Harry woke up on the third of October. He still couldn’t speak properly, but no matter what the staff did they couldn’t figure out why it was happening. Defeated after a week of all sorts of tests, the doctors eventually decided to send Harry back to school. Harry had gotten excellent at the levitation charm, but he would like to learn some more variety.
He had to know more than one spell after all to improve himself after all.
Harry was carrying around a full sheaf of parchment and a quill so he could communicate with others. He was effectively mute now since he seemed to only be able to talk in the bestial language. There still wasn’t a match for his geometric writings to any known language either. He communicated with all the nurses through writing on his stacks of parchment. Not that he was getting tired of it yet. It still fascinated him that he was able to do everything so smoothly.
Harry walked through the fireplace with green flames into the headmaster’s office. McGonagall and the headmaster were there.
“Harry,” Dumbledore said, “feeling better? We are glad to have you back after so long.”
Harry wrote on his pad before holding it up again.
‘Thank you, Headmaster. It is good to be back.’
Dumbledore looked sad for a moment. “Ah, I had heard that things had changed. It is unfortunate they could not find the cause… Truly unfortunate… Anyway, your head of house will escort you back to your dorms. If you wish she could explain the situation on your behalf, or you can keep it more private if you wish.”
Harry thought about it. He wouldn’t be able to disguise this, unlike his last disability. He would much prefer Professor McGonagall to deal with all the curious Gryffindors rather than him. He wrote on his pad for an amazingly quick few seconds and showed it to them.
‘Please explain for me, Professor. I’m not sure if I can write what I want to say fast enough.’
McGonagall looked sad for a moment.
“I can’t believe someone would go to such great lengths to hurt a boy. I will make sure they understand the situation. Let’s go, I’m sure your friends are waiting. Especially Neville Longbottom. He has been eager to thank you ever since he heard what you had done.”
She walked out and Harry followed her. The headmaster’s eyes tracked him intently as Harry left. How strange.
They made their way into the common rooms, and everyone immediately zeroed in on Harry once he arrived. The babble and shouting Harry had expected began to start before McGonagall raised her wand and a loud *Bang* like a firework silenced everyone. Harry saw his friends standing near the back waving at him. He smiled back to show them he saw them.
“Now calm down everyone. Mr. Potter has allowed me to explain his current situation. There will be no bothering him about it, and no harassment of him with your curiosity. Do you understand?” She said. Some muttered agreement came from the assembled students, but they were far too curious to say anything that could get in the way of getting any new information.
McGonagall continued,
“Now, I’m sure you have seen the papers and heard the rumors. I can confirm that Harry Potter has been under a curse ever since he arrived at this school. It was applied to him in the muggle world before he was accepted as a student. It is unknown who placed the curse. I will not say the exact effects of that curse, because it is now lifted. Unfortunately, there were side effects of the treatment. He is no longer able to speak normally, and must communicate by writing on a pad of parchment.”
She gestured towards Harry and he lifted the parchment he was carrying by his side.
McGonagall continued.
“Harry is indeed involved in the recovery of Alice and Frank Longbottom from their insanity, but it is still unclear why or how it happened even to Harry. I shouldn’t need to say this, but I expect understanding and sensitivity regarding this topic. That is all. Are there any questions?”
One of the older girls raised her hand. “Yes?” McGonagall replied. The girl’s voice was hesitant,
“Uhm. Can he not speak at all? Or is it just… like… A confounding curse situation where he just can’t speak very well?”
Harry wondered what a confounding curse was. Was it similar to his situation?
McGonagall glanced at Harry briefly, and he realized that it would be much simpler if he just demonstrated. He took a deep breath and more eyes turned to him.
“Hello. It feels like I am saying words, but no one else understands me.”
Everyone winced as Harry spoke. He wrote on his parchment and showed it to the crowd. He wrote in big letters so everyone would see.
‘SORRY FOR THE NOISE.’
There were a few moments of silence. McGonagall scanned the room.
“Well, you should understand now. Be understanding to Harry in this trying time for him. I will be in my office if anyone needs me.”
Then McGonagall left. The crowd just silently stared at Harry for a few seconds. Then the Weasley twins Fred and George pushed to the front.
“Harry, our best bud! That voice is prime pranking material. Just sneak behind some Slytherin and say hello and you’re golden! Let us teach you our ways.”
The tension immediately broke as half of the people laughed and the other half booed with good humor. Apparently, the Gryffindors thought having two of those pranksters was plenty. They didn’t want Harry to be ‘corrupted’ by them. Or that was what Harry got from the argument at least. Largely forgotten as the argument between the Fred and George backed Pro-pranking faction argued with the rest, Harry made his way to the back of the room where his friends were. Harry himself had quickly been forgotten as the argument escalated.
Stolen novel; please report.
Harry scanned all his friends faces. All were nervous, and Neville spoke first.
“Harry… Thank you, Harry. It’s… Just thanks. It’s been amazing having my parents back, like a dream come true. I don’t know what you did exactly, but my mom and dad can’t stop singing your praises. I just… If you need something, you tell me, okay? On… On the Longbottom name, my family will help you with anything you need.”
Harry paused before writing more on his parchment. The group and especially Neville watched him as he wrote. Harry turned around the parchment and showed them when he was done.
‘You’re welcome, I’m glad I was able to help you. And your parents. But they saved themselves, I just helped them a bit. Is doing something on your name important? That feels significant, but I don’t really know what it means.’
Neville glanced around. “Err, let’s go somewhere a little quieter first. I just realized there’s a ton of people around.”
The group of friends migrated and left the common room. Harry leaving was noticed and they all said goodbye but didn’t attempt to follow. Neville led them into an empty classroom. Harry considered him as Neville led them inside. Neville had never been this confident previously.
They all sat down in a circle of chairs. Neville looked at Harry intently.
“To answer your question, Harry, it’s very important among the wizarding families to swear something on your family name. There used to be whole wars fought because someone swore on their family name and went back on their promise. People aren’t that strict these days, but the more traditional types won’t deal with anyone they think is an ‘oathbreaker’. Or anyone who goes back on something they swore on their family name. It’s like disgracing everyone in your family to betray the oath for people like that… My uncle… uncle did that one time and half the family still won’t talk to him.”
“The offer is… It’s… it’s not just me. It was a whole discussion with my parents and grandma, but basically, if you want, our houses would be allied. Since you’re the last remaining Potter and all. It’s mostly political stuff with the houses allying but my whole family is promising to help you if you ever need it. Even the cousins and extended family would be obligated to justify why they can’t help you if you asked them formally for something.”
Neville laughed slightly.
“I don’t think anything would stop my parents or grandma from trying to help you. But we have a LOT of cousins. The Potter and Longbottom families are some of the most ancient and respected, so the more traditional people would care a lot about it too. I know it’s a lot, it was for me too when my grandma explained it all. But you don’t have to decide anytime soon. Usually, these things take years to finalize anyway so people will be pretty patient about it. But they formally made the offer a week ago. So all you have to do is accept or negotiate if you’d like whenever you want to deal with it. Just think about it, and my parents can tell you more when you end up seeing them again. They wanted to thank you personally again anyway.”
Ron and Hermione were staring at Neville like he was from another planet. Ron was nodding along with the explanation, but Hermione seemed floored. This was all new information to Harry too, that information certainly hadn’t been in a History of Magic. Harry hadn’t realized the seriousness of oaths had carried into the current day.
But all three of them including Harry were most shocked at Neville’s seriousness as he spoke. Usually the boy was so nervous, but he said the whole thing with only a few stumbles. He clearly had been practicing hard on what he would be saying.
Harry stared at his pad for a moment. What should he say? Ron and Hermione seemed to be waiting for Harry’s response before they said anything. Making a decision, Harry wrote his response and then flipped around the parchment so they could read it.
‘I didn’t know it was such a big deal. Tell your family thanks for the offer, but that seems like something I should think a lot about before agreeing. I appreciate it.’
Neville nodded and his voice was much more nervous now that his long speech was finished.
“Sure… Sure thing Harry. No pressure. My direct family will still help you even if you say no to the bigger formal thing. It… It has been great having my parents back.”
Harry nodded and threw Neville a thumbs up. Ron let out a long breath.
“Blimey, Neville. Were Hermione and I even allowed to be here for that? That was like… My dad talks about that house stuff sometimes. House Weasley and whatnot. He gets real serious when he discusses it. That offer’s big news if people find out.”
Neville scratched his head.
“Er, I guess not. Please don’t tell anyone about it?”
Ron nodded.
“Yeah, I promise I won’t tell anyone.”
Hermione also agreed,
“Me too. It sounds all very feudal and stuffy, but I get why it would be a big deal.”
Neville eyed Hermione as she didn’t keep speaking. It seems she was done.
Harry flipped to the back of his original parchment and started writing again. The room was silent except for the scratching of his quill. He showed his friends.
‘Anyway, I’ve been gone for weeks now. How have classes been? Has Snape murdered any Gryffinors for stirring a potion the wrong way since I’ve been gone?’
Neville and Ron immediately groaned. Ron spoke first,
“Ugh, you wouldn’t believe it, Harry. We didn’t know how good we had it with you around constantly distracting him with your genius potion making skills. These last few weeks he’s gotten bloody vicious. I swear Gryffindor loses more points in his class than all the others combined. He vanished Neville’s potion because he stirred his potion eight times clockwise instead of seven. It looked fine to me. Bloody sadistic, that man.”
Neville nodded in agreement. “Potions is the worst,” he muttered under his breath.
Hermione looked hesitant but eventually spoke as well.
“Yeah. Potion’s… The subject matter is interesting, but Snape is horrible. All he does is put people down all the time.”
Huh, Harry didn’t think Snape was that bad. But he hadn’t told McGonagall about his curse for two weeks. So maybe the man really was that unpleasant. Harry still couldn’t think of a good explanation for the long delay besides spite, which didn’t feel right somehow.
Harry felt the man was very precise in his instructions and very mad if his directions were not followed exactly. Harry had followed all of his rules in classes he had attended, even some of the unstated ones he had figured out independently. Like that one from the first day where Harry couldn’t help someone else create their potion. Another rule was you had to shift your body when Snape approached you so that he could easily lean over to inspect the inside of a cauldron visually. Otherwise, he would become far more irritated than usual.
But Harry had followed all the rules. So the man should have no reason to leave Harry to struggle on his assignments like that.
No reason to leave his curse unaddressed.
Harry forcefully brought himself back to the moment. He had been thinking about it a lot recently, and he was getting nowhere and was just thinking in circles. He needed more information to figure it out. Some hidden rule that he was breaking that he hadn’t figured out yet would explain it all.
Harry wrote on his parchment again.
‘Well, it’s only one class. How were the others? Tell me what else has been going on since I’ve been gone.’
And they did. Gossip, spells they had learned. Weird things about the teachers or things the students had done. Soon enough the three were laughing and joking as they remembered various funny or interesting things that happened. Harry felt a little hollow as he watched them banter. He stared down at the pad. They were talking too fast. He could only sit here and watch. Whenever he wrote something they would focus on him, but it would divert them from what they had been saying and slow the pace of the conversation to a grinding halt. It made Harry feel like he was interrupting their natural conversation selfishly whenever he wanted to say something.
As Harry watched them talk and listened silently, he almost wished to himself in a dark corner of his mind that the curse would return. At least then he wouldn’t be unintentionally left out like this. Partially forgotten as he communicated slowly one written word at a time. It reminded him a little too much of the muggle world for his liking. Back when no one particularly cared if he was around or not.