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A Thought or Two
By Mutt N Feathers

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Category: Pre-OotP, Alternate Universe
Characters:Harry/Ginny
Genres: Drama
Warnings: Mental Abuse
Story is Complete
Rating: PG-13
Reviews: 87
Summary: Auror Spook Kitty Fawley thought the difficult part of her return to the UK would be getting Sirius out of prison and recovering Harry from his Muggle relatives. Turns out that was the easiest thing she would do. To help them, Kitty will delve into a mystery deeper than any she faced in the field.
Hitcount: Story Total: 133969; Chapter Total: 4098
Awards: View Trophy Room






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PLEASE READ CHAPTER 21 FIRST. THEY ARE BEING UPLOADED AT THE SAME TIME. THANKS, MNF

Chapter 22:
Question of Time

“Sirius, stop hovering,” Kitty said as she walked from the bedroom to the magical library. “They released me from hospital without restrictions. I’ve cleared the poison completely. I can walk across my own home without your assistance.” She was about to pull the ice princess out if he didn’t cut it out.

"I just, you fell, and then you were…I was afraid you'd died," he confessed. She turned to look at him, tipped her head, and sighed. She held her hand to him, palm up, and he excitedly took it.

“I know,” she said softly. “But I’m fine. I need to do some research on the Head of House bonding. It protected me against the poison, and I’m wondering if we can do the same with Harry.”

“You want to bond him to the Fawley bloodline? He’ll be his own Head of House one day,” Sirius asked, somewhat confused.

"I want him bonded to the Fawley line, the Black line, and when he turns thirteen, we can reverse those bondings if needed and have him take on the Potter Head of House duties. Whatever is going on with him, it's not normal." They entered the library, and Kitty whipped her wand in several intricate motions before books started flying off shelves, a cabinet unlocked, and flew open for more books to travel to her table.

Kitty sat down, plucking the Fawley Book of Shadows out of the air, and opening it. “My great-grandfather wrote about binding non-bloodline children into the family.”

For his part, Sirius had sat and was reading the titles off Kitty's research materials. "I think you have the most comprehensive library on family lines and their magic that I've ever seen. That's saying something since I grew up with a family full of people obsessed with the purity of a bloodline."

"Some of these were yours, some were confiscated from former Death Eaters, and Amelia is letting me use them. By the way, we're having a meeting this afternoon; you, me, Remus, Amelia, Minerva, and Kingsley. I’m adding the last one to the blood entrance charms. I have the distinct feeling that protecting Harry is going to become important.”

"What he said the other night?" Sirius asked. When Remus had told them about Harry's actions after Kitty's collapse, both were shocked. Kitty confessed to the pair that it felt like whatever was happening in Yugoslavia, and what happened to Harry were connected. There was only one thing Death Eaters, and Harry Potter had in common: Voldemort.

"What he sees, what he says. Ninety-nine percent of the time, he's a pleasant, kind, polite, intelligent little boy. Then there is that one percent — and it terrifies me.”

“I wonder what James and Lily would have done about it?” Sirius said softly.

"If James and Lily were here to make these choices, you would still be his fun uncle who prodded him to break the rules, and I would be the auntie who brought him things from around the world. Sirius, I have your set of Harry’s adoption papers back," she said, digging out a series of folded parchment pages from under her piles of research. “We are his mum and dad now, and he’s our son. It’s up to us to choose what’s right.”

“I don’t know if I want Harry thinking of me as his dad.”

"The responsibility to act like parents falls to us, regardless of what he calls us. That black and silver behemoth over there," Kitty said, pointing to an unusually large book — full folio size and at least three inches thick, “is your family’s Book of Shadows. Look and see if there’s anything in there about Head of House duties and spells.”

"Moody sent his Patronus to me this morning," Sirius said while flipping through the pages, "my house is clean now. The Dark objects have been sent to the vault. I'll review everything before sending stuff to the Department of Mysteries. I'll go over tonight, after Harry is in bed and do the binding ceremony. If you're not up to doing the spell —"

“I can do the spell with you, sweetheart,” Kitty said softly. Her father had assisted her when she took on the mantle. She was lost in a sea of memories from that day when Sirius’ voice broke through.

“Maybe we should go to the jewelers on Diagon Alley while we’re out,” he said in a gentle voice. “You did say yes. You meant to say yes, right?”

“Of course, I said yes, and I meant it,” she answered, getting up and sitting down in his lap and kissing him sweetly. “I don’t want another ring, though. I don’t care that someone tried to use it to hurt me, us. Fee left that ring for you to use when you proposed. She wanted us to have it. She died only days after we started seeing each other; she had to have known what we didn’t yet.” Sirius kissed her again, slightly less sweetly than before.

“When we get it back, it’s not ever leaving your finger.”

“I’ll only move it when you put my wedding ring on my finger.”

"Sounds perfect," Sirius whispered as a vow before hungrily kissing his fiancée. After a few moments, Kitty broke the kiss and stood up.

"I need to go through these books," she said, walking back to her chair and sitting down. "The answers must be here.” She lifted her family tome and fingered the page. "Have you ever wondered why we are still using parchment rather than wood pulp paper? All these books, all the pages inside of them, are made from the skins of animals. It's rather barbaric of us."

“I can tell by the smell of it this book isn’t made of animal skins,” Sirius said while holding up his family tome. Padfoot left him with a keen sense of smell. “Some of the pages are werewolf skin.”

“I really hate your family.”

“So do I.”

*******

That afternoon, while Harry was kept busy in the kitchen by Cheery, a sextet of witches and wizards sat in Kitty's library — Kingsley and Minerva McGonagall, having been keyed into the magical entrances and the blood protections — discussing her poisoning. Amelia thought that they needed someone who remembered life well before the war; everyone at the table was either a teen or a young adult when Voldemort began his rise.

“Whomever it is,” Kingsley said, “was smart and knew about the spells DMLE offices use to check for charms, curses, hexes, and poisons. The prick curse was slipped into the sizing spell, so it went undetected. Using a poison that was one botanical kept it from being recognized as a potion.”

"If it's the same bunch operating in Yugoslavia," Amelia said, "we know at least two former Aurors are Death Eaters. They infiltrated our ranks and worked from the inside to thwart our plans during the war. Then there's the influence several known Death Eaters have over the Ministry's more political members."

“Dad always said the way to get what you want was to make sure key people had their pockets lined with gold,” Sirius said darkly.

“Your cousin’s husband knows that all too well,” Amelia said. Lucius Malfoy was a thorn in her side, and he was gaining influence.

“He’s one to watch,” Sirius replied. “His father is one of the most dangerous people my father knew, including Voldemort. Nothing is sacred to Abraxas Malfoy — not even his family — he will sell out anyone to get gold or power. Since he's one of the families you're watching in Yugoslavia, I'd say be prepared to lose people. If he even whiffs Ministry interference, he'll kill. Lucius likes to pretend he's all class and refinement, but underneath he is just as dirty and cutthroat as his father."

"I'll be back into the office next week," Kitty said, making Sirius frown a bit. "Have there been any further developments in gaining intel from the families in Ohrid?”

“There’s a team in place,” Amelia said. “They’ve slipped into the household of the Mulcibers. We’ll have more information in two days. As for those Dark Potion Items, we discovered what they were. This," she said, producing the first of the pictures, "is the fork from a basilisk. It's rolled up, the actual forking being in the middle, but the Potion Master who reviewed the pictures puts the snake's length at one hundred feet, minimum.”

“Basilisks that large are supposed to be a myth,” Remus said.

“My grandmother spoke of a horrible monster that slithered through the highlands,” Minerva said. “It would take down whole herds of cows or sheep at a time and then wind it’s way back into the hills.”

“Terrifying,” Kingsley said. Amelia and Kitty smirked, knowing about his hatred of snakes.

“I’m not surprised we didn’t recognize it,” Kitty said. “No one expects something like that to exist. It reminded me of uncut sausages.”

“You’ve just put me off bangers and mash,” Sirius said.

"No, I haven't," Kitty said, patting his hand. "The next time Cheery makes it, you'll eat with your usual aplomb. Harry likes them very much too."

“Back to our ingredients,” Amelia said. "This second item is a collection of Mediterranean Mermaid Scales. I'm not sure how they were harvested, as these mermaids are nearly never seen. They're terrified of witches and wizards, and for a good reason, as they were hunted to near extinction."

"Wait, my Greek ancestors wrote about them," Kitty said, summoning a book from the shelves. She opened it and flipped through the pages until she found the entry she needed. "Here, my great-great-great-grandmother wrote about a witch having the ability to summon the mermaids to her. The tune had been safeguarded by her family and required an exceptional range to sing it. My grandmother wrote an addendum to the entry saying the tune had been lost and was now a mystery."

“What do you do with Mermaid scales?” Sirius asked.

“They retain their magical essence long after they’ve been harvested, so much so that many wand makers use them as a core for a wand. I’ve heard they can be hard to control and are fiercely loyal,” Remus explained. “I know they can be ground up and used to make a powerful hallucinogenic compound that many werewolves take just before transforming. When you’re under the influence of the powder, you’re highly open to suggestion. If Voldemort dosed his werewolves with it, there’s the explanation of why they were so vicious and could do such great damage in just one night.”

“Were you powdering your nose while visiting the pack?” Sirius asked lightheartedly.

“You don’t know what I had to do while I was in that pack,” Remus answered far more darkly. Kitty looked at him sadly.

“You don’t live that way, Remus,” Kitty said. “You are more than your time of the month.” The group laughed at equating the full moon night to her menstrual cycle.

"Third here is Herbaria. This one is a known entity, but just not in the volume that we collected it in. Usually, when one is granted the item, it is only a cluster of three leaves. There were fourteen clusters taken," Amelia explained.

“What do you mean, granted?” Minerva asked, unfamiliar with the plant.

“Herbaria grows only on Avalon. To harvest it, one must have an innocent soul, according to legend. Only a witch or wizard it deems pure of heart and spirit will it present its leaves to,” Kingsley answered. “My mother had been granted a sprig when she was twelve.”

“I always knew your mother had a good heart,” Minerva said. “She was one of my favorite students.”

“Lastly, this,” Amelia said, slamming the picture down in the middle of the table, “is the brain of a Demiguise.”

“I knew I had seen something like this,” Sirius said. “My great-aunt Cassiopeia had one. She was nuts, even when I was little. She claimed it helped her with her Divination. Nothing she ever foretold came true, except that I would be a disappointment to my parents.”

"Well, then, your aunt doesn’t really have the sight," Amelia said, "because they can be used as an aid in telling the future. When a small portion of the brain is swallowed, it can give the user a clearer picture of the future. The animals themselves are protected because they have a degree of foresight. The magizoologists were quite unhappy. This one was fresh."

"Disgusting," Kitty said. "Given all of this, these people are cooking up some serious potions. Poison, hallucination, foresight, and what is the Herbaria used for?”

"Herbaria strengthens the body. If mixed with certain snake venoms, it can heal the mortally wounded," Amelia explained. "The recipe for that potion hasn't been widely circulated in nearly half a millennium. The Department of Mysteries' potions team took days to find out what it did. It works much the same way unicorn blood does, without killing the creature."

Kitty and Sirius looked at each other before looking to Remus. He nodded, and Kitty lifted her wand and dropped another level of Silencing Charms on the room. "We need to tell you about Harry."

Methodically, the trio began to recount the strange happenings with Harry’s nightmares, near-catatonic states, and bizarre statements. There was silence for a few long moments.

“I never liked that scar on his head,” Minerva said. “I wanted to take him to St. Mungo’s when I saw it, but Dumbledore insisted it wouldn’t be safe for Harry to be seen there. He said he’d done his own spells and that there was nothing to the scar. The Killing Curse doesn’t leave a mark. That was an open, oozing, bleeding mess on Harry’s head that I could not seal.”

“We’ve all tried to run spells on his scar,” Remus said, “but everything is inconclusive. I don’t know what else to do, and we don’t know who we can turn to.” .” Kitty looked close to tears when he spoke.

“We’re all on this now,” Minerva said. “We will help Harry.”



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