"I imagine that your last few months have been rather quiet compared to the first."
Harry nodded and sipped the tea he'd once again brought with him to the Room of Requirement. "Dumbledore had to hire a replacement for Black. It sort of concerns me that I don't know where he sent Black, though."
"Do you need to keep track of him? Can you let your parents do that?"
With Healer Letham, it was a genuine question, not the implied "Can't you let your parents do that?" that it would have been from almost anyone else. Harry thought about it, but only for a minute, before he shook his head regretfully. "I sort of wish I could, but I distrust him too much. I need to know where he is."
"I might be able to get Dumbledore to tell me."
Harry blinked. "Why?"
"I could write to him in the guise of a concerned parent and ask."
Harry sat up slowly. "You would lie for me to someone else? Doesn't that sort of compromise, I don't know, some sort of professional Mind-Healer ethics or something?"
Healer Letham smiled. "I didn't promise to lie, but I am keeping your secrets from your parents, and standing up for you to them when necessary. I could also stand up to Dumbledore. I would do it directly, but I think that might endanger my ability to come and visit you in the school."
Harry nodded slowly. His mind was whirling. He had never even thought of asking Healer Letham for help. In his mind, she was sort of in the middle of helping him more anyway, since he went and talked to her about things that he couldn't ask anyone else about.
"I don't think so," he said at last. "I don't want Dumbledore to lie to you about it and us to believe him and then get surprised if Black shows up somewhere else. And I think that he would probably lie to you about it."
Healer Letham sighed a little. "I cannot disprove your conclusions. Disappointing though this is to hear about the Headmaster of your school and how he shouldn't be lying to students and their parents, I suppose I should reserve my efforts for where they would do the most good." She settled back against the couch and swung her foot. "And how is your reconciliation going with Hermione?"
"We're reconciled."
Healer Letham tilted her head at him.
Harry flushed a little. "All right, so I might never trust her as completely as I did again, but we are. She apologized in public, and it took a lot of courage for her to do that. Especially since Hermione hates being wrong."
"Does she?" Healer Letham propped her chin up on her fist, smiling a little. "And what do you think will happen the next time you have a disagreement?"
"She'll try to make more room for my point of view, but then she'll end up snapping a little and telling me all the reasons why she's right. Then she'll look guilty and pretend that she never snapped."
Healer Letham laughed. "It sounds as though you know your friend well."
Harry smiled back at her. Then a sharp sting of pain came from his scar, and he inhaled as he reached up to rub it.
"Do you want to talk about this?"
Healer Letham's eyes were both sad and considering. Harry shook his head a little. "I haven't had any new visions since that one where I saw him reborn. I just—I don't know if he's aware of the connection and he's blocking me, or if he's focusing on something else and not really thinking about me at all. Or maybe I only get the pain when he's thinking about me."
"And you're content to leave the Horcrux hunt to your parents?"
"They don't want me to know too much, in case he does sense the connection and leave it open."
Healer Letham nodded. "Then let us speak of your studies. How are your explorations of defensive magic with Mr. Tonks going?"
Andromeda knocked on the Manor's door and then shifted back and forth in place as she waited. She hadn't told Narcissa she was coming before she did, or she would simply have come via the Floo. But an idea had struck her in the middle of walking through Diagon Alley, and she hadn't been able to wait before she came to the Manor, just Apparating straight here.
Narcissa opened the door and frowned a little. "Lucius and I are busy, Andromeda—"
"I might have an idea for what can remove a Horcrux from a child," Andromeda interrupted.
It seemed to her that Narcissa stopped breathing, and simply stared at her in the silence of a stopped heartbeat for long moments. Then she reached out a hand and yanked Andromeda into the house.
Andromeda didn't smile, but she could feel something shining at the bottom of her soul. She had rather thought that might be Narcissa's reaction.
....
Do you want to read ahead by more than 60 exciting premium chapters?
Then join my p*atreon right now.
Link: p*atreon.com/Sonic_Spectre (Remove the *)
Free members can unlock upto 2 chapters.