The Intelligent Potter

*** Gringotts

Griphook picked up a letter off his desk, he usually had several to answer, and he usually started from the top of the pile of letters, but this particular letter, though it was near the bottom of the pile, caught his attention.

It was addressed to 'Teller Griphook' as opposed to 'Gringotts Teller'

He opened the letter, noting it was from Mr. Potter, who he had helped, just before the school year had started.

He slit the letter open with an official Gringotts letter opener.

Dear Mr. Teller Griphook,

May your enemies blood taste the ground,

I was wondering whether the Potter family owns any pensieves, and if they do, whether it would be possible to withdraw it from the Potter vault despite my being only 11 years of age, and not Lord Potter yet,

May the gold of your enemies fill your vaults,

Your customer, Harry James Potter.

Griphook was surprised that Potter had followed goblin customs of speech and respected him as his position demanded.

He was pleased that he could answer in the affirmative and just because of Harry's courtesy, mailed it along with the letter back.

*** Hogwarts, next morning

Hedwig flew into the Hall, slightly late, heaving a large package which she dropped onto the table in front of Harry immediately and pecked his ear for snacks.

Harry passed Hedwig an owl snack and kept his package under the table and continued reading his book.

Hermione, who was sitting opposite him, gave him a meaningful look. Harry nodded back.

Dumbledore, who was on his way out of the hall stopped near Harry.

"Ah, Harry, my boy, your large package peaked my curiosity, if I'm not too prying, what was in the box?"

Harry looked down at the box rather than look at Dumbledore.

"Just some books I really liked in the Hogwarts library and wanted to have permanently, I owl-ordered the books so that I could keep them.

Dumbledore nodded politely and moved on, wondering what books Harry was interested in, but encouraged that Harry seemed to be studying.

*** Later, secluded part of the library

Harry and Hermione were in a really secluded part of the library, hidden between several awkwardly angled shelves, Harry and Hermione had dragged in a pair of armchairs and a table.

Harry pulled out his pensieve, it was a large engraved affair with the Potter crest which happened to be the talons of a griffin criss-crossed against an intricate letter 'P'.

It was far better than Dumbledore's and had the ability to project memories rather than the 'traditional form' of a pensieve which allowed one to view the memory only inside itself.

Harry entered his own memory, and Hermione watched as Harry paused the memory just as Voldemort was blasted back in the memory.

It was only there for a split second but there was no denying that it was The Dark Lord.

"We have to tell Dumbledore!" Hermione exclaimed.

Harry shook his head, he did not want to reveal his skill in Occlumency and his possession of a pensieve to the Headmaster.

"No, Hermione, I would have to reveal that I can do a level of Occlumency and I don't think that's a good idea."

Hermione looked puzzled, "But… what's the point of having knowledge if you don't tell people you have it?"

Harry sighed, this was definitely one of Hermione's biggest problems.

"You don't gain knowledge to flaunt it, Hermione, knowledge is to be used in your own advantage, whether revealing it is a good idea or not depends on the situation." Harry said, that was how he viewed knowledge, useful and to be used in your own favour, if revealing it got people on your side then so be it, but in this case, Harry didn't want to reveal his Occlumency skills unless absolutely necessary.

He had been lucky to fool Voldemort with his childish trick and he knew he would have to be more careful with his Occlumency as well as subtler.

"But telling Professor Dumbledore will only help us, he's the only one that Voldemort fears!" Hermione exclaimed.

Harry sighed, unsure how to explain.

"A skill like Occlumency is very useful to have, and especially when my skills are not very advanced, its not very helpful if a legilimencer knows what to expect." Harry said.

"But Professor Dumbledore won't use legilimency on a student!"

"Dumbledore is one of the greatest legilimancers of our age." Harry said, "It would be too tempting to be able to just know what happened at a confrontation, I won't risk it."

Hermione opened her mouth as if to protest but then decided to just trust Harry on this.

Neither she nor Harry would know how good of a decision that would turn out to be.

*** Later, Library

So far, both Harry's and Hermione's search had been fruitless, and Harry was thinking about just giving up and continuing the next day.

"Harry!" Hermione said excitedly, pointing to a short sentence in a thick book.

The Power of Unicorn's blood is one of the most magical substances in the world. Despite their magical properties, when it is forcefully extracted, it is no longer light magic and only the most desperate Dark Wizards would ever resort to using the blood of a unicorn. It magnifies dark blood magic rituals to a great extent, perhaps best exemplified in the life sustenance ritual, which could theoretically keep a soul alive within a host. Fortunately, there are no dark wizards foolish enough to actually try it, because once unicorn's blood is consumed, the user is cursed to live a half-life.

Hermione pointed to the sentence about theoretically keeping a soul alive.

"That could be it!" Hermione squealed.

Harry looked at it skeptically, "Would Voldemort be dumb enough to curse his own life?"

Hermione looked crestfallen.

"It's still a possibility, just… I don't think Voldemort would do something like that… unless he thinks he can break the curse."

*** End of Chapter