Chapter Text
Harry was a bit scared by just how many books he’d managed to acquire without remembering anything about it. Of the two and a half walls worth of bookshelves in his office, he had probably filled up the equivalent of a full wall and a quarter of another though he and Seamus had spread them out around the room to be better able to group things by subject matter.
“I think you’re going to have to change the name of this room from your office to your library,” Seamus grinned as he took another couple of books and added them to the history section.
“Maybe,” Harry said in a somewhat distracted tone of voice.
“You okay,” Seamus asked, turning to look at him in concern.
Harry snorted. Very rarely had his life been considered ‘okay’. “It’s odd. I don’t remember buying these books. I don’t remember reading them. But I can pick up a book, like this one, flip through it and remember that there was a really interesting section in it that talked about the interactive properties of the materials that make up your wand and certain potions and spells. It’s the main focus of why, historically, wizards and witches would learn to cast wandlessly. I remember thinking that this would be something that should come up in our classes at some point, but it never has.”
“I’ve never heard anything about that and I would’ve thought that the upper years at least would’ve mentioned it if they covered it in their classes.”
“I know. And there’s another one,” he paused while looking through the shelves with books on magical creatures. “Yes, this one!” He pulled a very old looking book from where it had been shelved. “This one, I remember, talks about the reality of ‘pure blood’ status in the magical world. How it’s not wizarding families that don’t intermarry with muggles or muggleborns, but those that are more closely aligned with magical creatures. Apparently magical creatures are pure magic, while witches and wizards are at most half breeds. So the more creature blood or gifts you possess, the more ‘pure’ you are.
“There was a thought actually that muggleborns were signs of a strong creature heritage surfacing and countering the human heritage to make that person a witch or wizard.” He put the book back on the shelf and ran his hand along the spines other books on the shelf, stopping on one further down. “This book, I think, countered some of those arguments, but did agree with the thought that the closer creature connection your family line had, the stronger your magic.”
“Wouldn’t that just cause the pure blood faction’s heads to explode? Having to be related or connected to a ‘creature’ to be considered a pure blood?” Seamus said in wonder. “Do you think it’s true?”
“Don’t know. I can’t remember if I’ve read anything else about it right now to support or contradict it. But I can see some truth in it. Consider house elves, for example. They have amazingly strong magic and don’t need wands to use it. They’re born with the ability to do magic and only get stronger with age. Have to say that they seem more powerful than wizards to me. Thankfully they don’t want to overtly take over because I think they could do it,” he said with a grin.
“That’s the truth. They already control most things as it is. There’s whole families that wouldn’t survive if they didn’t have elves taking care of everything for them.”
They both grinned at that thought and continued organizing and shelving the last of Harry’s books.
They finally finished and went to collapse in two of the comfortable reading chairs that had been placed near the window. Harry called for some drinks and they relaxed while they sipped their juice.
“So, you want some help researching the history of the school? I’d be happy to help you look into how the school was built. It would be amazing to figure out how they were able to incorporate the ley lines into the school’s development.”
“I need to see if I have any books on ley lines before I think I’ll be able to understand any of it. They haven’t covered that here and I only have a very basic understanding of what it even means. I have an image from muggle fantasy novels, but I have no idea what the magical reality of it is.” He shook his head in frustration before letting out a deep sigh. “But I’d appreciate help with the research. I’d like to ask Hogwarts if she has anything from the founders on it. Surely they wrote down their plans or had journals about what they were doing. If anyone would know what happened to them, Hogwarts would.”
“Makes sense to me. When are you going to talk to her?”
“Maybe this evening. I don’t know if she was going to join us for dinner tonight or not, but Marie or Baxter should be able to either get a message to her for us or tell us where we can find her ourselves.”
“Sounds good…”
He broke off as they heard a chime from the door.
“I have a doorbell?” Harry muttered as he gave Seamus a confused look before getting to his feet and heading to the door, Seamus close on his heels. He opened it to see another uniformed house elf standing there with a handful of envelopes.
“My apologies, Mr. Potter, for disturbing you. And you as well, Mr. Finnigan. I’m here to deliver your appointment information from Madam Currie.” He held out one envelope to Harry before flipping through the others, pulling one out and handing it to Seamus. “If you have any questions, please contact me. My name is Devan.” With a bow, he popped away.
Harry slowly shut the door, staring down at the envelope with a fair amount of dread. He felt Seamus gently take a hold of his arm and allowed himself to be led over to the couch.
“You want to open it now or wait until later?”
“I want to know what’s going on with me, but I dread finding out just how bad it is.” He sighed. “Well, not reading it isn’t going to help things and this is just the meeting to discuss what was found and figure out a plan to deal with it. This is the easy part.” He carefully ripped open the envelope and skimmed the text to see that he was due in the infirmary mid-morning the following day to go over his results.
He looked up to see that Seamus had opened his as well. “I’m to go mid-morning, what about you?”
“Just after lunch.”
He nodded, “Well, I’m going to obsess over this for the rest of the day if I don’t have something to distract myself. Want to go see if we can meet with Hogwarts and see what our research options really are?”
“Yeah, let’s go do that.”
--
It had been surprisingly easy to find Hogwarts and explain what they were hoping to find. She quickly agreed to find reference materials for them and have them delivered to their rooms to share. When she asked what brought on this interest, they mentioned some of the things they suspected were involved in the issues they’d all noticed with them and the school and how they were looking into various things that could play a role.
Hogwarts had considered for a while after they’d mentioned the topics they wanted to research, at least that had been mentioned before they’d left the group, and said she’d arrange to have additional references on those topics added to the bookshelves in the Common Room for them all to use. They’d spoken for a bit longer before she’d excused herself to take care of what she’d promised to do and said she wouldn’t see them until the following evening unless something came up.
They’d thanked her and wished her a good evening before heading back to their tower, taking a wandering path around the school which allowed them to see a number of areas that were different than they were used to. They noticed that the doors to the Great Hall were closed and locked. So was the one to Gryffindor Tower when they ventured up to the seventh floor to explore. It was odd, something to ask about later, but as they had the rest of the school to wander around in, it wasn’t a problem.
--
Considering what he had to look forward to the next day, Harry had slept pretty well. It was still a shock to wake up in his own space and he had a feeling it would be that way for quite a while. He decided to have breakfast in his room, knowing he’d just get nervous if they were all together discussing what they’d hear that day. At dinner the night before he’d learned that Lavender would be the first to meet with the mediwitch, followed by Justin, himself and Susan before lunch and Seamus, Neville, Draco and Blaise after lunch.
He’d just settled at the small table in his room when there was a knock on his door. Opening it, he found Seamus and Neville standing a bit uncertainly in the hall.
“We know you said you didn’t want to eat with the group this morning, but we didn’t really want to eat alone. Too much time to dwell on things,” Neville said. “Besides,” he took his hand out from behind his back, “housewarming gift!”
Harry laughed as he took the potted plant from Neville and bowed them into the room. “Welcome. Please, join me for breakfast.”
Baxter popped in as they entered, dropping off food and place settings for three before adding a third chair.
Harry waved them over to the table while he went to put the plant on the window sill. It was nice to have a bit of greenery there and with all the windows and light, he could probably add many more. Though maybe not as many as Neville would likely wind up with now that he didn’t have to worry about roommates experimenting on them.
Speaking of… “Have you guys done any decorating since we moved in?” He took the last seat at the table and started serving himself some breakfast. “I know we have free reign on what we do with our rooms, but I have to say I don’t even know where to start.”
“Well, paint’s an easy thing. You can change the color of the walls or the color of things like curtains. There’s no… stuff on the walls either. They probably have paintings or wall hangings, that sort of thing that you could hang around the place.” Neville suggested.
“We can also rearrange the space if you want things in different locations. I’ve been considering different seating, but I’m giving it a bit of time to see how I use things.” Seamus gestured around them, “I’m not really sure how to use this area as we don’t have a kitchen, but this seems to be set up for dining. It seems a bit of wasted space, but since we already have offices to work in, I don’t need to put that here.” He shrugged and picked up another bite of food.
They discussed how they might change the rooms around and make them more personal while finishing up their meal. Harry then took Neville in to see his library, in case he wanted to borrow anything, and to also show Seamus the books that had appeared in his room from Hogwarts.
Eventually the others decided to head back to their rooms since it was about time for Harry to head to the infirmary. Seamus had opted to not borrow anything right now as he had his own books to read, but Neville had picked out two of Harry’s that he thought would cover his research topic of place based mind altering spells. He also picked up a Herbology journal Harry had found for when he needed a break from more serious reading.
After they left Harry jotted down some notes about things he wanted to talk to the elves about concerning his rooms then grabbed his school bag. He checked to make sure he had his notebook and a pen to make notes for himself, then headed down to the Common Room to head out.
He saw Draco and Blaise at one of the corner tables playing chess and waved as he walked through, but didn’t stop to talk. He could feel the nerves twisting up his insides and wasn’t up to any additional conversation right now.
He didn’t pass Justin on the way over, so either there was a decent amount of time built in between the appointments or Justin hadn’t gone straight back to the tower when his ended. The double doors were standing open and he walked in hesitantly, looking around to see if anyone was inside.
There was no one obviously in the infirmary, but he could see the door to the mediwitch’s office was open so headed in that direction. He could see Madam Currie sitting behind her desk writing and knocked on the door frame to get her attention.
“Ah, Mr. Potter, right on time. Come on in and have a seat.” She got up from her desk and came around to a more casual seating area to the right of the door. She gave a wave of her hand as he entered and the door lightly closed behind him.
Madam Currie took a seat across from him and a tea tray appeared on the table between them, though neither made a move to pour themselves a cup.
“Do you want me to do this the nice way or the blunt way?” She asked, looking at him directly.
“Please, just tell me exactly what’s going on, no evasions, no half-truths.”
“Okay then, blunt way it is. Mr. Potter, you are a bloody mess. Someone’s been messing with your memories and emotions for years – the emotions since you would’ve started school here and your memories since you were quite young. You have a number of blocks on your magical abilities to the point where I’m shocked you’re even able to do magic or have the ability to complete your classwork. The treatment you’ve had with your relatives has left your body in a weakened state that will take a while to fix as it will have to be done in stages to not tax your body too much. And last, but certainly not least, you are still suffering from the remains of various curses put on you since probably the night of your parents’ death.”
She gave him a half smile before continuing, “Now, the good news. These are all things that can be fixed or corrected. They’re not going to be quick. Like the issues with your body, the issues with your magic, memories and emotions will have to be unwoven in a specific order and it’ll be tricky work. We’ll be unraveling a very large knot made up of many different threads. It’s difficult and time consuming, but I’m very good at much of the work that needs to be done and we’ll be calling in an expert to deal with the rest. While I won’t be giving you specifics, you aren’t the only one here with similar issues and we’ll be calling in a Goblin expert to help out with things. When they arrive, they will be with us until the end of your time here. It will be a rare opportunity for all of you as once they are done helping with the healing, they will be available to teach you about Goblin magical abilities. Now, I know that was a lot to dump on you so quickly, but you wanted blunt. Do you have any questions?”
Harry had been quickly jotting down notes on what she’d been saying, trying to make sure he got everything documented. “Thank you for giving it to me straight like that. How long do you expect the healing to take and when will you be starting? If there are eight of us with various issues, and only one of you, it seems like this could take a while.”
“Well, it will probably be a couple of months at least since you’ll need time to recover between a number of the procedures and I will be alternating you all in and out. Somethings, though, will only take a potion and some observation to make sure they’re going well, so I can help more than one of you at a time. As far as when we will begin… some things will begin tomorrow. In particular, you’ll be starting on a particular nasty tasting potion regime in the morning and you’ll be taking that for at least the next six months. We’ll see how things are going after that and adjust accordingly. That will help correct a number of the nutritional deficiencies you have that will allow me to do more wide spread healing. I think in about a month I’ll be able to correct your vision for you and you should grow a couple inches over the next year or so.
“The emotional manipulations will likely be the first we work on removing as they are most likely to affect you during this time as a number of them appear to be geared towards some of your fellow students. I’ll likely bring in most of you in a couple days for that and do it all at once.”
She leaned forward and poured a cup of tea, handing it towards him to fix how he liked before pouring another for herself and adding a lump of sugar and some lemon. “This will not be easy for you, Mr. Potter. Much of this process will be physically painful. A lot will likely be emotionally difficult as well. You’ll have to re-learn how to wield your magic, most likely, due to the blocks that were placed on you. Just remember that we are all here for you and will do our utmost to help you get through this and take back control of yourself and your life.”
Harry blinked back tears at that and simply nodded at her before taking a sip of his tea.
They sat there in silence while they both finished their cups then, when they were done Madam Currie sat hers back down on the tray and smiled brightly at him. “Well, unless you have more questions, you are now free to go. Please enjoy the last potion free afternoon you’ll have for months and expect your first treatment in the morning. I’ll send you a message when the next round of fun and games is scheduled to begin.”
Harry rolled his eyes at her and barely controlled the impulse to stick his tongue out though, judging by her laughter as he left, she was well aware of what he wanted to do.
--
The potions were every bit as bad as she’d said. Not that he’d disbelieved her, but so often people tried to play off just how bad medicines could be that it was actually a relief to have her be telling the horrible honest truth.
He also wasn’t the only one taking potions with breakfast, though he certainly had the others beat with the number he was taking and the amount of time he’d have to take them. He was such a lucky guy.
Harry sighed. Actually he was pretty lucky. He’d been going to Hogwarts for five years now and had spent more than his fair share of time in the infirmary and none of the medical issues had apparently been noticed. Or, if they had been noticed, nothing had been done to help him with them. All things considered, he couldn’t imagine why anyone in the medical field would be able to ignore problems like he had in one of their patients, but for now he would give Madam Pomfrey the benefit of the doubt that it wasn’t malicious on her part. It wasn’t easy though.
As he wasn’t due any other healing for a couple days, he’d set up in the Common Room to read through some of the books he’d been given and see what he could figure out about how the school had been built. He was starting with something he thought looked like a personal journal as it was hand written, but he was startled to realize that it appeared to have belonged to Salazar Slytherin. As far as he knew, nothing remained of his personal works, or surely someone would’ve brought them to light to counter the whole ‘heir of Slytherin’ nonsense Voldemort had been spouting.
Apparently it was some sort of magic Hogwarts had, but it was fascinating reading. The four Founders were more than simply four friends who wanted to start a school. They were considered the ruling council of the magical race, at least in Britain, which obviously led to the current reverence that they were held in, though the real reason behind it appeared to have been lost.
They’d wanted to use the castle as not only a school for their young, but also as a seat of power to guide and protect the magicals of their world. That was one of the reasons they’d chosen the location they did. The ley lines would allow them to connect with their people and better help them when needed. They planned to build a room in the heart of the castle to hold the magical controls for both the castle itself and the other areas under their control. With them set up, there should be more areas like Hogsmeade that were protected for magical beings to live in. The Forbidden Forest should be safe for all, not a haven for dangerous creatures.
The whole idea was fascinating to Harry and he couldn’t decide if the idea hadn’t actually been possible for them to accomplish or if somehow in the following hundreds of years, the controls had broken or been turned off somehow. Hopefully further in he’d find out which hypothesis was correct and, if they had been successful, he could figure out how to fix the controls or turn them back on again.
“Hi, Harry.”
He’d been so involved in his reading he hadn’t noticed the others had slowly joined him in the room, scattered around wherever they were most comfortable. Susan appeared to have been sharing a table with Justin and Seamus before venturing over to get his attention.
“Sorry, you startled me. How are you? Can I help you with something?”
Susan grinned and tipped her head back at her table where Seamus was watching them looking a bit unsure. “I’m good, thanks. I heard from Seamus that you had quite the collection of books and I was wondering if you had any magical law books that you wouldn’t mind me borrowing? I have a couple I got from my Aunt, but they’re all recent and I wanted some comparisons from older ones to see where different rules and such were introduced.”
“That’s fine, I think I have a couple you can take a look at, but why does Seamus look like I’m going to be upset about your asking me for books?”
“I think that’s carry over from another part of the conversation we were having, but possibly he thinks he shouldn’t have mentioned the possibility of someone outside of your roommates borrowing things?”
As he’d never really had things for others to borrow, he had never really had to think about it, but in this case, borrowing books to do research to help them all wasn’t a situation that he would get upset about.
“Well, at least for my books, I’m okay sharing. Do you want me to get them now or later?”
“Now would be great, if it’s not a problem. I’m pretty familiar with the ones I have.”
“No problem,” he said pushing to his feet. “I’ll run up now and get what I have.” He paused by the table she’d been sitting at and rested his hand on Seamus’ shoulder while looking at Justin. “I’m going to grab a couple books Susan needs. Are you looking for anything that I might have a copy of that I can get while I’m there? Seamus, you didn’t need anything before, but let me know if that changes.” He felt the shoulder under his hand relax a bit.
“No thanks, Harry,” Seamus said, looking up at him. “I got a number of interesting ones to go through for now, but we’ll have to catch up later on what we’re finding.”
He nodded in agreement before looking back at Justin in question.
“I’ll probably mainly be looking at the ones you let Susan borrow, but if you find anything specifically on magical creature rights, I’d love to take a look.”
“I’ll see what I can find.” With a light squeeze to Seamus’ shoulder he headed out of the room and upstairs.
He was happy he and Seamus had spent so much time sorting his books when they were unpacked as it made it easier to find a couple that looked like they could be interesting. He had a couple on magical law, though couldn’t remember anything about them as he flipped through them, so maybe they were more recent – after his brush with the Dementors last summer and the trial that had followed? He also had one or two on magical creatures and the sections on werewolves and house elves seemed somewhat familiar, so he probably had read them at some point, though he couldn’t remember the contents.
It was frustrating to realize that he should know these things, but not be able to remember anything about them. He was about to leave the office again, when a small section of books caught his attention. They were all on wizarding customs and what he would consider manners for various situations. On a whim he picked up one of them and took it as well. While it wasn’t quite light reading, it would be a nice break from the founding of Hogwarts and could be quite useful. Even more useful if he was allowed to remember the content after reading.
He returned to the Common Room and handed over the books he’d pulled for Susan and Justin before returning to his table. He settled down to read Slytherin’s journal for a while longer, taking copious notes on what they’d planned to do as well as what they’d actually done once they got started. It was fascinating, but after a while he felt his head would explode from trying to understand all the concepts he was reading about. He had a separate list of topics he wanted to look into and planned to talk to Hogwarts about more supplemental reading in the near future.
He packed away his books and notes and settled back to read the book on Wizarding customs. He got through the first chapter before he frowned, pulled out a new notebook, then flipped back to the beginning of the chapter again. This time as he read, he started making notes on things he was reading.
At the end of the first chapter, he glanced up and around the room finally spying Draco sharing a couch with Blaise. Both appeared to have been reading, though they were quietly talking now, books lying face down on their laps.
“Draco?”
He looked over, a confused expression on his face at being called. “Yes, P… Harry?”
“If you have some time later on, could I ask you some questions about something I’m reading?”
“Aren’t you looking into the founding of Hogwarts? I’m not really an expert on…”
“I am, but that’s not what I have questions about. I’m taking a break and was reading a wizarding customs book and I’m a bit confused about some of the things I’m reading about. You seemed like a good person to ask about things.”
Some of the confusion on Draco’s face cleared, though he still seemed confused about why Harry would be asking him about anything. “My schedule’s rather free this evening if you’d like to talk after dinner?” He suggested a bit hesitantly.
“That would be fine. Thanks!” Harry smiled at him, causing his confusion to increase again, though he tentatively smiled back before returning to his conversation with Blaise.
Ignoring the questioning looks from the others in the room, Harry turned back to his book and started on the next chapter. He was sure by that evening he’d have all sorts of things he wanted to check on with Draco.
--
After dinner Harry and Draco sat down together in the Common Room to go over the questions Harry had come up with as he read the first couple chapters of his book. As none of this had ever been mentioned to him while he’d been going to Hogwarts, he wasn’t sure how much was still accurate and what was something he should be concerned with remembering.
“So, wizarding customs? I figured most questions like that would’ve been answered first year during the intro meetings we all have. They generally cover a mini ‘wizard studies’ class and review manners and customs and…” He paused, finally noticing the look of shock on Harry’s face.
“Intro meetings?” Harry questioned. He turned to look at the other Gryffindors seated around the room. “Guys, were there wizarding introduction meetings our first year?”
“I think Dean got an invite to something early on, but I don’t know what. I actually got the impression it was related to getting a checkup in the infirmary though, so probably not.”
“I don’t remember anything either, Harry. But Gran did ask about it. When I said we hadn’t had anything she sent me a bunch of information she said I’d need, but most of it was stuff she’d already reviewed with me so I ignored it.”
“Lavender?”
“Parvati never mentioned anything and Hermione was so standoffish those first couple of months that I’d have no idea what she was up to. Anytime she wasn’t in the dorm or the Common Room I assumed she was in the Library if we weren’t in class.”
“Good point. How about the Hufflepuffs, Susan? Justin? Did you guys have these classes or meetings or whatever they are?”
Justin looked over at Susan before turning back to Harry, “Yes, the first couple Saturday afternoons, Professor Sprout had all the first years and any of the upper years who wanted a refresher together in the Common Room to review what she called basic information for getting along with other wizards. Manners, customs, general information that it’s assumed that all wizardborn students would’ve grown up knowing.”
“So was it just our year of Gryffindors that didn’t get this information or did Professor McGonagall not tell any of our house about this stuff? Have we all got a bad reputation with the rest of the school because we don’t know any better? Or at least the muggle raised students? Neville, you said this was stuff your Gran had taught you, is that just something she’d do or is it stuff that would really be known by everyone raised in the wizarding world?”
“I don’t know, Harry. My Gran’s a bit obsessive because I’ll be head of our house when I turn seventeen. I’m going to have to know how to act when I’m in the Wizengamot or handing our family’s estate. But to an extent, it should be something everyone knows about because they’re based on our history. There are reasons why we do things the way we do or act in a certain manner. That’s not to say that they haven’t changed over the years and the meaning might not be the same anymore, but it still means something.”
“And it’s really disturbing that you haven’t been taught any of this, Harry,” Draco broke in. “How are you expecting to handle your family’s estate if you’ve had no training?”
The thought of that startled Harry into laughter. “My estate? What estate? I have a trust fund and my family consists of three muggles that hate me and everything I stand for. Do you think I dress the way I do because I’m just stingy with my money? No, I dress this way because these are all the clothes I have because they’re all my Aunt and Uncle were willing to provide me with. There’s no ‘Potter Estate’ that I’m just modestly not mentioning to keep anyone from getting jealous of my oh so wonderful life. I have nothing!” Harry was breathing heavily when he finished. He closed his eyes and rubbed his face with his hands, trying to ignore the silence that was the result of his rather hysterical outburst.
He felt someone sit down beside him on the sofa and gently place their hand on his arm. “Um, Harry…” He recognized Seamus’ voice but refused to lower his hands because now the embarrassment had set in and he didn’t want to face any one.
“The thing is, even I know there’s a Potter estate and I’ve mainly lived in the muggle world since my dad’s muggle. I’ll admit it’s not common knowledge who you live with, but it has been thought odd that you dress the way you do considering that you’ll be able to take over as Lord Potter when you come of age.” Seamus was talking softly, but Harry knew everyone in the room could hear him. He was also trying to get Harry to lower his hands and finally he gave in, though he kept his eyes closed as he leaned his head back against the back of the sofa.
He heard someone else move in front of him then heard Neville’s voice, much closer than it had been before. “Harry, that you don’t know this, that your family history has been purposefully kept from you is BIG. You should’ve been contacted by Gringotts about this ages ago. You also should’ve heard,” he paused slightly before continuing on, “I’m sure Sirius had a will, Harry, and you should’ve heard about that this summer. There’s something really wrong that nothing’s been said to you about the Potter lordship and possibly the Black one as well. They were also an Ancient and Noble house.
“With the way time works for us currently, I don’t know if we can do anything about this now, or should do anything yet, but come December, I think you need to have some serious discussions with someone trustworthy at Gringotts. Either they’re not being allowed to contact you for some reason, or you’re being betrayed by your account manager. Neither is acceptable.”
“In the meantime though, we can get you up to speed on all of that. Everything you’ll need to know to successfully be able to succeed in that world.” Draco promised. “And if the other Gryffindors,” he said nodding to the other three, “or even Susan and Justin, want to join in or participate, they would be welcome. It can’t hurt to know how to play the game even if you’re generally a Reserve player.” He smirked.
Harry was still reeling at the thought of the possibility of two lordships, but managed to nod and smile in agreement to Draco’s offer while the others were quick to accept as well. Conversation stalled a bit after that and Harry excused himself to return to his room. He’d had about as much excitement as he could take for the evening.
--
The next couple weeks followed a similar pattern. Every couple of days Harry would spend anywhere from an hour to a half a day in the infirmary having Madam Currie do work on him to correct the issues he had with his health as well as some of the more minor ones affecting his magic or memories. There had only been one session dealing with the effects on his emotions and that was one they’d all had together early on.
At the end of their first week, they’d all been called to the infirmary, given a potion to take, then put to sleep for a while for it to take effect. That was able to clear out the minor spells that they believed were influenced by Hogwarts or possibly the Express itself to cause disagreements between the houses and cause dislike or distrust. She felt that the Express’ spells must be rather weak and the main ones in the school and since they’d barely returned before this, they hadn’t had a chance to sink in again. They’d been able to get along as well as they had been simply because they were able to fight off the effects once they were away from the school and the spells’ influence. Then they’d get on the train at the end of summer and start to be influenced all over again.
Harry actually felt that most of the issues on the Express with Draco were simply due to the fact that he just truly hated Ron and that hatred was mutual.
Other than the regular intervals of nasty tasting potions and spells to strengthen his body enough to make it safe to do more advanced healing, they all spent a lot of time researching. Harry had become fascinated with the control room Salazar had mentioned in his original journal and was making his way through everything he could get his hands on relating to it. He’d tried asking Hogwarts about it, but she seemed unable to discuss it, so he let the matter drop for now.
He and Seamus were trading off books and keeping a list of clues as to where it might be located and how it might be accessed. Then there was another batch of notes on how they thought it could be controlled. They’d consulted with Lavender and Draco, who were researching wards in general and specifically what types Hogwarts has, or maybe should have, to see how they would be implemented. Were there signs they could be looking for?
Despite having supposedly only minor work done by Madam Currie, Harry was finding that he was often incredibly exhausted. She explained that it would get better, but for now he was just going to have to deal with it as his body was trying to make up for almost fifteen years of near neglect and that could take a lot out of a guy.
So, while attempting to be understanding of his limitations, he spent even more time reading when he was sick of research. He’d often hang out on the roof garden, either in one of the more open areas when he was feeling more social, or in one of the smaller sitting areas he’d found when he wanted a bit more privacy.
Neville would join him on occasion, distract him with what he was doing in the greenhouses, and ask him questions about what he was reading now. Or see if he was interested in another plant for his room. He had said yes a number of times now and had a few plants in every room at this point.
Seamus would stop by as well. Make sure he was feeling okay, tell him stories about what the others had gotten up to while he was otherwise occupied. Sometimes he would just bring his own book and they’d sit quietly and read for an afternoon.
They were still waiting for the Goblin specialist to arrive, though they’d been told by Hogwarts that, based on her conversations with Madam Currie, it would probably be about two more weeks before it would do them any good for him to show up.
Harry thought it was a bit suspicious that it was taking so long to help the others when he was sure they didn’t have as extensive of health issues to deal with as he did. He brought it up one time when they were all in for a checkup and was told that yes, he was indeed the most messed up of the bunch, but she’d decided that like things should be fixed at the same time as much as possible. It could cause more problems if one person’s memories were fixed while another’s weren’t as they might be about the same topic and she was trying to avoid that. Such as Harry not being able to remember books that he’d read, but that Neville and Seamus remembered receiving mail from him about. That was frustrating enough, and it was a relatively small issue.
“Be patient, Mr. Potter, I do know what I’m doing and there is a plan for how this is going. That being said, if any of you have concerns, please feel free to bring them to me. I’ll do my best to explain the reasoning behind what I’m doing. If there is a legitimate reason to change things though, I will be happy to do so.”
“I apologize, Madam Currie. I have a possibly understandable distrust of authority figures, but you’ve given me no reason to feel you’re keeping things from me that I need to know. I’m sorry I’m taking my anger at others out on you.”
She snorted, “That was rather minor. Surely you could do better than that if you were truly angry with me. While I don’t agree that you should be abusive about it, anyone who is in charge of making sure you are healthy should be willing to listen to your concerns and respond to them honestly. I’m sorry that you haven’t had that before now. Once you’re back, I’ll give you a list of things to look for in a Healer and I suggest you go that route in the future, instead of dealing with the school’s mediwitch.”
“What’s the difference between a Healer and a Mediwitch? Aren’t they both like muggle doctors?”
“No, not at all. Mediwitch level training is for general medical problems. They know a lot about lower level issues that people may have. That’s what makes them perfect for things like schools because generally you’re not going to be dealing with major problems, but things like broken bones or colds. Anything more serious than that should be referred to a Healer. Healers can treat the basic things, but have also had much more training in more serious issues like spell damage and the few diseases that can affect magicals.”
“So are you a Healer or a Mediwitch? I know Madam Pomfrey is a mediwitch and I’ve been assuming you are as well.”
“I am a Healer. Back when the school began, that’s what the Founders wanted to have in the school. Considering the society of the time, when they were in school was the main time most students had access to healing so there was often older injuries or illnesses that needed to be corrected. Sometimes even parents or family members not currently enrolled would come for healing so they needed someone as trained as they could be to deal with all of that.”
“Are you saying,” Lavender broke in, “that you’re the Healer from when the Founders started the school?” They were all looking quite shocked at that thought.
“Yes and no. I’m obviously not the person they hired as she would be long dead, and is. What I am though is an imprint of her that, like the representation of Hogwarts you have been interacting with while here, is able to take physical form when we have people inhabiting the castle for this ritual. I continue to learn from modern developments in healing because of our connection to the ley lines, so I’m always able to help those that come here.”
“That’s bloody amazing,” Seamus said softly.
“I’ve always been amazing, Mr. Finnigan,” she replied, winking at him and causing his cheeks to turn a bit pink and the others to laugh.
“So why don’t we have a Healer here now? We’ve had some very serious accidents in the school, just while we’ve been here, so I have to imagine there’ve been ones before now too. And the current Headmaster, at least, doesn’t seem to be willing to call in St. Mungo’s when we have problems that Madam Pomfrey isn’t qualified for.”
“Years ago, it was decided that the school no longer needed a full Healer on staff as student now had regular access to them at home. They could save money by having a Mediwitch on staff and only call in a Healer when the situation arose that they were needed, as it wasn’t very often.”
“But, the school was set up to require a Healer be on staff, not a Mediwitch, correct?”
“Yes, Mr. Potter. It’s listed in the Charter of the school.”
“So who would have the ability to make that change?”
“I believe it was a joint decision of the School Governors and the Headmaster of the time. As there were no acknowledged Founders Heirs around, they had control of the school and would make changes to suit themselves.”
“Acknowledged heirs? What makes an heir ‘acknowledged’? Voldemort calls himself the Heir of Slytherin, but if he had some control, or way to take control, over Hogwarts I’m sure he would’ve done so by now.”
“You must be an acknowledged heir for a number of things in the magical world. Things like being Lord of a family. Many people can be heirs, but you have to be the acknowledged one in order to become Lord or Lady. For Hogwarts as well, there are probably hundreds if not thousands of people out in the world that can prove they descended from one of the four Founders, but that’s not all it takes. Magic herself makes that judgement, but she has to be petitioned in this case.
“While with lordships, the magic has been built in, so to speak, to the process and it can be controlled to an extent by the will of the family and birth order and who knows what else the family has decided is important for their head to be able to do. With control of Hogwarts, you have to share the bloodline, but you also have to fulfill certain characteristics that the Founders agreed upon, before you can take control.
“Due to the status of the Founders though, many didn’t want that widely known and after their deaths the knowledge of who had the ability to step into those positions was lost. Because of that only rarely were acknowledged heirs able to come into being as they often didn’t know what they were doing when they made their petition and then didn’t understand the power they had after they were answered.”
“Could the Founders’ Heirs fix the issues with the school and the wards and all the other stuff that’s wrong? Well, and make it stick because you know the Ministry isn’t going to be pleased with any changes and even a lot of the current professors probably wouldn’t be happy,” Susan asked.
“Yes, they really could. The Founders had a great deal of control over the magical world. It’s only with their deaths and the knowledge of the heirs that the current Ministry has taken over. Basically the Founders were the rulers of our world and the Ministry is the steward in charge until the Heirs’ return. They probably don’t know it though as that history has been hidden or lost, but Magic herself would support them.”
They’d been sitting around the infirmary for a while now after the latest healing session and it had been long enough that elves had unobtrusively popped in a while back to deliver lunch that they all ate while sitting on the various beds they’d been assigned to when they arrived. Madam Currie had conjured a chair for herself to sit in, once it became obvious that this wasn’t to be a quick conversation, but she also looked quite willing to continue it as long as they wanted.
They’d finally finished eating and their plates and utensils had disappeared again while Lavender had returned to taking notes that she’d had to pause while trying to eat.
“So,” she said, reading back over some of what she’d written, “how do we find out who these acknowledged heirs actually are? Can we petition magic for them or do they have to do it themselves? Though I guess,” she said thoughtfully, “it would be better for them to know what’s going on based on what you said about those that accidently got the position in the past and then didn’t realize what they were. I can see that could lead to some really horrible things for the magical world.”
“And it did. Thankfully Magic realized what was happening and their heir status was revoked before too much damage was done.” She looked at them for a bit, a strange smile on her face, before she continued. “I would suggest that you begin by finding out who the current potential Heirs are. Depending on that, then you can decide if you should contact them in advance or simply petition magic on their behalf and see how it goes. Though I believe that knowing what you’re getting yourself into is better than just blindly jumping in, no matter how good of a Healer you have on your side to pick up the pieces.”
“The problem is finding out who the heirs are then. No one really seems to know for sure, other than by family legends, because no one’s family tree seems to either go back that far or show the name of a Founder. My father said that the Dark Lord was very displeased to find this out as he wanted to be able to show the world that he truly was the Heir of Salazar Slytherin, but it wasn’t possible. It’s his ability to speak Parseltongue that is considered his proof, though outside of Britain that’s a far more common ability and surely not all of the speakers are descendants?”
“Why couldn’t they be? They may not share a close connection, but they could still be of his blood. But the easiest way to know about heirs would be to check their family trees. Before you tell me that they don’t exist, let me tell you they do, though they were hidden away many, many years ago when it was found that they couldn’t be destroyed. In fact you’d have to destroy the castle before that would be possible.
“A former headmaster who wanted to keep control of the school hid them when he noticed that there were a couple potential Heirs starting classes that year. He found a hidden area in the castle and locked them away.” She smirked at them. “Unfortunately for him, a number of the modifications that are made out there, aren’t mirrored here, so you should be able to find them in the Receiving Hall on the first floor.”
“What ‘receiving hall’? You mean the Great Hall? It’s locked, Harry and I tried to get into it not long after we got here.” Seamus said looking at Harry for agreement.
“No, not the Great Hall. The Receiving Hall is to the left of the Entry Hall. It was where the Founders met with those outside the castle who had questions or issues and wanted to petition them for assistance.”
“Well, there’s a sitting room or something like it that appeared once we arrived, but I don’t remember another door…” Susan’s voice trailed off and you could almost see her imagining the layout of the Entry area and trying to figure out where another room could be.
“Take a look later on then, see if you can find it now that you know it’s there. While the family trees weren’t hidden here, some of the work put into hiding them did bleed through, but you shouldn’t have trouble figuring things out once you try to.
“Now,” she said getting to her feet, chair disappearing as she stood, “I think you’ve spent way too much time here today considering you’re not actually required to be here. So, get out. The goblin healer should be here next week and at that point most of you will be spending way more time here than you’d probably like, so enjoying it while you can.”
They gathered up their belongings and headed for the door. Harry could swear that he felt something like wind pushing him gently in the back to get him moving and the doors to the infirmary closed securely after the last one exited.
“Should we go look now,” Justin asked as they reached the grand staircase and could either head up to their tower or down to the Entry Hall.
“There’s no reason not to,” Neville said slowly, “but I have to say that I really want to wait. Not long, but just a little longer. I can’t tell you why, because I’m really interested in seeing them – who wouldn’t be! But…”
Blaise reached out and lightly gripped his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, Neville. It’s waited this long and can wait another day or two. No one here will really die of suspense, no matter what they might have you believe.” He stared at Neville calmly until he looked up and nodded in agreement.
“Okay then, let’s head back to the tower for a while. Just to be different, I’ve decided to do a bit of reading this afternoon,” Harry said sarcastically as he headed up the flight of stairs.
“And how is that different than, say, yesterday afternoon?” Lavender asked with a smile.
“Because today I plan to read about Gringotts and the goblins. I haven’t really had a chance to read the information Hogwarts got us on the offered services and I’d also like to brush up on how to interact with goblins so I don’t inadvertently insult them in some manner. They might be willing to be helpful because of our relationship to Hogwarts, but I don’t want to mess that up by doing something foolish. Hi, Myrddin,” he called as they approached the door to their tower.
“Hello, young man. I was expecting you back some time ago. Did the healing not progress as expected?”
“No, the healing went fine, we just stayed originally so Harry could apologize for being Harry,” Lavender laughed as Harry poked her. “We stayed late though as we got to talking about the Founders and their Heirs and how all that affects the school and the wizarding world. It was a very interesting conversation, but eventually Madam Currie kicked us out.”
“Later we’re going to go looking for the Founders’ Family Trees. She mentioned that they’re in something called the Receiving Room, but we don’t remember seeing such a room where she says it’s located.”
Myrddin’s expression twitched into a brief smile before reverting to its normal rather calm expression. “Well maybe when you try next time you’ll just find you weren’t looking right.” With that the door clicked open and he returned to whatever it was that he was constantly writing on.
Harry shrugged and pulled the door fully open and led the way inside.
--
“The thing you have to remember about goblins is that it all comes down to respect with them. They respect those with money and power, but it will not matter how rich or powerful you are if you disrespect them. They may still do business with you, because they have to, but they won’t go out of their way to be helpful and will more likely do what they can to make anything you need done more difficult or costly for you.” Draco looked around the fire pit where they’d retired to after dinner, a small fire glowing enough to give them light to see each other but not too much in the warm summer evening, to be sure no one had questions yet.
Seeing none, he continued. “Ragnok is the current Lord of Gringotts. He runs the bank and rules those that work within it. He fought his way into the position and will be very harsh on anyone he finds doing anything to tarnish the reputation of the bank. While with human employees that could mean being fired, fined or imprisoned; for goblins that could also include being put to death if the infraction is serious enough.
“Goblins do not like the usual wizarding attitude of treating them like particularly intelligent animals. They expect to be treated like the business owners and employees they are. Speak to them politely, show them the respect that you would expect them to treat you with, and they will do the same.”
“I’m not trying to be rude with this question, because I really do appreciate your going over this for me and the others, but how do you know this is true?” Harry didn’t think Draco would purposefully give them false information, but he’d already inferred that his father was on shaky ground with the Goblins, so where, or who, would he have learned this from?
“You’re not the only one who reads, Harry,” he replied, the tips of his ears turning slightly pink. “I also talk to people. I’ve had numerous conversations with Professor Flitwick about Goblin society and I’ve asked questions of the Malfoy account manager when my father wasn’t around or paying attention. My interest in being polite and doing things correctly has meant that they’ve been willing to explain their culture and how best to interact with them. My father doesn’t know that I’ve been doing this, though he has noticed that they appear to like me better so on occasion he’s used me for errands.”
“I don’t doubt you, Draco, I just wondered where you’d learned this as the only thing we seem to hear about in school are the various Goblin rebellions. Now,” he glanced down at the notes he’d made from his previous reading, “does everyone have an account manager, or is that just larger customers, people with lots of money?”
“You generally only have an assigned, dedicated account manager if you’re considered an important customer. That translates to you having a lot of money. You may have an assigned, shared account manager if you are relatively important and have a decent level of money. Otherwise, if you need the services provided by an account manager, you will use whomever is available when you go to the bank.”
“So Potter and Black likely have their own account managers?” At Draco’s nod, he noted that and went on. “There were quite a few items listed on the Gringotts list of services that I wouldn’t normally associate with a bank: coordinating the buying or building of homes, warding services, personal shopper, mail routing, staff hiring… the list is surprisingly long. They offer these services, but do they really want to do them? They’re a bank.”
“Yes, they’re a bank, but that’s not all they are, though that’s mainly what the wizarding world knows them as now. Those customers that are aware of the additional services offered don’t tend to spread the word. It’s really kept a secret. Would the Goblins like doing such things for everyone? Despite the money it would bring in, probably not. And the prices would go up to price certain customers out of using them. But despite that, they are the best at what they do. Goblins are amazing builders and their wards are nearly impossible to get past. They can ensure the security and safety of your mail delivery and make sure anyone you employ is a qualified and decent person. They don’t offer to do anything that they can’t do as well or much better than anyone else, so if you can afford to go that route, it’s generally best to do so.”
“Wow, I would’ve never guessed. I guess I need to start my list as there’s a number of things I’d like to look into, especially the mail routing. I’m tired of people sending me howlers and things directly.”
“I think Gran went to them to update the warding at home a couple years ago. I know the work was done, but it was while I was at school, so she didn’t give me the details.”
“Father doesn’t want them near ours as he knows they wouldn’t agree with what he’s done with them,” Draco sneered. “I plan to use them for my home when I have the chance.”
“Do you think they worked on the wards here,” Lavender asked. “Is that why we’re not having much luck finding out how the Founders set things up?”
“Maybe…” Draco said slowly, considering the thought. “Didn’t Hogwarts mention that the Founders had been instrumental in the Goblins setting up the original bank in Diagon Alley? Maybe as part of that they had them set the wards here as well. They would’ve still had to leave a way for the Founders to work with them, but they might still have documentation on what they did and how to use it. I certainly think we should ask.”
“It would be helpful it they did because I’m not finding anything in the journals so far. That’s not to say it’s not there, but it would make it faster.”
“Agreed. It should be on the list of things to ask about.”
Lavender nodded and made a note in her master list of topics and questions. As they’d met over the weeks to review what they were finding and refine their topics to look into, it had been growing.
“Have you guys noticed that there are times when Hogwarts isn’t able to answer our questions?” Susan had been mostly quiet during the Goblin and Gringotts conversation and Harry had almost forgotten that she and Justin were sitting in one of the window seats, partly hidden by the curtains. “I was asking her about… I think it was classes available for students to take, or something like that. It was around requirements for certain types of jobs. Anyway, she got sort of confused like and just said that all the courses offered were in the student handbook, as defined in the school Charter.”
“We have a handbook?” Seamus looked confused.
“Not that I’m aware of. I’ve never been given one or heard any of the older students mention it. It’d be nice to have a handbook that listed classes though, and maybe what they would cover and course objectives.” Blaise stared off into space, considering. “Why were you asking about job requirements?”
“Because we’re finding in the laws we’ve been looking into that hiring requirements have changed a lot over the past 50 to 100 years and it would seem to be based on the declining abilities of the potential applicants. Either we’re not smart enough to do the job, or we don’t have the skills to. If it’s skills, then shouldn’t our school be teaching those?”
“That makes sense. Do you think we can find a copy of the Charter somewhere?”
Susan sighed, rubbing the back of her neck with her hand and leaning into Justin a bit. “I hope so, but it won’t be by asking Hogwarts. I already tried. She just said that it could only be provided by formal request and then couldn’t tell me what the request process was without referencing the Charter itself. There’s something odd going on with her when it comes to some things related to the running of the school.”
“We’ve been thinking the problems Madam Currie found with us were due to spells cast on us or the areas we live in that then affect us when we’re around them. Maybe there’s something larger going on here. Something that has truly changed the way the school works. Broken it in some way. While the Hogwarts we’re dealing with here was created by the Founders, when things were working the way they should, but a lot of time has passed since then and who knows what the various Headmasters might have done to corrupt the running of things either on purpose or by accident.”
“Can we trust her then?”
“I think we can trust her to do what she can to help us and I don’t think she’d lie to us, but I think if we come across something that’s gotten damaged, she’ll evade the question or give us some sort of recursive answer that won’t really tell us anything. Madam Currie doesn’t appear to have the same issue, so she may be better able to answer some of our questions.”
“I think our top three questions or issues for now are, one, to figure out just who the potential acknowledged heirs could be,” Lavender summarized, “two, to see if we can find a copy of the original school charter as agreed by the founders and, three, to see if the Goblins have any documentation on how the wards were created for the school and how they’re controlled. Are we all agreed?”
There were nods all around and Lavender smiled in pleasure at having a plan.
“Can we go through Hogwarts to ask the Goblins those questions now, or do we have to wait until after the solstice to get answers? I’d prefer not to have to wait,” Susan asked.
“I think we can still use her to help us contact them, though maybe we’re a bit vague about what we’re asking about. Or maybe we can ask the house elves? She generally gives things to Jacks and asks him to send it to the Goblins, can he figure out how best to do that with our questions too?”
“Good thought, Neville,” Blaise smiled at him warmly, causing Neville to blush as he smiled back. “I can check with Jacks in the morning to see if we can send letters through him directly. Draco? Lavender? Did one of you want to write up the official request? Lavender’s been keeping the list but Draco has the most experience in dealing with them.”
Draco glanced at Lavender, head tilted in question. She smiled back and nodded. “We’ll work on it together and get it to you after breakfast.”
“Sounds good. I think tomorrow we should also look into finding those Family Trees,” he said before looking over at Neville again. “Unless you think we should wait longer. I know you weren’t comfortable with it earlier.”
“No, I’m fine with it. I don’t know why I was so uncomfortable with the idea before, but I do think we need to have the information soon, so tomorrow is fine. We don’t have any healing scheduled and we only have a couple more days before the Goblin healer arrives, which means that our time will be a bit more taken up with fixing the larger problems that have been identified.”
“Good point. Okay, do we have anything else to go over or discuss tonight? If not I think Lavender and I will do some preliminary work on the Gringotts letter then I’m heading up to bed. I’m getting pretty tired.”
As if in reaction to Draco’s words, Harry yawned broadly which started a chain reaction around the room.
“I’m sorry, guys, but I’m suddenly completely exhausted. I think I’m going to head home and get ready for bed. I’ll see everyone down here for breakfast,” he yawned again, “and I guess we can go from there?”
“Go to bed, Harry,” Seamus laughed, “before you put us all to sleep with your yawning.”
Harry laughed and gave a half wave as he rose from the couch and headed towards the stairs.