Objection!
It was yet another year of misery as he sat on the lumpy mattress in the Dursley's smallest bedroom. Sure, he had magic now and that was nice since they would no longer physically touch him. But, it came at a price. For the past two years at Hogwarts he had been defamed, injured, attacked, and generally nearly killed on a monthly basis. Still, he didn't mind so much. After all, death hurt a lot less than the hell of living with the Dursley's.
Harry had come to understand that death wasn't really so bad when the Basilisk nearly killed him. Still, Harry had a lot to do.
"BOY! GET DOWN HERE NOW!" Shook throughout #4 Privet Drive.
With a sigh Harry lifted himself off of the bed and made his way down to Vernon Dursley.
"Yes Uncle Vernon?" Harry asked in a resigned voice.
"Aunt Marge will be coming here in a couple hours. I want you to make sure everything is ready, do you hear me boy?" Vernon said as he handed Harry a list of chores.
Harry nodded slightly.
"Just remember your side of the bargain." Harry replied as he went off to finish a few more duties that his uncle had just given him.
The next week was one of the most difficult Harry had to go through. Before, he didn't know what his parents were and so couldn't counter Marge's slander of them. Nor, could Harry even turn Marge into a pig because he'd be expelled. (It was still so tempting though. All it would take was a little NEWT Level Transfiguration, and he messed up? Oh well, no use crying over spilt milk!)
Still, he held tough and ignored her belittling comments, until that fateful night. Marge had had too much to drink that night and had crossed an unspoken line, and Harry's already blazing temper was kindled into an inferno.
"SHUT UP!" Harry roared.
The effects were almost immediate, Marge began to swell like a balloon and she began to float.
In his rage the door to the cupboard under the stairs ripped off and slammed into the wall and his trunk floated out to him. Harry then pulled out his wand from his supplies and started on his way out.
"BOY! COME BACK AND FIX HER!" Vernon roared.
Harry whipped around and pointed his wand that had a crimson glowing tip at his uncle.
"Try me." Harry whispered in a deadly voice.
With that said he made his way out of #4 Privet Drive. Hopefully, for the last time. With his wand still glowing crimson he waved it down the street in a vain attempt too break through the fog.
Harry never saw the giant black dog watching him from under a set of bushes.
A tremendous bang shot throughout Privet Drive and a bus Harry had never seen before appeared.
"'Ello, 'u called?" The pimply faced young man asked pleasantly.
"Er, yes. I need to get to Diagon Alley, Preferably in front of Gringotts." Harry said.
"Att'll be 10 Sickles, an' for an 'dittional 7 knuts u 'an 'ave a 'ot 'choclate an' a toofbrush'."
Harry quickly handed the heavily accented teen a galleon and made his way onto the bus.
" 'En u 'ant tuh works then guv'ner?" He asked.
"Sure." Harry agreed as he sat down on a bed.
"'Crazy t'at, 'ey 'u 'ear 'bout Sirius Black?" The teen asked as he handed Harry a mug of hot chocolate.
"Only what the muggles say about him." Harry replied as he forced himself to calm down.
"'E's a mass killer! Managed to kill 12 people with one curse." The teen explained as he put the rest of the supplies down at Harry's nightstand, and then handed Harry his change.
"Thanks, and what kind of Curse could kill twelve people? It doesn't make sense!" Harry shook his head.
"'E did it som'how." The teen sighed as he shook his head.
Only a couple hours later Harry stepped off in front of Gringotts Bank. He then looked around quickly. No one was in sight. So Harry drew his wand and muttered a single spell under his breath.
"Tempus."
5:55 A.M.
"Hmm, opening will be anytime for most of the businesses here. Maybe I should head down a place Hagrid urged me not to. After all, Knockturn alley would be a harder place to find me." Harry muttered as he quickly headed to his destination.
He quickly submerged himself in the small alleyway and searched around for an open shop.
He found one across from a building that had a sign saying 'Borgin and Burkes' in faded letters. The shop he entered was surprisingly clean, and he didn't see a trace of dark artifacts in the entire shop.
"Good Morning Sir." The shopkeeper smiled at Harry.
"Good morning." Harry greeted the man.
The man's white apron was clean and covered the majority of his midnight blue robes. His black hair was clean and cropped short.
"I know just the thing for you sir." The shopkeeper suddenly said after he had watched Harry for a long moment.
The man stood and made his way to a small display.
"It may be small, but it's power is incredible." The man noted.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked curiously as the shopkeeper placed a small green glowing object in his hands.
"Have you ever heard of a Magatama?"
Harry shook his head.
"Magatama? What's that?" Harry asked.
"There are only a handful of these beauties on the planet, but their power is unreal. You see with this you can unearth any hidden truth and shatter lies. You can find out people's darkest and deepest secrets."
"Really?" Harry asked skeptically.
"Truly Mr. Potter. Tell me, why did you come to knockturn alley?" The shopkeeper asked.
Harry felt immediately defensive, and decided to leave yet he couldn't move.
"A Psyche-Lock." The man said confidently.
What happened next was unlike anything that Harry had ever experienced, he wasn't able to run and the man managed to ferret out his secrets easily.
"So you blew up your aunt on accident then?"
"Yes." Harry said in defeat.
Suddenly he could move again.
"Did I make the Magatama's powers clear?" The man asked.
Harry nodded dumbly before he spoke.
"How much?"
"Although it's rare, it is also a forgotten object, no one believes in the power of a Magatama anymore, so I'll part with it for twenty Galleons. The Magatama does have a small risk to using it, if you press too hard and you don't have the evidence you need or know where to prod next it will hurt you. Press too much and it could kill you." The shopkeeper warned.
Harry quickly fished out the Twenty gold coins and exchanged them for the Magatama.
Risk or not this was one object he was not about to pass up.
It had taken the Ministry of Magic a full day to find him and Fudge merely let him off the hook.
The next month passed quickly as he lived in Diagon Alley, Harry began to practice using the Magatama as well as study. When Hermione and Ron finally appeared Harry had become proficient in using the Magatama.
"Hey guys, I have something I wanted to talk to you about." Harry said as they traipsed up the leaky cauldron's stairs.
"Sure thing mate."
"Ron! You still need to finish your potions essay!" Hermione hissed.
"Ron, why don't you go work on that for a little while? I've got a question I need to ask Hermione anyways." Harry suggested; breaking up the potential argument.
Ron sighed in defeat but nodded.
"Alright, I'll see you in about half an hour mate." Ron mumbled.
With that, Hermione and Harry entered his room and Ron went to his.
"What is it Harry?" Hermione asked as soon as she shut the door behind her.
"Please take a seat." Harry patted to the bed next to him.
She nodded and sat beside him.
"I wanted to ask something, do you...like me?" Harry asked.
It was one of the few things that he felt Hermione might try to hide from him if she did. Plus, Harry needed to know. He needed to know if he should move on and find another or to go after her.
"Of course I like you Harry, you're my best friend." She replied but Harry could already see the Psyche-Locks begin to take shape.
"No, I mean do you like, like me?" Harry clarified.
The Psyche-Locks snapped into place instantly.
"I don't know where you got such an idea." Hermione said nervously.
"Hermione, I know that you have deeper feelings than just friendship for me. That's ok, I do too." Harry said as he initiated the power of the Magatama.
A lock cracked.
"How could you know such a thing?" Hermione demanded.
Harry smiled lightly before he spoke.
"Remember First year? '...books and cleverness, there's more important things like friendship, bravery, and....oh Harry!' Remember that? I know what you were going to say."
The lock cracked a little more.
"W...what was I going to say?" Hermione asked weakly.
"Love."
A lock shattered.
"Still, it doesn't mean that I was in love with you! I...it could be a dozen other things!" Hermione protested.
"Oh really? That's not the only evidence I have of you caring more than just friends."
The next lock cracked.
"Remember last year? At the end feast? How you ran into my arms. It felt so good. So perfect." Harry said as he wrapped his arms around her body.
All but one lock shattered.
"I..." Hermione stuttered.
"It's ok Hermione, no matter what happens we'll be best friends. But, I'd like to be more than that." Harry said as his face drew closer to hers.
"More?" She asked weakly.
"Would you be mine? I'm already yours if you'll have me." Harry said.
The last Psyche-Lock shattered and she spoke.
"Yes! I'll be yours." She promised and their lips tentatively touched for the first time.
"So that's what you wanted to talk about." Ron asked in amusement.
The two of them separated instantly as if burned.
"Hi Ron." Harry said as if nothing had gone wrong.
"Hello mate."
"I wanted to ask you something Ron."
"What's that?" Ron asked curiously.
"Are you my friend because Dumbledore asked you to be?" Harry asked grimly.
Psyche-Locks began to emerge.
"I was afraid of that." Harry sighed as he activated the Magatama.
"Harry!" Hermione whispered.
"Just trust me and watch Hermione." Harry asked.
Hermione looked indecisive for a long moment before she bit her lip and nodded.
"I think you might have become my friend only because Dumbledore told you either directly or indirectly to do so."
"That's crazy mate!"
"Is it? Remember when we met for the first time? On Platform 9 and 3\4, your mother was asking where the you were supposed to go again."
"Yeah, so?"
"The location for the Hogwarts station has never moved! So your mother couldn't have forgotten! She had an ulterior motive. To find me. She knew I didn't know where to go." Harry said fiercely.
A lock cracked and a bead of sweat trailed down Ron's face.
"I thought it was a little strange that she did that...But I wasn't apart of that I assure you!" Ron said.
"Oh really? Then how come that once we boarded the train you came into my compartment and said everywhere else is full? The train is never filled to capacity! In fact there were still two empty cars left!"
Two locks shattered.
"Err..."
"Then, how about how everyone avoided me so quickly. Only really bad PR could do that."
"PR?" Ron asked dumbly.
"Public Relations. At the beginning everyone was interested in becoming my friend, and by the end of the first week they no longer cared. The news media couldn't cause that. Besides, I didn't have bad media coverage. But they began to avoid me. Only Hermione kept 'Pestering' me and only two people working together could cause that."
"Who?" Hermione asked; enraptured at Harry's attack.
"Dumbledore and Ron. Dumbledore acted as power while Ron was the spy that also harmed my image, severing me from my peers." Harry explained.
The last few locks shattered.
"Alright...I give, just...don't push any more..." Ron pleaded.
"Then talk." Harry said grimly.
"Yes, Dumbledore ordered me to become your friend. He said that you needed a light family to help keep you on the right path, and that if another person were to interfere it could cause you to go dark. I didn't understand that reasoning but he must have had some reason to believe it right? So I obeyed him. I didn't study in front of you guys because I was too busy fulfilling Dumbledore's orders. At first It was because I thought that he was right, but by the end of last year I came to realize that it was too late, I was too far into Dumbledore's camp to tell you that I had never been only loyal to my best mate. That I was instead harming him. What could I do? Say 'Hey, Harry I've been spying on you for the last two years and I'm sorry. Forgive me?' That' wasn't happening. Besides if I did so Dumbledore would just make a new plan. At least this way I could offer some support." Ron mumbled.
"You didn't like what you were having to do?" Harry prodded.
"I hated it." Ron confirmed.
No Psyche-Locks appeared.
"You were his puppet eh?"
"Yeah, this year he said that I was to try to break you and Hermione's friendship up."
"And you were going to do so?" Hermione asked dangerously.
Ron laughed dully.
"Not very hard, after all I'm 'stupid Ron' I wouldn't know how to sever such a strong friendship right?" Ron said bitterly.
"So you were pulling to wool over our eyes. What about Dumbledore?"
"He didn't see my plans and how I worked them in my first year, all he saw was results. He saw my grades, and considered our age group as stupid since they aren't Dumbledore. He underestimated me until I became suspicious of him. Then I acted dumb to protect myself; and you guys to some extent."
With their conversation completed and a new friendship born Harry then explained how he had ferreted out their secrets so easily.
"So the Magatama eh? That's wicked mate." Ron said.
"Oh, Harry I'm glad you got it but please don't abuse it." Hermione pleaded.
Harry nodded in agreement.
"There is at least one other person that I'm going to use it on and in the great Hall too."
"Dumbledore?" Ron asked.
Harry nodded again before he spoke.
"And Snape too."
"Harry, I never thought I'd say this but...Give them hell!" Hermione whispered as her cheeks burned.
"That, my dear girlfriend, that is becoming a specialty of mine." Harry grinned before he kissed her again.
"Eeeewww! Gross!" Ron raised the pitch of his voice as high as he could.
In that moment he sounded like a little girl who feared boy cooties; naturally this caused the trio to burst into laughter.
Idea: Harry Potter/ With a Phoenix Wright element added in. (The Psyche-Locks) Wow, what a change eh? I've read a bunch of manipulative Dumbles fics and almost all of them have Ron as an evil lackey. Not this time! He was an unwilling accomplice, and due to a bunch of reasons Ron had become a slave of ol' Dumbles. In most evil Dumbledore's he persuades others to serve him. In this he does that too, but he also will enslave those he can, it's easier to control a slave than a person after all.
Yes the Magatama (Phoenix Wright Item) could be abused, but it's in Harry's capable hands.
This condensed version follows what would approximately be the first 3 or so chapters of what would happen if this turned into a full fic.