the subject of all of you trying it together in September?"
"That could work, and it would mean that everyone has something to work towards."
"What I will say is that the first few times you try to go deeper, you need to go as slowly as possible as it's surprisingly hard to maintain control until you get used to it.
"How are you doing?"
"I don't know. The news that Dudley's going to be coming next year is throwing me a little, as I'm not sure I can forget what he was like before. I still get the same thing with you mum, but it's different because you're different from then. He was still the same when I saw him over Christmas."
"I don't expect you do, but I hope that you'll be able to give him a fair chance over summer."
"I'll try mum, I'll try."
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Sunday found Albus standing at the edge of a ritual circle, a stunned rabbit on table next to him along with a silver potions knife, bowl and brush.
"As one of only a few qualified ritual masters in the country, I feel that I should inform you of what we will be doing in this ritual.
"The ritual itself is fairly simple, and requires a few runes to be drawn on your head and shoulders Harry. Once that's done you will need to lay in the centre of this circle and with your head in the larger of the two inner circles. I will then put the receptacle into the smaller of the two circles. Once that is done I will draw some runes between those circles and step out. When I finish drawing those runes you'll be immobilised until the ritual completes. Once outside I will pour a little magic into the circle to activate it while chanting a short phrase in Ancient Egyptian. Once I do this, the curse fragment will be drawn out of your scar into the new receptacle. You'll know when it's finished as the runes that I painted on you will evaporate and you'll be able to move again.
"The runes themselves are there to anchor the bits that I don't want to be transferred to the receptacle, and require a post newt study of Egyptian runes to understand. However, before we get started we need you to strip and put on a linen loin cloth behind the screen over there. We, that is Healer Gosling and I, will then purge your body of any magic that isn't specifically anchored to you, as such magic can interfere with rituals with unintended consequences. Traditionally this would have been accompanied with a ritual bath, but as we don't need to worry about woad or other painted magics we will be skipping that step. The last thing for the spectators, the runes need to be drawn in the life blood of a sacrifice. This is why the rabbit is here. Is everyone ready?"
After a round of assent, they began. The ritual itself went off without a hitch, and he had the curse fragment in a small gold mirror, He then checked to ensure that Legimancy worked on it. Before addressing the room.
"I think that went well, from my studies I'm going to need to use Fiendfyre to destroy this as the magic inside it will resist everything else that I know about and am willing to use. So if you'll forgive me I'll leave Harry in your tender care Healer Gosling and deal with this item."
With that Albus leaves and heads up to his office, after seeing Fawkes reaction to the mirror he places it in his bedroom, along with a notebook and dictaquill.
