Reflections Pt. 3

But as for Ron and Hermione, they'd played their roles so beautifully he had honestly thought they were simply following him into danger as intent on rescuing the Stone as he was.

For more selfish reasons, yes. But still only wanting to do what was right and protect people in the process. He hadn't seen, until years later, how the pair were his control agents leading him where Dumbledore wanted him to go and showing him what Dumbledore wanted him to see so that he would fulfill his role in Dumbledore's games, all the while thinking it was his own idea and blaming only himself for anything that went wrong and anyone who died during the gameplay.

The worst part was, the stupid stone had never been in any danger since it had never actually been in the Castle to begin with. The stone Dumbledore had hidden in the mirror was a forgery. A clever one but a fake nonetheless. Something the Flamels had made clear to Harry in their reply letter.

Not that either Dumbledore or Voldemort had known that. Neither had he actually. But still. Those two had put a school full of children in the middle of their differences just because they could.

And Nicolas and Penny hadn't wanted the decoy there because the whole world believed it was the real stone and that put the children in danger. Something Albus knew full well. Knew but didn't care. Because he was bored and wanted to play a game with his rival.

Still, Nicolas and Penny had been glad to get it back since they used it as a decoy any time rumors about the real stone and its properties began to circulate again. The real stone, only they knew the location of and neither of them would ever reveal it to anyone.

Harry had finally admitted during this long summer of thought that's exactly what it was to Dumbledore. A game. A game he called The Greater Good. And Ron and Hermione, Harry's supposedly two best friends, were really just two of the many people he used to keep Harry, deaf, blind, and stupid so he could maneuver him the way he wished him to go.

Someone had died every year, too. That was the saddest part of the whole thing. All his efforts to save lives failed because in the end, when push came to shove, there was always someone he failed to save.

His first year, the person to die had been his teacher of the Dark Arts. He died by Harry's own hands though Dumbledore had tried to claim he had pulled the man off Harry and thereby saved Harry's life and established a life debt between Harry and himself. Harry knew that wasn't true. Well, he knew now.

Research had told him exactly what life debts were and how they were established. There were, as it turned out, several things wrong with the old man trying to claim such a debt against Harry. Not the least of which, was the fact that as his Headmaster, it was the old man's duty to save Harry should Harry find himself in mortal peril due to something or someone in the school.

Second, you can't claim such a debt against a person if you are the reason they are in mortal peril to begin with and he was. Finally, the person wishing to claim the debt has to place themselves in mortal peril equal to the peril facing the one they intend to save. Dumbledore, who hadn't even been present at the time, met none of that criteria.

If Dumbledore really wanted Harry to owe him a life debt, he should have intervened as soon as Quirrel had placed his hands on Harry's neck. Drawn the possessed Quirrel's attention to himself right away.

But he hadn't. Instead, he'd lurked in the shadows, if he'd even made it there by that time, waiting for Harry to pass out from oxygen deprivation first. That hesitancy though gave Harry the chance to realize it was the skin-to-skin touch that was harming the possessed teacher.

Harry had acknowledged that when he'd placed his own hands on the Professor's face to speed up the skin-to-skin contact effect and that was what had killed the Professor.

He knew it and nothing Dumbledore could say could change that knowledge. Because Quirrel was, at the time, possessed by Lord Voldemort, he couldn't tolerate Harry's touch which had been imbued with the spell his Mother had cast on him the night she died to protect him from Lord Voldemort. Dumbledore had been forced to admit it when he'd visited Harry in the infirmary.

Even still, Dumbledore had never placed himself in harm's way to rescue Harry. So he'd never have been able to claim a true debt anyway.

And that wasn't even mentioning the fact that it was his game that had caused the confrontation to begin with. So no life debt was owed him.

Harry had used that long past summer to convince himself he'd done the teacher a favor since the man had been possessed by Voldie all year and was dying by degrees anyway.

It was regrettable but both Dumbledore and Voldemort had felt the life of Quirinus Quirrel was an acceptable loss in this war of ideals they were engaged in. But still, by the time he'd returned to Hogwarts as a twelve-year-old, he had faced the fact that he was, whether he liked it or not, a murderer.

He also knew for a fact there was no life debt between him and the Headmaster which made the man a liar and a conman even if he couldn't claim to know anything more damaging about the man. And that meant he wasn't trustworthy.

During that first summer, he'd convinced his Uncle to take him to London when he had a business trip there, and made a trip to the three bookstores in Diagon Alley.

There, he had asked the store owners to point him to books about life debts only explaining someone was trying to claim one against him and he wanted to find out more before he accepted or denied the claim.

Since Harry was famous in the magical world, to hear someone was trying to claim any kind of a debt against him was cause for alarm. The merchants had been only too happy to help him.

The owner of the second-hand shop even went into her backroom to see if she had any books that hadn't yet made it to the shelves. He'd left her shop with five books.

At Flourish and Blotts, the manager pointed out three different books he thought Harry should read as they had information in them about different categories of debts one magic user could claim against another.

And Obscurus, down in Knockturn Alley, had delivered two very old books about such debts. One book was all about the more esoteric and obscure debts a witch or wizard could claim.

The other told about debts that could be turned back on the person claiming them and how to do it to free yourself from the obligation.

So all in all, he'd come back to Privet Drive with ten books on magical debts to read. He'd been surprised when his Uncle had let him keep them in Dudley's second bedroom with him and even more surprised when his Aunt made certain he had time to actually read them between doing his normal chores.

Harry had also picked up a wide variety of other books covering not only the myths he had come up against that past school year, but also things every wizarding child raised in the magical world knows before they get to Hogwarts.

Harry had read all books on magical debts before deciding he didn't owe a life debt to anyone as he didn't feel a pull on his core to go above and beyond what was normal for him.

Not for the sake of the old man or for anyone else. It was from them though that Harry had come to realize Hermione Granger did owe him just such a debt as he had definitely placed himself in peril to rescue her from a Troll on Halloween.