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Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 22: V's Warning
"Functional, you say?. What does that even entail?" Dumbleodre didn't like the idea of having a mentally unstable person with the capacity to wield magic in such a destructive way.
"I mean sane… or something close to that," the hat said. "When Harry created me, his mind was nearly broken. I don't even understand how he managed to do that in his state of mind. I believe it was his subconscious pushing him to fabricate something that could help him feel somewhat stable."
"And how is it that you help him exactly…" Dumbledore still had a tone of suspicion. He wanted to know what this soul fragment was doing to the boy.
"I have my own separate mind inside this magical artifact. However, mine works differently, and I do not possess the weaknesses of a human mind. I cannot go insane or become unstable because I don't have the emotional depth to do so."
"And?" Dumbledore urged him to continue.
"And because our minds are always connected, Harry can use me to keep him stable. If you will, think of the human mind as a vast ocean and the consciousness as a boat floating in this ocean. I serve as an anchor to keep the boat from going adrift."
"Mmmm… so Harry has lost his connection to the real you, but not to the fragment," Dumbledore pointed.
"Something like that. However, our connection only works if we are in close proximity. If you separate us for too long, then Harry's mind will break, and you will have a disaster in your hands."
Dumbledore frowned, recalling the destruction that Harry had caused.
'If Harry was unconscious as the hat said, then it must have been his subconscious that retaliated against me when I suggested taking the hat away.' He concluded it must have been an act of self-defense to preserve the integrity of his mind.
"He is more dangerous than you can imagine," the hat finally added.
"What?" Dumbledore was a bit surprised at the comment. Despite his claim of not having feelings, the hat seemed very attached to Harry, and now he said something like that.
"I'm just giving you this warning so you are more careful in the future. You may think you know Harry Potter, but the one currently in front of you is a completely different being."
"I am aware of how dangerous an Obscurus can be… trust me," Dumbledore said in a solemn tone.
"I wasn't just talking about that… nah, forget about it. There is no point in talking about it."
Dumbledore was about to say something when he noticed a sudden change in Harry.
The light seemed to return to his green eyes before they moved to glance at him and blink a few times.
"Professor…" Harry spoke.
"Oh, he is back," the hat said.
"V. You said too much." Harry didn't look very happy right now.
"Well… I am like fifty percent mouth, what did you expect?" the hat responded. "Did you listen to our entire conversation?"
"Some parts of it. I was kinda busy."
"Yes, I figured that much. By the way, your subconscious made quite the mess," V said.
"Huh? What mess?" Harry glanced at the Headmaster again for an explanation.
"Well, there was a bit of an incident, when… ehm…" Dumbledore was looking between the hat and Harry.
"The old man panicked when he learned about my old identity and did something stupid," the hat said.
"Ah… I knew that was going to cause trouble," Harry said before addressing the Headmaster. "Did you try to destroy V?"
"No, well… I thought it was harming you, so—"
"I see. I don't remember that. Give me the details, V." Harry saw images sprout into his mind. Memories of what had transpired some moments ago, during the destruction of Dumbledore's office.
This was another use of his mental connection with the hat. Transferring knowledge, memories, and communicating without the use of words were easy tasks.
Harry still liked to communicate using words because it made him feel more human, but when he needed to pass large ammounts of information, this was the best method.
His eyes moved to the Headmaster.
This is when Dumbledore truly understood the hat's previous words. The two of them may look the same, but looking into his eyes now, it became clear to him that this Harry was a different person.
He shouldn't be too surprised, considering the tremendous amount of time he spent inside that frozen world, alone for the most part.
Dumbledore didn't even know how long he had been in there. Only what the hat had told him.
There were so many things he wanted to ask Harry, and he wondered how much of the entire experience he could remember.
Occlumency can be used to gain complete control over one's mind and, among other things, it helps a lot with matters like organizing and storing memories. However, even this wonderful branch of magic has its limits.
"Harry, I—" Dumbledore was then interrupted.
"We can talk later. There are some important things I must do before anything else." Harry stood up from the chair and pulled the old wand he got from the Death Eater.
Dumbledore took note of the wand in Harry's hand and realized it was clearly different.
While Harry's wand was made of holly wood and had a light brown tone, this one was almost completely black.
"Harry, what happened to your wand?"
"This?" Harry showed it to him. "This is not mine...I borrowed it from one of those masked men. My actual wand was lost at some point in the frozen world… even I don't remember exactly when."
"You mean that wand belongs to a Death Eater?!" Dumbledore exclaimed.
"I don't plan on using it for long…" Harry walked to the center of the office. "I need to leave the school for a few hours."
"Hold on, you can't just leave like that." Dumbledore became alarmed.
"Not only is it not allowed for students to leave, but especially for you, it is not s—"
"Gate." Harry ignored the old Headmaster and opened a portal before walking away through it.
Dumbledore had no time to stop him and could only watch in shock as Harry completely bypassed Hogwarts' anti-apparition protections with that strange magic.
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