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Hogwarts Apprentices I--Gentry Green	By : LisaRoquin Category: Harry Potter > General > General Views: 19882 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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AN Thanks so much to telos, Jedi Buttercup, Wren Truesong, sfuzzy8 and JenWitchier for the wonderful and quick beta'ing. All remaining mistakes are entirely mine.

Harry groaned and reluctantly opened his eyes. "What happened?" he asked the dark figure looming over him as he struggled to focus through the overwhelming headache.
"I have no idea. What did you do, Potter?" Severus asked sharply.
"Me? I didn�t do anything," Harry snapped back.
"Anyone get the license of that truck?" Seamus groaned, sitting up.
Harry looked around. Tonks had her eyes open and was conscious but obviously not willing to move and sit up yet. Neville was up. Draco and Pansy were both still on the far sofa. Luna and Blaise were tangled on the floor. Millie was still struggling with Pansy�s little sisters. "It�s over. Its okay, Millie," Harry said.
"You know that how?" Severus demanded.
"I don�t know, but I do." Harry answered.
The three little girls made a run for their sister.
Harry winced in sympathy at Draco�s yelp of pain as two-year-old Patience scrambled across his lap to get to Pansy.
"Any of you have any idea what happened?" Luna demanded weakly as she looked beyond Severus, Remus and Blaise�s shaken Aunt. "Blaise, get off." She shoved at the dazed Slytherin.
Blaise groaned and sat up, dizzy, nauseous and eyes slightly unfocused.
"Hogwarts claimed her Heir." The Baron frowned, his explanation met with blank confusion. "An Heir of the Founders can bond with the castle. The Heir has to initiate the Bond, though�"
"What did you do, Potter?" Severus demanded again.
"I didn�t bloody do anything!"
"Severus, Harry," Remus said warningly to both. "Baron, how does the Heir initiate the bonding? And what other specifics are there?"
"The Heir needs to touch the wards on one of five specific birthdays: sixteenth, twenty-first, twenty-fifth, thirtieth or thirty-fifth."
Realization crossed the features of the Apprentices, Remus and Snape.
"I am going to kill Dumbledore! He bloody knew!" Harry growled in a deadly tone.
"You may have what�s left when I�m done with him," Severus snarled.
"The Alliance Bond pulled it to the other three�" Remus frowned. "That makes sense."
"Especially when one of the three bonded to The Heir of Slytherin is the Heir of Godric Gryffindor." Harry groaned. "But Seamus, Luna, and Tonks shouldn�t have gotten pulled in. Pansy almost makes sense�she�s magically bound to Draco through their marriage contract."
"Unless the castle decided since I got my wife, you three did too. They were the ones that reached you first and touched you while the bond was forming." Draco reasoned with a bit of vicious humor.
"I am going to kill the next person who decides to do something for my own good." Harry muttered darkly.
"This shouldn�t have happened, it shouldn�t be possible�" the Gray Lady frowned.
"It�s Potter, Longbottom, and Malfoy." Severus muttered.
Remus nodded his agreement weakly.
~*~
Harry lay awake as the first streaks of dawn began to brighten the night sky. He had finally gotten to bed little more than an hour before. Despite the fact he had been up for nearly 24 hours, sleep was elusive.
The nightmares of Sirius, which had kept him awake the better part of most nights at the Dursleys, had not been present since his arrival at Hogwarts but the chaos that had taken over his life in the weeks since had hardly been a preferable replacement. He didn�t think he�d actually slept so much as passed out cold for a few hours since he�d become an Apprentice.
He wanted to�something. Go flying until he was too tired to hang onto a broom, hex everything in sight into tiny pieces, something. Anything.
He hadn�t missed the vagaries of the explanation on what the rune tattoos were. He knew Snape hadn�t either. He sincerely doubted that fact had slipped by Remus, Draco, or Blaise. Seamus and Neville... well, they surprised a person sometimes. Seamus with his boisterousness actually noticed a lot more than one would expect, and underestimating Neville was a habit that Harry was trying to break.
After the whole debacle of the bonding with Hogwarts, the eight of them now bonded to the castle could all feel she/its regret. Hogwarts was indeed an almost sentient being. Almost was the key word, though. The castle might sense emotion, even intent, but rationalization was beyond the ancient stone building. An Heir touching the wards on the correct birthday was intent to Hogwarts. An Heir holding the wards on the correct birthday was strong intent, and Harry hadn�t had the knowledge of how to make it known to the castle that it was not intent but simple necessity.
Dumbledore had betrayed him again with his manipulations. Dumbledore had bloody well known.
The ghosts had been able to tell them some things about the Heir-bond with Hogwarts, but that still hadn�t been enough. They knew little more than that they were effectively stuck at Hogwarts for the rest of their lives and possibly longer as ghosts. Oh, they could leave for a bit, up to a fortnight--perhaps eventually, once the bond was long settled, as much as a month. For all practical purposes, they were stuck at Hogwarts for life�and possibly forever. Lady Ygraine and the Fat Friar were both still at Hogwarts, after all, and they had once been bonded Heirs.
Rage boiled up. Dumbledore HAD KNOWN! Why had he done this to him? He was sick to death of the games played with his life by Dumbledore. Happy fucking birthday. Another manipulation. Another betrayal.
He tried to force his thoughts into another direction. If he thought about this too much longer, he would start screaming, breaking things, crying, or something. Seamus was asleep across the room and Harry didn�t want to wake him. Another performance of near insanity by the Boy Who Lived--no, he couldn�t do that to Seamus. Could not stand risking worry or pity or even worse, fear, in another friend�s eyes.
He had at least learned a little about the Isle of Shadows. To Harry�s Muggle raised thinking it sounded like an endangered species game preserve. There was a �clan� of Vampires, a few handsful of dragons, and some creatures that Aisling could not identify - she said she had not the slightest idea of where to even begin to research about them. The Gentry Family had been guardians of the Isle and its strange creatures since the day Mer Merlin; some thought that the island was possibly a remaining piece of Atlantis, or perhaps the unknown creatures there had once been residents of Atlantis.
Harry could not care less about the supposed mythology. The fact was that rare plants and beasts dwelled there that were potentially dangerous, or extremely useful and powerful in potions and spells. If the Gentry line ever ended, the Ministry could make a play for control of the Island. That would be an unequivocal disaster. A Gentry Heir was an absolute necessity to prevent that. At least he had technical heirs in Tonks, her nephews, and even Dudley for the Gentry line until, or if, he ever had a child of his own.
A child which would be tied to Malfoy�s kid, Blaise�s kid and Neville�s kid, and then their children, and so on. That was too much to contemplate just now.
His mother�s actions years before he was born were still disturbing him. Not so long ago he could have seen Ron, Hermione and himself taking some sort of similar measure if they were convinced that was the best and possibly only option to protect their families in the future. He wasn�t mad about the spell work - that wasn't the problem. He was completely furious that Aisling Morrigan hadn�t bothered to tell him, Neville and Blaise!
Blaise was her responsibility to tell already. Harry's mother was dead and Neville�s was out of her mind; they had no one else to tell them, since there was simply no way post from Narc Mal Malfoy would have gotten to either of them. Not with Neville�s overprotective grandmother hovering over him and Dumbledore�s wards on the Dursleys. Then again, had Morrigan tried and Dumbledore managed to prevent that as well? Mrs. Longbottom would not have let anything unusual near Neville, and a letter that came unexpectedly from her mad daughter-in-law�s strange recluse friend who had been in Slytherin house would be considered unusual and destroyed unopened. Dumbledore had a way of letting nothing near Harry that he did not want.
Keep Harry ignorant. Keep him distracted. Let the good little puppet come out and take care of his problems when it was time. Everything seemed to come back to Dumbledore one way or another.
Dumbledore had realized what was going on with the Chamber of Secrets. He could have sorted out how and destroyed the diary. He could have! After the contact Harry had been forced to have with the wards of Hogwarts, and now forever tying him to Hogwarts, he knew there was simply no way Dumbledore wouldn�t have been able to pinpoint something very, very wrong with Quirrel, if not twig on that Voldemort possessed him. The castle recognized magical signatures�
The bastard had let them go fight Voldemort. Three little first years. Snape had gotten there in time� Snape and Dumbledore. Which implied that Dumbledore was simply letting him face off and see where his little puppet stood against Voldemort? The whole Goblet of Fire thing. Dumbledore certainly could have played that differently. The castle was like the Marauder�s map, in a way. It couldn�t be fooled. He could have found out who had put Harry�s name in the goblet. Crouch would have been exposed that much sooner and Voldemort possibly would not have been resurrected. The castle might not have been able to tell him directly but certainly, he would have gotten enough to do something. Investigate? Actually, make a stand rather than offer platitudes and nonsense?
What had Dumbledore actually done? Oh, he had protected Harry last year with the DA. But why? To reinforce his heroic mentor status? A move to keep Harry following blindly?
That wasn�t fair, not completely, Harry knew that. He did not doubt Dumbledore�s intent really�in as much the crafty old bastard wanted Voldemort defeated and the Wizarding World at peace. Dumbledore�s actions toward reaching that goal were another thing entirely.
Seamus stirred in the other bed and groaned.
Harry looked over worriedly. He wasn�t the only one with nightmares. The black eye Seamus had given him when they had fell asleep down in Snape�s chambers was proof of that. Seamus had been fighting and struggling in his sleep.
Another soft groan had embarrassed color rising on Harry�s cheeks. No ... Seamus wasn�t having a nightmare. Harry reached for his wand, intending to close Seamus� bed curtains and toss up a silencing charm, but he stilled at the name Seamus moaned and then darted from the room as quickly and silently as he could. He absolutely could not deal with that now, not on top of everything else.
~*~
"What are you running from, Potter?"
Harry squinted into the shadows of the tower common room. "Malfoy? Why are you hereot;
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Hogwarts Apprentices I--Gentry Green