For a while, things were joyful and calm. The four of them played Exploding Snap while ignoring a whispered, fervent conversation the adults were having at the far end of the room. Even his mama was engaged in the discussion. But the students were fine with letting that be an adult problem for the time being, more focused on having their friend group back together, healthy and safe.
Eventually, however, Hermione set down her cards mid-game and turned towards him, biting her lip as she chewed over her words.
"Harry, I can't lie and say I'm comfortable with you practicing such Dark magic. it's very illegal and I would be so upset if you got expelled or arrested. But you are my friend and I'm going to support you no matter what. I'd like to ask you some questions later, but I just wanted to apologize for storming off last we spoke."
"Will you please let Harry give you an amulet?" Ron begged. "You could have died!"
"Well - I - I don't -"
"Hermione," Luna said. "It was very upsetting knowing that you could have been safe if only you hadn't run off."
"Look, if you must know the details, the spell ties your life force with someone else's. We picked three inmates at Azkaban because no one will notice or care if they start getting mysterious injuries, plus they deserve it. They are all former followers of Voldemort. So if you get injured, the spell takes life force from them to heal you, even to the point of death." Harry explained calmly.
"Oh," she said very quietly. "Well that's objectively morally reprehensible and again, illegal."
"Actually," Luna said. "The Ministry doesn't have any laws explicitly prohibiting the use of torture on prisoners, as to do so would mean they'd have to remove the dementors. According to international law, dementors are considered an inhumane punishment. So Harry is breaking no laws there. Papa told me that laws against using certain spells is just the government trying to interfere with private citizens. Why should the ministry dictate which spells I can and cannot do in my own home? Tell me, Hermione, are you a shill for our unjust, prejudiced, and corrupt government?"
"Well no, but - "
"Also it was because of Harry's Dark magic that we were able to find the Chamber, kill the basilisk, and get rid of the thing that was possessing Ginny!" Ron argued.
"I already said I'm on his side!" She defended. "I would never turn Harry in or anything, but that doesn't mean I'm comfortable participating in -"
"You don't understand what it was like, seeing you frozen like that! Dammit Hermione, it was awful! All of us missed you. We were up almost every night trying to find out how to get into the Chamber, Harry most of all! Trudging through the Forbidden Forest, dealing with so many bloody spiders, almost dying to that snake! You don't get to sit here and be all bossy Miss Morals on us when you didn't have to suffer through you being petrified like we did!"
Hermione deflated, her lips quivering.
"Alright," she whispered finally."I'll do it."
"When you come over this summer," Harry bargained, seeing how agreeing to this troubled her morals. "I'll let you borrow any of mama's books that you want. Most of them you can't find at Hogwarts."
"Books?" she perked up slightly like a dog hearing the word treat . Ron let out a laugh, and the tension between them eased.
"Look," Hermione continued after a moment. "I apologize for causing you emotional pain. I had not intended to be petrified, obviously, but you're right, if I hadn't run off I would have been safe. For me, it feels like it was just yesterday that fight happened, but you all have been dealing with this for ages."
"It's been a hard school year for all of us," Luna soothed. "But it's all over now."
"Yeah, now we can pretend to be normal for a bit and have fun."
"Actually, mama is really mad about the Chamber, so I've been grounded from having any fun at all for the rest of the school year. She even convinced the professors to give me extra homework," Harry complained, grinning as he said it. "And threatened the house elves against letting me have any sweets."
Ron shuffled their cards and dished them out for another round.
"We'd better have as much fun as possible before the adults notice then." Whatever their parents were speaking of, it was clearly turning into a heated discussion. Mr. Granger's arms were gesticulating wildly and it looked like Mr Weasley was taking notes.
.....
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