It's OK Not To Be OK (But I Promise, I'm Trying)

Chapter 17

Disclaimer: not mine

Neville, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny were seated on the couches near the fireplace. Harry rushed passed them and hurried up to his dorm, much to their confusion and worry.

He quickly opened the library section of his trunk, set his hand to the engraving of a book, and calmly stated "Occlumency and Legilimency." It only took a moment for the book The Mind Arts Identified jumped to the front. He smiled slightly, truly happy that Aunt Minerva had insisted on getting that feature added. All he had to do was request a specific subject or topic, and the book would jump out, without him having to actually activate the bookshelves. As long as the book was in that section of the trunk, it would come when called.

He hurried back downstairs and joined his friends. He asked them to hold on for a minute while he thumbed through the book. After a few minutes of silence and worried looks exchanged, he slammed the book shut angrily. "I knew it!" he growled angrily.

Hermione looked at the book in his hands with interest, while the rest just looked more confused. Harry held up the book so they could all see it. "Dumbledore's been reading my mind," he informed them.

Hermione looked scandalized, but the purebloods looked furious.

"How dare he." Neville's voice was low and enraged.

Hermione looked at him, cocking her head. "What am I missing?" she asked, seeing the way they were all reacting. "I mean, it's awful, sure, but that doesn't explain your reactions."

Neville turned to face the bushy haired witch. His voice didn't lose any anger, but his expression softened as he explained, "The mind is the most sacred thing a person can protect. Using Legilimancy without permission is a heinous crime. A hundred years ago, it carried a sentence of a minimum of ten years in prison. If it was used on a minor, the sentence was upgraded to the Dementor's Kiss. You have to understand, Hermione, that pureblood's prize their secrets more than anything else. The old families have a lot to hide. Family Magic is taught from father to son, and they keep it within the bloodlines. If anybody could just use Legilimancy to get the information out of them, nobody would be safe."

Hermione looked like she had a lot of questions but didn't know where to start.

"Harry, how did you know?" Ginny asked curiously. "From what I've heard, Dumbledore is one of the best at Legilimancy. With little or no training, you shouldn't have been able to tell when he entered your mind."

Harry looked down briefly, before he shook back the sleeve of his robe to show them the bracelet Ginny had given him for his birthday. "I'm practicing, but Aunt Minerva said it'll take time and a lot of hard work. So we put the same protections on my bracelet that we did on the necklace I gave you. It should stop most attacks until I'm able to do so by myself."

Ginny looked relieved that her necklace would be powerful enough to stop even Dumbledore, but Hermione looked even more shocked.

"Harry, if Dumbledore's as good at this as Ginny says, it would take a tremendous amount of power to be able to stop him by using a charm like that."

Harry grimaced, but nodded dutifully. "Yeah, Hermione. It would." The reason these spells weren't more commonly used was because of their origins. Harry had found them when looking through one of the few books Sirius had brought with him from Grimmauld Place. His godfather had told him that the book contained some of the Black Family Magic, spells that were only known to those in the Black Family, and that, as his heir, Harry had both the right and the responsibility to learn them.

They all paused for a moment, but Harry didn't explain any more - Neville had been right when he told Hermione how secretive Family Magic was; as the heir to the Black Family, Harry couldn't share any more information on the spell or its origins. After another minute, Hermione asked to borrow the book. Learning that Dumbledore had committed such a grievous crime seemed to have destroyed the last vestiges of hope she had that there was some other explanation.