Chapter 3
"Lubna, what are doing down here?"
Luna felt herself flinch, then back away from the doorway. Shaking, she barely managed to stay upright.
"Sh-she… blood… and I-"
Mr. Wilson closed the door. "Come on Lucetta, let's get you upstairs."
"Can I go get some posters and more clothing?"
Sirius shrugged, handing him some money. "Feel free to get posters, clothing, piercings, hair dye, books, whatever."
"Wait, you'd let me pierce my ear." Harry blinked, then cursed himself for asking. Sirius might take it back.
"Don't see why not. By the time I was your age I already had seven tattoos and one earring," Sirius said with a shrug. "If you need permission from a guardian, call me and I'll pop over."
"Thanks," said Harry, pocketing the bundle of green bills Sirius handed him. "Wait. Call how?"
"The two-way mirror. I already fixed yours," Sirius explained, tossing a mirror over.
"Does this mean I could get a tattoo if I wanted?"
"I guess, but I'd hold off on that until we have a chance to talk about it. Wizarding culture is a bit strange about body decorations. Get as many piercings as you want, though."
Luna paced her room, considering what to do. Oh, she knew what needed to be done; she just wasn't sure how to go about it. After all, one wrong move and her father would kill her.
Perhaps… yes. That was the only workable plan.
As she examined Harry's mind, Emma's anger grew. Even she wouldn't consider doing to another person what had been done to the boy's psyche.
It was readily apparent that before Harry's mind was interfered with, he'd had very good shields… for somebody without telepathic abilities. And an equally strong mind.
For a moment Emma considered using her abilities to… influence Harry's mind as she helped put it back together, however that thought was quickly dismissed. One did not manipulate a member of the Black Family and live a long life. Doubtless Sirius black would have somebody else check to make sure that Emma had done her job properly.
Harry's mind was a horrifying mess. His natural shields had been utterly destroyed, leaving his mind open to direct attack. Even a novice would have been able to tell that Harry had been psychically tortured by a telepath. There were also two separate mind links. One seemed to have been forced on the boy, and was likely the cause of some of his problems. The other… the other was much more unusual. She's encountered links like this before, but they were few and far between.
It seemed to have just started to form, almost by accident. Harry's mind did not try to reject this link as it did the other; instead, it seemed to welcome the link. In fact, the link seemed to be slowly but surely helping Harry's mind to heal.
The first thing to do was examine the telepathic links. Emma began by trying to track the link forced upon Harry's mind through the astral plane. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to figure out where it went to, other than in the general direction of England. Oddly enough, it almost seemed to be connected to Harry's scar.
The other link was much easier to follow. It was new-no more than a few weeks old and weakly connected to Harry's mind. Like the other link, this one led to England, however Emma was able to find who it was connected to… sort of. The person on the other side of the link was a powerful, well taught telepath, however she was exceedingly young. Around Harry's age, if she was even that old.
Emma used the telepathic link to get past the girl's rather extensive shields and into her mind. It was rather obvious that the girl had no idea that the link existed-not yet, at any rate. Emma was amazed at how skilled the girl was with her telepathy, considering the state of her mind. The girl might very well be mentally ill. She very carefully searched until she found the girl's name, not wanting to be discovered. Once she had a name, Emma drifted back into Harry's mind.
Harry watched Emma carefully, wondering what she'd done to his mind. It had been so different from what Snape had done that he didn't even know how to compare the two. He'd occasionally felt another… presence, gently brush against this own mind, but there had beenn no pain, no reliving of memories.
After several long moments, Emma said, "Harry, did you know that there are two telepathic links in your mind?"
"Tele-what?" said Harry, feeling more than a bit confused.
"Telepathic links. A telepathic link is a semi-permanent link between the minds of two people, generally two telepaths or a telepath and a null. They can be taken out, however it is a dangerous process if both parties don't agree to it. The link allows the people involved to speak to each other mind to mind so long as mental shields are not up and can be used to enter each other's minds or influence thoughts."
Harry paled. "Do you-do you know who I'm linked to?"
"There is an older link that seems to be contributing to the destruction of your mental shields. I believe it's been there for over a decade. I was not able to find who it connected you to. The newer link is no more than a month old." She paused. "It seems to have been formed accidentally-likely in a high stress situation. The person you are linked to doesn't know it exists, as far as I could tell."
"Who?"
"A girl by the name of Luna. I was unable to discover her surname."
That gave Harry pause. "And she doesn't know about the link."
"From what I could tell, the girl had no idea it was there. Although she is a powerful and highly trained telepath."
"And the rest of my mind?"
"All of your natural defenses were destroyed by this… legilimens. Though for what purpose I do not know."
"I can think of a couple reasons why," Harry muttered. "Could you get rid of that older telepathic link? I don't want him in my head."
"You know who you are linked to?"
"Yeah, I've been able to get into his mind before. Of course, he can get into my head as well… He's sent me false visions, fake information. He tried to take over my body two weeks ago. I want that bastard out of my head."
"Tried to take over your body?"
"It's a long story. I fought back and threw him out of my head." Harry thought back, considering what Emma had said. "I think that may have been around when Luna formed that telepathic link. She'd already been taken out of the fight by then."
"I can remove your link to this… Luna girl as well."
Harry thought it over carefully, considering what he knew about Luna. She was trustworthy but more than a bit… strange. There were questions about her mental stability, but her telepathy might actually explain some of that. He couldn't be angry about her not telling him about her powers-most would have thought her crazier than originally suspected if they'd known she heard voices as well. And according to Emma it would be dangerous to remove the link without Luna's participation.
"I'll wait on that. I want to talk to her about it myself." Another pause. "I'd rather just get Riddle out of my head before I do anything else."
If anybody was watching, they would have seen a most unusual sight, for both the Muggle and Wizarding world. The two occupants of the room were too involved in their world to notice the results.
The moment Harry's connection to Voldemort was destroyed, his scar reacted. If Emma had no been within Harry's mind, she would have seen a strange, black mist rise from Harry's lightening bolt shaped scar. After several long moments, the mist faded into nothingness. One more of Voldemort's Horcruxes had been destroyed.
"A telepathic connection?!"
"Don't remind me. Please, don't remind me. Anyway, Ms. Frost got rid of it."
Wanda Maximoff looked up from the menu she was scanning, careful not to stare at the table the conversation was coming from. She and Pietro and arranged to meet at a small, out of the restaurant that served some of the best food she'd tasted since the last time she was in Europe. She'd already arrived by the time Pietro's message had reached her. While he could not meet her due to his commitment to X-Factor, Wanda was not about to go back to Avenger's Mansion without having her much anticipated lunch.
It seemed that her decision had been a good one. At the table next to her sat the man and boy talking about telepathy and the White Queen.
The man was rather handsome, in a roguish sort of way. A multitude of visible tattoos and at least one piercing. Wanda couldn't help but admit that the wife beater the man wore did wonders for him. The boy looked much like the man, with the same dark hair and tan skin. Their facial features were somewhat similar as well.
"Snape fucked me over," added the boy. "He completely destroyed my naturally existing shields. Ms. Frost said that starting next lesson we'd work on that."
"Remind me to kill Snivellus," growled the man.
"Maybe Tonks can arrest him for being a Death Eater," suggested Harry.
"She couldn't. Dumbledore would have her… punished for trying to get his pet spy thrown in jail, no matter how much the bastard deserves it."
Her eye's widened, the only visible sign that she'd recognized some of their words. Wanda had little to do with the major magical communities. She preferred it that way. However she did keep track of what was happening. The man and boy were wizards, from the isolationist Wizarding community. The Brittish Wizarding community, judging by their accents and the references to a dark wizard's minions and Dumbledore.
Wanda herself had been invited to Durmstrang when she was a child. She couldn't bring herself to regret that decision. Particularly since she's later discovered that the students at Durmstrang may well have tried to kill her in her sleep because of her less than "pure" parentage.
"It was a thought. Oh, did you know Luna was a mutant?" asked the boy.
"Your friend from the DA? The crazy blonde, right?"
"Yeah, her. She's a telepath. Actually, I think that might be why so many people think she's so crazy. I mean, she's well, you know, now, but I didn't know her before this year. I think her powers might have shown up while she was at Hogwarts." He paused. "Ginny said that she used to act really crazy-starting around three years ago, weirder than she does now. Talking to people nobody else sees and crying or laughing for no good reason."
"That might be it. I know that her mother was a pureblood. The mutant gene couldn't have come from her. But nobody knows what her father is-other than not a wizard." The man paused. "Roxanna, Luna's mother, was one of the best Healers we had during the first war. She worked very closely with your mother. Lily was working on medical potions at the time."
"But I thought Mr. Lovegood was the editor of the Quibbler. How can he do that without being a wizard?"
"Don't know. After the way those Death Eaters that tried to kill Roxanna died, we all just assumed that he was a magical being of some sort that could pass for human. But being a mutant would make just as much sense. Most of the wards meant to protect against Muggles don't work right against mutants."
"Huh. I didn't know that."
"Wouldn't be surprised. The Ministry doesn't like stuff like that getting out. Wait, how did you know Luna was a telepath?"
"We have a telepathic link. Ms. Frost thinks Luna doesn't even know it's there." The boy paused, eating some food. "She said that it happens sometimes during high stress situations."
"The DoM."
"That's what I was thinking. I think it formed when Voldemort tried to possess me. I mean, with what Snape did to my head, I don't think I could have fought off Voldemort without any help. Luna couldn't have known what she was doing, though. She was unconscious at the time."
"Did you get rid of it?"
"Not yet… I wanted to talk to Luna before I did anything. I mean, what if getting rid of the link hurts her? I don't care what happens to Moldyshorts, but I don't want to hurt Luna."
"If you want, we could go back to-"
"I'm waiting for her to reply to my last letter. I'll mention the link in my next letter. Anyway, if nothing else, we'll be at school together for most of the year. It's not like I couldn't find her if need be."
"Are you sure about this? She has free access to your mind."
"Luna… I'd trust Luna more than Hermione with something like this. At least I know that Luna won't run off to the headmaster unless I give her permission to tell him."
"Hermione does seem to have a disturbing love of authority, doesn't she?"
"You have no idea, Sirius." The boy sighed. "I swear, sometimes I think she cares more about the rules than anything else in her life. And you wouldn't believe how fanatical she can get when it comes to school. I just… if it came to a choice between me and school or the government, I'm not sure which she'd pick."
"Who have you told about… this, anyway?"
"Only Luna. But then, she's the only one I've spoken to since school let out. And anyway, I didn't actually say it was you, I implied."