Previous Chapter - Harry and Hermione work out the purpose of a few of the compulsions. One curbs 'muggle' creativity and compels the targets to be much more accepting of magical society's peculiarities. Another, which does not provoke their ire, pushes the students to eat properly. Harry tells Hermione that he has a magical tutor and Hermione is much more accepting of him keeping some things secret from him. Harry defeats the final obstacles on the third floor and after a brief glance at the mirror once more has s blood-red rock appear in his pocket.

Chapter 25 - Stones, Curses and Schools

-my-friend-tom-

Harry sat with his back against parapet on the top of the Astronomy tower. It was dark, cold and it suited his mood perfectly. It had been worse when he had first arrived but Hedwig antics as she chased after the mice he brought and Tom's words cheered him up a little.

"Why would he do such a thing? Luring any dark wizard, let alone Voldemort into a school full of Children is just crazy."

'Maybe it's only a test for you and not a trap for Voldemort.'

Harry sighed, "But neither of us believe that. As you said there are so many better ways to protect the stone."

There was silence except for patter of little feet as Harry released another small mouse. Hedwig let it almost reach the steps before she launched herself from the parapet after it.

"How does he plan to use the stone to make himself a body?" Harry finally asked.

'No idea. The most likely method would be to create some a ritual. I imagine that's one of the reasons why he hasn't pushed hard to get the stone yet, access to Hogwart's library would be most useful for that sort of research.'

Another long pause.

"Could we use the stone to give you a body?"

Tom sighed, 'Even if we could, I wouldn't want it Harry. I've lived my life and don't want to live it again.'

"But you could live a better life. Make friends, find a girl friend, make a difference to the world. All the things that you tell me I should do."

'No Harry. Just being able to help you and share in your successes is more than I deserved. I also don't trust myself enough, there is too much in the world that needs fixing and I know I don't have the moral fortitude to set myself proper limits. I would start of thinking I was doing the right thing, I would excuse the small things, then the bigger things and I wouldn't stop. You're different. You question things more than I ever did Harry. You're a better person.'

Harry shook his hand and sighed. He wasn't sure he agreed but that was of lesser importance, "I don't want to lose you Tom."

'I'm not planning to leave just yet Harry.'

-my-friend-tom-

The first year Gryffindors were gathered around Neville patting him on the back and laughing.

Neville was recounting to the newcomers how he had used a shield to block Draco's leg-locker curse and bounced it right back at him sending the blonde git face first into the floor of the corridor. "And then Goyle looks down at him and blinking stupidly asks 'Are you okay Draco?' Of course Draco can't decide who to yell so he starts swearing at both me and Goyle. He was so man he was getting confused but he still got louder. Crabbe and Goyle were just ignoring me and trying to help him, course there spells were worse than useless. I decided it was time to get out of there but then Professor Sprout came rushing up. Guess she heard Draco's screaming. and boy did she not look happy."

Neville paused and took a deep breath.

"So of course Draco, who is literally spitting blood since his nose is all bloodied, is instantly all calm like and starts telling Professor Sprout that I cast the leg-locker spell on him and demanding that I be expelled or that his father will make sure she doesn't have a job."

There are the required number of gasps from the audience.

Neville smiles, "I start to deny it but Crabbe and Goyle are now both agreeing with him now, then Professor Sprout starts shaking her head at me like shes very disappointed but I can see faint smile on her face so I'm a little less worried. She looks me in the eye and says 'Casting curses in the corridors and at another students is strictly forbidden. Wand please.' I hand over my wand and Draco is smirking at me. Then she turns to Draco, 'Wand please.' He didn't want to but she doesn't give him a choice. Then she casts this spell, prior something, and it showed the most recently cast spell. Of course Draco's wand shows the leg-locker and mine shows the shield spell. She was mightily impressed by that let me tell you."

Neville puts up his hand to receive a high five from Harry, "Thanks to you for that."

"Then she asks Draco if he want's to change his story and Draco starts making up some cock and bull about me teasing him or something but Professor Sprouts has had enough. So the three of them have detention for four nights for not only casting magic in the hall, but casting it at another students, trying to get them into trouble and also lying to a teacher. Best of all, as we leave, I can hear Draco yelling at Doyle who was trying to uncurse his legs. She took his wand and didn't uncurse him. I bet they had to carry him to the hospital."

-my-friend-tom-

"What about a different school Harry? There must be more wizarding schools than just Hogwarts. I can go to to the library and do some research."

Harry shrugged, "There are a few but unless you travel a long way they mostly trade based schools that only occasional offer Owl level courses."

Hermione frowned, "What about Europe? If it was a boarding school it wouldn't make much difference if we were a little further away. It's not like I'm allowed to see my parents on the weekends anyhow." More than a little irritation entered her voice at the last.

"Well, there's Durmstrang located in Norway, mostly attended by the European aristocracy and well to do wizards, they don't accept muggleborns at all. Then there's Beauxbatons in France, though we'd have to be naturalised french or one of the neighbouring countries before they'd even consider admitting us."

"What about America or Australia?"

Harry pursed his lips, "I wouldn't go to America. It's like the civil war never ended there, gangs, companies and the government all fighting each other for dominance. You don't go to school so much as you get enlisted. The Australian School of Magic is meant to be fairly good if though rather small. much more focused on the practical than Hogwarts. It's top of my list for alternatives."

"Ohh.. you've already thought about changing schools?"

"Definately. If…" Harry's voice trailed off as he ventured a little too close to secrets he didn't want revealed. "eh.. sorry. There are a few things my tutor asked me to keep private. One of the things I want to help him with involve me being here a bit longer."

Hermione nodded, "So, once that's finished. Do you think you'll move to Australia?"

Harry tried not to let his face fall at that. Finished meant Tom was finished. Not something he wanted to consider. He was just glad that Tom was busy working on something at the moment otherwise Tom would have been berating him for letting that get him done at all.

"Maybe. Course I wouldn't want to go alone."

Hermione smiled brightly and wrapped him up in a hug, "You're a good friend Harry. If it wasn't for you I'd be a little drone like all the others here." She pursed her lips as she released him, "Is there anything we can do for the others?"

"I don't know Hermione. The ritual is not easy and I don't want to share that with anyone I don't trust. The teachers could hear about it and come up with a way of casting even stronger ones on us. I've learned that there is a potion that can do it but it's expensive, fairly dangerous and puts the person out for a number of days. A healer should be in attendance for anyone taking it. And you'd still need to trust the person, they'd need to be able to act and also know some level of Occlumency. I wish we could help them all but I can't think of any way."

"It's just so wrong." Hermione beat her little fist on the desk they were sitting at.

-my-friend-tom-

"Hey Tom"

'Yes Harry?'

"What do you think about this ritual?"

There was a pause as Tom read the ritual through Harry's eyes.

'I've heard of it before. Developed by the romans so that their warlock teams could last longer on the battlefield. The teams were trained to fight as a unit and the lose of any member would effectively cripple them. The ritual allowed an individual to survive longer. It lost favour when each wizard put more importance on their own life than that of their fellows. I wonder why your mum was so interested in it.'

"Do you think she could have used it on me to save me?"

'That's an interesting idea, but no. If she'd cast it just like it's written then you would have died when she did. However, I could see this as a starting point towards developing a new ritual. Do you mind if I read along with you Harry?'

"Of course not Tom. I don't think my mum would be unhappy for you to read her diary with me. You're not the same person that killed her." Harry had been surprised when Tom had initially told him that he didn't feel it was right to read his mum's book through his eyes. He was glad that he had changed his mind and he could now share some more about his mum with his best friend.

'I'm not sure I totally agree with you there but I do try.'

"You worry too much Tom. Umm.. it uses a lot of blood. Is that normal for powerful rituals?"

'It used to be. Blood magic is frowned upon if not outright banned by the Ministry. Almost all wizarding families still practice it in secret though. It's good for long lasting effects and usually beneficial, if the blood is willingly given. Most of the useful farm based, home protection and weather magics work better if blood is sacrificed. The blood acts as a conduit for the magic.'

"If the wizarding families still use it why is it banned?"

'Mainly because they don't want to share. It allows them to restrict the teaching of the more powerful magics. There is also the danger of subverting spells cast with blood magic against the caster. Though that wasn't common. People that did that usually found that all their enemies would temporarily put their own differences aside to come and sort them out.'

"They'd gang up on casters?"

'That was probably the first wizarding law. You shall not subvert the blood of others or something similar. It was the law that was eventually extended into its current bloated form.'

"Should we do some research on the ritual?"

'Leave it with me. We already have way too much on our plate.'

Harry couldn't argue with that. Tom had ramped up his defensive training and after he was exhausted casting spells to stun or distract a pursuer Tom would have spend half an hour pouring power into Tom's old school robes. The runes to conceal their magic were now all fully charged and he was slowly building up the charge in the more useful defences now.

His work on robes for Hermione was proceeding very slowly. So far he had managed to enchant a towel to dry itself quicker successfully. It had taken three attempts till it worked and it still felt a bit scratchy. Still it was a big improvement from the first, which had exploded into flames, or the second, which had felt exactly like sandpaper.

-my-friend-tom-

There had been a lot of worried faces and less than kind words directed at Snape when it had been discovered that he was to referee the next match. Hermione, Ron and the few other Gryffindor's that they had shared their belief regarding Harry's first match where near to panic. Whilst they really wanted to win the match they didn't want it to happen at the cost of Harry getting badly hurt.

The only one who wasn't that worried but was trying his best to not show it was Harry. He knew Snape had been working to help him last time and though the man was incredibly unprofessional and unpleasant it seemed like he was still doing his best to make sure Harry wasn't injured.

It made Harry feel a little guilty that Tom and him still were planning to get him sacked once the threat from Quirrell was sorted. However after the very next potion lesson and Snape's acidic attention and tongue was focused on him and his fellow Gryffindors that guilt faded away.

Harry decided to take out his frustration out on Malfoy instead. After Malfoy's aborted attempt at cursing Neville he had turned back to verbal taunts and they were slowly wearing away at Neville's confidence again. Malfoy was also making some inroads into regaining his status within his house. Harry didn't know what had happened over the holidays but Malfoy seemed to have more friends after it. It was time to fix that and though Tom didn't think it was wise to waste too much time dealing with what he thought of as a little threat he did help, or rather direct, Harry's attempt to tweak the confundus curse. Tom always said that Harry needed to occasionally take time out for the fun things in life.

By the time Tom and Harry had finished reworking the spell so it was weaker but could last longer. It was a neat little reworking that allowed Malfoy a bit more freedom to put what was in his thoughts onto paper, or rather, it reduced self-censorship when he was writing. It couldn't actually influence thoughts, just actions and only when the target was tired or otherwise distracted.

His transfiguration homework received the benefit. Professor McGonagall had been reading through and marking papers whilst the class continued on with their practice when suddenly she stood up so quickly that he chair flew backwards to crash into the wall.

"Mr Malfoy. Front and centre right now." Her tone had moved from no nonsense deputy headmaster to angry drill sergeant.

Malfoy quailed and stuttered, "Professor?" but his hesitation made it all the worse as Professor McGonagall wasn't in the mood to be patient.

With a flick of her wand Draco Malfoy found himself being literally dragged from his seat and to the front of the room by his ear. Harry presumed that the spell wasn't literally putting all the pressure on the ear as at that speed by rights it should have been torn off. Still by the redness and Malfoy's squeals of pain it obviously also wasn't just a purely visual effect of the spell.

"Is this your writing and your words?" she asked holding a sheet of parchment in front of his face.

Malfoy, blinking tears from his eyes as he rubbed his ear, quickly read over the part she indicated. "Eh.. yes.. oh.. well I didn't.."

"Did you write this?" she snapped.

Malfoy grimaced and nodded.

"Right." She turned to the rest of the class. "Everyone can practice that spell in their own time. You need help you ask a classmate. Anyone who can't determine which of the three needles is transfigured next class will lose five points. Class Dismissed. Well? Move it!"

Everyone scrambled for the door shoving books, quills and inks into bags as they moved. No one wanted to tangle with McGonagall in her current mood.

Gryffindors and Slytherins alike paused near the nearest corner to watch as Professor McGonagall dragged a shell shocked Malfoy by the arm in the direction of the dungeon.

"What do you think he wrote?" asked Hermione distractedly.

Harry gave a little shrug and tried to answer nonchalantly, "probably he forgot himself and wrote down some of the vile things he normally says aloud."

Malfoy spent the entirety of the following weekend in detention and missed Harry's amazing catch of the Snitch only five minutes into the game.

Author Notes: Thanks to all my readers and reviewers. I'm very glad I've decided to reply individually to reviews. I've already had a few return replies that have given me new food for thought and new topics to include in this and later chapters. I love hearing comments and suggestions no matter whether I can add them to my story or not.