The Oath of Separation

Harry didn't even have to think about that. "No."

"Potter, there is still time." Dumbledore made one last attempt anyway. "Please, I'm begging you, reconsider what you are asking Miss Granger to do. Don't cut her out of your life. You may find out that you actually want her there and then it will be too late to get her back."

"She's the one who cut me out of her life, remember Headmaster." Harry reminded him. "When she thought I was guilty, she couldn't get rid of me fast enough. Now that she knows I'm innocent, she wants it all to be forgiven. Well that isn't going to happen and you and she had better just get used to the idea."

When Dumbledore couldn't think of anything else to say, Harry asked, "Are we done yet?"

Dumbledore nodded.

Harry left the room without a backward glance.

.....

Dinner on Friday was nearing its end when Professor McGonagall tapped on the side of her glass to silence the Great Hall.

In the ensuing silence, Dumbledore got to his feet and said, "May I have your attention please. A request has been made that you all act as witnesses to a magically binding oath." He paused for a moment an expression of disappointment on his face. "Miss Granger, Mr. Potter, if you would both please come forward."

The silence in the Great Hall was such that everyone could hear the tapping of the butt of Potter's staff. Some of the students who shared classes with Potter also noticed that instead of having a flickering light as it usually did, the deep green stone on the top of Potter's staff had a steady pulsing glow almost like a heartbeat. All the students watched Potter and Granger walk up to stand in front of the Head table. Some of the smaller students had to crane their necks to see what was going on.

"Face each other," Dumbledore instructed.

Once they had done so, the Headmaster told Hermione, "you may begin whenever you are ready, Miss Granger."

There were several minutes of silence before Hermione looked at her former best friend and begged. "Please, don't make me do this."

Those closest to the Head table saw that Potter's face was a blank mask, showing no emotion whatsoever and his voice made it clear to the rest of the room as he said flatly. "The choice is yours, Granger. I know that McGonagall told you my terms. You can take them or leave things the way they are."

Tears filled Hermione's eyes as she took out her wand and laid it across the palms of her hands. "I, Hermione Jane Granger, do hereby solemnly swear upon my magic that I will never deliberately approach Harry James Potter or deliberately speak with him ever again. The day I do so, I will lose my magic."

The students in the Great Hall gasped as a blue aura surrounded Granger and it seemed to be reaching out tendrils toward Potter.

"I, Harry James Potter, do hereby accept the magically binding vow of Hermione Jane Granger to never deliberately come near me or speak to me ever again. And I return that which you value over everything else in your life."

As soon as Potter finished speaking, a deep green aura surrounded him and tendrils flowed outward to meet the questing ones from Granger. As soon as they made contact, they seemed to tie themselves together and then both auras vanished.

"So mote it be," Dumbledore intoned and they could hear the note of sadness in his voice. "The oath has been given and accepted and it has been witnessed by those assembled here. I only hope that one day you do not regret was done here today, Mr. Potter."

"I doubt I ever will." Harry told him before returning to his seat at the end of the Gryffindor table.

AN: I got the idea of what to do to Hermione from an old Twilight Zone episode where a guy finally had all the time in the world to read as much as he wanted, but just as he was getting started, he broke his only pair of glasses and without them he was blind as a bat. I also know that for me taking away my ability to read, would be a truly horrible punishment.

.....

"Headmaster, I would like to speak with you regarding Mr. Potter." McGonagall told him once the other Heads of House had left the Headmaster's office after their weekly Friday meeting.

"What else has he done, Minerva?" Dumbledore was beginning to regret forcing young Harry to go back to Hogwarts, but he wasn't going to give up on or abandon the boy, not this time. Aside from the fact that the wizarding world still needed Harry Potter, he had no intention of making the same mistake he'd made last year, the one that had led to Harry's incarceration in Azkaban.

"He hasn't done anything else Albus. It's what he might do next that has me concerned, given his actions toward Miss Granger. Not to mention the oath he made her swear that is going to force her to stay away from him or risk losing her magic. I know it was your intention to try and get him to forgive his friends and now that door has been slammed in Miss Granger's face forever." McGonagall told him.

"Not quite, Minerva." Dumbledore told her. "The oath doesn't block Mr. Potter from talking to her and if he does, then it will not cause the loss of Miss Granger's magic. It is possible that we may be able to convince him to release her from the oath he had her swear."

"That will never happen." McGonagall snorted. "It has been almost two months, Headmaster, and I see no signs of his anger diminishing. At best he ignores his fellow students and at his worst he is so contemptuous of them that they want very little to do with him. I don't think your plan is going to work Albus. If it were we should be seeing signs of it by now."

Dumbledore sighed and got up from his desk to stare out the window for a moment. "He just needs time, Minerva."

"How much time and is he to be given this time at the expense of the other students?" McGonagall wanted to know. "Because I must tell you Headmaster the first year Gryffindors will have nothing to do with him. They stay as far away from him as possible and a number of them were quite pleased that they were going to be in the same House as Harry Potter until they met him."

"Has he harmed them?" Dumbledore asked quickly.

"If you mean has he done anything similar to what he did to Miss Granger, then no, but he treats them with outright contempt and they had nothing to do with what happened last year. He is tarring them with the same brush that he has used for the second through seventh year students and they don't deserve that Albus. They are innocent of the wrongdoings of their fellow Gryffindors." McGonagall told him. "I never thought I would ever say this, but it may be in the best interests of all if Mr. Potter were segregated from his fellow Gryffindors, if only for their safety."

Dumbledore shook his head. "I'm sorry Minerva, but that can't happen. Also I doubt that Mr. Potter will do them any physical harm, unless they first try and harm him. He may be an angry young man, but he still has a strong sense of right and wrong and there are lines even he will not cross."

"What do you call what he did to Miss Granger if not physical harm?" McGonagall couldn't believe how calmly the Headmaster was taking this.

"No it was not," Dumbledore disagreed. "The harm he did was emotional and maybe mental. If he had wanted to, I think Mr. Potter could have easily blinded Miss Granger. He did block her ability to see the written word and for an avid reader like Miss Granger that was far more painful. I do have to agree with Mr. Potter about one thing. Miss Granger is a very stubborn young woman and it is very hard to get her to change her mind about some things. Also she is thoroughly convinced that she knows what's best for those around her and that she has the right to meddle in their lives."

"Hmm," McGonagall mused with her first smile of the evening, "that sounds an awful lot like some one I know."

Dumbledore drew himself up and tried to look affronted, "I have no idea who you could be taking about."

"Are you sure?" McGonagall teased, her grin broadening.

....

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