A New Tournament (Harry Potter & SG:SG1)

killgore444 · Dec 11, 2020

I posted this story some time ago on FFN. For whatever reason, after reading several stories here, I decided to post it here as well. Not sure which site I'll update first on yet (I don't care what people say, I LIKE FFN). I'm not going to change any of the story content of anything I've already posted there (chapter 5 as of now, 6 almost done), but I'll, in general, post notes in a different post. Except this first chapter.

I have actually changed some stuff I was planning to post in later chapters due to reviews, so anything you say here might get me thinking on alternate ideas. So comment away. Just be (somewhat) polite. That's the thing I hate about FFN reviews. Negative comments are ok, but please don't trash.

A New Tournament
Chapter 1: Prologue: An Unknown Return
Disclaimer: I do not own any of this. All rights reserved to the respective owners of Harry Potter and Stargate: SG1. If I did own any of it, it would have gone very differently.

Premise: This story came about by a funny game my game group played a couple of years ago, and a certain amount of disgruntlement about a lot of HP fanfics out there. Basically, the whole 'Harry gets serious about his education' shtick so many stories have. As if you can change your entire mentality overnight. Or that you could suddenly become really good at something simply by reading about in a book. So, I wanted a story that gave a plausible reason why Harry would suddenly become much better than he was in canon, something none of the stories ever did.
The other half of the premise came about from a side game my group played while eating lunch on session. Take one item, spell or superpower from any game system that a GM for that game wouldn't think twice about allowing a low to moderate experienced character to have, then combine it with another item or spell from a different system that follows the same standards, and put into either of the systems or another setting of a similar type to make the most over powered character conceivable. This story is the result. The items come from GURPS Magic Items and Hero's Unlimited and adding them into Harry Potter.

The SG1 cross will be a slow burn intro that won't have a major affect until later in the story.
Let me know if you think this is worth continuing

Another note. While Authors notes will in the future be at the end, this is important. I use ONLY the 7 main books as canon. If it wasn't in those books, I don't consider it canon. Likewise, the Fantastic Beast movies didn't happen. They're real stories told to children in England, but they are even less accurate to true events as the Harry Potter Adventure series that talks about Harry's supposed life before Hogwarts, i.e., they're complete bullshit. The original Fantastic Beasts book is what Newt published and Hogwarts uses as a textbook, the new version was published by his grandson after Newt died to cash in on the stories [that Newt despised]. Likewise, The Cursed Child isn't even close to canon, and will not be referenced at all. If for some reason I do bring them up, it'll be from some idiot with even less talent in divination then Trelawny making shit up to try and upset Harry.

In any discrepancies between the book and movies, the books will win. I saw in its entirety, only the 1st two movies, walked out of the 3rd, and have seen parts of the 4th and last movie on TV. As you might have guessed, not a fan of the disservice the movies made to the books and characters. While I do not have the books memorized and have my own interpretations of how they happened and why, be warned, if you can't reference a 'Fact' about the Harry Potter universe in those books, it's not canon and I will ignore it unless I like it.

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Time was running out for Harry. They were beating down the door as he worked. Time was up, he couldn't grab everything and disapperate before they got in, and he didn't have any place to go if he did have time. The war with the Muggles that Voldemort had started years ago was finally over, the muggles have won. A pyretic victory to be sure, one that left three fourths of the population dead [surprisingly, Dumbledore's-Bluff to world leaders in the 60's hadn't been a bluff], but a victory none the less. Harry was the last wizard he knew of still alive. Neville was killed two weeks earlier; Lisa Turpin died a little over a year ago. She'd been the last witch.

About a month before that, they'd got word from the continent that the last enclave in Serbia was under attack. Harry didn't give them much of a chance. Ever since the aliens had landed, the war, which had been a stalemate that both sides by majority wanted to end, had gone from horrible for both sides to truly and epically bad for magicals. The Goa'uld overlords saw magicals as a serious threat to their rulership and had stepped up the pogrom against them. They even pulled 'The-Witch-Finder-General' out of the past, supposedly they were gods and could do that. Unfortunately, Harry recognized the muggle in question. Hopefully he was simply infected with a goa'uld. Harry hated the idea that Hermione's father would kill witches like that, but the war had gotten bad long before the pyramids descended.

The 3 of them had had a plan to go back in time, but the potion needed all of their memory's and they'd be unable to care for themselves for the 3 weeks it'd take to brew and required at least 2 people's memories to stabilize it. With that option out, a desperate Harry grabbed the last 2 batches of Felix Felicis, downed one and then pulled a memory at random from his head, trusting in luck, dropped into Dumbledore's old Pensive, and touched a rune on the side. One of several options for time travel they'd looked at, Pensive travel was the 2nd most limited [time turners being the most], but he was out of time and had no choice.

After touching the fluid with his finger, Harry found himself falling, not into the memory has had been the case in past uses of the pensive, but truly into the memory, to once again live through it. He new he had at most a month, but highly doubted General Granger would give him even 5 minutes of that. Harry quickly picked himself off the ground and looked around. He was in the second-floor corridor near where Fluffy used to be kept.
"Dobby!" Harry called obeying a prompt from the potion.

With a soft pop, the little House Elf appeared behind him. "Master Harry Potter sir, what do you need?" When Harry turned around, he saw Dobby start. "You're not Harry Potter sir, who are you?"
"Dobby" Harry said looking at him trying to shake off the nostalgia, "I don't have much time so listen. I AM Harry Potter, just not the one from this time. I'm a future version of him. I've come back to try and set things rii…" Harry broke off looking down at his stomach, blood welling up out of a wound he didn't have before. "I'm out of time Dobby, I need you to get this potion to the other me here." Harry told the Elf butting the potion bottle in his hand. "There's enough in there for 3 days of luck, but it'll disappear on the next full moon and return to the future. He's got until then to use it and fix the… …the futu… future."

Harry fell to the floor, bleeding from several more wounds. "Out of time dobby, please he…"
"…lp him." Harry looked around and saw General Granger himself standing over him, his men trashing the room around them.

"Well, well, well, Mister Potter has returned to consciousness. Don't get used to it. Normally I'd just a kill a little wizard like yourself, but you once were my daughter's friend, so I want to see the pain and misery in your eye as you die. The same pain and misery I felt when you and all the other little shitheaded wizards killed her." The General said, spinning a bloody knife in his hand, "I want to see you lose hope. But fortunately, I'm not foolish enough to not realize you've got tricks, so it'll still be quicker than you deserve yo…" The General broke off looking around, noticing that the colors were starting to fade.

Harry looked up and smiled, "I WIN!" General Granger quickly pulled a pistol and shot at Harry, motion slowing and finally stopping the bullet about an inch from Harry's head, hanging there for an eternity. Then, suddenly, Harry Potter, General Granger, all his men, the room around them and the entire world, indeed, the entire universe, seized to be.

killgore444 · Dec 11, 2020

A New Tournament
Chapter 2: A Gift
Disclaimer: I do not own any of this. All rights reserved to the respective owners of Harry Potter and Stargate: SG1. If I did own any of it, it would have gone very differently.
Summary: A gift from the future provides a little bit of hope in a time of need. OP Harry, Ron and Hermione, but with a plausible background to support it. No bashing, even of disliked characters

Ok, I know I said no authors notes, but something I need to make clear. This is NOT going to be a super serious story. I know the 1st chapter might seem like it, but that's just the background. This is a very OP Harry [and friends] fic.

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Harry was not having a good day. In fact, he was having a rather bad day. Bad week really, and was very grateful that Friday was finally over. A week ago, his name had come out of the goblet, and his life had once again turned surreal. Everyone thought he'd put his name in, and there was nothing he could say to convince anyone that he hadn't. Not for the first time had he wondered if he'd been cursed to live this type of life.

Every year it was something. Something would happen, he'd get blamed and then he'd go from most beloved, to most despised person in the school. To say it was aggravating was a huge understatement. It'd be so much easier if everyone would be consistent. But no, their opinions jumped around constantly. Sadly, the only person who he could rely on to keep the same opinion was Draco Malfoy, his year's biggest bully and loudmouth, and wasn't that a sad fact of life. He couldn't even rely on the staff to keep the same view. Professor McGonagall's reaction had hurt more than Dumbledore's had, he could understand it that the headmaster had to at least ask, but you'd think that with everything that happened in the first 3 years, Dumbledore would understand by now that it wasn't his fault.

McGonagall's reaction had hurt though, even as he really should have seen it. She hadn't ever really been there for him on previous occasions, he really couldn't figure out why he kept expecting her to actually help out sometime. She was the head of Gryffindor, she was supposed to protect Gryffindor's, not just punish.

Thinking of Gryffindors however, inevitable made him think of his 2 best friends, his only 2 friends really [everyone else was just an acquaintance]. Hermione was sticking by him this time, and he was grateful. But it wasn't assured to continue. She'd fought with him and Ron on previous occasions and was as apt as Ron walk off in a huff. Ron's reaction was what really hurt. In every case in the past, Ron might have gotten mad at Hermione, but he'd stuck by Harry. Ron was Harry's first friend his own age, and he missed him badly. No matter how hard he tried to tell himself it didn't matter, that he didn't need Ron, it rang hollow.

Try has he might, Harry couldn't shake the feeling of regret that came when he thought about Ron. Other than Hagrid, Ron was the first person to offer a hand of friendship and be genuine about it. And although he considered Hermione a dear friend, it'd been several months before she'd removed the wand up her butt. And even now, even as she remained a friend, she wasn't really a FUN person to be around. Especially now. In many ways, Hermione was missing Ron more that he was, Harry had been seeing that build up since their encounter with the Troll when Ron saved the both of them. Combined with her obsession with house elves and her general lack of humor, Harry was feeling a need to for a good laugh. The problem was, that'd always been Ron. Harry wasn't particularly good at seeing the humor in something unless it was pointed out and Hermione was even worse. So he'd spent the last week sitting with her in the library with nothing to take his mind off his troubles, trying to study and failing in his efforts to ignore the whispering going on around and about him.

Eventually, he got mad, like every night and stormed off to go back to the dorm, but that was hardly better. In many ways it was worse. Gryffindors it seemed, were brave enough to make comments loud enough to be intentionally heard, rather than the whispered comments in the background that were just loud enough to be noticed. There was also the not trivial chance of Ron being there. Thus, it came as something of a surprise when he heard a timid voice behind him. "Harry Potter sir."

Whipping around, ready to fight, Harry glanced down. "Dobby, what are you doing here?"

"Dobby and Winky is employed at Hogwarts now Harry Potter. The Great Dumbledore has given us jobs, and even offering us pay."

"Well that's good." Harry was sure Hermione will be thrilled to learn that bit of news. "So what can I do for you Dobby?"

"Harry Potter his asking what he can do for a house elf? Truly Harry Potter is a great wizard. But it is what I can do for Harry Potter right now that I have come to see him it is."

With that, Dobby held up a potion bottle to Harry. "Umm, what is this Dobby?" Harry really didn't want to sound ungrateful, but dobby's plans were often lacking in the safety department.

"This is Felix Felicis Harry Potter. Liquid Luck! It will grant your fondest wish and make your every dream come true it will. Everything Harry Potter tries after he drinks it will work without fail until it wears off."

"What? This is a wish granting potion? What's the catch?" The possibilities were staggering to Harry, but he'd become familiar enough with magic to know there had to be a downside.

"It'll only grant Harry Potter's desires for a short time. But it's affects are long lasting. Harry Potter must clearly express what his desire is before drinking it though, otherwise wasted it could be. Think about Harry Potter's desire he should."

"Anything else I should know Dobby?"

"A little over 2 days of luck will it grant. Dobby regrets to inform the Great Harry Potter that Dobby did not fully trust where he got the potion from, so Dobby took some to make sure it wasn't poison. It works Harry Potter; Dobby was able to make Winky see working for the Great Dumbledore as something better than the bad family she was with before. Winky has finally moved on and accepted she was given clothes because of the potion Harry Potter. Dobby was also able to find Harry Potter easily, and the way to convince him to believe Dobby was put into Dobby's head, like being smacked with a frying pan, but without the pain Harry Potter sir. Also, disappear on the full moon it will Harry Potter, Harry Potter must drink it before then."

"Uh, thank you Dobby, but where did you get this from? And why didn't you trust it?" Harry asked, looking at the potion.

"Dobby regrets that he must leave Harry Potter sir. Dobby has much work to do, but Dobby wishes Harry Potter luck."

And with that, Dobby disappeared leaving Harry to wonder just what the hell was going on now. It wasn't that Harry didn't appreciate the thought, but Dobby wasn't the most reliable when it came to making plans. On the other hand, he'd been correct in that he'd mostly convinced Harry to try it, at least until he made the comment that he didn't trust the source, but he was desperate enough to be seriously considering it anyway.

Another problem was simply, what did he want. Could the potion grant ANYTHING? If he asked it to bring his parents back, would it be able to? Harry kind of doubted that. Everything he'd ever heard said resurrection was impossible. But what sort of limits did it have? Could it get him out of the tournament without suffering the nasty side effects of refusing a magical oath? Would those effects just be transferred to someone else or gone completely? Did he even WANT out of the tournament? He didn't want to be in it, but he also didn't like the implication that he couldn't do it. He'd done a lot of things he shouldn't have been able to do. With Ron and Hermione's help of course. He knew that that was more than a little arrogant however and admitted to himself that this was probably beyond him. Maybe ask the potion to get him out, but without side effects, or if that was impossible, something to bump his skill and power up.

With these thoughts weighing heavily on his mind, Harry found himself standing in front of the Fat Lady. "Dungbombs" Harry said, and the portrait swung open. Harry managed to make it across the common room without attracting to much attention and did his best to pretend to not hear the several people who called out to him.

Once he got to his dorm room however, he had a rather unpleasant feeling rip through his gut. Standing on the other side of the dorm was Ron. Harry watched as Ron's face went thru several expressions. First there was the old familiar smile of greeting which fleetingly ghosted across his face. Next was the anger mixed with jealousy that had become the new norm, followed by a brief flash of guilt and regret. And lastly, he schooled it into as close to expressionless as he could, mixed with just a tad bit of copied Malfoy arrogance. "Harry." He greeted, sounding more than a little unpleasant, much like the way the Malfoy's had been forced to greet the Weasleys when in front of Fudge.

"Ron." Harry returned, trying, and failing rather badly to not let his own anger or hope come thru in his voice. Between his voice and undoubtedly his face as well, Ron evidently concluded that he didn't want to be here, and quickly stalked out towards the bathroom. Throwing his bag onto his bed, Harry struggled to keep tears of anger and grief out of his eyes.

What did he want!?! He fucking wanted Ron back as a friend! He wanted undeniable proof that he didn't enter himself in this damn tournament! He wanted whoever did enter him DEAD! PAINFULLY! He wanted out of it, but not to suffer, or have anyone else suffer the consequences of breaking a magical contract. If that wasn't possible, he wanted a way to acquire the skill and power to WIN this fucking thing! To prove he wasn't some stupid schmuck to be pushed around! He wanted enough respect and fear from people so, like Dumbledore, no one would ever fuck with him like this again! He wanted a way to get to know his parents! Yes, he wanted the normal things as well. Wealth and political power, a family and a girlfriend, hell why not multiple girlfriends, the potion could grant anything right? But no witches, right now he was so angry with everyone in the magical world that there weren't any witches other than Hermione he was interested in talking to, much less dating.

"Fuck it!" Harry said, pulling the potion bottle out and holding it up. "You think you can grant all that?"

Harry downed the entire potion.

killgore444 · Dec 12, 2020

A New Tournament
Chapter 3: Anger and Awesome

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this. All rights reserved to the respective owners of Harry Potter and Stargate: SG1. If I did own any of it, it would have gone very differently.
Summary: A gift from the future provides a little bit of hope in a time of need. OP Harry, Ron and Hermione, but with a plausible background to support it. No bashing, even of disliked characters.

Kudos to Vivithe folle who inspired a few sentences from Harry's tirade in her story Mens Sana. Check it out.
The spell 'Expositus' is the invention of 'Rorschach's Blot' and can be found in the story 'Make a Wish' chapter 44.
And Review responses at the bottom.

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"Fuck it!" Harry said, pulling the potion bottle out and holding it up. "You think you can grant all that?"

Harry downed the entire potion. Standing there, letting the potion take affect, Harry wondered how this would work when Dobby's words hit him. The potion told him how to achieve his wishes. Feeling a nudge, Harry grabbed a few days worth of clothes and threw them into his schoolbag and walked down to the common room.

"Harry!" One of the twins called out, "Come on over." Feeling a nudge, Harry decided to join the small group and walked over. "Ron still being a git?" Fred(?) asked.

"Of course he is, Ron's not capable of not being a git." Ginny responded, "I don't understand why you ever hung out with him anyway."

"A GIT?! You do realize that if I hadn't been hanging out with Ron during your first year you'd be dead right?!" Despite his own anger at Ron, Harry felt that she had crossed a line. Normally, he would have just laughed it off, only really comfortable expressing what he felt around Hermione and Ron, doubly so since Ginny seemed to be acting normal around him this year, but this time he felt his anger rise and another mental nudge told him he needed to express it.
"The only reason I went down to the chamber was because my friends little sister was taken! And let's not forget that Ron WAS with me down there! The only reason he wasn't IN the chamber with me was because of an idiotic teacher setting off a cave in! Despite the fact that he had a broken and unreliable wand, he was still willing to face a Bloody Fucking BASILISK! All to rescue his little sister! He also went into the forest to face several hundred acromantulas, creatures that thanks to these two, he fears beyond anything else, with the same broken wand to save his little sister!" Harry knew he was somewhat altering facts, at the time they didn't know Ginny was in danger, they were doing it for Hagrid, Hermione and the other petrified students. "So to be quite frank Ginny, you owe that 'Git' YOUR LIFE!"

Turning on the twins, face red with anger he didn't even know he had, "And you 2 are just as bad. Ron has always placed his family higher than himself, even when he's had every reason not to care about them in the slightest! Think you two! What happened every time you two got in trouble your first two years? Professor McGonagall sent a letter home didn't she? What do you think your mother did then? I like your mom, don't get me wrong guys, I really do, she's been more of a mother to me than my aunt ever was, but do you really think that she just read it and didn't do anything? Or do you think that she spent the entire day grumbling and snapping at anyone she saw? I bet she went out of her way to lecture Ron about proper behavior and all that other rot simply because he was a boy, and happened to be right THERE when you two were out of reach! Because I'm sure that she never even considered that her Little Girl would ever get in any trouble!"

"For two years Ron had to put up with being punished for your misdeeds. Despite that, he is still willing to go beyond any reasonable expectations to save a family member that he has every reason to hate." Turning back to Ginny, "Why do I hang out with him? He's the only one who's ever looked at my bloody fucking scar, been awed for a couple of seconds and decided I needed to learn about the Cannons and wizard candy. He's the only one who's ever seen me as nothing more than a boy sitting on a train alone, instead of a freak or path to personal power, not as something to be hated or worshiped. He's the only one to never see me as an oddity of magic, a character in a book, a point of discussion in history or simply as a prize to show off."

"Because he's been there for me every step of the way till now! He went with me to face down a troll and rescue someone he didn't even like at the time! And let's not forget that he was the one to take down the troll, not me. Something that no matter what I've told people, I'm always given credit for. His contribution cast aside, even by his own family. And all he got out of it was 5 bloody points. Saving 2 peoples lives was worth 5 points, but when McGonagall decided being out after curfew was worth a ten times that as a penalty, you two, like everyone else in Gryffindor, treated us like shit, only Ron was willing to stick by us. He helped with the dragon our 1st year, faced down a giant 3 headed hell-hound with me, was willing to jump into a dark pit with no idea what was at the bottom to help, was willing to take a blow that should have killed him, from something none of us knew had been enchanted to be nonlethal. AND THAT WAS JUST IN OUR FIRST YEAR!"

By this time the common room was virtually silent, nobody even pretending to not listen. "I've already mentioned our second year, your first, but that was only part of the utter bloody CRAP we went through that year! Would YOU have been willing to sneak into the Slytherin dorm in disguise to question one of the bloody snakes when his guard was down? Do you honestly expect me to believe, with the way you're acting now, you would do that for Ron the way he did it for you? Knowing that if any of the older snakes catch you, you will be lucky to only get the crap kicked out of you! Or Heaven forbid, someone telling SNAPE! And I'm not even going to get into last year when everyone was convinced there was a bloody fucking serial killer after me! Ron spent the year trying to protect me in an attempt to pay back a life dept he felt was owed for saving Your life Ginny! And while I never considered you to owe me anything, none of you three even considered it. Only Ron was willing! So how about it you three, how about you go face off with a Couple of Dozen Dementors?! How about you just stand up to a Mass Murderer?! Ron Was GAME, How About You Three?! How about you show me what you got?!" Reigning in his anger as best he could at the sight of their surprised and pale faces, he ended his tirade with a quiet, "You three are pathetic."

Turning, Harry grabbed his bag and stormed off towards the exit, seeing a shocked Hermione standing there, halfway thru the portal, avoiding his gaze, he walked past her without saying anything and did not look back. Never seeing what Hermione was looking at, not noticing her gaze locked onto a horrified Ron standing on the steps up to the dorm, and never seeing the equally shocked eyes of a cat underneath a sofa, whose head turned to watch him exit.

Harry was pacing back and forth on the 7th floor. Unable to quite grasp why he lost his temper like that, but knowing it was needed. Nor did he know what he was doing here, only that this too was necessary to his goals. Back and forth, thinking about what his wish had been. He'd been so angry and upset when he made it, it was hard to concentrate.

Suddenly, a door appeared right next to him. Knowing full good and well, that there was a large number of things at Hogwarts that, despite its (hopefully false) reputation as being the safest school of magic in Europe, could seriously hurt and even kill people. Yet at the same time, the same knowledge that he needed to go through this door hit him that had overcome him in the common room.

Glancing inside, he saw what looked like a scaled down version of said common room, built for a small group, rather than a quarter of the school. There was a fireplace burning merrily off to one side, a couple of comfortable looking chairs and a coffee table with several stacks of books and a pair of glasses on top of one of those stacks, with floating candles above and slightly behind the chairs to give maximum light. Stepping inside, Harry saw several bookshelves along the other wall and in the back of the room was what looked like a spell targeting range and work out area with a dining table separating the two spaces, a light meal already set out.

As the door shut behind him, Harry knew that it disappeared in the hallway, and he'd have complete privacy. Walking up to the coffee table, he got the desire to replace his own glasses with the ones on the table. Once he did so, he noticed that all the book titles suddenly changed to English. Strangely, it was like he actually understood several of the languages, French, Spanish, Alterian, Cantonese, Nox and Russian.

Deciding he needed to pick up the top book, a thick, heavy tome, he glanced at the cover. "The How To Book" Harry read out loud. Opening it up, the first page read 'How to get to Heaven' and seemed to be, on flipping thru it, a series of treatise on the Christian, Muslim and Jewish religions. "How do I use this?" Harry asked out loud thinking that the potion was telling him this book was important.

Suddenly the book became much lighter and thinner. Glancing at the first page it read 'How to use the How To Book.'

"Uh? What the hell?" Not even realizing it, Harry sat down and started to read, quickly coming to the conclusion that this was the find of a life time. In a nut shell, this book would answer any 'how to' type question. The more variables in the question, the less precise the answer would be, but he could live with that. For example, asking it how to get to Heaven would give a book just like what he found, while a question like 'How to kill Duke Blowhard' would result in a treatise on practical political assassination, complete with historical examples, rather than a specific plan of action. The book would even vary the result based on the basic skill level of the person asking. An assassin would get a very different, and much more in depth answer than a random disgruntled poor man off the street.

Harry did notice however, that when he asked 'How to kill Lucius Malfoy, the treatise on political and magical assassination as well as magical security was some what more detailed then he expected, and it dawned on him just how much his life up to now was useful training for that type of occupation. More detailed than his question of how to discredit and remove Snape from Hogwarts was in any case. Both were rather pleasant fantasies, but it's not like he was actually planning to do either one. He didn't want to anger Dumbledore any more than he wanted to go to prison.

Asking questions with few or no variables Harry discovered, gave much more precise answers. Asking how to turn on a car for example, something he asked just to test the book, gave a relatively precise and detailed answer, with just enough of guide rather than direct instruction for Harry to understand just how many different types of ignition switches existed in vehicles.

This also applied to magic as well, something that floored Harry to no end. Asking it how to cast the Lumos spell gave a very detailed and precise answer, straight from his 1st year syllabus. Asking it how to cast a light spell however gave him over 3 dozen variants of lumos alone as well other spells that created some type of light, this was in addition to the additives to regulate and empower the spell. Adding Brilos to the beginning of Lumos for example changed it from light, to bright light. Sunplena created actual sunlight that could be used to grow crops in a cave, suntan, or as a weapon against vampires. Useful that was, and a Brilo Sunplena would quickly give people a sunburn, not to mention cook a vampire. There was even a way to make light holy, just add Sanctu before the spell and Castu after to create Holy Light, which had for the most part, minor uses such as making people feel at peace, but would hold a Dementor at bay just like a Patronus would, making Harry wonder just why this spell wasn't common knowledge. Harry wondered if it could also be used on the Cantis charm to make 'Holy Music.' There was variations that alter the color of the light, make it so the light hovered over you, or went somewhere else rather than come out the tip of your wand, good so you could still use your wand for other things. There was even a variant that would create black light, or ultraviolet light, the book even used the term UV light, though Harry suspected that an average pure blood would not get that term if he asked the same question.

Wondering about the Holy Light spell, Harry decided to ask the book how to find out. It took several different wordings of the question, but eventually he came up with; how do I find out the secrets of the past? The result was a treatise on divination. Nearly given it up as a lost cause, Harry flipped through it and realized there was some actual spells peppered throughout. Before he started to read it however, a thought struck him. Closing the book, he asked, in a clear voice; "How do I cast a spell that can block the Killing-Curse Avada Kadavra?"

Adding the color red to a standard shield spell was NOT what he was expecting.

There were of course several different ways, but the simplest was adding 'Cerise' to the beginning of any shield style spell. It would turn it red, then when the killing curse goes thru the shield, it turns brown, stripping it of it's power. It'd still otherwise ignore the shield, but all it'd do is give the target an upset stomach. "How the bloody hell had no one ever figured that out before?" Surely there was SOMEONE who liked the color red enough to do this and accidentally figure it out. Or maybe he was over thinking this, maybe someone DID discover it before, but was so surprised it worked he failed to block the follow up spells that were just as lethal. After all, when someone is casting the killing curse at you, they're probably not joking around. A combination of 'Holy shit, that actually worked' while staring at your wand, and a 'If at first you don't succeed' attitude from your average Dark Lord and all that. Harry grinned to himself at the idea of some ancient Dark Lord killing all of his followers who happened to see someone survive the curse. But then again, whoever figured it out would be dead to.

Before he could explore the other ways to defend against the killing curse, or even other weird uses of color in defence against the dark arts, he glanced at his watch. Harry noticed that not to much time had actually passed. Wondering about that, Harry was struck with the urge to ask how to use his glasses. The first page of the book after he asked said 'How to use The Glasses of Knowledge.'

Interesting Harry thought as he began to read. These glasses are actually better than the book. The book told Harry that the glasses have 4 basic groups of powers. While there is overlap, each group was enchanted in separately. The first group was called 'Bibliophile.' It allowed for the perfect translation of anything read in a book, or scroll, but not anything else. I.E., no street signs, or words on the tellie or peoples tattoos. Speed Reading of 90 to 150 words per minute, depending on your normal reading speed, or double your reading speed if that would be faster. Speed writing of 60 to 120words per minute similar to the speed reading ability, or the same speed as reading if copying directly. The ability to write in the margins in a perfectly legible way at half of the above speed. The ability to follow instructions flawlessly for 24 hours. That meant if he read a cook book, he could cook anything in it that he had the ingredients and utensils for perfectly. Although it did not insure that either he, or others would like the dish, just that he cooked it perfectly. He'd also remember anything he read perfectly for the next 24 hours, and retain the basics of it permanently after that. So any spell he learned while using the glasses he'd be able to cast perfectly for 24 hours, and there after be able to cast like he'd had several days of instruction in it, similar to how they actually learned it in class. Well, for those classes that had competent instructors. And that was just the first group of powers.

The next group was smaller, but still useful. The glasses would automatically adjust to the wearers eyes. Over the long term, they'd also fix most types of eye problems, including predispositions, but not actual genetic short comings. So if his family was predisposed to having eye problems, and they were, the glasses would correct it, but would have no affect on color blindness that was something at a genetic level. Harry wasn't sure why there was a distinction there, but maybe it was so different races could use the glasses. Harry wasn't sure if a House Elf or Centaur saw the same way as a human, but was pretty sure a Mermaid or a Unicorn would see differently. It also required an actual organic eye, so Moody couldn't be helped with them. At least not his missing eye. Interestingly, as long as he had his eyes, they'd allow him to see while wearing even if normally blind and even heal the eyes eventually. It'd even correct dyslexia.

The next group was just as small, but in it's own way, just as awesome as the first. Photographic memory. While seeming to overlap the above power, it allows for anything experienced while wearing the glasses to to be recalled. While the recall wasn't perfect, it was much better than his own memory. There was a 60% chance that he'd remember the basics of it, similar to the long term memory of the Bibliophile power. There was a 30% chance that he'd remember it like he'd studied or experienced it for several hundred times as much as he actually did, depending on how good his own memory was. Lastly, there was a 10% chance it'd be near perfect, as if he'd studied or experienced it it several thousand times. What's more, the memory retention was itself retained. If he practiced something, and than the next day, practiced it again, the amount of time it was considered studied would add together, greatly improving his ability to learn. Although this would allow rapid training in physical skills, or quidditch, it didn't actually affect physical condition. Harry would still need to work out to get fit enough to use a new skill. On the other hand, while under the affects of the potion, everything was retained perfectly as per the 10% chance automatically.

Lastly, there was the ability to Translate. Unlike the Bibliophile power, this power allowed him to translate anything seen or heard, including street signs, and even sign language. Even better, it granted knowledge of the entire language, including cultural references, instead of just what was used in a book. It also taught you the language as well, as if any time spent reading it was you being instructed in it. But it also overlapped with photographic memory, to make the instruction faster.

Harry was absolutely floored. These glasses were truly awesome. Even without the 'How To Book' he could go through all of his school books and learn all the spells to a much better degree. Hell, he could go over Hermione's Ancient Runes and Arithmancy books and learn something probably much more useful than Divination. Then again, thanks to the How To Book, Divination might actually be useful.

Harry really wanted to dive in to the How To Book, but decided that he needed to check out the other books here since he could take that book with him. Although if he ever took it out of his dorm, he needed a way to insure it wasn't confiscated. He'd already had the misfortune to learn Snape would take anything of his just to be a pain in the ass, even including his classwork for other classes.

Looking at the other 2 books in the stack, Harry realized with a start that they were his parents diaries. Both were of course locked, but clearly written on the tops of each one was Lily Evens and James Potter respectfully. Quickly grabbing the How To Book and asking how to get through magical locks without destroying, or harming the contents, Harry found that there was over 50 spells that allowed it, though each was only useful against certain types of magical locks, kind of like the way some curses could only be blocked by specific spells. Trying Alohomora to no use, Harry tried several more on the list until finally, Expositus simply told him what the password was. He was going to be using that spell a lot more. If nothing else, he really wanted to see inside the other house dorms.

Glancing through it, Harry noticed that his fathers diary was a magically expanding book. He apparently got it on his 9th birthday and had to be pressured by his mother to us it, Harry realized this was a way to learn about his grandparents too. Eventually James started keeping it on his own, even if it descended into a prank guide for young children, complete with diagrams. James also seemed to be a decent artist for his age, and several of his drawings were not only animated the way so many magical drawings were, but about what you'd expect from someone several years older who was taking art serious. Harry wondered if there was a spell for that. Likely, the art got much better after his dads 11th birthday when he would have gotten his wand. Probably one of the first spells he learned. Reading about his meeting Sirius, Remus and Peter in his own words was kind of funny, but he spent more time talking about Lily than those three combined, proving he was smitten right off the bat. He even added ten different drawings of her, while Sirius, Remus and Peter each got only one. Honestly, it read kind of like his and Ron's first meeting with Hermione causing Harry to wonder if Ron and Hermione were smitten with each other even then. They certainly always act like the stereotypical old married couple, and really, always have.

Putting it in his bag to read more in depth later, he picked up his moms diary. Using Expositus on it as well, Harry noted right away that this too was a magically expanding book, but that the inside front cover had several pockets with other, older muggle books as well, his moms old diaries from before she knew about magic. There was also several pictures inside. Mostly they were of his mom and aunt, as well as who he assumed were his grandparents, but there was a boy that kept showing up in them as well.Based on her expressions, Petunia clearly didn't like him either, but his mom seemed to. Staring at the pictures, wondering who it was, Harry noticed that the back of one had names and dates. That's when Harry got the shock of his life. Written clearly on the backs was three names he never thought he'd see together; Lily, Petunia, Severius. His mom was friends with SNAPE!?!

Hermione was, like the Weasleys, standing around the Headmasters desk, having been brought here by a very irate Professor McGonagall. Clearly he had no idea what had happened either when she asked him to floo Molly Weasley and have her come here. Hermione wasn't sure why SHE was here, after all, this seemed more of a Weasley family thing, but Ron had run back upstairs and promptly disappeared. Even though Seamus had been sent up after him less then two minutes later. Seamus had reported that Ron wasn't in any of the boys dorms and the window for the 4th years was opened very recently. Personally, Hermione thought that Ron was under Harry's cloak, but she wasn't honestly sure. After all, thanks to Slytherin attempts to sabotage quidditch brooms, most people in Gryffindor had started keeping their brooms in their dorms rather than the broom shed like they were supposed to.

Not that she was ever going to admit that to McGonagall. Hermione was positive that Dumbledore knew about the cloak, and pretty sure he knew about the brooms. But she didn't think Professor McGonagall knew about them. While Hermione would much rather follow rules, being under the firm belief they were there for a good reason, associating with Harry and Ron for the past several years had taught her that sometimes, rules hurt more than helped. Harry needed that cloak, and the team needed SAFE brooms for games, McGonagall would confiscate the cloak and put the brooms back in the shed. Neither one was a good idea.

The last couple of years had also made her a much better liar.That and Harry's words about the incident with Troll were still ringing in her ear, never having noticed before that her life had been worth only one tenth what being out after curfew was before now. So if she took just a little bit of pleasure at McGonagall's frustration, she did her best to not show it. Of course that pleasure was tempered by Mrs Wealey's worried look. But she still did her best to misdirect the professors as much as possible. Sometimes the truth worked better for lies than an actual lie did. When McGonagall asked her how she thought Ron had got out of the dorm, Hermione simply made it clear that Ron and Harry knew more about the secret passages and escape routes than even Fred and George did. As for were he might go, she simply pointed out that Ron was a natural mimic with his voice, and had even copied Harry's parseltongue just to see if he could do it, and that he had been with Harry when he went into the chamber, so would know what to say to open the path.

The same went for Harry, except that unlike Ron, Harry HAD made friends out in the forest, and was used to being left to fend for himself. The last comment made Dumbledore frown in displeasure. And if she neglected to mention that Harry's forest friends was limited to a single Centaur, she was pretty sure Dumbledore at least knew. She did tell them that it was highly unlikely that either one would actually miss classes on Monday however. She didn't think either one was willing to risk expulsion and loss of their wand over embarrassment.

After she was questioned over Ron's whereabouts, Professor McGonagall brought up the main reason she wanted Mrs Weasley here. And while she wanted to have this conversation with Ron, and Harry present, their conversation could wait, this needed to be addressed. That's when she asked the Headmaster to bring out and clear his Pensive, as she had a memory to go over. Hermione's intrigue at this new magic was greatly reduced by the knowledge of just what memory the professor was referring too.

This was going to be a LONGGG night!

See you next chapter!
killgore444
Peace thru Strength, Order thru Chaos, Harmony thru Intimidation

killgore444 · Dec 12, 2020

The path to Harry's wish fulfillment so far: [in order]

For his girlfriend(s) to not be (a) witch(es).
Step 1 of get Ron back as a friend.
Step 1 of getting respect and fear from people.
Steps 1, 2 and 3 of acquiringskill and power.
A way to get to know his parents.

I had to change several things from the source material from where I got the magic items as the owner of one of them, the owner of Palladium books, is really big about no one converting his stuff into other settings. So I had to change it enough to 'Be inspired by' instead of straight from. The owner doesn't mind fanfiction, just doesn't like it when his stuff is mixed with other settings. And I really don't think he even cares if you mix in stories, as there are several Rifts crossovers out there, but I'm going somewhat beyond simply throwing someone into one of their worlds. I'm actually translating game stats into a working and understandable magic item. Thus, as I stated I heavily modified it. Not the least of which was changing most of the names as well as some of the basic mechanics.

And before anyone goes nuts and says that there is no way those glasses would ever be allowed in a game, not only were they, I was actually laughed at for taking the respective super powers for my 'Magic Item' based character because everyone thought they where pointless powers. That is until the GM realized that I could learn actual spell casting style magic.

It's why, over a decade later, when playing that 'what if' game I mentioned in chapter 1, I chose these glasses as one of the items. The other was of course, The How To book from GURPS magic items. No one ever takes that book seriously in it's native system because game mechanics don't allow easy exploits the way other systems or settings do.

Another note; I mention the number a thousand several times throughout the early chapters for his memory retention. That's not quite accurate. The number is thousands, as in plural. This is based on the users normal memory retention, times ten for the basic level, times a hundred for the very good level, and times a thousand for the near perfect level.
In D&D terms, you multiply the above number by your Intelligence bonus plus one to get the number of hours of study for each actual hour. So Draco, Harry and Ron, who would all be about fourteen or fifteen on Int would multiply their study time by thirty, three hundred or three thousand. Hermione would be notably higher. Someone with no bonuses would use the base multiples, and someone with a penalty would increase the penalty by one and divide the base by that amount.
Just remember, you are only studying what you're actually reading (except for languages) though. So studying a cookbook just gives you the individual recipes. Not the cooking skill. At least not without other magic.

killgore444 · Dec 12, 2020

A New Tournament
Chapter 4: Discoveries

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this. All rights reserved to the respective owners of Harry Potter and Stargate: SG1. If I did own any of it, it would have gone very differently.
And probably been not as good.
Summary: A gift from the future provides a little bit of hope in a time of need. OP Harry, Ron and Hermione, but with a plausible background to support it. No bashing, even of disliked characters.
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I know that much of this chapter, like the last, is exposition rather than dialog, but it is needed. Much of what is talked about in these 2 chapters will come up later, even the history. So there's a little foreshadowing going on, a bit of misdirection and a lot of 'But you never mentioned that' prevention going on as well.
And it's not all exposition anyway.

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Hermione came out of the Pensive with a start. That had been a an embarrassing ordeal that made her wonder if her earlier declaration that Ron and Harry wouldn't miss class on Monday because of embarrassment had been premature. From the looks of the twins and Mrs Weasley as they pulled their fingers from the silvery liquid, she thought they agreed. Dumbledore's next words however, where not what she was expecting.

"Minerva, would it be possible to show this to Severus? I'd like his opinion on something."

"Have you gone INSANE?" Hermione heard herself scream, to her, the Headmasters question was like onto treason. "How could you even consider showing something so personal of us, of Harry to that… …that man?"

From the gasps all around, she probably upset several people. She didn't care. "Do you have any idea what he'd do with something like this?"

"I believe Harry was under the influence of a potion, and I'd like Professor Snape to confirm it so…"

"Under the influence," Hermione cut off the Headmaster, "Under the influence? So not only are you showing someone who Will use this to bully and Hurt people, but you're specifically showing him something that his would be victim had no control over."

"Young lady, watch your tone when addressing a member of the faculty." Professor McGonagall tried to intervene.

"Oh shut up!" Hermione fired back, "You've never done anything to protect us from Snape, the LEAST you can do is stop interfering when we try and protect ourselves." By the surprised look on her face, Hermione was pretty sure the only thing preventing her from getting a hundred detentions was that no one had ever talked back like that before. Turning back to the frowning Dumbledore, "Fine, you want to show someone who hates us, hates Harry, so bad. Go for it. But we've already made jokes about siding with Mr Malfoy to have you removed on the condition he agrees to get rid of Snape as well. So you might want to consider REALLY carefully just how he'll use this to torment us in class."

"Ms Granger, please calm down. Severus Snape is a Master Potioner and Sorcerer, and has my full confidence and support." He said, no twinkle in his eyes, and a face that made her realize just how far past the line she was. She was so far down the rabbit hole at this point, she had no way to return though.

"He is a bully using his position of authority to abuse and torment the children of people he doesn't like. Just consider what I said Professor. Because if there is a single comment from him at all. No matter how minor, I'll send Lucy a letter myself." Turning to leave, without permission from the stunned adults. "Do you really think his wish to see Snape remain will supersede his wish to harm you?" was her final words as she stormed out, past a startled Moody just coming up the stairs. Striding past him, ignoring whatever he was saying to her, she threw open the door at the bottom of the steps, getting a startled cry from the gargoyle in front of it, she ignored it as she headed straight into the new corridor right in front of the stairs.

She didn't recognize the gargoyles cry as one of warning until it was silenced and she found herself in a strange corridor with little light and no way back. It was at this point that she remembered that the Headmasters office was in the middle of a single hallway with no cross corridors around.

"Hello! Anyone there? Hello, ANYONE!"

Snape! How could his mom have been friends with Snape? It didn't make any sense to Harry, everyone had always told him how kind and caring his mother was, how could Snape be part of that? Around and around Harry's thoughts twirled until he finally had enough and decided to put his moms diary to the side, unread. He just couldn't take it anymore.

As he was closing it however, he noticed several book marks, one towards the end caught his attention in a way that could only come from the potion. It wasn't the last entry thankfully, Harry wasn't anywhere close to being ready for THAT, but it did mention going to visit 'Him' that day. Harry, who was having some difficulty reading the diary even here, skimmed through looking for a mention of a name, but found none. It did mention getting an obscure protection spell from 'Him' though, so he figured this was a lot more important than the rest of the book. Nor did it seem to be referring to Snape based on the hints of time. It also contained a series of numbers and symbols though, which were apparently 'Apparition' coordinates. Not wanting to read any more of his Moms diary, not really being able to, he went back to his dads. Hopefully, it wouldn't be as trying. Rereading the meeting of James and Lily, Harry noticed a reference to 'the other boy' though. Had he not been paying attention the first time, had he really just ignored everything except for his mom and dad and his dad's friends.

In any case, over the next several months, Harry noticed quite a few more references to him, and never in a good way. It was clear from the way his father wrote about him, that not only did they not like each other, they absolutely loathed each other. To his dad, Snape was a pure blood wannabe, representing all the worst parts of being a pure blood without actually having the blood to back it up. His dad seemed rather proud of his mixed blood heritage, while Sirius and Peter seemed to draw resentment from Snape about them being pure bloods and not caring, while he desperately wanted to be one and couldn't. There was also several references to Snape bullying other students, as well as the response from the marauders. A response that quickly became near bullying itself, in a clear case of violence begets violence. Rather like the relationship between Draco and himself, Harry thought. Would Draco someday blame Harry for all his problems? Probably! He did now, why wouldn't he continue? Draco was known for claiming that Harry bullied him, so it wouldn't surprise him.

Nor did Harry really doubt his fathers claims of Snape deserving what he got, even if it did smack a little towards self justification and cleave a little to close to the way Dudley thought for Harry's comfort. But based on the way Snape treated not just him, but Neville and all the other Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, it was readily apparent that Snape is, and probably always had been a bully. A bitter, vindictive bully. Even still, it was clear that the Marauders went out of their way to target Snape. They where considerably more proactive about Snape then Harry was about Draco. Although for some reason, the Marauders came to the decision not to expose Snape as a half blood to the other Slytherins. Curious that, wouldn't they have known?

The fact that his dad and Snape were competing for his moms attention, just made it worse. It was also abundantly clear, his dad had NO clue how to attract a girl. Even Harry could have done better in his first year. Had done better actually. Just because he and Hermione thought of each other as brother and sister rather than boyfriend, girlfriend material, didn't mean he wasn't getting positive attention from her. He even managed to maintain a mostly positive relationship with the other Gryffindor girls his year. Something his dad failed at spectacularly. Seriously, his dad wrote about pulling her ponytail in class.
While difficult to read, Harry was still finding descriptions of the rest of the school interesting. James and his friends where all raised in magical households, so their point of view as different then his. It was a bit jarring to read that there were 24 kids in his Gryffindor year group, twelve boys and twelve girls (and the same for the other 3 houses), making Harry wonder about how few kids were in the upper years now. Especially since it was regarded as a small class for the time with only ninety six kids. Harry had only forty in his, and the year below had only sixteen. Granted, the second years had sixty four, and the first year had eighty, but ninety six was considered SMALL! At least that explained all the unused class rooms.

It also spoke of Professor McGonagall, who was teaching both DADA and Transfiguration and was apparently in her first year teaching as well as being Deputy Headmaster. It was several entries in before he realized that they where two different people, who evidently didn't like the Marauders. The McGonagall teaching DADA was male and the Deputy headmaster, Professor Ian McGonagall, his wife Minerva was the professor of Transfiguration, her first year of teaching, replacing Dumbledore, who was in his first year has Headmaster.

That was strange to Harry, who for some reason had thought that Dumbledore had simply stepped in as Headmaster right after Riddle had framed Hagrid. He didn't know why he'd thought that, he really should have known better. On the other hand, Ian McGonagall was supposed to take Dippets place, not Dumbledore, so Harry was very curious about what happened. None of the Marauders knew however, other than there had been a LOT of rumors of some sort of fight between Dumbledore and Dippet from the older kids, though none of them seemed to actually know anything. It was around Christmas time that Harry read the first reference to the nickname 'Snivelious' so he figured he'd stop. Doing a quick flip through with a sigh at his dads behavior, Harry found a piece of paper stuck between two pages. Like the page book marked by his mom, this was a list of apparition coordinates, but there was several listed. Including three which had the strange instruction; "You need to really THINK about these coordinates when apparating."

Not even sure what Apparition was, he went back to The How To book. Apparently, the ability to appear out of nowhere after disapparition. Funny. So you needed to learn how to disapparate before you learned to apparate, cute. Of course reading the instructions, it became clear you needed to learn them at the same time. It all seemed like a portkey to Harry, making sure to ask the book. And after some failed practices, thankfully not hurting himself, it was clear he was missing something. After all, according to what the book told him about his glasses, this should be near automatic. In frustration, he called out for Dobby.

"Master Harry be calling Dobby sir?"

Harry gave a start, not used to the way Dobby just appeared yet. "Erm, yes, uh, I was wondering. You see, I'm trying to learn apparition, and I'm doing everything right according to what I've read, but it isn't working. How do you do it? I mean, if it's the same."

"House Elves have permission from Hogwarts to disapparate and apparate inside Harry Potter sir. The wards prevent everyone else from doing so."

"What do you mean 'permission from Hogwarts?'" Harry asked.

"Dobby doesn't really know Harry Potter. Dobby just be knowing what Dobby is told Harry Potter. And Dobby is being told that Hogwarts gave permission to House elves, who have no ill intent, permission long ago. Does Harry Potter wish to go somewhere?"

"Uh, yeah. I found this reference to someone who gave my mom the spell she used to protect me. I wanted to see if I could track him down and see who it was while I was still under the influence of this potion. Maybe thank him. I also found a bunch of other places in my dads diary I'd like to check out. Thanks for the heads up on the wards. I'll sneak out of the castle tomorrow morning. Thanks again Dobby."

"Dobby should warn Harry Potter to not be seen. Much is going on at Hogwarts. If Harry Potter needs anything else that for some reason the Come and Go Room can not provide, call Dobby Harry Potter sir. Good night." With that, Dobby disappeared with a crack making Harry wonder what was going on and why Dobby left so quickly.

Stifling a yawn, Harry decided he didn't care and went back to his book. After reading a bit, decided to ask how to get around anti-apparition wards. Apparently, if you can see magic well, you can go between the weaves of the ward. The better, or more powerful the ward, the harder it is to do. And there is the possibility you'll hurt yourself, or take down the ward. Neither one was ideal to Harry, but it was the fastest way. There where of course, counter-wards, just like there where counter curses, but just like a curse, you had to know which type of ward was used. There where over a dozen. That's why this method took so much time, and if whoever cast the ward used a version you didn't know, you'd never get through. Reading through all the wards and counter wards about apparition, then moving on to wards and counter wards in general, Harry eventually drifted off to sleep.

Waking up with a start, trying to figure out where he was, Harry glanced around. He was lying in bed, but the surroundings were very different than the dorm. As the events of the previous evening came back to him, he noticed that he was in fact in a bed, with fresh clothes, his own, on a bedside table, along with towels and toiletries. Looking around, the mini common room was gone and replaced with a small bedroom with a bathroom and shower off thru a side door.
After taking care of his morning abulations, and getting dressed, Harry exited the bathroom to find the bedroom gone and the room from the previous evening back.

Deciding he was very curious, Harry asked his book how to use the come and go room. According to the book, the rooms proper name was The Room of Requirements, and it was a pretty useful room. Getting a pretty good work up on the room, Harry noticed several details. One, the room could provide anything that it had contained in it without any problem and without restriction. Two, it could bring him anything inside the castle that belonged to him, as long as it wasn't being held in someones hands, or being directly observed. So if Malfoy or the twins stole something and hid it in their trunks, he could get it back. Likewise he could get anything in the castle he had semi-legitimate access to, such as food from the kitchens, or books from the library, though the room did not recognize the forbidden section. Since students COULD access it, the room granted access. Three, he could also retrieve anything someone else owned if lost, or with their permission. Of course, if they were in the room with him, they could do it themselves, he didn't have exclusive control. Four, anything that couldn't be provided the first three ways could be created by the room, but would disappear when taken out of it. This included food, even if eaten, if for some reason there wasn't any in the castle. He'd have to have some sort of personal interaction, or a really GOOD idea of how it worked to create though, but thankfully not any sort of true crafting skill. Cleaning something though, was perfectly doable, so all of his clothes were nice and clean.

The room also saved versions in memory so, like what was going on with his mini common room, he could return to a previously used version. Anything held within a version WAS available to be used by others however, unless precautions where taken. The room could even form connections to outside locations thru either the floo network, or portraits. Using a portrait however wouldn't allow for secrecy, as the portrait itself would know of its use. The floo was a better choice. The room could also make connections to anywhere inside the wards that he had been or seen on a map. This would allow him to go anywhere that appears on the Marauders Map, or the few places he's been that don't appear, such as the Chamber of Secrets. Although the door, if closed was gone, and he'd have to get out on his own. Leaving the door open was doable, but anyone else could then enter.

Putting the book to the side, he sat down at the table and ate some breakfast and thought about things. Dobby had very bluntly told him to stay in hiding today, but didn't explain himself. That was setting off all sorts of alarm bells in his head, but the potion was telling him to obey it.

The thought about the potion brought up something else. He had a limited time before the potion wore off, what was his priority? Sitting here in the room studying? Useful, but he'd never been the type for endless study. Even with the glasses, that would ware him down. On the other hand, he had a LOT that he wanted to study while the potion was in affect. Then too, he wanted to check out all those locations in his mom and dads diary. The potion was in fact pressing for that as much as studying. It was at this point a weird thought struck him.

Grabbing his book, he asked "How can I be in more than one place at the same time?" It turns out there was several ways. First was time travel. Useful, but not what he wanted. Even if he had a time turner, or used the hour reversal charm, which was evidently the charm used by time turners, he'd still go through the potion at the same rate. His future versions coming back would have that much less potion in them. The spells 'Kage Bunshin no Jutsu' and 'Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu' would create duplicates of himself. A lot of duplicates in the case of the second spell, but it was recommended that you get good at the first spell and used to it's after affects before trying the more complicated and powerful spell.

Even better, any magic affects or anything you carried with you, or on your person would be duplicated as well, so he'd have access to his wand, no matter which duplicate he was. The objects would remain, as long as he held them on his body, or within ten feet. If they were ever separated for more than about thirty minutes, the duplicated objects would disappear. So he could bring not only his wand, but the How To book as well. The spell even allowed him to switch which version of himself was the primary, if for instance one was in danger, though he gained no ability to communicate with each other over distance. If he lost anything though, it'd remain primary, so has he reabsorbed duplicates, the objects would be gone. Going over all the details of the spell was amazing. Super rare in Japan, essentially unknown in China and the rest of Asia, it was completely unknown anywhere else. And any duplicates would still be under the potion. Although based on what he read, he'd better make which ever version stayed hear the primary.

He already knew the Ignotus and Dolus charms which would allow him to get around the underage magic outside of Hogwarts. As long as he didn't actually get caught. Even with these, Prior Incantato would still reveal his spells. But the Ignotus charm would remove the trace off his wand without letting the Ministry know. The Dolus charm would duplicate the trace, but instead of being linked to a book in the Ministry, it'd be linked to a notebook of his own. If anyone checked his wand for the trace, it'd show up, but none of his spells cast would ever appear on record. Harry most certainly did not trust the Ministry to actually remove the trace when he turned seventeen.

Now he just needed to figure out where to go and how to get there. Calling up a list of all the books available to the room, and then using Gemino to create a duplicate so it didn't disappear as soon as he left the room, he felt a draw to his moms diary. Opening it up, he plopped it down, trusting the potions luck to open it to the correct page. Reading the entry, from right after Christmas in her sixth year, Harry noticed a spell, 'Abb Unos Discis Omnet'.

From reading the entry, this was the third spell his mom had created, and boy was it a nice one. One that would go with his glasses and book very well. Assumingly based on 'Ab Uno Disce Omnes' or 'From one, learn all', this spell allows the caster to learn a broader base for a skill or knowledge than would normally be available from a book. For instance, reading a cookbook while under this spell would grant a general cooking skill rather than just the individual recipes. Will not give a broad range of new spells if a spell book is read, but does give a better understanding of the theories behind the spells, and knowledge about other spells. And even if the incantations aren't learned, the theory behind them will make it easier to learn or invent the incantations.

Deciding that his mom was even more brilliant than Hermione, Harry really wondered at the thought process that actually led to this spell. In any case, he was ready to go. Calling on the room to get his cloak, he grabbed several books off the shelves, the How To book, his new glasses and opened up a passage to a section of the partially collapsed tunnel out of the castle. The tunnel, which collapsed in his second year, probably during his fight with the Basilisk, was not completely fallen in. There was a twenty foot section, partially inside the wards, partially out. He'd spent a little bit of time trying to open a door to sections of the tunnel until he found a part that would work.

Stepping out, making sure the door stayed open, he very nearly gagged on the stale, musty air. "Right, going to need to make sure to do something for fresh air." Harry told himself. Obeying another hunch, Harry grabbed a small lock of his hair and cast a Portus spell on it to take him back to this tunnel, right outside the ward line. He then cast 'Kage Bunshin no Jutsu' on himself 3 times. One would go to Diagon Alley and get some money and go shopping, although he need some disguise spells after he left Gringots. The Second would go to the place in his moms diary and try to find 'Him' and deal with that somehow. The third would check out the places on his dads list. He'd remain here as primary in case they ran into trouble, he wouldn't be at risk of truly dying. Walking back inside and shutting and locking the door with the spells he learned the night before, but making sure it remained so his other selves could knock, Harry went back to studying.

The second clone walked outside the ward line and promptly disapparated. With a lurch, he apparated onto a concrete platform and promptly fell to the ground. Harry decided that this form of travel was worse than portkeys. Looking around, Harry noticed a sign that clearly stated, in German, Visitor Entrance. Then he noticed that he was in an enclosed area with high walls. And guards. Armed guards. Armed with both wands and muggle weapons at that. Has he turned to take it all in, he noted that there was a guard heading towards him, coming out of a door with a large stone archway. In what was clearly not the original words, two lines of words were engraved across it:

"SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS"
"NURMENGARD"

The third clone was the one who was going to check out all of the sites on his dads list, which for some reason the potion insisted he leave behind. Nine sites, hopefully, then back to Hogwarts to share memories and more studying. Looking at the list again, just in case the book was wrong about his memory with the glasses, then throwing his cloak over himself, 'Harry' stepped out past the ward line after the other two and disapparated.

With a small crack, Harry apparated onto a path next a large iron fence, with a overgrown field on the other side, a tree lined drive heading off across the grounds. In the distance, about a mile away, Harry could see a set of ruins. What was undoubtedly once a nice mansion was now partially caved in and destroyed. Sections of the grounds around it where clear and bare of plant life with no real pattern, reminding him of miss-aimed artillery fire craters. Most likely spell damage that was never repaired.

Coming to the broken down gate, the stone pillars that would have held them up, as well as extra wards, smashed. A large piece of ironwork with writing on it was laying just beyond. Turning over the arching metal, clearly something that would have gone over the gate, Harry read the inscription; "The Last Enemy to be Defeated is Death." Under that was what was likely a family crest, the same one on his fathers diary. This was the home his dad grew up in. The one he talked about occasionally in his diary.

With a feeling of awe, mixed with sadness, Harry slowly approached the manor. Was he just imagining it, or was there rustling going on in the weeds. He was invisible, but knew that he was still making noise, and would still have a scent. Besides, Dumbledore and Moody could both see through his cloak, he didn't doubt others could too (but not Snape he thought with a smile). Harry figured that the rustling sound was most likely gnomes, which brought up the possibility of jarvies as well, since it didn't look like anyone had been here in a while.

Still, as Moody was always saying, constant vigilance. It wouldn't do to die by being careless, even if his death wouldn't actually kill him. Gripping his wand in preparation, Harry approached the building. As he got closer, he could see more signs of spell battle. What was at least one skeleton of some sort of creature Harry couldn't identify laid on the grounds, rising above the weeds as if some sort of ghost ship in a vast sea of foliage, stuck on an underwater reef, the weeds, brown and barely clinging to life, nonetheless wrapping around and entangling as if a giant squid trying to pull a ship beneath the waves. Harry didn't doubt that there was other skeletons littered over the grounds and wondered why no one ever came and cleaned up.

Acting on a hunch, Harry cast an Accio targeting any wands. Five came, with difficulty pulling themselves from weeds, and another three came from the manor itself, although only two of them where whole. The whole one that came from the manor sparked when Harry held it, and he felt a connection form. Harry wondered who it had belonged to. His Grandparents had died before the war had ended, did it belong to one of them. Once again wondering why no one had ever returned, looters if no one else. It'd been thirteen years since the war came to a halt, surely someone would have returned to remove bodies if nothing else.

Closer still, he came to the manor, more and more damage to the grounds, and the decayed and destroyed sections of the manor becoming clearer, Harry also began to pick up signs that other creatures inhabited the ruins now. Fairies and doxies with certainty, but Harry couldn't rule out other, darker creatures. Gripping the new wand in his off hand, he approached the entrance. Hesitating at the bottom of the steps, sensing some sort of trap, Harry looked around. The doorway at the top was smashed open like the front gate. One door, laying on the gravel drive, the other either missing or inside. Taking a deep breath, he climbed the stairs slowly, ready to abort on a seconds notice.

At the top of the steps, he paused again to look inside. He could see the door, flung carelessly thru the collapsed wall of the entry way all the way back to the other side of the main hall. Several more skeletons where scattered about as well. Walking slowly, as much from having to pick his way over rubble from the collapsed walls and floor above as from a possible trap, he entered the main hall he could see the skeletons better. There looked to be five humans, all wearing death eater robes and masks like those at the world cup. There was also a couple of skeletons of what was likely house elves, one skeletal elf, gripping a butcher knife stuck thru the head of one of the death eaters even now.

Inspecting the rest of the hall, he could tell that there had been a serious battle here. The hall was utterly demolished, yet the obviously magical, mirrored chandelier above was oddly untouched, it's design allowing for a single candle to light the entire hall, even as close to a third of the ceiling was caving in. Trying to work out what happened, he realized that the only human bodies where all in death eater robes, so someone had returned for the bodies of his grandparents, assuming this is were they died. Hopefully they just didn't have time to look for wands that weren't readily available since only three wands had come from here, but five bodies. It was about when he got to the center of the room that the trap was sprung. Harry felt the anti-disapparition and anti-portkey wards fall into place like a physical force. Almost immediately, he heard the sounds of several things moving all around, surrounding him. Crawling out of hidden spaces, over several dozen humanoid things showed themselves, some standing to walk, others crawling around, joints bending in unnatural ways, their pale rotten skin, dripping with scum and moisture as if they'd just pulled themselves from a tainted pool or swamp, sickly white, seemingly blind eyes that still seemed to stare at him.

INFERI!

Knowing this wasn't a battle he could win yet, and understanding why no one had come to clean up, he none the less wondered why the death eaters where left even has he prepared his defense. Voldemort had to have taken some time to set this up, why didn't one of his other followers remove them, or why didn't he turn them into inferi as well? Maybe they where bait? Harry decided it didn't matter.

Casting a 'Protego Ignis' around himself with the found wand, the flames keeping them from approaching, but holding him to one spot since the spell was immobile, at least cast this way. He could cast it to form an actual shield made of flames, but that wouldn't protect his back. Deciding to go with a 'Sunplena', the true sunlight driving them back as much as the fire was, Harry was struck by inspiration. Going over everything he'd learned about light spells the previous evening, Harry decided to combine the 'Melumen' variation of 'lumos' with sunplena.

Raising his own Holly wand and pointing at the chandelier, he shouted "Brilo Sanctu Mesunplena Castu!" Putting as much power as he dared into it, a staggeringly bright glob of Holy Light, about the size of his fist shot up at the chandelier, hitting the old candle, and light filled the hall, so bright even Harry was having a hard time seeing, even as the inferi let out a scream as if in agony, their flesh burning and sloughing off as most turned to flee, and some charged. Knowing his flame would kill them, but not immediately, he cast leviosa on a piece of rubble and jumped on and cast 'Cannoventus' underneath and slightly to the side, propelling it, and more importantly, him across the hall and thru the entryway to the doorway and to the grounds beyond as if he where a circus performer being fired from a cannon. With a shouted cushioning charm at the fast approaching ground, Harry still managed to hit with more force than he really wanted to. Quickly rolling over and getting up, readying himself, in case more attacked him out here, all the things hidden in the grass and weeds fleeing, unseen but leaving wakes of foliage, to whatever safety they thought they could find, the screams of the inferi dying out shortly, leaving an eerie silence behind.

After several minutes, standing there, waiting Harry realized he was outside the anti-apparition wards. Vowing to come back after he learned the improved 'Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu' and got better at fighting, he disapparated to one of the three spots with the special note on it, only to appear next to another fenced in area. Another demolished house from the looks of it. Except this one had signs out front. Walking up and reading the inscriptions, Harry realized this was the house where Voldemort killed his parents. Choking as much from grief he hadn't known he still felt as anger that this was a tourist trap, Harry decided not to explore. He would come back to it though.

The third stop was yet another seemingly ruined house. Yet this one, located in a clearly muggle area somewhere, also seemed inhabited. The residents clearly poor, yet trying to maintain it the best they could, pathways strewn with old children's toys weaving between this property and the neighbors. The kids were clearly friends with the kids in the other houses. Harry wondered what was going on, but as this was a muggle area, didn't feel like investigating was a good idea. Doubly so since he lost his cloak at the manor, and stood out like Dumbledore would at Uncle Vernon's work place Grunnings.

The fourth stop made him laugh at his last thought, because it turned out to be Grunnings. Quickly hiding behind a nearby tree (the actual apparition point was concealed), Harry looked at the building, wondering if Uncle Vernon was inside. He also wondered WHY his dad had this spot listed on the paper. Was his dad spying on his brother in law? Or did he own Grunnings? The thought that Harry was his uncles boss was hilarious to him, but highly doubted it'd go over very well in the Dursley house. Then again, maybe that was why Vernon was a director here.

The fifth stop was another ruined structure. This one a stone tower, roof and windows missing, a tree growing up out of the missing roof and thru the windows. The tree looked healthy and normal, but he figured he'd bring Neville here to give his assessment on it before he explored it. Harry didn't know enough about herbology to risk it being some obscure plant they hadn't covered yet that would dissolve his skin if he came within ten feet.
Off to the side a ways away was a set of old railway tracks with three old passenger cars on them. Harry could feel the magic surrounding them. Mostly preservation charms and the same muggle repelling charms as the rest of the grounds. Inside them looked like a old abandoned home remodeling project. Taken over by birds from an open window in one of them. And another by ground dwellers from an open hatch in the floor that a plant had grownup into. There were no bones laying about, so some of the wards must prevent animals from attacking each other inside. There was signs of both squirrels and foxes after all.

Harry apparated into the sixth stop, the second with a special notation, with a shouted; "Holy Jesus, Joseph and Mary! It's fucking COLD!" Casting warming charms on himself as fast has he could, he looked around at his new location. He was on a small, ice covered island, surrounded by churning, icy water. A short ways up a cliff, about a hundred feet up, was a another tower, ice covered stairs leading up to it. The heat from his warming charms already dissipating, he added this spot to his investigate later file.

The seventh location was a muggle business center of some sort. Like Grunnings and the small house, he stood out here. Merely taking the time to learn the name on the side of the building, he left for the eighth stop. Which turned out to be more ruins. Not being able to even tell what type of building it had been, having exploded outwards, leaving debris strewn about for several hundred feet around. Some obvious magical damage scattered about as well, added in were some weird plants, and a few other effects. Casting his eyes around, looking for a clue, Harry noticed part of an old sign.
"...ters Apoth…" was all that remained, but it was enough. His dads diary had had an entry about him having to stay all day at a place called 'Potters Apothecary and Potion Supplies." Harry couldn't tell if the place had been attacked by death eaters or if it'd been a simple, though deadly accident that destroyed the place. But Harry was once again left to wonder at the lack of clean up from the Ministry.

At the ninth stop, the last one and the third with a special notation, he apparated onto a stone slab with an arithmancy work engraved, surrounded by a circle of rune engraved stones, and surrounded by womping willows. Harry felt a surge of magic from the runes, as if judging him for several seconds, and the willows stopped. The normal looking palm trees and fronds beyond the willows in a thick, near impenetrable mass, having a section part, providing an exit.

Walking down the path, Harry was looking around this seeming tropical paradise. He could see a large, ruined house a bit away, surrounded by more palm trees, but not in a thick, defensive manner. He felt a tropical breeze, and beheld a short, pleasant, well maintained looking beach, with some large body of water covered in large chunks of ice. The ice melting as soon as it came within about 20 feet or so of the beach, and reforming as soon as the water from the waves returned out past that mark.

And laying on the beach where three girls about his own age, sunbathing.

Three very naked girls. That of course, was when they started screaming!

Dumbledore left his table of instruments and sat at his desk as Severus walked in. None of them were doing any good in finding the three missing students and the ones monitoring Harry were giving him some rather odd readings. Although they at least let him know they were alive.

Severus walked to the desk, and without waiting, sat in the chair across from him with a sigh. "Igor is getting antsy." He started. "He doesn't like the Aurors being here. Moody barging his way onto the ship with several of them didn't help with that either." That had been a tense hour. Thankfully, unlike the muggle world, wizards didn't have the concept of sovereign soil. If something owned by one country was in another, it was subject to the other countries laws. Magical embassies existed only in muggle embassies for a reason.

With the disappearance of Ms Granger, right under their noses, and in front of Mrs Weasley, he'd been forced to notify Madam Bones.Since this was, in all likelihood, just a group of friends having an argument and leaving in a huff, she promised to handle it discreetly. He should have clarified on what that meant.
Now there was a dozen Aurors on the castle grounds, having searched both of the other schools transports. Madam Maxime taking it much better than Karkaroff, but still being upset. Making things more tense, they weren't explaining what was going on to anyone. The students knew that the dorms had all been searched, with extra emphasis put on Slytherin. Even Severus complained only a little bit about that one, knowing full good in well that the mostly likely enemies of the missing trio was in his own house. Now, Susan Bones had a bodyguard, and the rest of the Aurors where spread out through the campus searching things and watching the students.

The students of Gryffindor had a little more information. Even thou the twins and Ginny hadn't told anyone what was going on. Between them being dragged away by Minerva after a fight with Harry, and then returning to their dorm with Aurors entering the school at the same time, it didn't take long for some alarmingly accurate rumors to start. He wondered if there was true knowledge behind those rumors, or if it was merely past experience in dealing with the trio.

"The brat is, as usual causing more problems then he's worth." Severus finished.

"And that comment brings us to the other topic I wished to speak to you on. We need to have a rather blunt conversation Severus, over your manner of teaching and the treatment of your students!"

See you next chapter!
killgore444
Peace thru Strength, Order thru Chaos, Harmony thru Intimidation
hic abundant leones

killgore444 · Dec 12, 2020

The path to Harry's wish fulfillment chapter 4: [in order]

Part 2 of get to know his parents
Steps 4, 5, and 6 of acquiring skill and power.

The spells 'Kage Bunshin no Jutsu' and 'Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu' can be found in the story 'Larceny, Lechery, and Luna Lovegood!' chapter 23 Omake 5, by 'Rorschach's Blot'. And I told you this wasn't a super serious fic. And yes, I'm aware it was taken from another source, but I don't have that source.
The 'Ignotus' and 'Dolus' charms can be found in the story 'Make a Wish' chapter 2, also by 'Rorschach's Blot'.
'Protego Ignis' can be found in Innocent chapter 23 and 'Melumen' in Intensity chapter 6, both by Marauderlover7
'Cannoventus' can be found in the story The Merging, chapter 18 by Shaydrall.
'Abb Unos Discis Omnet' and 'Sunplena' are my own creation. As is the Brilo and Sanctu-Castu modifications which are explained in chapter 3.

As you might have guessed, the last section with the various properties was a spoof of all the fics out there that have Harry find out he has a dozen large mansions and is super wealthy, so he has to ditch the Weasleys as being useless to his goals and invite all of his new Slytherin friends who can actually help him to lavish parties where he shows off his incredible knowledge of gourmet meals.

Thhhhpt!

Don't worry though, Harry will get his rather awesome house. Just not for a couple of chapters.

killgore444 · Dec 13, 2020

A New Tournament
Chapter 5: Cerebral Malfunction

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this. All rights reserved to the respective owners of Harry Potter and Stargate: SG1. If I did own any of it, it would have gone very differently.
And probably been not as good.
Summary: A gift from the future provides a little bit of hope in a time of need. OP Harry, Ron and Hermione, but with a plausible background to support it. No bashing, even of disliked characters.

"We're called "Essential" because calling us 'Sacrificial' would be too honest.

Important: I also made a mistake when I talked about ice around the beach with the girls. It's only a week after Halloween, there would be little to no ice. Just pretend that I didn't mention ice and was talking about cold breezes or something. The ice wouldn't be there till sometime after Thanksgiving. :

Also, I do not know if this is the correct rule, but something I've seen a lot lately is several paragraphs under a single pair of quotation marks. Since this allows for an easier time figuring out who's actually speaking while still cutting down run on paragraphs, I'm using it. So if you get to the end of a paragraph and there's no quotation mark, and dialogue starts the next paragraph, it's the same speaker.

The first and last parts of the story, other characters POV, are out of order with the rest of the story and take place on Sunday.

00l l l l (_i_) \_!_/ l l l l00

Albus Dumbledore had had a long night. There was so much going on at Hogwarts it was getting hard to keep track of. Tempers were running high, there had been seven magical duels fought between Gryffindor and Slytherin students last night, two of which left participants in the hospital wing under the care of Madam Pomfrey. Albus was almost grateful for the Aurors. As problematic as their presence was, they where at least acting as hall monitors.

Still, it was a new day. He was hopeful the three missing students would show up today, embarrassed over the trouble they caused and nothing else. Maybe they'd even be able to mend their broken friendship.

Sitting down at the teachers table for breakfast, Albus filled his plate and began some small talk with the rest of the staff until the Morning Prophet arrived. As was his custom, Albus let Minerva read it first since she was usually done eating before he was.

It did not take long to realize there was a problem this morning.

Madam Bones, who along with several Aurors was still a guest this morning, dropped her pipe out of her gaping mouth. Professor Vector cursed and started muttering in Gobbledygook. Several comments among the students ranged from the mild 'What the…' to 'Merlin's saggy balls.' Everyone who had a copy of the Prophet who hadn't uttered anything was staring at the headline in obvious shock. Or staring at the teachers table as if expecting an explanation.

It was at that time he noticed his Deputy rolling up the paper and put under her arm and start to stand up.
"Going somewhere Minerva?"

A quick glance from her before a slightly stuttered; "I, I've got to get ready for classes today."

"It's Sunday."

"Yes. Well, lot's to do."

"The paper if you please Minerva." With a huff, she dropped back into her seat and handed him the paper. In bold across the front page:

"HARRY POTTER IN NURMENGARD!"

Dumbledore's first, rather off topic, thought was how? With the Goblets oath, he shouldn't have been able to go more than a mile or so from Hogwarts. He wouldn't even be able to reach all of Hogsmead, much less the continent.

This was surreal Harry thought to himself. The guard had been polite, but very firm when he demanded to know who he was and what he was doing here. He'd shown the entry to his mom's diary and asked if they had a record of WHO she had visited. Considering where this was, Harry was pretty sure he knew, but there WAS other prisoners here after all.

Unfortunately, her name wasn't on the visitors rolls at all. On the other hand, it only took a little deduction to figure it out. 'He' had only received about one or two visitors per year, and there was only one female who visited the prison at all in that month, and that name was very note worthy to Harry, who highly doubted Petunia Dursley had ever been here.

So here he was waiting in the visitor room for them to bring out the single most feared man of the past 3 centuries. Sitting at a picnic table in the middle of a concrete room, two guards in crossfire position by separate doors. A clear box, with a sticking charm holding it to the table, with a self inking, self writing quill inside that could have a piece of parchment slid inside if either one of them wanted to take notes.

All of his belongings where in a sealed box, per his request. Since they'd all fade in about a half hour after they took them from him, he asked if they could put it in a sealed box, telling the guards he'd had trouble with people taking his things and trying to sell them before, and since he hadn't known where he was going, he'd thought nothing of bringing some rather valuable items that he would have used to get out of a tight spot (his cloak, wand etc.) or used to study while waiting (the books and glasses). The guard commander had even lent Harry his own wand so Harry could do the seal himself.

They were mildly insulted at the implications they'd steal something, but it HAD happened here in the past, and they understood that it was a possibility, so it wasn't truly an issue. Although everything was in the box. He was in conjured robes and glasses. They HAD been hesitant when they questioned him about being under the affects of a potion and he'd admitted he'd taken Felix Felicis. But he'd assured them that he had no intention of trying to free anyone and had explained what his goal was; to find out who his mom had been seeing and why. Harry pondered why they'd accepted that. Was the potion that powerful that even though they knew it's affects the guards would still allow it, or did they have a way to counter it? Or maybe they just assumed he'd need it to talk to the prisoner in question.

Gellert Grindelwald.

A name that every wizard and witch on the planet knew. Knew and feared.

So it was something of a surprise when the guards escorted him into the room. Very very calm, pale, emancipated, toothless and balding, yet his eyes were twinkling with some hidden joke only he could see. Taking a seat across the table from him, Grindelwald studied Harry for a few moments until finally, "You have your Great Grandmothers eyes."

The commonness of that statement calmed Harry for a moment until the full implications of what he said hit him. "Great Grandmothers?"

"You didn't know?" he replied. "I suppose you wouldn't. It's not the sort of thing your mother would have wanted spread around. And since she died when you were so young, I can't imagine that you would have been told yet. But yes, I knew your Great Grandmother, and your Grandmother your Mothers mother. Your Great Grandmothers maiden name was Adelaide Evensgard. She was a very lovely lady, and an extremely competent and powerful witch."

"My mother was a muggleborn!"

"Ah, no young man, she was the daughter of two squibs. Dennis and Emma Enns. Although they changed their surname to Evens, shorting her mothers maiden name, after they turned on their parents, and fled to England. The inside information they were able to provide English and American wizards spelled my end. It allowed them to help the muggle forces at Normandy succeed, and to know the exact locations of several of my fortresses to allow muggle bombers to hit.

Yes Harry, your grandparents where the children of some of my followers. Lotar Enns: The Death Knight of Dunkirk and Annalise Fein Enns were you Grandfathers parents. Lotar was killed by a muggle boy in a moment of extreme carelessness. During a break in a battle, he sat down in exhaustion, and ended up not seeing the muggle child, about twelve or thirteen years old, that had been hiding behind the sandbags he sat down on. A knife to the throat is far from the worst way to go. Annalise was killed by Albus Dumbledore in a truly epic spell duel after she decided to get revenge for her husbands death by slaughtering the entire city.

I'm sorry, you don't seem well Harry. Should I call for the guards to offer medical assistance?" There was humor in his question, but also genuine concern.

Harry could only stare at this man across from him. This was completely beyond what he'd been expecting. Practically hyperventilating at this point, Harry did manage to catch the true concern in 'His' voice and that was what managed to get his breathing under control, somewhat. "My other Great Grandfather, who was he?" Harry was at this point almost positive he didn't actually Want to know, but knew he needed to.

"Why Dela's married name was Adelaide Grindelwald. My wife."

Harry's first clone was walking down Diagon Alley shopping. He'd had an interesting time at Gringotts. First, he'd followed the directions of the potion and gotten an account manager, specifically, he'd gotten a goblin by the name of Snapsaw who was one of the rare goblins who worked as an account manager who wasn't from Clan Gringott. Snapsaw was from Clan Snarlsmite and had been particularly happy when Harry asked him for help and told him he'd like him to be his manager. Snapsaw had only ever worked small accounts, either muggle parents setting up something for their kids, or muggleborn who weren't going anywhere politically and no notable wealth.

Harry had never heard of a Helpful Goblin before, but when you considered they measured their social position on not only personal wealth, but the wealth they controlled for others, Harry requesting him to be his personal financial manager had been a major boon for him.

Even more so when Harry asked about doing something to verify accounts when the potion prompted him. The self writing blood quill had hurt, but what ever enchantments where on the quill and parchment he put his bloody fingerprint on, it had brought to light a whole bunch of surprises.

Evidently, there had been a LOT of families destroyed by Voldemort and his followers. All of their inheritances went to other families related to them. And many of those had all of their children or heirs die as well. Harry it seemed was listed as inheriting from thirty seven different families who had no surviving heirs, or no potential heirs they were willing to give it to (mainly do to Death Eater status). So they listed in their wills either Harry directly, or in several cases where they died before that night, to whomever managed to kill or banish Voldemort. While none of those families had been among the super wealthy, most weren't exactly poor either. Combined with the Potter wealth, he was now in the upper ranks of money in Wizarding Europe. And that was just the ones that Harry had already inherited. There was still several that people were not yet dead, but had no heirs. Not that Harry was hoping they'd die soon or anything, it was just so mind boggling.

There had also been several other points, notably that he was the heir of the Black family. While Harry could understand that from having talked to Sirius several times, no one else had, and it was generally understood that Draco Malfoy had been the heir (Snapsaw wasn't sure why it was Draco rather than Narcissus). And Lucius Malfoy had been rather rapacious in siphoning as much of the Black fortune has he could. Thankfully, the Black heirs trust fault, like Harry's Potter heir trust vault, had limits on how much could be pulled from the main vault to refill it. Harry was rather quick to demand that Malfoy repay that stolen money, with interest, but had asked to hold off on the notification until Harry had secured his place without Lucy's interference. The Malfoys would likely lose their vaults, and possibly any other vaults that any of them were legitimate heirs to. For some reason, the potion in him rejoiced at the idea of several imprisoned or dead Death Eaters having to give him their wealth and possessions.

The Malfoy's were also trying to take the Black seat at the Wizengamut. Long denied requests to be allowed to join, if Draco was the Black heir, they'd finally be in. Right now Narcissus Malfoy was acting as proxy for Draco. Harry could use the Blood Document as verified proof that he was the legitimate heir, not Draco. Being able to slam Lucy in such a way was like a dream come true. Keeping the Malfoy family out of true political power was just a bonus, if a needed one. He might even be able to get them on criminal charges, though he kind of doubted it would stick.

Of course he'd found out about some other things about the Black fortune as well. Stuff Harry was pretty sure would stun Sirius when he found out. Nor was the Black seat the only one he held, there were nine other seats, ten total. Amusing when you considered that the Potters never had a seat, at least not until his Grandfather Charlus, evidently the Peverell seat now belonged to the Potters, inherited from Charlus's mother. He was listed in their wills for the same reason that so many vaults were.

Some of those other seats were rather surprising as well and Harry was pretty sure he was listed as heir simply for political reasons, or as insurance against assassination. Harry could think of no other reason for him to be the Greengrass heir, when Lord Greengrass had three daughters in Hogwarts, Daphne and her older and younger sister, plus several of her cousins as well as anyone outside of school. No, Harry was an insurance policy for that one. And more than likely one or two others.

And technically, he only held four, the other six, including the Black seat, he was only the designated heir, the current holders COULD (and likely, in the case of Greengrass, would) change who the heir was whenever they wanted, although Sirius would have to actually appear before the Wizengamut to do so.

It was important to note though, he'd only be allowed to sit as a single one at any given time, but he could name whoever he wanted as heir to those seats, and then forfeit his claim to them off on his heir, making them the new lord or lady (or heir if that's all he was), take the next one in line, and do the same thing.

He also held seats in the governments of other countries as well, though the seat in the German government was defunct simply because there wasn't an independent magical government there anymore. Germany was held as a magical colony of the France, United States and Russia (England lost their position there when the their own Wizarding population fell below twelve thousand), although there was talk from the States about granting them independence, since most of the magical people from there had been taken to the other countries for schooling and had decided to remain, there just weren't enough wizards living in Germany any more to warrant one. Besides, Harry was pretty sure the Grindelwald seat would be discarded. Harry was really curious about THAT!

But the various magical families of Europe were intermarried enough that it wasn't unknown for Englishmen to hold seats in France or Spain, or any of the other countries, nor vice verso. So he held seats in both France and Spain. Not that he was even slightly familiar even with how the Wizengamut in England worked, or it's political realities, much, much less so for Spain and France. Those were all things he was going to have to ask Dumbledore. The next Wizengamut meeting was being held in two weeks, the Saturday of the weekend before the first task (he'd have to make a will just in case, to insure Malfoy lost out if nothing else, for now, he left everything to Remus with a note to split it up as he saw fit). Snapsaw said he'd be happy to attend and testify along with a higher level Goblin diplomat.

After a few other details, Harry had thanked Snapsaw and hit his trust vault, for a few thousand galleons. At forty quid per galleon he had around a hundred thousand pounds worth of money to spend. Harry also started to understood why poorer families had such a hard time paying for things like wands, two hundred eighty quid just for an average wand, plus other supplies. Hermione had told him once that on average, just the school supplies ran about twenty five to thirty galleons a year, or, between a thousand to twelve hundred pounds. Made Harry hate Lockhart even more, at two or three galleons for each of his seven books. That had been expensive addition to the already high cost.

Nonetheless, Harry hit himself with several illusion spells that made him look like a somewhat thinner Vernon Dursley right before he walked out of the back areas of Gringotts, and hit the shops. His largest purchase was of course books, making a point of spending several hours in Flourish and Blots going thru the shelves looking for possibilities. The How To book was awesome, but you had to know enough to ask it for the right things. Plus the books sometimes went on tangents about other things and gave even more ideas.

Trusting in the potion, every time he got a nudge, he put the book in a bin, only a couple of which were in Hogwarts library, sending the filled bins up to the desk to be rung up, all the while the manager looking on with bemusement (and a touch of greed). Nine hundred thirty books richer (luckily Harry had stopped at a shop and purchased a magical trunk) and fourteen hundred galleons poorer, Harry left Flourish and Blots and proceeded down the alley with a shrunken trunk inside a hidden pocket and the realization that he just spent fifty six thousand quid on books. Hermione would be proud.

He got a different set of robes for his upcoming Wizengamut meeting. Those had to be way nicer than anything for a simple Ball, as much as Harry didn't want to admit it, although he had to drop his disguise spells to be properly fitted. He also got a new watch with a few magical features. Mostly spells to make sure it would always work, but it also had a magical compass, and an altitude/depth gauge and of course it updated and corrected itself once a day. No alarm for some reason though. The potion urged him to get a couple of wand holsters. Not sure why he needed five holsters for one wand, but figured they'd come in handy as gifts. He also got a few amusements and treats, ice cream was always nice.

He thought about getting a second wand, but didn't know how Olivander would react, the potion strangely silent on the matter. Instead, with a little trepidation, he headed into Knockturn. There wasn't a whole lot down here that actually held any interest for Harry, but he followed the prompts and ended up in a dingy old book shop called Walpole's. Like Flourish and Blots, He trusted in the potion to guide his purchases, and they were a lot fewer.

The Banshee assistant who rang up his purchase was a little creepy, and looked at him strangely. "Someone your age should avoid Knockturn alley." she said out of the blue. Not sure what she meant, and evidently showing it, she continued; "No magic can hide my face," she said, amusement written over her less then pretty face. "And so, no magic or muggle technique can hide someones face from me. Do you understand Mr Potter?"

"Er, yes, I think so." Harry replied. "You can understand I hope, that I'd rather not be known for coming here."

She giggled at that, "Yes Harry, can I call you Harry?" Getting a nod, she continued, "Yes I can understand how you wouldn't want people to know what types of books you purchased."

"Uh, I hadn't even thought about that aspect. After all, you need to have at least a basic understanding of the Dark arts to fight them. I was actually worried about getting detention for being off school grounds. Besides, I really don't like the way people follow me around and try and throw a little misdirection here and there."

A full laugh from her followed. "You're ruining your bad boy image here Harry. How are you going to attract a pretty girl without acting like a bad boy?"

"If I was really that worried about it, I'd head down to the magical tattoo parlor and get an animated tattoo. A nude lady."

"Be careful with that one Harry, that'd make you REALLY popular in prison, if you catch me?"

"I'll make it a house elf." Her laughter at that made her unable to speak, so Harry bid her farewell and left. As he was leaving Knockturn, he noticed an armory. Doing a bit of window shopping, Harry decided to check it out. He didn't actually purchase anything, if it was worth buying, it was super expensive. Full body armor was a minimum of three thousand galleons. This seemed like something his how to book would be useful for. After that, Harry portkeyed back to the tunnel and remerged with the other Harry.

This wasn't happening. There was no way he was descended from Gellert Grindelwald. No, it just wasn't possible. "How, how did this happen?"

A smile twitching the corner of 'His' mouth, "One would think you old enough to understand where children come fr…"

"That's not what I meant! And you damn well know that!" Sucking in a gulp of air to calm down, Harry tried again. "How is it that I've never been told? I get that my parents weren't in a position to tell me, but others, Professor Dumbledore surely?"

"I honestly doubt anyone else knew. When your mother visited me, she showed me a letter her mother had from the Director of Magical Military Relations in America. I don't remember the wording, but it basically stated that only six people knew who she really was. I do not believe that Albus Dumbledore was among them."

"Why America instead of of England's Ministry?"

"Because my Daughter and son in law would have turned themselves over to the Americans rather than the French or British. Americans had gained a reputation of being much more likely to bring in prisoners, and much less likely to have surrendering enemy suddenly 'change their minds' and start resisting. Both France and England had lost rather high numbers of soldiers and civilians before America got directly involved, so there was a correspondingly high level of retribution from their people. Not entirely undeserving mind you, especially among the muggles, but it's why both magical and muggle went out of their way to locate Americans to surrender to.

And my child would have been a major target."

"So why did they settle in England then? Why not go on to America?"

"Of that I'm not really sure, other than it was something arranged by the Americans themselves. But while it came from their magical government, it was arranged thru their muggle one. I believe that they set them up as members of the muggle underground in Germany that aided Jews in hiding so that your Ministry wouldn't get word of them.

As for why they were left in England, I'm not sure, but can think of four possibilities. One, they had no more desire to have the children of four rather powerful war criminals living among them any more than England would have, even if they were squibs. Two, there was a lot of people who noticed the sheer number of people America gave sanctuary too. Many people would have noticed them if America would have granted them such asylum.

Three, the American and British magical communities do not get along. I very nearly gained American support simply because England came out against me. Unfortunately, or fortunately as the case may be, their regard for muggleborn leads to a high regard for muggles in general. Although do not allow yourself to believe that they are truly a muggleborns paradise any more than communist Russia is a workers paradise. Thus, they might have simply been trying to cause problems for the British Ministry of Magic.

And lastly, the American magical government, like the British Ministry, has an entire agency dedicated to Divination. Unlike the Department of Mysteries, who keep everything secret, the American Department of Future Operations makes it's predictions known to the members of the government and their muggle President. And I would presume at the time their military commanders. It's entirely possible that they got a glimpse of the future and knew that you needed to be born. Who knows, maybe you have more than just Dumbledore's prophecy attached to you."

"Prophecy? What prophecy?"

The three girls were screaming bloody murder. Harry would admit later that he probably didn't help matters. He was so surprised to see them here he could only stare at them in shock. It's not like he'd ever seen a naked girl before. Even in the Naughty Witch magazine Seamus 'Found', all the girls inside would cover up when someone under age looked inside. The same thing when Dean tried to enchant a Playboy with the same spell he used on his football posters. Harry suspected that the enchantments also let adults know, because in both cases, McGonagall had found and confiscated the magazines the next day.

The girls got up trying to cover themselves and running for clothes while calling for help. It was at about this point that the potion seemed to hit a snag. It wasn't sure what Harry wanted to happen. Harry was at a crossroads, he had to decide if he wanted a long term relationship, or just a couple of nights of fun. Almost instantly deciding that long term was the best option, the potion then gave him a rather forceful mental shove;

'Then Turn the Hell Around!'

Whipping around with the distinct impression that the potion was mumbling in his head about being a 'bloody fucking moron' but equally sure that he really didn't want to explore the possibility that the potion was somehow sentient he managed to squeak out; "Who are you? What are you doing?"

"What did it look like we were doing!?" one of them shouted. "We have a right to be here, who are YOU?! KEETER!!!"

"You called Miss Joan?" A voice that sounded suspiciously like a house elf said. "MASTER HARRY POTTER SIR!!!" it suddenly shouted, "It's wonderful to see you here at last!" Looking down at an impact on his leg, Harry saw a old house elf hugging him. "Keeter thought he would die before Master Harry reclaimed his properties Sir. Yes Keeter did."

A sudden silence filled the air, until the one girl who shouted at him let out a sob. "H-Harry P-Potter?" Glancing back at the girls, he noticed that the girl who had spoken was crouched down holding a pile of underclothes to her chest with one arm, staring at him with her brilliant blue eyes near to tears, utterly still, with one leg thru the sleeve of her muscle shirt while she was in an aborted attempt to put her shorts on over her head like a shirt, her other arm going through the leg opening and raised holding on to them, as if she was trying to get her golden brown hair to pass through the opening. Harry was somewhat aware that he was going a little poetic, but really didn't care, she was gorgeous.

A different girl spoke up at that point. "Jo, Keeter, who is this?" Looking over at her, he saw that the second girl, Asian of some sort, was standing behind an cherry tree that was growing horizontally out over the beach like pictures of exotic beaches often show palm trees doing. Hiding behind some branches to cover herself, he could barely make out silky black hair and a very pretty face. Plus the fact that the branches were only growing upwards, leaving everything from her belly button down exposed.

Harry's brain was pretty much shutting down at this point, so it was Keeter who answered. "This is Master Harry Potter…"

"He's our boss, we work for him." The first girl interrupted, voice laced with misery.

Before Harry, who was admittedly rather slow on the uptake at the moment, could formulate a response, the third girl angrily spoke out; "Boss!? Since when?! I've never seen him at the agency before!" Glancing at the her, Harry noted that she hadn't put anything on, and wasn't bothering to cover up either. A little taller than Harry, with beautiful brown hair, and an athletic body, hands on her bare hips, it took her several seconds before she noticed him staring at her. Face going from an angry frown to an embarrassed red (that undoubtedly matched his own), she hastily turned around and bent over to retrieve her clothes, doing far more to expose her then cover her up.

Harry would have to later go over his memories to figure out the next set of events, as his brain was, at this point completely shut down. The only thing he was thinking was to try and memorize what he was seeing, as he was pretty sure he'd never be seeing it again.

It wasn't until the third girl was wrapped in a towel, and the second had realized that she needed to at least cover up her bottom that Harry was at last able to function with less than a ten second delay. Thankfully he hadn't actually stared at them the entire time. The potion was pretty much in control of his body, which was a rather frightening thought. So he'd turned away from the girls while they dressed, even if the first girl was having a lot of problems doing so and required the the House elves help.

After that, Keeter the House Elf brought out something to drink for everyone and summoned some towels for them to sit on (the third girl had hers wrapped around herself). It was very clear that they were just as embarrassed as he was, and more than likely would have fled if it wasn't for Keeter.

Getting another prompt, Harry decided to begin; "So, um, I'm Harry, which some of you clearly know, but.. ..yeah. I'm Harry Potter. Who are you?"

After about a minute, it was obvious none of the girls were going to answer, Keeter once again spoke up. "I am Keeter Master Potter Sir. Keeter is senior most House Elf for the Potter family sir. Keeter is most happy to see Master. But Keeter is forgetting his manners Sir. Keeter needs to introduce Master's guests."

Turning to the girl who had yelled at him first; "May Keeter introduce Miss Joan Fenn. Ms Fenn is the daughter of Joseph and Mandy Fenn, the two squib groundskeepers Master's parents allowed to live here until they were killed in an accident four years ago. Keeter regrets to inform Master that Keeter does not know what happened, but Miss Fenn is now under the care of Terry and Kevin Monroe." Harry looked at her, she was absolutely gorgeous. She had dark gold to light brown hair, not quite blonde, not quite brunette that went just past her shoulders, and soulful blue eyes, a combination of regret, sorrow, embarrassment and shame coloring her face. She was also fully clothed wearing something more suited to the weather Harry could see beyond whatever magic was keeping it warm here, jacket zipped shut and her hands holding the collar pulled up and covering as much of her face as she could.

Turning to the next girl; "May Keeter introduce Miss Vanessa Monroe, she is the daughter of the same Terry and Kevin Monroe." She, like Joan was incredibly beautiful, with darkish brown wavy hair that descended to the small of her back. Harry having never heard the term 'Sectoral Heterochromia' was not able to understand her eyes, other than that they were unique and very pretty. Mostly gray, but both had a brown 'stripe that went from the outer upper side of the iris to the lower inner side except for over the pupil, making it look like she had a separated V in her eyes. Harry was also trying not to stare at her since she had only wrapped a towel around herself instead of putting on clothes. And while Harry didn't THINK she was intentionally trying to flash him, he wasn't one hundred percent sure it was accidental. Her blush didn't help him determine it either.

As Keeter turned to the final girl; "May Keeter introduce Miss Lea Ramirez." Like the other two girls, she was beyond beautiful. What Harry had at first impression taken for Chinese features, he soon decided, that despite her name, still looked oriental of some sort. She was kneeling like the way pictures sometimes showed martial artists sitting on their own legs, wearing a simple pair of shorts and a t-shirt with her long silky black hair going all the way down to the sand. Harry figured that it would be somewhat below her knees when standing up.

After another long silence, Harry finally just decided to go back to luck and actively called up the potion. As he felt the potion coming to the forefront, Harry understood why the potion was being so, not silent, but quit till now. He needed to decide what he wanted as trying for one thing would preclude other things. Harry had already decided he wanted a long term relationship with at least one of them, and preferably all three, and was somewhat surprised that the potion started to once again give him mental advise. The potion also made it clear that it could only set this part up to be successful on his own skill later has it wouldn't last long term. It also said he was going to have to get the conversation going.

"So," Harry began taking a long drink from whatever Keeter had given him, "Like I said, my names Harry. I live in Little Whinging in Surrey and go to school in Scotland. How about you tree?" Continued silence. "Come on you guys, how about at least one word answers? No. Nothing?"

Very hesitantly Vanessa replied, voice steadying as she spoke; "Um, this is Flanders New York, near Riverhead. That's where we live and go to school." Harry must have looked at her blankly since she quickly added; "Oh, we're on Long Island, close to Hampton Bays." Still not registering with Harry she added "How about the United States?"

Amelia Bones sat across the desk from the Dumbledore. She'd never admit it, but she still found this intimidating. Intellectually, she knew it was just the remnants her own school days, first under Dippet, then for her last two years, Dumbledore.

Despite this, they sat in companionable silence for a few minutes. They had just come out of his Pensive, first a memory from Professor McGonagall showing the confrontation of Harry and the Weasleys and it's aftermath. Than a memory from Dumbledore himself of the meeting with all of them and Ms. Granger's sudden disappearance, and something bothered her about everyone's reaction to that in the memory, she just couldn't figure out what. Finally two memories he had acquired from a House Elf named Dobby in regards to what was going on with Potter and his friends. While she was left with the impression that Dobby had withheld some information from them, he had shown them quite a bit. The meeting with a man from the future and than his meeting with that same person as a present day boy. A boy who Dobby had given one of the most powerful potions in existence to.

The idea that a future version of Potter had travelled back in time to save everyone was incredibly alarming. He'd somehow been killed in the future, literally right in front of Dobby in the present, he hadn't told Dobby anything useful about what the future held.

On the one hand, that seemed like an incredible oversight on Future Potters part, but it was equally clear he hadn't had much time beyond telling Dobby his simplistic plan. On the other hand, he was clearly under the influence of Felix Felicis when he gave the potion to Dobby, and Dobby had been under it's influence when he gave it to Present Potter. So hopefully Present Potter was on the right track for making things better.

Amelia had always considered herself one of the alarmingly few rational thinkers in the magical world, came with the job. As such, she'd never really bought into the Harry Potter myth. To her, he was simply an incredibly lucky young man whose parents were two steps ahead of everyone else when it came to protecting their child. Something that from everything she'd heard, Potter actually believed himself. Now however, she was considering the possibility that the myth had at least a grain of truth to it. "So now what?" she asked Professor Dumbledore. "Surely you're not going to leave this in the hands of a House Elf, one who isn't even bound to you or Hogwarts, and a fourteen year old?"

"No Amelia," he responded, "I have no such intent. I am however, somewhat at a loss as to WHAT I should do. Of all the possibilities I've thought of, envisioned or used magic to see, THIS…" Here, he paused for several moments, "This is not something I've ever considered."

Amelia paused in thought herself, somewhat uncomfortable at Dumbledore's casual reference to magic she had no idea existed, much less how to use. "Do you know HOW he did it?"

"Actually, yes, I do." He stated, "If it's the way I think he used, he used a Pensive. One of the reasons their creation is so tightly controlled, and why the Department of Mysteries, and the ICW is so willing to pay outrageous sums to purchase them from private owners is because you can use them to travel back in time to the actual event that whatever memory you use shows. Generally, this would be one that the would be time traveler provided, but could be any that he had acquired from someone else."

"Please tell me you're joking!" She said, shock and dawning horror clearly showing itself in her voice, thinking of the seven Pensives that she knew of that the Ministry possessed, and the seeming casual use around the office. "Is it possible to accidentally trigger time travel?"

"To answer your second question, I do not believe so. It takes a considerable amount of willpower to force yourself against the currents of time. It is not however a possibility I am comfortable ignoring. As to your first question, regretfully no, no jokes involved in this conversation. Nor is it even the only way to travel back in time for more than a couple of hours. Although it is the easiest to use, and the second most useful. The Most useful if you want to travel to before your birth, or to when you are a very small child. It is in fact a method I've used seven times. Although the Harry from the future seems to have encountered a danger I had not even realized was a possibility. It never occurred to me that someone from your future could harm you while you were in the past."

Amelia stared at her former teacher. That certainly explained a few things she thought to herself, although it also brought a whole slew of other questions. Before she could articulate any of them, he continued. "There are several 'Laws' of time travel. Some are actual Cosmic Laws, enforced by a power quite beyond the feeble abilities of magic. Some are rules, with potentially tragic consequences for breaking them. Others are mere suggestions to make your traveling easier.

The book I acquired the magic needed to travel time, 'Memories Unbound' had a rather amusing write up on them." He said, a slight smile gracing his mouth. "Unfortunately, as amusing as it was, it was also painfully accurate. A pain far beyond the slight tickle of a Crucio curse should you violate the law against 'Messing with the Cornerstones of Fate.' One of the rules is that you 'Shall not appear before yourself.' I have had to break that rule twice to prevent myself from making even more tragic mistakes.

The very first thing I did was travel back to when I was a young man, still in school, to save the life of my sister. Do you have any idea of how hard it was for me to realize I needed to go back to before I went back the first time and convince my younger self to not go back?" At first Amelia thought he was making a joke, and he might have been. But the pain in his voice said otherwise. "The second time was to prevent myself from going back and taking out Voldemort before he became powerful. I regret to inform you that someone Voldemort has killed was directly responsible for preventing the Earth from being able to defend itself from alien invaders. And I do not know who. Several of my trips back in time were attempts to insure we could manage, despite that. Finally I had to admit to myself that the damage Voldemort caused was the lesser of two evils that saw over half the worlds population killed in a single hour, and the rest enslaved.

Oh don't look at me like that Amelia. It's not the first time this planet has hosted aliens. Nor even the first time we've been invaded. In fact, now that I've seen we CAN defeat aliens, I'm less concerned about needing to keep Voldemort around and we can work to keep him from returning."

At this, Amelia's mind stopped. Was Dumbledore insane? Had he truly gone around the bend? The very real existence of time travel not withstanding, but ALIENS? On the other hand, if it was real, something needed to be done. "You know Professor, Future Harry looked like he'd been on the run for a while. Any chance it was aliens he was running from?"

"I would hope not. But I can not say for certain. Just last year, I learned that a small group of muggles from America had stopped several alien ships from bombing Earth from orbit. I've also learned that the American and British militaries are working together with a few other countries to develop, in secret, space warships to defend us in the future. I would find it more likely that it was something Voldemort did. Although we can't ignore the possibility of aliens."

"And the book, Memories Unbound I believe you called it? Do you have it? Or do we need to track it down?"

"Alas, the book is what I believe muggles call a 'Quantum Flux Artifact' or something like that. Their theories on time travel and alternate realities are at best confusing. However, based on what I read in the book, I believe it was written by someone who was in all probability something called a 'Zero Point Ghost' or more vulgarly, a Notborn, someone who is based on a future that can no longer happen. And my reading it is itself from a history that is itself no longer real. The copy I briefly possessed was a printed book but appeared to be the authors own copy with some additional hand written notes in the margins." At this Dumbledore trailed off. "In short dear Amelia, I have no clue if we shall ever be bothered by this book again."

"I keep a eye out for it than. I'll also get the Department of Mysteries involved." She was going to have to ask them about the terminology Dumbledore was using anyway. What the hell was a Notborn? It also occurred to her that Dumbledore really did have to many jobs. In addition to the four full time jobs of Headmaster of Hogwarts, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamut, Supreme Mugwump of the ICW and a member of the Archmages council. He was also trying to insure Voldemort was controlled rather than just destroyed, a guardian of the timeline, and now the leader of the resistance to the future alien overlords. It certainly explained some of his more certifiable behavior. "So, any chance you learned any alien fighting magic in your travels?"

"One or two things come to mind." Dumbledore said putting his wand to his head and pulling a silvery strand of memory out.

lll0011001100 lll lll 0011001100lll
See you next chapter!
killgore444
"If you truly are what you eat, then I am an innocent man."
"The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without."

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killgore444 · Dec 14, 2020

Chapter 5 was the last one I've already posted on FFN.So after this one, I'm much more likely to respond to grammar advise and spelling corrections. But please understand, I'm not a grammarian, it's been close to four decades since I learned grammar, and was only average even then. If spending an hour looking up grammar rules gets in the way of the fun of writing a decent story that's readable, but not perfect, I'm going to skip and not worry about. I can correct it afterwards here, and post the final on FFN afterwards.

From here on, I'll be posting here on QQ first. So I'm hoping for some commentary to keep me interested/motivated. Let me know what you think of the story arc and my world building. Unlike on FFN, I can actually respond to comments without putting 'review responses' in the author note's.

Harry is mistaken in how Felix Felicis works. The thoughts he's 'hearing' are his own subconscious. The potion is in no way sentient.

Harry is also waxing poetic when he describes the girls. All 3 are above average in appearance and are in fact models. They are NOT however the goddess like beauties he attributes to them. He has just seen them naked however. To the average 14 year old boy, that would make Millicent Bulstrode look 'surprisingly pretty.' So while all three have what it takes to be models, they'll never be major names based on looks alone.

Also, 'sectoral heterochromia' is a real thing, her description is based on someone I once knew (all 3 of them actually).

The path to Harry's wish fulfillment chapter 5: [in order]

Step 3 of get to know his parents (and family in general.
Step 2 and 3 of getting respect and fear from people.
Step 1, 2 and 3 of wealth.
Step 1 and 2 of political power.
Step 1 and 2 of getting 1 of the 2 people responsible for his entry in the tournament dead.
Step 1 of getting the second of the 2 people responsible for his entry in the tournament permanently dead.
Steps 1 and 2 of girlfriend(s).

Madam Walpole's and her Banshee assistant Keira can be found in chapter 32 of the story Innocent by Marauderlover7. In addition to several other books, Harry also purchased the same 2 he and Sirius did in that story. In fact, almost all the books mentioned in that story are now owned by Harry (Marauderlover7 is much better at coming up with book titles and spells in general than any other HP fic writer I've seen here, so I'm cribbing as much as he'll allow). Except of course the ones that have personal notations written in them.

The book Memories Unbound can be found in the story 'Backward With Purpose Part I Always and Always' by deadwoodpecker in chapter 1, although it gets more attention in other chapters as well as the second story in the series. Two incredibly well written stories that I highly recommend.

By the way, the house in chapter 4 with the poor muggle family living in it is a cannon location from the Harry Potter books. I'm kind of curious if anyone can guess what it is.

To my understanding, the cost for supplies per school year below runs pretty close the cost for supplies per year at most private/boarding schools that require the parents to pay for uniforms and books. At least if you're buying NEW supplies rather than used or hand-me-downs. And that's before you get into tuition and room and board.

Schools which lend out books, or don't require a set uniform beyond a simple dress code run much cheaper of course. If for no other reason than schools that require a student or parents to pay for books generally require books that are of higher quality than a public school. Or are written by the teacher in question so he can grab a little extra cash.

And five pounds sterling per galleon just seems way to low for a gold coin.

The following is a responce to several reviews I recieved on FFN complaining about my view of Slytherian. A view that is not even accurate to what I actually think. To get a good idea of what I think most pure bloods go through growing up, and forming their opionons, read Innocent. It's as close to what I've always thought as you can get without mind reading. Anyway, the responce:

Like I said in chapter 1, I use ONLY the 7 main books as cannon. That's it. I do not know where the nonsense that Merlin, whose story in real life, if he existed in any way, dates to the 3rd, 4th or 5th centuries, being in Hogwarts came from.

In canon in fact, there isn't any more proof provided that he was an actual real person than there is in the real world. He's used by all magical people in the same way we use a god. That would never have occurred if he had a known, provable, place in the socioeconomic society. I.E., someone like Ron would never have held him in any sort of high regard anymore than someone like Malfoy would hold Godric Gryffindor, it's not like the magical world is exempt from 'Selection Bias' or anything.

Here in the States, you'll never find someone saying something like "Lincolns saggy balls" or "Washington!" The few examples you do occasionally find are all fictional characters from folklore; Paul Bunyon, Pecos Bill and his Wife Slue Foot Sue, Lady Liberty or Sally Ann Thunder. Very rarely will you hear something about a real person who's deeds are so exaggerated or mixed with others such as Johnny Appleseed, John Henry and Mike Fink. A good comparison to make is Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas. The actual stories are built on the foundations of 3 or 4 different people, then expanded and exaggerated, or as in the case of Mike Fink, out right lies. I highly doubt people from England are different than Americans in that regard. Besides, of the people named in cannon on the chocolate frog cards, the only 2 who don't predate Hogwarts are Dumbledore and Flamel (who didn't attend Hogwarts). So I don't understand the obsessive need to place everyone from a card into a house.

But unlike other stories, this one is a SHARED universe. And unlike the Harry Potter series, where Merlin is a mythological entity, in Stargate, he is cannon. The characters from SG:SG1 interact with him, Jackson is possessed by him. In cannon, Merlin wasn't even a real wizard, he just used super science to fool people. And even if he had possessed magic, he descended from the energy plains as an adult (not school age). And YES, that was a plot point from the beginning. The 4 great races all have parts to be described yet. Heck, I'll even let you let you in on a Spoiler:

a couple of those books in chapter 2 were written by Merlin. And several other people mentioned in Fannon as being on a card are actually Go'uld, and 1 witch in cannon is actually an Asgardian

I've never said he was a Gryffindor! Besides, none of you guys have ever been able to site a reference in cannon. Hell, I've never seen anyone who can show how any of the Slytherins in the books who get a good description actually meet the criteria the Sorting Hat sings about. Crabbe and Goyle sure the hell didn't match.

killgore444 · Dec 18, 2020

I've decided to break this chapter in to 3 sections for posting here on QQ. Not only is it considerably longer than the previous chapters, but I'm having trouble with a section of part 3, so hopefully I'll get that done while you guys are enjoying the rest of the story.

A New Tournament
Chapter 6 [part 1]: Be careful what you wish for.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this. All rights reserved to the respective owners of Harry Potter and Stargate: SG1. If I did own any of it, it would have gone very differently.

And probably been not as good.

Summary: A gift from the future provides a little bit of hope in a time of need. OP Harry, Ron and Hermione, but with a plausible background to support it. No bashing, even of disliked characters.

"Memento mori" 'Remember that you have to die'

In Memoria: T. Garcia, 1987 - 2020
Someone who was as wise in real life, as the cleric she played, and a true friend. You will be missed.

00l l l l (_i_) \_!_/ l l l l00

Amelia Bones sat across the desk from Saul Croaker, the head of the Unspeakables, very much not enjoying the conversation she was having with him. It wasn't even noon yet, and already her day was horrid. The fact that it was only Sunday, with Monday yet to rear it's ugly head foretold of a very unpleasant week ahead. She'd just described her conversation with Albus Dumbledore to him and he was looking at her rather strangely.

She fully expected him to laugh her out of his office, so she was quite surprised when he stood up and said "Come with me."

She followed him out into the atrium where he called for the room of Time. Walking through one of the few rooms she'd ever been in here before, and into a back room filled with a bookshelves and a gentle water fountain with seating surrounding the outside of it. Rather than going for a book, he walked up to the fountain and promptly vanished it. Hidden below it was a spiral staircase which they descended.

"Welcome!" He said, in a quite voice, "Welcome to your worst nightmare! Welcome to the true 'Room of Time' and despair of ever resting peacefully again. And remember, you WANTED to know this!"

With that statement, Amelia noticed the archway on the opposite wall, followed by a short hallway, maybe five feet long with another archway leading to a different room beyond. Engraved over the first archway: 'Blessed are the ignorant, for they shall know peace. In the dark of the night, they shall sleep.'

"Welcome Amelia Bones. Welcome to the last day of your life that you shall ever be fully rested. From this day forward, you shall sleep like a babe. You shall wake up every two hours screaming, for you are about to learn just how COMMON time travel is. Why even the muggles are doing it."

With that, they walked through the archway as she slowly followed. On the other side she came out into a greatly expanded room. Off on her left were a series of cubicles, identical to those the Aurors used, although there was a common area with a few low tables with pensives on them, various unspeakables surrounding them, most with a finger dipped into the silvery liquid held within.

"They're not time traveling, if that's what you're wondering. They're simply reviewing old memories of those that have traveled in time, trying to learn those missing histories." Croaker said beside her. "Well, they ARE traveling in time, just not the way you think. The pensive is a fascinating, if frustratingly dangerous tool. Even aware of what it actually does, one can so easily forget that every time you use it, even for a simple review of a memory, you are actually traveling to that time. But that there are safeguards built in that prevent you from interacting or being noticed with or by anyone or anything.
For true time travel with a pensive requires disrupting those safeguards, either by using a ritual to replace them with other safeguards or send just your memories back to your younger self, making it as much divination as time travel, or simply canceling a couple of the ruins on the side and having no safeguards what so ever. That is the version used in what you described. Although I can tell you that both Potter and Dumbledore have travelled time a lot more than he told you, and in all likely hood, more than either of them know. This version of Potter, our version if you will, does not seem aware of it at all. At least for now."

"What do you mean by that?" Amelia asked.

Walking over to the right side of the room, she noticed what looked like a small quidditch pitch, about ten feet long, but as she approached it, it expanded to gigantic proportions, with the end capped in a mist or fog. All across the top she saw what seemed to be a section of the world, like a model people make of a building and grounds, except it was showing that section in various moments of time and was a much larger area. The section just seeming to come out of the fog having hazy and indistinct versions of Hogwarts students running around, or standing in line, watching the other two schools show up. Further down was several moments from the war against Voldemort. Beyond that some things from Grindelwalds war. All of them hazy and indistinct, but you could sort of make out what happened.

But all those moments, where in the first few feet. Even the war of Eighteen Twelve was only about thirty or forty feet away from the edge of the fog. It appeared to go on for close to a mile. "What's with all the hills and valleys?" She asked, "This doesn't seem to show terrain, at least not accurately, and Hogwarts seems to now be on a mountain."

"Those hills are places where people of traveled back and altered history." He said while walking up to it. He then reached down to one of the hills and seemingly pulled up the ground, to reveal another model on display underneath it. "The reason that this most recent section seems to be on the top of a mountain is because this is the third largest area of time travelers in the entire history of Earth since this device was created roughly twelve thousand years ago. This has recorded over two hundred instances of time travel in the years between Nineteen Ninety and some undesignated time in the near future, of which, some version of Harry Potter seems to have participated in over half, with Albus Dumbledore being the instigator of most of the rest. Although we've noticed a few where some of Potters friends were responsible instead. Plus a few that were instigated by Death Eaters.

And No, those do NOT count the use of a time turner. This does not register those. Not unless one breaks. It also doesn't count the instances elsewhere, or elsewhen that come from the future and pass through this period in time. We've recorded over a dozen instances of muggles using a muggle science time machine to travel back to the period right after this was created, or in a couple, to BEFORE this was created. And YES, they had a MAJOR impact on history. But being the leaders of a rebellion against alien invaders will do that."

Amelia shook her head at his last remark. "What about the valleys?" She asked instead, wanting to know, but dreading the answer.

"As far as we've been able to figure out, those are instances where time has been broken, but not shattered. The best analogy I've heard, is to consider time like a bone in your arm. If it breaks, it'll heal. Whether it heals correctly or not depends on how it's treated. But it DOES heal. The valleys seem to be areas that healed, but not very well. The only one that we know what happened to create it was about sixty years ago when a time turner was broken in a ritual. And before you ask, no, we have no idea what happens to, or during, the missing time."

"Don't you occasionally give promising students time turners to take more classes? How the hell can you justify that with this much damage potential?"

"It's actually quite safe. Especially considering the potential for cataclysmic events messing around with the rest of this. The time turner must be destroyed in a certain way, and with the INTENT to destroy it. Even then, unless you're using it in a ritual, the damage appears minimal. And of course, the theory that those valleys are the result of broken time turners is just that, a theory. Something else to remember; we've seen that aliens from other planets are in fact real. It's entirely possible those valleys are in fact something going on around other stars." Croaker said with a laugh.

"Still, I do hope that you'll help make sure that this is the last time we have to to deal with a time change. Whether or not you, I or we help or hinder Potter, let's agree to try and make sure this is the last time history is changed please." He then grabbed a section of the 'ground' right near the edge of the fog and pulled it up. Revealing underneath what looked to be some sort of goo or gel. "And this is what happens when a time traveler truly and irrevocably changes time. Everyone on the planet, indeed the entire universe, just cease to exist. I don't know if everyone dies, or if we are simply unmade, but my belief is that we are unmade. Fun thought isn't it?" He said, pointing to the goo. "Just two days ago, this was everybody in existence. Every plant, every animal, every person, goblin, centaur, elf, human and monster. Every man woman and child, hell, every alien, Harry Potter killed every single one of us."

Harry woke up with a groan, and a migraine headache from hell. Last night he'd figured out why the book had suggested gaining mastery over the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu spell before trying the Taju version. The massive headache that followed each reintegration. Under normal circumstance, the headache would only last for about an hour or so, scaling up a LITTLE with each duplicate reintegrated. But unfortunately, he'd been wearing the glasses when he'd begun to reintegrate his duplicates, and he'd got about five into it before he realized he needed to take them off when doing this.

Now here he was, eight hours later, still suffering from a one hour migraine that was five THOUSAND times as memorable as a normal one hour migraine that he could now NEVER bloody well forget. Bloody stupid glasses of bloody PERFECT memory!

Making it worse was the fact that the potion hadn't warned him. He couldn't even begin to guess if that was because the potion wasn't perfect or if it thought he needed to learn this lesson while it was, relatively speaking, harmless. And once again, Harry tried to put out of his mind the idea that the potion was sentient, the implications far to unnerving.

Still, all things considered, yesterday had been the best day of his life since the day he was actually born. And if not, it'd certainly been the most interesting. He was the great grandson of the four worst war criminals of the twentieth century, one of them was the most feared man since Herpo the Foul of ancient Greece. It certainly explained why his Mother never said anything to anyone, and why his grandparents pretended to be muggles.

Harry wondered if his aunt knew. Was that why she hated magical society so much? On the one hand, he was actually kind of interested in the answer, but didn't think for a second she'd answer honestly if he asked. On the other hand it was a great way to destroy her piece of mind at being a normal person the next time she started in on freaks. Not that he'd ever use it, he wasn't that cruel, but still…

Of course, he'd asked the potion to make him one of the most feared wizards on the planet. If this was ever revealed, he'd gain that. "Be careful what you wish for I guess."

And while that had been the biggest revelation, it wasn't the only mind blowing revelation. The prophecy ranked right up there on the mind blowing scale. He was going to have to ask the Headmaster about it. Then there was the stuff he learned from Snapsaw about his inheritance, and just how bloody wealthy he was. That was actually more mind blowing than being a member of the ruling Wizengamut. Magical society was so screwed up he could easily see a bunch of eleven year-olds setting up the laws, the members certainly acted like they were less than eleven from everything he'd seen and heard. Harry figured that at fourteen, he'd actually be one of the more mature members, MENTALLY speaking.

Then there was the girls. Now that was a memory he WANTED to keep. One of the things he was going to look up today was a way to record his memories. Of course he was going to look up some ways to forget things like his headache as well. Fortunately, there was an anti-headache potion sitting on his bedside table which he quickly drank.

After he got cleaned up, he called Dobby for some breakfast. When Dobby appeared with the food, he looked distracted, and was muttering about forgetting something. "Dobby? What's going on? What's wrong?"

"No, no Harry Potter sir, nothing is wrong. Dobby is just forgetting something." With that he pulled out a small pocket notebook like those used by muggles making Harry wonder absurdly if house elves were more modern than the wizards they served. "Oh, here it is Harry Potter sir. Dobby was forgetting to tell the Great Harry Potter that he needed to write instructions down. Harry Potter must write out what he should be doing after the Felix Felicis wears off he must. That way the Great Harry Potter be knowing what to do later. Oh, and Harry Potter must also remember to ask his book about divination again." Dobby said, checking off a second notation in his little notebook before giving a sharp nod of his head and disappearing.

Harry sat staring at the place Dobby had just been standing for several long moments, wondering once again about how messed up his life was. Bad enough to the pawn in games play by the likes of Voldemort, Malfoy, Fudge, and if he was honest, Dumbledore. Although he thought that at least in general, Dumbledore was on his side and wanted to help, it was hard to deny that the Headmaster would put the rest of the school ahead of him. With a snort at himself, Harry decided that was pretty much what Dumbledore was SUPPOSED to do. And it's not like this was even the first time his life was being manipulated by Dobby either.

Still, he thought, pulling out a stack of parchment and some quills, if he was going to write out what he needed to do in the future, he was going to have to figure it out. At that, he thought about what he wanted to do today. Luckily he'd had several duplicates practice spell fire and dueling yesterday, so he wanted to try and clean out his ancestral home. Not to mention that ice island tower. He had all the documents from Gringotts so he'd be able to check out the places in the muggle world he'd noticed, especially Grunnings, but that house in the poor area really intrigued him for some reason. Of course there was other areas he'd need to check out as well. He'd actually inherited more than just his parents properties after all.

The big thing as far as he was concerned though was getting back to New York. The three of them definitely made the headache worth it. They were six hours behind him though, so it would be several hours before they returned to the house there. They'd spent several hours talking after their very awkward introduction, and Harry was pretty sure they left in good spirits and were being honest when they said they'd come back the next day. He was going to have a duplicate go there in a couple of hours and start to try and clean the place out with Keeter's aid. He was also going to get to know the other house elves. Keeter had said he was the HEAD elf after all, that implied he had others serving him. Depending on how that went, he'd spend any remaining time there waiting for the girls.

His girlfriends. And wasn't that a weird concept. He'd spent so much time trying to ignore Ron and Hermiones growing infatuation with each other, trying to pretend nothing would change between them, and now here he was throwing an even bigger kink into their group dynamic. Kink even had a double meaning here as well since the three of them were girlfriend girl friends as well as being girl friends. Not that they'd done much exploring in that regard, since they where determined to wait until they were at least fifteen. Still, the power of Felix Felicis was both awe inspiring and horrifying at the same time.

In any case, he started creating duplicates and pulling down books off the shelves, he needed to learn as much of this stuff as possible before the potions affects wore off and the automatic maximum learning ended.

Harry appeared on the small stone outcropping overlooking the churning, icy water below. This time, prepared for the bitter cold, he was wearing two thick sets of robes over a pair of long pants, and a hooded open robe that could be, and was, closed up like a trench coat, a set of warming charms placed in the open space between each layer and inside his gloves and boots.

Looking around for a few moments, Harry quickly cast Kage Bunshin no Jutsu on himself two times, a trick he thought of yesterday after his duplicates had already left, having each duplicate create more. Then the three of them set off towards the tower, at first slipping, before remembering that they could freely use magic as long as no adults where around to see and vanishing the ice on the steps. And again when they got to the top, with the ice on the door. A simple Alohomora on the door opened it, evidently relying on secrecy to keep it safe. Although he did wonder about some of the damage marks he could see on the outside.

Inside was free of ice and dust, but still bitter cold, barely warmer than outside, and that merely due to lack of wind on the inside. It was a single room on this floor, empty of all furnishings and decorations, with a large, obviously unlit fireplace on one side of the circular room, and a stair case on the other, leading both up and down. Upstairs was much the same, except on the third floor there was a large poster bed covered in fur blankets, all of which where frozen solid into one large chunk of ice, testament to the dangers of ignoring forces other than magic.

The only floor above that was the open, crenelated roof, giving them a wonderful view of the icy water around them, and making it clear that if they were not in the arctic, then they were close. He could see most of the island from the roof, and off in the distance he saw what looked to be a polar bear that just caught a seal or a porpoise or something. A little bit closer on the beach he could see a metal tube of some sort before he realized that it was in fact an old second world war u-boat partially buried in the sand and rocks. With a start Harry noticed the size comparison of the bear to the u-boat. Then he noticed that the seal was actually a killer whale. A killer whale that the so called polar bear was more than twice the size of. It was at this point that Harry noticed the damage marks from below where on the roof as well, if larger, and appeared to be claw marks. Claw marks on top of the roof that was about forty five to fifty feet from the ground. A roof that the so called polar bear would not even have reach to get to, and would in fact be looking down on when standing upright. It didn't take Harry very long to decide it was time to investigate the basement. For the life of him, he had no idea what that bear actually was.

The basement was more interesting anyway, at least from a 'furthering his goal' standpoint. It was the remains of a lab of some sort. It seemed to be a weird mix of potions lab, and a forge. The three of them began reading the books and journals, but only after casting Reparo on them, as well as going over all the samples and supplies. The potion supplies had obviously gone bad, but there were other samples as well, mostly metal pellets of some sort, but also a crate of trade bars, as well as a few unfinished blades and pieces of armor.

The books were mostly on medieval metallurgy and alchemy, but not just magical alchemy, also muggle alchemy and early chemistry. Although there were a few spells in the magical books. They learned a variant of the refilling charm that worked on liquid metals as well as one that altered the state of something from liquid to solid and vice verso, Harry wondered if it would work on gases as well. It could even form the newly solidified liquid into beads and pellets or into a single solid mass. He found the forms used to pour the metal into to form trade bars although there was also a spell used to levitate and shape a mass of liquid into a particular shape.

The personal journals were the true find though. They were dated to Fifteen Eighty, and belonged to a Henry Potter. In it was detailed his experiments into alchemy and metallurgy, especially into Goblin metals, iron and gold specifically. In them was the details of how Goblins made their weapons and coins; by using the Goblin equivalent of the permanent sticking charm on the metal as it was going into it's final form, thus making them nearly invulnerable. Presumably the spell stuck the individual molecules together, but the book didn't use that word. It mentioned an experiment where he made a sword blade out of lose salt by sticking the pile together in the shape, but he didn't see it anywhere.

The journals also contained several spells to help identify what an object was made of, useful to a trader, as well as the qualities of metal such as tensile strength, but both were limited by the casters knowledge. If he didn't understand metals well enough to ask for it, the spell wouldn't ask the question. After a few tries of each spell, Harry figured that your average muggle scientist would love to have access to these spells, and could make much better use of them than he would.

The books also listed the details of three metals that seemed to be unique to the Goblins. Or more to the point two metals, one of which had two forms, powered and inert. Henry only knew what the Goblins referred to one of them as, Naquadah, but when he cast the spell to identify metals, his new understanding of Alterian told him that that was known as Potentium with the other metal known as Trinium. And while his understanding of that language was limited, he got the impression that these metals were capable of so much more than making really good swords. Although that seemed just as good a place to start experimenting as any other. It was time to pull those two books out and actually read them though, there is no way having that limited knowledge of English would have told him what the name of iron was, so those metals were incredibly important to the speakers of that language.

See you next chapter!
killgore444
"Assume everyone is an idiot and you won't be wrong much."

killgore444 · Dec 20, 2020

Azaira said:
this is really good so far

Thank you, hopefully that continues.

You all are also about to get that fancy house I promised in chapter 4.

A New Tournament
Chapter 6 (part 2): Be careful what you wish for.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this. All rights reserved to the respective owners of Harry Potter and Stargate: SG1. If I did own any of it, it would have gone very differently.
And probably been not as good.
Summary: A gift from the future provides a little bit of hope in a time of need. OP Harry, Ron and Hermione, but with a plausible background to support it. No bashing, even of disliked characters.

"Memento mori" 'Remember that you have to die'

Flanders New York is made up, just like a lot of the small town in the Harry Potter series. Flanders Bay however, is a real bay. And if you look up Flanders New York, it will outline several small towns along that bay. Just to let you know where this is set.

00l l l l (_i_) \_!_/ l l l l00

"Keeter" Harry called out. After he had eaten breakfast, he had created a duplicate and came back to Flanders New York.

"Yes Master Harry sir." Keeter replied popping in. "How may Keeter be helping Master today?"

"Oh, I was going to see about fixing this place up again. Also, you said something yesterday about being the Senior house-elf. Does that mean I have more working for me? And if so, can I meet them?"

"Master Harry has five house-elves sir. Keeter must regretfully tell Master Harry that three other house-elves have died since Master's parents were murdered. Do you want to meet the others now, or after their current choirs are done?" Keeter replied.

"What happened to them? The three that died I mean."

"Snaggley and Gongon were both Senior House-Elf before Keeter sir. They held the position with pride, same as Keeter sir, but they were older then Keeter when they received the position, and could not hold the rapid aging for long. Bonner was very old when she was inherited by Master Harry four years ago, her heart could not take the loss of her old Mistress, and she held on only long enough to insure little Sileen would be taken care of sir. Sileen was to be her replacement House-Elf to her old Mistress."

"What do mean unnatural aging?"

"Keeter is maintaining the wards and spells around all of Master Harry's properties Sir, excepting for Privet drive. Like Snaggley and Gongon before Keeter, it is making Keeter be aging faster than is normal Master Harry. House-elves normally aged like wizards sir, sort of. House-elves become adults faster, but live the same amount sir. But a house-elf who had receives clothes sir, age like muggles. If the Master a house elf has bonded to dies with an underage heir sir, then that house elf would also age like a muggle until the heir came of age and could link to it. When those same Masters has more than one house elf however, the Senior house elf will take on the duty of maintaining the other house elves link to the family, and will age in their stead. Keeter had aged twenty years in the past two years, instead of one year for every two that went past like other house elves. Keeter as aged two years for every single house elf in the Potter family sir, for every single year."

"Wait a minute, are you telling me that you're aging to death because you work for me?"

"No Master Harry sir, Keeter is aging to death so other house elves do not sir."

"What does this bond consist of Keeter?"

"The bond has no real affect on wizards and witches Master Harry, excepting a very slight drain on their magical strength. This is being why when a house-elf couple wants to have kids, then the house elves needs to ask permission from their Master, as it'd be a drain on them. Even though this is something that is a lot less draining for a wizard than an house elf sir. Doubly so since most of that drain a house elf feels is the bond to the other house elves in the first place sir. Master Harry would need many more house elves bonded to him before he felt the drain affect him sir. But not many wizards or witches are strong as Master Harry is Keeter can see."

"I'm not that strong Keeter. Hermione is much better at magic than I am."

"Keeter as never met Ms Hermione sir, but strength and skill are not being the same thing Master Harry sir. Many witches are very strong, but stupid and unskilled Master Harry. And many are weak, but very skilled. Keeter has heard of Ms Hermione, Keeter is thinking Ms Hermione is weaker than Master Harry is, but has put more effort into gaining skill sir."

Deciding to change the subject since it was both uncomfortable and he basically agreed with him anyway, "How do I take over responsibility for the drain Keeter? I'll not have you die over this. Will it age me faster as well?"

"No Master Harry sir, you will not age faster. To take possession of our bonds Master Harry, since Master Harry is a trained wizard, Keeter will allow it, so Master Harry need only will himself to accept the bonds."

Harry closed his eyes and concentrated and tried to will himself holding onto some bonds. He had no idea what he was doing until suddenly he felt a 'click' in his magic, and five cords latched on to it. Almost immediately, there was three soft pops as the other elves appeared, one of them carrying what looked like a small elf child. After putting the little girl down, all five of them bowed, and then ran up and hugged his legs.

So he'd met the other four house-elves; Sidor, Keeter's mate, their daughter Ketty, who Harry had himself named when he was a toddler when he mistook the newborn elf for a kitten, Grouchen, and Sileen, both of whom he had inherited from now dead families. Grouchen was an aptly named young male elf who had an obvious crush on Ketty and was rather grouchy, at least when Sidor was around. Sileen however was a cute as a button child, roughly the equivalent of an eight year old. It was kind of hard to tell with the size difference between the two species. He really didn't want to ask Keeter since that seemed rude. So Harry very quickly took up the same habit of looking out for her as the four older elves had.

And like most children, she had a knack for getting adults who weren't used to her to give her her way. Not a big deal on the surface, since all she wanted to do was help, but needed Keeter to step in and act as a parent to limit what Harry allowed her to do. How was he supposed to know what underage house-elves where allowed to do. Honestly it was more surprising that the Ministry HAD regulations on how you treated young elves than anything else.

Although the rules did distinguish between born house-elves and alchemically made house-elves, which Sileen was, having been commissioned from a alchemist shop by her first owner to replace her old elf Bonner. Which gave Harry a weird feeling that he really couldn't grasp. It did explain magical society's disregard for their welfare, seeming to regard house elves the same way muggles regarded robots. On the other hand, muggle stories were filled with robots and droids of heroic and savage disposition. Stories where the robot strives to become human, or sacrificed themself to save humanity. And stories that had robots rise up and destroy mankind. Leaving him even more confused by their behavior than after listening to Hermione go on about them.

There were also a lot of differences in the laws from country to country, which since he owned property and was a lord in multiple countries, was a factor. The laws in America regarding the treatment of house elves was MUCH more strict than in England, but would never be enforced unless the elf in question came forward to press charges. One big exception to this lack of enforcement, and the primary difference in laws, was that the Master had to maintain a closet with a single piece of clothing for each elf that he was giving the elves, but not requiring them to take. In essence, any elf that wanted to be free could pick it up and be free. This was something Harry had no problem with, and honestly figured it was better than what Hermione was pushing. While France went the opposite of the United States and was even less strict than England on the rules themselves, but FAR more strict on enforcement of what rules they had. Malfoy would have faced time in prison for his treatment of Dobby, and he would have likely been challenged to duels over it as well.

In any case, Harry started to help clean up the house, to the horror of the elves. Sighing, Harry gave them permission to do so instead. A couple of minutes later, he decided to try something. Starting with Keeter, he cast Kage Bunshin no Jutsu on him, first once, and when there was no harm done, twice more. Giving the elves a basic rundown on the spell, and making sure that they understood the secrecy involved in him knowing it, he cast it three times on each of the others as well except Sileen, since he didn't want there to be an impact on her growth. Something the others were grateful for.

With sixteen adult house-elves, all trying to impress him, the clean up and renewal went surprisingly quickly. They asked if they could work on his other properties, but Harry decided no. He wanted to look over each property first, looking for threats. After all, Inferi had been left as a trap at at least one of them. And even after, he was going to be around until they got the place cleaned the first time.

Instead of helping with the cleaning, Harry spent his time looking up home repair and improvement spells. Which since the elves hadn't received permission from either his parents, Joan's parents or himself, they weren't allowed to do. Joan herself, apparently wasn't allowed to order such, since that would be considered home modification, and children of a household, except in the case of a head of house, were not allowed to order stuff like that.

Sensible when he thought about it, but somewhat strange in application. Since their standing orders where care of the grounds when the Fenn's had died, they could not expand those orders to the inside of the house. So the elves had spent a lot of time on the grounds of the various Potter properties, except those they had been specifically ordered to flee, or those inhabited by muggles.

Which explained somewhat the state of some of the unkempt properties. But it turned out that Harry now owned quite a bit of other property as well. The five remaining house-elves spent a lot of time trying to maintain the grounds of the various properties without letting the muggles know. They'd also often been by Privet drive to help out with his chores secretly. Which also explained some of the questions from his childhood. Things he'd chalked up to accidental magic once he found out about magic, turned out to be an elf helping out secretly. They'd also been the ones to sneak food to him on more than one occasion, and had kept preservation charms on food that was going stale, such as his cake before his second year, or just flat out refill it when he didn't have enough. Joan, who was old enough to remember house-elves after her parents had died, could still call them to help out, but since she to lived with muggles, had to do so discreetly.

He'd asked Keeter if he knew anything about this house in New York, but other than it being owned by the Potter family since Grindelwald's war, and under a Fidelius charm, he didn't. He was going to have to learn that charm however as it would keep a place hidden and secret. Keeter WAS able to tell him how the girls got around the fidelius however. Joan was a secret keeper. Since she knew the secret before her parents died, she became a secret keeper and had told her two friends a short time after her parents had died. Snaggley, the senior elf at the time had only lightly reprimanded her over it and had not required the two young muggle girls to get obliviated for some reason. Harry had learned it from a note written by a now dead secret keeper, so he was a secret keeper as well.

He'd also made the mistake of mentioning Dobby. Surprisingly, they didn't think Dobby was weird for wanting to be free, the difference in England and America's laws Harry supposed, but respected his wherewithal in sticking to it after he found out the disadvantages to being free. No, they took his actions against Harry his second year at Hogwarts, and more importantly, while Harry was still at Privet Dr, personally. Dobby had not only violated one of the cardinal rules about showing himself in front of someone who wasn't yet old enough to take the reigns of masterhood and wasn't aware of house elves (a big no no), but also managed to sneak past them and work hostile magic against him. Only the fact that the wards preventing harmful intent didn't go off had kept them from going after Dobby when they found out. They'd also somewhat grudgingly accepted his actions when he freed Sirius, but not until he'd tested Sirius's innocence with Veritserum.

These were rather important details that Harry had not known. When Keeter had been rather stilted in his answers about it, Harry made a mental note to ask Dobby. Because really, a house elf can just go in and free an inmate at Azkaban? Harry really hoped that there was more to it than that. Even if all Dobby did was help Sirius, that was a major thing. And one that could have severe repercussions if any enemies ever found out. As it stood, ignorance of it rested solely on wizards being so arrogant that they dismissed house elves.

It was about nine thirty in the morning New York time, he'd been there about four hours at that point, when the girls showed up. He went out to meet them waving while Keeter brought some refreshments. Harry assumed he went to wherever they lived and got some, since other than water from the tap, which he'd just finished restoring the enchantments on, there was none here.

"Hi Harry!" the three girls said, waving as they were getting off their bicycles and parking them under the gazebo. Then they put their book bags on the table there and started to change. His heart had nearly stopped when they started to undress until he noticed they had all worn swimsuits underneath their regular clothes. Although Vanessa had looked a little mischievous and impish while looking at him, and looked like she was going to take of her top.

"Vanessa!" Joan shouted at her shocked, "What are doing?"

"What?" she replied with a snicker, "It's not like we've never been naked in front of people before. And he saw us all starkers just yesterday. So it's not like it's anything he hasn't seen before."

"We've never lain about naked in front of people before Nessa! The only time anyone's ever seen us without clothes is when they've caught us changing. And you know full good and well your Mom would have a cow if anyone ever actually took the time to LOOK. Besides, you two both promised."

"Oh relax Jo. A little show doesn't violate your promise to your Mom, and besides, I don't want tan lines ruining our shoots."

"Vanessa!" Lea shouted at her as a look of pain crossed Joan's face.

"Oh God, I'm sorry Jo!" Vanessa said, apology written on her face and body language. "You know I didn't mean anything by it?" Sounding more like a question than a statement. "And I wasn't going to do anything but a quick tease. You know I wouldn't actually strip right?"

As Vanessa and Joan were talking, Harry looked at Lea, questioningly. "Right before Jo's parents died, her and her Mom had been talking about boys, and girls I suppose. She made the promise to her Mom that she wouldn't do anything with anyone until she, and the person she was with, was fifteen. It was about an incident at a sleepover one of our classmates had about a week after her tenth birthday." Lea babbled, "That sleepover was a mess. Our classmates Mom walked in to check on us at the EXACT worst moment possible. After our parents came to pick us up, we all got 'The Talk', or at least one of the talks anyway, my Mom never mentioned spiked drinks and always drinking bottled drinks at parties for another couple of years. And while I'm sure that as she got older, her Mom would have been pushing her to hold off until she was older, it was the last conversation she ever had with her, and Jo has become somewhat fixated on that. " Lea finished with a shrug, she looked like she could go either way on the waiting bit, but was siding with Joan on general principle. "So no hanky panky from you until then. And God do I need to shut up now."

"Not a problem. And it doesn't really matter." Harry said, "My school, maintains wards that let the staff know whenever any of the students under fifteen go further then light snogging anyway. Something that's been used on more than one occasion to discover students who are endangered at home. And just as often, if not more so, for when a young magical tries to use magic to enforce their will on a muggle."

"Fifteen? Not eighteen?" Vanessa asked, deciding to ignore the rest of his statement.

"Fifteen. Not only are wizards considered adults at seventeen as an international standard, but the wards around Hogwarts were set around a thousand years ago. Back then, fifteen was actually well past the time most girls, who survived childhood, would already be pregnant. The founders however had discovered that certain ages had magical significance, and fifteen was felt by them to be the age of adulthood for both boys and girls. That's also why nobody in the magical world ever starts training their kids to cast spells before their eleventh birthday. It messes with the kids magical development."

"Hogwarts? Your school is named after a infection on a pig?"

"It's a type of flower." Harry stated, somewhat exasperatedly. "They're actually rather lovely. Rather like you three. It's a magical version of the Tiger Lily, and not related to the Hogwart plant known here in America. Pigs have a weird fixation for them for some reason, and they're use in medicinal potions as part of an old anti-wart creme, hence their name. But honey made from it's nectar has a little extra something, and when it's turned to mead creates a delicious drink, which the name of the nearby village, Hogsmead. I suppose I could ask Neville or Professor Sprout more about it if you're really interested." Harry answered with a smile, "And I'd actually wanted to know about Vanessa. Based on what was said yesterday, I kind of figured there was something tragic in Joan's story."

"Um, yeah. That sleepover I mentioned, we found the stash of girly magazines our friends older brother owned. The three of us got into them a little bit more than the rest of the girls. Like I said, worst possible moment. Nothing really serious, but bad for a group of girls ten years old. Her mom was PISSED though. Of the three of us, Vanessa is the most curious about going all the way, but also the most fearful. She want's to be a woman so bad, but she also doesn't want to give up her dolls, not that she actually plays with her old dolls now, but you understand what I'm saying right?" Lea continued to babble, Harry was finding out just how useful getting someone to babble was for gathering information.

Much easier then his normal method of ask Hermione to hit the library while him and Ron broke into other dormitories or tried other ways to listen in on private conversations. Now if only he could stop himself from it as well. "Any way, mostly this comes across as her just being a tease, but most of the boys we deal with at school are jerks who she doesn't want to think we're interested, or are to afraid of the jerks to look at us. And the ones at the agency see so many girls in various states of undress that they're basically immune to it. It's only the newbies who ever stop and LOOK, but they're ridiculously easy to spot, and someone, usually one of the parents or an older girl will smack them upside the head and tell them to mind their eyes until they become like everyone else, inured. I mean, it's not like we're just standing around in the nude or anything, but there isn't always enough places to change to separate the boys and girls. And her mom would kill her if she tried anything like that in front of a camera, assuming she was ever brave enough. So she's latched on to you hard after figuring out she actually has power over you by doing what she enjoys doing anyway."

Harry started to sputter an apology, but Lea just waved him off. "Don't worry about it, it was kind of funny watching you react to them. Makes me glad I was close to a tree." Harry didn't know if she realized the tree hadn't actually covered her, or she was trying to convince herself he hadn't noticed or not. The hitch in her voice said she was aware, but he wasn't dumb enough to mention it. "We made a pact after Jo showed us this place, that since all three of us like both boys and girls, we'd stick together and date a single, lucky boy." She said with a grin at him, "It's funny looking back now, but we had NO clue what we were talking about, we've stuck by it though. When Keeter recognized you, and Jo had her little melt down, Jo and Nessa both decided that you were the one for us." She said, while looking Harry over. "Any chance you can do half of what Jo said you could?"

"Depends on what she said. Most of the the magical world of England is convinced that I'm God's gift to them, and I was the most powerful and wise wizard to ever live before my first day of school. So whenever I don't live up to their expectations, or conform to their individual ideal, they get upset and start accusing me of being and doing everything from stealing their socks and being an utter moron, despite me having better grades then them, to masterminding the murder of them and their cats and arranging the extinction of their bloodlines. I'm really glad paternity tests are controlled by a group that have all taken unbreakable oaths to be honest about said tests. Otherwise, I'd had suites against me for child support from the first day I reentered the magical world."

At that statement, Lea looked at him clearly curious, but Harry just waved it off. Looking over at Joan and Vanessa they saw that the two of them had made up, and were in fact making out. Harry, who had never saw girls snogging with each other was very distracted and lost track of the conversation for a long moment and had to tear his eyes off of them and look at Lea with an effort that she clearly found amusing. She smiled wickedly, grabbed his arm and pulled him over to them. By this point, the two of them had their foreheads touching, and were taking turns extending their lips to kiss each other. Lea tapped Vanessa on the shoulder and when she looked over at, Lea pulled her out of her stance kissed her for a long moment, then asked, "You seemed to forget we aren't alone. Mind if we join you two?"

At that, the two of them looked at Harry, and showing all the stereotypical, mercurial behavior of fourteen year old's the world over, basically had a repeat of the day before when Harry walked in on them. To the outright laughter of Lea. Vanessa grabbed Lea and thrust her in front of herself between her and Harry, ducking down behind her to shield herself from Harry's view while at the same time trying to peak out over her shoulder, blush going all the way up her forehead. Joan had simply fell down on her rump grabbing her jacket to pull up over her face to cover herself, and like Vanessa was trying to look around it at the same time. Lea pulled Vanessa down to the ground next to Joan and sat between them and started kissing the two of them on the cheeks laughing until they calmed down and started smiling again. Every time Harry thought about doing or saying something, the potion would kick in and keep him silent, clearly meaning to let Lea handle this, so Harry just sat down across from them and enjoyed the show, which seemed to please the girls and amuse Lea. Although he was very glad that he'd learned the space expansion charm the day before, and, as subtly as he could, cast it on his swim trunks to give himself room to 'grow' and still keep any embarrassing reactions unnoticed.

After a while of that, the girls finished changing, and as it stood, Vanessa had worn a some what skimpy, and lose, bikini, and Harry kept getting peeks of what clothes were supposed to cover up that she pretended to be innocent of. Something that earned several reprimands from Joan and laughter from Lea. Evidently those two didn't believe her innocent face anymore than Mrs Weasley did from Fred and George, although her deep blushes whenever she did it kind of gave her away. Of course, being 'victim' to her pranks was much more entertaining than being victim to the twins. It was also clear that Joan found it more entertaining than she pretended as well. And all three of them had laughed when they heard him mumbling "Must hold out to fifteen." over and over under his breath after they got him to join them working out, the potion making sure he kept his How To book close by.

All three of them had been grinning when they asked him to rub suntan lotion on them. While Harry had already cast a spell to stop sunburns, who was he to refuse doing such a favor, and it was an act of willpower even more difficult then over coming reality to work magic in order to not let his hands explore. But if Vanessa's hands had wandered a bit up the inside of his trunks when she returned the favor, he wasn't going to complain. She didn't seem to actually KNOW what she was doing, other than just teasing him. Nor did she connect with anything important (and with his space expansion charms she would have had to stick her whole arm in to do so), but more than anything, seemed to be seeing just how far she herself was willing to go. Which really wasn't anywhere other than teasing, so Harry wasn't to concerned.

After talking for a for a couple of hours, mostly about school, while sunbathing, something Harry had never done before (the only time he'd ever been swimming was at the borrow, Percy and the twins taught him how as a thank you for saving Ginny), the four of them headed up into the shade of a gazebo for some lunch, which Keeter also supplied, Harry got the impression that he'd been paying for the girls to eat here occasionally for several years now. Not that the food looked expensive, or even all that filling. Healthy would be the most polite term he could come up with, and didn't match any of the stereotypes about Americans and food. On the other hand, they were models, so were on a controlled diet. They willingly ate about as little as the Dursleys gave him growing up, even if it was more nutritious.

There was a definite downside to dating models Harry decided.

The girls then pulled some notebooks, filled with questions they'd come up with the night before, and books out of their bags and started asking Harry about magic and if anything in the books was close to being accurate. When he looked at the books, he saw that they were from several different games and stories, with a few art books thrown in. Games and books about magic, or at least that had magic in them.

Most of them where complete nonsense. He had no idea why a wizard would be so limited on the number of spells he could cast, and he'd never even heard of psychic or magic energy, or a magic core. A magic core could be magical strength he supposed, but as far as he knew, magic used the same energy that you used to run or throw things, calories. And that no more than any muggle waving a small stick and concentrating. A pepper up or nutrition potion seemed like a better deal on continuing to cast than any of the examples from the games. Magical strength was a measure of how strong the spells you cast are. And even that is a rather hazy guideline. After all, the skill you cast as spell with, and your intent played a large part in how strongly you cast.

But even in the books that were utterly idiotic, he still went over the spells looking for ideas. And some of those ideas were interesting. He checked his How To book several times to see if some of those ideas would work. In the game AD&D for instance, one of the books described memorizing spells for the day as precasting a spell from a tome, and letting it hang on your aura until you needed it, and then you finished the casting. Which was why that game limited the number of spells. The girls told him that wasn't canon, or even close to the standard view, but that wasn't the point. It was an interesting idea, and Harry wondered if he could emulate it so he'd still have magic if he ever lost his wand. The How To book gave him several hundred pages of theory, so no one had done it before, but since it answered the question, it meant that it was more than likely possible, since when a question was flat out impossible, the book didn't answer.

In the games Shadowrun and Heroes Unlimited, Astral travel was a thing, and all three had summoning things from other planes. Asking about both those things also gave lot's of pages of theory, and summoning actually gave him several spells and rituals, notably, Fiendfyre and the Patronus charm, but also Avis (but not Oppugno which transmutes stuff into birds), and Serpensortia, the four that he already knew and that curiously enough, were immune to Finite Incantatum (actually all summoning was), but there were others as well. Among other things, he could now summon plants, horses, dogs, spiders and cats. The next time someone cast Serpensortia at him he was summoning a lion at them. Or maybe a gryphon! If you knew both spells that are part of a cross-breed, you could use them together to summon one. Strangely, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu were NOT on this list. And yes, he now knew a ritual that would summon a demon, not that he was ever going to use that one. Quite apart from the 'NOPE' factor involved, he just didn't know enough about them to consider it. A view the potion was backing up VERY strongly.

He'd also asked about spells to grant super powers and was surprised to realize he already knew several, although it was mostly instinctual wandless body enhancements (his seeker reflexes), but there was a list of ways to practice that with intent so you could make it stronger. There was also some actual spells you could cast as well. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu WERE both on this list however. As was several divination and supersensory spells. Including the ones that could see through clothes, which he forgot he now knew. Which also proved one of the limits on his new and improved memory, he remembered the spell perfectly, but unless he thought about doing something, he could forget he knew he could. Although he did decide that his view was pleasant enough to not need to cast them.

For some strange reason, the potion was telling him to pay particular attention to a single charm that allows someone to gain all the skills and abilities, translated into real world abilities and knowledge, of any character from a book, and possibly from a movie as well, but the spell was written before motion pictures, so he wasn't sure. There were of course limits, you could never gain the ability to work magic if you didn't already have it, even indirectly by copying an ability which could copy the ability to use magic, so he couldn't grant the girls the ability to cast spells.

Nor could it directly grant magical knowledge to someone who could work magic. And it was limited, at least somewhat to how much you gained. Depending on how good you could cast the spell, and just how powerful you were as a caster, you'd be limited on how much you could gain. So unless you already were a cosmic level caster, you couldn't gain the power of Superman (one of the few comic book characters he knew anything about), but you might be able to get watered down versions.

The other three main limitations was that it had to copy an actual character who HAD to be fictional, a real person wouldn't work. This was a more serious limitation for him than he cared to admit. His aunt and uncle had severiourly limited his knowledge of muggle fiction, written and unwritten. And on the magical side, almost all fiction was based on wizards and witches. Or more to the point, how much magic they knew. Knowledge he wouldn't gain with the spell.

Nor did it allow you to break the laws of physics/magic. At least not on it's own. If he gained all the real world equivalent skills of a inventor from a book, he didn't necessarily gain the ability to make what the character made in the story. It actually needed to be possible to create. So unless science actually allowed a warp drive to be built, Scotty from Star Trek wouldn't give him anything (well, it would, but nothing highlighted in the show). And while Harry could use magic to short step around the problem with tools, it was something that needed to be thought about.

And it took an immense amount of concentration. You were effectively rendered motionless as you couldn't drop concentration enough to take a step. Meaning you could only cast it on someone else, and were then helpless. And even if he had a duplicate cast it, that duplicate, and thus the powers and skills gained from it, would be dependent on a completely helpless figure. With those limitations in mind Harry wasn't sure why he should pay so much attention to this spell, but the potion was adamant about it. Something soon would make it make sense.

A lot of the artwork was amusing as well. Harry had absolutely lost it after a few pictures of scantily clad beautiful women, the artists clearly having no idea just how conservative in body covering Witch fashion was. Nor did they seem to understand that witches were just like everybody else, and had the full range of appearances, from drop dead gorgeous (Fleur Delacour) to the near hag level of pureblood (inbreed) hideousness (Millicent Bulstrode and Pansey Parkinson (who would actually look cute if she was a cartoon dog girl, but not as a human)). The wise LOOKING old man stereotype was real enough he supposed, but they went the opposite route in the fashion department for the men.

The actual depictions of spells weren't terribly off, but there was a lot of them that seemed to show Arithmancy circles in mid air as if they were using the finger writing spell Tom used in the chamber. He actually looked up if that was possible to use like that and it was. If he could get to the point of casting that wandlessly, it was yet another path to effective wandless magic (there was even enough details to make clear it was on occasion done). He'd have to self study Arithmancy, which was to math, what potions was to chemistry (the completely nonsensical, idiot cousin that somehow got things done, where the answer of two plus two depended more on what gender the caster was, and where Jupiter was in the sky, than anything else).

There was also tons of ideas for magic items. While the game mechanics were just as off as the rest of the magic in the books (animated statues, or golems for instance are actually rather easy to enchant, Hogwarts currently had more of them than students, and they were commonly placed on candy and food), the general gist of how they worked tended to be a little closer to reality. And there were several that the book gave theory for, and several that the book just flat out said how they're made. The portable hole was just one of the things he wanted that the how to book told him how to do it. It even made a special note of the enchantment to make it into a trap to destroy other expanded spaces, but it wasn't required and if left off would allow other expanded spaces inside. This was something the girls all found very funny, and Joan was very smug over it, making Harry think she'd tried to convince the other two the correct information.

By this point he'd long since created several duplicates to go over the books, which caused the girls to look at him very strangely. It wasn't until one of his duplicates cast Geminio on everything and left with the copies to go remerge with the others at Hogwarts, that the three of them started asking questions about it though. A delay that both surprised and amused him.

They'd also asked about the How To Book, but it turns out you need to actively use magic to change the question, although Joan could do it, it was exhausting for her and it didn't always take. Vanessa and Lea were completely unable to do so. They could all use the glasses however.

After a while, Harry decided to give the girls a tour of the house, which Joan hadn't been inside since shortly after her parents died, and the other two had never been in. The house-elves had kept them outside since they couldn't do magical pest control and the weather outside was always warm and pleasant with a light breeze, and the gazebo provided shelter from rain (snow melted and strong winds were reduced). They did express a desire to be able to use the bathroom however. Before this when ever they'd needed to go, since they were all the same gender, they'd just wade out into the water or go behind a tree. Keeter had told them that there was composting charms throughout the area, so nonliving organic matter that wasn't preserved would break down swiftly. But even among only girls who thought nothing of wearing only their birthday suits around each other, there were some things that needed privacy. And it wasn't even true. The house elves were just to polite to mention that they were taking care of the mess afterwards Harry knew.

And according to Lea, most of the houses of this design, which was nearly identical on the outside to the two homes of the girls, date back to the end of the second world war, and were built right in the housing boon for returning war vets. Which didn't explain how the very magical Potter family of England had acquired the very muggle house in the United States.

The house itself was on the outside a one and a half story building. All three of them noticed that it seemed in much better shape than it had the day before. Inside however, was greatly expanded. The ground floor had been expanded five times it's normal dimensions in the length and width, and four times in height, allowing for vaulted ceilings on the ground level and two extra levels each containing eight large bedrooms (Harry really wondered how many kids his parents had expected to have) and four bathrooms, one bathroom between two bedrooms. Each bedroom was actually larger than his dorm and when furnished, would be large enough to hold five beds, plus dressers and desks, with a open area in the middle. Although currently only two of the bedrooms had working lights and none were furnished. The half story had also been expanded into the fourth and fifth levels. The fourth level had four large bedrooms and two bathrooms, and the fifth level had the master bedroom with a walk in closet and bathroom the size of the bedrooms below.

The ground level had all the things you'd expect in the main level of a house, a entry way, living room, dining room and kitchen, large fireplace, office, library. Little Sileen was still in there putting stored books on shelves, the girls, who'd only ever met the senior house elf before, cooed over her.There was also three half bathrooms (just toilets and sinks), although only one was completely repaired and operational, a separate room for the floo, etc. There was also a wine 'cellar' near the kitchen. Since the area was only about ten feet above the ocean high tide, there was no basement or cellar. The wine closet was a 'small' temperature controlled glass enclosure. There was also a similar room for potions that also had a, failing, stasis charm on it. Since the charm was failing, the potions had all been vanished and would need to be replaced. But the wine would still be good since the temperature charms on both rooms were directly connected to the temperature charms outside, but Keeter had that room on lock down. While he was sure he COULD order Keeter to give him access, he really wasn't that interested in getting drunk.

Under the stairway was a coat closet as well as two separate pet rooms, both expanded to larger proportions. One clearly sized for cats, and the other for dogs. There was also cat paths and walkways underneath the landings and over shelves. It had a large back porch, which the girls had also been kept off of, and a connected green house which Keeter warned him they hadn't yet got all the plants tamed, so they didn't go inside.

Most of the magical appliances were no longer any good and would need to be replaced or re-enchanted, but Keeter had saved the furnishings and decorations (which wouldn't be considered part of the house) for Joan, since a lot of those would actually now belong to her. The lighting had been partially restored, which consisted of interruptable lumos charms inside what looked like old fashioned light bulbs linked to the old electric light switches. It was actually kind of funny in that so much effort was made into making it look like a muggle home in case muggles dropped by, while seeming to forget about the rather obvious extra space and the palm trees, which didn't normally grow in New York. Part of that of course was that it had been built as a muggle house, so it had electric outlets, even if it hadn't been hooked up to a grid in decades, and even with the extra rooms and expanded space, the previous owners had kept the basic decor. So even if the switches weren't hooked up to anything, they still controlled the lighting in a room.

The stairway was actually a magical trap. It was subtly expanded to five times it's length with an illusion over it making it seem like it was normal. Thus each floor you tried to go up, you'd actually have to go up five. To get from the ground floor to the master bedroom on the stairs, you'd need to go up twenty five floors. It actually reminded Harry of getting around Hogwarts. To get from floor to floor, there was a hidden door in the side hall just past the entryway. Past it was another hallway that ran the entire height of the house, but used very subtle space expansion and reduction charms to seem like it was a normal hallway with five doors. As you approached the next door in line, the space changing charms were lined up to connect to the next level up or down, so you never needed to climb the stairs at all.

The separated garage had actually been part of Keeter's duties, so had been very well maintained. While a simple one car garage on the outside, inside could hold at least ten cars, plus a work area. Also in the back was what looked like an elaborate children's play house which was were it turned out the house elves lived. The insides had been, according to Keeter, expanded as well, but the four of them didn't look in. It also had a large, mostly empty second level that was being used to store all the old furnishings and decorations as well as everything that belonged to Joan that she didn't bring with her to her new home.

There was an owlery behind the garage against it's back, the Apparation point off to the side of the yard, closer to the water and enclosed by trees that would move to block access to all but Harry. The yard was expanded to about ten acres give or take. An outrageous amount when you considered land value in the area, and included part of the beach out to a little over twenty feet into the water. They'd actually watched several couples taking a stroll along the beach in the chilly autumn weather who hit the edge of the property and vanished only to appear on the other side mid step, unaware of the distance they just crossed.

It was around four o'clock when the girls said they needed to head home since it would be getting dark soon and they had a couple of miles to get home. They'd actually been told to be home by four, so they where already running late. It was surprisingly Lea who was the first to kiss him, on the cheek, but still. Of course Vanessa had to do it as well at this point, with a tight, cleavage pressing hug which embarrassed both of them. A very timid Joan asked him if it was ok first, so he'd then done something he'd never considered before, and leaned over and initiated a kiss with a girl. A full on the lips kiss that left both of them breathless for a moment of suspended time.

It was when the girls where changing back into their fall clothes that he decided to help them get home. He pulled out his firebolt, engorged it a little so it sort of fit four (he'd just found out he enjoyed girls pressing into him) and reduced their bikes. After he explained to them what he was doing, he showed them how to get on and then flew them home. It was dusk, so a simple Disillusionment was all he needed to remain unseen, but he'd need to stay low and follow the streets since the girls didn't know how to find their homes from the air.

After a fun ride with three girls not quite screaming in delight (he had to add a Muffliato since the shouting was getting noticed), he dropped Lea of first, which was their habit so she wouldn't be riding from their house alone. A quick removal of the Disillusionment charm and engorging her bike back, and then a Orchideous to produce a single red and gold Hogwarts flower, which looked almost identical to a Tiger Lily, got him another embarrassed peck from her. Reducing the size of the broom right before Vanessa and Joan remounted got a smirk from them both. Playing out the same scene out at Joan and Vanessa's home got him two more kisses and a promise to leave notes with Keeter. Sighing with contentment, he apparated back to Hogwarts. He had some tension he needed to relieve.

See you next chapter!
killgore444
"Take the correct path, even if it follows the crowd."

*

killgore444 · Dec 20, 2020

Mastersgt said:
MC needs to do something about their ability to share secrets. I mean, that is just a HUGE vulnerability. Aside from that, Hope he is intelligent in his choice of character. This is basically an OP button. Could choose Elminster, or A Sorcerer Supreme, like Stephen Strange, even Agamoto.
He could choose a GOD, or an OP character like The Gamer. Then there is the abilities, on top of the skills and knowledge. Dude could easily become biologically immortal or gain some amazing abilities.
Could gain Eidetic Memory, Photographic Memory, Perfect Recall, Photographic Reflexes, or what have you. Maybe even Become a Planeswalker, or a Master Builder.

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

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

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

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

killgore444 · Dec 26, 2020

Help!
I had HUGE issues with the second part of this post, the fight scene. It alone delayed the release of this chapter on FFN by three months. I know I got it very wrong, and it is at best, a outline, but I'm drawing a blank on how to make it better.

A New Tournament
Chapter 6 (part 3): Be careful what you wish for.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this. All rights reserved to the respective owners of Harry Potter and Stargate: SG1. If I did own any of it, it would have gone very differently.
And probably been not as good.
Summary: A gift from the future provides a little bit of hope in a time of need. OP Harry, Ron and Hermione, but with a plausible background to support it. No bashing, even of disliked characters.

"Memento mori" 'Remember that you have to die'

In Memoria: T. Garcia, 1987 - 2020
Someone who was as wise in real life, as the cleric she played, and a true friend. You will be missed

As a side note and minor spoiler for this chapter, since I know I'll get complaints in my reviews if I don't mention this (doubly so on FFN), but Draco IS in fact being framed. Someone is using the Slytherins, and Draco's in particular, penchant for cheating and generally selfish and crappy behavior against him. And it's not who you'll probably guess, though I do admit I'm curious if anyone will.

Also, the rapid increase in tension/violence among the students is being 'encouraged' by 'outside' forces.

A note on the Ennervate/Rennervate spell: While I like to keep to the books for canon and ignore the movies whenever possible, on this I'll give credit to them. Ennervate means weaken, there is even a spell in AD&D/D&D with this name and effect. As such, examples of Ennervate in the books should be changed to Rennervate to wake people who've been stunned. Ennervate as a spell, has the same effect it does in D&D. Bad idea to get them confused.

Likewise, Flipendo is the spell in the book that does what Expelliriumis is shown doing in the movies (tossing people all about). Granted, I've never seen all the movies, but of the first two movies (the only ones I've watched in their entirety) and the short clips I've seen on the web, the only time Expelliriumis is used like in the books is when Draco disarms Dumbledore. Remember this for this story.

00l l l l (_i_) \_!_/ l l l l00

The safe return of his duplicates from Ice Tower as he was calling the place with several dozen books and other materials decided Harry. He'd had several duplicates the day before practicing spells, plus all the new spells he'd learned, it was time to return to Potter Manor. After about two hours of working with the new spells and duelling practice against himself, Harry prepped himself for battle.

Not that he had access to a lot of material to prep with, but he had spells, the 'How To Book', and enough duplicates to make the process relatively fast. A few quick 'Ex Nihilo' spells to conjure some temporary dueling robes. He used the new spells he just learned at Ice Tower on an old pair of dragon hide gloves to liquefy them and refill the containers until he had enough to form a simple suit of leather robe armor, like a heavy duty trench coat with padding underneath, before solidifying it.

A couple of armor plates made from the new metals to add to the hide armor and a helmet. With softening charms on the inside to reduce the force of blows, hardening and strengthening charms, plus sticking charms cast on the material all to hold it together and prevent penetration. As well as cooling charms inside, this thing was stifling Harry realized. Over that his new dueling robes and added still more charms. Protego as well as animal and pest repelling charms, impervious charms to repel moisture if needed.

Just in case something got around his repelling charms he added tooth and claw shattering hexes to the outside of the cloth (he'd have to remember not to wipe his mouth with his sleeve) and an intent based ward linked to the new spell to liquefy metal (such as in bullets and swords) if there is an intent to harm from whomever wielded, or fired, daid metal object. And since it would liquefy, the impervious charm would work against it.

All in all he put about two dozen counter curses and wards on his robes and armor.

While he was doing all of this, he had other duplicates working on weapons. One duplicate made a simple flanged mace, and another pair made short cudgels out of silver and gold, all held together by a Duros charm and permanent sticking charm. He added various other charms, like Impedimenta, Confundo, Ennervate and Relashio to impede and impair anyone he was fighting. He also added Expulso, Reducto, and Flipendo style effects that would have to be willed into effect, and not a constant (he might not want to blow his target up, but he also might want to) to increase the impact of the weapon as well.

Another duplicate took one of the unfinished, Alterian covered blades ( made out of an alloy of Trinium and Naquadah (not Potentium), and started working on it. Relying heavily on the How-To-Book, he took the rainbow colored blade and added a cross-guard and basket, hand-grip, pommel, and he even remembered to add a rain-guard to prevent moisture from slipping in past the cross-guard down the tang (enhanced with the impervious charm of course). Like the maces, it was held together with a Duros charm, and permanent sticking charms. He added all the same effects as the maces as well, but also added an effect like the Sectum hex to make it vorpal and super sharp. As well as spells to turn pain into pleasure. All told, thanks to magic, it only took about two hours to finish.

He then named the sword Kindness.

With this, he armed and armored himself.

And then he created a duplicate to go free his ancestral home. He wasn't an idiot. He was going to make sure his death wouldn't actually kill him if at all possible.

He once again appeared just down the path from the front gates to the manor. Much more alert for danger this time around, he cast Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu for the first time, at a fairly low level of power to (only) create twenty-five duplicates once he was past the gate. The twenty-six of them went up the drive, making sure to keep a moderate amount of distance between them, and carrying different weapons, although all of them had his wand in their right hand. The primary duplicate making sure he, and one of his own duplicates stayed outside.

As before, it wasn't until a good chunk of them was past the center of the main hall before the inferi attacked. It was quickly clear just how much damage he'd done last time, as there was less than half the number as before. He was also much better prepared for them.

Or so he thought!

As he started to lay waste to them, they heard a slightly sibilant voice start to order the inferi around, and how best to attack them. It was also about then that several of his duplicates fell over dead. Instant death combined with sibilant voice:

Basilisk!

Or more to the point, Basilisks! Plural! Fortunately, they were normal Basilisks, only the size of King Cobras.

Over a dozen started to slither out of holes in the wall. Several Harry's quickly cast Caligo, and a thick fog shot out of their wands, obscuring sight and blocking the death gaze of the snakes. He knew that neither Avis or Oppugno created roosters would kill a basilisk (unless it had been created with a Serpensortia spell as well), but it would confuse and scare a basilisk, so quickly set about transfiguring debris into the birds and creating them whole cloth from his wand.

Unfortunately, this didn't have near the effect it should have had. It was very apparent that they had been enhanced somehow. The Felix Felicis was having only a partial affect on the battle. While the snakes keep striking out of the shadows, managing to kill several more duplicates with poison from bites to the neck or ankles and feet, they more often hurt themselves when they tried to bite through his robes, and had their teeth shattered. Being a highly magical creature, they more often than not, were unaffected by the hex's, but didn't seem completely immune. On the other hand, they were having as much trouble hitting him in an area that they could affect has he was having hitting them. Since he couldn't see them, and they were much better at navigating with vibration and scent/smell than he was with super sensory spells, it was a tough go. Made worse by the remaining inferi.

Luckily enough, his new melee weapons had no problem killing them in a suitably messy manner when they actually hit, and all four of them had at least one version of it covered in basilisk blood (and inferi visceral) when one of the monsters called for a retreat to the birthing chamber, the potion having made it clear they shouldn't reveal that they were parsalmouths.

Each of the seven surviving duplicates cast Kage Bunshin no Jutsu on themselves several times to create four or five duplicates each. All thirty eight duplicates then chased the basilisks down as best they could. Often having to blast debris out of the way, and sometimes having to shore up sections of the walls and ceiling, several of them dying in the chase.

Even has the monsters called for assistance from others. Assistance that seemed reluctant to actually assist. These new Basilisks were actually smaller than normal, leading Harry to think that they were newer/younger. An theory that also took the birthing room comment into account.

When he finally blew open the blockage in the doorway to the birthing room (the old family vault in the basement), Harry was still unprepared for what was beyond. Since he couldn't actually see what was in the room, using echolocation at this point, he could only guess at the number of Basilisks, but put it at over forty, maybe even fifty, though there was many more behind themselves that they could hear. They four largest, the survivors of the battle upstairs, were coiled around a birdbath in the middle of the room, drinking from it.

Unlike upstairs, and the chase to here, this was an open, and very sturdy room, the Harry's were more willing to cut loose with the area effect spells. Frost and flame were used in equal measure, even if the frost seemed to be slightly more effective against the cold blooded creatures, flame produced results that was more readily apparent that the basilisks affected were actually dead.

But even here, the basilisks seemed to be more affective then they should be, killing over twenty of the duplicates. Finally, it was over though. Not one Basilisk in the room left alive, one of the Harry's cast a light spell to see what was going on. Inside the birdbath was a small pile of eggs, presumably snake eggs, underneath a toad. All of which was sitting in a liquid the colour of molten gold, large drops leaping like goldfish from its surface, never seeming to spill out over the edge.

Felix Felicis.

Voldemort had set up a Basilisk breeding pit in his ancestral home inside a container of Felix Felicis.

With several of the duplicates keeping watch outside in the hall, Harry examined the birdbath as deeply as he dared. Sitting under the surface of the potion was several slabs of rock, covered in Alterian, Nox and two other languages; Asgardian and Furling. The individual word use was mixed up however, it was like whoever wrote them out had no idea that they were separate languages. Working out the individual meanings wasn't easy, but Time control, renewal, replacement, and compatibility seemed to be the gist of it. Based on the observable affects of the magic on the bath, Harry guessed it was the anchor to some sort of refilling affect, since it had a rather obvious preservation charm on it, and those two charms were mutually exclusive.

Harry removed and destroyed the toad and the eggs, although he kept the egg remains in a conjured baggy. He then emptied the potion into a conjured ceramic jug, he conjured a bigger bag with a undetectable expansion charm and impervious charms on it, putting the birdbath inside and started spelling Basilisk corpses into it, having to strengthen the charms several times as the poison and blood kept eating through it.

As he left the manor house, he noticed that there was now over two dozen duplicates outside. Some of the Basilisks had tried to escape. Luckily they'd been contained (Harry hoped). A couple of the duplicates retrieved the chandelier that had so aided his first fight here on their way out.

Surrounding the manor, the duplicates that had remained outside having prearranged this, turned on the house and three of them cast Fiendfire to destroy the building with the remaining Basilisks and whatever other death traps remained inside.

He'd rebuild he swore to himself.

Minerva McGonagall sat underneath a lounge chair in her cat form inside the Gryffindor common room watching her charges. The disappearance of three of her charges on Friday night, and the final words of Ms.Granger, had upset her mightily. It was clear from Hermione's words that she had been somehow failing to protect her kits…

…Students! Protect her STUDENTS! Her cat form was starting to get to her. Normally it wasn't this much of a problem, but when an animorphamagus was under great emotional or mental instability, the animal form would start to have a more pronounced affect on their thought process. And she was definitely under those.

Hermione's words had cut into her belief that she was doing a good job as truly and as catastrophically, as if she had used a claymore. Minerva had always known Severus could be prickly and sometimes down right unpleasant, but her words made it seem like he was a THREAT to her students. Was it just Hermione's imagination? Was it real? How wide spread if so? Questions without answers swirled around her head. The other students where less than helpful. The Weasley twins had been on the verge of being arrested for assaulting Malfoy after the little brat made a comment in poor taste about Ron and Harry. If it wasn't for Alastor, Luscious would have had them gone already. But considering some of the stolen items, and other items, found in his trunk in his dorm, Draco himself was potentially facing much more severe charges, and his father was now in a fight to keep him from being expelled and his wand broken. Draco of course denied all of it but no one, not even Severus believed him. With a mental snort she thought to herself that not even his parents believed him.

Of course it wasn't just the twins who had had assaulted Slytherins. So far there was sixteen other Gryffindors, eight Hufflepuffs, including Diggory, and three Ravenclaw's who had gotten in trouble for picking fights or duelling with Slytherins. Not that any of the Slytherins were innocent in those incidents, nor were all of the Ravenclaw's siding with Gryffindor either, though thanks to Cedric, almost all of the Hufflepuffs where. The Slytherins were experts at insinuation, and could generally cause the other person to get violent first so they could claim to be the victim. Now they were faced with a faculty and group of Aurors who quite frankly didn't care one wit for what they claimed, and the students of the other houses had noticed and were going for payback over old insults as much as over the missing trio. If they don't show up for class on Monday, the school will fall to chaos.

The school already was falling into chaos she thought with a snort, and classes started in less than nine hours. Albus had already confided that he was considering canceling classes for the day and confining the students to the dorms if the trio hadn't shown up by breakfast. Oh how she wished they'd just show up. Hail and hearty were less important right now than being here, the rest she could deal with.

Just where where the troublesome trio. She knew her students called them the golden trio, though the three of them seemed oblivious to it, which was odd since the three of them had a knack for learning things they shouldn't possibly be able to figure out. Maybe that was the key to keeping them from finding stuff out; tell all the other students. The only things they never seemed to learn were things that were common knowledge to everyone else. It's not like any of the other students ever DID anything with what they knew. That seemed to be confined to those three. Although how they learned things when they never seemed to talk to anyone else was beyond her.

It was after midnight but almost all of her charges were still down in the common room, pretending to be doing things other than waiting to see if the trio would show up. Although several of the younger students had fallen asleep on couches, a couple of her prefects having draped them in blankets. She was about to change form and tell everyone to get up to bed when her ears picked up on the alarm ward going off, along with about half of her students.

She quickly changed form and was about to take control of her students before panic set in when the voice of the Headmaster cut through the din, seemingly calm, though anyone who knew him could detect the stress he was under, as well as the slight pauses from silent casting.

"All Hogwarts students, please return to your dorms. All of our guest students, please return to your respective lodging. All teachers please go to to the nearest student dorm or lodging to aid in it's defence should that prove needed. If your way is barred due to spell fire, please retreat to the Hospital wing. Filius an… Sectu…" The voice cut off in the middle of what was obviously a verbal spell-casting, and considering the spell in question, combat. "Filius and Severus, would you mind joining the Aurors and me near the DADA classroom? Rp…" Once again the voice cut out in the middle of a spell, though this one she didn't know.The voice never came back.

Minerva looked around at her students, though they were no longer on the verge of panic, they were also clearly scared. Albus Dumbledore had just called for help in a duel from two of the best duelists in the country. One could also just barely make out the sound of a magic duel being fought many floors below. She noticed several students placing their hands on the floor or walls, feeling the vibrations of war travel through the stonework and the wards.

It was at this moment that the portrait opened with a loud bang, and over a third of her students drew wands at the figure in the doorway, another third dived for cover, and the rest stood there dumbfounded with surprise, thankfully mostly only the younger students. Gryffindors she supposed, were always ready for a fight, aided no doubt, by the teachings of a paranoid lunatic named Moody.
Thankfully neither the students in the room nor the figure cast a spell, since it rapidly became clear it was one of her missing charges. Ms Granger to be precise. Running up to her while shouting probably wasn't the best decision she ever made though she really couldn't control herself at this point.

"Young lady where have you bee…" The words cut off when she got a good look at the state of her student. In her left hand was a sword with a basket hilt which she didn't seem to know how to use, rune covered blade reflecting light in a rainbow pattern that she was unable to tell if it came from the sword, or was a spell affect. Her wand held in a death grip in her trembling right hand. Both wrists and her ankles over bared feet covered in severe rope burns. A bloody black eye over the right side of her face that completely covered her eye. A cut that ran from just above her left eyebrow, running down her cheek, missing the eye itself, as if a sword strike had hit her in the face, blade running deep enough to slice open her eyebrow and nicking the eyelid, but not quite deep enough to open the lid up or reach the eye itself, and down her cheek to just above her lips, blood poring from the wound. That plus her scorched hair and torn, blood soaked robes, robes she obviously had to tie back closed, and the wild, shocked look in her face and body language painted a rather grim portrait of her weekend. "Hermione?"

With a startled jump at the sound of the portrait closing behind her, she turned in asked; "Where are they? I was told they'd be right behind me, did they somehow get here first?"

"Your the first person to come in since curfew at seven o'clock Ms Granger."

"Seven? Curfew?" With a shake of her head, seeming to decide she had more important things to ask than about than the changes made in the wake of her absence. "Are you sure they're not here, they were supposed to be right behi…" Her words cut off as a massive explosion was heard, and felt from below, causing cries of alarm from several students. "No! No!, No! What did those idiots do now?!?! They were supposed to be right behind me."

"Ms Granger, why don't you come in and sit down? I'm not Madam Pomfrey, but I know some medical charms until we can get you treated." She said as she tried to take her student by the shoulder and guide her into the common room, but a hiss of either pain or panic, she wasn't sure which, issued from her, and she backed up away from her.

It was around this point that one of the older students, standing by a window, let out a curse; "Fuck me! Out on the grounds!"

At this Hermione jumped and ran to the window, causing several other students who'd been doing the same thing to instead jump out of her way as she wasn't paying any attention to the sword she was wielding.

When Minerva made it to the window, her mouth fell open in horror, though it was someone else who gave voice to what they were seeing. "Fiend fire!" One of the twins said in awe while the other one, with the same awe; "Is that Professor Flitwick?" And indeed it was Filius out on the grounds, along with a couple of Aurors, trying to control the fiery figures of destruction.

"DAMN IT RON, HARRY!!! WHAT HAVE YOU TWO IDIOTS DONE?!?!?!" Hermione suddenly screamed, "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE RIGHT BEHIND ME!!!

See you next chapter!
killgore444
"Arguing that you do not care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying that you do not care about free speech because you have nothing to say."

killgore444 · Jun 30, 2021

A New Tournament
Chapter 7: You Just Might Get It! (part 1)

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this. All rights reserved to the respective owners of Harry Potter and Stargate: SG1. If I did own any of it, it would have gone very differently.
And probably been not as good.
Summary: A gift from the future provides a little bit of hope in a time of need. OP Harry, Ron and Hermione, but with a plausible background to support it. No bashing, even of disliked characters

00l l l l (_i_) \_!_/ l l l l00

Barty Crouch jr hurried through the halls of Hogwarts. His meeting with his Master had ran longer than he had anticipated, and for whatever reason, his polyjuice potion wasn't working right (he suspected house elves where sabotaging it). A surprising level of uncertainty had entered into the duration of his potions, and he knew, just KNEW it was because of that ridiculous clothed elf. The Foeglass he'd taken from his uncle, Alastor Moody, had, as of Saturday morning, shown a large group of house elves, all of whom eyes were visible, along with two specific elves wearing clothes who were even more recognizable.

One of them he could swear was Winky, and Dumbledore had confirmed she was in fact working at Hogwarts. He'd tried calling her several times, but she wasn't responding, something she should be doing for a Professor even if her ties to the family have been broken. But then again, she was showing up in his foeglass, so she's probably figured out he isn't actually Alastor Moody and therefor not actually a professor.

The other elf wasn't known to him, though he was clearly visible, and fully colored in, like he was standing in front of a normal mirror. What that actually meant, he wasn't certain, but he was working under the assumption that the elf was actively working against him in a directly hostile manner, although why he hadn't simply informed the Headmaster Barty couldn't figure out, he'd clearly allied himself with the other elves. And the other elves were not responding to him either, although they didn't seem to be as actively hostile as Winky and the other elf.

Barty couldn't tell if the elf had informed Potter or not. Potter and his two friends were becoming much more visible in the foeglass than even Dumbledore or Snape, but not completely. He couldn't figure out if that meant they were told, and didn't believe, or if they were actively working against whomever put Potters name in the Goblet without knowing who it was.

So he'd made arrangements to meet with his Master. Who had not been pleased. Gone was the idea of building things up till the end of the year. He needed to grab Potter now and put him somewhere he could be contained until the potion Wormtail was brewing could be completed. Fortunately, the news that Potter had been sighted visiting Nurmengard of all places, had made his Master cognizant of the fact that there was a large group of people who he had no control over, some of which he wasn't in a position to even guess what they'd do, much less accurately predict (seriously, what the hell was Potter doing visiting with Gellert Grindelwald of all people).

That and the disappearance of Potter's two friends had thrown things off track by a wide margin. For the first week after his name came out, everything had been going right. He'd managed to get Weasley away from his friends a couple of times and sow a little bit of resentment in him before hand (no charms though, nothing that could be so easily detected), with rather predictable results. Weasley had more than a little issue with jealousy. Granger was a little more difficult, but her crush on the Weasley boy was causing problems for her and Potters friendship.

But then Weasley disappeared out of the dorm, and Granger walked right into a, until now, unknown secret door. A door no one has been able to open, or even find, since, and he'd been watching her though his magic eye when she went in, so he knew exactly were that door SHOULD be. And hadn't that been a screwed up deal. In retrospect, he probably should have remained silent and dealt with it quietly, but he'd been playing the part of 'Mad Eye' Moody, and in his surprise at her going through that door, had spoken out.

Not that it was all bad though. Molly Weasleys reaction to the bints disappearance had been priceless, he'd actually thought for a second she'd attack Dumbledore. He'd also managed to cause more than a little chaos throughout the school, and had even caused a couple of international incidents when he searched the Carriage and Boat of the other two schools. A few words here, a comment there, and the students are ready to kill each other. Although he can't take all the credit there, someone else is stirring that pot as well, but he was having a hard time figuring out who.

Surely it wasn't the ELF!

Someone else was also carrying out a grudge against other students as well. Ironically, he was probably the only person in the school who actually believed the Malfoy brat that he was being framed, and he'd taken more than a little pleasure in twisting that particular knife. He even thought he had an idea of WHO it was that framed him, his suspect had been a little too shocked about such a upstanding person as Draco Malfoy having such items,but the only motivation he could think of was over Quidditch, and he didn't think that a student, even a Slytherin, would be that ambitious as to send a fourteen year old to Azkaban over a game.

But he'd been wrong about such things before.

Has a result of everything though, his Master had Wormtail make contact with several higher ranked Deatheaters, as well as a couple of dozen low ranked and newbies too young to have joined before that fateful Halloween (it always amazed Barty how his Master seemed to actually care so much about the education of his recruits and how they had to be at least sixth years before he'd allow them to join) , brought into the fold by their parents or older kin, and now facing their actual Master.

A Master who had given them a specific task, help Barty Crouch jr secure Harry Potter and cause as much chaos in Hogwarts as possible. The plan was simply, and if it worked, would indeed create a lot of chaos. His Master had given him a couple of jars with space expansion and weight reduction charms on them, and the newbies had climbed inside. Barty would then go around Hogwarts placing the individual jars at locations they wouldn't be found by the professors or Aurors. Since his uncle was so trusted by the Aurors, and he belonged here, it was unlikely he'd be questioned.
Which was why he was hurrying so much now. He was potion master enough to have gained an intuitive grasp of when a potions duration would expire, and he was running out of time now, he'd already gone through the last of the potion in his flask, each dose barely lasting ten minutes. He was hoping the potion he had brewing in his chambers would still be good, but couldn't shake the feeling that that damn elf was going to do something to it, assuming he hadn't already. If that was the case, he'd already gotten permission to alter the plan from his master.

He was definitely going to make that bloody elf suffer though.

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While his duplicates were busy preparing to retake his ancestral home, Harry had another duplicate investigating some of his other properties. One duplicate was investigating the house in the muggle neighborhood. When he arrived, wearing muggle clothes he'd transfigured beforehand, and wearing his cloak, he noticed that there was a party of some sort being set up in the yard.
It didn't take much to realize that one of the children was about to have their eleventh birthday. The large eleven written on what looked to be old sheet was a large clue. Thinking back fondly to his own, rather eventful eleventh birthday put Harry in a good mood, and he started to sneak in to investigate.

His good mood quickly vanished when he crossed what seemed to be a ward line. It was a weak, old and worn down ward line, but one just the same. It also seemed to have a secondary affect that would actually effect the residents. Something not normally seen in wards.

As he started to try and unravel the mystery of the wards, he heard a crash and a cry of fear from the house. He could hear a young boy trying to explain that he hadn't meant to do 'It' and who Harry bet was his mother trying to calm him down, followed immediately by a fluffy cat racing out the cat flap.

A cat with glowing neon green fur.

Harry pocketed his cloak and cast a quick Accio on the cat, catching it just as a man came rushing out to grab it before any neighbors saw. On seeing Harry holding the cat, he came to an abrupt stop, seeming unsure what to do at that point.

"Hello." Harry said holding up the struggling feline, "Like that cat. Any idea were I can get one in this color?"

"Um… …not sure what you're talking about young man, but if I could have Gooey back, I'd be rather grate…" He broke off seeing Harry failing to stifle a laugh.

"Sorry" Harry said, "I once turned a teachers wig blue in class, so you can skip trying to make an excuse or explain it away. I KNOW what's going on. May I come in?"

"Uh, sure", the man said holding the door open for him, "So you actually know what's happening to my son? You're not about to take him away to some mutant school to try and fight crime wearing tights are you?"

It actually took Harry a couple of seconds to grasp what the man was really asking, and that he wasn't entirely serious (but he was partially serious). "No, but I'm sure if your son is the one having his birthday today, he'll be getting an invitation to a very special school. But don't worry. If he's ever in tights, it's because he was the victim of a prank. Names Harry by the way." Harry said sticking out his hand.

"Issac Markum," The man replied, taking Harry's hand just as a women and several kids stepped around the corner. "This is my wife, Tracy. The little sprogs here are my twins Deanna and Valery." He gestured at a couple of rather adorable five year old girls. "Next up we have Chad, Bethany and Eric." pointing at a seven year old boy, a nine year old girl, and a ten year old boy. "You've already met our cat Gooey, and this here is the Birthday boy Mathew. He said he knows what's going on with the kids." The last he said having turned to his wife.

"I do." Harry said putting the cat down on a couch and pulling out his wand. A quick flick, and the cat had resumed what was hopefully it's normal coloration. "Congratulations young man, you're a Wizard!" With that, Harry pointed his wand at a stack of paper plates for the party, and transfigured them into small Mickey Mouse replicas and animated them with a fast 'Piertotum Locomotor' charm, causing them to jump up and start teasing a very startled cat.

Harry glanced at the family, and saw them staring at him with very blank faces. Even the younger ones didn't seem to be able to say anything, although the twins were watching the origami Mickeys rather than him, even as Gooey stated to chase them around, reminding Harry strongly of Crookshanks chasing the gnomes. "So, when's the party start?"

"Uh, about an hour from now." the boy's mother said, "I'm not sure I can believe in magic. Are you sure that's what's going on? That whoever told you this wasn't just using you?"

"Shall we sit?" Harry said gesturing to the furniture. "Missus Markum, the man who told me is quite literally a giant. He busted down the door and grabbed my uncles shotgun out of his hands and twisted it up like a pretzel. And no, I don't consider that a bad thing, if you've ever dealt with my uncle, you'd be very much in agreement that Uncle Vernon was in the wrong."

So, over the next half hour or so, Harry gave them a quick rundown of accidental magic and a short overview of Hogwarts, before the Mrs Markum noticed the time and everyone went to get ready for the party. When no one was looking, Harry created another duplicate to run to Diagon Alley and get Mathew a present. With the exception of whoever the new DADA professor would be, all the teachers used the same books year after year, it was no problem to know what he would likely need the next year, and the family wasn't exactly rolling in cash, so Harry decided to get Matt a set of the year one class books, minus whatever was needed for DADA. Harry figured that would save the family about ten to fifteen galleons, or about four to six hundred Pounds. Harry couldn't remember how much those books cost him his first year.

While thinking of this, he happened to glance out the window and saw something he didn't anticipate, but really should have. Out on the edge of the property, Professors Flitwick and Snape stood talking. Flitwick, Harry could see coming to visit a muggleborn family, but not Snape. Harry threw his cloak back on and snuck outside to try and eavesdrop, but they broke apart before he got close, and it was at that point that Harry remembered he knew a whole slew of sense enhancing magic. Cursing to himself, Harry was about to create a duplicate to follow Snape when the greasy git disapparated. So Harry followed Flitwick back to the house. If nothing else, Harry would get an idea about how one of the professors handled this instead of Hagrid.

Flitwick was clearly used to this however, and simply walked up to the door and gestured, didn't even use his wand Harry noticed, and a solid knocking sound came from the door. When Mr Markum came to the door, he was rather nonplussed at the appearance of Flitwick. After a second of awkward silence, Mr Markum snorted, "I take it you've got invitation to Hoag Wards."

With a raised eyebrow, Professor Flitwick corrected him, "Hogwarts actually, it's named after a flower common to the area. And I am most curious on just how you knew that much."

"You better come in then." Mr Markum said stepping out of the way.

Harry quickly went through the side door where Flitwick wouldn't be able to notice, and got back to the living room just in time to hear him start. "Now, right before I left for here, I received word from the Department of underage magic at the Ministry that there was a bit of accidental magic involving a cat. Normally someone from Magic Reversal would respond, but since young Mathew turns eleven today, I was asked to take care of it. Could I see the cat?"

"But Harry already took care of it." Matt blurted out.

Seeing the quizzical look on the professors face, Mrs Markum explained. "There was a young man here until a few minutes ago. About fourteen, fifteen years old, said he went to magic school. He's the one who fixed Gooey and told us about the school. But, it's nice to see that he was just screwing around with us."

"Did he have messy black hair, and a lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead?" On seeing their nods, Flitwick sighed. "Oh, young mister Potter and his friends have been having a rather busy weekend. Although it is nice to see he hasn't gotten killed yet."

"I take it then that he wasn't supposed to tell us about all this then." She said.

"Oh, there's no actual rules saying students can't inform future students, as long as they ONLY inform the student and their immediate family. It's just that young Harry has become the center of a rather large controversy at school, and no student is supposed to leave the grounds except under certain circumstances. Indeed, since his name was called by the Goblet to compete in the tournament, he shouldn't even be ABLE to leave the grounds, as the goblets magic would keep him from going more than a mile or two. Nor should he have been able to cast the counter-charm on your cat without setting off the underage magic wards."

After another short silence, Mr Markum asked a question that took Harry off guard. "You just mentioned miles, and during Harry's talk with us, he mentioned feet and inches several times. Do you not use the metric system?"

Harry had to catch himself from laughing as Flitwick looked at him before realizing what Mr Markum meant. "Oh, um no. The old Imperial system was created with more than a little input from wizards and witches and is based on sound Arithmancy principles. Where the metric system is built around muggle mathematics, the Imperial system is built around magic." At that he started to give a few demonstrations of playful spells.

During that, there was a tapping on the window. Hedwig was tapping on the glass, holding onto a large cloth bag. With a gesture, the window opened and Hedwig flew in, making Harry wonder if his duplicate was right outside, or if he'd gone back to Hogwarts, or even if he'd gone somewhere else. Harry tuned out the Professors explanation about owls as he pondered the possibility of one of his duplicates, of which he was one, deciding to go independent. Or even to attend several of the other schools of magic simultaneously. Or even muggle school. It had possibilities, though Harry wasn't sure he would want to spend extra lives in school. Visiting tropical resorts however, that he could see himself doing.

Since the other Harry's had come back from Ice Tower with the information about those strange metals, maybe he'd try and work out how to build a space ship and explore the other planets. Before he could delve into speculation about what would happen to Remus if he was taken into space and saw the moon directly, he heard Beth begging Matt if she could read one of the books. This got a surprising response from Flitwick. "Young lady. While I see no problem with you reading 'A History of Magic' or other books about magic, it is imperative that you NOT study any of the books that contain actual spell work or other applications of magic. Through much pain and sorrow, we have learned that magic should never be practiced before your eleventh birthday, just as we've learned that in order to ever control it, you must begin studying before your fourteenth birthday. Sad and unfortunate things have happened to those so young as their brain has not developed enough to safely practice."

"And this goes for the rest of you as well. Please do not become a object lesson to others. Even the old pure blood families heed this, and only those who just missed the cut off date for the year before ever come to school knowing any spells. If anything, the old pure blood families have seen what can happen, and will punish their children for trying far more harshly than the ministry will. Now, 'History of Magic' is perfectly acceptable. As is 'One thousand magical herbs and fungi' and 'Magical beasts and where to find them.' "Magical Theory' and 'Magical drafts and potions' are a little bit iffy for you young Bethany, but shouldn't be a problem for Eric. Or of course, your parents. The other books however have instructions for actual spell casting, and should only be read by Mathew, or Eric after his own eleventh birthday."

"But please note, Mathew will need these books, along with a few others, once the school year starts for him, so you have around 8 months or so to peruse them. Sometime next summer, Mathew should get his actual invitation, and he will learn what ever extra books the new DADA professor will be adding. Since all six of you children have demonstrated accidental magic at times, I might be able to swing sending you a few of the books in the library that are geared to younger children as well. Several of my students have old childrens books they've outgrown, and it's long been a policy of Ravenclaw students to donate those books to the new muggleborn students and families. Indeed, since Harry Potter seems to have, rather understandably, taken an interest in your family, I'll see to it you get a full and complete set of 'The Harry Potter Adventures.' His embarrassment over that should be enough to curtail his involving himself into notifying new students."

"Why would he take such an interest in us?" Mrs Markum asked.

"Because with everything else happening to him right now, it was inevitable for him to have taken an interest in his parents. And this house was where his Mother grew up. And, since his Mother graduated, every single child, under the age of ten when they moved in, and as spent at least one full year here, as become a wizard or witch. The last child to have lived here who this didn't happen to, was Harry's Aunt Petunia. And my understanding is they didn't move in until after her tenth birthday."

"Now, if you'll excuse me, there is a lot going on right now at school, and I need to notify the Headmaster that Harry has been spotted here. That and the spells Severus cast to make your quests think that the party started an hour later than the invitation said will be wearing off in a few minutes. I trust I don't need to remind you to keep this secret from them? No! Then good day to you." With that Flitwick walked out the door, and Harry, like the family watched out the window until he met up with Snape and they both disapparated.

"You learn something new everyday it seems." Harry said out load, causing several shrieks of surprise.

"You've become a talking head!" one of the boys yelled hiding behind his father.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Don't tell anyone I have this OK." Harry said pulling his cloak fully off him. "It's a family heirloom that's been passed down for over a thousand years. I don't want it confiscated. By the way, if he does send you those books, don't believe them. My life growing up was NOTHING like those books made out."

"As for why I took an interest in you. I really didn't. I found a reverence to this house in my Dads diary, and according to the bank statement I got from Gringotts yesterday, I own the house, but my uncle has been collecting them rent and not passing it on, or performing maintenance. I'll be dealing with that over the next couple of months, so if he tries to evict you, send a letter to Hogwarts, I'll deal with the bank."

"Now, why don't you take your books upstairs and put them away. I AM sorry about that by the way. But no one told me about the reason they never inform muggle raised children about magic until they're eleven before. Anyway, like the professor, I need to leave before anyone else comes to investigate, and I'm sure they will. It's OK to tell Professor Dumbledore about the cloak, he already knows, but please don't tell anyone else. Have a nice day, and HAPPY Birthday Matt!" Harry said, shouting out the last as he walked out the door, disapparating back to his tunnel.
That was interesting he thought. It's possible to grant children magic. That was very interesting indeed.

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See you next chapter!
killgore444
"If you're calling reality a hateful, cruel, and jealous place... then I cannot honestly refute your statement."

killgore444 · Nov 8, 2021

Sorry I've been gone so long.

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Harry was trudging slowly back to the Gryffindor dorms. Well, sort of. He'd had an urge to divert to the third floor near Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, and his notes he made under the influence of the potion and some divination spells he'd learned that morning agreed with the urge. And considering how this weekend went from being horrid to spectacular due to the influence of that potion, he wasn't going to start ignoring it now.

Not when it was so close to wearing off. Something important might happen. WOULD happen Harry mentally corrected, Dobby had asked to borrow the Sword Kindness. That couldn't be good. As it stood though, he was being harassed by an annoying insect that looked like a particularly ugly type of dung beetle that had started to buzz around him about the fourth floor.

He'd thought about making a duplicate to go back to the dorms and just continue to sleep in the room, but decided against it for now. Not only was he still unsure about the possibility of one of his duplicates going independent if they were separated long term, but he didn't want to condemn one of them to suffering under the scrutiny of the school, or in Snape's class when he wasn't willing to do it himself. That, Harry thought to himself, is an almost guaranteed to make a duplicate turn on him.

He'd actually used a note pad when going through his memories from the duplicates and made check marks for every duplicate created, destroyed [he tried not to think killed] and reabsorbed to make sure he got them all. He did NOT want a duplicate running around independent.

Still though, despite everything, this was hands down the best weekend of his life. He'd learned hundreds of new spells, to a degree not even Hermione could match. Relearned almost all of the spells he already new from the past to a much higher degree and could even cast a lot of spells silently now, like all the professors. He learned a surprising amount about runes, some Occlumency and even a smattering of Legilimency and arithmancy. Not to mention about a dozen new languages and an immense amount about his family.

And most importantly he'd managed to get a girlfriend. Multiple girlfriends in fact. He'd had his first kiss, the first time he'd ever seen a naked girl. He'd taking more then a little amount of time relieving himself when he got back. He was extremely glad the room protected him from the wards that let the professors know when anyone under fifteen got active. Hell, he'd even seen girls kissing each other. That was enough, despite his dislike of everyone right now, to get him curious about some of his female classmates and wonder what they'd look like kissing each other. The thought of Hermione kissing fellow fourth year Gryffindors Lavender or Sue Li, Parvati or even Salley-Anne Perks, not to mention some of the other girls in their year, or even other years was an incredible turn on, and something he'd never thought of Hermione, as something other than a friend, or even sister…

…'No!' He thought to himself [and more pointedly, the potion]. She WAS his friend, and yes, even a sister he wished he had. Besides, she had a serious crush on Ron [which was reciprocated] and despite everything with Ron, he did hope they'd be happy together. Not that he was successful in completely banishing his thoughts however, but he was forcing himself to think of of her being happy, which him using a potion to alter her mind wouldn't do. And it was that thought which managed to kill his fantasy. That smacked a little to close to mind control for his taste.

It didn't count with Vanessa, Joan and Lea however, Lea had admitted they were already that way. For several years in fact. All the potion did was tell him HOW to go about attracting them. Harry doubted that even a potion as powerful as Felix Felicis could alter past events that far back in time. For that matter, was it even capable of altering peoples sexual preferences? Harry was pretty sure it would be illegal if it was. At least he hoped the Ministry would be smart enough to outlaw something like that…

…Who was he kidding? They probably sold it to parents to make sure their kids turned out right. He just hoped that Collin never got a hold of any. Or for that matter, that second year girl, Romey, Ronda, Romilda, Robbin, no, Robbin was the last name of one of the other second years. It didn't matter, he wasn't interested in her or her vane personality.

Although that did bring up the question of why wizards didn't use it to prevent squibs?

Still, best weekend ever! Ron would be so jealous when he found out. 'Damn it!' Harry thought to himself, 'that was what was wrong now!' He didn't want to make him more jealous.

"Harry?" And speak of the devil. Harry turned around and saw Ron standing in the doorway to Myrtle's bathroom.

"Ron."

"I'm sorry Harry!" Ron blurted out before Harry could say anything else however. "I'm really sorry ok. I know I've been acting like a prat this past week, and feel like shite because of it. I… …I just never…" He came to a sputtering end to his words at that point, looking down at the floor.

"So," Harry began awkwardly, fell silent, thought about venting on Ron for a second, then thought better and finally finished; "So, we going to be acting like girls here or something?" Ok, he thought, that sounded way funnier in his head. Ron stared at him for several seconds in shock. Finally Harry threw his arm around Ron's shoulder, to happy to be talking to him again to hold his grudge. "Come on little sis, let's get you back to the dorms."

"You do realize that not only am I about nine inches taller than you, but I'm also about eight months older as well? That makes you the little sister."

"I'm not the one acting like a girl. Or coming out of the girls bathroom for that matter. What were you doing Ronda, hiding in the Chamber of secrets?"

"Yeah, yeah little Heidi," Ron said, grabbing Harry in a headlock and giving him a nouggy, "As a matter of fact I was doing a little exploring down there. Since I can mimic what you said to open the sink, I could get down there. I even remembered to grab a broom to fly back up. Did you know Dobby is working here?" He finished releasing Harry.

"Um, yeah. Well, not until Friday night, but I've been dealing with him all weekend. Why?"

"Oh, he brought one of those expanded space tents for me to sleep in down there. Even made sure I had food. Told me to stay down there until just now, he even said he made sure that Moody wouldn't be able to see us with his magic eye. Said something really important needed to be done at just the right time or lot's of people throughout world would die, but he didn't really explain."

"So I explored some down there, managed to get into the chamber and found the basilisk. You know, I always thought you were exaggerating it's size, or you know, you being so short was skewing your perspective or something, I mean, basilisks are only supposed to be a little bigger than a King Cobra. That damn thing was IMMENSE! Anyway, I did a little exploring in the chamber itself, found Slytherian's study. Dusty, but only from a couple of decades worth, not centuries, so I suppose I sat in the same chair that You-know-who sat in. Even read some of his old schoolbooks he left down there, they had a much better defense teacher then. Made doing some of my homework feel strange, but that's something I just couldn't pass up, farting in You-know's chair. If there was any other rooms down there, I couldn't get them to open."

"Er, yeah. The password to let the basilisk out wasn't open, so I assume Slytherian would have used something else for any other rooms as well." Harry said, his good mood dying. "Did Dobby really say 'people throughout world would die' when he talked to you?" Harry asked, his mind only skimming over everything else Ron said, not really processing it.

"Yeah. You up to something?"

"Not that I'm aware of. I'm pretty sure Dobby has other ideas though." Before he could continue, he heard a sound he recognized, but coming from a location no one was in. Paranoia spiking, he cast a silent 'Homenum Revelio' and getting a ping other than Ron, Harry whipped around, already beginning to silently cast 'Expelliarmus' at the invisible target even as his wand was still dropping into his hand from his new wand holster.

Putting a little more mental humph behind the spell, he watched it sail down the short corridor hitting the target even as Ron was drawing his wand from his pocket and dodging to the side. Luckily his spell hit before the target could defend himself, and a wand sailed to Harry's free hand while the target became visible again.

A now visible, and very surprised Headmaster. "Er, Professor, sorry." Harry said rather sheepishly, walking back to him to hand him his wand back, "You startled me." He added in defense of his actions.

Dumbledore stared at Harry for several seconds before glancing at his wand, then slowly, holding his hand out for Harry to place it in. "If I may," the Headmaster began, "What gave my presence away?"

"Er, you made a sound of some sort." Harry replied, glancing off to the side, hoping beyond hope the Headmaster didn't ask for further explanation. Not that it mattered, Ron was completely failing at hiding a smirk.

"Yes, well, if you'd been in attendance to Dinner tonight, you would have rather enjoyed, I think, the burritos the Elves served. I'm afraid I've developed a fondness for them when I was in the south western part of the States for the ICW a while back, and particularly enjoy the taste of refried beans." At that, both Ron and Harry lost their battle for self control and burst out laughing.

Slight smile on his face watching them, Dumbledore seemed to recognize that both needed a good laugh right now, but also a assessing look at Harry and the wand. "Here Harry, I believe this now belongs to you," he said much to Harry's surprise. "This particular wand has little loyalty to any one owner, but goes to whoever bests the current holder. Use it well Harry." He finished, odd tone to his words Harry thought, like what he was saying had meaning on more than one level.

"Sorry about that Professor, I…" Harry cut himself off, he really HAD meant to disarm whoever was there, and not in a friendly spar or training session manner. He'd read a couple of books on wand lore, so knew that that meant there was a chance it's loyalty would switch. But the way the headmaster said it, meant that this particular wand was more prone to it than most. And the way the Headmaster said 'Use it well' was odd, and reminded him strangely of when he received his Dad's cloak in first year. His reading this weekend HAD included not only children's books, but some of the more obscure history texts and divination spells, and had also included some stuff on famous and legendary wands, and he thought he recognized this one, plus he now recognized the mark on them. "Is this Grindelwald's wand?"

"I took it from him, so yes, it once was, but no more. It was mine from that point to this, and now it is yours, Harry. Take care not to lose it."

"So I've now got two of the pieces?" Harry noticed Dumbledore's eyebrow rise, and Ron's look of confusion, . "Does this mean that my cloak will once again work against you?" He asked trying to mask what he was feeling with a little teenage belligerence.

"I dare say it will be harder, but not impossible to detect you without that wand." the Headmaster replied, "Perhaps I should create a pair of glasses that mimics Professor Moody's eye."

"Would it work if it wasn't part of the original set?" Harry returned, "I mean, the set was actually six pieces, not three. The brothers only received three of them as ransom for not killing him, there was still the Eye of Seeing, which Professor Moody has, the Mirror of Death, also described as a portal of some sort, which is lost, and the Stone of Life which is also lost. Plus of course, the Spirit Stone, or Resurrection Stone, which the youngest brother received which is also lost. Supposedly, they're the only things that work against each other." Ron's surprised 'Bloody hell!' when he clued in to what Harry was talking about went unremarked upon as the Headmaster once again stared at him. "Or am I mistaken?"

"In all honesty Harry, I'm not sure. The legend of the Three Brothers is a woefully incomplete record of the events surrounding the items, assuming there is any truth to them at all. But I must say, I've never heard of the other three items, nor even considered the possibility that one would need to collect more than three." The Headmaster said, not surprising Harry thought, he'd only learned of it when he'd gotten curious and asked the 'How-to' book how to prevent Moody from seeing thru his cloak, and branched out to learning about the Hallows as a group. "Was this what you discussed with Gellert when you went to see him yesterday?" Dumbledore asked a slight frown on his face, as if he was trying to decide if he'd be willing to believe it or not.

"You know, I don't think the topic of the Hallows even came up." Before Harry could continue, a new presence made itself known, as Professor Moody came 'jogging' around the corner, his clop/stomp footsteps oddly muffled, as if he cast a silencing spell on them. His look of shock when he noticed them was surprising, since normally he always knew were everyone was around him.

As Harry looked at him, Moody looked more and more awkward and desperate, and just in general looked WRONG somehow. Acting on instinct, almost certainly potion influenced, Harry quickly cast the spell 'Finite Miscugliem', the anti-potion version of the spell 'Finite Incantatem'. Unfortunately, Harry couldn't yet do this one without speaking it aloud, so Moody had a chance to dodge. Luckily he didn't, hearing the Finite portion of the spell, he must have assumed that Harry was casting the anti-spell version, which wouldn't affect potions. So the spell hit him square in the chest and almost instantly, he began to change shape, all three of them recognizing the affects of a polyjuice potion coming to an end. Moody dropped to his knee as a normal leg regrew knocking his fake leg to the side, and a natural eye dislodged the magical eye.

Rising to stand before them was a man, mid to late thirties, graying black hair oddly familiar, if sinister looking face, and a look of complete rage on his face. "Barty, it's been some time since you last graced this facility with your presence." The Headmaster said as glowing runes, made from the flames of the Flagrate spell (don't get that one confused with Flagrante Harry thought to himself) appeared hovering around his hands, "Although the reports of your death in Azkaban seem to have been exaggerated."

The man snapped his wand up and almost immediately the green light of the Killing Curse shot out, even as the Headmaster threw up a rock column in front of Ron and Harry and tried to dodge to the side. Luckily enough, Harry had already begun to silently cast 'Cerise Protego' and a shimmering red shield sprung up in front of Dumbledore. The green light went thru the shield, transforming into brown light and striking Dumbledore, causing him to double over for a second before righting himself in surprise.

A surprise echoed in the face of the other man. A look of abject fear replaced the look of rage as he called out 'Forthwith' while casting another green light at Dumbledore, who seemed to trust the new defence against it and hunkered down behind it as Harry cast it again around Ron and himself as the column descended back into the floor.

Dumbledore , who was working from the extreme disadvantage of no wand, had already cast several more defensive magics on the three of them. Harry was ninety percent sure if he wasn't worried about Ron and him, the Headmaster would be much more aggressive, but was wasting most of his efforts on protecting the two of them.

Meanwhile, about four or five individuals wearing the cloaks and masks of Death Eaters, had fell out of the other mans pocket at the word forthwith, landing in a heap at the feat of the fake Moody. Harry wasted no time throwing a couple of 'Pretoria' spells at the lot. Despite laying at the bottom of the pile, one of them managed to shield them from his spells. Ron's unusual contribution was a 'Engorgio Incendio' combination which seemed to engorge the flame from the Incendio spell from a basic single target, or starting a fireplace, to taking up most of the hall. With all the shield spells up, nothing much came of it, but it was a major distraction. And enough for the Headmaster to go on the offensive, thrusting his hand out, the Death Eaters all went flying down the hall. Dumbledore, shifted slightly to be able to look at Harry while still watching his enemies, "Harry, the shield you used, how do…"

"Add the word Cerise to the front of Protego." Harry cut him off, "If the shield is red, it'll protect against the killing curse. You'll still get really sick though."

"I can LIVE with sick Harry, you two need to get back to your tower. NOW!" He added when it looked like both of them would rather stay and help. Turning back towards his now very cautious foes, he touched his throat and began to speak even as both Harry and Ron began to run back to the tower, his voice thundering thru the halls. "All Hogwarts students, please return to your dorms. All of our guest students, please return to your respective lodging. All teachers please go to to the nearest student dorm or lodging to aid in it's defence should that prove needed. If your way is barred due to spell fire, please retreat to the Hospital wing. Filius an… Sectu…"

The Headmaster's voice cut off for a couple of seconds, and Harry considered going back, but Ron grabbed his arm. "No Harry, for the first time since coming here, the adults are doing their jobs and protecting us instead of depending on us to protect everyone! LET THEM!" So maybe Ron noticed that he had been spending more effort on protecting the two of them than defeating the bad guys as well.

Even as Dumbledore finished his, whatever that was, not a speech Harry thought, it became clear that getting back to the dorms might not be so simple, as there seemed to be several other groups of Death Eaters, as well as several Aurors fighting and causing chaos as well. He pulled Ron into an alcove and pulled out one of his cudgels from an expanded pocket, giving Ron a quick run down of how to use it; "Just swing this end at the bad guy, he'll be hurt and impaired. If you need him down for good, think 'Max power' at it, they'll go down hard. You can throw it at someone and it'll work,but anyone can pick it up and use it." He then cast 'Kage Bunshin no Jutsu' on the two of them enough to get about five duplicates each really glad he was wearing his ad-hock armor under his school robes now, but rather wishing he could have worn his conjured battle robes with those extra defensive spells built in. "Come on!" Harry said when it looked like Ron was going to question about the duplicates. And then they went back to running.

As they rounded the corner to the balcony above great hall and the main stairway, they saw Professor Flitwick along with an unknown Auror and some suits of armor, on the first level fighting a large group of Death Eaters. The Rons once again cast 'Engorgio Incendio' on the group of Death Eaters, but with a much more open area and no way of knowing which area the others were casting at, the spells spread out in a few, more even, dome shapes, which while avoiding the Professor and the Auror, only hit about half the bad guys.

It was one of those that managed to cast 'Glisseo' on the stairs just as the group of them started to ascend them, causing them to slide down towards the first level. Which while inconvenient, and making it so they had two more levels to ascend, wouldn't have actually been bad, except one of the Death Eaters hit the stairway with a 'Finite Incantatem' about halfway down. The sudden change from smooth slide to steps turned the ride rather more bumpy. As he was being bounced around, he wondered whether the potion was just winding down, or if this was a needed encounter. It was at this point Harry saw Ron bounce right into the railing, his head going between the supports while his body continued down causing him to snap out, breaking his neck. This caused the weird vibe Harry had been using to tell which one of the Rons was the primary to switch to one of the duplicates, saving his life.

Harry and his duplicates managed to land roughly on their feet at the bottom of the steps, almost in the group of Death Eaters making it difficult for Flitwick and the Auror to target this group of scumbags. Harry and his duplicates began casting again with three of them casting defensive magic while Harry himself and the other two went for offensive magic going with several 'Bombarda', Expulso, and one or two 'Confringo' spells, but the Death Eaters had already cast the 'Fire Freezing' charm on themselves by this point causing Harry to switch to 'Acer Gelu' and freeze them instead of burning them.

Two of the Rons got right up and into hand to hand range, Harry's cudgel working impressively well, with one rather notable strike that Ron got in coming down directly onto the top of the Death Eaters head who's mask had come off. A Death Eater they had both seen from time to time, Gregory Goyle's father. Ron must have been using 'max power' because the 'Expulso', 'Reducto', and 'Flipendo' affects made it a rather surreal, if messy attack. 'Reducto' causes things to be explosively blown away, 'Expulso' just causes things to blow up, and 'Flipendo' knocks people around causing them to go end over end. One of two other Death Eaters that Ron had hit had been blown back after a hit to the chest, missing a large portion of his chest, like a kid striking a pinata, if you replaced the candy with body parts. The other one had been hit in his wand arm when he tried to block Ron, the 'Flipendo' flinging him around while his arm blew up in a spectacular and bloody amputation before he landed on his head and lost consciousness. Goyle however had all of that directed straight down from the top of his head to his feet, causing the 'Expulso' to affect every part of his body, 'Reducto' to blow his remains out in a relatively even circle, and the 'Flipendo' to turn that circle into a cloud of small chunks and bloody mist covering all of them in blood and viscera. It actually caused combat to pause for a couple of seconds.

The other three Rons cast 'Aguamenti' at the Death Eaters, yet it was apparent that what they got wasn't water, but something rather more rancid smelling as all three targets that were hit started gagging and gasping while trying to shield their eyes. Harry cast a 'Alchemyst' spell on the liquid Ron was shooting out, turning it into a mist and making it an area affect spell that Harry could somewhat control, spreading it to more of the Death Eaters, even as Ron explained. "Skunk Musk. Since 'Aguamenti' can actually create any non-magical liquid, I decided to give them a taste of nature. Nice addition by the way."

"Thanks" Harry said while mulling over what Ron had just said. He vaguely recalled Hermione mentioning that once, but he'd never really thought about it. The first thing he had thought of at the time was chicken broth, so had mostly ignored the spell. Now his mind went to something he remembered from before Hogwarts, when Dudley was still forcing him to eat all manner of unpleasant things. One had always stood out more than the rest. One so bad Aunt Petunia had actually made him stop. Ghost Peppers! If Harry could create the juice from a Ghost Pepper, it'd be even more effective than skunk spray. Before he could enact it however, Goyle was hit and combat paused.

Then the last of this group of Death Eaters went down to stun spells from Flitwick and the Auror (and a sword thrust from on of the last two suits of armor in the great hall), who quickly ran over and joined them. But before they could say anything, a beach-ball sized area of darkness, surrounded by purple electrical looking affects came sailing into the hall. Professor Flitwick cast 'Avea Apara' creating a orange, dome shaped shield around them and one of Harry's duplicates cast 'Scindo' on the globe just as it exploded, managing to part it's area of affect, creating a cone that wasn't effected by the blast and helping in protecting them (Harry wasn't sure even a 'Avea Apara' spell could have stopped that blast). Thankfully, Flitwick's shield protected them from debris, not the least of which was an entire set of stairs from one of the upper floors landing on the dome with a terrifying crash.

None of the Death Eaters who had been merely unconscious survived. Harry REALLY wanted to learn that spell.

Even as the blast was still echoing though the castle, two more Death Eaters came flying in on brooms, Nimbus 2001s if Harry wasn't mistaken. Flitwick cast a 'Densissima' charm on the air in front of one of them, turning it into a viscus mass, similar to thick, invisible syrup. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, just slowing you down and making you work to move, but at the speed they were flying, he might as well have done a bellyflop off Gryffindor tower onto the ground. He smashed into the glob, losing consciousness, before slowly sinking to the bottom of the mass, and then falling to the ruble strewn ground.

The Auror got the other one with a 'Incarcerous' spell, not tying the Death Eater up, but tying him to the remains of the stairway banister. Specifically tying his neck to the banister with a noose. Creating an effect similar to what killed the other Ron. Evidently, he was fed up with how deadly the spells they were using are and decided to stop trying for prisoners.

Just as they were starting to actually breathe again, several voices outside the entry called out a spell none of the wanted to hear, the shouted 'Agni Incaendium' from several different voices sent chills down their spines. Fiendfyre! As the beasts of diabolical flame came roaring into the great hall, one of his duplicates cast 'Yam Securitas' summoning a Stag headed warrior made of Blessed water, carrying a shield and sword to do battle with one of the beasts of flame. Harry was really glad he'd learned those summoning spells now, even has he himself was casting 'Finite Invocazionum' (the version of finite for use on rituals and summoning magic) on another of the figures of flame.

Flitwick meanwhile cast a spell similar to what Dobby used on Malfoy at the end of his second year, and Dumbledore used earlier, and propelled all the death eaters, even the flyer from before, most of their fiend fire, and a good chunk of the rubble outside. Turning towards Harry to ask a question, Harry beat him to the punch, showing how to cast 'Finite Invocazionum' by doing so on the last bit of fiendfyre still inside along with his summoned water elemental warrior. Harry then wished the two of them good luck, grabbed Ron, telling the Professor they were heading for the dorms. The Professor sent the last two suites of armor with them as he and the Auror left to go outside and deal with the fiendfyre that had broken lose from the rather stupid, and now dead at the flaming hands of their own servants, Death Eaters.

Several of his duplicates had begun to summon lions using the 'Felidia' summoning spell he'd learned that afternoon, so before they were even back at the steps, they were accompanied by a pride of male lions (Harry didn't know why they were all males, but decided now wasn't the time to ponder).

Climbing the stairs was even more tedious and exhausting than normal due to the need for haste, running up seven flights of stairs isn't easy. Combined with the need for even more vigilance than normal, not only did they need to watch out for more Death Eaters, but the stairs themselves, by reason of alarms or damage to them, were even more active and mobile than normal. Before they reached seventh floor, they had to descend a level twice to take a different set of stairs as they moved under them, and had to jump across an opening that they were to close to fully stop before hitting open space.

They'd just made it back to the third floor balcony again though, when they noticed a couple of Death Eaters enter the hall below. They hadn't seen their group yet, so one of Harry's duplicates suggested a new spell they learned, and both Death Eaters became victims of conjured anvils thanks to the 'Acme' spell. Ron looked at Harry strangely as the four large anvils fell, with a whistle, onto the two Death Eaters below. They heard the whistle just before impact, and both had looked up and been hit in the face by something a lot bigger and moving as fast as a bludger. Harry made a mental note to modify his armor to include a top covering shield.

They managed to make it back to right before the Fat Lady's portrait before they encountered anymore Death Eaters. This group had set up an ambush in the hallway, though they were completely unprepared for the lions, who set the ambush off early. Harry and Ron exchanged more spell fire with them, but they were to close for anything other than really quick spells, giving the adults who all used silent casting a huge advantage. Harry though, could also cast silently, and Ron still had the cudgel, and the lions, although most were quickly dispatched, they did distract and impede them. The last three of Ron's duplicates were 'dispelled' in the fighting, but allowing for the new primary Ron, Harry and one of the lions to reach the portrait.

Calling out the password, they jumped inside ordering the Fat Lady to go to the next password on the list, but two of the Death Eaters managed to get inside before one of his duplicates outside managed to close the portrait, staying outside to deal with the last of them outside before fleeing to the Room of Requirement.

As the stumbled inside, Ron fell to the floor, the cudgel rolling away across the floor, leaving Harry to try and grapple with the rather large Death Eater, the lion having managed to get the other ones head in it's mouth and was shaking him like a dog with a new chew toy. Harry heard people yelling and screaming, but couldn't afford to pay any attention, fully concentrating on his fight as he was thrown around before being knocked in the back of the knees by the thrashing lion.

Harry managed to catch a glimpse of a sword blade flying by, inches over his head were just a second before his own back had been (and a second before that, the Death Eater's back had been before he twisted), striking the Death Eater in the stomach, and causing him to drop to the ground with a moan of… …Was that pleasure?

Getting up off the ground had never been harder, or more desperately needed, with the sounds of fighting outside the portrait. Between the lion thrashing someone around, Vincent Crabbe's father thrashing around in ecstasy, a blood soaked Ron desperately trying to stand and set himself for an attack and his own blood soaked shoes and robes, chunks of Goyle still falling from both of them, it took a bit to get to his feet.

Once he had, he saw a horrifically injured Hermione, the sword Kindness held out in front of her with blood running down it's edge explaining Crabbe's reaction to his injury. Ron grabbed Hermione in a hug, not smart in retrospect, but nothing bad happened thankfully. Harry was pretty sure his luck was on it's last legs with that final bit.

Looking beyond Hermione, he noticed Professor McGonagall, Nearly Headless Nick, and virtually the entire Gryffindor house standing and looking at them in complete shock, the Professors mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, trying to speak, but no words making it to her mouth. The rest of the house almost as bad. Sending a mental nudge down the magical link to his summoned lion as he put a hand on it's back to calm it, causing it to drop the now very dead Death Eater to the ground. "Stand guard at the entry. Don't let anyone through unless allowed by myself, Ron, Hermione, McGonagall, Nick or one of the Prefects." He order it, pointing to each person as he named them, and each Prefect separately. "Ron, the cudgel!" He said, pointing to were it had rolled. Ron quickly grabbed it before anyone else got brave enough to try.

Looking down at the still living Death Eater, he was startled to realize that he was right about who it was. Crabbe's father was rolling on the ground, shite eating grin on his face. Growing enraged that someone like him could find pleasure after this, he cast 'Finite Incantatem' on him knowing that the effect the sword had was based on a charm. Crabbe's moans quickly changed to screams of pain, basilisk venom having been embedded into the blade.

Harry then bent down and cast 'Rennervate' on him to make him more aware of what was going on, and slapped him hard enough to make him focus on him. "You're dying you know. The only thing that can save your life is Phoenix tears, and I highly doubt Fawkes is willing to save your life after tonight. You will die screaming in pain, like you have made so many do before." Harry told him, before pausing and looking for a second at Hermione. "But if you answer my questions, truly answer them. Then I won't prevent her from using the swords magic to turn your pain back into pleasure. You're choice!"

Seeing him nod yes, Harry began. "What was the purpose of the attack tonight? What was your intent?"

"We were to help Crouch grab you and cause as much damage and chaos as possible. If possible, kill some students and any professors we could, but their deaths were really irrelevant. We were to then cast fiendfyre on the castle as we left to draw out more defenders to kill as we left." He replied, as members of his house seemed to finally make a sound, even if it was just a sputtering and incoherent muttering.

"Who ordered this?"

"I'm not sure." Seeing Harry's look of disbelief, he went on. "I'm not! He claimed he was the Dark Lord, but he looked like an even more messed up house elf than that stupid little cretin that Lucius used to keep." He finished, not understanding the renewed rage once again on Harry's face.

Standing up, "Anyone else have any questions for this piece of shite? He's only got a few minutes left to live, so ask now?" Turning to Hermione, "If you want to ease his suffering, I won't stop you. But it's up to you."

"I killed him Harry! I killed the father of a classmate. He's dying because of me." She said, the look of appalled shock making her already injured face look even worse. "I killed him, but I can't bring myself to stop his pain. Not after what he said!" She cried, tears falling from her eyes.

"NO!" Ron shouted, "No you didn't. You are not responsible. He made his own choices. HE is the reason he is dead." With that, Ron took off his robe, thankfully wearing some muggle pants and a shirt underneath, threw it over Crabbe's form, and before anyone understood his intent, brought the cudgel down, pumping as much of his own magic into it as he could, down on Crabbe's chest with a blow that cracked the floor beneath him. Like Goyle earlier, his form literally exploded outwards, though this time there was more large pieces and his cloak helped to contain (a little, it at least didn't go up as far) the blood spray. Crabbe's head went spinning off, bouncing around like the ball in a pinball machine before coming to rest at the feet of the second year girls.

"RON!" Several people shouted with various degrees of shock and horror. The second year girls looked ready to vomit, their feet covered in the last of the blood that had been in his head, the rest in a merry path across the common room before meeting up with the much larger blood splatter in the area around the three of them.

Ron looked up and glanced around, "What the hell are you doing?!" He yelled at everyone, "Can't you hear the fighting going on outside? Why haven't you set up defenses? Gotten the kids upstairs and blockaded the stairway? What if it had just been Death Eaters? Half of you morons would be dead before you even understood what was going on!" Ron paused for a second in thought as Nearly Headless Nick bent down and stuck his hands into the chest of the other Death Eater and shaking them around like someone washing their hands, before Ron continued, his chess skills coming to the fore. "Everyone under seventeen, get your arses upstairs to your dorms. Girls especially since most of the attackers seemed to be male, and the anti-male charms might help you! Form up defenses and create blockades on the landings! Each year is responsible for defending the next younger year! Prefects under seventeen, you're in the stairwells as well, get things organized and be ready to take the forefront of defense should those out here fall! Everyone else, create barriers in here! Do what it takes, but if you can't stop invaders cold, at least slow and injure them enough that the younger students might be able to hold them!"

Harry watched everyone still looking at them in shock, decided they needed motivation and cast a weak 'Sonorus' on himself. "DO AS YOU'RE TOLD! MOVE IT!" The affect was almost instantaneous. Harry gave it another second, watching them run around like chickens with their heads cut off, but at least doing something, Nick repeating his 'hand washing' act in the head of Crabbe. Harry decided it was a ghost thing and wasn't his concern.

Deciding he didn't need to be so loud now, he cast 'Quietus' on himself just now noticing that he had been using Dumbledore's wand, and looked at Ron and Hermione. By unspoken agreement, both Harry and Ron took Hermione by an arm each and guided her to their favorite corner. Harry then cast 'Avea Apara' around them, causing a large, partial dome to form around them, it merging and conforming to the stonework of the corner. He then cast a 'Muffliato' so anything they said, or any noise they made couldn't be heard outside, but they could still hear past the barrier. Then he used 'Ex nihilo' to conjure curtains so no one could see in, he even remembered to make sure to cover over them so no one with a broom could see in, and they'd have privacy. He then used 'Ex nihilo' again to conjure up three buckets and handed them to an increasingly green looking Ron and Hermione, took the last bucket and promptly joined the other two in emptying his stomach.

He was so bloody fucking done with this place!

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Edited for spelling and grammar.

killgore444 · Dec 20, 2021

A very very rough draft. But I wanted it out before Christmas. So Happy Christmas Everyone.

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Rita Skeeter was not having a good day. Or rather, she was no longer having a good day. It'd all started early this morning when that stupid little mudblood shite managed to scoop every actual real reporter the Daily Prophet had on it's staff and found out that Harry Bloody Potter had been at Nurmengard visiting none other that Gellert Grindelwald. Making it worse was that she had already made arrangements with Fudge to openly get her past Dumbledore's ban on her presence inside Hogwarts in a couple of weeks. She'd been so looking forward to rubbing his face in on that point.

But oh no, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore couldn't have that! After some incident at Hogwarts involving Lucius Malfoy's son nearly getting expelled, Dumbshite Dumbledore had made a statement that NO press would be allowed on school grounds. That the Weighing of the Wands would take place in Hogsmead, and that a press conference would be had at that time with a single representative from each magical media outlet from each country with a student competing. Details of press being allowed to watch the tournament itself would be made available at that time.

So she had decided that the only real response to that was to sneak into the school and do a little bit of investigative reporting. What she'd found out throughout the day had been nearly a dream come true. Potter and friends were actually missing, even if Potter at least had been spotted several times. Horrific levels of violence between the houses that had left over a dozen spending the night in the infirmary. The Malfoy Scion was very close to being not only expelled, but arrested and sent to Azkaban for possession of several dark artifacts of a nature to allow him to dominate and control members of the opposite sex. She had nearly broken her cover and accidentally transformed laughing so hard at that. Now Malfoy was in a desperate race to insure that his brat would be allowed to stay out of prison, much less stay in school long enough to take his O.W.L.s and be considered a wizard when he turned seventeen.

Evidently even Fudge had limits on what he'd take bribes to allow. Although, to be fair to Lucius, she was pretty sure that it was a case of the Prophet's senior editor seeing blood in the water. Fudge wouldn't be willing to go so against the public outcry over someone having the ability to rape their daughters with impunity after all. Rita rather doubted Fudge would survive if he was really that dumb.

It was kind of sad actually, that the most normal thing was Mad Eye Moody. No rants about conspiracies to murder him. No random attacks on people. Nothing except him being thrust right back into being an Auror. He'd actually been placed in charge of the other Aurors that had, for 'Some-Reason' been placed on school grounds.

Still though, the one thing that information had eluded her on was the one thing she'd came here for. Potter!

Other than finding out he was missing, she'd had very little luck getting any details about him. She'd overheard the little half-breed goblin telling the other Teachers that he and Snape had just missed him when delivering an invitation to a mudblood. There was a rumor that he'd been seen in the rather seedy and dark leaning Madam Walpole's bookstore she'd overheard from a couple of Aurors. Combine that with the whole visiting Grindelwald thing, and it put Saint Potter in a whole new light.

And quite apart from the idea that little Saint Potter was visiting the devil himself, there was all sorts of questions about HOW Potter was able to make the visit. One, the power of the Goblet was supposedly able to keep those bound to it within a very short distance. Which would have actually ruled out the trip to Knockturn Alley as well. Then there was the apparent fact that he'd done it without the permission of Dumbledore, much less his assistance. Even if he could Apparate despite his age, it's not like Nurmengard advertised its location.

It'd been after midnight when she'd finally found Potter wandering around after curfew. Following him had been surprisingly easy for someone who had a reputation for moving around unseen. It was almost has if he WANTED her to follow him. That really should have been her first clue-in that things were about to go bad.

She'd watched with some amusement the meet up with the Weevil brat. While she found their discussion rather amusing, and Very MALE, the blood-traitor's comments about He-who-must-not-be-named rather scandalise. She'd need to spice up their conversation a bit though. Add in a few lines about how heartbroken poor Harry was, and the entirety of the magical world would be at the blood-traitor's throat. There really weren't that many of her readers who were intelligent enough to understand that this was how teenagers acted. No, she was sure she could turn Ron Weasley into a demon as far as her readers were concerned.

Seeing Potter disarm Dumbshite was thrilling. And also rather chilling when one considered what she knew about his activities this past weekend. If the Great and All Powerful Dumbledore couldn't take Potter has a teenager, who would be able to beat him as an adult? She actually thought about writing a piece about how the Darklord had sensed Potter's evil nature, and had only attacked his family to protect the magical world. She dismissed it almost immediately. Even her readers weren't that dumb.

Lost in her own thoughts, she almost missed the conversation with Dumbledore and was taken off guard by the references to the Deathly Hallows. Potter had two of them, and Moody had the third?! No, wait, Potter has said six pieces to the set.

It was a shock when Moody showed up and Potter almost immediately attacked him. Surely he wasn't so power mad as to go for the third piece right in front of Dumbledore? Moody turning into Crouch jr however sent her back, and nearly caused her to once again accidentally transform back into her human shape. She watched in awe as Crouch cast the Killing Curse at Dumbledore, and was just as shocked as everyone else when Potter cast a shield that protected him.

She'd debated staying with Potter or watching Crouch and his friends duel Dumbledore. But in the end, she decided the duel would be more interesting then watching two kids run away from a fight. She'd give Dumbledore credit, if only to herself, he was in fact a Grand Warlock with a mastery of battle magic that defied her understanding of the term. Alone, against six opponents and lacking a wand, or any other focus, he was still winning.

Using only runes he'd drawn in midair, he'd managed to utterly destroy one of them, and knock out two others when THE Explosion happened. Both sides had been knocked on their asses when the entire floor, for lack of a better term, rippled. She'd taken shelter from the fight in a tiny cranny where the archway met the ceiling so she could watch the fight. But the walls and ceiling hadn't been immune to the blast and she'd been knocked silly when the stone she was clinging to gave way and fell.

When she came to, she realized that she'd missed the end of the duel. Crouch and friends were all laying around either dead, or knocked out and bound. She tried to find the Eye, but gave up under the assumption that Dumbledore wouldn't have left one of the Hallows sitting around untended were anyone could find it. It was that that made her pause, no one had come to Dumbledore's aid, even after he had requested it. That and the blast had come from somewhere. This put a little more energy into her movements. Not only was she missing the story, but there were Death Eaters about, and despite her being sympathetic to their anti-mudblood views, she wasn't a Death Eater, so they wouldn't ignore her.

Deciding to go back to her insect form (when had she became human?), she was greeted by incredible pain, sticking her halfway through her transformation. It took her a couple of seconds to understand what happened; she'd broken several bones. She'd need to sneak out of the castle in her halfway state to get to a point she could disapparate from so she could get to an unlicensed healer she knew. She couldn't transform in either direction now.

Trying to sneak as a three foot tall, half insect wasn't easy. Especially since none of her limbs were at the same level of transformation. Her left lower leg was completely human (if somewhat shorter), her lower right leg was mostly insect, but had a human foot. All her other limbs were similarly mismatched, as were her eyes, making it hard to see. So she was completely surprised when she was smacked in the back of the head by something hard, dropping her to the floor.

"Dobby apologizes to Miss Dung Beetle. But Dobby can not allow Miss to spread her filth on the Great Harry Potter. Therefore Dobby must regretfully remove the poop eater from being a threat."

WHAT THE HELL?!?! Did a bloody fucking house elf attack her? And a clothed elf at that. Mentally cursing every person who had ever freed an elf, she tried to grab her wand with one of her mismatched hands, but the fucking elf just swatted her arm, snapping yet another bone and making her fling her wand away.

OK, she'd need to actually use her charm on this creature. 'Worst case scenario' she thought to herself, 'it casts an Oblivate on me and I'm revealed as an animagus. I've still got my notes in my bag, and my quill was still dictating everything I saw, so I'll still be able to get my story and even get this filthy thing destroyed.'

That was when she noticed it was reading from a small, muggle style notebook, muttering to itself. "Forgetting something. Dobby is forgetting something. Oh, here it is. Remember to take the filth eater's bag before killing her. Yes, she must be told that she is going to die and why." With that, it flipped it's notebook closed and vanished it away before walking up to her with and casting a cutting hex at her, cutting through the strap on her bag and going deep into her shoulder.

"Stop, please, I'm begging you." she tried to cry out, but it came as only a whisper of pain. "Please!"

"Dobby is very sorry, but even Miss Dung Eater must understand that the life she has chosen, to destroy the lives of others, would one day bring her to her death. Dobby is most regretful, even if Miss has earned her pain and death for the misery she has inflicted on others. But that misery wouldn't have led to her death this day if Dobby hadn't had the realization that Miss Dung Beetle's words would have a two percent chance of causing most of the human race to be destroyed. So while Dobby must punish himself most strenuously, he must still kill Miss now."

"Two percent? You're going to kill me over something that likely won't even happen?" What the hell, those where minuscule odds. Surely her life was more important than that? Seeing someone approach them, she tried calling for help. "Please HELP! An elf is trying to kill me. Please help me." She again tried to call as the ghost of the Bloody Baron floated down the hall.

"May I inquire what is going on here? A House Elf trying to kill a hum… …well something?"

"Lord Baron sir." The fucking creature began, "This woman is a direct threat to several students here at the school, and I've reason to believe that she could likely cause what the muggles call, A Mass Extinction Event. Therefore I believe that she represents a threat more severe than the Death Eaters who have attacked this night." The creature said with far more respect then it showed her, while levitating up it's notebook for the ghost to read. "I became aware of this possibility when, under the influence of Felix Felicis, I visited Professor Sybill Trelawney and received a true prophecy from her."

As it fished it's rather self righteous excuse, the ghost just stared at it for several long moments before nodding and gliding over to her. "Since she is an enemy of the school, I'll make sure she can not come back as a ghost." He explained as he stuck his hands into her chest, increasing her pain immensely. "It is the duty of the Ghost Council to this, so no one should be suspicious. And maybe future reporters will figure out that writing stories trying to drum up support for exercising us from our homes is a very unwise thing to do."

"Please! You can't do this. You can't…"

"Miss Dung Beetle, Dobby has gone through much effort to make sure the enemies of Hogwarts were revealed now, before they could do much harm. On a night when the students were all protected, and there was extra help in the Castle to help defend it." Waving the notebook around again, it continued, "Dobby has put much effort into insuring that the bad evil wizard pretending to be Professor Moody was tricked into revealing himself to the Great Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore. Dobby has had much work making sure that the Auror patrols heard things that made them pause in their routes so they would be in the best place to defend the students and school. Everything that has happened this night, has been part of Dobby's plan Miss Dung Beetle. Now Dobby has much more work to do this night, and Dobby must end this before Dobby is discovered. Goodbye Miss filth eater."

The last things Rita Skeeters ever saw was the Ghost of the Bloody Baron washing his hands in her chest and a large stone falling at her face.

~

killgore444 · Dec 24, 2021

The path to Harry's wish fulfillment chapter :
Getting Ron back as a friend! Complete.
Proving he wasn't some stupid schmuck to be pushed around! Complete.

Step 1 of getting undeniable proof that he didn't enter himself in the tournament!
Step 2 of getting whoever did enter him DEAD!
Step 13 and 14 of acquiring the skill and power to WIN!
Steps 9 thru 15 of getting enough respect and fear from people!
Step 5 of gaining political power.

0011001100

'Yam Securitas', 'Felidia', 'Cerise Protego', 'Engorgio Incendio', 'Finite Miscugliem' and 'Finite Invocazionum' are all my own inventions, even if both protego and incendio are cannon spells.

'Ex nihilo' is the incantation I made up for the cannon spell Dumbledore uses to conjure stuff from nothing.

'Alchemyst' is a spell I'm less sure of. I've seen three different HP stories have something similar, (A)D&D, both 2nd, 3rd also had spells that did something similar (and that's were I THINK the incantation came from), as did PFrpg and MtA.

Pretoria: from Backward-With-Purpose-Part-I-Always-and-Always chap 38
Inobservatus chapter 39 of Seasons-of-change
Acer Gelu is from Larceny, Lechery, and Luna Lovegood! chapter 61
Scindo from chap 13 of Kicking-Gotham
Densissima from chap 58 of Intensity
Avea Apara from Intensity chap 7
Agni Incaendium from I-Still-Haven-t-Found-What-I-m-Looking-For chapter 12
Acme from Make-A-Wish chapter 38

Thank you Aleh for you help. Honestly, your going over and pointing out my mistakes in grammar/spelling is the reason I post here before posting on FFN. Once I post there, I don't like to do edits. It's why I ignored stuff from chapters I already posted.

So, what does everyone think about part 3 of chap 7? Or just the chapter in general?

I'm hoping this puts paid on the idea that I'm following the story without deviation despite Dobby and Harry altering everything. Some things will follow cannon religiously simply because they were set up before the story divergence. For all that people complain when a story has the same tasks as the book, that shit was set up before the school year even started, they just had to get an extra dragon when Harry was added. Although he's going to handle them differently. If nothing else, fake Moody isn't around to offer advise anymore.

That having been said, the actions they have taken HAVE had major impacts on how others have acted. Dumbledore and Madam Bones are actually working together and Dumbledore is no longer worried that she's just a stooge for Fudge (he was the one who appointed her after all). Bones is no longer worried that he's just a senile old man who needs to be removed, though she IS still worried about his mental health, it's more worried about stress. She's also starting to think outside the box.

Dobby and Winky have got a whole bunch of irons in the fire. They tricked Crouch and Voldemort into revealing themselves when they were weak and the good guys were strong. And in the Christmas spirit, Dobby's got himself a list of who's naughty and nice, and isn't the least bit scared to check people off the first list. Of course, one wonders why his notes said he should explain to Skeeter WHY he was killing her before he did so.

Hermione's ordeal will be explained next chapter.

This is the point where I planned to have Harry seriously reconsider his desire to stay at Hogwarts and in England. So while I do in fact intend for him to remain British, he is going to be waffling a bit. After all, he's got three really good reasons to move to America right now (and a lot of good reasons to want to leave). Of course, he's still bound to the tournament, so Dumbledore has till the end of the year to convince him to stay. Harry also still has a pocket full of dead basilisks.

Ron is in trouble. He's always been at the edges of Harry's adventures up to now. And while violence hasn't actually been that rare, deadly violence has only been used by him against giant spiders up till now. Now he's killed his fellow human beings and has to deal with that emotionally (and legally). While most of the people he killed were in the heat of battle, Crabbe was a flat out murder of a prisoner who had surrendered. Murder that took place in front of his sister and brothers, a quarter of the students (EVERYONE in Gryffindor), his head of house and the Deputy Headmistress and a member of the Ghost Council. A free PoV to the first person to guess how I intend to Try and get Ron off that legally.

Ginny, Fred and George are suddenly looking at their younger brother and his friends in a whole new light. While their epiphany started in chapter two, this chapter sent it spiraling. The twins especially are dealing with the realization that if it came to a straight up fight, Ron would likely wipe the floor with them. All three of them are now wondering how much of that resentment Harry brought up in chapter two is going to turn into aggression from Ron now.

The rest of the students just got a (not so)pretty good look into the Trio's adventures. The younger girls especially need only look at Hermione to now understand what standing next to Harry might cost them, and why being the 'Damsel in Distress' for their hero, Harry, to rescue is probably a REALLY DUMB thing to wish for. Plus a lot of them have to now figure out how to get blood and entrails out of their clothes (that's a student chore since House Elves don't touch clothes). Oh, everyone in Gryffindor can now see Thestrals.

Professor McGonagall has just had the same realizations as everyone else, but has the added burden of arranging mind healers for her entire house and wondering if she needs to start protecting her students FROM the Trio as well. Combined with what Hermione told her (when she told her off), McGonagall is wondering if she really just failed them.

Next chapter is mostly going to be repercussions and more world building.

BtW, what do you all think of my world building? That is the other major reason I post here. I may regret this, but I actually want to know what you think about things like what Nick and the Bloody Baron did. About how I set up things with House Elves and the law, and the Department of Mysteries. Things like that.

killgore444

"If you're calling reality a hateful, cruel, and jealous place... then I cannot honestly refute your statement."

"Don't try to understand women. Women understand women, and they tend to hate each other."

"I think I finally get why girls are said to be catlike; it's got nothing to do with grace, but how their similar thieving opportunism keeps trying to make off with your stuff when you aren't looking."

killgore444 · Jan 24, 2022

I'm not done with part 1 yet I've still got Hermione to deal with from her Fathers PoV, but I really need some feed back on this. I'm NOT satisfied but not sure how I can make it better.

A New Tournament
Chapter 8 :

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this. All rights reserved to the respective owners of Harry Potter and Stargate: SG1. If I did own any of it, it would have gone very differently.
And probably been not as good.
Summary: A gift from the future provides a little bit of hope in a time of need. OP Harry, Ron and Hermione, but with a plausible background to support it. No bashing, even of disliked characters

00l l l l (_i_) \_!_/ l l l l00

Dr Phillip Granger was not having a pleasant morning. He'd woken up at five thirty in the morning for his morning run, just like every day since he left the military. Unfortunately, he hadn't even made it out of the house when a strange man, wearing clothes that were at best described as odd, had shown up on his door step.

He hadn't driven there. He had literally shown up on his door step. As in teleported.

It hadn't taken very long for the man to explain that he was a magical law enforcement officer, or a Auror as they were called, and that there had been an… …incident at Hogwarts that involved his daughter. Who was now in their medical wing. He'd quickly woken up his wife, and while she was getting dressed, called their partners at the clinic to let them know Hermione had been injured, and neither he or Emma would be in, and asked them to take their patients for the day.

So here they where, standing outside of the gates to a castle after a gut wrenching trip from a hula hoop after the man double checked to make sure they had their anti-anti-muggle charm tokens with them (they never took them off). Standing next to them was another couple, presumably parents of another student as well as two different Aurors, both watching and watching over them. The other couple had already been here awhile when his wife and him had shown up, and apparently hadn't been escorted here, so were likely magical.

Listening to them 'discuss' things with the Aurors, it was clear that they had known something was wrong without being told by anyone, something about a magical clock, and that they had actually shown up MUCH earlier prepared to help protect the school. But they had not been able to get on the grounds due to the 'Wards' activating and closing the school off. Neither the Aurors or Headmaster felt that it was a good idea to allow anyone in until the grounds had been completely cleared and their identities had been confirmed.

It was several minutes before a rather large fellow approached the gate. He easily topped two meters and had a wild, bushy beard and an almost feral look, except that he also seemed friendly, if cautious at the moment. A quit word in the ear of his wife, imploring her to remain calm and listen to everything said. It was much easier to gather information if you didn't keep interrupting people after all. He was pretty sure Emma wasn't paying any attention to him though.

As the man (giant?) got to the gate, he pulled out a piece of paper and; "Err, hi I suppose. I've been tol' to ask you a few questions, confirm you are who you say you are. Now, Molly, when was the firs' time you got a letter from McGonagall 'bout the twins?"

The redheaded woman looked at the man, and in a rather resigned voice said: "Including their acceptance letter? If not the third day after their first year started. Before you ask, they had somehow managed to sneak tacks onto the chairs at the staff table." It was at this point that Phil finally recognized the other couple as the parents of Hermione's friend Ron that they met shopping for her second year.

The giant then turned to him and Emma; "What did McGonagall transform as a demonstration of magic? And what did she turn it into?"

That had been a rather memorable event Phil thought to himself as Emma spoke up; "She turned a kitchen chair into a lion. May we see our children now?"

With that, the giant man touched the gate and it swung open. Phil assumed the magic recognized him, it would have been horrifying to find out that all someone had to do to open it was touch it. The castle was truly a grand sight, and it was understandable why Hermione loved it so much. She was a history buff he thought, and her school was a beautiful part of history.

As they got closer however, that beauty started to take a darker turn. There were several, thankfully sheet covered, bodies on the grounds. The entrance way seemed demolished, from the inside out, with debris spread out across the grounds at least a hundred meters from the entrance. Large swathes of the ground were charred and grass-less, and one place had what looked like a giant blob of goo, shaped like a oversized scoop of ice cream with another body suspended inside, almost dissolved to it's skeleton and a white mask. More Aurors were walking about, as well as others in different colored robes, taking pictures with old fashioned cameras and doing what Phil assumed was some sort of magical forensics.

Ron's parents clearly recognized the mask as he heard the man mutter 'Death Eater' under his breath even as the woman was looking at the burnt areas and asking how someone could use 'Fiend Fire' on a school with children inside. At the staircase leading up to the front entrance, they could see even more damage, with the doors, and the surrounding stone work, blown off, large cracks in a spiderweb pattern leading out from that destroyed doorway. The balcony at the top step had it's presumably stone railing blown off and several areas looked melted.

Just inside the entrance, they saw someone that could only be Professor Dumbledore based on the way Hermione had described her teachers, his robes, looking as if Liberace had become a wizard, particularly standing out amongst the dismal setting. Turning towards them with a sad and resigned (but thankfully not pitying) look, he spoke; "Mr and Ms Granger, Molly, Arthur, if you'll follow me to the Hospital wing." With that he turned and held up his arm to indicate direction. "I apologize for any abruptness you may have encountered, but under the circumstances, I did not feel like taking any chances with safety."

"What are the circumstances Headmaster? According to our 'Clock', Ron died five times." Ron's father said, making him wonder what exactly was considered normal for the magical world. Evidently Dumbledore seemed to think this was somewhat odd as well from the surprised look he shot Mr Weasley. "It kept jumping between dead and mortal danger for over fifteen minutes. Fred, George and Ginny was at threatened for the same time and jumped to mortal danger at the end, before Ron's hand dropped to injured and the other three dropped back to threatened." He paused to gather himself, "As soon as the hands shifted, I tried to floo here, but the grates were sealed and the outer wards had been brought up. I could see fighting, but couldn't get in to help. Molly had woke up Percy, and then she came here while Percy headed to the office in case the Aurors hadn't been notified."

"Helpful that was." A new person said out of the shadows. A middle aged witch with a Sherlock Holmes style pipe in her mouth stepped into the light. "Albus."

"Amelia, you are of course aware of who Arthur and Molly Weasley are, but this is Doctors Phillip and Emma Granger. They are Hermione's parents." Turning to them; "This is Madam Amelia Bones, head of magical law enforcement for Great Britain." Turning back towards her; "How did questioning Barty go?"

With a glance at the four of them she replied while turning towards the hospital wing herself, but seemed to decide either this was something they should hear, or that it getting out couldn't hurt the case. "Poorly. He has training in Occlumency, which is how he was able to remain undetected posing as Moody, and makes veritserum unreliable, but we did get some things. His father has been arrested for breaking him out of Azkaban, apparently only about a month or two after he chucked him in there to begin with. We recovered the real Moody, thankfully alive, but he's going to be even more paranoid after this. We also figured out what went wrong with his original plan. We owe Dobby and Winky a great deal here."

"They knew what was going on?" The Headmaster asked, and then drew in a breath, "Of course they knew!"

"Actually, from what Barty said, ALL the House Elves knew. They've been actively working against him all weekend. Although Barty has no clue why they didn't inform you or any of the Aurors stationed here. And evidently, both Cedric and one of my Aurors had gotten a warning from Sybill earlier that day, as did Karkaroff and Maxime. So Proudfoot made sure the other Aurors were on extra high alert and Diggory had gotten everyone in Hufflepuff to be on the look out as well. Your guest Headmasters made sure their students were up and somewhat prepared, although we got extremely lucky in that the Death Eaters didn't put much effort going after them as you'd think considering they're out on the grounds. As it stands, virtually all of the Aurors on duty last night reported odd occurrences that led them to be, if not in optimal positions, prevented them from being sub-optimal positions when the Death Eaters made their presence known. And a majority of that can be attributed to House Elves." She said, and after a brief pause with them exchanging a look, asked; "How did it go on your end?"

"I had Minerva contact the board of Governors, to let them know before the Prophet prints the story and to let them know I'll speak with them tomorrow. It's leaving things a little late, but I think the rest of the day will be rather busy. All students and staff have been accounted for, as has all Aurors on site. Miraculously, there was no fatalities among them, and very few serious injuries, all of the injured Aurors have been sent to St Mungos. The only injuries on the student side of things was Harry, Ron and Hermione." The last was said with a look of apology back towards them. "I've gotten memories from almost everyone involved in defending Hogwarts except the children and have spent the last couple of hours reviewing them, if not in great detail, so I have a rough outline of what happened for everyone except Hermione. She refuses to say anything about what happened to her. She did tell Auror Shacklebolt that she will only tell myself, you, Harry, Ron and her parents. Plus one other." Again he said that looking at them, even as he was addressing Madam Bones. "Other than defusing the situation at the entrance to the Gryffindor dormitory, I've spent the rest of the time helping the rest of the staff and Aurors search the castle and grounds for stragglers."

After a brief pause, "I also had to deal with an additional quest that Dobby personally brought in." he added in a subdued voice as he opened the door to what could only be the Hospital wing.

"How did Dobby get…" Madam Bones started to say, but cut off at a shake of Dumbledore's head.

There were about a dozen beds with kids of various ages in them, six visible Aurors, two people who Phil decided had to be school nurses or doctors. And in a separate corner, off by themselves was Hermione laying in a bed and two other boys sitting on the two adjacent beds whispering to each other. Sitting on the bed with Ron was an adult witch listening to them speak to each other. Her presence was clearly not anticipated by Madam Bones or the Weasleys. As both Mr Weasley and Madam Bones sent looks at Dumbledore while Emma and Mrs Weasley hurried over. "As I said," the Headmaster stated, Dobby brought in an additional quest."

Bones just looked perturbed, but Arthur Weasley looked very uncomfortable with her presence. "Why is she here Albus?" he asked.

"Because your son is facing very serious charges Arthur. I assume Harry asked Dobby to fetch her to help defend Ron from being made a scapegoat by the pureblood elite." The Headmaster stated as they walked over, shock showing on Arthur's face. "Ms Zabini, I believe you know most of us here, these are Ms Granger's parents, Doctors Phillip and Emma Granger. Doctors, this is Ms Zara Zabini. Ms Zabini is the best Barrister in Magical England."

As she stood up to shake their hands, Phil got a close look at her. She was a coldly beautiful woman, with long black hair and a face that seemed set perpetually in a cruelly humorous look of superiority. After shaking his and Arthur's hands, she reached out to Dumbledore. "Professor, my clients were just telling me a most fascinating tale. Did you really give permission to an escaped convict to place all the students under the unforgivables?" Yep, Phil thought, his first impression seemed accurate.

Unperturbed, the Headmaster seemed to fully expect her question. "I gave permission to Professor Alastor Moody to place those of third year and above, who had permission from their guardians, under the imperious curse as a means to help them train to recognize when they, or their friends are under it, and to give them a boost in fighting it off. At no time did I suspect Alastor was being impersonated by someone using polyjuice potion," he replied with a obviously fake smile.

"I take it that is your probable defence of Ron Weasley's actions?" Madam Bones said.

"Well, he was noted by a majority of the students and teachers acting in an unusually hostile manner towards his friends for over a week prior. Correct me if I'm wrong Amelia, but is not lashing out at people one of the signs of being under that curse?"

"It is." Bones answered. "I assume you'll also bring up the fact that Crouch was a known Death Eater, and the… …person Mr Weasley murd… …killed, was in fact spilling secrets of his fellow Death Eaters?"

Now frowning at Bones, Ms Zabini continued, "There are a few additional details, not the least of which that Ms Granger had already stabbed Mr Crabbe with the sword 'Kindness', a Goblin steel blade that has been quenched in basilisk blood, so Crabbe had, at most, a minute or two before a very painful death." Those words caused Phil to look over at his daughter, who seemed flustered at their presence here and her mothers doting.

Phil glanced back at Bones and watched as she processed and a grin started to show on her face. "Fuck it! Works for me!" She finally said much to Zabini's obvious surprise. "Crabbe got off on a defence of being under the affects of the Imperious curse. An obviously fake claim since he seems to have jumped to return to He-who-must-not-be-named's service. That and a hefty bribe to the Minister of the time. So Ron using the same defence has a poetic ring to it. Although don't think for a second a majority of the dark leaning purebloods will go for it. Among many other things, they are also hypocrites. Although I will leap to use anything they do to discredit Ron's defence to reopen their old cases."

Phil was wondering exactly what was going on, but Zabini was smirking at Bones now. "If it helps smooth things over Madam Bones, young Harry has offered to brib… …gift various public institutions an amount equal to what Crabbe offered to help smooth things over and show his remorse all those years ago."

edit for a couple of typos.
Edit 2022/07/10. Added a little dialogue and changed a few things, not much though.

killgore444 · Jul 10, 2022

I'm having an absurdly hard time writing part 2 of chapter 8. But most of part 3 has been written before chapter 7 came out. So, I decided to go ahead and post part 3 before 2 and get some input into the actual story. I'm not happy with the second POV provided. I think I dropped to much information to the members of the SGC here, but I'm not sure how to rewrite it to introduce what's going on without letting the SGC know to much. And I do in fact have plans for the SGC to be blindsided by magic. Maybe have Ironfeather obliviate them, and that be the reason he was so careless with the discussion in the first place.

Not sure. I'm also curious if you guys can spot which parts of the story are important and which are red herrings.

Also, the character of Sammy is something I've seen from 5 or 6 different writers, so I decided to use her. Not sure if that's something new in fanon or I simply missed the episode of SGC were she was introduced.

First Trelawney, then John O'Neill. I'm also going to be updating part 1.

A New Tournament
Chapter :8 [part 3]

Professor Sybill Trelawney was on edge. Something was going to happen, and soon. She could remember when she was a child, sitting on her Grandmothers knee, listening to her try and describe her visions in a way that as a child, she could understand. It hadn't worked then, and in truth, still really didn't work for her even knowing what it was like now. Her Grandmother had patiently explained the difference between a prophecy and the normal way Seers saw the world, how a true prophecy hurt and never made sense. Unlike her normal visions, but those were less reliable or accurate until minutes before they happened.

She knew that Albus didn't believe in prophecy and thought that Divination was a useless class. That all prophecies that were fulfilled were done so simply because people took them serious and acted to fulfill them, completely ignoring the fact that that was a legitimate reason for them to be fulfilled. That if people didn't take them serious enough to act, the prophecy wouldn't be made as the future would be different. He was a great man with out a single doubt. But he had a really annoying habit of always believing he was correct. And Heaven help it if there was a subject that he wasn't good at, he could get more than a little dismissive of it. No one would ever be able to truthfully say that she was dismissive of or didn't believe in Transfiguration. He also thought that most prophecies never got fulfilled, when in reality, every single one had either been fulfilled, or would be fulfilled, even if it was only in a different possibility that had already slipped to the side.

She also knew that he didn't think she knew when she had a prophetic vision, but she did. Or more to the point, she'd figure it out within a few hours. She just didn't remember what her prophecies contained. And that was the problem. She'd come out of them confused and a little panicky and not being able to remember where she was or what was going on. But they always left a sort of aftertaste in the back of her mind that was rather distinctive. It was why she drank so much since the herbs Pomona grew in the restricted greenhouse (the one Albus and Minerva pretended didn't exist) didn't do anything to counter it and mushrooms made her sick. Or at least it was one of the reasons. Her sudden desire to get raging drunk to cover up the weird 'not-taste' was in fact one of the ways she'd come to be able to recognize when she'd had one even if it normally took her a couple of hours and several pints (or less of stronger stuff). Although admittedly, there WERE other reasons she drank so much. Not the least of which was the what she saw as the likely future in her normal sight. And as a result, she'd had more and more days over the last several years where she had had more than she should have.

But no one UNDERSTOOD like she did damn it!

She remembered once, shortly before she applied for this job, walking about muggle London and coming across a shop selling Tellies. She'd never been one for muggle studies herself, and hadn't had a clue what she'd been looking at at the time. But it caught her attention strongly enough that she'd actually gone inside and, in all likely hood, made a complete fool of herself asking the muggle salesman questions.

She couldn't help it though. In the window had been a stack of tellies, not playing the same thing, but rather playing several different, but related things that looked similar. She'd told the poor man that she'd buy one of the things if he could tell her where she could find more like that. He hadn't known what she was talking about, he'd said that they were playing different football games. It's a testament to her state of mind of that time that she always remembered his terminology (she even remembered the names of the teams that he pointed out).

He did however tell her about a new art show at a small local art museum featuring a type of art that was even better. And what she saw there was truly astounding. It all had different labels and names, ASCII art, min/macro, whatever it was called, it all featured small things, such as individual letters or even words, bottle caps, small pieces of art, whatever. But when viewed from farther back, one could SEE. Could see what was meant to be seen.

A little over a year and a half later, after the fall of He-who-should-not-be-named, she'd gone back and asked where she could acquire one of those pieces, fully expecting to have to use various spells to confuse and confound the muggles, but had been pleasantly surprised when she'd been told that they'd taken that particular show down, and the various artists had donated their works to be sold as part of a fund raiser. She'd been even more surprised when it turned out the lady was the mother of a muggleborn, and could recognize galleons and was easily able to convert to muggle money.

She was really proud of this art work hanging on her bedroom wall. Up close, it was the words to several different speeches and sayings of a famous muggle leader from the America (unfortunately, it was the only one that hadn't already been sold that she could afford at the time), but as you got further away, you could see an image of what she presumed to be the man, one Abraham Lincoln, until you got far enough back and you couldn't even tell there were words on canvas, it was just a picture of a man with a top hat.

Filius and poor Quirinus (back when he taught Muggle Studies) were the only two other Professors who'd ever seen it, but neither of them had ever asked about it. To her the artwork was about her sight. It was how she SAW things. All of the various possibilities, even the possibilities that weren't actually possible. Whether because someone had already died, never been born, or what have you, she still saw them as possibilities. She could, with some concentration, look in close and follow an individual piece of what she saw, like that old muggle telly, but would lose track of the bigger picture.

The art wasn't a perfect analogy, it wasn't moving like the telly was. But it worked. She could pull her gaze back and see further into the future by watching the pictures all combine into what was the most likely outcome. That outcome being the largest of her minds eye tellies. It wasn't perfect either however. More often than she cared to admit, her mental telly would fall over and be replaced with one that had been one of the smaller ones in the stack, as some event derailed what was the most likely outcome and replaced it.

Sometimes, when those former lead possibilities fell, they landed in such a way as to remain a possibility. Sometimes still in line to still be possible in the future, but normally off to the side and one of the 'Not' possibilities. Other times however, the possibility simply vanished. Like a bit of smoke on a breeze, and she had no idea why there was a difference. Confusing, and more than a little aggravating to be sure, but still relatively easy to deal with. But what happened last Friday however:

THAT!
WAS!
NOT!
NORMAL!

Her internal stack of tellies had completely exploded. ALL possibilities that had been laid out in front of her that had been possible, were no longer there. Ironically, she could still see possibilities from before Friday that had never actually been possible, those weren't affected, but everything not off sideways in time, but that had been directly forward of her in time, THAT was gone. A cataclysmic forfeiture of Fortune and what was no longer allowed to be. A conscious decision by an intelligent being or beings of some sort, that had altered the very fabric of time and the tapestry of Fate. Like an angry half-giant child throwing a porcelain plate at a wall, so too was existence smashed, destroying all that was knowable.

The headache from that alone was enough to get her to journey into town to the Hogs Head to visit Albus's brother and get some of the, well, not good, but strong stuff. She'd needed to be able to pass out as Poppy wouldn't give her any more dreamless sleep potions just because Poppy was afraid she was addicted to them. And as nice as Pomona's herbs where, they made her dreams stronger, not weaker.

On the way back to her chambers however, she'd had one of her prophetic visions. There had been an encounter with a rather strange House Elf wearing the most outlandish get up, and then confusion. He'd helped her get back up to her bedroom and had even, against the wishes of Poppy, acquired a few dreamless droughts for her. That had been nice of him, although she thought that the first prophecy she made after 'That Friday' (she didn't consider that Friday despite the fact it was only a couple of hours after) would have been of major importance and should have been witnessed by Albus, or even Minerva or Severus instead of a House Elf. Oh well, she'd had a few others over the next couple of days as well.

There was that encounter with the youngest Greengrass girl, Astoria and her friend and fellow second year Slytherian, Elisabeth Valentine. They'd looked rather confused and unsure how they should react. Even more so than she normally felt after a prophesy, but they were still young and she could relate to how they felt. Then there was that encounter with the School Champion, Cedric and the Auror who had been dragging Diggory to the nearest Professor (that just happened to be her), although that same House Elf had been guiding/directing them into her path, but she was pretty sure he had left before it started. Both Diggory and the Auror had looked scared witless afterwards, so she'd been easy on Diggory and just given him a couple of detentions helping out the Elves in the kitchen for whatever he'd done wrong as an apology to him.

Then there had been the encounter with that stupid turd of a git Igor Karkaroff (she still remembered what he was like when they were students) and the other Headmistress from Beauxbatons, Madame Maxime. That particular prophecy must have been really good, because when she came out of it, Olympe was backed up into the hallway wall, and she had Karkaroff on his knees gasping in pain while she was gripping his arm, his sleeves burned away to reveal that ugly ass scar/brand on his arm. That one, while satisfying on it's own, would have been so much better if she remembered what she told him. As it stood, he had collapsed onto the floor in shock and pain after she had let go of him. They'd both been rather surprised when she offered them a good day before turning around and heading back to her chambers.

There had also been an encounter with Severus in there somewhere as well, but she didn't think whatever she told him had been as catastrophic as he had merely looked annoyed, not scared or outraged. The encounter with the rather infamous Weasley twins had gone rather strangely as well. When she had come too after that one, the two of them had looked a strange mixture of thrilled, angry and subdued and had launched into questioning her about what she had said. When it had become clear she had no idea what they were talking about had asked her if it was bad luck or something to tell a seer what she said in a prophecy or not. That had been rather thoughtful of them, so she was quick to award them thirty points each. Not many people when confronted by prophecy are all that considerate to the Seer, not even Albus.

Honestly, she'd had more prophecies in one weekend than in the five years previous. She was so grateful classes had been halted for a couple of days after the attack. She was sure that if she'd had anymore encounters with students she'd have had even more. As it stood, the couple of extra days gave her a little bit more time to add possibilities to her internal stack of tellies, which seems to decrease the likelihood of a prophecy somewhat for some reason. She wasn't sure why that seemed the case, but she wasn't going to complain as more and more possibilities stacked up in her Mind's Eye and blocked the Path of Prophecy.

Unfortunately, today, the first day back, includes fourth year Divination class. Potter and friends! Well, technically just friend now, but She was still in her visions even if she wasn't in class anymore. Potter! The very last thing she had seen on her old telly stack had been Potter. Older and in rough shape, but unbeaten even as he died. Only it included everyone in the world not just dying, but being erased as if they had never been.

And that terrified her in a way that He-who-must-not-be-named never could.

And the VERY first thing she had seen in her new stack was the SAME vision of Potter, but only Potter. An older Potter, unbeaten, but in the process of dying, surrounded by a globe of light with what looked like tentacles wrapping around him as if to ease his pain and smooth out his path to the afterlife. The old Potter family motto came to her: 'The final enemy to be defeated is Death.' When she'd been young and had read a book about the ancient families she'd thought that particular motto had been rather dumb (not that the Potter family was unique in that or anything). But her grandma had simply sighed and said she'd understand when she was older. She now understood what her Grandma had been trying to say, because that particular motto was making a lot more sense now.

Making Potter and friends so much more terrifying to her was the changed nature of her visions of their future. Where before, she would see visions of them struggling and suffering to destroy He-who-must-not-be-named and his followers. Now she saw them blowing through them like a stiff wind scattering dry leafs, displaying a level of skill in both magical and muggle duelling she never would have believed possible, even if for some reason, they seamed to be backed by none other than Gellert Grindelwald. Only to then face a much more terrifying enemy falling from the sky like the legends of fallen Angels being cast from Heaven and reigning terror upon the Earth. And this was an enemy they NEEDED Potter in order to defeat.

What's more, she knew she was not alone. Even though there was only about a hundred or so people in the entire world capable of seeing truly prophetic visions as opposed to normal divination, but she knew beyond a doubt that every single one of them had shared her vision and was having just as much difficulty with having visions as she was. At least the ones in the current possibility. Normally, a True Seer could enter her mindscape and cast her thoughts out so that other True Seers could see them as a possibility and respond in kind, thus having a conversation with each other, as if being able to edit a show on the telly that they all could see, or however each of them saw the possible futures. None of them where doing this now. Not yet anyway. She figured she'd wait for a week or so before trying herself if no one else did it first. The True Seers in other possibilities knew that something had happened and were talking to each other, but she, along with everyone from this possibility was abstaining for a while.

She turned to the trapdoor wondering not for the first time if it was to late to engage it's secondary destination and leave Hogwarts behind. But no, she couldn't do that. She'd seen what could happen if she didn't at least try and prepare some of them to be able to handle the future. Besides, the wards here were better than nearly anyplace on Earth, and certainly the best of anywhere pleasant to reside.

She felt a little guilty about not telling Albus about her trapdoor. It was a weakness in the school wards and she knew it. But she had never seen a vision of anyone discovering a way to exploit it. She could after all, change the destination the trapdoor lead to at will. How it worked she didn't know, magical theory had never been her strong suit, and she'd barely scraped an acceptable in Charms, but it bypassed the wards without any problems. Before she moved here, she'd had need to use it a few times and had tricked Death Eaters Into climbing through it to get to her. Since she could have a different destination for each side. Each time she'd done this, she'd used her sight to send them somewhere rather dangerous, but varied it each time. Of the five times she'd done this, only one Death Eater had ever returned to England, horribly scarred and broken, the others had simply died.

It was time. With a sigh, she set the two sides to link to each other and become, essentially, a normal physical trapdoor that happened to include a magical rope ladder. Watching the students climb up never got old. With all the stairs in Hogwarts, one would think they'd be in better shape by now. Then 'They' emerged. Potter and Weasley. Both of them subdued but respectful and alert, both moving as if they were the most dangerous people here. A detail that the rest of the class seemed to agree with them on. Both have the gift, and strongly as well. Ron much more so than Harry, but Harry was the strongest in school who didn't have the last name Weasley or Lovegood. All of Ron's brothers and his sister though, were stronger than Harry, even if NONE of them seemed to be using their gift. A detail that infuriated her, but she did her best to hold that in. Little Luna was at least making use of her gift even if she wasn't in her class.

As the class settled into their seats, she cast her mind back to when she was little sitting on her Grandmothers lap listening to Grandmother talk to her, trying to comfort her and shield her eyes from the sinister mist that seemed to be overtaking the memory. 'Listen to me Silly,' Grandmother would say using the nickname for her, 'Sing that little tune you love so much.' And she would, even as the mist would coil around her throat, she would sing for her Grandmother, knowing on some level that Grandmother was simply trying to distract her from what the mist was doing. Pretending to the point that she convinced herself that the words coming out of her mouth were those of her favorite song, she forced herself to relax into her Grandmothers arms, hands covering her ears while turning tear streaked eyes into the shoulder of the only person to ever comfort her when the mist came as hands rubbed her back and soothing murmurs were felt in her chest more than heard, she'd continue to 'Sing' until the lyrics of the song would fly from her mind and she'd fall silent. Then Grandmother would look at her with that sad smile; 'Wake up little Silly, you are needed in the present.'

With a start, she came out of her daydream of a memory into a room that she barely recognized. It was her classroom, there was no doubt about that, but everyone seemed different than when she sat down after they entered. They were all staring at her in shock for some reason. She must have falling asleep and started to snore or something. She shook her head, trying to clear away the last bit of mental fog from waking up and noticed Potter staring at her, anger raging behind brilliant, nearly glowing green eyes, even as plates stacked on shelves began to crack from someones (his) barely contained magic. Ron came to his senses first and grabbed hold of Harry, stepping between him and her and pushing him back towards the trapdoor. "Let it go Harry!" Ron said loudly, "We'll deal with this. Just let it go for now! Please!" He then turned to the rest of the class: "Neville, the trapdoor! No one speaks of this! Do you all understand?!?!"

The rest of the class gave shocked and mumbled replies of agreement as Longbottom opened the trapdoor for them to descend, Harry gave a snarl of rage before turning and, despite everyone knowing it was impossible, disapparated with a shockingly loud crack that somewhat muffled the shattering porcelain as the plates and teacups all shattered. Ron let out a curse and jumped through the trapdoor, not even bothering with the ladder and could be heard running away, presumably after Harry. Neville sighed as he turned to Seamus and Dean; "I don't suppose you'd be kind enough to gather our stuff would you?" Not waiting for an answer, he then climbed down as well and was shortly heard running away.

At that, the rest of the class turned their attention back towards her. Grimacing at a sudden headache, and knowing she'd need to inform both Albus and Minerva of the behaviour of those three she simply dismissed the class early and made sure that Seamus and Dean actually gathered up their dorm mates things. Why was she so prone to these accursed headaches? She REALLY needed to get a drink. And why did it seem like she had some sort of weird taste stuck in her head? Like a bad tune that will haunt you for hours on end. And why did she have the feeling that that was important for some reason?

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John O'Neill entered the restaurant with a yawn on his face. It was early in the morning in Colorado Springs and the temperature was a balmy thirty seven degrees. He was meeting his 'Old Man', the infamous (in some VERY SMALL circles) Colonel John "Jack" O'Neill and his girlfriend and fellow clone, Sammy's progenitor Major Samantha Carter for their semi-monthly get together. He was a little early and hadn't seen the cars of either Sammy's guardians or Jack. Figuring he'd wait at the counter until they showed up he slid up next to an old Indian, or rather old Native American. Jack had long ago figured out that they were normally much less PC than the average white man about it, and in general wouldn't hesitate to start to crack jokes about the names. But the ones who did get uptight about would really get uptight, so in general he tried to keep it PC until he got to know who he was dealing with. Not always easy since, even though he was technically only about a year or so old, he was physically fifteen, but shared the memories of a man who had been old enough to fight in Vietnam, and all that that entailed for his upbringing.

The waitress, who knew him by now, walked over, a Coke already in her hands. "Eating alone John, or waiting for the Colonel?"

"Waiting. But it'll be a table for six today. The Major is also coming and Sammy and her guardians will be here as well." Taking a drink from his glass, "Thanks." Noticing the old Indian giving him an odd look, John held up his hand; "John O'Neill, two L's. Nice to meet ya."

Glancing at his hand just long enough for it to start to get awkward, he finally relented; "John Ironfeather. You've aged well."

"I'm Sorry, what?"

"I'm the Headmaster of a school Mr O'Neill, I'm very good at reading teens and preteens. You are older than you look. But also younger I think. Very unusual. Have you simply had a life that required you to grow up fast, or do you simply enjoy really good genetics and age slowly?"

"I was kidnapped by an alien and experimented a while ago." John replied, trying to make it sound sarcastic and making his discomfort with this sudden conversation show through. How had this old man figured this out?

The old man was looking at him with his head tilted to the side, his beak like nose giving him a decidedly bird of prey look. A look that was making John feel like a mouse out in the open being looked at by a hawk. That was not a feeling that he was used to. "Do you play poker? I bet you'd be good at it." John was thrown by that strange nonsequitur and it must have shown. "I couldn't spot any tells saying you were lying or truly being sarcastic. So either you have indeed been kidnapped by aliens or you are a master of the Bluff." He said as explanation in a clearly amused voice.

"I'm sorry, but who are you and what are you doing here?" John ground out. This was not going right and he was trying to figure out if Mr Ironfeather was being honest or was part of a leak in the SGC. It wasn't good if anyone outside knew about him or Sammy.

"Professor John Ironfeather, Headmaster of Cliffside boarding school at your service." He said holding his hand out, laughter dancing in his eyes. "As for what I'm doing here, I'm sitting here talking to you and drinking a cup of coffee while I wait for the parents of some of my students to decide if they are going to allow their children to go to Great Britain or not."

Now it was John's turn to stare at the hand for several long moments. "John O'Neill, high school student, hockey champion and alien experiment." He said finally shaking the professors hand. John was about to go on when he noticed someone he recognized and hadn't expected to be there approaching: "Master Sergeant Siler! What are you doing here?"

Siler turned to him with a start as if just now noticing him, making John even more uncomfortable, that meant Siler had been meaning to speak to Ironfeather. "O'Neill? I wasn't expecting you here." Siler said before turning back towards the old man and holding out some documents. Well, at least Siler didn't think he needed to hide this from him. And since Siler knew who he really was, he knew that he likely couldn't take John by himself. "We have some more questions about security at that school in England and about recent events there, but Megan has her heart set on going and can't stop talking about it. Plus, as you mentioned, she'll need to spend at least two semesters at other affiliated schools before she graduates, and you said this counts. You'll be able to get them home for Christmas right?"

"Technically, it's in Scotland, not England. Our rules say students must spend at least one semester each at two different schools. This will only count as one of them." The Professor said as he read through the forms, and John could see that they did appear to be permission forms of some sort. "As for getting them back for Christmas, there is the Yule Ball they have to consider. I'll see if they can bump the date of that to a couple of days before Christmas instead of the night before. Otherwise, you might have to deal with your children wanting to stay for the ball. Sorry, but if I can't convince the other Headmasters to change the day, I can't guarantee anything in that regards. As for safety, I'll be dealing with that personally, but have assurances from Albus of his cooperation with the head of law enforcement there and extra security arrangements being made with the governments of both France and Norway for the tournament. So there will be a lot of security there."

John was no longer thinking that Siler was involved in betraying the SGC, which would have been even worse than when Colonel Makepeace had turned traitor, but was now even more curious as to what was actually going on. Unfortunately, the professor was standing up to take his leave and head back to where John could see several pairs of adults sitting at a large table along with a woman who John was certain was Mrs Siler. Fortune however seemed to be on his side.

"Siler?!?" Turning towards the entrance as Siler went to attention, thankfully NOT calling out, John saw his original walking through the door along with the rest of the party. "Mini me." Jack said with a nod towards John.

"Hey old man, you're late." He said to the Colonels irritation, "Jack, meet Professor Ironfeather, Headmaster of the school Master Sergeant Siler's daughter Megan attends. Professor, meet my uncle, Colonel Jack of the Crippled Knee."

Based on the sudden intake of breath from Sammy and her guardians, as well as the coughing fits from both Sam and Siler, there was no way Jack was going to be living this one down any time soon. Glancing at Ironfeather, John noticed that while he was amused, he was also giving them all a piercing look, and he seriously wondered if the good professor could actually read minds. "When you guys are done sergeant, why don't you and your wife join us? It's been a while since I've been allowed on base, and I'd like to hear how everyone is doing from someone other than the second in command." John was really hoping that both Jack and Sam caught the intended meaning of interrogation time.

In the mean time, John intended to have fun at Jacks expense.

killgore444 · Feb 28, 2023

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

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

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

Let me know if it worked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Ok, what do you need to know?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Relevance?" Ms Zabini asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"No! No he does not!" Ms Weasley stated.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I'm fulfilling my duty!" Dawlish yelled. "Unlike you lot!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Professor Snape!" Dumbledore said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Ignotus Harry?" Dumbledore asked.

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

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

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

"Technically speaking Harry," Mr Granger said, "You'd actually be an American citizen then."

Hermione's "DAD!" was simultaneous to Madam Bones groan.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Professor?" Harry began, "What school am I competing for?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"That stupid thing Harry? Why?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"RON!!!" Hermione shout perfectly timed with McGonagall's "MR WEASLEY!"

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

"Unfortunately, not much." One of them replied.

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

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

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

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

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

"That doesn't matter." Goyle cut Ron off, "But you did kill him?"

"Yes."

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

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

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

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

What Hermione's new look is based on

Edit to correct name of person speaking.

A New Tournament (Harry Potter & SG:SG1)

Versed in the lewd.

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