Chapter 13: chapter 13
"I can get them for loitering in a muggle area," replied Madam Bones "That your family lives there can be used to bolster the charges against them. For security reasons the location of your home is supposed to be known to very few. I am one of those who have been permitted to know, and even then it was only once you started at Hogwarts. That these two seemingly random individuals have been detected so close to your home, and remained there for a long time, is more than enough to call their intentions into question.. "
Harry nodded, but then frowned again and said "Hang on, if the location of my relatives' home is meant to be kept a secret, why was it read out before the entire Wizengamot in that courtroom yesterday?"
Madam Bones smiled at him and answered "That is the beauty of magic. It can alter many things. Your address may well have been read out in that courtroom for confirmation reasons, but every person in that room who did not already know your address forgot it as they passed through the doorway as they left. And had any of them written it down, they will have found the ink used to be smudged and indecipherable, with no spell able to put it right. We do like to keep a tight security."
Harry was very tempted to mention Dementors, Death Eaters at the Quidditch World Cup and his name being entered into the Goblet of Fire, but decided to leave it. Instead he asked "So what's going to happen to Tonks?"
"She'll be let go," replied Madam Bones "Had she been down at the courtrooms for a valid reason, such as trying to find me to alert me to an emergency, then there would be no problem. Had she been there by mistake or just gone for a little wander, then she would have received a warning. However she was following the orders of someone else, someone whose intentions towards you are currently in question. I will not have someone like that in my department. It's bad enough having sycophants like Dawlish who obey the every whim of the Minister without having Dumbledore's lackeys playing by his agenda as well."
Harry gave a nod of understanding, but couldn't help but feel a little bad that Dumbledore's manipulations had now cost the young Auror something she had worked so hard to obtain. But then Harry was quickly coming to realise that that was how the great Albus Dumbledore worked: he turns people into his puppets and pulls their strings from behind the scenes, and then lets them take the blame for the actions he commanded them to perform when everything goes wrong, allowing himself to come out smelling of roses. That he would then later rescue the person he had abandoned usually made them feel even more indebted to him.
The next morning Harry once again found himself lying on his bed as a wand was waved about above him.
Cyrus Greengrass was a short and stocky man of about forty with sandy blond hair that was already greying heavily. Harry didn't know Daphne Greengrass all that well, but it was safe to say that she had inherited little of her appearance from her father.
"So what do you think?" asked Sarah Abbott, who had arrived with Greengrass.
"Well, I can confirm that your analysis of the scar on his arm is correct," replied Greengrass "the wound was made in order to draw blood for use in a dark ritual. However, you appear to have missed another scar on that arm, though it is understandable as the wound was clearly healed by the tears of a phoenix. That wound appears to have been made by the fang of a particularly large basilisk, and the poison was in his system for at least thirty seconds before the phoenix tears effectively neutralised it. There is also a wound on his leg, again healed by the tears of a phoenix, though this one appeared to have been caused by the bite of an Acromantula?"
He looked to Harry asking for confirmation. Harry gave a nod to signal that the man was correct on all counts.
"And the scar on his forehead?" asked Sarah.
Greengrass frowned and replied "I am not entirely sure. There is something dark to it, no doubt about it, but… Whatever it is, it doesn't belong. It's almost like a separate entity has attached itself to young Mr Potter."
Harry frowned and asked "You mean like some sort of parasite?"
"Yes and no," replied Greengrass "This thing is no mere creature that has burrowed itself beneath your skin to feed on your blood. On some level, it is like you are being possessed by another person, and yet clearly you aren't. This thing is just there, almost like someone tried to possess you, but they were killed and the part of them possessing you was cut off from the rest and remained within you, unable to do anything other than continue to exist by drawing strength from you."
"You mean it's like someone left a piece of their mind within mine?" asked Harry.
"Perhaps," replied Greengrass "though I would be more inclined to say it was a part of their soul."
Harry balked at that and said "Dumbledore told me that the scar was all that I was left with after Voldemort's attack. Do you think that it is a part of him that is in me?"
"That is more than likely, especially when you take into consideration just how evil it seems. Has it ever influenced you in any way?"
Harry thought for a few moments before replying "Well, the scar hurts whenever Voldemort is feeling a strong emotion, usually anger, or when he is near to me. Like when I was in the graveyard with him that night. The pain was so strong that I thought that my head might split apart."
"Anything else?" asked Greengrass "Do his emotions affect you in anyway?"
"Not really," answered Harry "sometimes I get visions of what he's up to, usually when I am sleep. And I have woken up feeling very angry a couple of times, though it goes away very quickly. And I've woken up laughing a few times, though I don't actually feel happy myself."
Greengrass gave him a look of intense interest and asked "How often do these visions occur?"
"Not often," said Harry "like with the scar hurting it only happens when he's feeling a very strong emotion."
"And how do you see things in these visions? Are they from his point of view?"
"Yes. It's like I'm seeing things through his eyes. But I don't think he knows it happens. If he knew, the visions would happen more often, as he would use them to purposefully torture me."
"Then we'd better take steps to make sure he never finds out," said Greengrass "I need to research this subject more intensely, but the very fact that you can and have been influenced by this thing tells me that you need to block its access to your mind."
He went over to the briefcase he had brought with him and opened it up. From within he took a book with a cover that was wrapped in a white fabric. He handed it to Harry, who saw that there were golden letters on the front that read "Basic Occlumency: The Beginner's Guide to Protecting Your Mind."
"Protecting my mind?" asked Harry.
"Yes," replied Greengrass "Usually it is used to protect yourself from those trying to control your mind through the use of the skill known as Legilimency. However, I am sure that it should help in protecting yourself from this thing until we can find a way to rid you of it permanently. Now, I'm not going to suggest that you will be able to completely block it from influencing your mind, but hopefully the use of occlumency should at the very least reduce the effects of that influence."
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