Universe not mine.

Last time in Grief, Deceptions, and Hope for Freedom

As Harry finished his lasagna and wiped his fingers clean with his napkin, he finally noticed there were 29 new books on the table. Harry concentrated, asking the RoR to give him the books he needed to read most. The books he had brought with him into the room moved right in front of him, as the dishes disappeared. Looking down the stack, Harry saw the room had reordered the books. On top was Families of Wizarding Britain volume P, Harry pulled the book down from the stack and opened it, his heart in his throat...

Part 13

Harry opened the book expectantly. The page he had filled out with the stylus looked the same, except all trace of the blood drops he'd put in the book were gone. Harry turned the page and smiled. A basic chart was there, with pictures of each of his parents in graduation garb above their birth and death dates. Lines joined their pictures to a wedding photo of the couple that Harry had never seen before, and lines from it led to a picture of him being held up between his parents, his mother smiling and seeming to laugh as his father tried to prompt baby Harry to wave at the camera as well. This was another photo he had never seen before, and as he took in the autumn backdrop and his own size, realized it had to have been taken close to his parents deaths. Next to Harry was a listing for Baby Potter died Oct 31, 1981, with what looked like a sonogram photo over it. His mother had been pregnant.

Harry studied the photo more closely, but there was no breeze to pull and push at their robes, and the flowing fabric hid any sign of a pregnancy. There were no other children listed. He was, as he always believed, his parents first and only son born to them. Which made a muddle of what Harry had learned from Neville. If he was the first born, the curse was supposed to have suppressed his magic and made the Marvolos' stronger. Could his mother had paid Riddle? That was unlikely, a supposed muggleborn would be killed on sight by Voldemort, not to mention Dudley and Aunt Petunia would have magic. Could Harry's Potter side have given him enough magic to make him a wizard without any of his Evans heritage? Would Harry gain rather than lose power if the magical contract his mother's ancestor had made was paid off?

Harry turned the page in the book, and found news recounts from various sources about his parents. The list of graduates from Hogwarts, that next to a picture of his parents first in line to receive their diplomas. There was their engagement and wedding announcement, which unfortunately just had their names under photos of them, but it made sense that his mother wouldn't want to draw attention to her parents during the first war. Then an announcement of his birth at St. Mungo's. Then began articles about their deaths. Harry skipped many pages, not wanting to read how wrong the world saw what happened. Twenty pages later, Harry found a shocking thing, his first grade photo and a story about he was thriving in the care of his "devoted muggle relatives" according to Head Mugwump Dumbledore. There were pictures and stories for each of his primary years. Pure fiction, and the pictures were his school picture photo, the one that came for free for every kid to take home with the order form. He could see on some of them that the stamp of PROOF over him was badly covered up.

Harry set the book on the table, and curled into a ball on his chair, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands. He had never wondered how so many people recognized him, he always just thought that the scar was enough to set him apart. Well, that and how much everyone told him he resembled his father. Dumbledore had been more clever than Harry had thought. Quelling the public's need to know with updates twice a year, including the photos that Aunt Petunia had always given him specific clothes to wear for. (The nicer hand-me-downs of Dudley's that were years older, so fit, and mended and pressed the day of pictures.) By putting in the paper that Harry was well-treated, who would insist on checking in on him? By putting that his relatives were understandably afraid of dark wizards, it explained why Harry had no contact with the Wizarding World until he went to Hogwarts.

Stupid sheep. Not that there weren't plenty of people to "run into" him and bow and crap like that. Not that some of those who "ran into" him should have noticed he wasn't well dressed or fed. Sheep.

Harry rubbed at his eyes, uncurled from his chair, and then stood up. He needed the lawyer more than Sirius might have known. He needed information on magical contracts, because if Voldemort knew about the magical contract his choice made even more sense. Kill the family and the boy who by rights could take power from him. Kill the squib heir of Gryffindor, and insure that the contract could never be fulfilled. No worries about why the boy wasn't a squib.

Harry began to pace around the table. When he was young, he'd been so happy that his aunt wanted to dress up for picture day. All his classmates were eager too, talking about how their parents would buy them pictures to trade. Harry had actually gotten his hair to behave, and thought his aunt would put his picture up at home. Instead his aunt snatched the order form away, tearing it up in front of his eyes. The next year, Harry tried to hide the photos, it was one of the few times his aunt actually beat him, and still Dudley stole them from his school desk. His aunt had sneered at him, when Harry begged to keep it, "No one needs to see a picture of a freak."

Sometimes Harry could really sympathize with the idea of murdering muggles... and Headmasters.

But thinking of all the crap they had done to him wasn't helping to get justice or prevent it from continuing. Harry flopped back into the chair and looked at the book after the stories about him. It was blank. Harry wanted to learn more about his grandparents and parents, so he went back to the front page and with a quick stab of the stylus, put a couple more drops of blood in the circle. Harry left the book open to that page and set it on the table.

The next book on the stack was his interlibrary loan book, now. Before he opened Families the next book had been Heirs of Hogwarts so apparently the room thought Harry needed to do something. Harry smiled in agreement. He opened the book to the page on the Patronus Pals. Harry smiled as the room provided a teddy bear for him to start with.

oOOo

He felt better. The successive castings of the Patronus charm focused his thoughts on happy things. The teddy bear the room had provided had a silvery glow to the eyes and to the jewels on its tie. The Pals required crystalline structures to maintain the energy of the spells. Glass would slump under the heat of the energy, and the more complex the crystalline structure the more powerful the Pal could be.

So Harry needed to acquire multiple plush toys and store diamonds or the like in them, or have crystals used for their eyes and adornments. The comfort of hugging the Pal helped create the positive feelings which in turn helped maintain the charm. So once created, a well-loved Pal likely wouldn't need recharged, unless it was exposed to a dementor or dark magic. However, the toy couldn't be conjured, and would have a shorter lifetime if it was transfigured. The conversion of energy into mass would eventually become unstable with the energy flow from the Pal.

Harry wondered if chemistry held the knowledge to stabilize conjured items. Or physics - wasn't quantum physics about how the atom's components worked? Or maybe Harry hadn't found the right book yet. Neville might have some idea.

Harry took off his shirt and the undershirt he was wearing to hide the dragonskin vest. He found the stack of catalogs and order forms and after a moment's contemplation whether ink from the room would stay on the paper outside the room, tore the tag from the undershirt and transfigured it into an ballpoint pen. He filled out a blank for McGoens again, adding RUSH and a note that this order was needed as soon as possible. He ordered a variety of stuffed animals, a ready-made dreamcatcher, and a kit to make his own dreamcatcher. The toys came standard with a retrieval charm on the collar - as soon as a name was inscribed on the tag on the collar the toy could be fetched by calling 'come toy '. But they didn't cover the crystals he needed, though a few came with the dreamcatcher kit.

Dazzlers had a wide assortment of jewelry and components on sale, offered with and without base enchantments. Harry couldn't understand why anyone would purchase the item with the base enchantments. Though it made it easy for a gift to make it look like you spent many weeks planning and doing the required spells, there was no way to test the enchantments power or number. Well, except by maxing out the enchantment which would destroy the enchantments and possibly the stone.

Harry thought about his Pal. He'd wanted a plushie of his own for most of his pre-school years. He needed to read more on enchantments to discover if the recommended diamonds did indeed have the strongest spell retention, but since he wanted to start he filled out an order form for Dazzlers, ordering some colored diamonds that were less expensive but larger and the beginner, intermediate, and advanced enchantment kits they offered. The total for all the gems was higher than he had spent on books for the last few years of Hogwarts, Harry paused a bit before signing the authorization for a draw against his vault, even though he now knew that this vault wasn't his only one.

Harry still wanted to know if he was getting a decent price. He pulled a thread free from the undershirt and transfigured it into parchment.

Weazing Weasleys,

I have come upon a simple but lasting defense against dementors, called Patronus Pals. In their manufacture crystalline structured gems such as diamonds are recommended to hold the enchantment.

Sorry if that's a bit stuffy. Been reading to fight off boredom. Anyhow, do you guys have any recommendations for suppliers and alternatives to diamonds - maybe that could hold a stronger enchantment? I have a feeling diamonds are recommended more for looks than oomph. If Umbridge sends more dementors after me, it'd be nice to skip having to have a trial.

Harry

PS - Do you guys know any alternative to owls that is secure? Don't want Hedwig to get injured this summer. Thanks.

He read over his letter, and mentally shrugged. He pulled out another thread from the seam of his shirt and made it an envelope, then repeated the action twice more. Harry finished up his orders and letters, placing the sealed envelopes in a pile on the edge of the table. He decided to spend one more day in the room before leaving, sending his mail, and going to bed in Gryffindor tower. He pulled off more threads and made more parchment, knowing he needed to make a checklist later. His time was flying slower, but still flying, and he didn't have a taskmaster Hermione to whip him into gear.

Harry then tore the shirt into 6 pieces. Grabbing his a transfiguration book that had moved to the top of the pile, Harry began making the three pals he wanted to complete.

oOOOo

Sorry if this one was a bit dry. At least it was longer, right:)