Chapter 11 Confronting the Future
Harry awoke in the hospital wing for the second time that year. His panic returned almost instantly but it calmed down quickly as he felt Esharry's reassuring presence. They had been rescued somehow and escaped the dementors. Harry only had a second to process this before Hermione all but leapt into his bed to wrap him up in a near bone crushing hug.
"Harry, you're awake!" Hermione cried in relief. "I was so worried! I only just woke up myself."
"What happened?" Harry asked. "How did we get away from the dementors? Where's Ron? What happened to Sirius?"
"You were rescued by Professor Snape." The matronly voice of Madam Pomfrey answered Harry as she began sweeping her wand over him checking that everything was alright with him, before handing him a large bar of chocolate. "And your friend Ronald is fine. I gave him some skeligrow to heal his leg and then put him to sleep to rest through the pain. As for Black, he's been arrested of course. I don't know why the dementors attacked you two as well as him but luckily something managed to drive them off, and with help from the dementor's handlers and the ministry's aurors Snape was able to get you and him back here safely. Soon he'll be dealt with. But you need to sleep. Professor Snape says the dementors tried to kiss you. I've never heard of such outrageous behavior. Professor Dumbledore is fuming mad over the whole affair and refusing to let the dementors back on to Hogwarts ground even to administer the kiss to Sirius Black. After an experience like that you need to rest and recover. Now eat your chocolate and then turn in."
Harry had tried to interrupt several times to ask additional questions. But holding back Madam Pomfrey when she meant to lecture someone was like trying to hold back an avalanche. Those last words, however, had filled Harry with dread. The ministry meant to destroy his Godfather's soul. Something must've gone wrong. Why hadn't Snape told them he was innocent? Even if they didn't have Peter as proof surely if all of them gave the same testimony it would at least make the ministry reconsider his death warrants.
Harry paused to eat the chocolate bar, it did make him feel a lot better after all, but he had no intention of sleeping the night away. As soon as Madam Pomfrey's back was turned, he would be out the door and tracking down Professor Dumbledore to tell him what really happened. But events came to Harry first. By the time Madam Pomfrey had Hermione back in her own bed and munching on her chocolate bar the door to the wing flew open as Minister Fudge and Severus Snape barged in.
"Minister what are you doing here?!" Madam Pomfrey demanded to know, all the matronly fury she could muster on display. "This is a hospital wing and I have patients here who need their rest."
"I'm sorry madam." Fudge said, shocked and cowed by her righteous indignation. "But I had to check on young Harry here. It will be my head on a stake if the public finds out he was badly injured by all this mess. Ah Harry my boy how are you feeling?"
"I'm fine Minister but I think you might be making a mistake." Harry answered and then immediately cut to the point as Hermione nodded vigorously at him. But Harry was distracted from speaking further as for the first time since Harry had gained the ability to see thoughts, Snape lowered his mental shields and allowed his thoughts to be heard.
"Don't say anything foolish child." Snape all but shouted in his head at Harry. "There's nothing that can be done from this angle. My testimony would be poison, you are a child, and Lupin isn't even here, he's still running around the forbidden forest the fool. Wait for Dumbledore and follow his plan."
Harry heard Snape's words, but they made no sense. What did he mean that his testimony was poison? What did it matter if Harry was still young? How could he expect Harry to wait and do nothing when Sirius's soul was at risk?!
"Minister you've got to understand." Harry pressed on. "Sirius Black is innocent! He was framed for the murder of my parent twelve years ago by Peter Petigrew when he faked his own death. We saw Peter alive and well this very night, but he escaped before we could bring him from justice."
"What nonsense are you talking about boy?" Fudge demanded to know. "Black innocent? Petigrew alive? Impossible all of it. I was there the night Sirius was arrested. I saw the devastation he caused, and I was there when poor Peter's little finger was recovered from the wreckage. That man doesn't have an innocent bone in his body and to hear you of all people trying to defend him- it's appalling."
"Minister, you can't believe I would have any compassion for the person who killed my parents unless I really knew that something was up." Harry pressed on. "I'm not asking you to give him an official pardon and release him. I'm just asking you to take the time and make sure you don't make an awful mistake. Look, you've got him captured. You've got Albus Dumbledore keeping an eye on him, and you could put a dozen aurors around him day and night. He's not going anywhere. He was never given a proper trial. Tell the Daily Prophet that you're planning to correct the mistakes of the past administration and give the public true justice and a chance to heal. Go through a proper and complete investigation and a trial. If I'm right, you will save the life of an innocent man. If I'm wrong, you'll have proven to the public that you're a man who takes justice seriously and will bring it to the high and to the low."
Fudge paused as if considering it all, but Harry could see that he was actually just choosing his words for his response. "No Harry. It's too much of a risk. Black broke out of Azkaban and has given Dumbledore the slip twice already. We can't risk him breaking loose again. Besides I assure you that a thorough investigation of Black was conducted by the ministry. There can be no doubt that Black is a killer and a dangerous enemy of the state."
"Don't be too hard on the boy Minister." Snape interceded. "I believe that Black placed him under the confundus charm as part of some scheme to clear his name."
Harry was livid. They weren't taking him seriously. They were throwing Sirius's life away. How could Snape be a part of this? He had been there when Petigrew was revealed. Did he hate Sirius that much to want to see his soul destroyed? Harry marshaled himself to prepare for another verbal assault.
I don't think you're going to get through to them. Esharry warned. Look at Fudge's mind. He's on the verge of a panic attack. I think the sight of Sirius's arrest really traumatized him. He's terrified of your godfather and of the dark arts as well. He'll take no risk that he'll have to face a dark wizard and will take any measures he needs to stamp one out. And Snape really thinks he is protecting you from something right now.
He's undercutting me. Harry thought. He's sabotaging me when I'm trying to save someone's life. He could at least try and help.
He thinks he is. Esharry pointed out. He thinks you have no hope of succeeding and is trying to spare you some grief.
Harry was at a loss. He suspected Esharry and Snape were right. The Minister was determined to be irrational about this. He was so determined to fight the monster in his head that he could see the person he was holding prisoner.
There was one option that Harry had. Fudge's mind was open and unguarded. And unconsciousness had given his brain a chance to rest and recover. While Harry wasn't up to full strength, he had enough psychic power available to press his own thoughts into Fudge and force him to help.
It would only last an hour. Esharry reminded him. But an hour was more than enough time to get Sirius out of the castle and back on the run. He will know that his mind was controlled by someone. We can erase his memory of this conversation so that he won't suspect that we were the ones to take him. But Snape will know what has happened and his mind is too strong to try and break open while controlling Fudge. People already know you're a mind reader, but that is not nearly the same thing as a mind controller in their eyes. There will be no going back from this.
Harry knew all that, but could he stay his hand and protect his reputation and freedom while his godfather was waiting to be worse than killed? He hated the thought of controlling anyone, but could he put his own comfort ahead of saving Sirius? Were any morals more important than human life?
Before Harry could make that choice, the door opened again, and Dumbledore swept in. Harry pulled his own psychic energy back to avoid the man's attention. And his chance to strike at Fudge was lost.
"Ah Albus, just the man I was about to go and see." The Minister immediately turned to face the old man allowing him to ignore Harry. "I know you're mad about the dementors and I understand that, but we do need to bring at least one of them in here to administer the kiss."
"Yes Minister, we do have much to discuss." Dumbledore said as he bowed politely to Fudge and everyone else in the room. "You will be pleased to hear that I have checked the wards your aurors left in Sirius's room and I assure you he cannot escape from there on his own. But if you would be so kind as to give me a few minutes I want to have a word with Harry over there and make sure he's alright. I understand from what Professor Snape has said that there is a chance he is under some kind of dangerous or confusing charm."
"Yes, yes." Fudge agreed as he motioned Snape out of the room. "Do help the poor boy to see sense. Now Severus I think we will be able to award you at least the order of Merlin second class but if you're willing to say some good words to the Prophet for me we may be able to bump that up to a first class for you."
"Professor Dumbledore I really must tell you-" Madam Pomfrey began.
"That your patients need their rest." Dumbledore finished for her. "And you are quite right of course. This will only take me a moment. Then I will lock the door and make sure that nothing disturbs them for the rest of the evening."
"Nothing?" Madam Pomfrey pressed.
"Nothing at all." Dumbledore promised.
"Good." She concluded. "I really don't know what Snape is talking about. The Potter boy's brain looks perfectly fine to me. Not confounded in the least. In fact, I dare say his brain looks like it's still growing a little bit. I'll be outside checking my stocks."
Once she had left Harry immediately spoke up. "Professor I don't know what Snape has told you-"
"He has told me about Sirius's innocence." Dumbledore again cut in. It seemed the old man was going to say his piece before anyone else. "It was hard to believe at first, but once I had a chance to talk to Sirius and examine his memories, I have no doubt that is the truth."
"He told you the truth but not the Minister?" Harry demanded to know.
"Severus is clever enough to know when his words have a chance of doing good or harm." Dumbledore said, though Harry internally scoffed at the notion. "But that is a matter for later. For now, it is best to accept that the testimony of three children, a missing werewolf and a man of Severus's circumstances cannot change the mind of Minister Fudge. So, we look to other ways for saving Sirius's life. We have several good options but what we need most right now is time. Miss Granger, I believe that three turns will buy us enough, if you use that time wisely more than one innocent life might be saved tonight. Now it is currently ten forty-three and at ten forty four I am going to lock the door to this room. Have a good time."
And with that he left. Harry was more than a little dumbfounded by all that, but it seemed that Hermione had caught on to something because she immediately called Harry over to her side. Once he had reached her, she had pulled out a small golden hourglass held in the midst of a gyroscope that had been hanging from a chain around her neck.
"A time turner." Harry said in recognition.
"How do you know that?" Hermione demanded to know and then her eyes lit up as she recalled scenes from earlier in the shack. "You've been reading my mind!" She said a little outraged.
"Yes, for about half a year now." Harry admitted with little concern, as his mind focused on the possibilities that time travel opened up for them. "We need to go now; we might be returning soon."
"Hold on to me." Hermione said though there was a spike of indignation in her mind. She held the edges of the time turner and the hourglass flipped over and back again three times. Once it was done the world seemed to run in reverse around him, the sun rose in the west and sped eastward just high enough into the sky to cast a bright sunset over the world. Then everything was normal again.
"Come on, we've got to get moving." Hermione ordered as she dragged him on. "And don't let anyone who might have seen us earlier notice us. Especially not ourselves. Nothing good ever comes from interacting with your past self."
They made their way out of the hospital wing and snuck their way down to the main entrance where they ducked into a broom closet. Harry waited there, certain that in a short time his past self and his friends would sneak by in the invisibility cloak to go see Hagrid. Harry had a pretty good idea of what he needed to do. Hermione was silently fuming to herself over something. Eventually she spoke up.
"You've been reading my mind since December?" She demanded to know.
"A bit before then really. I got fairly good at it while we were practicing dueling." Harry answered her without thinking. He had to keep most of his power retracted but he also had to keep an eye out for his past brain sneaking past.
"That explains-" Hermione said to herself, shook her head and reaffirmed her anger. "So, you've just been invading my brain ever since whenever you felt like it."
"It's hard not to, these days." Harry said honestly. "It's all become like a sixth sense really. I have to consciously suppress it now like you have to hold your breath to keep from smelling something. Honestly, I don't get why you're making a big deal out of this."
"You don't get-" Hermione all but screamed and then reeled herself back in as she remembered what they were doing. "Harry, you can't just go around reading people's minds. What if you picked up something really embarrassing about me and then-"
"Then what?" Harry cut her off. "Then I wouldn't want to be friends with you? Hermione, what I see when I read your mind is how much you care about me, about Ron and about everything you throw yourself into with such enthusiasm and determination. I love that, almost as much as I love you. I'm addicted to that in a way. You would be too if you could really feel how your closest loved ones feel about you in turn. If you could know how much I care about you, about how much Ron cares about you and how important what you think of him is to him. If I did find out something embarrassing about you, I would just chuckle about it and move on. Maybe I would tease you a bit about it, now that I'm not hiding it from you. I certainly wouldn't hold it against you or gossip about it."
Harry turned around to face Hermione and noticed that a massive blush had completely covered her face. Harry wasn't certain what he had said to cause that. He didn't know what else to say now that he could see that. And for once he quite deliberately didn't go looking into her mind to find out what had caused it. Hermione cleared her throat and looked away from him.
"I would get addicted to knowing what you feel about me?" She repeated. "So why didn't you ever think to tell me how to do that myself? Why didn't you tell me and Ron that you could do all this? I think it would be polite to at least warn people that you can't help but see into their minds."
"Well…." Harry said as he realized he had just backed himself into a corner at this point. "That's kind of a big conversation. Like a really big conversation. Too big to have in a broom closet. But I do have a reason I promise."
"Alright." Hermione accepted. "But I do expect you to teach me how to do this myself. It isn't fair that you're the only one who gets to know all your friends' deepest secrets."
"It's not really something I can teach." Harry said cautiously.
"Why not? You've obviously learned." Hermione pressed and Harry could feel her growing frustration with this topic.
"I didn't really learn." Harry tried to explain. "It just sort of happened to me after I got a psychic parasite shoved into my head over the summer."
"What?" Hermione all but yelled.
"I know that's something I'm gonna have to explain in detail." Harry tried to calm her down. "And I will just as soon as we aren't actively trying to save people's lives."
Hermione groaned in exasperation, then agreed with him. "But I'm not actually sure what we're supposed to do, Harry. It's obvious Dumbledore thinks we can solve this problem by going back in time, but I don't see how. It's not like we can warn ourselves about what's about to happen. Or go chasing after Petigrew after he escapes."
"I think we're supposed to rescue Buckbeak." Harry said. "He's the only other innocent life in danger right now. Plus, I'm fairly certain that earlier I felt my own mind hanging out around Hagrid's hut. We never actually saw him die, but Dumbledore would know if he were executed or not so there's a real chance that we did rescue him before. I think if we can get him away and then hide out until later this evening, we can fly him up to where Sirius is being held and then he can use him to fly away."
"But isn't Sirius going to be protected by magical wards?" Hermione pointed out.
"Dumbledore said he can't break through those wards on his own." Harry explained. "I think he sabotaged them so that we could break them from outside. And if he didn't, well I can see magic as well as thoughts so it shouldn't be too hard to unravel them."
"You can see magic?" Hermione gasped. "There had better be a very good reason why you haven't told me about these powers of yours all year, Harry Potter. Or else I am going to be quite mad about all the extra learning you've cut me off from."
Harry smiled and chuckled to himself. Then he felt a powerful mental presence going past him. The psychic power reaching out and feeling all around itself was identical to what he had felt outside Hagrid Hut earlier that day from his point of view. This reassured Harry that he was right. He told Hermione that he was certain their past selves had just slipped outside and after a few minutes they took off after themselves.
Rescuing Buckbeak was a matter of timing more than anything else. They first had to wait for their own visit with Hagrid to run its course while hiding out of sight behind the pumpkin patch where the hippogriff was staked in place. Harry made sure to let his past self feel his own psychic presence just the way he remembered it happening. To make himself vanish from his past self's attention he combined his telepathy and telekinesis to project a feeling of slick glass out from himself and fixed it in place between them, mimicking the way that Sirius's mind felt when Harry couldn't see it. That worked well enough and soon their past selves were on their way away from the hut unknowingly carrying Peter Petigrew with them.
"You're sure we can't just go up and snatch Peter from our past selves?" Harry asked Hermione.
"Positive." Hermione answered. "Time turners only really work when they allow you to do things that have already happened. Try and change the past and if you're lucky they just yank you back to the instant you left. If you're unlucky the universe lets those changes happen and rewrites itself in a way that makes things much, much worse for yourself to teach you a lesson. McGonagall told me all kinds of horror stories about people trying to change the past, they usually ended with either the person who tried killing their past self and erasing themselves from existence or whatever problem they were trying to fix gets a lot worse. Apparently, the French Revolution was supposed to end after the Terror happened so that everyone sat down and thought things through and made a lot of changes to make things more stable. Then some wizard whose brother had been guillotined tried to "fix it" and so the universe raised up Napoleon in response and Europe got another decade of bloody vicious war as a result. It's really dangerous magic."
Harry accepted that and continued to wait until the Ministry officials had seen that Buckbeak was chained up behind the hut. Once Harry was certain they couldn't blame the hippogriff's disappearance on Hagrid he went down, bowed to Buckbeak, severed its chains and led him off into the forest. Macnair was properly furious that the hippogriff had escaped but the rest accepted that the beast had sensed approaching danger and made a run for it. Minister Fudge complained about the embarrassment this would cause the ministry but Dumbledore argued that so long as the hippogriff had flown far away it wouldn't be a danger to any other student, so the matter was resolved. After that they made their way back up to the school, and Hagrid went inside to celebrate and get drunk.
After that all it seemed they had to do was wait. Hermione was chomping at the bit with impatience to ask Harry all the questions she could. But before any of them could leak out it was Esharry who broke the silence.
"As much as I would enjoy an hour or two of rest as we wait for events to take their course, I think there is work we need to do."
"Who said that?" Hermione spoke up startled.
"You heard him?" Harry said, very surprised.
"I spoke to you both." Esharry confirmed. "We are going to need her help for this I think."
"No seriously who said that?" Hermione now demanded to know.
"Uhhh…." Harry said as he thought about how to explain this. "That was a part of my mind that sort of gained sentience when I gained my psychic powers."
Hermione looked at him like he was speaking madness. And Harry could see a lot of anxiety building in her thoughts. He did his best to head her off.
"He's not the parasite trying to take over my mind, Hermione." Harry insisted. "He's nowhere near strong enough to do that. He's more like the voice of my powers and has been helping me figure them out. Eventually he's going to get absorbed into my subconscious and no, there isn't any way for us to either prevent that or speed it up."
"And this is another conversation we don't really have time for right now." Esharry continued. "We have a lot of pressing matters right now."
"Yeah, okay I guess I'm just supposed to brush past the fact that Harry's got voices in his head telling him how to read minds and see magic which can also talk to other people." Hermione said sarcastically.
"Yes. For now, at least." Harry said in response. "He's called The Eternal Survivor." Harry continued pressing the psychic essence of what Esharry was into Hermione's head causing her to blink in surprise at the highly nuanced name. "Which more or less translates into the eternal survivor in English. I call him E.S. Harry or Esharry for short."
"Right on to business." Esharry pushed on. "Hermione you weren't awake for this, but we did pass out when the dementors came for us. We should be dead; Snape wouldn't have reached us in time. Someone else cast the patronus charm that drove those dementors off. Harry thought at the time it might be his father come back somehow since the figure did look a lot like him."
"That's impossible." Hermione said without thinking then tried to back track. "I mean… well… magic can't do that Harry. Even time turners can't save lives. Dead is dead."
"You're right." Esharry agreed before Harry could argue. Deep down inside Harry knew that was true but that didn't mean he liked admitting it. "But someone did cast that patronus. I think it must've been Harry. Which means before the night is over, we have to go down to the lake and if no one else shows up to save us we will have to confront the dementors. If we're going to do that, we need to prepare ourselves. We need to solve Harry's weakness to dementors. We need to make it so that Harry can relive the memory of his parent's deaths and still focus on a very complex kind of magic."
"How?" Harry asked. It was very weird to be talking to Esharry out loud after nearly a year of only talking to him in his head.
"I've been trying to puzzle that out since we first came back with the time turner." Esharry admitted. "I think I've got an idea. We need Hermione's help for it. That memory triggers a trauma response, it makes Harry go into the same panic that he was in when he first experienced it as a child. But for Hermione it shouldn't, it should just be another memory. So, if Harry tells her about the memory while I feed the memory to her mind at the same time, she should just experience it as a normal memory. While she does that, I should be able to make Harry's brain mimic the way Hermoine processes it, so that in the future it's just another normal memory for Harry."
"I think that might work." Hermione said hesitantly. "I don't know, I'm not a mind healer."
"It sounds right to me." Harry agreed, willing to try.
"If you think it's a good idea, I'm ready to help." Hermione offered. So, Harry began to talk.
Human memory is an odd thing. It is not, as many believe, stored in images and scenes within the mind. Rather it is a series of associations, senses, feelings and ideas which the human imagination can combine together into an envisioned scene. All memory is to an extent imagined just as the human concept of the future is. Magic can amplify this though. For magic and psychic power is not bound to the present time but flows through the past present and future all at once. Thus, when magic is used to envision the past the magic uses that memory only as a guide to an actual moment in time which is then recreated in perfect detail.
As Hermione was entranced by Harry's words and her mind filled with his psychically transmitted and enhanced memories, she did not only hear what had happened but saw it as well. She walked as a phantom through scenes of the past, witness to all and seen by none. Every detail was laid before her, and she saw the truth.
In a town almost like any other in all of England, in a house that looked strangely normal and unassuming, yet which thrummed with unseen magic, Hermione saw a family which no one else in the town could notice. She beheld a purely domestic scene, a mother smiling at her child as she laid him down to sleep. A father looking on them both with pure love and devotion in his eyes. A boy completely innocent, dragged down into sleep by his exhaustion and total contentment, safe and secure in his parents' love.
She saw a figure approaching the home who was cloaked in darkness and malice. He could see the home that everyone else ignored. He reached a door he should not have been able to touch, and he raised a wand that looked so terribly familiar to her. There was a flash of black light, the door cracked. The parents rushed down to see what was happening. Another flash, the crack widened, the door began to splinter and barely held in place.
"By Merlin's magic it's him." The man cried and then commanded his wife. "Go get Harry, get out of here I will hold him off."
The woman was torn, she couldn't abandon her husband, and she couldn't risk her child. As the third bolt of shadows struck the door, she ran upstairs vowing under her breath that as soon as her son was safe she would be back for the man. The door finally broke and the Dark Lord entered the home.
"Stand aside! Stand aside!" He ordered.
"Never!" The man cried. "Begone from my home nameless thing. Go back to the shadows that birthed you and never darken the world again."
Blue lightning clashed against shadowed fire. Harsh winds battered against conjured stone. The Dark Lord could not be driven back but the Man would not stand aside.
"Fool!" The Dark Lord cried. "None can defy me! Your line need not end here. Give me the boy and both you and your mudblood pet may live!"
"What kind of father could ever give up his son?" The man demanded to know. "Three times I have faced you and brought your plans to ruin. This fourth time I will cast you down if you do not go now!"
And the Dark Lord's wrath grew more terrible as he heard these words. A bitter sneer of jealousy and contempt crossed his face. With a slash of his wand, he struck aside the man's defenses. And he bore down upon him with all the anger of the world.
"Then you have chosen death!" The Dark Lord declared. "Avada Kedavra!" He cried. There was a flash of green lightning, a roar of rushing winds. And the good man was cut down. He who had thrice defied the Dark Lord paid his life to defy him a fourth time.
The woman had reached up the stairs and seized her baby. She tried desperately to apparate away. To take her son to safety. But the spell failed. The Dark Lord had not overlooked such a path of escape and had sealed the house with magic before he began his assault. She threw green powder into her fireplace, but the fire swiftly returned to its original color, for the Dark Lord's servants in the ministry had quietly disconnected her chimneys from their network. She lunged for a portkey hidden in her room, but the Dark Lord called it away from her hands with a flick of his wand.
"Do not make me destroy you as the boy's father did." The Dark Lord ordered. "Do not think I will stay my hand. His blood was worth infinitely more than yours and yet I still brought an end to it. Leave the boy, abandon your wand and return to the muggle world that you belong to, and you will be spared."
"No! Not Harry, please no!" The woman begged. But under her breath she begged the magic of the world itself. "Be cursed dark lord. Be cursed for the death of my husband. Let your downfall come of your own making and let all you have fought for be swept aside."
"I said stand aside!" The Dark Lord ordered once again. "Release the child or die!"
"No! Please! Take anything but please spare my son! Please let my son live!" The woman cried but not to the Dark Lord but to the heavens. She bargained her soul for the life of her precious boy.
"Avada Kedavra!" The Dark Lord again blasphemed against all living things and struck the woman dead where she stood. Then at last he loomed over the child. Now he would complete his victory. Now he would secure his future and his triumph. He spoke those dreaded words one final time.
But when the lightning faded and the wind had died away, the boy was safe and sound in the wreckage of his home. And the Dark Lord was nowhere to be seen.
When the memories faded from Hermione's mind, she found herself wrapped around Harry, giving him as fierce a hug as she could. As if she were trying to squeeze all the bad memories out of him with her own strength. She was babbling too, offering him every word of comfort that came to her mind.
Harry only half heard her. He was crying the desperate, deep heaving sobs that come to a person when raw emotions held back for so long finally break free. But as all the long sorrow and deep longing he had felt for the love he had never known drained out of him through his wracking sobs, an abounding joy and hope filled him in turn for all the love he had found in his friends.
Surely, Harry thought, in this moment he and Hermione were as close as any brother and sister could be, for they had both seen the deepest love that any parent could ever show their child.
It took the two of them some time to calm down. And when they finally did things began to move very quickly. First Harry felt the werewolf mind of Professor Lupin charging towards the forest making a bee line for the both of them. Panic followed that realization, followed by a mad scramble deeper into the forest as they fought against Buckbeak who wanted to protect them from this oncoming menace.
Once they had escaped, they made their way back to the lake so as to not get lost. They arrived just in time to see the dementors begin to glide across the water and start their assault on Harry and Hermione's past selves. Harry watched himself struggle, watched as his patronus faded, and watched as no one else came up to the lake to do what had to be done. So, Harry called to mind the memory of him sitting in Hermione's arms as she cried for him and how he knew that the two of them could never be truly separated from each other and raised his wand.
When Harry cast this patronus charm he watched and saw as the magic he fed to his happy memory took on a life of its own. The silvery white mist that came from his wand formed into a great, white, shining stag that thundered across the lake's surface and barreled into the dementors like a hound loosed amongst birds. They scattered before it, screaming in pain and terror.
Harry realized then that the patronus charm was not magic powered by happiness but rather was happiness brought to life by magic. Dementors couldn't stand to be in its presence for it was their total opposite, it was like a being made of water crashing into one made of fire. The water boils away as the fire is drowned.
Harry wondered then if other true curses and blessings were like that. Could he let black fire loose as a living thing, a creature of consuming pain that only lived to burn away the ability to feel in others? And could he push the patronus charm further and make it even more alive than it already was? Questions for later. Hermione was pulling him back under the cover of the trees as Severus Snape came down to check on them.
To Harry's surprise, Snape tried to levitate Sirius's body away into the tree line presumably to hide him, but before he could succeed several other people began to arrive. They looked to be ministry officials: the dementors' handlers and the aurors that were stationed in Hogsmead. They confronted Snape and he was forced to hand Sirius over to them. Harry supposed the man really didn't have a choice but to give up, but he still could've said something.
Soon the crowd had cleared away, so Harry and Hermione were free to make their way back towards the castle. At half past ten, they mounted Buckbeak and flew up to the castle's highest towers. It didn't take long for them to find Sirius, chained to a chair in the center of a room alone and unguarded.
Hermione got the window open with a simple alohamora spell while Harry examined the protective wards. Dumbledore had sabotaged them; they would unravel if Harry's wand just came too close to them. So, Harry freed his godfather and urged him out the window.
"I'm sorry to leave you like this, Harry." Sirius said sincerely.
"So long as you're free I'll be happy." Harry reassured him. "What are you going to do now?"
"I'm afraid I'll have to get out of the country for a bit." Sirius explained. "I'll probably head to the americas for a while. See if I can't get a private investigator or a lawyer to take up my case. If I can file an official protest of innocence, I can force them to give me a trial, perhaps then I can clear my name."
"If you ever need any help let me know." Harry told him. "I've been twelve years without a godfather, I can wait a few more but I would like him back as soon as I can."
Sirius smiled, hugged Harry, and then took off on Buckbeak. Harry levitated Hermione and himself down a few floors to skip around any security that might be watching out. When they found an empty room near the hospital wing, they slipped back inside and made it back to where Dumbledore was preparing to lock the room at almost ten forty-four exactly.
He smiled to see them, made them wait a moment to make sure that their past selves had already left then let them slip inside. Dumbledore didn't stay to ask after their success, but instead locked the door and left. So, Harry and Hermione climbed back into their beds and resumed working on their chocolate bars. Maybe about ten minutes later Ron woke up from his skeligrow nap. He almost immediately began demanding to know what had been going on, but before Hermione could answer him, Harry silenced her as he felt minds approaching the room.
The door burst open as Professor Snape stormed in pretending to yell at them demanding to know how they had done it. Minister Fudge followed him trying to calm the man down. Madam Pomfrey followed shortly thereafter yelling at them both demanding they all leave her patients be. Finally, Dumbledore arrived and assured Snape that Harry and his friends had been locked in this room since he left so unless they had some way of being in two places at once there was no way they could've helped Sirius Black escape.
Harry guessed that Snape was trying to head off any suspicion that the Minister might have that just after Harry had argued for Sirius's innocence the man had disappeared. Harry thought it might have been better to just not allow the Minister to ever consider such a notion and save his alibi for if it was needed. But this worked well enough.
Eventually Madam Pomfrey chased Snape and the Minister out of the room. Leaving Harry and his friends alone with Dumbledore. Harry spoke up to the old man before he could leave.
"You will speak up for my godfather if he ever gets his day in court, Professor?" Harry asked, a slight note of desperation in his voice.
"Of course I will, Harry." Dumbledore declared. "In the meantime, I have some old friends I can talk to who may be able to help. Sirius has more friends than he knows. Not everyone has forgotten that he brought several of Voldemort's followers to justice during the war and saved several lives. It may take time, Harry but I'm sure we will get Sirius's name cleared."
"I just don't know if we have time." Harry said worriedly. "I think I heard Professor Trelawney prophecy about all that has happened earlier today."
And Harry told Dumbledore about those strange cryptic words that he had heard at the end of his divination exam. Ron and Hermione shot each other surprised looks, they had both been so certain that Trelawney was a fraud and divination was a load of bunk. So had Harry for that matter, it was quite hard to wrap his head around the fact that maybe she actually knew what she was talking about.
"That may be the second true prophecy I have ever heard of Sybill speaking." Professor Dumbledore said when Harry was done completely unconcerned. "I shall have to offer her a raise. But I fear that you are right Harry we may not have much time. Though one doesn't need prophecy to realize that. Petigrew always was the sort to hide behind others when he could. He has dangerous enemies now and no allies. He will doubtlessly seek out Tom Riddle and try to restore him to power and hope that this act of loyalty makes up for taking twelve years to do it. Luckily for us if Tom does return to his old power, it may give us some chance to capture Peter and force him to tell the ministry the truth, which will greatly help us clear Sirius's name."
"Could it really be so easy?" Harry asked. "Could he really come back with just one follower to help him?"
"With one follower he almost stole the philosopher's stone and gained immortality." Dumbledore pointed out. "We are lucky that he aimed for such a lofty and easily protected goal. This time he might well aim for something simpler, perhaps a homunculus body to possess in order to restore his power. I confess I do not know how he might do it, or how we might stop him. We may simply have to prepare ourselves for his return and take things from there."
"I would warn you Harry not to put too much weight in prophecies." Dumbledore concluded. "This one may come true whatever we would do, but most of them don't. There are many thousands of true prophecies stored in the department of mysteries which will never come true, for those they were about have long since passed, or stopped trying to accomplish what they once were doing. Most prophecies only lay out the groundwork for what must happen for something else to possibly happen. And very often prophecies fail or succeed because someone tried to fight them or make them happen. It is best to simply treat them as warnings."
"I understand, professor." Harry accepted, it made sense to him, and he certainly didn't want the things he had seen to definitely come true. "If I could ask one last thing before you go?"
"I believe you just did but do go on." The professor joked.
"Really why didn't Snape try and help my godfather, it's obvious he was trying to help me, and I appreciate that even if he is a twat, but why not Sirius? Could they really hate each other that much?"
"I told you Harry," Dumbledore said. "Professor Snape knows when his words might do more harm than good. And in this case, him speaking up for someone everyone knows was the most devoted of all Tom Riddle's followers, would only condemn them both."
"You must understand," Dumbledore continued. "When Snape was young and foolish he became fascinated with the dark arts and the power of curses. So, he sought out Tom Riddle before he became Lord Voldemort, seeking the power and knowledge he possessed. So young Severus became a member of Voldemort's innermost council, and that was when he realized that Tom was quite serious when he said he meant to drive the muggle-borns out of wizarding society, possibly to their deaths. This was too much for Snape who had been good friends with your mother growing up, so he wanted no harm to come to her. So, Severus came to me."
"He offered his services to me as a spy on Voldemort and his faction." Dumbledore concluded. "Which was a great help to our side when the war broke out. But I was the only one who ever knew the risks he was taking for us. After the war it was my testimony that kept him out of Azkaban, but there were many aurors and ministry officials who wondered if perhaps I had been duped. If perhaps Severus had served Tom loyally throughout the war and then when he fell from power, he came to me seeking aid. Many believe I am too quick to offer second and third chances to people, and so they think that Severus took advantage of that, playing the poor repentant student to get my protections. This isn't true. Severus did spy for us, and his information saved many, many lives. He has earned his new life, but not all see that."
"I do remember how suspicious Madam Bones was of Professor Snape when she came to search the school." Harry recalled.
"Madam Bones is a very fair woman who upholds the law." Dumbledore declared. "But with some good reason she blames me for mistakes made during an old war we both lived through and has never trusted my word. She has always doubted Severus's sincerity, and her attitude has filtered down to many of her aurors. Facing such prejudice, if Severus had defended Sirius most of the aurors would only have seen one of Tom Riddle's followers trying to get another follower off the hook. He would've accomplished nothing and only put himself at risk. So, he trusted me instead, and I in turn trusted you all. And it has worked out."
Harry nodded in understanding. Though he wasn't certain if he really believed it. It kind of sounded like Snape had just tried to protect his own neck rather than risk it for an innocent man. But it had all turned out as best as it could. Harry bid the professor a good evening after thanking him for answering his questions.
"Before I leave you to your well-earned rest," Dumbledore said, "There is a small matter to speak to. While I understand your reasoning, given that for most of this year we all believed a mad man was trying to murder you, I must remind you that the restricted section of the library is in fact restricted. I do trust you of course to only use what you've learned there in a responsible and intelligent way, but the magic in those books can be very dangerous. I'm afraid I must insist that you cease breaking into that section of the library and only go in there again with either the permission of or at the assignment from a teacher. I also must insist that you stop using your monster book to intimidate the other intelligent books in the library. They are of a scholarly persuasion and were most frustrated and insulted by such rough and unreasonable treatment. They have been complaining to me most vehemently."
Harry agreed. He had no reason to return to that part of the library and no interest in learning new ways to turn someone's skin into troll vomit. Professor Dumbledore took ten points from Gryffindor as punishment and then left them for the evening.
Ron and Hermione remained quiet for about half an hour as they made sure Madam Pomfrey wasn't about to back in and check on them. Then they both lit up their wands and made their way over to Harry's bed. Well Ron tried to, and despite his protests that his leg was fine, Harry instead went to him.
Ron demanded to know everything that had happened. Harry told him about the lake, about almost being taken by the dementors, waking up in the hospital wing and then going back in time with the time turner to set things right. Hermione squawked about Harry revealing her time turner, she said she had promised McGonagall not to tell anyone about it. And Harry pointed out that she hadn't. Harry had already known about it, and he had been the one to tell Ron. Hermione hadn't broken her word and McGonagall couldn't blame her for knowledge getting out.
Harry quickly concluded his retelling of events, how they had rescued Buckbeak, themselves and Sirius. He glossed over how Hermione had helped him settle his memories and she let him. That was always going to be a special moment between the two of them. It was when he finished that the real questioning began.
"So how long have you been a legilimens?" Ron asked. "That's not an easy bit of magic to learn and doing it wordlessly is almost impossible."
"I'm not really." Harry answered. "I'm psychic. I've learned to channel something which is almost but not quite like magic through my brain to affect the world. It lets me see thoughts and magic, feel emotions and what people are thinking, lift things without my hands or a wand, and lash out with my own emotions."
Harry demonstrated his levitation and spoke words into Ron's mind as proof. His first friend was quite amazed by the display, having never thought there was anything in the world that could approximate the power and effects of real magic. Harry could sense a similar degree of almost jealousy in Ron that he felt in Hermione. Both of his friends had come to Hogwarts to learn magic and both of them wanted this kind of new magic for themselves. Hermione just wanted to learn as much as possible, but for Ron the matter was almost more serious. His fear of being left behind by his more talented friends was rearing its head as he worried that Harry was reaching to grounds far beyond what a wizard was capable of. He needed to catch up in his own mind. It worried Harry.
"How long have you been able to do this?" Ron asked. "How are you doing this?"
"He's been able to read our minds since December." Hermione pointed out. Ron's mouth fell open and then he briefly blushed as he thought of what sort of things Harry might have seen in his mind while he was fighting with Hermione.
"I got good at reading minds in December." Harry explained. "I've had psychic powers since August."
With a deep breath, Harry built up his courage and then told the two of them about the Illithids. He told them about fleeing from his relatives, about being snatched up by the nautiloid, about the tadpole that was placed in his head, how his magic absorbed it and fused it with his brain. He also told them about how this meant he was an Illithid and eventually his body was going to transform into an Illithid one. He told them about the Elder Brain, the control it had over all Illithids, how as an Ulitharid he could eventually become one, how that destiny gave him some authority over the Illithid colony and how that allowed him to escape.
To Harry's great relief, Ron and Hermione didn't doubt his word. To his greater relief he felt their sympathy for him when he confessed to not being human anymore, and they didn't feel any revulsion towards him, though Ron felt really worried about it as well. When he was finished, they were both quiet for some time.
"So, you're eventually going to transform into one of those big tentacle faced things?" Ron summarized at the end. Harry nodded in response. "Okay. How do we stop that? Obviously, you haven't transformed yet, so far so magic must be able to help."
"Perhaps a strong enough purging potion?" Hermione suggested as her own mind raced, thinking of and rejecting several ideas. "There are charms and enchantments that can keep you from being forcibly transformed. Maybe a daily routine to keep up your resistance."
Harry shook his head and responded. "Magic resists transformation since it tries to hold on to your natural shape. That's why it takes a couple of tries to get the tea pot color patterns out of the test tortoise. The tortoise knows it's supposed to be a teapot. My magic is holding my ceremorphosis at bay because it still thinks I should be human. Purging potions and charms will help hold it off, but sooner or later my body is going to realize it's supposed to be an Illithid. And once it does it's going to help the transformation along not fight it. The fact that I already sort of think of myself as an Illithid probably means that I'm getting closer to that point. Esharry thinks I have maybe a year left. But I do have a plan for what to do."
"What's your plan?" Ron immediately asked.
"Basically, I think I can use human transfiguration to trick myself into thinking I've already undergone ceremorphosis." Harry explained. "If I can undergo the animagus ritual and add some Illithid blood to the potion you have to make for that ritual then I can guarantee that my animagus form will be my Ulitharid form. That will leave me with a human form so I can still live a normal life and I don't have to worry about my personality being rewritten by the transformation."
Hermione thought about it for a moment and then agreed with Harry. She had done a fair bit of research into animagi earlier that year. If nothing else, an animagus was almost impossible to forcibly transfigure since their bodies were so used to naturally transforming at will. If this didn't stop the ceremorphosis transformation it would buy them more time to figure something else out first. The ritual was difficult, but she was confident they could do it.
"What do we do about the other Illithids?" Hermione wondered. "If they can come to this world so easily and no one knows about them they could be kidnapping people all over the world and destroying their souls to make more of themselves."
"There's not much we can do right now." Harry lamented. "There were six thousand Illithids in that colony. All of them with psychic powers just as dangerous as any magic. All of them with thralls under their control who will fight to defend them. Perhaps some twenty to twenty four thousand creatures standing between us and the Elder Brain. We'd need an army to take on all that. This isn't something we can have wrapped up by the end of a school year."
"We need to tell Dumbledore." Hermione insisted.
"No, we cannot!" Ron insisted even more strongly.
"Ron this is way beyond us." Hermione pointed out. "At the very least he can warn the ministry and put them on alert against future incursions."
"That will kill Harry, Hermione." Ron suddenly declared, which brought Harry up short as he was just about to agree with Hermione. Ron was convinced he was telling the truth, Hermione was dismissive, but Ron pressed on. "If Dumbledore tells the ministry he will have to explain to them how he knows. Which means the ministry will learn about Harry, and they'll label him a creature."
Harry nodded in agreement. That made sense, he wasn't really human after all. That would be inconvenient, but he didn't get why Ron was freaking out over it.
"Yes, that will be bad." Hermione agreed. "It will be hard on Harry to face the same kind of discrimination that Professor Lupin puts up with."
"He would be lucky if that's all he had to deal with." Ron pressed. "You two don't get it, you were raised by muggles and only ever lived in a world where bigotry existed between different kinds of humans. You don't know how bad things can be for creatures. Werewolves have it easy, they were once wizards after all, so the ministry has to respect them at least a little bit. Like goblins they count as beings, so they have rights and only have to worry about social discrimination. Harry would be more like a house elf, a centaur or a giant. He'd have no rights. Professor Lupin can get a job and be paid, it would be illegal to give Harry a wage of any kind and they'd confiscate his Gringotts vaults and snap his wand just as soon as they found out. And he'd still be lucky if that was all that happened."
"See there's the department of mysteries to worry about." Ron went on drawing on his surprising knowledge of the ministry from listening to his dad complain about his job for so many years. "The unspeakable that work there do all kinds of research for the ministry. Mostly it's into dark artifacts left behind by old evil wizards or weird things that people have discovered in the dark places of the world. But they also investigate new kinds of creatures. They're supposed to make sure that there's magic that works on them, but they also sometimes take the creature apart to find out if there are any parts of them useful for potions or other spells. And they don't care about how intelligent the creature is. When I was eight years old I heard my father ranting and raving about them. There was this little faun half breed girl that Dumbledore wanted to let come to Hogwarts, but the unspeakables snatched her off the street to test her. By the time anyone had figures out it was the unspeakables who took her she had already died from the magical tests they did on her. I know the same thing will happen to Harry if they find out about him."
The group went silent again. Hermione was shaking her head back and forth to deny it. Harry couldn't help but think that it would make a kind of sense. If the ministry believed that the Illithids were real and posed a real threat it would be fairly reasonable for them to take Harry, their only known Illithid example, and test him to destruction to make sure their spells could defeat Illithids. It could save quite a few ministry lives after all. This was troublesome, Harry had been counting on the fact that the ministry could raise an army to fight the Illithids to deal with the colony.
"Then we'll have to take over the ministry." Harry concluded. Ron and Hermione stared at him in confusion, but Ron soon nodded his head in agreement. "One of us will have to become Minister of Magic, another the head of the department of magical law enforcement and most importantly one of us needs to get put in charge of the department of mysteries. That person can feed information to the rest of the ministry claiming they have discovered the Illithid threat on their own. The minister will declare a state of emergency and raise up an army for the head of law enforcement to lead against the Illithid colony."
They were heavy words to say. But in the end, they both agreed with him. Together the three of them were going to save the world from the Illithid menace.
"That would be a lot easier to do if we also had psychic powers." Ron pointed out.
"I think that would mean also sticking an Illithid tadpole into our heads, Ron." Hermione pointed out with a strong sense of regret in her mind.
"Wizards have done stranger stuff for power." Ron argued back. "One of my grand uncles asked to become a vampire to expand his knowledge of blood magic. He's still one of the country's greatest healers."
"There is a way to become at least a little psychic." Harry couldn't help but point out. "But it's almost just as risky as taking in an Illithid tadpole."
Harry told them about how Illithids could take thralls by awakening some psychic potential in other people and wrapping that power back into their own minds. How this was used to exert near absolute control over people and how Illithids thought they could use this power to expand a perfect empire across the galaxy. And he explained how since Illithid brains were naturally more powerful than human ones there was almost no way to fight back against this kind of control once it was gained.
"But I have been working on a way to make the bond safe to use." Harry further explained. "I think I can use a set of runes to make a kind of filter around the image of my mind I'll be sinking into your heads. That way none of my stray thoughts could enter your mind unless they were something you all already wanted to do. That way I wouldn't be able to accidently control you."
"So, bonding with you would be safe?" Hermione asked, feeling much too excited by this prospect. "And it would allow us to feel and hear what's going on in your mind the same way you can with us?"
"Mostly safe." Harry qualified. "I could still control you. If I wanted to I could force my way in."
"Yeah, but you can already do that." Ron pointed out. "You could've made us go after Sirius with you back in December if you had wanted. You're not that kind of person, mate."
"And you wouldn't really be psychic." Harry rushed to point out as well. "You'd only be psychic enough to be bound to my mind. I don't think it would give you enough power to do anything or read anyone else's mind."
"We'll find that out with practice." Hermione declared, she was going to get this same kind of power one way or another, it had piqued her curiosity and there was no escape now.
"Plus, if we can read your mind and you read someone else's mind, then we should be able to read their mind along with you." Ron pointed out. "You're not getting out of this mate, I'm really curious to find out what you really think of me. Plus, I can't help but think of your father and his four friends. If they had a kind of bond like this, well…. Things would've turned out a lot better for them, right? Not that I'm worried that either of you might sell me out to a Dark Lord, but you never know what you might be at risk of losing if you don't take it now."
Harry couldn't argue with that. He didn't want to. He wanted them both. His instincts and magic had urged him for so long to try and possess them, to hold them, to keep them. But really, what Harry wanted more than anything else was to share them. To share this closeness and awareness with them and with each other. He wanted to really let them both know just how much both of them meant to him and how much they meant to each other.
Hermione insisted on going first. Ron argued, claiming that she should wait to make sure nothing went wrong when Harry bound Ron's mind to his before she went. Hermione argued that things would only go wrong if Harry had lied to them and was preparing to trap them, in which case Ron had the best chance of escaping on his own to warn someone. Ron rolled his eyes and gave up.
"What do I do?" Hermione asked.
"I'll take care of all the work." Harry said. "You just have to let me in."
It was strange how simple everything was given how much he had agonized over it for the last few months. He easily formed the image of his mind, slipped it into place, Hermione accepted it and then he pulled her back to himself. Harry didn't even feel all that different when he was done, he could already read Hermione's mind after all, he didn't gain any new insight into her.
But Hermione's mind lit up once the bond was formed. She could now feel Harry like a little bundle of foreign thoughts and sensations in the back of her head. She knew how he felt about her, how he loved her as the sister he had never had. How he valued her intelligence and loved to see her get caught up in a new obsession. How he appreciated her worry over him and was so, so grateful for all her help and how he felt he would've died without her.
"Oh Harry." Was all Hermione could say as tears filled her eyes. Harry smiled back as he enjoyed the feeling of her mind as she reveled in his own. "This is so strange, you're happy that I'm happy about the fact that you're happy. It's kind of fun though. I feel like I can…."
Harry felt Hermione reaching into the image of his head, searching for memories and information. She was essentially touching the parts of his brain in that image which would store his long-term memories, and now that image was trying to stimulate his own mind to call those memories to the forefront of his mind. Harry realized that he could block this request and hide his own thoughts from Hermione and Ron, but he chose not to in order to make things between them more equal.
"Yes, I can read your memories." Hermione concluded. Seconds later her face lit up in outrage. "Harry! You helped us cheat on our potions exam!"
"He what?" Ron asked.
"I thought I felt weirdly calm during that nasty trick professor Snape pulled." Hermione said. "Once you explained your psychic powers I got suspicious, and this just confirms it. You pulled my memory of how to brew that potion and sent into all our classmates!"
"He did?" Ron asked. "Sweet! I was worried about that exam but if he gave me your answers then I must've gotten an O on it."
"I didn't give you her answers." Harry defended himself. "I just nudged it into your subconscious, made it easier to remember and then made sure no one panicked over having to take two tests at once. Everyone still passed or failed based on how well they had studied. I just leveled the playing field is all."
"You cheated though." Hermione pressed. "We're not supposed to have any help during those exams."
"We're not supposed to have anyone trying to sabotage us either." Ron pointed out. Hermione shot him a look as her mind lit up with 'that's not the point and you know it' frustration. "Well obviously Harry isn't trying to keep you from scolding him, so I guess it's safe for me to get this bond?"
The bond fell into place easily for Ron. Once it was there Harry felt muscles he didn't even know he had suddenly relaxed. The tension that had been building in him all year was finally released. He had his thralls; everything was right with the world. He was safe and secure with his friends at his side.
Hermione gave him an odd look as that relief flushed through him and began actively searching through his mind to find the reason for it. As for Ron, he was too busy getting caught up in how Harry felt about him. Ron had a large family so knowing that Harry thought of him as a brother wasn't as world shaking for him as it was for Hermione who never had any siblings. But the feeling of how much Harry respected him and appreciated his skills took Ron by surprise. What really floored him though was realizing that rich, famous, talented and successful Harry Potter was deeply jealous of Ron's poor loving family and desperately wanted to be a part of it. And how happy Harry was with the fact that Ron already thought of Harry as another one of his brothers.
"Huh." Ron said in stunned disbelief. "I never thought of it that way." The more he pondered over it all the more his own sense of affection for his family grew. "Wow. This is really incredible. To suddenly get the pure truth of what someone else thinks of your life. It would make my mother's year if she knew how much you want to be one of her kids. She might threaten the muggles into letting her adopt you."
Harry laughed at that. That might not be so bad really. But he had plans for his relatives for the summer.
"You really don't care for them, do you?" Hermione noticed, and Harry suddenly felt her probing deeper into his memories. Harry suddenly realized that giving Hermione free access to his mind might not have been the best idea. The desire to push her out of some places was very strong, but Esharry betrayed him and actively guided Hermione to what she was looking for.
"They made you sleep in a cupboard under the stairs!" She suddenly shouted as she found what she was after. Ron was left stunned with disbelief, and before Harry could try and deflect the conversation he also pushed into Harry's head and hunted down what Hermione had found and more.
The argument started almost immediately. Harry's insistence that he was fine, that living with his relatives really wasn't that bad, that things were much better now, were all thoroughly ignored and dismissed. Ron was planning a campaign of vengeance that would've impressed the twins with its vindictiveness and creativity. Hermione was simply determined to set child services loose on the Dursleys and send them both off to jail.
Next Hermione demanded to know why Harry had waited so long to form this bond with them when he obviously needed it to remain sane. After that they dissected his memories of being taken by the Illithids and when they realized that Harry blamed himself for not being able to help anyone, they hammered him over that as well. Weakness they told him wasn't a character flaw, not being able to rescue everyone in trouble didn't make him a bad person. It was okay for Harry to be worried about his own safety and to focus on staying alive.
It was a long night. It was one of the best nights Harry ever had, but he was very grateful that he got to sleep in late the next morning.