Chapter Twenty-One

Harry threw his head back and let it hit the wall behind him. He was in the Founders' office while they were at Black Manor to meet with Sirius about something they'd claimed was urgent. He was left there in case anyone needed them. He felt vaguely like a secretary.

A knock on the door startled him and he waved his wand at it to open it. When Professor McGonagall entered the room, he straightened. He hadn't spoken to the woman yet since returning and he found himself feeling a bit sheepish.

"Mister Potter," she greeted. "Or Potter-Slytherin?"

"Whichever," he shrugged. "D'you need one of them? They're at a meeting with Sirius right now but if it's an emergency, I can-,"

"No, perhaps I can ask you," she considered. "Would you happen to know why Miss Granger is in detention with Mister Black?"

"Er, Mister Black?"

"Draco," she clarified.

"Oh," Harry shook himself before pausing. "Wait, what? Hermione got detention with Malfoy? Er- Black. Whatever. Why?"

"That is what I have come to figure out. It seems they both have detention for a full week starting tonight."

"Huh," Harry shook his head slowly. "No, I haven't seen her since the beginning of the day. None of us have. I know the Professors wanted to see her whenever we found her but that's all."

Professor McGonagall pursed her lips. "Severus did give a reason, but it seemed unlikely…"

"Snape gave the detention?" Harry frowned. "To Hermione and Draco?"

"He claims that they were mouthing off at him."

Harry took a moment to imagine the two smartest people in their year mouthing off at Snape. The mental image made him grin. "I'll let everyone know. If I find Hermione, I'll tell you what happened."

"You seem much too happy up there," she commented, eyeing him. He grinned brightly at her. "Don't forget, you are still a student."

"Oh, I haven't," he assured her. "I'll be in class on time."

"Mm."

Harry watched her leave and managed to withhold his laughter until she shut the door behind her. She'd never really listened to him about anything important before and he admitted to himself that he liked that she was unable to dismiss him.

"What are you smirking about?"

Harry leaned far back in his chair until he was looking upside-down at Phineas Black's portrait. "Your entire family were Slytherins, right?"

"Until your godfather, that is correct."

"Turns out you're just awful bigots that never deserved to be in Slytherin."

Phineas grinned at him. "I thought the very same, Potter. That's why I was disowned."

"You know, the people in your family that have been disowned keep ending up as my favorite parts of your family."

"I believe I quite agree."

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"What would you like to do with your DA?" Salazar asked. Harry groaned and ducked the attack from Godric, sparing a glance at his father.

"Keep it," he managed to call out, coughing when Godric managed to hit his stomach. "Shit, that hurt."

"Cursing does not make you a better fighter," Godric told him with a wink.

"Maybe, but it feels pretty good when my own uncle punches me," he shot back. He waved his hand and managed to hit Godric with Melofors. A pumpkin encased his head and Harry took the time to disarm and stun the man. "Thank Merlin."

"Why are you keeping your DA? We can teach the school."

"Sure, but they don't trust you like we do," Harry pointed out, cancelling the spells on his uncle. "I think they might need that sort of group again. With the adults we've had in our lives, the constantly changing staff, they trusted us to have their backs and teach them when our professor didn't. Even if that's not how it goes, I wanna make sure they have somewhere to go that they trust until they understand that you guys care. Maybe not named after Dumbledore this time. Hermione can come up with a new name."

"If we ever see her again," Godric muttered, wiping the pumpkin guts off his face. "It's been three days."

"It's like she's not even here. I don't get it."

"Something is wrong," Salazar told them both. "I am unsure what."

"She's never avoided us like this before," Harry admitted, frowning to himself. "For a few hours while she's annoyed maybe, but not for days."

"Ask Hogwarts to help you," Godric suggested. "And if you find her, bring her here."

Harry nodded and closed his eyes to focus.

Do you think you can help me find Hermione?

She is in my Room.

Harry's eyes shot open in shock. "How the hell did I miss…" he shook himself off and got to his feet, rushing from the room. He didn't catch the glance the two men shared as he made his way out. The Room was two floors up from their office, so it only took him five minutes to get there. The door was closed, but it was there. He opened it and stepped inside cautiously.

The Room was a giant library all around with multiple comfortable seating areas scattered about the place. She wasn't in sight, so Harry stepped deeper into the room and began searching. He stopped only when he heard voices.

"-not possible," Hermione was saying with a small laugh. "You can't trick a boggart no matter how hard you try. Were you even paying attention in third year?"

"I knew plenty about boggarts before third year, thank you very much," someone else sniffled. "I'm just saying, it could work… in theory."

"In theory," Hermione repeated, giggling. "Go ahead and try it, Malfoy."

"Stop calling me that," Draco growled. Harry covered his mouth with his hand to keep from gasping.

"Then stop calling me Granger," she shot back. "Just give me the stupid book. I'll handle it."

"Fine, Black," he muttered. There was a bit of shuffling in which Harry imagined he handed over the book and then they fell into silence. Harry blinked at himself. He knew that they were friendly with Draco, that they'd be seeing a lot more of him, but she was actively avoiding them to spend time with him.

Why?

He backed out of the room slowly and quietly and turned to run back to the office. He wasn't sure what he'd just witnessed but it made him uncomfortable and he felt the need to figure it out before he asked her about it.

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"How are the re-sortings going?" Helga asked as she fell into step with Salazar and Godric. Rowena was busy trying to handle her estate, which had been left a slight mess when Helena had died so suddenly. Helga had been interviewing assistant mediwitches for Madame Pomfrey as the hospital wing was clearly understaffed. That had left the two men to handle the start of the re-sorting.

"Fine," Godric said slowly. "About half of them have been moved so far. We are allowing them to stay in their current dorms for the rest of the year to keep everyone calm. There are only a few days left, after all."

"And how do they seem to feel about us?" she wondered curiously. She hadn't had much time to interact with too many students herself yet.

"It varies," Godric answered her slowly. "Mostly they regard us with awe."

"It is confusion for me," Salazar disagreed. "They do not yet seem to know what to make of me."

"I'm sure Harry will help with that," Helga assured him. "From what you've said, Harry is somewhat famous here."

"And with his temper, what would you bet he will get into a fight when someone insults you?" Godric grinned, earning himself a glare from Salazar and a stern frown from Helga.

"Where have the current Slytherins been going?" she wondered.

"It is actually fairly even," Salazar admitted. "They are being spread out through all of the Houses. Only some have stayed."

"And have you Sorted Harry, Ron, or Hermione yet?"

Salazar exchanged a glance with Godric. "Harry and Ron, yes. Harry is in Slytherin, Ron has moved to Ravenclaw."

Helga looked disappointed. "She is still avoiding us?"

"It seems so."

"What does Harry think?"

"He has completely avoided the topic," Salazar frowned. "I think this may have something to do with the curse. We do not know how it may be influencing her."

"It should not be settled for another fortnight," Godric shook his head in confusion. "He should not have such a grip on her yet. Do you think it is worse than we assumed?"

"You saw it," Salazar pointed out. "You tell us."

Godric thought back to the vision he'd seen. "It was extremely powerful. He had some horrible things in mind, that was clear. If he were determined, I imagine he might be able to hurry the curse along."

"We have to start working," Helga muttered, her brow furrowed in concern. "As soon as school is out."

"I agree," Salazar nodded. "We will use Rowena's library. Perhaps Sirius will allow us into the Black library as well."

The three turned the corner just in time to catch sight of Hermione's hair sparking as she glared at Draco, her arms crossed in front of her.

"I told you not to tell anyone!" she snapped, though she didn't raise her voice. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Calm down, Granger," he glared back at her. "His father is a curse breaker, a master curse breaker. If anyone can invent something to cure the damn curse, it's him."

"Sure, Lord Nott is going to do me a favor," she scoffed. "I'm a mudblood, Draco."

"Hermione," he hissed, flinching slightly at the word. "I'm not talking about Lord Nott, for Merlin's sake. I'm talking about Theo. He's been taught by his father since he was three."

"You shouldn't have told him," she said, her voice low. "Sirius only knows because I didn't know. You know because you pushed too bloody hard. If it were my choice, I'd keep this to myself."

"And then you'd be taken to Dolohov," he reminded her. She tensed at the reminder and he ran his fingers through his hair. "It's true, Granger. You need help."

"And that help should have come in the form of you and Sirius," she reminded him. "I don't want anyone else to look at me like I'm about to explode, Draco."

"I don't look at you like that," Draco scoffed, somewhat offended. "Sirius?"

She paused. "No. He just looks at me like he's terrified. I don't know what Dolohov has done that's so bad-,"

"You don't want to," Draco assured her. "But you'll find out if he ever uses that bond to get his hands on you, Granger. So just let Theo help you. His library on curses is bigger than ours."

"Fine," she dropped her arms to her side. "But if you tell anyone else, I'll Obliviate you and them."

Draco rolled his eyes as she stomped down the hall. When he turned to walk the other way, he caught sight of the three Founders staring at him with grim looks on their faces and froze. "Oh, for Merlin's sake. She's going to Obliviate me."

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Harry tapped his foot nervously and stared at the group in front of him. The DA had gathered once more, this time without Hermione and Draco but with Theo and Blaise and the addition of Daphne and Astoria Greengrass. "Hey. So I talked with my father and we agreed to keep the DA. We're, er, gonna change the name to Defense Association."

"Why?" Neville wondered curiously. Ron made a face.

"Dumbledore's an arse."

"In short, Dumbledore is an arse," Harry agreed. "Basically, he's had a lot of control over my life. He knew that Voldemort did something to me that meant I'd have to die before Voldemort could be killed, so he left me with my muggle family so that I'd be willing to die. It was only a guess until the Professors confronted Dumbledore and he confirmed that he'd been waiting for me to die."

"Shit," Ginny cursed loudly. "Fuck Dumbledore."

"Exactly," Harry laughed a little. "So we're the Defense Association now. We'll start back up again next year and meet twice a week, Monday and Thursday, and we'll start working on everything the Founders taught us. Oh! They're also going to come to meetings every once in a while and help out."

"This is so cool," Dean grinned at him. "Any clue what changes they're making?"

"Yeah," Harry shrugged. "They're going to add mandatory classes and get rid of Divination unless you're a Seer like-,"

"Like Luna," Ron cut in, shooting him a look. "And Professor Gryffindor."

"Er, yeah. Them. I also told Uncle Godric about Binns, so they're gonna get rid of him and update history of magic so that it's… the actual history of magic and not just a history of reasons not to fuck with goblins."

"How else will we know to be afraid of goblins?" Seamus laughed. Harry rolled his eyes despite his smile.

"Who's gonna teach us?" Cho wondered. Harry eyed the girl he'd had a crush on before leaving and offered her a small smile.

"Me, Ron, Hermione, and the Founders."

"Where is Hermione?" Ginny asked him with a small, concerned frown. "I've barely seen her lately."

"We… er, we don't really know," Ron admitted with a wince. "She's around here somewhere."

"Any other questions?"

"Yeah," Terry Boot spoke up from the back. "Why are we all moving Houses?"

Harry made a face. "Look, that wasn't my decision, but… the Sorting Hat was tampered with like two hundred years ago and ever since then, Slytherin has been filled with more dark wizards and witches and less cunning wizards and witches. Athair reset the spells on the Hat after… er, arguing with it, and now it's more accurate and less invasive. They just want to make sure that everyone has the chance to be in the correct House. I'm in Slytherin now anyway. I got Sorted there back in their time."

"You're a Slytherin?" Parvati asked him with slight horror tinging her voice. He rolled his eyes at her.

"Slytherin literally adopted me, Parvati. Is it really that ridiculous to think that maybe I learned something from him?"

"How long were you guys there?" Lavender asked him curiously before her best friend could reply. Harry and Ron exchanged a glance.

"Uh, nine months? Maybe?" Ron blinked. "Or like ten?"

"Well, we had an entire school year," Harry pointed out. "So that's nine months and then add the month we were there before that, so yeah, ten months."

"Merlin, you were there for almost a year," Michael Corner shook his head. "That's incredible. It took you ten months to figure out how to get back?"

"Er, not exactly," Harry said slowly. "There were a few… other issues that distracted us. Plus, they were all teaching, so they didn't have time to exclusively look for a way to take us home."

"Issues," Ginny repeated with a sigh. "You got into trouble, didn't you?"

"It's not our fault," Ron defended. "We literally did nothing!"

"You're sure that wasn't the problem."

"It wasn't our fault," Harry said firmly. "There were just some… Territory disputes that turned a bit violent."

Ron paused, his brow furrowing. "Harry, we're in our time again."

"Yeah, Ron, I know."

"We're here, Harry," he repeated, trying to get his point through without saying it. When Harry just stared at him dumbly, he threw his hands up. "What's to stop Professor Slytherin from going after them now?"

"Oh, shit," Harry cursed loudly. "Well… he hasn't yet. If he were going to, he'd have done it already, wouldn't he?"

"He's your father. What do you think?"

"...that he's too busy to do it right now but he'll do it when he has time."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Seamus asked. "Is Slytherin going to hurt someone?"

"Ah, someone killed Harry," Ron said offhandedly. "Professor Slytherin wanted to kill them for it but they're still around now, so we couldn't let him."

"Ron, the only people that can live so long are centaurs," Neville told him. Ron nodded along.

"Yeah, Magorian killed Harry."

"Well, technically, he didn't," Harry cut in. "Technically he tried and I drained my core to send him back to the forest and tie him there. I was the one that killed me. Technically."

"Harry, that's not possible," Cho shook her head, frowning at him. "You're not dead."

"Well, I was dead and then my parents told me to come back, so I did."

"Your parents are dead," Dean reminded him. Harry stared at him for a long minute. "Oh, right. You were dead, too."

"If we're done discussing that," Harry spoke up. "We're not going to meet again for the rest of the year but we'll meet the first Monday of the new school year."

With that, the meeting dwindled to an end and people began to slowly make their way out of the room. Harry and Ron sighed when everyone but Neville, Luna, and Ginny had left, grateful to finally relax.

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