Hermione thought back to the people she was in contact with the whole day. It did not take her long to realise who might have put that paper in her pocket.
'My friends would have told me directly if they wanted to help Harry, so the one who told me was not someone I personally knew. Plus, I remember there being nothing in my uniform at lunch when I was with the others. So someone must have put the paper in my pocket after that time.
And the chances of them being smart are very high, as the books were found in places even I have not ventured into. The Indian part about Parseltongue would put Parvati or her twin on my list. But they would have told me directly if they wanted to. So the only person left is Auden.'
Hermione's brows furrowed as Auden came to her mind. She remembered passing by him in the hallway in the morning. More importantly, she had been on the opposite side of the hallway from him; the closest person to Auden had been Ron.
'Even if he wanted to give me the paper, he would have used magic for it, but I did not even see him speak a single word. And you can only learn silent casting in your final years.' The moment Hermione realised the person who had helped her was Auden, she began to make a lot of calculations in her head.
If this had been the Hermione from a year ago, she would not have thought about anything and would have gone to confront Auden immediately without considering the consequences. It would not even have been surprising if she loudly asked him in the dining hall why he had helped them.
But Hermione had grown and learned about everything around her. She realised that Auden might have done it in such a way as to avoid bringing attention to himself. She thought for a few moments, then folded the paper and kept it in one of her diaries.
'Basically, we owe him one for the information he presented us. Later, we can help him if he needs anything,' Hermione thought as she put the book safely away.
After that, she did not waste any time. She immediately found Harry and informed him about her findings. Even though Ron and Harry wanted to be lazy instead of spending time studying, Hermione forcefully brought them to Dumbledore to ask about books that could help with studying Parseltongue.
At that time, Dumbledore was busy trying to uncover the secrets of the diary he had gotten his hands on. He knew it contained something hidden by Tom Riddle. But the moment he had come into contact with the diary, it had turned into an inanimate object that did not react in any way. So, seeing that Harry was asking for help to understand Parseltongue, he was glad for the distraction.
"Don't worry, Harry, I have a friend who travels the world all the time and collects magical books. I can contact him to get the books for you," Dumbledore replied, and immediately contacted a few of his acquaintances.
Within a few days, Harry was seen studying a book everywhere he went. He even had an extra class every day with Madam Pomfrey. And with the fear the kids had about his acquiring the ability to communicate with snakes, they also started creating many rumours — like that he was being monitored by Pomfrey, or that he was punished by being forced to read books. But many of Harry's friends knew what he was really doing and promptly ignored everyone who was spreading these kinds of rumours.
A few days before Christmas break.
Auden had no idea that his plan to just help Harry deal with discrimination would end up this way. In the original timeline, Harry would have had trouble dealing with the fact that he had an ability synonymous with the dark lords of European history. But later he had accepted it peacefully, as he had used it to save everyone from the Basilisk and had managed to find the location of the Chamber of Secrets because of it.
But Auden had plans for the Chamber and the Basilisk within it, so he could not allow it to be revealed. More importantly, he could not allow Harry to find out about it. He knew that the moment Harry discovered the Chamber, Dumbledore would find out as well, due to the trust Harry had in him. So Auden had to resort to other ways to cheer up the Boy Who Lived.
But Auden never predicted Hermione, who would use this knowledge to the fullest extent. Auden was currently on the Quidditch ground, watching the match between Slytherin and Hufflepuff unfold violently in front of him.
He was able to see the brutal way in which Slytherin played these matches, where they would not even hesitate to injure the kind-hearted students of the Hufflepuff team. The number of casualties was actually a bit high. But the students who were injured were able to heal quickly and re-enter the matches due to an additional member who was helping Madam Pomfrey treat the injured students.
That's correct: Harry Potter was using the healing arts of Parseltongue to heal every victim of the match quicker than the normal healing usually done.
"Using an ability normally defined as cursed to help victims in pain… actually, in a way, it is brilliant," Auden muttered to himself, but was heard by Klaus sitting nearby.
"Well, I never thought of the ability as cursed. The fact that he has to work like this to prove it is not evil seems a bit unfair," Klaus replied to Auden while watching the Hufflepuffs thank Harry as they went back to the match.
"Don't forget, he was called the Boy Who Lived after vanquishing a dark lord. I have no idea why the other students forgot about it as soon as that ability was revealed," Tori spoke up as well.
Auden smiled slightly as he heard what his classmates said. Because they were acquainted with Auden, he had told them the truth about the value of Parseltongue outside Europe. They were surprised at first, but easily accepted it after learning about it.
As Auden watched the match, suddenly he felt something was wrong. He turned and looked around but realised that his friend was missing.
'Where's Luna?' he thought as he stood up to search.
A/N- hope you like it.