Harry gave a nod of understanding, but couldn't help but feel a little bad that Dumbledore's manipulations had now cost the young Auror something she had worked so hard to obtain. But then Harry was quickly coming to realise that that was how the great Albus Dumbledore worked: he turns people into his puppets and pulls their strings from behind the scenes, and then lets them take the blame for the actions he commanded them to perform when everything goes wrong, allowing himself to come out smelling of roses. That he would then later rescue the person he had abandoned usually made them feel even more indebted to him.
The next morning Harry once again found himself lying on his bed as a wand was waved about above him.
Cyrus Greengrass was a short and stocky man of about forty with sandy blond hair that was already greying heavily. Harry didn't know Daphne Greengrass all that well, but it was safe to say that she had inherited little of her appearance from her father.
"So what do you think?" asked Sarah Abbott, who had arrived with Greengrass.
"Well, I can confirm that your analysis of the scar on his arm is correct," replied Greengrass "the wound was made in order to draw blood for use in a dark ritual. However, you appear to have missed another scar on that arm, though it is understandable as the wound was clearly healed by the tears of a phoenix. That wound appears to have been made by the fang of a particularly large basilisk, and the poison was in his system for at least thirty seconds before the phoenix tears effectively neutralised it. There is also a wound on his leg, again healed by the tears of a phoenix, though this one appeared to have been caused by the bite of an Acromantula?"
He looked to Harry asking for confirmation. Harry gave a nod to signal that the man was correct on all counts.
"And the scar on his forehead?" asked Sarah.
Greengrass frowned and replied "I am not entirely sure. There is something dark to it, no doubt about it, but… Whatever it is, it doesn't belong. It's almost like a separate entity has attached itself to young Mr Potter."
Harry frowned and asked "You mean like some sort of parasite?"
"Yes and no," replied Greengrass "This thing is no mere creature that has burrowed itself beneath your skin to feed on your blood. On some level, it is like you are being possessed by another person, and yet clearly you aren't. This thing is just there, almost like someone tried to possess you, but they were killed and the part of them possessing you was cut off from the rest and remained within you, unable to do anything other than continue to exist by drawing strength from you."
"You mean it's like someone left a piece of their mind within mine?" asked Harry.
"Perhaps," replied Greengrass "though I would be more inclined to say it was a part of their soul."
Harry balked at that and said "Dumbledore told me that the scar was all that I was left with after Voldemort's attack. Do you think that it is a part of him that is in me?" "That is more than likely, especially when you take into consideration just how evil it seems. Has it ever influenced you in any way?"
Harry thought for a few moments before replying "Well, the scar hurts whenever Voldemort is feeling a strong emotion, usually anger, or when he is near to me. Like when I was in the graveyard with him that night. The pain was so strong that I thought that my head might split apart."
"Anything else?" asked Greengrass "Do his emotions affect you in anyway?"
"Not really," answered Harry "sometimes I get visions of what he's up to, usually when I am sleep. And I have woken up feeling very angry a couple of times, though it goes away very quickly. And I've woken up laughing a few times, though I don't actually feel happy myself."
Greengrass gave him a look of intense interest and asked "How often do these visions occur?"
"Not often," said Harry "like with the scar hurting it only happens when he's feeling a very strong emotion."
"And how do you see things in these visions? Are they from his point of view?"
"Yes. It's like I'm seeing things through his eyes. But I don't think he knows it happens. If he knew, the visions would happen more often, as he would use them to purposefully torture me."
"Then we'd better take steps to make sure he never finds out," said Greengrass "I need to research this subject more intensely, but the very fact that you can and have been influenced by this thing tells me that you need to block its access to your mind."
He went over to the briefcase he had brought with him and opened it up. From within he took a book with a cover that was wrapped in a white fabric. He handed it to Harry, who saw that there were golden letters on the front that read "Basic Occlumency: The Beginner's Guide to Protecting Your Mind."
"Protecting my mind?" asked Harry.
"Yes," replied Greengrass "Usually it is used to protect yourself from those trying to control your mind through the use of the skill known as Legilimency. However, I am sure that it should help in protecting yourself from this thing until we can find a way to rid you of it permanently. Now, I'm not going to suggest that you will be able to completely block it from influencing your mind, but hopefully the use of occlumency should at the very least reduce the effects of that influence."
He zipped up his briefcase again and picked it up "I have everything I need to continue researching this matter. Mr Potter, I want you to read the first two chapters of that book and begin practicing the techniques that are discussed within them. If you are stuck or don't understand something, I'm sure either Madam Bones or Healer Abbott will be able to help you out as their respective professions require the both of them to have some degree of competency in occlumency. In a week's time, I will come back and use a gentle bit legilimency to see how far you have come in protecting your mind. If you have made sufficient progress, we will begin working through the rest of that book in order to build up your levels of protection, okay?"
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