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Chapter Text

Harry James Potter, at thirteen years old, was one extremely happy wizard. The night before had been interesting, to say the least. After accidentally blowing up his "aunt'' Marge and a harrowing escape from Privet Drive, he had taken a ride on The Knight Bus while thinking he was going to be expelled and listening to the driver and conductor gossip about the escaped convict Sirius Black.

It turned out that he had worried for nothing because the Minister of Magic himself had met Harry at the Leaky Cauldron and let him know that everything had been taken care of and he wasn't in trouble. The Minister had seemed relieved that Harry was okay and suggested that Harry spend the last three weeks at the Cauldron and Diagon Alley, which Harry was only happy to do. After all, three weeks in the magical alley would be far more fun than three weeks with the Dursleys. 

After laying down some perfectly reasonable rules, answering some questions, and bidding the teen goodnight, the Minister left Harry at the inn. Tom had shown Harry to his room and also left him alone. He had been so tired that he had fallen asleep almost immediately, leaving his trunk just inside the door and his shoes halfway to the bed.

The first couple of days, Harry had worked diligently to complete his homework so he could spend the rest of his time exploring the wonderous Diagon Alley without someone shepherding him around for the first time since he found out he was a wizard. Needless to say, Harry was extremely excited to finally be able to look at everything that the Alley had to offer without someone hounding his every step or scrutinizing his every purchase. Nothing against Hagrid or Molly; he just wished he had been able to explore.

Sitting in his favorite booth at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, he finished his last essay with a flourish and leaned back in relief. Doing his homework in the ice cream parlor with the occasional free sundae and advice from the proprietor himself was undoubtedly a marked improvement from doing it under the covers with a flashlight in the dead of night. It also helped that Mr. Fortescue was a major history buff and was willing to tell him about in-between customers. 

"Finished, lad?" Mr. Fortescue said from the counter. Harry looked up to see the man wiping his hands off the muggle way. 

"Yes, sir. Thank you for all your help...and the ice cream.'' Harry smiled brightly at the helpful man. He was one of the few individuals in Diagon Alley who saw him for Harry Potter, not The-boy-who-lived.

''No problem, sonny,'' Mr. Fortescue replied with a smile, "why don't you get on out of here and get to exploring this glorious alley as I know you've been itching to do." Harry flushed while the man chuckled. Florean had been watching the boy rush through his homework as quickly as he could while making sure it was worthy of an outstanding the past three days. He couldn’t blame the boy, rumors of Harry Potter’s family situation had spread following the incident, and he couldn’t help but feel for the young orphan. 

"I think I'll do just that," Harry said, getting up from his booth. "Thank you again."

Waving at the man, Harry stepped out into the alley. Immediately he was assaulted with the various sights, sounds, and smells of the busy place. Smiling slightly at the thought of not seeing the Dursleys for the better part of a year, he thought of what he wanted to do first. He still had not gone to Gringotts and refilled his money bag, but there wasn't any pressing need to do so.

'I think I'll do some exploring first; that way, if I find something I can't live without, I'll have some time to think about if I need it while I get money from my vault. I do need some new clothes, maybe some new glasses, and a haircut, but that can wait.'

With that thought, he headed to the very first store he had seen every time he stepped out of the ice cream parlor.

The Magical Menagerie wasn't bustling, but a few people were milling around looking at the various magical and mundane animals alike. Neat rows of cages lined the walls. Nobody appeared to be in a hurry, which made sense to Harry, as he couldn't think of too many occasions for an emergency need for a kneazle, diricawl, or crup.

The store clerk looked at him and, with a glance up towards his forehead, asked if Harry needed assistance. Harry waved him off with a quick "just looking, thank you." The clerk nodded and went back to his magazine.

Harry was looking at the cages with the nifflers when he heard a hissing sound.

Looking around, he saw that it was coming from a few glass tanks that were filled with snakes. Slightly surprised to see snakes in the store due to their reputation of being used exclusively for dark arts, He walked over to the terrariums and peered through the first one. Inside was what the tag labeled a king snake. It was rather large and seemed not to want to move from its magical warming stone. Harry moved on to the next tank and was surprised to see a very recognizable cobra, which didn't seem to want to move.

Shaking his head at the lazy reptiles, he was about to exit the store when he heard something else.

$Speaker! Hey speaker! Over here!$

Tracking the sound to a corner tank that he had not looked in, he looked inside and was surprised to see a two-foot-long snake that was labeled as a Taipan. It had a thin body, dark green coloring, and a relatively small head. The label said it was one of the most venomous snakes in the world. Something niggled in the back of his mind, and he almost started when he realized that he heard the snake due to his parseltongue.

He had pretty much forgotten about that. It was the cause of endless grief last year due to the whole Heir of Slytherin fiasco. He looked around to see if anybody was close enough to hear him.

$Yes? Can I help you?$ He hissed back, seeing no harm in being polite.

$Maybe, darling, but I was thinking I could help you.$ It replied.

A little startled to be called 'darling' by a venomous serpent, He said, $What do you mean?$

The snake rose and looked him in the eye.

$Well, I want you to buy me and let me be your familiar.$ She said.

Harry adopted a confused look on his face and leaned forward to ask, $Familiar? I'm not a dark wizard; why would you want to be my familiar?$

He could have sworn the snake sternly raised an eyebrow in a very Hermione-like way as he had just said something very dumb.

$Wow, darling, a bit presumptuous of you to assume that just because I'm a poisonous snake, it automatically makes me evil.$

Harry had the decency to look a little sheepish at that, $But everybody says that even being a parseltongue is the mark of a dark wizard, and snakes are used only for the dark arts, and I don't want to be a dark wizard. I wish I didn't even have this ability,$ Harry rambled.

$Well, I suppose if everyone says it, it must be true then, huh?$ She said, rolling her eyes, $Look, darling, it's an ability, you decide what to do with it. Besides, I am not evil. Not in the least. I would only bite someone with poison if they threatened me or mine. $

Harry was still a little skeptical but could see the point the snake was trying to make. $Ok, I guess I can understand that, but why in particular do you want to come with me?$ He asked.

$Well, aside from the fact that sitting in this tank all day is incredibly dull, and I'd like to be able to stretch out every once in a while, your magic makes me feel good. That means we are compatible. Also, you are the only speaker I've ever met, and I'd rather be with a speaker instead of just being taken to some random wizard's house and kept in yet another tank to serve as decoration.$ She said.

Harry could see what she meant and when he thought about it, parseltongue in and of itself was just an ability; it did depend on what he did with it. The more he thought about it, the more beneficial having a little snake friend seemed. Still...there were other concerns, like what everybody else would say, Ron and Hermione in particular. Ron was set in his ways and utterly convinced that all snakes were evil, even the not-so-scaly students that were considered snakes by virtue of being sorted into a schoolhouse at eleven years old. Hermione would probably get used to it a lot quicker, so maybe they could team up and convince Ron...maybe?

The rest of the school might turn on him again, but honestly, he was pretty used to that by now, having spent most of last year being a pariah. While not pleasant, the people who mattered to him stood by him while everyone else was alternatively glaring or skittering away from him.

Harry scoffed at that thought.

He looked at the little snake and asked, $can I think about it? I'm leaning towards yes, but there are some things I need to think about before I commit.$

$Okay, darling, just don't take too long; you never know when some nutter walks in to buy a niffler and walks out with a venomous snake.$

He chuckled a little at her attempt at wit. He could tell that it did want to go with him, he didn't know how he knew that, but he did. It’s kind of like how he got the impression of its facial expressions, even though it was technically impossible for it to have facial expressions.

He started to walk away when a thought occurred to him.

$Are you a male or female?$ He asked.

$Female, darling.$ She replied.

$Okay, I'll see you later.$ Harry waved to the snake and then instantly found foolish for doing so.

Walking out the door, Harry was already pretty sure that he was going to get her. Even if this was some elaborate set up so she could turn on him and gain her freedom, Madam Pomfrey had informed him that, because of the basilisk bite and phoenix tears, he was immune to most poisons. He had to admit, that was a pretty nifty side effect. Not that he had any intentions to go and get poisoned or even test the theory too much.

After spending a couple of hours exploring the other various shops, listening to people gossip about Sirius Black, or trying to sell him everything from lunar charts to large crystal balls filled with a model galaxy, he decided that it was time to go to Gringott's and get some money from his vault so he could get his school supplies. There were also some questions he had, and he hoped the goblins would be able to answer at least some of them.

He arrived at the bank and nodded to the goblin guards flanking the entry door. Walking in, he was impressed again at the marble opulence that the entry chamber consisted of. There were goblins seated on high chairs behind counters that looked like they needed a staircase for the short creatures to get upon. The goblins were engaged in the usual things like counting galleons and inspecting jewels.

He walked up to the nearest teller and waited patiently for the goblin to acknowledge him. From what little he paid attention to Professor Binns' droning voice in history class, Harry knew that goblins hated to be interrupted and were more inclined to be a bit more helpful if you didn't. Of course, nobody liked to be interrupted, so he supposed it was more of a common courtesy than any kind of cultural quirk exclusive to goblins.

The goblin finished counting the pile and wrote something down in the ledger to the left of the coins. He looked down at Harry and spoke, "can I help you, wizard?''

''Yes, sir, I would like to withdraw some money from my vault and would also like to speak with someone regarding my account, please,'' Harry responded.

"Key, please." The goblin reached down as Harry produced his key from his pockets and handed it to him.

The goblin inspected the key and instantly knew Harry’s name using some method only known to goblins.

"That seems to be in order. May I inquire as to the nature of your request to speak with your account manager, Mr. Potter?" The goblin said.

"Well, sir, I heard when I first came here that the vault I had been using was called a trust vault. I figured that if that was a trust vault, then there might be the main vault, and, um, I was kind of hoping that maybe if there was a main vault, I could see if there was something of my parents'. I have very little that belonged to them or any of my family, really, and I was hoping...that maybe I could find a keepsake or something like that. Maybe some letters " Harry responded, a bit embarrassed at sounding so small when he mentioned his parents.

The goblin, who was named Ripclaw, judging from the nameplate that Harry had just noticed, looked down at the child with a blank face and said, "very well, child, I'll call your account manager and let him know that you would like to speak with him. You may wait over there." Ripclaw pointed to a small waiting area on the other side of the chamber.

"Thank you for your help, sir," Harry said, turning around and walking to a seat in the waiting area.

After about fifteen minutes, another goblin, dressed in an eighteenth-century muggle-type business suit, came from one of the halls behind the counter and beckoned Harry to follow him.

Harry followed the goblin down the hall to an office with a nameplate that proclaimed it to belong to Grimjaw. Grimjaw walked into the office with Harry following him and sat down at the excellent mahogany desk and indicated a seat for Harry in front of the desk.

As Harry sat down, the goblin studied him for a few seconds and then spoke, "Mr. Potter, My name is Grimjaw. I am the account manager for the Potter family, as well as a few others. I understand from Ripclaw that you would like to see the Potter family vault, and see if there are any letters from your family.''

Harry felt a little nervous at this point; he just hoped that he wasn't doing anything wrong, although he couldn't think of anything wrong with asking questions. Nonetheless, he replied in what he hoped was a strong voice, ''yes sir, I didn't know that there was one, but I guessed there might be, and I was curious if it would have anything of my ancestor's or my parent's. I don't know too much about my family, and I would like to rectify that if I can."

Grimjaw nodded his head and said, "I'll allow this, but you won't be able to touch any money in your family vault until you come of age. That shouldn't be a problem because your father set you up with one of the largest trust vaults that I've, personally, ever seen. Also, you will only be allowed to remove four heirlooms at a time from the vault. Once you are declared of age, you will be granted full access. As for the letters, that would require me to research to see if they did leave anything, for a small fee."

Harry was surprised at the largest trust vault comment but decided to wait to see if any of his questions could be answered in the family vault before asking Grimjaw.

"That sounds more than fair, sir, and thank you," Harry said gratefully.

Grimjaw seemed pleased that he didn't have to deal with a little princeling throwing a tantrum and said, "if you follow me, I'll take you down to your family vault and then your trust vault to refill your money bag."

Harry was surprised again and, despite his resolution to glean answers from observing instead of constant questioning, couldn't help but ask, "I thought there were different goblins that took people down to their vaults. Griphook always took me down there before."

Grimjaw chuckled a little at that and replied, "normally, yes, for a trust vault, or a vault only owned by one person, Griphhook or another cart goblin would take you down there. Only an account manager can access the family vault he represents."

"Ah,'' said Harry. "Security reasons, I suppose." It made sense given that it was Voldemort controlling Quirrell that attempted to break into the bank during Harry’s first year. He couldn’t have been the first.  

''Indeed," Grimjaw motioning for Harry to follow him, they left his office. 

After a wild cart ride where Harry could have sworn there was at least five seconds of freefall, the pair stood in front of a large circular vault door. Intricate golden filigree surrounded an old English stylized letter "P" in the very center.

Grimjaw walked up and, placing his hand on one side of the door, indicated the other side for Harry to do the same. Harry complied and the door unsealed with a clang, opening just enough for the two to walk in.

Harry felt his jaw-dropping at sight in front of him. If his trust vault had piles of gold coins, then the family vault had mountains. One whole side of the massive vault was dedicated to coins. Galleons, sickles, and knuts in three gigantic piles reached almost to the ceiling, which was slightly higher than his head. The whole thing was illuminated by what he assumed was the magical equivalent of fluorescent lighting.

The other side of the vault had large shelves with strange artifacts lined neatly as if in a museum, glass display cases with different types of uniform robes, and a small number of weapons from different eras and countries displayed on the walls.

"Wow, I knew my parents left me a small fortune, but this is...insanity. I must be at least as rich as Malfoy. What exactly did my family do to amass this amount of gold?" Harry exclaimed after shaking his head and closing his jaw. He turned to Grimjaw before turning back and looking at the room.

Grimjaw chuckled and said, "sorry, Mr. Potter, the Malfoy family fortune is much greater than this. Your family was one of the wealthier families, but, mainly because they had a code of ethics in their business dealings, they still fell short of the obscene amounts that some of the less scrupulous families are able to maintain. I believe your ancestors didn't necessarily have an occupation that they specialized in in particular, but, like most old bloodlines, they produced a few outstanding individuals who made good business decisions or invented something groundbreaking over their long history. Are you aware of how a family trust works, Mr. Potter?"

Harry shook his head and replied, ''no, sir, what does that mean exactly?"

"I'll explain it with an example," Grimjaw said. "A family opens an account hundreds of years ago. This family consists of a young husband, a wife that took her husband's name, an older male offspring, a younger male offspring, and a youngest female offspring. Now the husband and wife both have jobs, work hard, and deposit a portion of their earnings into their vault every month. Over time the money accumulates and grows, and when their first child graduates from Hogwarts and is ready to start his life, his parents gift him with a small nest egg and his own vault for him to live on until he can stand on his own. This young man also gets a job, does everything his parents did, and adds to his vault. More time passes, and, unfortunately, the young man dies in an accident before he can marry and sire an heir of his own. Now, as he didn't have an heir, his vault gets closed, and the money or any items he placed there gets put in his parent’s vault, growing the original vault even more. Are you with me so far?"

Harry nodded, fascinated with the history lesson. Honestly, he had to wonder why Binns still taught history. The ghost was focused on goblins and goblin wars too much. 

Grimjaw cleared his throat and said, ''Good because this is where it gets confusing. The family is short one member, but they have all of the deceased's possessions in their vault. The younger male offspring graduates from Hogwarts, and the parents do the same thing for him, and he does the same thing that his brother did. Fortunately, this young man was able to meet someone at Hogwarts and married soon after. The couple soon have a child, and the line continues, and their vault continues to grow."

Grimjaw took a small break at this point and waved his hand. Two chairs that looked like the ones in his office appeared where they were standing, and he indicated one for Harry to sit.

"Ah, that's better," Grimjaw sighed. "These old bones of mine just aren't what they used to be."

Harry smiled at the goblin from his seat, starting to feel more comfortable in his presence and wondering why wizards, in general, seemed not to like them. This one, at least, seemed rather talkative and, if not necessarily friendly, definitely not hostile.

"Where was I?" Grimjaw continued. ''Ah, yes, now, the female offspring graduates and her parents do the same for her, she does the same, and her vault grows after a few years. At this point, the husband dies, and his son becomes the new head of the family. If he had died before he had an heir of age, his wife would have taken over as regent of the family until the oldest son reached majority. The middle son is now the head of the family, and his vault gets merged with the main vault that was started all those years ago, and he has control over the family fortune. Now, the youngest female offspring is ready to marry. So the new head of the family negotiates with the suitors family for a dowry; this can be anything from a sum of money, to property, to a particularly rare Item. When the dowry is settled, and the two marry, it ties the two families together closer, but the female is, in essence, leaving the original family's name behind."

Grimjaw cleared his throat again and asked, "do you have any questions so far?''

Harry shook his head and said, ''no sir, I think if the history Professor at Hogwarts was as good as you, I might not have such bad grades in that class."

Grimjaw laughed at that and said, "I don't normally talk this much to my clients, but I can't, in good conscience, have an heir to a fortune uninformed of how that fortune came to be."

"I do appreciate the information," said Harry.

"No problem, lad, just remember to tip me generously when you leave, and you and I will get along just fine," Grimjaw said. "Now I'll finish this impromptu history lesson off and let you look around your vault; It’s already past lunchtime."

Harry nodded and listened as Grimjaw continued his lesson.

"The head of the family controls the fortune and, generally, gives out assistance to his siblings if they need it or makes business decisions using the family money. A small percentage goes to his sibling’s vaults for any profit made, but the majority goes to the main family vault. Over the decades, the main vault and the branch vaults grow with good business and hard work, or ruthlessness and savagery, depending on the family. If a family member dies without an heir named, their vault gets added to the family vault, and if the name dies out, it gets passed to the closest descendant that comes from another family. If everyone dies but one person, such as in your case, then that person gets the whole fortune."

Grimjaw peered at Harry closely with his eyes narrowed and said, "that was probably one of the reasons you were sent to your muggle relatives to live in obscurity until you rejoined the magical world and went to school, where you could be protected from some of your less than scrupulous relatives on your father's side. Your mother's relatives, being muggles, wouldn't be able to inherit the Potter fortune if something...untoward, had happened to you, even if they had known about it."

Harry's eyes widened. That did make sense.

'Dammit, so that's that mystery solved, Dumbledore told me that I was protected there; I guess he wasn't just talking about from people who were mad about what happened to Voldedouche, although I imagine the groups overlap a bit.' Harry thought with a grimace. There went any hope of convincing Dumbledore to let him leave, and he didn't know he was ready to be able to protect himself just yet, anyway. 'I'll have to think of something; it wouldn't even be so bad if I was a bit more self-sufficient in that house and had minimal contact with the Dursleys. I also need to find out just who isn't in prison who I could be related to and not put in danger. Well, I have all of this money; that could only help.'

Harry finished with his contemplation and looked at Grimjaw.

"Thank you, sir, for the information and the warning. What would be an appropriate tip for this?" Harry asked.

Grimjaw contemplated for a moment and said, "I think I'll let you decide that; you can tell a lot about a man by how he tips,'' he chuckled.

Harry winced at that and chuckled weakly, "If you think so, sir."

"I do. Now go and look at your heirlooms and don't try to take a single knut," Grimjaw said sternly, taking out a magazine from...somewhere. "Remember, only three heirlooms can be taken at a time, so choose wisely."

Harry nodded and stood up. He walked over to the first shelf and immediately noticed that most of them were rare and expensive items he had seen in some of the higher-tier shops in Diagon Alley. Some were specialty items, really only useful in specific jobs that he wasn't remotely interested in at the moment. A few books about topics that he could barely even read about, much less understand. He didn't see anything that belonged to his parents or anything he couldn't live without. There were several file cabinets that he peaked through and filed the information away for later.

He moved from the shelves and filing cabinets, not seeing anything of particular use or sentimental value; he moved over to the glass display cases. These contained a lot of different uniforms that the various Potters used throughout, what looked like a very long history. Auror robes, healer robes, and what looked suspiciously like what Fudge was wearing under his ridiculous pinstriped cloak. Harry peered at the plaque under these robes, and his eyes widened.

Edmund Potter - Minister of Magic. 1792-1800 .

'Wicked! I'll have to research what he did when he was in office; I hope it was some good things.' Harry was definitely going to make a return trip once he was allowed to.

Harry moved down the line until he came upon something different. Some kind of leather outfit and what looked kind of similar to a muggle muzzleloader, if sleeker. Confused, Harry looked at the plaque under the case.

Edith Potter- Independent curse breaker, Explorer, Inventor, 1658-1706

Underneath the plaque was a small booklet, Harry picked it up and looked at the title.

Adventurer's Armor and Caster

Edith Potter, 1692

Extremely interested at this point, Harry turned to the first page.

This booklet describes my two greatest inventions, The Adventurer's Armor and The Caster. These two artifacts, almost as much as my natural tenacity, are what I attribute my success to. I first thought to mass-produce them as a business venture but thought better of it. While not the most dangerous artifacts out there, these two items together can exponentially increase a person’s power, so I thought it would be better to place them under a patent ward and keep them in the family. Maybe someday there will be a young Potter with a taste for adventure like I have and can find a use for them. Even with as much as the edges of the map are being filled in in my day, there will always be forgotten places to explore and new monsters to fight. Magic just works that way.

Edith Potter- 1701

As he was reading the introduction written by the quill of one of his ancestors and briefly wondering what a patent ward was, he had flashbacks to his own 'adventures.’ A man in front of a mirror with two faces and a half-transparent sixteen-year-old calling for a gigantic, insane snake with a death-stare...

Harry shook his head and looked at the armor closely. The vest and pants were thin, easy enough to conceal under his school robes. The right bracer seemed to have a wand holster built into it; he’d meant to get one of those anyway. The boots looked almost brand new but worn at the same time. The belt had a holster for the Caster and looked extremely comfortable.

He wanted the armor; the only problem was that it seemed to fit a person who was a bit bigger than his skinny, thirteen-year-old frame. He looked at the second page.

Adventurer's Armor.

Yes, it will fit you whether you weigh 100 pounds or 300: auto-sizing runes, easy peasy. Any adventurer knows their runes. Treasure isn’t going to be unprotected now, is it?

It seemed Edith was a bit of a smart-arse and wasn't shy about her apparent ability to anticipate problems with startling accuracy.

It was decided, he was taking them, even the Caster. At first, he was a bit concerned about having a weapon at school; then, he remembered a sword jammed up into the mouth of a ridiculously large snake and a wand capable of casting all manner of unpleasantness. He decided one more couldn't hurt and may help; he wouldn't have to rely on a bird bringing him a patched and ragged hat.

He didn't want to take off all of his clothes in the middle of a bank vault, so he looked around for something to carry it all in until he got somewhere more private. His eyes fell on a smallish, rather plain-looking trunk sitting by a glass case with an Auror’s robes in it. Thinking it would do nicely and maybe Grimjaw wouldn't count a trunk as a third item, because honestly, it's a trunk, he walked over to it, picked it up, and brought it over to the glass case with the armor and Caster in it.

Opening the trunk proved that looks could be deceiving when it grew to the size of a regular trunk and becoming rather ornate in the process. The outside now had seven keyholes with a lovely dark glossy finish and the Potter " P " on the front. Looking on the inside further confused Harry when he only saw a shallow tray with a folded piece of parchment and seven different keys on a keyring.

Harry picked up the parchment and read.

This trunk is a rare kind of trunk with eight compartments. Some of the more well-off aurors like to use them because, well, they are dead useful. Why else would one use something out of the ordinary? Honestly. I'll leave you to figure out how to use it because it's not that difficult. Just a couple of hints though, the first compartment opened with the first key is empty; you can tap it once with your wand to camouflage it, or tap it twice to shrink it to the size of a matchbox. Tap it again to return it to its normal size.

'Were all of my ancestors’ smart-arses, or is it just the ones who left me useful stuff?" Harry thought incredulously.

Harry picked up the keyring, grabbed the key with a " 1 '' on the head, and put it into the corresponding lock. Nothing happened when he turned it.

Harry scratched his head. 'Uh, maybe it needs to be closed?'

He closed the lid and tried again. This time when he opened it, the shallow tray was gone and in its place was what looked like the inside of a standard school trunk. Satisfied, he opened the glass case that held the Adventurer's Armor and The Caster and carefully packed everything into it. He closed the trunk and tapped it twice, watching in amazement at it shrinking down to a size of a matchbox to easily fit into a pocket.

'I am so replacing my school trunk with this.' He thought happily.

Walking further into the vault, He walked over towards one wall that held racks and racks of weapons. All the various kinds of weapons, from simple daggers to a massive spiked hammer with many runes carved into the handle. Each one had a small plaque underneath that held the weapon’s name and who had created it. Harry’s eyes locked onto one of the more simple swords. It was a straight blade with a double edge. There wasn’t a crossguard like the sword of Gryffindor had, but as Harry touched the grip, he felt a sense of kinship with it. Taking hold of it, Harry took it off the rack and looked at the plaque. 

Fulham Gladius Sword 47AD

Harry took the sword and swung it once. He didn’t have much experience with blades, well, one experience with a sword, but this one felt right. Looking back at the rack, he grabbed the simple leather sheath. Picking it up, he slipped the blade into it. He noticed that there was a small info card attached to the sheath. Saving it for later, Harry pulled out the trunk and slipped the sword into the same area as the armor and the caster.   

Harry walked back over to Grimjaw and said, "I'm finished, sir."

Grimjaw looked over his magazine and asked, "what did you get?"

"Two artifacts called the Adventurer's Armor and The Caster, a small sword, and this trunk," Harry responded, holding up the matchbox-sized trunk.

"Ah, yes, excellent choices. I'll overlook that trunk probably not being empty because I only saw you open the first compartment, which was empty." Grimjaw said.

Harry blinked. He hadn't thought of that.

Grimjaw chuckled at his expression and reassured him, "it's alright, lad. Now let's run by your trust vault and get out of here. I am hungry, and it's far past lunchtime.

Harry nodded, and the two stepped out of the vault.

Another wild cart ride, and Harry was saying goodbye to his account manager after tipping him what the goblin said was a fair amount and walking out of the bank. Grimjaw promised to send him an owl if he found any files or letters that he thought would interest Harry. As Harry looked a the different shops, Harry started making a mental list of the different shops he wanted to explore.  

He had decided to buy the snake that he had spoken to earlier, realizing that some portions of his past 'adventures' might have been significantly easier if he had had her earlier. So he stopped by the Menagerie and paid the ten galleons for her. The shopkeeper looked a little uneasy when he just reached into the tank, and the little snake crawled up into his sleeve and wrapped around his arm but shrugged it off quickly enough. Apparently, he had seen stranger things.

After getting some late lunch at the Leaky Cauldron, he decided to get a haircut, and by the time the stylist had finished wrestling the unruly mop on top of his head into something that looked kind of cool, it was getting dark. So he headed back to the Leaky Cauldron, Grabbed some dinner, and went up to his room.

He talked to the snake, who he had given the name Ari until he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore. He fell asleep, excited about his newest friend and the fantastic magical objects in his new, equally impressive magic trunk. He couldn't wait until morning to start exploring again.

Chapter Text

Harry woke up slowly and stretched with a contented groan, not really feeling any kind of urgency in his sleep fogged mind. He smacked his lips to get his dry mouth producing saliva again and opened his eyes...A small, green, reptilian head with black eyes and a flickering tongue was staring back at him less than six inches from his nose.

"Aaahhh!" Harry gasped, his brain not properly understanding the strange scene in front of him.

He almost flung himself from the bed in his haste to get away from the hostile-looking creature but stopped himself when his brain re-engaged. Still laying down, he glared at Ari, who was hissing and spitting in what he recognized as hysterical laughter.

$That wasn't very nice,$ he said with an annoyed look on his face.

$You should have seen the look on your face! It looked like Death himself had just asked you to sit down and play chess with him!$ She responded, still doing a snake version of a chortle.

During their conversation the night before, Harry had discovered that Ari was quite an enigma. She seemed intelligent and wise one moment, and the next, she would crack lame jokes that would make Fred and George cringe. He liked her a lot but definitely thought she could work on her sense of humor a little bit.

He looked down at her, curled up on his chest, and said dryly, $you're hilarious. I can't wait to introduce you to the twins; maybe they'll be able to give you a few lessons on how to be funny.$

She scoffed and responded loftily, $as long as I can make myself laugh, everything is perfect in my world$

Harry blinked at that; it actually made some sense to him. He noticed that she had a small lump in the middle of her body and poked at it. He jerked his head back into the pillow as Ari did a closed mouth strike on the tip of his nose.

$You don't poke a lady in the belly, you hairless ape!$ She admonished him.

Harry laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation and scratched the back of his head sheepishly. $Sorry, sorry. I take it you've had breakfast then?$

$Yes, a small mouse in the entryway to the Alley.$ She responded, still glaring at him lightly.

Harry's stomach rumbled, reminding him that he had to grab some breakfast of his own. He looked at Ari again and said with concern, $just be careful going off on your own, I don't want anything to happen to you.$

$I'll be careful, darling, don't you worry about me. I'm like a ghost slithering in the grass.$ She responded, moving her upper body in a pantomime of slithering. He could tell she was touched by his concern, despite her light tone.

He smiled at her antics and said, $Ok. I'm going to get ready and go downstairs to get some breakfast; then I'll return up here. I want to look at my new trunk and the items from my family vault more closely. Do you want to come downstairs with me?$

$Yes, we need to remain close for a few days so we can bond.$ She replied.

$I meant to ask you about that. What exactly does this 'bond' mean?$ He asked

$Hm, I'm not entirely sure on the details, but I'm reasonably certain that we won't be able to speak telepathically or anything crazy like that,$ she said, chuckling. $I'll probably be able to grow a bit larger than the typical specimen of my species. My venom might get a little stronger, too. Oh, and I'll be able to sniff you out from anywhere. That's all I can think of.$

Harry chuckled and spoke teasingly, $wow, sounds like I got the short end on this deal, all I got was a runty little worm with a lame sense of hum-$

He didn't get to finish before she did another headbutt strike, this time on his forehead. He laughed.

$I'm kidding, I'm kidding.$ He said, picking her up off his chest, setting her down on the bed, and walking to the bathroom to take care of his morning routine, pausing to say good morning to a dozing Hedwig. He chuckled at Ari's grumbling about hairless neanderthals.

Harry walked down to the mostly empty dining room with a freshly scrubbed face, newly styled hair, and the aforementioned runty worm wrapped around his upper arm under his casual robe sleeves.

Tom looked up from wiping down his bar to get ready for the day, saw Harry, and greeted him with a toothless but friendly smile.

"Mr. Potter! You're up early. May I interest you in some breakfast?" Tom asked.

"Good morning sir, I'll take the usual breakfast, thanks," Harry replied, taking a seat at his favorite booth.

As he waited, people began coming into the dining room, looking for their own breakfasts.

Over the last few days in the Alley, Harry had discovered people watching. After the initial furor of having the famous Harry Potter staying at the Leaky cauldron died down, people mostly just greeted him when they saw him in the dining room or the Alley and went about their business. He had observed these people unobtrusively and concluded that people were hilarious when they thought they weren't being watched, even in a public place.

They didn't do anything disgusting or embarrassing, but an observant person, which Harry was, could notice a pattern in the way people interacted with one person and interacted utterly differently with another person. It was highly amusing to his teenage mind, and he had learned a lot about the social structure of the wizarding populace. The Leaky Cauldron was a meeting place of all kinds of people, a neutral ground, where the wealthy could meet with a contact about a business deal in a private parlor, or a humanoid, magical being that was usually discriminated against could grab a bite to eat without almost anyone batting an eye.

Harry knew there were some types of people in the wizarding world who hated places like this, mainly because they saw it as beneath them. It was a minority, a vocal minority to be sure, but a minority all the same. Most people who lived in the wizarding world full time frequented the Alley and, by extension, The Leaky Cauldron. They were the very definition of a cultural center. In the same spot for centuries, the Cauldron and Diagon Alley had been there and would probably be there for centuries more.

Harry's breakfast arrived, breaking him from his internal monologue that sounded suspiciously like a history essay. He thanked Tom and dug in with gusto. Once he was finished, he sat back contentedly in his booth for a few more minutes, feeling Ari wrapped snugly around his arm with her head on his shoulder, napping away her own large meal.

After paying for his breakfast and leaving a tip on the table, Harry returned to his room, eager to look at the things he had gotten from his vault the day before. He shucked off his robes leaving him in his hand-me-down jeans, frayed trainers, and an overlarge shirt. Catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror right next to the bathroom door, he resolved to go buy some new clothes.

' I'll do that later. Now is the time to check out this marvelous trunk, ' he thought, with a gleam in his eye.

He grabbed the still shrunken trunk off of the nightstand, where he had placed it the night before, and placed it on the floor. Tapping it to return it to its normal size, he inspected the outside, noting the ornate keyholes and the stylized Potter "P" on the front and top.

Satisfied that the outside had no more discernable secrets, he grabbed the keys from his pocket and inserted the numbered one key into its appropriate keyhole. With a soft, mechanical ''snick," he opened the first compartment to see the Adventurer's Armor, The Caster, and the sword still in the same positions he had packed them in the day before. Not wanting to get distracted from the trunk, he placed the armor, sword and Caster neatly on the bed, thinking to return to them after he had looked at all of the compartments of the trunk.

He closed the lid on the now-empty first compartment and produced the second key. With the same sound as before, he opened the lid, holding his breath in anticipation. He whistled appreciatively at the contents.

One half of the slightly magically expanded compartment had a large cauldron with several incrementally smaller cauldrons stacked neatly inside of it as well as a precision brass scale set with corresponding weights of unmistakable quality. The cauldrons seemed to be made of different materials from iron to pewter, with the smallest made from, what looked like, solid gold. Shaking his head and not even knowing where to begin thinking about what specialized potions the cauldrons could be necessary for, he looked over to the other side of the compartment.

Seeing a leather strap that just seemed to beg to be pulled, he grasped it and pulled up, watching in amazement as a rack with all manner of potions ingredients quickly responded. The components were alphabetically arranged and seemed to include ingredients he had never heard of, much less know what they did in a potion. After the rack was completely pulled out, it extended forward like an accordion to conveniently display all of the ingredients in an easily accessible manner. Briefly wondering how the ingredients stayed fresh and figuring it was probably runes or charms, he looked at the different vials and saw more than enough amounts of a standard student potions kit to last him probably for the remainder of his time in Hogwarts. He saw a few empty jars of some other things, including, to his surprise, empty jars labeled Basilisk: venom, Basilisk: blood, and Basilisk: crushed fang.

Thinking he may need to take another trip down to the Chamber of Secrets to fill them up, he returned the obvious master class potion kit to its storage configuration and then closed the lid on the second compartment. 

He sat back and thought about what he had just found in this increasingly valuable trunk. It was true that 'Professor' Snape had almost killed any interest he may have initially had in potion-brewing, but he had to ask himself, 'should I really let some bitter old man ruin what could be a beneficial skill? for me? '

' No, I should not, ' Harry resolved. ' I'll control myself in his class better and not rise to his baiting. I'll see if I can find some supplemental reading about the art and go from there. If he doesn’t teach properly, I'll just learn how to do them myself. '

Harry grabbed the numbered three key, inserted it into its hole, and turned with a firm nod. With that satisfying sound, the third compartment opened up. Flush with the top edge of the inside were three different slats of handsome dark-colored wood with the same type of leather straps attached to each of them. Seeing the gist, Harry grabbed the first one and pulled. His eyes widened at the sight of a bookshelf, taller than the trunk was deep, rising and locking into place. The bookshelf had five individual shelves, each packed full of books.

Upon closer inspection, the books all seemed to be about potion-brewing. Smaller books detailing individual potions, larger books about several, and massive tomes about dozens of different potions. Harry's eyebrows raised at the recognizable spine of Moste Potente Potions , a book he knew to be in the restricted section of the Hogwarts library. There was also a huge book called Reaction tables: How ingredients interact .

' Well, I guess I don't have to search for those supplementary potions books after all. Whoever owned this trunk before sure liked his potions. Hermione's gonna have an orgasm when I show her these .' Harry's eyes widened, and he blushed with a guilty-sounding giggle at the slightly perverted thought.

Shaking his head again to get back on track, he pushed the first shelf down and pulled the second one up. This shelf seemed to be split into several different subjects. He could see books about arithmancy, ancient runes, charms, wards, and standard spells. The bottom shelf was devoted to several large books that looked a little dark to his naive eyes. He looked closely at these and noted some of the titles.

Defense: Dark rituals, Defense: Unforgivables, Defense: Lethal Curses, Guarding and attacking the mind, and Dark arts vs. Battle Magicks: The fine line .

' I wonder what Battle Magicks are. I've never heard the term before. Guess I'll have to read that book to find out.' He thought, closing the second shelf.

Opening the third shelf was a bit anticlimactic, mainly because it was empty. He figured that's where he would put all of his school books whenever he got around to shopping for them.

He closed the third compartment and stretched. Standing up to walk around for a bit and winding up by Hedwig and scratching that spot she loved, his eyes fell on the armor, the sword, and the strange gun that he had grabbed. He was very tempted to look closer at them now, but he also really wanted to get through the fantastic trunk first. He pulled his eyes from the enticing artifacts and looked back at the trunk.

Harry walked over to the trunk, produced the fourth key, and slid it into the lock, eagerly anticipating what he would find in the fourth compartment. Opening it up, he found three more shelves, exactly the third compartment, except they were empty as well. It seems his ancestor wanted there to be plenty of room for books. 

Closing the compartment he pulled the fifth key and opened the next compartment. 

Opening the lid, he saw a wooden dowel running from one end of the inside to the other, and it too had a leather strap to pull. Raising the dowel revealed a few fancy-looking robes hanging on coat hangers in vellum protectors. He figured maybe the fancy robes were for parties or something like that. There was room for more robes, casual or fancy that needed to be hung up.

' Maybe these will come in handy someday. ' He thought, pushing the dowel down and closing the lid.

The sixth Compartment opened up to reveal an empty chest of drawers for more casual clothes that pulled up with the ever-present leather strap. There was a place for shoes as well as a place for underpants, and toiletries.

The seventh compartment confused him for a split second because it just pulled up a deep empty shelf. He noticed more runes around the edges but had no idea what they meant until he looked at the very top and saw the words ' Food Cupboard '.

'I'll bet those runes make stuff placed on the shelf stay fresh. I'll fill it up when I return to the Dursleys next year; then, I won't starve from Dudley's rabbit-food diet. I wonder if it is forever or if there is a time limit. Maybe I should take runes this year. I did hear some older kids complaining about Divination being a terrible class. Maybe I'll write McGonagall and ask her what she thinks.' He pondered, closing the sixth compartment

Taking a deep breath, Harry slid the final key into the last hole and opened it up. He looked down and saw what looked like stone steps leading down. Greatly confused and wondering just what in the world this trunk had in store for him now, he climbed in and proceeded down the steps.

After thirteen narrow steps, Harry's Jaw dropped as he took in the newest marvel. A large circular room, about twenty-one feet in diameter, was seemingly carved out of solid stone. Numerous dark-colored tapestries were hanging off the walls, offsetting the cold stone walls and different rugs doing the same for the floor. Immediately across the room was a queen-sized four-poster with a bunch of fluffy-looking pillows. Next to the bed was a small alcove with a heavy black curtain hanging in front of it. To his left was a long desk that conformed to the circular shape of the room and sat flush against the wall. Across from the desk was a small, cold fireplace with a decent stack of wood in front of it. The whole room was bathed in soft light from a magical light on the ceiling.

The fireplace confused him, so he walked over to look up the chimney and saw what looked like more runes lining the short shaft that ended abruptly, going nowhere. Shaking his head, Harry walked over to the alcove and pushed open the curtain, not surprised to see a toilet, stand-up shower, and a washbasin in the compact nook. More runes, he guessed, provided the water and waste removal.

The bed was more comfortable than anything he'd ever slept in, and he was almost tempted to take a nap, but he figured he had too much to do at the moment. He walked over to the desk and was surprised yet again to see a folded piece of parchment sitting on the otherwise empty desk. He opened it up.

Just another tip, DO NOT leave your keys outside while you are in this compartment. The trunk cannot be shrunk while a person is in this room, but it sure as hell can be locked. Don't be that bloke.

Harry blinked and rushed up the stairs and out of the room. He sighed in relief and started laughing uncontrollably.

He couldn't believe his luck, the trunk was terrific, and it provided numerous possibilities. When he was inevitably returned to the Dursleys, he could hide his trunk by shrinking it so Vernon couldn't lock his stuff in the cupboard under the stairs. If Vernon asked, which he probably wouldn't care to, he could just say that he'd asked one of his friends to look after his stuff during the summer. Maybe he should use his old trunk as a decoy trunk just in case. 

He could put the trunk in the closet and use it to his heart's content, even do his homework or any additional studies in the room in the seventh compartment. Neither Vernon nor Petunia ever went into his room so they wouldn't find it. Oh, yes, Harry was definitely excited.

Harry calmed himself down and finally settled his eyes on the armor, sword, and Caster on his bed. He walked over to it and picked up the vest. It was made of some kind of leather that he didn't recognize. Like the rest of the pieces in color, Matte Black seemed to absorb any light that hit it. Soft and supple, it flowed almost like well-worn denim, not at all hard and stiff like one would expect leather to be. The opening at the front could be closed by straps and buckles made from black metal. Raised ridges lined the armholes, neck-hole, and waist. Upon closer inspection, the ridges themselves were lined in numerous tiny runes of indecipherable purpose.

Marveling at the exceptional craftsmanship that must have gone into making just the vest, he set it down and picked up the bracers. Like he suspected yesterday, the right bracer had a wand holster built-in. Both bracers had the same ridges and runes that the vest had lining both sides, and they were both a little stiffer than the vest had been.

He set the bracers down and picked up the pants. Like the vest, it was almost impossibly soft and supple. The pants had extra long belt loops to fit the relatively wide belt. The same ridges and runes were present as well.

The boots were made with straps and buckles instead of laces and seemed in perfect condition, despite appearing well worn. They would reach up to his mid-calf when he put them on. More runes covered them.

The belt was wide, and the holster for the caster could slide off of it to put through the loops on the pants or just leave it off. There was also a couple of pouches on the belt that seemed bigger than they were, along with a couple pouches that seemed to hold some form of shell that could. He put it away to investigate it later.  

He picked up the Caster, the feeling of holding a handgun alien to his young British hands. Harry really only knew of one thing about any kind of gun, don't ever point it at something you aren't willing to destroy. He remembered that from a television public service announcement he had heard at Mrs. Figg's house during one of the many times she had babysat him when he was younger while the Dursleys did something fun. Good thing too, it seemed necessary. 

The Caster was about eight inches long, dull bronze color and a barrel he could stick his thumb into, not that he would do such a thing. The grip was ridged for comfort with some kind of black wood lining the sides. He didn't feel comfortable touching the trigger, so he left it alone. The rear of the gun had a lever that looked like it could move, so he pushed up and almost dropped the thing when small circular gears on both sides of the weapon just on top of the grip turned, and the whole rear clicked and raised with the lever. Harry looked into the opened chamber, his heart still beating from the unexpected action. He decided to put the Caster away until he read the little booklet he had found in his vault with the armor and gun.

After putting away the Caster in the first compartment of his new trunk, Harry moved back to the armor. Deciding he had waited long enough, he stripped off his clothes down to his boxers and placed a still snoozing Ari on a clear spot on the bed. Hedwig watched curiously as he put the pants on first, then moved to the vest and bracers, finishing with the belt and boots leaving the Caster holster off the belt for the time being. As he expected, everything was a bit too big to fit him, and he wondered if there was something special he had to do to activate the self-fitting runes His ancestor had mentioned. That proved unnecessary when he buckled the last buckle on the last boot, and the whole outfit flashed and shrunk to fit him perfectly.

Harry rushed over to the mirror and looked at himself.

' This...is the coolest thing...I have ever seen. ' He thought, with a massive smile on his face.

The armor had an intimidating look in its simplicity. Harry was skinny but with wiry muscle from two years of quidditch practice and playing, and the armor seemed to highlight that. The pants were just a little loose and tucked straight into the tops of the boots, he didn't remember tucking them in like that, but he shrugged it off. The vest was flush against his torso, skin-tight without being constricting. All in all, Harry was pleased, and he sent a silent thank you to the afterlife towards his many great grand-aunt. 

He picked up the sword and looked it over. He pulled the little notecard off the sheath and noticed that runes were lining both sides of it. As he ran his fingers over both sides, he realized that they were the same runes. Looking at the notecard, harry flipped it over. 

The Fulham Gladius, made from goblin steel and silver. The handle is a bone from a Romanian Ridgetail, the wrap has anti-slip runes. Designed for use in close range against a number of monsters as well as your enemy. The sheath has semi-permanent sticking charm runes ; simply press them against the article of clothing or armor and push your magic into the runes. They will adhere themselves to the item and prevent it from disengaging. To disengage it, push your magic into the runes once again, and it will unadhered.  

Harry placed the sword against his armor and treating it like his wand; he sent a bit of magic into the sheath and felt it stick to his back. Tugging on the sheath, it stayed in place; jumping up and down, it stayed in place. 

“Wicked,” looking at himself in the mirror, Harry couldn’t help but imagine himself going tomb raiding and searching for lost treasure.   

His stomach growled, and he looked at the clock above the fireplace and saw that it was lunchtime; he had spent more time in the trunk and with the armor than he thought. Placing his hand on the sheath and pushing his magic into it, he felt it unattached. Taking the sword placing it in the first compartment, Harry moved over to his bed. Harry picked up the still sleeping Ari and wrapped her around his upper arm, and, still wearing the armor, put on his casual robes. He walked downstairs and greeted Tom at the bar.

''Hey Tom, mind if I grab some lunch?" Harry asked after catching Tom’s attention.

"Of course, Mr. Potter! Have a seat anywhere you like. The usual?" Tom replied with his typical exuberance.

"Yes, please, and thank you," Harry responded, heading over to his usual booth.

Lunch hour was usually busier than breakfast so that he could engage in his newest hobby even more effectively. He sat and watched while he waited and noticed many people coming into the pub and going straight out into the Alley. This wasn't anything unusual, though, and it was a Saturday. He had been in the alley almost an entire week, with two more weeks left to go. Hermione would be coming home from her trip in the middle of next week, Ron a few days later. He missed them terribly and couldn't wait to see them and show them his family heirlooms. Ron would probably call everything 'wicked!' and Hermione would drool over the books and the armor while simultaneously shooting disapproving glares at the Caster. He shuttered at the scolding he would get for the sword. 

Harry chuckled at that thought, glad that he finally had people that he knew well enough to predict their reactions to things. It helped him get over his lonely childhood.

Tom arrived with his food, and Harry thanked him and tucked in. As he was eating, he suddenly felt like he was being watched. He surreptitiously glanced around him, and his eyes caught the eyes of his would-be watcher. The beautiful girl quickly glanced away when she saw that she had been caught. She was about his age, and he thought he recognized her from his year at school, although he couldn't quite place her name. The girl glanced back at him, and he quickly averted his eyes with a slight blush. She was gorgeous, with wavy raven hair pulled back in a loose ponytail, ocean-blue eyes, and full (for her age anyway) pink lips. Harry had no experience with females of a non-best-friend relation, but that didn't mean he wasn't against trying.

He caught her eye again and gave her a small, shy smile. He hoped he didn't just make an arse of himself.

Nope! she smiled back! And the crowd goes wild! Harry felt like he had just caught the snitch in the season’s final game, winning Gryffindor the quidditch cup. He quickly calmed himself down, though, when he realized his internal monologue was sounding awful like Lee Jordan getting the Gryffindor fans to chant his last name over and over, and he was quite ridiculous. But then again, it was his first minor flirtation victory, and he felt he deserved a pat on the back.

He glanced back to her table and noticed it was now empty, with Tom heading over to it to clean up; a little startled, his eyes darted around the room, and he caught her heading to the floo with, who he thought were her parents, he hadn't noticed them before.

She didn't glance back at him again until she had thrown her floo powder in the fireplace. When she did, she had a small, amused smile on her face, like she knew exactly what he was thinking and thought it cute. Then she did a slight twinkling of her fingers at him and swirled away in a flash of green flames.

Harry chuckled at himself, it felt good to have just a tiny amount of flirty fun, and he looked forward to doing it again sometime. Maybe next time, he could keep his head straight and amuse the girl by being witty and funny and not inexperienced and awkward.

' I doubt it, though, ' he thought with an amused shake of his head. ' Something tells me that stuff like that will happen quite often. '

Oh well.

Not really feeling like going back up to his room at the moment, Harry walked out into the Alley, marveling at the feeling of the soft leather of his armor against his skin.

He decided to see if he could find someone to see about some new glasses. Looking around the Alley, he spotted a promising-looking sign. He walked in and saw a middle-aged woman standing over a cauldron behind the counter.

She looked at him and said, "just a tick, Luv."

Harry nodded and looked around the store, noticing that the few glasses in the display cases seemed to be more similar to what Professor Dumbledore would wear.

He heard the lady take her cauldron off the fire and turned around to see if she was done.

She smiled at him and said, "I'm Healer Camellia, can I help you, hun?''

''Yes, ma'am, I was hoping to get some new glasses or maybe even see if there was something I could do to fix my eyes permanently." He replied, smiling back at her.

"Well, it depends," she said, beckoning him into a back room. ''Some things we can fix, some things we can't. Fortunately for you, most of the stuff we can't fix is mostly for older people."

''Sit.'' She said, pointing to a chair. "I'll run some diagnostics that will tell me if our potion will work." After ten seconds of her chanting and a light green light, She turned around and grabbed a small vial sitting on a shelf.  

Harry was holding the vial in his hands after handing it to him, causing him to look at her with questioning eyes.

"You'll want to take that before you go to bed. It will put you to sleep, which is a good thing because if it didn't, the burning pain would drive you crazy." She explained with a smile on her face.

A little disturbed but still excited about getting rid of his blasted glasses, Harry thanked the rather blunt healer and walked out of the shop after paying her. 

' Now, what do I do? ' He thought. ' Maybe now would be a good time to shop for my school supplies. "

Nodding to himself, he ran back to his room at the Cauldron to grab his school list. Pausing just as he was about to head out the door again, he caught sight of his trunk. He thought about the runes that made up much of its functionality and the runes that covered the armor he was currently wearing that he had no idea of the functionality of. Looking at his school list, he realized that Runes would make understanding the armor easier. 

Making a decision, he penned a quick note to Professor McGonagall, asking if he could drop divination and take runes instead. He thought about dropping Care Of Magical Creatures to take arithmancy but thought better of it. Nor did he think he could handle three electives. He was definitely interested in Magical Creatures, so he decided to keep it and maybe study arithmancy in his free time if he was interested. Surely, Hermione would be delighted to impart some of her knowledge on the subject.

After sending Hedwig with his note, he moved over to the trunk. He decided to leave his school shopping for another day, hopefully McGonagall would give him the rune class supply list before then. He spent the rest of the day looking through the different books in compartment three. Grabbing a spare bit of parchment, he made a list of supplement reading. He didn’t foresee a problem with dropping divinations in favor of taking runes. Creating a separate list to see if he could find a couple of different items and clothing; by the time he went through all the different books and finished up his lists, it was getting dark and close dinner.  

Chuckling at his horrible 'foresee' pun probably way too many times for such a bad pun, he made his way down the stairs and motioned to tom as he went to his table. 

Harry didn't people watch, being so tired. He was quiet during dinner.

He finished his meal and trudged up the stairs to his room. Penning a couple of notes to Ron and Hermione while conversing lightly with Ari sapped the last bit of his energy, so he took off his armor, downed his potion, and collapsed into bed in just his boxers not even bothering with pajamas. The last thing he felt as he lost consciousness was Ari curling up near him.

Chapter Text

Harry woke with a start, his eyes shooting open and immediately shutting with a grimace of discomfort. That healer lady certainly wasn't kidding about the burning. Add on a nightmare about a giant snake with two faces, and Harry wasn't starting off with a good morning.

With his eyes still shut, Harry rose up into a sitting position and slowly opened one eye. When the burning subsided, he slowly cracked open his other eye. Both eyes now open, Harry blinked hard a few times to clear out any residual burning and looked around the room. He noticed everything seemed even clearer than when he had on his glasses, which made sense because he was sure theen't his appropriate prescription anyway.

Looking around the room, he spotted Ari curled up at the foot of the bed and Hedwig resting on her perch. Letters were deposited on the desk, ready to be read. The sunlight was streaming through the window indicating that it was a bit later than he was used to waking up. He attributed this to the potion that, so far, seemed to be living up to expectations.

Harry wasn't shocked that the potion had worked; Madam Pomfrey had regrown the bones in his arm, after all. The ease in which she accomplished that indicated that it was just another day in the Hogwarts infirmary. Medicine in the wizarding world was pretty impressive.

$Are you ok, darling?$  Ari asked, slithering into his lap and looking up at him.

$Yeah, just a stupid nightmare.$  He responded.  $On the bright side, I don't need glasses anymore. No wonder you hardly see anyone in the wizarding world wearing glasses. I know my dad wore them; maybe he had a condition that he couldn't get fixed with a potion.$

$I wouldn't know, but it seems a likely explanation.$  Ari said.

$I'm going to take a shower and then get some breakfast.$ Harry said. $Is there anything you want to do today?$

$No, I'm more than content to just curl around your arm while you go about your business like we've been doing.$,,  Ari replied.

Harry chuckled and got up to go take a shower, pausing to give Hedwig her customary good morning scratch.

After his shower and getting dressed, Harry walked down to the dining room to get some breakfast. Tom greeted him in his usual manner. After a short conversation about how he was enjoying his stay, Harry ate quickly and went back up to his room.

He planned to finally read Edith's booklet to learn more about the armor and the Caster. As he was about to pick it up off the nightstand where he had left it, Harry remembered the letter he had sent to McGonagall the day before. He turned around and walked to the desk, picking up the three letters, and sure enough, McGonagall had written him back. Eagerly tearing open the envelope, Harry read the contents.

Mr. Potter,

While it is indeed possible to change your electives, I would have preferred to have a bit more notice than two weeks before term starts. Nonetheless, your schedule has been adjusted accordingly. Please make sure you have all appropriate materials for your selected class and do read ahead a bit; most students have had all summer to prepare. I expect you to perform in a manner befitting your house.

Professor McGonagall.

Rolling his eyes at the prim and proper writing, Harry still had a smile on his face. He was very much looking forward to learning about runes. If the trunk and armor were any indications, the possibilities were astounding. He couldn't wait to get started.

Picking up the other two letters from Ron and Hermione, he quickly read them and penned responses accordingly. He told them about dropping divination and him having something to show them when he saw them. After finishing, he placed his responses on the desk to give to Hedwig when she awoke from her nap.

Satisfied, he again walked over to the nightstand and picked up Edith's booklet. It was small and not very thick, but he was sure there would be would be priceless information within. Just knowing he was about to read words written by one of his ancestors was enough to send tingles of excitement down his spine. Making himself comfortable on the bed, Harry cracked open to the second page. Skipping the part about the auto-sizing runes, he began to read.

Other than the sizing runes, the very first thing you should know about my armor is...that I do not know what it is made of.

Harry deadpanned. His ancestor seemed like a character.

I suppose it would be a bit more accurate to say that the monstrosity the skin came from, that I had to drop half of a mountain on to kill, was and still is, to my knowledge, unidentified by any other person. Nowhere in my research was a beast quite like it described. After exhausting every literary source at my disposal, I was forced to make the assumption that it was some abomination that some half-wit dark lord had cooked up and was then killed by.

I had been searching for wizarding ruins in the western sector of an area that the muggles amusingly called The New World when a branch snapped. I quickly spun around and spotted a black blur approaching at a startling speed. I rolled out of the way and stood to face my attacker. It had paused, emitting a strange clicking noise as if it couldn't understand why I was still moving. The beast had stood at least twelve feet high on two inverted legs. Black as night, the thing seemed to suck the light out of the forest by its very presence. Its speed was something to envy, and I was very nearly decapitated at least thrice by its foot-long claws on six-fingered hands during our half-hour-long battle. A six-foot-long barbed tail and a head that resembled the maw of a giant lizard with razor-sharp teeth only added to my troubles. Spells, even the nastiest curses I could think of, had no effect, and I was just barely able to slow it down using battle transfiguration and the surrounding environment. Spot to spot apparition kept me half a step ahead, but nothing I tried could get through its bloody skin. By using Caster and wand alike, I was finally able to maneuver it into a position next to a cliff. I then used a water wave cartridge to push it up against the cliff and then a bombarda maxima to bring the cliff face down onto it. The creature was buried under tonnes of rock and finally slain. After catching my breath and changing my knickers, I began the slow work of digging it out, and to my surprise, the skin was still unbroken! Closer inspection confirmed that its skeletal structure was crushed.

Harry whistled, absolutely engrossed in the thrilling tale. Suddenly, a basilisk didn't seem all that bad. He would have been screwed had Slytherin's monster been one of those things.

I was intrigued! Never before had I come across a creature with skin tougher than its bones. Needless to say, I immediately saw the potential for possibly the strongest armor in existence. Once the beast was excavated, I levitated the corpse into a transfigured crate and began my long journey home. During the trip, I had decided to call the monster a Nightmare, for the battle undoubtedly inspired a number of them.

After arriving home, I began a process that took me nearly two years to complete. I had wanted the perfect armor suited to an explorer, light and tough. What I had managed to create exceeded all expectations, for I had found that the skin was perfect for rune carving with a diamond-tipped chisel, mind you. Using the most advanced runic arrays and transfigurations I could come up with, I sealed the full armor into its default form.

Using even more arrays, transfigurations, and charms than anything I had created before, I created four other forms of the armor suited to different situations that could occur an active adventurer. The arithmancy was yet another nightmare that I had to contend with, and I spent many sleepless nights in front of several blackboards trying to make it all work.

' Arithmancy ?' Harry thought. ' Dammit, now I want to learn that too .'

It was at this point that Harry had a small epiphany. He had known there was still a lot to learn about magic, of course, but the fact that there were whole branches of magic that he had absolutely no knowledge of was a bit humbling.

Now that he knew that arithmancy went into his armor, and probably his trunk too, he really wanted to learn it.

' I only hope that Professor McGonagall doesn't turn me into a canary for bothering her with yet another schedule change. ' He cringed at the thought.

Shaking his head, he set his book down and walked over to the desk to write another letter and hope for the best. He tried to sound as apologetic as possible to, maybe, soften the stern teacher up a bit, citing worries about Hermione being petrified and stress from the whole Chamber of Secrets fiasco as reasons for his indecisiveness. When It sounded grovely enough, he sealed the letter and called Hedwig, who had woken up when he was reading, over. She seemed pleased to get three letters and nipped his ear affectionately as she took flight out of the window.

That bit done, he returned to his spot on the bed and picked the booklet back up. Turning to the appropriate page, he began to read again.

The five different forms, or contingencies, are as follows:

1. Default- The standard form. With the armor in separate pieces, this form protects the vital areas of the body. Will protect against most low to mid-level curses. It also looks rather stylish, if I do say so myself.

Harry smiled. His 'Aunt Edith', as he was now referring to her as, was incredible.

2. Aquatic- Used for underwater exploration. The boots extend into flippers, and the bracers extend into webbed gloves. A tight-fitting cowl extends from the vest to cover the head, stopping just past the eyes. The cowl’s runic schema provides for low light visibility, and the other schema provides a standard bubble charm covering the mouth and nose for breathing. I couldn't make a schema for warming charms fit, so you're on your own there.

' Looks like someone is going to explore the Black Lake. Maybe I'll find sunken treasure! ' Harry thought excitedly.

All of this reading of adventuring was stirring his blood. It felt a bit different reading about the exploits of one of his own ancestors from reading a fantasy novel or the likes. He recognized the feeling as what he had felt working through the traps in his first year, or discovering the Chamber of Secrets in his second. A bit muted, perhaps, due to the fear in the situations, but there all the same. He liked it.

3. Toxic- One never knows when ancient wizards, looking to protect their secrets, will have set a trap that releases toxic gas. This form is similar to the aquatic form, without the flippers or webbed gloves. Sleeves extend from the vest to cover the arms, and the whole suit seals tight.

4. Stealth- For when one has to sneak around for honorable reasons or less than honorable reasons, just don't be too bad. The cowl extends just past the eyes to provide low light visibility. Runic schema provides silencing and scent-masking to hide from hunting animals. Best used in conjunction with the old Potter invisibility cloak.

' She can't possibly be referring to the invisibility cloak that I have now, could she?' Harry wondered.  'Just how old is that thing?'

5. Heavy combat- Sometimes, diplomacy fails; it’s a fact of life. When one has to become impervious to just about everything, except for the unforgivable curses, this form is what you need. The armor seals completely; the cowl covers the whole head and becomes transparent from the inside. You can tap at your temple to activate a low-light visibility function, as well. Unfortunately, enough blunt force will hurt, so it's still better to dodge a boulder being banished at you, or maybe someone dropping a cliff face on you, or even a dragon crunching you in its maw. The tough outer layer won't stop you from becoming mush in those cases. You'll be mush wearing a marvelous suit of armor that will barely have a scratch, but mush all the same, and that's no fun. Just ask the creature whose skin you're wearing.

Harry deadpanned yet again. Then he chuckled. Then he burst out into full laughter. Ari raised her head at the noise and stared at him before shaking her head and going back to her nap.

Still chuckling, Harry looked back down at the book.

I guess you are wondering how to access all of these fantastical forms. It is relatively simple. All you have to do is say these words: "Activate contingency,'' followed by the form of your choice. to return to the default form, just say, "Default."

Harry stood up, put on the armor, and went to the mirror, eager to try one of the forms. Taking a second to deliberate which one, he took a deep breath and said, "Activate contingency: heavy combat."

The effects were instantaneous. He watched as sleeves seemed to roll out from the small ridges and flow down his arm, stopping at the bracers and sealing tight. The ridges on the bracers rolled down his hands and formed into gloves. Looking in the mirror, he saw the bottom of the vest roll down to his calves and flare out. The cowl flowed up and over the crown of his head and sealed at the neckline, blacking out his vision for a split second before becoming as clear as if there were nothing there at all. The whole process took less than 3 seconds.

"Woah,'' Harry said, admiring the form. The cowl followed the contours of his head, and the vest had extended into a trench coat, leaving him looking a bit creepy. It was like he didn't have a face, but he could see perfectly. The effect was a bit disconcerting.

All-in-all, it cut an imposing figure, even as vertically challenged as he was.

Harry turned in the mirror, feeling how his range of motion wasn't impeded in the least before saying the deactivation phrase and watching everything reverse itself until he was standing in the default form as if nothing had happened at all.

$Aunty Edith was a freaking genius!$  He exclaimed to Ari, who had woken up to watch the whole spectacle in silence.

$It does seem to be an impressive bit of magic; maybe she left a bit of extra skin somewhere. You can find it and make me some armor as well.$  Ari replied.

Harry chuckled and said,  $I think that would be a bit out of my league at present time.$

$Fine, don't protect your precious familiar.$  She huffed, giving the impression of crossing her arms petulantly if she had any.

$Aw, don't be like that. Just stick close to me, and I'll protect you.$  He cooed.

$My hero, she said dryly. $ Are you going to go to lunch today? Because it's lunchtime.$

Harry looked at the clock and said,  $, so it is, come on then.$

Scooping her up to wrap around his arm in her, now customary place, Harry picked up his wand and put it in the bracer. He put on his outer robes and walked out the door.

When he got to the dining room, he was surprised to see two girls he knew from his house at school, Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, sitting at a table talking together animatedly.

He was a bit more surprised when they spotted him and enthusiastically waved him over. They never really conversed all that much at school, usually limiting to the usual social niceties of students in the same house who saw each other every day and going no further.

Figuring there was no time like the present to remedy that travesty, he walked over to their table and, trying to be as smooth as possible, said, "Hey ladies, fancy seeing you here."

He immediately wanted to kick himself for such a terrible greeting and then wondered when he started worrying about terrible greetings at all.

The girls seemed to understand in that way that teenage girls understood that teenage boys were just a bit slow when it came to interacting with the opposite sex and, depending on how they felt about you, could grant mercy or crush said teenage boy's fragile ego with but a few words.

Luckily, they seemed to be in a forgiving mood today,, and after their giggling subsided, Lavender said, "Hey Harry, we like to come here a few times a summer to do some shopping and get away from our parent's houses. What are you doing here?"

"I've, um, kind of been living here for a week now." He responded, looking a little embarrassed.

"What? Why?'' Parvati asked for both of them.

"Ah, just, uh, a little disagreement with my relatives. No big deal. We just needed some time away from each other." Harry responded, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

The girls seemed to gather that he didn't want to talk about it and had to visibly restrain themselves from launching into an interrogation.

"Well, pull up a chair and have lunch with us.'' Lavender invited.

"Sure, I'd like that." He said, smiling.

What followed was an experience for Harry he learn he really, really had no experience in; gossiping. Mostly, the girls talked to each other about everything from Sirius Black to the newest fashion crazes coming out of wizarding France. Harry interjected whenever they were talking about a subject that he knew about, but for the most part,, seemed to just be there for decoration.

That lasted until they asked him about the rumors they had heard about the Chamber of Secrets. Harry was a little uncomfortable talking about it but obliged with a slightly watered-down version of the tale. He left mentions of Ginny out and slightly altered the characteristics of the diary. The girls were all audience throughout his account, gasping in all the right places and even cheering when he told about Fawkes healing his arm.

He knew they would probably repeat the story to anyone who would listen. Honestly,, though, Harry wasn't apprehensive about it. If people believed, then great; if not, oh well. He did feel a little pride at the whole thing; it wasn't every twelve-year-old who could survive such a thing, much less win. And he had won. He had been prepared to die, and the only reason he survived was that Fawkes was there. He survived, though, and saved his best friend’s sister. Harry had a feeling that his Aunt Edith would have been proud.

The trio talked a little more until the girls said they wanted to get on with their shopping. They had invited Harry along, but something about the sparkle in their eyes told him that it would be very taxing on him. He politely begged off today but mentioned that he would be around the alley, and the three parted company. The girls heading out to the Alley and Harry to his room.

In his room, Harry kicked off his outer robes and boots and got comfortable to continue reading about the two artifacts.

So, you've finished reading about the armor, played with it a bit, even, and now you want to know about the wonderful little tool called the Caster.

I dreamed up the Caster after studying what muggles called a muzzleloader, sometime in my twenties. Their version required that flash powder be poured down the "barrel" and then packed with a small wad of parchment; a little lead ball was then rammed down the "barrel."

With a piece of flint on a mechanism, a spark was produced, which ignited the flash powder. The resulting pressure propelled the lead ball forward at extreme speeds. My natural curiosity wondered if perhaps a magical version could be created, so I procured a muzzleloader of my own and experimented with it. After a few months of prototypes blowing up in my face, I finally thought to use self-contained cartridges with runic schema designed for varying effects that would be more powerful than what could be achieved by the average witch or wizard with a wand. The Caster itself wasn't all that difficult to design; all it needed to do was carry the cartridge and discharge it on command. There are definitely more efficient designs that I could have gone with, but there was just something... Elegant in the original Muggle design.

The cartridges were another story. Never before had there been self-contained apparatuses that discharged effects designed to be offensive in nature. Of course, there were numerous wards created that had some nasty consequences, but they were for dwellings or tombs and always defensive in nature. Wizards and witches were more content to rely on a wand to cast offensive spells. The challenge came in miniaturizing the runic schema that discharged these effects while making them work on command instead of when certain conditions were met.

I finally finished my first cartridge eight months after initially sitting down at my desk. The others came promptly after that, and I settled on seven types of cartridges.

1. Spread stunner- This cartridge is helpful for large groups of medium-sized mundane predators like wolves. Sometimes you can't just apparate away, and those packs can get quite large. It will also work on the smaller class 3 or lower magical creatures

2. Single stunner- Useful for larger mundane predators or magical creatures. It is more potent than one cast by a wand, but for some creatures,, a second or even third shot is required. For some creatures, it won't work at all.

3. Flame shot- More potent than a standard incendio, less diverse than a flame whip.

4 Gravity bomb- Useful for subduing stunner-resistant creatures without killing them. This cartridge increases the gravity in the target area, making it very difficult to move. It doesn't last long.

5. Lightning blast- Shoots a bolt of lightning that can arc from enemy to enemy if they are close enough together.

6. Gust- Blows enemies away.

7. Water wave- Creates a small tidal wave. This one can be used in conjunction with #5 to increase damage.

The cartridges are loaded into the Caster through the rear chamber one at a time and activated by the trigger. The trigger has two stages. If pulled through the two stages quickly, a quick shot with limited damage is discharged. If pulled into stage one and held there, a more powerful shot is released.

Shells #3-7 can be made more powerful by the trigger stages. The Caster does have a magical cost to the user, and the longer the trigger is held in stage one, the greater the magical cost to the user. There is, however, a limit to the power that the runic schema can hold. If the barrel flashes red, then that limit is reached, and the shell will discharge.

Unfortunately, the shells have a limited shelf life, usually about three years, so the prospective user has to have a moderate understanding of runes in order to construct their own cartridges. I've included the plans for the seven cartridges in the back of this booklet. Also, I've placed my journal, transfigured into a page, as the very last page of this booklet. Simply strike through the schema with a quill, and it will transfigure back.

I leave these tools to the next adventuresome Potter; use them well.

Intrigued, Harry turned to the following few pages and saw the plans for the cartridges. They were incredibly complex, and he was suddenly glad that he had decided to take runes. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to use the gifts that his ancestor had left.

He turned to the last page and struck through the runes he saw there with a quill. The page promptly turned into a leather-bound journal with a gold embossed "E.P." on the cover. Almost reverently, he cracked the book open.

His ancestor had apparently started the journal when she had just left Hogwarts. Her writing was smooth, and when she described the ruins she had found or the ancient tombs she had broken into, it was almost as if he could smell the forests or the deserts she was describing.

Harry put down the journal after a couple of hours of reading. His ancestor had written about the most amazing things, and he found himself wanting to follow in her footsteps. It didn't feel the same as when he was younger and wanted to be an astronaut after they did a project on the moon landing in primary.

Growing up with the Dursleys had been a sheltered existence. They had never brought him on their numerous vacations, instead leaving him with Mrs. Figg, so he hadn't seen much of the muggle world. When he had discovered his being a wizard, a whole new world had opened up. A world where just about anything was possible. A world of Magic the likes you only read about. Harry intended to see as much of it as was possible.

He knew there were dangers. You couldn't slide down an ancient slide to fight an ancient monster in a school and not realize it. But he also knew that people had lived in this world for countless millennia, and they had been alright. It seemed backward, in some cases, from the Muggle world, but it did have its own charm. Just not for the faint of heart.

He shook his head out of his introspection and got up to stretch, peeling Ari off his arm and idly running her through his hands.

$Something wrong?$  She asked.

$Nah, I was just thinking about the world$ , He said, smiling softly.

$That sounds a little deep for a lazy Sunday.$  She mused teasingly.

$Yeah, yeah.$  He rolled his eyes.  $How about we go out and get some air?$

$Sure, darling, You do need to get out of here.$  She said, wrapping around her place on his arm.

The two went down the stairs and headed towards Flourish and Blotts, Harry had his newly updated book list, and a need to fill the shelves of his trunk. After buying his school-required reading, he wandered the shelves picking up books that stuck out to him. After buying a Hermione-level amount of books and having them shrunken. Harry wandered down the street in the direction of Wiseacres and spotted Carkitt market. Curiosity came over him and Harry walked past the mermaid fountain and spotted a blacksmith. A smile came over his face as he thought about the sword in his room. Walking over to the burly man working the forge he waited to catch his attention. 

$Darling why do you need a knife when you already have a sword?$ Ari had waited till after Harry left the blacksmith before speaking to him. 

$I might not always be able to get to my sword, so I got something that’s easier to access. Plus the leather sheath will let me attempt to replicate the runes on the other sheath.$ Harry said as he scratched off knife on his list of items to buy. 

Looking at the next item on his list, Harry headed back towards the main thruway. The blacksmith told him that he would have the knife sent to his room at the Leaky Cauldron within a weeks time. So Harry had purchased several sheaths that the man told him would fit the knife and went on his way. Stopping in Stowe & Packers, Harry spotted two satchel bags with extension and autosort charms. Buying both for ten galleons, He left knowing he had something to give Hermoine for her birthday. 

After dropping his packages on the bed, to pack away later, Harry opened the last compartment and climbed down the stairs. Setting Ari down on the bed inside the compartment, Harry sat down at the desk to look over Aunt Edith’s journal. Harry spent the rest of the day reading her accounts post-Hogwarts. As he went to sleep in his trunk, the desk had an open journal and a new list of things to look up.   

Chapter Text

...a curse unlike any I had encountered. It acted as the imperius curse, but without a caster. I had previously thought it impossible to have such specific effects with a standalone cursed object, but the unidentified golden coins in the trunk that we had found proved that it could be done. Unfortunately, young Nathaniel paid the price for our ignorance when we had to use so many stunners that a dragon would have succumbed in order to stop his curse-driven attack. If only he had been practicing his occlumency like I had been instructing him to, he could have fought it off...

Harry's eyebrow twitched as he read about yet another type of magic that he had never heard of. He sighed and added  occlumency  down on the piece of parchment he had been listing strange things that he had read about in his Aunt Edith's journal.

It wasn't a huge list, but he knew that everything he had added would probably require extensive research even to find, much less learn how to use. So far, he had added  battle transfiguration, legilimancy, instant apparition, portkeys, leylines, and now occlumency.  His ancestor wrote about these things without any kind of explanation, as if they were regular parts of everyday conversation. He knew he should have expected it. It was a journal, after all. But he still wished he had access to Hermione or Hogwarts library; both would be preferable.

He put down his quill and looked around at the busy dining room. Watching the people coming and going. The Leaky Cauldron was more active than he had seen it yet. He had spent the rest of the week reading Aunt Edith’s journal as well the journals he found in the desk draws. The trunk had initially belonged to Jeremiah Potter in the 1700s, and he was something of a bounty hunter auror. Harry had spent his time split between Ediths accounts of tomb raiding and curse-breaking and Jeremiah’s accounts of tracking a wizard through the wilds of the Colonies dealing with native tribespeople and dodging Wampus Cats. 

McGonagall had not been happy with another change to his schedule. Still, she had obliged and told him that his coursework would be fairly taxing with three electives, and she expected him to keep up with it, especially since he had been studying his Runes book and the newly acquired Arithmancy books.

Runes, as he figured they would be, were fascinating. A whole new language, they were used to anchor spell effects onto physical objects in a process called enchanting. For example, if one were to want to permanently want to change the color of an object with a color-changing charm, one would have to engrave the appropriate runic array somewhere onto the object and then cast the desired spellwork on the object. Once a runic array was activated with the proper spell, it was known as a schema. The effect would then be permanent for as long as the runes were intact. Understandably, the whole process could get quite complicated in the more advanced levels, and comparing the example mentioned earlier, say, his armor was like comparing one plus two to muggle calculus.

Arithmancy, on the other hand, was all about the spells. Every bit of magic had an arithmetical equation, using the primary magical numbers, their multiples, and any number of their permutations in what were known as equations. Again, the equation for Lumos was relatively simple compared to the equation for the jelly-leg jinx. He learned that every physical object or action that existed in the universe could be represented by a permutation of the multiples of the magic numbers one, three, five, seven, and thirteen. By using the equations represented by spells containing said equations, wizards and witches could use their magic to affect the world around them. The subject was similar yet very different from muggle mathematics.

Lavender and Parvati showed up again and convinced Harry to go shopping with their help. Their reasoning that his dress style needed to match his notoriety seemed flimsy, but he went along with it all the same. He didn’t even realize what he had gotten himself into until after the third hour. Still, he had walked away with new clothes, a semi-friendship with two pretty girls, and some wicked dragonskin boots. 

He had been back to Flourish and Blotts at least three times since he had started reading the journals. He was considering going to the trunk store to buy a second trunk specifically for books. 

‘ Oh god, I’ve turned into Hermione, ’ Harry thought as he looked down at his newest parchment. He had broken down and got owl order forms from most of the stores in Diagon, and there was a list of types of trunks sold by Stowe and Packer. He made a small list of pros and cons regarding buying a library trunk—a simple trunk with the ability to hold up to almost two hundred books. Auto-shrinking and permanently featherlight, the trunk was perfect for book collectors. The only downside was that it was only for books; no clothing or other items could be placed within the trunk space. It had a master list that would allow the owner to find the book they wanted without issue and bring it to the top of the rack. 

He left the list for another day and returned to the latest items that had arrived when he was having breakfast. It seemed that Grimjaw had found some journals and papers that he could legally release to Harry, so he took great pleasure in having them dumped onto Harry to sort and look through. Harry had asked about his parent’s will and hadn’t heard anything back from Grimjaw, so he assumed the man was trying to find it. The journals turned out to be extremely helpful as they belonged to his mother. His mother was a charms and potion genius, but the thing that made it special for Harry was that it was written in his mother’s handwriting. He clung to every word written; he traced over the neatness of each letter and the diagrams. 

$Darling, you okay?$ Harry turned to see Ari slithering up his shoulder, her tongue flicking out and touching his cheek.

Harry rubbed his cheek and got rid of the tears; $ Sorry, Ari, just thinking about the journals my mom left.$ 

$Okay, Darling, well, I’m here if you want to talk$. Harry reached up and rubbed underneath Ari’s chin. He found that she liked it when he did by the way she was leaning into his finger. 

$Oooh, right there, yeah that’s the spot$ Harry chuckled at his familiar and went back to reading over the letters. 

It seems that his mother had opened a vault when she was still an Evan, and they had not rolled it into the main Potter vault when she had passed. Grimjaw had found the key but, in lieu of it, had sent a bunch of account statements for him to look over. The account had been gaining interest since 1979. Before his mother’s passing, she had licensed a couple of minor charms for usage and held a potion patent. Fourteen years of interest and a yearly deposit meant the account had the same amount of coinage as his trust vault, along with several items stored within. He was still waiting to hear from Grimjaw about visiting the vault. Since it was under the name of Evans, there was paperwork to take care of before he could access it, even though Grimjaw had the key. 

He still needed to go into muggle London and purchase a few things but would wait till Hermione got there. 

' Speaking of Hermione, where the heck is she? ' He wondered, looking around the busy pub for any sign of his best friends. 'She was supposed to be here ten minutes ago.'

"Harry! Harry!'' He heard a familiar voice yell. Turning around in his seat, he was pleased to see Hermione come into the pub dragging her trunk behind her. He got up from his chair and greeted one of his best friends.

"Hey Hermione,'' He said with a huge smile on his face. "Let me get that trunk for you."

"Thanks, Harry; how have you been? Have you done your summer homework?'' she asked after giving him a rib-crushing hug.

"I am doing good, Hermoine, yes I have; I finished the homework the first week I was here,'' Harry said, leading her to talk to Tom about getting a room for the night.

''Good, I am glad you’re doing well and that you have completed your homework. Are you going to finally tell me why you have been staying here for the past three weeks?'' She asked, in the tone that he had come to associate with her.

He knew that it had been bothering her.

"Yes, yes, I'll explain everything once we get everything settled. I have some amazing things to show you when we get some time to ourselves.'' Harry responded, amused at her bossy tone. Most people would find it annoying, but it was easy enough to ignore once you understood that it stemmed from Hermione's desire to know.

After talking to Tom and dragging her trunk up to her room, the duo returned to the dining room so that Hermione could eat something before they went into the alley proper. Hermione was telling Harry all about the things she had seen on her vacation with her parents, and Harry couldn't help but feel a little jealous. Eventually, Hermione got done eating and was ready to finish her shopping. Ron had sent them a letter saying they would be there next week, so Harry and Hermione had a week to themselves.

Stepping into the alley, Harry felt Hermione grab his wrist and drag him in the direction of her favorite store. Harry couldn’t help the giggle that left his mouth as she did.  

Hermione bought all the books she would need for the term at the book store. Hermione had been teased mercilessly by Harry for taking all of the electives offered to third years. Harry apologized to her by telling her that he would be taking three electives himself, having gained an interest in arithmancy since he had told them about switching from divination to runes. Resulting in her giving him another bone-crushing hug, he couldn’t wait to show her the books he had already bought.

Finally finished, with Harry barely able to contain his excitement about being able to share his discoveries with one of his two best friends, they returned to the Cauldron and tromped up the stairs to his room and closed the door. Hermione sat on the edge of the bed, and Harry dragged the chair from the desk over in front of her.

“Okay, so I know I am going to have to explain most of this to Ron when he gets here, but I wanted your help and support with some of this.” Harry was nervous; he knew that Hermione was the one most affected last year. 

“Harry, I promise to help you; you can trust me.” Hermoine leaned forward and squeezed his hand. Harry flushed a little bit and shook his head, ‘ Whatever did I do to deserve her,’ he thought.

“Ok, so you remember last year when we discovered that I was a parselmouth? Well, I decided that since I have the ability, I might as well use it, so I got a snake. Would you like to meet her? And would you freak out if you did?" Harry quickly explained. He braced, hoping that Hermione's experience with the Basilisk last year hadn’t affected her badly. 

Hermione raised her eyebrows and said, '' I would. What kind of snake is it? What is it like talking to it? Is it intelligent?”

Harry chuckled and smiled at Hermione, then answered Hermione's questions. "Hermione, she is a taipan, A venomous breed native to Australia. Her name is Ari. She is brilliant, although she does like to crack bad jokes. Talking to her is just like talking to you guys.''

Hermione's eyes widened a little at the mention of the breed, and Harry briefly wondered how it was possible that she had read enough about snakes to be able to recognize a relatively rare breed from a continent on the other side of the world. Chalking it up to one of those Hermione things, Harry took off his outer robes, revealing Ari and his armor.

"Hermione, this is Ari,  $Ari, this is Hermione, one of my two best friends in the whole world.$ ''

Ari looked at the two new humans and flicked her tongue at them, tasting their scent and, deciding that she liked it, responded,  $it's a pleasure to meet you, sweety, darling has told me all about you.$  

Harry snickered a bit at the faces of Hermione after hearing him speak in parseltongue, as well as the nicknames Ari had given her/

"She said it was a pleasure to meet you, and she gave you her name for you.'' He said with a smile. Hermione had tilted her head and looked like she wanted to take notes, which Harry knew that she had more questions to ask. 

 "What do you mean by that? Do you think you could speak to other creatures related to snakes? What about dragons? Also, what is that armor your wearing?"

"She never uses proper names for anybody. I don’t know about Dragons, and I will get to the armor." Harry chuckled; every answer seemed to draw more questions out of Hermione. ‘ If she is like this over the snake, what is she gonna be like when we get to the trunk?’ Harry thought. 

"What did she call me?'' Hermione asked curiously. She was going to get answers regarding the armor eventually.

Harry smiled. "She called you sweety, and she calls me darling.''

He was happy to see his friend was interested and not automatically repulsed by the idea of a snake.

"She is a sweetheart. Most of the time, she's wrapped around my arm with her head on my shoulder." He said. 

"When you speak to her, do you hear yourself hissing and understand it? Or do you just hear English?" Hermione asked.

"At first, all I heard was English, but as I practiced with Ari, I learned to tell the difference. I remember when we found the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, I had to imagine the little snake engraving at the sink was a real snake to get my parseltongue to work. Now, I wouldn't have to do that." Harry responded

"Fascinating,'' Hermione mused. "It seems that even with an inborn magical skill, one still has to practice to be able to use it more than just instinctually. I'll bet that any other skill like that is the same way.''

''I imagine it is.'' Harry shrugged. 

Harry froze as Hermione reached out and looked at him for permission to pet Ari. At his nod, Hermione rubbed Ari.

$Oh a little to the left, little more, little more, that’s it right there sweety, oh yeah that’s the spot$ Ari was leaning into Hermione’s touch.

Harry chuckled and looked into his friend’s eyes that were gleaming with interest. Harry watched as Hermione took Ari into her hands. His friend giggled as she started curling her way up her arm. 

“She’s adorable; oh Harry, this just proves so many things wrong about parselmouths. Do you realize what this means?” Harry shook his head and watched as Hermione left Ari to do her own thing and couldn’t but smile at how quickly his friend took to Ari. 

“Harry, we could write a book, ask snakes questions, and see if maybe parseltongue goes beyond just serpents. Oh, this is going to be so fun to do.” Harry grabbed Hermione’s hand before she ran off with his snake and tried to interview Ari without him. 

“Hermione, I think we should hold off on the book, but if you want to do research on parseltongue and want me to help, then I will." Hermione's smile was the answer to that. It caused Harry to release that he was still holding her hand, and he quickly pulled back as they both started blushing.

''What else did you want to show us, Harry?'' Hermione asked after they had calmed down a bit.

''Oh! Right, well, I went to Gringotts, and I got my account manager to show me my family vault. He said I couldn't take any money but that I could take four heirlooms to have a few keepsakes from my family. I was originally looking for something from my parents, letters, journals, stuff like that. It turns out there wasn't anything of theirs in there, so I got to looking around, and I did find a few things. You are going to love this. See the outfit I'm wearing?'' Harry said.

She nodded.

''Well,'' Harry continued. ''It's armor. Watch this; Activate contingency: heavy combat.''

The armor flowed into its heavy combat form, and Harry watched as his friend's jaw dropped.

"Oh, that's so cool,'' Hermione exclaimed, surprisingly.

Hermione launched into rapid-fire questions while touching the armor the form presented.

"How does it change form? Obviously, you can see; otherwise, it wouldn't be very effective armor. What allows you to see out of the mask?'' Hermione asked.

Harry said the deactivation phrase, and the armor receded into its default form, revealing his smiling face.

"Sorry, Hermione, I can only answer your questions in the broadest sense. Runes, Charms, and transfiguration." Harry said.

He quickly explained the different forms to her and showed her a few of the rune’s schemes.

''...this armor is the reason for my new interest in runes and arithmancy. There was a little booklet that was with the armor in my vault that explained where it came from and how my ancestor made it, although she doesn't go into specifics. I want to learn how to make stuff like this." He finished.

"Can I read that booklet?" Hermione asked.

"Of course,'' Harry responded, smiling at her. "I'll need your help deciphering how it was made anyway.''

"Alright, I've got a couple more things to show you,'' Harry said.

Hermione grinned. "What could possibly top that armor. I'm sure Ron is going to love to see that"

"This,'' Harry said, grinning and pulling his matchbox-sized trunk out of his pocket.

''A matchbox?'' Hermione asked confusedly.

"Nope,'' Harry said, pulling out his wand and tapping the top. "My new trunk.''

"Harry! you'll get into trouble with the ministry for using magic!" Hermione scolded a bit frantically as the trunk grew to its full size, looking out the window for, presumably, the ministry owl.

Harry was confused for a second; then he realized that she didn't know that it was a function of the trunk.

''Oh, no," He reassured her, chuckling. ''It's a function of the trunk. See? No ministry owl.''

''Oh.'' She said a bit chagrined. ''You prat! You could have warned me!"

Harry was trying not to laugh at her expression, and then he noticed that Ari had wrapped around her shoulders and was taking one of her many naps.

He smiled at them getting along so well, then turned back to the trunk and said,'' Sorry Hermione, I didn't even think about it.''

"It's fine.'' She sniffed. "So you got a self-shrinking trunk, that's pretty neat.''

"That's not all it does.'' Said Harry with a mischievous smirk.

He took out his keys and inserted the number two key into its hole. Popping open the lid with a flourish, he gestured for them to look at the opened compartment.

"Harry, what is this?'' Hermione asked as she stepped up next to him.

"This is the potions compartment to my multi-compartment trunk. There are several kinds of cauldrons and just about any kind of ingredient out there.'' Said Harry, pulling up the ingredient rack. "I'm not too sure on what the different cauldrons could be used for, though, and I was hoping that Hermione could enlighten me.''

"I know the iron cauldron is used for some medical-grade potions, but I have no idea what the gold one is used for," Hermione said, peering at the cauldrons. "I think those are covered in our NEWT class.''

''That's fine; I'm sure we'll figure it out.'' Said Harry, closing up the second compartment. "Alright, Hermione, you're gonna love the next two compartments."

Hermione got an excited gleam in her eye and looked like she was trying not to bunch in place.

Harry opened up the next compartment and lifted the first bookshelf out of the trunk.

Hermione's eyes widened, and she squealed in glee. She ran her hand over the spines, probably already compiling a list of books she wanted to read.

Harry chuckled at her predictable enthusiasm, stepping back and letting her go through his book collection. He had ended up filling up both of the book compartments and had taken to using his old trunk as overflow. He debated giving Hermione her birthday present now to have a satchel bag to carry her own books in. 

' If she acts like this about these books, she's going to lose her mind at the number of books I have in my old trunk.' Harry thought as he watched her pull out several different books before squealing again. 

"Harry! That's Moste Potente Potions! There were so many potions I wanted to look at more closely, but I couldn't because I was too focused on the polyjuice! This was in your vault?" Hermione exclaimed in one breath.

"Yeah, everything in compartment two and up was already in the trunk when I got it from my vault except for my schoolbooks on the third shelf. I'm not positive, but I think this trunk belonged to an Auror. It was one of the few things that didn't have a nametag on it. Edith Potter made my armor in 1692. I have no clue if anybody else used it before me, though."

"You have a journal from the 1600s?'' Hermione asked, looking away from the bookshelf to look at Harry. "Oh, I'll bet it has all sorts of historical accounts.''

"Yeah, you should read her journal. It's surprisingly easy to read, and she is hilarious." Harry said, watching Hermione peruse through the potions texts.''Mostly, she talks about her own personal adventures, and she has a lot of them. She was an independent curse breaker and an inventor. I think that's something I would like to do when I get out of Hogwarts, and I'm also pretty sure she's my new role model.''

Hermione was practically drooling at all of the books on the first shelf. When he finally was able to pull up the second shelf, it only got worse.

"I know that book!'' She squealed, pointing at  Guarding and attacking the mind . ''I've wanted to read it since it was referenced in An overview of magicks, but I couldn't find it anywhere, not even in the restricted section! Harry, do you know what that book is about?''

"Er, no. I haven't really looked at the books on the bottom shelf, and they seem like defense books, but I guess I didn't feel comfortable reading them yet." He said sheepishly.

"It's about mind magicks, and I've wanted to learn them forever! Well, not so much legilimancy, but definitely occlumency. It's supposed to have all sorts of benefits that can help a person be a better, well, everything!" Explained Hermione.

Hary had perked up, recognizing the mysterious branches of magic that his ancestor had referenced. "Aunty Edith wrote about those! I've been writing down everything that she mentions in her journal that I didn't understand.''

"That's amazing, Harry! Not many people know anything about the mind arts, and I've asked. Most people don't ever even hear about them because of the rarity of the only book that teaches them." Hermione continued. "As far as I've been able to gather, they are generally taught by word-of-mouth, but finding someone with more than a passing ability is very difficult.''

Hermione looked a little hesitant. "Would you be willing to let me borrow that book? I know that, normally, you wouldn't have a problem with it, Harry, but this particular book is one of the more rare tomes in the wizarding world. It can't be copied, and the few original copies that remain are held by some of the older families, which I guess is the reason you had one in your vault.''

“Hermione, did you really think I would show you all of these and not let you read any of it.’ Harry suddenly found his hands full as Hermione jumped him. Arms wrapped around his head, he was suddenly aware that Hermione was a female, and he liked getting hugs from her. 

$Hey, hey, tell her to warn me the next time she decides to do that; I just got comfortable. $ Harry suddenly found Ari right next to his face. 

“Hermione, Hermione, Ari isn’t happy with you.” Harry was not about to tell her that he could feel her bra against his cheek, and that would be something that he kept to himself. 

“Oh, I am so sorry Ari, did I hurt you?” Hermione said, pulling back and focusing on the snake on her shoulder. 

$ Your apologies are accepted, sweety, just no hugs with me in the center again; we snakes don’t like being squished.$ Hermione turned to look at Harry as Ari started hissing. 

“She’s just letting you know that snakes don’t being squished between two people, and she accepts your apology.” Harry smiled as one of his best friends held his newest familiar and seemed to bond. 

After opening the fifth compartment and trying not to watch his friend’s butt wiggle in excitement at more books, he opened up the sixth one and showed her his newest dress robes. 

"Those are dress robes for formal events. I've read that you are to wear them when you go to ministry balls and such.'' Hermione said Chimed in a while, running her hands down the different materials.

"Cool, I guess I'll have something to wear to all those balls I attend,'' Harry responded a bit dryly.

“What else does it have?” Hermione asked, still holding his familiar. 

"Well, the next compartment is just some drawers for clothes and such, and the one after that is a shelf with preservation charms for food. This one, though...'' He opened the eighth compartment with a flourish. ''...is probably the coolest thing about this trunk.''

Hermione peeked curiously over the edge, both exhaling excitedly at seeing the stone staircase leading down. Harry grinned at their reaction and, grabbing his keys, jumped in with a "Follow me.''

Harry led his friend down the staircase to the room held below. Hermione seemed speechless at the sight of a bedchamber in a trunk, understandably.

"W-wow.'' Hermione, still with Ari on her shoulder, "this is amazing magic.''

After Harry showed her around and explained what he could about the room, the two returned to the outside world.

''What are you going use that trunk for? Aside from the obvious.'' Asked Hermione.

''Well...'' Harry started hesitantly. "Vernon locks my trunk up when I get home for the summer...'' He briefly explained his plan to make his life a little better at the Dursleys. This led to what happened to make him stay at the Caldron for the last three weeks.

Hermione was horrified at the thought of having to sneak around to do homework and angry at Marge for what she had said. She walked over to his desk and noticed the notes he had been taking, looking back at him and receiving a nod, she sat down and started looking at them. Harry walked over, grabbed Jeremiah’s journal, and started reading while lying down on the trunk bed.

Eventually, in the late hours of the night, Hermione set Ari onto the bed with him, hugged him, and left the trunk to get some rest. After extracting a promise that she would be able to study the books and journals with them tomorrow. Only after Harry curled up and started to drift off did he remember that he forgot to show Hermione the sword and the caster. 

‘ Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.’ Harry thought as he let Ari curl up against him.

Chapter Text

….The use of Thor’s hammer allowed me to subdue the suspect with the boomerang spell. Using the boomerang incantation before a normal spell will cause the spell to seem like it missed the target before striking the target in the back. So far, I have not found spells that won’t work with the boomerang incantation. Two things to note when using the boomerang incantation, you have to start the spell pointed off course of the suspect before finishing the whole spell pointing at the target. If you don’t, the spell will just miss instead of hitting the suspect from a direction they weren’t shielding. The second thing is that if the target physically dodges, the spell will come back and hit you. I learned that the hard way when my own bombarda hit me, broke my ribs, and lost the suspect to the alleys of berlin.  

Harry set down Jeremiah’s journal and looked across the table at Hermione. She was engrossed with reading one of the runes supplement books he had bought before she arrived. After the first two days, Hermione had quietly told Tom that she would be staying in Harry’s room to save money. Harry didn’t mind; he found the trunk bed was extremely comfortable, and it was an excellent test for when he eventually went back to stay with the Dursleys. He had also discovered that the trunk apartment let him grab his clothes and toiletries without leaving that section. He didn’t put much thought into it, chalking it up to something that was best left unsaid.

After converting some of Harry's galleons into pounds, he and Hermione eventually went into Muggle London. They had made a day of it, going to Harrods to shop for clothes that actually fit him, getting multiple trainers. They found a private corner to stick most of their stuff into Harry’s satchel bag. Harry barely managed to convince her to hold off rushing into Diagon alley to buy her own, citing that he had only seen two and someone else had bought the other. She stared at him for a while before dropping it. After shopping for a couple of hours, they went to a French restaurant Hermione's parents had taken her to before. It was a pleasant fifteen-minute walk that took them through Trafalgar square. 

Harry had no idea what to order and just trusted his best friend. The Dursleys hated ethnic cuisine, especially French food, so it was a first for him. He had a pleasant meal and conversation with Hermione, but the end of the meal caused them both to flush with embarrassment when the waitress brought a dessert and two forks. Her mentioning that they made a cute couple didn't help things either.

After convincing Hermione to let him pay the bill, they walked back to The Leaky Tavern shoulder to shoulder, with a smile on their faces and a funny feeling in their heart. 

Harry shook his head, it had been four days since then, and his friend was showing up today. Some people with Hogwarts age children had come to the Alley last minute to get their school supplies for the upcoming term. Harry and Hermione had lunch with multiple people over the past few days. Dean and Seamus had stopped by; both boys were ecstatic to see Harry and had spent some time staring at the new firebolt. Katie, Angelina, and Alicia had shown up together. They had all adopted Harry as their younger brother back in the first year and were all now happy that he was wearing clothes that fit him. Angelina loved that he was now not wearing glasses cause it made his eyes more vivid. They had seen several Ravenclaws as well. Hermione hadn’t been back to Flourish since Harry returned from his visit to his mom's vault. Harry looked over at the blueprint on his desk in his trunk, remembering the trip to Gringotts. 

Flashback three days after Hermione arrived.

Harry shook his head; today was going to be busy; he had a meeting with Grimjaw; Hermione had finally calmed down about him owning a magical version of a muzzleloader along with a sword. She had been highly interested in how it was made but was nervous overall about the whole thing. After he got back from the bank, the plan was that they would look over everything. Hopefully, when Ron and his family showed up in five days, the only thing left for him to do was show Ron everything and pray that he didn’t act like a jealous prat. 

After eating lunch, Hermione and Harry went into Diagon Alley with Hermione breaking off and heading to Flourish and Blotts while Harry went further on down to Gringotts. Bowing his head slightly at the Goblins at the door, he walked into the bank proper and looked for the shortest line. 

“Can I help you, wizard?” The brass plate showed that the goblin’s name was Lagkoff. 

“Good morning Mr. Lagkoff; I have an appointment with Grimjaw, my account manager.” Hermione had found a small booklet on goblin culture in the first book compartment. She had not been happy at the markings in the margins but knew it would prove helpful. Harry had read it before showing up today. Being polite to the goblins was good, but the writer said that they would never be friendly with non-goblins. 

“Key please,” The goblin showed no outward indication that he had heard the respectful greeting other than an upturned eyebrow and holding out his hand for the key.

After inspecting the key, the goblin handed it back and motioned to the nearby bench, “If you would take a sit over there, someone will escort you to Grimjaw.”

“Thank you Lagkoff, have a good day.” Harry walked off, leaving behind a slightly surprised goblin. 

After waiting for ten minutes, a runner walked up to him. Harry followed the goblin down the hall to an office to the familiar nameplate that proclaimed it to belong to Grimjaw. The goblin walked into the office with Harry following him; after handing over the file in his hands, the escort left Harry with Grimjaw.

“Mr. Potter, I have here in my hands the finalized paperwork; it seems when your mother married your father, she had the account before then. She had an order written into the contract to keep it from being rolled into the main potter vault if anything happens to either them or to your father’s financials. Since it’s not part of the Potter Estate, technically, we should freeze the account and wait for you to become of age.” Harry’s eyes looked worried for a second before he noticed that Grimjaw was smirking slightly. “However, since the Evans do not have the same rules as the Potter account, I can grant you full access now instead of later.” 

Without another word, Grimjaw opened the draw on his desk and slid over both a small gold key and a moleskin pouch. Harry smiled as he took the key, “Thank you, Grimjaw.”

“Now, since this isn’t the family vault, I can have a cart runner take you down to the vault. I will summon one for you after this. Now you also requested information about a will. Gringotts does do will readings when a vault is passed on; however, your parents will has never been executed. We don’t think this was done on purpose as the Ministry records indicate that it was sealed by the Ministry of Magic at the time and was forgotten about.” Grimjaw paused as another goblin came in with a note before leaving.

“What does this mean for me? How do we go about getting the will unsealed and executed?” Harry asked; he was sort of annoyed that his parent’s last wishes were ignored but knew it wasn’t Gringotts fault. 

“There are several ways that we can get the will unsealed. We can wait for you to be declared of age which, unless something happens, will be when you are seventeen; We could petition the courts to unseal them, but that process is expensive and would take just as long as waiting for you to reach seventeen. Neither of those options gets the will unsealed quickly, which is what I assume what you want?” Grimjaw looked at Harry and received a nod of confirmation back from him. 

“Then we go with the third option, we approach your magic guardian and have him request the will be executed. With the word of your magical guardian, along with Gringott’s pressure to execute the will, we can get the current Minister to unseal the will in as little time as three months. I would not expect to hear anything till the new year; however, are you alright with that?” Harry thought about it and nodded his head.

“Who is my magical guardian?” Harry asked, receiving a raised eyebrow in response. 

“You mean you don’t know? Well, then looks like I have something to discuss with them. Now the cart runner is waiting for you outside my door, and they will take you down the Evans Vault.” Grimjaw waved his hand, and Harry stood up and walked to the door.

 As he opened it, he turned and bowed slightly towards Grimjaw, “Thank you for your help Grimjaw.” 

Harry walked with the vault runner towards the carts, not even looking back. After one heart-pumping ride, he found himself standing outside of a new vault. Placing the key in the goblin’s hand, he waited for the door to unlock and slide away. 

“Be quick,” the goblin said before walking back to the cart, leaving Harry standing in front of the vault. 

There was a modest amount of galleons, sickles, and knuts to one side. It looked to be similar in size to his trust vault. Leaving the money for last, Harry walked over to the right side of the vault that had bookshelves and some furniture. Running his hand over the spines of some of the books, he spotted something that he knew he was leaving with. There was a photo album similar to what he had been carrying since his first year. Taking it off the shelf and slipped it into his satchel. Moving on to the next bookshelf, he noted some books to come back for. Moving towards the desk, pushing through the various papers, he spotted two things that caught his eye. The first was a deed and title to the lands where the old ancestral home of Potter manor sat. He had seen mentions of the manor in both Jeremiah and Edith’s journals; neither of them liked staying there, preferring the life of adventuring through deserts and jungles to living on a massive estate. His mother’s journal had mentioned that it had been damaged heavily during the first war. There had been plans to rebuild it, but they never got around to it; Harry wondered what life would have been like if he had grown up in a manor. Suddenly he spotted something else that he knew was going with him. A massive blueprint of the original Potter Manor was at the bottom of all the papers spread out. Rolling it up, Harry set it aside to go back to the second thing he had spotted. A simple brown journal written in different writing to his mom’s, at first he was nervous because it reminded him of the diary from his second year.

‘ That reminds me I should ask Grimjaw if he knows where I could see Basilisk parts, ’ Harry thought. 

Picking up the journal, he turned it over and read the title, “ Prongs Guide to Marauding Mischief,” slipping it into his satchel to read later. Spotting an interesting-looking trunk, Harry walked over to it; finding it locked, he walked back to the desk and searched the draw. Finding a set of keys on a ring, he walked back over to the trunk, trying each key; he eventually found the right one. He found stacks of school books and a rolling scroll opening it up. A smile crossed his face, ‘ Of course, my mother had a library trunk,’ Harry thought. Closing the lid, he tapped the trunk and watched as it shrunk down to the size of a matchbox. Sticking it in his pocket to avoid the mishap of putting a dimension space inside another, Harry made one last loop through the vault. 

After grabbing a good chunk of galleons and sickles to put in his moleskin, he sorted through a couple of different trunks that were scattered throughout. Some were filled with old clothes and unimportant items, and there were at least three more library trunks that Harry decided to leave for later. Leaving the vault with the rolled-up blueprint in hands, Harry took another hair-raising cart ride back to the surface. 

Harry took one look around before leaving Gringotts, giving the cart runner a tip.

Meeting Hermione at Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, Harry sat down after getting himself a double scoop of chocolate; Harry sat down next to his friend who was reading one of the books from his trunk. 

“Come on, Harry, well, what did you find? Were there books? Did you find something of your father's?” Harry couldn’t help but smirk around his ice cream as his friend tried not to pick up the rolled-up item sitting in front of her.

After eating a fair amount and watching Hermione struggle to hold herself back, he set down his cup. 

“I did find something of my father's; it is in my satchel, I also have in my pocket my mother's library trunk,” Harry said, watching Hermione's eyes widen in excitement. 

Closing her eyes and counting, Hermione calmed herself before opening her eyes and placing her hand on the rolled-up scroll, “what is this then?”

“Open it and find out,” Harry said while picking up his cup and eating another spoon full of ice cream.

Unrolling the blueprint, Hermione got a confused look on her face before recognition settled into her eyes. Harry raised his arms off the table as she laid it down flat and used her books to pin the corners down as best as she could. Harry moved his chair around to sit next to her as she traced over the individual floor layouts. 

"Oh Harry, this is amazing; look, there's a two-story library." Shaking his head, he should have realized the first thing Hermione would have looked for was a library. 

"My plan after everything with Tom is taken care of is to rebuild this. I have the blueprints and the land deed and title; I just need to secure my future before I do." Harry said, taking care, not to mention Voldermort in public. 

After getting a bone-crushing hug from his friend, whose eyes were suspiciously watery, they sat there looking over the blueprints. Eventually, they finished up and headed back to the Tavern. Heading up to their room, Harry pulled the library trunk out of his pocket, set it down, and taped it with his wand. After getting another hug from Hermione, Harry begged off searching through the trunk in favor of checking on Ari and reading through his father’s journal. Hoping into his trunk and heading down to his apartment, Harry laid down on the bed and began reading his father’s journal. 

$Hello darling, is sweety not coming down?$ Harry looked down at Ari, who had slithered up onto his chest. 

$She’s in the room above, looking through a new trunk full of books; I doubt we will hear much from her.$ Ari seemed to do the snake version of a chuckle. 

$Your mate is in love with the written word.$ Harry dropped his book and looked at Ari in shock.

$Hermione is my best friend, not my mate!$ Harry said while trying to ignore the blush on his face. 

$Sure, keep telling yourself that darling, I taste something different between you two.$ Said Ari wrapping herself around Harry’s shoulder and going to sleep.

Harry rolled his eyes and went back to reading the journal; within the first few pages, he realized that his dad had Prongs' nickname and three friends named Padfoot, Moony, and Wormtail.

Flashback end

Harry was still thinking about Ari’s comment. Right now, they were waiting for the Weasleys to arrive, talking about the caster and sword while they did. They hadn't been talking long when the floo flared green, and Mr. Weasley stepped out. The rest of the Weasley clan promptly followed.

Ron spotted Harry and Hermione and rushed over to greet them.

"Hey guys,'' he said, receiving his own rib-crushing hug from Hermione and clasping hands with Harry.

Ginny spotted Harry, and her face turned as red as her hair, but she managed to squeak out a 'hello' before trying to hide behind her mother. Harry wondered if she was ever going to be able to talk to him at all with how embarrassed she seemed to get whenever they were in the same room. It only seemed to have gotten worse since he had saved her from the Chamber of Secrets.

After greeting the rest of the Weasleys, including a very amusing comedy skit about Percy's overly formal manners courtesy of Fred and George, the trio stepped into the Alley to take care of Ron shopping for school supplies.

They had stopped at the Magical Menagerie to get Ron's pet rat Scabbers looked at. Apparently, the rodent had taken ill from the journey to Egypt the Weasley family had taken. Hermione also had business at the menagerie and picked up a rather ugly cat that looked as if it had been smashed in the face with a frying pan. Ron and Hermione had already started arguing about cats around pet rats when the store owner gave some rat tonic to Ron.

The trio then made their way over to the book store, stopping by Quality Quidditch so Ron and Harry could ogle the new Firebolt broom. Hermione rolled her eyes but waited patiently for the boys to finish drooling over the premium broomstick.

Ron bought all the books they would need for the term at the book store. Hermione had been teased mercilessly by Ron for taking all of the electives that were offered to third years. Harry apologized to Ron by telling him that he would be taking three electives himself, having gained an interest in arithmancy since he had told them about switching from divination to runes. Ron looked at him like he was crazy but shrugged and said, ''Your funeral, mate.''

Finally finished, with Harry barely able to contain his excitement about being able to share his discoveries with his other best friend, they returned to the Cauldron and tromped up the stairs to his room and closed the door. Ron and Hermione sat on the edge of the bed, and Harry dragged the chair from the desk over in front of them. Hermione was cautiously nervous for her friend. 

''Ok, Ron,'' he started. ''I've got several things I want to show you, and I want to get the biggest possible problem out of the way first. So I want you to promise me that you'll let me finish what I have to say before you fly off the handle or freak out in any way, ok? I’ve already shown Hermione because you know she would have exploded by now if I had waited.”

“Harry, you prat, I’m not that bad,” Hermione said, reaching out and smacking his leg. Ron just chuckled and nodded at Harry when she wasn’t looking.

"Great! Ok, so you remember last year when we discovered that I was a parselmouth? Well, I decided that since I have the ability, I might as well use it, so I got a snake. Would you like to meet her? And would you freak out if you did?" Harry quickly explained. Harry hoped that Hermione would help make sure Ron didn’t freak out too badly.

Ron's eyes widened, and he started to sputter a little; not too bad, though. Harry looked at Ron, who closed his mouth and swallowed. ''It won't try to hurt us, will it?''

Harry shook his head, and Ron nodded his acquiescence.

Harry took off his outer robes, revealing Ari and his armor. “Ron, this is Ari,  $Ari, this is Ron, my other best friends in the whole world.$ ''

Ari looked at the new human and flicked her tongue at him, tasting Ron's scent and, deciding that she liked it, responded,  $it's a pleasure to meet you crimson, darling has told me all about you.$

Harry snickered a bit at the faces of his friend after hearing him speak in parseltongue for the first time in a while, as well as the nicknames Ari had given him. Ari never used proper names for some reason, even their own. Hermione had asked, which led to a very confusing translated conversation that still made Harry’s head hurt. 

"She said it was a pleasure to meet you, and she gave you her name for you.'' He said with a smile.

Ron, who had been watching the byplay with a slightly awed look, shook his head a bit and asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"She never uses proper names for anybody. I'm not too sure why; she just says it's too bothersome." Harry chuckled. “Hermione has already asked her why, and trust me, Ron, I still have a headache from the translated argument. 

“Well, it just doesn’t make sense; why doesn’t she just use real names,” Hermione exclaimed, immediately flushing when both boys chuckled at her. 

Ron cleared his throat and asked, a bit nervously, "Ca-can I hold her?''

Harry stared at Ron in mild shock for a few seconds; he hadn't expected that.

"Of course you can!'' Harry exclaimed, then thought he should ask Ari.  $Would you mind if Ron held you for a little bit?$

$ That's fine, he has fear but the determination to overcome it, and I sense no hostile intent from him. $

''She says it's fine,'' Harry said, handing her over to Ron.

Ron nervously but gently handled the snake. He seemed to gain more confidence as she wound his way through his fingers and tickled his skin with her flickering tongue.

''Wicked.'' He said.

Harry was just about to crack his face open from smiling so much. He had been a little worried about Ron's reaction, and now, it seemed he had worried for nothing.

Ron looked up at him and said, ''I know you were probably worried about what I might say and, truthfully, last year I might have been a prat about it. I guess having dealt with all of that tripe about Slytherin's heir last year made me think a little about my opinions on some things. I know you aren't a bad guy, so any skill you have wouldn't be used for evil.''

Now, Hermione joined in at staring at Ron in shock.

"What!? I can say smart things too, you know.'' He said indignantly.

Harry and Hermione collapsed into laughter at that, Ron joining them after his indignation passed.

''Ron, you are the best mate a bloke could ask for.'' Harry said after wiping tears of joy from his eyes.

"And don't you forget it,'' Ron responded with faux haughtiness.

“Harry, why don’t you show him the cool stuff? We know he will just get bored with the books,” Hermione said as she reached and rubbed Ari’s chin.

“Oh! I like books, just not as much as you Hermione, you’d probably marry a book if you could.” Ron shouted, a little flustered.

''Oh! Right, well, I went to Gringott's, and I got my account manager to show me my family vault. He said I couldn't take any money but that I could take four heirlooms so I could have a few keepsakes from my family. I was originally looking for something of my parent's, but there wasn't anything of theirs in that vault, so I got to looking around, and I did find a few things. You are going to love this. See the outfit I'm wearing?'' Harry said.

Ron nodded.

''Well,'' Harry continued. ''It's actually an armor. Watch this; Activate contingency: heavy combat.''

The armor flowed into its heavy combat form, and Harry's, his friend's jaw dropped. Hermione was still sort of miffed that she couldn’t figure the rune scheme that allowed for the voice activation, and Harry figured she would solve it eventually.

"Wicked!'' Ron exclaimed as he was staring in wonder at the vest.

"Alright, I've got a couple more things to show you,'' Harry said.

Ron snorted. "What could top that armor."

“This,” Harry said, pulling the sword and caster out of their respective sheath and holster. 

“So the sword is called a Fulham Gladius Sword, and it’s been in the family for a long time. It’s silvered goblin steel. I’m hoping to explore Hogwarts and try to find a training room.

“Oh, I can answer that one for you mate, you need to talk to the twins; they have found tons of rooms that have been abandoned over the years,” Ron said, he had taken to playing with Ari. She was currently threading her slim body between his fingers.

“Oooh, we should take over a classroom and make it into a hangout room; I can study and also help you with Occlumency, especially since I can’t copy that book because of the patent ward.

“A what ward?” Ron asked

Hermione went into her 'lecture mode' and started to explain. "A patent ward is pretty much the definitive way that people protect their ideas or inventions that they don't want other people to have, and It works by placing the idea or invention under a type of anchored charm that hides it from other people. That's where most of the legendary or unique items that you hear about in history come from. It's also how broom companies protect their broom designs or any company for that matter."

''Wow,'' breathed Harry. Even Ron was a bit interested and paying attention.

Harry smiled at Hermione, then smirked.

"We should all learn it together, then that way we don’t have to wait for one person to finish reading the book'' He finished.

Ron looked at him like he was crazy, and Hermione squealed in delight and hugged him tightly.

"Mate, you can't possibly want to learn that stuff. Me and you barely get by with the normal magic subjects.'' Ron Groaned as Hermione grabbed the book from the shelf still standing from the trunk.

"Ron, one of the benefits of being an occlumens is that it makes it easier to retain things you learn. It doesn't turn you into a super genius or anything like that, but it does make it much easier to focus. About 95 percent of your academic problems come from a lack of focus. I know that you aren't stupid.'' Said Hermione, hugging her prize closely to her chest, then she took a page from Harry and smirked. "Occlumency can help you be a better chess player, too. I'm also willing to bet that there would be advantages for quidditch players as well...'' She added, trailing off enticingly.

"Really?'' Ron asked.

Hermione nodded enthusiastically.

Ron was silent for a moment, looking lost in thought. It was a strange look on him when he wasn't beating someone mercilessly in chess.

"I guess I can see how chess is all about the strategies and anticipating your opponents. It's always been able to calm me down; that's why Mum taught me how to play when I was younger. Even quidditch has a lot of thinking in it..." Ron said, seeming to get more excited as he talked himself into learning something not being shoved in his face by a teacher. "...OK, I'll do it, but you'll probably have to help me out loads.'' He finished.

Hermione looked like Christmas had come early and gave Ron a big hug, babbling excitedly about how he would learn it if it was the last thing she did, then grabbed Harry and turned it into a trio-hug. She looked happier than Harry had ever seen her, and it made him even happier to have suggested they learn occlumency together. Ron looked pleased with himself and smirked at Harry, who smirked right back.

“Now mate, what is that in your other hand?” Ron asked after Hermione had gotten over her excitement.

“Oh, this is something else Auntie Edith made, It's called a caster, and it can fire up to seven different kinds of shells. There's a whole booklet on how to do it, and honestly, until we get to Hogwarts and start going to classes, I probably won’t attempt to make any.” Harry said.

“Good, I’ve seen those rune schemes one wrong line, and it could blow up in your face.” Hermione glared slightly at Harry, who had the good graces to act sorry.

“Yeah, mate, Seamus already blows up enough things in class; we don’t need a second person blowing up things outside of class.” Harry started chuckling while Hermione giggled at Ron's joke. 

“Ron, um Harry, and I have one last thing to tell you. Can you promise that you won’t freak out?” Hermione seemed nervous, and Harry figured she was going to tell him about them sharing a room. 

Ron nodded, “I promise.” 

“The other thing that I found in the family vault was a multicompartment trunk, it has eight compartments, and the last compartment has an apartment,” Harry said, searching Ron’s face; he watched as he looked around the room and began to take in the assortment of stuff.

“Oh, um, okay, maybe don’t let mom find out because that's an argument waiting to happen,” Ron spoke, shocking both Harry and Hermione. They had been expecting him to react much differently.   

“Are you sure your cool with it, Ron?” Hermione was shocked that Ron was acting so calm about everything. 

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be? It's not like you and Harry like each other. Anyway, I’m tired, so here's Ari back; see you guys in the morning.” Ron said, handing Ari to Harry before waving to them.

Harry and Hermione shared a look with each other before Harry climbed down into his trunk for the night. Neither of them got much sleep that night, both from nerves about going back to Hogwarts tomorrow and from a weird feeling in their gut.

Chapter Text

The following day was hectic. While Hermione and Harry sat down in the main area of the Leaky tavern, the Weasley family scrambled to get everything together. Ron had lost his left shoe and his tie, Percy couldn't find his Head boy badge; Ginny had misplaced two of her books. The twins had all of those items and barely held in their laughter.

Meanwhile, Ari was curled around Harry's arm with her head on his right shoulder, while Hedwig refused to go in her new cage and took up perching on his left shoulder. His trunks were shrunk, and his casual robes hid the dagger in his pockets. He, of course, was wearing his armor, but the caster was in his trunk along with the belt and sword. 

Eventually, Percy found his badge charmed to say, big head boy; Ginny threatened the twins into releasing her books, and Ron shrugged his shoulders at the lost tie after finding his left shoe. After getting everyone out of the tavern and into a ministry car, they made it to platform nine and three quarters with ten minutes to spare. After seeing the twins off, Percy went to the perfect’s compartment; Ginny left to find Colin, and Arthur pulled Harry to the side.

“Harry, I wanted to warn you about Black,” Arthur said as they ducked in an alcove.

“What about Black? I know he was Voldermort’s right-hand man.” Harry was confused; he had heard about Black escaping Azkaban but didn’t understand what that specifically had to do with him. 

“How do I say this, Harry um, Sirius Black was the one who betrayed your parent’s location to Voldermort.” Arthur watched as Harry went from confused to scowling. 

“I see, so he’s the reason why-”

“Harry, promise me that you won’t go looking for Black if you see him, just run. Your family son, not by blood but still family.” Harry suddenly realized that the difference between Arthur scolding him and Vernon was that when Vernon scolded him, it made him angry. Arthur scolding him made him wonder if this is what his dad would have been like. 

“I promise Mr. Weasley; I won’t go looking for him.” Harry said, ‘ Though if he finds me, I won’t run without fighting first.’ 

“Now, I want you to have fun with Hermione and Ron at Hogsmeade,” Arthur said.

“Yeah, I wish my uncle refused to sign the slip.” Harry frowned at Arthurs smirk. Arthur looked around before casting a spell.

“Right, we only have a few minutes, do you have the slip and anything with your uncle’s signature.” Harry dug around in his pockets and pulled the slip out. Holding up his hand to Arthur, he tapped his trunk, making it full-sized, and pulled out a piece of paper from his mom’s journal. It was a letter from Petunia and Vernon she kept for some reason. Handing it over, Harry watched as Arthur transferred the signature from the letter to the slip with a swish of his wand. 

“What you thought the Twins got their love of pranks from Molly?” Arthur smiled at Harry’s stunned expression. “Let’s keep this a secret between you and me; now hurry up; the train is getting ready to leave.”

Harry quickly shrunk his trunk, shoved it, his mom's journal, and the permission slip into his pocket, and rushed onto the train waving bye to Arthur and Molly as he did. Turning around, he set off to find his friends.

Walking through the different cars with Ron dragging his trunk, they eventually found a primarily empty carriage. The sole occupation was a man wearing slightly shabby robes who appeared to be asleep. After helping Ron and Hermione put their trunks in the rack above, they sat down and watched the train leave the stations. 

“What did my dad want, Mate?” Ron said, sitting back away from the man sleeping. 

“Wanted to warn me off from going after Black.” Hermione looked concerned while Ron seemed shocked. 

“Harry, why would Mr. Weasley think you would go after Black?” Hermione asked as she reached out and touched his arm. 

Ron raised one eyebrow at the interaction before smirking, ‘ I might need to see if the twins can let me change my bet.’ 

“He informed me that Black was the one who gave my parents location to Voldermort.” Seeing Ron and Hermione not flinch at him saying Voldermorts real name warmed Harry’s heart just a little bit.

“Mate, that’s rough,” Ron said.

“Harry, promise me you won’t go after him, please can we have one year without you almost risking your life.” Hermione had grabbed his arm and was looking at him with pleading eyes.

“I won’t, Hermione, I won’t. As for the one-year risk-free, you're talking to the son of a Marauder, I doubt my parents would like how things have been, but I know according to my dad’s journal that it wouldn’t be surprising to them.” Harry said, his heart warming up at Hermione’s smile. He honestly hated seeing her so worried for him. 

“Hey Harry, your dad’s journal, how far have you gotten?” Ron asked; Harry was grateful for the subject change. 

Harry smiled and pulled out the journal, “Prongs would like  Mister Weasley to know that his son is going to carry on the family traditions. Mate, some of the stuff in here would tame the twins.” 

“Honestly, Harry, do you want Snape to hate you more?” Hermione was hiding a smile behind her hand, but her tone was scolding. 

“Well, according to Mom’s journal, they were best friends. I’m happy that I had Grimjaw look to see if my parents left me stuff at the bank.” Harry looked down at the book in his lap and ran his fingers across the title.

The trio’s eyes turned to the man who just moved a bit, and he still looked asleep. Harry looked down at the briefcase on his lap. ‘ R, J, Lupin, that's an interesting name.’ Harry turned to Ron, who shrugged his shoulders. 

“So Mate, I meant to ask what’s with the three trunks?” Ron asked, trying to fill the silence.

“One of the trunks is my mom’s old library trunk; I’m keeping my old trunk to become a decoy trunk if I go back to the Dursley. You’ve already seen the adventure trunk, and I’m hoping I won’t have to buy a fourth trunk if I find any more books at Hogwarts,” Harry explained.

“Harry, what do you mean by books you find? The only books I know of at Hogwarts are in the library. Where else are there books in Hogwarts?” Harry chuckled at how Hermione reacted to finding new books. He still had the image of her butt wiggling when she opened his mom’s library trunk stuck in his head, much to his embarrassment.

“Hermione, I don’t know if I will find any books outside the library, but I am going to ask the elves and also maybe explore Slytherin’s chamber a bit more. I need to go down there anyway to harvest the basilisk.” Harry said if he had been looking at his friends, he would have seen shocked faces. If he had looked at Lupin’s, he would have noticed raised eyebrows before they settled back down.

“Mate, backing up, did you say IF you went back to the Dursley?” At that, Harry rubbed his neck and looked sheepish. 

“Harry James Potter, you tell us what you plan to do right now!!” Hermione growled, keeping her voice low to avoid waking the man in the compartment with them.

“Okay, okay, look, my plan was simple. Most of my stuff is in the adventure chest; I can carry that anywhere; Grimjaw mentioned that Gringotts has a summer internship for people learning about curse breaking. Still, that’s not anything for me to worry about for at least six months. For right now, I have a short-term plan involving the marauders and school.” Harry looked at his friends, who were displaying two different emotions. Hermione was looking at him with curiosity, and Ron seemed to be understanding. 

“So Mate, what’s the plan regarding the Marauders?” Ron asked.

Hermione looked at Ron and then back at him and nodded, “I want to know the same, also besides schoolwork, which should be your main priority, what else do you have planned to do at school?” 

“My dad had four friends Mooney, Wormtail, and Padfoot. Now I plan on sending a letter to them each, mostly to see if I could learn about my family from their friends. Depending on how that goes, I would see if one of them would be up for sending any pictures or copies of letters between them. It’s nice reading their words, but I would love to know what their friends thought of them.” Harry suddenly found himself with a face full of brown hair as Hermione had effectively tackled him and was hugging him. 

“Hermione, I think Harry needs to breathe. Jeez, I think her hugs are as dangerous as You-know-who, right mate?.” Hermione and Harry both blushed at that. Hermione released him and turned to glare at Ron, who had the decency to look sorry. 

“Also, with Aunt Edith’s Armor, I plan on exploring the Black Lake. The aquatic variant of the suit will let me explore as long as the warming charm I have to learn holds. Before you ask Hermione, yes, we can learn to cast the warming charm together.” Harry chuckled at Hermione's look when he mentioned learning a spell, and her pout at being called out made both him and Ron laugh.   

“Harry, I was wondering if maybe the next time you go down to the chamber if I could come with you." Ron’s eyes widened as he looked between Harry and her.

“Hermione, did you think I would go down there without either of you? There might be something I’m not smart enough to figure out. Or another giant chess set for Ron to sacrifice himself on.” Harry suddenly found himself in another hug.

“Oi!” Harry and Hermione laughed at Ron’s scowl; it wasn’t heated since they both could see the beginnings of a smile at the edge of his lips.

As the train rumbled on, Harry opened up his dad’s journal while Hermione pulled out one of the books she had selected from his trunk before they had left. Ron, meanwhile, decided to follow the adult in their cabin by taking a small nap. The train kept chugging along as the trio passed the time. Harry was reading his dad’s notes on transfiguration to pass the time when the train started slowing down. Harry looked out the window, putting down his book, noticing that they were nowhere near Hogwarts. Nudging Ron’s leg, Harry felt Ari move on his shoulder before hissing.

$Darling, the air is getting colder, and I can taste something foul.$ Harry pulled his wand out before nudging Hermione. 

“Hermione, Ari says there’s something dangerous coming; I need you to hit the door with your best locking ward while I take care of the window.” Hitting the window with colloportus maxima, Harry heard Hermione whisper the same thing on the door. Ron pulled his wand and looked around when Harry pointed at how the window was frosting up. Seeing him pale, Harry and Hermione looked at him questionably.

“Two creatures do that, Dementors and Lethifolds, and considering who recently escaped, I would say this is Dementors.” Harry looked at Hermione, who seemed to realize how dangerous a situation they were in. Looking over at the adult in the room, he took a deep breath before knocking the man's knee. 

“Sir, are you awake?" Harry backed off as the man seemed to move; out of the corner of his eye, he saw both Hermione and Ron had their wands trained on the man discreetly. 

"Hmm, yes, how can I help you, Har- young man?" Remus had to bite his tongue to keep from saying Harry’s name. Hearing him talk about the Marauders had him taking a trip down memory lane to happy times. Shaking his head, he looked at Harry and realized he had missed most of what he said, ‘ Fuck, great going, Moody.’

“ -So Ron is pretty sure it is a Dementors, and I was wondering if you knew why they were coming onto the train?” Harry watched as the man’s eyes widened before all four of them turned and stared at the rattling door. Seeing his breath in front of him and the windows frosting over made him nervous. Gripping his wand, Harry watched as the man pulled his own wand and aimed at the glass. The glass was unfrosted and revealed a floating black cloth attempting to open the door without a word. Harry felt his breath hitch in his throat as he watched the creature try to break into their compartment. Suddenly he felt warmth and hope as the man in the compartment released a white shield that drifted through the door and seemed to drive the creature back. Harry didn’t hear the spell, and he was cursing himself for it. 

“Miss, if you would mind unlocking the door, I need to check on the other cabins. As well as make sure that those creatures don't harm anyone.” Hermione nodded and uttered the spell; feeling the door unlock, Harry watched as the man swept out of the compartment and left them in silence.

“Bloody hell mate, who the hell was that?” Harry looked at the door as it was closed behind the adult. He was in shock, the way he just drove back the dementors and seemed to almost square his shoulders and go out there and face them. His spellwork was terrific as well; he had said no words and seemed to make no wand movement beyond simply pointing.

Sinking back down onto the bench beside Hermione, Harry felt her squeeze his hand, turning to see her giving him a comforting look., he smiled, “Guess we have something else to research.”                

As the train rumbled on, he pulled out the small notebook and wrote it down to research Dementors before pulling out the Marauders guide and settling back in for the rest of the journey. Eventually, the man came back and introduced himself as their newest Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Hermione immediately launched into an impromptu interview until Harry covered her mouth.

"Sorry, about that sir; she gets a bit excited about learning and might talk your ear off given a chance." Hermione had the good graces to blush before smirking to herself.

"WHAT THE, did you just lick my hand?!" Harry stared at a giggling Hermione while Ron and the recently introduced Remus laughed. Hermione and Harry both blushed as they realized fully what happened, causing Ron to laugh more. 

"It's alright, Miss Granger, I would be happy to discuss what I will be covering with you," at that, Hermione smiled wide and began to say something before Remus continued, "on an actual day, we cover it." 

Harry and Ron both resumed laughing at the smirk on the Professor's face along with a slightly embarrassed blush on Hermione's. Pulling Hermione into a half hug, Harry failed to notice the smirk on Ron's face. Remus, meanwhile, had looked out the window in an attempt to combat the tears that had threatened to spill. ‘ He’s growing up, James; I wish you could see it.’

Eventually, the train arrived at the station, and the trio disembarked and headed towards the carriages. Harry was surprisingly excited; last year, he and Ron had arrived in a nontraditional method. As a result, this was the first time Harry was riding the carriage towards Hogwarts. As they slowly traveled through the castle walls. Harry felt a subtle shift in the air, one of the side benefits of bonding with Ari was Harry had noticed that he could feel magic better. He had gotten used to the magic in Diagon Alley while he was there, so arriving at Hogwarts, he felt the ancient and powerful wards and almost fog thick magic that permeated the border of the school grounds. While Harry had no idea what he was feeling, he did feel a sense of almost warmth like he was coming home. With a small smile, Harry felt Ari nudge his chin slightly. 

$Darling, the magic here feels so good. It tastes heavenly, is there where you go to school?$ Harry had paused just inside the door, so reaching up and scrubbing Ari’s chin, he spoke back, not noticing that a few students from other houses were watching him. 

$Yes, this is where I go to school; there will be mice for you to hunt, just try to avoid the other student's pets.$ Hermione nudged him at that point, and together they walked over to their table. Sitting down with Ron across from him, Hermione next to him, Harry suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning, he saw Neville and his other dormmates. 

“Hey guys, meet Ari; she’s my familiar, $Ari meet Neville, Dean, and Seamus$ ” Harry pointed at each of the guys as he hissed at Ari. Neville didn’t flinch when he heard Harry speaking in Parsletongue, Dean managed to keep his flinch mostly subdued, but Seamus flinched badly. 

“Bloody hell, Potter, you got a snake, really not letting last year's rumor die down are you mate.” Neville did flinch at Seamus’s blunt statement, especially how Ron’s eyes hardened. ‘Seamus, you utter moron.’

While Harry was explaining Ari to his dormmates, a similar discussion was taking place across the great hall. The Slytherin's had seen Harry release his bird at the station, so they were shocked to see him having a conversation with a snake. Daphne Greengrass, in particular, was interested in the ongoing discussion about Potter's snake. 

“It’s bullshit, bloody Potter flaunting the one pets rule. When my father hears about this, Potters' pet snake or bird will be gone.” Daphne looked around as several of the other Slytherins rolled their eyes. 

“Honestly, Malfoy, you act like a Gryffindor; how about instead of running off to send a letter to your father, who might I add is no longer on the board of governors. You use your brain for something worthy of a Slytherin.” Daphne suppressed the smirk at the look of indignation on Malfoy’s face. Calling someone a Gryffindor in the snake pit was the second-highest insult you call someone. 

“So we are just going to ignore his casual usage of Slytherin’s tongue; after last year, you would bury that deep down. Instead, he's using it openly, showing no fear, daring someone to say something. It's rather ingenious if I say so for myself." Daphne turned to look at Nott as he finished speaking; he was another Slytherin that she kept her eye on. He wasn’t a significant threat, but the support he could bring to bear was the true threat. 

“Bold is more like it, a galleon says that Snape says something,” Daphne smirked as the sorting ended, and Dumbledore stood up to give his speech. Daphne looked over towards the Gryffindors side of the room and noticed that Potter was rubbing the snake that had settled down on his shoulder. 

“That's a suckers bet, and Snape would say something about Potter if he walked down the hall weird.” Daphne looked over at the newest additions to the snake pit and spotted her sister; she let a small smile slip onto her face before she let her mask drop back into place. ‘Going to have to send her a message later tonight; she’s going to need to learn a few spells.’

“LASTLY, I would like to welcome our newest Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor Remus Lupin.” Daphne and the rest of the Slytherins looked over the newest teacher. While his dress robes weren’t the best, they were tatters. The man looked like he hadn’t gotten a good night's sleep in several days. 

“Let’s hope he’s better than Lockhart; whatever happened to him?” Daphne looked at Pansey and then over at Millie; with a nod, she let her friend let some info slip.

“Last year, during the whole Chamber of Secrets fiasco, when they lock down the dorms, I was in the bathrooms on the third floor, and I managed to overhear rustling happening from Lockhart's room. Naturally, I snuck to the corner and watched him rush out of the room with a packed suitcase. Following, I had to veer off when Harry and his redhead friend intercepted Lockhart. I forgot about it till my mother came home from St. Mungos and mentioned that Lockhart was in the Janus Thickey Ward.” Millie had started eating halfway through; Daphne had kept an eye on the other Slytherins while occasionally looking across the hall at Potter. 

“Wait, are you saying that Potter and Weasley are the reason he ended up in the ward?” Millie just shrugged and left the other Slytherins to draw their own answers. 

“Maybe we should ask Potter; he loves to gloat ruddy bastard.” Daphne just rolled her eyes at Malfoy’s comment. It seemed like no matter what, Malfoy would always leap before he looked.

The students were dismissed as Daphne dropped back to talk to her younger sister as the feast ended. She managed to catch a glimpse of the back of Potter’s head as they went up the stairs.

Harry was pissed, Seamus had put his foot in his mouth, and Harry had to keep Hermione from hexing him. Dean and Neville had pet Ari and seemed to be cool with him having a new familiar. Heading up the stairs, he, along with the other Gryffindors, had shuffled into the common room and had spread out. Harry had gone upstairs and unshrunk his new trunk. Pulling the armor off and placing it within the trunk, Harry headed back down to the common room. Wearing more casual clothes, Harry had pulled on his casual overcloak and stuffed the Maraduars book into one pocket and his own journal in the other; he looked around before grabbing one of the comfortable chairs and taking up a space in front of the fire, and curled up to continue reading his fathers journal. As he was sitting there reading about his dad’s desire to prank McGonagall, he felt a fantastic idea come to him. Looking around for the twins, he spotted them conversing with Angelina and Alicia about something. Waving his hand, he caught their attention.

“Oi, terror twins, I got a question for our resident pranksters.” Seeing the almost feral grin that broke out, he realized he might have made a mistake as they quickly escorted the two chasers over towards him. 

“Yes, oh Sir Potter, how may we assist you?” Harry rolled his eyes at the overdramatic nature of the twins along with the two girls. 

“Okay, bring it down a bit mates, I was wondering if you know if McGonagall does the whole cat introduction with her first class every time or if it was just ours?” Harry saw the twins seem to think about it before grabbing Colin as he walked past.

“Ah Colin, just the mate we were looking for, a quick question was McGonagall, a cat when you walked into Transfiguration like she was for Harry and us here mate?” Colin nodded before the twins scrubbed his head and sent him on his way. 

“Does that answer your question, mate?” Harry smirked before nodding, lifting up the book in cheers; he didn’t see the twin's eyes widened.

“Cheers, fellas, in honor of my father Prongs, I thank you for this information.” Going back to his book, he didn’t see the look of shock on the twin's faces; eventually, the girls dragged them away and left Harry to his readings. Harry saw Hermione come down the stairs wearing more casual clothing as they walked away. She looked around before spotting him and walking over to him. Hermione plopped down into his chair and pulled out her book, moving over slightly.

“What are you reading, Hermione?” Harry looked over to see what she was reading. Hermione turned her book to show him that she was getting a headstart on their schoolwork.

“Standard book of spells grade 4, I know we won’t learn this till next year, but I already finished grade 3 spellwork.” Harry just shook his head at his friend. Only Hermione would get the fourth-year textbook to read ahead.

“Did you happen to find the spell that Professor Lupin used to drive off the Dementor?” Harry nodded at Ron, who sprawled out on the couch nearby and seemed to listen to them talk. 

“No, I was going to save that for some research in the library; I have a meeting with McGonagall tomorrow morning anyway so I could talk to her.” Harry shook his head at that; pulling out his own journal, he thumbed to the last page.

“So the plan is to research Dementors in the library, along with these other subjects. Hey, Ron, do you think Charlie might know something about beast rendering or someone who offers those services?” Ron seemed to think on it for a minute before sitting up straight. 

“I guess I could send him a letter, is this about the Basilisk, mate?” Harry winched; Ron hadn’t checked their surroundings, so he didn’t see how some of the other members of their house turned to look in their direction. Suddenly a wave of magic rushed past him as Hermione cast muffliato. 

“Thank you, Hermione, and yes, mate, it's about the basilisk; while I would love to harvest it myself, I feel like I don’t have the necessary experience for something that size. It’s either Charlie or I contact my account manager and see if he knows of someone.” Ron nodded and looked around. As Ron made a grabbing motion, Hermione sighed and held out a quill. Harry watched as Ron wrote out a short note before handing the quill back to Hermione. 

“First thing in the morning, remind me to send this off, Mate; you cool with me using Hedwig to send this note to dad?” It was rather interesting that at the moment, Ron mentioned something about using Hedwig that she would come flying into the room. Harry felt her land on his shoulder and looked over to see that one of the younger students had just opened the window. 

“Mate, I don’t know about you, but that ruddy bird has impeccable timing.” Ron flinched away from the way Hedwig flared her wings at him.

“Hey Hedwig, think you could deliver this note to Ron’s dad? If you want to spend the night there and bring back a response tomorrow morning, I’ll have some bacon waiting for you.” Harry would swear that Hedwig’s eyes widened at the mention of bacon; holding out her leg, she waved her wings at Ron almost impatiently for him to put the note on. After Ron secured the note, Hedwig seemed to almost kiss Harry’s hair before taking off and out of the window, startling the younger students. 

“Mate, I only say this with respect, but your bird scares the bloody hell out of me,” Harry smirked at his friend before opening his father's journal again and settling down to read. 

Eventually, as it got later in the night, the younger students were shuffled off to bed, followed by the first Perfects setting out on Patrol. As each student bowed out and headed to bed, the first of the trio to go to bed was Hermione, who, after hugging Harry waved night to Ron and headed up. Ron was the next to go up, leaving Harry by himself downstairs reading. Casting tempus, Harry saw that it was close to eleven at night; with a yawn, he released Ari to let her hunt and went upstairs. Shucking his clothes, Harry placed the journal under his pillow before going to sleep for the night.

Chapter Text

Harry woke up the following day with Ari curled up on his pillow; after a few weeks of waking up with a snake in his face, he no longer flinched away from her. Sighing, Harry reached out and lightly rubbed Ari’s head before sitting up and stretching. Lifting up the covers, Harry yawned and rubbed his stomach before grabbing his keys and unlocking the last compartment of his trunk. Walking down the stairs, he activated the runes to start the shower. As the warm water cascaded down onto him, Harry thought about one of the things that Jeremiah had written.

A wizard is still human, and while our magical abilities are not increased by exercise, our stamina does factor; for example, it has proved helpful in my line of work. A wizard that has never exercised will have a harder time chasing a suspect through Sāl Paulo than a wizard that works out. I find that a run in the morning is a great way to start the day, along with going through a basic routine of dodging and rolling. On the fourth floor of Hogwarts, hidden behind a tapestry of roaring griffins, was a room that I converted to suit my purposes.  

Stepping out of the shower and wrapping a towel around himself, Harry stepped over to the sink to finish his morning routine; after brushing his teeth as well as hitting his mouth with a cleaning charm, Harry attempted to tame his hair with a comb. Giving up on taming the beast, Harry grabbed a set of muggle exercise clothing. Tying his trainers, Harry grabbed his wand holster and one of his daggers before throwing on a casual cloak. Grabbing both Jeremiah’s journal and his father's along with his own personal journal, he exited the trunk. As he did, he heard a hiss; spotting Ari curled around one of the posts on his bed, he smiled. 

$Darling, this place is wonderful; the magic tastes fantastic; I have found a few places where I can find more prey to hunt.$ Harry smiled before looking Ari over.

$Is it safe to pick you up? I want to take you exploring?$ Ari confirmed it was safe, so Harry let her crawl up his sleeve as he went down the stairs. 

Coming down into the common room, Harry looked around for any of his friends; seeing none, he rewalked upstairs and left a note stuck to Ron’s face. Heading back down the stairs, Harry walked out of Gryffindors Tower and headed down to the fourth floor. Standing at an intersection, Harry pulled a galleon out of his pocket before tossing it in the air. Catching in the air without even looking at what it was, Harry turned left and started walking. Almost ten minutes later, he passed back by the hallway; he came down and headed down the right wing of the fourth floor. Walking around looking at the different paintings, he eventually arrived at what he was looking for. A rather large tapestry of two griffins roaring as they raised themselves up onto their hindquarters before landing back down on the door was in front of him. Flanking the tapestry were two armored statues; Harry looked both of them over before lifting the corner of the tapestry to reveal a door behind it. It was different from the other doors of Hogwarts, where most doors were heavy oak; this was a mixture of wood and metal, the door was definitely much more modern. It was also bright red with a massive P on the door. Smirking, Harry gripped the handle and immediately slammed his shoulder into the locked door. Ignoring Ari’s laughing, he pulled his wand and hit the door with an unlocking charm, only to slam the same shoulder into the door. Hissing, Harry rubbed his shoulder, muttering a few choice words. Harry cast Lumos, seeing that the door handle was set inside of a runic pattern. Harry smirked. ‘ It seems to get into the room I’m going to need to use what little rune alphabet I know to figure this out.’

Crouching down to get a better view, he saw that the runic pattern seemed to spell out the elder futhark word for arcanic lock. Realizing that Harry had seen a diagram for this in Jeremiah’s journal, he pulled it out of his cloak and quickly flipped to the right page. Seeing that the answer to unlocking and relocking the door was in the notes, he tucked the journal under his wand arm and attempted what was listed in the book. Closing his eyes, he imagined his finger was his wand and pushed his magic down into it. Opening his eyes, he noticed that his finger was tingling slightly, and the light from his wand was dimmer. Quickly running his finger across the rune in a circle, he heard a noticeable click. Releasing his magic, he had to take a couple of deep breaths. ‘ Seems I need to work out more; that took a bit more than I thought.’

Opening the door slowly, Harry walked into the room, taking in everything as quickly as he could. While the room did have a layer of dust on it, it was still in remarkable shape. Roughly forty feet long and slightly L-shaped, Harry could see that the high windows allowed in some natural light. Tucked into the right side of the room were three desks that looked like they had been dragged over along with a long-dormant fireplace and a high back chair. One of the desks had rune craving equipment along with curled-up yellowed parchment and a half-finished Runic shield. The desk nearest the fireplace seemed to be mostly empty, but Harry couldn't tell the draws were closed. The third desk looked like a converted bookshelf; a number of books were stacked on top of it and several journals. 

Looking back into the main straight of the room, Harry noticed that there were dummies holding makeshift wands along both walls at intervals. They were slumped over and unmoving; on the floor right at the start of the long run was a red line, and upon closer inspection, Harry noticed that the line stretched up both walls and the ceiling. Inside the line were runic patterns he couldn't understand, but he was interested in studying. Walking over to the desks, Harry hit the chair with a quick scourgify and the fireplace with an incendio. As the fire lit up the room, Harry noticed that there was a place for him to hang his cloak. After setting his cloak on the hook, giving Ari a quick rub, Harry moved over to the books that sat on the desk. Looking at the spine of each book Harry pulled one out that looked interesting, “The Death Dealer by Cadmus Black” flipping through the pages, Harry noticed that it was written as both an autobiography and a manual on battle magic. Setting the book down to read later, he picked up a thick red book, the book had a black band around it. Flipping it over, Harry saw that there was no author, and the book was simply titled “ The Assassin’s Inspiration” hesitantly Harry opened the book. He was shocked to find that the book had been hollowed out, and inside was a dagger. Chuckling slightly, he set the book down before moving over to the leather journals. 

Opening the first journal, he moved over to the wall beside the runic shield desk. Hitting it with another scourgify revealed a rune-covered plate. Harry hit the rune in the upper left corner between the journal and the panel. Hearing movement, he looked at the long stretch to see that the dummies had gone from slumped over to standing at the ready, causing dust to fall from them and reflect the sun rays that filtered into the room. Grinning, Harry looked at the journal one more time before hitting several runes on the panel at once. Seeing the dummies get into a firing position and that the runes set within the red line seemed to glow, Harry moved over to the chair. 

$Ari, I need you to stay here in this chair; I promise next time I will make a little box for you to lay in but for now, stay in the chair.$ Harry scrubbed Ari’s chin and pulled his cloak off the hook, and made her a small nest. 

$Okay, darling, I might just take a little nap; the fireplace is comfy.$ Harry smiled at his snake before watching her curl up his cloak, tucking into one of the pockets. 

Turning back to the rune panel, Harry looked at the instructions written in the journal. Seeing that there was the runic equivalent of a dial, Harry set the speed of the dummies on the lowest setting. Setting the journal down on the desk, Harry stepped over in front of the red line. Taking a deep breath, he stepped across the line and immediately ducked to the left as a green light flew at him from one of the dummies on the right. Harry didn’t have a chance to breathe as a second green light came flying at him from one of the dummies on the left. Barely dodging the light, he threw himself into a roll under the third green light. ‘Bloody hell, this was a mistake; I need to get over the line again,’ Harry thought as he dodged the fourth green light. Harry jumped backward and then rolled across the red line, looking behind him. Seeing the dummies go back to standing at a ready, Harry stood there breathing heavy. 

“I definitely see what he is saying, Well at least I have this room to work in,” Harry spoke aloud as he walked over to the desk. 

Deciding to leave the Runic Shield till later, Harry felt his stomach rumble and realized that it was almost time for breakfast. Gently picking up Ari and his cloak, Harry shoved the two journals he brought with them into the other pocket and left the room. Pushing his magic into his finger, which felt more manageable when he wasn’t casting with his wand, he heard the door lock. As quickly as he could, he got down to the great hall to eat breakfast with his friends only to come up short as he saw that Ron and Hedwig were staring at each other. As he got closer, he noticed that the reason for the showdown was the three remaining rashers of bacon between them. 

“Um, Mate, think you can call your bird off I only want one?” Harry just snorted and noticed that Dean and Seamus were watching the show with grins on their faces. Hermione had her face buried in a book and was decidedly not getting involved. 

“Sorry Ron, I think I’m going to keep out of this; hey Hermione, what are you reading?” Harry sat down and took the note off Hedwig’s leg while said bird refused to break eye contact with Ron. 

“MATE, I just want one rasher; your bloody bird doesn’t need three.” Harry winched as Hedwig seemed to take offense to that and decided to display that by smacking Ron across the face with a wing, grabbing all three bacon pieces in her claw, and hopping over closer to Harry.

“Honestly, Ron, how did you think that was going to go?” Hermione had put her book down so Harry could read the title while smirking at the stunned Ron. Seamus and Dean were both laughing on the other side of him. 

Harry took the final two bacon pieces from Hedwig while she glared at him before breaking them into pieces and feeding them to her slowly. Hedwig hopped into the air high enough to flap once and land on Harry’s shoulder. Feeding Hedwig with one hand, Harry built himself a couple of sandwiches; he planned on going back to the room since He knew they wouldn’t have classes today or tomorrow. 

“ Hey, want to come, see what I discovered?” Harry whispered to Hermione; he had already heard Ron would head out to the quidditch pitch with Seamus and Dean. He figured Hermione would head back up to the common room or go to the library, so why not show her the room. 

“Sure, can we also look through your mom’s library trunk?” Harry nodded, getting a happy smile from Hermione and a hug. Harry stuck one of the rashers' sandwiches into his cloak pocket while eating the other one. Ari had climbed out of the pocket and had wrapped herself around his upper arm again; her head was resting on his shoulder. 

$Darling, are we going back to the warm spot? Maybe sweety can make me a nook.$ Harry had finished feeding Hedwig, so she nuzzled his hair and took off. Rubbing his hand to rid it of bacon grease, Harry turned slightly towards Ari.

$ Yes, we are, and I will ask nicely if sweety will make you a nook. First I have to go pick up something from my room.$ Harry noticed that Hermione had stopped watching him and had looked over his shoulder. 

Turning, Harry noticed that Draco was talking to Snape; biting down a scowl, he quickly took the sandwich and stuffed it in his mouth. Nudging Hermione, he stood up and made his way quickly out of the great hall. Hermione caught up with him as he hit the main stairs and headed towards Gryffindor’s tower. He was not about to deal with both Draco and Snape this early in the morning or at all. 

After climbing the stairs back up the tower and then going up into the boy's dorms to grab his moleskin pouch with his mom’s trunk, coming back down the stairs, he grinned at Hermione before grabbing her hand and taking off towards the room. Grabbing Hermione’s hand had been on an impulse one she didn’t seem to be fighting; judging from her grinning and giggling, she probably didn’t care. If Harry had stopped at any mirror or a window along the way, he would have seen his reflection smiling back at him. Eventually, Harry returned to the same t-section and made a right-hand turn. 

“Harry, you know that I trust you, but where are you taking me?” Harry looked back at Hermione and shot her a smirk. Turning back around, he saw the Griffin tapestry. Lifting up one side, he heard Hermione gasp when she saw the door.

“Long time ago, Jeremiah Potter found a room, and in that room, he became who he was.” Harry found that running his finger across the lock with his magic was getting easier as the door unlocked. “Welcome to what I’m calling the New Marauders den.”

Harry opened the door and let Hermione enter first. Watching his friend take in what he found only this morning made him smile; leaning against the door, Harry felt Ari slither down his sleeve; raising his hand, he watched as her head poked out of his sleeve. 

$ Darling, don’t forget to ask sweetie if she will make me a little nook. I’d like something near the hole underneath that desk there.$ Harry smiled at Ari before seeing Hermione had discovered the leather journals.

$ I will, I promise.$ “Hey Hermione, Hermione, HERMIONE!” Harry finally managed to catch her attention as she had taken a seat in the chair and started reading the journal. As she looked up at him and smiled, he felt his stomach flutter slightly. “Do you think you could transfigure something into a small nook for Ari to lay in?” 

“Sure, let me just, ah here we go.” Hermione looked around before grabbing one of the wooden blocks that held the books up. Turning the block into a small basket, she looked around before rushing out of the room. Harry was curious about what Hermione was doing; as he went to stick his head out of the door, he heard a slightly ripping, and Hermione came back through the door with a drape. Harry watched as she hit with multiple scourgify before placing it into the basket. 

“Hemione, did you just rip a drape off of a window?” She at least had the decency to look embarrassed about it. Harry walked over and let Ari drop down into the basket. 

“Well, does she like it? Do you like it, Ari? Harry, what is she saying, Harry?” Harry tried not to chuckle at how Hermione was looking between him and his snake, who wasn’t saying anything more than what sounded like sounds of contentment.

“Hermione, she’s not really saying words, more like making happy noises, so it's safe to say she likes it.” Hermione smiled and reached down and scrubbed Ari's head; Harry tried not to laugh at how quickly one of his best friends had taken with his familiar. While Hermione looked over one of the journals, Harry went around cleaning up the room as best as he could. 

After a while, Hermione had Harry unshrink his mom's library trunk, which carried them for the next few hours as they sorted through them together. Harry had made Hermione’s day when he gave her his mother's copy of Moste Potente Potions resulting in him getting wrapped up in a crushing hug. He also found a couple of books that he had already purchased or that Jeremiah’s trunk had one, so those were promised to Hermione. During the search, he found a book titled Defenders Codex, which during a quick flip through, showed that his mom had added little notes throughout. Another book was called Thunder-forged Epitome ; Harry was extremely curious about it because the author's name was in another language. Hermione found multiple books she wanted to read, which wasn’t unusual, but she did find a small journal about Arithmancy that she asked to read first. After searching through almost a hundred and fifty books, Hermione had pulled out her own journal and made a list of the books she wanted to read through. 

Hermione had eventually decided to go to the library to do some independent research; she hadn’t found the book she was looking for within Harry’s trunk or his mother's. As a result, she begged off exploring Hogwarts in favor of research. One last hug was shared, and they split up. Hermione headed towards the library, while Harry made Ari promise to come find him later. Shoving his mom’s library trunk back into his pocket, Harry grabbed the two journals and headed back to the main stairs. 

Going down one floor, Harry decided to see what was on the right side; he hadn’t been back there since his first year. Finding a couple of empty classrooms and what looked like a disused storeroom, Harry eventually arrived at the familiar door. Testing the handle showed it was locked, hitting it with an alohomora. Harry opened the door to reveal an empty room. Seeing the trap door, he decided not to venture further and instead relocked the door and went to the left side of the third floor. For the rest of the day, Harry explored the school; he started with the third floor and went down to the second; swinging by Myrtle’s stall, he said a quick hello to the ghost and noted that the bathroom was still labeled out of order. ‘Wonder if I should put that Runic lock on this door; that way, I will be the only one who can access the entrance to the chamber,’ Harry thought as he bypassed one of the teacher's offices and headed down to the first floor. 

Dinner came and went with the only thing of note was Harry swinging by and picking up Ari on his way back to Gryffindors Tower. Spending most of post-dinner hanging out with Ron, he eventually realized that he had forgotten about the note that Mister Weasley had sent him in his journal. Reaching into his cloak, he watched Ron trounce Seamus at chess; unrolling the note, he looked it over.

Harry, I have sent a floo mail to Charlie, expect him to send you his own message in the coming day. Ron mentioned it had something to do with a Basilisk, and I have elected not to tell Molly, or else I fear you both would be receiving a Howler from her. Best of luck, Arthur.

Harry grimaced at the mention of a Howler; he still remembers the one she sent last year quite vividly. Suddenly Harry found himself hoisted out of his chair along with the feeling of a raw egg being cracked over his head, and strangely still he found himself unable to speak as if someone had silenced him. Twisting around, he noticed that his would-be kidnappers were the troublesome twosome, also known as the Weasley Twins. Harry didn’t fight it as much as he would have given that it was his friends, Ari meanwhile, slithered up to where he could see her.

$Darling, I can strike them both right now, just say the word.$ Harry’s eyes widened before he hissed back no. 

The twins had dragged him out of the tower and around the corner before stopping and casting the counter to the disillusionment charm. Harry, while trusting still, let his wand slip down into his arm just in case the twins were some Slytherins in disguise. It wasn’t like one couldn’t brew Polyjuice and get into another Houses dorm. 

“Mr.Potter” 

“We have heard.”

“of a tale”

“That you”

“have something”

“Interesting…”

“in your past.”

“Where...”

“did you…”

“Hear..”

“about…” 

“The MARAUDERS?” The Twins yelled the last part together after pinging words back and forth between them both.   

Harry looked between the two redheads before reaching into his cloak and pulling out his father's journal. “When I was staying in Diagon Alley, I got the chance to visit my mom's vault since she kept it from being rolled into the Potter vault. Inside the vault was this the Marauders guide to Mischief, the journal of my father that tells the tales of Prongs, Padfoot, Moony, and Wormtail.” Harry watched as the twin's eyes widened at the story and at the title of the journal.

“WE’RE NOT WORTHY; WE’RE NOT WORTHY; WE’RE NOT WORTHY.” Harry looked at the twins funny as they dropped to their knees and started bowing to him. 

“Um, guys, mind explaining to me why your bowing?” Harry saw that the twins straightened up. 

“Well..”

“Harry Potter the great.” 

“son of Prongs when we” 

“were but small boys.” 

“innocent and pure,” All three boys snorted at that,

“Well, less wise about..”

“How to prank without getting.”

“caught, we found this,”

“The greatest asset”

“to our pranking.”

“The one…” 

“The only…” 

“MARAUDERS MAP” Harry’s eyes widened as the twins produced a simple parchment. This was something he had just learned about, and he had just gotten into the later pages of his father's journal, so he hadn’t discovered anything beyond that his dad was working on that. 

“Can I.. can I see it?” Harry flicked his wand back into his holster and tried to clear the catch in his throat. The Weasley twins must have seen the look on his face as they didn’t say anything and just handed the map to him. 

Harry took the parchment from them gingerly and saw that words started to scrawl across. ‘ Messers Mooney, Prongs, Padfoot and Wormtail introduce the Marauders Map.’ Running his fingers across the words, Harry felt his cheek was a bit wet. Reaching up, he found that he had tears coming from his eyes. 

“Do you”

“Know the Password?” Harry looked at the twins before reflecting back to his dad’s journal; his eyes widened before putting his wand against the parchment.

“I solemnly swear I am up to no good.” With those words, Harry watched as the map came to life. He saw the room they were in with the twins and Harry, he opened one of the growing extensions and saw more names, he saw the common room and the hallways, he saw several seventh years close together up in the tower. Whispering the closing phrase, he looked up at the twins. 

“You have no idea how much this means to me; on my honor as a Marauder; I will repay you for this.” Harry smiled at the twins, who matched his grin with one of their own. 

“Harrikins”

“Our honored brother”

“After last year,”

“When you saved our sister.”

“We consider this, our”

“Repayment” 

Harry couldn’t help but feel more tears threatening to leak out of his eyes. All he had ever wanted was family, and here were the Weasley twins offering it freely. Taking a deep breath, he suddenly got a mischievous glint to his eyes, “Well then, gentlemen as an honorary brother, how you would like to help me plan a prank to announce the return of the Marauders?” Judging by the wide eyes and grins on their faces, he knew the school was in for it Monday. 

After spending Sunday exercising in the morning, Harry and the twins spent the afternoon preparing the proper charms needed to announce the return of the Marauders. After the twins procured the banner, Harry wasn’t about to ask; They spent the night prepping with the inclusion of Harry’s invisibility cloak and the map, they managed to make their way down to the Great Hall without any issue at one in the morning. Harry kept an eye on the map while the twins floated the banner up into the rafts and hit it with the first set of charms. Next was Harry’s job, running up to the table the teachers sat at while the twins watched the map; Harry linked the triggering charm on the banner to Dumbledores chair. It was a rather ingenious use of several charms when something stepped on the charm or, in this case, sat down, and the charm would activate the twinned charm releasing the banner along with the noisemakers the twins had placed in the corners. After checking that the two spells were linked, Harry rushed back to the twins, and the trio stealthy made their way back to the dorms. Shaking hands with the future Marauders, Harry found himself fighting to get some sleep. Eventually giving up, he instead opened the book on Occlumencyand began the first steps of clearing his mind and meditating. Eventually, exhaustion took him just as the charm to awake him up alerted him to the fact that it was time to get up. Sighing heavily, Harry forced himself to get up and get his Monday started.

After a very tiring morning jog, Harry sat down next to the twins as they waited for the room to fill with people. Dumbledore liked to enter the room when it was almost entirely full, baring the heavy sleepers and oversleepers. Taking a seat near the twins, Harry put together a slightly healthier breakfast this time while waiting for Dumbledore to show up. While Harry was munching on fruits, Hermione noticed that he and the twins kept looking towards the head table. Putting her book down hard enough to catch his attention.

“Harry James Potter, what did you do?” Harry tried not to flinch at her glare, which she also used on the two twins trying to act innocent next to him. “Fred and George Weasley, do you really want me to inform Mrs. Wealsey?”

“Harrikins”

“Help,” Harry sighed at the twins before placing his hand on Hermione's wrist, bringing her focus back to him.

“Hermione, do you trust me?” At her nod, Harry rubbed the back of her hand, “Then trust that what is going to happen is going to be worth it. We need some happiness to combat the Dementors.” 

“Alright, I will trust you, but so help me, Harry; if someone gets hurt, I will show you just how far ahead I have read.” Harry grinned at her and noticed that McGonagall was passing out their schedule. 

Taking his schedule, Harry noted that his first class of the day wasn’t till ten; leaning over to look at a nearby first year's schedule, he grinned when he saw that they had transfiguration right after breakfast. At the first-year questioning look, he smiled.

“I’ll show you lot where the class is; pass the word around, will you mate?” The wide-eyed first year was shocked that The Harry Potter was going to show them where the class was that all he could do was nod and do what he said. 

Going back to his breakfast, Harry felt one of the twins nudge him in the side, looking up at the heads table; he watched as Dumbledore swept into the room with a bright and cheery smile, his eyes twinkling behind his glasses. Harry noticed that the man seemed to pause before he seemed to look between his chair and the great hall. Then he sank into the throne, setting the trigger off.

BANG

Fireworks exploded and fizzed up from the corners of the room as a giant purple banner unfurled above the entrance door. As the fireworks lit up the room, students yelled out, and several drew their wands. Dumbledore was chuckling at the head table while several teachers had their wands drawn as well. Flitwick was clapping as several charms went off, making the banner glow with golden letters. ‘ THE MARAUDERS HAVE RETURNED. ’ Harry noticed that Snape was glaring at Professor Lupin for some odd reason, who seemed to be just as shocked as everyone else. Harry shrugged and looked at Hermione to see how she was reacting. Surprisingly, Hermione was smiling, making Harry feel something funny in his stomach again. Suddenly the fireworks ended, and the banner was banished. 

“Well done to the Marauders; I am obligated to request the perpetrators admit to this rather ingenious prank and take their detention as deserved.” Harry looked at the twins, who decided that they were going to be offended that someone was pranking; that wasn’t them. Harry decided to take a page out of their book and just keep his head down. 

“Well then, with no one coming forward, I guess the fifty points for the excellent charm work will go unrewarded; very well enjoy the rest of breakfast before the first class of the year.” Dumbledore sunk back into his throne and seemed to look over in Harry’s direction before going back to his breakfast. ‘ Does he know it was me? HOW!’

Harry let that thought stick in his head as he noticed the first year was back and looking expectantly at him. “Right, follow me, mate; I’ll lead the way.” Standing up, Harry noticed that Hermione grinned as the Gryffindor first years started to follow him out of the hallway.  

He led the kids through the hall and gave them hints on different things along the way to the transfiguration hall. Walking through the inner courtyard, Harry pointed out the best places to hang out and different places to do their homework with friends. Arriving at the classroom, Harry looked around the corner and saw McGonagall sitting on her desk in cat form. Grinning, Harry walked into the classroom with the first years. 

“- AND this is the Transfiguration classroom, and normally Professor McGonagall is sitting at her desk, any questions?” Harry looked at one of the students in front of him, who raised their hand, “Yes, what do you need, Sarah?”

“Why is there a cat sitting on the desk?” Harry grinned and turned to notice McGonagall had not left the desk but seemed to be studying him.

“Well, that cat is actually a good friend of mine familiar, since I do not have a class till ten, I will take Minny here back to her owner, sit down and wait for McGonagall to show up, bye everyone,” Harry said as he picked up McGonagall while she was in cat form. Using his dad’s old nickname for his Head of House, Harry quickly left the students in the classroom holding in his laughter at the almost aggressive look that the car in his arms was giving him—rushing around the corner, he set the cat down and backed away laughing.

“MR. POTTER well, I never in my life have been handled like that by a student no less; what were you thinking, young man?” Harry started laughing at the stern look on Professor McGonagall’s face as she tried to stay stern even though there was a twitch of a smile in the corner of her mouth. 

“Sorry, Professor, I just thought I would help the first years.” Harry finally stopped laughing enough to respond to her.

“Well, then I feel I don’t have to inform you that you will be serving a detention with me tonight, as well as ten points from Gryffindor.” Harry nodded and then snorted at the memory of Professor McGonagall's face as a cat.

“Move along, Mr. Potter,” McGonagall watched him walk away with a stern look on her face; right as Harry turned the corner, she allowed her stern expression on her face drop and short laugh to escape her lips. “ Ten points to Gryffindor,” McGonagall whispered as she went back to her classroom. A smile graced her lips as she remembered another Potter who had a love of pranks. 

Harry eventually made his way up to the fourth floor to spend some time in his room till it was time to head to his first class of the day. His first class of the day was actually Runes, so he decided to take a page from Hermione's book and read ahead. Reading over his rune tables while petting Ari, who had ventured down to the New Marauders Den, Harry eventually got up and headed towards the first of his newest classes. He was excited to start his journey into learning Runes officially.

Chapter Text

Harry looked at the girl that glared at him from across the table in the library before sighing. ‘ Well, this will be an interesting year,’ He thought before reflecting on what led to him currently being partnered with Daphne Greengrass. 

Flashback two weeks ago

Harry stepped through the door into the runes classroom with Hermione excited to finally get started. His Aunt Edith had made runes sound like this fantastic world where you could solve a puzzle and unlock a vault filled with forgotten greek relics, but if you messed up, you unleashed a magical Indiana jones trap system. Harry wondered if Indiana Jones was based on something in the magical world. Harry sat down with Hermione, pulled out his rune text, and waited for class to begin. Harry watched as the teacher shook her head before opening the journal on her desk as the teacher entered the room.

“Hello everyone, my name is Bathsheda Babbling; I am the professor of Runes. For the next three years, till you take your OWLS, you will be learning the art of runes. Elder Futhark will be the first thing you study and will be the focus of this semester. Now unlUnlikest of the castle, I believe that you should work with other students in other houses. As a result, I have taken the liberty of choosing your partner for an end-of-the-year project. This project is for you and your partner to present to me a theoretical rune scheme.” Harry watched as Professor Babbling walked around the room, handing each student a single slip of folded-up parchment. Harry took the slip he was given and kept his eye on his teacher.

“Now, the sheets of parchment I have given each of you contain the name of your chosen partner. Go ahead and open your parchment, find your partner and move to sit next to them. Best get to know them because you will be working with them for the rest of the year.” Harry opened his parchment and read its name; letting out a deep sigh, he looked towards one Daphne Greengrass. Said girl was staring at him with an intense look.  

Flashback ends 

“Well, Potter, have you come with any useful ideas?” Harry felt a spike of anger run through him before he breathed out and let the anger dissipate. His training in occlumency had helped him control his emotions, and dealing with Malfoy, Snape, and now Greengrass had given him plenty of chances to practice. Ever since that first day, Harry and Daphne had met in the library and sat in silence while going over their Runic alphabets. Of course, while Harry had long decided that while he wanted to make his ancestors proud, he wasn’t about to show that he was well ahead of the other students; the only person he knew of that was keeping pace with him was Hermione. Right now, however, was the perfect chance to get another over the Slytherins. 

“I have several ideas, Greengrass; what about you?” Harry smirked at the girl across from him as she seemed to narrow her eyes and stare at him. With a huff, she reached over to her satchel and pulled out a couple of pieces of parchment.

“Take a look, Potter, prove that you're not just a dumb Gryffindor.” Harry ignored the barb and began to examine the rune scheme drawn out on the parchment. It was a relatively complex design; it seemed to be similar to something he had seen. Turning the parchment sideways, Harry smirked and pushed it back across the table towards the girl. 

“Nice try, Greengrass, turning the scheme sideways to trick me was petty; also, multi-light schemes are easy.” Harry leaned back in his chair and looked at the now fuming girl across from him. 

“Well, if you're so smart Potter, let's see your ideas!” Harry pulled out his journal before flipping through several pages before coming to the first rune scheme. Handing her the rune scheme for a knife holster with both sticking charms and a disillusionment feature when the person pushed their magic into it. It was based on the same blade scabbard as the one from the Potter vault, except Harry had modified it by also adding an anti summoning ward. 

“Oh, real nice Potter stealing someone's work; where did you find this?” Harry felt another spike of anger run through him at the accusation. Grabbing the book from her, he shoved it back into his cloak. 

“Shut it, Greengrass, I didn’t steal someone else's work; I modified something I found in the Potter Vault.” Suddenly Daphne looked up at him wide-eyed; while the Greengrass family was old, being part of the sacred twenty-eight, the Potter family was far older. There were rumors the Potters had been here when the roman wizards had invaded. There were mentions of a Potter being part of Merlins court when he served as King Arthurs royal wizard. Stories of Gryffindors and Potters fighting in battle, mentions of all the famous Potters throughout history came to Daphne’s mind. While the Potters weren’t the wealthiest family in the wizarding world -the Malfoys had the English title of richest while the Patils were among the world's wealthiest - they made up for it in their collection of knowledge and artifacts.

“You’ve seen the family vault? Forgive me for this, Potter but I won’t believe you without proof.” Harry cocked his head at her and wondered why she was so interested in his family vault. 

“Why?” 

“Because Potter, if you truly have seen the inside of your family vault, then you would have been allowed to take something; the goblins bend the rules once for children.” Daphne wasn’t about to reveal the real reason she was interested in Potters' family. If she could gain something to hold as leverage over Malfoy, she could potentially unseat him as the one who ruled the snake pit.  

Shrugging, Harry reached into his cloak pocket and pulled out Edith Potters journal; it was one of several journals inside. After revealing to the twins that he was the son of a Marauder, they had borrowed his cloak, and when he got it back, they had given it an extension charm. They just looked at him with a grin that promised mischief when asked. Taking the journal, he set it down and slid it across the table to Greengrass. Of the journals he had, it was the least dangerous one. Jeremiah’s journal was filled with his accounts of bounty hunting intermingling with spells and warding tips. The Prongs guide to Mischief was definitely not something he was sharing, and finally, his mother's journal was just as personal.  

Watching Daphne’s eyes widen as she started to read the journal of the legacy of Edith Potter, Harry smirked and pulled out his ‘ Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them ’ book. It was an excellent supplement text to the book Hagrid had given him for his birthday. Thinking about his first care of magical creatures class made him smile a little. 

Flashback

Harry was excited, not nearly as excited as the day before when he had runes, but still excited to learn about some of the magical creatures he had read about. Edith had chased dragons and been stalked by Wampus cats, and helped capture Erumpent’s in Africa. Walking down to the Hagrids hut, Harry was joking with Ron about the look on Snape's face the day before during the prank, all while Hermione just smiled and rolled her eyes. 

Walking around the back of Hagrid's Hut, the trio waited for the class to start. Harry had to deal with a complaining Malfoy and his company. After keeping Ron from swinging at Malfoy, eventually, Hagrid came out of the forest with a bucket of dead ferrets.

Without a word, he waved for them to follow before he started speaking, “Righ' today we will be learning 'bout hippogriffs, they're noble beasties an' very prideful so when yeh approach 'em the firs' thing yeh gotta do is bow ter 'em. If they don' bow back away. Now, who wants ter go firs', or does anyone have any questions?” 

“Yeah, how are we supposed to open the book?” Malfoy held up the book that seemed to be bound by a leather belt. Several other students chimed in and seemed to agree with Malfoy. The Gryffindors were the only ones who had a calm book, Harry had told them the secret to keeping it calm. 

“Now how d'you calm a normal creature, yeh stroke the spine o' course! Now, this is Buckbeak who would like ter be the firs' ter introduce themselves ter 'im?” Hagrid waved his arm at the massive hippogriff that was standing closest to them in the paddock. Harry felt a sense of adventure and decided to step forward, right as the rest of the class took a giant step back.

“Righ' good on yeh Harry, now jus climb over the gate an' approach 'im slowly, when he makes eye contact bow ter 'im while keeping your eye on his.” Following Hagrid's advice, Harry kept his eye on buckbeak. The moment the hippogriff made direct eye contact with him, harry stopped and bowed at him while maintaining eye contact with the creature. After several tense minutes, it seemed like the hippogriff wasn’t going to bow back. 

“Get out o' there Harry, jus back away slowly an' carefully.” Right as Harry started to back away while maintaining eye contact, the Hippogriff suddenly pawed the ground before flaring his wings and bowing back. Straightening up, Harry walked closer to Buckbeak slowly while a smile spread across his face. Petting the hippogriff was interesting; the body was a mixture of feathers and hair, and Buckbeak seemed to enjoy being rubbed at the base of the neck. Harry was so engrossed with petting the hippogriff he never noticed Hagrid mentioning taking Buckbeak for a ride. So it came as a shock when suddenly he found himself hoisted up and planted onto the back of the hippogriff. 

Harry loved flying; on a broom, it was freeing the feeling of air cutting across his robes as he flattened himself against the broom and raced to catch the snitch. Flying on a hippogriff, however, was an entirely different experience; with the broom, Harry was the one in control. Flying so close to the lake that Buckbeak’s hooves were barely above skimming the water, Harry was just a passenger. Still, it was a very freeing experience and one that was only slightly marred by the landing when Harry had the uncomfortable experience of stopping without a saddle. Getting off the hippogriff carefully to hide his injury, he turned and rubbed Buckbeaks flank before bowing and backing away slightly. 

“Well, how was the ride, Harry?” Harry turned and smiled at Hagrid; the rest of the class was staring at Harry with a mixture of emotions outside the paddock. 

“It was pretty amazing; Buckbeak is an amazing flyer.” Harry noticed that the hippogriff in question had poofed out his chest when he heard that. Of course, the moment was ruined by the sounds of Malfoy climbing over the stone wall.

“Of course, scarhead would get along with the beast; it's as stupid as he is. Let me show you how it's done.” Harry’s eyes widened as Malfoy not only insulted Buckbeak but also walked towards it without bowing. Quicker than Malfoy could react, Buckbeak reared back and would have clawed Malfoy if Harry hadn’t moved. 

AGH

Harry felt the talons rib through his robes, and his arm started bleeding as he stood between the prone form of Malfoy and an insulted hippogriff. Putting his hand out in a calming gesture, Harry bowed while keeping eye contact on Buckbeak. 

“Calm, Buckbeak, ignore the moron; you are a noble creature who is an amazing at flying and wicked smart. Calm down now.” Harry kept his eyes on the hippogriff as it pawed the ground and seemed to express its displeasure. Eventually, Buckbeak calmed down enough for Hagrid to guide him away with a dead ferret. Turning around, Harry stared down at the prone form of Malfoy, who was frozen with fear. Anger welled up in his face as the pain in his arm hit. 

“WHAT THE BLOODY HELL WAS THAT MALFOY? Not only did you disrespect Hagrid, who has more knowledge about creatures than you, but you also ignored the rules like you're a bloody moron. Honestly, for a Slytherin, you’re not very cunning.” Harry, after that, growled and stalked over to the gate before exiting the paddock leaving the blonde Slytherin lying on the ground. 

“Harry, are you okay? Let me see your arm.” Harry turned and let Hermione fuss over his arm as class ended.

Flashback ends

After leaving the library, Harry pulled out the map and looked to see if anyone was near Myrtle's bathroom. Finding no one nearby, Harry walked over to the bathroom, opened the door, and used a piece of wood from Hagrid to wedge the door halfway open. For the past week, Harry had been slowly carving the runic lock into the door frame; according to Jeremiah’s notes, the rune scheme had to be carved around the knobs while a companion scheme had to be carved around the actual latch bolt itself. It was a tedious process but one that didn’t require Harry to do it all in one go. He hoped to complete it today because tomorrow was Hermione's birthday and he didn’t want to miss that. 

While carving the rune scheme, Harry kept an eye on both the map and the notebook. Seeing the different students walking around, he made a mental note to learn how to cast a notice me not. As Harry carved the last line of the rune scheme around the latch bolt, he looked at Jeremiah's notebook to see that the final step was to apply a bit of magic into each of the runes; if he had done it correctly, the runes would glow before the lines would blend in with the painting of the door. Using what was quickly becoming incredibly easy, Harry flooded his finger with magic before tracing all three rune schemes. 

‘ Wicked,’ Harry smiled as all three rune schemes glowed white before quickly fading and seemed to almost disappear into the wood of the door. Shutting the door, Harry ran his finger across the rune scheme and then attempted to tug the door open. When the door failed to open, Harry grinned before running his finger across the scheme again before turning the handle and feeling it open.  Stepping into the bathroom, Harry shut the door before casting a muffliato on the door; it was one of the few noncombat spells he had found in his mother's journal. Hermione had been the first one to find it, and once she figured out what it did, she would often cast it whenever one of the trios brought up something that she didn’t want shared. 

“MRYTLE, ARE YOU HERE?” Harry shouted; he knew that the sound would travel through the pipes, and he wanted to let the girl know what he had done. 

“Who’s there? Have you come to make fun of me?” Myrtle peeked through the stall door, “Oh, it’s you, your still alive; my offer is still open if you want.” 

Harry smiled and shook his head no at her unasked question. “No, Myrtle, I like living; now what I came to tell you is that I went ahead and carved a runic lock on the bathroom door, so no one else can come in here and bother you.”

Myrtle seemed to smile before getting overwhelmed and rushing back to her stall; just before dropping into the pipes, Harry heard a soft thank you from the ghost. Once Mrytle was gone, Harry decided to head up to the new Marauders Den to check on Ari and see if Hermione was there. Opening the door and relocking it behind him, Harry went upstairs to the fourth floor, pulling out the map to ensure he wasn’t being followed. He noticed that Greengrass seemed to be following him; slipping his wand into his hand, he ducked into an alcove that was covered by a tapestry before she turned the corner. Keeping an eye on the map, he watched as Greengrass stalked forward and walked past his position. Tucking the map into his cloak, and slipping out from behind the tapestry, Harry leveled his wand at the girl.

“What the hell are you doing following me?” Harry watched as Greengrass spun around and seemed startled at finding herself at wand point.  Harry watched as the girl raised her hands in a surrendering motion. 

“Peace Potter, Peace, I merely wanted to figure out where you went when you left the library.” Harry kept his wand trained on the girl as he looked her over, he didn’t catch a hint of lying from her, and years of living with the Dursley had taught him how to spot when someone was bullshitting him. Eventually, he dropped his wand to a low carry position but kept it in his hands.

“How do I know you can be trusted?” Daphne dropped her hands and seemed to consider how to answer him. Keeping his wand on her, he waited for her to answer. 

“I promise to keep my wand, in the holster while we talk. Beyond that Potter, I don’t know what you expect me to say.” At that, Harry let his wand slip into his holster. He could tell the girl was being honest and wouldn’t do anything.

‘Fine, follow me,” Harry pushed on past her and walked towards the familiar tapestry, pulling up one side; Harry heard her gasp at the door with the embossed P. Running his finger across the lock, he held the tapestry up as Greengrass walked through the door.

“Bloody hell, Potter, I didn’t expect you to have your own private room.” Harry stepped the door after her and noticed that both Ari and Hermione were in the room. Hermione had drawn her wand and was keeping it at a low position. 

“Harry, mind explaining why Greengrass is here?” Harry looked at Hermione apologetically before walking over and letting Ari climb up his arm.

“She followed me, she seems trustworthy, and well, I figured you would have some way of ensuring that she stays trustworthy.” Hermione seemed to accept his answer till Harry felt a nudge against his hand; lifting it up, he looked at Ari.

$Darling, her magic is clean, and I can taste a bit of worry coming off her$ Harry nodded and looked at Daphne, who was staring at him and Ari, sighing he looked at Ari and hissed back. 

$Thank you, Ari, but I want Sweetie to make sure; now how have you been doing today?$ While Harry listened to Ari tell him about his day. Daphne walked over towards Hermione, still watching Harry. 

“ So Potter really does just talk to snakes all the time now, huh hows the other Gryffindors dealing with that? ” Hermione looked at the girl that had come in with Harry and felt a weird feeling in her gut. Grimacing, she turned back to keep watching Harry and Ari interact. 

“ Surprisingly well considering, I think between the twins, Ron and Neville, they have shielded Harry from some of the upper years.” Daphne maintained her neutral expression while talking with Granger; unlike Malfoy, she had no problem with muggle-borns. She did, however, want to keep her real reasons for following Harry's secret. When he left, he had forgotten to grab Edith’s journal from her, and so far, she wanted to learn as much from Harry as she could before giving it back. 

‘ When did I stop calling him Potter?’ Daphne shook her head and looked around the room they were in. In the two weeks since Harry had discovered it, both he and Hermione had made some changes to the room. One of the first things that Harry had done was walk the walls to see if there were anything hidden in the room. The only thing they had discovered was the wall opposite the alcove was covered in some sort of ward that seemed to be concealing something. Hermione had tasked herself with identifying the ward and breaking it. The other thing they had done was find an old classroom and borrowed a couple of bookshelves. Hermione had really stressed borrow because she didn’t like the idea of stealing bookshelves from old classrooms. 

“So what do the dummies do?” Harry set Ari down into her nest. Hermione had upgraded it since, adding a warming charm rune to the bottom of the basket. It was fed by ambient magic, Harry had asked where she had learned it, and all he got in return was a smile. 

“Harry, why don’t you show Daphne what the dummies do, you haven’t worked out today anyway,” Harry smirked and walked over to his chair; hanging his cloak on the hook, he stripped down to the black linen shirt. Rolling up his sleeves, he reached past the chair and grabbed the wooden log. Transfiguring the log into a crude sword, he stepped over to the rune panel and pressed the correct buttons. The dummies went to a ready position; the runes on the ground and wall flared red before settling down. In the two weeks since he found this room, he had learned a couple of things. The first was the green spells were nothing more than harmless paint spells; a finite made the paint disappear. The spells could be blocked by a sword, which is why he had taken to using a crude sword made from silver. 

Harry stepped across the line, took his wand in his right hand and the sword in the left, and waited. He had also discovered that he hadn’t set a delay before the first spell was fired when he had engaged it the first time. The maximum time was thirty seconds, and the shortest was directly after stepping across the line. Having set it to twenty seconds, Harry sidestepped the first spell. Blocking the second spell with his sword, he spun out of the way of the third one and blocked the fourth one with a Protego . Hitting the dummy with an expelliarmus didn’t cause the wand to fly out of their hand but did cause them to stop working for ten seconds. Hary demonstrated this by hitting two of them with one of the spells from Jeremiah's book. 

“ Expelliarmus duo - Gelata- digiti - ebublio geminio,” The spell chain worked like he expected, causing two of the dummies to shut down as their armed jerked up. Another dummy seemed to drop their arm like their wand had slipped out of their hand before suddenly two more found themselves trapped in bubbles. That left Harry facing the last two dummies till the other two rebooted; casting another protego, Harry blocked both paint spells before throwing another expelliarmus toward them. Harry grimaced when the dummies moved. The back two dummies seemed to be on sort of track, making it harder for him to hit, even on the lowest setting they moved. On the highest setting, all six dummies moved, and one of them even went up the wall about five feet. Harry had to wonder how insane his ancestor was to come up with that. Still, sidestepping their return fire, Harry took the sword into his hand and waved his hand over the sword transfiguring it into a blunted spear. Casting another protego, Harry cast a Petrificus Totalus Late, which was a wide area full body bind. It managed to hit five of the dummies leaving the sixth one open; throwing the spear slightly up in the air, Harry aimed his wand at the back of it and hit it with a banishing charm causing it to rapidly fly through the air and slam into the dummy causing it to stop working.

Another thing Harry had learned was if he hit the dummies with a hard enough force, they would simulate the target being knocked out or dead. Seeing all six targets down, Harry took a breath and stepped back over the line. Immediately all six dummies went back to a ready stance before Harry walked over and turned them off. 

“Merlin, Potter, what the bloody hell are you training for?” Harry walked over to the desk and took the offered water skin Hermione had carried. His shirt was slightly matted from the slight sweat he had worked up, but nothing compared to when he first started out. Two weeks of running around the lake and working out in this room had made him fit. 

“Riddle isn’t gone, he’s going to come back, and when he does, I’ll be ready for him.” Harry wiped his brow and never caught the questioning look from Daphne towards Hermione; Hermione just sighed and rolled her eyes at Harry’s bluntness. 

“Greengrass, when Harry says Riddle, he means the true name of You-know-who. It’s a whole thing, and Harry here doesn’t have the time to explain because he forgot that he was supposed to meet with Ron about the thing” Harry winced at the tone; it was nice while hiding the true nature of being scolding. 

“Bollocks, I forgot, um Hermione, I will see you later in the common room. Greengrass, I will explain about Riddle not tomorrow but the day after. Ladies excuse me, I have to go”, $Ari, I will see you later, bye lovely.$ Harry rushed out of the room and started down to the quidditch stands. Leaving behind a very confused and conflicted Daphne and a highly amused Hermione.

“SO, does Potter always act like that, or did he just start this year? The reason I ask is that the picture Malfoy paints is one of him being an arse which is ironic.” Hermione smiled before rubbing Ari’s head; the snake had slithered up her chair and curled up in her lap.  

“No, that's new; after last year and this past summer, I think Harry realized just how important his family name is. As for Malfoy, well after the hippogriff incident, he has been avoiding us this year.” Daphne nodded before sitting down in the other chair in the room. She had seen the aftermath of the incident down in the snake pit; Malfoy had taken a hit to his reputation after Harry’s comment. Especially after Harry seemed to be up and running after lunch following the hippogriff slashing him with his talons, Daphne knew he would have milked it if it had hit Malfoy. 

“Here, give this back to him,” Daphne handed the journal to Hermione, “He left it in the library, and I planned on just giving it to him, never expecting for him to reveal his cards.” 

Hermione smirked before picking up Harry’s cloak that he left and slipped the journal into the pocket, “If you think that was all of his cards, then you have more to learn about Harry, He might not be in Slytherin, but he wouldn’t have brought you into this room without reason.” Together the two girls left the room, Hermione going last to engage the runic lock behind her. Ari had her own ways of leaving the room, so Hermione knew she would be fine.       

While the two girls were discussing Harry, said boy had rushed down to the quidditch stands where Ron, Dean, and Seamus were watching a pickup game take place. Harry found that jogging from the fourth floor all the way down to the pitch didn’t take as much stamina even after the short combat he had in the room. ‘ Seems Jeremiah was right,’ Harry thought as he spotted Ron, who waved him over. 

“Mate, you seen this? Charlie is going bloody spare at the news.” Harry took the offered paper and saw the article he was speaking about.  

HEBRIDEAN BLACK BREAKS OUT OF RESERVE, ROGUE DRAGON, OR WORK OF SIRIUS BLACK?

By E. Limus 

Early Tuesday morning, the dragon reserve of Calf of Man reported a breach of containment resulting in one lone male Hebridean escaping. Sources within the Ministry have confirmed that the Dragon in question was one of the few unmated males and also the same dragon that set fire to Blackpool Market in 1990. The dragon mentioned above is extremely dangerous and, if spotted, should be reported to the nearest Auror. Some people are questioning if the dragon broke out on its own or if it was assisted in escaping by Notorious Murderer Sirius Black. Sirius Black is known for betraying the Potters and the murder of Order of Merlin receiver Peter Pettigrew and thirteen muggles. We here at the Prophet would call on the Ministry to explain how the dragon was able to break out of the Reserve and if Sirius Black was involved. 

For more information on the Calf of Man reserve, see pg. 3

For more information on Sirius Black, see pgs. 6-7

Harry put down the paper and watched as one of the quidditch players barely dodged a bludger. “Speaking of class five creatures finally heard back from Charlie, and he recommended I contact with Gringotts, apparently they offered the best rates for harvesting.”

“So when do you plan to contact them?” Ron asked, taking back the paper and flipping to the sports section. 

“Did that yesterday; Hedwig has returned with a response from my account manager.” Harry sat down and realized that he had left his cloak in the room; shaking his head, knowing that Hermione would grab it for him, he watched the seeker fail to spot the snitch that was hovering close to the far goal post. 

“They will use an official Gringotts Owl or show up in person. When do you plan on going down there, mate?” Harry watched as the chasers ran a simple bouncing play and failed the shot on goal.

“Don’t know, I should probably ask Dumbledore, but I wasn’t looking forward to that conversation.” The keeper managed to block another shot on goal before the other team's beater tried to take his head off with bludger. 

“Well, Mate want my advice,” At Harry’s nod, Ron set down the paper and turned towards him fully, “When you go down there, take a reporter, control the story for once and stick it to the wankers that accused you of attacking students last year.”

“You wouldn’t happen to know any trustworthy ones, would you mate?” At Ron’s smirk and shaking head, Harry watched as his friend took a piece of parchment out of his cloak. 

“Already contacted them and told them to expect your owl; mum knows them and trusts them to write a good story. Our cousins on the Prewitt side, so they have a healthy fear of mum. Just don’t muck it up, and they will write an article that will paint you in the right light.” Harry nodded and took the parchment and slipped it in his pocket. When Hedwig got back, he would send a letter to them.

“Thanks, mate, so who’s winning?” Harry and Ron sat down and watched the rest of the game before dinner was called. On the way to dinner, Harry and Ron discussed tomorrow. 

“So I have a question, did you get anything for Hermione, because if not, I got something for you to give her, mate. Bill gave me a couple of books on Egyptian magic, and I was planning on giving them to her.” Harry listened to Ron before spotting both Daphne and Hermione coming down the main stairs. 

“I’ve got her something, but thanks for the offer, mate.” Dropping the conversation, both Harry and Ron met up with Hermione and sat down for Dinner. 

The rest of the night was spent in the common room, hanging out in the same circle but also doing their own thing. Ron was challenging other students to chess, Hermione was engaged in discussion with several fourth years on their transfiguring homework. Harry had at first been stuffed into an impromptu quidditch team meeting by Oliver, then he and the twins began to plan another prank for the great hall. After that, he found both Lavender and Parvati sitting off to the side looking at Teen Witch Weekly, explaining to them his plan for tomorrow; he failed to clock their giggles and whispers about him and Hermione. Eventually, the first years were sent off to bed, and the trio separated and went off to bed themselves. 

The following day, Harry woke up at five o’clock in the morning, quickly becoming his new routine. Using his trunk to get dressed in mundane athletic gear and putting on a pair of trainers, Harry jogged down the stairs and started on his morning run beside the lake. It was something he had found freeing, and it was quickly becoming one of his favorite things to do in the morning. After running by the lake to a significant rock point that Harry had estimated was about three miles out, turning around, Harry ran back to Hogwarts and took in the view of the castle as he ran. Stepping through the doors, Harry picked up the towel that had been showing up on the nearby table. The first morning he had been suspicious, but after a discussion with the twins, he realized that it was the house-elves. That had caused him to have a flashback to dealing with Dobby and resulted in another discussion with the  Weasley twins, who pointed him towards Parvati, who pointed him to her sister. After a day in the library getting his ear talked off by the Ravenclaw half of the Indian twins, he realized that Dobby was a special case, one he hoped was able to find a magical place to sustain himself. 

Wiping his brow, Harry managed to make it back into the dorms before seven in the morning. That was typically when Hermione made her way down the stairs and sat reading whatever book held her attention till he came down. Getting dressed quickly, Harry grabbed the satchel that he had bought, and since wrapped, and walked down the stairs to see the birthday girl herself sitting down in her favorite chair. Harry smiled; it seemed she hadn’t spotted him yet. 

Walking up behind her, Harry reached over the chair and set the wrapped present into her lap, startling her for a second before talking. “Happy Birthday ‘Mione hope you enjoy this.”

“OOH Harry,” Hermione said as she opened the package and noticed that it was a satchel just like the one that he used to carry his school supplies. 

“Thank you; I love it. Wait, is this why you wouldn’t let me ask for one when we were in Diagon Alley this summer?” Hermione had pulled him into a hug before holding him back at arm's length. 

“Haha, yeah, I didn’t want you buying one because I already had one for you.” Hermione smacked him on the arm and called him a prat. After running the satchel back upstairs, Hermione put in all of her school supplies plus a few extra books that she was using for independent research inside. Coming back downstairs, she gave Harry another hug which for some reason made his stomach act funny before dragging him down to the great hall for breakfast. 

“So we have transfiguration at nine, followed by Arithmancy at ten, lunch, then double potions to finish off the day. I was thinking we could spend the time after Potions in the Marauders den before supper, what do you think? Harry, you paying attention?” Hermione saw that Harry had his head buried in his father's journal and hadn’t heard her. She sighed softly before smiling and dropped her hand onto the back of his. 

“Huh, sorry Hermione, I just discovered that my dad completed the animagus transformation during his fourth year. Apparently, all of the Marauders did it to help Mooney with his furry little problem, whatever that means.” Hermione couldn’t help but smile at the look of happiness on Harry's face. Finding those journals did more to help her friend deal with the horrors that the Dursley must have been. She was no fool, she saw the signs of abuse, but unless Harry himself admitted it, she couldn’t help him. Suddenly a hoot drew their attention to a familiar sight. 

“Hedwig, who is this? Did you make a friend?” Harry picked up three pieces of bacon and fed his owl. As Harry fed Hedwig, Hermione pulled the letter off the regal-looking Eagle Owl in front of them. Several students around them recognized the familiar plate on the owl's chest that signaled that it was a Gringotts owl. Handing it to Harry, who was putting a sickle in the eagle owl's claw, they watched as it flew off.  Hedwig, meanwhile, managed to convince a nearby first year to give her two more pieces of bacon. Harry shook his head at his owl’s antics before opening the letter and reading it.  

Dear Mr. Potter 

We have received your request for our services to rend a basilisk, with that in mind, please expect a visit from me and a few collectors on the coming Friday. We will need permission from Dumbledore to have the beast transported out of Hogwarts. As for cost, the base cost for harvesting a creature is around 1000 galleons; depending on the size of the creature you claimed to kill, the price will be adjusted down or up as we see fit. All profits from the creature will be discussed upon inspection of said creature. Be prepared to take us to the creature on Friday.

With regards 

Account Manager Grimjaw

Harry sighed before pulling out two pieces of parchment from his satchel. The first was a quick note requesting a meeting with Dumbeldore as soon as possible, and the other was a note for the reporter that Ron said was trustworthy. Reaching over and catching Hedwig’s attention from Sarah and a girl named Romilda, who both seemed to be feeding Hedwig's ego, and stomach. 

“Hey girl, think you could take both of these notes for me, the first one is quick, but the second one might take you some time.” Harry ignored the look from Hedwig like he had insulted her. Letting him tie the one letter to her leg before she grabbed the note for Dumbledore in her talon and took off. 

Harry watched as she made a loop around in the air before dropping the note directly onto the headmaster's face making Harry put his face in his hands, while Hermione giggled at Hedwig's antics. After that, Hedwig left the great hall, and Harry went back to his breakfast. Eventually, Ron wandered down, and Harry handed him a rashers sandwich, which he took without question, and they made their way to their first class of the day. After transfiguration, they split off with Harry and Hermione heading to the Arthimancy classroom, and Ron made his way to Divinations. After learning more about the theory of numerical predictions, they made their way down to the great hall to grab some lunch. During lunch, Hermione suddenly found herself surrounded by several Gryffindors giving her gifts. 

“Thank you, everyone,” Hermione was really trying not to cry. She had not gotten more than a letter from her parents in the past two years for her birthday, and now she found herself with several cards and books. Rons present to her was especially welcomed as she had almost talked his ear off about the magic they had witnessed down in Egypt. Of course, nothing would top Harry’s gift to her. She was already loving how useful the satchel was becoming. 

“Happy birthday Ms. Granger; now Mr. Potter Dumbledore has received your note and wants me to let you know that he is free to have a meeting with you tonight just before curfew. He also mentioned having a fondness for starburst .” Harry and Hermione both nodded at Professor McGonagall before packing up Hermione's presents and going down to the dungeons. Ron, who had stuffed his face full of food, was a step behind them as they went to deal with Snape. 

Using the time with Snape to practice his occlumency shields and trying to improve his potion-making ability made the double class session pass by quickly. After losing his average thirty points for whatever stupid reason Snape could come up with, Harry and Hermione parted ways from Ron again. Ron said he wanted to go take a nap while actually helping Lavender and Parvati set up a party for Hermione following dinner. Harry and Hermione swung by the library long enough for Hermione to grab a couple of books she wanted to read before heading up to the Marauders Den. 

While Hermione took a seat in what was quickly becoming her chair, Harry pet Ari and then shucked off his class robes and rolled up his sleeves, one of the other things he had been learning was how to use a sword. Still, given that he knew no swordsmen, the only thing he could do was practice basic moves that he had found in one of the books belonging to his mother. It was called, ‘ Kaer Morhen Myth or No?’, and it talked about something called a witcher. In the book, the author spent more time talking about how the Witchers battled monsters with swords and barely used their magic beyond enhancing themselves through alchemy and rituals than the actual history of witchers. Part of the book was several passages of different fighting techniques used by witchers. The author had included a couple of moving diagrams on what they believed was used. Harry used those images for now, and he had already added looking for more training techniques to use with a sword. 

After spending a couple of hours in the room swinging a sword at first, then sitting with Hermione in comfortable silence reading, they made their way down to dinner, which was a quick affair. Harry really wanted to hurry through dinner because of the party that was being planned in the common room. He had seen the twins sneak out of the castle on the map, which meant they had gone down to Hogsmeade for supplies. Combined with that and the amount of moving around Lavender and Parvati did in the common room, he knew that the party was going to be amazing. Guiding Hermione up the stairs to the common room, he waited till she got to the door and stepped back so she would be the first through the door. 

“SURPRISE!” Hermione’s hands went up to her mouth at the surprise party that was being thrown for her. She immediately turned and saw the smug grin on Harry’s face and knew that it had been his job to distract her. 

“Hugh,” Harry found himself in a crushing ‘Mione hug like he had never experienced before as he wrapped his arms around the girl. Suddenly he felt his shoulder getting wet; turning slightly, he saw that she was quietly crying. 

“You okay ‘Mione?” Harry felt her nod, and she hugged him tighter.

“Sorry, Harry, I just have never celebrated my birthday like this.” Harry just held onto her and walked into the party. Gryffindors might be brave and bold, but even they had the smarts to pretend that Hermione’s red eyes didn’t exist. Instead, they partied and celebrated the birthday of one of their own.

After partying for several hours, eventually, the party worn down, and the students filtered off to bed or sneaked off to snog in some cases. Hermione gave both Ron and Harry another rib-crushing hug before going to her dorm with Lavender and Parvati in tow. Ron and the twins told Harry they could handle the cleanup. So grabbing his overcloak, the invisible cloak, and the map, Harry made his way to Dumbledores office. He was feeling nervous about the meeting for more reasons than one. He was worried that Dumbledore would be disappointed with him for leaving the Dursley so early; he hoped that Dumbledore would be okay with him harvesting the Basilisk. As he got closer, his anxiety was getting worse. Right as he got to the Gargoyle, he stopped, took a deep breath, and focused on calming down.  

“Starburst,” Harry watched as the Gargoyle moved out of the way and exposed the moving staircase. Riding the staircase up, Harry couldn’t help but wonder if the staircase was strictly an enchantment or were there any runes involved. Opening the door, Harry heard an inspiring song and felt his anxiety wash away as Fawkes took flight and took a loop around the room before landing on Harry’s shoulder. 

“I see Fawkes considers you friends after your adventure last year; it's a wonderful thing to be considered a friend of a phoenix. I do not doubt as to who Fawkes would seek out if something were to happen to me.” Harry turned to see the Headmaster enter into the room from a staircase off to the side.

“Lemon Drop?” At the Headmaster's gesture, Harry shook his head no before taking a seat in the chair across from his desk. “Now, Harry, I want you to know I’m not mad, but I have to ask but what caused you to leave your relatives early this year.” 

Harry gulped; this was the question that he was hoping to avoid, right as he started to lie he suddenly remembered something he had seen in his father's journal. ‘ Sometimes, I am glad I put my trust into Padfoot; without him knowing that I trusted him, I doubt I would have learned just how cruel his parents were. We already have a plan to get him out of that household, and we even managed to get Dumbledore to help us, who knew just how wicked the Headmaster is.’ Harry suddenly decided that if his father had trusted Dumbledore to help his friend out of an abusive situation, maybe Harry should do the same. Taking a deep breath, Harry looked the man in the eye and told him exactly why he left.

“THEY DID WHAT!?”

Chapter Text

If there was ever a doubt in Harry’s mind as to why Dumbledore was considered the man who defeated Grindelwald and the only one Riddle feared, it was washed away as he watched the man in front of him, rage at the injustice that Harry faced. With little prompting, Harry found himself telling his headmaster everything, and as he spoke of secrets he hadn’t even shared with his best friends, he felt a piece of himself healing slightly. With every mention of abuse and tale of mild starvation, he watched his headmaster’s face go from angry to sadness; the man’s eyes seemed almost haunted by something that Harry couldn’t place. Fawkes was still on Harry’s shoulder, giving him the strength he needed to reveal his past to Dumbledore. When it was all said and done, he watched as the man suddenly stood up and walked over to one of the nearby bookshelves, pulled on a book, and revealed several dust-covered glass bottles.

Dumbledores mind was afar; at first, he had been angry at the insults rained down on the boy in front of him, but with each passing minute and as the true history of Harry’s life with the Dursley came to light, he felt a dagger was being plunged into his heart. How did he miss the signs? How did he fail to see what was plain for all to see upon reviewing his memories? A part of his mind whispered that he chose to ignore it because he didn’t want to see it. Eventually, it became too much, and Dumbledore found himself standing in front of his old liquor cabinet, looking at the dust-covered bottles he found himself almost giving in and breaking his sobriety. Before he gave in, he heard Fawkes sing; unlike his other songs, this one was one of hope and prosperity, of bringing light to the depths and of fighting. Before he lost the fight, he quickly shut the bookcase and drew his wand, hitting it with the most potent locking charm he had found over the years; he moved back to sit down across from Harry. He took a deep breath and settled back into his chair, and just listened to Fawkes sing. 

“I first met your grandfather in Bastogne, Grindelwald had sent two dragons to attack the allied forces there, and I thought I was going to be too late to attempt to prevent a total loss. When I arrived, I found your grandfather Charleus sitting on the remains of one of the dragons while the other dragons head was sitting three feet from him; the body had crashed landed over thirty feet away.” Harry’s head hurt from the sudden shift in tone and conversation, but he couldn’t find it in him to do anything but listen. 

“We didn’t say anything that day; he had saved the soldiers and was already going back to join the other war wizards. I was too stunned to talk to him, still trying to figure out what type of magic could decapitate a dragon. The next time I saw your grandfather, he was fighting Grindelwald in a pitched battle in Austria; it was something to see. The moment I arrived, Grindelwald ran, and you know what your grandfather said to me?” When Harry shook his head, the Headmaster seemed to smile before looking off in the distance.

“Your grandfather turned to me and said, It’s about bloody time you got here, that wanker wouldn’t shut up about his old friend Albie, and I was beginning to wonder if he was trying to murder me with his voice.” Harry smiled and let out a small chuckle, making Dumbledore happy.

“The reason I told you this story, Harry, is because I have known your family since I was just a Professor of Transfiguration, and to my utter shame, I feel as if I have failed your family by having you stay in that house.” Dumbledore seemed to have a sheen in his eyes as he looked at Harry. Harry felt a part of himself that wanted to yell and scream, while another part of him wanted to forgive the headmaster without a second thought. Almost like Dumbledore could read his mind, the headmaster held up a hand.

“I’m not asking for an apology; I know it would be far too easy for you just to apologize. Instead, I ask that we set this aside till you tell me why you wanted this meeting. I would rather you work through your feelings before telling me how you feel.” Harry nodded and, after rubbing Fawkes, explained what he had initially come to talk to Dumbledore about. As the night wore on, and Dumbledore gave his permission with the caveat that he and several people came with, Harry decided to invite his friends as well; they found themselves back on the topic of Dumbledores history with his family.

“- Harry, did you really think you could place a charm on my throne without me knowing? I’ll let you in on a secret; I don’t really need these glasses. I wear them because they have magical signature detection runes on them. Of course, when I saw that the charm was also tied into the Weasley twins, I knew it was nothing more than a prank. So I let it go, did you not notice that Gryffindor jumped by thirty points?” Dumbledore chuckled when Harry shook his head, “Now it's getting late; I think you should be off to bed, you have classes tomorrow, and I have kept you here for a while.”

“Thank you, Headmaster -Please just call me Dumbledore- er okay Dumbledore, and I know you said to sleep on it, but let me say this. I think instead of giving you an apology, I think you could repay me by telling me stories about my family; I only have their journals and the photo album that Hagrid gave me. I would love to hear more stories about my grandfather.” At Dumbledore’s nod, Harry said goodbye to Fawkes, who took off and circled once before landing on Dumbledores shoulder. With that, Harry left the office, donning the invisibility cloak and using the map; Harry made his way back to Gryffindors tower, his head full of conflicting feelings. 

Dumbledore watched the grandson of one of his best friends walk out the door and hung his head in shame, he had failed his friend, and it didn’t matter that Harry seemed to forgive him. Suddenly Fawkes sensing his distress, let out an uplifting song. Smiling sadly, Dumbledore reached up and rubbed his phoenix friend. “I almost failed his family, and I need to do something for him.” Fawkes trilled and took off and flew to his perch. 

Time passed quickly, both Harry and Dumbledore let the people they wanted to invite know over the week. Harry had immediately cornered his two friends and invited them to go down on Friday. Ron was a bit hesitant, but Hermione seemed to be bouncing off the walls. After that, Harry, with the help of Hermione and Ron, approached the students who had suffered from the Basilisk. First, they approached Colin, who asked if he could bring his camera, then they used Ron’s being Cedrics neighbor to approach Justin. They avoided Filch; they figured he didn't care anyway. Then Ron surprised both Hermione and Harry when he didn't react negatively to inviting Daphne; Harry figured having at least one student from each house would be useful. After asking Parvati, they added Padma to their group. The twins offered to look after Ginny, the poor girl had almost had a panic attack over the idea of going back down. 

On Dumbledore's side, he found himself considering who to bring. He already had decided that Severus and Sprout would be in charge of the students while he went down. Minerva had just pinned him with a glare that begged him to tell her she wasn't going down. Flitwick was invited since the goblins were involved, he knew how to speak Ghukliak fluently, and Dumbledore wasn't about to let Harry get swindled by Gringotts. He had sent off a letter to Missus Clearwater at Harry's suggestion and also approached Molly for information on the reporter that was being brought along. Fawkes had pretty much decided he was going, and Dumbledore smirked at his familiar's antics. All together, Dumbledore figured there would be almost twenty people going down into the chamber on Friday. He was almost excited about a new adventure, he hadn't been on one in years that didn't include battling a dark wizard of some kind. 

Friday morning was interesting; Harry was too nervous about doing anything following his morning run. Due to how nervous some of the students were acting, the school realized that today would not be typical. That was proven true when the doors to the great hall opened to reveal a troupe of individuals. The most obvious was the goblins at the forefront of the party. Some of the students recognized the former head girl and Ravenclaw Penelope Clearwater; other students recognized the reporter and photographer from the Daily Prophet. As whispers started filtering through the crowd, they watched as Dumbledore stood up and held up his hands.

"EVERYONE settle down, now due to some prior business that has been planned for today, I have elected to give every student this Friday off and let you all have your weekend start early." Dumbledore waited for the cheering to settle down before he made eye contact with Harry, "Now with that said, Professor Snape and Professor Sprout will be in charge, carry on.”  

Slowly one by one, every student and Professor that was going down into the chamber exited the room; Harry and Dumbledore were the first something that didn’t go unnoticed by the students. Quickly followed were the troupe at the door, then the other students that were invited; the Slytherins were shocked to see Daphne leaving the table as well. Harry and Dumbledore were waiting for everyone to gather up before heading up to the second floor. Stepping up to the door, Dumbledore smirked before gesturing to Harry. 

Harry opened the runic lock and heard a gasp from the people that didn’t realize that the entrance was in Myrtle's bathroom; suddenly, a cough from behind him drew his attention, “Harry, I think you should narrate, you brought a reporter for a reason.” 

“Right, thanks, Hermione, so the history of the monster in the chamber actually starts back in the 1940s,” One of the things that Harry and Dumbledore had discussed was how much to reveal about Voldemort’s past, “A young student by the name of Tom Riddle was the first to discover where the existence of the chamber was.”

“How did he discover it?” Harry noticed that Padma seemed to be writing just as much as the reporter. 

“Well, probably the same way Ron and I discovered it, by finding this,” Harry pointed out the snake set into the sink, “Salazar's chamber entrance is behind this, me and Ron were rushing to save his sister from the chamber, and we had discovered a piece of paper in Hermione's hand. Using that and some luck, we made Lockhart go down with us. Myrtle was the first victim of the chamber, and she was able to point us towards this.” 

Harry hissed and stepped back as the top of the sink floated up to the ceiling, and the individual sinks separated, revealing the long hole below. Harry watched as multiple camera flashes went off as Colin and the Prophet photographer took pictures. As the hole opened up, Harry watched as his friend stepped forward. Ron jumped down the hole with a nod, firing a scourify charm as he went; it was something that Ron had practiced beforehand, and judging by Flitwick's impressed face, it would probably earn him points since they weren’t set to learn it till next year.  Eventually, Ron yelled back up the opening, and Harry smirked.

“Now I know Ron just demonstrated the fastest way to get down to the chamber, but I came back here earlier this week and discovered this,” with that, Harry hissed for stairs, and everyone watched as stairs formed in a spiral down the tunnel.

“PRAT,” Harry chuckled as Ron's voice carried back up the stairs; Harry and Dumbledore stood there as, one by one, everyone went down the stairs; the two photographers were the last two to go down. Eventually, Dumbledore and Harry were the last ones left standing at the entrance to the chamber.

“Harry, mind turning it back into a tunnel?” When Harry looked at the man questionably, the Headmaster turned towards him spoke, “It’s not often I get to experience something fun like this at my age, now on with the parselspeak, I wish to slide down.” 

Harry smiled before hissing for the stairs to close, and he watched as the over one-hundred-year-old headmaster, a man who defeated grindelwald and sent dark wizards running, let out a whoop and jumped down the slide laughing as he went. Harry heard what sounded like a chuckle as Fawkes flew down after him. Shaking his head, Harry locked the bathroom door, hissed for the entrance to remain open, and decided to follow the Headmasters lead and jump down. Riding the slide down, Harry couldn’t help the chuckle that exited his lips as he landed at the bottom. 

“- and this is where Lockhart took my wand from me and tried to obliviate both Harry and me, luckily it was broken, and instead of losing our memory, it backfired on him and caused the rocks to almost collapse on us.” Harry flinched at the glare that Hermione leveled him; apparently, both he and Ron didn’t mention that. Dumbledore waved his wand, and suddenly the room they found themselves in was suddenly filled with light. Many people gasped when they realized that the edges of the room held the bones of long-dead animals. 

“Yes, as Ron was saying, the roof collapsed, and I was trapped on the other side, and Ron and Lockhart were trapped on this side, um Headmaster think you could clear this rubble, me and Ginny managed to get out through that small hole,” Harry pointed up near the top of the rubble. Dumbledore smirked and began to wave his wand in a complicated pattern. Harry watched as the rubble not only shifted but seemed to form arches slowly; the rubble solidified and created a smooth roof before Dumbledore jabbed his wand forward, and the whole thing glowed briefly. 

As they moved forward, Harry was amazed at the ease at which Dumbledore had done that and wondered if it was something he could learn or if that was all experience; suddenly, he felt someone nudge him and realized that they were standing in front of the outer door.

“Yes, sorry, this is the main entrance to Slytherins chamber; through this door is a long entrance hall, and the lights seemed to activate automatically.” Harry stepped back as the Photographers stepped up to take pictures. Daphne suddenly handed Colin a galleon before she stepped in front of the door and had him take her picture. Harry suddenly heard a rough cough and noticed that Grimjaw looked at him pointedly. 

“Mr. Potter, before we open the door, I have several questions about the condition of the snake. How was it killed, and approximately how long has it been dead, being the main ones.” Harry nodded and unconsciously rubbed his arm where the snake had bit him.

“The snake was killed in May of last year, and I killed the snake with a sword.” Turning to the door, Harry hissed for it to open and stay open, missing the shocked looks on everyone's face who hadn’t heard the story before. 

Stepping through the door, Harry began to walk down the stairs and noticed several things. The first was even though it had been dead for almost five months, and there wasn’t an odor around the snake, it still looked like it had been killed just yesterday. The other thing was he found himself standing at the bottom of the steps alone. Looking behind him, he saw everyone else seemed to be frozen in shock at the sight of the snake.

“It's fine, everyone. I can assure you it's quite dead.” That seemed to break the shock as suddenly Harry saw Hermione rushing towards him.

“ALBUS PERCIVAL DUMBLEDORE

-HARRY JAMES POTTER” Two voices yelled at the same time as like a mirror both Dumbledore and Harry hunched in at the scolding tone that McGonagall and Hermiones used. 

Harry then found himself in a crushing hug from his best friend as the goblins walked past them, heading towards the snake to begin their examination. Looking over, he saw that Dumbledore was behind a silencing charm as McGonagall seemed to be giving him an ear full. 

“Mate, when you said the snake was big, you didn’t say it was that big,” Ron spoke up, having walked up to Harry’s side.

“Mr. Potter, if you wouldn’t mind, would you be willing to tell us what went on in the chamber?” Ron managed to pry Hermione off of Harry with a knowing smirk. Harry flattened his robes and looked at the reporter before looking at the snake.

“When I came through the door, the first thing I found was Ginny laying on the floor; I tried to wake her and realized that she had been put under some sort of spell. Suddenly a voice told me she wouldn’t wake, and Riddle was there. I don’t know how he was there, but he told me that he was draining Ginny’s magic from her to bring himself back. We had an argument in which he wondered why I was so special before he summoned the Basilisk from the mouth of that statue.” Harry pointed at the statue past the Basilisk; both photographers were taking as many pictures as they could. Flitwick seemed to be talking with Grimjaw. The students that came with or had been petrified by the snake were standing over to one side, listening to Harry speak while occasionally looking at the snake. Dumbledore was finally done getting yelled at by McGonagall. 

“So after he summoned the snake, I heard a loud song, and Fawkes here flashed down here with the sorting hat.” Harry reached up and stroked Fawkes chest, the bird in question had landed on his shoulder when he had said his name.

“Why did he bring the sorting hat?” Harry looked over at Penelope, who seemed to have calmed down enough to ask questions. Padma nodded like she wanted to know as well.

“Ah, I believe this is the point where I should reveal something.” Everyone turned to look at the Headmaster who stepped forward, “See the sorting hat, and I have had a few discussions since last year, and it has come to my understanding that the hat was also the guardian for an extraordinary object. This item would always be available to the one it found worthy after being released from the hat. I myself have tried to lift the sword off the display in the time since Harry handed it to me and found that I couldn’t. I think it is only right that Harry be the one that should have it. Fawkes, would you be so kind as to grab both items I left sitting on my desk.” 

Everyone watched as Fawkes flamed away only to flame back into the chamber with a sheath and what looked like a glasses case. Fawkes flew a loop around the room once, before dropping the sword into Harry's hands and the glasses case into Dumbledores. Harry took the sheath in his hands and pulled the sword up slightly to see the infamous Godric Gryffindor. Sliding the sword back into the sheath, Harry examined the actual scabbard seeing that it was a simple belt-mounted rapier scabbard. Still looking it over, Harry thought about modifying it to be back-mounted. Harry suddenly got a flash of him wearing two swords with his armor, and a wide grin spread across his face. 

“Harry, what are you thinking?” Hermione recognized that grin, which usually led to him doing something interesting but potentially dangerous.

“Just imagining the look on the other Gryffindors face when they see who’s sword I’m carrying.” Hermione huffed before joining the other students in exploring the chamber.

“Um, Mr. Potter, who’s sword is that?” Harry to the reporter who seemed to be struggling to deal with what happened down here.

“Godric Gryffindors,” Both Harry and the reporter turned as an explosion of Ghukliak happened behind as he mentioned what sword he used. Harry watched as the goblin that heard him rushed over to Grimjaw, and they had a hushed conversation. The goblin suddenly turned and approached him. 

“Mr. Potter, would you be willing to show me the sword so that I can verify your claims?” Harry looked at Grimjaw and Flitwick; when they both nodded, Harry shrugged before pulling the sword out of the sheath. 

“Careful, I sort of stabbed the Basilisk in the venom sac, so it's imbued with Basilisk venom,” The goblin just nodded before looking at the sword almost reverently; everyone watched as the goblin waved his hand over the sword before muttering something under his breath. Harry heard multiple gasps when the sword glowed blue as the nearby goblins witnessed this. Harry went to place the sword in the goblins hands when the goblin shook his head.

“Despite the persistent rumor that Gryffindor stole this sword from the goblins, few know that the sword was crafted with the ability to determine who should wield it. Godric did not commission the sword, and he was just the only one who could wield the sword after Ragnuk the first stabbed the sword into a stone. It's where Merlin got the idea to do the same for Arthurs sword, Caliburn, which is actually the mundane equivalent of this sword.” Harry saw out of the corner of his eye that Padma was writing furiously as the goblin talked about the sword. 

“Harry, what's this bloody spot from?” Harry flinched and gulped. Everyone was looking at him, including Dumbledore and McGonagall, and he realized that he had forgotten to mention that he had been stabbed by the basilisk, only that he had been hurt and Fawkes had healed him. Looking up at the fiery bird who had landed on his shoulder, he took a deep breath. 

“Well, after Fawkes here blinded the Basilisk,” Harry was interrupted by the bird making a happy chirp, “I was able to open my eyes; Riddle ordered the Basilisk to use its sense of smell, so I spent a good chunk of time running through the surrounding pipes. Eventually, I made my way back here where I found Gryffindors sword in the hat; not knowing how to use it, I resorted to the most basic move.” 

“Which would be what?” Harry looked at the smirk on Daphne’s face and sighed.

“Stab it with the pointy end,” Harry waited for the chuckles and laughter to die down, ” After whacking it against the outside of the snake and failing to scratch it, I got the idea to stab it when it opened its mouth.” Harry heard a gasp but refused to look at Hermione, rolling up his sleeve slightly; he unveiled a circular wound on his right forearm, he had to take off his wand holster to show it fully. A flash of the camera signified that the photographer had grabbed an image of the wound.

“Where was I? Ah, yes, when the snake opened its mouth, I thrusted the sword upward right as it bit downward, and well, we traded attacks. Only mine killed it, and it merely poisoned me.” Harry pre-hunched for the surely coming explosion and exploded the room did.

“HARRY JAMES POTTER - POTTER - MR POTTER - BLOODY HELL MATE” Everyone in the room suddenly made the connection as they all realized that Harry Potter had been bitten by a basilisk and somehow survived.

“ HADRIAN JAMES POTTER ,” Harry suddenly froze, along with everyone else; Fawkes flamed away as quick as possible, as he noticed that Dumbledore eyes seemed to be glowing, “When were you going to tell me that you were poisoned by the deadliest snake in the entire world?”

“Um, right now, heh,” Harry rubbed the back of his head sheepishly before suddenly finding himself assaulted on two sides as both Daphne and Hermione smacked his shoulders.

“Of all the stupid ways to tell us, Potter, you utter pillock.” As Harry suddenly found himself being scolded by two women, Ron slid up next to Colin and whispered something. A smirk spread across Colin's face as he raised his camera and took a picture of the situation. The flash drew the ire off of Harry and onto him, something Ron didn’t tell him would happen. As Colin beat a hasty retreat away from Daphne and Hermione, Grimjaw finally took the scroll from the team of goblins that had been examining the snake. 

“Mr. Potter, as fun as it has been to listen to your recount of the battle, my team has finished their examination of the Basilisk and as such will be taking our leave, Dumbledore the portkey, please.” Grimjaw took the two portkeys from him while handing over the scroll. Walking over to the snake, Harry watched as the snake was whisked away to Gringotts before the goblin teams followed, leaving the humans in the chamber. 

“Ah Minerva, Filius, would you both be so kind and escort everyone out of the chamber? I believe me and Mr. Potter have something to discuss real quick.” Harry watched as McGonagall nodded her head before gathering everyone and escorting them out. Hermione and Daphne both shot him looks that promised a lecture, and Ron just put his hand on his shoulder in sympathy. The reporter and his photographer were the last to leave, and the photographer was still taking pictures of the chamber as they left. As they got beyond the door, Dumbledore flicked his wand, and a bubble sprang into existence. 

“ Tacet Bulla , it's a simple circle, then flick it outward. It forms a silencing bubble, very useful for conversations and also prevents listening charms and other ways of listening in.” Dumbledore smirked as he answered the unasked question on Harry’s mind. Dumbledore recognized that look on Harry's face, and it was one he loved to see on students' faces whenever they saw a new piece of magic. 

"Now, what are you planning to do with the chamber? I saw you carved a runic pattern into the door to the bathroom," holding up a hand, Dumbledore prevented Harry from speaking, " Unless I'm mistaken, the runic pattern looked like a lock of some kind. Hence, you plan on keeping the chamber safe and only useable to you. Of course, we didn’t explore everything in this chamber, so you could also be waiting for a chance to explore it without a Professor present.” Dumbledore grinned at the sheepish look on Harry’s face, and it wasn’t like he wouldn’t do the same. 

“You know Harry, my boy; this would make a great dueling hall,” Harry looked around and missed Dumbledore casting a quick health monitoring charm. Harry turned back to Dumbledore and grinned before miming like he was going for his wand. Suddenly he found himself standing three feet off the ground and on four legs. “You still have much to learn.”  

After Dumbledore turned Harry back into a human, they both exited the chamber and watched as the door shut behind them before joining the others. Eventually, everyone made their way back up the stairs, and Fawkes flamed back in. After a few more questions from the reporter, everyone involved went their separate ways. Harry was shot a look from Hermione and Daphne, which meant he was in for a lecture tomorrow. Collin had run ahead to the dorm to develop the pictures as quickly as possible and to save the parchment with the Prophet Photographer's work address for him to owl mail. Padma seemed to be headed to the library; being in the chamber had filled her with questions that she needed to research, so like any Ravenclaw, she went to find the answers. Justin went back to the Badgers Sett. Harry, meanwhile, was following Dumbledore to his office to have another discussion. Harry was not looking forward to the discussion since Dumbledore's tone suggested it had something to do with him getting stabbed by the Basilisk. 

As Harry walked, he unrolled the parchment, and his eyes went wide as he saw the estimation for the profit was set to be at a bare minimum ten million galleons, with an average of twenty-five million galleons. The inspector had written that the basilisk was seventy-five meters long and eight meters in diameter. They also estimated that the snake was just over ten tonnes of raw material to work with, with so much snake to harvest, Harry was surprised to see that Gringotts would deliver a full accounting within a month. 

“Um, Sir, could you tell me why a Basilisk is worth so much?” Harry and Dumbledore had made it back to the Headmaster’s office while Harry’s head spun over the amount he would be receiving from the Basilisk. Harry handed the parchment to Dumbledore while he sunk into the chair.

“Harry, my boy, it's not just that a fully grown basilisk is valuable; you have to consider the story surrounding this particular basilisk. Let’s look at this objectively: most farmed basilisks rarely live past five years old, the venom is extremely valuable in potions, the skin is a great inner liner for auror vests, and the eyes are harvested for potions as well as wand cores. The teeth themselves have some value, but most are too small to be useful. The fangs themselves are typically used in dealing with cursed objects. Now your basilisk is over seventy-two meters longer than the average basilisk at full growth, and not only is the basilisk a thousand years old, but the skin has been soaking magic into itself for that full time. I dare say the skin alone is worth ten million galleons, the venom though that's the real money.” Harry watched as a house-elf appeared and gave both him and Dumbledore a goblet. After Dumbledore drank a little bit, he began talking again.

“A thousand years is a long time for the venom reserves to build up; I suspect the venom sac could easily produce twenty gallons of venom, and considering a single ounce of basilisk venom is around five thousand galleons, you have a lot of it to sell. The meat of a basilisk is actually considered a delicacy in both goblin culture and some Indian families, and you have at least eight tonnes of it to sell. Finally, the bones themselves, honestly Harry, I will write Grimjaw about saving the skull for you; in my office at the ICW, I have a skull of a Chinese Fireball that serves as a lovely conversation piece, as well as a reminder of my skill.” Harry smirked and realized that Dumbledore probably used it as a way to intimidate, Vernon had an old cricket bad for his. Harry wondered how his uncle would react to a six-meter snake skull.

“Wait, sir, why would you write Grimjaw? Wouldn’t it be better for me to do it?” Harry was still reeling from the overall value of the snake but was curious as to why Dumbledore would message his accountant. 

“I am considered your magic guardian, and I volunteered for the role following your parent's passing to prevent any of the darker factions from taking control of your family's seat and fortune. I placed the proxy of the seat in the hand of a trusted friend, and I have let the goblins keep your fortune stable.” Harry was surprised to find out that Dumbledore was his magical guardian, and at first, a spike of rage went through him that he wasn’t informed before now. Taking a deep breath and letting his occlumency help calm himself down, Harry released the fist he had formed. 

“Thank you, sir, for letting me know. Does this mean that Grimjaw can count on your support to get the will unsealed so that it can be executed?” Harry looked at Dumbledore to judge what he would say.

“Grimjaw had already informed me about the will seal, the next full session of the Wizengamot will be in November, I have already met with several people in my voting block, and I already have a plan to convince the dark block to vote in favor of the measure. It will take a slice of my political capital, but it will be a worthy cause.” Dumbledore took another sip of his goblet and reached over and grabbed a lemon drop, and tossed it to Fawkes. 

“Now on to the topic I wanted to discuss with you, Harry why didn’t you tell me you were bitten by the Basilisk getting hurt I understand, but for you not to inform me you were bitten is just,” Harry felt guilty at the look on Dumbledore’s face as he stopped talking and seemed to be staring off in the distant. Harry knew he should have said something initially, but years of dealing with the Dursley had conditioned him to downplay his injuries. He had been about to say something that day when Malfoy Sr. busted into the room.

“I’m sorry, I just, Fawkes healed me, and I didn’t think it would be such a massive thing; I meant to say something, but after freeing Dobby and Malfoy casting the killing curse at me-

“ HE BLOODY DID WHAT IN MY SCHOOL!?”

Chapter Text

“Sorry, sorry, one of my first years had a question about Christmas break,” Pomona Sprout rushed into the room, “So tell me, how was the adventure? I saw young Finch-Fletchley rushing past me as I was headed here.”

“Please, don’t get her started; she’s acting so bloody smug,” Flitwick looked at Gryffindor Head, who was still acting smug, she had been acting smug ever since they had left the chamber. 

“Oh, the chamber was incredible, but my lion, oh my lions, if there were ever a person more worthy of wielding Godrics sword, it would be Harry Potter.” McGonagall sipped on the mixed firewhiskey and butterbeer glass while the other two teachers shared a look and rolled their eyes. 

“Wait, Godrics sword, why would Mr. Potter have Gryffindors sword.” The heavy sigh from Flitwick and the happy giggle from McGonagall made meant Sprout was in for a story.

McGonagall and Flitwick sat in the shared space after the day they had it was a time for sipping firewhiskey and trading tales. Flitwick was still amazed at what he saw in the chamber, and the Ravenclaw in him wanted to go back down there and explore more. McGonagall was sitting in her chair, smug, and every time Flitwick looked at her, she couldn’t help but grin more. Sprout listened to the tale with wide eyes and disbelieve as the story continued.

“Bloody Hell Minnie, what are you feeding the Gryffindors?” McGonagall smirked and took a sip of her drink.

“Oh, I dare say Mr. Potter arrived like that, you know something, Minerva. I saw a very familiar red leather journal in his hands the other day, and it seems he found something of his fathers over the summer.” Both Flitwick and Pomona started chuckling at the almost haunted look at the idea of Harry learning about the marauders on Minerva’s face. 

While the teachers were discussing Harry, One particular student was pacing in the center of the badger's sett. “- It was huge, easily sixty meters long, and he killed it with a sword, a bloody sword. Look, I know last year I gave him shite for being the Heir of Slytherin, but I plan on apologizing for that first thing tomorrow; Harry Potter went down there out of loyalty to his best friend, he faced down a Basilisk to save Weasley’s sister. A BLOODY BASILISK!” The Hufflepuffs in the room were staring wide-eyed at Justin's usually mild manner in a state of amazement. The boy was energetic, but after he had gone off with the others, he came back in a fever pitch. 

“Wait, Harry Potter killed a basilisk, as in a class five beast that is a known wizard killer?” Justin looked over at Susan Bones, who had pulled out a book and was writing as he talked. 

Justin nodded and watched as she wrote in the book; everyone watched as she held up a finger.

“Okay, four more questions, Did Dumbledore know about it before Harry killed it last year? Is the body still there? Were there any injuries? The last question is more of a statement, but basically, Auntie said with a sword How!?” Everyone looked from Susan to Justin as she asked the questions. 

“In order, Dumbledore knew about the Basilisk after Harry informed him it was dead; The goblins took the body and other than last year no. As for how Harry stabbed the Basilisk in the roof of the mouth-”

“HE DID WHAT!?” Most of the Hufflepuff's in the common room yelled at Justin’s statement. Justin sighed; it would be a long night at this rate.

As Justin was having Harry declared an honorary Hufflepuff, Padma had come back into the Raven’s Nest with her arms full of books and parchment. She had rushed to the library upon leaving the chamber with the goal to confirm as much as she could from what she had learned while down in the chamber. As she got close to Ravenclaws tower, she saw over her stack of books one of the scouts hanging out on the corner. Pulling her raven token out, she saw the scout rush ahead of her to hold the door for her. Another Ravenclaw took the top books off her hands and set them on the nearby table as she stepped through the door.

“WELL?” Most of the students were itching for information about what she had seen and learned. Setting the remaining books down, she pushed her sleeves up and reached for the parchment she had taken down there with her.

“Okay, first off, Dumbledore swore everyone to secrecy about where the entrance to the chamber is,” Padma paused as the grumbling and waited for it quiet down, “Second thing, put another tally up on the board because, according to Harry and Ron it was Granger who figured it out.”  

“Seriously, oh come on, this is why she should have been in the raven's nest,” multiple voices chimed in as one of the first years made another mark on the chalkboard. It had multiple students' names in other houses; Hermione Granger was the current leader.

“Now, once in the chamber, it was revealed that Tom Riddle was the one behind attacks, and he used a cursed object to do it. Misuse of a wand resulted in Harry going solo against a basilisk.” Here a couple of students muttered that Potter was the perfect Gryffindor. “Except he didn’t kill the beast with a wand; he did it with a sword, and not just any sword but the sword of Godric Gryffindor.”  

“ WHAT! ” Padma sighed as the room exploded in noise, and debates started to break out between students at what it meant for Harry to be able to wield Gryffindors sword. It was going to be another night of research and debate; it seemed for the Raven’s Nest. 

Daphne smirked as she strolled towards the snake pit; she had the forethought to pay for proof of her claims and had walked with Hermione back to the tower to get it. A somewhat worn but happy Colin Creevey had delivered the pictures to her in record time, and now she was going to fire the opening shot of the coup she was planning. Along with proof, she also had a piece of information that Hermione had given her. One that would see Draco’s bookends on the receiving end of a lecture on house security. 

Giving the password to the entrance, She waited for the wall to shift to enter the common room. Spotting Malfoy sitting on the throne to one side of the room, she noticed that everyone seemed to be holding their breath, wondering where she had gotten off to

“WELL?” Daphne raised an eyebrow at the impatient attitude that Malfoy was displaying. Handing the photos to Tracey, she stood with her back to one wall, with her wand palmed as she watched the photos get passed around the room. Saying nothing and only observing, she let the pictures speak for themselves. Why volunteer information, when you could let the others fill in the gap. 

“What the bloody hell are those Greengrass, answer me?” Daphne sighed as the pictures bypassed Draco; she expected some sort of reaction, but him getting angry was perfect. She noticed Nott had shifted away from Draco and had taken a neutral seat, ‘ Perfect, now to go for the kill.’ 

“I wonder Draco, do you remember Goyle and Crabb acting strangely during Christmas break last year?” Daphne noticed that even the two bookends seemed to be shifting away from Draco now. It would be the perfect coup if she could take them as well. 

“SO, that has no bearing on the pictures going around; answer my questions, Greengrass.” Daphne just looked at her fingers and let the tension build, and she smirked and put her hands behind her back.

“For those not in the know, last year during the winter break, Malfoy and his two friends stayed here; during that time, Goyle and Crabb found a pair of cupcakes sitting out there, ate them, and found themselves waking up in a closet. Yet somehow, Malfoy, your two friends were with you when you entered the snake pit.” Daphne fought to keep her smile off her face as suddenly Nott moved from neutral to an angle, where he could see Malfoy’s face. Even some of the older students that listened to Malfoy were distancing themselves from him. Malfoy was stunned; he didn’t have any words and just sat there, which was perfect in Daphne.

“You see, for a supposed Slytherin, you really fell for a simple polyjuice and allowed two students not of Slytherin into the snake pit. I learned this and used it to my advantage to gain access to our founder’s chamber. I used your failure and stupidity to my advantage, and where you failed in first year, I have succeeded.” Daphne let her wand drop into her hand when she saw Draco’s eyes narrow, and it wouldn’t do to get attacked while she was tearing strips out of him. Eventually, someone was brave enough to hand Draco the pictures. Oh, she wished she had brought a camera to capture the look on his face. 

“That Draco is what using your cunning and resourcefulness gets you. Potter now considers me to be the only Slytherin he trusts, and I can reveal this; He has access to resources your family could only dream of.” With her peace down, she took back the photos from a stunned Draco and stalked out of the common room. She needed to get to her room and calm down; it wouldn’t do to have a panic attack in front of the other Slytherins.

Dumbledore swept through the Ministry like a man on a mission; he barely managed to contain his anger and fury from attacking Malfoy directly and instead found this was the best time to use a move worthy of a Slytherin. Harry had informed him of the whole story and had even been willing to share the memory when prompted. It had been trilling for Dumbledore to explain how memory strains worked and how they interacted with a pensieve. He had a chuckle at Harry’s tricking of Lucius to release his elf; that chuckle immediately turned to fury at how close Harry came to dying. 

As Dumbledore strode through the Ministry, he never noticed that his cloak was billowing in a manner similar to Snape, his face was stone, and every person in his path instantly decided they had somewhere else to be when they saw him. Dumbledore looked like he was going to war, and few in the ministry wished to be on the opposite side of him. Getting to the Minister's office, Dumbledore stalked up the aisle straight for the door until an unforgettable face in pink stuck her nose in.

“ Hem-hem The Minister is quite busy Dumbledore, he doesn’t have time-”

“Sit down, Dolores, I still remember your abysmal OWL scores, and I have to wonder how you managed to get this job.” Dumbledore waved his hand and watched as the door slammed open, causing the Minister to jump. Walking into the room, he waved his hand again as the door shut and locked itself; finally, a silencing charm was applied to the door and Dolores. 

“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS? Dumbledore, can’t you tell I’m quite busy.” Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at the sandwich in front of the Minister. Not bothering to sit down, he reached into his pocket and pulled out two phials; one contained Harry’s memory, the other was Dobby’s memory. It had been quite a shock to Harry to see Dobby again. Dumbledore, of course, had hired him to work at Hogwarts at the start of the year, never realizing it was the same elf Harry had freed.

“What is that?” Dumbledore still didn’t say anything; he just pulled his wand and moved the minister’s pensieve from the alcove to directly in front of them both. Dumping Harry’s memory into the pensieve, Dumbledore stepped back and waited. Fudge sighed and pushed his sandwich to one side before dipping his finger into the pensieve and slumping over. Dumbledore transfigured the chair into a comfortable throne, grabbed the other half of the sandwich, and took a bite.  

Taking another bite, Dumbledore waited for the memory to end. When it did, Fudge came flying out and seemed to be unable to form words. Before he could form words, Dumbledore held up a finger to silence him as he pulled the memory out of the pensieve and put the second memory into it. Fudge gulped and stuck his finger back into the pensieve. Dumbledore took another bite of the sandwich while grabbing a bottle of butterbeer from the Ministers' personal water cooler and decided to relax and enjoy the drink and sandwich. 

“It can’t be; there's no way he would do that. The memory was faked; it had to be.” Dumbledore drank the butterbeer and watched as the Minister pulled a bottle of firewhiskey out of the bottom drawer of his desk and poured him a glass.

“Minister, even you know that two memories can not be faked to show the especially when one comes from the mind of a house-elf.” Dumbledore hoped that remaining calm and being reasonable would see him through, till Fudge opened his mouth. 

“Well, I will see the house-elf dead for being a liar and have a discussion with Mister Potter about what he thinks he saw. I will not have a friend of the Ministry being attacked like that.” Dumbledore suddenly slammed the butterbeer bottle down on the desk and stood up, calmness be damned. Towering over the Minister he 

 "I don't care what he has on you; I don't care that he is considered a friend of the Ministry, you stand at a crossroad Minister take care to remember who he aimed his wand at and who is standing before you now. Will you stand for a murderer, or will you abandon him to face the justice he deserves?" Fudge was leaning back in his seat in fear and amazement at the look on Dumbledore's face; the pressure from his magic was almost choking. Lucius, be damned; he wasn't crossing wands with the man in front of him. 

“Fine, Madam Bones will be handed a warrant for his arrest, but I feel that this must come from Mr. Potter; I hope that the boy can handle the pressure of the press because this is gonna be a shit show.” Fudge just slumped back in his seat, the magical pressure backing off, and he was able to retake a breath. With a shaking hand, he went to pour another glass of firewhiskey and decided instead just to take a deep pull from the bottle. 

“Minister keeps an eye for tomorrow's Prophet, and you will see how Harry handles the press. Now, if you excuse me, I have a school to run, and you have a Ministry to secure against the likes of Lucius. You should know your secretary out there is in his pocket.” Dumbledore stood up and grabbed half of the sandwich he had been eating. Walking to the door, he unlocked it and removed the silencing charm. Holding up the sandwich after another bite, he grinned at the Minister, “This is quite good, good day Minister.”

Pulling out his wand, Fudge cast his own locking charm on the door as Dumbledore left. He sighed as he quilled a message to have Madam Bones come up to his office and sent it off, ‘ Well, there goes my peaceful day,’ Fudge thought as he took the other half of the sandwich and dropped it into the wastebasket. He doubted he would have the stomach to finish it now. 

While Fudge was writing up a notice of arrest, Harry dealt with the Gryffindor's first years. Ever since he had taken them to their first class of the year, he had found himself being asked questions and sought out for advice. At first, it had been about how to get around the school, and if he knew where the Owlery was, then it became homework help, something that amused Hermione and Ron. Since then, Harry had found that he rather liked looking after the younglings even though it was a little weird that he was not a house perfect and was only a third year. As a result, when he had eventually made his way back to the tower, he found himself buried in a pile of first years and some second years wanting to know about the chamber.

The next day, Harry woke up already exhausted and wanting to go back to bed. He had spent the night telling the students about the chamber and didn’t get to bed until past midnight. Grumbling as he got up, Harry rubbed Ari, who had slithered into his bed at some point in the night, before taking the first shower of the day. Dressing in his running clothes and tying up his trainers, he set out for his morning run by the lake. Today, he planned to increase the distance he ran, so he continued onward when he reached the rock outcrop. 

After using the locker room showers, Harry made his way back up to the tower to change into casual clothes. Today was going to be interesting, the reporter from the Prophet had told him yesterday that they planned to run the article today, so after pulling on casual clothes, grabbing his cloak, and deciding to carry Gryffindor’s sword, Harry made his way down to the common room. Hermione was already down in the great hall he had passed her on the way up to his dorm room. Her look had promised a lecture in his future, and he really wasn’t looking forward to it. 

Harry had expected to receive attention for what happened down in the chamber; he didn’t expect for almost every student to be staring at him with either awe, respect, or a few looks of hatred. He even had a couple of students come up to him and apologize to him for what they had said the year before. It was a little surreal but also freeing; he never expected people to apologize to him for last year. 

Sitting down, Harry began to fill his plate and waited for the paper's eventual delivery. The only people that had pictures were Colin and Daphne, and Colin had been sworn to hold off showing them till after the paper was released. Speaking of Colin, the boy had arrived in the great hall with a satchel that looked overflowing and his camera dangling around his neck. It seemed he was going to begin passing out pictures right after that. After making a quick bacon sandwich and plating a couple of fruits, he put them in front of a half-awake Ron, who started eating when he noticed. 

Harry had his head buried in his journal, going over a checklist of things he wanted to try to get done that day when suddenly the noise level of the great hall seemed to subsided; he took a look to his left and noticed that the Prophet had been delivered. Suddenly he felt a weight on his shoulder and noticed that Hedwig had decided to come with them. Grabbing a couple of pieces of bacon and started to feed her himself.

Harry eventually felt the eyes on him was too much, and after taping Hermione's hand, he got up and left with Hedwig still riding on his shoulder. He could feel everyone watching him leave, and he decided to get one thing taken care of. When Dumbledore had left yesterday, he had left Dobby in the room with him. 

Flashback 

“Harry Potter, sir, it’s a great honor to see you again, sir.” Harry sighed; it seemed Dobby still held a bit of hero worship for him.

“How have you been, Dobby? Have you found someone to work for?”

“Dobby has been looking, sir; headmaster Whiskers is helping Dobby by letting him stay here.” Harry got a thoughtful look; Hermione would have been angry with him had he not shown her the same books he had read. 

“Dobby, how would you like to work for me?” Harry instantly regretted asking that question by the wide-eyed manic look on Dobby’s face.

“Oh, the great Harry Potter wants Dobby to work for him, oh Dobby isn’t worthy to work for Harry Potter, sir.” Harry watched as Dobby went from happy to self-doubt so fast it made his head spin. Harry reached and grabbed Dobby’s attention before the elf went off to hurt himself.

“Dobby, if you decide to work for me, there will be a couple of rules. The first one, you are not to hurt yourself. Number two is you can’t work yourself to death; you work till you’re tired and then take a break. The last one is money; I will pay you to wear a uniform of your choice, it's not clothes, and I won’t be giving them to you.” Harry noticed that Dobby seemed excited to work for him.

Flashback end

Harry had spent most of the afternoon debating pay and work times with Dobby, and it worked out for him, considering one of the items on his to-do list was made easier by hiring Dobby. While Hedwig had flown off when Harry had stepped out of the great hall, Harry had made his way to the Chamber. Opening the main door, he called for Dobby.

“Harry Potter, sir, where is Dobby, sir?” Harry tried not to laugh at the uniform that Dobby had acquired. Harry had given Dobby five galleons to buy his uniform, and this was the result. The base of the uniform looked like a military jumpsuit; on top of that, Dobby seemed to have acquired a belt with a multitude of pouches along with one of those plate carriers that Harry had seen on Dudley’s toy soldiers. 

“Um, sorry, Dobby, this is known as the chamber of secrets; what I want is for you to clean it all, it hasn’t been cleaned in over a thousand-yea-” ‘ And he is gone.’ Harry hadn’t even seen Dobby start; he would have sworn that the little elf had rushed to start so fast that he had left an after-image. 

‘ Well, that went better than I expected. ’ Harry decided to trust that Dobby would be safe, so Harry decided to go upstairs and face the music. Walking up the stairs, he found two girls standing in Myrtle’s bathroom, looking ready to rip into him. 

A quick trip up to the Marauders den, Harry found himself pushed into a chair that had been dragged into the center of the room, ‘ Bloody hell, they planned this,’ Harry gulped as both girls stared at him with their hands on hips.

“Harry, I know that yesterday we were a bit harsh on you for not informing us about getting bit,  but you have to stop dropping stuff on us like that.” Harry looked from both Hermione to Daphne and back. 

“Don’t look at me, Potter; I’m still trying to process that you killed that bloody snake with Gryffindors sword. I mean, seriously, have you seen this article?” Harry took the Prophet that Daphne held out to him.

HEIR OF GRYFFINDOR DEFEATS SLYTHERINS SNAKE

By E. Limus, Photograph’s by Adrian Chase & Colin Creevey

Harry made a mental note to send a thank you note to Limus and figure out something nice to get Colin for Christmas. The entire front of the Prophet was taken up with pictures of him standing in the chamber, and the massive maw of the Basilisk was in the background. Harry was seen in the foreground with his sleeve rolled up, and the stab wound was on display; Fawkes was on his shoulder. Then he noticed that Limus had written something that he was confused by.

“Why did Limus say I was now heir to two titles? What was the first one?” Harry looked at Hermione, who looked just as confused as he was, Daphne, on the other hand, looked outraged. 

“Potter, please tell me someone has told you about the Potter title.” Harry just looked confused while Hermione seemed interested in what Daphne was talking about.

“Bloody hell Potter, you an heir to a seat on the Wizengamot, and your family was part of the British nobility before wizards separated from the muggles. Oh hell, you had no idea, did you?” Daphne had sunk into a chair and was staring at both Hermione and Harry open-mouthed. 

“I don’t have to start calling people lord and lady, do I? because no way am I bowing to Malfoy or his ass of a father.” Daphne snorted and shook her head.

“Despite how snobby Malfoy acts and he would prefer if people bowed to him, the only time the Lords and Lady’s are used is during the actual Wizengamot session. Other than that, it's not really mentioned beyond official documents between families. I will contact my mother to send some of the etiquette books I read when I was a child, for once I have something to teach you.” Daphne took the newspaper back from Harry and flipped it to the next page. “Meanwhile, Potter, I hope you have something to wear because, according to this article, you have been invited to the Ministry Ball in the winter.”

Harry grimaced at that before deciding to work some of his stress off in the combat area, “We’ll deal with that tomorrow; if you ladies excuse me, I’m going fight some dummies.”

“Malfoy is downstairs, Potter. Granger, I’m going to the library to research some of these spells,” Daphne held up her personal journal; she had started reading some of the books in the room and from her own personal research, “You coming?”

“Sure, I have my research to conduct, and as enjoyable as it is watching Harry fight, I have had enough adventure for the weekend.” Daphne and Hermione left the room while Harry rolled up his sleeves and stepped over the red line. The last thing the girls saw was Harry with a sword in one hand and his wand in the other. Both girls stopped and stared as Harry began to move batting spells away with the sword while summoning birds to distract with his wand. Hermione gasped when she saw that, and Daphne dragged her away before she could distract Harry.

Daphne dragged Hermione to the closest classroom and shoved her inside before hitting the door with a lock and silencing spell. Turning, she saw that Hermione was pacing back and forth. 

“That was a post NEWT’s level conjuration; how was  he able to do that?” Daphne sighed and waited for Hermione to stop pacing. For the next few minutes, Daphne waited and waited until, eventually, she had to grab the girl to get her attention.

"You don't understand Granger, fighting a Potter is a death sentence; you act surprised that Harry's doing NEWT level spells as a third-year; I see that as him being a Potter. There's a rumor that Death itself can't take a Potter till they want it too." Daphne looked haunted; if Hermione could read her mind, she would see the memory of Daphne's grandfather talking about Charleus Potter fighting the African Inferi Hoards during the war. She remembered her grandfather describing Charleus stepping beyond the fort walls and standing alone before five thousand of those monsters.

Hermione sat down in the nearest chair with a thud, “So you're telling me that Harry’s family is filled with overpowered magical warriors who regularly do incredible feats of magic well before the normal wizards and witches?” Daphne nodded, and Hermione just rubbed her head, “bloody hell.”

 "Hey Harry, mate what are you doing?" Ron had been looking for his friend for a while and he found him in the owlery of all places standing in front of two owls, ' wait is Hedwig in charger here, you know what I'm gonna ignore that '

"OH, I'm sending a letter to Padfoot and Moony, Hedwig assured me this is the only owl other than her that she trusts," Ron swore he saw Hedwig nodded at that. 

Harry attached the letter to Padfoot’s letter to Hedwig and Moony’s letter to the other owl. “Come on Mate, I want to show you where I’ve been hiding out.” 

As a familiar white owl winged her way towards the cave, she followed the magical signature of the one called Padfoot, many people didn't realize that magic was alive and the intent of sending a letter to a specific person would act as a guide for owls, Hedwig had honed her focus to the point where she could find anyone, even if they were a dog. Settling down on an outcrop she stared at the dog and watched as it shifted into a very shaggy man, his teeth looked horrid and his clothes were little more than tatters. Holding up one leg, she kept herself braced to take off as the man took the letter off her.

"Well then I wasn't expecting this, does your human know who I am? I doubt he would have sent his favorite owl if he did." Sirius Black snorted at the huff as Hedwig flew up and out of his reach. Turning the letter over he saw a nickname he hadn’t seen or heard in years, “Well that’s interesting.”  

Chapter Text

October was eventful; it had started with the Malfoy arrest. The Prophet had reported that Malfoy Sr. had gone down fighting. Firing killing curses and other dark spells, he had sent four aurors to Saint Mungo's before ending up losing his left hand to a misaimed reducto . Arthur Weasley had been waiting for him to be charged with something; because the next day, multiple charges had been added on, increasing his list by thirty. The younger Malfoy had not taken it well; he had been calm up until someone had commented on his father, drawing his wand, saw him being stunned and removed from the Great Hall. He hadn’t been seen for several days. Rumor out of the snake pit was that Snape was helping him adjust to his new reality. Harry had shared a conversation with Daphne during their meetings and determined that Malfoy’s status in the snake pit was hanging on by a thread. The only thing that kept him in power was the brooms and Snape. 

After Malfoy’s dad had been arrested, the school had calmed down enough for Harry to start work on his next project. He hadn’t messed around with the caster much because it would have been too many questions if he had used it outside, and he didn’t want to fire it indoors. Having the chamber entrance under lock and key, he felt it was time to set up his own workshop instead of just using Jeremiah’s. Looking at the list of things he needed made him realize that he wouldn’t be able to find the right equipment in classrooms, and even if he did, he couldn’t exactly take it from there without someone noticing. Hermione and Daphne both had no idea where to get some of the things he needed, and he had felt frustrated for a couple of days before he asked Dobby. The little elf was haggard, covered in dirt and grime, wearing two brushes in a shoulder holster with a mop in a back sheath, but otherwise happy to see him. He had taken one look at Harry’s list, and that was how Harry found himself filling out owl forms, handing his elf a sack of gold, and currently standing beside Dobby in front of a blank wall on the seventh floor across from a painting of dancing trolls. 

Harry watched as Dobby paced in front of the wall three times before a door suddenly appeared. “Bloody Hell Dobby, what is this place?” Harry asked after opening the door and seeing almost a warehouse-sized room.

“This be the come and go room, Master Harry, sir; all Elve’s know about the room here at Hoggywarts.” Harry just stared at the room; it seemed that if something was lost, it ended up here, which meant that the elves had stored things here since the creation of the school and the creation of this room.

‘ Oh hell, I just needed a couple of large desks and bookshelves, not another room for exploring. Hermione and Daphne are going to love this. ’ Harry sighed as he wandered the rows looking at everything; he had already passed several small mountains of textbooks. Broken chairs, tables, tapestries if Hogwarts had it this room was where the surplus went. 

“Dobby, has an elf ever tried to clean up this room?” Harry looked down at his friend, who had gotten excited at the word clean and seemed to be bouncing in place.

“Headmasters be not knowing about this room, so they never be ordering elves to clean room, would Master Harry sir like for Dobby to clean this room?” Harry was worried that his elf would explode with the amount of energy he seemed to hold in.

“How much of the chamber is clean, Dobby?” Harry didn’t want to overwork Dobby by setting him on this mountain of a task if he already had work to do, and he knew what being overworked was like.

“Dobby cleaned the main hall and the left side hall, Dobby has the right side left, and he will be done. Dobby is sorry it took this long; Master Harry, sir, chamber hasn’t been cleaned in a long time.” Harry just chuckled and pat Dobby on the head to stop the elf from pulling on his ear.

“Dobby, you took less time than I expected; you are doing amazing, bud. Now I want you to finish up with the chamber and come see me; this room remains untouched until then. Except for these, this is what I was looking for.” Harry gestured towards the three large tables in one of the rows. Granted, one looked like it had been used as a blast shield, a second one had a busted leg, and the third looked like it was a sneeze away from collapsing, but it was nothing magic couldn’t fix. 

After Dobby popped the three tables down to the chamber, Harry wandered the rows looking at various objects. Before he knew it, he was leaving the room with four swords, scabbards included, and several books, one of which was on alchemy. It took a lot for Harry to leave the room with only those items. He only did so after making a promise to come back, which he very much intended to keep. 

Walking through the halls with an armload of books was normal in Hogwarts; walking through the halls with arms full of swords and books was not normal. Harry quickly realized he had made a minor error. Deciding to drop the swords and books off in the den, Harry took a lesser-used staircase down to the fourth floor. Getting to the door was easy; opening it was another matter entirely, but Hary managed it without spilling the swords or books. After opening the door, Harry slowly made his way over to the nearby desk to deposit his treasures. Setting the swords down, he picked up the book on top, which had two titles; the first was the original language, and right under that was the English translation which simply said, ‘ Sands of the desert and the cost of war,’ Harry was curious to see what it was about. The book on alchemy seemed to be an idiot’s guide to basic alchemy; the second book he picked up was called ‘ Native Magic’ and seemed to be on Native American magic. A quick scan of the middle pages showed several spells; one was called ‘ thunderbirds call,’ and it looked very destructive. 

The last book was interesting since it was simply titled ‘ Guerriero ’ and was written in another language. Harry grimaced; he was going to have to find a translation spell or something if he was going to keep finding books in other languages. Harry set the books aside to show Hermione and Daphne. Picking up the swords, he examined each one for nicks and damages. The first one was near perfect if dull; two had small chips along the blade. The last sword seemed normal while it was in its scabbard; the moment the tip was exposed to the air, Harry felt something akin to when he first got his wand as the blade suddenly burst into flames. Shock ran through his system and dropped the blade causing the flames to go out. It took several tries before Harry was able to work out how to pick up the sword without the flames from appearing. Doing so allowed him to get a look at the runes that were at the base of the blade activated an enchantment. It was similar to the same activation runes he found on the scabbard from the Potter vault as well as inside Aunt Edith's armor. 

After placing the swords on the table, he decided since he was already in the room, he might as well get in a quick training session. A month of running and training had done wonders to Harry’s health. He had caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and found that where a skin and bones kid had once been looking back at him, now a young man with a fit body with well-toned arms and a cut physique was what greeted him when he looked in a mirror. He was reminded of that as he removed both his cloak and his black shirt underneath. Stripping down to just a pair of pants, Harry also slipped his shoes off and let his bare feet touch the cold stone floor. The moment he touched the floor, he was reminded of why he doing so.

‘ So time ago, while exploring the wilds of New France, I found myself surrounded by Indies, where most people reported brutal savages that would kill and slaughter, I found a rare group of native magical. They had no need for wands or other foci, for their magic was ritual-based to bring rain, ward of diaster, or call for power in times of battle. I saw men summon balls of fire to help camps, javelins of earth and stone to bring down bison, and create camp wards stronger than most modern homes in the Colonies. I remember one man showed me that to fight barefooted was a start, but to go war undershoed was a death sentence. Training themselves to feel the magic of the earth through the skin of the animal they wore on their feet started with first learning to use the power of the earth without.’ 

After reading that, Harry had taken to training at least once a day barefooted, but today he was going to draw magic into himself. While it wasn’t the earth itself, Hogwarts did have a feeling of magic emitting from the floor. Using the same feeling from when he had to run his finger across the runic lock, Harry felt the magic begin to flow through his legs. It made him feel almost lighter; walking over to the rune panel, Harry raised the training level to just above intermediate, and lowering the delay to five seconds, Harry took a deep breath. Closing his eyes, Harry focused his occlumency and let a feeling of calmness overtake him. Inhaling deeply, he let the magic from the stones flow up his legs. The magic felt much like Ari when she spiraled up his body, the hair on his legs raised as the magic surged and flowed over his hips and wrapped around his torso like a snug shirt. Opening his eyes, Harry stepped over the glowing line and waited. He didn’t have to wait long before two dummies fired spells at him; with a smirk, he went to dodge to the left. 

BAM

‘ Ugh, bloody hell that hurt, ’ was the thought Harry had from where he had slammed into the stone wall; the feeling of magic left his body as quickly as it had arrived as he unfocused. Yelling out, Protego Maximum Harry, groaned as he rolled back over the line. Stumbling to his feet, Harry walked over to the Rune Panel and turned the dummies off. He definitely was not about to use that technique inside again, not till he figured out why he went flying into the wall. Sitting down in his favorite chair, he decided to rest for a few minutes before attempting to run through a workout barefooted without channeling magic. Opening his mother's trunk, which he had started keeping in the room, Harry pulled out the ' Defenders Codex ' and started reading. 

While Harry was relaxing in his training room, down one floor sitting in his office, Remus “ Moony” Lupin sat wishing for a bottle of Ogden Firewhiskey while staring at the letter he had received. He had not been able to bring himself to write back instead of choosing to stare at the signature, ‘ Heir of Prongs’ stared at him, reminding him of that night, the night he lost his pack. He kicked himself because it took him twelve years to climb out of that alcohol-fueled dark pit that he had put himself. He had fallen deep into the bottle and seeing what the cub had been up to during that time made him wonder how he was going to ever make up for it. Fighting Basilisk was definitely outside of the normal Marauder skillset, but leave it to a Potter to fight one. Remus stared into the fire and clutched the letter; if only there were some way he could reconnect with the cub other than just responding to the letter. Especially with Halloween on the coming Monday.

Dumbledore stared at the infernal book in front of him. The massive hole in the center was proof that the horcrux inside was destroyed. What irked Dumbledore was that while the horcrux was fully destroyed, the magical signature lingered. ‘ If only I had that bloody book,’ Dumbeldore thought as he stared at the diary. The only known mention of Horcruxes was in the forbidden section, but what was not known was that Herpo the Foul had written a book detailing multiple ways to deal with Horcruxes, including the process to create one, destroy them or cleanse an object of one. Dumbledore had not been idle the past twelve years since the death of Harry’s parents; Dumbledore had searched for a method to remove the horcrux behind Harry’s scar. Vast amounts of Dumbledore gold had been spent in the pursuit of finding Herpo’s book, to no avail. Suddenly the ward registered that someone was requesting entrance to his office. Looking at a nearby painting of a Knight standing in front of a mirror, he saw the paired painting view outside of the Gargoyle. A kind smile broke out as he saw young Harry.

Harry was nervous; years of dealing with the Dursley had made asking for something from an authoritative figure was bound to fail, but sitting in his room reading that book, staring at his mother's handwriting, had made him realize something. He had never been to see his parent's graves. With Halloween on Monday and the traditional Halloween feast, he decided that since Dumbledore had shown that his complaint wouldn’t go unheard, he was going to ask for something. After riding the stairs up, Harry was greeted by Fawkes flashing to his shoulder and begging for attention.

“Harry, my boy, I dare say that if you keep spoiling my phoenix like that, he might decide to split his time between us both.” Harry grinned while Fawkes puffed out his chest, making Dumbledore chuckle. Harry knew there was no malice to Dumbledore's words as he took a seat; the Headmaster leaned forward holding out the candy dish, “Lemon Drop?” 

“You know what, sure, one for Fawkes and me.” Harry took two of the offered candies and began to unwrap them. Tossing one up into the air for Fawkes to snag, he popped the other one into his mouth.

“Do you know that you are the first student in over thirty years to take one, you would think I had dosed them in potions the way students react whenever I offer them.” Harry chuckled and rubbed Fawkes's chest. 

“They really are delicious, and I can see why both you and Fawkes like them.” Dumbledore grinned and took another lemon drop out of the tin before throwing it to the phoenix that had yet to leave Harry’s shoulder.

“Now, my dear boy, I know you didn’t come to talk about candy; what can I help you with today?” Harry shifted nervously in the seat and felt his heart race a bit.

“Would it be possible for me to maybe, with an escort, visit my parent's grave?” Dumbledore felt his heart start to break, he had barely heard the end of Harry’s request, and when his mind finally caught up with his ears, he felt his age. Flashes of a blonde-haired girl appeared in his mind. Dumbledore sat down in a chair next to Harry moving around the desk.

“My dear boy, I understand you want to visit your parent's grave, but you have to know that it is perilous for you to be outside the castle,” Dumbledore held up a hand to prevent the retort from Harry; he could see there was a bit of hurt in the boy's eyes, “However, I think that if you would be willing to allow of teachers to escort you-”

Harry started nodding before looking away from the Headmaster as tears threatened to spill from his eyes. Dumbledore pretended not to see the boy wipe away his tears, and they sat in silence for several minutes.

“Thank you, Headmaster, so when will they be able to escort me to see my parent's grave?” Harry smiled; for the first time in a long time, he felt he could trust an adult; after the last two years, he didn’t think he could trust a teacher at Hogwarts. Dumbledore had proven that wrong this year. 

“I think we can arrange for the two teachers to take you on Halloween; people would be expecting you to be here and would never expect for you to be out of the school. Both Professor Lupin and Professor McGonagall are who I had in mind for escorting you. Would that be okay, my boy?” Harry nodded, already deciding that he wasn’t going to the graveyard unarmed. Something always happened to him on Halloween, and he would be damned if he wasn’t going to be armed and ready for it this year. Leaving the Headmaster’s office, Harry didn’t see the tears starting to flow from the older man's eyes, as memories were brought to the forefront of his mind. 

Harry spent the rest of the weekend either reading and researching with Hermione and Daphne, or down in the chamber setting up his newest research station. Dobby had repaired the three tables and had transported the items he had purchased in Diagon alley down into the chamber. Setting the anvil onto the hardened section of a tree took some effort; Harry wasn’t about to question why they used a tree section as the base. Harry then remembered he could use magic and smacked himself in the head before levitating two of the three tables into place around the other thing Dobby had transported down into the chamber. Placing the rune-covered bellows into the hole in the fire bricks, Harry began to set up the forge for the next three hours. Harry followed the instructions till he got it to where he was comfortable. Pouring the bag of charcoal into the forge, Harry looked at the passage in Aunt Edith’s journal that led to this.

‘ Making ammo for the caster involved finding brass canisters to form the basis of the ammo. After trial and error, I found that the best way to make sure the canisters were up to my specifications was to form them myself. Now, normally brass melts at around 927 degrees celsius; however, I found that combining magical and nonmagical fire methods will result in the melting point of brass being only 500 degrees celsius. The spell to do this is iliakí fotiá, also known as solar fire, the wand movement is as follows….’

“ Iliakí fotiá, ” Harry spoke as he slashed his wand downward from the ceiling. Suddenly the fire roared to life as the flames glowed almost deep blue. Harry held up an arm over his face as the heat came off the forge before the flames settled back down. Leaving the forge to warm up and walking over the crate that had cost almost five hundred galleons, Harry picked up the crowbar off the top of it and broke it open. Revealing roughly 90 kilos of brass in ingots. After removing the straw inside, Harry floated the four side pieces of the crate further down the left wing of the chamber. Applying a permanent stick charm to one edge, he created a small wall in the middle of the chamber. Going over to the final crate that Dobby had procured for him, Harry popped the crate to reveal empty sandbags. After breaking all the crate walls, Harry repeated the same thing as the last crate. Making sure the walls were stable, Harry moved back to the sandbags. Using a spell from the ‘Sands of the desert,’ Harry opened the sand back and pointed his wand inside, and uttered a “ramil saghir” Harry watched as the bag filled with sand before he cut it off. Spending the next hour filling every bag with sand before using a permanent sticking charm on the open end, Harry wiped the sweat off his brow before he heard an almost silent pop in and out as a glass of water appeared. Harry smirked before taking a big gulp of the water. Placing the bags to form a barricade, Harry moved the table manually till it was flush against the sandbags. 

‘ There now the firing range is set, I have the forge most of the way complete, just need to get the crucible, and I will be set to start forming caster shells.’ Harry was tired; with it being Sunday, he didn’t have to explain to his friends where he was since they had established a routine on Sundays. Ron would spend the morning either playing chess with students from the other houses or down at the quidditch pitch playing pick-up games or debating why the cannons were poised to win. Hermione and Daphne both had taken to spending time in the library together researching or reading. Sometimes they would find him and hang out with him in the den; the girls wanted to wait till the whole chamber was clean before venturing down again. 

It had already been decided that they would split the two wings; Harry was converting the left-wing into his workshop with one table dedicated to alchemy, another to rune work, his forging area, and the firing range. The girls, however, had yet to do anything to the right-wing of the chamber. Grabbing the towel that Dobby had popped in, Harry wiped his head and headed out of the chamber. Since he had completed his wing, and Dobby had told him that the right-wing would be finished by next weekend, which would give the girls enough time to plan what they wanted to do with their side. After that, he would spend the rest of his Sunday relaxing because tomorrow was Halloween.

Halloween, the one day of the year that Harry was used to not feeling good all day. His morning run didn’t help like it usually did; instead, he felt hemmed in by both the Dementors and the very feeling of the day. The weight felt worse than it had in years; finding his parent's journals had only made the day feel heavier. Stopping halfway through his run to sit lakeside, he looked out over the water and just soaked in the early morning rays before the Scottish clouds robbed him of the sun.

SNAP

Harry threw himself to the left and came up to one knee with his wand out as he came face to face with a familiar sight. Dropping his wand, he smirked as Buckbeak walked out of the forest. Ever since that first care class, Buckbeak had been seeking Harry out for pets, rides, or even just to simply say hello. Straightening up, Harry bowed to the Hippogriff.

“Hello Buckbeak, what do you want today, attention or a fly?” Harry chuckled when Buckbeak pawed the ground and turned sideways for him to climb on. Harry climbed into Buckbeak and gave him a squeeze with his thighs. Harry smiled as Buckbeak flapped his wings, and they began to fly over the lake. 

Flying made that heavy feeling leave him, and he was going to need as much joy as he could because today, he was going to see his parent's grave. A shiver ran down Harry’s spine as he felt the wind pushed him from his thoughts. Buckbeak flew low over the lake and banked towards Hagrid’s hut, coming in for a graceful landing; Harry waved at the half-giant who was outside carving massive pumpkins. 

“Well how was the ride harry, see tha' bucky has taken a liking ter yeh?” Harry hopped off the hippogriff and patted his flank before Buckbeak nuzzled his chest. Harry chuckled and rubbed the hippogriff's neck.

“I will admit, Buckbeak here has grown on me; he’s exactly what I needed this morning. You’re an amazing flier Bucky, thank you.” Harry walked over to a bucket, pulled out a dead ferret, and tossed it to Buckbeak. 

“ Yeh keep tha' up an' buckbeak is goin' ter wan' ter go home with yeh at the end o' the year.” Harry chuckled and watched as Buckbeak walked off into the forest after eating the ferret.

Harry chuckled at the image of Buckbeak hanging out on Privet drive, “That would be a sight, Buckbeak hanging out in the backyard of my muggle relatives. Have a good day, Hagrid, and I’ll see you tomorrow for class.

“See yeh tomorrow, harry, don' let the other students know, but we will be covering ashwinders.” Harry waved bye to Hagrid before walking to the quidditch showers. 

After a quick shower, Harry walked up to the castle to get the day started. He only had four classes today, but Dumbledore had informed him that he would come up to his tower after his last class. There he was going to meet with Lupin and McGonagall before going to Godric’s Hollow. Having made himself a sandwich, Harry pulled out Edith’s journal; however, before he could start reading, a familiar owl winged her way into the Great Hall. Grabbing five strips of bacon from the nearby tray, Harry tossed one up and watched as Hedwig snatched it out of the air before looping around and landing on Harry’s shoulder. Harry removed the letter from her leg and froze as an unfamiliar scrawl greeted him. Opening the letter, Harry tried not to let his hands shake.

Son of Prongs,

Writing this letter was bloody difficult; it has been almost twelve years since someone has called me Padfoot. You should know that any story I have is viewed through the rose-tinted glasses of the time; looking back now, some of our pranks could be considered malicious and bordering on bullying. However, your father was my best friend, and without him in my life, I have no idea if I would have survived Hogwarts. Ask me anything, and I will tell you everything. Your letter was unexpected but welcoming while I dealt with the memories of that Halloween. Prongslet, do not let the darkness of the dark ruin your light. 

Sincerely Padfoot

Harry folded the letter up very carefully and stuck it inside Edith’s journal. A nudge from one of the Weasley twins caused Harry to realize that his cheeks were wet. Harry discreetly wiped his eyes. A nodded of thanks to the two mischief-makers, and Harry got up to leave the Great Hall; catching Daphne’s eyes, he nodded upward to indicate that he was going to the den. She wouldn’t be following him directly, but she would know where he was at. A quick map check showed that Ron was in the common room, no doubt scrambling to complete his homework. Hermione had forgone breakfast in favor of heading to the library. Shaking his head, Harry tucked the map back into his overcloak and headed to the den to start on his own research of runic arrays. Today, he was going to attempt one of Aunt Edith’s runic arrays, and if it worked properly, he would have a new toy to add to his growing bag of tricks. The runic array, if it worked, would produce a shield that one could effectively hide behind. It was something that Edith used before she created the armor. It was an excellent way to stop spells from hitting him if he couldn’t dodge. 

After spending an hour working on two sides of the iron block, Harry put down the project 

Harry said goodbye to Ron and Hermione at the end of the day. Ron just gave him a nod, while Hermione seemed determined to rob him of air with her hug. Ron had to pull her off of him. 

“Be safe, mate; Black could be out there.” Harry nodded and lifted his shirt slightly to show that he had put on the armor. 

“Got my armor, my wand, and a knife.” Ron nodded while Hermione grabbed him in another hug. 

“ Please be safe, Harry; people care about you.” Harry just held onto Hermione while she whispered into his ear. Rubbing her back, eventually, Hermione released him, and Harry waved by to them. As Harry walked towards the Headmaster’s office, he ran across Daphne. Looking around, they spotted a nearby empty classroom before checking that no one was around as they ducked inside. 

“Look, Potter, I’m not good with emotions, and I can’t imagine what your feeling tonight. Just be safe, alright, Granger, and I won’t be able to access the chamber without you.” Daphne had a slight grin on her face to let Harry know she was joking about the last part. 

“I will, Greengrass, got my armor, wand, and knife. Hopefully, nothing is going to happen, but it’s Halloween the last two years; something has always happened.” Daphne nodded at that statement before giving him a brief hug leaving Harry stunned for a few minutes. 

Harry finally made it to the Gargoyle and up the stairs. Entering Dumbledore’s office, he found the Defense Professor standing off to one side, looking almost ill. His usually prime and proper Head of House was waiting for him wearing nonmagical clothing. Fawkes suddenly took off and landed on Harry’s shoulder before letting out an uplifting trill. Harry grinned and reached up to rub the phoenix’s chest. Walking over to Dumbledore’s desk, Harry grabbed a few of the lemon drops, shocking both Lupin and McGonagall as he unwrapped one and tossed it up to Fawkes. Taking another one, Harry popped it into his mouth. A movement out of the corner of his eye caused him to turn to see Dumbledore stepping into the room. 

“Ah, good your all here, now I prepared a roundtrip portkey that will take you to Godric’s Hollow when Harry is ready all you have to do is tap it again and utter this passcode,” At that Dumbledore handed McGonagall a small silver disk and a piece of parchment, “and it will bring you directly back here in my office.”

“Thank you again, Headmaster, and thank you, Professor Lupin and Professor McGonagall, for going with me.” Harry nodded his head towards the two teachers. Unwrapping the third lemon drop, Harry tossed it up in the air towards Fawkes only to watch as it rushed towards the Headmaster, who snatched it out of the air and popped it into his mouth. 

“ALBUS!” Harry and Lupin both chuckled at the sheepish look on Dumbledore’s face when McGonagall scolded him. Meanwhile, Harry was treated to an irritated Fawkes from having his treat stolen from him.

“ Don’t worry, Fawkes, I’ll find out where the Headmaster gets them and get you more,” Harry whispered to the phoenix, who seemed to nod his head at Harry. Fawkes took flight and flew back to his perch. 

“Alright, Harry, Minerva, Remus, grab ahold. I will see you all later tonight; if something happens, use our old message system, Godric . ” At that, Harry felt a hook grab his navel as suddenly he was thrown about in a spin. Unable to do anything as Harry was thrown around like a twister, till eventually the spinning stopped, and he went rolling across the ground till he found himself sprawled out on his back looking up at the dusky sky. 

“You alright there, Harry?” Harry looked up at Professor Lupin before taking the offered hand to help him up.  

“Never traveled by Portkey; seems another form of magical travel hates me.” Lupin grinned before reaching out and wiping a bit of dirt off of Harry’s cloak. Harry saw Lupin realize what he had done and seemed to stiffen before heading towards the graveyard. Harry’s brow furrow in confusion before following behind. 

The graveyard at Godric’s Hollow was behind the St. Jeromes Church and was old, there was a multitude of unreadable grave markers, but the first one that Harry was able to read was Ignotus Peverell who died in 1291. Further into the row of gravestones, they went till both McGonagall and Lupin stopped when they spotted the Potters grave. Staying far enough away to give Harry privacy but close enough to help him if something happened. A lump found a way into his throat as Harry walked on and eventually stood in front of his parent's grave. 

A memory of a green flash of light and a woman screaming caused Harry to sink to his knees in front of his mother's grave. Deep anger welled up as he realized that the man who betrayed them was out there, and the man that killed them was trying to come back. With his hands balled up, he bowed his head and tried to let the pain fade. Clearing his throat, Harry stood back up and walked forward till he was touching both his father's and mother's headstone. 

“ I wish I could remember you, and I wish you could have raised me. I realize now that I have not been living up to the standards of our family, I have let down our legacy, and for that, I am sorry.” Sinking to his knees, Harry felt tears welling up in his eyes.

"A warrior is sworn to valor,

His wand shall never go dark,

His strength lies in his magic,

His words speak only truth,

His wrath undoes the wicked.

With these words, I vow to avenge you; with these words, your sacrifice shall not be in vain. Death is assured, and justice will be done. I love you, mum and dad; I will not rest till you are avenged." Harry stood up and walked over to McGonagall and Lupin with his vow made. 

Suddenly a silver phoenix appeared, causing both Professors to raise their wands, as suddenly Dumbledore’s voice rang out, “Minerva, Lupin take him to Mad-eye, Black was in the castle. Aurors will be searching; it's not safe for Harry.”

Chapter Text

“Right well, come on, laddie, sitting here waiting for the all-clear isn’t going to do you much good, might as bloody well teach you a thing or two.” Harry nodded as the man he had met less than two hours ago led him further into the surprising big house. As Harry followed the man called Mad-eye, he couldn’t help but wonder how he had gotten here.

Flashback two hours ago

The reaction to the silver phoenix had been interesting; Lupin had let out a growl while McGonagall had moved closer to stand next to Harry. Harry, meanwhile, had slipped his left hand to the small of his back, while letting his wand fall into his right hand. 

“Come, Mr. Potter, we have to get you to Alastor’s.” Harry allowed McGonagall to grab his arm as all three of them apparated away from the graveyard. Suddenly Harry found a form of magical travel that he liked less than a portkey but more than floo’ing. 

“Is there a method that makes that at all comfortable? Bloody hell, that was awful.” Lupin seemed to be holding in a chuckle while McGonagall seemed to purse her lips. Harry finally looked up to see that they had landed in a Scottish glen.

“While we may not be in school, I do think you should avoid cursing Mr. Potter; now, we must make haste. No doubt Alastor is waiting for us, Dumbledore would have informed him.” Together, all three started walking towards the only visible structure that Harry could see.

Arriving at the edge of the wards, suddenly a voice spoke from the dark, “What was the last thing Minerva said to Alastor before they defended Falmouth?”

“If we don’t survive this, I will haunt your grave. Come now, Alastor, we don’t have time for this.” Harry smirked at the annoyed look on his teacher's face; looking back in the direction the voice came from his eyes widened as a heavily scarred man stepped out. One eye was spinning rapidly around in his head while Harry could see that he only had one healthy leg. 

“Remus, what was the codeword for the Dover mission?” Harry turned to look at his Defense professor as he realized that he must have been involved in the first war in some aspect.

  “We didn’t have a codeword,  but you did tell us that not having a codeword for a stag party was bloody stupid.” Harry grinned again till he saw that Professor Lupin had a sad look on his face when he mentioned the stag party. 

“I don’t know you, laddie, but judging by the armor, knife, and wand, I assume you’re the Potter boy. Quickly now, all three of you get inside.” Harry followed the crazed-looking man into the house, still gripping his wand. He missed the stunned looks on Lupin and McGonagall’s faces in doing so.

Flashback ends

Harry followed the man down the stairs, with Lupin following after them. In the short time they had been there, Moody had complimented him twice about being ever vigilant, insulted him for his knife placement, and had mildly interrogated him about the armor. McGonagall had been just as curious about the armor as Moody. A short demonstration later and McGonagall understood his newfound interest in Runes and Arithmancy. 

“Alright, Potter, through these doors is my old training room; if you step across the threshold, you better be ready for a battle. Not a duel, a battle. What do you say, lad ready to learn some things.” Harry didn’t respond; he quickly fired off a Fumos maxima before activating his armor and rushing to the furthest side of the room. 

“HAHAHA, SMART MOVE, LADDIE!” Harry’s eyes widened as the smoke suddenly took on a shape and leaped towards him. Throwing himself into a roll, Harry came up on one knee and fired a reducto-stupify-expulso spell chain in Moody’s direction before casting a reactionary protego maxima as five spells came flying in his direction. His shield held for the first three spells before the fourth one cracked it. Harry’s eyes widened as the fifth spell flew just over his head. Harry decided to use one of Jeremiah’s spell chain; scrambling to the left, he pointed his wand at himself and cast a protego persona before slamming his wand and hand against the floor and watched as the ground rippled outward towards the man. A skjoldhull and a triplum expelliarmus quickly followed the tidal wave spell. Harry started to smirk when nothing returned until suddenly the smoke cleared to reveal Moody standing casually at the other end of the hall. 

“My turn Lad.” Harry gulped as, without flourish, Moody’s wand snapped out and fired off three spells towards him. Throwing himself into another roll, Harry felt a spell smack him in the side, and he felt his gravity shift as suddenly he was thrown across the room. Tucking inward, Harry rolled to a stop before throwing out a quick avis charm and banishing them in Moody’s direction; Harry pulled his knife and applied one of his mom’s own spells. The knife glowed gold briefly before Harry waved his wand in an arch till it was directly pointed at Moody; in his error, Harry had taken his eye off Moody, as the knife flew towards the man in an arch, two spells flew towards an unprotected Harry. The first slammed into his chest, throwing Harry into the wall before the second one ripped his wand out of his hand. A loud smack rang out as Harry’s head hit the wall; as he slummed down against the wall, his vision darkened. The last thing he heard as he flopped to the side was Lupin.            

“Bloody Hell Moody, oh bollocks, Pup, stay still.” 

The next morning

Harry groaned as he woke up, staring at a very familiar ceiling; slowly sitting up, he felt a twinge of pain in his head as he slowly remembered why he ended up in the hospital wing. As he sat up fully, he found himself looking at the face of a very smug-looking Headmaster.

“So I see you meet Mad-eye, he’s well a bit mad really but a great auror trainer.” Harry rolled his eyes at Dumbledore’s pun while the headmaster chuckled. 

“I think meeting is too simple of a word for what happened between him and me. I feel like he was just entertaining me.” Dumbledore pat Harry’s arm as he stood up. Over Dumbledore’s shoulder, Harry saw Pomfrey heading their way. 

“On that, Harry, I will agree with you; Alastor is one of the best dark wizard hunters that I have known in recent years. Now I do believe that Madam Pomfrey is headed this way to give you a few potions, and frankly, I am going to go before she tries to stick me in the bed next to you.

As Harry was receiving his usual treatment from Madam Pomfrey, Dumbledore used one of the few passageways only open to the headmasters to quickly make his way back to his office. Upon arriving, he found Alastor sitting down at the nearby corner table with his flask in his hand. 

“Got to say Dumbledore, that was the most fun I have had in several years. So will you tell me why the bloody hell you weren’t notified the moment Black crossed the ward line?” Dumbledore sighed as he sat down in the chair across from Alastor. Waving off the offered flask, he pushed down on a section of the table and a small dragon bone pipe and a small bag of aromatic tobacco popped up from hidden storage.  

“Trust me; I have already had Pomona and Severus both give me a lecture, thankful young mister Potter was out of the castle, so he was not in danger. So will you give me your opinion on how your little test went?” Alastor smirked and took another pull from the flask.

“Well, he’s rough, untrained, and telegraphs his movements. That being said, he’s better than half of the morons I get at the academy. Hell, he managed to get me.” Dumbledore almost dropped his pipe when Alastor stopped talking, looking towards the man to finish his statement.

Turning slightly, Dumbledore could see that through the thick jacket, a piece of white bandage showed through a slash in the material. 

"Turns out when the lad banished conjured birds at me, he used a rather ingenious charm to send a knife in an arch towards me. I was focused on him, so I only saw the knife when a glint of light revealed it. I managed to avoid it barely, but it still nicked me bloody good." Dumbledore felt a smile spread on his face as Alastor described the way Harry fought. He was giddy that Harry was able to maintain a high-level conjuration spell and also cast a secondary charm that managed to hit Alastor. Everything would have been perfect if it wasn’t for Black's intrusion last night. 

“Do my ears deceive me? Does Alastor Mad-eye Moody seem impressed?” Alastor snorted while Dumbledore smoked his pipe. 

“He’s still wet behind the ears and unrefined, I’d say let your charms teacher get his hands into the lad, and if he does well, I might want him for a week this summer. Now I’m going to get going; see you at the next order meeting.” With that, Alastor stood up and headed to the floo. 

Dumbledore sat smoking his pipe for a while; with a flick of his wand, the international dueling tournament rule book flew off the shelf and into his hand. An idea began to form in his head on how he could prove to Moody that Harry was worth training and a way to train Harry early himself. After hearing about his childhood, Dumbledore knew that any hope had held about letting him enjoy his childhood was gone, and with the threat of Voldermort still out there, it was time for him to teach Harry what he knew. The boy already had the journals of his parents and ancestors to help him, and he knew that the young Potter spent every evening exercising in that supposedly secret room on the fourth floor. It was time for Dumbledore to add to Harry’s knowledge.

Harry was out of the hospital by Friday, Madam Pomfrey had been overzealous and had kept for almost two days, and if he hadn’t escaped the bed Thursday night, he was sure that he would have missed the Qudditich match today. After a quick change of clothes, Harry took his morning run around the quidditch field. It was shorter than his regular run, but given that today was his second quidditch game of the year, it was better to converse energy. The first game was almost unmemorable; even though it had been against Slytherin, it was a complete slaughter even with the weather. Within the first ten minutes, the chasers had scored a hundred points, the twins had knocked Draco off his broom twice, and McGonagall had silenced Lee after Marcus Flint’s arm had been broken from a well-timed bulger. By the fifteen-minute mark, the Gryffindor chasers had reached a hundred and fifty points, and Harry had caught the snitch from where it was around the base of one of the stands; everyone was soaked to the bone but happy to deal such a heavy blow to the snakes.  

Now the game was against the Hufflepuff, and Harry could feel that this game would be a crucial game. According to Ron’s game statistics, which still amazed both him and Hermione, if Harry caught the snitch before the chasers had reached eighty points, then there would be a chance for the Hufflepuffs to beat them this year. With that in mind, both Ron and Oliver had put their heads together, which scared everyone else on the team since the only one more of a manic about quidditch than Oliver was Ron. Together those two had come. After finishing up his run, Harry decided to just hang around the quidditch pitch since the game would be in a couple of hours. Calling Dobby, he asked the elf for some breakfast and to let his friends know where he was. Relaxing in the stands, Harry saw a familiar white owl wing her way to him with something wrapped around her claw.

$Ari, what are you doing out of the castle? It's freezing; you should be in the basket keeping warm?$ Harry quickly cast a warming charm on his inside cloak pocket and let Ari climb inside; meanwhile, Hedwig had flown in a circle after dropping off the snake and landing on Harry’s shoulder. 

$I want to come to see you, darling, before I go into deep sleep, the weather is getting colder, and I can already feel the need to sleep.$ Harry nodded as he let Ari intertwine with his fingers. He knew that she was close to going into brumation and he was prepared to keep an eye on her. 

SNAP 

Harry turned as his wand slipped down into his grip and paused as a large black dog walked out of the nearby underbrush. Letting Ari slip into his pocket, Harry crouched down as the dog walked towards him. 

$ Darling, be careful of the dog, I don’t taste anything bad from that dog, but he tastes the same as that rat in your dorm.$ Harry rubbed Ari’s chin and let her statement settle in the back of his head. Harry ran his hand down the dog's spine and began to pet the huge black beast. 

“Well, aren’t you a massive softy, bloody hell your thin little advice you see that wood cabin,” Harry pointed at Hagrids house and was surprised that the dog turned to look that direction, “Yeah, um, that cabin there, inside is a man who will take care of you? He loves animals, and trust me, buddy, he won’t turn you away.” Reaching up and giving the dog a scratch behind the ear, Harry chuckled when the dog leaned into his touch.

“Alright, buddy, you might want to get going,” Harry scrubbed the dog's head as he stood up and watched as the dog walked into the woods. The sound of rushing feet caused Harry to turn to see Ron looking haunted and pointing towards the retreating dog. 

“Mate, please tell me you bloody well didn’t just pet a grim?” Harry looked at Ron, confused as the rest of the team started to arrive. Harry felt the twins touch his shoulders before following after the chasers.

“It was just a black dog mate, nothing else. Now come on, Oliver might want you in the pre-game meeting.” With that, Harry pulled a still shocked Ron towards the locker room. One of Oliver's things was to invite Ron onto the team as an advisor, a role that Ron had taken to with a passion. 

The game was going well; Harry played interfering seeker for the last thirty minutes while occasionally feinting a dive or climb like he spotted the snitch. One of the unexplained benefits of learning occlumency was that Qudditich had gotten more manageable; he could tone down Lee Jordan and the crowd so that it was just background. Doing so allowed Harry to focus on looking for the snitch. The sky was cloudy, and Harry found it easier to spot a glint of gold even if he had lost it a couple of times. Floating above the pitch, Harry looked left as Diggory came up and floated next to him. 

“Hey Potter, you seen it yet?” Harry smirked and kept looking over the pitch before a feral grin took over his face, and without a word, he dived straight down.

“Bugger!” Harry accelerated towards the ground feeling his heart beat faster as the ground got closer and closer; he could see the individual blades of grass before; right at the last second, Harry pulled up. He could feel the tips of his boots were inches from scrubbing the grass. Suddenly a glint of gold in the corner of his eyes turned his feint into the actual chase as he pushed the nimbus to the edge. 

“WHAT THE BLOODY HELL POTTER!?” There was Cedric as he dropped into the chase right next to Harry towards the snitch. Side by side, they rushed towards the elusive snitch. The whole world fell away as they weaved in between towers, past the goal post. Cedric shot over a Bulger from one of the twins, while Harry rolled his body, spiraling away from the other one that had been shot at him by the Hufflepuff beater. The crowd was screaming; Lee had forgotten the rest of the match as the Seekers started the finishing race. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw what would be a matching feral grin on Diggory’s face as they shot upward. The snitch climbed so fast that Harry could feel his breath going cold. Up through the clouds they shot, then suddenly Harry felt despair.

A scream almost dragged his attention off the snitch; Harry barely noticed Cedric suddenly dropping away as he shot higher. As his hand swiped through the air, suddenly his breath was taken away as Harry suddenly noticed the clouds were darker than usual and swirling around him. 

“NOT HARRY, Please spare my son!” Harry looked around and saw the flittering black cloaks of the Dementors. His wand shot into his right hand as his left unconsciously gripped the snitch. 

“STEP ASIDE, GIRL!” Harry felt cold, far colder than usual. A distant voice screamed his name, His vision darkened, and he tightened his occlumeny shields; he felt himself slip from his broom. His wand snapped out, and with a scream, the clouds lit up bright as the sun as he fell, his eyes closed as he did. 

Five minutes before

Hermione couldn’t believe that for the last forty minutes, she had been sitting next to Daphne Greengrass on her left. Granted, they were sitting in the tower with most of the Professors and Neville and Padma, but it was the principle of the thing. She was willingly associating with Greengrass in public, sure, they made it seem like they were begrudging talking, but they were discussing what individual research they were undertaking. Hermione was keen to get started on researching alchemy and spell crafting. The research into Flamel from first-year had never really left her. On the other hand, Daphne was interested in runes and ritual magic. Suddenly Lee's screaming drug the girl's attention to the pitch as they watch Harry and Cedric chase the snitch. 

The chase was fast-paced until suddenly they shot up into the sky in vertical acceleration, then Hermione saw Dumbledore stiffen before standing up with his wand drawn.

“Wheres Harry?” Hermione felt her gut drop at Daphne’s question; looking up, she saw Cedric flying back down with his hand pointed back, screaming something; she felt a rush of numbness overtake her as a scream range out from the students. Dementors had invaded the pitch, and Harry was in the middle of them.

“HARRY!” Hermione and Daphne had both screamed unknowingly to the other party as the teachers suddenly stood and started casting. Hermione had to shield her eyes as the clouds quickly and the Dementors were suddenly lit up brighter than the sun, a single outline of a figure falling rapidly towards the ground was in the middle of the ball of fire.

“Merlin, Albus, that's Sun fire! ” Hermione's mind tucked that into her, ask-later pocket as the teacher's wands snapped into action to save her friend. She had unknowingly latched onto Daphne and clung to her just as hard as she was clinging on to her. 

“Oh no, Harry's broom,” Daphne pointed off in the distance as the broom rocketed off on its own. Hermione didn’t care as much about the broom as she did her friend. A multitude of silver spectral creatures raced past her friend, who seemed to be slowing down before the Weasley twins caught him. Hermione was curious as to why they suddenly got pleased till Hooch flew over and blew her whistle.

“CAN YOU BELIEVE IT EVEN WHEN THE DEMENTORS ARE ON HIS TAIL, HARRY POTTER CATCHES THE SNITCH BRINGING THE SCORE TO A SMASHING 350 TO 70 GRYFFINDOR WINS!” Hermione would have smiled if she could, but all she felt was a twisted ball of worry for her friend. As the Gryffindor team rushed to surround Harry, Hermione looked back and paled at the furious look on Dumbledore’s face.   

The Quidditch pitch was silent as Potter was lowered onto a litter and transported off the field.

Chapter Text

The ringing of metal on metal was heard throughout the chamber as a hammer forced the cooling brass to form the shape of the shell blank. Pulling off the outer brass shell, Harry looked it over before hitting it with a cooling charm and placing it on the table next to him. Setting the hammer down, Harry went back to the forge and placed two more ingots into the crucible before using a pair of tongs and placing it back in the fire. Stepping back, Harry wiped the sweat off his brow and tried not to remember the memory of his mother's scream. 

In another part of the castle, two girls and one old man were having an interesting discussion. Dumbledore was surprised when both Miss Granger and Miss Greengrass approached him, worried about young Mister Potter. In truth, Dumbledore agreed with them. Since the incident on the Quidditch Pitch, the rumors of the castle were that Harry was only seen at breakfast, classes, and curfew, but the rest of the time, he was but a ghost. Even the pranking had fallen back to just the two twins; Dumbledore could recognize their spellwork easily. The monitoring charm he had cast down in the chamber did show that Harry had spent a lot of time down there after classes were over. 

“So, Miss Granger, what would you have me do? Drag him from the chamber and force him to talk; no, that would not help, only hinder. Frankly, you going behind his back and coming to me could be detrimental to your friendship, yours as well, Miss Greengrass. I saw your smug grin.” Dumbledore chuckled at the sheepish look on Miss Greengrass’s face and Hermione’s glare. 

“Headmaster, I think what Granger is saying is we are worried about Harry and wondering what we should do. You have answered that question; now, would you be willing to point us in the right direction? He hasn’t been in the normal locations that we have looked.” Dumbledore smirked and had to admire Daphne’s double talk. Leaning back in his chair and placing his hand against his head, Dumbledore considered how to answer the question without betraying the budding trust that Harry had placed in him. 

“I think Miss Greengrass, that a Slytherin would know where to look or who to ask, do you understand me?” Dumbledore’s word stress showed that both Miss Granger and Miss Greengrass caught on to what he was saying.

“Thank you, Headmaster; if you excuse us, we have somewhere to be.” Dumbledore grinned as the two girls left his office in a rush. Grabbing the parchments he had been working on, Dumbledore began filling out the forms to register someone for the tournament. 

BANG

Ejecting the shell, Harry looked down the range and saw the target had been slammed into the wood wall. Harry grabbed another shell, popped it into the caster, and aimed at the next target. Firing at the targets, Harry watched as the spread stunner slammed into four different targets at once. Setting the caster down, Harry leaned against the table and breathed deeply. The memory from two weeks ago played in his head as he looked down at the round scar on his left palm. 

Flashback

Harry woke up with a start, half-awake and wheezing; he reached for his wand before his brain caught up with his body, realizing he was back in the hospital wing. Letting out a groan, he dropped back onto the bed and laid there. He knew Madam Pomfrey would be checking on him soon; the monitoring charms would alert her. Sure enough, he heard the sound of footsteps headed his way.

“Madam Pomfrey, how are you this gorgeous evening?” Harry smirked at Madam Pomfrey till he noticed her glare as she drew her wand, “Hey now, Pomfrey, I didn’t mean to end up here, so no need to get wand happy.”

“Hush, Mr. Potter, do you realize how worried we have been since then, THREE DAYS, you have been in a magical recovery coma for three days; you are fortunate to be alive, and frankly, if I had it my way, you would have been sent to St. Mungos, but your core would have not been stable enough for transport.” Harry’s eyes widened as he looked at the usually stern, but kind school nurse scolded him with glistening eyes like she was about to cry. It was shocking to see and made Harry pause for a second and try to remember what happened.  

“The Dementors, I was surrounded, and the last thing I remember was a bright light.” Harry stopped when Pomfrey held up a hand to stop his speech. 

“I informed the Headmaster, he will be along shortly. I am grateful your awake, Mr. Potter, and please, for the sake of your friends and the Headmaster, don’t try that again.”  

Harry had sat in that bed and had been informed that the spell he had cast was well outside his current ability to cast. Dumbledore had been very worried about where he had found such a spell and asked him what book it was.

"It was in Defenders Codex, I have cast other spells in that book, but I have never attempted that spell before then.." Harry trailed off as Dumbledore shook his head. 

“Harry the Defenders Codex was designed for post-N.E.W.T.S spell work. For you to even be able to cast one spell from that book says you have a rare gift. On the other hand, Sun fire is an ancient spell, one that was designed during a time when Vampiric hoards were more common. Casting that spell almost killed you; please don’t attempt again, I know this is wrong as a teacher to tell a student not to study ahead, but with magic, some of the spells have their warnings after the spell.”’

Flashback ended

Standing in the chamber, Harry realized what Dumbledore was trying to tell him. Casting that spell had harmed him, and it hadn’t even been a full-powered version. His attempt had been so weak that it hadn’t done its job, which according to the warning after the spell, was to create a miniature sun that would burn vampires and other creatures that needed darkness. Harry realized that a full-powered version would have killed multiple Dementors almost instantly, except his misthought attempt had only harmed one of them. Anger at himself threatened to bubble to the surface for his mistake. That anger wasn’t helped by the fact that he was also now without a broom since the Sunfire spell destroyed it.

Picking up the caster, Harry slammed a new colored shell into the chamber and quickly fired at the final target. 

BANG 

THUD

Looking at the target, Harry smirked and set the caster down. Walking over to the other table, he looked at the pedestal that held Aunt Edith’s caster designs. Aunt Edith had included the plans for the seven normal cartridges and then theorized several more cartridges designs; the last one was a focused percutio and petrificus totalus in one. The cartridge could destroy a shield and hit the target with a body bind spell, or if fired quick enough, it could pierce the person and then petrify them. It was the first of the untested cartridge designs of Aunt Edith’s that Harry had proven worked. The only thing that bothered him was the fact was that the caster was a single shot. Aunt Edith herself had said that there were more advanced designs she could have used but had gone with this design because of the nostalgia for the original nonmagical design. 

Walking back to the firing range table, Harry picked up the caster and brought it back to the work table. Setting the caster on the table, Harry unrolled a large sheet of parchment and used several books to hold down the corners. Moving the caster to sit on the parchment, Harry took a muggle pencil and quickly sketched a quick outline of the original caster. Moving the caster back to the original location, he took a deep breath and placed a hand on his chest. Two weeks had passed, and he could still feel the strain that spell had put on his body. Shaking his head to clear it, Harry began to sketch a new design for the caster. The design was simple; instead of one barrel, there were four, and the whole barrel assembly would slide forward, allowing Harry to load four cartridges instead of just one. Since Harry didn’t want to fire all four at once, he would have to research linking runes to create a firing sequence. It was a basic design, but overall, it was an improvement on the single-shot design his Aunt had made. He would still use the single-shot while he worked on the new design. 

Pushing himself back from the desk, Harry went over to one of the couches that Dobby had found in the room of requirement and sat down. Taking his boots off, Harry laid down, set a quick alarm charm on the pillow, and closed his eyes. Being Saturday meant he didn’t have to interact with anyone, and he could stay down here working or taking a nap. 

POP

“REALLY, HERMIONE, YOU COULD HAVE PHRASED THAT BETTER.” Harry jumped; the voice of Daphne had startled him from his nap. Looking over, he saw both Hermione and Daphne standing on either side of Dobby, who had grabbed their trouser legs with their bags with them.

“I’m sorry I asked him if he could get us in the chamber, not to pop us to the chamber. Honestly, Daphne, it was a mistake.” Harry smirked and leaned back to watch the two girls argue. On the other hand, Dobby had popped over to stand near Harry.

“Dobby is sorry, Mr. Harry Potter, sir; missus Hermie and Daphknees were worried about Mr. Harry Potter, they asked for Dobby to help. Dobby did not know Mr. Harry Potter was napping, Dobby request permission to punish himself.” Harry shook his head, reached out, and lightly bopped the top of Dobby’s head with an open hand.

“There, you’ve been punished, Dobby; it's fine, and thank you for bringing my friends down here. Could you do me a favor and bring me something to eat? I’m feeling a bit peckish.” Harry grinned at the rapid head nod response before Dobby popped away. Turning, he saw that both girls were still arguing; taking a long sigh, he got an evil thought and pulled his wand. With a whisper, he watched as Hermione’s hair turned Slytherin green and silver while Daphne’s hair turned Gryffindor gold and red. The girls both stopped arguing when they noticed each other’s hair. Harry quickly pulled his invisibility cloak over himself, silenced his feet, and moved.

“HARRY!”

“POTTER!”

Harry laughed as he rushed behind both girls, and sticking his wand out from under the invisibility cloak; he shot two stinging hexes at the girl's bums. Quickly stifling his laughter, Harry pulled the cloak off and fired up a protego as Daphne shot a spell at his now visible body.

“STAND STILL, POTTER, YOU WANKER!” Harry just laughed in response and shot a tickling jinx at Hermione before blocking another spell from Daphne.

“HARRY JAMES POTTER, WHAT IS UP WITH YOU?” Hermione tried to keep the blush off her face; the tickling jinx had hit her in the chest and had stirred up something in her. Lifting her wand, she started firing at Harry, who was batting away spells and shielding others before firing back. If she wasn’t so pissed, she would have been impressed at the way he was fighting. 

Harry grinned as he shot a jelly leg jinx at Daphne before sliding to the left and dodging Hermione’s spell; dropping down to one knee, Harry shot two more stinging hexes at the girls while Hermione shielded them, he got a yelp from Daphne. Suddenly Daphne’s face went icy and she dropped back into a stance.

“ DEPULSO!” 

RIP

Harry felt his shirt go flying, leaving him standing there shirtless. Hermione, who was in the middle of casting a spell, squeaked, and suddenly, he felt his trousers joining his ripped shirt. 

“Bollocks,” Harry rushed to his trousers in his pants and grabbed the invisibility cloak. The girls had turned away from him once his pants were exposed. 

‘ Bloody hell, Potter has abs!’ Daphne had just wanted to get him back for the two stinging hexes, not see Potter shirtless and with sweaty muscles.

‘ Oh Merlin, I just saw Harry’s pants bulge.’ Hermione could not believe that she had miscast a spell and exposed Harry’s pants. Sneaking a look over her shoulder as Harry ran to his trousers, she had to admit he had a cute bum. 

“Dobby!” 

POP

“What can Dobby be doing for Mr. Harry Potter, sir?” Harry wrapped in the invisibility cloak, sighed, and asked for spare trousers to be brought to him. Once dressed, Harry walked past the girls, drawing another squeak from Hermione, and sat down on the couch.

“Well, now that the argument is over, would you two mind telling me why you needed to see me so bad that you got Dobby to pop you down here?” Harry watched as Hermione and Daphne looked at each other before sitting down on the other couch Dobby had repaired and brought down to the chamber. 

"Well, I don't know about Daphne, but I've been worried about you, Harry, I'm not asking you to tell me why you're avoiding people, but I would like it if I wasn't one of those people." Harry frowned and leaned back on the couch. Had he really been avoiding his friends? Sure the rest of the students maybe, but he thought he had at least hung out with Ron and Hermione. Using his occlumency, he quickly went back over the past three weeks and didn’t like what he saw. Thankfully Dobby popped food and tea in on a tray, saving Harry from answering as he formed a response. 

“I will be honest; I hadn’t realized that I was avoiding people, and I apologize for that. Especially you, Daphne, since I realize now that we haven’t discussed our project since before Halloween.” Harry took a bite out of the cucumber sandwich and drank some butterbeer. 

“Forgiven Potter, just don’t let it happen again. Now, unlike Granger here, I will be blunt: why have you been avoiding us? Harry sighed; he really didn’t want to answer that yet, but he knew that if he couldn’t trust the two girls in front of him not to tell anyone else, then who could he trust. 

“I heard her defending me against that bastard; I heard her.” Harry leaned forward as the memory of his mother's last words played in his head.

“Heard who, Harry?” Hermione really hoped her guess would be wrong. Reaching towards Harry, she felt Daphne grab her outstretched hand. Looking at the girl next to her, she saw her shaking her head. 

“ My mum, I heard my mum.” Daphne and Hermione quickly moved around the table and surrounded Harry, both girls hugging him from the side. Tears were silently spilling down Harry’s face as the memory played. 

Daphne wasn’t one to show emotion, a Slytherin never revealed weakness unless it was an advantage, but right now, she wasn’t a Slytherin. Down in the chamber, she was free to drop her mask and just be a girl who would never know what Harry was going through. Eventually, Harry stood up and walked over to the table, wiping the tears off his face. Looking back at the girls, Harry was glad they had pushed him to speak; his heart didn’t feel as heavy as before. 

“The promise I made at my parent's grave means more to me now. Riddle didn’t even consider sparing me, and he’s going to keep coming at me. I don’t know why but I can feel it in my soul that the only way this ends is with one of us dead, and I made a vow to avenge my parents. I realize now that my vow was selfish; now, I vow to avenge everyone that Riddle has killed. Starting with Myrtle and ending with my parents.” Hermione was stunned; the way Harry looked now, he didn’t look like a thirteen-year-old teenager; he looked much older and much like a soldier. 

Daphne realized now what her grandfather had meant by how much of a warrior Potter’s were; looking at Harry now, she saw the future. A future where Harry was standing over Riddle's dying body with the sword of Gryffindor driven through his heart, that image both scared her and made her stomach feel funny, in a good way.  

“Bloody hell Potter,” Daphne stood up and walked over to her bag, and began to pull several books out, along with two small rolled-up pieces of parchment. Placing them down on the table, Daphne stepped back. “Here, the green book is Basic Etiquette of Nobly Society; Mum owled that to me along with the second book, that book is my grandfather's accounts of Charleus Potter before and during Grindlewald’s war; I want that book back Potter. The two parchments are my recommendation of who in Slytherin you could approach, I’m not bringing them to you, but I will help confirm anything you tell them.”

“Daphne, this is. I don’t know how to thank you.” Harry turned to look at the girl that he never expected to come to consider a friend and was thankful for Babbling’s assigning Daphne as his partner.

“Just promise me, Potter, that I made the right choice; if Riddle comes back, you shove the sword through his chest like the Basilisk's mouth.” Hermione huffed and tried not to think about why she felt jealous.  

“Would you girls like to see what I’m working on?” When both girls nodded, Harry walked over to his workbench with Hermione and Daphne trailing him.

Elsewhere in the castle

Remus Lupin was unnerved; standing on his desk in his office was Hedwig, and in her talon was the letter he received almost a month ago. Walking over to Hedwig, Lupin watched as the owl spit the quill in her beak out on a blank parchment before her. 

“Do you want me to reply to Harry?” Remus was not as shocked as he should have been when Hedwig barked and tapped the parchment with her talon. Remus sighed and realized that maybe this was how he reached out to Harry inside of trying to reach out physically. Picking up the quill, he felt a wing smack him on the shoulder as Hedwig took flight and landed on his chair back.

“Are you sticking around to make sure I write,” Remus was stunned when the owl barked and bobbed her head, “Bloody hell, Pup, your owl is insane.” Another wing smack to the back of his head made Remus realize that he said that aloud.

The following Friday, Harry made the now-familiar trip to Dumbledore’s office after receiving the note to want to talk that morning from McGonagall. Giving the password, Harry made his way up the revolving stairs and immediately came to a stop at seeing Dumbledore with both Flitwick and Lupin standing in his office.

“Don’t worry, Mister Potter, you're not in trouble.” Harry was still nervous as he sat down at Dumbledore’s desk; meeting Dumbledore was one thing; meeting him with two of his professors was different. 

“What is this about Headmaster?” Harry’s worries melted away as Fawkes flashed into the room and flew around before settling down on Harry’s shoulder. Filling bold at Fawkes's confidence, Harry reached towards the lemon drop dish and took a couple. Giving one to Fawkes, Harry popped the other one into his mouth. Doing this caused him to miss the startled looks on his professor’s faces.

“Filius and I have been discussing, and after your impromptu battle with Alastor Moody, I wondered if you would like to travel to the United States this summer to participate in the under eighteen dueling competition?” Harry was stunned but also excited at the prospect of participating in an actual dueling circuit. While neither Jeremiah nor Edith had taken part in the dueling world, Daphne’s Grandfather Fergus had written about first meeting Charleus Potter in Cornwall at a dueling competition where Charleus had been good but still lost. 

“I would like to do it, but sir, what about the Dursleys?” Harry was worried that all the progress he had made this year to correct the treatment by the Dursley would be lost if he had to go back. 

“My dear boy, do you really think I would send you back there after what you told me. I have taken care of them.” Tears threatened to spill down Harry’s face, and he hadn’t realized that a small part of himself still thought he would have to go back to his Aunt and Uncle’s. Now it seems Harry would finally have a good summer for once.  A shaky smile appeared on Harry’s face as he nodded. 

“Great, um, well, now, Mister Potter, I will expect to see you at my classroom door the first night of the new semester due to my busy schedule. Be prepared to be put through the wringer. Now Albus, Mister Potter, Remus, if you excuse me, I have a schedule to prepare, and I need to let Pomfrey know she might want to keep young Mister Potter’s bed ready.” Dumbledore chuckled at the almost feral grin on Filius’s face as he left the room and the shocked look on Harry’s face at the last statement.         

“Is that all, Headmaster?” Harry was curious as to why Lupin was here. 

“Actually, Mr. Potter, I asked Headmaster Dumbledore for a meeting with you. If I was to ask if you wanted to be able to defend yourself against the Dementors, what would you say?” Harry felt his heart clench at the mention of the Dementors. He never wanted to hear his mom's final moments again. 

“What do I need to do?” Harry turned to look at Professor Lupin, who had a sad look in his eyes. 

“Okay then, my classroom every Friday until you succeed or fail; you ready?” Harry nodded and watched as Professor Lupin left the room with a grin on his face and a pep in his step. It was weirder to see on a grown adult than a half-goblin. 

Once Professor Lupin left, Harry left shortly after with Fawkes on his shoulder. It had been surprising for Harry to realize that Fawkes was refusing to leave his shoulder. Dumbledore had just chuckled and shook his head good-naturedly. Walking through the halls down to the Great Hall, Harry tried not to let the occasional stares get to him. Walking through the main door, Harry smirked as everyone in the room stopped and looked at him. Looking at the Gryffindor table, Harry didn’t see any of his friends, so he set his sights on the other side of the room. It was time to make moves towards ending Malfoy’s reign over the Slytherin House. 

Theodore Nott was at a crossroads in his life. The first two years at Hogwarts had shown him who had the real power in Slytherin, with him finding himself riding Malfoy’s coattails. It was just like with his father and Malfoy Sr, with his father being in Malfoy  Sr.’s shadow, but this year, Nott had the pleasure to watch as Malfoy’s power base was removed day. Then Daphne Greengrass had shown that she was holding pocket aces while Draco was holding nothing. The one thing both Nott’s agreed on was that the one good thing muggles had created was poker. 

Malfoy Sr.’s arrest had been a massive blow to Draco’s hold on being in charge of the Slytherin house, it how served to allow for Theo to break away without issue, and now he had to consider whether it would be worth it to make his own play for the proverbial throne or join in Daphne’s growing power base. As he sat down to eat his supper before going back to the dungeon to the Slytherin potion room, he noticed the chatter had stopped. Looking up, he spotted Potter at the entrance with a phoenix on his shoulder. How did Potter find a phoenix, and how did the bloody magical bird come to be on his shoulder. Nott felt a lump form in his throat as Potter looked right at him and smirked. 

‘ Bloody hell, I’m dreaming, Merlin; he’s walking over this way, oh bloody hell, he’s sitting down, keep your shit together, THEO!’ Theodore Nott was trying not to let his growing panic show as Harry “ I killed a Basilisk with a sword” Potter sat down across from him and pulled a plate towards himself. Looking past Potter, Theo noticed that the entire room seemed to stop eating as they watched the textbook example of a Gryffindor sit down at the Slytherin table.

“Dobby,” Theo’s eyes widen as he saw Draco stiffen near him. ‘ Oh, that’s right, Draco said he had that elf killed.’ Theo missed what Potter asked the elf till a bowl of grapes appeared next to the Gryffindor. Theo watched as Potter started to put food on his plate and started to eat. 

Theo sat there for almost five minutes trying to figure out what the hell was going on and why Harry bloody Potter had sat down across from him. Most of the rest of the school was wondering the same thing. Eventually, Theo realized that Potter was waiting for him to speak, and like that, Theo found that his mouth would not work. He took a large gulp from his goblet and set his fork and knife down. 

“Potter, what the bloody hell are you doing? What do you want from me?” Theo watched as Potter put down his fork and knife, pulled his napkin off his lap, and wiped his lips before looking at him.

“For a Slytherin Nott, your not the smartest. One doesn’t sit down at the Slytherin table without reason.” The conversation was cut short as Theo noticed Snape was rushing their way; looking back at Potter, he noticed that boy had gone back to eating. 

 "POTTER, you insolent brat, go back to the Gryffindor table where you belong, or else you will serve detention with me cleaning cauldrons by hand." Harry held up a finger while he finished chewing; picking up his goblet, he watched the vein in Snape's neck throb as he took a sip of his drink before setting it down. Swinging his leg over the bench, Harry stood up, so that he was standing in front of Snape.

"Hogwarts Charter rules clearly state that students are required to sit with their house only during special events and the opening and closing feast. So Professor and I stress that word because even Filch could just put directions on the board and sit back; I will sit back down and enjoy my meal while continuing my conversation with Mr. Nott here; if that's fine with you?" Harry turned to look at Theo, whose eyes were trying to pop out of the socket with fear as Harry insulted the Slytherin Head of House. 

“POTTER -”

“You know I have my mother's journal, and you won’t believe who she talks about in there. So Professor, are you going to go back to the table, or do I need to tell you what she said.” Harry was willing to let the Professor go, but ever since he made that vow at his parent's grave, he had had an epiphany; he was the last Potter; it was time to show the world why the name Potter struck fear in the heart of the dark. He would give the respect he was given, and Snape had never given him a chance; from day one, Harry had been disrespected by that man. Harry watched as Professor Snape scowled before pivoting and walking back towards the head table. ‘ Potter one, Snape zero’ Harry smirked and sat back down across from a stunned Theo.

“Mate, your food is gonna get cold might want to dig in.” Harry followed his own advice to Theo and dug into his supper. Theo, still in shock, finally closed his mouth and began to eat. Eventually, he got the nerves up to look at Potter to find that he was staring at him. It was unnerving to see both Potter and the phoenix looking him over. 

“Potter, what do you want from me? Also, why and how do you have a phoenix with you?” Theo was starting to lose his nerves, it was bad enough that Potter had sat down at the Slytherin table, but this examination was unnerving.

“You know, for a Slytherin, you are very direct, can’t a student break the house feud but sitting with someone worthy of being a Slytherin? As for Fawkes, he may be Dumbledore’s companion, but he does what he wants, isn’t that right, Fawkes?” Theo looked up as the bird flared its wings and let out a musical trill that sent warmth through his chest like eating a slice of warm pie.

“Why are you not sitting with Daphne then, if you want to sit with someone worthy of being a Slytherin, though she almost ruined that with her association with Granger .” Harry chuckled, which caused Theo to flinch; that wasn’t his expected reaction. He gulped as the Gryffindor picked up his knife and started to spin it in his fingers.

“Daphne has already proved that she’s a Slytherin through and through, and it would behoove you to remember that Hermione Granger is both friends of ours. My question Theo is are you going to be a Malfoy, or will you be your own man?” Theo felt a cold sweat on the back of his neck as Potter stopped twirling the knife and used it to point at him. If it wasn't for his fledgling training in Occlumency, he was sure his face would be showing fear. 

“You can’t threaten me, Potter, I’m not scared of you, and I will be my own man.” Theo flinched when Potter put down the knife and stood up. Fawkes took to the air and circled once before disappearing in a ball of flame. 

“Oh, Theodore Nott, if you were your own man, you would do your research. The man who your father follows is not who he says he is. Why don’t you research Tom Marvolo Riddle and see what you find? Come find me if you have questions, or better yet, ask my friend Daphne; she can tell you more.” Theo watched as Potter walked away; his eyes never left the boy as he stopped next to Daphne, who smiled and touched his forearm. Something she said to him made Potter laugh before the boy gently touched the girl's shoulder and continued on his way. Slowly, Theo loosened his hand's grip on the table, and he took a shuttered breath. Sitting there trying to get his heart rate under control, Theo found that a simple meeting with Potter left him with a lot of questions. Questions that left him wanting answers.

Chapter Text

Harry pulled the Green and gold overcoat on and looked at himself in the mirror, and the baggy outfit shrank till it formed to his body. The robes he had chosen to wear were considered formal battle robes, and judging by the golden acromantula silk and the hidden sheath for a wand in either sleeve’s vambrace, Harry would have to agree. Walking downstairs to the Gryffindor common room, he saw the room quieted down. Looking toward Hermione, he tilted his head at her, blushing at how he was dressed.

“Harry, what are you wearing?” Harry tried not to think about the fact that his friend was currently running a hand over the torso piece of the outfit. The gold standard around his neck blended in with the black leather of the main body. The overcoat had green lapels and three horizontal gold stripes. It was not standard wizard robes in that the design wasn’t all one flowing outfit.

“One of Jeremiah Potter’s formal robes apparently had auto-sizing runes in the fabric because it shrunk to fit when I put on the overcoat.” Harry opened the coat and showed the inside to his two friends as Ron walked over.

“Mate, you know you like a proper Slytherin lord, right?”  Harry chuckled as they left the common room and started down the stairs. Harry had chosen the outfit based on the note that Jeremiah had attached to it. The last time the robes were worn was during the ICW Conference of 1776. That particular conference had been the last time that the wards had been off, given that the American Ambassador had fired spells at the British Ambassador, and if it hadn’t been for Jeremiah batting the spell up and away, he would have killed the British Ambassador. 

Harry had hoped that he wouldn’t have to do the same but knowing that he would have to deal with people listed in his mom’s journal, he was going to be prepared. In his mother’s journal, Harry had discovered that she had written down the names of everyone she suspected to be involved with the growing anti-muggleborn sentiment in Hogwarts. After looking at the list, he asked Daphne about the names and saw that of the twenty names his mum had listed, roughly seventeen were on the Wizengamot, and there were another twenty dark families that his mom had not listed. 

Entering the Great Hall for breakfast, he saw a multitude of people staring at him with a wide array of expressions on their faces. Searching out the people he knew, he saw that Susan Bones was blushing as well; Malfoy had a sour look on his face, and Daphne seemed to be staring at him with a weird look in her eyes. Looking toward the teachers, Harry saw a look of rage on Snape’s, which made him smirk. His own head of house looked like her eyes were trying to pop out of her head, and Dumbledore was grinning at him with a twinkle in his eye. Harry sat down at that point and began to build himself a light breakfast before he and Dumbledore left the school to get to the Wizengamot. The Winter session was the full Wizengamot; both Dumbledore and Grimjaw had been pushing to have the will unsealed and read before Christmas, which was the best time to get the vote pushed through. The next session wasn’t till the summer, and Harry already had plans that would interfere with that session.

After finishing his breakfast, he stood up to make his way towards the entrance hall to meet up with Dumbledore, who had left earlier. Walking out of the door, Harry spotted Daphne coming to meet him. After they both exited the main door, Daphne grabbed his hand and pulled him to the side room. Harry was shocked by how insistent she was; after pushing him into the room, she looked to see who was around before following him in. 

“Bloody hell Potter, where did you get that formal robes?” Harry shivered at how Daphne was touching his outfit; it was very similar to how Hermione had done the same way earlier in the morning.  

“It was Jeremiah Potters, one of the things I got this summer was a multicompartment trunk, and this was in it; it was made in 1756.” Harry’s back suddenly hit the wall, as Daphne pushed him back to where she could meet his eyes.

“Hold on, Potter, are you telling me this is your ancestors, and it still looks this good?” Harry nodded and then froze as Daphne started flipping his sleeves and peaking inside the lapel, “Where is it? I know it's here somewhere; come on, where is it?”

“Daphne, if you told me what you were looking for, I would be able to help you.” Harry had grabbed her hands to stop her from frisking his outfit. Straightening the overcoat lapel, Harry also grabbed the sleeve cuffs and adjusted them back to the proper position.     

“The maker’s mark, if I am right, then there should be a maker’s mark sewn into the clothing somewhere.” Harry realized what she was getting at; opening the overcoat, Harry reached the buttons under his armpit and unbuttoned it. Opening the armored shirt, Harry folded it over to reveal the letter “C” with a small “S” inside the “C.”

“Is this it?” Harry looked up to see Daphne was staring at the mark with an open mouth stare. Harry watched as she slowly reached out and touched the mark. “Mind telling me what is so special about the mark?”

“Harry, in 1756, four suits were made by one Lady Carmilla Sanguina; my mother, who was the definition of a Ravenclaw, has spent the last six years researching everything about her. This suit is one of the only four suits she made; my mother's theory is that each suit was imbued with her magic; every rune was carved with a carving tool, dipped in her very own blood. My mother has found one other suit, and it has a bloody trail from vampire hunter to vampire hunter. See Potter; this suit is designed to make you unkillable by a vampire; my mother never figured out how, but the other suit's history has a bloody history of being stolen by hunters from hunters. The last known location that mum tracked the suit was that it was in possession of someone known as The Daywalker, whoever that is.” Harry looked at the suit he was wearing with a bit of trepidation and awe. He wondered what Jeremiah had done to receive this suit, he had seen the runes in the collar and along the underside of the lapel of the overcoat, but it had been in a language he didn’t know or hadn’t learned yet. Suddenly he wasn’t sure if the suit was the same one.

“Not that I don’t believe you, but how can you be sure it's not a convincing fake?” Harry flinched back at the glare that Daphne leveled at him. He might have made a mistake questioning her on this.

“Potter, I’m going to pretend that you had a momentary lapse in using your brain; now you have a Wizengamot session to get to.” Daphne reached up and started to straighten up his shirt and also make sure everything was perfect. Harry felt his breath hitch at how close Daphne was to him. His stomach fluttered when she looked up at him. Suddenly the door opened and revealed both Dumbledore and Hermione. Daphne quickly cleared her throat and stepped away from Harry. 

“Missus Greengrass, Mr. Potter, I believe it is time we get going if we want to make it through security in time.” Harry left Daphne and Hermione staring at each other, one had their eyebrow raised, and the other had a look of annoyance on their face. Hermione turned and shot him a look as he went to leave, causing Dumbledore to chuckle.

“I believe you might be in trouble with Missus Granger when you come back. Now Fawkes is willing to transport us to the ministry, so I ask that you grab hold.” Harry took the offered forearm right as a loud trill was heard as Fawkes flashed in above them. The phoenix circled once before landing on Dumbledore's shoulder. 

The world flashed red and white, and Harry felt a moment of intense warmth that seemed to comfort him before suddenly the warmth was gone, and they were left standing in a large room; lining the walls on either side of them were a multitude of fireplaces. The room had a curved ceiling and seemed to be a tunnel that opened into a large room where Harry could see a fountain in the center of the room. Walking towards the fountain, Harry noticed a guards station with a small gold plaque on the front that said, “ All Wands, weapons, portkey and magical devices not approved by the ministry must be declared and/or registered to continue” Harry sighed as Dumbledore reached the station and gestured for him to step up. 

Harry flicked his wand out of the right sleeve holster and set it in the bin the female guard had set in front of him. Reaching to the small of his back, he pulled the dagger from the holster mounted vertically; setting it in the bin, he noticed Dumbledore had raised his eyebrow slightly. Holding up a finger, Harry leaned down and pulled the two push daggers that were part of the boots that had come with the formal robes. Setting those in the bin, he then grabbed the moleskin pouch of filibuster fireworks that the twins had modified and set it into the bin as well. Looking at Dumbledore with an apologetic grin, he was met with the man smirking at him.

“Mr. Potter, while politics is a cutthroat world, I doubt you need all of that. Nevertheless, if we need to fight, I won’t doubt your preparedness.” Dumbledore chuckled at Harry’s embarrassment before gesturing for him to follow him, leaving behind a shocked, now pink-haired auror trainee on guard duty. 

Walking to the bank of elevators, Dumbledore and Harry grabbed a primarily empty one and rode down to level two. Coming out of the elevators, Harry saw that the sign on the wall showed the Wizengamot chambers were to the left while the Department of Magical Law enforcement was to the right. Harry realized that most of the people were dressed the same, most likely members of the Wizengamot, but some were dressed in nice black robes. Looking at Dumbledore, Harry realized he might have influenced the Headmaster’s dress, because Dumbledore was wearing a gray vest, with matching pants, over a white shirt. Dumbledore was wearing a flowing black cloak to match his tie, along with a gold chain running from the pocket on the vest and a clip on the other side of the vest. It completely stood out from the rest of the wizards and witches walking toward the chamber. Walking through the door, Harry stopped when he noticed that the room was two stories, there was a long aisle in the front with two lecterns pointed at each other in the center. Harry followed Dumbledore till he pointed to a seat on the front row of the right side of the chamber. Harry sat down and pulled out his journal; he was planning on writing down anything interesting that was said during the session for Hermione and Daphne. While Harry was sitting in his seat, he noticed someone approaching him. The man, at first glance, had similar hair as Malfoy sr. causing Harry to flinch slightly until he noticed that Malfoy’s hair was straight and a bright blonde, the man coming toward him had dirty blonde hair. 

“Mr. Potter, Cryus Greengrass, I believe that you and my daughter have become friends.” Harry stood up and shook the man’s hands, trying to keep the sudden nervousness on his face. This was the father of one of his newest friends? Harry suddenly wondered why his mind was questioning that.

“Yes, sir, Daphne has been a good friend; she has actually been a big help in learning the ends and outs when it comes to learning etiquette.” Mr.Greengrass smiled at that and leaned against the railing in front of Harry’s seat. 

“So tell me, Mr. Potter, how did you manage to get my daughter to become your friend? It's my understanding that you are a Gryffindor?” Harry chuckled and thought back to that first Runes class. Where would he be if he had decided to stick to his original class choices? 

“It was the Runes Professor, sir; she assigned me to be Daphne’s partner, and well, it took a few weeks before we had a conversation that wasn’t one-sided. Now it seems like Daphne and I hang out every day with Hermione.” Cyrus nodded before looking towards where Dumbledore was seated when the Chief Warlock banged the gavel to get the session started. Harry nodded to Cryus as the man headed to his own seat down the way and sank back into his seat. His heart finally calmed down after Daphne’s father left.  

“Wizengamot Session of December in the year 1993, close the doors and allow the session to begin. Scribe any tabled business from the last session in the court minutes?” Harry realized that Dumbledore had to follow a process before they could get to the Will unsealing. Looking around the room, he spotted Grimjaw sitting with several other goblins. Before catching his account manager's attention, Harry heard something that caused him to tune back into the scribe speaking.

“ -Lastly, we tabled the vote to confirm the Triwizard Tournament; this event will not take place till the 1994 to 1995 school year at Hogwarts.” Harry quickly wrote down the Triwizard tournament and put a question mark next to it. 

“Thank you, scribe, at this time, before we introduce new business into the Wizengamot, I move that we vote on the Triwizard tournament; debate was closed at the last session, do I hear a second?” Harry heard several people call out, causing Dumbledore to bang the gavel. Looking around the room, Harry took note of the people in the seats around him. Looking towards the top of the bench, he noticed that Mrs. Longbottom was sitting next to a man Harry didn’t recognize, but he noticed that the man was sitting under the Potter crest. Harry realized that this was Elphias Doge, the man that had been drinking buddies with Charleus Potter. Dumbledore had told him that the man was in the seat as a favor to Dumbledore. Harry had already checked his vote record with Hermione’s help and was okay with the man being there till he turned seventeen. 

“With the vote of 467 to 299, the Triwizard tournament vote has passed. Old business is now closed, with that we move to new business, the floor is open.” Dumbledore banged the gavel and looked towards Grimjaw as he went to stand, but before the goblin could, a different man stood and started to speak.

“Honored members of the chamber, I have business to recognize. I call attention to the report on the Calf of Man sanctuary losing a dragon, what is being done to track down said dragon, I call for the Department of Magical Creature Regulations to question.” Harry suddenly sat up straight; this was an interesting chance to hear something not reported in the papers. 

A different man stood up, and Harry tried to keep a scowl off his face; this man matched the description written in his mom’s journal, the almost permanent scowl, the same feeling Harry got when he looked at the man; it was the same feeling Harry used to get when Vernon would come home.  

Walden McNair, a man that gunned for Lily’s head, every time they met on the battlefield, that man would forgo any other person and carve his way across the battlefield to, in his mother's journal’s words, “ Cut your mudblood cunt head off and have it mounted with the other worthless beast on his wall.” Somehow the man had not only not been convicted, but he went on to become a Ministry-approved executioner. Harry glared at the man as he spoke.

“The Hebridean Black has not been seen on English soil, and the Irish Ministry has not reported seeing the dragon in their territory. We have sent out notices to the various magical villages and other Magical Districts of the United Kingdom, to keep their eyes peeled for any sight of the beast. There has been a debate on instituting a reward for any individual that brings us information that leads to the capture and or death of the dragon, but we have not moved forward with that plan." Harry wrote down that there were other magical Districts and made a small note to research them. 

“What about in the mundane world, Have there been any sightings of the dragon there? Have the Obliviators had any incidents regarding the Dragon?” Harry noticed that there was a section of people on the other side of the aisle that seemed to react negatively to the thought of interacting with the mundane side of Britain. A man sitting close to the front stood up; he wore light grey robes over extremely accurate mundane wear. Harry found it interesting that the Obliviators were dressed in a plaid shirt and jeans.

“We have had around thirty-six sightings of the dragon; roughly twenty-five were within the first month of the Dragon escaping. Ten were in the Lake District, and the last one was in Gretna Green. We have had no new sightings as of three weeks ago; we will keep doing our and the DMCR’s job as well.” Harry watched as multiple people started yelling and complaining at the Obliviator for the last comment. Dumbledore started banging the gavel to call for silence.  Eventually, the far side of the aisle calmed down, and Dumbledore had restored order. 

“The matter of the Dragon has been discussed. Is there any more new business that needs to be discussed?” Harry saw Grimjaw stand up along with three other goblins; all of them were wearing mundane style suits with silver and gold buttons and cufflinks. Dumbledore motioned towards Grimjaw.

“The first of November of 1981, Minister Bagnold sealed the will of James and Lily Potter without cause; Gringotts is requesting the Winzengamot vote to unseal the will for the sole purpose of determining the contents of the will and relinquishing funds to the individuals in said will.” Harry held muttering behind him as people seemed to realize that the past Minister had broken several laws. 

“Gringotts is requesting the will be unsealed; as I have a conflict of interest begin Mr. Potter's magical guardian, I must recuse myself as Chief Warlock for the remainder of the business. I ask for Tiberius Ogden to assume the role of Chief Warlock.” Dumbledore stepped away from the raised bench and handed the gavel to a different man. 

“Scribe note that I, Tiberius Ogden, will relinquish the gavel back to the Chief Warlock Dumbledore at the end of this new business. With that said, do I hear a second?” Hearing a second from multiple people, including Doge, Harry watched as Dumbledore walked down to the podium in front of him and stood near Grimjaw. Ogden had asked if there was any need for a debate or if they should move for a vote when a voice spoke up.

“Heh-hem, I don’t understand why this is necessary, the family is dead and buried, and there is no need to bring up the past for no reason. We can’t presume to know what the child would think if we unsealed his father and mother's will.” Harry felt his anger well up at the way this woman said his mother's name and called him a child; yeah, he knew he was only thirteen, but he had lost any sense of innocence at eleven when he had to kill Professor Quirrel. Standing up, Harry drew attention from everyone in the room; as he focused on his occlumency to keep his anger in check, he didn’t notice how the dark faction flinched from the almost subtle green glow in his eyes.

“Pardon me, Madam, but it was I who instigated the investigation into my parent's will and charged Gringotts with beginning the process of unsealing their will. Do not presume my feelings when the only people I have spoken to about this are my magical guardian and account manager.” Harry thanked the quick lessons Daphne had taught him about dealing with the Wizengamot; the woman was wearing a garish pink outfit that showed she wasn’t a sitting member of the Wizengamot and didn’t have a title.

“Excuse me?”

“Yes, you are excused, Lord’s and Ladies of the Wizengamot many of you may know of me, and I will eventually sit amongst your numbers when I reach my majority, but I ask now, as the orphaned son of two heroes, would you deny me the right to know what my parents will say and who they trusted to take care of me? The Headmaster and I both agree that the past Minister did this unjust act, and I will hold no ill will to the current one for anything that might come to light today.” Harry hated playing the orphan card, but both Hermione and Daphne had agreed that using it would get the will unsealed faster, and Dumbledore had agreed but advised Harry not to play it often. They had spent the first week of December going over potential strategies for getting the will unsealed, and this was one of them. Now Harry could see why, having stepped down into the aisle to speak, he noticed that almost all of the faces looking back at him were agreeing, and when he turned and looked across the aisle, he noticed that the other side seemed to be hesitant to speak out. The woman who had tried to stop the will unseal had sat down and seemed to be boring holes into Harry with a look of contempt. 

“Well, I believe the matter for debate can be closed, do I hear a second?” Harry sat down as the nerves from speaking finally got to him. He didn’t know where that burst of inspiration had come from, and he highly doubted that he could do it again. Trying to calm himself down, Harry heard the gavel bang again. 

“Very well, with the vote 746 to 20, the Potter Will will be unsealed and read today; Madam Bones, please notify the DML and have them send up the Potter will and the memory orb. At this time, let's take a quick break and allow Mr. Potter, and Dumbledore to review the will and its contents before we resume this Wizengamot session.” With a bang of the gavel, Harry turned to look at Dumbledore, who had been staring at a section of the Wizengamot. Harry followed his line of sight and released it was the same section McNair sat near, and this must have been the families that followed Riddle. 

As the various members of the Wizengamot mingled and talked, Harry and Dumbledore followed Grimjaw into a small chamber through one of the various doors in the main Wizengamot chamber. After closing the door behind him, Dumbledore pulled his wand and hit the door with several spells; Grimjaw noticing this smirked before pointing his finger at the door and muttering a few words in Ghukliak, causing the door to flash yellow for a second. 

“Impressive; I’ve seen Filius use a similar spell, but it usually flashes green,” Dumbledore spoke to Grimjaw as Harry wrote down a note to find a book on learning the goblin language.

“Yes, when the spell flashes green, we know that no listening charms have been applied to the door; if it flashes yellow, then the listening charms have been nullified, and if it flashes red, it means they can’t be disabled or nullified. For now, this room is secure; all the charms will hear is a constant buzzing. Shall we get on with the will reading?” Grimjaw gestured to the folder that a scribe had brought in along with a crystal ball that seemed to be filled with purple smoke. Dumbledore walked over to the will and quickly cast geminio, duplicating the will twice, allowing for there to be three copies of the physical will.

“Mr. Potter, would you like to be in a privacy bubble while watching the memory orb ordo you feel comfortable listening to it together?” Harry suddenly realized that he was going to see his parents. He hadn’t made the connection at first, but he realized that the memory orb meant his parents had recorded something in person; looking at Dumbledore, he saw the man looking at him with compassion.

“I don’t think I could do this without you, so if you're okay with it, sir, I would like to listen to it together.” Dumbledore pretended to miss Hary, wiping a tear from his eye.

“Very well, Grimjaw, if you would please.” Both Harry and Dumbledore watched as Grimjaw ran his finger across the Memory orb, causing an image to be projected above it. Harry’s breath hitched when he saw his mother and father sitting down,

“Last Will and Testament of James and Lily Potter, we hope that this memory is never played, but if it has, then Voldermort has killed us, and somehow Harry has survived. Harry, if you are watching this, know that we love you and we hope that you grow up happy. CAUSE MISCHIEF PRONGSLET” Harry and Dumbledore chuckled at James; it seemed like Lily would be the main speaker of the will.

“Now, this is for Gringotts, and I know that time is money so that we will get through the bequeathments as quickly as possible. Starting with Sirius- PADFOOT - James, not now, we leave you custody of Harry; the godfather bond ceremony should have alerted you to our passing; we know you don’t like using your black family accounts, but for raising Harry, set aside those feelings and raise him as your own.” Harry felt rage at first, then confusion; looking toward Dumbledore didn’t help because the man seemed to be experiencing the same sense of confusion.

“Next Remus Lupin, we know life is hard, and that is why we leave you this; not only will you receive ten thousand galleons, but also, we have bought a piece of property in Wales for your furry problem. This is not a gift; in exchange for the property, we want you to make sure Sirius doesn’t raise a mini-him, make sure Harry is raised with some sense of normalcy- GIVE HIM SOME OF YOUR AND LILY’S RAVENCLAW TENDENCIES MOONEY.” Harry watched his mom's hand come up and cover his dad's mouth. Then she recoiled as he started laughing.  

“Honestly, James, licking my hand like a child. Now to Peter Pettigrew, our loyal secret keeper-” Harry flinched as Dumbledore suddenly stood up like he had been struck. Walking over to the physical papers, he quickly scanned to see if the bequeathment matched. Harry missed the rest of his mom talking and his dad’s various input to watch the Headmaster figure something out.  

Dumbledore was desperate for answers; the mentioning of Peter being a loyal secret keeper meant that when Sirius had handed him the piece of paper with the Potter's location on it, he had been misdirecting them from the real secret keeper. That plus the words godfather ceremony meant a lot more in the magical world than it did in the mundane world. It wasn’t as binding as the unbreakable vow, but it had penalties magically and physically if that bond was broken. If Sirius had given the secret to Voldermort, then those penalties would have been easily identifiable. Dumbledore had seen the intake photos of Sirius Black, and those were not the photos of a man who was suffering a broken bond. Dumbledore needed to see the trial transcripts for Sirius Black, and he needed to know if the man had been guilty and they had proved it. Reading further down on the physicals will, he saw that Lily had included a notice never to allow Harry to interact with her side of the family, citing Vernon's hatred of all things unnatural. It hurt to see that Dumbledore's choice had been the wrong one all these years.

“- We have more to discuss, and we left our instructions in the physical will, but the magic on this orb is limited, so we leave you with this message. Harry, we hope you grow up happy and loved, don’t be afraid to let us become memories; we will always be watching over you from beyond. If you could do one thing for me, visit the Potter Estate's land, just consider it one last thing your mum researched; here's James.”

“Prongslet, I hope you never have to see this; I hope that we get the chance to change this will and make one when we are old and gray. If that doesn’t happen, I want you to know something, we love you and will always love you in this life and the next. Remember, Prongslet, you are a Potter, and Potters are not coasters. I won’t add pressure to your shoulders at a young age, but the summer you turn fiveteen, go to Germany and participate in the trials; Sirius will know what that means and trust me, Prongslet, you will thank me later. Now before your mom shuts this memory orb down, I have one last mission for the Marauders Heir, learn how to be an animagus, prank everyone, even Minny, HEY NO, SEDUCE ROSMERTA PRONGSLET-”

“Harry, you better ignore your father's last wish, no pranking, and do not bloody seduce that woman; I swear James was hit with one too many Bludgers over the years.” Harry leaned forward as the memory orb ended and let the tears fall; he never realized that Grimjaw had applied a privacy spell to him, letting his tears flow freely. The memory of his mother’s last words was a horrible memory, but this one was one that Harry would treasure forever.

While Harry was having a moment to grieve, Dumbledore suddenly realized that Sirius Black was most likely innocent. “Bloody Hell, what's next? Is Pettigrew still alive?”    

Chapter Text

Back at Hogwarts, two girls found themselves in the training room. It was time for a heart to heart; Hermione had been hoping that it was just a crush, but after seeing Harry and Daphne that close to each other, she couldn’t help but confront the truth, she liked Harry Potter. She knew that back in first year, she found him amazing when he and Ron rescued her from the Troll, and last year she never told him that even though she was frozen and didn’t remember anything from her time being petrified, throughout learning Occlumency she found memories of Harry speaking to her frozen body and telling her about his day and the things she missed. There was a memory of him reading spell books to her and being just overall vulnerable. It made her realize how much he cared about her and how her crush had become more. 

“So Granger, are you going to speak or just stand there looking at me.” Daphne was curious as to why Granger had dragged her in here; she had a suspicion it was about this morning and her misunderstood positioning with Harry. It wasn’t like Daphne minded where that little conversation might have led. Ever since being paired with Potter in Runes, she had been developing feelings for him. At first, she had written it off as a crush, but it grew beyond a crush as time went on. 

“I want to know what Harry means to you? I don’t want something happening that can harm him.” Hermione watched Daphne’s face go through a multitude of emotions, and then a blush appeared on her cheeks as she pursed her lips. Hermione was so focused on watching Daphne’s lips and checking out Daphne’s body that she missed the start of her response.

“-for now, I will continue being his friend and see where things go, Granger, are you paying attention?” Hermione suddenly snapped her eyes up to meet Daphnes, blushing that she had been caught looking at Daphne’s body. 

“Yes, sorry, um, what were you saying?” Daphne tilted her head slightly to look at Hermione, causing her to shuffle uncomfortably. 

“Look, Granger, if you think that Harry’s lost his interest in you, then you’re not as smart as I thought you were; also, you need to look up covens of three; you’d be surprised by what you find.” Hermione suddenly found Daphne standing very close to her, causing her head to get a bit fuzzy and her breath to catch. 

Daphne left Hermione standing in the room with her piece spoken, confused, and flustered. Hermione found that she couldn’t keep her eye off Daphne as she left and how cute her bum looked. Suddenly shaking her head at the thought of looking at another girl's bum, she realized she hadn’t achieved anything from that meeting, and now she was both annoyed and jealous, no just annoyed; Hermione was not about to admit to herself that she was jealous that Harry was getting attention from Daphne. 

The Wizengamot Chamber had broken for lunch during the time that Harry, Dumbledore, and Grimjaw had watched the memory orb; when the session reconvened, they expected to move on to the next order of business, but instead, they found Harry Potter and Dumbledore standing on the floor waiting for the session to resume. Sitting next to them was a stack of papers and an item that was rarely used; when people researched it, the item in question hadn’t been used in the Wizengamot since 1850 during the trial of Cygnus Black the first. Several dark families took a wide berth around the Certitudo Orb was, a magical article that had been banned from being used in wizengamot trials since the 1900s due to the fact that the artifact latched onto a person's magical core and would weaken it for every lie told while the object was held. Certain families deemed it too dark, and most thought that the artifact had been destroyed or removed from the Wizengamot storage.

Dumbledore waited until everyone had settled back down, and Tiberius to restart the session before stepping up to be recognized. Harry had been told not to speak unless Dumbledore stroked his beard. They had quickly come up with a plan to convince the Minister to allow Dumbledore to bring Sirius Black in for questioning before administering the kiss. Harry tuned back into Dumbledore's speech after mentally preparing himself for his role if needed.

“- as I have stated, the Potter Will mentions Sirius Black went through the godfather bonding ceremony; what reason do you have to block my request for access to his records, Delores?” Harry almost growled; once again, the same woman was trying to prevent them from getting answers, did she just exist to cause problems?

“The matter is closed, and its the position of the Ministry -”

“I did not know that you spoke for the whole Ministry Delores,” Harry looked up at the woman that had interrupted the pink wearing moron; seeing red hair and a monocle, Harry realized that this was Madam Bones, head of the DMLE and the person who was in charge of the hunt for Sirius Black. “ Mister Dumbledore, I second your request for Sirius Blacks records; I have found my own attempts to access those records block for some reason.” Harry watched as muttering broke out at the fact that the DMLE head couldn’t access the records. A vote was called, and a runner was sent to get the requested documents from the Records Department, allowing Harry time to write down the name of the woman who kept interfering in his business and also make a small note to send a thank you card to Susan’s aunt. 

Eventually, a nervous runner came back with an average size file causing more muttering to go through the room; listening to the chatter, Harry realized that the file was unusually small for someone who had been convicted and sent to Azkaban. As the file was placed in front of Madam Bones, Harry watched as her face went through a myriad of emotions before she cast something on the file. The file glowed blue after a few minutes, and Harry watched as Madam Bones' face went white. 

“It appears that in November of 1981, when Sirius Black was arrested, he was stunned and sent to Azkaban without a trial or an admission of guilt..” Harry felt sick as a multitude of people surged to their feet, and the room exploded with sound as screaming and arguing started across the aisle. People were yelling about injustice and calling for the Kiss on sight order to be rescinded. Others said his admission of guilt was assured when he joined you-know-who, and a third group was calling for a trial in absentia. 

Harry, meanwhile, couldn’t think straight; his whole world had been rocked in less than an hour, finding out that Sirius Black wasn’t the secret keeper, that he hadn’t betrayed his parents and instead had chased after the betrayer and had killed him. Instead, of justice being served, he had been denied a trial and been sent to a place that scared Hagrid. His anger welled up, and he was about to surge to his feet when he felt a hand grip his shoulder. Looking to his left, he saw Grimjaw shake his head and then nod his head towards Dumbledore. Looking at the Headmaster, Harry paled as he saw a look he had seen when he had told Dumbledore that Malfoy Sr. had tried to kill him.  

“ Do you mean to tell me that he was sent to prison without the duty of a trial? ” Most of the room shivered at Dumbledore’s tone. His voice was laced with power and promised vengeance on anyone who had a hand in denying Sirius a trial. Harry was again reminded that this was a man who had already defeated a dark lord. 

“Mister Dumbledore, could you please calm down, the wizengamot suppression runes are about to activate.” At Madam Bones, Harry watched as the headmaster took a deep breath, and the far side of the room seemed to be able to breathe as Dumbledore reined in his magic. 

“My apologies, the injustice that Sirius Black could use this to escape justice because the Ministry decided he was guilty without so much as a by your leave at the time of his arrest.” Harry noticed that Fudge seemed to catch on to what Dumbledore was saying, and then Harry saw Dumbledore rub his beard; taking a deep breath, Harry stood up, drawing eyes toward him.

“As the one who is most affected by Sirius Black, may I be allowed to say something?” Harry looked at Dumbledore, who smiled encouragingly as the temporary Chief Warlock allowed him to have the floor; out of the corner of Harry’s eye, he saw the Umbridge scoff and roll her eyes. “ Sirius Black was committed to Azkaban without a trial by the same Ministry that sealed my parent's will, the same will shows that Sirius Black was not the secret keeper, but instead the man he is accused of murdering was. Yes, I understand that he deserves to be kissed, but I feel that we should get answers from him before we do; that is why since Headmaster Dumbledore has informed me that Veritaserum would not work on a man like Sirius Black after almost thirteen years, we instead will give him the choice of using the orb or face the Dementor.” 

“ I’m sorry, Chief Warlock, you can’t seriously consider this child’s request; the Certitudo Orb was banned from the use of trials in the 1860s, and to even consider the use of a dark artifact means we should instead be arresting Potter along with Black.” Harry flinched as a multitude of people started yelling at Umbridge; Harry found himself behind Dumbledore, who was staring down the court aurors, almost begging them to advance forward.

“ORDER, ORDER, I WILL HAVE ORDER!” Tiberius Ogden had seen some stupid people in his time on the Wizengamot, but Umbridge was without a doubt the dumbest by far. After getting everyone to calm down, he passed a piece of parchment to Bones and had an auror remove Umbridge from the chamber for her own safety and ensure the remaining session time was peaceful.

“Now, since Mister Dumbledore has entrusted me with this gavel for this session, I will make a motion. I think that a suspension of the kiss on sight order is necessary till we have captured Sirius Black and he was given a proper trial; depending on the outcome of said trial, we then move forward with the chosen sentence. Do I hear a second?” Dumbledore seconded the motion, and the discussion started up again with how best to move forward when Harry remembered something; he already had been in contact with Sirius Black, his father had called the man Padfoot, and he had also called his defense professor Moony. Quickly writing a note outlining that he might have a way to contact Sirius, he caught Dumbledore’s eye before passing it to him. 

Dumbledore’s eyes went wide, and he gave Harry a look that promised a discussion when the session was over before turning back to the debate going on about how the lack of funding in the auror department had made it hard to capture Black. Standing up, Dumbledore pulled everyone’s attention to him again.

“I know this will sound suspicious, but I have just been informed that Mister Potter believes he might have a way to contact Sirius Black; he believes that a letter from him using a school nickname his father called Black will be received with Madam Bones permission I would like to pursue this on my own.” Harry found himself being heavily scrutinized by a variety of people in the room. He also wondered why Dumbledore decided to hide the fact that he had already been in contact with Sirius Black.

“I will allow this, Dumbledore, but the moment you make contact with Sirius Black, I want you to floo me so we can discuss bringing him in.” After Dumbledore nodded, the Wizengamot voted and had the kiss on sight order suspended, and Ogden stepped down. 

The remaining time spent in the Wizengamot session was spent going over the now fully released financial assets of both James and Lily Potter with Grimjaw. The goblin had apologized to Harry and explained that he had been unable to give him a complete portfolio due to the sealed will since money would be tied up in escrow. Now that the money had been released, Harry was allowed to get a picture of his portfolio. Grimjaw explained that Gringotts had finally finished handling the Basilisk. The total amount of gold was about to be released; due to him giving Gringotts first choice, Harry received a much higher percentage than what was initially estimated. Given the age, size, and condition of the Basilisk, Grimjaw had been ruthless in his negotiations, and Harry cleared just under thirty million galleons, an amount that almost made him faint just thinking about it. 

While the Wizengamot debated the removal of the Dementors from the school, Harry outlined the allotments he wanted to be divided up between the victims. At first, he wanted to give every person affected by the attacks a million galleons, but Grimjaw had quickly advised him not to do that. Instead, they settled for one percent for Ginny, Colin, Penny, and Justin since they were the most recent victims. For both Hermione and Ron, Harry decided to give them five percent of the amount. Harry then had Grimjaw give both Filch and any surviving family of Myrtle's twenty-five thousand galleons. Finally, in lieu of giving it to Fawkes since he was a phoenix, Harry donated another hundred and fifty thousand galleons to the school in Fawkes's name. The recipients of the allotments would get a letter around Christmas informing them of their new accounts at Gringotts, and for the underage ones, they would be able to draw a five percent interest from the full amount every year till they were seventeen. Harry was also informed that the Basilisk Skull had been cleaned and dried and had been placed in his mother's vault for the time being. Harry had requested that the remaining twenty-seven point six million galleons be placed in the Potter main vault, much to Grimjaw’s approval, with a one percent withdrawal rate in his trust fund until he was seventeen. 

The session was called to a close, and Harry waited for Dumbledore so that they could get back to Hogwarts. Harry met with and thanked Madam Bones, Neville’s grandmother, and Elphias Doge during that time. Dumbledore had finally gotten out of the minister's discussion and walked up to Doge talking to Harry.

“- It was nice to meet you, lad; I swore the moment you stood up, I thought I was seeing your father. Well, it seems Dumbledore here is ready to escort you back to school; it was nice to finally meet you, lad. Albus, I’ll send that letter about the motion that the pink horror is considering.” Dumbledore nodded, and they both watched as Doge walked over to another Wizengamot member. 

“You ready, my boy?” Dumbledore suddenly noticed someone over Harry’s shoulder and tried to shake his head subtly; Harry noticed and turned to see a man walking towards them. It seemed like no one else noticed the man even as he seemed to almost glide towards them; the disturbing thing was that the person in question hood was up, and some sort of magic effect obscured their face. As Dumbledore stepped around him, Harry instantly dropped his left hand to his lower back, where one of his knives rested, and his wand fell into his right hand.

“Croaker, now is not the time, and you know my opinion on this.” Harry was instantly curious as to what the man was going to say till suddenly a small buzzing sound filled his ear. Eventually, the buzzing went away but not before the man handed something to Dumbledore, who turned back to Harry as he slipped his wand back into the holster on his arm.

“Sorry about that; Croaker is an unspeakable, and he has been interested in meeting you regarding the fact that you have had both Basilisk venom and phoenix tears in your bloodstream.” Harry nodded as they walked out of the Wizengamot chamber. Walking to the bank of elevators, they met no resistance, and the ride up was relatively peaceful till the door open.

Flashing lights and yelling greeted him as Dumbledore wrapped an arm around him protectively.

“Mr. Potter, what was the contents of the will-”

“Mr. Potter, how does it feel to know Sirius Black didn’t betray-”

“Mr. Potter, is it true you cast sunfire-”

“Mr. Potter is the minister considering you for an order of merlin for your act-”

“What are your thoughts on the theory that Fudge eats goblins?” 

Harry looked at the man who asked that last question strangely before suddenly finding his path blocked by a blonde witch with a small mole on her left cheek.

“Harry, my dear, Rita Skeeter Daily Prophet, can you give your opinion on the discovery that Sirius Black had not received a trial?” Harry looked at the floating piece of parchment next to her and the acid green quill already writing. Seeing that the woman was blocking them both from getting to the floo, Harry glanced up to Dumbledore, who nodded at him. 

“My opinion is that the current Minister is not the one that people should be angry with; the blame lies solely on the shoulders of Minister Bagnold, who is the same minister that sought to seal my parent's will. The kiss on sight for Sirius Black has been rescinded to have him captured and tried so that he can receive the proper punishment.” With his piece said, Harry and Dumbledore pushed past a now stunned Rita, never noticing her snatching the green quill out of the air and quickly scratching out what it had written. 

A loud trill was heard in the floo and apparition area as Fawkes flamed into the room before circling once and landing on Dumbledore's shoulder.  Harry saw a flash of fire as a camera flash went off, he felt comforting warmth, and suddenly Harry found himself standing in Dumbledore’s office all the way in Scotland. After a quick trip to his dorm for a change, he found himself back in Dumbledore's office wearing casual clothing with his dad’s journal and the map in their normal pocket. 

“Well, I daresay that was an interesting session; I do apologize that you had to deal with the likes of Umbridge, however.” Harry walked over to the nearby seat and sunk into the comfortable chair. He hadn’t realized how tired he was till he was back in Dumbledore’s office. 

“It’s fine, sir; I already knew going into the session I would probably meet some resistance; I just never expected it to be someone so… pink.” Dumbledore chuckled at that before holding the lemon drop jar out in Harry’s direction. 

“Yes, Umbridge is very fond of the color pink; rumor in the Ministry is that her entire house is that color; I believe Madam Longbottom has considered having a motion introduced to ban the color from the Wizengamot.” Harry grinned at that and sucked on the lemon drop. 

“SO, now would you kindly tell me why and how you came in contact with Sirius Black?” Harry gulped at the look Dumbledore was giving him; it wasn’t a bad one like his uncle used to give him, but it was a look that promised a scolding at worst. 

“Well, at the time, I didn’t know it was Sirius Black; I had sent a letter to Padfoot of the Marauders and received a reply back.” Dumbledore’s eyebrows rose at his response. ‘ Bloody hell, I’ve bollocksed’s that up.’ Harry thought at Dumbledore took off his glasses and rubbed his nose bridge while sighing heavily. 

“Never mind the fact that you sent a letter to a potential mass murderer. Do you think you could send another one to him with me placing a tracking charm on it? It seems that some mail is getting to him because I know for a fact that Madam Bones had tried that method before.” Harry suddenly had an idea, a memory of the summer before second year when a certain excitable house-elf blocked all of his letters. If an elf with no connection to him could find him and get around the wards that Dumbledore had mentioned, then who’s to say he couldn’t find Sirius Black.

“Sir, what if I could do more than just get a letter to him and get him here in this room potentially, I don’t know if it will work, but I would like your permission to try something.” Dumbledore just stared at him like he had grown a second head before pulling his wand out.

“Harry, I dare say if you can get Sirius Black to be in my office today, I will let you take the remaining week off from school, but if and only if you’re able to deliver on your idea.” Dumbledore had Harry move his chair to one side, creating a wide area, and had his wand at the ready. 

“Dobby?”

POP

“What can Dobby be doing for the great Harry Potter, sir?” Harry stared at Dobby, who had shown up dressed in what looked like a completely different outfit from his normal cleaning jumpsuit. Dumbledore started chuckling at the house elf’s attire, which was a knight's squire outfit.

“Dobby, feel free to say no, but do you remember how you showed up in my room the summer before second year.” Dobby looked off to one side before tugging on his ear like he was remembering.

“YES, Sir, Dobby remembers; Dobby remembers the Great Harry Potter asking him to sit down. Then Dobby remembers getting Harry Potter sir in trouble to keep him safe.” Ignoring Dumbledore’s questioning look, Harry moved on; the memories of the fallout from Dobby’s cake floating brought up bad memories.

“What I’m asking, Dobby, is you were able to find me before you knew me. Do you think you could find someone for Dumbledore and me?” Dobby’s eyes got real big as he looked between Harry and Dumbledore, who nodded at the elf.

“Harry Potter sir and Mister Dumbledoor ask Dobby for help, OH Dobby would love to help Harry Potter sir, who does Dobby need to find?” Harry grinned; maybe this would be easier than he thought.

“Dobby I am looking for someone called Padfoot; Hedwig has been to see him, do you think you could find him?” Dobby tugged on his left ear this time and tilted his head to the right before his eyes got real wide, and he nodded his head rapidly.

“DOBBY GOES AND GETS THIS PADDYFOOT!”

POP

“Did he just say go and get?” Harry turned and looked at Dumbledore who shrugged at the question. Another lemon drop was taken from the dish before suddenly a loud pop was heard; Dumbledore and Harry both stared at Dobby who had his hand on a large black dog who looked like he was in the middle of grooming himself. With one leg still raised up in the air, the dog looked around, stunned for a moment allowing Dumbledore enough time to hit the dog with a spell of some sort that seemed to freeze the body in place. 

“Hmmm, well, that explains quite a lot about the Marauder's time here at school. Harry, tell me, have you ever heard of the animagus transformation?" Harry grinned at Dumbledore’s question and pulled out both the Marauder's map and his dad's journal.

"Well, according to Prongs, the Marauders became animagus to help Moony with his furry little problem, which explains both Padfoot and Professor Lupin's absence on the full moon last month." Dumbledore chuckled at the wide eyes on the dog, it seems Sirius wasn't expecting himself to get caught so quickly. Although now that Dumbledore thought about it, for him to be able to have the mental fortitude to be still able to shift means he wasn't so far gone mentally that veritaserum wouldn't work on him. 

"Harry, my boy, this is a wonderful teaching moment for me. See, there are very few ways to tell if someone is an animagus; certain magical creatures can sense it; there are two spells to detect them, and of those two, only one of them reverses the person back to their human form. Would you like to learn how to cast that spell? It's rather simple, are you okay, my boy?" Dumbledore noticed that Harry seemed to be shocked by something.

"You said that certain magical creatures can sense when someone is an animagus?" Dumbledore nodded, causing Harry to pale. Grabbing the map from his cloak pocket, he quickly activated it and placed it on Dumbledore's desk. 

“What do you have here, Harry?” Dumbledore stood up and looked at the rather fantastic piece of charm work, and he noticed that the dog was also interested in what Harry was doing.

“Um, well, uh anyway, you can forget about this map? It was something the marauders invented during their time here at school. It shows where everyone is inside the school. I want to confirm something.” Harry unfolded another section of the map and watched as the map showed him and Dumbledore standing in his office while roughly five feet away was the name, Sirius Black.

“Harry, my boy, I would say this is probably the most fascinating piece of charm work, and I couldn’t think of a better student to have it. Now, what do you say, Sirius Black?” Dumbledore and Harry turned to the dog, who suddenly realized he was no longer frozen. With Dumbledore pointing his wand at him, Sirius knew he was caught, but he hoped that Dumbledore would hear him out, and with Harry having the map, he might have a chance to prove his innocence.

“Woof!” Dumbledore just cut Sirius's look, causing him to grin, while Harry looked like he was trying not to laugh. Deciding to shift back to human form, he did so with his hands raised.  

“Before you call the Dementor’s to take my soul, you should know I’m innocent, and I can prove it.” Sirius looked at Dumbledore and Harry, who weren’t as surprised as he thought they would be.

“We know you didn’t betray the Potters, and we know that Peter was the secret keeper and that you didn’t get a trial. However, you do need to face a trial for Peter’s death-”

“PETER IS ALIVE, AND I CAN PROVE IT!” Sirius raised his hands higher at Dumbledore’s raised wand; he also saw that Harry had his own wand held in a low ready position. Smirking, Sirius pointed at the map.

“Dumbledore, the only thing they found of Peter was a finger, a single unexploded finger. If you let me touch that map, I can use it to prove he is alive.” Harry’s eyes widened; Ari had said that the dog had tasted like the rat, the same rat that Ron had, and that was missing the finger. Quickly going back to the map, Harry pulled ton the flaps till he reached the Gryffindor tower. Looking at the dorms, he saw a name that made him sick. 

“The rat’s not a rat, Dumbledore look.” Harry showed Dumbledore the map and watched as Dumbledore’s eyebrow raised slightly before Harry saw a tiny bit of fury in his eyes.

“Well, Sirius, I believe that young Mister Potter here just provided your defense; if you both will excuse me, I have to go hunting.” Suddenly Harry and Sirius found themselves forced into chairs and their bodies bound. Watching Dumbledore exit out of the room, Harry saw him fire off three Patronus. For the next five minutes, Harry and Sirius sat in silence. 

“So, what’s your favorite subject?” Harry stared at Sirius like he had grown a second head; how could a potentially innocent man just ask a question like that.

“Um, honestly, the most interesting class right now is Runes.” Harry looked over at the map and noticed that the common room showed Dumbledore, McGonagall, Lupin, and Flitwick in the common room. Harry watched as most of the students were shuffled over to one side while McGonagall and Flitwick moved up the stairs to the boys’ side of the dorm. 

“So, how long have you been on the Quidditch team?” Sirius was getting ansty; being able to see Harry again and not as a dog was exactly what he wanted. It helped that right now; hopefully, Dumbledore was catching the rat.

“How long have you been hanging around Hogwarts as a dog?” Sirius looked stunned at the way Harry snarked back at him. Harry watched as McGonagall and Flitwick both stopped outside his dorm door. 

“Well, I arrived here in early October; I actually got your letter while I was staying in Hogsmeade; still weird that your owl found me. I doubt I would have eaten if it wasn’t for Hagrid and a blonde Ravenclaw second year. A course that second year also forced me to take a bath as Padfoot, so I think I earned that meal.” Harry grinned at the image of a second year forcing Sirius Black to take a bath as Padfoot. 

“ Look, I have to ask, according to the will you were supposed to raise me, why did you go after Pettigrew?” Harry looked over at the map and watched as McGonagall stepped into the room and moved towards Pettigrew on the map. 

“ I- I know I failed you; I was there that night; I was the first to arrive at your house. I- I- I saw Prongs laying on the steps, then Lily was in front of your crib; I gave you to Hagrid and gave him my bike so that he could get to Dumbledore as quickly as possible. We had chosen Wormtail but let the world think it was me. We didn’t tell Dumbledore about the choice. I will regret it to this day; it was my suggestion to use Peter because of me I got your parents killed.” Harry watched as Sirius started to tear up. Then suddenly, Fawkes let out an uplifting song, and Harry realized that he would support Sirius in getting through this no matter what. He saw that McGonagall seemed to be transporting Pettigrew out of the Dorm with Flitwick. 

“Let me say this, Sirius; I don’t think my dad would want you to wallow. They said to raise you as my own in the memory orb, so maybe you can honor their wishes, but only after we get you free and clear of what they charged you with.” Harry watched as Sirius seemed to smile and sniffled.

“So, have you done any pranking?” Harry grinned and chuckled a little bit. Looking at the map, he saw that Pettigrew was headed this way with Dumbledore.

“Let me tell you about the twins and announcing the return of the Marauders.” Sirius grinned as Harry started to tell the story. 

Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Lupin walked up the stairs to the sounds of laughing and complaining. Dumbledore was the first through the door and started chuckling at sight in front of him. Fawkes was preening Harry’s hair and occasionally nuzzling him, and apparently, the phoenix had been doing it for a few minutes. Dumbledore heard a snort and noticed that McGonagall had a fist up to her mouth like she was holding in a laugh. Flitwick was grinning, and Lupin still looked pale from earlier. 

Finding out that the man you expected of murdering your best friend was innocent and that one of the people he was accused of murdering was actually alive and hiding as a rat; it had thrown Lupin, and now he was looking at the man he spent years hating, laughing at Harry who was in a rather funny predicament—looking over at the rat stunned in the cage he had to suppress the growl in the back of his throat. He had been in charge of keeping the students safe while McGonagall and Flitwick had gone upstairs to get the rat. Dumbledore had been right to keep him downstairs because the rat would have been killed if he had gone up. 

“So now that we have the rat, let us get to Amelia. Sirius, unfortunately, you will have to be bound and manacled. Would you be up for being questioned by the Certitudo Orb?” Harry found himself unbound, and he had reached up to rub Fawkes, who hadn’t left his shoulder. 

“Veritaserum, Certitudo Orb, Unbreakable vow, Legilimency, I’ll do any of them. I just want to get free and get cleaned up mentally and physically as quickly as possible. So I can take care of Harry if that's something you want, Harry?” Harry felt a warmth in his chest, and he nodded quickly, not trusting his voice to not break if he spoke.

“Good, and other than Harry’s dueling tournament this summer, he is definitely in need of a new guardian. I fear my original choice was a bad one, but a discussion of my failures will have to wait. Minerva, you are in charge till we get this cleared up. The Students will be leaving on Wednesday to go home for Christmas break, and I fear I will probably still be at the Ministry till then. Fawkes, I need of you, my old friend.” With that, Fawkes nuzzled Harry’s head one more time before taking off in a loop around the room and landing on Dumbledore's shoulder. Dumbledore, Sirius, and a stunned Peter Pettigrew were transported away, leaving behind Lupin, Flitwick, and an annoyed McGonagall in a flash of fire. 

After leaving Dumbledore’s office, Harry used the map to find his friends. Seeing Ron, Daphne, and Hermione hanging out in the Quidditch stands made him smile. Quickly ducking into a secret passage, Harry took a staircase down to the second floor; he headed out to find them. Dumbledore had things in hand, and Harry would trust the man to get his godfather free and clear; for now, he had his friends to find. Walking up behind Daphne and Hermione, Harry threw an arm over each girl's shoulder and pulled them into a hug, causing them to squeal and Ron to start laughing.

“Do I have a bloody good story to tell you lot”

Chapter Text

“Interviewing the witness is Amelia Bones, with Rufus Scrimgeour and court scribe Marcus Waller; for the record state, would the witness please state your name?” Amelia looked at the man across from her; this was the fourth interview in two days. Two days ago, Albus Dumbledore had appeared in a flash of phoenix fire in the atrium of the Ministry, holding Sirius Black and a rat in a cage, and since that day, she hadn’t left the DMLE.

“Albus Dumbledore, really, Amelia, is this honestly necessary?” Albus Dumbledore was just as worn out as Amelia; two days of paperwork and questioning and dealing with that annoying woman who worked for the Minister had taken its toll. All of this would be worth it when they fully cleared Sirius, allowing him to take over guardianship of Harry, so for Harry, Dumbledore would suffer.

“On Monday, December thirteen, at roughly three in the afternoon, you arrived in the atrium holding Sirius Black and the now known true betray of the Potters and mass murderer of thirteen muggles, Peter Pettigrew, who was a rat animagus?” Amelia looked at the stack of papers in front of her like she couldn’t believe that Dumbledore had solved the manhunt in a day.

“Yes, that is true; Peter Pettigrew had faked his death and had stayed in rat form in the house of the Weasley’s for thirteen years. With the help of Harry Potter and Sirius Black, we were able to determine that Pettigrew was still alive and hiding in the dorms.” Dumbledore took a lemon drop out of his pocket and unwrapped it. He felt like he was going to be here for a while.

“We see that, but there have been questions raised, so to ensure no one can claim we didn’t do our due diligence, we want to get everything on the record.” Amelia took a sip of water and opened up the file in front of her.

“Very well, let me tell you how things went down.”

Flashback two days ago 

Rushing through the halls, Dumbledore pulled a loose thread from his robes and quickly transfigured it into a cage big enough for a rat. Casting an unbreakable charm over it, then hitting it with a sleeping beauty enchantment, and anything placed within would stay asleep till the enchantment was removed. Placing a tracking charm and health monitoring charm, Dumbledore rounded the corner to find Lupin holding McGonagall back. 

“Let me in there; there's a danger to my lions; Lupin, move your bloody arse!” Dumbledore heard the sounds of a fast-moving person headed this way and turned slightly to see Flitwick rushing to catch up.

“I’m here, Albus, I’m here; what's the situation?” Flitwick had received the patronus and had rushed as quickly as he could to the entrance of the Gryffindor dorms.

“The situation is this, during the course of the Wizengamot session, we uncovered several facts; the first is that Sirius Black was not the true betrayer of the Potters; it was, in fact, Peter Pettigrew.” Dumbledore watched as Lupin seemed to pale and almost collapse under that truth.

“Oh dear, what else, Albus?” McGonagall supported Remus until he stood next to the wall, using it as support.

“This next bit is quite important, and I’m sorry, but it will be truly shocking. At first, me and Harry were operating under the idea that Sirius had been tried and convicted for this; we learned that the Ministry never gave him a bloody trial. On top of that, I have personally taken over the hunt for Sirius Black.” Dumbledore cast a subtle cheering charm at Lupin, hoping to remove some of the paleness in his face.

“That's all well and good, but you sent us a message that there was a danger in Gryffindor tower, so get to the bloody point.” Flitwick nodded at McGonagall's statement and looked at Dumbledore, waiting patiently for him to finish his explanation.

"That's all well and good, but now I can't kill Peter; he should have told me; I would have helped." Everyone turned to see Lupin had recovered and was shocked at the anger in his voice. Gone was the kind-hearted Remus, and in his place was one of the men who could challenge Greyback.

“Right, quickly now, without question, Filus, Minerva, if you make your way to the third-year boy’s dorm and stun the rat sleeping on the bed and place him in this cage with a hovering charm, I will explain. If the rat slips past you, Lupin and I will stay down in the common room and watch the students and the stairs.” Dumbledore noticed how Lupin perked up at his statement until he realized that he was staying in the common room with Dumbledore; catching the man's eye, he nodded, and they moved to the door. Dumbledore overrode Gryffindor's common room password and walked through while casting a silencing ward on the staircase to the boy's dorm. It would not due for the rat to hear them before they made their way up the stairs. 

“Everyone, if you would all be so kind as to make your way over to stand against the left side of the room, we will be out of your hair momentarily.” It said a lot when none of the Gryffindors questioned Dumbledore, and all went to the left side of the room. Casting an invisible wall spell, Dumbledore reached into his pocket up to his elbow and pulled out a well-taken care of sphere. 

“Minerva, I’m placing a viewing spell on you; it will allow me to keep an eye on you while you and Flitwick go into the third-year boy's dorm. The rat you are looking for should be asleep on Mr. Weasley’s bed.” McGonagall nodded, and with the cage in one hand and her wand out in the other, she and Filus went up the stairs carefully. 

Flashback ended

“- when Minerva and Filus entered the room, they stunned the rat and placed him in the cage; once I saw that Pettigrew was secure, we quickly made out way back to my office to get Sirius, and I arrived in the atrium with the true killer alive and unharmed and an innocent man who had suffered for it.” Dumbledore leaned back in the chair and looked at Amelia, massaging her temples.

“Okay, so just so I can wrap my head around this, Harry Potter has been in contact with Sirius Black since Halloween, unknowingly. Peter Pettigrew faked his death and spent almost thirteen years hiding in Arthur Weasley’s house as a rat. With the help of Harry Potter’s house elf, you not only managed to capture Sirius Black in a single day but also find the real killer still alive, is that correct?” Dumbledore nodded and smirked, causing Rufus to take off his glasses and rub the bridge of his nose.

“Bloody hell, I need a drink, Amelia; permission to go get a drink?” Dumbledore chuckled when the court scribe nodded in agreement with Rufus’s suggestion.

“Just a couple more questions left, and then we can complete the last bit of paperwork. How was Mr. Potter able to determine that Peter Pettigrew was alive and find his location within the castle itself?” Dumbledore took a second, and he couldn’t reveal that Harry had a map of the school, and he couldn’t rightly lie in the investigation.  

“Mr. Potter, as you know, is able to speak to snakes; as a result, he formed a friendship with one. When Sirius Black first showed up in our office, he was in his own animagus form. At that time, I had mentioned that certain animals and creatures could sense animagus, and Harry said that Ari, his snake, had tasted that the rat and the dog’s scent was the same. As for figuring out Peter’s location, that was through the use of a family heirloom left to Harry by his father, and context clues. Namely, the rat was missing a finger; from there, we determined Pettigrew’s location.” Amelia narrowed her eyes for a second before making a motion to the court scribe to end the recording quill. 

“Off the record, tell me the truth, Dumbledore.” Rufus sighed and leaned back before casting a charm that deafened him and the court scribe; it was better not to hear it.

‘Off the record?” Amelia nodded as Dumbledore leaned forward, “ James Potter, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and I suspect Lily Potter invented a map that tracks everyone’s location in Hogwarts, is able to see people’s true names no matter what they look like; and shows every hall, room, secret shortcut, and secret passageways in and out of the school. I’ve already requested both Lupin and Sirius in helping me create a version for myself, but I will not take an item like that from Harry.”

Amelia stared at the man; to have an item like that would mean that nothing would go down in the halls of Hogwarts without him knowing about it. For a young man like Mr. Potter to have it, she was wise to keep this off the record. Giving up an advantage like that would be incredibly unwise. ‘ Mr. Potter may be getting a visit from me to discuss some things in the future.’ Amelia motioned for the scribe to start the recording quill again, as Rufus ended the deafening spell.

“Well, that is all we needed to know, now I believe Dumbledore that you agreed to handle the paperwork for this, so here you go.” Amelia reached under the table to the seat next to her and picked up a stack of papers, dropping them in front of Dumbledore; they made a heavy thump causing the man to let out a deep and long sigh.

While Dumbledore was developing carpal tunnel, in a building in a different part of London, Sirius Black sat in an incredibly soft bed while his best friend sat beside him. Part of him feared that this was all a dream and that he would wake up back in the cave or, even worse still, in Azkaban. Two days ago, he had arrived in the Ministry shackled but hopeful. After almost thirty hours of questioning under the Certitudo Orb, then veritaserum, then direct memory extraction by the Unspeakables, Sirius finally found himself in a bed at Saint Mungo's with a rotating Auror guard. He wasn’t even shackled; they had cleared him pending the trial of Pettigrew. Suddenly a tap on his hand dragged him from his memory.

“Sorry, Padfoot, you didn’t seem to hear me.” Sirius grinned as his friend, Moony, had been assigned to be his advocate by Dumbledore, giving the two friends time to reconnect.

“It's fine, Moony, so tell me, how is Prongslet doing in school? Have you been a good uncle to him?” Sirius cocked his head when Remus looked down almost in shame.

“I, I haven’t; he doesn’t know I’m one of his uncles. I doubt he would want me to be one of his uncles.” Sirius sighed, it seemed that he wasn’t the only one who had spent almost thirteen years in a depression spiral. Sirius had only managed to free himself from it by finding a purpose; Moony hadn’t.

“Hey, hey Moony, look, we both fucked up, I went after Peter instead of clearing my name to take care of Harry, and you went back to your first-year ways of pushing people away so they couldn’t hurt you before they knew you. You won’t know till you introduce yourself, Moony, and since I will be here for a least six months, I need you to take care of Prongslet.” Sirius smiled when Moony nodded, it was a start in the right direction. 

“So, do you want to hear about Harry’s first Patronus class-” A knock on the door interrupted the conversation. Remus decided to go let the person in, only to shrink away at the sight of a nervous Rita Skeeter.

"Um, is Siri open to seeing me?" Remus, still stunned, just nodded and watched as Rita stepped into the room. Watching her walk hesitantly over to the bed, he shut the door to keep the Aurors from hearing anything.

"Lovebug?" Sirius was stunned; he hadn't seen her in over thirteen years. The last time they talked, he convinced her to go into hiding in France till the war was over. 

"Oh Siri, I just.." No more words were spoken as she found herself in the arms of the man she thought had betrayed her trust; for thirteen years, she had held onto the belief that Sirius Black had been a liar and had served the Dark Lord. She had made a vow that day that never again would she accept the truth because she had thought that Siri had been truthful with her. Now here he was, holding her in his arms once again, not a liar, not a fake, not a servant of the Dark lord.

"Um, do you lot want me to give you a minute?" Remus had stood there awkwardly as Rita Skeeter, one of the most notorious reporters, broke down in Padfoots arms. When Sirius shook his head, Remus just stood near the door, hoping he could make a quick escape from the room.

“Look me crying in your arms if my readers could see me now.” Remus nodded at that. Skeeter was a notorious reporter, one that tends to make most honest men nervous. He just felt like his secret would be exposed standing in the same room as this woman.

“Oh, Lovebug, you became a reporter; well, you always told me that you would; Remus, do you remember that  blonde Ravenclaw I told you about.” Remus’s eyes almost bugged out of his head; suddenly, the reason he felt like he knew her beyond the reporter became clear.

“Wait, this is Elizabeth Clearwater!?” Remus was shocked; this was the girl who hexed him in the bollocks multiple times. Remus suddenly felt the need to cover his manhood when the woman turned and smirked at him. He had always wondered what happened to that girl during the war, now he knew.

“Yeah, I managed to convince Lovebug to take her family and go to Paris until the war ended, except I didn’t expect to get arrested for a prank.” Sirius looked down as the memories briefly overwhelmed him. He started to curl into himself when a finger tilted his chin up, and his eyes met aqua.

“You listen to me, Siri, I thought I had lost you once; now you get better, you hear, if you don’t, I’ll bloody hex your arse till you do.” Sirius grinned; there was the firecracker he knew and loved.

“Don’t you threaten me with a good time, love.” Remus rolled his eyes at how Sirius smirked at the woman; when Rita giggled and started to lean in, he quickly stepped out of the room. He wasn’t about to stick around for what those two had planned. 

Hunger, it felt the pains of hunger within itself as it flew north. Anger and rage flashed through its mind as its wings carried it further, the cold seeped into its scales, and its movements felt sluggish with every mile it flew. Suddenly a smell, a familiar smell, overwhelmed its nostrils as the hunger roared. Diving down, it snatched three of the white things the two legs used to give them. Three whole ones all to itself, with its prize secure, it scanned the rolling hills and found a rocky cave. Letting loose a gout of flame, the rocks heated up rapidly before the small cave became big enough. Burrowing down for the winter, it slowly ate one of the white things. As the cold hit its scales once again, the warmth of the now cooling rocks lulled it to sleep. It would stay here till the cold passed; here was where it was safe for now.   

Dobby had followed the Great Harry Potter’s magic; he had cleaned the rooms he was given permission to clean, but now Dobby was bored, so he had found himself following the magic. First, it went south, to the nasty place the Great Harry Potter used to live, then west till Dobby found himself overlooking ruins on a  clifftop. The sea to three sides, the ruins were hazy. Dobby leaned his head to the left, before grabbing the ground with his right hand. Something snapped, and the haze of the ruins gave way to a sprawling estate. Dobby felt the Potter magic permeating the area; it was the same as the Great Harry Potter’s magic but older. Popping through the wards, Dobby found himself standing in the center of overgrown grounds. A manic grin spread across Dobby’s face; the great Harry Potter said he could clean only the things he knew about; the Great Harry Potter knew about this place, but not how it looked. Dobby quickly popped away only to reappear wearing a green jumpsuit; garden tools lined his chest in a belt of loops, and on his hips were two spray bottles. Dobby would clean this place and make it look proper for the Great Harry Potter.

As the train pulled into the station at Charring Crossing, Harry was nervous; the past two days, he had spent owl ordering Christmas presents and sending out letters to ensure the proper funding would be available; he was hoping he got everyone on his list. Dumbledore had apparently sent a message to McGonagall that Harry was excused from classes as he said, allowing for Harry to get his Christmas shopping done early. On the train ride back to London, Harry had found himself stuck in between Daphne and Hermione, and both had taken to using him to lay on. Hermione had laid her head on his shoulder, and Daphne had laid her legs across his. Harry had been frozen at first and had glared at Ron and Neville, who had snickered at him.  Eventually, Harry fell asleep as well, and the journey to London passed in a peaceful sleep.

Stepping off the train onto the platform, Harry turned and helped Daphne down before doing the same to Hermione. A long hug goodbye from both girls, and Ron and Harry met up with the other Weasleys’. This year Harry was spending Christmas at the Burrow, and he would get to see Sirius as well.  

Chapter Text

The Burrow at Christmas was probably Harry's best Christmas since being introduced to the Magical world. The house was packed, and everyone had come home this year; Charlie had arrived two days before the Hogwarts group; Bill, on the other hand, arrived the day after in a whirlwind, wearing a leather duster and a dragon tooth earring. Bill Weasley was the coolest person Harry had met so far. Harry had set his trunk up in Ron’s room and was sleeping down in there; Even Ron admitted he understood that his snoring was too loud. As a result, Harry had plenty of time to put together a quick last-minute present for Bill Weasley; learning the man was a cursebreaker, Harry had asked Dobby to find him a dictation quill for use. Harry probably should have been more specific because, judging from the initials on the side, he was pretty sure Dobby stole this quill from Minister Fudge. Harry had Dobby return the quill and go buy a new one. When Dobby returned with a new one, Harry cast a spell from Lily’s journal that would transfer words from one book to a new one. Harry set it up to record his Aunt Edith’s account of her curse-breaking stories. 

On the morning of Christmas, Harry was so excited that he woke up at six in the morning. Deciding to go ahead and get the day started, Harry snuck out of the burrow and went for an early morning run in the orchard. The early morning rays splintered through the bare tree branches, and the fog hung low as Harry ran. Coming to a stop halfway back to the Burrow, Harry decided to give the Native American earth magic trick another try. Taking off his shoes and socks, Harry closed his eyes and focused on the cold dirt underneath. At first, Harry felt nothing, just his toes going numb, pulling his occlumency focus up; Harry remembered the memory of opening the runic lock with his finger. Pushing his magic down till his toes seemed to almost buzz before the cold suddenly stopped. Suddenly like the slight warmth of the morning sun, Harry felt it; the earth was temping with energy. Harry was almost overwhelmed at first before using his occlumency to control the flow. What was a raging river at first had been stemmed down to a gentle stream., Harry pulled the energy up into his legs and felt the hairs on his legs stand up. Slowly the energy filled him up, he felt lighter, and the ache he felt in his muscles went away.

With a small hop, Harry’s eyes widened as a foot-high jump was almost six feet in height. Harry looked at the Burrow and then at his watch. It would take almost thirty minutes of walking to get back, and maybe half that running. The time on his watch was six forty-five; grinning, Harry pulled on the energy from the earth and pushed off. 

Bill was sitting at the dining room table with his Dad having coffee when he heard laughing. Standing up, he and Arthur looked out the window and saw Harry moving incredibly fast into the yard. Arthur wasn’t the only one who was shocked, Bill had been around a lot of magic, and he had never seen this before. Harry’s hair was floating, and the glimpse he had gotten of Harry’s eyes showed that they were glowing. On top of that, Harry was moving almost three times faster than expected, the only thing close to it was goblin war magic, and even they didn’t move that fast. It was surreal, and Bill had a multitude of questions; taking a sip of his coffee, Bill watched as the boy stopped and then stumbled. Stepping out the door, he watched as Harry leaned over and put his hands on his knees, breathing heavily.

“You alright there, mate?” Bill noticed that Harry was drenched in sweat and looked like he had just gotten done running the length of a quidditch pitch while wearing a full suit of armor. 

“T- time,” Harry coughed as he tried to get breath into his lungs. His muscles were on fire, his heart was beating so hard he could feel it in his ears, and the moment he had stopped drawing magic, he had seized up and had barely managed to stay on his feet.

“It’s six fifty-two; Harry, what did you do?” Bill watched as Harry grinned and stood straight; his shirt was covered in sweat, and his legs shook slightly, but the boy was smiling.

“Native American magic technique, I just ran three kilometers in seven minutes.” Harry caught the towel that Mr. Weasley had brought out with him. Wiping the sweat from his face, he tossed the towel over his shoulder, taking a testing step forward, and found that his muscles were no longer locked up. With Bill’s support and Mr. Weasley hovering, all three of them made their way into the house. 

“Harry, was that the first time you’ve done that?” Mr. Weasley was concerned, magic was something he grew up around, and the only time he had seen a drawback like this was when someone had stumbled into an old Scottish runic circle. He was hoping that this wasn’t something like that.

“Yes, one of my ancestors wrote about it in his journal when he was tracking a suspect in the New France back in the 1600s. That's the first time I’ve done it, but Jeremiah experienced the same the first time; his journal said it got easier as the Native Americans did it more.” Bill nodded, and Arthur opened the door to the kitchen; the cold chill of the British air was cut away as the warmth of the Burrow hit his skin. The ache in Harry’s muscles had dulled down to the first time he had used the training room, which was comforting to Harry. Sitting down at the table, he watched as a teacup floated towards him. Then a glass of water followed behind it; Harry saw Mrs. Weasley was already in the kitchen fixing a Christmas breakfast. She hummed as she waved her wand and watched as bacon was pulled from the cold box along with eggs and sausage. 

“So this magical technique, how is it done?” Bill had pulled out a notepad from his coat; it was a hard habit to break from working in Egypt. Arthur leaned back and listened to Harry explain to his son how the technique worked. 

Eventually, the smell of an English Breakfast wafted up the stairs and woke up the rest of the Weasleys one by one. The first one down was unsurprisingly Ron, who stumbled down the stairs still wearing his pajamas. He sat down heavily on the nearest chair and piled his plate with sausage and bacon, followed by three slices of toast. 

“Merry Christmas, mate, how was your morning run?” Ron had stopped eating breakfast once he fully woke up. Leave it to his best friend to get up on Christmas morning and go for a run.

“Merry Christmas to you too, mate, and it was good.” The sound of multiple feet on the stairs drew their attention as Charlie and Percy were the next two down. Charlie was wearing last year's sweater and a pair of muggle sweatpants, while Percy was wearing his pajama bottoms and a simple shirt. After them down came the twins and then Ginny; as they all filled the table, the noise level rose as a free-for-all for food began. Harry had already eaten a plate of food that Mrs. Weasley had shoved into his hands before the rest of the family had come down the stairs; Harry was shocked when the plate had been accompanied by a kiss on the cheek. 

Eventually, breakfast ended, and the whole family moved like a rampaging erumpent towards the living room to start going through presents. Most of Harry’s gifts from people not in the house had been left in the living space of his trunk by Dobby, including Dobby’s gift, which was a pair of multicolored socks that even a colorblind person would be able to see. Harry watched as, one by one, each of the Weasley’s opened their gift from him. For Mr. Weasley, Harry had gotten several mundane books on how things were made and the history of electricity. For Mrs. Weasley, Harry had actually learned several charms to create a sweater. He figured she had made one for all of her kids over the years, and no one had ever made one for her. For the Twins, Harry had transferred some of the pranking spells the Marauders had invented onto a letter, along with a pledge to be the first investor in their business; He had learned about that while they had been setting up pranks in the middle of the night at Hogwarts. 

Harry had struggled to find something for Percy; eventually, he had found a book in his mom’s library trunk on the history that he felt was perfect; it was a book on wizard laws and ethics, judging by the way that Percy had immediately cracked it open and started reading, Harry was sure he liked it. Bill was in the same boat; the small journal of Edith Potter’s adventures had enraptured him. All of the other presents had been forgotten for the moment as he read about her adventures in the Toltec pyramids. 

Ron and Ginny were stunned; both had received season tickets to their favorite Quidditch teams and a letter from Gringotts. Ron looked from the letter to his friend and then back to the letter. He did this three or four times before dropping the letter and rushing his friend. Harry was too busy looking at the dragon tooth necklace from Charlie to prepare himself for when Ron smashed into him and hugged him. The letter had been dropped onto Ron’s seat in the process, and Mrs. Weasley had picked it up. It took a gasp for the rest of the Weasleys to look up.

“Harry Potter, do you mind explaining why Gringotts is saying that you opened an account in my son's name?” There was a hint of something in Mrs. Weasley's voice that Harry couldn’t place. 

“Um, when Gringotts rendered the Basilisk, I had them pay it to the people that were affected. My account manager suggested the individual rates; why is it too much?" Harry didn’t get a response as suddenly Ron had been shoved to the side and replaced with Mrs. Weasley, who was surprisingly strong given that Harry was dangling in the air, struggling to breathe from her hug.

"Wait, Harry, did you pay Colin this amount?" Harry looked over at Ginny and nodded as Arthur tried to get his wife to release her hold on the boy. Harry couldn’t see his own face, but he was sure it was turning blue.

Meanwhile, far away in the town of Hinckley, Colin Creevey was passed out in front of his parents, who were panicking about the money their oldest boy had received.

“Oh boy, mate, you know that's going to worsen his hero worship.” The twins start laughing at Ron's statement, causing Charlie to grin and shake his head, Bill to chuckle, and Percy to roll his eyes.  

“Harry, you didn’t have to do this, son.” Arthur had looked over Ginny’s shoulder and was shocked to see that his daughter had an amount of three hundred thousand galleons. Arthur, at first, was a little offended, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that Harry wasn’t trying to offend him. Looking a little further at Ron's letter, he saw that Ron wouldn’t be able to access the total amount till he turned seventeen. It was a smart financial move, and it would mean Ron would be supported after school was over. 

“We went down there to save Ginny, Ginny almost died, Ron almost died. If Justin hadn’t looked through Nick and Hermione and Penny hadn’t used a mirror, Myrtle wouldn’t have been the only death. I shouldn’t be the only person that benefits from the harvest of that Basilisk.” Harry suddenly found himself in another rib-crushing hug from Mrs. Weasley. 

“Oh, you wonderful boy.” Once again, Arthur was trying to pry his wife off Harry before he turned purple. Suddenly a screech drew everyone's attention to the window, and everyone froze as a red letter came flying through the window. 

“HARRY JAMES POTTER, SO HELP ME IF YOU DON’T GET THIS BLOODY PLAQUE REMOVED WHEN YOU RETURN; I WILL LET YOU HEAL THE MUGGLE WAY, YOUNG MAN!” For a few seconds, the room was silent before Ginny started giggling, which in turn caused Arthur to start chuckling, which set everyone else off, causing Harry to blush with embarrassment. He hadn’t expected his gift to Pomfrey to make her mad enough to send a howler. 

After the Christmas presents were opened, everyone scattered to either read a book, fix morning tea, or in the twin's case, close the door to their room and have mysterious explosions come from within. Harry had gone back up to his room to go through the stack of presents in his trunk. The pile was bigger than he expected; looking through it was going to take some time. The most apparent presents were from Hermione and Daphne; it looked like they had gone in on one present together and also sent a present each separately. The present they had gotten him together was a medallion; there was a central piece with two stones on either side of it. The central piece of the medallion was of a wolf mid growl, and the stone to the left was an emerald, while the one on the right was a sapphire. Harry was shocked because the stones must have been expensive for the two girls. As he read the letter that came with it, He slipped the medallion on and felt a wave of magical wash over him shocking him for a moment. Quickly looking at the letter, he read that the medallion would vibrate in response to magic in all its forms but mostly curses, charms, and spells that would harm the wearer. Putting the letter aside, Harry grabbed Hermione’s present and revealed a new journal with a preface that made him smile. Daphne's present was intriguing, she had also sent a journal with a preface, but flipping through the book, he realized that Daphne had filled the journal with Potion notes, hints, and tips to make him better at the art.

Going through the presents one by one, Harry realized that Dumbledore had been right during the first year; it seemed like almost everyone had sent him books or actual scrolls, in the case of McGonagall and Flitwick. The coolest presents had come from Sirius, Lupin, Grimjaw, and surprisingly Lavender. Harry had found Grimjaws present first; he first noticed that the present hadn’t come in wrapping; the present was inside an ornate black wood box with gold lettering etched into the lid. There was something in Ghukliak that Harry would have to translate later; opening it up, he saw a black envelope with his name written on it in gold lettering. Opening the letter, Harry read Grimjaws writing.

Dear Mr. Potter

Before you walked into my office, I had been treating the Potter Accounts as a frozen asset; in a short four months, you have not only increased your financial portfolio by ten percent and have raised both yours and mine standing within the bank. Inside this box is a token of my appreciation as well as a reminder that you are more than just a wizard. 

Sincerely,

Account Manager Grimjaw

Harry placed the letter to one side as his hand ran across the handle of the dagger inside the box. Taking out of the box, Harry was confused about what the blade of the dagger was made of till he touched the blade, causing him to drop it. A basilisk tooth dagger, just touching the blade, had caused the hair on Harry’s arm to stand up as the medallion warmed up. Underneath the dagger was a holster for it; based on the dark green leather Harry realized that it was basilisk skin. The next present Harry found was Lavender’s; Harry was shocked to find a pair of Basilisk skin boots with a holster for a knife or wand in both boots; grabbing the letter, Harry realized that the girl had actually sent a letter to Gringotts asking for his account manager to have a bit of the skin turned into a pair of boots. Harry was touched by the amount of effort she had put in for this present. 

The next present Harry opened was from Lupin; at first, Harry was confused by the box; it was covered in runes and ornate designs. Picking up the note with it, Lupin’s writing revealed that the box was a cursebreaker trainer; the box had runic arrays and wards built into it and had four levels in their settings. Harry smiled and set the box to the side to use later. The last present was from Sirius and made Harry’s jaw drop; at first, Harry thought it was another nimbus two thousand, till he pulled the wrapping off the broom and revealed the gold lettering of a Firebolt. Harry immediately rushed up the stairs to Ron’s room and shocked Ron, who was making a list of things he wanted to buy. 

“MATE, LOOK WHAT SIRIUS BOUGHT ME!” Harry held up the Firebolt and watched Ron’s eyes widen as he quickly stood up.

“Mate, bloody hell, Oliver is going to lose his mind. I need to rewrite the playbooks but first mate, can we go outside to fly it right now?” Harry grinned and nodded as Ron grabbed his notebook before rushing down the stairs.

Harry spent the rest of the day at the Weasley’s outside flying. There was a makeshift Qudditich Pitch for them to truly see why the firebolt was a Professional quidditch broom. The acceleration almost threw Ron into one of the nearby trees, and Ginny had already decided she was going to buy one for herself. Charlie and Harry had actually engaged in a time trial, much to Ron’s happiness, where Charlie had run the orchard course in under five minutes; Harry proved that he was the better flier when he finished the same course in under three minutes. Eventually, everyone moved back inside as the snow started to come down, and the cold had turned people’s noses red, causing Molly to rush them all inside to warm cocoa and butterbeer. 

As the afternoon wore down, Harry eventually made his way up to his trunk to get ready for the Yule Ball that was taking place. After a quick shower and an attempt to make his hair look less messy, he accessed the formal wear to see what he should wear. Right as he was about to pick out the same suit he wore before, he spotted a new outfit on his rack, with a note pinned to the bag. 

"Harry, a little birdy told us you were going to the Ministry Ball; wear this; we promise you will look dashing, consider this a thank you from us, your friends Angela, Alicia, and Katie." 

Harry unzipped the garment bag to reveal a deep red suit with an attached black cloak on the outside with a red inside; both the suit and the cloak were accentuated with gold trimming. Putting it on, Harry looked in the mirror and realized that his eyes stood out even more. Slipping his feet into the green basilisk skin boots. Harry decided to attach the new knife from Grimjaw to the small of his back. Putting his wand in the holster on his right hand, and then Harry twirled the final knife in his hand before slipping it into the holster in the left boot. Standing back up, Harry stepped in front of the mirror and straightened the suit from when he sat down. Harry stepped out of the trunk and waved to Ron before walking down the stairs. Walking into the living room, Harry heard voices; walking around the corner, he spotted Dumbledore talking to Arthur and Molly while waiting for Harry to come down.

“-so there we were in the great hall when Pomfrey comes through the door yelling that she’s was going to have to kill Potter. Of course, I hit her with a calming charm to calm her down. Once I saw the plaque in question, I refused to take it down for her, which resulted in some choice words about things she would do to me. Ahh, here is Mr. Potter now!” Molly and Arthur both turned to look at Harry, who was nervously hanging out at the door to the living room. 

“Oh Harry, you look some handsome, dear.” Mrs. Weasley licked her thumb and tried to get his hair out of his eye before giving him a gentle hug.

“Thanks, Mrs. Weasley, thank you,” Harry got a little choked up in Mrs. Weasley's arms, he wondered if his mom would have acted the same way. Looking over Mrs. Wealsey’s shoulder, he saw Dumbledore give him a nod and Mr. Weasley smile at him.

“Well, Mr. Potter, I believe it's time we get to the Ministry Ball, and we should make an entrance. What do you say?” Harry grinned as he heard the screech of a Phoenix announcing the arrival of Fawkes. Fawkes instantly locked his eyes on Harry’s red suit, and then before Dumbledore grabbed Harry’s arm, Fawkes flashed away with the headmaster.

“Um, I think Fawkes is going to come back, Harry, so let's just be patient.” Arthur was quick to calm Harry and Molly before they could start to panic. A flash of fire announced the arrival of Fawkes, who looped around the room before landing on Harry’s shoulder. Harry had enough time to wave before suddenly he felt the familiar flash of phoenix travel. 

Most of the time, it was almost instantaneous when Harry or Dumbledore traveled by phoenix. That was normal for Fawkes to be quick when transporting someone. While most of the magic phoenix possessed was well documented and known, not all of the magic that Phoneix possessed was known. Thus when Harry decided to wear a red suit with gold trimmings, Fawkes decided to blend his magic into the suit. Where Dumbledore arrived in a standard flash of fire, Harry’s arrival was far more than the standard flash. Fawkes flashed into the room at the ceiling, letting outing a piercing screech as he trailed fire. Banking left, Fawkes began to spiral straight down to the ground creating a spiraling fire trail. The fire grew outwards, causing people to back up and create a massive circle for the phoenix to land, reporters pushing to the front to get the best picture. Dumbledore was to one side, his wand out, just in case this would harm Harry. Six feet off the ground, Fawkes flared his wings out and beat once as the fire tornado above him rushed past him towards the ground. The flames slammed into the ground before another beat of Fawkes's wings sent the bird back up towards the ceiling.

Harry knew this wasn’t a normal flame travel; as he landed, knees slightly bent, he watched as Fawkes wings beat once as he flew upward, bringing the flames that had coated Harry’s suit upward before they flashed outward like wings from his suit, leaving him standing in the center of the crowd with cameras flashing at him from multiple angles. Harry straightened his suit and looked around the room, making eye contact with Dumbledore, who was smirking.

“MR. POTTER, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE TRUE BETRAYER OF YOUR PARE-”

“MR. POTTER, ARE YOU CURRENTLY DATIN-”

“MR. POTTER, DO YOU NORMALLY TRAVEL BY PHOENIX-”

“Mr. Potter, Rita Skeeter, I just want to say you look absolutely dashing; you must tell me where you got your outfit.” Harry turned to the Blonde hair reporter and smiled. Sirius had already written him a letter letting him know that Harry could trust Skeeter, so he decided to put his trust in his godfather.

“The suit was a gift from the chasers on the Gryffindor team, but Lavender Brown designed the boots; she’s in my year at Hogwarts.” Harry looked up right as another camera flashed; once the spots cleared from his eyes, he noticed that Dumbledore had herded the reporters away from him. The only reporter left near him was Rita and her photographer.

“Here, darling, give this to Miss Brown; her shoe choice is marvelous.” Harry nodded and took the card that Rita handed to him. As the reporter walked away, Harry moved over to where Dumbledore was standing.

“I say, Mr. Potter, when I said making an entrance, I wasn’t expecting to be one upped by you and my Familiar.” Harry rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. Dumbledore chuckled at the look on his face. Making their way around the room, Harry met with several people that had voted his way in the Wizegamot session. Several older women also pushed their way toward him and Dumbledore, only to get routed by Neville’s grandmother and another older woman. 

Eventually, Harry and Dumbledore made their way over to their table; looking at the names on the plates, Harry noticed that a Madam Marchbanks was seated to his left, and Dumbledore was seated to his right. Harry walked around the table and saw that Madam Longbottom and Neville were seated along with a woman named Saoirse Kilroy. Sitting down at his table, Harry looked left as the older lady that helped Madam Longbottom route away some of the women that had been headed in his direction. 

“So, Mr. Potter, it seems once again the Potter dramatics have come back to your family; you know I was best friends with your grandmother Dorea’s mother Violetta; she was quite mad later in life but overall a brilliant woman in school.” Harry couldn’t help but stare at the woman who didn’t even introduce herself and just started talking. 

“Um, thank you, Ma’am; I actually don’t know much about my grandmother Dorea.” Harry watched as the woman grinned, reached into her robe, and pulled out a small picture locket. Watching as she opened it up, he saw what he assumed to be a younger Marchbanks with a woman that was laughing. 

“This was your great grandmother Violetta and me when we were in Ravenclaw. I remember the day your great grandmother gave birth to Dorea..” Harry spent the rest of the time listening to Marchbanks talk about the formative years of Dorea Black. Eventually, the crowds took their seats, and the Minister began his speech.

Harry listened with half an ear as he took the time to look around the room. Neville was sitting next to his grandmother, who was making small talk to Saoirse; looking beyond his table, he noticed that Daphne was sitting with her parents along with Tracey Davis. Looking around the room, he realized that he saw several faces that he recognized from the halls of Hogwarts. He even spotted Professor McGonagall wearing a Scottish tartan in her clan colors. He kept scanning the room and noticed that there were representatives from different nations here as well. There were wizards and witches from all over the world in attendance. Foreign dignitaries from around the world had attended the ball, and all the different formal wear from around the world was displayed. Harry saw Chinese wizards wearing flowing silk outfits and Tibetan monks wearing sleeveless robes with large gold chains denoting their mastery. Harry’s looking around came to an end when the Minister clapped his hand, and the first course arrived.

After everyone had eaten, the band took the stage and started playing music, inviting people to dance in the cleared space. Marchbanks had voluntold Harry to dance with her first. Harry wasn’t bad at dancing, but it was embarrassing to be dragged onto the dance floor by a woman who knew your great grandmother in school to be instructed in how to dance. After a couple of songs, Madam Marchbanks looked over her shoulder and smiled; turning, Harry watched as Daphne approached him wearing a beautiful black and green dress that suited her beautifully.

“May I have this dance, Greengrass?” Harry bowed slightly and held out his hand towards the girl; Daphne’s raised eyebrow and smirk were undercut by her blush as she nodded.

“You may, Potter.” Harry felt her take his hand as the band began a slow song. His heart was in his throat as he placed his hand on the small of Daphne’s back and pulled her close as the song continued. 

Harry and Daphne ended up dancing for several more songs before suddenly everything stopped, mid song the band just stopped playing as everyone turned to look back towards the entrance. A flash drew Harry’s attention as Fawkes flew back into the room towards where everyone was looking. The crowd split as Daphne gasped and grabbed Harry’s hand at what was walking straight for Harry. A man, or what Harry hoped was a man, for the man’s skin looked like it had been replaced with wood. He still looked human, except one leg looked like it had been replaced with vines that had small buds of unopened flowers growing. His arm had vines growing around it, and his eyes were deep forest green. His hair was in dreads and was as red as fire. He was wearing leathers and fur and was walking with a gnarled staff. The staff was covered in just as many vines and flowers as the man. 

Harry couldn’t move as the man began to walk towards him, at first, Harry felt fearful and subconsciously moved his hand to his lower back, only to have Dumbledore shaking his head catch his eye. Removing his hand from his lower back, he felt Daphne move slightly away from him and found that he wished she hadn’t let go of his hand. His heart was back in his throat as the man stopped directly in front of him. Harry watched as the man's staff stood unassisted as the man placed one hand on Harry’s chest and the other on his temple. 

‘Peace Ignotus descendant, whispers of you have carried through the trees, and I felt your magic in Mother Earths' veins this morn.’ Harry felt the man’s voice inside his mind and couldn’t look away from the man's eyes. He felt his mouth unable to respond and instead, in his mind, spoke.

‘ Who are you?’ Harry felt the man chuckle mentally as he released his hand from Harry’s chest. The hand on his temple was not removed, so Harry didn’t see the man reaching for something.

‘ I guard the forest of New, young mage. My people are called Druid, but we are guardians of those areas that we once called home; magic flows from the ground, and we guard those areas that have much; if you ever have need of me, young mage, come to the Knight of Oak and bury this at its foot.’ Harry felt the man grab his hand and place a small wooden object in his hand. The druid removed his hand from his temple and then grabbed something else from his waist. Dumbledore was moving towards them now as the Druid took black moss from his bag and held it in front of Harry’s face. As the black moss was blown into his face, Harry suddenly felt a sizzling sound under his shirt before every muscle in his body seized. The last thing he saw before his eyes closed was Daphne reaching toward him while Dumbledore was doing the same.

Chapter Text

When humans first harnessed magic, it was done so by those that worshipped the earth. Shamans, Witch Doctors, sorcerers, diviners, seers, and the biggest of them all, Druids. The average lifespan of a druid is incalculable; people have tried but have often found that, like trees, Druids had no sense of time beyond the seasons. Over time a Druid would become part of their chosen grove; the grove need not be a forest. Druids throughout the history of time have placed many things under their protection. Mountains, reefs, plains, but most of the druids pick a forest. A druid is a nonviolent individual unless someone attacks their grove. Voldermort knew this well after the attack on the Sherwood Forest, and there was something genuinely haunting about watching the very ground beneath his feet turn hostile and try to ensnare him and drag him beneath. He thought he could enslave a Druid to do his bidding, only to learn that no matter what, nature will overcome any obstacle to feel the sun again. 

As the memory of the past played, Harry was tossing and turning in his sleep.

He was flying again, up in the sky overlooking the Forbidden forest as he searched for something. His eyes scanned the ground for the slightest hint of movement before he locked on to a black mass. With nary a thought, he felt himself dive straight towards the ground. Far fastest than any broom, he fell out of the sky, the ground getting bigger and bigger and far too close for him to stop safely; letting out a scream, he only heard a single caw before he awoke.

“AHHHH!” 

Harry sat up in bed as his scream died down, and he breathed heavily as his heart pounded in his chest. Sweat had also built up on his chest and when he looked down, staring back at him was the mark the druid had left on him. Casting a quick tempus, Harry realized he wasn’t getting back to sleep. Throwing the covers off, Harry canceled the silencing charm on his curtains and got up. Letting out a quiet hiss at the cold stone beneath his feet, he quickly hit the other four beds in the room with a decaying version of the silencing charm. It was a handy spell he had found in one of the books he had received at Christmas. Mad-eye had noted that he used that spell to discreetly break into a place without having to worry about canceling the charm as he left. Harry opened his trunk and walked down the room stairs, and headed for the shower. Where early January mornings meant Hogwarts had a chill to it, the room in the trunk was nice and toasty from the fireplace in it. Ari spent most of her time inside, relaxing on the bed since it was too cold for her anywhere else.

After the shower, Harry threw on a mundane hoodie and a pair of gray sweatpants before strapping his wand to his arm. Walking down the stairs to the training room, he slipped inside and shot an incendio at the fireplace, setting the logs on fire. Taking the hoodie off, Harry shivered as the cold, but warming air hit his bare chest. Hopping slightly to warm his body up, Harry started stretching; Flitwick had been on him to do that when he trained. After stretching and avoiding looking down at his chest, Harry walked over to the control panel. His left hand touched the mark of the druid on his chest; the three spirals interconnected looked like a tattoo; Dumbledore had called it Merlins mark and had urged Harry to hide it as long as possible. Putting the settings to five seconds, Harry pressed the runes till it reached the highest difficulty. Walking over to the log pile, Harry grabbed a good-sized one before transfiguring the log into a silver sword. Taking a deep breath, he stepped across the line and smacked a spell away.

“How is he?” Dumbledore looked up as Remus entered his office. Ever since the Yule Ball at the ministry three weeks ago, Harry had withdrawn away from everyone. He was spending more time either down in the chamber or in the room Dumbledore was currently scrying on. It was a bit invasive, but he found himself worried about the young man. 

“Been in the room since four in the morning; how is his classwork?” Remus held his hand up and waved it, making the so-so motion. 

“His theory work is great, his practical work is never in question, but it’s like his mind is elsewhere. He doesn’t put in the effort unless I ask and only if I ask; in good news though, he managed to produce a Patronus shield, but not a defined form yet.” Dumbledore was impressed; his own first attempt at the Patronus hadn’t happened till he was sixteen; for Harry to have a shield already at thirteen lent some truth to his power. 

Dumbledore and Remus continued their conversation for the rest of the morning, moving on to talk about Sirius, the revelation that Skeeter was on their side, and various other things before making their way down to the Great Hall for Breakfast. 

Daphne and Hermione were again down in the chamber; Hermione had been fed up with not being able to access the place when Harry wasn’t there and had found a recording charm in the library. One trip to Hogsmeade later, and she and Daphne had recordings of Harry saying open, stairs, and close, all in parseltongue. Right now, Hermione was casting a charm she had found that would measure the size of a room. She hoped the chamber wasn’t just the two wings she could see. Casting it on Harry’s side of the room, she got back the exact measurements she had counted out. When she cast it on the left side of the chamber, she stumbled across an illusion ward and a keyed entrance ward. Both were for something reptilian, which made her shudder. Marking that for further research, she moved back to the main area. Looking at the face, she decided to cast a spell on it on a whim. As the numbers appeared on the linked parchment, her eyes widened at the size.

“DAPHNE!!”

Ron knew he had changed; gone was the jealous kid he had been. Sure he still felt spikes of jealousy and anger; yeah, it bothered him at times that Harry still had things given to him. What had changed was the aftermath of the chamber, first year had been its own battle against Voldermort. They had actively sought to stop that, but in second year, Voldermort, through Lucius Malfoy, had attacked his family. Everyone had been too blind to see it at first, but looking back on the year, Ron realized that his sister had tried several times to get help, and he and his brothers had failed. Bill had called a meeting of the brothers when they had been in Egypt. The resulting scolding he and his brothers had received was eerily similar to something his mother would have done. 

As a result, he had asked Bill for advice on how to control his anger. It took most of the summer and more than a few slips, but Ron would say he was definitely a better version of himself as of the new year. Sure it was categorically out of character for him, and while some people still thought he had been imperiused, he did find that not being an angry, jealous person all the time had done wonders for his social life. His friendship with Harry had improved, and his relationship with his brothers and sister was better now that he could celebrate their achievements instead of reacting in jealous anger. He had a position on the quidditch team; sure, it was back up keeper, but Wood had also entrusted him to handle his playbook. Right now, he was having lunch with Harry, who had come down with him from the common room after he grabbed a shower. Halfway through lunch, Daphne and Hermione rushed into the great hall and grabbed Harry. Ron, well past Ron, would have reacted in anger to his friend being dragged away, he would have been jealous, but instead, he smirked and started up a conversation with Seamus about the Arrows and Cannons. 

Harry was pretty sure his arm was going to get ripped out of the socket with how hard Hermione and Daphne were dragging him. They were headed in the direction of the chamber, and by the time Harry managed to get a word in, they were standing in the bathroom. 

“So, not that I don’t enjoy getting dragged off by you guys, but could you tell me why?” Daphne and Hermione both blushed before Daphne nudged Hermione to speak.

“We were down in the chamber, Daphne was reading a potions book, and I was using a survey charm to map the chamber. I found a possible entrance for the Basilisk to go outside down our side of the chamber and have marked it clear. Your workshop area was clear, but when I returned to that giant sculpture, I decided to cast the charm at it.” They were at the bottom of the stairs now and headed towards the entrance when Harry stopped them.

“Well, what did you find?” Harry didn’t get an answer as Hermione pulled the recording orb out and opened the door to the actual chamber. 

“Behind the sculpture head, the survey charm hit a massive layout, far bigger than just a place for a Basilisk to rest.” Hermione pushed the paper in front of him with the survey and looked at the dimensions, causing Harry’s eyes to widen.

“We need to tell Dumbledore.” Harry looked at the dimensions on the paper and quickly realized that there could be more than just a place for storing the basilisk. 

“Honestly, Potter, we don’t know what is behind there, and you already want to prevent us from even being able to learn what is behind that wall. I’ll make a deal with you, open the door, let us have the first look, and if we find anything that you think is worth alerting Dumbledore over, then we will. Right, Hermione?” Daphne looked at Hermione behind Harry’s back, pleading with her eyes.

“Harry, I agree with Daphne, even if I think it's a dangerous idea.” Hermione was nervous but was hoping that there were some books behind the door and maybe something that would reveal the motivations of Slytherin.

“Bloody hell, if we are going to do this, then we are going to do this properly. DOBBY!”

POP

“Harry Potter, sir, calls for Dobby, how can Dobby help Harry Potter, Sir?” Harry smiled at the house-elf, who seemed to be wearing cargo pants and a cargo vest judging from the numerous pockets that decorated his outfit.

“Dobby, I need you to pop into my room and grab the armor and the sword of Gryffindor. After that, bring it down here to me.”  While Dobby nodded and popped out of the room, Harry turned to the girls, “As for you two, I don’t want to hear a word; get to the other side of the firing wall and wait for me to give you two the all clear-”

“But Harry-”

“NO BUTS Hermione, if something happens to either of you….” Harry looked at Hermione and Daphne, making both girls' hearts clench for a second. Nodding their heads, they went to go stand on the other side of the firing wall.

Dobby popped back in with his armor and Gryffindor's sword; Harry walked over to the table where the caster was sitting, and one of the experimental rounds was. Putting on the armor and sliding the flare shot into the caster, Harry slid the sword of Gryffindor in its scabbard through a unique loop on the left side of his armor. 

“Activate contingency, Heavy Combat.” Harry waited as the armor slid into place; he watched as sleeves seemed to roll out from the small ridges and flow down his arm, stopping at the bracers and sealing tight. The ridges on the bracers rolled down his hands and formed into gloves. Looking in the mirror, he saw the bottom of the vest roll down to his calves and flare out. The cowl flowed up and over the crown of his head and sealed at the neckline, blacking out his vision for a split second before becoming as clear as if nothing were there. He was reminded of that day that felt like years when he first activated the armor. With the cast in his left hand and his wand in his right, Harry stalked over to the entrance that the Basilisk exited. 

Remembering the phrase Riddle hissed, Harry waited till the jaw of the statue had settled down before advancing forward and firing a Homenum Revelio spell down the gullet of the statue. Getting no indication of anything there, Harry lifted up the caster, took aim, and fired.

WHOOSH

The tunnel lit up bright red as the combo of Periculum and Lumos runes fused together and created a ball of red sparks that lit up the tunnel. Suddenly Harry heard a hiss, reactively going for his sword, he was stunned when instead of a snake, he heard a man’s voice.

“RIDDLE, YOU BASTARD, HAVE YOU COME BACK TO PERVERT MY NAME AGAIN!” Harry just about dropped the sword in shock; before he could alert Hermione and Daphne, he was already through the entrance.

“HARRY!” Harry didn’t wait; rushing through the tunnel, he passed through a massive atrium with several more shed skins before coming to a smaller human-sized doorway. Removing his hand from his sword, Harry kept his wand at a ready as he slowly made his way up the staircase in front of him. 

“HARRY JAMES POTTER!” Hermione and Daphne had been watching Harry around the corner with a hand mirror when he fired the shot from the caster; Daphne had gasped and then heard a loud hiss sound. Ducking behind the wall, she heard Daphne curse Potter; they watched him rush into the tunnel through the mirror. Hermione screamed his name as she ran out of cover. She wasn’t wearing any armor, but she wasn’t about to let him face another monster alone. She was barely aware of Daphne on her heel muttering something about bloody Gryffindors. Rushing through the tunnel, she flinched at the shed skin till she noticed that there was a human-sized doorway on the other side. Running through the entrance, she spotted Harry standing on the threshold of another chamber. ‘ Bloody hell, if he’s petrified, I will kill him.’ 

‘ Bloody fucking Gryffindors, and their bloody stubbornness, why did I have to have a bloody crush on two of them.’ Daphne rushed after Hermione through the tunnel and immediately flinched at the sight of the shed skin. ‘ Oh, I can use that in armor and potions; no must back up the Gryffindors.’ Shaking her head, Daphne ran up through the human-sized doorway and up the stairs before running right into the back of Harry, who didn’t even move.

“WHAT ARE YOU TWO STARING AT…..” Daphne couldn’t help but stare as well; there were four portrait frames in the chamber. Three of them were destroyed, but one was untouched and filled. Underneath each frame was a plaque bearing the name of the person who had once graced the portrait. Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. The only portrait to remain was Salazar Slytherin, who was also staring at them in shock as well. 

“WHO THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU THREE?!” The painting yelling in English dragged them out of their state of shock, allowing them to truly take in the room in front of them, not just the portraits. The room was shaped like an octagon, directly across from them, and on the two sides, there were doors that were sealed shut; underneath the portraits, there were suits of armor that looked like they had not been messed with but had the crest of each of the houses. The thing that caught their eye was the round table in the center of the room. There were exactly four chairs seated around it, and each chair was underneath the portrait; the house crest was adorned on the chair. As Hermione went to touch the Ravenclaw chair, Salazar suddenly yelled out.

“DON’T That horrible no good sanctimonious pile of shite Riddle cursed the chairs. Bloody hell, girl, have you learned nothing in your time here at my school?” Hermione quickly snatched her hand away from the chair when Salazar spoke up again, “Now, who the hell are you lot and how the bloody hell did you get in here?”

Daphne and Hermione both looked at Harry, who sighed and stepped forward to look at the painting. Now that he wasn’t in a state of shock, he could get a good look at the man. He was balding with a long white beard that was connected to his mustache; his eyes were gray with a hint of blue. The man was wearing robes of green and black, and held in his hands was a book; around his neck was a locket with a snake in the shape of an S. 

“Obviously, we are students of Hogwarts. I am Harry Potter, this is Hermione Granger, and this lovely witch to my right is Daphne Greengrass.” Daphne curtsied at the founder of her house and listened as Harry explained to the painting how they came to be in the chamber. As he talked, Daphne pulled out a piece of parchment, quickly scribbled down a note, and passed it to Hermione. 

I think we should go get Dumbledore, the chairs are cursed, and this is more than we expected to be.

Hermione looked at the parchment and nodded before quickly writing back that she would go get the headmaster. She tapped Harry’s shoulder and nodded her head back through the door before placing the parchment in his hand and leaving the room.

“Where is she going?” Salazar pointed at the witch that was leaving the meeting space. Harry watched Hermione leave before turning and answering the guy.  

Dumbledore had a calm day after Lupin left his office. He managed to get several pieces of legislation written up and sent off to the members of the Wizengamot to read over, and then he wrote up a research paper on the use of transfiguration to treat phantom limb syndrome; an enjoyable lunch followed this with Flitwick, where he learned how Harry’s dueling training was going. Thinking about his discussion reminded him of Harry’s first dueling instruction. 

FLASHBACK

Harry had shown up the first Friday they were back at Flitwick’s classroom to find a note. The note directed Harry to a room a floor down; after arriving at the room, Harry felt the need to cast a revelio spell before entering the room. The spell revealed no one, which set Harry on edge. Harry decided to go for a similar tactic to his fight with Mad-eye and pulled his wand out and powered up an overpowered solar flare spell. The moment Harry kicked the door open, his solar flare was canceled, and he found himself bound in chains and lifted into the air by his ankle.

“Ah, good you have arrived. So now that you know where you stand, shall we begin?” When Harry nodded and felt the chains release him as he fell down to the ground softly. 

“So what are you teaching me, first, sir?” Harry realized he shouldn’t have asked that question as Flitwick grinned and revealed more of his goblin heritage.

“Dodge!” 

END FLASHBACK

Dumbledore was still chuckling at the memory when the painting at the base of the stairs alerted him to the arrival of Miss Granger. Apparently, she was guessing different snacks from both the mundane world and magical. Before Dumbledore could cast a spell to allow her in, Miss Grange managed to guess Fizzy belts allowing her entrance to his office. Dumbledore was considering how predictable he was getting when Hermione busted into his office and yelled.

“HEADMASTER, WE DISCOVERED A SECRET ROOM IN THE CHAMBER WITH A PORTRAIT OF SALAZAR SLYTHERIN!” Dumbledore froze for two reasons, and first was the fact that Miss Granger had yelled in his office, and the second was when his mind caught up with what she said. Quickly shoving his chair back, he watched as the girl flinched as his magic flared for a second before he reined in control. 

“FAWKES! Miss Granger, take my arm.” Hermione grabbed Dumbledore’s arm as Fawkes landed on Dumbledore's shoulder, and Hermione was introduced to Phoenix travel.

Landing in the chamber, Hermione watched as Dumbledore rushed toward the tunnel in the sculpture. She was stunned for a second before quickly shaking her head and rushing after him.

Harry and Daphne had spent the last thirty minutes updating Salazar on everything that had been going on; when Salazar learned that Harry's mother had done something to ensure that Riddle had been defeated, he had laughed and called her a credit to mudbloods. Seeing the scowl on Harry’s face, Daphne asked him to explain. The following explanation about how he called muggle-borns mudblood because they were so stubborn to accept magic without questioning it, it was like they had mud in their blood, caused Daphne to gap at the man while Harry was still considering destroying his painting. After finding out Harry had fault Riddle twice, both in his first year and last year, Salazar had gotten quiet like he was considering something. Finding out Harry had killed his Basilisk had resulted in a rant, which was about when Dumbledore arrived.

“- Medovoa was a perfect defense system against Witch Hunters, and students could cast an eye blindness spell and be perfectly safe as she destroyed the hunters. I personally hand raise- Who the bloody hell are you?” Dumbledore was staring at the painting with a mixture of worry and also interest. Here was one of the founders of the school, one of the people they owe for creating Hogwarts, but it was also the one that detested muggle-borns and created a house that was forever unfortunately linked with the dark. Hopefully, the painting wouldn’t continue that unfortunate trend. 

“I am Headmaster Dumbledore, and I see Miss Granger wasn’t wrong about what you have found.” Dumbledore turned to look at Harry and Daphne. He was proud of them for finding this room, but he could immediately sense with his glasses that the chairs, table, and the suits of armor were coated in harmful magic. The magical signature was the same one he wanted to erase from this world. 

“Good, bloody good, remove the damn curses layered on the chairs so we can have a conversation on why and how you're running my school into the ground.” Dumbledore stared at the painting hard before casting an overpowered finite in the room. Watching the magical signature wash away from the chairs and armor in the room was so satisfying. Dumbledore cast one more spell to check that there weren’t any harmful wards or spells layered underneath Tom's spells. Finding nothing, he gestured to the other chairs before sitting in the Hufflepuff chair. Dumbledore couldn’t help but grin when Harry took Godric’s, Hermione took Rowena, and Daphne took Salzar’s chair. 

The following conversation for the students was like watching a tennis match. For every statement Salazar made, Dumbledore was able to turn it around on the man and provide examples of how the changes benefited them. Harry did find it interesting that there used to be a section of the castle for adults continuing their education, that there used to be an enchanting class, and that there was once a section of the school grounds dedicated to housing dragons. The last point was something that both Dumbledore and Salazar agreed was a good thing that was gone; Harry thought Hagrid would disagree. Eventually, the back and forth moved on to more recent times and the things that Phineas Black had done during his time as headmaster. Dumbledore was enraged to learn that the man had attempted to remove numerous wards and alerts while at the same time adding his own oppressive warding. Dumbledore promised Salazar he would attempt to correct the failings of the former headmaster. 

“Now you handling of that Riddle boy, why the bloody hell did you not send him the executioners block when he murdered that girl?!” Dumbledore sighed and looked down; murdering a child was not something he had even considered but looking back now with the information he now had, he could see that if they had killed the boy then, most of the scars that marked Wizard Britain would not exist today. 

“I will be the first to admit that in hindsight, not sharing my fears and suspicions with Headmaster Dippet would have saved a lot of lives-”

“Of course, it's easy in hindsight; that boy was the bloody devil, the last thing Rowena did before he burned her portrait was locked the founder's library away.” Harry heard Daphne and Hermione gasp, and Dumbledore leaned forward.

“Did he take any books from the founder's library?” Watching a painting think for a second like he was trying to recall a memory even though he was a magical canvas was weird. 

“No, the magic of the library would have prevented him from taking it out or destroying them. He spent a lot of time reading mageía tis athanasías , and it's one of the more darker books Rowena collected over the year.” Dumbledore felt his heart soar; that was the book magic of immortality, that was the book Herpo the Foul wrote. Dumbledore needed to get into the library; if he could get his hands on the book, he could figure out how to save Harry.

“How do we get the Founders library open? What do we have to do to be given access?” Dumbledore, Harry, Daphne, and Salazar looked at Hermione, who had been writing down everything in the room. 

“Bloody hell, if I know, you're going to have to find Rowena’s other frame-”

“Wait, do all the founders have other frames?” Hermione blushed when Salazar shot her a look for interrupting him. To be fair, Harry was about to do the same thing, given that he wanted to find all the founder's portraits now.

“If you would let me finish, Rowena’s other frame should either be in her office in the library or in that room she created that changes to the persons wishes .” Hermione's face when Salazar said that Rowena had an office in the library, and he could only describe the look as the same kind Ron had after Qudditich practice and someone said that Dinner was being served. 

“Well, Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, Miss Greengrass, I believe you have a portrait to seek out; unfortunately, I have a school that needs updating and several teachers that I need to talk with; I trust that once you find Rowena’s frame that you will let me know?” Harry smiled at the Headmaster and nodded. He already had a vague plan outline, but he wanted to discuss it with the girls first. 

It was time for them to hunt for the founders, and he already had a lead on a location.

Chapter Text

Trying to fly on your broom was fun; trying to fly on your broom with just your thighs was something Harry did almost every game once he spotted the snitch. Trying to fly his broom with just his thighs while casting spells and reading instructions for the fireworks he was sticking to the towers was extremely difficult. It didn’t help that he was out with the Weasley twins in the middle of the bloody night doing it. Harry was slowly getting the hang of it, and if they won the game tomorrow, then all the effort he and the twins were putting into this prank would be worth it; sleep was being sacrificed for this prank. 

Harry was back on his broom the next day; exhaustion was forgotten; the twins had slipped him a pepper-up while Oliver and Ron went over the strategy they had cooked up for the chasers. Harry’s plan was simple; he was to catch the snitch or die trying. Floating above the field, he scanned the pitch looking for a hint of fluttering gold. Cho was floating beside him, but Harry was using his occlumency to keep his focus entirely dedicated to finding the snitch. Smirking slightly, Harry feinted and forced himself straight down, causing Cho to yelp and follow. The wind was buffeting him as he spiraled straight towards the pitch, the green of the grounds filling his vision till there was nothing at the edge. His thighs gripped the broom as he pulled back; slowly and slowly, he pulled out of the dive. His occlumency shield gave away to the sounds of Lee yelling.

“...AND HARRY POTTER PULLED OFF A PERFECT WRONSKI FEINT, AS CHO PLOWS INTO THE PITCH AND MADAM HOOCH IS CHECKING ON THE RAVENCLAW SEEKER.” Harry winced as he heard that; looking back over his shoulder, he saw Cho standing up slowly. At least she wasn’t down and out. He didn’t know if Ravenclaw had a backup seeker. 

Eventually, Hooch cleared Cho, and she rejoined Harry in searching for the snitch, even though she was wary of following him into a dive now. As the match continued and the match went into its fourth hour, Harry spotted the elusive snitch and dove. His awareness closed as he focused purely on the fluttering snitch. Then like magic, the snitch seemed to sense him and blurred as it started to fly away. Harry grinned as he gave chase. Dodging and weaving through the field, he spared a single glance to see that Cho was nowhere near. The Snitch dove to the ground, but Harry was hot on its tail. Pulling out of the dive, Harry shot upward towards Oliver's hoops. Harry watched as his captain swerved out of the way of the snitch as it hovered at the bottom of the hoop. It was too close for him to snatch out of the air without doing something incredibly dangerous. Pushing his feet up and keeping his hands on the broom, Harry crouched as he flew rapidly towards the hovering snitch. As he was about to crash into the goal, he pushed down on the broom while simultaneously leaping. 

Hermione and Daphne were sitting together watching the quidditch game, it was Ravenclaw versus Gryffindor, and the Gryffindor chasers were something to behold. Hermione, though, was distracted; they had spent the past two weeks searching the castle for the other founder’s portraits. Harry had already shown them the room that Rowena had invented and suffered the rant from both her and Daphne for keeping it from them. However, just finding the room wasn’t enough; they had to search it, and if Dobby was to be believed, no one had cleaned the room since the elves had started using it as storage. A gasp from Neville pulled Daphne and Hermione's attention to Harry as he dove toward the ground. Hermione found herself holding Daphne’s hand as her heart climbed her throat as Harry rapidly approached the ground. They both felt relief when he pulled out of the dive, even if his feet were inches from the ground. They let out their held breath as Harry returned to searching in the sky.

“I swear, Hermione, I don’t know how you could watch Potter do that for the past two years without getting bloody grey hairs.” Hermione nodded and then blushed when she realized she was still holding hands with Daphne. Quickly letting go, she focused back on the Quidditch game, even though her brain was in turmoil over how she felt.

The game went on for a while longer before Harry once again dove in search of the snitch. As he pulled another heart-stopping stunt, Daphne gasped and grabbed Hermione's hand again, causing Hermione's cheeks to go redder than Weasley's hair as they watched Harry fly. They tensed as he weaved in and out of the chaser lines, held their breath when he seemed to sense a bludger hit towards him, and rolled around it. Then they were on their feet with the rest of the Gryffindors screaming as Harry pulled up and aimed straight at Oliver's hoop; Hermione found herself latching on to Daphne’s arm as Harry didn’t break off, and they both screamed when he jumped off the broom. 

Remus had been against this from the start, Sirius still had some trauma he had to deal with, but he was determined to come to watch Harry play Quidditch. It helped that Rita was next to him, even if the woman was talking to Lavender about fashion. Remus hadn’t expected his oldest friend to grab his arm whenever Harry dove or dodged a bludger. His gasping and hissed breath intake indicated he needed that Sirius was worried about Harry. Then Harry dove, hard; Sirius cut off circulation to Remus's arm with how hard he gripped it. Looking past his friend, he saw that Rita’s hand was also turning purple. After Harry pulled out of the feint and shot back up to the top of the field, Sirius leaned forward and breathed heavily. Remus rubbed his arm as Rita leaned forward. 

“Siri, you have to relax, love; Harry is safe, you are safe, nothing can permanently harm him right now. You’re surrounded by people that love you.” That statement was enough for Remus to see the tension melt off Sirius's shoulders and get him to sit up straight with a shaky breath. 

The game carried on, and roughly four hours in, Harry spotted the snitch, and Remus felt the blood in his arm constrict as Sirius grabbed on. They surged to their feet as he dove into the chaser line and weaved through the field. He shot down to the ground and then angled up as he shot towards the Gryffindor Keeper. Remus wouldn’t remember who yelled louder, him or Sirius, when they watched Harry leap.

Flying on a broom was a wonderful feeling. Harry realized moments after he leaped off the broom that flying without it, even for a moment, was even more freeing. He was smiling as he flew through the hoop and wrapped his hand around the snitch. Tucking his chin down and feeling himself roll over in the air, he got a brief look of shock, fear, and elation on Oliver's face. As he began to fall, he caught the sight of his broom just out of the corner of his eye. While still mostly upside down and halfway through an unintentional front tuck, Harry reached out and, with the tips of his fingers, managed to snag his broom. Bringing the firebolt firmly into his grip, he quickly swung up and in between his legs, accidentally nailing himself in the bollocks as he completed the front tuck. The breath knocked out of him, and he had barely enough strength to hold up the snitch.  

“I CAN’T BELIEVE IT; HARRY POTTER HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH AFTER PULLING A BLOODY OUTRAGEOUS STUNT; GRYFFINDOR WINS 320 TO 140, GRYFFINDOR WINS!” Ron and Oliver grabbed Harry, who helped him get to the ground quickly as he recovered his breath. As he landed, he was suddenly surrounded by the rest of the team as they cheered at their win. As the twins looked up, the trigger for the fireworks went off, and suddenly the sky above the field exploded. As the fireworks went off, an animated lion appeared in the sky and roared; before grabbing the Ravenclaw eagle in his mouth and shaking it, sending feathers throughout the sky.

Harry smiled and laughed with the twins at the display; he celebrated with the team on the field till he saw two girls walking briskly towards him with a look of anger on their faces, ‘ Bloody hell, I’m screwed.’  

After Hermione and Daphne got done holding him, they tore strips out of him for his dangerous and unnecessary stunt. Before Harry could catch a break, though, Sirius was there giving him a once over in an overly affectioned way. It was nice and still jarring to have an adult care for his wellbeing; Pomfrey was the healer; her job was how Harry reasoned it.

Eventually, the trio plus Daphne found themselves in the Gryffindor Tower celebrating their securing of the Quidditch Cup, Ron and Oliver had done the math, and they had managed to beat out Hufflepuff by a big enough lead that even if they won their last game, it wouldn’t be enough for them to secure the Cup. Even Sirius and Remus made an appearance before telling them goodbye. As the party wore into the night, Harry danced with Hermione and Daphne. Then he spent almost twenty minutes staring as Hermione danced with Daphne. Eventually, McGonagall came in and shut the party down. She was so shocked that a Slytherin was in her common room; she didn’t even notice the sixth and seven years hiding the firewhiskey. 

The following day the news that a Slytherin had celebrated with the Gryffindors was the talk of the castle, so much so that Harry decided once again to get the gossip attention off Daphne’s back. How he was going to do that was simple; as he walked down to breakfast, instead of breaking right and going to the Gryffindor table, he broke left and headed straight for the Slytherin table. The last time he headed that way, he sat down from Nott jr. and turned his world on its head, according to Daphne. Today he was headed for someone else, a certain Italian Slytherin.

Blaise Zabini was having an interesting third year at Hogwarts. From a young age, his grandfather taught him to watch and listen without showing interest, and the time would come to strike, be it with crucial information or a dagger between the shoulder blades. This year he sat and watched as Harry Potter and Daphne Greengrass toppled the house boundaries and slowly dismantled Draco's hold over the snake pit piece by piece. He helped where he could, letting a rumor slip or allowing himself to be overheard. When the news broke that Draco had allowed outsiders into the common room, he approached Nott and suggested he remove himself from Draco’s friendship. Then Harry, in all his Gryffindor bravado, walked to the Slytherin table and sat down across from Nott. Blaise had to give it to the Gryffindor, and he had a pair of brass ones. Over Christmas, he had returned to his grandfather's Estate in Sicily and told his grandfather about what had been taking place. It was the first time Blaise could remember in recent memory, that his grandfather had laughed. His mother had warned him to keep an eye on Signor Potter after showing her memory of the Ministry Ball; Blaise was still reeling with the information that a druid blessed Harry. 

Now he was sitting at breakfast, the day after Gryffindor secured the Quidditch Cup, and he heard a rumor that Daphne spent the night partying in the Lion's Den. While he put together a lovely platter of fresh fruits and a small morning salad, he heard the tell-tell signs of one Harry Potter arriving in the Great Hall. His eyebrows rose slightly as he sat up properly when he spotted Potter walking straight towards him. 

Harry sat down across from Blaise Zabini and pulled a nearby plate to him. Quickly putting together a light fruit breakfast, he smiled at the Italian boy. 

“So, Potter, how can I help you this wonderful morning?” Harry chuckled; Daphne had noted that Blaise was the opposite of Nott in terms of how they would respond to him approaching them.

“Well, I have a couple of things I wanted to talk to you about; the first is really that me approaching you should get the rumors off Daphne’s back, and the second is what do you know about this book.” With that, Harry pulled out the Guerriero book and watched as Blaise’s eyes widened in shock and a little bit of fear.

“ Non mi dire!, Oddio!” Blaise seemed to push back from the table and the book, “Potter, where the damn hell did you find this book?”

Blaise was genuinely terrified at the sight of the book. It was something only mentioned by his grandfather once in history. Something not a single person at Hogwarts knew about Blaise Zabini was that he is the grandson of Marcello Zabini, the Don of the Italian Magical Mafia. His squib brother was the Don of Cosa Nostra. Together the two ran the magical and mundane side of Sicily. They had done so since the 1950s. Before them, his great-grandfather had run the IMM while a family friend ran the mundane mafia. The Guerriero was written by one of the now dead Consigliere during his great grandfather's time as the Don. It was both a manual on how things were run and included spells used by the mafia to help the ICW forces fight the Italian followers of Grindlewald. When his grandfather found out about the book, the Consigliere was dealt with in a mundane way, his wand was snapped spelled to hold his mouth open, and he was dumped into the Tyrrhenian Sea wearing concrete shoes. Due to the geminio spell, the book was quickly shared far too quickly for the mafia’s liking. It had led to the slow fall of the mafia’s power in other countries, but in Sicily, they were far too ingrained to be removed. 

“Potter, if you have any brains in that head of yours, you would get that book out of my sight. You may keep it, but for the love of god, do not mention you have that book to anyone that's Italian and magical.” Harry quickly shoved the book back into the pocket with his journal and nodded sheepishly at Zabini.

"Sorry about that, Zabini; that confirms what I expected. So how does the grandson of a made man end up at Hogwarts?" Harry smirked at the way Zabini's eyes widened. He had guessed, but Zabini's reaction confirmed what the translation charm had shown him.

"What do you want, Potter?" Harry heard the growled-out answer as the Italian student gripped the knife on the table. Harry, meanwhile, let his wand drop into his hand and pointed it at Zabini under the table. 

"Me, I want many things; for starters, I want Voldermorts head on a pike, but right now, though, I'll settle for this," Harry watched as Zabini flinched back as Harry put out his left hand for a handshake.

"Big brass ones, as the brits say, bloody big brass ones," Zabini smirked and shook Harry's hand. They both knew it was a handshake of friendship and mutual understanding. Zabini had to hand it to Potter; he was just as much a Slytherin as he was a Gryffindor.

Harry laughed and started eating breakfast. As he sat there, he was drawn into talking about what both Mundane and Magic Italy was like, and made a mental promise that he would visit. Eventually, Zabini asked if Daphne had spent the night partying with the Gryfs and chuckled when Harry looked up and smiled at the memory of him dancing with Hermione and Daphne both.

"You like them both then, Potter?" Harry just about choked on his glass of water; where the hell did Zabini get that idea?

"Huh?" That was all Harry managed to say; it was such an out-of-the-blue question.

"Unless I'm mistaken, do you not fancy both girls Potter? If you don't, I'd figure out which one you like and gently let the other one down, lest she hexes your balls off." With his piece said, Zabini got up and left with a smirk. Matters of the heart were his mother's specialty, and he had seen the blush and heard the happy sigh when Potter talked about Daphne and Hermione. 

As Zabini walked away, Harry was left sitting at the Slytherin table, trying to process what Zabini had said; of course, he liked both girls; why wouldn't he like them? They were his friends. What else could he possibly mean from that statement?

Eventually, Harry recovered and decided to seek out Ron; the girls had delivered a note to him via Dobby that they were exploring the room of requirement with Dobby’s help. Apparently, the little guy had taken offense to them exploring it without him cleaning it up, so they contracted him to help with the search. Finding Ron wasn’t that hard; he was down at the Quidditch Pitch with Oliver doing some Keeper training exercises. Since Ron had approached Oliver about being a Keeper, Oliver hadn’t felt as bad about leaving at the end of the year. The way he saw it, he had this year to train up his replacement, and also, there was a backup in case the Slytherins committed some off-the-pitch acts of violence, which they had tried in the past, according to the twins. 

Sitting down to watch his friend run through some drills, Harry pulled out a different book; this one had been in his mother's stuff and was the Thunder-forged Epitome. The book was about a Viking warrior who seemed to be the basis for the mythos of Thor. Instead of a wand, he used a hammer carved with channeling runes and tempered in his blood so only he could wield it. Reading through, he noticed that his mom had taped pieces of paper in some of the later chapters with notes on the spells in the book. One such spell interested Harry greatly because his mother described it as attaching the spell to a portkey and allowing the portkey to activate without anyone attached so that the sound of thunder would roar on arrival. Looking up, he saw that Ron and Oliver had finally landed and that the sky was clear. Shrugging, Harry pointed his wand up and whispered the spell.

“ Styrma,” Harry instantly dropped his book and clapped his hands over his ears as the cloudless sky let out a howling clap of thunder. He watched as Oliver, Ron, and several students there were chilling in the bleachers across the way suddenly yelled out in shock. Some took off running towards the castle, while Ron just turned and looked at Harry before laughing. Figures his friend would guess that he was the cause of the thunder. Picking up his book, he looked at the note his mother had made and saw at the very bottom in parentheses she had put a note to cast a decaying ear muffling charm before use of the spell. Harry smirked when he read that. It seems like his own mother followed the rules of all wizard spell books; you put the warnings after the instructions. 

The sound of someone walking toward him caused Harry to look up from the nordic battle rune diagrams; Harry smiled when he saw Ron, who dropped down onto the seat next to him. 

“I saw you were sitting with Zabini about an hour ago; learn anything interesting from the snake pit?” Harry smirked and put his book away as he sat with his first friend. 

“Zabini asked that I not share the main thing I learned, but I believe that Malfoy will lose control of the snake pit pretty soon. I have to say, Ron, normally by now, you would be saying snakes are evil.” Ron shoved Harry with his forearm before laughing.

“Ha ha, hilarious mate, look, you want honest truth? For the past two years, we’ve been feuding with Slytherin over the stupidest stuff. I mean, honestly, there are some mini-death eaters in training in that house, but not every single one of them. Things changed for us both when we went down in the chamber. Bloody hell, mate, we could have died, Ginny could have died. We barely survived that, and trying to compare it to feuding with the Slytherins just makes it bloody silly. We both grew up this summer, and I don’t know about you, mate, but it's done me loads of good.” Harry smiled while listening to Ron; his friend was right, they had both grown up, and hopefully, they both would move past their immaturities.

“Right enough, touchy-feely shite, come on, Mate, let's get back to the common room so I can kick your ass in chess.” Harry chuckled as Ron smacked him in the chest before they started walking back to the castle proper.

Monday’s, he really had a love-hate relationship with Monday’s now. On the one hand, he had his favorite class this year with Daphne, and then later, he had his dueling lessons with Flitwick. He was done with his typical school day and headed to one such lesson, slightly dreading another dodging practice. As he got to the room, Flitwick used to train him, he spotted a student standing before the first-year Ravenclaw approached him. The small student was shy and handed him a piece of parchment before rushing off; Harry noticed that the student had a small pendant on their wrist as they ran off. 

Harry smirked before looking at the parchment and paled as he read the note. Turning and rushing to the nearest window, he saw Dumbledore and a smaller figure standing down on the grounds. Looking at the note again, and then casting a quick tempus, Harry gulped before turning and running. ‘ Hogwarts, please be nice to me,’ Harry thought as he pulled his shoes off and took off; Flitwick and Dumbledore had given him six minutes to get down to the Hogwarts ground or else. He wasn’t about to find out what the or else meant. As he ran, he slowly let his magic reach out to Hogwarts and felt the familiar surge of Hogwarts pushing magic into him. 

“You think he will make it?” Flitwick and Dumbledore were waiting on a relatively flat piece of land near the main entrance.  Many years ago, there used to be an outdoor dueling platform in the very spot where they now stood, so it worked well for the lesson. 

“According to the tracking charm, he is moving incredibly fast towards us.” Flitwick turned to look at Dumbledore when he mentioned a tracking charm.

“When did you have time to slip a tracking char-”

“AHHHHHH, TOO FAST, BLOODY HELL!” Flitwick and Dumbledore both turned to see Harry almost twenty feet up and rapidly falling towards them. Before Flitwick could draw his wand, Dumbledore had already drawn his wand and cast an arresto momentum , before then hitting him with a summoning charm bringing the boy down to the ground safely. As soon as Harry hit the ground, he started breathing heavily before turning and looking at the covered walkway that he had leaped from.

“I just, I thought the drop was,” Harry fell over laughing as the adrenaline started to fade. When he used the Native American technique in Hogwarts, he felt something different: an emotion that was not all his own. He felt a sense of giddiness and helpfulness as he was suddenly filled with more strength and energy than ever before. His perception had blurred; every staircase had shifted precisely into place, allowing him to get to the covered walkway. From there, Harry had pushed off the low stone wall in one of the arches and realized that he was almost forty feet off the ground, and it was approaching rapidly. 

“Harry Potter, what on earth kind of spell was that?!” Flitwick was shocked at how fast his student was moving, he had seen warrior goblins training, and even they couldn’t reach the speeds that Harry had been moving at. Harry sighed and wiped the sweat off his brow before explaining to Dumbledore and Flitwick the Native American technique, how he had used it the first time, and how his body had reacted to it. 

“Wait, Harry, my boy, did you say you requested magic from Hogwarts?” When Harry nodded, Dumbledore seemed stunned for a second, like it was something he hadn’t considered. 

“Well, Mr. Potter, I believe you are curious as to why we had you meet us out here,” Harry nodded and looked around at the relatively flat ground they were on, “This used to be where Hogwarts had a dueling platform that used by students, teachers, and visiting instructors. It was destroyed in the late eighteen hundreds by a headmaster who believed it unnecessary.”

Harry wished he had his notebook out and was writing this down; this was something Hermione would love to hear about later. Looking at the ground with that information revealed details that he had missed on the first pass. He could see indentions where something had been resting and supporting more weight than just normal foot traffic. He could see areas where the grass was still stunted like it had been covered by stuff blocking the view of the sky. 

“So are we going to be dueling tonight, sir, instead of dodging?” Dumbledore chuckled at the eager expression on Harry’s face, and it seems Flitwick was still charming tennis balls and small bouncy balls to send at his protege. 

“Mr. Potter, tonight you won’t be dodging,” Harry’s face lit up at that, “but you won’t be dueling either. Instead, Dumbledore and I will show you proper dueling etiquette tonight, and if we have enough time, we will show you a duel between us both.” Harry had initially slumped when he found out he wasn’t dueling. Still, his jaw dropped as Flitwick continued to talk as Dumbledore summoned numerous logs and pieces of metal from somewhere and created a raised dueling platform behind his charms teacher. As Dumbledore applied dueling wards and charms to the quickly crafted stage, Harry found himself in a seat that Flitwick had transfigured from one of the logs. 

“ Bloody hell, this is going to be epic to watch.” Was the thought that went through Harry’s head as he pulled his notebook out.

Chapter Text

The next few months were normal for Harry; when he didn’t have classes, he was either working down in the chamber with Daphne on their runes project, training on his own, or occasionally with Flitwick. He was making good progress; after Harry had watched Dumbledore and Flitwick duel, it had lit a fire under him. He consumed spellbook after spellbook, dueled Flitwick once a week, and dueled Hermione and Daphne twice as often. His physical fitness increased just as much. He ran further and further kilometer after kilometer. He even used the native technique while running across the grounds and slowly built up resistance to the backlash; though he avoided jumping while he ran, he didn’t need to check the tops of trees anytime soon.  The months got warmer until it was April, and it was another Hogsmeade weekend. 

Harry hadn’t gone to Hogsmeade during the fall, primarily due to McGonagall and Dumbledore wanting to keep him from running into Sirius Black. Harry had gone along with it but had been grumpy about it. After Christmas, however, Harry had no reason to fear Sirius and a permission slip from him as well. With that in mind, Harry had approached Hermione and Daphne about going down together; their resulting blush and giggled out answer of yes, confused him, but he was happy to be going with his friends. 

As they rode in a carriage with Daphne, Hermione, Ron, and Tracy, all five made small talk as they rode into the village. Harry didn’t hang out much with Daphne’s friend from the snake pit, the only things he knew about the girl he had learned from listening to Daphne. Tracey Davis always made a mess when picking out clothes, was obsessed with Quidditch, and hated Herbology with a bitter passion. Introducing her to Ron meant Harry watched as his friend got into a spirited debate about the statistical odds of the Cannons winning the Quidditch cup over the Kenmare Kestrels. It almost looked like it would come to blows before the carriage stopped and let them out in the village. Stepping out of the carriage first, Harry helped the girls down before nodding goodbye to Ron, who had promised to stay with Tracey. Harry watched as they walked towards the Three Broomsticks, now debating who would be in the Quidditch Cup before Daphne and Hermione grabbed him by the arms and started off in the direction of Tomes and Scrolls . 

Eventually, they left the bookstore without any books, surprisingly, something he didn’t think was possible when shopping with Hermione. The next store they went into was Gladrags, and unsurprisingly they ran into Lavender and Parvati inside.

“Harry, come to get a new outfit or two; I’d be glad to help you again?” Harry smiled at Lavender's question as he stepped forward, not noticing how Hermione and Daphne bristled. Suddenly he found himself being dragged back in between both girls as they grabbed his arms. Harry flushed when he realized they had inadvertently pushed their chest onto his arms; he could feel their breasts around his upper arm. 

“Brown, we can help Harry pick out an outfit if he needs help.” Harry didn’t understand why the girls acted like they were; Lavender was a friend. Still, he felt something inside of him as the girls held onto him.

“Peace, Greengrass, peace, as lovely as Harry is, I prefer the company of the fairer sex. You spread that, and I’ll restart the rumor of what happened in your first year.” Daphne squeaked and blushed, causing Hermione and Harry to look at her and wonder what had happened in the first year. 

“Now, are you two ladies going to put your claws away and help me dress Potter in something stylish?” Harry gulped when all four girls in the room turned their attention to him. ‘ Oh boy,’ Harry thought before Daphne and Hermione dragged him further into the store. 

Ron and Tracey had been in the Three Broomsticks for over an hour, just having a spirited discussion about anything and everything. They had gotten a few looks from some fellow Gryffindors and more than a few from Slytherins, but Ron couldn’t find it in himself to care; he was having a wonderful time. As they talked, suddenly, the place quieted for a second as the door opened to reveal Harry. When they had left Hogwarts, he had been wearing nice robes, but now he walked through the door wearing a black tunic with the sleeves rolled up, showing how much his training had paid off and that round scar on his forearm. Ron's breath hitched when he noticed that the mark of merlin was slightly visible through the open v at the top of his shirt. Harry was wearing trousers that seemed to be making girls around him stare at his backside, something which made Hermione and Daphne look perturbed and made Ron chuckle. His necklace was out for all to see, the wolf head in mid roar, and poking out of the top of his dragonskin boots was a dagger that Ron knew Harry didn’t go without ever since he had gotten those Christmas gifts from Mad-eye. Waving his hand, Harry smiled and started their way with Daphne and Hermione blocking Harry’s backside from the view of other students.

“Bloody hell mate, been wondering where you lot have been?” Harry sat down next to Ron while Hermione waved for Madam Rosmerta to bring them a few butterbeer’s to their table.  

 Harry promised himself that Ron would get pranked before the weekend was out.

Harry eventually got Ron back towards the end of April; waking up on a bed floating on the black lake one Saturday was hilarious for Harry and the twins. Of course, it pissed Ron at first until he realized that he was only twenty yards from shore, and his brothers had tethered him to the dock. After he got back to dry land and chased his brothers across the grounds firing every spell, he could think of, after turning Harry purple and giving the twins antlers, he eventually laughed at his brother's predicament before calling for Dobby to get the bed out of the lake before heading upstairs to the Gryffindor tower still wearing his pajamas.

April also brought Harry’s first actual duel against Flitwick; they had spent the first Monday of April finding Harry’s best stance; he found that while Dumbledore preferred a wide stance with overpowered shielding. Flitwick preferred a side stance resulting in a slimmer profile and making him harder to hit, allowing him to dodge much easier. Harry’s stance was a mix of both; his feet were angled slightly, allowing him to duck and dive quicker but at the same time shield when necessary. 

The second Monday was the first time Harry had actually attempted to cast back at Flitwick, they dueled for almost three hours, over an hour past curfew, and Harry hit Flitwick exactly once. Which was pure luck because Harry cast his Patronus, sending a stag running at his teacher, shocking him long enough for Harry to slip a jelly finger curse in behind the stag, causing his teacher's wand to slip out of his grip. Harry was so shocked it worked; Flitwick managed to pick up his wand and hit Harry with a simple Locomotor Mortis and then a sticking charm when he fell backward. 

After that, Flitwick trained him harder than ever before, his spells became more complex and faster, and Harry realized that Flitwick, up to that point, had been going bloody easy on him. He didn’t win again for the next week, but given that Flitwick was a six-time dueling world champion, he wasn’t as frustrated with losing. The upside to all of the training was that his wanded classes had gotten easier; McGonagall had held him back one day to compliment his transfiguration work and had also given him a book on battle transfiguration. Harry slowly worked it into his usual spell work, finding it easier for the debris kicked up from spells, turning them into blunt spikes to fire back. Flitwick was happy that Harry was evolving his fight style. 

On the last Monday of April, Harry and Flitwick dueled down on the dueling stage with Dumbledore watching. Harry was still losing against Flitwick, but he was better at dodging anything his mentor could throw at him; he managed to shield against seventy percent of the spells that he couldn’t dodge and found that transfiguring kicked-up debris into a shield was an effective tactic. 

“Okay, Harry, this is the last duel of the night; I want you to give him your everything.” Harry nodded at Dumbledore before taking the towel, wiping his face, and taking a swig from a water bottle that Dobby was holding. He hadn’t seen Dobby much; when Harry had asked, Dobby always answered that he had found something to clean and would let him know when it was done. Harry was curious as to what it was but was willing to indulge the little guy. 

Walking back onto the stage, Harry assumed his preferred stance, standing on the balls of his feet, back leg slightly bent but not in line with his front foot; Harry waited for Dumbledore to call go. As soon as the headmaster signaled the start, Harry went on the attack; if he waited till Flitwick attacked, he would be on defense and would never recover. Dodging to the left of Flitwick’s return fire, Harry cast a spell on his foot before slamming it against the stage. Terrae Motus was a localized earthquake spell that was risky to use; Harry hoped by focusing it with the stomp, he could cause Flitwick to stumble. Harry felt his ankle break while Flitwick was jarred from the shaking stage. Pushing past the pain and capitalizing on the advantage, Harry launched an ebublio-maxiumus followed by a shield breaker stunner combo before trying to step to the right and almost blacked out from the pain. Gritting his teeth, he stumbled to the right and launched several Flipendo-Maximus ; Harry watched as Flitwick dodged the ebublio before his shield broke, and the stunned passed over his head only for the charms professor to get knocked off the platform by the knockback jinxes.

“YES!” Harry threw his arms up in the air before falling back onto his ass as the pain in his ankle finally won out. He could feel the throbbing in his ankle as Dumbledore strolled up to him. 

“Harry, are you alright?” Dumbledore grunted as he fell to one knee before casting a diagnostic spell on Harry. Harry saw the look of concern cross his headmaster's face before feeling his leg being wrapped in bandages at the wave of Dumbledore’s wand.

“I say, Mr. Potter, that was a perilous thing to do but well done on beating me so soundly.” Harry grinned as Flitwick jogged up; Harry saw a bit of blood on his mentor’s face before Dumbledore turned and waved his wand over the charms teacher. Harry found himself being levitated up, and all three of them began to trek to the hospital wing. 

“Headmaster, why have you come calling after curfew? Oh, bloody hell, Mr. Potter, I should have known you would be the reason for this after the curfew visit.” Harry tried to smile at Madam Pomfrey and felt a twig of pain in his ankle when she poked it, causing him to groan in pain. 

“Well then, come along, Mr. Potter; your bed is empty, and I haven’t seen you in a few months, so it was a given at this point.” Harry sighed heavily as he was levitated to his bed and hit with a sticking charm. He did grin when Madam Pomfrey turned on Dumbledore and Flitwick and began to rip into them. 

The month of May brought anxiety-filled Hermione again, except this time Harry found that Daphne was able to curb her more extreme reactions to the exams coming up. For the first time, Harry was not as nervous about his end-of-the-year exams; the only class he felt would be an issue was because of Snape himself. Daphne had been helping him with potions, and it was amazing what having an instructor who didn’t make snide remarks at him did for his potion-making ability.

Daphne and Harry, meanwhile, had been working on their rune project more instead of going for the disillusioned and semi-permanent sticking wand holsters. They decided to try something more interesting and based on the runic shield Harry had found in the room. It was slow, but considering they had till the OWLs to present a workable model, they were further ahead in their research than the other class members, including Hermione and Susan. 

Making his way down to the Great Hall one day later in May, Harry spotted Daphne sitting at the Slytherin table eating breakfast; heading to Daphne, he looked over at the Gryffindor table, and he didn’t see Hermione, which given it was a Saturday meant she was most likely in the library studying. Ron definitely wasn’t down yet, still asleep in bed. Throwing a leg over one of the benches and sitting down beside Daphne, Harry rested his head on her shoulder sideways to look at the paper she was reading.

“Potter, what the bloody hell are you doing?” Daphne hissed at him while trying to control her blush at Harry laying his head on her shoulder. She had just about snapped her wand out and hexed the person till she realized it was him.

“Trying to read the paper, but your hogging it; budge up, let me look at that article.” Daphne sighed and scooted slightly over, allowing Harry to sit right up against her as they read the paper. The article in question was about the dragon being spotted in Scotland, and the theory was that the Hebridean was heading back to the islands from which it was named and that the Ministry would be sending the DCRM to wait for the Dragon to arrive so that it could be captured. Harry doubt Mcnair would actually attempt to capture the dragon; instead, he would probably kill it with the Axe that his mom mentioned in her journal. 

Eventually, breakfast ended, and Daphne went to find Hermione while Harry went to the chamber. He had taken to practicing with the gladius down there, finding the shorter blade was light enough to wield one-handed, without losing power when he struck one of the mannequins that Dobby had acquired.

The second Monday of May brought another duel; Harry won more than once for the first time since they had started dueling. Three times Harry managed to either disarm, knock off the platform, or actually knock out his charms professor. Given that those three times were three out of almost thirty straight duels would have discouraged Harry if it wasn’t for Flitwick telling him he was proud of him.

The last week of May brought a welcome break in the form of a Hogsmeade weekend; Harry and Daphne had hit Hermione with a stunner before Harry carried her out of the library and down through the doors before Daphne hit her with a Rennervate. Hermione was pissed at first, till she realized that Harry was carrying her without issue, and her blush hit her cheeks full force. She stuck her tongue out at Daphne when the girl gave her a knowing smirk. Getting into the carriage< Harry sat Hermione on the bench before sitting on the bench across from her. Daphne got into the carriage and sat down with Hermione before throwing her legs up and onto Harry’s lap. Harry held his hands up for a second before looking at Hermione, who smirked before stealthy pointing her wand at Daphne and hitting her with a Petrificus Totalus, they had learned that Daphne was extremely ticklish back in February, so pulling the girl's shoes off, Harry immediately began tickling her feet. The way Daphne’s eyes reacted sent both Hermione and Harry giggling at Daphne when Hermione released her from the full body bind, and she immediately tucked her feet under her and blushed hard. 

Getting to the  Village, they quickly exited the carriage to avoid Daphne’s wand. Ducking low and rushing towards the Three Broomsticks, Harry and Hermione were laughing and giggling as they ran. Walking through the door, Daphne huffed before signaling to Rosmerta for three butterbeers their way.

Hunger, Pain, Fire, Rage was what it felt as it flew; the cave had served it well till the stock of white fluffy creatures had disappeared, it had raged greatly when its food was gone. Soon the warmth hit its scales, and its blood didn’t flow slowly. Taking to the air, it winged north and let its senses reach out. Its ears returned nothing but the wind at; first, its nose returned the lingering of something, then suddenly there north, not the lands it once called home, but near, it could smell something, and its stomach twisted as the hunger hit. High above, it circled as its eyes spotted two-legged ones; it hated two-legged ones. Letting out nair a sound, it dropped. Flaring its wings, it slammed into the ground and raised its head to let out a roar.

Hermione was nervous; she planned on asking both Daphne and Harry what they were; this was the fourth sort of date-like visit to Hogsmeade that the three of them had gone on since Christmas. The first visit had been back in February, specifically during Valentine's Day weekend, something that Harry didn’t clock, but the girls had. The next couple had been a group visit with Ron and Tracey, but they tended to go their separate ways once they got to the village proper. She had done as Daphne had suggested and read up on covens of three. An original coven of three had been three witches conducting ritual magic, but over time coven of three became more than just for ritual magic. Three was a powerful number in their world, and tying three individuals' magic and soul together in a marriage ritual was seen as the strongest magical bond possible. It had fallen out of fashion when the statute of secrecy came into effect. The thought of marrying Daphne and Harry had given her some rather interesting dreams for weeks after she had read about three covens. It had definitely shocked her when one of her dreams had also been about marrying Daphne. She had confided in Lavender about her feelings, and after waiting for Lavender to stop squealing in happiness, she was introduced to what she was. At first, she wanted to resist the label and bury the feelings she had for Daphne deep down, but the more time she spent with Daphne in close contact, she couldn’t help but notice that Daphne displayed just as much interest in her as she did in Harry. 

Sitting with Harry and Daphne now in the Three Broomsticks, she started to summon up her courage to ask her question when suddenly, she heard a scream before...

BOOM

An earth-shaking roar ripped through the area, and the windows rattled. She suddenly watched as Harry rushed out of the tavern into the street with her and Daphne at his hills. Standing over five hundred meters away was a massive black dragon, and she felt something grip her heart as she watched the boy she was falling in love with started running straight at the beast.   

Chapter Text

Dumbledore stared at the remains of the Blackpool killer lying in the main street of Hogsmeade; looking around, he saw the ruins of a couple of buildings and aurors walking around the scene. Several reporters hung back, taking picture after picture. Turning away from the dragon, he walked over to his brother Aberforth who was standing near the entrance to the Hogshead.

“So, think you could tell me what happened or at least let me see the memory?” Aberforth sighed before reaching into his pocket and holding out a vial with a sliver of memory already inside.

“I tell you, that boy put up a hell of a fight, kinda reminded me of the war there for a minute. Couldn’t help him, of course; believe me, I bloody tried, but I was busy shielding the civilians and getting them into the pub. 

“Aberforth, could you make sure no one hauls the dragon away? I’ve sent a letter to Gringotts via Fawkes, and I am hopeful they will send a harvesting team.” Dumbledore cast a small stasis spell over the dragon; fresh blood would be helpful for a number of things.

“You're not my bloody boss, brother, but sure for the kid, I will do it.” With that said, Dumbledore began the walk back to the castle to see the memory, though, from the accounts of Daphne and Hermione, he had an incomplete picture of what happened.   

Five Hours before

Harry didn’t think about it; as soon as the dragon released a gout of flame and set a nearby building on fire, he was already running. Wand in one hand, Harry yelled out in his mind.

“ DOBBY, IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, I NEED A SWORD! ” His plea answered as the house elf popped into being with the gladius; putting aside the fact that Dobby had, in fact, heard him, Harry grabbed the handle of the sword before pulling it clear of the sheath as he spun around the house elf and looked him in the eyes before yelling aloud, “DOBBY KEEP MY GIRLS SAFE!” 

Harry completed his turn and kept running straight at the massive dragon with his piece said. From the corner of his eyes, he saw a man in a red cloak summoning earthen shields from the ground and directing people into alleyways out of sight of the dragon. He saw a witch twist on her heel and disappear from the street. Further on, he saw a man with a cane trying and struggling to escape the dragon's sight. Harry gritted his teeth and surged forward towards the man. Holding his wand with his forefinger as it pressed against his thumb, Harry swung his hand down in a chopping motion while stomping with his foot at the same as he uttered the words from the Defenders Codex “ De máo.”

Earthern Spears broke from the ground and surged upward to the dragon; points of the spears were blunted while others were sharp as sword points. The spears slamming into the dragon broke against its skin and did nothing to it other than cause the Dragon to let out a roar ripping through the air and sending some of the stunned people finally running, screams on the tip of their tongues. Harry, meanwhile, pushed past the crowd and continued running toward the dragon; pulling his cloak off as he did, he tossed it into the arms of a passing Ravenclaw. Hoping it would work, Harry flipped his wand around and cast two spells on himself,  Sui tutela and Fánghuǒ dùn; one was a Latin-based spell that applied a self-protection shield to his body, it was useless against spells, but physical attacks would be significantly diminished. The second spell was one that Harry hoped worked against dragon fire, given that the author had written that the spell supposedly protected houses from a dragon rampage in the early 1200s. Harry hoped the spell would hold up against the Hebridean's fire since it was nowhere near as hot as a Chinese Fireball’s.  Spinning his wand back around, his eyes widened when the dragon started to lunge for a woman that was running past.

“ Bloody hell, I need to get its attention!” Harry thought before slashing his wand and casting saggito, sending multiple arrows racing toward the dragon that was now only fifty feet away. While they bounced harmlessly against the dragon's skin, they did serve to cause the dragon to flair its wings. Harry’s eyes widened as the wings rushed straight out and slammed into him. The protection spell on Harry did its job in reducing the damage he received so that instead of being knocked unconscious as he slammed into a nearby business window, he broke a rib as he shattered the glass and the table on the other side.

Groaning as he sat up, Harry looked over to see an extremely shocked woman with a cup of tea in her hand. Quickly rolling back onto his shoulders before pushing with his hands, landing on his feet, and pulling his shirt back down. 

“Sorry for that; now you should get going; there's a dragon out and about.” With his piece said, Harry jumped back through the window and rushed towards the dragon, bending down and grabbing the dropped sword as he did. Judging by the red cloak, the dragon was being engaged by an Auror, and the auror was not fairing well. Harry realized that this was his chance. With the dragon distracted by the auror, Harry rushed to get behind the dragon, pointing his wand at a spot under the dragon; Harry slashed upward as he whispered the Chinese spell once again. The earthen spears slammed against the armored scales of the chest and drove the dragon's attempt to burn the auror upward. 

Ducking underneath the wing, Harry pointed his wand upward and launched a more dangerous spell chain, piercing hex followed by a cutting curse, and then finally aimed at the very front of the dragon's wing where the bone was; Harry nailed it with Ossio Dispersimus , while the cutting curse and piercing hex did nothing more than annoy the dragon as they splashed harmlessly against the dragon's skin. Still, the final spell was something that affected the bones and, for some reason, managed to cause the pectoral girdle of the dragon wing to vanish. As the dragon wing went limp, Harry barely managed to roll out of the way as the wing collapsed behind him. 

“ OH SHITE! ” The dragon was turning towards him, and as he managed to dive over the now ankle-height wing before it knocked him off his feet, he came up facing the dragon's face. As the dragon roared, Harry felt his shirt being billowed as he felt the hot, almost burning breath hit his skin. Staring into the teeth-filled maul, he felt the same fear when facing the Basilisk. Then the memory hit; if he hadn’t turned that fear into determination, Ginny would have died; if he didn’t do the same now, then Daphne and Hermione and who knows else would die. As the thought of his girls dying without him knowing what they saw him as filled his mind, he pointed his wand into the open maul of the dragon, where he could see a heat haze forming and cast the first spell that came to mind. 

It’s an interesting thing, Langlok; according to Lily’s journal, Snape had invented the spell, which was why it was stuck in Harry’s head. His mom had praised the spell creation, citing that since very few wizards took the time to learn silent casting, it was handy for leaving a wizard unable to cast spells. His mother probably never expected Harry to cast a spell on the open mouth of a dragon or for that spell to cause the tongue to slam up against the roof of the dragon's mouth, causing the fluid from the sac to explode inside its mouth.

The resulting fireball sent Harry flying, the front of his shirt scorched, and his skin burned as his legs smacked into the dragon's wing; he barely managed to keep both his wand and the sword in his hands as he flipped head over ass. Tucking his chin in, Harry curled till his feet were the first thing to hit the ground; stabbing his sword down, Harry skidded across the ground as the gladius dug a groove through the ground. Harry realized in that instant that the dragon didn’t care about anyone else; after it reared back from the explosion going off in its throat, it let out yet another bone-rattling roar that seemed almost pained. Then the dragon looked right at him, and Harry gulped at the malice and pure intent to see him dead in its eyes. 

Harry, at that moment, made a choice; there was no way the dragon would leave him alone; up until now, he hadn’t really had a plan other than to distract the dragon until reinforcement arrived. He could see now that it wouldn’t arrive in time to prevent his death, so now it was him or the dragon, and he really wanted to keep on living. Pointing his wand at himself, he uttered the words in his father's journal, sjálfsblekkingu; the Norse illusion spell was something his father used heavily to fight the death eaters. Harry hoped that the same spell would work on the dragon. As he ran towards the wing that was missing a wing, he watched as another almost solid version of himself ran around the other side of the dragon. 

With his usual Potter luck, instead of turning and trying to snap at him, the dragon's head turned to the illusion and tried to attack it. Scrambling up the wing of the dragon, Harry leaped off its back and managed to hook his arm around one of its spines; now, with a view of the other wing, Harry quickly aimed and fired off another bone breaker and was rewarded with the spell doing nothing more than alerting the dragon to his presence. Quickly scrambling to get his feet underneath him, he suddenly went flipping head over arse as the dragon stood up on its hind legs and let out a massive roar. One wing flapped uselessly in the wind as it bellowed. Harry could not catch himself as he fell off the dragon, slammed into the ground, and got the wind knocked out of him as the pain of the broken rib pierced his adrenaline rush. Quickly scrambling to get from under the ass end of the dragon, Harry watched as it flopped back down and began trying to turn towards him, albeit slowly. 

BAM

Harry groaned as the tail slammed into his calf and knocked him off his feet again; quickly rolling backward and onto his feet, he grabbed the gladius and decided it was time to put this to the end. Quickly putting distance between himself and the dragon, he grabbed the back of his shoes and pulled them off before throwing them at a nearby wall and sticking them in place. With his bare feet now touching the Scottish earth, he reached out.

' Hogwarts, Mother earth, if you can hear me, I need your help see what I see, feel what I feel, and help me defend this land' Harry felt a sense of determination flood him, he felt his legs buzzing, and he felt that same adrenaline high he always got when he was flying his broom. He felt the mark on his chest heat up slightly as he slipped the wand back into the holster and took the sword into his right hand. 

“COME ON, YOU OVERGROWN WANKER!” Harry rushed straight at the dragon as fast as the day he first successfully used the earth draw. At the last second, he dropped into a slide and swung his sword up as he carved a cut along the dragon's neck. Blood spilled out, and Harry gritted his teeth and strangled the scream that wanted to leave his throat as he popped up onto his feet and grabbed his now in tatters shirt. Ripping it off of him, Harry found himself looking at a now bleeding and pissed-off dragon. Deciding to end it, Harry rushed straight at the still-turning head and jumped. Letting a bellow, Harry placed the palm of his left hand on the pommel of the gladius before shoving with all his might as the blade stabbed directly into the dragon's head slightly behind and above the right eye. 

Mercifully the dragon slumped to the ground, the last of its breath leaving it as it did. Exhausted, burnt skin, broken ribs, overworked muscles, and a heavily exhausted magical core meant that as Harry stood atop the dragon's dead body, he never noticed the photographer for the Daily Prophet snapping a picture, nor the now arriving Auror support along with Minerva McGonagall, and Filius Flitwick. As the adrenaline faded, Harry’s eyes rolled back into his head as he slumped sideways. Before he slammed to the ground, he was hit with a hovering charm before McGonagall transfigured a piece of wooden debris into a stretcher, and Flitwick placed Harry onto it. Animating the stretcher to float behind him, Filius left Minerva in charge and started back to Hogwarts, with Daphne and Hermione now being unfrozen by Dobby’s charm following behind. As he did, Dobby popped into being and removed Harry’s shoes from the wall before taking the shoes and popping out.

Present Time

Dumbledore walked back through the gate of Hogwarts to find Hagrid standing on the other side with tears.

“Is it true? Did Harry kill the dragon? Please don’t tell me it's true, Professor?” Dumbledore let out a heavy sigh at Hagrid’s question. Honestly, the big man had a massive heart, and he would care about a dragon dying.

“I’m sorry, Rubeus, the dragon was attacking Hogsmeade; if Harry hadn’t done it, then the DRCMC would have. Rubeus, don’t be sad about this dragon. Didn’t Harry give you that Christmas present? What was it again?” Dumbledore hoped by bringing up the Christmas present, and he could distract Hagrid from the news. 

“Yes, sir, he got me a trip to the Romanian reserve ter visits the dragons down there, I get ter see Charlie Weasley. Plan on visitin' Norberta while I'm down there.” Hagrid started further explaining how ever since Harry had told him, he had been regularly conversing with Charlie and was looking forward to visiting his baby dragon Norberta.  Dumbledore smiled as his attempt worked, and Hagrid fell into step beside him as they walked up to the castle proper. 

Walking through the double doors, he spotted several students milling around who, upon spotting him, took off for other parts of the castle. No doubt, continue spreading the story of Harry’s defense of Hogsmeade. Making his way up the stairs, he pressed his hand against a passage that would only unlock for the headmaster, allowing him to take a small staircase with doors along various floors, including one right across from the hospital wing. Stepping through the illusioned covered wall, Dumbledore noticed Ron Weasley standing against one wall with his wand at a low ready; nodding to the boy, he walked through the door to find Sirius, Remus, Harry’s friends, and even Miss Skeeter standing or sitting around an asleep Harry potter. His chest was covered in green bandages that indicated he had burn salve on his chest, and with Dumbledore's glasses, he could see several monitoring spells attached to the boy. Stepping over to Poppy’s office, he knocked on the door frame, grabbing her attention.

“How is he?” Dumbledore winced at the look on his school healer's face as she grabbed the parchment that showed the results of her casting. It was sitting on top of the massive medical file that was Harry Potter’s. He had to wonder if any of the records indicated past abuse, signs that he had failed to miss.

“Three broken ribs, a hairline fracture of his left radius, burns across forty percent of his chest, an almost completely depleted magical core, and a broken ankle. The fact that he survived against that dragon is a miracle.” Dumbledore nodded before looking into the main room to see Sirius and Remus looking at him. Seeing them approach, Dumbledore prepared himself for whatever Sirius was going to say.

“What the bloody hell, Dumbledore, where were you that you couldn’t get to Hogsmeade soon enough?!” Dumbledore sighed heavily. To his eternal shame, he had taken over the search while Harry, Daphne, and Hermione were down in Hogsmeade and had found the other picture frame of Rowena Ravenclaw. In his ecstatic nature, he had immediately called for Fawkes to take him to the chamber and had been unavailable for his Deputy to reach him. 

“I have no excuses, Mr. Black, and I am willing to admit that I was in the middle of doing something and was unreachable by normal means. I will say that not even the ministry expected the dragon to attack Hogsmeade, and if it weren’t for Harry, there would be more injuries and even death. As a result of his endeavors, the worse injuries we have are burns and bruising from the rushing crowd.” Dumbledore watched as Sirius let out a breath before sitting down on a nearby bed. 

“Pomfrey says it could take anywhere from a day to a week for him to wake up; meanwhile, Lizzy wants to write an article on Harry’s defense of Hogsmeade, and I just want to wrap him in cushioning charms till he’s seventeen.” Remus put a hand on Sirius's shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze. 

“He will wake up when he does, Sirius; he is a Potter; you remember how James was.” Sirius smiled at that before he shook his head and looked at Dumbledore, nodding in understanding. Dumbledore took his leave and had to make sure Grimjaw had a liter of the Hebridean's blood delivered to his office; if the book he had found in Slytherin’s library was right, he needed to put it on stasis for when they did the ritual.

It took less than a day for the Ministry to descend on Hogsmeade; the reporters and the aurors were all it took for Madam Bones to show up. Once she learned that the dragon was dead at Harry’s Potter hand, she marched to the castle wanting to interview him. Finding the boy unconscious, she informed Madam Pomfrey and Dumbledore that she needed his statement the moment he was able. Next to show up was the Minister, arriving through Dumbledore’s fireplace to thank the headmaster for dealing with the dragon. Upon learning it had been Harry, he became determined that Harry would be receiving an award for his defense of Hogsmeade and insisted on thanking the boy. Once he ran into the wall that was Sirius and Remus, he quickly made his excuses and left to go back to Dumbledore’s office to discuss things.

Gringotts and the DRCMC showed up simultaneously, and Hogsmeade was tense for a good while as Aberforth had cast an anti-portkey field over the area when McNair attempted to remove the dragon. It was like that till Dumbledore and Madam Bones showed up, one by phoenix and the other by Floo. After Madam Bones ordered McNair to stand down, Dumbledore was handed the sword from the dragon's head, and Grimjaw and the harvesting team placed the portkey on the dragon and left. Dumbledore, meanwhile, examined the gladius that had been placed in his hands. It was interesting to see that Harry carried two swords and could use them both. 

The Daily Prophet Reporters spent the whole day gathering information from the locals, and some were even willing to provide memories. Someone from the Le Cri de la Gargouille showed up, and the french newspaper couldn’t believe it to be true till Madam Rosmerta provided proof. A couple of freelance reporters showed up the next day; one claimed to be from The Wizard’s Voice and another from Die Silberne Fledermaus . Within three days, the entire wizarding world learned about how thirteen-year-old Harry Potter took down a full-grown known wizard-killing dragon by himself.

He was flying, the feeling of his wings beating as he flew above the Black Lake less than twenty feet above the surface. He spotted movement as he flapped his wings and moved towards the woods. Gliding in and landing on a tree branch, he looked down and spotted first a pair of antlers and then the actual deer they were attached to. He was shocked as the deer looked up at him, and their eyes glistened. Gliding down, He landed on one of the prongs on the antler. Together he and the deer walked further into the woods before they came upon a bed of flowers. The deer did a couple of circles before turning and laying down. He hopped off the deer’s antlers and stood in the field of lilies, feeling at peace; the bird tucked his beak under a black feathered wing and closed its eyes.

HUUUHHH!

Harry sat straight up in bed and was greeted with the sight of two extremely shocked girls in front of him.

“HARRY -”

“POTTER!”

The next moment he suddenly found himself with his arms filled with two happy and crying girls as they held onto him. As he held them with a bit of panic because they were crying into his chest, he looked over them to see Sirius and Remus standing smirking at him, and then he spotted Skeeter, who looked like she was trying to hold in a squeal of excitement. 

“You had us worried there, prongslet; glad to see you awake.” Harry nodded at them before he felt both girls go stiff in his arms before they started floating off of him. Everyone that was able turned to see Madam Pomfrey walking towards them with her wand out.

“Girls, I will release you both when I am done examining my patient. NOW, as for you, Mr. Potter, have you ever considered having a normal end of the year where you don’t get injured and end up in my care for three days?” Harry tried to smile at her, only to receive a glare from the Mediwitch as she began the process of checking him over. Holding her wand over his body, she scanned him and looked at the parchment in her left hand. 

“Your core has recovered, and the burns are healed; you won’t have any scarring from the burns, and I was able to spell skele-gro into your stomach to mend your ribs, ankle, and the radius bone in your arm. As much as I want to keep you in my care for the rest of the week, I can see no reason to keep you. Now Dumbledore has been informed and wants to see you, and I recommend you use a cane for a couple of days, but after that, I don’t want to see you till next year, got it, Mr. Potter?” Harry nodded quickly as he swung his legs off the bed. As he went to stand up, he found Hermione and Daphne had moved to support him; with one arm around his waist from Daphne and the other upper arm wrapped in Hermiones, they moved from the Hospital wing in the direction of Dumbledore’s office.

As they all left for Dumbledore’s office, Remus broke away, saying he needed to go talk to Hagrid about something; saying goodbye to the man, the rest of the party moved to the familiar gargoyle. Sirius gave the password allowing them up the stairs to find the Headmaster, Madam Bones, and Grimjaw waiting in the Headmaster’s office. Harry sighed; this was going to be a long meeting, he could already feel it.

After the six-hour meeting ended, Harry, with the support of his girls, headed up to Gryffindor tower, while Sirius and Rita left through Dumbledore’s floo heading home. As Harry left the tower, Remus was rushing down the hallway towards them with a thick cane in his hands. Hermione had his gladius in a simple leather sheath over one shoulder, and Daphne was carrying several international papers that Dumbledore had shown them.

“Took a bit to convince Hagrid, but once he learned it was for you, he and I managed to carve this out pretty quick.” Harry smiled at his other uncle and put the cane into Hermione's hands for a moment, and Harry took a deep breath before hugging him. Remus was shocked at first before he closed his arms around Harry.

“Thank you, Mooney, thank you.” Hermione and Daphne pretended not to notice the subtle sheen of tears in Lupin’s eyes as he let go of Harry. He cleared his throat and put his hands on Harry’s shoulders. Throughout their Patronus sessions, Remus had slowly opened up to Harry. He had learned about the original Marauders and even more about his mother. He learned how his dad was a master at illusionary spells and how his mom invented spells that would have been labeled dark if the ministry had learned about them. It had been fantastic, and over time Harry and Remus had grown closer to the point where Harry called him Uncle Mooney in private. 

With that, Remus went his separate way, and Harry and the girls continued upward to the tower, only to be waylaid again by Professor Flitwick. The half-goblin had been waiting outside the entrance to Gryffindor tower for Harry to arrive.

“Mr. Potter, I’m glad to see you are up and moving; Madam Pomfrey said I might find you here, and instead, I found the Weasley twins setting up a party.” Harry chuckled at that; it figures the twins would want to throw a party, even with the end-of-year exams next week. 

“I have to thank you, Professor Flitwick; if it wasn’t for you dodging training, I don’t think I would have survived.” Flitwick chuckled before pointing at the sword on Hermione's shoulder.

“May I see it?” Hermione looked at Harry, and when he nodded, she handed the sword still in the sheath over to Flitwick. Harry watched as the professor pulled the gladius out of the sheath and examined the blade before placing his open palm over the top of the blade and seeming to wave it over it.

“A sword made in forty-seven AD, roman in make, but this blade was forged by a forge master of Londinium, most likely a half-goblin like me given the goblin steel in the blade. If you haven’t named it, consider doing so, it has served you well.” Hermione’s eyes shined with questions, especially about the magic he used to identify the sword. Harry, meanwhile, made a mental note to see if his family vault had anything identifying how a Potter had come into possession of the blade.

“I will, Professor, I will.” With his piece said, Flitwick nodded to the trio and went on his way, Hermione gave the password, and after the portrait looked at Daphne, it swung open.

“HERE HE IS, THE DRAGON SLAYER HIMSELF, HARRY POTTER!” Harry chuckled, leave it to the twins to give him a title; he looked at Daphne and Hermione before smiling as the party picked up with him arriving.

Chapter Text

Le Cri de la Gargouille 

Dragon Slayer Britannique

Harry Potter, le garçon qui a survécu, âgé de 13 ans, a tué un dragon, sauvant toute la ville de Pré-au-Lard d'une destruction intime. Le ministère britannique envisage d'attribuer au garçon une deuxième classe de l'Ordre de Merlin pour sa bravoure face à un tueur de sorciers connu.

Le ministre Fudge avait ceci à dire lorsqu'il a été interrogé…

Die Silberne Fledermaus

Der Drachentöter von Großbritannien

Der dreizehnjährige britische Junge tötet Dragon mit einem Schwert zur Verteidigung der britischen Stadt Hogsmeade, Quellen enthüllen, dass der fragliche Junge kein anderer als der Junge, der lebte, Harry Potter, ist. Man muss sich fragen, warum das britische Ministerium einen bekannten Zauberermörder nicht aufhalten konnte und einem Jungen einen Männerjob gab. Die Bilder unten zeigen den Zustand des Drachen nach dem dramatischen Kampf, in dem der Junge den Drachen mit nichts als einem Zauberstab, einem Schwert und reinem Grit in einen Nahkampf verwickelte. Das DRCMC stand für Befragungen nicht zur Verfügung und Quellen innerhalb des britischen Ministeriums haben enthüllt, dass Harry Potter für seine Verteidigung von Hogsmeade geehrt wird.

The Wizard’s Voice

Dragon Slayer of Britain

The Boy who lived Harry Potter many will remember the faithful night when the boy survived the killing curse from the British dark lord Voldermort. At the mere age of thirteen, this boy is again in the news today, not for something as horrible as surviving a killing curse but for defending the British town of Hogsmeade from a Hebridean Black. The same dragon set fire to the Blackpool Market in the nineteen nineties and killed several wizards. That's right, readers, a thirteen-year-old British boy, nay man, killed a known wizard killer. Did he do this with overwhelming spellfire or by trapping the beast in a transfigured trap? NO, Harry Potter decided to get up close and personal by engaging the dragon with nothing more than a wand in one hand and a sword in the other. Witnesses say this young man stared death in the face once again and said, " Not today, good sir. The pictures below will reveal how this young wizard managed to defeat the dragon, and it's a doozy. 

The Daily Prophet

THE BOY WHO LIVED, THE DEFENDER OF HOGSMEADE

One would think Harry Potter has earned enough titles and accolades, including The Boy Who Lived, the Defender of Hogwarts, and Heir to Gryffindor. Dear Readers, we here at the Daily Prophet have two more titles that can be ascribed to the young man. Dragon Slayer and Defender of Hogsmeade. This past Saturday, the Hebridean Black that has been the bane of the DRCMC and has avoided capture since its escape back in September arrived in Hogsmeade and proceeded to attack the village. Many will remember the last time this Hebridean went on a rampage back in nineteen ninety resulting in over forty muggle deaths and the death of four aurors and injuring another fourteen. One would expect to see a similar death and injury toll when the Dragon landed in Hogsmeade, but the death toll was zero due to the intervention of Harry Potter, and the injuries sustained were minor. So one has to wonder, dear reader, how did the Boy who Lived do it? How did he manage to kill the Scourge of Blackpool, spells, family magic, baiting it into a trap? None of the above dear reader, no Harry Potter; the Boy who lived killed the massive Hebridean Black with a sword. A sword that sources within the castle have confirmed has belonged to the Potter family since the time of the Romans. One has to wonder how much more of a legacy Harry Potter plans to build for himself.

See the Photos below of the Hebridean Black

See Photos on page two of Harry Potter post-battle.

“We call to order this International Confederation of Wizards meeting, June 1st of 1994.” Dumbledore banged the gavel and looked at the scribe who had activated the multiple recording quills; once he gave Dumbledore a thumbs up, he spoke up again.

“Is there any old business that needs to be resolved before we proceed to new business?” Dumbledore sighed heavily when the Chinese Representative activated his light, and he was hoping this wasn’t about the relinquishing of the British-held Hong Kong region. That had been a point of debate since the late 1800s; every time it was brought up, the discussion was tabled, and then eventually, it would be brought back up. The Chinese Representative started speaking, and it took a second for the translation charms to catch up.

“We have here the released report of the defense of Hogsmeade, and we ask at this time where exactly this Mr. Harry Potter learned the two Chinese spells from. One spell hasn’t been used since the Song Dynasty.” Dumbledore was first surprised that it wasn’t the usual debate, then felt a sense of protection towards Harry and narrowed his eyes at the Chinese representative. Looking over at the British Representative, since he could be both the Supreme Mugwump and the British representative, he nodded to allow the man to reveal where Harry found the spells. As Cyrus Greengrass stood up, Dumbledore focused on the Chinese Rep's face to see their reaction.

“When questioned by Madam Bones, Harry admitted that one of the spells came from the Defenders Codex and the second came from a journal his mother had kept before she was killed.” Several voices started muttering at the mention of the Defenders Codex , and most wizards and witches that pursued Masteries were introduced to the book.

“I’m sorry, are we to believe that a thirteen-year-old boy is able to cast more than one spell from the Defenders Codex? Our own ICW hit wizards have trouble with some of the spells in that book, and you’re telling me a thirteen-year-old is able to handle casting from that book.” Dumbledore looked at the Swedish witch who was their representative, Amalia Nilsson. She had long been suspected of being a recruiter for a specialist branch, and Dumbledore wasn’t in the know for everything the ICW did. Pressing the rune, his light lit up and drew everyone’s attention to him.

“I can confirm that while the first spell he cast from the Defenders Codex did strain him magically, I have since learned that he can cast multiple spells from the book. As his Headmaster, I have advised him against certain spells but have seen his limits.” A muttering went through the chamber at his statement till a new light went up.

“What was the first spell he cast, Dumbledore?” The short-to-point statement from the Russian representative caused everyone to quiet down, where Amalia was connected with the ICW; Dmitri Fedorov was connected to the Russian mafia. Russia had long flaunted the rules of the statute of secrecy, given they had the last openly present court wizard in the form of Grigori Rasputin. Once he died alongside the last Emperor and his family, the magical society of Russia went into hiding and joined the ICW to survive. With the fall of the USSR, they were making more overt moves. As a result, Dmitri Fedorov was both a highly successful Russian statesman and the ICW representative, granting him a measure of immunity. 

“The um first spell young Mr. Potter cast was in the face of a hoard of Dementors that had been attracted to the school's quidditch pitch. The spell in question was Sunfire.” As the room exploded with sound, Dumbledore leaned back and sighed heavily. Judging by the interested glint in Amalia’s eyes, he wouldn’t be leaving the building without her accidentally running into him.

Grimjaw was nervous; less than a week after Mr. Potter had killed a dragon with a sword, he had received a missive from the council. While short, the missive informed him that he was to present himself to the council for a discussion regarding his primary account owner. It was rare that it was a good thing for the council to order him to present himself to the council for a singular account. As Grimjaw attached the basilisk tooth dagger to his belt, he looked himself in the mirror before straightening his outfit and making his way down into the depths below. 

Walking through Undermine, Grimjaw avoided the usual places to avoid the awkward position of saying goodbye, and He would rather not see his friends if he was to lose his head today. Passing the Forge home and walking through the Market square, Grimjaw walked up the steps of the Council building. Stepping past the warriors standing on either side of the doors, he couldn’t help but note that the warriors were wielding the bloodstone spears today. Taking this as a good sign, Grimjaw stepped through the door and walked with his head down towards where the council was sitting in a semi-circle waiting for him. 

“Account Master Grimjaw, we have summoned you here today to question you about the ongoings of one Harry Potter and the now two class five magical beasts he has killed. Beyond the Wizards papers which we treat with a grain of salt, have you confirmed the accuracy of our records?” Grimjaw kept his mouth set in a firm line, he could not display emotions, but if this meeting was for what he hoped it was, he wanted to grin.

“The Basilisk was killed with the Foehammer, more commonly known as Gryffindor’s Sword. When checked, the sword had left a wound in the top of the basilisk’s mouth that matched the sword's designs. This, plus the fact that the blade sang with the venom of a basilisk along with the wound young Mister Potter received, stabbing said creature means he did, in fact, kill the Basilisk. As for the Dragon, the sword used was one that I personally saw Mister Potter remove from his family vault himself. The sword in question is the Fulham Gladius forged back in 47AD by the half-goblin Setiberius." Grimjaw took a moment to breathe and let the council mull over his statement. He placed his hand on his dagger, hoping none would declare him false.

"We the council find your words true, and as such, we move for the following," Goldfang, the head of the council, looked to Ragnuk, who pulled out a scroll.

"The wizard known as Harry Potter has met the requirements for a change of his account; let it be known that Grimjaw is no longer a wizard's accountant. Due to one Harry Potter battling two class four and above magical beasts not with a wand but with a weapon and defeating them both, his account has been elevated to a Warriors Account. Instead of the standard fee of being a wizard, his account shall incur only a warrior's fee. Grimjaw is allowed to name two assistants to help manage his other accounts, and his home shall be moved from the Narrows to within the walls of Undermine where he shall know safety if an attack should come." Grimjaw smiled and relaxed his grip on his dagger; he would be receiving a golden band on his dagger for this, to note his new elevated status. 

“I will send a letter informing Mister Potter as soon as I return to my office.” Bowing his head, Grimjaw backed out of the council room and quickly returned to his home in the Narrows. He needed to inform his son that they would be moving into Undermine and that he would be allowed to get a runic bracelet now. He could also pull favors from his family and see what they offered him in return for taking their children under his wing. 

Undermine’s Armored Walls would be his home, and with the Potter account, he would also see his holdings rise.

Madam Bones sat in the conference room with Rufus Scrimgeour, Saul Croaker,  Dirk Cresswell,  Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Alastor Moody. Each individual in the room made up a special council within the Ministry. Dirk Cresswell used his goblin connections to gather information from Gringotts and even Undermine itself. Rufus was the political arm of the council, using his resources to push any agenda they supported, while Bones used her Wizengamot vote to help second it. Saul, while being an unspeakable, had access to the records department as well as having his own spies. Kingsley used his family connections to do much the same as Madam Bones but was willing to appear as the opposition if need be. On the other hand, Alastor Moody was a man who had a hand in both worlds, his numerous underworld contacts that he had collected while hunting dark wizards meant he was a good source of information alongside Saul. 

“So Dirk brought us here for a reason; what's the news out of the goblins?” madam Bones was curious; she had been spending the last week looking into the failures of the DRCMC and wasn’t liking what she was finding. Having Macnair in that department was causing problems with her investigation. 

“While Cuthbert was meeting with the goblin ambassador, I took a walk through the halls of Gringotts. While walking through the inner workings, I came across several goblins moving an office.” Moody sighed and put down the drink he had just taken a sip from. 

“Honestly, Dirk, get to the bloody point.” Madam Bones shot Moody a look while Kingsley laughed at Mad-eye’s harsh language. 

“Right, the Goblin in question was Grimjaw, who according to the goblins I’ve befriended over grog,” Madam Bones just about gagged at that; grog was horrible for anyone without goblin heritage; how Dirk could drink it was a mystery worthy of the Unspeakables, “Grimjaw on top of moving to a bigger office, also had a gold band around his dagger.” Croaker leaned forward at this comment which Madam Bones knew was as good as outright excitement. 

“Right, for those of us who don’t bloody know, what does a gold band mean, Dirk?” Madam Bones nodded at Moody’s rather gruff response. She was curious, but it didn’t seem like something worth calling a meeting over.

“Harry Potter has been upgraded to a Warriors Account,” Dirk groaned when that didn’t get the same reaction from the rest of the room as it did when he learned about it. There hadn’t been a wizard with a warrior status since the late 1700s, according to the goblins he had shared grog with. It was rather exciting history being made, and with Harry’s standing amongst wizards, Dirk could see an improvement between wizards and goblins.

“How, interesting, thank you, Dirk, for that bit of news, Mad-Eye I might need your protege for a few weeks this summer; I’m having difficulty gathering information on Macnair and some more suspicious members of the CDDC.” Mad-eye nodded and pulled out a small leather journal to make a note about it.

“Saul, anything you think we should know about?” 

Harry was running on the grounds, his thoughts were clouded, and he couldn’t stop feeling something in his scar as he ran. Almost twelve kilometers away from the castle, he stopped and placed his hands on his hips. As he did, he felt a phantom pain that reminded him of his first year. Turning and looking out across the lake, he couldn’t help it.

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Letting out a scream of primal anger and letting his stress out, he fell back onto his back on the slightly damp bank of the lake. Why the bloody hell did Dumbledore have to tell him about his scar, he wanted it gone, and the fact that he had to wait was stressing him out. Knowing that he had something keeping Tom tethered to this world in his scar made him want to take a knife to his scar and cut it out, but he knew it wouldn’t work. Dumbledore had seemed so broken when he had told Harry, and if it wasn’t for the fact that he had spent every year since that Halloween trying to figure out how to remove it; along with Fawkes singing a song keeping him from feeling anger, Harry was pretty sure he would have destroyed the room. Hearing that there was a prophecy after the news about his scar didn’t even phase him; it just confirmed for him the truth he already knew. It would be him and Tom in the end, no matter what. 

Suddenly a noise drew his attention, and he looked back to see Buckbeak had wandered out of the forest. Harry let out a huff; Hagrid had apparently been talking with Sirius about Buckbeak going home with Harry; it seemed that Buckbeak had adopted Harry as his person and refused to bow for any of the other students. It would have been increasingly dangerous to keep the hippogriff around, and Hagrid knew that Buckie would have a good home with Harry. 

"Hey boy, here let me Accio single fish," Catching the fish in his off-hand that came out of the lake, Harry turned and tossed it to Buckbeak, who grabbed it out of the air. Slipping his wand back into the holster, Harry walked up to Buckbeak and began rubbing his neck and shoulder. After Buckbeak finished the fish, bones, and all, he huffed a bit and turned into Harry's hands. 

POP

"Harry Potter, sir, Dobby has finished!" Harry, with one hand still on Buckbeak to keep him calm, turned to look at Dobby and just about choked on his spit at the sight of the elf. He first noticed that he was wearing the cleaning jumpsuit, except it seemed Dobby had modified it. Across his chest was a bandolier of various cleaning bottles; on his back was what looked like a machete in a sheath. In holsters, on one hip was a pair of garden shears and on the other hip was a garden fork. Strapped to his forearms were two holsters holding cleaning brushes and on his head was a mining helmet with a torch. The whole thing was covered in dust, dirt, and what looked like a piece of brush stuck in Dobby's helmet.

“What’s finished, Dobby?” Harry couldn’t place a memory of him having to clean anything that would result in him being so covered in dirt and debris. 

“Harry Potter, sir, your house, sir; Dobby has finished cleaning your house, Harry Potter, sir.” Harry was shocked and hoping that Dobby hadn’t been cleaning the Dursley’s house. While it was funny to think about Dobby cleaning the Dursley’s house without being seen, he hoped that Dobby hadn’t thought he was returning to that house.

“Oh no, sir, Dobby was cleaning your Manor house, sir; Dobby followed magic and cleaned your home for you, Harry Potter, sir.” Harry was confused; Potter manor was destroyed in the last war. What could Dobby have been cleaning?

“What Manor, Dobby?” Instead of answering Harry’s question, Dobby grinned and grabbed Harry’s hand.

POP 

Leaving behind a perturbed Buckbeak, Harry landed in a bent knee position, still gripping Dobby’s hand. In front of him were the ruins of an old Scottish castle, the castle ruins were out on a rocky headland, and Harry was curious about what Dobby cleaned because all Harry could see were ruins.

“Dobby, what am I supposed to be seeing?” In front of him were the ruins of an old Scottish castle, the castle ruins were out on a rocky headland, and Harry was curious about what Dobby cleaned because all Harry could see were ruins.

“Mister Harry Potter sir needs to walk through the wards, sir, Mister Harry Potter sir can’t see his home till he does, sir.” Harry looked from Dobby to the castle ruins, then back to Dobby. Letting out a sigh, he began walking towards the ruins. 

At first, Harry thought this would be a failure, but as he walked toward the ruins, he felt something pushing against him. Step by step, Harry walked forward and felt magic wrap around and probing him; at first, he was about to resist, but something inside told him to give in. Surrendering to the magic, Harry felt it push into him, and then something warm went through his core. His eyes which had been looking at fuzzy ruins of a castle, suddenly cleared and revealed first a gatehouse, the windows were cleaned, and he could see the ground had been recently cleared. Past the gatehouse was a massive four-story tower with a banner fluttering in the breeze. It was very odd to see a physical banner hanging from a tower, but the symbol of the Potter family was clear as day for him to see and caused a smile to spread across his face. Past the tower were a couple of buildings, one looked like a stable, and the other looked similar in size to the house the Dursleys lived in. Beyond that, Harry could see a sprawling Manor; as he walked up to the road and under the held-up wrought iron gates, he noticed the Manor had three wings, and to one side was a single side Qudditich Pitch that looked like it doubled as a dueling field. 

“Dobby, how did you find this place?” Dobby was bouncing up and down beside him as they walked up the grass road. Harry was approaching the Entrance, and Harry was able to realize that one of the wings of the Manor wasn’t attached, and its shape was similar to one of the chapels that were in Little Whinging; it was curious to see a building of faith on his families land, and he made a mental note to look into it when he had a chance. 

“Dobby followed the Great Harry Potters magic, sir, Harry Potter told Dobby he could clean the places he knew about, but Dobby had already cleaned everything that Harry Potter sir used at Hoggywarts, so Dobby followed the great Harry Potters Magic. Dobby found this place, and Harry Potter knew about it, sir, but not how it looked, so Dobby cleaned and fixed what he could.” Harry sighed deeply, hoping Dobby remembered to take breaks while cleaning this place; if he didn’t, and Hermione found out about it, Harry shuttered at the thought. 

Placing his hand on the handle of the ten-foot tall ironwood door, Harry felt a buzz as something zipped through him; a second later, he heard a click as the door unlocked for him. As the door swung inward, Harry was greeted with the sight of an imperial staircase; the two curved stairs split the entrance hall and went up to the second floor. Laying on the small round table in the entrance hall there was a letter written in golden lettering addressed to his father. Harry hesitantly picked up the letter and cracked the wax seal.

James, 

If you are reading this, then your brilliant wife has figured out the persistent confundus ward that I attached to the Wardstone and forced you to walk through the wards. The upstart Voldermort did not destroy the Potter Property; the ward was set to force the whole of Britain and all those that step foot on its shores into believing that to be true. The ward will remain because I am committing a grave act, son, your mother has passed, and I can feel my days getting shorter. My last act as the head of the Potter Family is to secure our home from destruction and keep all we have learned and gathered safe. The Potter Family Hold is here; The Mage Tower still stands; use the knowledge you find within it to keep your wife and the son in her belly safe.

Your Father

“WHO THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU, BOY?!” Harry jumped back, dropping the letter as his right hand grasped his wand at a low ready, and the other hand went to the dagger mounted to the small of his back. Looking around, he finally met eyes with a Painting mounted in the center of the staircase landing, overlooking the entrance hall. Harry could see that the man had been a warrior judging from his armor and the fact that he wore a mail coif and his face had several scars on it. Standing up straight, Harry decided to speak from the heart.

"Harry James Potter, son of the late James Potter and Lily Potter, godson to Sirius Black." The Portrait looked shocked; the knight's jaw hung loose before Harry watched the painting vanish from its frame. Suddenly a cacophony of sound echoed from somewhere else in the manor; after several minutes, the portrait reappeared in the frame.

“We welcome you, Harry Potter; we welcome you to the seat of the Potter Family.” Suddenly something pushed into him, and suddenly he knew everything about what lay beneath his feet. He could feel the wards, the strength that pulsed through them, and the many layers. The information made his head hurt as he felt the complete account of the grounds and everything, but he gritted his teeth and bared it.

“I will return this summer, but for now, I have to return to Hogwarts. Will that be a problem?” Harry looked at the painting as the man nodded before turning to Dobby, who grabbed his hand. With another pop, Harry found himself alone in Dumbledore’s office, where a very shocked Dumbledore was sitting with his feet on his desk, a cup of tea raised to his lips.

“I must be dreaming, Mr. Potter, because I believe you just used a magical way of traveling through the advanced wards of Hogwarts without any training. If this is a dream, then I imagine the next thing to show up will be the mundane singer Elton John, which would be very interesting.” 

Harry chuckled; Dumbledore had a twinkle in his eye and a smirk on his lip, and now it was Harry’s turn to shock the Headmaster. 

Chapter Text

Sirius was standing in the entrance hall, looking around with tears brimming in his eyes. He thought the memories of this place were just memories, that he would never again step foot inside the home that saved his life. A week ago, Dumbledore had come to him with a story about Harry discovering a place they could live; Sirius thought he would entertain the notion, thinking Harry had asked one of his friends; he had never expected for Harry to take both him and Dumbledore to Potter Manor and show them that it was still standing and that Charleus had left a letter for James. 

Yet here he was, standing in the old bedroom he had when he lived there, the mixture of mundane and wizard posters on the walls, there wasn’t any dust because Harry's house elf Dobby had cleaned it, but all the books were still out that he had read that last summer. Popping the floorboard, he found the stash of weed that he and James had confounded a mundane drug dealer to give them; it was definitely no longer safe, but Sirius knew he needed to get it out of the house before Harry found it. Going back downstairs, he passed by the Hall of Ancestors, which led to the Chapel and went out a door leading to the north sea cliffs. Tossing the baggy into the air, he hit it with a banishing charm sending it flying off the grounds and into the sea. Turning around, he walked back into the house to find Harry and Dumbledore standing in shock at something on the wall. Realizing what they were looking at, he chuckled and stepped up behind them.

"I see you found Sir William Potter's Collection." On display were over 200 broken shields from Joust Tournaments; just underneath were over seventy swords taken in melee. Sirius remembered Charleus teaching him about the older ancestor of the Potters. William Potter had hidden his true identity and had taken part in over three hundred medieval tourneys back in the height of them. He had gained the crown's attention at that point and had been requested to fight in the hundred years' war. Wizards fought on both sides, and William Potter had been given the title of England's Court Wizard for the British Royals. That was the reason for the standard of the Black Prince in the center of the display.

Harry was amazed; one of his ancestors had been a knight, like an actual medieval knight. When he was younger, he loved reading stories about knights; it was the one thing that he and Dudley agreed on: knights were cool. It had been a long week, and the train ride was delightful, if not a little embarrassing, when he woke up with his head in Daphne’s lap. Some time during the ride, while Hermione was reading a book on the other seat, the train's gentle rocking had lulled him to sleep, and he had fallen onto Daphne’s shoulder. Somehow he had been moved from Daphne’s shoulder to her lap, and he woke up with her rubbing his head which made him just want to sleep more. 

He was glad to have someplace new to explore, especially since everything he discovered was another piece of his family legacy. The things he had found so far, were Sir William's victory wall, Isabella Potter's sculptures that she hand-chiseled, and Jermyn Potter's collection of hunted and mounted animals, both mundane and magical. Jermyn had hunted each of them with a wand, and a bow, which impressed Dumbledore, given there was a Nundu Fang mounted next to a magical photo of Jermyn next to said Nundu. Then there was the hall of ancestors. Magical portraits were created during the founders' time; as such, the first few paintings of Harry’s ancestors were not magical in nature. He had hoped to find portraits of his parents only to have that hope dashed when the first painting in the hall was the newest one, and it was of Charleus and Dorea, his grandparents. He had smiled and spent a couple of hours speaking with his grandparents, and the ache for family had gotten a bit smaller.

Walking out of the Hall of Ancestors, Harry walked past the wall of relics that Aunt Edith had recovered from dig sites around the world; these were the trinkets, the real treasures were in the Potter family hold. That had been something extremely incredible for Harry to find. The manor house held the public library, the books the Potters were willing to let visitors see; the true library was in the Tower across the way. From the outside, it looked like a simple tower. Once you stepped inside, the first thing that greeted you was the complete skeleton structure of an Egyptian Black dragon. A now-extinct species, hunted by the Egyptian Heka Warriors after the species tried to raze Cairo to the ground. Once you got over the shock of the Skeleton, you were greeted with a massive room with a ceiling three floors up. There was a spiral staircase on one side of the room with landings on the first floor, the second floor with the entire third floor dedicated to the observatory scope, and the glass-angled wall and ceiling from the outside looked like it was solid stone. The first and second stories were wall-to-wall books, and the ground floor had stepped down to a sunken floor in the center. There was a runic circle in the center of the sunken floor. Lining the edges of the ground floor were suits of armor; some looked like those a Knight would wear, and others were little more than pieced-together fur and leather. All were labeled with where they were either forged or taken, some in battle, others from being made by a Potter.  

The real treasure of the tower lied underneath the tower. When Harry placed his hand on the stone orb on the column on the sunken floor's north side, he did so on his grandfather's orders. Having his fingers pinched and feeling a bit of blood sink into the stone orb had been worrying, watching one clear area of the ground floor, slide back into the wall and expose steps going down, Harry was shocked. Stepping slowly down the stairs, he watched as wall sconces lit up before him, the open flame coming alive as it exposed the true breath of the Potter family vault. Whereas the Tower had a ground floor and was three stories tall, the Potter family vault was easily ten stories deep, maybe deeper. 

A hundred and eighty-two vaults, over a hundred and twenty were individual private research/storage vaults, and fifty-nine were general treasure storage. There were three, three vaults that held names, two of which would never be filled. Charleus’s painting had informed him that in order to activate the confundus ward, he couldn’t inform anyone, but he had slipped a note in Lily’s journal. Before he had passed, Charleus had molded the three vaults believing that Lily would figure out his hint. It was painful realizing that two of the vaults would never be filled. Letting out an uneasy breath, Harry kept searching the vaults. Finding his grandfather's vault, he was shocked at first to see both a Grindwald banner and a nazi flag inside. Still, the pictures next to the flag and banner showed his grandfather had recovered the banner from Nurmengard, and the Nazi flag had come from the Reich Chancellery. Intermix was in numerous journals and won wands. Seeing a wall with seventy-five wands won during the war was unforgettable.  

The next vault he searched out was his Aunt Ediths; finding that two of the general treasure vaults were connected to his Ancestors made him smirk. Opening the door, he was greeted with so many multiple locked chests; looking at the wall, and he found two sets of key rings. He let out a sigh, opened the first chest, and his eyes widened as he found gold bars. Opening the next chest, he found more Mayan relics and jade jewelry. Walking to the nearby workbench, he placed the key in the lock on the rollback; opening it, he was greeted with a half-assembled caster; seeing notes, he grabbed the chair and sat down to read them.

‘ Creating a second caster has been proving difficult. I can’t bloody remember what runes I lined the barrel with, and I have lost the original notes for my caster, and I can’t be arsed to go to Gringotts to go get the original caster and the armor. Note to self, next time you find a dig site that has goblin relics, don’t bloody try to sell the relics back to the bank. Hopefully, they will have cooler heads in a year's time.’ 

Harry chuckled as he read that note, and then remembered that he would be going to Gringotts tomorrow, having received a letter from Grimjaw requesting a meeting regarding his account. Sirius and Dumbledore would be traveling with him; Sirius was making some changes to the Black account and seeing how bad things were in terms of the account. Organizing the roll-back workbench, Harry opened a drawer on his left to find a goblin steel arm band. Lifting up the armband, he turned it over and over as he looked at the runes. His eyes widened as he placed it on his left arm and then pushing a bit of magic into it; he watched as it formed a buckler, looking at his eyes widened as he remembered the armor had a grove inset on the left gauntlet, the armband would fit into that grove perfectly. Getting curious, he opened the drawer on the right side of the workbench and revealed more notebooks; flipping through the first one, he realized that Aunt Edith had designed and wanted to build so many things. The runes in the book went right over his head, and some of the items she wanted to build would take him a decade at his current ability level.

Leaving his Aunt Edith’s vault, Harry just wandered the family vaults looking at all the different ones. Looking into most, he found journals, books, the occasional armor, and weapons. One family member had traveled to China in the late 1300s to escape the rise of Witch Hunters; the Chinese Qiang, the straight sword with the red silk, and the ta dao all greeted him. Along with hand scrolls detailing ways of using your magic to fight faster and hit hard, there were also several journals with both traditional Chinese writing and English writing on the opposite page. Harry knew if Hermione found out about this place, he would have to stun her to get her to leave again. 

He passed a vault that had an interesting name on the plaque Slyvester “ Cooper” Potter, the other thing interesting about the vault was that most of the vaults were open rooms or had glass doors allowing you to see in; Slyvester’s vault had a metal bank vault door. He would have to do some research on this particular ancestor to see if there was a hint as to how the door was opened. 

The next vault that caught his eye had several ships in a bottle. Reading the plaque next to the door, he was greeted with the name Flora “Burn” Potter ; stepping in; he found a journal and immediately sunk into the nearby chair. His ancestor had been a pirate, a relatively successful one at that. Looking at the ships in the bottle, he quickly realized that she had somehow shrunk and magical contained full-grown galleons, sloops, schooners, and even one Man of War inside of a tiny bottle. Flore wrote that the magic worked where if a person tossed a ship into the ocean, the ship would regrow to its full size and be ready to sail within five minutes. Looking at the other wall, he saw several muskets and flintlocks on the wall, along with Flora “Burns” Potter’s personal cutlass. 

After the shock of finding out one of his ancestors was a pirate wore off, Harry made his way back up to the tower's ground floor, watching the floor slide back into place; Harry couldn’t wait to spend more time down there.

Harry nervously adjusted his formal outfit; last night, they had invited Rita and a now jobless Remus to the Potter Manor. One wanted to make up for lost time with Sirius, and the other had been Harry’s, at Dumbledore’s suggestion, idea of having a Castellan for the entire Estate. Remus had been gracious and had moved into the smaller house across the grounds, and Harry learned that the smaller house had been for that exact purpose. Harry still found it despicable that Snape had “ accidentally” let it slip about Remus’s condition. Mooney had decided that instead of fighting it, he would just leave quietly, much to most of the Gryffindor houses' loud protest. 

Walking down to the gatehouse, Harry felt the subtle difference in the wards as they accessed the one room that allowed for travel. Grabbing onto Sirius’s arm, he felt the squeezing sensation before suddenly, with a pop, he landed in the apparition area of Diagon Alley. For Harry, this was the first time he had been seen in the general public since the dragon fight. Seeing everyone pointing and whispering wasn’t something new for Harry, though having one grateful witch approach and shake his hand was different. That seemed to be what was needed for the damn to burst, and they suddenly found themselves surrounded by grateful witches and wizards. Probably the most adorable interaction Harry had was when a young six-year-old girl asked him to sign her favorite book in the whole world. All Harry could do was smile and ask for her name, and her response made him just about cry. Lily had been named such in honor of his mom, and according to the little girl's mother, she loved reading. Harry noticed that Sirius and Dumbledore both had slightly wet eyes upon hearing that and noticed that he was crying just a little bit. Hugging the little girl and wishing her a great summer, Harry finally reached the threshold of Gringotts.  

Once in Gringotts, Harry noticed the shift in tone, the warriors around the edge of the bank seemed to nod to him subtly. When they approached the desk about the meeting with Grimjaw, the goblin immediately led them to a newer, bigger office than Grimjaw’s regular office. Stepping in, Harry watched as Grimjaw stepped out from behind his desk and grinned at him. 

“Mr. Potter, I am happy to see you whole, and I thank you for your quick response to my letter. I’m sure you have plenty of questions about why you are here.” Harry nodded as Grimjaw gestured for everyone to sit down. 

“I have an idea, but I would love to hear your explanation.” Both Harry and Sirius turned to look at Dumbledore when he said that.

“Yes, I would have been shocked if you didn’t, Mister Dumbledore. Now, a little history lesson for you, Mr. Potter. Despite the rumor that Gringotts was founded in 1474 following a rebellion, we have been around since the time of Arthur and Merlin. We did not need a physical location until 1474, but before that, we created levels for our customers. Now, most magicals are just considered regular customers, and they receive no reduction in charges, no special privileges, and they have no standing within the goblin society. There are four levels that I am willing to share with you; they are customer, warrior, Flag Bearer, Defender, and Knight of the realm. The highest-ranked and last-known Knight of the realm was Godric Gryffindor hence the reason he was allowed to test himself against lifting Foehammer. Over the years, we have had wizards get close to being warriors, but most fall short when they fail the strict standards Gringotts has. You see, Warrior Potter, the requirement for a wizard to become a warrior, is to face a creature classified as a known wizard killer in combat. You have to kill said creature not with magic but with a physical weapon, be it a sword, dagger, or axe.” Harry felt Sirius grab his clenched hand when Grimjaw addressed him as a warrior, and then listening to the requirements, Harry knew why he had. Looking over at Dumbledore, he saw a proud smile on the Headmaster's face, even if there was a hint of sadness in his eyes.

“Beg pardon, but what benefits does Harry receive as a recognized warrior to the goblins?” Harry nodded at Sirius’s question while also wishing he had something to write this down for Hermione. She would love to hear about this kind of stuff; this was definitely something they should have learned about in History.

“As a recognized warrior, Mr. Potter will receive a reduction in the bank fees along with an increase in the percentage he receives from investments. With that, he can commission the creation of certain weaponry and armor, granted the cost of those weapons will be a massive dent in his account. The final thing, and you will notice this as you walk through the halls here, is that most goblins will treat you with a little more respect than a normal wizard, you won’t have to wait in line as much, and there won’t be waiting for a meeting with me.” Sirius’s jaw was hanging open in shock, it wasn’t a lot, but the thing that Sirius keyed in on was the percentage increase. The Blacks had long thought they had received a higher percentage than most families, but to find out that it was only the highest a regular customer could receive would have sent his ancestors spinning in the family crypt. 

“Now, Mr. Potter, is there anything I can help you with before you and Mr. Black meet with his account manager Blackhand?” Harry couldn’t think of anything, but Dumbledore thankfully did have a reason he was coming along.

‘Yes, I need you to bring us the paperwork to transfer the Magical Guardianship to Mr. Black and the paperwork to get a mundane passport made for Harry.” Grimjaw nodded and placed a piece of parchment into a box, a slight glow, and several minutes later, a goblin that looked similar to Grimjaw walked in with a thick stack of papers and a smaller stack of papers.

“This is my son Grimjaw the second; the papers in his left hand are for Mr. Dumbledore and Mr. Black and require a blood quill, and the smaller stack of papers is for Mr. Potter and do not.” Gesturing to one side of the table, Harry moved to sit next to Grimjaw’s son and started to fill out the paperwork of a mundane passport for a magical. 

After spending three hours with Grimjaw, Harry and Sirius spent another four hours going over the Black accounts with Blackhand; while Grimjaw had promised that Harry would receive a friendly interaction with goblins, Blackhand had certain still acted as if he smelled like shite. Eventually, they left, and Sirius met up with Mooney, who had been doing some shopping for gardening stuff for the Potter Manor terrarium. Even though Dobby had protested, Harry had eventually gotten the elf to understand that Mooney was growing the items to make the wolfsbane potion, some of the ingredients were toxic to house elves, and others were toxic to Mooney.  Making their way into the Carkitt Markets, Sirius led Harry to the same blacksmith that he had bought the daggers from and had placed an order for four training swords to be made, two longswords and two gladius swords. Sirius had said that he had found a man to train Harry in both that was willing to travel with them to the Americas in July, and if Harry was determined to use a sword to kill a dragon, he might as well know how to use it properly. 

After that, they left for the Leaky Cauldron , Sirius and Mooney left to go back to the Potter Manor to set up the terrarium, and Dumbledore was waiting for Harry’s friends to show up; it was time to show them Potter Manor. 

Daphne was nervous; she had floo’ed to the Leaky Cauldron to meet up with Hermione and had spotted Harry with Dumbledore. Making her way over to the two, she felt nervous and afraid about seeing Harry again. Even though it had only been a week, she and Hermione had owled almost every day since school had ended; she hadn’t spoken to Harry since he slept most of the train ride from Hogwarts with his head in her lap. Waving at him, she watched as Harry pulled out the chair next to him for her to sit down.

“Thank you, Potter; how have you been?” Daphne felt Harry’s arm resting on the back of her chair, and he was half-turned to her. 

“It’s been good, and I can’t wait to show you and Hermione where I’ve been staying.” Daphne noticed that he was not mentioning that Potter Manor was still standing; it was still shocking when Harry admitted it to her; everything she had ever heard growing up was that Potter Manor had been destroyed, finding out it still existed and was just abandoned had to have been heart lifting for Harry to hear. 

“So when do you think Hermione is going to get here?” Harry chuckled and pointed to the just-opening door. The bushy-haired girl waving back with a beaming smile made Daphne and, unknowingly, Harry feel their hearts lift at sight. Dumbledore chuckled when Hermione rushed towards them and grabbed them both in one of her patented hugs. 

“HARRY, so tell me, how big is the library?” Daphne snorted and instantly covered her mouth while Harry and Dumbledore laughed openly. He left it to Hermione to ask about his library, hoping she never changed.

“It’s not the library I think you will find interesting, but the three-story tower filled with more than books.” Harry gulped at the hungry look that both Daphne and Hermione shot him.

When they did eventually arrive back at Potter Manor, Albus and Sirius didn’t see them for the rest of the day, and if it weren’t for Dobby, it would have probably been for the rest of the week.

Chapter Text

Harry was nervous; it was the first he had ever been outside of the British Islands. The only downside to traveling to the Americas was the portkey chain, and it wasn’t one portkey directly to Tennessee but first a portkey to Iceland. The Iceland leg was a five-minute wait till they took a portkey to Greenland, then Newfoundland, and finally down to Montreal, where since they were waiting for a portkey to New York, they didn’t need to go through border control. Finally, after the fifth portkey, they landed at Ellis Island, which served as the portkey center for New York since it opened in the late eighteen hundreds. Stepping through the door, Harry, Mooney, Dumbledore, Flitwick, and Sirius joined the line to go through the border control. 

Finally, after getting through Border Patrol, they were directed to the local Portkey station where Harry quickly wished there was a better way of traveling to their final destination. His stomach had given up back in Newfoundland, and the fact that they were about to embark on what would be the final two portkeys gave Harry the strength to power through the stomach ache. Once they arrived in Memphis, they would have three days to adjust to the timezone and also to recover from their travels. Harry had been lucky; Dumbledore had reported that people were traveling from as far away as Japan which was at least ten portkey’s minimum, or if they were willing a single mundane airplane flight. When Harry asked Dumbledore why they hadn’t traveled the mundane way, he pointed at Sirius. The man in question was staring at the massive city skyline in the distance. It was an accurate statement for Dumbledore to make, and Harry snorted at the thought of Sirius on a plane. 

Finally, they were given the notice that the local portkey would activate, taking them to their final destination of Tennessee. Landing in a valley in the mountains, they were greeted by three armed wizards and one woman with a floating clipboard and quill next to her. Looking past her, Harry could see over four hundred tents arranged in the field. 

"Names? Who is competing and what age?" Harry watched as Dumbledore and Flitwick both stepped forward, one of the wizards, who was obviously a guard, seemed to recognize them both.

"Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Filius Datirack Flitwick, Sirius Orion Black, Remus John Lupin, and Harry James Potter. Harry Potter is here for the under seventeen's duels." The woman's quill stopped as she stared in shock at the party that had arrived in front of her. They looked over at one of the guards, watching as he ran off. Harry could hear whispers from the crowd around him all mentioning the party.

" Seven-time world dueling champ-"

"Wait, did he just say the dragonslayer is competing-" 

"Holy shit, that's Sirius Black; he's hot-"

"Oh my god that's Dumbledore; wait did he train, oh this is not fai-"

Harry turned around to see that the woman who had been speaking was wearing Chinese formal wear and was talking to a man who looked like he had stepped out of a book about Vikings. When they noticed that Harry had heard them, they had the decency to stop talking and look away. Turning back, Harry saw the guard come running back with a person who looked like an Official.

"Mister Dumbledore, and Maester Flitwick, how lovely it is to see you both, if you would follow me, I would like to talk to you about Harry Potter's entry." Harry saw Flitwick smirk while Dumbledore let out a slow sigh causing Sirius to giggle.

"Very well lead us to the tents Arryn. How has your wife been? I haven't seen her since the party in eighty-seven." Harry tuned out the man in question in favor of looking around the campgrounds. The tents seemed to be organized in rows and sections with the main road of this valley leading to a massive open-sided tent with benches and with what was like twenty-five dueling stages set up. One of the stages was clearly the center stage just by the size, while the other stages were split up on either side of it. Looking at the tents, Harry saw it was ringed in benches, bleachers, and using the glasses Dumbledore had gotten him, protective wards. Also on the main road were tents set up for people to sell their wares. 

"Well, there is, Mr. Potter could compete in the under-seventeen duels, but there is a case to be had for allowing him to compete in the opens. We have never had an individual successfully survive let alone kill a dragon by themselves who is as young as he is." Harry suddenly was very interested in the conversation that Dumbledore was having. Using his occlumency to remedy his distractedness, he recalled the conversation fully. The man Dumbledore was speaking to had first asked if Dumbledore was sponsoring Harry, only for Filius to reveal he was. Then there had been a question of how long has he been training him and Filius made it sound like he had been doing so since first year. Sirius had asked if there was a problem and that's when Harry had tuned back in. 

"So it seems like we have reached a decision point, why not ask Harry? Harry, do you want to compete in the Open dueling or in the under seventeens?" Harry gulped as everyone in the room turned to him. A part of himself wanted to only do the Open dueling but another just wanted to keep to the under-seventeen duels. What would his family do, Edith would have done the open, Charleus as well, Jeremiah would have preferred to stay in the under seventeen, and so would his dad. Then Harry remembered a line from his mother's journal. If you have to give your enemy a view of your skill, let them fear you, if you have to show a friend your abilities, let them respect you. With that decided, Harry took a shaky breath.

"If it's alright with the officials, I would like to compete in the under seventeens and the Open dueling. Let's see how I measure against an adult other than my four instructors here." Harry saw Dumbledore and Filius both had grins on their faces, Sirius looked like he was trying not to laugh and Remus was shaking his head with a smile on his lips. The officials had formed a circle and began discussing his request. After a few awkward minutes which Harry tried to pretend that he couldn't hear their muttering, the official who had walked with them spoke again.

"While certainly an unprecedented idea, given the nature of who is entering, we will allow it. I speak for myself when I say good luck Mr. Potter, I hope you do extremely well." With that, a guard steps forward to lead them to their chosen campsite. 

They had been camped here for five days, the first duels were set to begin tomorrow and Harry himself had two duels to contend with. One was in the under seventeens against a woman from India, and the other was an open duel against a man from Mexico. Stepping out of his tent in the early morning rays, Harry began to stretch before he went on his run. It had been shocking to see the first morning he awoke that he wasn't the only wizard or witch that engaged in exercise. His running partner had changed from day to day and it seemed the wizard from Peru was back again. Arturo had at first been slightly annoying, bombarding Harry with questions about Hogwarts. When they went for a run yesterday he had asked Harry if there was anything he wanted to know about Peru, and Harry found himself finally able to not only question the man about his home country but also South America. Today though he had a question of importance.

"Arturo, what else do you have down there other than dueling? I know you have quidditch, but what else.” Harry watched as Arturo grinned as they started the morning run. 

“We have this thing every year called the Amazon run, where we go from Santarém in Brazil to Iquitos in Peru. There are three rules when we do this race, you can’t leave the river except to rest, you have to stay within two meters of the river surface and you can’t go slow.” Harry grinned and imagined what that would be like. Racing across the surface of the Amazon, with all of its twists and turns. The pure speed needed to win that race combined with the dangerous element of the Amazon rainforest made Harry make a mental note about looking into it. 

“So how often does the event take place? Is it just for South Americans or can say a young Hogwarts-aged student take part.” Arturo started laughing at Harry’s not-so-subtle attempt to request entry, keeping to the path, they passed by the Canadian campsites and ran around the Indonesian participant's tents. Harry waved at one of the women in the Indonesian camp, Arum had talked to Harry a few days ago she was a fan of Flitwick and had wanted to know what his training was like. 

“Hahaha, no don’t worry Dragonslayer, I think for you an exception could be made since the only real requirement is that you have to be of age. The run happens every two years and anyone with a racing broom and huge cojones can enter. It’s technically not sponsored by the Brazilian Wizard Government but really whos gonna see us when we are out in the middle of the Amazonian rainforest?” Harry chuckled at that, and then grinned as he put on the afterburners and started sprinting, leaving Arturos cursing at him in Spanish as he tried to catch up. 

As the run came to an end, Harry waved bye to his Peruvian friend and went to see the dueling platform he would be fighting on in the morning. Walking to the main tent, Harry found that the other European participants recognized him as he walked by and the ones from further away or even from the United States seemed to ignore him. Arturo hadn’t cared, the only thing he was grateful for was a running buddy. Still, there were times when someone would hear his name, and Harry could see the looks he would get from that. His fame as a babe had grown since then, and with the death of a dragon and basilisk to his name it ascended to new heights. Sitting down in the stands, he studied the few people who were having a practice duel between themselves. He didn’t recognize either of them but managed to deduce from their style of dress that both were from Canada. Watching as they went through their duel he saw places where their casting tells shined through and noticed that they favored a heavy forward-leaning stance. Given Harry was likely to face one or both of them in the open, he made a note of their faces and what he had observed. 

Leaving the tent, he walked down the main road past all the different stalls and booths of people selling stuff, the myriad of flavors he was smelling made his stomach rumble for its morning breakfast and he decided to grab something called a molletes from a stall, paying a couple of silver, Harry got two molletes in return. Finding it filled with peppers and beans, Harry quickly looked around for something to drink and grabbed a tea from a different stall slapping down a gold coin as he drained it to take care of the spice currently attacking his tongue. After getting a refill and his change, Harry kept walking to the actual section of the stalls and booths where they sold actual wear. Clothing, brooms, and different handmade enchanted items, and there was a booth selling goggles that Omnioculars could be attached to them. Another stall was selling enchanted self-chopping knives that could be used in the kitchen and as home defense. There were dueling robes being tailored and sold, and people buying wand holsters in different colored fabrics and leathers.

Walking through the tents, Harry arrived back at the campsite and decided to spend the day reading and resting. Tomorrow he would be facing a woman from Georgia and a student from the New Alexandria School of Enlightenment. Harry had already seen the student and his dueling style was interesting, Alexandria students used a stance that placed all their weight onto the back foot and lent more to a falling backward dodging style but they seemed to also be extremely fast at getting into position. Harry hadn’t seen the woman yet, the Americans that lived close to the tournament had opted to travel by portkey to and from their home states. Harry had seen some Native Americans set up camp nearby, seeing them Harry remembered that nothing in the rules said he couldn’t use the channeling technique. Ever since he had basically prayed to mother nature and Hogwarts to help defeat the dragon, he hadn’t walked barefoot and allowed himself to sense the earthen magic and feel the ocean of power that Druids felt. Stepping outside barefoot, Harry walked through the grass and willed the magic from the earth up into himself before letting it go, that kind of power was addictive if used too much. He failed to notice the elderly Native American had stopped and stared in shock and a bit of awe as Harry released the magic back into the ground and went back into the tent.

Waking up the next morning, Harry was almost too nervous to eat breakfast and had to be convinced by both Flitwick and Mooney. Harry was afraid that he would fail in the very first rounds of the duel and would end up being a laughing stock, it took Remus basically smacked the table and asked Harry what he managed to accomplish as a third year. He kept repeating the question till Harry was yelling his answer and with the battle cry of casting a Patronus all five of them left the tents, Harry was wearing the dueling robes that Flitwick had ordered, and on the left breast it showed the Potter family sigil while underneath his initials were placed, on his right shoulder was a design from Gringotts noting his rank of a warrior, and on the right breast was Flitwicks own family sigil with a mark showing he was Flitwicks apprentice. On the back was his last name much like his quidditch Jersey along with the sigil of Hogwarts. Flitwick himself wore robes that noted his rank as a seven-time world dueling champion while on his right shoulder was his family sigil along with his own personal rank within the Gringotts clans. 

Dumbledore also wore robes that showed himself as a two-time dueling champion and noted his rank in both the British Wizengamot and the ICW. Mooney just wore regular clothing and wouldn’t have stood out except for the fact that Sirius decided to wear a shirt that the Daily Prophet picture of Harry standing on top of a dragon with a sword in one hand and his wand in the other. Harry had begged for him to change and Sirius had informed him that every shirt he brought had something that supported Harry. A part of Harry felt joy that his godfather wanted to support him like that, another part wanted to stun Sirius and leave him in the tent for the rest of the tournament. Walking to the main tent and checking in, Harry was directed to dueling platform fifteen for the first duel against the Alexandria student. Walking onto the stage, he was given a few minutes to meet with the judge and the student.

“Okay, you should know the rules for the under-seventeen duels but I need to hear you confirm it before we begin. No lethal spells, no unforgivables, and no magic that is permanent. Everything else is free and clear got it?” Harry nodded and the student from Alexandria did the same.

“It is nice to see I will be beating Harry Potter, my name is Hosni shall we begin?” Harry didn’t reply and instead focused on his occlumency and assumed his stance.  Taking the time to breathe out steadily and release his nerves, Harry saw the judge drop the flag.

Without second thoughts, Harry struck out unconsciously closing his lips he focused on the first spell chain. Three stupefies followed a skjaldbrjótur the Norse shield breaker was a lesser-known spell that actually slammed into most shields like a hammer. Seeing the Alexandria student rolling backward as the stupefies flew over him, Harry dodged to the left a piercing spell and an orange spell that was yelled out in Arabic. Then a pink spell came screaming at him and Harry guided his wand in a backward Z fashion and put up a two-layer shield. The first layer would slow the spell down before it hit the second layer causing it to reflect back at the caster, it had been a spell he had found in the tower library. Hermione and Daphne had helped him practice with it to the point that when he used it now, he followed up the reflected spell with a langlock, a leg aimed ut radix, and then the final spell an expelliarmus. Watching Hosni’s eyes widen in shock as he dodged the reflected spell and then barely kept low under the langlock only for the herbology take root spell to slap into his legs and cause them to grow roots and lock him into place as the final spell hit him and his wand was sent flying towards Harry’s waiting hand. 

Turning as the judge declared him a winner, he was struck by the look of awe on Mooney’s face while Sirius who had been silenced was screaming and clapping. Looking at Flitwick and Dumbledore he saw looks of amazement and pride on their faces at how quickly it took Harry to win. There was also hints of surprise that confused him as he stepped off the platform.

“Mr. Potter, when did you learn to cast silently?” Harry’s eyes widened in shock as he replayed the duel over in his head and he realized that he never once spoke the spells he casted, in his head, he just recalled the names of the spells and allowed his wand to go through the motion while letting the feeling of casting those spells overtake him. 

“I, I didn’t realize I was casting silently, I just treated like I do when I’m training on my own.” Dumbledore and Flitwick both stared at Harry in shock before turning to each other. Harry then looked through his memories and realized, he hadn’t been casting verbally unless asked for bloody months now. 

“You continue to impress me, Mr. Potter now let's sit down and watch the rest of the duels, we have a lot to talk about later.” Harry smiled and they moved to a section of the bleachers with other British duelers. Harry didn’t know any of them but they knew Dumbledore and Flitwick. While Flitwick talked with the other duelers, Harry watched the next two under-seventeen duelers one was from France and the other was from Russia. He would be facing them sooner or later and he wanted to get a measure of their skill.

It was the afternoon now, Harry had watched most of the under-seventeen duels that were taking place that day and had determined that the blonde girl from Beauxbatons and the just barely made the cut boy from Japan. The girl seemed to be a charm-heavy fighter while the Japanese boy seemed to be on the combat track with how fast he was with battle spells. A small pop drew his attention as a house elf popped up across the way. Harry was reminded that Mooney had gone back to the tent to talk with Dobby about his conduct earlier.

The one good thing about bonding with Dobby had been when they had traveled to the Americas, Dobby had come with them. House elves had their own way to cross the vast distance, one that didn’t involve numerous portkeys. Dobby had been fixing them breakfast and lunch most days, making it easier for all four of them. The one bad thing was when Harry called for him at lunch today; he arrived wearing a shirt with his face on both the front and back of the shirt and that it was animated; Harry had buried his face into his hands. Hearing his name be called, Harry was dragged out of his memories as he stepped up to dueling platform twelve and stood across from a woman who was wearing multicolored dueling robes. 

“You should know the rules of the Open duels, but I need a nod of understanding from you both. No lethal spells, no unforgivables, no spells that permanently alter the human body, understood?” Nodding at the man's statement, Harry took up his dueling stance and began to focus on his occlumency. 

This time, Harry waited for the woman to strike out first; he wanted to get a measure of how she fought. No words were said as the tension built till she twisted her wand, and Harry summoned a shield into existence and pushed magic into it. Harry could feel the power as it slammed into the shield, and he realized he couldn’t let the woman set the tone of the fight. As Harry dropped the shield, he reached out and reversed the conjured birds' path before banishing them straight back at the woman. Pointing his wand downward, he intentionally released an underpowered bombarda at the stage before summoning a chunk of the rubble towards him. Seeing the woman ending the conjured birds, Harry caught the chunk before spinning around a yellow spell and casting a langlok followed by a mitraqat alshams that was pushed faster by an expluso, the sun hammer spell wasn’t lethal, but it was close as the judge yelled out a warning. Seeing the woman snarl, Harry began a dance of dodging as he pointed his wand at the rubble in his hand and slowly transfigured it into a dull-edged stone dagger. He almost messed up his transfiguration when he had to duck below another spell. Once the stone dagger was complete, Harry placed it in his palm before pointing his wand at it and cast sfyrízo élenchos it was a spell his mother had invented; when cast on an object, one could control the object with a whistle. Throwing the stone dagger into the ground behind him, Harry went on the offensive. 

A bombarda followed two stupefy indirecta which arched around the shield the woman had cast causing her to duck as they slammed into the dueling platform wards. Whistling, Harry felt the knife connect to his magic as he casted a bone breaker followed by a Sagitto. Whistling again, he cast nebulus, watching the platform fill with fog, and he smirked as the knife stopped right against the woman's throat, causing her to yelp in shock.

“I YIELD!” Harry let the magic of the spell drop before summoning the knife to him. He shook the woman's hand and left the dueling platform to the crowd's cheers. Many people had turned up to see a fourteen-year-old wizard compete in the open duels. Shaking the hands of a couple of wizards and witches, Harry eventually pushed his way through the crowd to get to the four people he most wanted to hear from.

"I await your assessment, Master Flitwick." One thing Flitwick had drilled into him over the many months spent under his tutelage was after every duel, Flitwick would give him an assessment of how he did during that duel. 

“Your form was good, but you let your opponent take too many chances while setting up the winning move; you won’t always have time to dedicate yourself to set a trap that will lead to your victory. Now I have to ask that spell sfyrízo élenchos that wouldn’t happen to have been invented by Lily?” Harry could see there was a sense of hope and sadness mixed with his last question.

“Yes, my mum wrote two spells; the first spell was chrysós vélos ; it conjured a spectral golden arrow, she noted, pointing her wand at the arrow and saying élenchos allowed her to control the arrow with her wand. She noted that casting sfyrízo élenchos makes the arrow target whatever your voice is directed at. She had found that whistling works best, and she also— 

“-theorized that the arrow might be able to penetrate shields, but she had yet to test it due to the potential lethality of the spell. I remember the day your mother showed me her notes; I thought I would never get to see her work completed.” Harry saw a single tear fall down Flitwicks face. Harry laid a handle on the man’s shoulder, and he looked up into Harry's eyes with a sad smile on his face. Harry was glad he could give the man something of his mom's, she had noted in her journal that Flitwick was her favorite teacher, and Harry could see that Flitwick had regarded his mom with similar feelings.

“Right, everyone's down when we should be celebrating. I think we should get out of here and- Remus, you twat, you just HIT ME!” Harry busted out laughing along with Flitwick at Sirius, raising the mood in the group, only to have Remus smack him across the back of the head with an open hand. Dumbledore chuckled and shook his head as the group finally left the dueling tent and headed back to their own tents. 

Harry had two more duels tomorrow; one was against an American student and a man from Norway. He would have to brush up on the Norse spells he knew, but that was for later; tonight, he would be celebrating and remembering his mother. It was because of her that he had won today.

Chapter Text

Dodging to the left, Harry slashed his wand upward and sent a cutting curse, followed by an Ardere Sagitto; as the flaming arrows flew towards the person, Harry spun right and applied Sui tutela before sending a Percatere in return. Taking a deep breath, Harry watched as his opponent was slammed in the side of the face by the invisible fist. As they sank to one knee, the man fired off an unfamiliar spell, but judging from the color and the feeling in the air, it was dark in nature. Harry threw up a protego and sidestepped before growling. “I swear if I win this, I’m going to research soviet spells!” Harry thought as he dodged a second spell and then brought his wand around in a whip-like motion and released a Flagrate; as the fire whip snapped out towards the man, Harry was already summoning an Aquapiatum and sending a ball of water straight down the fire whip. The now sizzling water slammed into the man and caused the man to let out a string of Russian, giving Harry enough time to take a deep breath and draw a bit of magic into himself before placing his wand to his lips and letting out a hiss. As the parsel spell flew towards the man, Harry never noticed that one of the India dueling members of the audience gasped, nor the wide eye look of Sirius and Remus. The spell was invisible, but its effects soon came into play when the man's arms snapped down to his side, and his legs slammed together as something began to restrict him. 

Harry waited till the man fell to the floor before hitting him with a stunner, and then he hissed to release the constrictor curse. The duel had been going on for over five minutes, and the Russian man, Leontyev was his last name, had been one of his toughest opponents in the open duels. After that first day, Harry had been winning for over a week now, and so far, he was favored to win the under seventeens. In the open, Harry was doing better than people had expected. After his first battle against the woman from Georgia, he battled a man from South Africa, a woman from Brazil, another woman from Canada, two people from Australia, and tomorrow he was facing a man from Japan. His under-seventeen duel this morning had been over from the start when the person Harry was facing had been so scared of the power Harry had been using that he had fumbled the casting of his first shield, and the wind spell had thrown him off the platform.

After shaking hands with the man from Russia, Harry left the stage to pats on the back from Sirius and Remus as they moved to head to their tents. Along the way, Harry had to sign a couple of autographs and say hello to his growing fanbase. A lot of people had thought it was all hype when it came to him, and then he had started beating fully grown adult wizards, some without difficulty. 

“So Harry, where did you learn parsel spells?” Harry had the decency to flush at Flitwicks question as Sirius held open the tent's flap; Harry moved over to one of the couches and sat down right as Dobby handed him his favorite tea. It had become a tradition to have a cuppa after each duel.

“There were several books in the founder's library; Salazar had pointed out a couple of books that held spells I could use, Gryffindor showed me a couple of books of spells that would enhance my sword skills, but of the three books he recommended only one was spell related, the other two were rituals.” Remus looked shocked that Gryffindor had used rituals. Harry had spent a lot of time talking to the founders before the year had ended and discovered that out of all four founders, their views on magic would be considered dark leaning. While they all agreed muggle-borns should be accepted without question, Harry had watched as Hermione ranted until she was blue in the face at the Founder's views of muggles themselves. Harry agreed with Hermione but also understood that the founders came from a time when Witch Hunters were actively slaughtering anything related to magic. It got so bad that the Witchers, a group that Harry had begun to research, had snuck into the Vatican and put a blade to the Pope’s throat, threatening him. 

“Wait, Harry, how many books from the founder's library have you read?” Harry smirked at Sirius before taking another sip of his tea. 

"Nowhere as many as Hermione has; most of the books I've read have been spell related except for a treatise on Dhampir laws and conditions. After Daphne told me about the suit Lady Carmilla Sanguina made, I've been looking into her some more. Learning she was a Dhampir, I was curious about what the treatise said." At the mention of Lady Carmilla Sanguina, Sirius looked like his eyes were going to bug out of his head. Harry was surprised that Sirius knew about her; Lady Sanguina had turned out to be a Dhampir Enchantress who was the last daughter of Count Vlad Drakul. Daphne had been shocked when she discovered that bit of information in Jeremiah's vault in the Potter family hold. Jeremiah had not just been a bounty hunter but also had been a monster hunter as well. His vault had revealed that Jeremiah had operated in both the muggle and mundane world, hunting men with bounties and monsters that were terrorizing the population. It was an interesting thing to learn about one of your ancestors.

“Bloody hell Harry, even I didn’t know that Lady Sanguina was a Dhampir. What else have you learned?” Harry put down his cup and proceeded to tell Sirius about everything he had learned; as the night wore on, they moved to the dinner table and reviewed Harry's fights and the different ways he could have won his past fights.

His morning duel was going against a blonde hair girl from Beauxbatons; she was a sixteen-year-old girl named Fleur Delacour; Harry had seen a couple of her duels and noticed that she favored charm spells heavily and seemed to avoid anything overly powerful. It was strange that when she fought boys, she had an easier time when dueling them, but when she fought women, she had a difficult time. Nevertheless, Harry stepped onto the stage and prepared himself for the duel.

The moment the judge said go, Harry felt it; a wave of something slammed into him and then broke. It wasn't a spell, leaving a pleasant smell filling his nostrils as he brought his wand up and fired off a spell chain. The look of shock on Fleur's face was quickly replaced with determination as she shielded the percutio, followed by the jelly fingers curse. Harry didn't pause when she dodged the stunner and continued with his attack. Suddenly he stumbled back as his occlumency shield was slammed by an unknown force. If Harry weren’t busy repelling the attack while gritting his teeth and drawing his magic, he would have noticed that some lesser wizards seemed to start drooling. 

“ Right, enough of this!” “ Expecto Patronum!” It was the first time Harry had to cast a spell since he had started dueling verbally. As the stag rushed towards the shocked Fleur, Harry cast a spell of his Father's creation. When placed in front of certain spells , a tergo, latin for from behind, would cast the spell as if you were behind the person. Harry cast a tergo palmam percutiens and was rewarded with a loud shriek when the palm strike smacked the girl on the bottom. When she turned to look at him, Harry noticed that her anger was evident, which made Harry smirk; Flitwick always said when your opponent got angry, they would start to make mistakes, something which proved true when the girl switched to relying heavily on charms which had longer incantations and more overt movements. 

Harry could easily deflect, dodge, and shield each of the charms; the girl had nothing on Flitwick once he got going. As the confundus started to fly towards him, Harry managed to swat it away before dropping to one knee and jabbing his wand toward the ground; first, he cast Nebulus ; the fog covered his next spell , as vestis vinea ripped across the ground covered by the fog covered stage, Harry cast Periculum multi draco causing multiple sparks of various colors to fly towards Fleur all of them forming a dragon. Harry finished it with a triple stunner that flew behind an overpowered shield breaker. Harry had tested it and found that while it would leave him exhausted till he got some food in him, the shield could punch through most wizards' and witches' shields, which was the result when Fleur had to dodge the first stunner, only for the vines to wrap around her ankle and drag her into the path of the other two stunners.

“WINNER, HARRY POTTER, ADVANCE TO THE NEXT ROUND!” Harry watched as they floated Fleur off the stage; getting hit with two stunners would leave her with a headache for a day, but it was a price she would have to pay for using some sort of unknown mental power on Harry. 

Walking down the stairs, they returned to their tent for lunch; Flitwick had refused to let Harry eat anything Dobby didn’t prepare. Walking through the tents, they were stopped by an older woman who was wearing feathers entwined in her hair, had a necklace made of beads, and was using a cane that Harry could sense was either her wand or was enchanted. 

"Yes?" Harry suddenly found the old woman grabbing his arm, causing Dumbledore and Flitwick to draw their wand at a low ready. There were anti-portkey and anti-apparition wards over the whole valley, but they were still cautious. The woman suddenly rolled up Harry's sleeve and ran her arm across the Basilisk wound before she grabbed his cheek, and Harry felt a tingle of something run through him, and it felt similar to when Harry drew magic from the earth. 

The woman then reached into a pouch on her side and, grabbing his wand hand, placed a bit of dark dirt into it before smearing it down his arm and holding it up to the light. Harry watched as the dirt seemed to take on a greenish tint before the woman suddenly pulled his arm toward her and cleaned the dirt back into the pouch; with that, she turned to the young men next to her and spoke in a language Harry didn’t understand. Seemingly done with Harry, she turned and hobbled back to the tent she had come from.

“I apologize for Elder Komeha‘e, we have noticed that the young Lord Potter here used a technique that has not been seen outside of our elders, and she wanted to see him. If you would follow me, gentlemen, Elder Komeha‘e would like to discuss with you.” Harry watched the man turn and walk to the tent; looking at Sirius, who just shrugged, Harry made eye contact with Dumbledore, who nodded. With the unspoken okay, they followed the Native American man back to the tents they had set up. Most of the tents used by Europeans were the standard small circus tents, The Native Americans used a large teepee-style tent, while the Americans used a canvas bell tent, and the Middle Easterners and Indians used a stretch tent. Stepping into the teepee, Harry realized that it wasn’t magically expanded; seeing the small fire in the center, Harry came to a stop as around the fire were five men and women, all easily older than Dumbledore; Harry was gestured by one of them to sit down in front of the Elders in the room. Sitting cross-legged like the ones in the tent, Harry watched as they began to talk even though he couldn’t hear them.

Eventually, their discussion ended, and one of the elders gestured. Harry tried not to flinch when a man stepped out of the shadows of the tent holding a spear with a tomahawk on his side. The man leaned down, and the Elder cupped his ear before he stepped forward.

"Lord Potter, the Elders have agreed and would like to invite you back to the Tribal lands for the right to undertake a, how you say, Vision Quest. I'm sorry the word we used would not translate properly to English. This trial would last three days at most and take place far from here in the Smoky Mountains. If that worries you, it would happen after the dueling championship." Harry turned to look at Dumbledore, who seemed to be in thought; Flitwick just nodded, indicating it was Harry's choice. Sirius looked confused, and Moony had the same eager look that Hermione and Daphne got when they were presented with a new piece of information. With that, Harry thought over his words before speaking.

"I thank you, Elders, for gracing me with this opportunity; I would like to discuss it with my elders before I reach a decision. May we leave and come back and give an answer within a day or two?" Receiving nods, Harry stood up and followed the rest of his party from the tent.  Dumbledore led the way back to their tent while Harry thought about whether or not he wanted to go to the Tribal lands and participate in the so-called vision quest. The more he thought about it, the more Harry realized that his ancestors would travel and experience the world. 

“So that was bloody interesting; anyone want to tell me why the elders were so interested in Harry?” Harry sat down as Dobby brought him a plate of food on a tray; since they arrived in America, Dobby had been experimenting with different American foods. Today was a bacon cheeseburger, except it seemed Dobby had found someplace that sold bear meat according to the small card that Dobby had placed on the tray. That was something else that Dobby started doing was labeling the different meals that he was preparing for Harry to see what Harry liked while he was in the Americas.

“One of my ancestors was tracking a suspect through New France when he learned a technique for drawing magic up from the Earth itself. It's what caused the druid to seek me out at the Ministry Ball, and I guess one of the Natives saw me doing the same while I was here. I found that if I do this before and after my morning run, my magic is stronger throughout the day, I checked the rules, and there's nothing about using the technique.” Sirius sat back and seemed to be processing what Harry was saying while Remus summoned some parchment and wrote something down.  

“So, wait, does this mean you have been using magic from the earth to bolster your own magic?” Harry shook his head at that and set down the plate while waiting till he stopped chewing his food. Holding up a finger, Harry took a drink of the water to wet his throat before speaking.

“The magic only bolsters my magic if I ask for the magic to bolster; I don’t really know how to explain it, but it's like turning the tap, the water flows into the sink, but unless you engage the stopper, it doesn’t fill you up. You know what I mean?” Sirius nodded at that; while Remus was still writing and Dumbledore had a smile on his face, and Flitwick was grinning at Harry’s explanation. Remus eventually stopped writing and put down the pen; apparently, outside of Hogwarts, Remus had a fountain pen he liked using.

“Okay, so I know what a vision quest is; I spent a year with a tribe of werewolves who used vision quest and meditation in an attempt to connect with the inner wolf, it was extremely tough, but there were a few who could control the wolf without wolfsbane; unfortunately, I am not one of the lucky ones. Sorry, that's off-topic, anyway, I don’t know what exactly the American natives will be, but I think Harry should do it; at the very least, it's an experience that he could say he has done.” Harry started nodding, and he was glad Moony had voiced his thoughts. Looking at Flitwick and Dumbledore, he saw that they kept their opinions to themselves but that Flitwick seemed to agree with Remus; obviously, the Ravenclaw would be for new magic experiences. They were all looking at Sirius, waiting for an answer.

“Will Harry have time? I want him to have some time to relax at home this summer, he has room to fly and spend time with his friends, and I don’t want him to be constantly busy this summer.” Harry smiled; once again, his fears were unfounded. Sirius wanted him to have time to spend with his friends, while the Dursley wouldn’t have wanted him to ever experience anything he had this summer. 

“Sirius, I want to do this, at the very least, so I can write down my experience for Hermione and Daphne to read. They would kill me if they found out I had a chance and didn’t do it.” Sirius and Remus shared a look as Dumbledore chuckled at Harry’s blushing. 

“Okay, we will tell them in the morning; you should rest; you have to battle Kuwata in a few hours, and his spell work was interesting from what I saw yesterday.” Harry nodded at Flitwick's statement before excusing himself to go lay down on the bed. Flitwick was right; he had a duel in a few hours, and casting the overpowered shieldbreaker had strained him a bit. Laying down, Harry closed his eyes and began breathing slowly and easily. A nap counted towards rest.

Harry had to give it to Kuwata, his magical style was hard and fast, and Harry had to expand his awareness because the magical spells he sent toward him were invisible. The way he fought leaned toward being a combat fighter, either an Auror or one of the holdovers from the days when the Japanese still maintained covert guards for the Japanese Emperor. Dodging the wind strike, Harry didn’t think before returning fire by transfiguring a bit of the stage into a small garden gnome with a garden trowel before hitting it with an animation charm, watching it scream before running towards Kuwata. 

Harry followed it up by casting Serpensortia and summoning two Indian Pythons before hissing at them.

‘ Bind his legs, keep him from moving, fresh rats for you if you do.’ Harry missed Ari at their response, but he hadn’t wanted to submit her to multiple portkeys. Watching the snake slither across the platform, Harry found the man had banished the garden gnome and had just cast a spell at him. 

His eyes widened as he dodged the first two spells, and before he could get his wand up, he felt a warm buzzing cover his left hand as he flung it forward; he could take the bone breaker to his offhand and be fine to return fire. He was shocked when instead of the bone breaker hitting his hand, an extremely weak protego deflected it away. It crumbled the instant it hit the shield, but it was the opening Harry needed by the shocked look on Kuwata’s face. Bringing his wand up from pointing at the ground, Harry cast a single earthen spear, Dān de máo; as the blunted spear flew at Kuwata, Harry cast Tirumpa Stupefy and ended the spell casting with his wand on Kuwata. Harry launched a series of prank spells along with several sparks to cover the boomerang stupefy. Seeing the man dodged a horn growth spell only for the sparks to blind him before one of the snakes wrapped around his left leg; as his skin turned blue, the stupefy slammed into his back and sent him hitting the ground. 

“WINNER HARRY POTTER!” The accompanying cheers bolstered Harry’s spirits enough to get him down the stairs before he crumbled into Sirius and Remus’s awaiting arms. The shock of casting a protego wandlessly had caught up with him.

"Honestly, Harry, do you have any more surprises up your sleeve?" Harry chuckled alongside Sirius as he sank onto a bench and took the juice bottle from Flitwick. That shield had drained him almost as badly as the first time he cast his Patronus, and he was definitely going to need a big meal and sleep after this.

“Sirius, if I knew I could do that, I would have told you the shield was a surprise to me too.” Dumbledore had a proud smile, and Remus and Flitwick were both grinning and shaking their heads.

“Harry, while the shield was one thing, I was talking about the wood-to-stone transfiguration followed by the animation spell. I only ever saw James do that after he graduated Hogwarts.” Harry played back his fight in his mind, and his eyes went wide with shock when he realized that he had created a garden gnome from a piece of the stage. 

“I didn’t; bloody hell, Hermione is going to kill me.” Everyone who knew the girl laughed at that, while Harry ended up with his head in his hands. Being helped back up, Harry began the long slow walk back to his tent. Tomorrow he would accept the Native American's invitation and the next two duels.

Chapter Text

The Semi-finals, Harry wasn’t shocked that he made it this far in the under seventeens, but it was shocking that he had reached this far in the open duels. The last week of the duels had the toughest challenges he had faced. The biggest challenge had been the woman from India. Before she had even fired off a spell, she had started hissing questions at him in parseltongue; it had thrown him off his game and had resulted in him having to end the fight as quickly as possible. Afterward, Harry spent four hours just spending time talking with Amba and learning about the Northern Indian parseltongue history. Amba had explained that her family had long believed they inherited the ability to talk to snakes because their family intermarried with a Nagi. Harry had loved learning about Amba  Singh and her family. 

Now, Now Harry would be facing a student from Russia tomorrow for the finals, and right now, he would be facing an Israeli woman. Harry had seen the woman he would be fighting; she was only six years his senior and extremely impressive. He couldn’t help but blush every time she fought; the way she moved was interesting. She would often catch him looking and would smirk, which caused Sirius to chuckle at him. Still, Harry couldn’t get distracted by how pretty she looked when dueling.

Stepping onto the stage, he saw her smirk at him, and he gripped his wand a little tighter before nodding at the referee’s question. Closing his eyes, Harry focused on his magic and let out a slow breath. When Harry heard start, he moved. Speed was vital; the Israeli woman had won her past three duels but getting her opponent on the back foot, and Harry couldn't give her a chance. His first spell was already flying before she had time to bring her wand to bear. All those months of Flitwick drilling snap casting into him were paying off as his spell chain flew forward. He had changed his spell style to a more combat-based attack style; there were no flashy spells or illusion spells, it was heavy on his core, but most shields wouldn’t stand up to the spells. He led off with two shield breakers followed by a bombarda and finished it up with a stupefy. Harry wasn’t shocked when the woman dodged the shield breakers before blocking the bombarda and throwing herself into a roll under the stupefy. She came up, firing off her own spell chain, causing Harry to twist and dodge as spells flew toward him. Ducking under the second to last spell, Harry managed to cast the two-layer shield. 

Harry’s eyes widened when the spell punched through both shields and caused Harry to have to throw himself to the ground. As he slammed into the ground, he rolled and fired off a low-powered fulgur. As the lightning spell flew across the platform, Harry got himself up to one knee before swirling his wand around himself and hissed. There were very few protection spells based in parseltongue; technically, what Harry just cast wasn’t a protection spell but a nullification ward. It would nullify spells flying across the center of the platform for as long as Harry applied magic, including spells he cast. However, it did give Harry enough time to turn and break apart the stage and transfigure the wood shards into small rods before hitting them with a disillusion. As he hissed, the Israel woman’s attempts to break through the ward gave way, and Harry banished the wooden rods toward the woman. The first one slammed into the woman’s shoulder, causing her to let out a yelp of pain, as the second slammed into her knee, driving her to the ground. As the third one missed her, Harry fired off an Expelliarmus duo letting a small smirk slip onto his face as the first one missed before the second one slammed into her, causing the wand to fly across the stage towards his outstretched hand. Catching her wand, Harry began to walk to where the woman was lying on the ground to help her up when he heard the older woman that had walked in with her.

“Ahuva, you should find a nice man like this young boy. I bet he was raised right” Harry felt his face heat up at the older woman's words as his hand faltered for a second before he helped the now blushing Israel woman up from the ground. Harry could see she was also blushing exceptionally heavily.

“Bubbi, now is not the time!” Harry chuckled lightly at the woman scolding her grandmother before the woman turned to him, “That was a good fight, Potter; good luck in the finals.” 

With that, Harry watched her step off the stage to get a smack on the shoulder from the older woman. Harry left the stage and was instantly wrapped in Sirius's arms before Moony joined in.

“HARRY, YOU'RE IN THE FINALS; MERLIN, JAMES, AND LILY WOULD BE SO HAPPY!” Harry couldn’t help the tears that spilled from his eyes at that statement. As they left the main tent, Harry had a watery smile on his face at the proud looks on his teacher's and uncle's faces. Dobby met him at the tent entrance with a towel and some water. Tomorrow was the last day of the dueling championship.  

Harry was up early, his magic had recovered enough to see him through the day, but it would be good to get an early morning run in. Taking off on his normal route, Harry passed by the Native's tent. He waved hello to Akando, one of the native American men Remus had been relentlessly questioning what the vision quest would entail. Running down the main straight past the slowly opening stalls and booths, Harry waved at the woman who had served him and Sirius hot tea before looping around the main tent. It was large enough that four passes were over a kilometer or a little under the American mile. Finishing his loop, Harry went the long way back to the tent; as he ran through the tent rows, he barely skidded to a stop when the man wearing a tracksuit stepped out from behind the tents. Placing his left hand on his lower back and pretending to take a deep breath, Harry spoke to cover his gripping of the dagger. 

“Bloody hell, mate, sorry about almost running you over. Well, if you will excuse me, I need to keep running.” Harry noticed out of the corner of his eye as another man wearing a tracksuit stepped out from behind a different tent, seeing that Harry’s eyes narrowed as he settled into a stance that would allow his wand to fall into his hand if needed. 

“You are Harry Potter, no? Alexi will win, or else.” Harry had to focus his occlumency on preventing his anger from showing, and it seemed the Russian student he was facing had sent goons after him. As he prepared to fight his way out of the situation, he saw a man wearing an extremely well-fitted suit walking briskly towards the goons before he yelled at them in Russian, causing them to freeze before bowing his head. The man then turned to Harry and spoke in a heavy Russian accent.  

“My son will win or lose on his own merit; I apologize for my men. I had ordered them not to touch a hair on your head.” Harry nodded at the man before walking past the goons and Alexi’s father; as soon as they were out of sight, Harry finally took his hand off his wand and continued with his run. Now he was more determined than anything to win against Alexi, as the goon had named him.  

Not mentioning to Sirius or the others, Harry took a shower before sitting for an American breakfast. The only difference was eggs, American pancakes, sausage, and breakfast tea instead of coffee. Harry finished off his plate while thinking over how he would beat Alexi. Going back to the trunk he brought with him, he had left his ancestor's trunk at Potter Manor and was using a simple two-lock trunk that Sirius had bought him. Opening the library section, Harry grabbed his father's journal and began to look through the later pages. Seeing the spell he wanted, Harry smiled; this would definitely be interesting.

Climbing onto the stage, Harry stared at his opponent, who was looking extremely close to the smug arrogance that Malfoy always displayed. Taking his position, Harry barely inclined his head towards Alexi as he waited for the start. When the judge yelled go, Harry switched his stance to a more open one, letting Alexi think he was getting cocky. As the Russian student yelled out his spell, Harry barely moved out of the way of the spell. Before blocking, the second and third spells fired. Then he made his move and fired off the spell he had just found earlier.

" Bōlí fǎnguāng, " or reflective glass an illusion spell that plunges an untrained mind into a mirror dimension where they believe their attack worked, causing them to start celebrating and leaving them open to attacks. Harry would never know where James Potter learned traditional Chinese, but seeing Alexi suddenly throw up his hands and start celebrating made him smirk. As the man was defenseless, Harry felt part of himself wanted to add insult to injury. Still, his respectful side won out, meaning Harry fired off an Expelliarmus followed by a stupefy. Catching the wand at the same time Alexi crumbled to the ground, Harry heard the loudest cheer coming from Sirius and Moony. 

“YOUR WINNER FOR THE UNDER SEVENTEEN 1994 WORLD DUELING CHAMPIONSHIP IS HARRY JAMES POTTER!” As the Judge held up his arm, he could see Sirius and Moony jumping and yelling much like the twins did when they won a quidditch match; Flitwick had tears of happiness as his disciple had won his first-ever dueling championship. Dumbledore, Dumbledore had the proudest smile on his face as he clapped for Harry.

Walking off the stage, Harry found the trophy and medal being taken by Flitwick before Moony used his absurd strength to lift him onto his shoulder as Sirius led the procession out of the tent. They had a whole day before the final duels would take place, which meant Sirius and Remus would be celebrating his win all night, and Harry would be joining them until Flitwick dragged him away to rest for the match. Harry couldn’t help but feel joy as he was carried back to the tent; even if it did leave Moony breathing heavily, the joy and proud looks he got from them both reminded him that he had family that loved him.

Harry was nervous, embarrassed, and a bit mad at his uncles the next day. Apparently, challenging Flitwick to a drinking game was a surefire way to see the competitiveness in the half-goblin. While both Harry and Dumbledore stayed sober for the entire night, Flitwick somehow ended up with a spiked bright green mohawk the following day, and there were reports of a large black dog peeing on a woman from the Egyptian tents. Moony had ended up getting a tattoo of judging from the fact that he was laying on his stomach with his back exposed and the words World's best Uncle written on one shoulder blade was on display. 

Dumbledore was sitting nearby drinking tea and reading a paper he received via Fawkes, and every time he looked over at the three hungover wizards, he would smirk and shake his head. Harry, meanwhile, was staring at his own paper, or more specifically, the title.

POTTER DOES IT AGAIN

WORLD CHAMP OF U17 DUELS

Seeing Rita on the byline, he didn't have to read anymore, but it did make him sigh heavily, thinking about how this was becoming a thing with him. At this point, he was sure Snape was being proved correct with the number of times he had been in the paper. Thinking of Snape made Harry think of Hagrid, and he had to wonder how the big guy was doing.

Across the ocean in Romania 

"This here is harry potter, he is me favorite student an' because o' 'im i can use a wand again, now i have a couple o' adventure books tha' i'm goin' ter read ter yeh little ones" Charlie was still amazed that not only was Hagrid still around but somehow Norberta who had instantly recognized the half-giant had brought Hagrid to her small babies and the half-giant was currently reading to them. Not even the veteran dragon wranglers had been able to get close to baby dragons, and yet Hagrid had one in his lap while he had given stuffed toys to the others and had brought a quilt that he said was for Norberta when she got cold.

Back with Harry

He had to assume things were going well; sending him to the dragon reserve had been an excellent Christmas idea. Being dragged out of his memory by the groaning sounds of Sirius as he walked into the central area of the tent, Harry chuckled at the pained look on his face.

"What the bloody hell happened last night? Does anyone remember?" Sirius dropped into a chair in a heap right as Dobby placed a sobering potion and breakfast in front of the man. Sirius speaking was enough to wake up Flitwick and Moony.

"Well, Sirius, my boy, you and Moony got suckered into a drinking game with Flitwick and then proceeded to wreak havoc on the grounds. I would ask that you refrain from using your animagus form for the remainder of the trip, as you seemed to have pissed off the Egyptian delegation." While hearing Dumbledore, Sirius couldn’t stop staring at Flitwick, who had discovered that his normal black hair was now in a bright green spiked mohawk, which wasn't magically reversible. Moony had stood up and mumbled something about back pain, causing Harry to snort before he got a cheeky grin and added a comment to Dumbledore's statement.

"More like pissed on the Egyptian delegation." After receiving a glare from Sirius and watching Dumbledore attempt to turn a laugh into a cough, Harry shot Sirius a cheeky grin before Moony suddenly yelled out.

"SIRIUS, YOU PISSWANKER, HOW DID I END UP WITH A BLOODY TATTOO!" As he came rushing back into the room, Sirius was halfway to climbing underneath the table, and a pissed-off Moony was not something he needed right now. Meanwhile, when Flitwick returned from his room with normal black hair, Harry had given up trying not to laugh and was openly doing so.

"Right, Sirius, get out from under the table. Remus, I distinctly remember you pushing for you to get that tattoo, and Harry, shouldn't you be preparing for your duel in a few hours against Aias? I've seen him duel a few times and have to say I think even he would give me a run for my money." With Flitwicks command given, Harry finished up his breakfast to read; any man that Flitwick thought would beat him would be a tough challenge for Harry. Harry had seen the Grecian man the other day and agreed with Flitwick, and he doubted the reflective glass spell would work on this man. 

Harry dodged to the left only to have to throw himself into a back roll as Aias spells flew at him hard and fast; Flitwick had been right when it came to his dueling style; it was similar to Flitwick except where Flitwick used a lot of charm based spells, Aias seemed to use a lot of the greek combat spells. Spartan spears, Spectral lances, Poseidon waves, and many others, Harry found himself dodging, blocking, and occasionally smacking the spells away before they reached him. Harry had to resort to using spells that he had honed to perfection. Harry found he could hold off Aias by mixing transfiguration with animation and adding illusions into it. 

Twirling his wand in a spiral, he cast Ventus Tria, the stronger version of the wind spell shot across the stage, casting spongify on the ground below Aias; Harry then cast 

Hamar guðanna, as Thor's hammer flew across the way, Harry then finished up the chain with a Percatere following a shieldbreaker. Aias hadn’t been quiet in his response, and as Harry cast the shieldbreaker, he had to dodge low of another spartan spear. The blunted tip flew past him, and being bold, he reached out and grabbed it. Using the force of the spear, he twisted in a spin before, while on one knee, he tossed it back at the greek man, before adding a banishing charm to it, sending it back faster. 

Aias's response was to grin as he barely turned and dodged the spear in time before snapping off with several spells, one of which Harry recognized. He had to make a choice; he was on one knee and could already feel the tug on his core from the level of magic he was using. Harry pushed a lot of magic into a shield as he came to his feet, and he felt proud when the first spell slammed into it, and the shield held. The second spell made him fall backward in a dodge, as it shattered his shield, and the bone breaker flew in at a low angle and slammed into his ankle. For the first time all match, Aias spoke to him as the last spell hit him in the shoulder, and he found his wand flying from his hand.

“I apologize for being your Paris, Young Achilles. But that was a wonderful fight.” Harry nodded and took the offered hand of the Greek man. It had been a tough fight, and Harry was proud to say he was okay with losing. As Aias helped him up, Harry’s hand was thrusted into the air, and both he and Aias took the crowd's cheers as the judge announced the man from Greece as the winner. 

“I look forward to seeing you in four years, Harry Potter; I feel that with four more years of training, you will be the one we will have to beat. Now you should probably get your ankle checked out; allow me to help you to the medical tent." Harry chuckled and began to hobble toward where the waiting mediwitches were waiting for him. Flitwick and Dumbledore were beside them while Moony and Sirius accepted the second-place trophy and prize purse for him.

“I have to say, Mister Potter, you made it further than I thought, and I have never been more proud than I am at being wrong. Let's get you healed up, we leave for just over the mountain in two days, and I want you to be rested because tomorrow we go over what exactly went wrong during this match.” Harry nodded to Flitwick as he walked beside Harry to the medical tent. Dumbledore was the next to move up next to Harry, and while he didn’t say anything, he did give Harry a smile that was filled with pride for him.

Laying in the medical tents, Harry suddenly saw the tent's flap, and Sirius and Moony came through with smiles. 

“Prongslet, I’m so proud of you; how are you feeling? Do you need anything?” Harry shook his head and took the hug from Moony as Sirius sat down in the chair next to him. Before Harry could answer, the tent flapped again as Aias stepped into the room.

"Ah, good you're still awake; I want to give you this; consider this a gift from a champion to a student. I noticed you had a tougher time against some of my country's spells, so I bring you this." With that, Harry took the offered book written in what Harry assumed was ancient greek. Thanking the man as he left the tent, Harry made a mental note to use the enchanted translation pulpit in the Tower to translate this book properly. It would only translate the description of the spells, so Harry would still have to learn ancient greek to pronounce the words, but it would give him an idea of what types of spells were in the book.

"So Prongslet, we are definitely celebrating this win after you get out of the tent." Harry sighed and shook his head at Sirius.

"Padfoot, I only got second place-" Before Harry could continue, he found his face being directed from where it had moved to look at his lap to look at Sirius.

"You got second place in the open duels, your first time here, and you got second; I would have been proud of you even if you had finished dead last; it's the fact that you competed at all when you could have stuck to the under seventeens. Remember, Prongslet, Moony, and I are proud, and we love you for being brave enough to try. Now granted, we absolutely will lose our shit when you blow our expectations out of the water; I mean, I know I would have lost to that hot Israeli woman yesterday; same for you, right Moony?" Harry started laughing when Moony suddenly grabbed Sirius and put him into a headlock; wiping the happy tears off his face, he was grateful to call them family. 

The following two days were uneventful; Sirius and Moony had done like they said and had celebrated Harry coming second; Padfoot had made another appearance, except this time Harry managed to hit him with a rainbow charm resulting in Sirius walking around with his fur going through the whole color spectrum. Moony, meanwhile, had also been hit with revenge by Flitwick and had ended up sporting an American-style mullet. The bright pink mullet had caused Dumbledore just about to spit his tea out when he saw it the following day. After Flitwick had reviewed the final duel with him and showed him where Harry could have won it, they spent the rest of the day slowly breaking down the tent so they could head across the mountains with the Native elders. 

After Dumbledore packed the tent and Fawkes flashed in and disappeared with it, they went to where the Natives had set up and met up with Elder Komeha‘e and the younger man Akando. Meeting up with them, Harry was introduced to two other Elders, Alo and Kachine. Kachine would serve as their host when they arrived on the native's lands. Alo would be helping Harry when he actually went for his quest. As a result, he handed Harry unique clothing he would wear for the entire three days. The leather leggings were tight, but they were all he could wear. He had been nervous when they had explained that he wouldn’t be able to take his wand or any other weapons with him. The only thing he would carry would be a stone knife with a wooden handle. 

They were handed a portkey and joined by Akando as they entered the only area in the valley where they could leave. Taking one last look at the valley, Harry realized that he couldn’t wait for the next world dueling championship, he had been invited to compete in the under seventeens to defend his title, and he was also invited to try to become the titled champion of the open duels. With that, the portkey was activated, and Harry’s stomach was thrown into torment as they spun. 

Landing in a crouched position, Harry placed a hand on his still-spinning stomach, waiting for it to settle down before finally looking at the valley. While the whole valley from mountain to mountain seemed to be covered in trees, where they were standing was a pathway to where numerous yurts were set up, along with a couple of log cabins.

“Welcome to our home Harry Potter; now, are you ready to begin your quest?” Turning, Harry saw Alo standing there dressed in his own leather legging and holding two stone knife holsters. When Harry nodded and began to pass his bags off to Sirius and Moony, he also handed over his knives as well. 

“Good luck Prongslet”

“Good luck Harry”

“Good Luck, Mr. Potter”

“I want a full accounting when you come back, and good luck Mr. Potter.”

Being given a bit of privacy, Harry chucked off his clothes and pulled on the leather leggings. After stepping around the conjured wall of Dumbledores, he handed his clothes to Moony before accepting the knife from Alo. Watching them walk into the valley before taking a deep breath, he waved to everyone as Alo led him on a different path into the forest. He was nervous and excited for the next three days, and he wondered what he would see and what he would attain while he was on this quest.     

Chapter Text

Hermione was nervous; she was sitting in the Leaky Cauldron waiting for Daphne to arrive for their date. They had agreed to try to see where things were going between them and had made plans to have several dates over the summer in both worlds. As a result, Hermione was waiting for Daphne to arrive so they could go out for afternoon tea and a movie. Seeing the fire flare, Hermione smiled as the girl in question stepped through the flames wearing an ankle-length skirt, a nice blouse, and a green leather jacket that Harry had given her for her birthday. Seeing her, Hermione was reminded of the conversation they had before they left Hogwarts.

FLASHBACK

Daphne had dragged Hermione into an abandoned classroom while Harry was unconscious after fighting the dragon and had locked the door behind them.

“Okay, Hermione spill, before the dragon showed up, you had been extremely nervous and looked like you were about to ask something?" Hermione had to be dragged out of staring at Daphne's lips when she was speaking. 

"I, I just, I wanted to know IF YOU LIKE ME AS MUCH AS HARRY!?" Hermione was panting after confessing that she had feelings for Daphne, breathing heavily, she was staring at the girl when her gut dropped when she didn't respond. As she started to leave, she found her arm being grabbed by Daphne.

"I'm  sor–"

Lips, Hermione's eyes just about bugged out of her head when Daphne's lips crashed into hers. Suddenly her hands found themselves holding onto the girl's hips as the kiss deepened. This was not what she expected, but she found she enjoyed it.

FLASHBACK ENDED

After that, the conversation took place, and Daphne explained that she had been waiting for either her or Harry to wake up to her feelings. With that, she and Daphne had gotten closer while also getting closer to Harry, small touches, hugs, and giving him kisses on the cheeks, which had been chiefly Hermione. Daphne had taken to walking with Harry around the lake, and yet it seemed like the boy had been oblivious to either of their affections. When they left on the train, Daphne had been so bold as to hit Harry with a sleep spell typically used by parents and then place his head in her lap, which failed. Hermione had even been so bold as to sit in his lap when they had been in the Potter Tower, yet he had just adjusted to where she had slipped down next to him in the chair and been snuggled up next to him. So while Harry was in America, Hermione and Daphne decided to go on a few dates in both worlds, which is why Hermione was currently walking beside Daphne headed in the direction of Leicester square.

“Okay, so we have two movies to choose from, but I think you will enjoy my choice; it just came out this summer, and it's brill.” Hermione and Daphne were walking toward the movie, and Daphne looked like she was still shocked at everything she had seen. This was the third time she had been in the mundane world, and she had seen something new every time.

“What movie are we seeing this time?” Hermione had taken her back to her house, and they had watched Willow together on something called a VHS; it had blown Daphne’s mind because the closet thing she could compare it to was a pensieve, and even that was vastly outmatched by the video she had watched. 

“The Lion King.”

Harry was nervous; Aias had led him to a clearing where they had been three other young men, Moki, Ohanko, and Jace. Along with them were two females, Kachine and Lakota, and both Moki and Jace were his age. 

“Okay, now that you have been introduced, I will explain exactly what will happen. We will spend a couple of hours in a sweat before consuming a special tea; after that, you will each be guided to different sections of the forest, and a health monitoring charm will be attached to you; that is the only piece of magic that will not come from the mountain. You will be left in the clearings for forty-eight hours while the tea allows you to tap into your deeper psyche and open up a connection with Mother Earth. Each of you knows why you are here, but I will explain it again for young Mr. Potter here. The vision quest will reveal what you search for, be it answers as to your path going forward, your animagus form, or even just wanting to deepen your connection with earthen-based magic.” Harry nodded and began to wonder what he would see as Aias led him into the sweltering tent in nothing but leather leggings.

Two hours later, Harry stepped out, covered in sweat and feeling weaker mentally and physically. Taking the cup of tea, he didn’t even think, and he just gulped the whole thing down. Handing it back to Aias, he finally noticed the man staring at him, extremely shocked. 

“What?” Aias just shook his head and repoured the tea and handed it to Moki, who took only a sip before passing it to the next person, Harry realized he wasn’t supposed to drink the whole tea. 

“Mr. Potter, I will take you to the clearing and make sure you have a couple of health charms attached to you.” The man couldn’t begin to figure out how he was going to explain to the adults that Harry had consumed the whole cup of hallucinogen tea designed to break down mental barriers between the subconscious and conscious, allowing him to mediate and connect easier with his psyche. 

Harry was led to the clearing and told to sit down and meditate, while Aias quickly rushed back to the village to inform the adults of what happened. 

Harry had been meditating for an hour when he felt he had to open his eyes; the first thing he noticed was the silence. Even when he had been walking to the clear, the sounds of birds, bugs, and other animals filled the air and created a symphony of noise that made up the background of his landscape. Yet here and now, it was total silence; then he heard a snap and jerked his head to the right as a buck stepped out into the clearing. It was the strangest deer he had ever since because a crown of lilies was on its head. Then another snap as suddenly a coywolf stepped out of the underbrush, then another as finally, a bear lumbered into the clearing. 

"Do I, do I follow you?" Harry felt ridiculous asking that question out loud to the animals, yet he was shocked when the Deer nodded its head and turned to walk down a path. Standing up, he followed the buck as it walked into the forest. Following the deer, Harry looked behind him to see the coywolf and the bear had fallen in behind him as they walked deeper into the forest. Deeper and deeper into the forest till the leaves above blocked out the sun, and then Harry almost panicked when some of the trees seemed to have glowing mushrooms around their roots and a tiny fluttering yellow firefly filled the newest clearing he had reached. Sitting on a root of a massive oak tree was a completely green woman, at her feet was a small glowing blue pool of water. Everything about her was of nature, with leafy dreadlocks and a green mossy body. The woman patted the root next to her for Harry to sit down.

"Hello, Harry Potter, I was wondering when we would meet.” Harry sat down and looked at the woman curiously, she was easily the oldest druid based on the one druid he had met.

“Are you a druid?” The woman openly laughed at his question before grabbing a bit of dirt and holding it up to where Harry could see it; Harry watched as the pile of dirt suddenly had a flower sprouting out before she took the golden flower as it bloomed and placed it in the pool and watched as it began to swirl slowly. 

“Oh, Harry, a druid is a child to me, what I am is more than just a druid. My people are called Dryads.” Harry chalked it up to the tea that he imagined a race that had been extinct since Atlantis went missing. The woman in question held out her hand a raven landed on her open palm. Holding it out to Harry, it moved to stand on his hand. Harry felt a pulse of something travel down his hand as the raven made eye contact with him.

“What, what did I just feel?” Harry felt like he could see through the raven's eyes; he heard an echo of his question as the bird suddenly flashed bright white and disappeared. It startled him for a moment, and the woman giggled at him.

“It seems I was right, you know, with the amount of time you spend in the air, it makes sense you have a connection with the raven. Well, I’ve done what I’ve come to do now; let me give you a boost.” Before Harry could question the dryad, he felt something grip him, and he was dragged into the small pool of water. He couldn’t fight it as he was pulled below the water's surface. Harry felt like he had been hit by a Petrificus Totalus as his face was submerged by the surface; as a result, he never heard the dryad’s last words.

“I wonder if he realizes that now the tea is kicking in?”

He slammed into the forest floor and felt like his breath had been knocked out of him. Slowly getting up, Harry looked around to see the forest had changed entirely, gone were the beautiful moss-covered grounds and the glowing mushrooms, the deer, coyote, and bear had become skeletons left to decay on the forest floor. There was fog hanging at knee height across the entire clearing. The trees looked menacing, and the gnarled roots spread across the ground. Harry heard a familiar clicking off in the distance, the sound of acromantula skirting around. A lone howl went off in the distance before suddenly a second, a third, and then roughly a dozen howls came up from all over the forest. Harry cursed himself for not having a wand when suddenly he felt a familiar weight hit his palm. 

Holding it up, he was shocked to see not his wand but the sword of Gryffindor, a golden glow being given off by the blade as he stood in the forest. He gave the blade a couple of test swings and found that it had the same weight as the real thing. With that, Harry began to slowly follow the path that had been revealed by the golden light coming off the sword. 

He was out of breath, sore, and he was wondering if wounds taken in this place transferred to his actual body. It felt like it had been hours since Harry started walking through the forest, at first, the path had been nice and straight, and then as soon as he got used to it, the whole ground shuddered, and Harry was forced to brace as the path was suddenly thrown into disarray. 

After that, he had run into an acromantula, thankfully, it had been a smaller one, and he had managed to cut off one of its legs before stabbing the sword through one of its eyes. Then he had to quickly scramble up a tree when what he assumed was a werewolf ran through the forest. Climbing it had been easy, getting down was more challenging and resulted in him twisting his ankle. After that, he had almost walked into the patch of devil's snare; if it hadn't been for the glow of his sword, Harry would have sworn the tendrils would have snapped out to grab him. Still, Harry continued through the forest, a sense of direction had filled him, and he was walking along the former path. 

Then it happened, something tingled in his spine, and he felt the build-up of something; and he threw himself into a roll to the left. Harry watched as the tree he had been closest to seemed to begin sizzling as an acid green ate away at it. The voice that Harry heard sent his heart racing and the hair on his arms rising.

"Potter, at last, I will finally kill you and take over your soul!" 

If Harry didn't already know about the Horcrux behind his scar, he would have been freaking out at the sound of Voldermort speaking to him. The stakes had been raised, and he had to escape this forest as quickly as possible before it killed him. Suddenly wishing he could cast spells, Harry looked around for something to distract Voldermort. Seeing a small rock, Harry quickly grabbed it and chucked it to a nearby bunch of trees and gnarled bushes. When Voldermort fired, Harry let the training from Flitwick take over, and he bolted in the opposite direction.

"POTTER, GET BACK HERE!" 

Giving a two-finger salute over his shoulder, Harry continued dodging and weaving through trees, putting distance between himself and the entity. With Gryffindor's sword in one hand, Harry rushed through the woods. Over fallen logs, using trees, he avoided spells; sliding down into a ditch, he watched as a sickly green spell flew over his head; jumping over a bush, another spell slammed into the ground below him. There Harry could see it; the trees broke away to a clearing in the distance. He wouldn’t be able to avoid it, but maybe he could use it to his advantage. Looking in the distance, Harry found a stand of rocks and some decaying trees. Slashing his sword out, a small tree was cut through like it wasn’t even there, and the top covered in leaves dropped, giving Harry enough time to slide under one of the fallen logs leaning against the rocks before rolling under some of the scrub brush. Holding his breath, Harry heard the sounds of the entity as it stomped into the clearing.

“WHERE ARE YOU, POTTER!?” 

Seeing a chance, Harry crept out from the scrub brush and began to crouch walk up behind the shade of Voldemort. Suddenly it started thundering, giving Harry cover to rush the final ten feet and thrust the sword into the shades back. Watching the shade fall to its knees as he twisted the sword till it was lateral inside the shade's chest. Walking around, he looked the shade of Voldemort in the face, continuing around to the sword, Harry couldn’t help but feel a sense of disgust when the shade spoke. 

“NO, THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!” 

Harry grabbed the sword once again before pulling it free, and then as his roar joined the crackling thunder overhead, Harry swung the sword as hard as he could into the shade's neck and watched as black smoke clung to the neck as the head went flying. The thunder and lightning boomed across the sky as the darkness and fog that clung to the forest suddenly faded. Harry stood there as the shade began to fade, and the grass below his feet began to turn green. Looking at the sword in his hand, Harry felt something urging him, and giving in, Harry twirled the sword before stabbing it directly into the ground. 

BOOM

The very sky split open as suddenly a large screech was let out, and the sounds of flapping wings were heard as a massive golden white bird landed in the clearing. Stepping back, Harry watched as the thunder kept rumbling; the bird's wings had blue streaks running throughout, and it seemed to almost shimmer with cloud-like patterns. As the bird let out another screech, Harry watched as the sky lit up and the trees went from looking seconds from death to looking healthy and new. The bird bent down and seemed to stare deep into Harry’s eyes, and Harry realized that, much like a hippogriff, he shouldn’t break eye contact.

It felt like hours before the bird suddenly bowed to him, and he felt himself being urged to walk to where it had lowered a wing. Going to grab the sword, Harry was shocked to see it was gone and turned to climb up onto the bird's back.  With a screech and a beat of its wings, they were off. 

“YEAH, HOOOOOOO!” Harry was having the time of his life riding on the thunderbird's back; every time it beat its wings, thunder would rumble, a crack of lightning accompanied every screech, and the clouds formed in the trail of the tail feathers. The bird had dived multiple times and had even done a barrel roll a couple of times; Harry would have sworn that he could feel a sense of giddiness coming from the bird. 

After a while, the bird seemed to land in front of a highly familiar building. In front of him was Hogwarts, and Harry could see that there were two forms of someone in front of the main doors. Curiosity took over, and Harry slid off the bird and started to walk toward them before a screech made him turn to the bird. Turning around, Harry watched as the bird leaned back and grabbed a loose tail feather before pulling it free and handing it to him. Taking the feather in his hand, Harry watched as it glowed the same brilliantly gold as the sword of Gryffindor and floated upward before disappearing from his hand.

Standing there, Harry watched as the bird flapped its wings once before taking off and flying away into the distance. Harry didn’t know how long he stood there watching the thunderbird as it flew off, but eventually, he turned and walked towards the doors of Hogwarts and the two figures standing at the door. As he got closer, Harry felt his heart beating faster as he slowly began to make out the definition of the two figures standing at the door. Rushing forward, Harry watched as the woman opened her arms, and he didn’t even notice the tears running down his cheeks as he slammed into his mother's arms.    

“Oh, son, we can’t even tell you how proud we are of you.” Harry felt his father's arms wrap around him and his mother as he spoke. Harry didn’t want to let go; all he had ever wanted was to feel his mother hugging him. 

“It's okay, sweetie, it's okay Mummy is here for you for now.” Harry was saddened that this was all in his head; even if it sounded like his mother, he knew he would never get to experience this in the real world. Wishing he could never let go, eventually, he did and felt his mum place her hand on his cheek. Staring into her eyes, Harry could see it was shining with tears and also pride.

“What, why are you here? Not that I don’t want to see you two, but how are you here?” His father chuckled as his mother tried to fix his hair. 

“Magic!” Harry rolled his eyes at his father's answer as they began to walk into the Great Hall to find a couple of chairs instead of long tables. In the center of the chairs was a familiar basin that resided in Dumbledore’s office. A sudden flash, and then Harry heard a joyous singing as Fawkes flashed into the room. Instead of the same reddish trail of fire that accompanied him, the bird had a similar golden glow as the sword and the feather from earlier.

“Oi, don’t show me up, you overgrown chicken!” Harry and his mum giggled at his father's antics as he waved his arms at the bird, who stayed just out of range of his outstretched arms. 

“Come, sweetie, we have so much to discuss.” Harry took a seat as the bird landed on the back of his seat and his father and mother took the other two. Sitting with his parents, Harry couldn’t help but feel a sense of calm happiness intermingling with sadness. 

“Now, Son, me and your mum have never been more proud of you than we have since you discovered the truth of who you were; I know life was Petunia was horrible, and trust me, she has gotten her dues. Never let the things they said about you get to you; you are loved, you do deserve happiness, and you will become someone.” Harry had looked down when his dad had mentioned Petunia, but his father had raised his chin to look him in the eye; with each word spoken, Harry felt it almost being branded on his soul. 

“Sweetie, make sure you take that to heart and know this, the next time you decide to run headfirst into danger like this lunk,” Harry giggled when his dad exclaimed at his mum’s remark, “ Know that you are not just loved by us, Sirius, or Remus but by two wonderful young girls as well.”

“Huh?” His dad shared a look with his mom before she pressed different runes on the pensieve. Watching them glow, Harry felt a tug of something on the side of his head as suddenly a glowing white strand was pulled by his mother's finger and placed into the bowl. With a look from his mother, Harry joined them in watching the memories.

More than a dozen memories later, Harry realized that his mom had been right, that both Hermione and Daphne liked him more than as just a friend. He hadn’t realized that Hermione's displays of affection were more than just her being friendly, and that she only gave him kisses on the cheeks goodnight. Daphne, meanwhile, had seemed to become a constant in his life, going on walks with him, sharing candy while they studied, she had even convinced him to teach her how to use the Caster, and he had been centimeters from her body while his hands were on hers. By the end of it, Harry had begun looking at his own interactions with them and realized something else; he shared their feelings. 

Once he had finally realized that, his mum smiled at him, and his dad laughed and wished him luck with handling two women, resulting in his mom to shoot his father a look. After a while, Harry noticed that his parents began to get tired and he himself felt something tugging on him.

“Sweetie, we have to go; it's time for you to move on, but remember, hun, we love you, we will always love you, and we will always be watching over you.” Harry accepted the hug from his mum and then the one from his father, who held him at arm's length.

“Remeber Prongslet, you are loved. Also, tell Pads and Moony that you want to become an animagus; they’ll help you learn how. Don’t forget to prank them as well!” Harry watched as his mum dragged his father out of the room with one hand, leaving Harry and Fawkes still inside the Great Hall.

“Well, Fawkes, what next?” When the phoenix let out a beautifully haunting song, the mirror of erised appeared alongside a door. Looking between the two, Harry didn’t feel that it was a choose one or the other kind of deal, so walking over he looked into the mirror.

Harry didn’t know how long he stood there staring into the mirror, and he just knew eventually, Fawkes managed to free him from the grip of the mirror. It wasn’t just an image of something he desired; it had been a series of flashes of a future. The first had been him and the girls kissing and lying on a couch together. The next had been the day he asked them to marry him and their response of jumping into his arms. The next had to be a year after the marriage proposal, the girls had sat him down on the couch in Potter Manor and had informed him that they were pregnant. The last one had been of him much older, standing next to two young children, a boy, and a girl, as they watched the sun rise over the ocean. 

Looking back at the mirror one last time, Harry walked over to the door and felt the familiar weight of Fawkes landing on his shoulder as he pushed open the door to step into yet another forest. Thankfully this one wasn’t as dark as the other one, and with Fawkes, on his shoulder, he felt safer. Walking through the trees, Harry found Fawkes gripping his shoulder several times, and he soon figured out that he was guiding him somewhere. Eventually, they arrived in what had once been a great grove of trees, judging from the stumps. There were thousands upon thousands of them that stretched all over the valley. Walking up to the nearest one, Fawkes hopped off his shoulder and flapped his wings as he landed on the stump. Suddenly Harry got deja vu as Fawkes began to cry on the stump. Stumbling backward, Harry watched as a small sapling appeared on the stump. Fawkes flew around it, singing a song that filled Harry’s heart with a sense of renewal as he watched in fascination as the simple sprig began to grow rapidly, stepping back more and more as the tree went from being only centimeters tall to stretching four meters round and over fifty meters tall in mere minutes made Harry stare in awe. 

BONK

Then Harry got smacked in the head by an almost two and half meter-long branch before it hit the ground, growling out a couple of curses at Fawkes when he let out a chuckling song. Harry watched in horror as the same tree suddenly turned ashen white and started to flake away. A massive tree grown in minutes was reduced to a stump in the same amount of time once again, except the two-and-a-half meter branch hadn’t been turned ashen white and looked perfectly healthy. Fawkes landed in front of it and nudged it with his beak toward Harry. Getting what Fawkes wanted, Harry leaned down and picked it up, only to watch as it glowed golden before disappearing, much like the thunderbird feather and the sword of Gryffindor.

Looking at Fawkes, Harry saw the bird flare its wings before flapping, taking off into the sky, and flying circles around him. Watching as the phoenix flew away, Harry stood there at the edge of the grove of stumps before feeling something grab him much like early and drag him through the forest. Deciding not to fight it this time, Harry eventually felt himself deposited on a river bank where three figures stood across the water. Harry went to speak only to realize he couldn’t; trying again, he realized he was somehow silenced. 

As he stood there he watched as the three men began to build a bridge across the raging river using their wands; it was a beautiful symphony of magic as wood and stone were weaved together to create a bridge that would last hundreds of years. It looked much like something that he would have seen at Hogwarts. Watching them walk across the bridge, Harry suddenly felt a swirl of magic as suddenly their path was blocked by a hooded figure.  

Harry listened to the hooded figure introduce himself as Death and offer the three figures a prize for being clever enough to evade his clutches. One by one, each brother asked for something; one such item caused Harry to let out a gasp when he saw a similar-looking cloak to the one that had been in the Potter family. Surprisingly the hooded figure actually turned and looked at him when it happened. As the three brothers left, Harry was frozen with fear as Death floated towards him.

“ You are not supposed to be here, Hadrian James Potter…oh I see, very interesting.” Harry found his throat dry as Death floated directly up into his face and seemed to stare him down. Death then reached a single boney finger out and seemed to hover over his scar.

“How trivial and bothersome, do get that taken care of, Hadrian; Tom Marvolo Riddle has evaded my grasp for far too long.” Harry just nodded before Death grabbed a loose strand of his cloak from where he had given it to the third brother before a single string was loosened and unraveled. Taking the string in his hands, Death held it out, and Harry, still shocked, held up his palm to watch as the string fell into his awaiting palm. It glowed golden, much like the other items, before disappearing, except this time, Harry felt something tug him along; the last thing he heard as he was pulled upward was Death’s last sentence.  

“The world hangs in the balance Hadrian; only you can beat Tom; I’ll be watching.”

“AAAAAAAHHHH!” Busting out of the pool of water, Harry once again found himself back in the clearing with the Dryad still sitting, waiting for him as he climbed out of the pool of glowing water.

“Oh goodie, your back, so tell me, how did it go.” Harry leaned against the tree root and accepted a clay mug of some type of tea from the Dryad. Draining it down in one go, Harry sat back and began to tell the Dryad exactly what he had seen and done. After half an hour, the Dryad laid a hand on his knee, causing Harry to realize he had been bouncing it. 

“Now you know Harry, and now you know what the future will be only if you win. You need to win, and if you don’t, then the world will suffer because of it.” Harry nodded at that and wondered how to get back to the clearing. When he asked the Dryad, she just chuckled before holding out an acorn.

“Grab it.”

Sirius and Remus were nervous, Aias had informed them almost two days ago that Harry had drank the whole cup of tea instead of taking a sip, they had rushed to the clearing he was supposed to be to find him missing, since then they had checked each day. A storm arrived the second day, and with it, a sighting of a massive thunderbird, something that was extremely rare on the east coast ever since Newt Scamander released one in New York City back in the 20s. On the third day, Sirius was running on no sleep when a massive boom sounded out, and they rushed toward it. Even a couple of the natives ran with him. Letting Sirius know that this wasn’t normal; roughly forty meters from the clearing that Harry had been, they found all the trees had been knocked over at chest height, and there in the center of the clearing was his godson, holding himself up with a branch of some kind that had a feather attached to it by a shimmering string.

“PRONGSLET, ARE YOU OKAY!?” Harry felt Sirius wrap his arms around him, and Harry managed to utter one sentence before he passed out.

“I saw my mum and dad and met death.”

Chapter Text

“Okay, explain to me exactly what I have to do?” Harry was still sore and tired from recovering from his quest and the ritual. Even though it had been all in his head, the damage his body had taken affected his muscles and put a strain on him magically. Still, even after finding out that the wood, feather, and ethereal string had been real, Harry had to figure out what to do with them, which led to what Harry was doing now, where one of the elders had suggested that he craft his own wand. He had drained some of his blood into a mason jar and had been led to where the American Chestnut branch rested alongside the thunderbird feather and the string from death’s cloak. 

“First, you're going to use the earth draw technique to cut off roughly two feet of the branch, save the rest of the wood; I have a surprise for you that I can make with it. After that, you're going to soak the chisel blade in your blood and split the wood in half. Then you're going to create a small channel for the thunderbird feather and the string to rest in. Still don’t know how you have an extinct tree branch, but it seems like weird things happen to you.” That had been another shock, finding out the branch was from a tree typically called a phoenix wood back before it went extinct in the late 1800s or early 1900s due to a blight. The fact that Harry had an eight-foot-long branch had sent the elders and Dumbledore into a heated discussion about how Harry had acquired it, and the less said about the third item, the better. 

Following the elder, who had told Harry to call him Manto, even though his full name was Mantotohpa, advice Harry cut off a two-foot section at one end and then, using a chisel soaked in his blood, slowly but surely split the wood in half. After that, he used a rounded chisel to dig a shall channel roughly ten inches long in the center of the wood. Turning back to the Elder, he listened as the man detailed how Hair needed to soak the feather and the string together in the mason jar before using the clamp to twist them together until they fit in the channel. 

It took him at least ten minutes to get the feather and string to twist tight enough to be doubled over and laid into the channel. After which, Harry was told to take his blood and pour it on the two halves of the wood before Manto taught him how to seal it. Doing so, Harry turned to see the man had brought over an ordinary piece of wood split in half.

“Now watch me; you already know how to draw magic from the earth, and if what I've been told is true, you have even used magic wandlessly, which will make this step easier for you. You're going to take both halves of the wood in your hand and push your magic into your hands and the wood itself. It’s a balancing act, you don’t want to overload the three magical properties, but you don’t want your magic to be too weak to fight the materials. Your blood will help with this” Harry could feel sweat dribbling down his neck; beads of it had built up on his forehead as he fought to do as Manto instructed. Eventually, he felt the pressure from the three objects lessen, and he watched as the wood began to knit itself back together, and then he was left with a complete whole two-foot piece of American Chestnut again. There were no indications that it had been split in half, showing at all. Turning to Manto, he was greeted with a massive grin and a wood-shaving tool.

“Now, here's the last step; using the remainder of your blood, dip the wood shaving tool into it and shape your wand into its final form. You will know when it's the right length and shape.” Harry nodded and began to do as Manto suggested. Time seemed to fade away as he slowly molded the wand into its shape; the point of the wand was tapered down, and the actual body was long, but in the handle, Harry suddenly switched to a small stenciling chisel and placed a couple of runes into the design. Anti-summoning runes wrapped in protective runes spiraled around the grip of the wand, where Harry tapered it down before flaring it out to give it a pommel. Holding up the finished wand, he measured it and was glad to see it was thirteen inches which was a magical number. Pointing the wand straight up, Harry cast the first spell that came to mind. 

“ Styrma,” Harry watched as, unlike before when the cloudless sky let out a clap of thunder, the sky seemed to fill with dark clouds before a thunderous roar of thunder ripped through the air sending him to his knees as lightning joined the thunder, and shrieked across the sky blinding him and causing him to see stars. Slowly getting up to his feet, Harry looked over to see Manto was as well.

“Sorry about that; I didn’t realize it would be that bloody powerful.” Harry was still trying also to get his magical core back to being stabilized after Dumbledore had done the transfer ritual. That had been another fun thing for him to learn.

Flashback

Harry had just gotten done explaining to Dumbledore about the experience with the Horcrux when the older man cast several spells at him, with his eyes widening with each spell.

“Mr. Potter, I will be right back, FAWKES!” Harry couldn’t do anything as he was stunned by Fawkes flashing into the room, grabbing Dumbledores, and flashing out. Turning and looking at Sirius and Moony, he found one had forgone the glass and was drinking straight from the bottle, and Moony was currently staring into the void with a look of shock. 

“So, what have you two been up to while I was gone?” Sirius stared at Harry, not saying a word till he turned the bottle back up and continued drinking. Moony seemed to snap out of his staring before looking at Harry.

“I don’t think I heard you right. Did you say that you met a dryad, fought a specter of He-who-must-not-be-named, rode on the back of a thunderbird, met your parents, saw the future, watched Fawkes bring an extinct tree back to give you a branch, and then met Death who gave you a bloody sting from his cloak?” When Harry nodded, Moony grabbed the bottle from Sirius’s hand and turned the rest of the bottle up, and drained it dry.

“I’M BACK, right, their drinking. Mr. Potter, now, originally, the plan was for us to use the ritual from the book around Halloween because that was the best time for the spell to target the Horcrux and not your actual soul. Still, now that I know that the connection between your soul and the Horcrux has been severed, then we can use the ritual now, and I can place it in the gem to study.” Harry’s eyes widened at Dumbledore's statement. He could get it removed today and never have to worry about it again.

"HOLD ON, DID DUMBLEDORE JUST SAY HORCRUX!" Harry and Dumbledore both turned to look at Sirius, who seemed to have suddenly gotten sober at the mention of the Horcrux; Harry saw Dumbledore winch out of the corner of his eyes like he had forgotten to tell his godfather.

“Yes, yes, we will talk about this later; Dumbledore, you said we could get this taken care of today, right? What does Mr. Potter have to do?” Harry sent a silent thank you that Flitwick had gotten them back on track; they could explain to Sirius after it was removed from his body.

“Well, I have the ingredients right here, we just need to make a ritual circle, and I need Remus to draw a couple of runes over Harry’s heart and a different set of runes on either side of Harry’s scar, the heart runes need to be done in freely given Unicorn blood, and the runes on either side of the scar shall be done in Dragons blood.” Remus nodded numbly as he was still recovering from the shock of earlier and accepted the jars of blood before Flitwick hit him with a charm causing him to focus and look determined.

FLASHBACK ENDS

The ritual had been painful; Sirius and Remus both ended up being stunned by Flitwick when Harry screamed the first time. He felt the magic grabbing and scraping inside his scar as it grabbed the Horcrux and pulled every little tendril out. Visually nothing was there except the glow of the ritual, but Harry could have sworn he saw the tendrils of Tom’s toxic Horcrux as it was pulled from his head and deposited into the now inky black gem. Afterward, they informed Sirius, who wanted to destroy the Horcrux immediately, only to ask for another bottle of firewhiskey when Dumbledore informed him that more were out there. Meanwhile, Harry’s magic had been in flux for a while afterward, and it was only with daily training with Flitwick that they even got back to him being able to cast spells without overpowering them. This is why when he cast the spell with his new wand, he was shocked it was so much more powerful visually and literally. 

Walking towards where their tent was set up, Harry couldn’t help but wonder what Manto would do with the leftover six-foot section of wood. The elder had been very secretive about his plan, but Harry knew he would find out before he left in a couple of days. They had to return to the United Kingdom in time for his birthday, which Harry would finally be celebrating with friends and family in a home he loved. Pushing open the flap, Harry stopped as he saw a rather hilarious sight in front of him. Flitwick, Moony, and Sirius were all playing mundane poker except Flitwick was sporting bunny ears, Sirius was using a magical glove to hold his cards as he was current Padfoot, and Moony was purple.

“Um….. what happened here?” Harry saw Dumbledore was missing and assumed he had taken the ability to be rational with him as Harry was quickly figuring out that Flitwick was just as mischievous as Sirius and Moony when he wasn’t a teacher. 

“Winner of the round gets to prank one of the two losers; you want in?” Harry just stared at the two individuals and the dog before shaking his head and heading to his room. Once in his room, Harry grabbed his old wand and tested it to make sure it would still work for him and was glad to see that there was still a strong connection with the phoenix feather core. Harry slipped it into his wrist holster, grabbed the second wand holster that Dumbledore had brought back from Britain with him, and slipped it onto his left arm with his new wand inside.  

Walking back into the main area, Harry grabbed a book of spells and left the tent once again to continue retraining his magic. 

They were heading back to England today; Dumbledore had asked Fawkes if he was willing to make multiple trips, and the bird had been more than willing to do so. When Harry asked why they hadn’t done that traveling to the dueling location, Dumbledore had just smirked and let Fawkes flash him away first. Leaving Harry standing next to Flitwick, Sirius, and Remus. One by one, they all left till Harry was the last, and Fawkes didn’t grab him immediately because Manto had come rushing to the location where they could portkey or flash away.  

“Thank Kanati; you are still here, I almost thought I would have to send this to you. Here I finished it last night and overslept.” Harry took the offered six-foot staff covered in runes, and Harry could see that there was metal entwined with the wood. Looking at Manto questionably, he was glad when the man began to explain what he had done.

“The runes are channeling runes. Also, there are impervious runes mixed in, and the metal gives it a hefty weight; this is when you don’t want to use a sword but still want to do some damage. There's a slot to place your wand into the staff, and the magic will be amplified, but the backlash on your core is rather hefty. Now, I believe your friend here is ready to take you back; I'm glad I met you; Harry Potter seems my family has helped yours a second time.” Harry stared at the smirking man in shock as Fawkes grabbed his shoulder and felt the taste of ash on his tongue as he flashed back to Hogwarts.  

“SURPRISE!” Harry turned and fired off the first spell he could think of, only to see it be turned into a bundle of flowers that Dumbledore passed to both Hermione and Daphne, who were shocked by Harry's sudden attack. Looking around, Harry saw that the Weasleys were standing there, Hermione's parents, who were sporting curious-looking bracelets, Daphne's parents and sister, Neville, had shown up, and even Lavender and the Patil twins were there. Of course, Skeeter was standing next to Sirius, who had his sister Andi and her husband Ted there; along with them came Tonks, who had changed her hair to be a rainbow. Standing further back was Mad eye, and McGonagall, along with Hagrid. It was honestly the most people he had ever seen celebrate his birthday.   

“Well, I think we can all agree that wasn’t the reaction we expected from you, Mr. Potter.” Harry had a good sense of looking embarrassed when everyone started chuckling. When Dumbledore finished speaking, Hermione and Daphne instantly hugged him. Bracing himself, Harry caught them both in a hug before leaning back and holding them in his arms off the ground. 

“Hey, girls, what have you two been up to while I was gone.” Harry grinned at them both when he saw that they were blushing heavily; setting them both back on their feet, Hermione pushed his chest and grinned at him. Daphne punched his shoulder and tried to cover her blush. 

“Harry, how were the Americas? Did you learn anything interesting? Buy any books for the library? Tell me everything.” Harry just chuckled at Hermione's continued to ask him questions about the different things that came to her mind; eventually, Harry just hugged her, causing her to stop talking. Daphne was shocked as well, judging by the raised eyebrow. 

“Seems the visit to the Americas was good for you, Potter; happy birthday as well,” Daphne smirked till Harry pulled her into his side, and together all three of them walked to thank the rest of the guests that had shown up, starting with the Weasley clan.

Harry’s cheeks hurt; since he had arrived home, he hadn’t stopped smiling. This had been the best birthday he had ever had; Hermione and Daphne had stuck beside him the entire time. Mrs. Weasley, Hagrid, and Dobby had gotten into an argument over who would be the one to fix Harry a birthday cake. In the end, Hagrid was convinced to bring him a different gift while Mrs. Weasley and Dobby made his birthday cake together. They probably should have stuck with Hagrid helping with the cake since he showed up with Buckbeak as his gift to Harry. Fortunately, they were still at Hogwarts, meaning Harry could leave off delivering Buckbeak to Potter Manor till later. 

After the party was over, Harry had asked Hermione and Daphne if they would be up for having lunch at the Leaky Tavern before school started; receiving a curious look and a hug as a reply, Hermione left by portkey with her parents, and Daphne walked with her parents to Hogsmeade; the rest of the crowd left after a while, and Harry made a deal with Hagrid to bring Buckbeak to Potter Manor in a couple of days. Lupin had promised to deal with the hippogriff because Harry and Sirius would be at the Quidditch World Cup by then.

Blaise Zambini was having an interesting summer; he had been summoned, not asked but summoned by his grandfather to come to his estate, where he had been handed to a tailor who proceeded to make him a suit fit for a button man, the suit was lined with Acromantulas silk which was enchanted to withstand against mundane bullets, the stylish black suit combined with his Italian looks made him seem lethal which helped his case when his grandfather grabbed his arm. They portkeyed to the entrance hall of a mansion. 

Walking through the opened doors, Blaise barely kept himself from stumbling when he saw that the heads of the families were seated. This was the council; each of their respective families' dons met and discussed how best to navigate magical and mundane Europe and make a profit as well enemies of the mafia as a whole. The collective deaths ordered or carried out by the men and two women in this room reached into the thousands, and Blaise was being led to stand in front of them as his grandfather moved to take a seat on the council. A small drop of sweat ran down his neck as the dons studied him, and Blaise couldn’t help but feel like he was about to either be killed or inducted.

“Signori Zabini, we have invited you here because you are in a unique position to help us make a decision. Tell me everything you know about one Hadrian James Potter” Blaise was stunned; whatever he expected to come from Don Maniero’s mouth, he never expected to hear Harry fucking Potter come from the man’s mouth. Still, in shock, he could respond with a single word.

“HUH!”  

Chapter Text

“ Tell me, Macnair, why did you wait so long to seek me out, and why I should not kill you right now?” Macnair shivered as he looked down at the partially brought back Dark Lord, then a hiss drew his attention as Nagini slithered into the room; he had to suppress the shiver that traveled up his spine.

“I have no words, My Lord; I only was able to seek you out without fear when I was let go from the Ministry, and with that, my watchers within those walls had no reason to track me.” Suddenly the snake hissed and slithered toward the door, drawing Voldermort’s attention away from Macnair.

“ It seems we have a guest, Macnair; Nagini has found a visitor in our midst.” Macnair walked over to the door to see a man holding something in his hands on the stairs. His eyes widened as he realized what the object in the man's hands was.

BOOM!

Macnair felt his ears ringing as he managed to shut the door with his wand as the gun went off and felt Nagini wrap around him as he grabbed Voldermort. He would later deal with the muggle with the gun; for now, he would keep his master safe.

Today was the day of the Quidditch world cup finals; Sirius had bought tickets for Harry's birthday, seats in the top box alongside Ministers and important dignitaries from around Europe. Thankfully Harry wouldn’t be alone; Daphne and her parents had bought tickets in the top box along with the Weasley family. Hermione had been invited by Daphne since Astoria had decided she would stay home. 

Walking up the stairs, Harry couldn’t help but marvel at the sheer size of the stadium, it just seemed to straight up and up, and the seats seemed almost to curve to face downward. Thankfully the ministry box was only halfway up but was the largest box in the stadium. Walking through the doors, Harry realized why Daphne wanted him to wear the suit he had worn to the Wizengamot. Besides the British wizards, who seemed to be dressed in formal robes, everyone else had their wealth on display. The french witches seemed to be wearing stylish modern clothing, while the wizards wore sharp suits in various colors. One wizard had been so bold as to wear a white and black suit split down the middle, and another witch had shown up wearing a suit as well. Making his way through the crowd of people, Harry spotted the Weasley clan with the Greengrass and Hermione. Harry couldn’t help but stare open-mouthed at the girls' dresses. Daphne had worn a Ravenclaw blue dress that made her blond hair beautiful. Hermione for the first time, Harry could see just how beautiful the girl was; she had curves, something that was generally hidden under her robes. The flowing pink dress hugged her curves and made Harry stutter as he walked up to the girls. 

“Yo-yo-you both look amazing; how-how have you two been since my birthday?” Harry felt his cheeks heat up as the girls shared a look before giggling. They both linked their arms on either side of him, making Harry gulp at their shared grin.

“Well, Potter, you clean up nice as well, and I have to say you fit in well with our dresses.” Harry noticed that Hermione was grinning at Daphne and Harry suddenly realized that they had moved from linking arms with him to holding his hands. Blushing before deciding to get revenge, Harry lifted their hands and twirled the girls causing them to giggle as he did.

“You both far outshine me, ladies, so tell me, Daphne is there anyone here I need to meet?” Daphne and Hermione blushed at Harry’s continued attempts at flirting before Daphne pulled Harry close so she could begin to point out the foreign dignitaries since her father was the ICW representative.

“Over there is the Italian ambassador talking to the French Minister Delacour; his brother’s family is the one whose daughter you fought during the duels.” Harry nodded; he had told them about Fleur after their fight. “Huh, that's interesting.”

“What's up, Daphne? What do you see?” Hermione and Harry both looked to see who Daphne was mentioning, noticing that she saw an older blonde-haired witch wearing a fur-collared dress.

“That's Amalia Nilsson; according to dad, she is the ICW specialist branch recruiter; she's also in charge of the trials. Interesting that she's here since it's rare for the Swedish to come to British-held events.” Suddenly the woman made eye contact with Harry and seem to break off her conversation and head their way. Harry couldn’t do anything but watch as she moved through the crowd to them.

“Well, I thought I recognized you, Mr. Potter, and are you Representative Greengrass's daughter? And who are you, young lady?” Hermione suddenly realized the woman was talking to her. 

“Um, Hermione Granger, Ma’am, I’m a fellow student at Hogwarts with Daphne and Harry.” Amalia smiled and offered her hand to each of them before turning to Harry.

“So tell me, Mr. Potter, besides the two spells in the Defenders Codex, what other spells have you cast from that book?” Harry didn’t like the look the woman was giving him. Thankfully Daphne spoke up at that point and kept him from making a fool of himself.

“Oh, Harry rarely practices spells from that book; he has several books that are less magically taxing to practice from. Hermione, what was that one spell that Moony talked about?” Hermione nodded and took over from there while Harry tried not to laugh as he caught on to what the girls were doing.

“Was it the Patronus charm or the conjuration charm? I can’t seem to remember Daphne. You were there-”

“Oh, excuse me, ladies, Mr. Potter is lovely to meet you; I have to go talk to the ambassador of India.” Harry managed to hold in his smile as the woman walked off before turning to look at the two girls were both smirking and giggling. Harry turned into Hermione and chuckled into her shoulder before the girls dragged him off in the direction of the Weasley clan.

The game was terrific; Harry had never seen a more fast pace game of Quidditch; not only was Krum extremely fast, but Harry could see just why he was considered the best seeker in the league. There had been more than a few times when Harry had lost sight of the snitch, yet somehow Krum had spotted it.  Overall, the Irish won the match, which would have made Seamus extremely happy, but Krum ended the match by catching the snitch, which made the twins happy as they approached Bagman, who had made a bet with them. 

Leaving the stadium, the girls joined Harry at the Black campsite; it was one of the few campsites that not only had its own apparation point but had been warded by Moony and Sirius as a precautionary measure. The Minister was still trying to get on Sirius’s good side, so when he had requested the right to do that, the Minister had folded. Walking into the small circus tent, Harry began to show the girls around.

“Over there is the hallway to the bedrooms; that way is the bathrooms, and through there is the kitchen. Of course, we have the living space right here, and these couches haven’t seen a proper bum since the early nineteen hundreds. Thankfully Dobby cleaned this place after he got done scolding Kreacher.” That had been an adventure in itself.

FLASHBACK

“Okay, so we get in, get the tent out of the storage, and get out. We avoid my house elf and blast anything that moves because who knows what kind of monsters have moved into this dark arts hell hole. Harry, you got your armor?” Harry nodded and adjusted his belt; he had upgraded the belt originally developed by Aunt Edith, while the primary material was still the unidentified monster; not even Hagrid knew what it was; Harry had upgraded the holster. He ended up using a mixture of basilisk and dragon skin, making it a mixture of red and green, along with some runes that he hoped would work with the runes carved into the handle of the caster.

“Sirius, we don’t have to do this; I mean, it's not like we can’t buy a wizard tent in Diagon.” Moony and Harry both nodded along with Elizabeth's comment. Sirius looked like he was about to agree before he suddenly let out a deep breath and squared his shoulders. 

“No, I need to do this; Doctor Kingston recommended that confronting my past with the family I chose will help me lessen the trauma." Harry watched as Elizabeth took Sirius's hand at that statement, and together all four of them entered the house.

Harry was still slowly coming into his own magic since having the Horcrux removed, but stepping into Grimmauld's place, Harry felt the same oppressive feeling that used to exist in the back of his mind. With the caster in his off-hand and his new wand in his right, Harry activated the shield bracelet and stepped in front of Sirius as something screamed from within the house.

"THIEVES, FILTHY THIEVES, KREACHER, DEFEND YOUR MISTRESS!" Harry barely got his shield up in time to block three knives that came flying out of the darkness; as they were deflected away, Harry lifted the caster and fired a spread stunner shot in the direction the knives came. Hearing a thump, Harry lowered his shield as Moony cast a Lumos Maximus, and the orb of light revealed the house elf lying on the floor.

“Nice shot, Prongslet; I wish we could bind him up till we got the tent, but he would escape, so we have to be quick.” Harry wondered if maybe Dobby could help them somehow before suddenly.

POP

“Master Harry Potter called, WHAT IS THE HORROR!”

POP

Harry turned to look at Sirius when Dobby popped in once again when Harry had thought of him; he had been doing that since Harry had screamed for his sword before he battled the dragon. Sirius and Moony were both smirking when Dobby arrived in another pop; when their eyes landed on the elf, they busted out laughing.

“Master Harry Potter needs not worry, Dobby will handles thes. Dobby will talks to elves in charge!” Harry watched as Dobby marched towards Kreacher wearing a combat suit that looked similar to Harry's armor, except instead of a sword on his back, Dobby had a Cleaning broom, and on his left hip was a plunger and on his right was a spray bottle and a duster.

SMACK!

Harry watched as Sirius just about fell over when Dobby slapped Kreacher awake and began to berate him for the state of the house; when the elf tried to pop away, Dobby had smacked him again before snapping his fingers, causing the elf in question to freeze in place. With that handled, they moved up the stairs towards the screaming painting. Sirius tried to fire a spell at it, only for it to smack against a shield that appeared around it. Grabbing the curtains to each side, Moony slammed them closed before casting a silence and sticky charm. They were mercifully left to only the sounds of Dobby questioning Kreacher. 

“Okay, Lovebug, you and I will search the black library for some books I think Harry should read; Moony, the storage room is on the fourth floor next to the second parlor. Harry, I want you to keep an eye on Dobby and Kreacher just in case Kreacher manages to overpower Dobby. Be ready to hit him with a stunner, don’t worry about casting spells with your wand; the Ministry can’t detect it here.” Harry nodded as Sirius, and Moony split up, one taking the stairs on the right while the other went up the left stairs. 

Flashback ends

Harry was dragged out of his memory as the sounds of screams breached the tent; quick as a flash of lightning, Harry's wands were out, one in each hand, as he stood up and moved to the tent entrance. Hermione and Daphne were directly behind him as Sirius and Moony had gone to speak with Arthur for Dumbledore. 

“Girls, listen to me; stay here and defend the tent, I will direct people across the ward line. If they don’t have harmful intent, they should be able to cross onto this area, and for those old enough to apparate, they can do so. Expecto Patronum nuntius.” Harry watched as his message Patronus rushed off in the direction of Sirius and Moony; “Thank merlin Dumbledore taught me that,” he thought with a smirk as he slipped his original phoenix wand into the arm holster and checked to make sure his dagger was still in the sheath on his lower back. Doing a mental inventory, he realized he only had his cloak, his wands, and one dagger on him as he began to leave the tent. Suddenly he was spun around by Daphne before she grabbed his face and kissed him; he was so stunned he didn’t hear Hermione's protest before suddenly he was let go. Only to be immediately filled with warmth as Hermione replaced Daphne and gave him another kiss.

“Listen to me, Potter, you better get back here safe and sound, or I swear to Merlin I will find the darkest magic I can and bring you back to life to kill you myself.” With that, Harry took a deep breath and let his occlumency shove the emotions he was feeling to the side; as the screams got louder, he could see spell fire.  

It didn’t take Harry long to find the cause of the crowd of people rushing his way; he had diverted numerous wizards and witches towards the Black tents, informing the adults that it was a designated apparation point. Finally pushing through the crowd, he came across the reason that the crowd was running, and he felt his anger rise. Six figures wearing death eaters garb were firing spells into the crowd while two more were holding the muggles that owned the land up in the air. Harry reached into his pocket and grabbed his invisibility cloak as he ducked behind a burning tent and threw it over himself. Feeling the usual chill of the cloak as its silk-like fabric settled across his back, he felt a pulse of something from his wand travel up his arm and into the cloak before it went from chilly to warm. Leaving no time to ponder on what that meant, Harry stepped out from behind the tent and fired off a spell chain. 

Sagitto was followed by a langlok, switching targets as that one fell with an arrow in his shoulder; he nailed another death eater with a glacius tria freezing them in place. As they went down, he hit two with a combined ebublio; watching them struggle, Harry finished up the chain by casting stunners at the ones who fell as he dodged behind another burning tent. His cloak caught by the breeze from a gust of magic he froze as his head was revealed. Throwing himself to the left, spellfire slammed into the tent he was hiding behind. Thinking quickly, Harry flipped the wand around and decided to use the more advanced version of the spell his dad had created. Sjálfsblekkingu-hámark, casting the spell on himself, Harry felt something different from last time as suddenly over ten different Harry Potters rushed around the tent, allowing him to use the illusions as cover as he advanced on the now three wizards casting spells in his direction. Dodging out of the way of a killing curse, Harry switched from non-lethal to lethal. A shield break was followed by triple-piercing hexes; switching to the next Death Eater, Harry fired off thor's hammer before casting a knee-reversing hex. Watching two of the death eaters go down screaming, the third stopped firing as suddenly a bolt of lightning slammed into his chest, causing him to get thrown into a nearby market stall. Turning to the fourth death eater, Harry watched as the man dropped the muggles and apparated out; before the muggles hit the ground, Harry cast his levitation spell, bringing them down gently.