Once they finally did rise, run through their morning ablutions and walk down to the Great Hall for a late breakfast, the three bondmates were some of the last ones to break their fasts.
"Harry," called a voice from behind. Recognising it instantly, Harry froze as he tried to get his instant flare of hatred back down and under control.
"Weasley," he muttered with an almost snarl. Slowly turning around, he looked up into the face of Ron Weasley. "What do you want?"
Seeming to take a deep breath and brace himself up, Ron imperiously stated, "I've decided to forgive you your actions against me. We can be friends again. My mother demands it."
Utterly stunned by his ex-friend's words and actions, Harry first turned to look at an equally stunned Hermione, before he turned back. "Are you completely out of your dull little mind?" he scoffed. "I want you the Hell away from me! I want you in Azkaban! And, if I can't have that, I want you dead!
"In what freaking reality would you ever believe I want anything to do with you, ever again?"
With his eyes widening in shock and hurt at the rebuff, Ron tried, "But, Harry! I'm willing to forgive you; you should be willing to forgive me and Ginny!"
"You tried to poison me and Hermione with potions, Weasley!" snarled Harry, standing up and glaring back. "A better friend that you pointed out to me afterwards that Amortentia and their like could easily be called the Imperius curse in a bottle. That includes any other mind altering potion, or potion that takes away a person's free will!
"If there was ever a project I wanted to put the Potter fortune towards, it's to see those sorts of potions be the first ever to be classed as Unforgivables!" As he was speaking, Harry's voice became louder and louder, and Ron cowered back further and further.
"And that's exactly what we consider what your sister did, and what you were doing, Weasley," he barked. "Unforgivable!"
"Mister Potter, calm yourself!" Professor McGonagall called, stalking down the Hall towards them. Turning to Ron as she approached, she barked, "And you, Mister Weasley; my office, at the completion of the meal. Now, return to the Gryffindor table!"
Ron skulked back to the table as the usual noise level return to the Hall. He did, however, cast one last hate-filled glare back at Harry.
Neither saw the Headmaster look down at the two of them and sigh in both sadness and frustration.
Once done with breakfast, the three trudged back up to their apartment. Harry then told them, "I need to duck into Diagon Alley and was thinking of the Whomping Willow secret tunnel to the Shrieking Shack to duck out for a couple hours. Do either of you want to come with?"
"Harry, you'll get caught," Hermione said a little worried for him.
"No, love," he replied. "We learned how to do glamours when we were on the hunt for horcruxes, remember?"
"Oh," she blushed. "Of course, we did."
He chuckled and gave her a kiss. "You thought we were fourteen, again; and forgot we've learned post NEWTs charms."
"I did," she admitted with a little sigh. "But, why do you want to go into Diagon Alley now?"
"Well, Miss Nosey Parker," he replied. "I wanted to pick up a nice birthday present for you. Plus, a couple other things."
She sighed. "Just don't forget you need to back here at 1.00pm," she instructed him. "That solicitor Matthias sent us is due then."
"I won't," he replied.
In Wednesday morning's owl mail drop Harry finally received a letter from a solicitor Matthias had organised for them. He quickly wrote back and agreed to a meeting with the man the next Saturday, today, at 1.00pm.
The three had already let their Head of House, Professor Flitwick, know of the meeting; and asked him not to discuss it with anyone. They didn't need to mention that 'anyone' also included the Headmaster. He'd promised not to. So, hopefully, they wouldn't be bothered by the Headmaster during the meeting.
Neither girl wanted to accompany him for this trip. Changing his appearance into a nondescript adult wizard, Harry asked for his bondmates' opinions. After a couple of minor tweaks, they deemed him suitable. A quick memorisation of his appearance and he allowed it to fade away.
Knowing he'd be using his invisibility cloak, Harry pulled it out and scanned it for charms and the like.
"Harry?" asked Hermione. "Why are you scanning your invisibility cloak?"
"Think about this, Hermione," he started to explain. "This is the True Cloak of Invisibility, right?"
"Yes," she replied.
"And it was supposed to be so good that it hid him... Peverell... even from Death, right?" he asked.
"Yes," she replied, frowning.
"Then, how is it that Dumbledore and Moody are able to see through it?"
With an 'Oh' of understanding, she replied, "That shouldn't be possible."
"Right," he firmly agreed. "So, the only other explanation is that Ol' Twinkles did something to it before he returned it to me that allows him to see through it."
Sighing in sadness for yet another piece of evidence that Dumbledore was not the 'great man' she originally thought him to be, Hermione stood and approached Harry to help him scan the cloak.
"Found one," said Harry, pausing in his scanning. "A tracking charm."
Not caring that Dumbledore would know it had been removed, he moved it to the back of the couch he was standing next to.
As they held the cloak out between them, Hermione was next to find something. "Here's another," she sighed. "A beacon charm at the corner of the hood."
As she stripped it away, Harry supposed, "That was probably how he could see us in Hagrid's Hut during second year. When you, me and Ron were hiding under it in the corner."
"Here's another," she suddenly said. "I don't know what it is, though."
"Strip it, anyway," he said.
When they finished there were no further charms they could find on the cloak. Harry allowed it to drape over the back of the couch and turned to his friend.
"Alright," he asked. "Can you do a quick scan of me for tracking and beacon charms?"
.
.
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