A New Tournament (Harry Potter & SG:SG1)

Oh, he's going the OP route, don't doubt that.

But he can't learn magic from it, nor gain magic powers, so no gods, and fantasy wizards would mostly be pointless since they wouldn't actually grant him anything. Also remember, he's limited by his own knowledge of such things. The Dursley's didn't exactly encourage reading fantasy, and I doubt to many copies of muggle fantasy grace Hogwart's halls. So for now at least, he's limited to books he read at early school (what do the call grade school in England?) and possibly movie characters he's seen on previews or TV shows (Scotty and Spock from Star Trek spring to mind).

But once someone tells him of such things, he's golden. Although he'll be somewhat more cautious than what you describe, he's already figured out demons are real, so trips through the planes are on hold. Even if he does choose someone who grants him knowledge of other worldly creatures, he isn't just going to assume it's accurate and complete. He's FAR more aware of his mortality compared to most kids his age to take stupid risks and push things.He's had to many near death experiances to suffer from believing he has the Three I's (Immortal, Impervious, Infertile).

But there's other ways to use it to gain OP status.

 

It's been awhile.
Like a majority of people I think, I've been spending the vast majority of my free time watching war news. And what free time hasn't gone into that, has gone into my campaign, so I'm really behind on writing.

In any case, for those of you who are still interested, here is part 2 of chapter 8. I still don't have a name for it. Remember, this comes before my last post.

Also, the first half of this, had almost no extra work done to it. My normal habit was to write a section and then spend about a month or 2 adding things and changing conversations to make it flow better. But what little free time I devoted to writing, I just didn't do that for the first half of this, so comes across as more telling rather than showing. I think I did a better job on the second half. I had someone tell me to just add partial conversations, rather than the entire things. Bits and bobs to give people the jist of what was being said, but then telling them the details to avoid drag.

Let me know if it worked.


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Harry woke with a start. Something was different. Automatically grabbing his wand, even before his glasses and glancing around, trying to make sense of the curtains and the sounds of people talking and arguing on the other side of them, for a long moment before a rush of memories from the night before hit him. Sitting up quickly he suddenly noticed two additional figures besides Ron and Hermione. One was clearly Dobby, the other was a tallish woman with long black hair and a look of pure amusement on her vaguely familiar face.

Jumping to his feet, but not actually raising his wand, Harry was uncomfortably aware that in his and his friends state, she could already have easily killed them. “Er, hi.” he said instead, any shot at eloquence having fled the room long before he woke up. His words must have woken the others, because he saw her gaze shift to them and her smile turn to a slight frown with a look at Ron, and then a sudden slight gasp as Hermione turned to face her.

Shit! Forgot about that. He’d only applied a few basic ‘Episkey’ spells to close the wounds and stop her from bleeding so the damage was still clearly visible. It was Ron’s voice how ever that spoke up next; “Who’re you?” He asked in a strained tone of voice that left Harry with little doubt he had his wand pointed at her. Harry however, never glanced away from her.

Dobby however, decided to try and keep things peaceful. “Dobby being introducing the lady barrister, Miss Zara Zabini. Dobby contacted her about an hour ago to work for the Great Harry Potter and his friends Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger. Dobby be noticing many Aurors swarming Hogwarts, and Harry Potter and his friends have many bad wizards as enemies. And since too many Aurors are being ready to take gold instead of evidence when trying to solve crimes, Dobby be thinking that ‘The Trio’ be needing a barrister, so Dobby be bringing Miss Zabini right here. And Miss Hermione Granger should be noting, Miss Zara Zabini is being one of the people she should be telling what really happened.”

Harry finally took his eyes off Miss Zabini to stare at Dobby, for some reason, his mind hooking on to the way he called them ‘The Trio.’ Looking back at Miss Zabini just in time to see her hold out her hand. “Greetings Mister Potter, as Dobby said, I’m your Barrister now. Nice work with the curtains by the way, but you do know that the right supersensory charms can see through them correct?”

“The ‘Avea Apara’ I cast should block that. Being on the inside, we can cast them and see through the curtains, but the dome would stop their spells from seeing in.” He replied. “Sorry, but this is somewhat unexpected. Normally when things like this happen, we just get sent to the Headmasters office, so I’m… …We’re not used to having to deal with barristers and Aurors.”

“Do your adventures normally result in bodies littering the school?” she asked.

“You’d probably be surprised.” Ron said causing her to snap her head in his direction, as much in surprise at his actual words as to his tone of utter defeat. “Although, this time, it does seem worse than normal.”

“”Yes” She said slowly, with growing hesitancy in her voice, “Yes this is definitely worse.” Shaking her head, she continued with the same tome she started with. “Now, I assume we are in the Gryffindor common room correct? I’ve never been here before and Dobby popped me in here directly bypassing everywhere else. So I’ll need at least a basic run down of what happened and what your involvement was so I can shatter the plan the ass outside the dome has to arrest you three and blame it all on you.”

Harry quickly cast a ‘One way wall’ charm on the curtains, a spell that makes a wall transparent from one side, and looked around the common room. There was several people in the purple robes of an Auror doing the mysterious work of law enforcement, throughout the world, collecting evidence. Along with them, Harry saw Professor McGonagall, but no students, they must have been sent upstairs to their dorms. It was still dark out the windows, so unless they slept the entire day through, it’d only been a few hours since they’d basically collapsed. Professor McGonagall seemed to be arguing with one particular arrogant looking Auror, so he assumed that was who she was talking about.

“Ok, what do you need to know?”

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“If it helps smooth things over Madam Bones, young Harry has offered to brib… …gift various public institutions an amount equal to what Crabbe offered to help smooth things over and show his remorse all those years ago.” Those words, coming from the mouth of Ms Zabini seemed almost musical to Harry. The look on Madam Bone’s face was priceless. The look on Mr Granger’s was less so. Harry hoped he’d understand when it was explained to him later, he didn’t want to cause a schism between Hermione and her parents.

Waking up having Blaise’s Mum standing over them had been unnerving. Having to tell her what happened was much more difficult than he thought it’d be. Watching her eviscerate the Auror by the name of Dawlish, who wanted to arrest them and throw them into Azkaban was beautiful, although it became clear she would have failed in the face of his obstinacy without Dumbledore arriving in a, not quite visible, but clearly felt, aura of power. It had been awe inspiring in several ways. First, gone was the kindly old man routine that Dumbledore puts on so people forget just how powerful he is. He entered the common room in a storm of anger at what Dawlish was doing, towering over everyone (even though he was normally not the tallest person there), power flowing out from him in nearly tangible waves, a shimmer, like hot air over pavement, was visible to the naked eye. Some of the Aurors in the room actually dived for cover, and all of them had backed up at Least a step or two, with Dawlish falling over backwards, dropping his wand, and proceeding to scooch back until he hit the edge of the spell dome protecting the Trio and Ms Zabini and was forced to stop.

After what seemed like several minutes of heart stopping tension, but was likely only a few seconds, the aura of power seemed to dissipate into nothingness as if it had never been, and the slightly absent minded and kindly old man act was back, the Headmaster ever so politely ‘Suggesting’ that maybe Dawlish should go out onto the grounds and help his fellow Aurors search the near forest areas, leaving absolutely no doubt there wasn’t even a hint of a suggestion involved.

The look of relieve on the other Aurors faces after he left (fled) was in equal measure amusing and disturbing. The fact that they didn’t seem to like Dawlish and were bothered by his actions was good, but that they didn’t seem to be willing to interfere wasn’t. The Headmaster and Ms Zabini shared a look that seemed to communicate something similar, although he was clearly disturbed and or frustrated at her presence, but only said a single word, “Dobby?” Glancing around, Harry noticed the elf was gone, but Ms Zambini simply nodded. “Very well.” He continued, “I believe you three are expected in the hospital wing. Aurors Proudfoot and Tonks shall escort you there.”

And with that, he left and presumably, the two named Aurors stepped up to escort them. The male, Proudfoot was an older man of indeterminate racial background, and more than his share of scars. It honestly made Harry wonder how anyone was ever fooled by Lockheart, since it seemed like everyone who ever stood up to darkness had scars. The girl was rather tall, and slightly amusing, even if she was trying to be deadly serious. Hair that seemed to shift from neon blue to dark purple to Weasley orange to snow white to jet black in a slowly spiraling cycle. Her Auror robes appeared several sizes to short, as if she had just had a major growth spurt like Ron. And she was the single clumsiest person Harry had ever met. Harry had to wonder how she had survived traveling up and down Hogwarts staircases for seven years as she seemed too familiar with the layout for her to have attended another school.

All three of the adults were quiet on the way down, and all six of them where watching out for any remaining dangers. Once they arrived at Hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey had bustled them over to a set of beds set off to the side away from everyone else. As always, when multiple groups with little previous contact meet, new illnesses spring up and as such, there had been something going around the school since the other two schools showed up so there was several students in beds, as well as two other Aurors on guard duty. She quickly ran some diagnostic spells on them and cast several spells on Hermione having breathed a sigh of relief over her injuries looking far worse than they actually were, although she still looked terrible, although Ron got a confused frown when she checked him. She then got the three of them set up with hospital wing bed clothes via switching spells, told them she’d be back in a bit to deal with Hermoine’s scars and stepped aside giving the four of them space to talk.

Ms Zabini rather cheerfully set up a set of anti eavesdropping spells while shooing the two Aurors off to the side so they could talk in private, and even asked Harry to duplicate the one way wall spell on the curtain. After that,she started to question them again, but in much more depth. Were before, she just wanted to know enough to be able to confuse and disrupt Dawlish, now she wanted in depth answers. And many of those answers led to even more questions. And those answers led to even more, and many looks of confusion and outrage from her as well. For instance, a comment she’d made about Lucius Malfoy and their readily apparent distrust of him led to a discussion about their second year and Lockheart, the Diary and the Basilisk, with Harry and Ron making a couple of jabs about how Not-Voldemort/Riddle had tried to weaken Ginny’s will by offering to kill off several of her tormentors from Slytherian and her managing to resist. Even going so far as to offer to kill Draco as the Malfoy family have been enemies of the Weasleys for generations.

Since her son Blaise was in Slytherian, this one struck close to home for her. Not that Harry was going to push it, she WAS helping them and the two of them where basing what they said on things Riddle had hinted at, but not outright stated and Ginny herself had alluded to, but again, never directly said. Ms Zabini did add Ginny to her list of clients however, payed for by Harry. It was also clear however, that they didn’t have enough time to go over everything in detail, so she tried to keep things on track. Harry had to answer a LOT of questions about the weekend and what he’d been up to. And more importantly HOW since he was supposed to be bound to a short distance from school. His reply that he’d left a part of himself behind had received a raised eyebrow (causing Hermione to mutter a Spock joke), but Harry wasn’t about to elaborate on that one.

He also claimed he didn’t know the reason why Grindelwald had really helped his Mom when she asked, but did make several allusions to all of the Death Eaters claiming Voldemort was the most fearsome Dark Lord of all time when he never even managed to take over a school much less an entire country, were Grindelwald had managed to take over two thirds of the world and had at one point, dueled every single member of the Archmages Council, five at the time, as well as three of the other four Dark Lords active then. And he was actively fighting a war against all nine of them simultaneously, so Grindelwald really wasn’t all that impressed with Voldemort, and maybe, just maybe wanted to tweak his nonexistent nose a little.

Harry wasn’t sure if she believed him or not, but she didn’t have any other explanation and didn’t seem willing to push. He did however tell her about being the heir to the Grindelwald line, again leaving out that he was an actual descendant. He also told her about being Sirius’s legal heir and that Lucius Malfoy had been robbing him for over a decade and had somehow convinced the Wizengamot to make Draco the heir and for Narcissa to be the regent. When he mentioned how much money the Goblins said Malfoy owed him, she’d admitted to having him as a client, though stated that she had already decided to drop him over the Basilisk issue, so the loss of his ability to pay her wouldn’t be a factor.

Hermoine said that Dobby told her to only tell Harry, Ron, her parents, Dumbledore, Madam Bones and now Ms Zabini what happened and she’d prefer to do it all at once, repeating what she’d told the Aurors upstairs in the common room.

For Ron, she got really in depth, he was her actual client here, and the one who would need the most defense. Not helping this matter was that Harry wasn’t sure Ron felt he should be defended, although there was no way in Hell Harry was going to abandon him after just getting him back. Zabini did seem to latch on to fake Moody’s class on the Unforgivables, and it was clear that was going to be the case she would make. For all Harry knew, it might have even been true.

During all of this, Harry had been intermittently reading his How To book whenever she was questioning the other two, something that caused all three of them and the two Aurors, to look oddly at him (if for different reasons). Having whispered to it the question on how to do what Dumbledore did upstairs with the aura of power. The Book had responded with the title; How to project and Use a Nimbus of the Archmage. It was surprisingly easy to do, and it’s effects were rather nice, if somewhat absurd. At it’s base, it was essentially a variant of the Servo Stellas spell, which serves to overpower spells cast after and makes them harder to resist and break. But unlike casting the spell twice, which would only use the best or most powerful casting, the Nimbus was compatible with the spell, as well as the Rune of Power which did something similar. Yeah, he was learning this one. There was also several additional effects, such as the illusion of height and an increase to basic charisma and mental affinity.

This was only eight pages long, so took Harry about fifteen minutes to read it AND absorb the knowledge. For shit’s and giggles, he passed the book and glasses to Ron, who gave him a really weird look when he did so, when she stopped asking him questions and went back to questioning Harry. Ron passed them to Hermione when he was done, having figured out at least something about how the glasses worked at least. Who knows, maybe they’re legendary items all purebloods knew about. Of course, he’d asked the book in Alterian so Ms Zabini wouldn’t know what he said if she heard, and putting on his old glasses so he could see, he noticed the title was in Alterian, so maybe Ron just figured they were glasses of translation or something.

For her part, Hermione pulled a notebook out of her purse and started to copy the book and right out notes, then passed them back. She at least seemed to be in a better mood now, finding what the book said highly amusing. It was a couple of hours before Dumbledore showed back up with another lady who Harry was positive was Susan Bones’s aunt as well as both Ron and Hermione’s parents. Harry quickly suppressed a twinge of jealousy about the absence of Remus and Sirius even though he new full good and well Sirius couldn’t be here at all and Remus would likely be having problems with the Aurors. Unbidden, Dobby’s comment about several Aurors seeking gold rather than evidence sprung into mind.

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“I’m sure that that will not be necessary Ms Zabini.” Dumbledore answered. That was somewhat of a shame, when he’d been asking questions of the Book about things like practical political assassination and how to get rid of Lucius Malfoy and Snape, bribery had come up several times and Harry had been hoping his first foray into that particular skill set would have someone with actual experience overseeing it. Oh well.

“Now, we do need to go over just what you three have been doing all weekend.” Madam Bones said.

“Relevance?” Ms Zabini asked.

With an annoyed look at her Bones replied; “If the fact that they’ve come into center of an episode that has left over two dozen dead bodies spread throughout Hogwarts isn’t enough, how about the fact that there as been a nationwide search for them all weekend?” Her words caused Hermione's parents to look up sharply, evidently THEY hadn’t been informed of that. “And in at least Harry’s case, that search was extended onto the Continent. So do NOT give us any crap about Relevance Ms Zabini! It’s entirely relevant and there is absolutely no way that the Wizengamot is going to allow that to go unquestioned.”

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Madam Bones was staring down at the bag she was holding (but not in), holding it as far from her body as she could, a look of terror on her face as she seemed unable to decide if her mouth should remain open or closed and Dumbledore was looking off to the side of the room pinching the bridge of his nose. “How many basilisks did you say was in here again?” she was finally able to get out. Harry glanced at Ron and Hermione's parents, Mr and Mrs Weasley were staring at the bag aghast while Mrs Granger were just looking confused, although Mr Granger was had a look of bemusement on his face as he watched the wizarding adults.

“I’m not really sure.” Harry answered, “Well over a hundred, but only about half are full adults, the rest are juveniles. There’s also about the same number of young… What do you call child snakes? Anyway, about the same number of babies to children not quite up to juvenile age.”

“Um, Harry…” Mr Weasley started before cutting off and rethinking what he was going to say. “Harry, a little over a century ago, there was a group of a little over thirty people who started a group that specialized in killing basilisks. Do you know how how many they killed?”

Harry was saved from having to say something when Mr Granger said “I’m going to guess somewhat less than a hundred from the way you are all looking at the bag.”

“Seven Dr Granger.” Dumbledore said before looking back at Harry. “Over a twenty year period they killed seven of the things before the four survivors finally gave up, their last mission having killed twelve of their compatriots Harry. If there are indeed over one hundred basilisks, juvenile or not, in that bag Harry, you have very close to doubled the number of basilisks provably killed in the entire recorded history since their creation was invented.” Dumbledore seemed to pause before, lips twitching, added, “Of course, the Ministry offers a hundred thousand galleon bounty on any basilisks killed, so…”

“You might have to wait on collecting the prize money Harry.” Madam Bones said seeming to finally be coming out of her shock. “The Ministry really doesn’t have that much money available to it. Of course that will give Ms Zabini here an additional defense for you since any attempts to go after any of you three can simply be made to look like an attempt to not have to pay up. They’ll also try and claim juveniles aren’t adults, so should be worth less.”

“Does that mean the one I killed down on the chamber will be worth more? It was after all, a thousand years old. And had lived all that time leeching off the ward structure of Hogwarts, so was arguably worse than a normal, if really over sized basilisk.”

“That thing really was immense.” Ron added. “I really wouldn’t be surprised if you were able to walk down it’s throat without even being to touch the roof of it’s mouth at the time Harry.”

“I stabbed it the brain through the roof of it’s mouth Ron.” Harry replied, “I was able to reach it. Actually, WAS I ever paid for that one? I didn’t know about any award, so never thought to ask.”

“That’s actually a good point Mr Potter.” Ms Zabini said before turning to Madam Bones, “And I assume they’ll be no issue with paying Harry for any of the unknown spells he demonstrated or taught people during the battle.”

“I had the Ministry deposit it directly into your account at Gringotts Harry. And the defense from the Killing Curse alone has a well known, five million galleon reward for inventing. Any attempt to not pay out would result in riots should it be discovered.” Dumbledore answered with a snort as, much to Harry’s surprise, Percy Weasley walked into the infirmary and said something to Proudfoot and Tonks.

“When you’re examining them,” Harry said to Madam Bones, pointing at the bag. “Be careful. They were all under the influence of Felix Felicis. The set up Voldemort had set up actually had the eggs in Felix Felicis when the toad was sitting on them.”

It was at that that Percy got to them with Bones not sure if she should address Harry or Percy, who was looking VERY upset, but it was Percy who next spoke, cutting off all other discussion. “Fudge just had Mr Crouch Kissed. Both of them actually. Him and his son.”

The simultaneous shouts of outrage and surprise from not just the Weasleys, but Proudfoot, Tonks, Dumbledore and Bones was very loud. “He doesn’t actually have the authority to do that does he?” Hermione asked.

“No! No he does not!” Ms Weasley stated.

“Iffy on Junior.” Bones said, “He was technically speaking an escaped convict.”

“Was he?” Dumbledore asked. “If my memory serves, Barty Crouch Senior remained head of Magical Law enforcement for just under a year after he sent his son there. If he sprung him within that time frame, than Barty might have actually quietly used his legal authority to have him removed.”

“If so, than Fudge committed murder.” Tonks said out loud. “Actually he committed murder with Barty Senior irregardless, since he hadn’t been found guilty by the Wizengamot.”

“Kind of like Sirius.” Both Harry and Ron muttered together causing all three of the law enforcement to look at them. But before anyone could ask, the Minister chose that moment to enter the infirmary escorted by Dawlish, grins of triumph on their faces.

Before either one of them could say anything however, Bones looked at the other two Aurors. “Proudfoot, Tonks, place the Minister under arrest for the illegal kissing of two untried suspects.” She said very loudly so the other Aurors who were standing guard before they arrived would also hear (along with all the other kids in the infirmary).

Fudge immediately began to sputter, but Dawlish got mad enough to get stupid. “The Minister doesn’t need the Wizengamot to have convicts Kissed Bones.” He said with a sneer. “And you know it. Now stand aside. You’re likely to be replaced after this, you don’t want to get arrested as well.”

“You’ll find John,” Dumbledore said, “that you are quite incorrect regarding both the authority of the Minister in this regard, but also the status of either of the Crouches regarding being convicts. Indeed, just yesterday, Barty Crouch Senior was a member in high standing of the Wizengamot, I’m quite sure him even standing trial would have been noted in the Prophet, much less the Chief Warlock, myself, being informed.”

“DAWLISH!?” A new voice yelled from the doorway as a tall male Auror who reminded Harry very much of a stalking lion entered alongside another black man who was also an Auror, both looking rather perturbed at Dawlish. “What exactly are you doing? You were told to help out on the grounds.”

“I’m fulfilling my duty!” Dawlish yelled. “Unlike you lot!”

Harry saw red at that point. With a mental shift to the left, he had just read about, Harry called forth an Aura of the Archmage. “Fulfilling an attempt to garner gold from a Death Eater you mean!” Harry growled, voice trembling with thunder looking down at the suddenly small Dawlish. Harry winced at himself, this was far to theatrical for his taste, but it seemed to make his point as everyone else in the room except for Ron, Hermione and Dumbledore all stepped back (Harry saw several of the other students who had been watching things since Percy walked in fall out of their beds).

“Did you think we wouldn’t fight back you bloody moron?!” Ron shouted from Harry’s right side, his own aura sparkling, his already tall form now towering over everyone in the room by a wide margin, smoke twirling from his body and hair waving with the shimmer making it look like flames. Hermione with her own aura up was on Harry’s left side, but she said nothing, her aura highlighting her scars and hair, giving her a wild, dangerous look.

Dawlish, Harry noticed, was once again on the floor, trying to crawl away. At least he was on his back, keeping his eyes on them as he scooched away. Fudge didn’t even have that much dignity, crawling away on his knees. Shaking his head, Harry began to understand how people like Voldemort could so look down on other people. With that thought, Harry mentally shifted back to the right, and drew the aura back within himself.

Dumbledore summoned the wands from Dawlish and Fudge even as Hermione and Ron withdrew their own auras and handed them to Madam Bones. Slowly, she turned from the three of them and looked back at Dawlish. “Shacklebolt, Tonks! Place the Minister under arrest like I said earlier. Place John Dawlish in holding until we can determine if he had anything to do with the illegal Kissing of two suspects. Irregardless, his days in law enforcement, much less as a Auror, are over. Rufus?”

With a shake of his lions mane, the tall Auror took his wary eyes off Harry and looked at Bones. As Hermione was climbing back into bed, Ron sitting at the foot of her bed and Harry sitting on his own, he began to talk. “We were able to identify that thing we found in the corridor. It was Skeeter. Turns out she was an unregistered animagus, dung beetle to be exact. Appears she got injured, tried to transform and got stuck midway. She then took a piece of falling masonry to the head. Death was likely instantaneous after that, but she was crawling around for sometime before that. The blow to her head was likely NOT an accident. She has a cut on her shoulder consistent with a Sectum Hex. Looks like she had a bag. We suspect she had seen one of the Death Eaters faces, or had been following one of them in bug form when they attacked and he killed her and took any evidence she had had on her before killing her.”

“So in addition to everything else, the Prophet will be after us for not protecting their reporters despite the fact that she was illegally using unregistered alternate forms.?” Bones sighed, pinching her nose.

“Oh no Ma’am. They’re going to be flying off their collective handles claiming we’re lying over the fact that two of their other reporters were wearing Death Eater robes and had wands that showed evidence of using the killing and pain curses.”

“Two of them? Any chance of being able to round up all of them as suspects?”

With a smirk, the other man answered, “If it’d been their old chief in charge, then I’d say we do it anyway. But the new guy in charge over there hasn’t had enough time to fall under the thumb of Malfoy or his ilk yet, so I’d say let’s not give them a reason to speed that up. Especially with the way they’ve been covering the Malfoy family all weekend, it doesn’t seem like Lucy is anywhere close having hooks in him yet. Of course with Moody of all people having been switched out with a fake, and it being a fake that arrested the brat, it’s likely the runt will get off.”

Harry jerked in surprise at that, Draco got arrested? He glanced over at the other two, surprise clearly visible on their faces as well. “I’ll be finished here in a bit, tell everyone I’ll hold a Press conference at three this afternoon.” Bones said dismissing him.

As he was walking away, Percy looked at her, “If the Minister has been arrested, does that mean his firing me isn’t valid?”

“Unfortunately, he actually didn’t need a reason to end the employment of anyone at the ministry. I’m pretty sure whoever replaces Crouch will understand why a junior member of his team wouldn’t have recognized that he had been Imperioused and will be willing to hire you back though.”

With a look of resignation, Percy nodded. “Actually Percy,” Harry began, “You got all outstandings on your NEWTs right?” With a nod from his head Harry pulled a vial of the potion from his pocket. “This is a sample of Felix Felicis I got out of the birdbath Voldemort was using as a basilisk incubator. As you can see, there is shell and scale fragments and maybe other contaminants in it. Any chance you can figure out what affect it’ll have on the potion?”

“I’m not a Potions Master Harry.” Percy said, with a frown, clearly complimented Harry thought that highly of him, but thinking he had to turn him down.

“True! But I only know two. Professor Dumbledore is clearly to busy, and I have zero trust in Snape.”

“Professor Snape!” Dumbledore said.

“I’ll call him professor when he acts like one.” Harry said. Turning back to Percy, “Anyway, like I said, no trust in Snape. I know you were dating that Ravenclaw girl last year, Penny? And I know you’re good at research like most Ravenclaws are, so I’m willing to pay both of you a descent amount if you need to bring her into it. If not, I’m also planning on hiring someone to do research on all the new astronomy discoveries made by muggles in the last couple of years, and what affects they’ll have here on Earth in regards to magic. But maybe, just maybe, what affects the planets, including Earth will have on magic performed in space or on other planets within the solar system.”

“Planning on building a space ship there Mr Potter?” Mr Granger asked, half in jest, half clearly curious.

“Already have the plans for a gate-ship and the materials. Getting the more specialized equipment for certain parts together now, and have already began construction of the hull. Programming it, and testing it will be an issue, but I’ll work that out when I come to it. And if it looks like it’ll be a no go on space flight, knowing the affects on magic of all the little planetiods and major meteorites will have will still be worthwhile. Let me know what you need for lab space, I’ll work something out.”

“Thank you Harry!” Percy said, putting the vial into a pocket on his upper robe, “Neither of us will let you down.” With that, Percy walked away, clearly noticing Madam Bones and the Headmasters desire to continue their interrogation.

With a look at Mr and Mrs Weasley, Dumbledore sighed, “Molly, Arthur, I’m going to have to ask you to step away for a bit. Ms Granger has some questions that she needs to answer and she’s made it quite clear who she’ll answer in front of.”

With a nod of their heads, they walked away and Dumbledore cast a series of privacy spells, all of which Harry was surprised he recognized. “Were did you three learn to do that?” he asked, voice gentle but firm. “And if you knew, why haven’t you used it before?”

“We didn't know before.” Harry answered. We were just really impressed with how you handled Dawlish earlier, so we figured if we could learn how to do that, we’d have a lot fewer problems from people like Malfoy. Well, Draco anyway, Lucy would still make himself be a git.”

“So that’s what you three were passing each other earlier.” Ms Zabini said, reaching down to Hermione's bed and picking up her notebook. “You three were figuring out how to do what the Headmaster did earlier. What language is this? Some of these Runes I recognize, most I don’t.” She asked, awe coming through in her voice.

Harry wondered if it was the first time she’d shown an honest emotion that wasn’t amusement at another persons mistakes. “It’s Alterian. The language of Merlin.” He answered even as he watched Dumbledore take the notebook and start to look through it. “I have a couple of books written by Marin, daughter of Emrys Myrddin Wyllt and his wife, Marion Myrddin Wyllt nee Caledonensis in my family vault. Together they formed the legend of Merlin.”

Harry saw everyone’s jaw drop again and smirked. “And why exactly would you have such historically important and valuable documents in your family vault Harry?” Bones asked, edge creeping into her voice.

“Probably because she put them there when she married Ignotus. It was after all, his family vault. And if you think for a second I’m going to give up a family heirloom of that magnitude, you’re very much mistaken.” Harry said, allowing an edge to creep into his own voice to equal Bones’s. “It’s so ironic that the individual everyone in the magical world idolizes to the point of deification, to the point that all four houses claim him as a member of their own house despite the fact that he was alive five hundred years before Hogwarts was built, wasn’t even a wizard. He was a muggle pretending to be a wizard. The Great and all powerful Merlin, was playing a prank on the entire magical world. A prank his wife, who was in fact a Witch, aided and abetted him in.” Harry continued laughing, “According to Marin, her father always maintained that he wasn’t even human, but was a race known as Alterian. She wrote her books in the language he taught her. That and Nox, a different race, which he also taught her.”

“Ignotus Harry?” Dumbledore asked.

“The same one we kind of discussed before Crouch made himself known last night.” Harry answered noticing Ron’s start of surprise as the name Ignotus clicked with him.

“You have an exceptional lineage Harry.” Ms Zambini said, “It’s almost a shame I have a son instead of a daughter.”

‘You have know idea’ Harry thought to himself even as he said out loud, “Even though my Great Grandparents, the the parents of Charlus Potter, were a muggle RAF pilot from America and a squib daughter of a dying line?” Harry asked, watching her jerk in surprise. “My Grandfather was adopted into the Potter line by Fleamont and Euphemia Potter after their son Harold had been killed in a German bombing, and that the son of a recently deceased war hero named Lt Harold Potter had been born with magic. His mother was a squib from the line of Ignotus. I believe they always pretended that Charlus was the son of their own son Harold. And any spells to detect lineage would come back with the name Harold Potter now that I think about it.”

“Technically speaking Harry,” Mr Granger said, “You’d actually be an American citizen then.”

Hermione’s “DAD!” was simultaneous to Madam Bones groan.

“While this is truly fascinating, and I do mean that. But unfortunately, I have a lot to do at work today and evidently Ms Granger here will only answer me out of all the other law enforcement here. So Hermione, what the hell happened to you.”

“Nothing.” Hermione said. “Nothing happened, it’s all fake. At least for me. Winky and Dobby said that there was bad people making bad people plans and that a lot of good people would die horribly if the wrong things happened. So they devised a plan to make sure that the wrong things didn’t happen. But part of that was making the bad people waste time looking for other bad people and to blame these non existent bad people for any interference to their plans. Their words, not mine.” Hermione said when she got strange looks. “So I spent the weekend in the hidden library of Rowena Ravenclaw reading her journals and practicing acting the part of a traumatized and abused girl. Hopefully I did a good enough job that anyone working for You-Know-Who will be wasting time trying figure out who kidnapped me rather than spending more time plotting ways to bring down the Ministry.”

“All of my injuries were very carefully made to make me look as ragged and pathetic looking as possible when I showed back up. So if you could, don’t let on that that’s what’s going on to anyone at the Ministry.” She said, looking directly at Madam Bones.

Harry looked over at the adults and suddenly realized something. They had actually been concerned about them. Harry had fully expected the Grangers and Weasleys to have been concerned about their children, but this was the first time Harry really understood that most of the adults in Harry’s life actually cared for him personally. Not just as a student or the friend of their son, but actually CARED what happened to him. To them all.

Ron’s sudden exclamation brought Harry’s thoughts back to the real world. “That’s what Dobby meant! Dobby, he said something about trying to get ‘The Boss Lady’ to have Nymphy and Kingly to act out an investigation for Missy.” He said before looking at Madam Bones and asking “Do you have anyone who could match those names too?”

“Yyyeeesss… Yes I do. If you’ll excuse me, in addition to everything else, I now have a pair of Aurors to brief on a completely fake investigation they’ll be pretending to run.” With that, she turned around and walked away rubbing her forehead. Harry was watching her as Madam Pomfrey handed her what appeared to be a pain relieving potion as she was walking past her. Harry wondered if she even remembered what she was carrying in the bag anymore.

Harry looked back at Dumbledore just as he asked Hermione, “Dobby?”

“I dealt with Winky mostly, but yes, Dobby. Why? I take it he’s had other interactions with people other than us three?”

“Oh, yes Ms Granger, yes he has. If you’ll excuse me, I to need to make it look like I’m getting ready for an investigation into the events of your kidnapping in addition to everything else. Perhaps when we’re done after this is all over, you’ll be kind enough to show me to Ravenclaw’s Library. Unless you have recently found out that you are descended from Rowena.”

“You’d have to ask Dobby and Winky. They said the only way in or out was through Apparition/disapparition. Hey, Harry, Ron, let’s start looking for any secret Rooms Gryffindor or Hufflepuff left.”

“For Godric Gryffindor, you need look no further than my office Ms Granger. As for Helga Hufflepuff, if you do find anything, please let me know.” With that, Dumbledore turned to walked away but was stopped by Harry.

“Professor?” Harry began, “What school am I competing for?”

The Headmaster turned back and answered, “Rivers End from the States Harry. Why do you ask?”

“It just seems like if I’m representing a different school, I should at least know it’s name, and maybe something about. Who knows, not looking like a Hogwarts student might help sooth people over the whole two competitors from one school thing.”

“I shall contact my colleague Chief Ironfeather as soon as possible then Harry. If you’ll excuse me.” With that, he turned and walked away, also snagging a pain relieving potion from Madam Pomfrey as he left.

As soon as the Headmaster was out the door, they were joined by Mr and Mrs Weasley and Madam Pomfrey, who was carrying a suspiciously large number of vials on a tray. This was going to be an even longer day than he’d thought when he woke up.

llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

It was Tuesday, and the three of them were sitting at the table in the Dining Hall, the students had just now been let out of their dorms. After getting healed, Hermione, who much to the surprise of her parents, had asked to keep the scar on her face as she liked the look. When she’d complained about her missing hair however, Ron had come out of nowhere when he offered to restyle her hair. When everyone just stared at him he responded with; “What? You’ve all met my brothers right? Fred? George? How to make my hair normal again was one of the first bits of actual magic I learned after I got a wand. I woke up far to many times with my hair turned into a turtle shell or something to not learn that spell.”

So Hermione was now sporting a buzz cut on one side of her head, over the scarred side, and the other side had much shorter than her old hair, but still not quit shoulder length hair with a lose wave to it, giving her a very punk look making her joke about getting a tattoo. And since most wizards and witches would get scars removed if they could, it made it seem like she now had a curse scar, giving her a more intimidating look. Emphasis on the word more, she still wasn’t exactly all that intimidating even then. At least Harry didn’t think so. And it was clear Ron just thought she was cute. Glancing around the infirmary, it was pretty clear everyone else around thought she was however. And since they were behind anti-eavesdropping wards, they didn’t know it wasn’t really a curse scar. Something to think about Harry thought to himself.

Madam Pomfrey had then insisted that all three of them spend the night, and spent a suspicious amount of time dealing with Ron. Harry suspected he knew what had Poppy so concerned with what her spells were detecting from Ron, but there was no way in hell he was going to tell her that Ron had died several times, and it was only his soul and mind transferring to a duplicate that had saved his life. Ron knew, at least Harry thought he did. Since she hadn’t actually been attacked, Hermione’s parents had opted to not stay the night, and with a, sort of, stern warning to her to be careful, asked Auror Proudfoot to help them return home, and left with the Weasleys.

So they’d spent the night under the same force dome as the night before, much to the irritation of Madam Pomfrey who had had to resort to using a House Elf to apparate in to give them potions and make sure they actually drank them (Harry suspected that was the only reason she’d actually let them leave in the morning).

It did however give the three of them a chance to really talk. It’d been a difficult talk, but they’d managed. Harry had had fun describing his weekend to them, even if he left out a few details like being biologically related to Gellert Grindelwald. Oddly, Ron was mostly interested in the island with the giant bear, although since Harry demonstrated the metal refilling charm, Ron was probably hoping to end his families poverty. Hermione had, of course, been most interested in his new book collection. Both of them had been staggered with how much money he’d spent on books.

But both of them had been beyond staggered when he told them about THE Book and Glasses. Hermione didn’t even accuse him of cheating, as long as he let her use them sometime.

She’d been somewhat less thrilled about the girls however. Ron found her reaction rather funny. But unbidden came the memory of day dreaming about Hermione kissing some of the other girls. And Harry had to wonder if he was just imagining some of the odd looks Hermione had given him when he’d described meeting Vanessa, Joan and Lea. Also unbidden, and less welcome came the thought that the potion was capable of altering peoples preferences.

He’d also described some of the other magic he’d learned, and Harry just knew he was going to be roped into teaching them some of it. Most of it likely. It was Ron however that was most interested in the spell that granted someone the knowledge of fictional characters however, not Hermione. He’d wanted to use it to gain the skills of fictional Archmages from books. Hermione had of course poo poo’d the idea, pointing out that the description flat out stated it wouldn’t teach you any spells. Ron’s response was; “So, there is a lot of other skills regarding magic that have nothing to do with spells. At least not directly. There’s tactics and identification of spells. Even if the spell won’t teach you the incantation of a spell, it sounds like it’ll teach you what spells actually are out there. Then you can ask the How-To Book to learn the incantations. And that’s not even going into knowledge about politics or the hidden places of the world. I wonder if any of the places from books that are hidden by a Fidelius that are real and really hidden by a Fidelius that a character knows about, would the spell grant that knowledge as well?”

“But the spell says it takes total concentration though.” Hermione said, “How would you retain the knowledge?”

“Not sure about that part. Maybe a memory-skill engram potion like what we used as kids to learn to read and write.” Ron had said. “What? You don’t think Mum trusted us to go to a muggle school growing up did you? Can you imagine nine year old Fred and George at a school surrounded by muggle kids with them trying to practice calling up accidental magic at will? How about someone like Malfoy? Talk about a disaster waiting to happen.”

Hermione had immediately borrowed the book and glasses to learn how to make memory-skill engram potions while they discussed other characters they could learn. Both Harry and Hermione’s knowledge of fictional characters worth while for this was limited however. Hermione just hadn’t been interested in that type of books when young, and Harry’s uncle and aunt had actively prevented him from reading such useless garbage. And what they did know, wouldn’t work do to the engrams only copying memories, not the super powers, even if the spell itself granted the powers.

“Listen to this you two.” Hermione said, “ ‘When making this potion, care must be taken to insure that only the skill or knowledge itself is passed on. Any feelings you have, or stray thoughts you think when extracting the skill to be copied may be present in the potion. Such foreign emotions and thoughts will cause headaches and distress in whoever takes the potion. And, especially in the case of children, cause the imbiber to develop thought patterns similar to the person who’s memory has been extracted.’ It sounds like this would make someone crazy if done wrong. And might explain some of the really messed up believes of the more die hard pure bloods if they were given these as children that hadn’t been purged of stray thoughts or emotions.”

“Well.” Harry said, “The spell does grant you the knowledge from you’re own perspective, so any stray thoughts and emotions would be your own, and not foreign. So as long as we only drink it from our own spell enhanced memories, we should be good. I’d actually rather not have some of these skills be available to anyone else anyway. Except maybe Neville, he was after all, the other person Grindelwald said matched the terms of the prophecy, so getting him up to speed would probably be a good idea. I just wish he’d told me what the prophecy actually said. But he won’t tell me until I get my Occlumency up to snuff. So, yeah, we need to get Neville in on some of this at least.”

“I agree,” Ron said. “You two have any ideas about what characters we could learn from muggle fiction? Pretty much every character in wizarding stories is either based on real people or all have the same skills outside of actual magic spells.”

“Well, I’d already thought about people from the tellie who keep space ships repaired, like Star Trek or Star Wars. Even if the fictional skills are complete BS, it translates it into real world equivalents. It was how I was planning on making the space ship I mentioned. Maybe healing the muggle way as well, I’m sure there are plenty of doctors in fiction. The one I’m actually curious about is if the spell can grant the skills of a arcade game character. If so, then I’d like to try someone from Mortal Combat. We’d have to practice the physical movements, but having that level of skill fighting would be handy. And even better, I overheard Dudley's friend mentioning once that almost all the characters in that game have magic. That means when the spell translates the skills, it’ll have our own magic worked into the hand to hand skill. And maybe it’ll allow us to learn characters from the games the girls showed me. Is a game book close enough to a fiction to be considered?”

Hermione popped up with, “Well, most comic book characters aren’t useful, since almost all of them have super powers. But Batman would be good. Not only would we get extreme fighting skills, but he’s also a trained investigator, which we seem to spend most of the past years trying to figure out what was really going on, with some highly embarrassing mistakes. So having Sherlock Holmes level detective skills would be nice. We could also learn characters from movies like Jason Bourne, or James Bond, or any of the military action flicks from America about their elite forces. Maybe even learn several different characters who specialize in fighting so we get all of their techniques. We could also try and learn some stories from the alien races Harry mentioned. If they traveled to Earth, then their fictional characters would probably have a pretty good basis for actual space travel, leaving less room for interpretation.”

And so it went until late in the night when they finally went to sleep, Ron and Hermione sleeping together without even thinking about it. Harry doubted either of them even realized they did it, and had teased them when they woke up, much to their embarrassment. Although Harry noticed them eyeing each other more then normal, and both kept blushing whenever one of them caught the other looking.

Madam Pomfrey had released them, in a somewhat irritated way, but they were escorted back to Gryffindor Tower by Auror Proudfoot, who had returned sometime in the morning. And who had only answered a few of their questions. No, Minister Fudge wasn’t still detained (unfortunately), his allies (those he was a crony too) had got him released, although he was being actively kept out of Law enforcement, and had been told rather bluntly that any more interference would result in Aurors treating him as a direct and immediate threat to themselves and others, and cast spells as such. It was also highly likely that Madam Bones was going to call for an election in the coming session of the Wizengamot.

Yes, Draco Malfoy had been arrested after his belongings had been searched and he’d been found in possession of several very nasty and highly illegal items of a dark and sexual nature. He claimed that they weren’t his and he was being set up, but it didn’t seem like anyone actually believed him. Harry wasn’t so sure about that, he personally didn’t think Draco was brave enough to try and use anything like that for fear of it not working and having whoever he tried it on beating the crap out of him. Not that it mattered, fake Moody had been the one who did the search, and it was likely that his father would manage to get him off on that alone.

Why yes, there had in fact been a nation wide search for the three of them all weekend long, thank you very much for showing up safely, or at least somewhat safely. Since Proudfoot hadn’t been in a position to hear their interrogation, the only Auror who actually KNEW what they’d been up to was Madam Bones herself, he quickly backtracked on his sarcasm not being sure that they hadn’t in fact, been kidnapped and escaped.

No, he didn’t know why Hermione’s parents hadn’t been notified, Ron’s had known because his Mum had been there when Hermione had gone missing. Yes there was several articles in the Prophet about them. And finally, yes, Aurors would be stationed at Hogwarts for the remainder of the year. And not just those from the British Ministry either, but some from France and Norway (where Durmstrang was located) would be there as well.

With that, they’d got to the Fat Lady’s portrait when it dawned on the trio they didn’t know the password. A quick, whispered Expositus however, and the Fat Lady blurted out the password, “Bloody fuc’n ‘ell” which Ron repeated in the exact same voice and tone the Fat Lady had used. Proudfoot had been staring at them as they had walked in. Clearly he didn’t know that spell.

Inside, they’d been greeted to complete silence for over a minute. It was finally broken when Harry, who’d been looking at each small cluster of people in turn, landed on the second year girls, who’d gone very pale and ran screaming up the stairs to their dorm. Proudfoot snorted at that, and left them to go talk to another Auror who was sitting in the corner, causing Harry to wonder if all four houses were getting guardians, or just Gryffindor.

With a nod from Ron at Neville, and then into their corner, Ron walked away to ask Neville to join them. After they joined Harry and Hermione, Harry cast the privacy spells yet again, and Harry had given Neville a VERY edited account of his weekend. With much focus on what Grindelwald had said about the prophecy. Neville had been truly shocked to find out he was a possible candidate for a prophecy and was very grateful to them over being offered some training from them as soon as they figured things out, and he’d suggested that they offer that training to everyone else in Gryffindor as well. “I know you don’t like your fame Harry,” he’d said, “but like it or not, you three have become the student leaders in Gryffindor. More so than any of the Prefects or Headboys or Girls have ever been. And you three also clearly have skills everyone here needs. Not just me Harry.”

After that, he’d gone back over to talk to Dean and Seamus leaving Harry to ponder what he’d said. The elves had brought breakfast and lunch to the dorms, but Dumbledore’s voice had come, and he’d said that Dinner would be served in the Dinning Hall that evening. The first time the students had been let out since Sunday night. And so they’d been escorted to the dining hall by Aurors, and yes, the other three houses did in fact have escorts as well. So did the other two schools as well, although their escorts were wearing different colored robes, so Harry assumed those were the Aurors from France and Norway respectively.

It wasn’t even remotely surprising that everyone was staring at him. The Prophet had run several more articles about the battle, and they’d featured heavily. The articles had even been surprisingly accurate for the amount of information the paper actually had, MOSTLY avoiding their usual hearsay or reporting their opinions as if they were facts. So, not surprisingly, the three of them had several empty seats around them.

Once everyone was in and seated, Dumbledore had risen, given a short speech about what had actually happened the night of the attack. Thankfully leaving out most details. Most, not all. Harry and Ron had both received special mentions for demonstrating rare spell combinations and casting techniques as well as knowledge of lost or newly invented spells. They were also given special awards for service to the School and in the protection and defense of their fellow students. All told, the two of them received over four hundred points (which curiously, were the only points on the board), special awards, and a promise that their names would make it into the next update of Hogwarts: A History. Harry could only assume Dumbledore was mad at them for some reason because of that, although he supposed Ron would be happy, it was something no one else in his family had achieved.

Dumbledore had then explained what they had learned from Crouch before he’d been Kissed about putting Harry’s name in the Goblet and hexing it so it’d think four schools were competing. Why he wanted that was unknown, at least so Dumbledore claimed. But that extra protection beyond what was originally planned for the contestants would be put in place in case he’d just wanted to hurt or kill the contestants.

He then explained that he’d been in contact with Professor Ironfeather from the United States, and was the head of their Department of Magical Education. And that Professor Ironfeather would be arriving the next Monday along with several students from the States even though Harry was already their chosen Champion. And even though Harry was competing for the School ‘Rivers End’, it was the U.S.’s head of education and Headmaster of the School ‘Cliffside’ that would be coming due to strange rules enacted by America’s DoMRM.

He then explained that the three Headmasters had decided that, despite the fact that the attackers had mostly ignored the other two schools, and only sent a few people to attack them, that there could be no assurance that that would be the case if there was another attack. As such, the students from the other schools would be moving into guest dorms being set up by the House Elves and that Aurors would be manning the battlements for the remainder of the year.

And finally he’d added that classes would be resuming the next morning, and that starting the next day, students would once again be allowed to roam the castle, but were still not allowed out onto the grounds. With that final statement, he’d sat down and summoned the food.

The House Elves had outdone themselves in the quality of the food and taste, yet it was apparent to everyone who’d been here more than a year, that it wasn’t up to their normal feast level. Harry wasn’t sure if that was because of the short notice to get ready for a feast, or that they were just super busy helping out around the castle. In either way, there wasn’t anywhere near the normal level of variety of choices available, but what they did have was very good.

The three of them were quite while eating, only talking amongst themselves a little. And not talking to anyone else at all. For a change, Ron and Hermione were getting stared at more than Harry. Ron for rather obvious reasons, probably the same reasons he seemed so lost in thought. For Hermione, it was probably as much to do with her new look as to all the rumors about what happened to her he could overhear being bandied about between tables. The super-sensory spells came in really handy. Were normally, the whispers were a persistent and unpleasant background noise, now he could actually hear what was being said, and get an idea of just how bad the rumors actually were.

After a few minutes of this, Harry found the need to firm up his new Occlumency shield he’d been working on. He’d started working on Occlumency Saturday night after he’d got back from Nurmengard, so it’d been more than twenty four hours since he’d read the books on Occlumency and tips on how to build mental structures and memory palaces, so the automatic success provided by the glasses was gone, but it still left him with around two thousand hours worth of practice in using those skills. On the other hand, this WAS the first time he had to USE those skills.

Harry began to firm up the walls on the inside and going over his false world/memory palace. One of the books had talked about the pro’s and con’s of imagining yourself in the world as apposed to remaining an outside observer looking in. For shit’s and giggles, he cast Kage Bunshin no Jutsu on his mental self just to see what would happen, making sure to look around in case it created an actual physical duplicate that he’d need to reabsorb before anyone figured out what was going on. He knew there was no chance no one would notice, not with how much they were being stared at, but if it happened fast enough people wouldn’t have a clue what had happened.

It didn’t create a physical being, but he did get a second mental self. Now he could get the benefits of both being in the construct and looking in from the outside without the disadvantages. He also figured he shouldn’t create more than three or four until he knew what the side affects would be, if any. It was weird already Harry decided. Were as a physical duplicate would only grants it’s memories to him when they merged, the mental duplicates all shared instantly and completely. It was like Harry had four brains, all working together and sharing instantly, but each able to think and act independently as well.

While he began to shore up his mental defenses, his three duplicates doubled down on doing what had caused Harry to need to shore up his defenses in the first place, and all cast several super-sensory charms. With three of his duplicates, who all had his full mental capabilities, and didn’t have to worry about pretending to not be doing something, being the ones who were paying attention to the surrounding conversations, Harry was quickly running out of reasons he should care about his fellow students. He’d about attacked Cormac McLaggen right then and there when he’d overheard a comment from him about how he’d like to do to Hermione what had been done to her as well.

His head HAD snapped up at that causing everyone around quickly look at him, as if trying to decide if they should dive for cover. He had eyes only for McLaggen at that point however. And he tried to make his dislike and anger at him make itself clear in his stare. It seemed to work, as McLaggen had turned his face down and was staring directly at his food for over a minute before one of his fellow fifth years told him he needed to go sit at the far end of the table alone and not speak to anyone anymore. Or better yet, not speak ever again. As McLaggen was walking away, the general conversation had shifted to; “Holy shit, can he HEAR us?” He made a point of looking at each person who said that as almost every single one of them had looked at him as soon as the said it. Most of them stopped talking after that. Something Harry was sure, was noted by both teachers and Aurors in the Hall.

Meanwhile, he was also working some more on his shield. His mental structure wasn’t based on Hogwarts like he figured most of the wizards and witches he was likely to have use Legilimency on him would be using. Something one of the books had actually mentioned as being very common. Instead Harry had based his around an ‘Astra Portus’ from the Alterian language. In order to access his mind, someone would have to navigate through a forest to find a specific clearing. The forest was based on the the Forbidden Forest however, it being the only forest Harry had ever been in. There was a Hogwarts castle in his memory palace, however it was a trap. Filled with death traps and beasts that would rip intruders apart (kind of like his time here). But most people would just assume they needed to find where in the castle his memories were stored.

In actuality, they’d need to go to the clearing that Snape and Quirrell had been talking in when Harry had been watching during his first year. There, they’d find the Ring and control. Like the castle, most of the six point, seven point as they did still need to figure out the origin point tab as well, addresses led to more traps. It was only dialing a specific seven, or eight point, code that would allow them to access his actual memories however. But even this, Harry was working on, and trying to build up defenses on that end as well in case someone figured it out on chance.

It was kind of funny how close his mental images of the Astra Portus he got from reading and learning the Alterian language was to the show ‘Extreme Wormhole’ and made him stop eating for a minute or so and ponder that. Was it possible that someone had actually discovered an Astra Portus here on Earth and was using it? And if so, why make such a campy show on the tellie about it? “Hermione, add the characters from the show Wormhole Extreme to our list of characters to learn.”

“That stupid thing Harry? Why?”

“It’s to similar to an actual Astra Portus to be completely a coincidence.” On seeing her and Ron’s look of confusion, he remembered that they had only been reading the book in Alterian about fifteen minutes or so and hadn’t been under the influence of the potion at the time, so probable didn’t know what an Astra Portus was. “Err, I’ll explain later ok.” He said as he saw a couple of people he didn’t want to talk to heading his way.

Surprising, it wasn’t Malfoy and his Bookends, Crabbe and Goyle, it was his Bookends and Nott, or the Nutbag as most of his fellow Gryffindor fourth years called him. It was also clear, both from the way they were walking, and an overheard bit of conversation that it was Crabbe who was leading this. Malfoy was apparently still on the outs with his fellow Slytherin, and Nott, while clearly the instigator, wasn’t in charge. At least not yet. A glance around using a quickly cast super-sensory charm granting three hundred sixty degree vision from one of his duplicates showed that all of the teachers and Aurors had noticed, and two Aurors and both Snape and McGonagall were getting out of their seats to intervene if necessary.

“You three get lost coming back from the bathroom or something?” Harry asked as they got within talking range.

“You’re dead Potter!” Crabbe snarled as they got right next to the table, red faced with rage.

“Funny, you’d think I would have noticed.” Harry replied with a smirk, almost hoping he’d try something so he’d have an excuse to punt his ass across the Hall before remembering that his father had just died, and it was clear he was blaming Harry. Which was dumb on several levels. With a groan Harry just said: “Spit it out Crabbe, you’re clearly not capable of using your brain.” Adding under his breath; “And here I had decided a couple of weeks ago you were the smart one of your group.”

Hermione heard him however: “Crabbe? Smart? Harry! Why would you ever think that?”

“He was never around whenever Malfoy got in trouble.” Harry responded. “I always envisioned him and Goyle sitting around working Malfoy into a lather and setting him lose on people while claiming that whatever he was going to do required stealth and guile so they needed to stay back. Just a mental image I had. Guess I was wrong.” Crabbe was getting more and more red faced, although from the uncomfortable look on Goyle’s face, and the suddenly wary glance Nott was giving the other two, Harry thought it might have been closer to the truth than he’d thought.

“I said you’re DEAD!!!” Crabbe screamed and went for his wand. Before he could even try and go for his own, one of his mental duplicates, who had mental versions of his wand already out, had cast Expelliarmus and Crabbe’s wand went sailing into Harry’s empty hand even as the two Aurors had leapt over and grabbed his arms and pushed his face down into the table.

Crabbe went still with shock, and there was dead silence throughout the Hall. One of the Aurors was looking at him, glancing down at Crabbe’s wand in Harry’s hand, and back up to Harry’s face several times before looking at his partner. “No spell cast, subject was disarmed by intended victim, let him up slowly.”

With that Crabbe was slowly let up, his face clearly still shocked at how easily he’d been disarmed, yet despite that, he was still able to get out: “He’s no victim. He killed my father.”

Ron’s “No he didn’t you bloody stupid git, I did!” probably didn’t actually help, as Crabbe immediately began to struggle again, if only slightly. With a glance at Goyle standing there, Ron continued; “I also killed his father as well! But that’s what you get when you come into a school And Start Trying To Kill Kids, JUST FOR SHIT’S AND GIGGLES! How many people died at the hands of your precious father during the last war Crabbe? How many kids? How many tortured? Tortured at the wand tip of your fucking daddy. And for what? So he could get it up for your mum when he got home?”

“Was I under the Imperious curse?” Ron asked, venom dripping from his voice causing Harry to fear that all of Ms Zambini’s work was about to be undone. “I honestly have no fucking clue Crabbe. But you see, that’s the thing, unlike your piece of shit father, who went crying ‘Wa wa wa’ to the Ministry about how they were Imperioused into doing bad things, I know it’s nearly impossible to tell if you’ve been hit with it unless it’s something so awful, or so opposed to what you’d normally do, such as killing a loved one, which your daddy really had a thing for making people do from what I heard growing up. That’s what it takes to know you’ve been hit with it.”

“Everyone tells me I showed all the signs, so yeah, I probably was under the influence since your precious daddy was spilling all the beans to try and save his own skin. Because, like fuck loyalty or anything for your daddy.” Ron finished, face every bit as red as Crabbe’s was. “Jesus Christ you moron, why the fuck would you even consider attacking any of us, right in front of the teachers and Aurors? Especially since you attacked someone innocent of the crime you claim happened! Did your daddy beat you into submission to the point you still have to follow him now that he’s dead?! Or was your daddy’s dick that good that you’d take that kind of risk for?”

“RON!!!” Hermione shout perfectly timed with McGonagall’s “MR WEASLEY!”

“You done Ron?” Harry asked, smirking despite how close Ron’s comment came to Harry’s own upbringing (no dicks though thankfully), Crabbe and Malfoy could bring out the worst in people far to easily. Turning back to the Aurors, “What now? He didn’t actually get a spell off, and despite what we all know would have happened if he got his wand out, he CAN say he only intended to threaten me. So what happens?”

“Unfortunately, not much.” One of them replied.

“It would be up to his Head of House and the Headmaster!” Snape’s voice proceeded his sickly face and rancid hair from behind the Auror. “And with everything that has happened over the weekend, neither of us has much tolerance for imbeciles at the moment.” It was weird Harry thought to himself, Snape had his usual look of condensation and contempt, but Harry couldn’t tell who it was for at the moment. Harry himself, Ron, the Aurors or his own students, or more likely, all of the above.

When Snape held out his hand to Harry, clearly asking for the wand, Harry pretty automatically began to give it to him. But one of the Aurors reached out and snagged it. “No Severus, I don’t think so.” Putting the wand into his own pocket, the Auror pushed Crabbe towards a suddenly very hostile Snape. “Vincent Crabbe! You have attempted to attack a fellow student in front of the entire school. Now, do to other things, your attempt failed, but you still attempted it. While we do not have the authority to expel you, we do have the authority to confiscate your wand temporarily. As such, your Head of House will have to give us a list of your classes that require a wand. We’ll make sure whoever is guarding those classes will have it, and you’ll be granted use of it only for those activities that require it. In a couple of months, say around Christmas, we’ll reevaluate your behaviour.”

“And just in case it becomes an issue,” the other one added. “During all classes, you will be in the closest seat to the professor, and any of these three,” he pointed at Harry Ron and Hermione. “Any of these three will be sitting as far from you as possible. If you’re caught using another wand, we’ll not only snap your wand and expel you, but we’ll assume you had hostile, even murderous intent and cast accordingly!” The Auror added, snarling in Crabbe's face. “Oh, also, you’re not allowed to wander the castle. After classes, and during any periods you have no classes, you’ll be confined to your dorm.” The last he added with a smile before waving Snape and Crabbe off, Nott following along like a kicked puppy. Clearly the Auror liked neither Crabbe’s father, nor Snape.

But Goyle was still standing there, looking nervous, eyeing the Auror for a moment before turning to face Ron. With a low voice; “Did you really kill my father?”

With a defeated sigh, Ron answered. “Yes. It was in the middle of the fight and…”

“That doesn’t matter.” Goyle cut Ron off, “But you did kill him?”

“Yes.”

“And Bulstrode? Professor Snape told Millicent he had attacked Gryffindor tower and had been found right outside.”

“Um, I’m not sure about that one, that could have been either of us. Or the suit of armor or lions Harry summoned.”

“Thank you.” Goyle said, voice barely above a whisper, relief and gratitude writ large on his face. “Thank you. I’m sure Millicent would thank you as well if she could work up the courage. I…” He cut himself off and stood there for several seconds. “Thank you.” And then he turned and walked away, back to his table.

Ron and Hermione’s faces were complete shock, and the Aurors “What the fuck?” went unremarked upon. Personally, Harry thought, watching Goyle sit at his table and stare unmoving at his desert, that he had entirely to much in common with Goyle for comfort. And found himself wondering if someone murdered Uncle Vernon, would he feel gratitude as well.


What Hermione's new look is based on

Edit to correct name of person speaking.