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What if?

Harry was asleep upstairs, and there were charms on the bed to warn them if he woke or needed anything. Ron had set them after his lover was asleep, glad that he'd started practicing the nursery spells for when Ginny became a mother, not knowing at the time that he was already an uncle. Hermione was sitting in the kitchen with every file, piece of parchment and note spread across Harry's dining room table. Ron made a pot of tea and rummaged for the biscuit tin, and together they sat down and went over the evidence from start to finish.

The phone interrupted them, and Hermione went to get the updated list of people present at the hospital while Ron snuck upstairs to cuddle with Harry. Despite the fact that his friend was exhausted and shocked by the bomb in the lobby being delivered for him personally, the doctors had been unable to persuade Harry to stay in overnight, and Ron had taken him home. He and Hermione had wrestled their resistant friend into bed, firmly quelling any offers of assistance with the investigation, and the moment his head hit the pillow Harry was asleep. He didn't wake when Ron crawled in with him, though he did roll over and snuggle close, murmuring happily when his face was buried in Ron's neck. That gave the redhead a warm glow, and he held Harry until Hermione stuck her head around the door and smiled fondly at them both. Ron climbed out reluctantly and went to do his duty. The sooner they caught this guy the sooner he and Harry could get their lives sorted.

Three hours later they sat back from the table, glaring at the pieces of paper that wouldn't cooperate.

"None of them have been at all three sites," Ron summed up. Hermione had her thinking frown on, and he tapped the table top with a finger impatiently, "In fact well over half the list have only been at the one site and that was the hospital. We know it's the same rogue, because the signature is the same. The only person who was at all three sites was Harry, and he was the focus of the attacks."

Hermione put her hand up sharply for silence and Ron quieted. When his partner frowned like that he'd found it useful to sum things up briefly, which often kicked her thought processes off and let her figure out whatever it was she thought she was missing. This was something he'd learned to do at school with Harry, and the pattern had continued in later years.

"Ron, that's it!" Hermione whispered suddenly, "I know who the rogue is!"

"Who?" Ron asked quietly, glancing at the mess on the table, "Someone we missed… not on the list?"

"Harry!" Hermione replied, and for a moment Ron thought his friend had risen without setting off the charms. The kitchen doorway was empty though and he turned back to his partner, who was staring at him intently, willing him to understand. He frowned and then shook his head, hating to quash the joy in Hermione's eyes.

"Two things. One, Harry is a Muggle, and two; his magical signature is on file. We'd have matched it to the rogue if it was him."

The soft statement did nothing to deter his partner, who shook her head and actually wriggled on her chair. He hadn't seen her do that for ten years, and the motion got his co-operation better than glares and threats would.

"Hear me out, ok?" she waited until he had nodded and took a deep breath, the old light of discovery burning in her eyes, "After Harry killed Voldemort, there were all sorts of theories and reasons why he'd become a Muggle. Old Dumbledore's was the one accepted in the end, and nearly everyone put Harry out of their minds afterwards. Dumbledore said that when Voldemort first tried to kill Harry he forged a connection between them, as the visions and parsel tongue proved. That connection was a magical one, and there wasn't enough magic to sustain both Harry and Voldemort at the same time. Because Voldemort was the one actively casting at the time, the curse backlashed on him, but the connection remained, which allowed them both to survive. As he grew up, Harry learned to use Voldemort's magic in order to become a Wizard. When Harry killed Voldemort he essentially killed him using his own source of magic, which was destroyed in the process. Without Voldemort's magic, Harry was a Muggle."

"That means Harry was a squib," the thought hit Ron out of no where and Hermione beamed at him as he once more read her mind and followed the path of her thoughts. This was why they were such a good team.

"Harry was a Squib and then the connection formed by Voldemort turned him into a Wizard. That's not right though, because Lupin clearly said at Harry's 16th birthday that he'd turned his dads hair bright green when he was one because James had stood on one of Harry's toys. A Squib couldn't do that!" Ron got up to pace, and Hermione nodded, taking up the trail once more.

"Dumbledore was wrong. Voldemort was killed by the backlash of the curse he used when Harry was sixteen months old, but because there was a connection formed by whatever it was Harry did, Voldemort didn't die. Instead he hung around for sixteen years, using Harry's magic as if it was his own," Hermione said intensely, and Ron understood the emotions behind her tone.

"So Harry's magic was only ever at half power? Hermione you know he was a strong Wizard, look at the way he managed to learn the Patronus charm in our third year. If he was only operating at half power that would mean…" Ron frowned, and Hermione nodded enthusiastically.

"We both saw first hand how difficult it was for Harry to learn some things, new and complex spells always gave him some trouble, and you know that his casting could be erratic unless he was really focussed," she waved a hand around for emphasis, "Harry's magic was split and tainted and that is why the signature we have recorded for him doesn't match our rogue."

"Because Voldemort's magical signature was overlying Harry's. Harry even told me his wand and Voldemort's shared the same core. If Voldemort was perverting Harry's natural abilities, then the wand that chose him would be reacting to that," Ron's eyes lit up, "He told me that ten years ago he'd try to cast a simple spell and nothing would happen. If the wand was really badly mismatched to him, he'd get no response."

"Plus, it's not unheard of for a Wizard to strain his abilities so badly that he becomes temporarily magic-less," Hermione added, "According to procedure, Madam Pomfrey and the other Healers would have been looking for Harry's old signature, not his new one, and with his magic depressed by the strain of ridding himself of Voldemort…"

"They'd have decided he was a Muggle," Ron nodded, "Because they'd never had to treat someone who'd just battled against his own magic."

"Now all we have to do is prove it," Hermione frowned. Ron met her eye steadily, and after a moment she got up. There was one simple spell that would prove or disprove their theory and change Harry's life forever. He followed her up the stairs to Harry's room.

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