Harry was out of the hospital wing by the next morning. It turns out that Madame Pomfrey actually was leaving the little sign with Harry’s name on it at the end of the bed. She made no move to take it off as Harry left.
Harry went to the great hall and sat down with Neville, Ron, and Hermione. They were in deep discussion and Hermione looked stressed but not like she was being accused of anything. Harry sat down.
“Hermione. I want to say that I don’t think you wrote that note. I don’t think you told Draco those things and betrayed my trust. But I don’t think Draco was lying either, so it was very confusing. We’re still friends so you don’t have to go cry in the bathrooms anymore.”
Hermione’s eyes widened.
“Harry, your voice is back! Wait does that mean…”
Harry nodded.
“Yeah, I’m illiterate again. I honestly prefer it this way for now, being mute wasn’t very fun.”
Hermione nodded.
“Yeah, I suppose not.”
She seemed to process Harry’s actual statements next.
“Harry! I wasn’t… wasn’t going to go back again. But thank you for saying that. Ron and Neville told me you just wanted to think more. I thought you all hated me… I still can’t believe you fought a troll and put yourself in danger to find me. You did fight it, right? I can’t believe I just hid in the bathroom as it went by…”
Harry launched into his slightly edited tale of being chased by the troll and noticed that many of the nearby Gryffindors were peering at him. Surprised that Harry was talking again and curious about his story. Harry finished telling his friends his modified version of what had happened and leaned back.
Ron snorted, “Bloody hell mate. That’s like something in the stories, you didn’t even use your wand to defeat it. It just smashed itself into a wall like a big dumb lump.”
Harry shrugged and pulled out his black wood wand.
“Yes. My spells did end up being fairly useless. Did the headmaster end up saying where the troll came from?”
Neville shook his head. “No, it was all very vague. He just said that the troll chased a student before being handled by the professors before it could hurt anyone. And that is still under investigation.”
Harry frowned slightly. “That isn’t true though. The troll was unconscious by the time Professor McGonagall arrived. Did he forget? I should go talk to him and remind him what really happened.”
“Well, it's all politics, mate.” Ron said, “It doesn’t look good that another thing has happened at school. Especially since you were involved. That’s probably why he didn’t say you were the one that got chased by the troll. Or mention that you had to fight it without any professors there.”
Harry was confused.
“I don’t get it. Isn’t it the fault of whoever released the troll or the person who attacked me? Why would Dumbledore lie about it?”
“As I said, politics mate.” Ron said, “You’re Dumbledore’s responsibility in more ways than one. He’s your legal guardian and everything as well as you being a student here. All these things happening all at once make it look like he’s not taking care of you properly.”
Harry glanced at Ron. “Dumbledore is my legal guardian? I thought my aunt and uncle were my legal guardians?”
Neville jumped in, frowning. “Harry, how could you not know? Dumbledore didn’t come check on you or explain anything when you came to Hogwarts?”
Harry shrugged. “No. I’d never seen him before the first great feast. And Dumbledore never mentioned anything like that. What does it mean?”
“It means that he is responsible for you when it comes to the wizarding world," Neville said, "Getting permission to do certain things, managing the investments of the Potter family vault… He really never told you any of this?”
Harry shrugged. “Nope. I guess he didn’t think it was very important. I’m not sure I care about any of that anyway. Can he steal stuff from the vault?”
Neville shook his head. “No way, the goblins wouldn’t let him do that even if he has a little control over it. Dumbledore’s not the owner like you, he’s just the manager until you’re old enough to inherit it.”
Harry shrugged. “I guess I’ll worry about that later then. I won’t be eighteen for a long time.”
"Seventeen," Ron said. "In the wizarding world, you're an adult at seventeen."
"Seventeen then," Harry said.
Harry reached out and took a big bite of his food. He finished his first plate and picked up the serving fork before pausing. He… was his stomach full? He had no desire to eat anymore. Harry put the serving fork back into his tray.
“Huh. I guess I’m not hungry,” Harry said
Ron raised his eyebrow. “Wow, Harry. That’s a first from you. People thought I was a bottomless pit before, but I’ve got nothing on you.”
“Guess there’s a first for everything,” Harry said.
Everyone turned back to their meals, and Neville looked thoughtful as he shot what he thought were subtle looks at Harry. Ron dived right into the food as usual, making up for enthusiasm that Harry used to make up for in pure volume consumed.
Hermione ate slowly, and still shot everyone glances. She still seemed nervous and unsure.
“Hermione, are you still nervous about the note thing?”
She looked up from her food. “Er, yeah. I guess.”
Harry thought about what he should do. He had never had to reassure a friend before.
“Uhm.” Harry said, “Would you guys like to go see the quidditch match this Saturday? Gryffindor vs. Slytherin, so it should be exciting. Good friendship activity?”
“Mpmph Thashhh.” Ron swallowed his food, “That’s a great idea, Harry. I can’t believe that neither of you has gone to a match yet. You got to really get into the spirit! You know my dad took me to a professional match once and it…”
Ron didn’t stop talking about the quidditch for the whole rest of that day. But Hermione and Neville seemed to like the idea too. Harry hadn’t been able to spend much time with them recently with everything that was going on with him. And his self imposed seclusion when he was reading the textbooks.
Harry should spend more time with them, maybe he wouldn’t have needed to doubt Hermione if he had spent more time with her before the whole thing with the note happened. The mystery of it itched at the back of Harry’s mind, but he let it rest for now. He already had weeks to think about it, nothing new would come of it now.
— — —
Harry had been forced to tell various people about his encounter with the troll for a total of twenty six times over the last few days. Even one of the Aurors from the ministry had asked Harry about it. Harry had been called into the Headmaster’s office again and Harry told the serious Auror about his encounter with the troll.
Dumbledore looked like he wanted to interject before Harry began, but the Auror silenced the headmaster with a look. It seems Dumbledore’s political lies had caught up with him. That was good, the headmaster was powerful and Harry wanted him to be someone Harry could trust. Hopefully, the man wouldn’t lie as much after this. Harry was dismissed by the stony faced Auror after he finished his story. It was in the papers the next day, which was nice as Harry no longer had to personally answer everyone’s questions about it. The report was quite detailed from what Harry had heard from overhearing the other students discussing it in the hallways. Draco’s father was making all sorts of statements saying all the incidents around Harry were a sign of Dumbledore’s negligence.
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Harry hadn’t understood originally, and he still didn’t see it that way. But without more context, Harry could see how others would believe that Dumbledore should have done more. Especially with this legal guardian business over Harry that Dumbledore had. Harry thought of Dumbledore as some powerful stranger, but other wizards seemed to think their relationship should be more than that.
Harry thought most other children would likely be quite frightened and fearful given everything that had happened to him in a short period of time. At least there was one advantage to being different from everyone else. Harry was doing just fine, if a little more aware of his surroundings than he would be otherwise. He just couldn’t wait for the quidditch match tomorrow. He was going to his first big sports match with friends. He was sure it was going to be lots of fun.
— — —
The quidditch match was very loud, and everyone was packed very tightly together. The various players rushed by at high speeds on their brooms. Harry was practically shoulder to shoulder in the crowd as everyone cheered around him as one of the players streaked by in a rush of air. Harry shouted to join them, but couldn’t put real feeling behind it. Not that it wasn’t interesting, Harry just didn’t want to bother mimicking other people’s excited tone when he didn’t have to. He could barely hear himself let alone the others as he and his friends exchanged shouted comments among the roaring crowd.
Harry tugged on Hermione’s sleeve and pointed, shouting over the crowd.
“LOOK! THE SEEKER IS AFTER THE SNITCH. THE LITTLE GOLD BALL THAT MAKES THE REST OF THIS POINTLESS!”
The roaring grew to a fever pitch as the Gryffindor seeker dived abruptly after the little flying golden ball. The Slytherin seeker was slow to react and didn’t stand a chance as the Gryffindor seeker pulled out of the dive, hand raised in the air.
“YEEEEAAAHHHH” Ron and Neville were going wild with the crowd as the Gryffindor seeker took a victory lap with a closed fist above his head holding the golden ball. He took a lap around the field now that the game was over and Gryffindor had won with the snitch being caught. Hermione was cheering as well, but was much more reserved than Ron and Neville.
Harry started cheering too. He thought this would be much more exciting if they got rid of one of the weird halves of the game. Either keep the whole goal scoring thing and get rid of the snitch ball. Or just have the seekers competing but put in more obstacles in their way so it was more interesting. He would tell Ron and Neville his thoughts once he could talk normally again. His voice was growing a little hoarse, so Harry stopped shouting for a moment to clear his throat.
Ron and Neville grew up as wizards, so they probably would know enough to argue why this was the most entertaining version of the sport. Hermione didn’t seem to care too much, but was having fun cheering with the crowd. Harry cheered louder. He still didn’t really get it, but at least the others were having some fun.
— — —
“...why that is the best potion formulation to treat lung conditions due to magical spores.”
Hermione finished writing down Harry’s potions essay. She handed it to him and Harry tucked it in his robes before sitting back down on the common room couch beside her. Luckily all the professors had agreed to this practice after they got a full explanation from Harry about his curse. It seems that all of them besides Snape and McGonagall were unaware of the exact nature of Harry’s curse, only that he had one. Most were quite astonished that Harry had been able to do as much as he could after learning the specifics.
Now one of Harry’s friends would help him write out his assignments. Harry would just think of what he wanted to say for a while before just telling one of his friends and they would help write it down for him. Harry did feel it was a little uneven trade, so afterwards he would help the person who wrote down his essay study for their classes. It was only fair after all, and Harry always knew the literal textbook answer to every question.
Hermione had helped him most of the time over the last two months: into mid December now. She had the best handwriting and always wanted to learn more and get the best score in class. So she always had the most questions for Harry out of his friends anyways. Neville and Ron worked hard to catch up to Harry and Hermione, but they weren’t quite on the same level of grades no matter how much the more academic duo tried to help them.
After Harry and Hermione’s help, it had become apparent that Neville wasn’t the best at potions, but he was no means the worst anymore. After a few extra classes of sneering ridicule from Snape after which Neville’s potions still came out acceptable, the professor seemed to move onwards. It was with great reluctance that Snape had appeared to transfer his ire to another Gryffindor who was doing even worse than Neville now. Seamus Finnigan was the new target, the same Irish boy that had hurt himself slamming his broom into a wall before Harry snapped Draco’s old wand. Seamus was much more nervous during class now that Snape was targeting him for ridicule rather than Neville and consequently did even worse than he normally would have.
Hermione put down her quill down after finishing writing the final words on Harry’s essay. “Wow, Harry. That was a long one. I would have never thought of using that potion for it. Wouldn’t Trasti’s formulation method be better though?”
Harry tilted his head. Hmmmmmm. He scanned his memory a bit more.
“Trasti’s formulation is a method best suited to small powders such as dust or smoke in the lungs, except in the case of large amounts of spores or infections," he said, "In such cases, the resulting potions can have the side effect of supercharging the growth of these living things and exacerbate the problem. Page two hundred seventeen, starting line twelve.”
Hermione flipped to the page in the potions textbook and quickly read that page to get some more context.
“I forgot about that, Harry. Thanks, I’m sure I would have gotten that wrong on the test. I could never do the oral tests like you do. Especially Potions! Whenever someone gets something wrong on the assignments Snape just rips them a new one. I can’t imagine what he’d do if I said something wrong during his exam…”
Harry shrugged. “It’s not that bad, especially for me. The worst part is that everyone knows about my illiteracy now. I thought it would be a lot worse honestly, people didn’t seem to care too much after the first week or two of gossiping. Even the Slytherins seem to have given up trying to force me to read those insulting notes between classes.”
Hermione huffed. “Neville sure set them straight. I’ve never seen him so angry before. I don’t think anyone will forget that for a long time, even the Slytherins.”
“Huh,” Harry said. “You’re right. It was after Neville shouted at them that the Slytherins stopped targeting me. Should I be shouting at annoying people more?”
She shook her head. “No need. That’s what friends are for, you know? Sticking together and everything. Say Harry… Have you thought about what you are doing for the winter holidays?”
“No,” Harry said, “I assumed I would be staying in the castle. I don’t think it will be all that fun without anyone here, but it could be worse.”
“Oh. You’re not going to your Aunt and Uncle’s?”
“Definitely not. They don’t seem to like me very much. They even sent me a letter to say as much.”
Harry pulled it out from his robes and handed it to Hermione. He wasn’t sure why he had been carrying it everywhere with him. He already knew what was in it after reading it once. It was unpleasant being reminded how slowly it took him to read the very short letter. It told Harry that he wouldn’t be welcome to the Dursleys for the holidays and to not expect any presents for Christmas. Also something about how Harry deserved to be among the freaks.
Harry thought that was a good line. He knew it was meant as an insult, but he quite liked being among these strange people. They were far more interesting and nicer than all the muggles Harry had ever met at Privet Drive at least.
Hermione looked aghast after reading the letter. “Harry, this letter is horrible. How could they say those things! And to not even get you any presents. I just… wow.”
Ron and Neville walked in the door. Ron waved to them. “Hey, guys. How’s the essay going? That potions stuff is just the worst.”
Hermione glanced between the boys and the letter in her hand. “Essay’s finished. Say, did you guys know that Harry’s going to be all alone in the castle for the holidays?”
Neville looked at Harry. “You’re not going to your Aunt and Uncles?”
“No,” Harry said.
Neville hesitated for a moment. “Actually, would you like to come with me? Meet my family, get that second thank you from my parents? They’ve been asking about you, but I didn’t want to bother you if you had plans.”
Harry felt the tight ball in his chest loosen. He hadn’t even realized it had been there until now.
“Yes, that would be great. I would like that a lot.”
Ron clapped and everyone jumped.
“Blimey, Harry. If I realized you would have been here alone I’d have invited you to my Christmas. No one wants to be in this big drafty castle alone for over a week. With your luck, you’d get attacked by a manticore or something while we’re all gone.”
“Ron!” Hermione said scandalously. Ron held out his hands.
“C’mon.” He said, “I’m just joking, he’s made it over a month and a half hasn’t he? I’d say that he’s doing pretty well so far.”
“Better not to tempt things,” Hermione grumbled.
Neville turned away. “I’ll go send an owl to my parents real quick. I’ll be right back.”
Ron followed after him. “I should probably go feed Scabbers. Best to do it while Harry’s not around to scare him off again.” Ron said.
Then Ron walked off too. Hermione looked back down to the letter in her hand.
She hesitantly glanced at Harry. “Hey Harry, can I keep this letter? I realize I shouldn’t ask but…”
“No, go ahead,” Harry said, “It’s not like I’m going to read it again. I’m not even sure why I was still carrying it around, I have it memorized. I trust you.”
Hermione looked touched as she put the letter in her robes. “Thanks Harry. I just can’t believe your Aunt and Uncle would write something so nasty.”
Harry shrugged. It was what he expected from them by this point.
— — —
It was two days until vacation, and Harry was looking forward to the winter holiday. It would be interesting to finally get to know the two people he had helped save. His friend Neville’s parents. Harry put his hands out toward the common room fire. This was nice.
Harry pulled his hands back and turned as he heard someone stomping up towards Harry. It was Neville, and he looked annoyed. He came to a stop as Harry stood.
“Harry.” Neville said, “Dumbledore won’t let you leave. He’s making you stay here over the holidays. My parents are in there with him now, talking to him. I can’t believe Dumbledore just wants you to stay here alone. He didn't even think about it, just waved away the idea as soon as my parents tried to talk to him…”