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Dear Remus
I'll admit that I do want to make a set of communication mirrors for a girl. We are not dating, mostly because I refuse to put a target like that on her back. But we are kind of connected, not exactly romantically at the moment but… She's very important to me.
I don't think you could understand unless I tell you the full story, but if I do that, then I cannot tell you her name. I promised I wouldn't tell anyone. As you may or not know, when they tested us at the start of the year Madam Pomfrey found blocks on my magic. I don't know if Mum or Dad ever told you about doing it but I would like to know why my magic was blocked twice if you do know about it. Anyway, I'm sure you remember the only way to remove childhood magical blocks if the caster isn't available to remove them themselves, and you might have heard the vague stories of some sort of bond forming between the couple when the block is removed.
Well, I can tell you that the bond is real. It's not emotional, or it not just emotional or even mostly emotional, I do feel a lot for the girl who helped me but I'm pretty sure that's more because with the bond I've got to know her better than I've ever known anyone before not because of the bond itself. If it had been safe for her, I definitely would have asked her out, I still plan to after Voldie's dead and the war is over if we both survive and she's still single. I can't say that I'm in love with her but because of the bond I trust her more than anyone else, I care about her wellbeing more than just about anyone else and it hurts to think of her dating or being with anyone else. I promised not to tell anyone who she was, so please don't ask. Anyway, the bond connects our sensations, I can feel if she's hungry, hurt or hot or cold, I can taste what she's eating and I can sometimes hear what she's hearing and see what she's seeing if we're both thinking of each other hard enough. As you could imagine, with all that going on it would all be easier for both of us to deal with if we could warn each other about things, but we can't communicate to warn each other about stuff unless the other person is paying attention to the bond too. For example when I'm training for defence or quidditch it helps me if she isn't doing something to distract me and she wouldn't have to worry that I was attacked if I do get hit by a spell, and she can stay away from stairs and sharp objects so she doesn't get hurt in case I'm knocked unconscious. Though to be honest a linked piece of parchment where we can jot notes to each other might be more useful if it had a way of notifying us to look at it and security charms so nobody else can read it, or something like the DA coins that Hermione made that heat up or vibrate when the code on them is changed, but I can't ask her to make me a pair. She would do it, but not before asking a million questions and demanding to know the answers.
As you can guess this is my biggest secret, Pomfrey and McGonagall are the only two people who know. I'm not even game to tell Ron and Hermione. This girl would be my biggest weakness, the bond between us is strong enough that I don't want to think about what would happen to me if she were killed or being tortured, or what will happen to her if I die.
Regards
Harry
PS: I put your bet on, Seamus took your bet but he said to tell you that he won't pay out if you eat him yourself or arrange a friend of yours to do it.
Seamus originally wouldn't let me bet on him being cursed through the classroom window by me sometime in the next month. I eventually talked him around to being cursed through the window but he said he'll only pay out if I can prove I didn't do it so if you feel like coming and starting an argument with him for some reason, during which you curse him through the window without telling anyone it was my idea, I'd gladly share my winnings with you.
Remus laughed at the post script though the contents of the rest of the letter worried him. He wished that Harry had written to him for advice before choosing someone to unblock his magic with and wanted to go to Hogwarts to make sure the boy understood all of the possible consequences of his actions. He prayed that the girl wasn't pregnant because that would be a bigger disaster than anything else that might happen once the girl's family found out.
-o0o-
Harry eventually persuaded Ron and Hermione to help him find out what Draco was up to in the room of requirement, though the hassle of not being able to use the room when they wanted to and Harry's constant complaining about Draco hogging the room, probably factored largely into their decision since they refused to believe that Draco could be a Death Eater or that whatever he was up to might impact the safety of the school.
With Harry, and Ron harassing Crabbe and Goyle and Hermione standing with them arguing to distract Draco and make him think he was safe because he knew where the three of them were as he opened the room of requirement, and Neville hiding disillusioned out of sight to provide back up if the Slytherins started throwing dangerous curses, Susan was able to stand under the invisibility cloak outside the room of requirement, occluding as hard as she could so that her thoughts wouldn't affect the choice of rooms when Draco opened it, and to be able to cast a stunning charm on Draco as he entered the door and follow him in before the door shut without his bodyguards being aware of what had happened. With Draco unconscious she sent Harry a message to take out Crabbe and Goyle and was then able to take control of the room and let the others in.
Neville joined them as they dragged the two bodyguards into a nearby classroom and gagged and hogtied them to each other.
Hermione was still complaining their actions telling Harry that it was pointless because they still couldn't get into the room to find out what Malfoy was doing.
"Oh thank Merlin, he persuaded you all to come. It's going to take freaking ages to sort through all this and work out what Malfoy was doing in here," Susan greeted them as they entered.
"Susan, what are you doing here?" Hermione demanded turning to Harry. "Why did you ask her for help? I would have expected Neville to ask Luna."
Susan stepped in before Harry had to decide to either admit Susan was his girlfriend or come up with an excuse. "My Aunt and Guardian is the head of the DMLE. If we can find that Malfoy is up to something illegal then she's more likely to believe me if I've seen it for myself."
"Susan also knows occlumency, so she could stand near the door while Draco called up the room without influencing what it became," Harry added.
"Luna is busy, she would have helped next time if Malfoy hadn't shown up today," Neville added.
"Harry, this Malfoy obsession is becoming too much. Just because you hate the guy doesn't mean he's breaking the law. You-Know-Who isn't going to mark schoolchildren," Hermione scolded. "I'm sorry he dragged you into it Susan but there's just nothing to find."
"Really?" Susan asked walking over to Draco who was still unconscious and petrified and pulled up his left sleeve. "So you're saying that you believe Harry was lying when he told the Aurors that Malfoy tried to cast the cruciatus on him the other week, even though Malfoy's wand proved that it was the last spell he'd cast. I thought you were his friends. Or are you trying to tell us that the Dark Mark on his arm isn't there? Or do you think he might have drawn it on himself because it sure looks real? Harry was right, Malfoy is an evil wizard, he's not just a school rival anymore."
"Bloody Hell!" Ron yelled.
Neville looked at the mark then cast the hog tying spell before stunning him again for good luck. "I didn't think to check Crabbe and Goyle. We're going to have to obliviate the three of them," he said to Harry.
"You're not messing around with obliviate spells. Auntie will want to be able to question them when she arrests Malfoy," Susan retorted.
"So now you know I was right about him being a Death Eater, do you have any idea how to tell what he's been doing in here? Or are we going to be in here all night looking for something dangerous to the school," Harry asked Hermione.
"Yes, stand still everyone so you don't muddy the results," Hermione said casting a spell to make recent footprints glow in the dusty room. There were a lot of them around the door but by eliminating Hermione's and Susan's as being too small and Ron's and Neville's as too big they were able to identify a trail leading off to the left. They started to follow it, Hermione in front recasting the spell when it started to fade until they came to a cabinet that was surrounded by footprints.
"He's doing something with this cabinet," Hermione said.
"Hey, isn't that the vanishing cabinet that the twins shoved Montague into a couple of years ago?" Ron asked.
Susan pulled out a funny pair of glasses designed to show magic and looked through them. "I think that it's broken and he's trying to repair the runes," she said, handing the glasses to Hermione. "Be careful to only look at the cabinet, the walls are blinding."
Hermione looked through the glasses carefully. "I think you're right, what do we do?"
"We should destroy it. Set it on fire," Ron suggested.
"I think we should try to fix it so we can work out what Malfoy was trying to do," Hermione said looking curiously at the runes.
"If you're going to spend hours looking at the cabinet I'm going back to stun Malfoy again. Who knows what will happen to the room and us if he regained consciousness since he's the one who called it into being," Neville said.
"If you're going to spend hours trying to fix some project of Malfoy's without knowing what it does or what could happen or having a decent plan to protect yourself from whatever it is, then you're an idiot," Susan said bluntly. "I say we either floo call my Aunt and get someone who knows what this is to look at it or we do what Ron suggested and set it on fire."
"Do we actually have any useable proof that Malfoy has done something illegal?" Harry asked.
"Dumbledore prevented him from being arrested for the cruciatus the other day though he should have been tried for it. The Dark Mark on his arm proves that he's joined a terrorist organization, but other than that I don't think so. We can't even prove if he was trying to fix this cabinet or trying to destroy it, and even if we could, trying to fix an old cabinet isn't a crime," Hermione said frowning.
"It kills you doesn't it, to even think about destroying a rune puzzle like that?" Harry asked.
"Yes it does, but Susan is right. Until we know what it does and what he was planning to do with it, we'd be stupid to try to fix it," Hermione said sighing.
"Do we have enough to call your aunt without annoying her for wasting her time?" Harry asked.
Susan sighed, "Not as it stands no, and even if you could threaten an explanation of what he was doing out of him, it wouldn't hold up as evidence," she said apologetically. "If Malfoy was trying to fix the cabinet and we knew what it was and why we might but he's been trying to fix it for weeks now. We're not likely to manage to finish it today so anything we did do would just be helping him."
"Especially as we still don't know what he was thinking of to guarantee we can get back into this version of the room again so we'd be leaving it here for him, and I doubt we could pull this stunt again once he's on his guard," Neville said.
Harry nodded and turned to Hermione, "Is there any way to tell what the last five or so spells cast on the cabinet were?" He asked. He knew from the day Madam Bones had tested Malfoys wand that eighteen out of the last twenty spells had been reparo but he needed Hermione to accept it before he destroyed the cabinet. Otherwise she'd complain about it for the rest of the year.
Hermione bit her lip and thought for a minute. "None that I know," she admitted.
"You could try to undo them. You're stronger than the ferret so that might work," Ron suggested.
"Okay have a good look at the cabinet so hopefully we'll be able to spot the difference," Harry encouraged them.
"It's no good Harry. We're going to need a camera unless Hermione has an eidetic memory," Susan said.
A camera appeared on the table beside her and she quickly photographed all the sides of the cabinet inside and out as well as the floor and the roof inside. The room then provided them with the developed photographs blown up to life size.
"Let Ron try first. You don't want to overpower the spells and convert it back to a pile of lumber waiting to be built into a cabinet," Neville said teasingly.
Ron and Hermione scoffed at the idea but Susan and Harry laughingly agreed and Ron cast a finite incantation at moderate power and they examined the cabinet again comparing it to the photographs.
"I can't see any difference. Try again Ron," Hermione ordered.
Irritated Ron put all his power into the next cast. "Finite Incantatum," he yelled.
They searched carefully again and found a difference. "Malfoy is repairing the runes," Hermione said, sounding almost disappointed.
"Yes, that one was fixed in the photograph," Susan agreed pointing out the difference to Harry and Neville. "You need to destroy the cabinet."
"It seems a pity to destroy it, what if we moved it and fixed it ourselves?" Hermione asked. "If we fixed it we could work out what Malfoy is planning to do with it."
"I know you'd like to work out the puzzle but unless we know what it does and what Malfoy's plans are, we'd just be playing into them. Even you are not going to be able to fix that many runes in one afternoon so you'd end up helping with whatever he's trying to do. Susan's right, we need to destroy it so it can't be fixed," Harry retorted.
Susan asked the room to clear the space around the cabinet and to erect the strongest dueling ward it could to protect them from flying splinters.
"But how do we make sure that it's destroyed enough that Malfoy can't just repair it again?" Hermione asked. "Even if we damage it to slow him down it's likely to make him desperate and put more time and effort into fixing it."
"If you're suggesting we move it so Malfoy can't find it then I don't think so. We don't know that the room wouldn't bring it back for him or take him to it," Ron said.
"Get Harry to do it," Neville said dryly. "He's the strongest student at Hogwarts and even he can't repair stuff that he's blown to smithereens."
"Collect the pieces and remove them from the room," Susan added.
"Burn the pieces," Ron suggested.
"Burn the pieces and vanish the ashes," Harry added.
"That's overkill but it would definitely work," Hermione agreed amused.
"Maybe we'd be better off just damaging it a bit more so he keep trying to fix it," Harry said. "At least at the moment we know what he's doing even if we don't know why. If we destroy the cabinet we won't know what he's going to do next."
"But we won't know when he has succeeded or what he's planning to do with it, remember we won't be able to get back in here to check on his progress and unless he's very skilfully obliviated he's going to know something happened this afternoon, so he might change his plans anyway," Neville said.
"You still think he's behind what happened to Katie Bell and Slughorn's poisoned mead?" Susan said.
Hermione scoffed. "He's not behind every bad thing that happens this year Harry," She grumbled.
"But he is a Death Eater and I think that what happened with the cursed necklace and the poisoned mead were both attempts to kill someone in the castle. Slughorn admitted he bought the mead intending to gift it to Dumbledore," Harry replied. "I'm not sure how the necklace that cursed Katie would have got to Dumbledore but I'd say he's the most likely target."
"Or you were the target of the necklace, Katie is your friend and it happened right in front of you. Most people would have expected you to dart in and try to get the necklace away from her and get caught by it too," Susan said.
Hermione looked shaken but couldn't refute that, it had happened in front of Harry and she had thought that he would act rashly like that.
"Okay then, if you're right, what could he be doing with the cabinet that could kill you or Dumbledore?" Susan asked.
"I haven't a clue," Harry said.
"Ron, you said that you thought it was the same cabinet that Montague vanished into for a month or so?" Neville asked.
"Yeah but he can't be planning on pushing Dumbledore into it. That would be harder to do than killing him, and Montague came out again eventually," Ron replied.
"Where did Montague go?" Neville asked.
"I don't think he remembered enough to tell anyone what had happened while he was gone by the time he recovered, if he even noticed the missing time," Susan said thoughtfully.
"But what if that was because the cabinet was broken. What if it's supposed to go somewhere?" Neville asked. "Draco's trying to fix it somehow, what if it's supposed to be a portal to somewhere else."
"And if Voldemort has access to the other end he could have ordered Malfoy to fix this one so he could get through the wards without anybody knowing and inside the castle. Then he could kill Dumbledore himself," Harry said.
"If Voldemort and the Death Eaters get into the castle all the way up here, they'll kill a lot more people than just Dumbledore. If Malfoy let them in at the end of dinner the whole of Gryffindor would be coming up the stairs," Neville said worriedly. "Or if he knew their timetables well enough he could pick a time at the end of the day when just the younger year levels are headed to the common room."
"He wouldn't need to know the timetable. He'd have the high ground and there are plenty of statues and armour to hide behind, he and a group of his followers could take out the older students before we could put up much of a fight. With five or six Death Eaters he could kill most of the entire house if that was their intention, most of the Gryffindors would stand and fight rather than try to run," Ron said.
"Is that enough to have Malfoy arrested?" Harry asked Susan.
"I don't think so," Susan said uncertainly. "It's not a crime to try to fix a broken cabinet and we can't prove what he was trying to do with it once it's fixed. If word got out that Malfoy had been arrested and the cabinet seized then all anybody has to do is destroy the other end of the portal and there's no proof of anything at all."
"Okay it's too big a risk to leave it, we destroy the cabinet immediately and worry about what the Ferret will do next later," Harry said.
The others all agreed and Susan began ushering them behind the duelling ward.
Neville went quickly without arguing and Ron and Hermione followed. Hermione watched as Harry checked that they were safely behind the ward before casting and she wondered what he was planning to cast that would have splinters flying this far. She didn't hear the incantation but the middle of the cabinet disintegrated into small shards of wood. Harry cast twice more and the top and bottom of the cabinet also ceased to exist as a cabinet.
Hermione stared at him shaken by the power of the spells. He conjured two bags and cast a spell to collect all of the shards of wood into them. Susan cancelled the ward and took one of the bags calling an elf and asking her to burn the wood shards in the household furnace at Bones manor. Neville saw the sense in sending the shards to another part of the country but he wasn't willing to call a house elf in Hermione's presence, instead he watched Harry ask the room for a fire place and burn them before vanishing the ashes.
"What spell did you use?" Hermione asked.
"Bombardia" Harry replied, harry replied wondering why she needed to ask. It was the obvious spell for this sort of thing.
Hermione looked back sceptically, picturing the cabinet exploding into wood dust and splinters. She'd never seen 'Bombardia' do that.
"Okay, we've still got Malfoy and his goons tied up. What do we do with them? We haven't got any evidence of what they've been trying to do," Harry asked.
"But if we untie them, heal the rope marks and can somehow get them down to the dungeons without being seen then even if they blame you there'll be no proof," Susan suggested.
"Lack of proof isn't going to stop them and Snape from blaming me. I'd rather call the Aurors and have Malfoy arrested," Harry said.
"I agree but unfortunately the Dark Mark on it's own isn't enough to be arrested for, even with the notification Auntie said she was going to put in his file it won't be enough to get Dumbledore let her arrest him," Susan replied.
"And we can't kill him?" Harry asked jokingly.
"No, pity that," Neville deadpanned.
"Even with your you-know-what It's going to be hard to get all three of them down to the dungeons without being seen, and it won't do any good if the last thing they remember is arguing with us," Ron said.
The room produced a door and Neville being closest, looked out. "I'm not sure where it goes, I don't recognise the hallway but it's definitely underground and hasn't been used or cleaned in ages," he said.
"Okay then, we need to get Crabbe and Goyle in here, then we can untie them, heal any damage done by tying them up and dump them down there," Susan planned.
A door opened on the other side and this time Hermione opened it. "This is the regular corridor," she reported.
Harry, Ron and Neville went and got Crabbe and Goyle. Harry re-stunned them and cast the strongest confundus he could while the girls weren't there to object.
"That's a bit unfair, they behave like they've been confounded all the time. They'll be lucky if they're able to walk and talk at the same time until it wears off," Neville said amused.
"I want to obliviate them but Susan's right, I haven't got the finesse. I'd end up overpowering the spells and turning them into Professor Lockhart and permanent damage like that to a pure blood would result in the Aurors called in to investigate and you can bet their families won't allow it to be brushed under the carpet like the attack on me was," Harry replied.
"You'll need to clear your wand before Snape catches up with you," Neville warned him.
"We all will." Harry checked the map and he and Ron levitated the two Slytherins back to the Room of Requirement making sure to bash their heads and bodies a bit against the walls and ceiling. Neville levitated Malfoy and they went out the new door the room had provided them dumping them in one of the side rooms. Harry healed the rope marks from where they'd been hogtied and silently cast the confundus on Malfoy without Susan noticing.
"I think that this is a level below the potions' classroom and the entrance to Slytherin," Hermione said.
"It doesn't look like the corridor has been used in years," said Susan casting a spell to stir up the dust to hide their footprints.
"Then it might be a while before they're found," Ron said.
"It might cause problems if they're there for too long and are still stunned. There aren't many other students who could do that," Neville worried.
"The twins spell bomb will make it look like there were a dozen different signatures so they won't suspect a single witch or wizard," Ron said pulling one out and offering it to Harry.
"Can it be linked back to them? Because you and Ginny are the only Weasleys in the castle and I wouldn't want to point the finger at you," Harry asked.
"No they were careful with that," Ron replied.
Harry took it and dropped it on them with a couple of the Weasley twins other inventions to mask what had happened to them and their magical signatures, laughing as they saw the trio start to turn funny colours and grow tentacles while their clothes changed into fairy princess costumes before hurrying back to the door to the room of requirement that Hermione was holding open for them.
"But after what happened to McGonagall during our OWLs they'll treat it like a serious attack if they think they've been stunned by multiple people at once," Hermione said worriedly.
"There's nothing we can do about it now," Harry said. "We saved the school from being invaded by Death Eaters, if we get in serious trouble then we will just explain why we did it. Malfoy got away with trying to Crucio me, surely I should get a free pass for stunning him and his friends if I explain that I thought they were lying in wait to ambush me and my friends."
"You know it doesn't work that way for you," Neville said cynically.
"That's true so we keep our mouths shut and hope we haven't done anything to give us away, but Dumbledore won't let Snape expel or permanently harm me," Harry replied insisting that the others all cast thirty common personal care spells and the spells they were learning in class that week to clear all traces of the spells they'd used from their wands.
A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed and those who followed or favourited this story for your support.