Seven Times the Charm
“Hermione!” Harry and Ron screamed as they rushed the stairs from the Malfoy dungeon to where they could hear her screaming.
They burst through the door into the large conference room behind and fired spells without holding back whatsoever.
Stunners, Bodybinds, Cutting Curses and Explosion Jinxes flew from their wands, dropping Death Eaters all around the room, who scrambled for cover or behind hastily erected shields.
“STOP!” yelled the manic voice of Bellatrix Lestrange and the silence following was deafening.
“Drop your wands or she dies,” she commanded and held her knife to Hermione's throat.
Both wizards growled, but had no other choice but to comply.
“Such good boys,” she purred.
“Yet, for your attempted escape, we need to punish you,” she grinned maniacally.
Before they could question what the manic witch meant, she plunged the knife through Hermione's jaw into her skull, killing her instantly.
The room was eerily quiet for a moment and time seemed to slow down around Harry.
He could feel Hermione's life fading away, it felt like his soul was ripped in half.
When time resumed, Harry felt something snap inside of his chest.
He was suddenly flooded with more power than he ever felt and within moments it exploded outwards.
The last thing Harry saw was the crumbling walls of Malfoy Manor, chunks of the roof crushing Bellatrix and Hermiones lifeless eyes staring back at him, before there was only white left.
The world came slowly back into focus around Harry, but something was different.
For one, he didn’t feel any pain and his mind felt clearer than ever before.
He also found himself in an office, opposite of a man that reminded him of an amalgamation of Remus, Sirius and his dad in appearance.
“You are back sooner than you should be,” the man remarked drily.
“Pardon?” Harry asked, perplexed.
The man let out a long suffering sigh.
“Right, I forgot. We got to do this dance all over again,” he grumbled, before clearing his throat.
“Alright then, welcome to the beginning of your afterlife, Death Inc.” he plainly said.
“You, my dear Mr. Potter, are a repeated visitor. Sadly, you can’t recall your last visits, because when sending you back, it is protocol to wipe your memory of your past life and death. This is your…” he opened a big folder from his desk before continuing “sixth visit ahead of your time.”
Harry looked at the man, utterly perplexed, while the man studied him closely.
“My sixth visit? Does that mean…?” Harry asked, afraid of the answer.
“That you died five times before this recent one? Yes,” he answered plainly.
“At least you are quicker to the uptake than the last times:”
“How did I…?” he began unsure.
“Are you sure you want to know?” the man asked and received a nod.
“Very well then. Your first visit was in November of ‘81, after freezing to death. That meddling idiot left you in the cold without a warming charm or even knocking on the door, in the middle of the night. What did he expect?” he stated and Harry had to agree, he always wondered how he survived that night.
“Your next visit was at the end of your first year at the hands of Quirrel. Third time was basilisk venom, since Fawkes never made it in time to save you. Fourth was hard to get you sent back, since you decided that having your soul sucked out by a dementor sounded fun. Your next death was luckily a few years later, it seems like you learned at least something even when you did not remember it, and you died to the Inferi, while Dumbledore was busy just looking.”
That was a lot for Harry to process.
“Wait a moment, why did you mention Dumbledore specifically there?” he asked.
The man stared disbelievingly at him, before smacking his head and then waving his hand once.
Suddenly, Harry was bombarded with memories he didn’t know he had and many of his memories got clearer, but changed.
“Wha…?”
“Obliviation. Well that, Confundus Charms and potions,” was the answer he got.
“Dumbledore is a manipulative asshole. But let’s get back to why you are here, shall we?”
Harry hesitantly nodded, although his mind was racing, trying to analyze all the new memories.
The man opened the folder.
“Harry James Potter, born in July of 1980, destined death approximately in August 2263, give or take, surrounded by his large family, leaving only minutes after his Twin-Soul-Mate, some Granger girl. Lord to a whole lot of Houses, The-Man-Who-Conquered, The Gray Lord, Revolutionary of the Wizarding World, Master of Death and Headmaster of Hogwarts,” he read from the top, before looking Harry in the eyes.
“You got one more try at this,” he said and slapped the folder with the back of his hand.
“Six restarts is the most we can give you, since your Soul has been damaged,” he said with a sigh.
“Were your Soul intact, we could do this until you succeed. Hell, Merlin took forty-six tries until he succeeded in his destiny,” he stated exasperated.
“Wait, what do you mean my soul has been damaged?” Harry asked, alarmed.
Harry suddenly had a pencil pointed at his scar.
“I mean that fucking leech, as well as the blocks one bearded old goat put on you,” he replied and leafed through the folder until he showed Harry a specific page.
“This is what we have, but not all. This folder is self-updating with everything that you encounter in your life and recognise, even just subconsciously. Therefore, it could be longer, but we can’t tell. Most full blocks, we can’t see here either:”
Status of Soul, Magic and Mind of Harry James Potter
Soul
Horcrux of Tom Marvollo Riddle with 1,5625% of his Soul
Soul-Bond Block by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
Soul Leech 50% effective by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
Magic
Ligare Sanguinem (Core Inhibitor) by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
Core Block 86% by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, slowly failing
Tollequod tuum est (Core Leech) by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
Pasteltounge Block 60% effective, by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
Parselmagic Block 95% effective, by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
Creature Tamer 70% effective, by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
Mind Magic Block 60% effective, by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
Animagus Block 90% by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
Mind
Mentis Nebula (Curse) by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
Tacet Acceptatio (Silencer) by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
Mutare Alium (Compulsion) by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
Indissolubili Fide (Potion) keyed to Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Molly Weasley, Ronald Weasley
Amortensis Maximen (Potion) keyed to Ginnevra Weasley
Repeated Obliviation and Legilimency exposure by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Molly Weasley and Ronald Weasley
Harry looked at the list and then at the man.
“I understand that these things are bad, but they don’t really mean that much to me,” he admitted.
“Then let us begin at the top. What a Horcrux is, you already know, seeing as you hunted them down,” the man began and Harry nodded.
“The one in your Scar was left on Halloween of 1981, because Voldemort's Soul was so unstable, that it shattered when he tried to overpower the Protection your mother left. One thing you should know about a Horcrux, to understand the man that became Voldemort better. When you create a Horcrux, you split your Soul in half, but connected to your soul are your memories and sanity. Remember the Diary Horcrux? It was fairly reasonable and you could hold a conversation with it. That Horcrux was made by accident, believe it or not. Since it was his first ever made, it took half his memories and sanity,” he explained.
Harry sat there in silence for a moment.
“Does that mean that Tom Riddle was sane once?” he tentatively asked.
“That he was. Remember the memories Dumbledore showed you of him in the orphanage? And he had good intentions and noble goals, but you should probably ask his first friends and followers about that, not me,” the man replied.
“Next is the Soul-Bond Block and the Soul Leech. The first one blocks all possible Soul-Bonds you could create, be it that of a Soulmate or a familiar. The Soul Leech on the other hand is a very cruel type of curse. It leeches off your Soul and transfers it to the person that placed it. It prolongs the lifespan of the caster and shortens the lifespan of the person cast upon by how effective it was placed, in your case it is 50% of your Soul, drastically hindered your connection to Soul magic and makes you more susceptible to the casters words and ideals,” he explained with a frown.
Harry frowned as well.
Dumbledore had taken from his lifespan? And if he understood the Horcrux effects correctly, similar effects should be in place with that leech…
“Onto your magic. Ligare Sanguinem is a Core Inhibitor that drastically reduces the growth of your magical core. I cannot say to what extent, because it depends on your core and the growth rate it would normally have. But I can tell that your core should have grown far more than it has. The Core Block is rather self explanatory, because it is in the name. It blocks a certain part of your core, making it inaccessible to you. Tollequod tuum est is one of the most vile leeches you can cast upon someone else's core, because it uses up the targets magic, before your own when casting, meaning that Dumbledore always used your magic, when casting, including your magical signature,” he explained with a scowl.
And Harry’s mind was spinning from that information.
Dumbledore used his magic? And his magical signature?
From what Hermione told him, your magical signature is used to open some of the Gringotts vaults, identify someone or for the DMLE to track who committed what crimes.
The thought alone made him sick.
“The Parseltongue Block limits the range of serpents you can talk to. Contrary to popular belief, you can talk to more than snakes. Ever wondered why you only understood parts of what the Basilisk said in your second year? Your ability to understand magical snakes was diminished. And I can guess that your ability to talk to other creatures that fall under the serpent category, like dragons and wyverns, were completely blocked to you. Parselmagic block means that you couldn’t use any spells with Paselmagic. The small unblocked part relates to being able to speak it and open locked areas that use a password in Parsel,” he stated.
“Wait, so I could have talked with the dragon in the Triwizard Tournament without these blocks?” Harry exclaimed.
The man nodded.
“Yes, you could. And it would have been almost docile. Serpents don’t attack any speaker of Parseltongue, because they are rare and revered by serpents,” he looked at the young wizard.
Harry felt dumbfounded.
There are more than Snakes to talk to? Even Dragons?
Could he have talked with Dragons? Could he have talked with Norberta and helped Hagrid keep her?
“Onto the next, the Creature Tamer block. Creature Tamer is one of the few passive magics that would be listed in this folder, others you would need an inheritance test from Gringotts to know them and add to our folder. Any guesses what it does?”
“Does it allow me to tame creatures?” Harry asked shyly, making the man look at him with a deadpan expression.
“Well, you are not a Ravenclaw, that is for certain. Creature Tamer is a passive ability which allows you to understand magical creatures better and they trust you easier. One time where it showed in your life, was with that Hippogriff, Buckbeak I think it was. Many famous magizoologists have this ability.”
That at least made sense to Harry. It would make their job a lot easier.
“The Mind Magic block is quick to explain, since all it does is hinder your ability to learn Occlumency, Legilimency, Obliviation and Confundus Charms, while making you in turn more susceptible to them.”
“Wait, does that mean that I could have learned Occlumency without Snape mind raping me?!?” Harry exclaimed loudly.
“Yes,” was all the man said.
“What the Animagus Block means, I believe you can guess?” he asked and received a nod.
Harry sat back, slightly in shock, thinking over everything he learned these past few minutes.
And they weren't even finished yet. He was grateful that the man is giving him time to process.
“I will go through the Mind altering things a bit quicker, if you don’t mind. We have a few things to discuss after and contrary to how it may seem, we don’t have eternity,” the man said and took a sip from a drink that came from god knows where.
“Now, Mentis Nebula is a curse that lays over your mind like fog and makes it harder to concentrate and recall learned information. Tacet Acceptio is a nasty Silencer, since it basically makes you unable to talk about anything the caster doesn’t want you to talk about, no matter how hard you try. It also can’t be written down, or seen through Legilimency,” he explained in short order.
“Mutare Alium is labeled as a Compulsion Network, but is closer to an outright permanent manipulation. It lets the caster alter any parts of your personality, like changing how you feel emotions, what traits you show and values you hold. It rewrites your whole personality to the casters desire. Indissolbili Fide is a loyalty potion, that makes you unable to question any person it is keyed to and makes you a blind follower to them. Amortensis Maximen is the strongest possible Love Potion in existence and creates an artificial eternal love,” he said and leaned back.
Harry looked at his hands for a few minutes, before looking at the man before him.
“What now?”
“Now, we plan,” the man answers with a smirk.