Previous Chapter - Harry has his first chat with Dumbledore and is told about the Mirror of Erised. He later tracks it down to somewhere past Fluffy and encounters and bypasses most of the obstacles past the musically soothed Cerberus. He also discovers to his anger that compulsion charms have been cast of all his friends and many other students. He completes a cleansing ritual on himself and readies himself to tell Hermione about it.

Chapter 23 - Rituals and Compulsions

-my-friend-tom-

"Try casting it on me this time."

Hermione nodded and, after two long deep breaths to help calm herself, cast the spell. It was a challenging spell and involved your mind being very calm and quiet; otherwise, your own thoughts interfered and you end up with nothing more than a headache.

"Red laukaz isaz! Harry you have red runes. That's.. compulsion... no wait."

She held up her hand to forestall his reply as she started rapidly flicking through one of the three books she had open beside her.

"Yes. I was right. Harry, someone has cast a compulsion spell on you. That's illegal. We need to go tell a teacher right now. Why are you smiling? This is not funny."

Harry shrugged the smile fading away somewhat, "It's not, no. But your reaction is. You don't need to worry about the compulsions cast on me. They're harmless ones I put there so that whoever cast the others wouldn't know I had dispelled them." His expression grew grim, "However it's not the compulsions on me that I wanted you to find."

A slight look of confusion crossed her face, "What else did you want me to find?"

Harry shook his head, "Not what, but on who."

Hermione's jaw dropped and she let out a tiny little squeak, "They've been cast on other people as well? Who Harry? We have to help them! Professor Flitwick or Madam Pomfrey must know a way to cancel them."

Harry sat quietly hoping that he wouldn't have to connect all the dots for Hermione and he wasn't to be disappointed.

"Is that why you taught me that spell? It's because you want me to help you help.. me.. it's me isn't it. You're trying to help me. I have them on me don't I?"

Harry just reached across the rug that they were sitting on and pointed his finger at the alteration that would allow her to cast the detection charm on herself.

Hermione's face was paler than normal but she completed the modification with her typical precision and was soon blinking at colours that Harry couldn't see.

"Oh Harry. What do they do? Who cast them on me and how do I get rid of them?"

Harry already knew from many comments made by Hermione whilst she was studying Occlumency that she considered the sanctity of her mind to be one of her most precious possessions. As her eyes became moist Harry pulled her into a hug.

He whispered into her ear, "What they do I don't rightly know, nor who cast them but I can help you get rid of them. There is a ritual, called the cleansing ritual, I've already used it myself and I can help you prepare and cast it on yourself."

"How long?"

"It's a quick ritual. An hour of preparation and.."

Hermione interrupted him quietly, "I mean how soon can I cast it?"

Harry frowned, "Well it took me three weeks to get it sorted but I think for you two or just slightly more weeks should be enough to learn how to draw the circle and cast the spells."

"Then we should go see a professor. They'll remove them."

Harry shook his head, "Hermione. I've detected them on every single student I've managed to cast the spell on. Do you really think that Madam Pomfrey wouldn't have picked up that there have been compulsions cast on any of her patients."

"But.. but they're illegal. She …"

Again Harry was shaking his head, "Actually they're not illegal. There is a lot of gray area in the laws about compulsions. Parents are allowed to cast minor ones of their children, of course they are meant to be restricted to simple thing, brushing teeth and the like, and they're also meant to be noticeable. Like having your mother's voice gently remind you if you've forgotten. But there are no actual laws that saw which ones can and be can't cast. Just guidelines. And as we are boarding here the professors and the headmaster are our see by law as a temporary guardians and the same laws and guidelines apply. I've looked up the rules and a good lawyer could use them to justify just about anything short on an Imperius."

"But why would they cast them on us? What do they do?"

Harry shrugged with a mild grimace, "I wish I knew. The spells you need to cast to untangle their purpose are beyond me. You have to enter a partial occlumency trance when you cast the spell. Then you have to understand what you see. I got into the trance once and had the worst headache I've ever had afterwards. From what I read it's something that you really need to have taught to you then spend a lot of time practicing. I have a few ideas how to teach myself but I'm not even sure they'll work."

Hermione paused and thought for a moment and, though she loosened the hug a little, she didn't let go. Harry was breathing in the flowery scent of her hair and wondering if it was from her shampoo or from a perfume.

Suddenly the hug tightened again and Hermione's voice had an element of pleading in it. A tone that Harry hadn't heard her use before and didn't really like to hear, "I can't wait Harry. What if it effects my memory or learning? Can't you cast it for me?"

Harry wanted to help but still he shook his head a faint blush coming over his face, "Eh.. it's kinda of a personal thing Hermione. Umm.. you have to enter the circle as yourself, with no possessions.. no.. well.. anything."

"Ohh.."

There was a moment of quiet and Harry felt like he was letting her down.

"But if you like I can do the rune work for you. You can check it and then once I leave the room you can do the rest. You could learn your part for that in a week."

'I dont think you should have offered that to her Harry.'

"Look at her Tom. She needs this and she is strong enough. I'll just make sure to minimize the magic I put into the runes."

'Well. You had better explain it to her fully before she accepts.'

So Harry started teaching Hermione about ritual circles. Mostly he gave her the most broad overview to make it quicker. He pointed out what were the most important things she needed to learn and which book, chapter and page she could find the information. He made sure she was well aware of the dangers and complications of using a rune circle drawn by another but Hermione wasn't deterred. If having Harry write the runes would mean being able to remove the compulsions a week sooner then she would accept the consequences of having her innate magical resistance decreased for a week or two.

-my-friend-tom-

"Can we enchant her robes so they're like mine?"

'Like yours? Harry. Those robes took months when I was years older than you and the work of two people.'

"I mean, just add a few protections."

'You've never even touched needle to thread Harry and no amount of magic is going to allow you to enchant a needle to help unless you can visualise the right motions.'

"I'll learn."

'When Harry? We have so much else to learn. Don't forget Voldemort is still roving the corridors of this school researching and plotting. He's not wasting time.'

"Please Tom. She's trusting me to help her. She's my best friend."

Tom sighed, 'Fine Harry. I would say that you need to swear not to reveal anything about what I am about to tell you… but since you've already promised to never talk about me anyhow I guess it doesn't matter. I can teach you to sew. I'm no expert but I secretly taught myself when I first got interested in enchanting robes. I didn't learn enough to be able to do the fine work needed for the more powerful enchantments but I can teach you enough to create some basic wards which is what I started with.'

Harry was so happy he didn't even spare a thought about the strangeness of Tom knowing how to sew. "Many thanks Tom."

'So can we get back to working out the composition of that potion now?'

"Sure. Sorry Tom. Why do you want to calculate this one to such exacting degree? We didn't put nearly as much effort into the return potiom."

'For two reasons. It's good practice for you, same as why I had you diagnose and create cures the poisons. Secondly that setup gave me an interesting idea for a trap. I'm curious if it can be done.'

"Why do we need to setup a trap?"

'Just in case that setup is not just for you. Also I've always enjoyed tweaking the traps and wards of others to give them that little surprise twist that nobody expects.'

Harry sighed and started carefully cutting ingredients for the next test.

-my-friend-tom-

"Where did you get these from Harry? They're amazing. I recognise some of the runes but most are in entirely different alphabets than we have been shown."

Harry's fists clenched involuntarily as he answered, "I made them."

Hermione lifted her now wide eyes from the small rune engraved obsidian sphere and locked them onto Harry's, "You… made… them? How could you possibly have made these? We're only first years, we've only learnt how to recognise a few runes and not anything about how to create wards with them."

"The engraving isn't all that difficult with a bit of practice, though engraving on a sphere is challenging. There's a few spells that helps there though. But I didn't create the wards. I just took pre existing wards engraved and powered them. I told you how I found my parents journals, well there is a lot of amazing stuff in there." None of what he said was actually a lie. However the amazing things in their journals that he had read so far had very little to do with warding schemes. Tom had provided the schemes and though he had explained much of their construction to Harry during the hours he had spent carving them Harry still barely understood how the structures worked.

Hermione pursed her lips and Harry could tell she was trying very hard to control her emotions. Since learning of the compulsions cast on her a week ago Hermione had became a lot quieter and was second guessing her every action.

"Are they safe?"

Harry nodded, "These are the set that I was using on my bed. I've recently finished a second identical set so I thought I'd give you the set that I've already tested. I mean, I'm not sure exactly how much protection they provide", which essentially was true, he only had a very good idea, "but I haven't had anything bad happen to me whilst having them there."

Hermione nodded slowly, "So if someone tried to cast a spell on me whilst I was sleeping what would happen?"

"There are overpowered lumos, bangs and wide area slippery floor charms there to distract and raise the alarm however no one should get that far. The intent wards should wake you as soon as someone starts preparing a spell within the room or in the corridor nearby. Unfortunately that part will trigger even if your roommates are casting harmless spells not aimed at you for practice or their own amusement. It'll also trigger you if someone get's too close to your bed."

"That's very impressive and the runes look really well done. If you put this much effort into your school work you could do better."

"I'm doing fine and I'm sure I'll get better."

Hermione nodded, "Yes, fifth overall is very good, second in Gryffindor. But every time you show me something it's beyond anything I've seen before. I… no sorry…"

Harry frowned, "What's wrong?"

"I was going to pry again." Hermione looked downcast.

Putting one hand gently on her upper arm Harry smiled at her, "That's okay Hermione. I understand you're curious. As long as you understand I like to share things at my own speed there is nothing to worry about."

Laying her hand atop Harry's Hermione returned his smile. "Thanks Harry. So can you show me where you put your wards stones and I'll do the same or is that not how it works?"

"Generally you wouldn't show anyone but since we are rather limited in placement and because I trust you come with me." Harry started leading the way out of the common room.

"Harry?"

"Well we can't go to my dorm at the moment, Seamus and Dean are in there. I'll take you to a classroom and draw you some pictures."

"Oh.. okay."

-my-friend-tom-

'Give it up Harry'

"No hang on. I think I recognized a similarity between that one and…"

'Harry! You've said that a dozen times already. I thought we agreed, no more than a couple of hours a week on this.'

Harry sighed and nodded, "Fine. You're right, as always. I just really wanted to have some idea what at least one of those compulsions are before we wipe them. Even knowing who had cast them would be useful."

He frowned and started removing the compulsions from the three white mice he had stolen, no borrowed, from the transfiguration classroom. He'd put them back and the only thing different about them would be they they were now slightly better fed.

Once the mice were spelled asleep he hid the small box holding them on a high shelf in the room. He'd come back later that night to return them.

"So what's next on our agenda?" he asked in a bored tone.

'Well, you already ten minutes late for your Gryffindor Self Study Defence Group. Aren't you the leader of that?" Tom's voice was amused.

"Damn Damn Damn" Harry started repeating aloud as he rapidly packed his back and donned his school robe again.

As he dashed into the hallway he switched back to internal speech, "Why didn't you remind me?"

'I've been telling you to stop for the last twenty minutes Harry. If you can't recognise good advice when you hear it then you need the practice.'

Harry gritted his teeth but he couldn't think of a witty comeback so he focused on not losing his footing as he took the steps three at a time on the way to the nearest outside door.

After pushing the door open and rushing outside he almost bowled Neville over. "Oh sorry Neville. What's happening?"

Neville shrugged, "No problem Harry. I was just coming to see if you had forgotten."

Harry twisted his lips and sighed, "Yeah. I did. Sorry. Is everyone else there?"

Nodding, Neville led the way back to the small clearing that they had moved to after the weather had worsened. Pushing their way through the privacy charms Harry found the rest of the Gryffindors lazing around chatting. He would have preferred them to get started alone but being late he could hardly berate them about it. He'd just have to wake them up.

"Right everyone. Sorry I'm late, lost track of the time. Today I want to show you all something new with shield charms. Hope you all feeling well rested as this is going to take a little out of you. Neville, can you stop right there. I'm going to start with a stinging hex, but I'm going to ramp up the power to imitate a high powered spell, and I want you to shield against it."

Everyone got to their feet and watched with interest. Harry usually delivered something new to every lesson even if it was a simple little trick or different technique for casting a spell. Once Neville had his wand out Harry cast a quick set of stinging hexes at his right arm, left arm, right hip and left hand; each cast fast, hard and silent. Neville's shield sprung up surrounding him and the five hexes deflected off in various directions. Ronald only narrowly ducked one as Dean and Seamus dived to the side one fling between where the two had been standing. Hermione only just managed to get a shield up which deflected the hex back towards Parvati who like Lavender had narrowly dodged the ones flying towards them. Parvati's eyes opened wide as she realised she was too late to dodge the doubly deflected hex. But just before it struck her in the stomach Harry stuck his hand out and the hex seemed to bounce off his open hand and into the ground at his feet.

"What the…" exclaimed Ron before trailing off.

Hermione spoke up, "But stinging hexes don't bounce no matter how powerful they are."

Harry grinned, "Well your normal variety stinging hexes don't. These ones do and you'll also find a lot of the others spells we've learnt will bounce off the appropriate shield."

"How did you stop that last spell Harry? It was like you bounced it off your hand. But I didn't see any shield. Was it a even a spell?" Dean was back on his feet now and brushing himself off.

Harry raised his left hand and a tiny shield appeared centered on his palm. A few gasped and he grinned, "No It's not wandless magic even though it looks like it. I cast the spell just as per normal with my wand but since I don't need to point at there it appears its not obvious. Watch closely."

The gryffindors watched as he repeated the action. His right hand held his wand pointing at the ground but now they saw the minute movements just prior to the shield appearing.

"It's a trick you can practice on your own time. What I do want to do is teach you today is how to generate a plate sized shield and deflect my new stinging hex back at me. I have chocolates and butterbeers for whoever can bounce the most back to me. Now line up and I'll explain what you need to do to form a partial shield."

After Harry's wake up call the energy level was high and practice went well. By the end of the session Ronald proved to be the best at blocking the hexes though Parvati, when she managed to block them, was the most accurate with her deflections. Harry split the chocolates and butterbeer between the two before they all sat down to share in the snacks and fruit juices provided by the house elves.

After looking around his exhausted housemates he spoke up, "That takes a fair bit of you, is everyone okay with calling it a day now?"

After a chorus of very positive replies he grinned and pulled Hermione to the side. "I have the ritual circle prepared. Are you ready?"

Hermione face paled and she had to take a few deep breaths before she answered, "Ready now? But I thought.. well yes. but i'm pretty tired do you really think now is a good time."

Harry nodded, "It's best to cast the ritual when you magic is low, less interference from your core."

"Is that why you choose this exercise today?"

Harry grinned, "Smart girl. Come on, the sooner the better."

-my-friend-tom-

It was embarrassing for them both. Harry didn't see anything of course, he was too much of a gentleman for a peek though Tom's comments certainly didn't make resisting any easier. Still they both were very aware that it was only a single partition that was separating a very naked Hermione from Harry.

The ritual itself went without a hitch. Hermione had no problems memorizing the words and once she was dressed again Harry quickly confirmed she was totally free of charms.

"It worked perfectly. Not a single charm on you. Do you feel any different?"

Hermione bit her lips as she took a moment to think. Shaking her head she finally replied, "No., should I?"

Harry shrugged, "I didn't either. If they are low powered subtle and gradual charms they were likely designed so that neither you nor anyone else would notice them immediately. Means taking them off is also less likely to be noticed. Pay attention to any behaviour changes in the following days and maybe we can piece together what they were."

"Okay. I did what you suggested and wrote down a diary of feelings and thoughts for everything I could think of for the last few days. I'll continue doing that and see what I find. What's the next step?"

"Either you or I need to recast the same number of compulsions back on you. I have a list of possible ideas but you can also make up your own. Simple ones are not hard to do especially when you don't mind the recipient being aware of them."

Hermione nodded and smiled as she read the list, "Put socks on before shoes, take clothes off before showering, left shoe on left foot?"

"I had to come up with ones that were now going to accidentally interfere with anything I was doing."

"That makes sense. Okay give me a moment to go through these."

Harry nodded and sat on one of the chairs.

'Well done Harry. You successfully led someone through their first ritual. However remember, make sure that you, or her, casts those compulsions at the lowest possible power. Her innate magic will be low and you don't want to overpower it and have her putting on a dozen pair of socks before she tries to put on shoes.'

"Ah.. Thanks for the reminder Tom."

'You're welcome Harry.'

Author Notes: Got some important training coming up that I need to prepare for… so... of course... a new plot bunny came along and before I knew it I'd written 22k words - Already posted the first few chapters. 'There is no try'… it's star wars themed, faster paced but less dialogue.. someone may like it .

Thanks to all my readers and reviewers. Replies to reviews posted at wwwfanfictionnet/topic/135718/89507238/1/ (and yes, still behind on these)