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Harry wasn't quite so lucky, with his cloak he managed to get back to the common room unseen and the common room was empty other than Hermione, those who were out of bed were already on their way down to breakfast or out doing something of their own they didn't want widely known.
Hermione was sitting with a book in front of her but she hadn't been reading. She'd been watching the portrait entrance and her eyes narrowed when she saw it open and close without anyone appearing.
"You can take your cloak off Harry. I want to talk to you!" she demanded.
Harry looked around to check they were alone then pulled the cloak off his head. "Let me nip upstairs for a minute and shower first, then we'll head to breakfast. I'm starving," he said covering his head back up and hurrying up the stairs to get his uniform off before anyone saw him still wearing it on a Saturday. He wondered whether Hermione had sat up all night waiting for him.
"Harry!" Hermione yelled.
Harry rummaged through his trunk for his least ill-fitting casual clothes, and his shampoo and shaving things, wanting to look as good as possible today. Not that he actually believed that the end result would impress anyone.
"Harry James Potter! You come back here and talk to me!" Hermione demanded, bursting into the dorm room waking Harry's room mates who all mumbled abuse at her and Harry.
"Hermione, you can't just come storming into the dorm whenever you want. What if somebody had been getting undressed," Harry said firmly.
Hermione blushed. "Where have you been?" she hissed.
"Not here Hermione!" Harry said firmly. "I'll meet you downstairs in a minute."
Hermione glared at him and Harry glared back. "I'm not talking to you up here. There are people trying to sleep," Harry said quietly. "Show some consideration for others and go and wait down in the common room if you want to talk to me."
"Harry! Where have you been?" Hermione demanded.
"In the infirmary Hermione," Harry lied, firmly.
"But I asked Madam Pomfrey," Hermione protested.
"Hermione, this is my private business. I would appreciate if you didn't shout about it all over the place," Harry said angrily. He turned his back and gathered his things for the shower again.
"Harry James Potter…" Hermione began only to be interrupted by her now furious friend
"Hermione, I didn't come upstairs so you could interrogate me further, I'm going to have a shower and you are definitely not invited," Harry said dryly.
"But Harry, you didn't tell me what went wrong with your testing. Why did Madam Pomfrey keep you overnight?" Hermione asked.
"Hermione, I don't want to talk about it," Harry said turning his back on her again and walking into the bathroom, pulling out his wand and casting a locking charm on the bathroom door.
Hermione cast an Alohamora, huffed when it didn't work and cast again with all of her might and opened the door to continue the argument, and Harry turned on her. "Okay Hermione, you want to join me in the shower, start stripping" he demanded furiously as he kicked off his shoes and pulled off his robe.
"What? Harry! You pig!" Hermione yelled.
"No Hermione, this is the boy's bathroom. I told you quite clearly that I was going to take a shower, entered the bathroom and locked the door behind me. You're the one that spelled the door open and barged into the bathroom where I was trying to get undressed even after I specifically told you I was going to shower and that you were not invited to join me," Harry pointed out angrily. "Now either get out or start taking off your clothes."
"Mr Potter that's highly inappropriate, but you were provoked so I shan't take points this time because I know you were provoked by Miss Granger's inappropriate behaviour, but I never what to hear you speaking to a witch like that in future. Detention Miss Granger" Professor McGonagall snapped. "Be at my office directly after dinner this evening, at which time I will expect a reasonable explanation for your actions. You can collect your wand once I'm satisfied that you won't do such a thing again."
"I've haven't had a detention since first year," Hermione whispered horrified, remembering when McGonagall took fifty points off each of them making them pariahs in Gryffindor. Not to mention having a professor take her wand like a child that cannot be trusted to use magic responsibly. Other than having caused serious injury it was a punishment rarely given to anyone but first years in their first few months of magical instruction.
"Miss Granger, you are lucky not to receive a week's detention and the loss of your prefect badge for such wanton behaviour and the horrendous breech of Mr Potter's privacy. This is not how I expect my prefects to behave," Professor McGonagall scolded frostily.
"Professor, why are there wards on the girl's stairs and not on the boy's or at least to prevent them entering the boy's bathrooms?" Harry asked.
"It was thought that witches are more vulnerable to abuse by wizards, and that witches had a better sense of propriety than Miss Granger has shown herself to have," Professor McGonagall replied apologetically. "And Mr Potter, I'd like to see you in my office after breakfast. Shall we say half past nine?"
"I'll be there, Professor, I'm sorry for what I said, I lost my temper," Harry agreed frowning slightly.
"That's quite understandable Mr Potter, I'll let you off with a warning this time but do try to be less crude in the future, I will still need to see you on an unrelated matter at nine thirty," Professor McGonagall replied.
"What did you do Harry?" Hermione demanded.
"Come along Miss Granger before I have to change my mind about assigning a whole week of detention," Professor McGonagall said severely.
Hermione gulped and hurried out of the boy's bathroom and dorm, and Harry relocked the door and rested against it for a moment before finally having his long awaited shower.
Neville finished dressing behind his bed curtains and the other boys who had been hiding in their beds until the professor and Hermione left all sat up and looked at each other.
"I don't care where Harry was last night. He's our dorm mate and it's his business. I vote we try to keep this to ourselves as much as we can after that outburst," Neville said.
"I agree, he's my best mate, I say we keep his secrets. He will tell us what he wants us to know," Ron agreed.
"The school goes crazy over Harry, I say we give him a break," Dean agreed.
Seamus nodded. "Okay, I'll keep it to myself, he'd do it for any of us," he agreed. "Are we going to give Granger the cold shoulder for making such a scene?"
"I say we should just for barging in here without knocking again. I know Harry's asked her more than once not to, particularly early in the morning," Dean said.
"Yeah I was having the best dream, and she woke me up right at the good part," Seamus complained.
"I vote we censure her but do it discretely, otherwise it will just draw the others attention to what happened this morning and most people are going to think it had something to do with Harry, they always think everything we do is about Harry," Neville warned them.
"Hermione didn't mean to make such a scene," Ron supported his friend.
"She never does, but you can't think it's okay for her to barge in like that just because she has a bee in her bonnet about Harry again. And for her to unlock the bathroom door is intolerable. How would you have felt if you were in the shower starkers?" Neville replied.
Ron blushed violently red.
"Neville's right, I mean I have nothing to be ashamed of but I don't want to be revealing all of myself to Granger. She'd probably shriek the place down and act like it's my fault for not being decently dressed," Dean agreed. "I say we have to do something to make her see she can't do it again."
-o0o-
Ron was sitting on his bed waiting for Harry when he got back.
"Hermione's in a tizz. What happened?" Ron asked.
"She was too busy trying to interrogate me to realise that there are alarm wards that alert McGonagall if a girl enters the boy's bathroom and McGonagall gave her a detention," Harry said. "Luckily I was the only person in the bathroom when she stormed in and I was still almost fully dressed."
"Why didn't you lock the door?" Ron asked suspiciously.
Harry rolled his eyes, now annoyed with both his best friends. "I did! She didn't take the hint and unfortunately she was in a temper so her Alohomora was stronger than my Colloportus. So, she has detention tonight and possibly every night for the rest of the week, McGonagall took her wand so she couldn't do it again and I could shower in peace."
Ron whistled. "McGonagall had to have been furious to have taken her wand for the rest of the day. We'll have to stick close to her to keep her safe."
"Where is she?" Harry asked sighing.
"In the common room. She sent me up to get you so we could go to the library and finish our homework," Ron said.
"No" Harry replied, bending to tie his shoes.
"What do you mean no? We can't let her go roaming around the castle without her wand," Ron asked shocked.
"I'm starving and I'm going to breakfast before I need to meet with McGonagall. Hermione doesn't want to help me with my homework, and I honestly don't need the help. She wants to grill me on what happened yesterday and you and Hermione both know very well that if I accompany her to the library or anywhere else outside Gryffindor tower, I will feel obligated to stay with her and make sure she's safe no matter how much she nags me. So no, I will not be part of her protection out in the castle today, where she can trap me and harass me until I either answer her questions, leave her in danger or have to act like a complete ass and make her cry just to get her to leave me alone."
"But…" Ron began.
"No, what she wants to know is none of her business and I refuse to discuss it with her, and it's her own fault she doesn't have her wand," Harry said bluntly.
"Harry, she's worried about you," Ron said.
"And she has no need to be. She could see I'm perfectly fine" Harry argued.
"Do you have a block on your magic?" Ron asked.
"Why are you asking? Are you offering to sacrifice Hermione to break it or are you offering to fuck me yourself?" Harry asked bluntly. "Because I have to tell you I'm not particularly interested in either offer. Hermione's like my sister, I'd no sooner want to kiss her than you want to kiss Ginny and I'm not into blokes."
Ron flushed, either in anger or embarrassment, Harry couldn't tell.
"What are you going to do then?" Ron asked.
"Quite frankly anything I need to do something about is my personal issue and my decision and I wouldn't disrespect any girl enough to talk about it openly. You were raised in the wizarding world, I'm sure you know that letting it be known that a girl isn't a virgin would seriously harm her chances of making a good marriage. Would you like someone to talk about your sister like that."
"You're not going to choose Ginny?" Ron asked horrified.
"With six older brothers? No way. I don't have a death wish. I couldn't choose her anyway, she won't be old enough until next summer and I can't afford to wait," Harry said.
"So, you're really not going to tell me?" Ron said.
"No, I'm not, it's honestly none of your business and I don't want you looking suspiciously at every girl I talk to, this is going to be hard enough. In fact, I'm depending on you to help me explain to Hermione why I'm not going to tell her either," Harry said.
"Harry," Ron said diffidently, "Thanks for not choosing Hermione. I know she's thinking about asking you to let her help you."
"Hermione's magic isn't very strong, which is why she was starting to struggle in Transfiguration, Charms and DADA and she's having trouble coming to terms with a limitation that for the first time studying harder, getting the wand movements exactly right and being able to pronounce the spell perfectly cannot fully overcome. She's not thinking about the reality of having sex with me or what it would mean to the three of us as friends, or how it would hurt you, she's just thinking about the rumour that she would get a magical boost from being there when my magic is released and she would be able to do better in class."
"Would she?" Ron asked.
"Kind of, from what Dumbledore said it's not that simple, the magic she gained would still be mine. And because she didn't have enough magic of her own to counterbalance it, when she was in my presence, that magic would still be inclined to do what I wanted it to instead of what she wanted and with the level of influence it had Professor Dumbledore was worried it would change her in ways he couldn't predict and potentially create an unequal bond between us and she'd have to stay in frequent contact with me or her extra magic would fade away. It would totally change our friendship and since nobody could tell me much about the bond it creates between the two people, I wouldn't want to take a risk like that with our friendship," Harry explained what he knew about it.
"Thanks, for not choosing her anyway," Ron said.
"Ron, Hermione honestly isn't thinking about having a relationship with me, or how having sex with me would affect her relationship with you. She's thinking like a muggle. Without magic involved, it is possible for men and women to have purely recreational sex with a friend or a stranger without it affecting their friendship." He didn't add that from what he'd seen and read in his Aunt's tabloids didn't usually end up being that easy or that simple a lot of the time.
"Will you explain it to her?" Ron asked.
"Eventually," Harry agreed. "But for now, I'm too angry at her about this morning, and I'd end up saying something hurtful if she forces me to discuss it. I'm going to go to breakfast, and then to meet with Professor McGonagall. If you want a second wizard to protect her in the library, you should ask Neville."
"He's pissed off at her too. Neville was missing all afternoon yesterday too and Hermione thought that meant he knew what was going on and tried to interrogate him at dinner. He's been spending most of his time with the Ravenclaws," Ron said.
Harry laughed mirthlessly, he didn't envy his friend that mess, deciding you wanted to marry one 'Claw while currently dating another and working out how to break up with her in a way that didn't cause his current girlfriend to take it out on the girl you did like had to be hell.
"Let's head to breakfast, I'm hungry," Harry said finishing their discussion.
Ron was distracted by the mention of food as always and they headed down to the common room where they collected Hermione for breakfast. Thankfully, Hermione either was still humiliated by the detention or had taken Harry's refusal to talk in public to heart at least and they spent their meal discussing schoolwork.
-o0o-
"Come in Mr Potter," Minerva answered her office door after Harry knocked hesitantly.
He shut the door behind him them took a deep breath to calm himself. "Am I in trouble, Professor?"
"Not at all Mr Potter, in fact you're to be congratulated for fixing the problem with your magic so promptly," Minerva replied.
"You can tell? Just looking at me?" Harry asked astonished.
Minerva chuckled, "No but I imagine it will be fairly obvious next time you cast magic, particularly in DADA. I felt the burst of magic you gave off from here. I was worried for a moment that you'd used your bed in the dormitory for the task."
"No of course not. I never would have disrespected her that way, risking letting my dorm mates hearing us or seeing her leave afterwards. S… she explained to me why it was important that people didn't find out she'd done it. We used the room of requirements, I asked the room to add any extra ambient magic to the wards, you shouldn't have felt it," Harry explained.
"That was very sensible of you, I'm tied to the wards which is why I felt it and they're definitely stronger today than they were yesterday, they feel very protective so fifty points to Gryffindor," Minerva told him. "I called you here to administer the rest of the tests again, now you're free from magical blocks. Before I begin, were there any issues with the unblocking that you want my advice about?"
Harry blushed a furious red. "No, I don't think so" he spluttered.
Minerva looked amused and started casting spells at him. Two came back positive. "Animagus and Metamorphmagus, both much stronger than when I tested you originally, I've never known anyone to have that combination as strongly before. It was thought that they are mutually exclusive, which probably explains the double block on your magic if you were starting to change randomly" she told him.
Harry chucked, "The Harry Potter factor at work again," he muttered.
Minerva laughed, not unkindly.
"What does it mean for me?" Harry asked.
"I imagine that would depend on the level of your metamorphmagus gift. I would speculate that once you've mastered both skills you may be able to make the same level of changes to your animagus form as you are to your human form. For example, changing hair length and colour, eye colour, and perhaps changing shape a little. Very few metamorphmagus' are able to change their bodies as fully as Nymphadora Tonks," Minerva said writing a quick note. "If you give this to Madam Pomfrey, she will give you the potion to reveal your form. See me after that to sign up for the animagus class if you wish to pursue it."
"I will Professor, you can sign me up now, even if my form's pretty much useless I'd like to pursue it," Harry said slightly sadly, remembering his father and godfather and the stories Sirius had told of the fun they had with their animagus forms.
Minerva smiled and added his name to the list before duplicating a piece of parchment and handing it to Harry, "Add the classes to your schedule, as Quidditch captain I expect you'll have no trouble scheduling practice around the classes."
"No Ma'am" Harry agreed grinning. He put the parchment in his pocket and turned to go before deciding that he did have a couple of questions from this morning that might be less embarrassing to ask his head of house than the school mediwitch.
"Actually I did have a question, this morning after… you know… I can feel stuff that isn't me. Is that normal?" Harry stammered.
"What do you mean, Mr Potter are you talking about feeling an emotion or a physical sensation?" Minerva asked.
"Well, both," Harry said blushing.
"And could your partner feel these things too?" Minerva asked.
"I dunno… I mean I never asked her… I think she could feel my emotions but she never said anything but we didn't talk much except about what excuses we would tell our friends, you see we fell asleep afterwards and were accidentally out all night. We didn't want anyone to know. Her especially… she doesn't know if her parents signed a betrothal contract you see. We didn't realise the blocks releasing would hurt and exhaust us and we would fall asleep before we could get back to our dorms," Harry stuttered and stammered his way through the explanation.
"I do see," Minerva agreed. "Can you feel anything from her now?"
Harry screwed up his face for a moment. Then turned bright red. "She's in the bath," he squeaked.
"Well that's quite specific," Minerva said surprised. "Tell me how you knew that."
Harry blushed. "I could feel the hot water and she was washing her left leg, I could feel it out in the cool air and the washcloth, she has bubbles, they smell of coconut, and when I was in the shower this morning I swear that I could taste coffee and kippers, and she was leaving the great hall as I entered," he said.
"Okay, could you tell how she was feeling emotionally or what she was thinking?" Minerva asked.
"She was feeling calm and content but now she's feeling curious and anxious. I can't tell what she's thinking. Do you think she felt me checking on her?" Harry asked.
"You'll have to ask her, remember you have no reason to believe that this bond goes both ways," Minerva replied.
"Will this go away, because it could be extremely distracting when we are in different classes," Harry asked.
"I don't know Potter, it might be temporary. If so, I would expect the sensations to fade in the next day or so. If it lasts more than a week then I expect it might be permanent. Can you feel it when she casts magic?"
"I don't know, I haven't been paying attention when she does, if she even has cast much this morning," Harry replied.
"So you also don't know how much of a magic boost she got when your magic surged as your blocks were removed?"
"Um no, but she will have got a boost from her own magic blocks being removed too," Harry said then covered his mouth, paling as he realised what he'd given away.
"I trust you and Miss Bones will sort this out between you," Minerva said amused. "I wouldn't have recommended that you did this together as we had no way to predict the consequences, but it certainly helped both of you with the issue of how to ask someone and keep it confidential. Unfortunately, now you are in totally uncharted waters, there is no documentation of the effects of two people using each other to release a magical block, much less two as strong as the ones on your core. It increases the chances of side effects like the one's you're experiencing."
"Were they strong? I was talking to Neville and he thought they'd have to be pretty weak, or I'd somehow almost broken through them to still have enough magic for sixth year classes with two blocks," Harry asked.
"Normally you'd be correct Mr Potter. You should not have been able to cast at all with the blocks you had I'm not at all certain how your magic found a way around them but they weren't broken and they did still look like they were holding back a large percentage of your core. Let's just put it down to the Harry Potter effect you spoke of, working in your favour this time," Minerva said smiling at the son of two of her favourite students. She'd always been a little disappointed that he hadn't inherited his father's talent for Transfiguration or his mother's brilliance, but maybe now the blocks had been removed he would live up to his potential.
"Huh, that makes a change," Harry commented.
Minerva laughed. "It seems you are an extraordinarily strong wizard, which is a definite bonus considering your extreme knack for finding trouble," she said severely.
"I don't go looking for trouble you know," Harry retorted.
"No, I know you don't mean to, but sometimes it is because your curiosity has got the better of you and you've got involved in things you shouldn't," Minerva said seriously.
A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed and those who followed or favourited this story for your support.
