7-Quirrell

They had no idea if Dumbledore sensed the change in the wards and nothing out of order happened during the rest of that week, concerning the headmaster.

The next Monday, they had their regular lessons, one of them being DADA. They were taught a simple leg-locker jinx and were then ordered to practice it on some dummies. Quirrell moved among the students, trying to correct wand movements (at which he was somewhat helpful) and pronunciation (at which he was of no use with his constant stuttering).

Harry used this practice to cast the binding spell which would prevent Voldemort from leaving Quirrell's body. With everybody shouting the jinx, his whispered spell was practically inaudible. He cast it at Quirrell, who was watching Neville at that moment and then shouted the jinx, like everybody else. Quirrell probably sensed being hit by the spell, since he suddenly looked around, as if trying to find who cast it, but since he was not affected in any discernible way, he just shrugged it off as a very feeble misfired spell.

With Voldemort's soul bound to its carrier, Harry knew that it would not be able to escape, once Quirrell was destroyed, something that was sure to happen as soon as he touched Harry. With that reassurance, he could take his time destroying the Horcruxes.

He wasn't so sure about what to do next. That evening, when spending time with Hermione in the library, he consulted with her. "I was thinking that maybe we shouldn't give Quirrell a chance to escape. I mean, if he goes out and then can't come back, he'll know that something was wrong. Maybe I should do something before he gets a chance?"

Hermione had no doubts about it. "We can do something about him. How about… I may run into him in a corridor, making him fall, and you give him a hand to help him get up. Once he touches you, he'll start burning, as we know from our future selves. They'll probably take him to St. Mungos, where he'll be under surveillance. When they find he's possessed, the DOM may also get interested."

They made that into a plan. They stopped on their way to dinner, not too far from the door to the Great Hall, in the direction from where Quirrell was expected to come. They didn't need to wait for long. Soon after he passed their hiding place, Hermione started running, as if to catch someone, bumping heavily into Quirrell, also making sure to trip him down. She started apologizing immediately. Harry, who followed only a few paces back, offered his hand to the fallen professor. "Here, I'll help you up," he said.

Quirrell didn't hesitate. He grabbed Harry's hand fully and yanked himself to his feet before he even felt the effect of Harry's blood protection. He then looked at his hand with disbelief, seeing it crumbling into ashes. Harry tried to seem helpful. "Maybe Madam Pomfrey can help you? She's done wonders for me whenever I was injured. Should I accompany you to the infirmary?"

Quirrell dismissed him with a wave of his intact hand and started running to the hospital wing. Harry did not doubt that he would be sent to St. Mungos after a short while.

Both children did their best to seem as surprised as the others about what was going on. Luckily, not too many witnessed the event and it didn't seem too extraordinary in a school of magic, so whatever rumours were started died soon enough.

Well, not quite died. The next morning, as soon as most students were sitting for breakfast, the headmaster had an announcement: "Professor Quirrell was involved in a potion accident and is now being treated at St. Mungos. Therefore, all defence lessons are cancelled until further notice." Hearing the loud whispers and some cheering, he added, "You should spend this time studying from your books until the professor recuperates or another replaces him."

Nobody seemed to mind the last sentence. Like pupils all over the world, they considered a free period a treat, not to be wasted on studies. That means, only Hermione and a handful of Ravenclaws even considered studying at these times.

Harry wasn't surprised when he was summoned to the headmaster again that evening. Harry felt bad for not having his Occlumency ready yet, but exposing Quirrell was more important than strengthening his mind shields. Although he highly disliked Dumbledore's manipulations and secrecy, he still considered him one of the "good guys".

After the usual pleasantries, Dumbledore reached the point. "Professor Quirrell seems to suffer from some unidentified curse or potion. His hand, and then his arm, seemed to be burning from inside, turning into ash so quickly that they had to amputate his arm before whatever this is spread to the rest of the body. Do you know what happened?"

Harry kept his eyes on the desk, as if uncomfortable with what he'd been told, not letting Dumbledore peek into his eyes. "Well, it all started when Hermione ran forward, trying to catch somebody. I'm not even sure who it was. When running, she bumped into the professor and both fell. I gave my hand to the professor to help him up. After he was standing, his hand seemed to burn and I suggested accompanying him to see Madam Pomfrey. He declined my offer and went there alone. That's all I know."

Dumbledore looked suspicious. "Didn't you have a potion or something else in your hand?"

Harry shook his hand vigorously. "I had just washed my hands on my way, so they would be clean for the meal."

Dumbledore seemed to accept his answer. After all, a first-year student would not be knowledgeable enough to use such highly complex and dangerous stuff without leaving any sign. That also dismissed the idea of a curse. Besides, no wand was visible during the incident. Harry had made sure to stow his wand in his bag and Hermione had done the same before the incident.

Harry hoped that Dumbledore would reach the idea that it was his mother's protection that caused it, but that would probably not happen before Voldemort was found peeking from Quirrell's backside. Dumbledore looked pensive for a long moment. He then seemed to reach a decision. "May I cast a few diagnostic charms on you? I have a certain suspicion that what happened may be connected with the night you've got your scar, although it's already healed."

Harry went on alert immediately, but nodded his assent. Dumbledore stood up from his chair and came to Harry's side, also motioning the boy to stand up. He cast several spells on the boy, watching the various glows and foggy forms that resulted with great interest. He then sighed and moved back to his seat, motioning Harry to sit back.

Harry still refrained from looking straight into Dumbledore's eyes. In a small voice, he asked, "Have you found anything?"

Dumbledore sighed again. "I'm not completely sure, but as far as I could find, you're still carrying a kind of magical protection that was given to you by your parents. That's probably what saved you that Halloween. It is probably also what caused Quirrell's problem. The protection identified him as an enemy and reacted to eliminate the threat. I still don't know why this happened."

Having spent quite some time with the headmaster in his older self, Harry had become quite an expert in reading the headmaster's body language. The last sentence was clearly a lie, but one that Harry considered a white one. Since he was still only eleven, he wasn't supposed to know about possessions nor about the Dark Lord seeking to kill him. At least not more than he already knew. Harry could excuse the headmaster for this white lie.

\/\/\/

"We should really start strengthening our Occlumency," he told Hermione when he came back to the dorms. "It may become too obvious if I never look at his face during a conversation."

Hermione smiled. "Alright. We may start by doing some meditation each evening when going to bed. Achieving internal peace is the first step to successful Occlumency, as our future selves learned. I've already written to the book store, asking for a list of appropriate books for the subject."

Harry did as she suggested. He was surprised to find that his meditation went quite well, much better than ever. Thinking of it, he concluded that ridding himself of the Horcrux along with the various binds may have improved his concentration, among other things, and that was a crucial part in meditating and then in occluding one's mind. He made a mental note to himself to thank Hermione again for her excellent work.

\/\/\/

The weekend brought another pleasant surprise. Before they even finished breakfast, a tall handsome man strode into the Great Hall, walking to the Gryffindor table. It only took one glance for both children to recognize him, and both needed all their determination to not show Sirius any enthusiasm nor to seem like they had already met him.

Sirius stopped in front of Harry, looking both excited and apprehensive. "Harry, I promised I'll come and visit as soon as I can. Is this a good time for us to get to know each other?"

Harry smiled at him. "I'm glad you came. We have no homework to do, so we can spend the whole day with you."

Sirius looked surprised. "We?"

Harry smiled sheepishly. "Well, my good friend Hermione would also like to get to know you."

This brought a smile to Sirius's face. "Is she just your good friend or..." he asked suggestively.

Harry stopped him in mid-sentence. "I'm only eleven, Sirius. Take your mind out of the gutters!"

Sirius sobered quickly. "Excuse me, both of you. It's very difficult to resume normal life after spending ten years in that awful place. Besides, when I look at you, Harry, I'm strongly reminded of your father, James, at that age. It may take some time before I can assimilate the differences."

They spent most of that day with Sirius. Ron also joined them for a while, but since most of the talking was about Harry's parents, he lost interest quite quickly. At least he had the decency to excuse himself before leaving. None of the others missed his presence.

Harry then moved the conversation to Sirius. "Where are you staying now?"

Sirius shrugged. "I'm staying at the Leaky Cauldron, although I spend most of my time with the healers. They've already managed to put my body back in order, although I still need to gain some flesh, but being exposed to Dementors for so long took its toll on my mind too. Fully healing it may take much longer, but they say I'm quite fit to go in public, as long as I continue my regular treatments."

"Don't you want to go back to your childhood home? If I heard correctly, nobody lives there now," Harry asked.

Sirius grimaced. "I don't have any good memories of that place. I'd rather burn it, actually, only it's too well warded to allow me to do that."

"Why don't you try to renovate it?" Hermione asked. "You may scan it for any dark artefacts before doing anything else and cleanse it of any dark magic if you suspect anything. Then you may be able to change all the aspects of that place, leaving only the basic structure intact. It's in central London, isn't it? Why give up such a desirable location if you can change the house?"

Sirius smiled hesitantly. "There's so much dark magic in there, that it may take a lifetime to cleanse it, but I promise to take a look at that place and see what can be done."

"Sirius, I've heard that the Goblins have really good curse breakers. They may be able to cleanse most of the stuff you find, so you may retain its intrinsic value, at least. I mean, if you find a cursed necklace, they can remove the curse and you still have a valuable necklace. Actually, Hermione and I found a method to move any spell from a valuable object to something else. We can help you move whatever curses there are to some cloth or paper bags, and then you can get rid of them by burning the bags in a very hot furnace."

Sirius frowned in disbelief. "Are you sure about that? Did you try it?"

Harry lifted his bangs, showing his clear forehead. If one looked closely, one could still see a fading lightening shaped discolouration where his scar used to be. "Nobody knew how to heal my scar. Hermione cast that spell on it and moved the dark magic in it to a bandage, which we burned. Now it's almost fully healed. Even this faint sign is sure to disappear in a few more weeks, I'm sure."

This made Sirius smile. "I'm glad you no longer have that scar. It could deter from your attractiveness when you get a bit older." Hermione frowned at that, and Sirius noticed, hastily adding, "Not that it seems to count now, as you two seem to make a nice couple." Both children blushed but didn't comment.

Sirius gave it some more thought. "I'm not sure I'm ready to set foot in that house right now, but I may be ready soon. I'll have the house properly cleaned and I'll do an initial scan, so that I can have you visit during the Easter break. I'm really intrigued to see how you do that cleansing stuff."