Slytherins Secret

AN: Umm yeah sorry for the late update, I totally suck . I haven't decided to what extent McGonagall is being manipulated, but I do think canon McGonagall is the worst head of house possible, I mean she's a head of house and deputy head(ignoring that that work load is ridiculous) it's her job to deal with incompetent/corrupt junior teachers and senile superiors, no matter how much she respects Dumbles its ridiculous that she never checks on Harry, and nobody believes that Hagrid introduces all magical children to their new world.

Chapter 11: Negotiations

When Harry awoke the next morning he was still smiling, I wonder if I could somehow get the Twins to try that…nah, Hermione would figure it out somehow, she always seems to know when I'm trying to hide something like that. Still pranking might be fun, if nothing tries to kill me next year and I'm careful not to let it become bullying, maybe I could try it, might be a good way to study without letting on how much smarter and more motivated I am. Lying in bed with his eyes still closed Harry continued to practice his meditation, he didn't think imagining a blank room would work for him, but he found meditation calmed him anyway. After about half an hour of this he yawned, stretched like a cat and, deciding it was time to get up, did so. Whilst reaching for his glasses, he realised happily, that his eyesight was still improving, and had actually nearly returned to what it had been in the first days of school when he just had trouble seeing the board, I'm not going to be totally blind without my glasses and the prescription is finally right, Awesome!

Looking at the clock after he had showered and dressed, Harry realised he had woken up earlier than previous days, so it was not yet eleven, he accepted his healthy breakfast with a smile and thanks for the elf that brought it and found himself less ravenous (although still with a healthy appetite) than previous days. I must finally be fully recovered from the fight and used to the time ward he mused to himself silently, oh well, it helped me appear ill and will help me appear recovered now, although I don't doubt I'll have daily check-ups. A few minutes later he was proven right, Madam Pomfrey declared him safe to perform magic near and on, as long as the spells were non-invasive, but insisted that he return to her every morning for a check-up and chat. He agreed to spend the day until after lunch in the infirmary and only leave when the Weasleys had come to pick up Ron, the smaller number of students (casting magic for the last time before the summer) the better as far as the Healer was concerned.

When Harry was finishing of the exercises for his scar tissue a stern brown owl appeared at the window and tapped irritably to get his attention, even without his abilities Harry could interpret its attitude 'let me in peon I don't have all day to waste on you'. Probably a ministry owl Harry thought snarkily as he let it in, glancing around the hospital wing and checking quickly for any magic on the owl he decided to take a chance and hopefully avoid being bitten. ~Greetings noble Post Owl, I am glad to make your acquaintance, may I offer you refreshment?~ hopefully formality will win my bonus points.

~You speak? Humph if barely, take the letter little mage and I will find my own food~

"Yes sir!" Harry replied, and hastily relieved the snobbish bird of its burden, allowing it to fly straight back out of the open window, towards the forest. Looking down at the letter in his hands he was unsurprised to see the insignia of the Ministry of Magic, the Minister's personal seal over the flap was more surprising, must be a reply to my letter then. Looking over at where Madam Pomfrey was working, he called out "letter from the Minister if you're interested?" and she came over.

He opened the letter with the healer reading over his shoulder and read:

Dear Master Potter,

I appreciate you bringing this matter to my attention, it seems that it had slipped Lord Malfoy and Mr Dumbledore's minds to inform me as to the conclusion of events, perhaps you would agree to meet informally with me to discuss this during your summer? Don't worry; you're in no trouble my boy, the Ministry is always glad to hear from concerned citizens although I do not, of course, always have time for a personal reply.

Your suggestions were well thought out, you should be proud of your insight at such a young age, Mr Hagrid has been sent for a few days check-up and will return to Hogwarts with a new wand when he is well. It will be his decision to finish his schooling, as he already has the OWLs needed to carry a wand as an adult he may decide against.

Thank you for your letter and congratulations on your award for special services to the school.

Sincerely

Cornelius Fudge (Minister for Magic)

"Well, I believe he thinks you might be worth significant political capital Harry, you will have to be very careful what you say to him and where. But this is good, I'm so happy for Hagrid, very few people deserve that awful place, and now he won't have to carry that silly umbrella." She giggled mischievously; Hagrid's pink Muggle umbrella was notorious.

"It hasn't felt right without him here" Harry agreed smiling, "I'll let the others know before they leave, and don't worry I will be careful if I decide to see him, I will have to send a quick thank you note." He added as an afterthought and quickly scribbled out a draft.

Dear Minister Fudge,

Thank you for your prompt and generous response; I appreciate you taking the time to reassure me personally, I'm sure Mr Hagrid is very grateful for the opportunity to use magic again. I will have to consult my guardians before meeting you; my summer arrangements mean that my movement is restricted to keep me safe.

Hopefully we will meet soon

Sincerely

Harry Potter

When the matron had approved his letter he wrote it up neatly and put it aside to send with a school owl that evening. He was starting to feel very nervous about talking to Ron's dad that evening, but distracted himself with Runes whilst he waited for McGonagall to come and see him to confirm his choice of electives. Just after twelve the stern witch appeared in the Hospital wing door.

"Good day Mr Potter, Divination and Creatures wasn't it? Well there are no scheduling problems so I shall just approve it and leave you to your book." She reeled out, already turning to leave the room and not noticing the nature of the book despite the large rune on the page it was open at.

"Hello Professor McGonagall, actually I was thinking of changing electives." For a woman who, Madam Pomfrey says, hates divination with a fiery passion you are making very little effort to dissuade one of your 'little lions' from taking a futile course. Harry's eyes narrowed angrily; well at least I know that, for whatever reason, you are totally under the old man's thumb.

"Really Mr Potter, why you can't make your mind up I don't know, nothing has changed since Easter." She responded irritably but turned back around and finally entered the room .

"I don't know about that Professor, I'm older, I've had more than a day to think about the electives, and more to the point, I've just faced Voldemort for the second time since his supposed death, now I don't need Divination to realise he will try again and he will go after me again when he does."

"Very well what are your choices now?"

"Ancient Runes, Arithmancy and Care of Magical Creatures please." Harry replied promptly, smiling a she blinked.

"Reason for change?" She asked in a bored voice.

"Having been Muggle raised, by manaphobes, and having had only three weeks to acclimatise to magic, fame and parents that weren't unemployed drunks dead in a car crash, I have frequently found my background knowledge of the magical world lacking. Having received no career advice, and having no informed guardian, I had too guess at the best courses; Hermione thought all of them sounded good, so she was no help, and Ron's taking the same as I was, having magical parents and five older brothers, I figured he knew the best courses. However I read the start of the Divination book whilst stuck here and thought it sounded like a load of rubbish, so I looked at Runes and Arithmancy, both seem interesting, but hard, so I thought I'd take both and drop one if I found it to hard." Harry smiled innocently; hopefully my 'plan to drop one' will pacify the old man.

"It really is a little late to be changing like that Mr Potter…" McGonagall began, completely ignoring the manaphobe comment.

"I believe the last possible date to change is after the first week of the new class, as long as the student is able to procure a new book, Professor." Harry corrected 'helpfully'.

"Ah yes…very well, those three electives it is, I hope to see more work from you Mr Potter or you will be forced to drop one." She admonished sternly looking down her nose over her glasses.

"I'm sure without a teacher possessed by Voldemort ,giving me massive headaches whenever we were in the same room, whilst trying to deal with fan girls and magic; or without the threat of a deadly monster, a deranged house elf and the whole school openly accusing me of attempted murder, I will be able to concentrate better, Professor!" Harry added the last word only as a courtesy, his mouth had got away from him a little, but he was very annoyed with how badly the staff had looked out for him since arriving in the magical world. Whether or not it was all part of Dumbledore's machinations didn't matter, they were adults, he was a child, and it was quite literally their job to look after him.

"Humph, very well, see that you do." McGonagall replied and left the wing. Harry threw a disgusted look at her back, thanks for the support…not, and went back to his runes. To think, it's not even lunch time yet.

When the Weasleys arrived it was in a buffeting wave of sound, as Percy ranted at the twins, who were happily bantering back and forth, ignoring his loud protestations and Ron was still earnestly talking to his dad about something. Harry took one look at the loud gathering and Madam Pomfrey's lips pursuing from the invasion of her calm ward, before suggesting they move to one of the adjoining visitor's rooms. The Weasleys happily followed him as he called an elf for lunch and seated himself hoping that he could follow Mr Weasley's lead a little in the coming negotiations. He tentatively pushed his new senses out to the walls of the small room and could detect no spells, neither could he see any portraits, hopefully that would do.

"Hi everyone, sorry about the food, I've yet to have lunch, go ahead and help yourselves, do you need anything?" Harry started nervously, feeling that he had better play host but not really knowing how.

"Hello Harry, are you feeling better?" Mr Weasley asked leaning forward his face concerned "I want to thank you on a personal level, nothing to do with my being the Head of House; I know Molly already said this, but thank you for my daughter's life, Ginevra?" He looked at the girl who was staring at her hands.

"Th-thank you Harry, you're my Hero!" She added and blushed then looked down at her hands again.

A chorus of 'thanks mate' 'go honorary Weasley' and 'thank you Mr Potter' came from the various other Weasleys in the room. "Now don't be too nervous Harry, you have a lot of leeway due to your age, remember my boys consider you an extra brother and Molly and I feel that you always have a place in our family so this isn't like talking to say the Malfoys would be, but let's begin shall we?" Mr Weasley asked arching an eyebrow questioningly and sitting back I his chair in a relaxed pose.

"Um alright, uh greetings clan Weasley, I requested this meeting as a minor member of your clan has courteously acknowledged the full life debt which was created between myself as current head of the Potter family and Ginevra Molly Weasley an underage witch in the direct line of the current head of the Weasley family." Harry looked shyly at Mr Weasley hoping he'd done alright with the formal wording he'd seen it once in his family research but never expected to use it since he hadn't known that the Potters were a Noble house, let alone Ancient and Noble.

Mr Weasley smiled and nodded to Harry encouragingly "The Prewett line is Matrilineal for preference, so she is actually heir to house Prewett such as it is, until Molly's cousin has a daughter, the line would have passed to the first daughter born to one of her sons."

"Right, Ginevra Molly Weasley, heir to house Prewett, member of house Weasley, this debt has until the minor Miss Weasley's seventeenth birthday to be paid or formally decided, but may be carried by an adult member of the clan. I requested this meeting because it is my understanding that you would rather clear the debt if possible and I believe I may have a possibility which will at least reduce it."

"You are correct Heir Potter, we would not leave a life debt unacknowledged and unresolved, however the rest must be an adults only discussion, boys and Ginny, would you mind entertaining yourselves outside for a bit?"

"Alright Dad", they chorused, Percy looking a bit put out that his seventeenth birthday wasn't for another week or two.

"Now Harry, this part is a lot less formal, so you can relax."

Yes Mr Weasley" Harry replied, attempting to look less nervous, but this was crunch time, anything could go wrong, after all he didn't want to give too much detail to Mr Weasley, the man spent entirely too much time in the presence of Headmaster 'can't help but peak into your mind' Dumbledore.

"Arthur Harry, just Arthur, after all you are nearly family" He smiled kindly, unlike the somewhat overbearing Molly, Mr Weas-sorry Arthur, always made Harry feel more relaxed, safe even, it was certainly unusual for him to feel truly safe in the presence of any male authority figure.

"Yes Mr We-Arthur" Harry stumbled a little over the familiarity, but was glad to have been granted it. "I don't know if you had any specific ideas, I know this is a fairly severe debt, but I do have a couple of things that I need absolutely trustworthy help with, I think they might come close to or even match the debt."

"Are you sure Harry, I know you and Ron looked into this because of Hermione but Ginny's situation was worse."

"I'm pretty sure; the problem is I can't risk more people knowing about it than the minimum necessary until I can get clarification on one issue especially."

Mr Weasley looked at Harry for a long moment and waved his wand in a series of intricate incantations then held up his wand "I Arthur….. Weasley swear on my Magic that anything Harry James Potter asks me to keep in confidence I shall by any means available to me, until he gives me leave to repeat it." His wand flared signalling the acceptance of the oath.

"Can you keep someone from taking the information from you Mr We-Arthur?" Harry asked leaning forward easily, he had expected vague promises not a life threatening oath!

"I can child, I have enough basic Occlumency to know if somebody is in my mind, but the 'Weasley fiery temper' actually comes from a bloodline trait, it can only be fully learned after the magical majority, but we have what could literally be called a firewall in our minds, most Legillimencs are mentally burned and if I am about to be forced to give up the information, say via Veratiserum, the fire will consume it."

"I… Thank you, most people just say something vague and tell me to trust them, this is just to important and dangerous for that."

"It's fine Harry, I owe you a great debt, not just for Ginevra but the whole Wizarding world owes you for the night your parents died."

"You know it wasn't me who did anything…."Harry tried to shrug of the gratitude, uncomfortable, especially after what Salazar had said about his father and the house elf.

"Not entirely you, no. I know your parent's sacrifice played a huge part, but your magical strength would have been involved also and you have been forced to deal with a lot of unfortunate side effects ever since."

Harry sniffed and rubbed his eyes, most people seemed to ignore that he had lost his parents the night Voldemort or Tom, whatever he was calling himself, was defeated, they were too wrapped up in their own joy to care about his pain. "Thanks"

"Now then, what is it that you think you need help with?"

"Loads of things, but the main one is my scar." Harry began to explain, pointing at the damned thing.

"Your scar? Dumbledore said it was just that, as scar…" Arthur trailed of at the way Harry started shaking his head when he mentioned Dumbledore.

"When did he check it? Did he get a healer to look at it? A curse breaker? An Unspeakable? Did anyone other than him examine the mark left on the only person ever to survive the killing curse? From the story Hagrid told me he held me for all of a minute before leaving me on a doorstep, in the middle of November, with just a note telling my Aunt that her sister was dead and that she had just gained another mouth to feed, not that I'm excusing her actions, but what does he know." Harry was attempting not to go into a Dumbledore rant, he was glad that Mr Weasley had made that oath.

"You mean he never formally arranged guardianship for you?"

"Right on the money, Madam Pomfrey was explaining why she couldn't do the full medical check-up that she wanted, and she got me to talk about that place a bit, we've realised that they never signed the contract. Anyway, back to my scar, it hurt when I was near the possessed Quirrel, even as a spirit it reacted to Voldemort (Arthur flinched), that doesn't seem normal and I have been reliably informed that it has a frightening similarity to the magic in that book. The book is the next thing, Voldemort (Mr Weasley flinched again and Harry sighed) alright Riddle, nearly came back to life because of a book, we need to find out more about it and see if there could be more items like it. Lastly there are the wards at my house, I know there were a lot of nasty spells tied to them, and that they are leaching my magic to even stay present, I need somebody to look at them, maybe even improve them." Harry paused it had all come out in one long breath, but hopefully Arthur had understood anyway.

Mr Weasley sat blinking for a moment as his brain processed this information, "well I know something about curses thanks to my work, but nothing about soul magic and the darker spells that must have gone into that book. I also know nothing about wards, I'm not sure that I can help you Harry, I especially can't bankrupt my family to take the time this would need."

Harry's face had fallen when he initially heard the negative tone of Mr Weasley's voice but thankfully the man had just misunderstood. "Don't worry, I wasn't asking for you, I thought maybe Bill…"

"Oh! Yes William would be perfect, but there's still the issue of time, this is time sensitive, are you sure that Dumbledore couldn't..?"

"No! He refuses to answer why Voldemort keeps trying to kill me, he only speaks to me when I've had some big, convoluted, frankly contrived, adventure and when I asked him about my connection he lied to my face."

"Alright, so Bill…"

"Bill is an Egyptian curse breaker, he should know heaps about warding, and the Egyptians were notorious for soul magic especially based on immortality and return from death, hopefully he at least knows how to find out what's going on even if he can't fix it."

"And the time?"

"Well I apparently own full rights to a 1000 year old sixty to seventy foot Basilisk corpse, it could raise up to a million galleons, It's worth more than an estate. I think I should be able to pay Bill, even after my other expenses and with the necessity of spreading out the sale. Gringotts should give him a reduced work load or time off to deal with a magical debt, it's in all employee contracts and the goblins are very honour centric."

"True, I hadn't even considered what a dead Basilisk is worth, hopefully he will agree, what other expenses if you don't mind my asking?"

"Well the Basilisk was defeated with help from the school, so I'm thinking of some donations, I'll probably give each house a decent set of brooms and replace the training ones, those bloody things are death traps. Um I was also thinking I could pay for Ginny to see a psychologist and cover tutoring for the people who were petrified." Harry rushed the last sentence out not wanting to hit the reef of Weasley pride.

"I…that's very thoughtful of you Harry, you don't have to."

"But I need to, Penelope Clearwater lost months of NEWT prep, she's a prefect, it will be really hard for her to catch up at school, she's probably already lost her shot at being Head Girl!" Harry protested, the money would be negligible to him and it was the right thing to do.

"I.. that's very good of you Harry, if you decide to do so then thank you," Arthur acquiesced, he knew Ginny was going to need help and Penny was a good girl she should be on track for all Es and Os, what would begin petrified for months do to her final scores? "You seem different Harry, are you sure you are alright, do you need to talk about anything?" Arthur asked concerned, Harry had always been smarter than his schoolwork showed and his boys had helped to get him informed on the most necessary aspects of wizarding custom but something seemed off…

"I'm..I'm fine, thank you, technically I've never been better, I guess I should tell you, you'd be able to tell if anything new happened… Right, um, well you see, I felt this blockage when the Basilisk venom reached my heart and it dissolved just when Fawkes cried in the wound, then there was this multi-coloured flash of light, but none of it was the green and gold of my magic. From what I've been able to piece together I had multiple blocks and curses tied to me, some of them were probably done by my parents but others… The most recent seemed to have occurred when I picked up my wand, suddenly my mind goes all foggy, anything connected to magic was nearly impossible for me to understand. I think there might be a sort of notice me not tied to me as well, it seems to stop people from noticing the things that the Dursleys did to me. Let's just say the Phoenix tears have found more than just Basilisk venom to heal." Harry was so grateful for the oath Arthur had taken, he needed to talk to somebody who wasn't 1000s of years old or a phoenix, and Arthur was always an excellent listener, at some point during his speech an arm had ended up around his shoulders and he hadn't even noticed.

"I don't know what to say Harry, I'm very glad to meet the real you, the problem is that all of this should have been sorted by your magical guardian, I've felt that Dumbledore was slipping lately, what with the events of the last two years, but this is just…" Words failed him, most of those blocks had to have been placed on Harry by Dumbledore, he was the only one with opportunity and interest even if nobody knew his motive.

"Thanks" Harry sniffed and they just sat for a bit before Arthur decided he had better go and Harry formally requested he keep everything private except that he wanted to speak to Bill about a possible way of repaying the debt. Waving goodbye to the Weasleys he felt as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders and he attacked the remains of lunch with gusto.