Hey Lovelies! So this is Chapter 3 of Soul Bonded, and like so many of you our wonderful characters are full of so many questions. Let's hope that somebody can find some answers soon. Enjoy!
Chapter 3 – So Many Questions
Two sets of emerald eyes locked over the mediwitch's head. "Poppy?" Minerva didn't look away from the young man standing in front of her, as she questioned her friend. "What are you talking about?"
"This." Gently she lifted Minerva's left hand and showed the pair the silvery-blue ring that was resting there. It didn't look like any metal Harry had ever seen. It looked liquid, as if it were constantly moving and changing.
Minerva's eyes were wide as she peered down at her hand. "Where did it come from? I didn't put it there."
"I figured as much." Poppy sighed as Minerva tried to pull the ring off. It spun around her finger loosely but wouldn't allow itself to be removed. She reached out and put a hand on her friend's arm. "Minerva stop. I have a feeling you aren't going to just be able to pull it off. There is something innately magical about it. Something I have never seen before."
"Do you know what it is?" Harry looked back and forth between the two witches with wide eyes. "Is it dangerous?"
"I'm afraid I can't say for certain what it is, but I'd wager it's no more dangerous than you are Mr. Potter."
"What does that mean?" Minerva helped her friend to her feet, "Poppy? No more dangerous than Harry?"
"It seems to me that the ring is keyed in to Mr. Potter's magic. There is something about it that is connected just as much to him as this is to you." She shook her head when they both started to speak. "What ever questions the two of you have, and I'm sure that there are a lot of them, I don't have the answers. Not yet anyway." She looked back and forth between them. "For now I suggest that neither one of you mention this to anyone else. Not until we know what's going on."
They both nodded as she made her way back to the fireplace. "I'll start researching and seeing what I can come up with. In the meantime be careful."
"Thank you Poppy." Minerva called out, just as the green flames engulfed the mediwitch.
"Professor," Harry started but she cut him off.
"Harry I think that when it's just the two of us you may call me Minerva. It seems we have more in common than just professor and student now." She lifted her hand to indicate her point.
"It would seem so. If I may?" He reached for her hand and lifted it to see the band there. "At least it's pretty, if it won't come off."
"True." Gently she took her hand back and moved around him towards the door. "We should invite everyone back in to breakfast, I didn't mean to cause such a fuss."
"We caused a fuss." He followed her towards the doorway, and she chuckled.
"Yes, we did."
"Minerva?" She had just about stepped into the hallway when she heard her name come uneasily from his lips.
"Yes Harry?"
"Might I suggest another glamor spell?" He nodded towards the ornate mirror that hung across from the kitchen.
She turned over her shoulder and caught sight of herself in the glass. She had dropped her glamor in front of Poppy and now she looked thirty-five years old again. "Thank you." She cast the spell over herself and turned to look at him. "Do I look old again?"
"No." She raised an eyebrow at him. "If you live to be two hundred you still won't be old. You will simply be dignified and wise." He took her hand and with a very gentlemanly bow, he kissed the back of it.
"Harry…"
"Oi?" Ron's voice cut her off, and they looked up to see the rest of the house's occupants filing out onto the first landing. "Can we come back to the kitchen now mate? I'm bloody starving."
Harry and Minerva both laughed, and he released her hand as she called them all back for breakfast. Sirius caught ahold of Harry's arm as he made to follow everyone else into the kitchen. "Listen Pup, I didn't ask any questions before because it was obvious that she was hurt, but I'm asking now, what's going on?"
Harry looked at his godfather very seriously for a moment, he didn't really want to lie to him, but he had to think of what was best for both of them in this situation, not just himself. "A lot Sirius. A lot is going on, and right now that's the only answer I can give you."
Grey eyes bore into green, but the older wizard didn't press the matter any further. He allowed Harry to remove his arm from his grasp and followed his godson into the kitchen. He watched them both, Harry and Minerva, as they all finished breakfast. At the front nothing seemed different about them, they were respectful of each other, and considerate, but no more so than student and professor should have been.
There was something underneath all of that though. It may have been the glimmer of magic he noticed around Minerva when she moved quickly to reach for the overturned pot of coffee. Or the way that their breath hitched at the same time when Harry leaned down to collect a fallen napkin. He wasn't for certain, but something was going on between the young man and the deputy headmistress.
After breakfast was finally concluded and cleaned up, and Harry was settled into the room on the third floor that he was sharing with Ronald Minerva decided to head back to Hogwarts. She needed to talk to Albus about what had happened with the dementors last night, and more importantly she needed to talk to Poppy about what was happening between her and Harry.
She knocked once on the door to the boys room and she heard him call out, "Come in." She pushed the door open to find him lying on the bed staring at the ceiling. He looked up when he felt her come to a stop next to him. "Profe-Minerva, I didn't know you were still here."
"Yes, I came up to tell you I was leaving. I thought it was only polite with our newfound, connection." Both sets of eyes drifted to the tiny band on her left hand. "I just wanted you to know that I was going to check in with Poppy and see if she has found anything. I will keep you informed of everything that turns up."
"Thank you." He nodded as she turned towards the door to leave. "Minerva?"
"Yes?" She looked back around at him, it seemed he was finding it easier and easier to call her by her name, and to her surprise she didn't seem to mind.
"Try to avoid anymore accidents…" His smirk caused her to roll her eyes and she almost bumped into Ronald on her way to the door.
"I'm sure you'd be the first to know. Goodbye Mr. Potter."
"See you at Hogwarts Professor." With a swish of her cloak around the door jam she was gone.
Ron stared after her for a moment, and then he rounded on Harry. "What happened last night mate? You show up here after everyone else is asleep and we wake up this morning to find you and McGonagall have been attacked by dementors in the middle of your muggle neighborhood? Then you won't give us any details. Harry, come on, what's going on?"
He was about to answer him when the sound of the floorboards creaking in the hall stopped him short. Hermione and Ginny came rushing into the room and shut the door quickly behind them. "Mum thinks that we need to de-infest the library, we need to find something else to do quickly."
Hermione looked back and forth between them as Ginny spoke. "Were you two talking about something important?"
"Harry was going to tell me what actually happened last night."
"No I wasn't." He glared across at Ron with a look of annoyance. "I never got a chance to say anything before these two showed up." He pointed at the girls. "Anyway, you know what happened. There were some dementors in Little Whinging last night, they attacked me and Dudley and Min-McGonagall saved us. That's all there is to it." He barely caught himself before he called her Minerva, and luckily he didn't think that any of them had caught his mistake.
"All there is to it? Harry you can't be serious, there is so much more to it than that!" Hermione was anxious, "Harry do you have any idea who controls the dementors?"
"No." Ho shook his head and simply stared at her, did she even need to ask?
"The Ministry! The Ministry is supposed to have control of the dementors, and if there were dementors attacking you in a muggle neighborhood last night that only leaves two options!" She paused, but the other three didn't say anything so she continued on. "That leaves us with the fact that the Ministry could have ordered a hit on you, which is highly unlikely, or the fact that the dementors are no longer working exclusively for the Ministry!"
"And if they aren't working for the Ministry they are working for him." Harry sighed, what Hermione was saying was making sense. He didn't need any more added to his plate at the moment, but that didn't seem to be stopping it from coming. "Wonderful…" He flopped back on his bed, his hand moving quickly to his ribs as a sharp pain coursed through his side, "Just wonderful…"
The fireplace in Albus's office turned green and out of the flames stepped Minerva McGonagall. He smiled at her once she had righted herself, "I take it Harry is all settled at Sirius's then?"
"Yes." She replied with a curt nod. "What happened Albus? Why were there dementors in Little Whinging at all?"
"I'm afraid I don't have an answer for you my dear. The Ministry claims that there were no dementors in the area at all, and that they have complete control over them."
"Albus you and I both know how ridiculous that sounds. You can't have complete control over something like a dementor, they are far too unpredictable for that." She paused and looked across the room at him, "He sent them didn't he?"
"Most likely yes." He nodded solemnly before changing the subject. "Poppy said that you were injured last night. Are you alright?"
"My ribs are broken in three places, and I was attacked by a dementor, I have certainly felt better, but she is doing her best to patch me up. More importantly, Mr. Potter walked away unharmed." She caught herself before calling him Harry, she rarely had in front of Albus and she wasn't going to change things now. "She's actually expecting me, and now that I'm back in the castle I'm sure she will hunt me down any minute." She smiled at him and nodded towards the door. "If I may?"
"Of course my dear, do be careful." The twinkling light in his eyes seemed to dance as he watched her roll her eyes at him before heading out of his office.
When she reached the hospital wing she called out for her friend and she received a reply from the direction of the mediwitch's office. "What are you doing in here?" There were books everywhere when she entered the already tiny space. "This office is minute anyway, and now you have over flowed it with books."
She picked up one of the ones closest to her and read the title, "Books about spirits and souls?" She picked up the next one in the stack, "Protection charms," she kept going as she crossed the office to her friend, "Poppy what is this all about?"
"I think I know what happened last night." The tone that she was using caused Minerva not to feel quite as relieved as she had expected to be when she finally heard those words.
"Well? What was it?" Her green eyes peered at her friend, but Poppy shook her head.
"I want to mend your ribs again before I tell you. They are a situation that is more easily handled." She led the dark haired witch to one of the beds closest to her office and drew the curtains around them. She ordered her to undress while she went and fetched proper bandages instead of the sheet they had made do with earlier.
When she returned she repaired the ribs more fully and rebound the injury. She hissed out her breath as Poppy worked on her and she hoped that Harry wasn't feeling the same things that she was. "Poppy?" She pulled her friend's attention back to the other matter at hand.
"What have you found out about what is going on with this?" She lifted her hand just barely off the bed.
The mediwitch's pale blue eyes held a look that Minerva couldn't quite place as she gathered her thoughts. "I believe it is called a Soul Bond." She held up a hand before Minerva could interrupt her. "I don't know much about it yet, but I do know that the last time anyone remembers one occurring was over three hundred years ago…"