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Harry Potter and the Cracked Reservoir
Chapter 5: Auras and Waivers
By Musings of Apathy
Chapter 5: Auras and Waivers
Thanks to my Beta’s Donalddeutsch and Kat Armstrong.
Harry spent the next day, when he was not doing the patronus treatment on the Chamber, in the library looking for a method of checking a person’s loyalty. It was exhausting, but it was more important to Harry than anything else at the moment.
He wanted it immediately, as a member of the ministry would be coming that night and he wanted to be prepared to either trust or mistrust her before he could decide what to tell her. He could be sure that Dumbledore trusted her but he had also trusted Professors Quirrell, Lockhart and Moody. Those experiences had not been pleasant and he wanted to be as careful as he could.
He had an idea that one’s aura could tell enough for trust or lack there of but he had no aura reading experience and he needed to be sure.
He searched the restricted section for many hours before finding the first book on aura reading. He started at the restricted section because he knew that the art was not a standard part of the curriculum. Deep in the back of the section he found an old book on aura reading and he sat straight down to learn as much as possible in the short time before his dinner and the meeting with the head of Magical Law Enforcement. What he was in for was an extended period of blinding headaches for his troubles.
On entering the great hall that evening, he was greeted by Professor Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey, who were the only residents of the castle at this time of year. At the entrance Harry stopped and tried the techniques that he had been reading about and practicing cold for the last four hours. If he kept this up, he would be investing in a headache potions company. He couldn’t receive much in the way of results without someone else to look at. He could only see a small part of his own aura if he tried to read himself and so he wasn’t able to get much result out of the attempt. Because of this, Harry carried the tome down with him to dinner to make sure that he was interpreting their auras correctly.
Harry saw a bright white outer aura of power around Professor Dumbledore with stripe like patches of red, blue, green and yellow over a faint hue of gold. His aura left an impression with more red then any of the other primary color patches.
Madame Pomfrey had a beautiful aura of gold and blue with small patches of red and yellow without the white outer aura or the green patches of the Professor.
Harry greeted the two elders as he turned off his aura perception after just moments. He sat at the table with them and opened the tome to his bookmark to try to interpret what he had seen. He saw that the gold underlining spoke of a good person while the primary colors were just as the school houses, green for cunning, blue for intelligence, yellow for loyalty and red for courage. The outer white corona spoke of great power for white magic. Neither of these persons had been in contact with others so he was not able to see any traces of the auras of others on them or any magic used on them. Harry picked up his goblet of cold pumpkin juice in hopes of quelling his aching head. It was obvious to him that Aura Reading would not be an everyday occurrence for him.
"Well, Harry, are you ready for the conversation with Madame Bones?" asked the Headmaster.
"I think so, Professor," said Harry.
"Good, after greetings I will not be able to guide you in the conversation at all," the Professor advised. "It will be an interview and she will not brook word or sign from anyone in the room but you. If you need to think about your answers, please do and be absolutely truthful in all of your answers. She will know if you are being untruthful."
"Of course, sir," Harry acknowledged.
Madame Bones arrived promptly at seven that evening to find two chairs in front of the Headmaster’s desk with the headmaster himself occupying the chair behind the desk and Harry Potter occupying the chair farthest from the fireplace from which she has just stepped.
"Hello Madame Bones," the Professor said while getting up to greet his guest.
"Hello Professor Dumbledore," Madame Bones greeted the octogenarian. "Hello Mister Potter."
Harry stood and considered the woman for a second before responding. He started the aura reading and shut it off moments later, after he had got an impression of her aura. Just in that time, an ache threatened soundly.
"Hello Madame," Harry said after a pause. "Sorry for the delay. I needed to know if I could trust you."
She looked at the Professor with the question in her eyes and he just shrugged.
"And I assume that since you did not just go running you have decided to trust me," she said.
"Yes, I do," Harry said with confidence.
"Out of curiosity, how did you come to this conclusion?" she asked, "not that I mind."
"I have recently started to study the reading of auras," Harry said matter-of-factly. "I noticed that you have a good, loyal, trustworthy aura however there is a black and green orb circling you that is the impression of a person that is cunning and dark."
"I would guess that some person that you come in contact with on a daily basis is a dark wizard or witch," offered Professor Dumbledore.
"That’s hardly a surprise," she said. "I find that there are many that are not as good as they seem. Now, I appreciate you being here, Professor Dumbledore, but I must ask that you not communicate while I interview Mister Potter here."
"Yes, of course Madame," the Professor said politely, sitting down at the opposite side of the desk from his pupil and the Head of Magical Law Enforcement.
Madame Bones flicked her wand to turn the two chairs turned to face one another.
"Now, Mister Potter, please have a seat and we will begin," she instructed.
Harry silently acquiesced and sat in the seat that he was in before she arrived.
"Please, Madame Bones, call me Harry," he offered. "I know your niece and she thinks a lot of you."
"Ok, Harry, why is it that you wish to have a waiver to perform magic before you are of legal age?" she asked.
"Two fold, Madame," Harry answered in an ordered manner, "I want to protect myself from any attacks. Last summer, as you know, dementors were sent to attack me. They were sent to force me to do as I did, and use magic causing the trial. Madame Umbridge was quite unhappy that I was not expelled. I think that she held it against me."
"Why would Madame Umbridge care if you are found innocent?" she inquired.
"She ordered the dementors to Little Winging," Harry said. "My cousin has not been the same since. He was nearly kissed. I think that the experience with dementors is easier to handle when you can see the beasts. Something to blame it on, really."
Dumbledore wore a blank mask so as not to interfere. He was, however, hearing what was happening and filing it later for action.
"Ok," she temporized, "and do you think that she is going to send any others to attack you?"
"No," Harry admitted without embarrassment, "but with Tom found out, he will attack me whenever he thinks that I am vulnerable. If I am able to freely defend myself he will not find me as easy of a target. I have had to face Voldemort himself or one of his inner circle each and every year of my magical education and who knows what c… erm rubbish will happen this year."
Madame Bones did not flinch in the least at the mention of Voldemort’s name. She agreed with Harry’s premise, "Yes, I can see that. What is the other reason?"
"Well," Harry said, "due to his killing curse against me, he and I have a certain connection. I can tell when he is near and when he is feeling extreme emotions, happy, angry etcetera. Well, a few weeks ago he attempted a ritual that would boost his power if it could be, however he was not boosted at all." Harry could see Dumbledore in the corner of his eye, but could tell no reaction from the Professor, even though he had express to Harry that this should not be revealed. Harry continued, "Instead I woke up after witnessing the ritual in a dream to find my own power core boosted and burning me from the inside. Luckily, Professor Dumbledore was able to teach me to contain the magic before it could cause harm. The problem is that this forces me to practice magic every day as a relief. As I do not want to spend the next year within these walls, I want to be able to perform magic and visit my friends."
"Fascinating," she said, "I agree with the need to use magic and I approve the waiver. Now, you must understand that this does not let you perform magic just anywhere. The other laws that restrict adult’s use of magic apply to you as well. Secrecy laws are paramount to the continuation of this world."
"Of course, Madame," Harry said.
Dumbledore sat silently and celebrated in his eyes, which were dancing with twinkles.
"Now, Harry," Madame Bones said, "we can move on to other matters that have come to light from the last year."
"Okay," Harry said warily
"Please let me see your right hand, Harry," she ordered politely.
Professor Dumbledore was perplexed. He did not know of anything that had happened to Harry that could be evidenced by looking at his hand.
Harry held out his hand palm up hoping to save himself the attention.
"Mister Potter," Madame Bones said sternly. "I think that you understand what I am referring to and know that that is not what I meant."
Harry turned his palm to the floor revealing the back of his hand. Madame Bones reached out and grasped his hand as she moved in to look more closely, her monocle in place as she examined the hand.
Professor Dumbledore moved from the back of the desk to the front for a better look. Seeing that Madame Bones was not stopping him from looking he kneeled on the rug to look at the back of his hand.
"Ah, just as I was told," Madame Bones said after her examination. "And the mark is still there after all of these months."
The Professor looked closely and saw a faint scar on the back of his hand spelling out ‘I must not tell lies’.
"Harry," he said outraged, "What is the meaning of this? What happened?"
Harry shrank back slightly from the angry authority. "She made me write that over and over in detention," he said timidly. "Every time that I argued with her she would give me detention and I would write that in my own blood."
"How?" Professor Dumbledore asked.
Madame Bones decided that this was a question that she was better answering.
"In Madame Umbridge’s possession was found a blood quill after she was accused of its use by another student," Madame Bones said. "Do not worry, Harry. If you had sworn anyone to secrecy, it was not them that revealed it. The student’s hand was seen by his mother and she reported it to the ministry."
"Harry, why didn’t you report this to the deputy headmistress or myself?" asked Professor Dumbledore.
"Umbridge obviously had more power than you did," Harry said, "and I didn’t want to get either of you tossed out for speaking against her or her appointment. I also would not give her the satisfaction. I would not let her break me. I did not scream any of the times that she made me do this."
"Now the other matter is how many times she used it," Madame Bones calmly continued. "The other student reported that he had detention once for about four hours. How many times and how long were each detention?"
"Well, I think that I got in trouble three times with her and each detention was about four hours."
"So a total of twelve hours?" she asked officially, blocking her instinct at revulsion.
"No," Harry said. He kept himself in as much of an informative mindset to block the inherent emotions that went with trying to recall such events. "Each time that I got in trouble for saying that Voldemort was back it was a week’s detentions. About fifteen days I would guess. They start to run together so I would have to ask Hermione how many days I did detention with her last year. She would know."
"Sixty hours, oh my," Madame Bones said, her emotional distance wavering. "Ok, no I don’t think that we need to have an exact number here that is good enough."
"Thanks, Madame Bones," Harry said. "What will happen to her? Was that illegal?"
"Yes, very illegal," Madame Bones reassured him. "It is always illegal to torture, especially children. She will be fired from the ministry, never to be put into power again and she will be restricted from contact and power over minors for the rest of her life."
Harry let out a breath, "Good, I was dreading her ever coming into power over me ever again."
"Harry," the Professor started, "How did you keep this from us?"
"I’m used to it," Harry said offhandedly. "Besides do you really want this in front of Madame Bones here? I am sure that she has better things to do besides listen to me complain now that she has asked her questions."
"No, Harry," the Professor said rigidly, "just answer my questions. How can you be used to concealing abuse such as this?"
"Well, I figured that you already knew," Harry said with sudden doubt in his voice. "Your first letters were addressed to ‘The Cupboard Under the Stairs’ after all. I figured that if you knew that I slept in a locked cupboard, then you surely knew what happened to me all of my life. After that letter, they put me in Dudley’s second bedroom."
"Locked in a cupboard? What is this Dumbledore?" raged the seasoned law enforcer.
"I-I don’t know," the Professor stammered. "The letters are addressed magically from the register. We do not make a habit of examining the addresses. What else happened to you there?"
"Surely Hagrid told you that they tried to beat the magical talent out of me," Harry said now in disbelief. "I was their slave. I am quite good at cooking and cleaning the muggle way and I did quite good in herbology from the start due to my time in the garden at home. It’s no big deal, just what I have to deal with. Besides, they pretty much just ignored me this year after the Order’s threats. Even let me use my owl to send letters."
"I don’t understand," stated Madame Bones, "Why would they not let you send letters and how could they stop you?"
"I don’t want to talk about it," Harry said. "It won’t do any good anyway. I have to go back to them until I am of legal age. They are my guardians."
"Harry…just…please," the Professor said, strained, "answer her questions."
"Well, after my first year my uncle put bars up on my window and locks on my door," Harry said. "I split my food, whatever it was with Hedwig so neither of us would starve, because she couldn't get out to hunt. Luckily I have friends as good as Ron. He pulled the bars off of the window with his father’s car when they rescued me."
"Starved?" the Professor asked, not really sure that he wanted to know the answer. "You seemed to always come back to school in fine shape, if a little skinny."
"Oh, that’s due to Mrs. Weasley," Harry said with warmth in his voice. "She is always forcing me to eat four and five servings of each meal at her house. Besides, I am always full here at Hogwarts. It all balances out in the end."
"Well, I will have to think about this and find a solution," the Professor said. Madame Bones continued to watch mostly from the sidelines.
"Find a solution to what, Professor?" Harry said, casting a glance to the Head of Magical Law Enforcement. "With the blood protections at Privet Drive I have to stay there anyway for most of the summer. It just is how it is, nothing to find a solution for, as I don’t have any more blood relatives to be placed with."
"No, you don’t," said the Professor. "But there may be other solutions."
The meeting ended shortly after with Harry seeking a headache potion from Madame Pomfrey before bed, leaving the adults in the office with privacy for a discussion of immediate Wizengamot importance.