Ch 87 aurora trainee potter

Aurora Trainee Potter

Harry Potter leaned back in his chair, scrubbing at his face. He was currently in his twelfth week of Aurora training, and studying for the final examinations that were scheduled to be performed the following day. And worse, the Gauntlet would be the day after, and passing or failing that determined if he'd be an Aurora or just another Hit Wizard.

Sighing slightly, he looked over at the man he was sharing a dorm room in the training center. It was a familiar sight, as he had shared a dorm with this man for years while they were both at Hogwarts together.

For years, he expected that person to be Ron. His best friend since he was eleven. Unfortunately, Ron had not been able to pass the entrance examinations that were required to join the Aurora or Hit Wizard training programs. It had been something of a fight, when Harry had refused to use his fame to force either training program to accept Ron despite his lackluster grades.

A fight that had included most of the Weasleys and much to his surprise a few Ministry Employees. Employees who had been almost as surprised when he had refused.

Still, he could not complain about who he was assigned a room with. He had known Dean Thomas for almost as long as he had known Ron after all, even if they had never been quite as close as he had been to the other boy.

"Hey Dean?"

Dean looked up from his own notes, his eyes jaded and tired from the same strain that Harry was under. Aurora and Hit Wizard training was intense, and harsh. Designed to weed out those who could not make it in either profession. It was almost sadistic in the way information and physical training and spell work was dropped on the trainees.

"Yeah, Harry?"

"I can't seem to find any notes from the classes that I missed last week due to that stomach bug. I think it was Tuesday. Can I see yours?"

Dean nodded, and began thumbing through his pages. Finally, he pulled out a couple sheets of parchments, and held them out towards Harry.

"Yeah," Dean said absently. "I remember that class. It was on detecting control potions and control charms, and finding out if they're keyed to a specific person, and for the charms, trying to determine the caster."

Harry frowned slightly, as he took the bundle of documents, and began flipping through them.

"You'd think that that's kind of important."

Dean nodded. "Yeah, funny day that was. Jensen told us that we shouldn't be talking to others about the subject, and that he'd get you a briefing when it became necessary for you to know the stuff."

Harry stopped his reading, suddenly very interested in the subject they were discussing. He had been manipulated and lied to for years by their former Headmaster. Even after the old man had died, there were still the random aftereffects and ramifications to those manipulations that were impacting his life in diverse ways. Things he would find out at strange times and often quite unexpectedly. Things that were not always good for him. To be honest, these were things that were rarely good for him.

He had found that anything that even hinted at manipulations had become a very touchy subject with him; and something that was guaranteed to anger him. And focus his attention quite quickly.

"Wonder why the instructors haven't came up to me about that then..."

Dean shrugged, his attention still mostly on his own studying.

"Not sure. I do remember that they found that I had been under a mild love potion for a time back during school. Think it was estimated at around our sixth year, but it had been inactive for so long, they couldn't determine who it was keyed to."

Ice clenched his chest, as he remembered all the various things that had been going on that particular year. The fighting and bickering between him and Hermione. The monster in his chest whenever he saw Dean with Ginny, and the fact that that was the year he started dating her.

He closed his eyes, conflict running through him. On one hand, he had to know. It was an almost imperative. On the other, he did not want to believe that the girl he was dating would do that to him.

After a moment, he opened his eyes. "Dean?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you cast those detection charms on me?"

That got the other boy's attention, and he shifted to focus on Harry. His brown eyes had confusion and concern flashing in them.

"You think you're being controlled?"

Harry sighed again, one hand absently reached up and scrubbed at his scar for a moment. "It's probably nothing, but I just have that feeling, you know. The one that I used to get every Halloween, because I just knew that something was going to happen. And... and do you remember who you were dating throughout most of sixth year?"

Dean nodded. "Yeah, it was Ginny."

Harry returned the nod. "Yup, and I was almost insanely jealous of you whenever I saw the two of you together. If you two weren't around, I didn't ever really think of it. Hell, in all the years leading up to that one, I barely thought of, much less spoke to, Ginny. But when I saw you two, I felt like there was something in my chest trying to claw its way out. Within days of you and her breaking it off, I was getting kissed by her."

Dean's face had hardened, and without another word, he pulled out his wand. A few flicks, and the air around Harry flared to life with hundreds of runes and symbols and ideograms.

"Merlin's left nut," Dean muttered his eyes widening in shock. His eyes narrowing, he reached for a piece of parchment and a quill. After a moment, he gave his head a hard shake, and then began writing down the everything that he saw. All the controls and changes that had been inflicted on Harry. All the charms and potions designed to make him act in certain ways, to think in certain ways and to do certain things.

After twelve minutes, Dean set the quill aside and gave his wand a quick flick, dismissing the symbols.

His face became hard as he read through the list. Then he passed the document over to Harry.

"Here. And these are just the ones that are still active in your system."

Trepidation seized him. It squeezed at his heart and stomach, and he found that his hand trembled slightly as he took hold of the parchment.

Closing his eyes, Harry exhaled a breath, and tried to center his mind. Fought for control of his emotions and feelings.

Once he had settled slightly, he opened his eyes back up and began reading the list.

Dismay smashed through him as it told a story. A story of limitations and constraints and being forced to believe and do certain things.

His face had paled, and he looked up. "I've got power shunts, intelligence limiters, emotional shunts, and then there's the love, lust, loyalty, jealousy, dismissal and a host of other controlling potions."

Dean nodded. "Why wasn't this found during your physical before joining the auroras?"

"I can't believe that they missed this level of controls on me." Harry's whole body shuddered slightly. "I... I have to assume that it was already known. That it was known and approved, and that everyone in question is happy about this. It makes a horrible, horrible amount of sense especially in light of the fact that Jensen didn't want us discussing these techniques. If they're not discussed, then I wouldn't know about them. If they're not discussed, I can't ask someone to cast them on me."

A tense silence gripped them, and Harry looked down at the document again, reading the section where it described who each potion was keyed to.

Ginny had love, lust, jealousy, and loyalty potions.

Ron had loyalty potions.

Hermione.

Every potion that could make someone think bad about another, he had apparently taken, and Hermione was the key for them.

Worse off, all of them were at near lethal levels.

The two love potions were actually well over what was considered lethal.

He looked back over at Dean.

"It brings so many other things into question. I had hoped that with Dumbledore and Riddle dead, that the manipulations and lies that I had faced so often in school were over and done with. This," he shook the parchment. "This hints at a whole other level of controlling bastards. What am I being controlled for? Who is the controller? And why?"

Dean fiddled with his wand for a moment, and then looked at Harry.

"Long before I was a aurora trainee, I was in the DA. We all looked up to you, Harry. We all saw you as the leader that we wanted to follow. Or at least all of us who were raised in the muggle world did. What's the plan."

Harry sighed, and scrubbed at his face. He found it hard to believe that the Weasley's could have done this to him and Hermione. Of course, with the number of loyalty potions that had been introduced into his system, there's not much that that particular family could do to make him think ill of them.

"My plan is to learn those charms. Brew two doses of every purgative needed to get these things out of my system, and then go find Hermione. Depending on exactly how far she's gone with Ron, my next step will either be assault and battery with intent, or homicide. After that... well, someone has to know something, and I'm damned certain that I'll figure out the who and whys. Even if it means bringing down the wizarding world as a whole."

Dean nodded his head slowly, and then stood up. "Well come on then. You've got some learning to do."

Harry grinned at Dean. It was a dark grin, that promised that soon someone, somewhere would be hurting. And luckily, he had years of practical training on how to hurt people. He stood, and pulled out his wand; waiting for the instructions that he needed to learn this set of charms and spells.

• − • • − • − • − − − • − • / − • − • • − • • − • • • / • − − • − − − − − • • − •

It had been three days since their final tests in the aurora program. Three days that he had originally intended to be spent worrying over his results, and to determine whether or not he had managed to become an aurora.

Instead, he had spent the previous three days with Dean as they had brewed dozens of purgatives, and researched another two dozen charms designed to dispel control charms.

It had been exhausting work, but finally, it was all done.

He had two batches of every potion needed.

A quick smile at Dean, he reached for the first of the potions he needed to take.

"Here's the plan. Send Hermione a letter telling her that you stopped by and I was unconscious, and ask if she could come by. When I wake up from these potions, if she's here, then we'll start. If she's not, then we'll go find her."

Dean gave him a tight lipped smile, and nodded his head. "That sounds like a good plan. Should we contact anyone else?"

Harry downed the first potion, and then grabbed the second as he thought.

He felt the potion begin with a shudder. A clenching deep in his stomach, and chest, which seemed to fight against his magic.

"We know the Weasley's are involved, so not them. Luna is still at school for another week before Hogwarts breaks for Christmas hols. I hate to say it, but Neville is a pureblood, so we probably need to try to bring him in on this in person. "

He took the second potion, and grimaced as the vile slime slithered down his throat. Forcibly keeping from gagging, he looked back over at Dean.

"Katie would tell the other Chasers, and Padma would tell Parvarti who would tell Lavendar." Harry paused for a moment. "Maybe Justin?"

Dean looked thoughtful for a moment, and then nodded. "Let's see if Hermione is under these potions and whatnot, and then we'll go forward from there. It's not that I don't trust Justin..."

He shrugged his shoulders slightly, and grimaced.

Harry understood. He remembered how flighty the pompous Hufflepuff had been during their school years, and did not expect that to have changed overly much in the months since they had all graduated.

He chugged two more potions in quick succession, feeling the magic of each twisting and writhing in his chest. His vision swam for a moment, and again, he had to force himself from vomiting.

Dean waved his wand, and his patronus swam away from them, through the wall and off. Dean sighed, and glanced at Harry. "Alright, that's Hermione called. Now, I'm going to start dispelling these charms."

Harry nodded and drank the final potion.

Dean's wand was twisting in a complicated motion, as darkness overtook him.

Awareness came back to Harry slowly, and in pieces. A slight brush of his hair. The feeling of a cool, wet cloth resting on his forehead. Whispered words, not quite understandable.

He opened his eyes, and saw that Hermione was leaning over him. She was chewing slightly on her lip, and there was a tenseness to her shoulders. A weight that appeared to be weighing down on her.

A swell of affection and desire raced through him at the sight of her. Something that he distinctly remembered had happened quite often throughout their third, fourth and fifth years.

Something that he now realized had startlingly and suddenly disappeared the summer before his sixth.

That alone pin-pointed just when the potions and charms had apparently been started. Or at least increased.

Anger flickered through his chest, and his body twitched with the sudden emotion.

A twitch which quickly drew Hermione's attention.

"Harry!" she exclaimed, her face twitching with nervousness, before she lunged at him and wrapped him up into a hug. "What happened?"

Harry settled into the hug. Another memory flickered through him. The end of second year. A handful of times in third year and too many times to count in fourth. Again, something which seemed to disappear nearly overnight while they were at the Burrow before sixth year.

"A lot of things have happened, 'Mione. Do you trust me?"

She leaned back and watched him for a moment before nodding. "Of course I do."

He gave her a short smile, and then had his wand in hand twisting it through a complicated motion. Hermione's eyes narrowed as the icons and runes sprang into existence around her.

"Bloody hell," Dean whispered just as Hermione was about to ask what Harry had done. Her head snapped towards him, to find he was watching them both. "That's almost as many love potions as you had in you, Harry."

"Yes," Harry said with a short sigh as he gestured towards a specific set of icons. "And they're keyed to Weasley as well."

"Harry," Hermione nearly growled out. "What's going on?"

He gave her a sad smile, as he started handing her potion bottles. "Take these, and we'll tell you."

Hermione stared at the first one, and then sniffed it slightly.

"Just take the thing, 'Mione. You've been poisoned, and these will help."

He watched as her lips twitched slightly. "Well, yes, but I still remember how well you always did in potions."

Harry snorted in amusement, and then he told her about the missed day of training and how they had discovered the potions Harry had been given. And how the ministry had to actively collude with the giver of the potions in order for it to not come up in his medical exam.

Hermione was shuddering slightly under the effects of the purging potions, and her brow was crossed slightly.

"Fuck," she muttered.

Harry could not help but laugh, as he called out, "'Mione, Language!"

She glared at him for a moment. "No, I think it was a perfectly acceptable use of the word. We killed Tommy, but has anything really changed? Draco isn't in jail. Most of the Slytherins, including Pansy who demanded we be turned over to Tom at the final battle were cleared of charges. Worse, most of the Death Eaters were cleared as well. All in the name of the greater good of society of course. The non-pureblood portions of the 'golden trio' end up potioned up and pawned off to a pair of purebloods. The both of us too caught up in our own little dramas to effectively lobby for change. The damn 'bloods won."

Dean and Harry were both frowning.

Suddenly, Harry bounced to his feet, and began pacing, as he applied the investigative techniques he had learned at the Academy to his life.

"You're right," he told her after a moment. His eyes twitched between the two. "I... Could this have been Dumbledore's plan? Could Dumbledore's issues with Tommy have been less about the politics, and more about the fact that Tommy was a half-blood and killing indiscriminately?"

Dean nodded. "I can see what you're getting at. Most of those raised in the wizarding world are bigots. Sure, some of them hide it really well, but..."

Hermione sighed. "Yes, I know. I remember the first time Arthur met my parents. He talked to them as if they were trained monkeys rather than thinking, feeling people."

Harry shook his head. "This can't go on. We owe it to ourselves and our dead to not let it. Hell, I want to have kids one day, and I don't want them to grow up in this world?"

Hermione looked at him, an odd look in her eyes. "Ginny?"

Harry shuddered. "Merlin, no! She looks like my mum!"

Hermione's eyes widened, while Dean burst out into laughter