Chapter 44: Chapter 44: Reflections and Mirrors I
Sitting alone in her compartment away from her friends, she was currently thinking over everything that had happened in the last 24 hours.
She had gone from a girl who had common enough concerns, like an ex-boyfriend who needed to let go and move on (seriously they had only kissed a couple of times!) and worries about her examinations and possible future in the wizarding world. Her future, though, based on the events of last night, had been sealed to a point. She was effectively bound for life. She had certainly never expected this when she agreed to mentor Harry.
At least it was a reasonable binding in payment of the life debt; it could have been far worse if he had been a spiteful or twisted person. She doubted anyone would like being turned into a mindless sex-toy; instead he had gone for a simple binding. Her own research confirmed that the Companion Oath was a simple one and far more preferable than the alternatives, so one way or another she was in his life for good.
If it hadn't been so serious, she would be laughing at the irony of the situation. After all she had started this whole process wanting his backing and she had certainly got it, just not in the way she had hoped.
At least she would have the support of his House. She was effectively a vassal now of Harry and through him the Ancient and Noble House of Potter. Thinking it over objectively, it was far better to be an extended member of the elite Potter household than that of the Weasleys, despite Percy's claim that they were the almighty Dumbledore's favourites. After all how had being his favourites helped them really?
They were still the lowest on the food chain in terms of social status; the average well-off half-blood even outranked them in terms of power and influence based on everything she had seen and heard.
As much as she hated the idea of being bound to someone for life, she had gotten quite lucky that it had been to a friend like Harry, rather than some random person. Also due to the Companion Oath's pledge of loyalty, it meant she would be trusted far more than anyone else. She knew in her heart that Harry would go far in his life and she would be right by his side now.
Then there was the fact that he had told her of his life before Hogwarts, and shared his deeply personal story so she knew he wouldn't abuse the oath's power. She couldn't even blame him for wanting revenge after everything he had described. Despite her sound reasoning that it could have been far worse, she was still upset about the life-debt, even if she had gotten off lucky. She now had the entire Christmas break to come to terms with it without his presence.
Looking out the window at the passing trees, she wondered what would happen to Hermione, after all, the first year had a life debt to Harry as well. Maybe she should be warned of the situation?
She weighed the pros and cons in her mind, before deciding to visit the young lioness and tell her. Hopefully the girl would be prepared in case her own debt was called in.
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He was the only raven left in the nest, as everyone else had gone home for Christmas, not that he really cared of course. He was used to being alone with only his thoughts for company.
It just meant for the next two weeks that he could get on with his own studies, without any distractions from the other students. So he set himself the task of completing his first year studies, and his current second year ones in charms and transfiguration where he was already further ahead than first year material.
This break so far was already turning out to be much better than the previous ones, as he didn't have to cook or clean for his detestable relatives. So what if he didn't have his friends around him; at least this time he could do his own things without interruption or having to hide away out of sight whenever his uncle had work guests over for the holidays.
He didn't have to watch the world celebrate Christmas, whilst he was forced to watch, but not participate. So yes, this Christmas was already better than all the previous ones in his short life combined. That might be a sad testament, but true, nonetheless.
The next couple of days flew by for Harry, locked away in Ravenclaw tower away from everyone. In fact, he only came down for meals, but often skipped lunch due to being too caught up in his chosen studies to notice the time.
Whether that was reading a fascinating new book he had discovered that morning in the library, or practising and learning powerful and useful spells and enchantments, the time just flew by. Not that it really mattered, his body and magic had long ago gotten used to having to make do with maybe two meals a day, if he was lucky that is.
A Hogwarts meal was more like a feast than a normal dinner anyway. Plus it helped that he had his own fruit bowl conveniently located in his room if he got hungry, which he stocked up each morning with a nice selection of fresh fruit served at breakfast. He tried to keep a proportional mix of apples, bananas, oranges, and grapes in his fruit bowl; so in many ways he felt like he was living like the kings of old in his personal opinion.
But there was a very good reason for this; he desired to be healthy, to reach the optimum state his body was capable of, for his body to be healed from his childhood of near starvation and untreated injuries. The extensive daily potion regime couldn't do that alone, it required a good diet and plenty of fuel to work with. Plus he saw several of his year mates getting a bit chubby from the frequent rich foods, that kept him eating healthy quite well.
So here he was, reading his mother's journal, and he had just gotten to the point where his mother was about to start her 6th year at Hogwarts. Incidentally, it was also the time that his father had taken it upon himself to try courting his mother in earnest, much to his mother's amusement at his father's over-the-top gestures. In hindsight, he was glad that he had decided to read through the journal from the beginning; it gave a tremendous insight into who his mother was and how she had changed and grown up over time.
He took great joy in reading about how she grew up, from being a 5 year old with bad handwriting to the elegant script of a late teen, to reading about his mother's first crush. These little things helped him connect with her on a deeply personal level, to reaffirm that she was a real person with true flaws, hopes and dreams, not just a name or an over-idealized caricature of motherhood created by a love starved orphan, hated and abused by his relatives.
It truly made his heart ache painfully, that he would only ever learn about his parents from secondary accounts and retellings. Consequently, it fed his anger at what had been so cruelly taken from him, what he had lost the night he had been orphaned.
That was one thing he came to realize whilst reading the journal; he had inherited his temper from his mother. His father would just prank his target, consider the matter closed and then move on, until something angered him again causing him to prank them once more. His mother, on the other hand, kept that fire burning, until it struck like a righteous firestorm on anyone unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end.
Thinking of revenge, he couldn't help but devise some cruel schemes to finally get back at his relatives. He thought about everything his relatives loved and how he could use those things to get back at them, like they had done to him so many times before. They loved to appear normal and they loved their money.
He could go to child services this summer and explain everything that had happened to him growing up, but that would bring up too many questions that he just couldn't answer.
He could go to the Ministry instead, but he had no desire for his story to be on the front page of the newspapers, both magical and non-magical. He could see how easily it could be corrupted to serve the pureblood propaganda; the last thing he wanted to do was give the people responsible for his parents' death seemingly legitimate grounds for their prejudice.
He couldn't bankrupt them either, despite how much he wanted to see them broke and living on the streets, so that meant he had to get creative and hopefully magic would provide the answer for the perfect revenge.
They liked their food, maybe he could prank it to change to ash or something else undesirable once in their mouths. After all they could do with some lost weight, they reminded him of starving pigs with the amount they ate.
Then again he could actually transfigure them into pigs in the future and dump them on a farm, so that they could live in their own filth for the rest of their lives. That would get them; his aunt was a clean freak, and they would eventually be lead to the slaughter house.
After all, they had almost killed him on a number of occasions growing up; it was only his magic that kept him alive. It seemed quite fair to return the gesture at least once just for good measure. But the problem with advanced transfiguration like that was that it wore off if done improperly, plus he felt sorry for whoever eventually ended up with the end product, so that idea was dismissed.
He also liked the idea of getting some much needed payback on Aunt Marge and her dog for all her hateful comments about his mother. Perhaps he could transfigure her into a dog and show her who the real bitch was.
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