AN: As should be clear from the chapter title. This chapter started as just the end of the last one, but quickly grew to be too large. This ended up happening twice in a row now, and has thrown off my schedule a little. In any case, enjoy.

AN*: Between these chapters getting separated, and work picking up for the fall (the only time of I have a lot to do mid-week) my writing has slowed. I won't start delaying chapters until I have no more to post (another three weeks if I finish no more chapters in that time), but if that happens I will back down to a post every couple weeks to give me time to write around Real Life problems. Do not let this cause you to think I may abandon or leave the story, if it seems like I'm falling way behind I'll cut down on Dungeons and Dragons.

… and Blood Wards

"So you still have no idea why this meeting is taking place?" Professor Mcgonagall asked Harry as they made their way to the gargoyle that protected the headmaster's office.

"No ma'am," Harry answered, "after she ran those tests on me and Najash last weekend Madame Pomfrey said that I absolutely had to. But she couldn't tell me why. She said she wanted a second opinion, and his was the best. Do you think she found out I can Speak and freaked out or something?"

Mcgonagall pursed her lips in thought, "No, Poppy is more professional than that. May I ask though, why do you call… 'it' like that?"

"Huh?" Harry asked, momentarily confused, "Oh, Speaking?" he glanced around to make sure they were alone, "That's what snakes call it. Snakes don't have ears so they can't hear like we do, they mostly feel vibrations in the ground instead. People who aren't parseltongue are basically 'mute' to them unless they're shouting, and that doesn't make any sense to them. So, those of us they can talk to, they call 'Speakers'."

"That's rather interesting." Professor Mcgonagall returned, "I didn't know that about snakes and ears, but it explains why parseltongue is traditionally understood to be unteachable. It wouldn't matter if you can imitate the sounds, if snakes can't hear them without the natural magic of the parselmouth."

"Yeah, Hermione and I tried back in the spring. Najash laughed at her when she tried to Speak because he thought she was making faces at him. She can't hear all the sounds either, so I think part of the magic is in my ears too."

Madame Pomfrey was waiting for them beside the gargoyle, and the three ascended together. When they entered the headmaster's office he was standing in the corner talking to his phoenix, and turned as they entered to greet them.

"Now that we're all here, can someone please explain to Mister Potter and I what is going on?" Mcgonagall began.

"Yes," Madame Pomfrey answered, "I've shown Albus, with Mister Potter's permission, the results of my diagnostics on both his familiar and himself. All aspects of the familiar bond appear to have been properly executed, with no apparent future risk to either bondmate."

"So we're both fine?" Harry confirmed, "Then why did we need to get anyone else involved?"

"Because," Pomfrey continued, "when I examined the size of your familiar's magical core I was astounded. I measured it three times before trusting my own work; and once I did, I had to check you just to try and understand how you can still have so much magical strength. I expected to find that you have a significant hole in your magic, so to speak. Instead, you have more power than the average person your age, Mister Potter. From what I can tell from examining you, your magic is about at the level of someone one or two years older than yourself. This very high baseline is likely the only reason you aren't a squib, considering the age you were when this happened."

"As far as we can tell in charms class, Dudley and I have the most magic of anyone in our year." Harry returned.

"Yes well," Madame Pomfrey huffed, "the familiar ritual permanently takes a small part of your magic, but during the bonding much, much more magic than that is used. If a witch or wizard doesn't have enough magic to fuel the ritual it cannot be stopped, and they generally become either squibs, or near-squibs, assuming they don't die."

"The reason that I am being involved despite none of that being a worry, in case you were wondering," The headmaster interjected, "is because that large of a magical core will result in rather more significant growth in your familiar than we had originally suspected."

"I kinda figured that." Harry said worriedly, pointedly ignoring the comments about how dangerous could have been for his magic, "He's shed twice since we got to Hogwarts and grown a half inch already."

"Yes, well. His magical core is roughly equivalent in size to that of a lesser magical creature." Dumbledore explained, "Once she verified that you had not harmed yourself in forming the bond Madame Pomfrey wanted my opinion on whether, Najash was it? Whether Najash would potentially grow in size to become dangerous or at least alarming to the other students."

Harry's face turned white as a sheet.

"While I am inclined to think that is definitely possible," The headmaster continued, "I would like to offer an early solution to said problem." Harry and Mcgonagall both nodded for him to continue, "I would like to give you some tutelage on a specific, rather advanced, animal transfiguration. Hopefully by Easter at the latest, but likely closer to Christmas based on what I've heard of your abilities, you should be able to mask your serpent's true size. Normally this could be dangerous to a pet, but your magic will instinctively fight to not hurt your familiar, so injury is much less likely."

"What do you mean, sir?" Harry asked.

"If you were to cast a spell such as a cutting charm directly at him, you would likely find you magic not responding to you in much the same way that it is exceeding difficult to intentionally harm yourself with your own magic." Dumbledore said, "But that's not what we are going to be doing. I wish to work with you on a variant of the shrinking charm, one that will make Najash smaller and last a rather long time."

Harry looked up at Professor Mcgonagall, who was eyeing the headmaster rather frostily.

"I am the transfiguration professor, why do you think I could not teach him?" She asked.

"Do you have time on top of your other duties?" The headmaster asked kindly, "I spent the last three days researching this spell, and it is rather complicated, but if you want to teach him you absolutely may."

"May I see it?" Mcgonagall asked, taking the opened book when offered. The spell was complicated, overly so for something that amounted to a pranking spell. But it would do what the headmaster said it would, and should last at least three days if not cancelled. Cancellation was obviously why this particular spell was chosen over a simpler shrinking charm, traditional counterspells wouldn't do anything unless cast by the original caster. Otherwise it required a specific spell to undo the effect.

"I will look at my schedule and see if I can fit in time to tutor Mister Potter on this." She said at length, "If it seems that I won't have time, I will write to Ms. Acacia and see if we can arrive at a solution. Will that work for you, Mister Potter?"

"Yes ma'am," Harry responded, "I've been worried about the growing thing since Professor Snape mentioned it. If he grows an inch a month then he'll be a meter long when we go home in the summer. My aunt would freak out if that happened, and I really don't want to have to leave him at one of my parents' properties because he gets too big."

Albus was shocked at that. They'd accessed the Potter estates? Perhaps he could pull the records the next time he left for a meeting of the Wizengamot and find out who the new steward was. At least Amos was still sitting the Potter seat in proxy, though Albus would need to arrange for the steward, whoever it was, to meet with him soon.

"Regardless of who teaches him," He finally said, "Mister Potter will first need tutelage on how to recognize and feel the bond he has with his familiar. As I am the only staff member in the school who actually has a bonded familiar, that will have to be given by myself. This will also help him since he will have to learn to cast it wandlessly if he wants to maintain the spell out of school. Though you are obviously invited to sit in on those sessions, should Mister Potter agree to them."

"I want to ask Ms. Acacia about it." Harry said after a moment and another look to Mcgonagall, "But I think she'll say yes when I tell her about Najash."

"Well then," The headmaster said, clapping his hands, "lunch is well underway by this point, why don't you go down, join your friends, and grab a bite before your afternoon classes."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Come in, Mister Weasley." Snape said after Ron had knocked on the door.

"I'm here for my detention, sir." Ron said meekly as he entered.

"Anything you want to say, Weasley?" Snape hissed, "I told you on the very first night that Slytherins were to always show a united front in public. You are one of us now."

Ron grimaced, "You should have made sure Malfoy and Nott knew that. Between them being gits, and my father apparently opposing some of the other's parents in politics, no one in the Slytherin even tries to treat me like 'one of them'. I've been pranked and hexed more by my own housemates than I have by my brothers."

"Sounds like you have simply done a poor job of networking. Just as you do a poor job in class!"

Ron built up his courage and tried to recall what he'd read from the school rules that afternoon at Harry's suggestion for a moment before continuing, "Professor Snape, I'm bringing an official complaint against the actions of Slytherin House to you. Bullying of a housemate including magic use. What are you going to do to address it?"

"You can take your complaint to your fellow snakes and see if they care about it." Snape hissed back.

"Then after this I'm going to be going to Professor Mcgonagall." Ron answered, sounding more sure than he felt, "She's the Deputy Headmistress, if you won't help me then she will."

Snape scowled at him, "Granger probably told you to say all that, I saw you talking to her outside the Great Hall after lunch."

"Actually, it was Harry who told me about that." Ron answered.

"Oh?" Snape sneered, "Harry, is it?"

Ron shrank in on himself a little, "He said he wanted to give being friends another go, and muggles apparently don't like using last names except for adults and people they don't like. I was apologizing to Gr-Hermione earlier, for having to mistreat her… to appease my housemates… when you saw us talking."

Snape stared at him in silence for several seconds before responding, "I will speak with your housemates concerning their treatment of you. Especially now that apparently other Houses are aware of it. But I expect an improvement in your performance Weasley. It is an unwritten rule that Slytherins are never in the bottom quarter of the school, fix that."

"What about Crabbe and Goyle, sir?" Ron asked, was Snape actually saying he'd help?

"Those dunderheads don't have two brain cells to rub together." Snape hissed, "but unlike you, they have the massive safety net of their families' connections to the Malfoys and Notts."

Ron wasn't sure what "brain cells" were, but he knew the Professor had actually just insulted members of his own House that weren't named "Weasley".

"It is actually a rather cunning solution to your academic problems though," Snape sneered, "to attach yourself to arguably the best students in your year. That is representative of the networking skills befitting of a truly ambitious Slytherin. Not that I would ever say so."

Malfoy had used those words for three weeks like daggers. Constantly comparing Ron to his family and jeering at him. For the first time since coming to Hogwarts, Ron Weasley didn't feel that "ambitious" was meant as an insult. Though he still wasn't sure about "cunning," how was it "cunning" to get saved by someone because you froze up?

"Of course," Snape continued, "I never would have thought to set myself in danger, expecting to be saved by someone who didn't like me, just to ingratiate myself to a potential ally." He smirked as realization dawned on Weasley's face.

"Right sir," Ron nodded, this is perfect, "couldn't waste the chance right?"

"Indeed," Snape said as he went back to studying the essays on his desk, "If your grievance against your House is now addressed, you still have a detention to complete. Clean out the cauldrons piled on that table. You may use cleaning charms to get started, but I want every one of them wiped out properly with a rag as well."

"Yes sir… thank you sir." Ron said as he went to work.

"And Weasley," Snape looked up at him once more as Ron set the first cauldron in front of him, "the next time you need to speak to me against a member of Slytherin? Do it here, never again in front of other Houses."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Father,

As I told you in my first letter home, I attempted to befriend Potter on the Express and failed. I wrote it off then as him simply being indoctrinated by Dumbledore, but I have learned other things since then that clash tremendously with that.

One thing I have learned, but don't know what to do with here, is that Dumbledore is not Potter's magical guardian! I don't know who it is, but a Hufflepuff overheard that the Headmaster isn't allowed to be alone with Potter, on his guardian's orders. Regardless of why though, it seems he isn't in Dubledore's camp as much as you had feared. He also recently accepted the Slytherin Weasley into his group, despite being offended by him repeatedly. The Weasley really surprised me with how he tricked Potter into feeling like he needed to help him, I will be watching that one in the future.

There are other things too, I have tried to learn more before writing to you, but don't seem to be making any headway. The mudblood girl isn't the only one of Potter's friends who can perform wandless magic; both Potter himself, and his mudblood cousin can do it too. According to a Ravenclaw they have some book that taught them that Flitwick is now looking at to try and teach others, but I haven't heard anything about it otherwise. How can the secrets of wandless magic just be laying around in a book somewhere though? I am sure that Potter is sharing a family grimoire with the mudbloods, or something to that effect.

The last strange thing around Potter was Longbottom's wand. He came to school with a family wand, I could tell by the obvious age and wear on it. But after lunch the first day of class his wand was brand new again. This happened after he left lunch with Potter, he left with an old wand and came back with a new one that was the same, color and all. At the end of the week, Longbottom's Grandmother apparently took him to get his own wand, but I have no idea how Potter renewed the original one. Other than some kind of time magic?

I am still excelling in all of my studies, and have made strides towards establishing my proper place as a Malfoy in House Slytherin. You will be proud of me. Please let me know if there is any specific information I can get for you on Potter. I have an effective informant now that Weasley is allowed in his circle. I will continue watching him for clues to the above mysteries, particularly his guardian. Until your reply,

Your Son,

Draco Malfoy

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"What do you mean it won't be teachable?" Hermione asked, dismayed.

"I'm afraid I have no idea how the three of you were able to make these meditation techniques work for you without any prior magical training at all." Professor Flitwick answered as he gestured at the book he had been studying since the first week. He'd been putting off their talk about this for a while as he tried to figure out how they had done it, but had drawn a total blank.

"Frankly," He continued, "it should be impossible. The techniques described here require a sensitivity to small magical impulses, something that most people learn over time as they work with their magic extensively. You three all being able to feel your magic reacting with your wands as they are picked up is practically unheard of for your age. The first time you ever touch them? Sure, absolutely. But not the third, or fourth, or fortieth time."

"Dang," Neville said, a little let down, "I was hoping you could figure out why I couldn't do it with them coaching me."

Hermione scrunched her brow in thought as she looked at her friends. Neville, Padma and Parvati, and Justin had followed the three of them hoping for good news. There has to be a reason! She thought to herself, One of us would be one thing. But if Professor Flitwick is this surprised then there must be a reason why it's all of us!

"Hermione if you keep chewing your lip like that it's gonna bleed." Harry said as he put a hand on her arm to calm her down, "We can just add it to the list of weird stuff. Like Dudley and I not being able to feel the wards on our house."

"I'm sorry, what?" Professor Flitwick asked.

"The Headmaster put wards on my aunt's house when he left me with her." Harry answered, "Hermione was able to feel them every time she crossed them, but Dudley and I had no idea they were even there."

"You live in a muggle area correct?" Flitwick pressed, "Which would make the wards on your house the only magic around you?"

Harry and Dudley nodded to both questions.

Flitwick frowned, it was common to become accustomed to magic over time and stop noticing when you move from one ward boundary to another. But any wizard should be able to tell when they leave the mundane and enter the magical, even if it was just a small tingle. The sudden presence of magic around you when previously there was none should be unmistakable. That simple fact was what finally convinced most of the more sceptical muggleborns he introduced to the magical world that they were, indeed, magical. Flitwick quizzed the two about their incidents of accidental magic over their childhoods, learning that Mister Dursley had appeared to only ever have two instances of accidental magic in his young life. Strange considering how often Mister Potter apparently had accidental magical discharges, until he remembered how uncannily strong the boy seemed to be.

"I may have a theory about why you cannot feel the ward boundaries around your home. But I will need to ask Dumbledore some things first. If I am right I will let you know." Flitwick paused for a second as he continued thinking, "Actually, if I'm right then it could mean I also know how all three of you were able to use the information in this book so effectively."

Hermione's face lit up at that, "Really? Could you tell us what you think?"

"I wouldn't want to truly speculate without conferring with the Headmaster about the specific nature of the wards." He deferred, "But be confident that if I am right, then you three will be the first to know."

Before she could try and ask again, he left the charms classroom in a hurry. Yes, he thought, and if that old man doesn't have a good explanation then the next to know might be the DMLE.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Fillius? Is something the matter?" Albus Dumbledore asked as he looked up from his reading to see the Head of Ravenclaw, who had let himself into the office without being summoned.

Filius Flitwick stood directly in front of the Headmaster's desk and took a single breathe before answering, "Albus, I have been speaking to Mister Potter and Mister Dursley today."

"Oh yes, that book on wandless magic!" Albus exclaimed, "Have you figured it out? Do you need help? I would love to be able to offer some kind of special class in the future. We could be the first school in Europe, maybe even the world, with a pre-NEWT wandless magic course! This could revolutionize-"

Filius thought about how to ask what he needed to as Albus rambled. It would have been amazing, if the search hadn't led to discovering something horribly unethical.

Catching him off guard might be best, "Albus, did you put Blood Wards on Mister Potter's home?"

"What?" What? The headmaster froze mid-ramble at the unexpected question, "Why would you ask something like that, Filius?"

The part-goblin frowned, "In speaking with the two boys, as well as Miss Granger, about the conditions they were in when they first began reading that book, I learned that there are wards on their home. Miss Granger says that she feels them every time she comes onto the property, that it's almost like entering Diagon Alley."

"Yes, there are several rather powerful wards on their home. I'm sure a witch as gifted as I've heard Miss Granger is would be able to identify what she felt rather easily."

"But neither boy was capable of feeling the wards. Even after returning from long-weekends." Filius returned. "And both of them are in the same league as Miss Granger." He thought about that for a moment, "Well, maybe not in theory. But in practise? Most definitely. The only way they could live for ten years on a warded property in a muggle area and not know it is if the ward was blood bound to them."

Albus sighed, "Yes, there is a Blood Ward on Harry's home. But if you would allow me to explain."

"Explain!" Filius shouted, "What is there to explain! You tied the wards you made to those boys! It's a wonder they are still alive!"

"Listen to me!" Albus shouted back, rattling several instruments on his shelves as a bit of magic flared from him. This mustn't be misinterpreted, Albus thought, but at least Filius is someone I can probably trust with this, "This must not leave this room, for Harry's safety! There are many wards on that house, all tied together in the array, but only one is a Blood Ward! Based off of a blood-based protection that Lily herself had left on her son that Halloween."

"What?" Filius' mind immediately shifted gears, Lily Potter had studied blood magic?

"Filius, I must reiterate that this must not leave this room!" After receiving a tentative nod he continued, "When Harry Potter was recovered from the wreckage of his family's home I discovered that his mother had erected some sort of sacrificial blood barrier around the boy. I recognized it almost as soon as Hagrid handed him to me and went back to the wreckage of the Potters' home later to find what she'd done. It is one of the most powerful protections I have ever encountered, protecting young Harry from harm by the one who slew his mother in defense of her son." Dumbledore paused to take a breath.

"I can theorize how that might function." Filius nodded in agreement, "But that is not the same as a Blood Ward, however similar it may sound to the untrained ear."

"No," Albus continued, "but after the attack I got the idea for a Blood Ward when I saw how Lily had protected baby Harry. You must understand, I am not a complete stranger to less savoury magics. No one who fought in Grindelwald's war truly can be. I know the dangers of a Blood Ward to the one bound to it, but I also took precautions to circumvent them. After learning of the nature of this protection, I came back here and began researching how to do what I had planned. A few nights later, I returned and applied the ward with the Dursley family none the wiser."

The charms professor merely raised an eyebrow in anticipation of what he clearly expected to be nonsense.

Albus walked over to a bookshelf and began looking for a particular tome as he explained, "I used the extremely specific nature of Lily's protection, as well as access to the Dark Mark through Severus, to create a unique defense ward that will single out those Marked by Voldemort."

"That's…" Filius staggered under the possible implications of that.

"Unreplicable." Albus finished for him, "The ward doesn't seem to work without Lily's protection of Harry bound to it as well. Believe me I've tried, much to Severus' displeasure. "

Flitwick nodded, obviously the only way to test such a ward would be to pull Snape away from his precious potions, and risk inflicting harm on the man if it worked.

Albus handed him the book he had pulled, an ancient treatise on exotic wardings.

"That ward obviously has never discharged," The Headmaster went on, "and even if it did I put a twenty-four hour delay on it attempting to recharge itself. That would give me plenty of time to come and recharge the thing myself after dealing with whoever triggered it in the first place. I would never have placed that ward if I thought it would pose a threat to young Harry. Though I may as well admit, I did assume that the tug from the ward would mean that he wouldn't have as many bouts of accidental magic. Once it happened a few times his magic would be fairly depleted until he left the premises for a few days. With the boy growing up in a muggle home, I felt that less accidental magic could only be a benefit. The only other thing it does is keep him from feeling any of the wards at all."

"From what the two boys told me, Mister Dursley is the only one who appears to have had lesser bouts of accidental magic. Mister Potter had a few hilarious stories, honestly." Filius crossed his arms, "But I still feel uncomfortable with this, I think I need to tell them about what that ward does to them while they're inside of it. It may not drain their magic while it's already charged, but it won't regenerate if they were to use wandless magic while they were at home. They could find themselves magically exhausted and not understand why."

Won't regenerate? Why did that stick in Albus' head so strongly?

"I'm sure by now that you're aware of the animosity between myself and Mister Potter's magical guardian?" Albus asked, eliciting another curt nod, "I've been told that she is friendly with the Gringotts goblins, when you tell Misters Dursley and Potter about this, would you mention to them that Gringotts has teams that could test the wards? I don't want them to think I had some ulterior or nefarious motive with this. I know, and you know, how dangerous this ward could be. I want them to have assurances that there is no danger at all."

"I think I'll insist on that examination of the wards, Headmaster." The charms professor stated, closing the book and resting it under his arm, "I'll withhold reporting this to the Ministry until after that has been done. If everything is as you say it is, I will drop it completely. There is, however, a silver lining. All of this has reinforced my theory on how those children are so adept at wandless magic. You might not like it though, since I'm not sure it could be made into a class."

"Don't keep me in suspense, tell me."

"The book the students had confused me because it seemed to assume that the reader already had a good sense of how to feel for their magic, something no first year could do reliably. Well, we both know what it is like to cross into a ward boundary from a place where there is no active magic at all, right?"

"Yes, but the two boys shouldn't be able to feel the ward at all, being tied to it. What would that help?" Albus asked.

"They all found their magic via wand-bonding meditation, but Miss Granger indicated that she probably could have worked faster with the ward on the Dursleys' home and chose not to because her friends didn't have that option. I believe that ward itself is what allowed those children to feel their magic so young."

"How so?"

"Misters Dursley and Potter both stated that they were able to feel a spark of magic when they picked up their wands after dropping them for only a few seconds. I believe that this enhanced sensitivity was due to their magic being mostly drained by accidental magic and the Blood Ward, almost any spark of magic would be felt by them at that point I would think. And once they got it, so to speak, they could perform on command."

"But what about Miss Granger?" Albus asked.

"She, I believe, is a different case. She told me that she could feel the ward as she crossed it, obviously, so the same reason can't apply. In her case, I think it actually comes down to just having a higher than average magical sensitivity. Minerva has stated that she's the best transfiguration student in her year by a large margin. Exactly what you would expect from someone with an uncanny ability to feel how their own magic flows."

As Albus pondered what this could mean, Minerva Mcgonagall barged into the room.

"Albus what did you do to the Dursleys' home?" Her scottish accent thickening in frustration as she closed the door behind her, "Oh, Filius! I'm sorry, I didn't know you were here."

"Quite alright," the part goblin answered, "I was just asking the Headmaster questions about that very same topic, what has you so flustered?"

"Albus," She said, turning to the Headmaster and fighting to keep her accent understandable, and in proper English, "I just received a rather frustrated sounding letter from Ms. Acacia asking for advice about a young muggleborn girl that lives several doors down from the Dursleys. Apparently she is becoming skilled at wandless magic despite not even owning a wand, due to interacting with the wards. Something she began doing the same day the boys boarded the express. Ms. Acacia, as well as the Potter Steward who has been teaching her control, would like an explanation. Frankly? So would I. According to them, all the girl had done was pass into and out of the wards several dozen times and suddenly she could levitate things."

Filius grinned broadly as he moved to leave, a plan forming in his head for how to make the unteachable, teachable, "Albus, I will still be speaking to those three about what we discussed, as well as insisting they write a letter to their guardian about it. But give me two more weeks and I think I'll have a plan for that wandless class that doesn't involve anything dangerous. Minerva, please come see me after you're done here. If Albus hasn't lied to me today, then this could change everything we thought we knew about why wandless magic is difficult."

The Head of Gryffindor blinked owlishly as she tried to process her fellow Head's whiplash statements, "Alright, I'll see you after this then."

As Flitwick left the room, Albus finally remembered why his assertion that the boy's wouldn't be able to regenerate magic threw him off. Najash! How would it be possible for young Harry to have continued having bouts of accidental magic after binding the snake if the Blood Ward was up? Him being unconscious for days afterwards made more sense now, his magic was suddenly and totally depleted, but how did he pull in more magic while his core was being "used" by the ward? Power only flows one way at a time.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Petunia frowned as she finished reading the overlong letter penned by Professors Flitwick and Mcgonagall, "Vernon, I need to go see Griphook tomorrow about this ward. I'll need the car."

Vernon, who was still finishing up the shorter letter Dudley and the others had written, looked up, "Something wrong? This thing seems like a godsend! Could you imagine if Harry had had even more magic incidents while he was growing up?"

"These professors say that normally 'Blood Wards' are very dangerous. The headmaster claims to have done something special with this one, otherwise it would have apparently drained both our boys' magic and killed them mere days after making it."

Vernon dropped the letter he was holding, "What! That man-"

"There's a lot of magical jargon I don't understand at the bottom of this," she interrupted, "but when these professors confronted Dumbledore about it he was quick to suggest that 'Ms. Acacia' hire Gringotts to verify that the ward is as safe as he says it is. Apparently the Headmaster isn't playing around with this. I'm supposed to present this description of the ward, as well as a book title that the headmaster supposedly used for reference when making it, I'm planning to give them to Griphook or Axegut and see what they recommend."

"What could possibly be so important that he would risk Harry's life like that?" Vernon asked her, to which she raised an eyebrow, "What? He couldn't have known Dudley was a wizard too, so he didn't know he was risking anyone but Harry."

Petunia sighed at that, "I see your point. If you remember, Voldemort had a habit of branding his followers with that magic tattoo. Mcgonagall calls it 'The Dark Mark' in this letter. The headmaster was able to figure out how to make a ward whose only purpose is to identify and incapacitate anyone with that mark, and keep our boys from knowing it was there. If Gringotts inspects the ward and finds it does anything else, then we're supposed to press charges against Dumbledore."

Vernon grinned at that, he'd wanted to get back at Dumbledore since the man had dropped Harry off on their doorstep without a proper explanation. That desire only grew as he learned more of how much this man's negligence had affected his nephew, "Alright Pet. If you'd like, I'll come with you to Gringotts. Not much else to do on a Sunday anyway."

Petunia was shocked, Vernon usually avoided dealing with magic situations like this whenever possible, "I would like that dear."

Gringotts sent a cursebreaker later that week, a witch employed by Gringotts who signed an extra magical confidentiality agreement in addition to the standard one and was still never told who actually lived in the home. She spent half a day trying to find any aspect of the ward scheme that could have posed a health issue to either of the wizards bound to it only to come up empty. Griphook reluctantly informed Vernon and Petunia that the wards were exactly as Dumbledore had described, and were about as effective as the best wards money could possibly have bought. With the added bonus of being impossible to detect until one was already inside them.

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Draco,

There is no need to press for information concerning Potter's Magical Guardian. I went to the Ministry on Saturday after receiving your letter and confirmed that the Guardianship belongs to a squib named Peony Acacia. My first thought was to try and have the Wizengamot overturn that, but apparently she has claimed Guardianship via blood relation, so such a motion would not work. While in the Room of Records I learned that Dumbledore was looking for an Acacia family in South America. He even took an international portkey there last week. I intend to do my own investigations on that continent, so I will not be available until the end of next month. Dumbledore doesn't seem to have found anything down there, but I will have more time and freedom to look.

If the goblin truly figures out how Potter and his mudbloods are so proficient with wandless magic and offers to teach it you will be going! I don't care if you have to learn it directly from one of the mudbloods! Keep me informed on that front most of all. If the goblin hasn't offered anything by way of explanation by Halloween I will press for an investigation into the matter. At the moment though, I doubt that it is some sort of family magic that is being shared here.

Weasley's father is planning on presenting some sort of legislation to the Wizengamot soon that would allow him to search for, and seize, family heirlooms if they are of a darker persuasion. Obviously this would be frustrating for the family, I want you to see if you can learn anything from Weasley about his father that could be used to keep Arthur Weasley from being a thorn in my side. Perhaps a miracle happened and a true pureblood was born to blood traitors in this 'Ronald'.

Lastly, seriously Draco I am disappointed. Time magic is outside the realm of possibility. Not even the Dark Lord, in his prime, would have meddled with such magics over something as base as making a wand younger. The much simpler explanation is that either Potter or Longbottom has a second wand! Carrying two wands is illegal, and could get one of them expelled. If you discover that it is Potter, let me know immediately.

Lord Malfoy

Draco nodded to himself as he reread the letter for the third time, committing it to memory, and threw it into the fire. He was the first one in the common room that morning, despite it being a Monday, and had taken the opportunity to read the letter his father had sent via house elf. A convenient loophole in the Hogwarts wards that many purebloods used to send messages without risking interception.

Draco spent the next hour considering how he could go about his father's requests concerning Potter and Weasley. Seeing the redhead moving through the common room towards breakfast, he decided the best course was to start slow. Step one: no more heckling the Weasel.

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Two weeks later, Professor Flitwick announced the trial run of the first wandless magic course that would be taught at Hogwarts. His announcement came with the explanation that such a class would be offered over the summer. But, the first class would only be available to third years and above in pairs consisting of one muggle-raised student and one not, much to the chagrin of Slytherin House in particular. This was to protect the Statute of Secrecy, as the class would begin with a month in a muggle summer camp.

More than one pureblood student was left wondering if the charms professor had finally lost his marbles like the Headmaster was often speculated to have done. How could a month with no magic help learn wandless magic? What kind of sense does that make? The promise that this summer class would also be counted as being equivalent to taking the third-year Muggle Studies course did little to ease their doubts. But almost every student in the school was planning to attend the more detailed explanation scheduled for December.