Learning and Reunions.
Over the next 2 weeks, Harry had a lot of self studying to do. He read and read and read. Honestly he doesn't think he read so much since joining Hogwarts. Maybe a result of Dumbledore's spells. Probably.
He rarely left his room unless it was for food, and most of the time he left it was to get another book or so. At one point, he realised he should probably get another trunk to fit all his books in, and so went and bought a bottomless trunk charmed to be feather weight and is able to shrink. It also came with the feature to add a password, and so he added one in parsel. He may not like the snake language, but he may as well use it for something.
Whilst reading, he found out so much about the wizarding world he never knew before, even things about himself! He had first searched through his family, Family Magics, and everything related. He was distantly related to all kinds of family's including: Black, Patil, Beaufort (a Pure-Blood French family), Gaunt which also meant Slytherin, Nott, and Longbottom. The closest out of those were The Blacks, in which he also discovered quite a lot of those born with Black blood can have some sort of Metamorphmagus abilities, but very very few could actually be a full Metamorphmagi. This then prompted him to sit in front of a mirror and see if he had any. He could change the tint of his hair, just barely, and he grinned stupidly when he realised.
Another thing he didn't realise was just how little he knew about himself. The Potters were Hispanic, and spent hundreds of years moving around both the globe. He spent hours reading through the Potter section in Historical texts, finding out everything he could. Parseltounge was actually an ability that was quite prominent in the Potter line, and had an easier ability to become Animagi. They had massive amounts of History, spanning through law changes and War, crime and business. A few times, however, he got emotional over how this should of been stuff his father would have taught him, and so he'd put the book down and go to another to distract himself.
He also found himself thinking for large amounts of time about Sirius Black. According to the texts, he was imprisoned for betraying the Potters and blowing up 12 muggles and a wizard named Peter Pettigrew, but when looking through the records in a self-updating book of trial sessions he found in Flourish and Blotts, he couldn't find any information on his trial. It was almost as if he didn't have one. It also made him think about how Sirius was his Godfather. That threw him off as well. To actually be a child's Godparent, you needed to swear an Oath of Protection. How could he have sworn the Oath and still betrayed the Potters? It didn't make sense. He shook the thoughts off whenever he zoned out for too long, staring at those wanted posters for too long was definitely making him overthink it. Right?
Other than that, he looked into traditional Pagan traditions (Harry would definitely be telling Hermione about these), his school textbooks ( sorry Ron, but he was dropping Divination for Ancient Runes!), wizarding laws, some boring inheritance stuff, and the art of Occlumency.
Occlumency, he found when going through a History text, was the art of shielding ones mind from someone trying to break into it. Dumbledore was famous to be able to do it, Legilimency, and with everything he has pieced together about the man, he did not want him snooping around his head anytime soon.
The 2 weeks honestly flew by, and before he knew it, Ron and Hermione would be arriving the next day and he had no bloody idea what to do. He spent hours spiralling, trying to think on how he could tell them all he found out or even if he could tell them at all, and a thought had struck him.
If Dumbledore spelled him, whose to say he didn't spell them either?
The thought made him sick, but the more he repeated the question over and over again? The more he believed it could very much be true. If it was, he couldn't tell them, but how on Earth could he convince them to go to Gringotts, and get them tested without him telling them outright he thought they had been spelled? It seemed impossible, he doubt he could even sneak away with the 2 without one of the other Weasleys noticing.
However, after owling the Goblins about his worries, they promptly sent over 2 tests, in which they also told him they took the money out of his vaults but he didn't care for that. He could do the tests in his room, and if the results showed they were spelled, he would take them to Gringotts. He had a plan.
He stayed up late that night, making sure only his school textbooks were about. He didn't want them to get any ideas and owl Dumbledore about something if they were spelled. It was a very Hermione thing to do after all, her trust in adults was honestly baffling to him sometimes.
=======================
Harry woke the next morning, plan ready, things perfectly placed in his room or hidden away, and got ready as usual. He had no idea when or where he would see the Weasleys and Hermione, he just knew it would be some point today.
Deciding on heading to ZE's for another tea, he snuck out of The Leaky Cauldron and into Diagon. Lost in thought as he was walking back to The Leaky Cauldron half an hour later, he almost didn't hear someone yelling his name.
"Harry? Harry!"
He turned and saw both Ron, with more freckles than normal, and Hermione, who was a lot more tan, waving frantically, beckoning him over. He walked over with a grin and sat down.
"Finally!" Ron said with a huff, "We were looking everywhere for you mate. We went to The Leaky Cauldron, but Tom said you must of left looking for us, Flourish and Blotts, Madam Malkins and-"
"I got my school stuff when the letters first came out" Harry said, barely managing to supress a smile. Merlin, he missed hanging out with his friends. He didn't question how Ron knew he was staying at The Leaky, his dad probably mentioned it.
"Ok Harry, but seriously, you blew up your aunt?" Hermione asked in a serious tone. Ron snickered.
Harry shrugged, "I lost control, you know how my relatives are like." They didn't even know the half of it, but she would at least know enough to piece 2 and 2 together.
Ron's snickers turned into laughter as he spoke, and Hermione glared at him, "Ron it isn't funny! Harry could of been expelled!"
"I think I was lucky enough not to be arrested actually" He remarked with a smile, causing Hermione to sigh in defeat.
"Do you have all your books yet?" He then asked, changing the topic.
"Oh yes!" Hermione exclaimed as Ron pulled out a new wand.
"Brand new wand. Fourteen inches, Willow, Unicorn tail hair," Ron explained as he showed Harry the new wand. Harry, who was interested in wandlore briefly remembered Willow wands were strongest in Healing and Charm work. He nodded and Ron continued, "We also have all our books, assistant nearly cried when she said we wanted two Monster books."
Harry looked at the bags of books, one containg the same amount of books as him and the other containing more.
"What's with all those Books Hermione?"
"Well I will be taking more subjects than you are." She explained, "Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Ancient Runes, Muggle Studies-" As she continued, all Harry thought was 'she is going to drive herself mad with that workload'.
"Muggle studies? What you studying that for?" Ron cut in, "You're a Muggle-born, grew up in the muggle world and all that! You know all about them!"
"It could be fascinating to study them from a wizarding point of view Ron, I mean, imagine all the theories!"
"Anyways," she continued, "I still have 10 Galleons, my parents gave me early Birthday money as it's in September, so I could buy myself an early Birthday present."
"How about a book?" Ron asked innocently to hide the teasing.
"No," she sighed, not picking up on it. Ron grinned at Harry, who in returned tried to hide his own smile, "I want an owl. You two have them after all. Hedwig and Errol-"
"Errol is a family owl," Ron cut in again, "I have Scabbers. I need to get him checked over. He hasn't been doing ok since Egypt, all he does is hide under beds. It's like he's waiting for Death to come out of nowhere." Ron frowned. He may not like the rat but he was still his rat.
"Well... There's a magic creature shop just down the street. Hermione could get her owl and you can see if anything is there for Scabbers?" Harry offered, standing.
===============================
In the end, Ron left with rat tonic and Hermione got a cat instead of an owl. Harry was about 70% sure the cat was a tiger, it was abnormally big for a cat. Hermione also thought the animal was 'gorgeous', which was definitely a matter of opinion.
"Hermione, that thing took bloody 5 years off my life!"
"He didn't mean to! You didn't did you, Crookshanks?" Hermione yelled before turning to the demonic ball of fluff in her arms, who was purring. "Poor thing, the witch said he'd been there for years! No-one wanted him." She frowned.
"Wonder why" Ron muttered sarcastically to Harry, as they set off to The Leaky Cauldron. They both laughed when Hermione glared at them, causing her to roll her eyes, but smile all the same.
=================================
Being reunited with the Weasleys was just as chaotic as last year. With the twins cracking jokes, Percy trying to avoid the jokes at all costs, and an almost food fight, they split off to bed, some to pack and others to sleep as they already had.
Harry was just about to get ready for bed when he heard through the wall, "IT WAS HERE ON THE BEDSIDE TABLE! I ONLY JUST TOOK IT OFF FOR POLISHING!" From Percy, and from Ron, "I HAVEN'T TOUCHED IT!"
He snorted to himself and his door opened, revealing the twins, "You alright-" "Harry, dear ol' pal?"
Harry looked at them, amused, "I don't suppose the yelling has anything to do with you two, of course?"
They gasped melodramatically, holding opposite hands to their hearts.
Fred began, "You dare accuse us-"
George continued, "-of doing such things-"
"-thievery! How lowly-"
"-must you think of us!"
There was a pause, before they all started laughing, and George pulled out a badge. Percy's head boy badge.
In the distance, Percy could be heard yelling "NO-ONE IS GOING ANYWHERE UNTIL I HAVE FOUND MY BADGE!"
George waved it around, "We may have... edited it a tad."
Fred grinned, "It used to say 'Head Boy' but now...." He paused for dramatics
Harry snorted, "It says 'BigHead Boy' now, doesn't it?"
They both chuckled, "Oh you know it!"
George put the badge back in his pocket, "Thought we would sneak this into his trunk later-"
"-Convince him it was there the entire time."
Harry hummed, "Good luck on that. If you need an alibi, let me know." He added with a smirk.
"We knew you were our favourite for a reason!" Fred said, ruffling his hair, before they walked back out of Harry's room.
He missed this, he thought with a faint smile.
==================================
The next morning marked the day before going back to Hogwarts. Percy still hadn't found his badge by breakfast, Ginny, Fred and George had mock innocent looks, Mr and Mrs Weasley looked annoyed yet fond, and Hermione and Ron argued over Crookshanks. Meanwhile, Harry was trying to find the best time to sneak off with Ron and Hermione to get them tested. He couldn't wait until tomorrow as they were heading back to Hogwarts, and if they were spelled they would need the Goblins to remove them almost right away.
It wasn't until half an hour after everyone had eaten lunch he could sneak off with Ron and Hermione with the most vague explanation of 'It's just important ok?' and finally managed to get a moment alone with them.
"What's this about then Harry?" Hermione asked as he closed and locked the door.
"Is this about Sirius Black? I heard dad say there were rumours about him trying to kill you last night," Ron's expression was full on concern, moving over to sit on the edge of the bed.
"No no, not that. Uh.." Harry didn't really know what to tell them. How does one say 'Hey, you know the headmaster? The same one who is supposed to have all children's wellbeing's in good hands? Well he spelled me to trust him mindlessly and be influenced by whatever he liked, and also put a block on my magic that could of killed me eventually.' ???
Hermione must of picked up on his hesitation because her serious expression softened, "You know you can trust us, Harry."
"Well..." He laughed nervously, "That's just it. I don't know if I exactly can yet."
Ron cleared his throat, "What do you mean, mate?"
He blurted everything out, which probably was not the best thing to do, but well he's done it now.
"-and that's why I locked you in here, so that you don't go running to owl Dumbledore or something." He finished with a grimace.
Both Ron and Hermione looked horrified, but he supposes he couldn't blame them. He looked into the case himself and with the previous events that have been happening at Hogwarts, none of it looked good. They were pretty much looking at child endangerment, line theft, seat theft, attempted murder, even placing a magical block on a child without their knowing was worthy of being sent to Azkaban. And that was just from what they knew, who knows what else he could of done?
Ron particularly looked worse, probably knowing what everything he said meant, though Hermione didn't look much better.
"That's-... Mate, are you sure?" Ron asked, a grimace too on his face.
Harry nodded, "I have 2 tests ready for you to take, to see if you're spelled too."
"Harry, I really, really want to believe you... but I can't. That pretty much just confirms I'm spelled right?" Hermione asked, tense and looking ready to throw up.
Harry nodded as he walked over to his trunk, opening it to get the hidden tests out, "Pretty much... We will have to go to the Goblins and have them all removed."
Ron laughed nervously, "This is all just crazy, mate. I mean this is Dumbledore we are talking about here, he's like-" He cut himself off, his eyes widening, "Oh Merlin."
Harry snorted, placing the tests on the small round table in the room, "Yeah, 'Oh Merlin'."
"So... what exactly do we do?" Hermione asks, walking up to the tests with Ron and eyeing them curiously.
"3 drops of blood," Ron supplied before Harry could.
"Blood?!"
"Yes Hermione, blood."
Harry took the steak knife he stole from last night and cleaned, placing it on the tests.
"That's barbaric!"
"Oh come on Hermione, it's not like your selling your first born child." Harry joked as Ron took the knife and cut the tip of his finger, letting 3 drops fall onto the paper.
======================
Name:
Ron Bilius Weasley(Pureblood)
Parental figures:
Mother: Molly Elizabeth Weasley Nee Prewett (Pureblood)
Father: Arthur William Weasley (Pureblood)
Other:
Godfather:Xenophilius Lovegood
Godsister: Luna Lovegood
Heirships:
4th Heir Weasley
4th Heir Prewett
Compulsions/Ect:
Trust Compulsion, Albus Dumbledore, 75%, Deteriorating
Influence Compulsion, Albus Dumbledore, 80%
Other:
Magic Core: Grey
==================================
"Merlin," Ron breathed out, eyes glued to the 'Compulsions' section of the test.
"Trust and influence, just like what Harry said he had," Hermione said, a roller-coaster of emotions flowing through her. She looked at the knife, which Harry cleaned after Ron used it and grabbed it, shakily, and cut her finger open. She took the unused test and held her finger above it, letting 3 drops fall.
==================================
Name:
Hermione Jean Granger (Muggle-born)
Parental Figures:
Mother: Jean Lorelei Granger Nee Walker (Muggle)
Father: Richard Granger (Muggle)
Other:
Godmother: Isla Emilie Walker (Muggle)
Compulsions:
Obsessive Compulsion, Albus Dumbledore, 90%
-Target: Studying
Influence Compulsion, Albus Dumbledore, 60%
Trust Compulsion, Albus Dumbledore, 85%, Deteriorating
Other:
Magic Core:Grey
============================================
"Well there's a breach of security," Hermione murmured, mostly to herself, when she saw her mothers maiden name pop up, confusing Ron and making Harry snicker. However, she turned pale as the rest of the test filled out, "Obsessive?!"
Harry looked down at the two tests, frowning. He was right, they too have been spelled. He watched as the 'Trust Compulsion' percentage ticked down.
"This means we're gonna have to go to the Goblins, doesn't it?" Ron asked, grimacing at the thought. They were nasty fuckers.
"Yes, it does," Harry mumbled.
============================================
It was... a challenge getting them there. For one, they had to sneak out of The Leaky Cauldron without any of the Weasleys or any of the staff noticing them. Then there was the fact Hermione was tense, every now and then blurting that they should tell Dumbledore and Ron had an overwhelming urge to write and owl him. It took about an hour just to leave, and then the actual way to Gringotts wasn't any easier. For one, they had to pass the Owl Post Office, it was extremely crowded, everyone trying to buy books, and muggle-borns were getting lost left and right. Harry was pretty sure by the time they left Gringotts, dinner would have been served.
As the 3 walked in through the doors of Gringotts, Harry had an iron grip on both their arms as they protested the entire time, dragging them through to the front desk, where, luckily, Nagnock was sat at, obviously they put him in to run the front desk for today.
He dragged 2 protesting friends up to the desk, as Nagnock looked up from his paperwork, to see what the commotion was about.
"Hello Nagnock, may your vaults ever flow," Harry greeted with a nod, "..I think you can tell why we are here."
Nagnock gave a petrifying grin, "And may your enemies ever vanquish Heir Potter. Yes, follow me then."
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Nagnock walked through the corridors of Gringotts, only 2 willingly, towards the ritual rooms.
===================================
"I feel... odd. Like I'm whole again without realising I wasn't before," Ron stated, awed as they left Gringotts. They spent about 20 minutes removing the Trust and Influence compulsions, and then another half an hour to rid the Obsessive compulsion.
"I definitely feel lighter," Hermione says, a lot softer than she normally sounds. The overwhelming urge to know everything, to read every textbook she could get her hands on now gone.
"That's how I felt, it's the strangest feeling," Harry remarked as they weaved through the crowds of witches and wizards.
The three began talking about classes this year, Hermione about how she has no idea how she will manage to do all subjects, saying that McGonagall said it would be 'all taken care of' in the letter, when Harry knocked into someone.
"Oh sorry- Malfoy." Harry said, stopping and turning to look at the boy he just bumped into, dumbfounded that the previous hatred he felt for the boy was no longer there.
Hermione and Ron stopped too, and Harry could practically feel they too were struck with the realisation.
"Watch where your- Oh it's you. Weasel, Granger and... Potter," Malfoy scowled, "Surprised to see you out and about without a team of Aurors protecting you and your pathetic friends."
Harry just arched a brow, more amused than annoyed. How did this once rile him up?
Before he could say anything however, Malfoy continued, taunting him, "Though I suppose I shouldn't be. Perfectly arrogant aren't you? Wandering about with a killer after you, whispering in his sleep, he's after you Potter."
Harry merely turned to look at Ron and Hermione, suppressing his laughter at their unimpressed faces. He turned back to Malfoy, "We're busy at the moment Malfoy, have you got anything else to say or can we go?"
Malfoy gave the 3 a searching look, more confused at the fact none of them have insulted him back yet. It didn't last long though, before he scoffed and walked away, mumbling about stupid Gryffindors. They all watched as he disappeared before bursting into laughter, and continued heading back to The Leaky Cauldron.
"That was far more amusing than it's ever been before," Hermione said, unable to hide her grin.