Manacled

Chapter 61

Hermione pushed her jaw out, then swallowed and dropped her eyes. "I can't. They interfere with my occlumency."

Poppy sniffed. "Occlumency is a bandage on a bombarda curse. You're not fixing anything by dissociating, you're hiding it. And"—her tone grew pointed—"it's growing exacerbated by your use of the Dark Arts."

Hermione stiffened and looked up quickly.

Poppy met her gaze steadily. "I'm no fool. I've suspected for long time what kinds of spells you've been using in order to deconstruct and stop some of those curses from Sussex so quickly. You—you—"

Poppy's voice cut off, and she pressed her lips together for several seconds, her mouth trembling. She drew a deep breath. "Dark Magic is cumulative. Mind or body, it exacts a price. I haven't said anything until now because I know you understand the toll better than I do." She placed a tentative hand on Hermione's shoulder. "You must know you're reaching the point where the damage is becoming irreversible."

Hermione's mouth twitched, and she looked away, noting the privacy spells that had been cast on the room.

"I know."

She stared down at her hands. "I—it wasn't—it didn't used to—" She fell silent and her hand rose subconsciously to her throat, fidgeting with the empty chain there. She shook her head. "Never mind. It doesn't matter."

She looked up at Poppy with a wan smile. "I'll stop when the war is over. I'll stop. I promise. And, I'll see a mind healer too."

Poppy gave sad sigh and nodded, rubbing small circles on Hermione's back. "All of you children should see mind healers. You and Harry especially. I wish I'd pushed Albus harder about having Harry taken to St Mungo's."

Hermione blinked and furrowed her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"Oh." Poppy gave another sigh, and her exhaustion grew visible in her face. "During Harry's first year, after that unfortunate situation with Professor Quirrell, when I first examined Harry, I became concerned about his magical signature. It was irregular, almost as though he had two."

"Two?" Hermione echoed, a cold creeping sensation slowly bleeding over her, as though there was ice sliding through her veins.

"Yes. I'd never seen anything like it before. I went to Albus. He said it must be from the Killing Curse all those years before, that it must have split off a small piece of Harry's signature. It's such shame no one thought to have him examined as a baby before he was left with his relatives. Albus looked at the diagnostics himself and said it was nothing to be concerned with. When I pushed, he said Harry would likely be subjected to extensive and traumatic examination at St Mungo's by researchers wanting to use him to study the Killing curse. Albus said he thought the issue would resolve itself eventually. It seemed that it did, over the years the signatures appeared to rebond."

Poppy tilted her head to the side thoughtfully. "But—with all the headaches he suffers from, I wonder if perhaps it didn't happen properly."

Hermione felt as though she'd been struck.

"There were two magical signatures? Not a residual curse signature and a magical signature?" Hermione said sharply.

"Magical," Poppy said as she nodded and pulled out the chair beside Hermione. She sat down with a sigh. "I tried to find record of a similar phenomena in healing history, but there's nothing like it that I could find. Then again, Harry is the only person who ever survived the Killing Curse."

Hermione's hands started trembling. "You said—I asked you about his magical signature years ago. You said it was fine. That it was normal for Harry."

Poppy rested her hand gently on Hermione's shoulder again. "I didn't want you to worry. By the time you asked, they were almost entirely bonded back together."