Previous Chapter - Harry leads Hermione through the process of finds then removing the compulsions cast on her. During the week that Hermione practices her parts of the ritual her behaviour changes noticeably as she second guesses every thought and action. Harry spends time examining the potions beneath Fluffy, creating new wards stones for his and Hermione's beds and tries to learn how to read the auras of compulsion charms.

Chapter 24 - Compulsions and Conversations

-my-friend-tom-

Harry stifled a yawn as he entered the common room. He'd spent the past hour pummelling an old dueling dummy with spells in the Hidden Room. It no longer fired back spells or moved but it was a good workout if you were just trying to strengthen your spells. It was also pretty boring.

He noted Hermione busy taking notes as she compared two books and, rather than disturb her, was about to grab a sofa near the fireplace when he realized something was different. He watched Hermione write a few more lines before it clicked. She wasn't using a quill.

Taking a seat beside her, he watched, amused as it took Hermione a full minute before she noticed she had company.

"Oh.. Hello Harry. How did your practice go?", she asked smiling.

"Good thanks. What happened to your quill?"

"Oh, this isn't for handing in. Just my first draft and it's so much faster to write with a fountain pen. I bought these not long after my trip for school supplies thinking that it'd help me learn how to use the quill better, which it did. Then I brought the set, along with pens, pencils and other drawing supplies with me to Hogwarts thinking they'd be faster and easier for doing my drafts. Of course after arriving I put them aside as I needed to practice using my quill more. Today I just felt like a little bit of a change." Hermione replied in her normal rapid fire manner.

Harry gave a small frown, "You didn't need to practice the quill when you arrived. Your calligraphy has always been one of the best in the class. Both Professors McGonagall and Flitwick complimented you on it during your first week."

Hermione have a small shrug though she hesitated a moment before answering, "You can always get better."

Harry silently put up a small notice-me-not and a privacy charm around them, "What do you think of the idea of allowing students to use either quills or fountain pens for their school work?"

"Oh.. that would be a great idea. I mean I know quills are traditional and all that but fountain pens are so much easier and faster to use, especially on the rough parchment we sometimes get. I'm actually using sketching paper for this draft, so much better than the draft quality parchment and so much cheaper. I wonder if anyone has suggested that to the teachers? I think I'll go have a talk to Professor McGonagall about it." Hermione gave him a bright smile and started closing her books.

"Wait a moment Hermione." Harry put a hand on hers gently holding it down. "These aren't new ideas are they?"

"Well… no.. I guess not. I was wondering about it before I came. I guess the excitement of coming here made me forget."

"Or?" Harry prompted.

Hermione's brow furrowed in confusion thought for a few seconds before the confusion was suddenly replaced by indignant anger. "Or, I was compulsed not to question using quills and parchment. Or, not to question the wizarding way. Not to infect my muggle way on the wizards." she hissed.

"Whoa. Calm down Hermione." Harry was very glad he had put up the charms.

"You don't think I was?" Hermione directed a little of her anger at him now.

Harry quickly shook his head, "No I think you are correct. It makes a lot of sense now that I think on it. I mean, there are a quite a few muggleborn in our year and most likely a lot in the older years as well. Yet you're the first person I've ever seen writing with a fountain pen or any sort of pen really." He paused thinking for a second. "Even Dean Thomas who grew up thinking he was a muggle only uses a charcoal stick for sketching here though most of the earlier pictures in his sketchbook were in pencil. I should have noticed that."

Hermione calmed herself, "So, what do we do?"

"Tom, what do you think?" Harry asked raising his hand to his chin as he considered how to answer.

'I think you're on your own here Harry. I've just realized that my opinions have likely been influenced by similar compulsions. I grew up more muggleborn than you did Harry and I never questioned it. Maybe I just wanted to fit in, but…no... that doesn't sound like me at all. I think I'm trying to self-justify compulsed behaviour just like Hermione did.' Tom voice got progressively more upset as he spoke.

Harry rubbed his forehead before answering, "Nothing yet Hermione. If we start talking about this people are going to notice and then there is a good chance that they are going to recast those compulsions again, and probably stronger."

Hermione slowly nodded, "I need to put away all my muggle things. It's no wonder the wizarding world is so backwards if they are using magic to hold back development. Imagine if they didn't... mixing technology and magic could lead to such amazing things."

She pauses in the process of cleaning her fountain pen, "You were muggle-raised Harry and you were first to remove the compulsions. Why didn't you start writing with a pen and paper first?"

Harry froze. That was a very good question that he didn't have a good answer for.

'Because of me, Harry. I taught you that for magic you should always use quill and parchment. I thought there was a good reason and never questioned it. Now I am wondering just how many similar potential falsehoods are stuck in my head. Those compulsions are likely much more insidious than I expected. Put them on for five to six years then remove them as soon as the student becomes an adult. By that time the behaviour influenced by them has become ingrained. And its self propagating, I've already passed on many of those habits on to you just through teaching you. It's a brilliant.'

"How do I answer Hermione? I can't think of a single thing that makes sense."

'I'm not sure Harry. I can't trust my judgement, I need time to think on this. Say whatever you feel is right'.

"What's wrong Harry?" Hermione could see he was troubled.

He made a decision, "Come on Hermione, Pack up and I want to tell you something. But not here."

-my-friend-tom-

"But it just seems so wrong." Hermione rubbed her already red eyes. Too many illusions had been broken in such a short period of time. "We should be able to trust our teachers, they are supposed to our role models. And it might not even be their fault. These charms might have been around for years and are forcing the teachers to perpetuate them."

Harry nodded. His own thoughts were travelling along much the same path though it wasn't as big a shock to him. He'd already developed a healthy dose of suspicion and skepticism before arriving at Hogwarts. He and Hermione had spent the past hour making notes on everything they could think of where the wizarding world was different than the muggle world and what were the pros and cons. There were a few surprises where the magical way had the advantage but almost always there was so much that could and should have been improved.

"Can we ask your secret tutor what he thinks Harry?"

"I'll ask him. But remember, he studied at Hogwarts too. I'm sure he'll agree with me that you're the least affected of us all."

Harry had passed off Tom as being an old wizard who, though he had little to do with the wizarding world anymore, had found and helped Harry out of a bad situation and has since provided secret and private tutoring to him. Hermione had given him her assurance that she would not betray his confidence and backed it up with a small secrecy oath. Harry had also taught her a new occlumency technique to hide a specific secret.

Tom had applauded his quick thinking and Harry had been relieved that Hermione had accepted it without pressing for further details. He was also very happy now that he could teach Hermione anything at any level without having to come up with plausible reasons how he could have already learnt it.

"Do you think he'll be upset?"

'Oh yes. I am very upset. If I had a body I'd be on a rampage right now and the worse thing is that I wouldn't even know if the rampage was my own doing or not. I thought I was the master of compulsions and yet I never worked out that I had been influenced when I was younger. If you ever find out who is responsible for this I want you to punish them for me Harry. Promise me that.'

Tom had been working himself in and out of varying states of anger and irritation since Harry and Hermione had retreated to an empty classroom. He hadn't said much but he was showing a lot more emotion than before. Harry had noticed over the past few months that either Tom was getting more emotional or he was getting better at reading Tom's emotions.

Harry nodded to Hermione and he replied to Tom. "You want me to hurt them? I'm not sure.."

'I don't care how you punish them Harry. Whatever you feel is justified. I can't even tell if my anger is my own anymore. I just want to know that they won't get away with this scot free.'

"Okay Tom. That sounds fair. I do what I can. Do you really think whoever it was is still around? Do you think it was Dumbledore?"

'Sadly the chances of them being around is pretty low and, no, I don't think it was Dumbledore though he likely is involved in continuing the practice. Remember, he wasn't headmaster when I went to school. Dippet was and his term as headmaster is still longer than Dumbledore's. Whoever it was is probably dead. If nothing else a stain on their reputations would be satisfying.'

-my-friend-tom-

"I can still feel some heat."

'That's normal. Ink fire will still heat up the air but you won't feel anything as you walk through them.'

Harry nodded as he took a tentative step closer. It didn't get any hotter so he pushed his foot into the black flames. When his shoes didn't suddenly catch fire or his toes erupt into pain he pushed himself bodily forward and stepped through the flames. A few more steps and he was at the next door.

"Same wards and alarms as on the first door." Harry mentioned as he got to work bypassing them.

'Don't let that lull you.'

The next chamber was surprisingly boring. It was a large empty square with the Mirror of Erised standing in the middle.

As Harry started casting detection spells he idly asked, "Any idea what these rooms used to be?"

'I would suggest quarters, maybe a professor's for when the school catered to a lot more students and had many more teachers.'

"I thought there were more people now than ever before? I keep hearing about unsustainable population growth, dwindling resources and so on."

'You're talking about the muggle world Harry. The british wizarding population is getting smaller every generation. Not helped by Voldemort's attempts to eliminate any individual or families he considered a threat to himself and the pureblood nonsense that he used to exacerbated the already prevalent inbreeding.'

"Ohh.."

'Given our recent discoveries I'm wondering if it wouldn't be a bad thing for the british magical world, as in that run by the Ministry of Magic, to die out.'

"Where would all the muggleborn wizards go?"

'Self taught, an apprenticeship with an independant or in Henesbury, a school in Europe, Africa, or Australia are all viable alternatives.'

"These alarm wards on the floor are a pain, they are triple woven with overlapping keystones with the only hole being under the mirror. It's going to take me ages to unravel it from here." Harry muttered with frustration.

'How big is the gap in the centre?'

"About a foot out from the centre of the mirror and just touching the clawed feet to either side."

'Transfigure a few marbles into a bridge and walk over it.'

Harry rolled his eyes, "I'm an idiot. Why didn't I think of that?"

'Because up to now all the wards have been walls.'

"So does that mean I don't even need to unravel it."

'Probably not.'

Harry smiled and got to work transfiguring marbles into a simple wooden bridge over to the mirror. "What about America?"

'Wouldn't recommend it. Lots of gangs and even multiple government agencies all going at it. They do a lot of demon summoning and other shortcuts to power and usually have correspondingly shorter lifespans. Teen wizards going out in a blaze of glory are all too common over there.'

"Right. So what do I do now? Am I meant to look into the mirror again?" Harry was standing on the edge of the single span wooden bridge a few feet from the end staring at his shoes.

'You've checked it for wards and charms?'

"Yep. No external magic though I did detect something overlaying the enchantments. Don't know how to read that though." Harry tries to refrain from sounding sore about that but Tom picked up on it anyhow.

'Even if I had started teaching you enchantments at the beginning of the year it'd still be years till it would be usable or useful to you. My suggestion is to cast a time delayed short blindness spell on yourself and take a look.'

"Isn't that risky?"

'No magic is truly safe Harry. If there are no external charms then whatever Dumbledore has added to it has no other path to you other than via the mirrors own magic. Block your sight and you'll should be fine.'

Harry nodded and cast the blindness curse on himself before looking up.

"You and Hermione are there with me again and we're all smiling. I look rather pleased with myself and am holding a rock or something. I don't think there are as many people behind us this time and they're a little further away. Okay, I'm putting the rock away now, and.. well… now I'm blind."

'Okay look down and wait for the spell to clear.'

"Tom?"

'Yes Harry?'

"My mirror self put a rock in my pocket. I mean, in my real pocket. I can feel it there."

'Okay. Unexpected. Don't touch it yet. Just wait till.. okay.. now don't look at the mirror again. Move back from it and check the rock for curses, charms and wards.'

Harry opened his pocket and peered down at the blood-red rock. It was roughly oval but slightly distorted and smooth like it had been partially melted many times.

'I know what that is.' There was no emotion at all in Tom's voice.

-my-friend-tom-

"What's wrong with my diet?"

"You're not eating enough Hermione. For the last couple of days I've seen you barely pick at your food."

"Just because I don't want to eat like a pig unlike some here who I don't want to mention doesn't mean I'm not eating enough. I know how much is the right amount per meal."

Harry shook his head, "You know how much a muggle is supposed to eat each meal. We need a lot more food to support the energy requirements of calling upon magic."

After thinking for a moment Hermione spoke in a more measured tone, "Okay. Let's say for the last few days I've been eating less. Doesn't that mean that it's related to the compulsions we removed? Doesn't that mean it's a good thing?"

"Not necessarily. Remember the compulsions are probably seen as being in our interest so there is a good chance that at least one is to our benefit. Whatever calorie count or method to determine how much you need to eat you use, increase it by fifty to sixty percent. That'll mean you're eating as much as the other first years. Well, except Ron. Maybe he got a overpowered version of the compulsion cast on him."

Hermione returned Harry's smile, "Or pig plus compulsions equals a bigger pig."

-my-friend-tom-

Author Notes: Thanks to all my readers and reviewers. Replies to all reviews up to now posted at wwwfanfictionnet/topic/135718/89507238/1/ Note however I will no longer by posting replies on the forum.. Though I like the forum idea I can't stop myself falling behind and that detracts from my writing. Now I'll just reply directly to any reviews as I have been doing for my other stories. As I mention in my last forum post I might also post the occasional answer to a frequently asked question in my author notes.