The healers at St Mungos were all surprised to see Harry and Ginny again so soon especially as they had another witch in tow. It took a quick explanation about the basic requirements of the bond before they could be whisked off to a ward for diagnosis. After Symworth had waved his wand over the three kids a few times.
"They appear to be mostly in good physical shape," he said after a few minutes. "Harry is still malnourished but that wouldn't have cleared up in a few days. All three seem to have undergone some recent trauma that was at least partially physical in nature and there are decaying signs of dark magic in Harry though they should be gone in a few days. Could you shed some light on that?" he directed the last comment to Dumbledore who had accompanied the party to the hospital.
"There were some complications in Harry's curse scar. We needed to remove that magic which led to the bond to Hermione and the trauma that you mentioned. Now what about their magic?"
"Their magic has been severely drained from all three. They all look like Harry was two days ago, a severe case of magical exhaustion. What triggered this?"
"They had a large outburst of accidental magic," Dumbledore said simply.
"Large?" Madam Bones said incredulously. "Dumbledore they left a crater the size of the main atrium here! That's not large that's apocalyptic! The magical wave was felt even here!"
"That was them?" gasped Symworth. "They caused a wave on that scale from over two hundred miles? And Harry was recovering from magical exhaustion and all three from an exorcism ritual? Does this have anything to do with their magical flows?"
"Magical flows?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes their magic is in constant motion, flowing in a river from one to the other two and on from there. Normally witches and wizards give off a constant stream of magic that bleeds into the surroundings and can be absorbed by various objects. This is what makes old wizarding houses semi-sentient; the build up of magic absorbed over decades or centuries. With these three that isn't the case; the magic that should bleed out flows to the others and then on from there. Their bodies were becoming infused with magic before they let it out. That's not the only thing that's shared though."
"Please tell me this isn't bad," Dan pleaded.
"I'm not sure but the magical, psychological and physical scans show that each is getting a share of the others abilities but it isn't equal. Harry seems to have a higher concentration of magic, Hermione seems to have increased mind power from the other two and Ginny seems to be physically better, although much of their efforts are going into helping Harry."
"Mind, body and magic," Dumbledore muttered.
"The three elements of the person," Symworth agreed. "Bound by the soul to make a whole person. Each person has different levels of proficiency in all three; some are very good with their minds but not the others; some with good magic are not as smart as others; some are physically strong but not good with magic. These three appear to have their abilities compounded and intensified like they are..." he paused and looked at the kids who were still out cold on the bed with wide eyes. "Like they're one person." He looked up. "A soul bond?"
"Yes," Dumbledore said gravely. "I would like you to swear an oath that you will never tell another person of this unless it becomes common knowledge."
Symworth nodded and raised his wand. "I Meridian Arnold Symworth swear on my life and my magic that I will not discuss or share the knowledge of the soul bond between Harry Potter, Ginnevra Weasley and Hermione Granger with anyone who doesn't already know of it unless the bond were to become common knowledge. As I speak, so mote it be!" there was a flash of light that confirmed his oath.
"What was that?" Jane asked confused.
"A wizards oath," Molly said. "Essentially it's an oath that can be taken by any witch or wizard with a wand that names the conditions for the oath and the forfeit if broken. In this case the conditions are he cannot speak of the soul bond to anyone who doesn't know already unless it becomes common knowledge. The forfeit in this case is both his life and magic."
Jane's eyes widened and she choked.
"Yes it's that serious, and there is no way around it; if he breaks it he will die."
"If he dies why does he say his magic as well?" Dan asked confused. "If he dies his magic is useless any way."
"The best known is if he wanted to come back as a ghost, if you don't have enough magic you can't become a ghost. Also apparently there are differences after death though no one knows what they are if there is anything at all."
"So that is about as serious as it could get," Symworth said. "I can see why you would want this covered up. Shit would really hit the fan if news of this got out, as well as people knowing the weaknesses that they could exploit."
"Any way back to what you were saying," Jane said impatiently.
"Yes it seems that the bond is making the three into effectively one person; their strengths are being increased. I presume Hermione was very smart?" he asked.
"Very, she was always the best in school and we were looking at sending her to another school for gifted children or getting her moved up a year."
"Well it seems that part of Harry and Ginny's minds are enhancing Hermione's; Harry and Ginny are unaffected but Hermione is growing to be the real brains of the three. She seems to be tapping into the unused portions of Harry and Ginny's minds in addition to her own. It's the same with Ginny and Harry to an extent; Ginny's body is becoming enhanced, drawing energy from the other two while they are at rest and storing it and Harry is drawing magic in the form of those flows; the excess is stored and focussed when he needs it. They not only have more power than is usual, they use it more efficiently than anyone else could possibly do. Each will have an enormous potential in each area as it is but with their shared and enhanced abilities? They'll be unstoppable!"
"What sort of increases would we expect?" Molly asked.
"Hermione would be able to absorb and process knowledge at an astounding rate, probably increased memory capacities up to photographic or near enough and some serious skill in deduction and other mental faculties. Ginny would expect increased speed, strength, agility and reflexes. Not to the point of being super human but definitely well above average, probably comparable to a Lycan. Harry, well with what he had done previously he would be able to do what those three did today on his own with a little effort though these are only the possibilities suggested by the scans and I wouldn't treat them as given. Don't expect these increases just don't be surprised if they show themselves."
"And of course they can share their thoughts and memories as well as magic and physically help each other due to the bond therefore each has the combined power of the whole," Jane said awestruck.
"What do you mean?" Molly asked confused.
"The bond means that they share minds and magic directly and it seems that their bodies can be used by the others to an extent as well" she said. "If any one of them is exceptional in any one area then all three can draw on that potential in addition to their own. With the increases you mentioned..." she trailed off.
There was silence as all present digested this. They had seen what the kids were capable of but the thought that their bodies and minds would grow to match that scale was frightening, particularly as there were three of them!
"What's you recommendation for treating them?" Molly asked.
"I would say keep them sedated, their emotions seem to be compounded and prone to being released in magic. If they keep having emotional outbursts their magic wouldn't have time to regenerate and they would burn out their cores, so we keep them sedated for several days and make sure that they are kept calm until they learn to control their emotions enough that they wouldn't blow up the house every time they were offended."
"That would be problematic," Dan mumbled thinking about what would happen if they lost it in their home; there wouldn't be anything left!
"Why would they over react like that?" Jane asked.
"They could feel each others' emotions, that and they appear to be very protective of each other and would know exactly how Hermione felt so they got angry with Ron. They may be only children but they obviously want to protect their 'friends' as they see each other."
After a few more minutes of discussion the adults agreed to leave the children in hospital for the next two days to help improve their condition and Dumbledore proposed giving them Occlumency training to help manage their emotions and prevent them getting out of control like they did previously. Both sets of parents agreed and left, Molly and Arthur helping Jane and Dan to get back to their home in London. Jane put through the idea of moving closer together to help with travel for the kids to which there was much discussion with the Grangers looking into work that they could set up in the area and Molly and Arthur discussing if they could get a house in London. It was eventually put aside for the moment and they all agreed that they would look into possible options for each of the families to relocate if possible.
Dumbledore paced his study as he tried to come up with a solution to the problem that he currently faced; how to get Potter, Granger and Weasley under his control. The imperius was out; he wouldn't stoop that low and it was uncertain how they would react to the imperius if he did. Furthermore if he was caught his reputation would be completely ruined which he couldn't allow. Those bands were also out having seen what Harry and Ginny did to the first pair that he used it would be folly to do that. He had already arranged to include occlumency training for the three of them but that was just a stop-gap measure, even he couldn't keep his temper all the time and those three were children.
The biggest issue he had was the degree of power that they shared; they had each proven to be twice as powerful as he was and they were exhausted and still children for Merlins sake! He had seen what power had done to Tom Riddle and Harry had grown up in a similar if not worse environment. The seeds of darkness had been sown in Harry and he had to make sure that Harry stayed firmly on the side of the light. Staying with the Weasleys was a godsend in that regard and being soul bound to Ginny was better. The only problem was the muggle born; she was new to magic like Harry and could easily be swayed to the dark by her power dragging the other two along with her.
He knew that his previous plans were not viable, necessary or even possible now with the horcrux gone and this necessitated a complete reworking of his overall schemes. It was time to step back and look at the whole picture.
Things he needed; Voldemort gone for good and a new leader of the light that he could mould into the image that he saw and take the world into the next century without him. Harry would conceivably a new leader of the light without the horcrux that needed destroying yet he was already attached to his bond mates and there were the seeds of darkness sown so he wouldn't be a good option. That left him with the other option of the task falling to Harry's child/children. Ginny would die with Harry of course and he would be left to raise the child to be the leader of light and take over the wizarding world, throw off the restraints of the pureblood philosophy and embrace equality. Harry's as yet unknown donations to the order had enabled them to gain a good foothold in the ministry and another five or ten years of such investments would see them with enough power and enough laws in place to have the stage set to turn the wizarding world around.
The question of how to make this happen remained; the power that those three showed meant that in a stand up fight against Voldemort they would win hands down by the time they were seventeen. He needed the fight to be close so that the winner wouldn't survive, Harry because he wasn't suitable and the child that he sired would then fall under his control and Voldemort wasn't suitable for obvious reasons. That meant that he had to have Voldemort back sooner rather than later and the horcrux's gone before then. The two of them would be powerful enough by the time they reached Hogwarts he was sure even without the muggle born; with her and they would probably win so she needed to go. It was a pity he thought, she seemed to be a good witch and probably would have done much good but she had to go and preferably in a way the left Harry and Ginny distraught, weaker and despising the dark arts.
Then it hit him in a sudden burst of inspiration.
Severus had told him of a diary given to Lucius Malfoy before Voldemort vanished, saying that it was a prized possession and could open the Chamber of Secrets. He had also told Dumbledore that the diary reeked of dark magic leading Dumbledore to believe that it was a horcrux. He knew that if a person became attached to a horcrux it would absorb the person's soul and return the maker of the horcrux to life in the process. All Dumbledore needed to do was make sure Granger got hold of the diary and had her soul absorbed, then the new Voldemort would be destroyed, leaving the bond weakened, Harry and Ginny distraught and hateful of the dark arts and those who practiced them especially Voldemort. He even could get rid of Malfoy and a horcrux into the bargain! He knew that the soul bond with Hermione was weaker and a soul based attack could remove it without killing the other members, at least in theory. So his course was set: teach the kids the basics and stay away from combat skills so the battle would be more even, get the kids into Hogwarts and get Hermione the diary then plant the suggestion among the death eaters that Voldemort was becoming stronger and send some followers to look for him. If all went well, his plans would come to fruition in less than a decade. He sat down in his chair and got out another lemon drop, fantasising about the new world he would bring into being and forgot completely about the kids he would need to kill to do it.
Amelia Bones sat in her office at the ministry nursing a brandy and trying to wrap her head around the events of the day. She had come into work and had spent some time putting the paperwork together for a trial when there was a blast from down the hall followed shortly by a magical wave and people began shouting and screaming. Running out onto the main floor the DMLE she summoned the heads of the sub departments that were present. The report was surprising to say the least; a massive surge of magic that had obliterated the monitors at the Underage Magic office injuring several workers. In addition it seemed that the head of one of the departments', Arthur Weasley, home wards had been shattered by whatever had caused that wave. Her first thought was an attack; such bursts were hardly unknown during the war when ancient wards were broken but never on this scale. She immediately put together her force to meet whoever had brought the wards down head on.
On arrival she saw the Weasleys standing shell shocked on the crest of the hill and when she joined them she saw the reason; a crater that had obliterated the surroundings and three children unconscious and singed on the ground. The Weasleys had quickly alleviated her fears of an attack and she had sent the aurors and hit-wizards away to hear the explanation. Whatever she thought he would tell her was nothing like what she heard; that three children who weren't even the age to learn about magic had done so much damage because they lost their tempers threw her right off balance. To have it shown to be a three-way soul bond was yet another shock before the news that this could be common-place for each of them later had her reaching for a brandy.
Everyone was saying that Harry Potter had powers beyond the ordinary, she thought. Little did they know that he now has two girls who are on the same level. I would be very interested with the things those three could do when they're older; especially when Harry reaches thirteen and can claim lord status.
Finally setting aside her brandy she finished the paperwork for the day's events and had a look at the coming trials when one stood out. A pair of muggles were charged with attempted murder of a wizarding minor. She hadn't seen anything like this in years and had a closer look. Ten minutes later she realised this had cleared up a fair few different matters she was curious about including how Harry had been starved, why he was staying with the Weasleys when Dumbledore had assured her he was in a hidden muggle location and how the bonds had formed. She then reached for the intercom on her desk; she had a hearing to preside over and she would see justice done and Harry right.
The next few days passed fairly quickly for both sets of parents; all of them had a lot to do. Arthur and Molly looked after their brood, rebuilt the top floor which just so happened to contain Ron's room, strengthened the house so it would stand up to another blast which seemed likely in the future and prepared the papers for the hearing that would decide Harry's eventual guardianship. It took the rest of the day to repair the house and reinforce it now the wards were back up. They had also hidden the orchard where the children played to avoid the muggles that were now swarming over the blast zone, trying to detect anything they could. Molly had almost had to physically restrain her husband from rushing over to the muggles to talk about plugs and aeroplanes.
In London Jane and Dan caught up with their work and arranged for some time off to deal with the kids. They also arranged some paperwork to have Hermione taken out of school and homeschooled for the non-magical system and to have Harry placed under their care. The last thing they needed was someone coming around and asking about Harry with them having no adequate response. They also got new furniture for Hermione's room so the three of them would be comfortable while making sure that Hermione had some clothes both at the burrow and at their house.
"You know it's hard to believe that just yesterday morning we had no idea Hermione had magic and everything was normal," Jane said. "Now Hermione is in a permanent relationship with a young boy and another girl, has apocalyptic magical powers, will develop a mind stronger than any the world has seen, eventually will have to fight an evil wizard who terrorised the world until a few years ago, will be attending lessons to keep herself under control and will eventually live as a witch in a completely different world."
"Not to mention that we could potentially do magic ourselves," Dan said. "I don't know whether to love or hate it."
"Same here. That three way thing is the hardest though, we were all prepared for Hermione to one day have a boy but we never dreamt that she would need to share him."
"True, if I heard that her boyfriend was with another girl I would advise her to dump his arse pronto. This one however; that isn't an option, I mean they are together even in their dreams. They can't even let go of each other without being in pain. How do we deal with that?"
"I guess we just go with the flow, if that is what Hermione is then we won't complain."
"Can I still give Harry the 'what are your intentions with my daughter?' speech? I want to see his face!"
"Not now, maybe when they're teenagers and you're a good boy."
Harry, Hermione and Ginny were all surprised that they had been in their mind-space for so long. Usually they lived the same amount of time in their heads as in real life so they knew how long they had slept, but this time they were out for a lot longer. In fact they were in there for more than a day and a half talking and sharing their time. They all loved how they didn't have to really sleep, they could always be together in this mind space and they spent many hours in there learning about the space itself. They learnt that they could organise their memories if they concentrated and even revisit them from whatever viewpoint they wanted. They also decided to make areas of their minds where they could hide their memories when Hermione remembered the ways the Unspeakables probed their minds when testing them and used painful memories as a shield. They used some of their worst memories of pain and loss as their first line of defence, feelings of fear and hopelessness as a second line and feelings of being apart as the final line. Ginny thought of the idea of having guards in their minds and they slowly built an entire landscape, shielded from the outside world by their painful memories while their better memories were kept in a castle inside. The end result was an impressive view by any standards; a swirling snow storm filled with spectres that resembled the soul fragment described by their parents that would confuse the intruders and fill them with fear. Once they passed through that they would come across a huge mountain range, with a fortress built at the very top, above the clouds. The fortress had no gate and the only way in was to sing the song of their souls that they heard when the book was brought in at the hospital and in their minds. The fortress was built of granite and obsidian with prisms in various parts to reflect magic back, reinforced by what Hermione said was called adamantium; a fictional metal that was said to be almost indestructible. Around it was a large mine field and various flying beasts from both memories and the depths of their imaginations.
Once inside the person would find themselves on a Penrose Staircase: a distorted two dimensional image that distorted the person's perspective so that the four sets of stairs rise forever without going anywhere. This was the part where the deceptions came into the fore; up above whoever was on the staircase there was a ball of energy that people would automatically assume was the memories they sought, when in fact they had to jump into the hole in the middle of the stairs. Once they did that they needed to coil the floor that they walked on into a mobius strip before they could access the memories. Harry and Ginny mostly just watched in a mix of awe, pride, amusement and interest as Hermione worked on the mind-space; it was her that did most of the work with Harry and Ginny adding their two pence every now and then. The sheer complexity of the landscape that Hermione built (she even put a small village with a temple to their bond in it) with all of them almost thinking they were actually there even when Hermione decided to add in another mountain in the distance (That was WEIRD!). Once they were done they sat at the top of their fortress and played, talked and generally enjoyed themselves until finally, after almost two full days they woke.
On opening his eyes Harry immediately recognised where they were; St Mungos. He moaned and sat up, making sure to keep hold of Ginny and Hermione's hands while he did so and looked around to see who was around and ask about their sleep. It was over a minute before a healer checked in and saw that they were in fact awake. After a bit of fussing they got given some water, food and the date, telling them that their assessment of how long they had been asleep was fairly accurate, only being off by a few hours. They were also told that they had been kept asleep so their magic could recover and they could try to get a grip on their emotions. All they needed was a quick check up and they would be free to go home.
When they finally reached home they discovered that the hearing that would decide whether the Weasleys would keep guardianship of Harry would be the next day and so they needed to prepare.
"It is almost certain that the judge, whoever they are, will want to speak to you alone Harry. I fear that we will need to reveal your bond to the judge at least at the hearing, though we don't need to tell Malfoy," Mr Weasley said to them.
"Isn't Malfoy one of those pureblood bigots you told us about?" Dan asked. "The ones who think our little girl isn't worth anything?"
"The very same, in fact we believe he was one of the leaders in the last war."
"There is no way we will let Harry go to him, if Harry goes Hermione will have to follow and she is not going near him!" Jane said viciously. "I don't care if I have to wring the necks of the entire high court to do it!"
"Get in line," Dan said in agreement.
"Quite," Arthur said. "Though in this case magic and the law are on our side; the ministry would not dare interfere in a soul bond especially as it is with Harry. If the press got hold of the fact that the ministry tried to break this, particularly if Harry gets hurt, I know that Rita Skeeter in particular would rip them to shreds before an angry mob does the same in the literal sense of the phrase."
"Be that as it may, you did say that these people don't truly care for the laws they make; they make them for others not themselves," Dan pointed out.
"Yes but this isn't like those laws that can be swept under the rug," Molly said. "These cases, particularly the Dursleys case would throw Harry into the spotlight. If he ends up hurt or dead so soon and it can be traced back..." she trailed off leaving the obvious unsaid.
Harry groaned at the thought of more attention, his learned instincts to keep a low profile coming to the fore and Ginny and Hermione weren't in his head to sooth his fears.
"It's ok Harry, the hearing shouldn't be long," Ginny said gently.
"Ok, but I want to be there when the hearing is in session, I'm not letting Hermione out of my sight around that man," Jane said grimly. "In fact, do you still have you service pistols at home?"
"Yep, still clean, loaded and ready like always," Dan confirmed.
"You have guns at your home?" Molly asked confused.
"I served in the S.B.S at one point and I still have my sidearms working. We can each have one on hand if things get ugly with him," Dan said.
"I don't think that will be necessary," Arthur said hurriedly. "There is no chance he would try to attack Hermione in the middle of the ministry."
"We will not take that chance," Jane said. "From your accounts that man is a rapist, torturer and murderer of the worst kind. I will have one of those guns on me regardless just in case; I'd rather put a bullet through his eyes than watch helplessly."
"Same here," Dan agreed.
"Ok then, but I don't think they will be necessary."
They kept talking for a few minutes before they gave everyone their meal and sent the kids to bed with the promise that their teaching would begin the following day after the hearing.
The next morning was hectic as the parents raced around trying to get the trio ready and fed before they had to leave. Just as Harry was starting his final piece of French toast an owl flew through the window and dropped a letter on the counter. Molly read it and shrieked "Arthur!"
"What's wrong?"
"They changed the time! It's in ten minutes not an hour now!" Molly replied hysterically.
"What!" everyone shouted before rushing towards the fireplace to floo to the ministry. Harry, Ginny and Hermione were all nervous wrecks as they spun though the floo, all of them imagining disastrous endings where they were taken away from each other. The adults were keeping up a stream of profanities once Arthur pointed out that if they missed the hearing then Malfoy' claim would be uncontested. Eventually they got to the room they needed with only seconds to spare and after a quick check to make sure everyone was still there, Arthur knocked on the door.
A/N sorry about the long wait. Now that I don't have any more assignments I should be able to update sooner though they will not be more than once a fortnight. This story will not be abandoned so please be patient.
Also if some think that I'm adding too much because of the bond that is how I see it; they are combined, compounded and like the separate parts of our body they each take care of their best aspects for the good of the whole. Thus it is natural that their magic would increase, minds be shared and their particular talents be augmented and thus shared.
Till next time
Da Sarge