Chapter 8

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Amelia Bones hurried to the school to speak with her niece privately as soon as she got the owl from Poppy Pomfrey. She headed straight to the hospital wing to speak with her old friend.

"Amelia, I didn't intend to make you rush up here, not that it isn't good to see you. Come let's have a cup of tea while I answer your questions," Poppy said cheerfully.

Amelia let herself be pulled into Poppy's office and waited while her friend ordered tea and cakes from the house elves before casting a silencing charm. "Can the block wait until she comes of age and finds out if she's been betrothed before making a decision who to ask to release them with?" Amelia asked.

"It won't do her magic any harm in the long run but if she were my daughter I wouldn't encourage her to wait, particularly with the war going on," Poppy replied calmly. "Pomona and I spoke to Minerva. As you know Transfiguration is one of the most magically taxing disciplines unless one has a true gift for it. The block is already starting to affect her performance in classes a little, not enough to prevent her passing but she's having to work harder than she needs to. The problem is that if you wait until she's seventeen you'll have to choose between interrupting her exam prep to work on controlling the extra magic, and she might be lucky to regain control before her exams, or Having to work so much harder than she'd need to to sit her NEWTs with her magic still blocked and risking exhaustion affecting her results. And as you know sixth year results determine what NEWT level classes you qualify for."

Amelia sighed.

"Surely your brother would have told you if he'd signed a betrothal?" Poppy said.

"We weren't all that close towards the end of his life. We'd fought over him joining Dumbledore's ridiculous pseudo militia group, several months before his death," Amelia admitted.

Minerva walked in through the ward, pulling a face as she overheard the criticism of her boss. "Amelia," she greeted questioningly.

"Minerva," Amelia said. "I came to see Susan."

"About the block that was on her magic?" Minerva said.

"I had no idea Susan had a block on her magic," Amelia confirmed appalled. "If I had I would have taken care of it over the summer where it could've been handled discretely. This could ruin her chances of marrying well if it becomes known. I take it you only tested the orphans."

"No there have been several instances where blocks have been placed on infants by well-meaning grandparents or jealous displaced heirs or ministry obliviators who've become frustrated visiting the same children over and over. Unfortunately, we need to test everyone."

"How would you test everyone and keep the results confidential?" Amelia asked.

"We test for the potential for several other things that would need extra training to manifest at the same time and quite a few students are pulled aside into various rooms. Only Susan and the three others that tested positive for a magical block will know about each other. We've found it best that they know they're not alone in their situation."

"You let other students know. You could ruin her reputation," Amelia said angrily.

"They have as much reason to keep it quiet as Susan does and it really does help to have someone to talk to about this. We've found that knowing the others in the same position makes it less likely that they will confide in their friends. We've done it this way for years and the students have never failed to keep each other's secrets," Minerva said matter-of-factly.

"Poppy said the block is affecting her grades?" Amelia said questioningly.

"She is still passing all her wanded subjects with at least an Exceeds Expectations and still doing well in Charms but she was starting to struggle more than she should in Transfiguration and perhaps Defence Against the Dark Arts," Minerva confirmed. "She's been lucky that it hasn't seemed to have an effect until this year, so it shouldn't have affected her OWL results."

"I wish my brother had thought to leave me access to Susan's betrothal offers when he left me her guardian," Amelia said. "If she's betrothed then unblocking her magic could have severe penalties depending on the contract conditions."

"And not unblocking it would have serious impact on her NEWT results in active magic and therefore her career prospects, not to mention her survival if she finds herself attacked," Minerva reminded her. "Miss Bones is an ambitious girl who wants a career in law enforcement. The choice is hers to make."

"I recommend you point out the issues and let her make her own decision," Poppy suggested. "She's a sensible girl."

"I'd agree except for the war coming. I don't want her having anything less than all her magic available if she is attacked not to mention that as my niece, she will be a potential kidnapping target for the Death Eaters, to use to control me, she needs to be able to protect herself, particularly if she's going to Hogsmeade with friends or a date," Amelia replied sighing. "You might want to recommend that to the others, particularly if they're muggleborn or from light-sided families."

"I wish it were only that" Minerva said pinching the bridge of her nose. She decided that she couldn't tell Amelia that Susan had already taken matters into her own hands because she would have no way of knowing that if Potter hadn't let it slip when he was speaking of the effects of removing his own blocks. She had recognised Potter's magical release but it had been so strong it must have masked Susan's magical signature in the excess magic.

Amelia looked at her curiously.

"You wouldn't want us telling Susan's name to the guardians of the other students involved," Poppy reminded her.

"No of course not," Amelia confirms a little embarrassed at her curiosity.

"I'll take you to meet your niece," Minerva said ending the conversation.

-o0o-

"Aunty! What are you doing here?" Susan said moving to greet her aunt. Surprised but pleased at the visit. Susan didn't remember the time before her parents had been killed, Amelia was the only guardian she had memories of and the two of them were close.

"You're looking well Susan," Amelia greeted, steering her niece into a reception room for a private conversation, then hugging her tightly once they were alone. "Professor Sprout wrote to me about your test results."

Susan blushed furiously and turned away in embarrassment. "You don't need to worry. It's already been taken care of" she said flatly.

"That may have been a very hasty decision. I hope you don't come to regret it. What if there's a signed betrothal contract in your vault with a virginity clause?" Amelia asked concerned. She had decided to encourage Susan to lose her virginity, and had contemplated taking her out of school for an afternoon to take care of it in the muggle world so it wouldn't cause more trouble than it needed to, but to hear that her niece had already made that decision for herself, and with a school mate, worried her. She hoped she hadn't chosen to unblock her magic with a boyfriend who would expect an ongoing sexual relationship, whether Susan wanted it or not or someone who would brag about sleeping with her niece to his friends like a lot of boys would.

"Can you guarantee the Death Eaters aren't going to attack the school or me before I turn seventeen and have a chance to go and check the Bones family vault for contracts to see who I should choose to help me unblock my magic?" Susan asked. "I might need this extra power. I'll deal with the contracts when I reach seventeen, no one has ever contacted me and claimed that we're contracted so I probably don't have one."

Amelia sighed, "No I can't guarantee you'll be safe" she agreed sadly. "I'm not criticising your decision to break the block as soon as you could. I was going to organise to take you out of school for the weekend to take care of it with someone I could spell to secrecy. Will the boy involved at least be discrete? Did he give you a magical promise?"

"I trust his word. He has as much to lose as I do if the whole story becomes public, and I would have hated to have to do that with a stranger," Susan replied.

"No Susan, I'm afraid he doesn't have as much to lose, that isn't the way the world works. He's a male and the double standard isn't fair but it exists. Betrothal contracts very rarely have virginity clauses for the male and few people would blame an unattached male for taking advantage of what is offered them, it would be your reputation alone that is ruined," Amelia replied seriously. "Give me his name, hopefully I can obliviate him before he tells his friends."

"No Aunty I won't let you obliviate him, he did me a huge service and he doesn't deserve to be treated like he's done something wrong. Besides I gave him my word I wouldn't tell anyone. I can't expect him to keep his word if I don't keep mine," Susan said firmly.

Susan, be sensible. You're trusting your future on a boy just because you fancy him," Amelia snapped.

"I'm trusting someone who has never once in the last six years told a lie or not kept his word, no matter how hard that was for him or how much opposition he faced for telling the truth. Someone who I believe will do the right thing because that's what he always does. He's earned my trust Aunty. I didn't have a crush on him, I didn't even choose him because I fancy him, I chose him because he was one of the only two boys in the school I could trust not to take advantage of me or to use this to try to bully me into marrying them, and I will not take advantage of him or his trust in me. He doesn't deserve to be attacked by you and have his memories stolen. The discussion is closed. Besides I think obliviating him might be pointless at this stage, we missed dinner while researching what to do and then fell into a magical sleep afterwards and were missing the whole night. If his friends or mine gossip about that, someone might realise we both went missing after the testing until the next morning. He's more likely to be able to cover for the hours we were missing if he remembers why he needs to."

"Did you get much of a boost to your magic?" Amelia asked.

"I haven't really had the chance to test it," Susan said. She pulled out her wand and tried the transfiguration she'd been struggling with last class. It worked perfectly.

"I couldn't quite do that in class yesterday and now it's simple and very easy," she said pleased.

Amelia had to smile at that, though she was still very concerned about her niece's reputation.

-o0o-

"You've told someone?" Susan asked horrified. "I just finished convincing my aunt that I could trust you!"

"You told your aunt!" Harry said defensively. "She's going to force me to marry you."

"No, she isn't! She doesn't have the right to force me to marry anyone and I didn't tell her who you were!" Susan snapped.

"I didn't mean to either. I wanted advice about what was happening between us and whether she could tell me anything about the bonds that form when someone releases their magic with someone else. I was asking McGonagall about being able to feel stuff from you and she asked me how much of a magical boost you got from me and I without thinking I told her I didn't know and that you'd have got your own magical boost anyway and she just knew I meant you and not Tracy. I guess she heard Tracy making plans to tell her parents so they can contact her betrothed and make arrangements. It's not like McGonagall's going to gossip about us and she would have felt your magic release anyway since we asked the room of requirements to send the excess magic into the wards."

"You talked about this with Professor McGonagall?" Susan asked surprised.

"Yeah, she called me to her office after breakfast to do the rest of the tests on me. Like I told you she said she felt the magical release and recognised my signature, maybe she recognised yours too, she's tied to the school wards. She already knew that I'd been missing all night and tried to prevent Hermione from questioning me too much. I couldn't exactly ask Hermione to research this for me and I figured McGonagall would know. I felt more confident talking to McGonagall than Pomfrey," Harry explained.

"What do you mean you can feel stuff from me?" Susan asked.

"Exactly that. McGonagall asked if I could tell what you were thinking or feeling and when I concentrated I could feel you were in a hot bath with coconut bubbles and feeling calm and content but a minute later you were curious and anxious," Harry explained.

"It was you!" Susan exclaimed. "I thought I could feel someone watching me in the bath, and then I felt really embarrassed all of a sudden."

"The embarrassment was mine not yours, I stopped trying to feel anything from you as soon as I realised you were in the bath," Harry said. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to invade your privacy."

Susan reached out and pinched his arm. "I can feel that," she said.

"McGonagall asked if we could feel each other cast magic," Harry said pulling out his wand. He cast lumos and Susan shook her head.

"Try something stronger," she suggested.

Harry cast the new shield he'd been learning concentrating on making it as strong as he could.

"I feel that but I'm not sure if I feel the magic or the strain of the effort you're putting into it," Susan said.

"You try it, I'll close my eyes and see if I can feel anything," Harry said.

Susan cast but Harry couldn't feel anything. "No nothing," he admitted.

"What did McGonagall say about it?" Susan asked.

"That if we'd asked for advice beforehand, they would've told us it was a bad idea to do it together because they couldn't predict the results. She did say that if this sharing of feelings was going to go away she would expect it to start to fade in the next couple of days and that if it lasts more than a week at the current strength then we should plan on the possibility that it's permanent. I'm worried about what might happen when we're in different classes. I'm in transfiguration at the same time you're in defence so maybe it's a good thing that McGonagall will know what's going on if you get hexed and I react like I have been too."

"I'm more concerned about your quidditch practice, I really don't want to feel being hit by a bludger or falling off a broom," Susan retorted.

"I haven't fallen off a broom since I was attacked by Dementors in third year!" Harry replied indignantly. "And I could really be hurt if I'm distracted by something you feel during a game. There's also the possibility that feeling me move or change directions suddenly will make you trip and hurt yourself. It you hit your head while I'm several hundred foot in the air then it could kill both of us."

Susan nodded realising that if she distracted Harry during quidditch it would be her fault they were both in pain and that it wouldn't be fair to ask him to give up one of the few times he felt free of being the-boy-who-lived and was seen for what he could do. "Can you get me your practice schedule so I can make sure I'm sitting quietly studying during them? And I'll seal myself in my bed while you play," she asked.

"Sure," Harry said grinning. "Thanks Susan."

"I hope this wears off, it's going to be a real pain," Susan said.

"Yeah especially if one of us starts a relationship," Harry added.

Susan blushed furiously. "What about… you told me you…" she stammered, unable to complete the sentence.

"I told you what?" Harry was confused for a moment.

"That… you know… in the shower… how you knew I couldn't remove the block on my core by myself," Susan whispered. "I didn't feel it this morning."

"Oh that. Yeah, that will be embarrassing, knowing you can feel it. I didn't do it this morning, I was too angry with Hermione to feel like it," Harry mumbled blushing. He didn't want to give up masturbating, he needed the stress relief to help him sleep but he didn't know if he'd be able to do it knowing Susan would also feel what he did.

"It will be more than embarrassing for me, if I'm with my friends or worse in the common room at the time," Susan snapped.

"Well it's not like I can send you a schedule of when I'm going to feel like doing that, but it's usually pretty early before the others get up or late at night," Harry said blushing furiously. He thought about telling her that knowing she was feeling what he was feeling would probably take care of the problem for her but then he realised that might not be true. As embarrassing as the thought she would know was the idea that he could make her feel like that, that they were sharing the sensations was also kind of hot.

"Could you try to check in with me to make sure I am alone first? Like you did this morning when I was in the bath?" Susan asked.

"Yeah but so long as you don't hold me responsible for what I feel or find out while I'm checking on you," Harry said warily.

"I guess I can't, seeing as I asked you to do it," Susan said blushing. She only hoped he couldn't see what she was dreaming if he checked on her while she was asleep.

-o0o-

"Did you gain much extra magic when your blocks were removed?" Neville asked. It was the first chance they'd had to talk while being sure they weren't overheard.

"I don't know, I haven't had a chance to get away and cast magic on my own to test the limits and I haven't had an excuse for casting anything defensive or offensive today, Ron and I have been avoiding casting around Hermione unless she forces us to practice casting for homework because it makes her feel bad and of course she couldn't be left on her own out of the common room yesterday. But every spell I've practiced for homework seems a little easier than I expect it to be and I feel great, stronger and healthier than I ever have before, like I have limitless energy to burn," Harry replied. "Want to go to the room of requirement and help me check it out?"

"As long as you're not planning on firing spells at me, I'd like to see how you're managing controlling the strength of your spells before we try to duel. How about we use the training dummies as targets."

"Okay," Harry said laughing, they made their way up to the room and Harry specifically asked for a training area where they couldn't be found or overheard.

"What about you? Have you decided to unblock your magic?" Harry asked.

"Yeah I want to of course but it's complicated and it isn't something I want to rush. I've broken up with Lisa and I've started talking to Luna more," Neville replied. "We have to wait at least until after her birthday and probably a bit longer than that for Luna to be comfortable with the idea. I think I'll be ready to bring up the magical block in the next week or two. It's possible her parents put a block on her magic too. Her father wasn't exactly sane for the first couple of years after her mother died and from what Luna tells me it was more likely her mum would've been the one to have noticed she needed a temporary block. She won't be tested until next year."

"Are you worried that she won't agree to help you release the block?" Harry asked surprised.

"No not really, I just want to make sure she knows I value her as a person and want to make a life with her. I don't want her to think that she's just a convenient choice," Neville replied. "What about you and Susan, is there anything between you now?"

"Yeah kind of, it's the strangest thing, if I concentrate I could tell you exactly what she's feeling, physically and emotionally. At first after we did it, we could feel each other all the time, she nearly threw up from the combination of feeling my movement and knowing she wasn't moving the same way yesterday when I was running down the stairs and she was walking across the common room, I hate to think what it's going to be like when I have quidditch training. But it's seems to be getting slightly better now I only can feel her when she's moving quickly or feeling strong emotions or sensations like pain or I'm trying to which we've both promised not to do except in certain circumstances. Nothing tastes right either because I can taste her meal as well as my own, and she's a coffee drinker. It's hard to arrange to be at meals at different times without communicating or to sit so we can see each other's choices. Thank Merlin that she isn't a vegetarian and I hope she doesn't hate all my favourite foods," Harry confided.

"I haven't seen the two of you together," Neville commented. "Have you been meeting up with her."

"We met up once to talk about the shared sensations, but we agreed not to meet in private like that again," Harry replied.

"Why not if you want to?" Neville asked.

"Well you know neither of us wanted a relationship and it would be dangerous for her if people thought she was my girlfriend," Harry replied.

"Did your feelings toward her change at all?" Neville asked curiously.

"Are you just curious, or are you worried about you and Luna?" Harry asked.

"A little of both, I like the friendship I have now with Luna, I don't want to start feeling all aroused and nervous all the time like I did with Lisa," Neville admitted.

"Yeah I don't think that you need to worry about that. I'm not feeling aroused or wanting to be with her all the time exactly, we were both a bit embarrassed when we woke up but we got over that and were able to talk about it and make plans to try to hide the fact we were missing all night. If anything I feel more protective of her, and it has been a lot easier to talk to her than it was before we did it. It wouldn't be the same even if you did develop that sort of arousal and attraction for Luna, that would be natural because you already like her like that. There's be no reason for you to be nervous around her because you're such good friends and you can trust her not to use your feelings to manipulate you, I admit things are a bit awkward between me and Susan but that's because we barely knew each other except from the DA, so it was incredibly awkward at first but we both seemed to enjoy it and now were forcing ourselves into a situation in opposition to what we'd have chosen if following our feelings. I would like to spend more time with her, not because of the sex but because I got to know her a bit better and she's a great girl, but we agreed not to, we don't want the rumour mill to pair us together so nobody realises that we were both missing together that night," Harry said. "Especially if someone realises that we both have had an increase in our accessible magic, just after Madam Pomfrey tested us all for blocks."

"Ron and Hermione still haven't realised?" Neville asked.

Harry sighed, "No but it's only been a day! Hermione is still fuming at me for refusing to answer her questions about what went wrong with my testing and where I was afterwards, she's also thinking I owe her answers since it is apparently my fault she earned herself a week's detention bursting into the bathroom demanding them and then not backing down and leaving me alone even when McGonagall told her to. The only thing holding her off half the time is that McGonagall threatened her with another detention and the removal of her prefect badge if she doesn't respect my right to privacy, both physical and mental. Ron realised what me being gone all night and refusing to talk about it probably meant since I was an orphan, I didn't confirm it and he didn't demand to know details. I refused to tell him who she was and pointed out that he wouldn't want anyone to talk about it if it were his sister, though I promised him it wasn't. He thanked me for not asking Ginny or Hermione to do it and promised to help run interference."

"You should have seen McGonagall storming through the common room, I really thought murder was about to be done, but I thought she only got one day of detention," Neville said.

"I did too, Hermione must have said something to piss McGonagall off during that detention because that's when she got the rest of the week. I think McGonagall was surprised when she came storming into the dorm, that it was Hermione and not someone trying to force me into a compromising position so they could demand a betrothal offer," Harry said. "Did you see the notice that nobody is allowed in the common room or dorms between breakfast and lunch tomorrow. McGonagall told me they're going to ward the boys' stairs like the girls' stairs are, to prevent girls from getting up into our dorms."

"That will be a relief actually. Hermione has nearly embarrassed most of us storming in whenever she felt the need," Neville admitted.

"It will be, I normally don't mind Hermione coming in so much, though I do wish she'd knock or at least give us all some warning, but I've been having nightmares of someone like Romilda Vane deciding to join me in bed one night and then throwing a fit in the morning so McGonagall catches us," Harry said. "I ward my bed as best I can but proper wards keeping them out will help me sleep at night."

"Did you tell McGonagall that?" Neville asked.

"No, not exactly, I asked why they weren't already warded. I think that Hermione invading the bathroom like that when she was a prefect, and one of the girls McGonagall trusts the most, drove home for her how much of a problem it is. I told her that I already don't shower down in the quidditch locker rooms because of the lack of security after Colin got in with a camera. Professor McGonagall said they're going to rework the wards on the stadium changing rooms too."

"We better get practicing before someone notices that we're both missing," Neville said jokingly.

Harry laughed and turned and cast reductor at the training dummy and instead of breaking in the middle as it would have before the entire torso turned to fine splinters.

"Well Damn! Don't expect me to shield against that," Neville said in awe.

"Hell no! I'm going to be in trouble if we're asked to duel in class," Harry said anxiously.

"Yeah but the Death Eaters won't know what hit them next time they attack you. Try again, but try not to cast as strongly, picture the level of damage you would've made before, remember how McGonagall told us to picture the end results, maybe that will work" Neville suggested uncertainly. He'd never had to try to limit the power of his spells, getting them to work at all with his father's wand had been the challenge and since he got his own, his spells had all worked perfectly the way he'd wanted them to.

Harry tried barely casting the spell, picturing the results he wanted and eventually the result looked like a bit more damage than he would have done before. "It works when I concentrate really hard but it takes too long, and what would happen if Snape makes me duel Malfoy and I lose my temper?"

"That could be bad, and you can bet that Malfoy will do everything he can to make you lose your temper so you can be punished for losing it," Neville agreed. "Can you cast silently now?"

Harry turned and demolished another couple of training dummies, this time silently. "Yeah it's easy, and it makes it easier not to overpower the spell," he said.

"Is that the strongest you can cast silently?" Neville asked. The damage to the dummy was extensive but nowhere near the level of the first.

Harry turned and concentrated for a few seconds before casting again. "That is."

There was a reduction in power when Harry cast silently, but the damage left on the training dummy would still not have been survivable unless the victim was immediately put into stasis and transferred to a very competent healer, and probably not even then.

"What about removing the wand movements as well like they teach the seventh years? Try disarming him," Neville suggested shaken, Snape had a habit of pairing Gryffindors to duel against Slytherins and there were rumours he was giving the Slytherins private lessons on each new spell before he introduced it in class. He normally paired Harry against one of the two best duellers in Slytherin Nott and Malfoy. Nott wasn't much of a problem, he was a dark bastard and they'd probably end up facing him behind a deatheater mask during battle one day, but at least he had some common sense and a healthy dose of self preservation, that prevented him from poking at his opponents. But Malfoy never missed a chance to mouth off and upset Harry and if Harry lost control and cast without limiting the strength of the spell he could probably kill someone with a simple Stupefy or Expelliarmus, much less whatever more powerful spell they were supposed to be practicing.

Harry pointed his wand and without saying the incantation aloud or performing the wand movements thought Expelliarmus. The fake wand the dummy held flew towards Harry at a dangerous pace forcing him to dive out of the way, the wands of the dummies either side also flew out of their wooden hands. The dummy Harry had aimed at, spelled to show damage where a human being would be injured, flew ten metres back and hit the wall cracking its head open. Harry sighed and cast again careful to limit the power. This time the fake wand flew out of the dummy's hand and the dummy flew back a couple of feet landing on the ground without significant damage.

He then turned and stupefied the next again using minimal power. By the end of the afternoon he was dripping with sweat from the effort but had successfully cast every offensive spell he knew at a level that wouldn't permanently injure his opponent more than anyone else's spells would, though he was still casting slightly stronger spells than he had before his magical blocks had been removed.

"I'm not sure you're going to be able to hide your increased magical strength. Anybody that's been watching you cast close enough will still notice that your magic is stronger, they might guess you had a block removed, or they might just see how hard you're working and think you're putting effort into trying to make your spells stronger, but that might backfire if it pisses off your opponent," Neville said.

"Yeah, but the bigger problem is that I can't tell whether I'm getting better at not destroying the dummies because my control is improving or because I've used most of my excess magic for the moment. I'll have to sneak away and work on it again tomorrow, and try to use some of my excess magic before each class," Harry said.

"You better warn Susan that she needs to practice to see how much extra magic she has now, they have DADA before us," Neville said. "It would be a real pity if all your secrecy to protect her reputation is blown away by her inability to hide how much stronger her magic suddenly is. Or if she hurt one of her friends practicing duelling with them."

"Yeah, lets head to the owlery to send her a note," Harry agreed.

"Do you want me to take the note to the owlery so Hedwig doesn't get shirty with you for not using her again?" Neville said laughing.

"Please," Harry said miming extreme gratitude.

Neville laughed again. "Does Susan know she'll never be the first female in your life?" he asked.

"They haven't met," Harry replied groaning.

"What are you going to do if Hedwig doesn't like her?" Neville asked teasingly.

Harry groaned again at the thought. He had no idea what he would do if his owl expressed dislike for Susan, but he couldn't use her to send messages to the Hufflepuff witch anyway which Hedwig would definitely resent if she found out he'd been cheating on her with another owl.

"There's no reason for it to matter whether Hedwig likes her, we're not in a relationship and I can't send her notes with Hedwig and keep our friendship secret," Harry reminded himself as much as his friend.

A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed and those who followed or favourited this story for your support.