Harry Potter and the Three Ghosts - TomHRichardson - Harry Potter (2024)

Chapter 1: Ghosts in the Graveyard, What a Surprise

Chapter Text

Saturday, 24 June 1995, early nighttime
The Little Hangleton graveyard, Lancashire County, (northern) England

Harry Potter was duelling Voldemort. The Death Eaters whom Voldemort had summoned, watched. A golden thread of light had connected Harry’s wand and Voldemort’s wand; also, the two phoenix-core wands together had made a golden, dome-shaped web round the duellers that kept the Death Eaters from interfering in the duel. The threads of this dome were singing phoenix-song. Something else strange was happening now: almost-solid ghosts were coming out of Voldemort’s wand—

****

But already, yet another head was emerging [from Voldemort’s wand], and this head, gray as a smoky statue, was a woman’s. Harry, both arms shaking now as he fought to keep his wand still, saw her drop to the ground and straighten up like the others, staring.

The shadow of Bertha Jorkins surveyed the battle before her with wide eyes.

“Don’t let go, now!” she cried, and her voice echoed like Cedric’s, as though from very far away. “Don’t let him get you, Harry—don’t let go!”

She and the other two shadowy figures [Cedric and an old Muggle man] began to pace around the inner walls of the golden web, while the Death Eaters flitted around the outside of it. Voldemort’s dead victims whispered as they circled the duelers, whispered words of encouragement to Harry, and hissed words Harry couldn’t hear to Voldemort.

And now another head was emerging from the tip of Voldemort’s wand—and Harry knew when he saw it, who it would be. He knew, as though he had expected it from the moment when Cedric had appeared from the wand—knew, because the woman appearing was the one he’d thought of more than any other tonight.

The smoky shadow of a young woman with long hair fell to the ground as Bertha had done, straightened up, and looked at him—and Harry, his arms shaking madly now, looked back into the ghostly face of his mother.

“Your father’s coming,” she said quietly. “Hold on for your father, it will be all right, hold on....”

And [indeed James Potter] came—first his head, then his body. Tall and untidy-haired like Harry, the smoky, shadowy form of James Potter blossomed from the end of Voldemort’s wand, fell to the ground, and straightened like his wife. He walked close to Harry, looking down at him.

****

Meanwhile, Voldemort’s face was now livid with fear as his victims prowled around him.

Before the ghost of James Potter spoke to Harry, the ghost of Harry’s mother spoke in a loud voice: “James, Cedric, please come here. There is something you need to hear now.”

The ghosts of Harry’s parents and the ghost of the true Hogwarts Champion huddled together for a short time. Ghost-Lily spoke so lowly to the other two ghosts that Harry could not recognise a single word.

The three ghosts’ conference lasted no more than fifteen seconds. Then the three ghosts moved apart from each other. All three ghosts turned to face Harry. Ghost-James spoke quietly to his son—

****

“When the connection is broken, we will linger for maybe only moments, but we will give you time. You must get to the Portkey, it will return you to Hogwarts. Do you understand, Harry?”

“Yes,” Harry gasped, fighting now to keep a hold on his wand, which was slipping and sliding beneath his fingers.

“Harry,” whispered the figure of Cedric, “take my body back, will you? Take my body back to my parents.”

“I will,” said Harry, his face screwed up with the effort of holding the wand.

“Do it now,” whispered his father’s voice, “be ready to run; do it now.”

“NOW!” Harry yelled; he didn’t think he could have held on for another moment anyway—he pulled his wand upward with an almighty wrench, and the golden thread broke; the cage of light vanished, the phoenix song died—but the shadowy figures of Voldemort’s victims did not disappear—they were closing in upon Voldemort, shielding Harry from his gaze—

And Harry ran as he had never run in his life, knocking two stunned Death Eaters aside as he passed.

****

Behind Harry, he heard the voices of his ghost-mother, his ghost-father and Ghost-Cedric yell, almost in unison, “Non, non revertar!” No, I will not return!

****

Harry zigzagged behind headstones, feeling their curses following him, hearing them hit the headstones—he was dodging curses and graves, pelting toward Cedric’s body, no longer aware of the pain in his leg, his whole being concentrated on what he had to do—

“Stun him!” he heard Voldemort scream.

Ten feet from Cedric, Harry dived behind a marble angel to avoid the jets of red light and saw the tip of its wing shatter as the spells hit it. Gripping his wand more tightly, he dashed out from behind the angel—

“Impedimenta!” he bellowed, pointing his wand wildly over his shoulder at the Death Eaters running at him.

From a muffled yell, he thought he had stopped at least one of them, but there was no time to stop and look; he jumped over the Cup and dived as he heard more wand blasts behind him; more jets of light flew over his head as he fell, stretching out his hand to grab Cedric’s arm—

“Stand aside! I will kill him! He is mine!” shrieked Voldemort.

Harry’s hand had closed on Cedric’s wrist; one tombstone stood between him and Voldemort, but Cedric was too heavy to carry, and the Cup was out of reach—

Voldemort’s red eyes flamed in the darkness. Harry saw his mouth curl into a smile, saw him raise his wand.

“Accio!” Harry yelled, pointing his wand at the Triwizard Cup. It flew into the air and soared toward him.

****

In the one-second-long eternity when the Cup was moving towards Harry and Voldemort was trying to kill Harry, Harry suddenly felt cold spots on his skin. It was as though snowballs were being pressed against different parts of Harry’s body.

****

Harry caught the Triwizard Cup by the handle—

He heard Voldemort’s scream of fury at the same moment that he felt the jerk behind his navel that meant the Portkey had worked—it was speeding him away in a whirl of wind and color, and Cedric along with him. They were going back.

****

One second later
In front of the judges’ platform, at the front of the spectator seating that surrounded the Quidditch pitch, back at Hogwarts

Harry felt himself slam flat into the ground; his face was pressed into grass; the smell of the grass filled his nostrils. He had closed his eyes while the Portkey transported him, and he kept them closed now. He did not move. All the breath seemed to have been knocked out of him; his head was swimming so badly he felt as though the ground beneath him were swaying like the deck of a ship. He was still clutching both the smooth, cold handle of the Triwizard Cup and Cedric’s body.

****

Speaking of Cedric, dizzy Harry now heard Cedric’s voice, which sounded worried: “Sit up, Harry, please sit up. You’re not safe now.”

Right after this, Lily Potter’s voice yelled, “We need healers here! Harry Potter is hurt!”

A split second later, James Potter’s voice yelled, “We need Amelia Bones here!”

Cedric’s voice said, “Good call, James. Amelia Bones now is Director of the DMLE, I don’t know if you knew this.”

Harry made himself sit up. He saw McGonagall staring at him, and he saw Mad-Eye staring at him with an unreadable expression. Headmaster Dumbledore and Susan Bones’s Aunt Amelia both were running towards Harry; Dumbledore was not as fast, but he was much closer.

Now surrounding Harry and the corpse of Cedric: the ghosts of Cedric Diggory, James Potter and Lily Potter. The ghosts no longer were almost-solid the way they had been in the graveyard, nor were their voices echoey like they had been in the graveyard. Now the three graveyard ghosts were transparent like Hogwarts ghosts and the three ghosts’ voices sounded like living people’s voices, the same way the voices of Hogwarts ghosts sounded.

The next thing that Ghost-Cedric in this new locale said to Harry was “Cast Rescindere Polyjuiceum on Mad-Eye Moody over there! Now, hurry, do it now, hurry!”

Chapter 2: “Albus Knew Everything, and Said Nothing”

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One second later
Still in front of the judges’ platform

Ghost-Cedric said to Harry, “Cast Rescindere Polyjuiceum on Mad-Eye Moody over there! Now, hurry, do it now, hurry!”

Harry would rather lie on the grass with his eyes shut and let himself swoon, but he obeyed Cedric.

Mad-Eye Moody—his natural eye widening from surprise—started to draw his wand, but he was not fast enough. Apparently Mad-Eye had been inconstant in his vigilance, so Harry’s spell hit Mad-Eye.

Dumbledore, as he was descending the stairs from the judges’ platform, rebuked, “Harry my boy, I have complete confi—”

If Alastor Moody were not a Polyjuiced person, the Rescindere Polyjuiceum spell would have made him flash white for a second, and this would have been all. Instead, Alastor Moody’s mad eye fell off his face then, as the disfigured man fell on his bum. The reason that Moody now was off-balance was that Moody’s half-leg was growing out a lower leg, which made that leg plus the wooden leg be longer than it should be. Moody’s almost-gone nose likewise was growing back.

Madam Bones, only slightly winded, unhesitatingly Stunned Moody. Then she walked over to the fallen man.

****

Madam Bones blurted, “Merlin on a mushroom, that’s Bartemius Crou—”

Cedric said, “Barty Crouch, Junior, yes. Who is supposedly dead. I was killed by Peter Pettigrew—also supposedly dead. Pettigrew killed me with the wand of Lord Voldemort, on the order of Voldemort, who also is supposedly dead. Note a trend here? Oh, and one other thing, Madam Bones—”

Harry expected Madam Bones to turn into a gibbering idiot when Cedric mentioned Voldemort. Instead, the grey-haired living woman said to the ghost of Cedric, “You drop those three things on me, and you’ve more to tell me?”

Cedric said, “We all saw Lucius Malfoy there in the graveyard, dressed up as a Death Eater. So when you take Barty to gaol, figure Lucius will bribe Fudge to release him.”

“Right, so assigning John Dawlish, who is Fudge’s nephew, to escort the prisoner to a holding cell would be foolish.”

Madam Bones, for some reason that Harry could not guess, was eyeing the headmaster as she paused in thought. Then she assigned two Auror men in their forties, “Grenwick” and someone else whose name Harry did not catch, to take this Barty Crouch, Junior to gaol.

The headmaster suggested that Crouch be escorted by three Aurors, the third being someone named “Shacklebolt.” No go; Madam Bones waved the suggestion away without replying.

Before Grenwick and the other Auror collected Barty Crouch, Junior, Harry wanted to walk over and to kick the man who had put Harry’s name in the Goblet. But as much as Harry was shaking right now from Cruciatus Curses, he suspected he would fall over, or at least stumble, if he tried to stand.

Not to mention, what the acromantula in the maze had done to Harry’s leg, crushing it and biting it, did not make standing easy either.

****

Apparently somebody noticed Harry’s injuries. Ghost-James said, “Amy, I know you want to press Harry and Ghost-Cedric to tell you what happened, but I see Harry trembling. Harry, did Voldemort or someone else hit you with the Cruciatus Curse?”

Shamed Harry would not look at anyone whilst he said quietly, “He hit me with an Imperius, and Crucio’d me twice. I shook off the Imperius, but the Cruciatus Curses—they hurt, and I was weak, I couldn’t ignore them. I’m sorry I couldn’t dodge Voldemort’s Unforgivables, please don’t hate me.”

“Not a problem,” Dumbledore said cheerfully. “I shall take Harry to the hospital wing and Poppy will fix him up.”

The bearded man chuckled as he looked at the ghosts of Harry’s parents. “Harry has been to the hospital wing so often since he started school here, he has a reserved bed there, with a brass plaque on the wall and everything.”

Now Dumbledore looked at Harry with his usual grandfatherly smile. “Come, Harry.”

Cedric said, “When are you planning to tell anyone that the brass plaque has listening charms on it, so anytime Harry is visited by his best friend Granger, you hear every word they say?”

Harry glared at the old man. “You’ve been listening in on my conversations with Hermione?”

Dumbledore replied smoothly, “Harry my boy, I need to know about everything that goes on in my school.”

Ghost-Lily said, “That does it! Amy, you are our third choice for guardian, but Sirius Black and Alice Longbottom are unavailable. Please take Harry to Saint Mungo’s for his medical treatment. I’m pretty sure James and I can follow you there.”

Harry gestured to the right of Madam Bones. “If you’re going to take me to Saint Mungo’s, take Hermione too.” Harry’s bushy-haired best friend by then was standing three feet behind Madam Bones, listening to what everyone else was saying. When Hermione heard Harry’s words, she smiled widely.

“Out of the question!” Dumbledore thundered. “Poppy is skilled, and now experienced, at treating Harry.”

Cedric said, “And the fact that Mediwitch Pomfrey was tricked into promising to report nothing to the DMLE or to Saint Mungo’s, except by your order—this isn’t a consideration for you at all, right, headmaster?”

“Mr Diggory, I am disappointed in—”

James said, “My son is hurting and Albus is bloviating. We’re wasting time, Amy; let’s go!”

Madam Bones said, “Hold on a minute. Before I can leave here and go with you to Saint Mungo’s, I must surrender Mr Diggory’s corpse to the Diggory family. In the circ*mstances, I won’t require a magical autopsy.”

A minute later, with that task complete, Madam Bones said, “Let’s go.”

Dumbledore stated, “If you’re going to take Harry to Saint Mungo’s, I’m going with you.”

Lily yelled, “No bloody way in hell!”

Dumbledore said smugly, “Mrs Potter—Lily—I am entitled to go with Harry to Saint Mungo’s because I am his magical guardian.”

Harry nodded and Madam Bones nodded, but James and Lily yelled “WHAT?”

One minute later, Lily was yelling, “Petunia and her fat bigot husband were given Harry to raise? Why, Albus? Were Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange unavailable?”

****

Five minutes later, in Saint Mungo’s

Harry was being examined by a Saint Mungo’s healer whilst Madam Bones, Hermione and three ghosts watched. Sulking Dumbledore had been left back at Hogwarts, or else Madam Bones would have arrested him.

****

Albus had noted Amelia’s scowls after Lily and James had told her that Harry should have gone to Sirius Black—Harry’s oath-sworn godfather—as Harry’s guardian, with Alice Longbottom as second choice for guardian and Amelia herself being third choice. Furthermore, so Lily declared, the Potters’ wills said nothing that could be interpreted as “Albus Dumbledore is Harry Potter’s magical guardian and Petunia and Vernon Dursley are Harry’s Muggle guardians.” For a minute there, after James and Lily had spoken out about what their sealed wills actually said, Albus had thought Amelia was going to arrest him in front of all the Third Task spectators.

After Harry and his caretakers, both breathing and ghostly, left for Saint Mungo’s, and after Albus returned to the headmaster’s office, Albus’s mood did not improve when Fudge demanded entry to the headmaster’s office.

First, Fudge demanded that the Potter boy be brought there so that Fudge could interrogate him about what had happened with Potter and Diggory. Already rumours were flying, Fudge claimed.

Albus told Fudge that Harry was not in the castle or on the grounds.

Next, Fudge demanded to know when the Potter boy would return to the castle, so that Fudge could present him with his winnings (with a photographer present).

Albus looked at Fudge like the Minister was a moron, and told Fudge that nobody could predict when Harry Potter would return to Hogwarts.

Then Fudge wanted to interrogate the vicious criminal who had impersonated that brave old Auror, Alastor Moody. Albus had to tell Fudge that Barty Crouch, Junior was not at Hogwarts either.

****

Back at Saint Mungo’s

Whilst Harry was being examined by a healer (who soon brought in a second healer), the three ghosts were explaining to Madam Bones why they knew so much—

James said, “When you first become a ghost, you get a barrel of knowledge dumped on you—you now know everything that relates to your life that you did not know during your life.”

Lily nodded. “Now we know that Pettigrew was the spy in the Order of the Phoenix, that Pettigrew was betraying Order members to Voldemort and was sowing dissension within the group. We know that it was Pettigrew, not Sirius, who betrayed James, Harry and me to Voldemort.”

James then said, “We also know, now, that Dumbledore knew that Peter was a rat-animagus, Peter was a Death Eater, and Peter was a traitor; and we know now that when Voldemort came, Dumbledore had no intention of rescuing us that night, despite his pretty promise.”

Lily said, “I’m convinced that Dumbledore wanted Harry to die; and if this meant his parents died too—oi, ‘it’s for the Greater Good.’ ”

Cedric said, “I too got the ‘barrel of knowledge’ dumped on me when I first became a ghost. Because a plot against Harry Potter, a plot going back to last August, wound up killing me, I know a lot about this past year of Harry’s life. Much of what I know, Dumbledore also knew at the time—but Dumbledore did nothing to save Harry from what was coming. Did you know that in 1980, Dumbledore heard a prophecy about Harry and Voldemort?”

Hermione said, “Was it a real prophecy? Or just some trick with tea leaves?”

“Definitely real,” Lily said. “it went like this: The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches—”

James took over: “—born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies—”

Cedric said, “Voldemort knows those first two parts of the prophecy, but he doesn’t know the rest of it: ‘...and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal—’ ”

James interrupted, saying to Madam Bones and to Hermione, “Later, we’ll tell you two and Harry the rest of the Prophecy, when”—he looked meaningfully at the two healers in the room—“we don’t have an audience.”

Harry, who was lying on the examination table, said, “Dumbledore has told me none of the Prophecy. Even after I begged to know at the end of first year why Voldemort was trying to kill me. Instead, Dumbledore spoke pretty words about me enjoying my childhood. Yeah, right, whilst living with the Dursleys? Ha!”

Lily snarled, “Your father and I are upset that Albus put you with Petunia and Vernon, my magic-hating sister and her magic-hating husband.”

Harry shrugged. “Go figure, of everyone in the world, they are whom Dumbledore put me with. And he insists that I live with them every summer.”

Hermione said, “The headmaster sometimes allows Harry to make brief visits to the Weasleys. But Molly Weasley is devoted to the headmaster, so the headmaster still rules Harry’s life.”

James snarled, “Too bad we’re regular ghosts, not poltergeists. Else Albus would never get a minute’s sleep ever again.”

****

A minute later

Harry, who still lay on the examination table, looked over and said, “Hermione? Ghosts of my parents? Could you lot please tell Madam Bones about Sirius, how he’s innocent? I really would like for him to be free and for him to be in charge of my life, not Petunia, Vernon and the bearded bloviator.”

Chapter 3: The Three Ghosts Speak with People

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Still Saturday, 24 June 1995
Later that evening
Still at Saint Mungo’s

Harry had been injured by the acromantula biting and crushing his leg, and by two Cruciatus Curses cast by Lord Voldemort. These injuries had been bad enough.

But the Saint Mungo’s healers had not been pleased, the ghosts of James and Lily had not been pleased, Madam Bones had not been pleased and Hermione had not been pleased, to discover all the injuries that predated the Triwizard Tournament.

Injuries caused by the Dursleys.

Injuries caused by the Muggle family that Dumbledore had forced Harry to live with, instead of Harry living with Sirius Black, Alice Longbottom or Amelia Bones, as his parents’ wills required.

Harry shrugged off the outrage. He expected that all these people—Hermione, the healers, Madam Bones and the three ghosts—would make noise, then Dumbledore’s eyes would twinkle and he would say “It’s all for Harry’s own good,” then nothing would change.

****

Amelia Bones decided that what the Saint Mungo’s healers had discovered about Harry Potter’s childhood abuse, was not enough to arrest Dumbledore and to be certain of a conviction at trial. But this was just one more thing that Amelia would put into the “bad boy” file that Amelia was filling up to use against “the Leader of the Light” someday.

****

The next morning (Sunday, 25 June), 6.55am
Five minutes before the start of breakfast in the Great Hall
In the Gryffindor common room

Hermione habitually went to breakfast as soon as she was allowed to eat, and she was used to finding the Gryffindor common room empty when she entered it, so early on a Sunday morning. But this Sunday morning, the situation was a bit different—

“Good morning, Miss Granger,” said a man’s voice. “How are you this morning?”

A woman’s voice said, “I hope you slept well.”

Standing in the Gryffindor common room, facing Hermione who had just descended the stairs, was a ghostly couple.

The two ghosts had been in the examination room at Saint Mungo’s last night, along with Harry, worried Hermione, two Saint Mungo’s healers, Amelia Bones and the ghost of Cedric. Ghost-Cedric had made introductions last night, but Hermione had been too worried about Harry to talk with Harry’s ghostly parents. Hermione had not spoken twenty words to Ghost-James and Ghost-Lily in Saint Mungo’s.

But now Hermione, who refused to curtsy to any living Pureblood, curtsied to the ghostly couple. “Good morning, Lord and Lady Potter. How is Harry doing? Is he here?”

James said, “Please note, I never claimed the Lord Potter ring, more fool I. Be sure that Harry will claim it at Gringotts, today or tomorrow.” Hermione’s eyebrows shot up, hearing this.

James continued, “So I am no Lord, and Lily is no capital-L Lady. To answer your questions, Harry still is at Saint Mungo’s, but he shall be discharged sometime this morning, so we’re told.”

Confused Hermione asked, “If Harry still is at Saint Mungo’s, why are you here?”

Lily replied, “Cedric will be calling a ‘Sett Sit’ in the Hufflepuff common room at nine”—right after breakfast—”to tell Hufflepuff students all the facts about this year that the ’Puffs should know but which Albus Dumbledore for damned sure won’t tell them. James and I thought this was a great idea, so we’ll be calling our own meeting here at 2pm, after lunch, assuming Harry is back in the castle by then. We’re here now to tell all Lions this morning, before they go to breakfast, about the after-lunch meeting.”

Hermione, meanwhile, had walked up to the couple. She said, “I’ve so many questions for you.”

James chuckled. “Starting with ‘Exactly how did a toddler survive the Killing Curse?’ Lily gets the credit. She combined a Potter-grimoire Protection ritual with seventh-year Runes and much cleverness.” James smiled proudly at his ghost-wife.

Lily said, “I have a question for you, young Hermione. Cedric tells us that you and Harry are close, close friends, but you’ve never kissed. Why?”

Hermione was shocked at the question. Then she thought, Gryffindors charge ahead.

The common room was at the moment empty of students; but Hermione figured that this would change in minutes, perhaps in seconds. She stepped closer to the ghosts and lowered her voice—

“I decided I wanted Harry to kiss me, the night we rescued Sirius”—now it was James and Lily whose eyebrows shot up—“but Harry never has tried to kiss me, and he’s never asked me to be his girlfriend. As for why I haven’t kissed him—Harry already sees me as the bossy know-it-all, so what would he think of me if I tried to kiss him when he doesn’t want me to? My friendship with Harry is more precious to me than an apple-sized diamond; I don’t want to ruin it!”

James frowned. “We’re all missing something important. Cedric tells us that you two are so close that you’re the talk of the school. There were couples like that when Lily and I were at Hogwarts—”

“And we eventually became such a couple ourselves,” Lily said.

“—and such couples always moved to kissing, then snogging, then often to other activities.” James said this last part with a grin.

Lily backhanded James’ stomach.

Three third-year girls entered the common room from the girls-dorms stairs, soon disappearing through the portrait hole. Hermione immediately changed the subject, asking the ghosts, “What do you know about Harry’s life after 1981?”

Lily said, “Only what Cedric has told us. Which means, we know about Harry’s life only when it affected Cedric’s life.”

Hermione grinned big. “Then let me tell you how Harry has affected my life. Your son is a hero, James and Lily—he’s saved my life three times, saved Sirius Black once, and once saved the lives of everyone in the school.”

Then Hermione told Harry’s ghostly parents about the troll, the basilisk, the Time-Turner and the Dementors.

Hermione did not leave for breakfast till 8.14, but she was okay with this. She still had three-quarters of an hour to eat breakfast before the food disappeared, and now with the Potter parents here, finally she could brag on Harry to people who would not scoff when they heard about Harry’s heroism.

Just before Hermione walked out the portrait hole, Lily called to her with a mischievous voice, “Traditionally, girls reward heroic boys with a kiss. Just saying.”

****

Meanwhile at 7.26am
In the Hufflepuff common room

Susan Bones entered the common room and discovered a clump of students in the middle of the room. In the middle of the clump, Susan expected to find Professor Sprout, or perhaps Friar Tuck.

But the ghost she found was not Friar Tuck, it was the ghost of the sixth-year boy whom Susan had fancied above all other boys. “Cedric!” Susan blurted.

Cedric smiled at Susan. This smile, even coming from a ghost, was beautiful enough to make Susan’s heart beat faster.

Cedric then said, in his friendly way, “I’m calling a ‘Sett Sit’ at nine, after breakfast. Please come. I want you to hear what I’ve to say.”

“Oh, I shall, I shall! But is there anything you can tell us now? Such as, how you died? And by whom?”

Last night, Draco Malfoy had been claiming that Potter had murdered Cedric. Susan suspected that Malfoy had been blowing hot air, but she did not know that he was wrong.

Cedric must have heard about Draco’s claims, because the handsome ghost replied, “Harry Potter did not kill me. In fact, Harry Potter has acted honourably in all three Tasks and afterwards. It was not Harry Potter who put his name in the Goblet. What else I’ve to say, I’ll tell you at nine.”

“Aww,” whined some Badgers. Other Badgers (including Susan) did not whine, but they wanted to.

****

In the Great Hall

Cedric had spoken his jaw-dropping words in the Hufflepuff common room at 7.27am. By the end of breakfast, 9.00am, every wizard and witch in the Great Hall—headmasters, professors, Hogwarts students, departing Beauxbatons students and departing Durmstrang students—all had been told Cedric’s words.

The headmaster’s eyes twinkled when he was told Cedric’s words, as though he were taking credit for Harry acting “honourably.” But many people remembered that on the night of the Goblet drawing, Dumbledore had all but publicly accused Harry Potter of cheating his way into the Tournament.

****

Later (9.01am) in the Hufflepuff common room
Right after the end of breakfast

Susan Bones never had seen the common room so crowded, except after a Welcoming Feast. Even the fifth- and seventh-years were here now, instead of studying in the library. Professor Sprout was here. Surprisingly, many ghosts were here—the four House ghosts plus Professor Binns and Myrtle Warren. The only ghosts not here were Harry Potter’s parents, James and Lily Potter.

Ghosts were not solid to people, but it seemed they were solid to other ghosts. As Cedric began to speak, Friar Tuck stood behind Cedric and to his left, with his right hand on Cedric’s right shoulder.

Cedric did not take a deep breath, but as he stood, his posture straightened. “Thanks for coming. If it’s weird to you lot seeing your Housemate as a ghost, it’s even more weird being a ghost. Before the Third Task, I imagined what winning the Tournament would be like and what losing the Tournament would be like. But I never imagined being a co-winner of the Tournament, then to be portkeyed to a dark graveyard in Little Hangleton, then Killing Cursed a half-minute later.

“Now, when you die, most people go on to Eternity. Since this hasn’t happened to me yet, I can’t tell you what this is like. A few dead people choose to stay in the mortal world because they have unfinished business—this is what ghosts are. Six such ghosts are here today.” Cedric turned and bowed to each of the other ghosts in the room.

Cedric continued, “But what happened to me was different. Harry Potter and I were portkeyed into a graveyard, and at first we thought it was a weird part of the Third Task. Then a short man who was holding what looked like the world’s ugliest baby, walked up to us. The ugly baby—who was You Know Who, but I didn’t know this at the time—said ‘Kill the spare.’ Then the short man—Peter Pettigrew—Killing Cursed me, and I died. Thirty seconds after Harry Potter and I, both of us grinning like fools, grabbed the Triwizard Cup in the maze, I died.”

The Hufflepuff common room was filled with sounds made by unhappy people.

Cedric continued, “Right after I was Killing Cursed, instead of going on to Eternity, a barrel of knowledge was dumped on me in an instant, then my spirit was sucked into Lord Voldemort’s wand.”

The people in the room gasped, moaned, groaned and hissed, hearing that name.

Cedric said, “People, Lord Voldemort’s name will be mentioned many times this morning—deal with it.”

Then Cedric resumed his story: “Sometime later, I came out of Voldemort’s wand. Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort—You Know Who by now was adult-sized—were duelling inside a dome of glowing yellow lines in that graveyard. Outside the dome were about thirty Death Eaters—silver masks, black robes, the whole costume. They were trying to get inside the dome, but the dome was keeping them out. Inside the dome meanwhile, I came out of Lord Voldemort’s wand, then an old Muggle man came out, and he was followed by the ghosts of Bertha Jorkins, Lily Potter and James Potter. We five wand-ghosts mobbed Lord Voldemort to distract him so that Harry could escape, whilst expecting we would be sucked back into Voldemort’s wand. Luckily for me, before this happened, Lily taught her husband and me an incantation, Non, non revertar, which we each spoke whilst we each touched Voldemort’s wand for an instant. Then we turned into regular ghosts and didn’t get sucked back into the wand.

“So now I can use the barrel of knowledge that was dumped on me before I was sucked into the wand. Which means, now I know everything about my life that I didn’t know during my life.”

Cedric smiled at everyone in the room. “I now know the name of every witch in Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Slytherin who fancied me.” Cedric said this with a raised eyebrow, and most witches in Hufflepuff began to blush scarlet. Susan’s own cheeks burned.

Then Cedric lost the smile. “Lord Voldemort cooked up a plot, beginning last August, to kidnap Harry Potter, to use Potter unwillingly in a ritual to bring Voldemort back to life, then to kill Potter. I wound up being kidnapped too, and Killing Cursed with Voldemort’s wand on Voldemort’s order; so my ghostly knowledge told me everything about the plot against Harry Potter which I became an innocent victim of.”

Susan heard murmurs throughout the room.

Cedric continued, “What has this ghostly knowledge told me? My first major point: Harry Potter didn’t put his name in the Goblet—”

“He didn’t?” somebody blurted.

“A Death Eater named Bartemius Crouch, Junior, who was Polyjuiced as Mad-Eye Moody, put Harry’s name in. We Badgers and we Hogwarts students have wronged Harry Potter.”

Cedric’s listeners groaned.

The ghost continued, “Headmaster Dumbledore has wronged Harry Potter also, and has done worse to him than any student has, except Ronald Weasley.”

A different voice said, “The headmaster has wronged Potter?”

Cedric nodded. “Much of what I know now, as ghostly knowledge, the headmaster knew at the time—but did nothing about. Headmaster Dumbledore knew within ten minutes, the first time after 1 September he was alone with supposed Mad-Eye Moody, that the man was an impostor. Last October, when the headmaster caught the fourth parchment and called out Harry Potter’s name, Dumbledore knew that it was Barty Crouch, Junior, not Harry, who had put Potter’s parchment in the Goblet.”

Shock showed on every Badger’s face, including Susan’s.

Cedric continued, “My second major point: Harry Potter in the maze was honourable. He warned me ahead of time that the First Task was dragons. At the end of the Third Task, he could have taken the Triwizard Cup by himself, he was a few feet closer, but he insisted that I grab the Cup too.”

The common room murmured approval.

“His honourable plan was that instead of a ‘Gryffindor win,’ Harry and I would have a ‘Hogwarts win.’ But the Cup took us to a graveyard, not to the winner’s platform.”

“Definitely a plot,” someone said.

“Less than thirty seconds after Harry and I arrived in the graveyard, I was Killing Cursed. A Death Eater put Harry’s name in the Goblet; a second Death Eater, Peter Pettigrew, was my murderer.”

Daniel, a seventh-year boy, shook his head. “Where do I know that name?”

Cedric replied, “Peter Pettigrew supposedly was murdered by Sirius Black in 1981. But last night, Pettigrew was definitely alive, and soon afterwards, I definitely wasn’t.”

Cynthia Wood, a sixth-year witch, asked sceptically, “And Potter is to blame for none of what happened to you?”

Cedric said patiently, “Cynthia, Harry Potter is to blame for nothing. He was wronged by almost everyone in the school except Granger, beginning Samhain night; but Potter acted honourably through the entire Tournament.”

Susan saw many thoughtful Badgers. Her own face surely looked thoughtful too.

****

The Badgers had questions for Cedric—

“Is it true that Avada Kedavra doesn’t hurt?”

Cedric answered, “It caused no pain in my body, this is true. But I felt both my soul and my spirit be ripped away from my body, and English has no words for what those two separations felt like.”

“How was You Know Who resurrected?”

“After toddler-Harry Potter did whatever he did in 1981, Lord Voldemort did not die as we all thought. Instead, he became a wraith—which is not the same as a ghost. In the graveyard when I was Killing Cursed and was sucked into the wand, the wraith of Lord Voldemort was possessing a baby. I caught only a glimpse, but that was enough, thank you—the baby looked hideous. Later, when I came out of the wand, Lord Voldemort had done a Dark resurrection ritual and now looked like a monstrous man. My ghostly knowledge had told me Lord Voldemort would use a ritual that involved Harry Potter; and indeed, this was why Harry Potter was kidnapped, to make him available for the ritual. But what the exact ritual would be, my ghostly knowledge had not told me. Whilst I was in the wand, only Peter Pettigrew and Harry Potter witnessed the ritual.”

Professor Sprout spoke up: “Badgers, whatever happened to Mr Potter in that graveyard was bad enough that he was taken to Saint Mungo’s. I’m sure Mr Potter wants to forget that hour of his life, so I will take points from any Badger who asks Mr Potter even a single question about the graveyard. As Mr Diggory said, Helga’s House wronged Mr Potter, and we shall not harm him further.”

Another question for Cedric: “What does You Know Who look like now? After the ritual.”

“Below the neck, he is an adult man, though with white skin and long fingers. Tall, but skeletally thin. He has no hair on his head at all, his eyes are red and the pupils are slits, like a cat’s. His nose is flat against his face, with snakelike slits for nostrils. The only human part of his head are his ears, which also are white.”

Eww was the Badgers’ reaction.

Someone asked, “Who were the Death Eaters there, outside the dome-thing?”

Cedric answered, “The Death Eaters weren’t there when I got the barrel of knowledge dumped on me, then was sucked into the wand. So I can’t name names, mostly. But Lucius Malfoy I’d recognise anywhere.”

****

When Cedric’s speech was finished and the Badgers’ questions were answered, the Badgers who loved to gossip rushed out the door like a swarm of angry bees.

All this happened Sunday morning—no student had classes. This gave the gossips hours to spread their gossip, and gave the gossips’ listeners hours to spread the gossip further. By noon on Sunday, when lunchtime began, every Hogwarts student who did not plug their ears, knew what Cedric had told the Badgers.

****

Susan Bones did not dash out the door and spread gossip to her friends in other Houses; instead, Susan wrote an Auror-grade report about what Cedric had said. Susan’s report gave special attention to everything that Cedric had learnt by ghostly knowledge about Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore and the fake Mad-Eye Moody (Bartemius Crouch, Junior). Susan reported that Cedric had witnessed Lucius Malfoy in the graveyard, dressed as a Death Eater.

When Susan had written her report, she called the Bones house-elf, Tibia, and ordered Tibia to deliver Susan’s report to Auntie.

Not only should Auntie see Susan’s report in her own right—Auntie was Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, after all—but also Susan knew that Auntie would be bringing Harry back to Hogwarts from Saint Mungo’s Hospital this morning. Presumably Auntie would show Susan’s write-up to Potter.

Susan wondered what Potter would think when he read all of Cedric’s ghostly knowledge about Potter himself.

****

By noon on Sunday, the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang professors and students had left Hogwarts. Madame Maxime, Fleur Delacour and Viktor Krum all claimed they would tell everyone back home who would listen, what they had heard Sunday morning about Harry Potter and about Albus Dumbledore.

By noon on Sunday, the Owlery was empty except for Hedwig. Every other owl in the Owlery had been given a letter and had been sent out flying to a student’s parents.

Meanwhile, Headmaster Dumbledore, to his frustration, still had not been able to speak with Harry Potter. Dumbledore insisted on privacy when he tried to visit Harry at Saint Mungo’s; but the Saint Mungo’s healers would not allow Dumbledore, to be alone with their patient, despite Dumbledore’s bluster.

Professor Sprout, meanwhile, kept herself busy in her greenhouses until/unless the headmaster summoned her to ask her what Cedric had said—but the headmaster had no reason to suspect that talking to Professor Sprout was worth his time.

All of the portraits in the Hufflepuff common room had been out of their frames when Cedric had given his speech. Since the Hufflepuff portraits had heard nothing, they reported nothing to the nosy headmaster.

The six Hogwarts ghosts reported to the headmaster when ordered to. But since the headmaster had not known Cedric would speak, Dumbledore had given the ghosts no order to report. If Dumbledore ever summoned the ghosts, they would tell him everything they had heard; but until such time, no ghost floated into the headmaster’s office and voluntarily repeated what he or she had heard.

This left only house-elves. But the Spirit of Hogwarts had ordered all house-elves away from all common rooms this morning, so the house-elves had no juicy information for Dumbledore either.

Thus by noon on Sunday, almost every Hogwarts student knew what had happened to Cedric and to Harry, and the students were horrified; but the school’s nosy headmaster was completely ignorant, and frustrated thereby.

****

A bit earlier: 11.33am
The hospital wing, Hogwarts

The emergency Floo for patient-transport to/from Saint Mungo’s turned green. Harry Potter passed through the flames, then fell down.

James and Lily, who had been waiting in the hospital wing for their son to arrive, winced.

Ten seconds later, the Floo flames turned green again; Madam Bones entered the hospital wing through these flames. Madam Bones, unlike Harry, did not fall down.

“How is Mr Potter?” Madam Pomfrey asked, as Madam Bones handed her a parchment.

As Madam Bones pulled potion vials from her pockets, she replied, “He still has the shakes from the Cruciatuses, but the acromantula injuries are healed. I wasn’t pleased to learn that the last time Harry was in Saint Mungo’s, he was one year and one day old.”

James said, “We weren’t pleased either, discovering this.”

Madam Bones stared down Madam Pomfrey. “What I want to know is, why didn’t you ship Harry to Saint Mungo’s the first time he came into the hospital wing as a firstie? Merlin on a mushroom, witch, he was Sorted whilst suffering more medical problems than a Healer training dummy—malnutrition, poorly healed bones, and scars all over his body!”

Hearing this, Harry blushed scarlet with shame. He looked at the floor, not at his ghostly parents.

Madam Pomfrey replied to Madam Bones’s question with a robot’s voice: “When Mr Potter is with his Muggle relatives, he is an active and sometimes clumsy boy. The boy is the cause of his own injuries. Nobody is abusing him.”

Harry looked up in surprise when Madam Bones conjured a chair, then Stupefyed Madam Pomfrey and muscled the limp mediwitch into the chair. Madam Bones cast spells on Madam Pomfrey, then announced, “She’s been Obliviated and Confundused. But the spells have their magical signatures erased.”

James yelled, “Mind-whammies on a Healer or Auror are illegal!”

Harry shrugged. “Only if the Wizengamot is willing to send the mind-whammier to prison. Right now, Death Eaters are walking free, so how cheesed off will the Wizengamot get about a few mind-whammies on a mediwitch?”

Lily demanded, “Who would make a mediwitch not notice the injuries that Petunia and Vernon have done to my son?”

Madam Bones mimed stroking a beard.

Harry said, “Don’t forget their son Dudley, ‘the baby whale.’ Many of my injuries have come from Dudley and his gang playing ‘Harry Hunting.’ ”

Madam Bones said, “Why don’t you sound angrier about all their abuse of you?”

Harry looked at her. “Why bother? Nobody believes the orphan, whilst silver-tongued liars always are believed. Dumbledore is the perfect example. I’ve learnt that when I yell and scream, all that happens is that later I’m made to suffer even worse, after the people who do the slipshod investigation return to their office.”

Lily looked at Madam Bones and snarled, “Harry is showing what, in Muggle psychology, is called learnt helplessness. But Harry, whilst you might have been helpless before Hogwarts, when you were living with my bint sister and her family, you aren’t helpless now.”

Harry looked at his ghostly mother and sighed. “Hogwarts is no better than the Dursleys, Mum. Professor Snape makes my life a living hell, and Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall never hear a word I say. Dumbledore always tells me I’m exaggerating or mistaken.”

Lily’s voice got quiet: “Did you say Snape? As in Severus Snape? Severus Snape is the one making your life miserable?”

“Yeah. If I had a knut for every time he’s vanished one of my potions and given me a zero for the day, or said, ‘Potter, you’re just like your father,’ I could buy Gringotts.”

“Snivellus shall pay,” James declared.

Lily nodded.

****

Right then, when James, Lily and Amelia all were angry, and Harry was feeling utterly defeated by the life he was stuck with, the doors to the rest of Hogwarts opened up, and Dumbledore and Fudge walked into the hospital wing.

Bugger me, thought Harry.

Chapter 4: The Eventful Sunday, Part 1

Chapter Text

Still Sunday, 25 June, 11.43am
Still in the hospital wing, Hogwarts

Right then, when Ghost-James, Ghost-Lily and Amelia all were angry about recent revelations, and Harry was feeling utterly defeated by the life he was stuck with, the doors to the rest of Hogwarts opened up, and Dumbledore and Fudge walked into the hospital wing.

Bugger me, thought Harry.

Madam Bones held up a hand. “Before you two esteemed wizards say whatever you came to say, I need to take care of Poppy.”

Madam Bones, whilst watching Dumbledore closely, Rennervated Madam Pomfrey and told her, “You’ve been Confundused and Obliviated. Go to Saint Mungo’s and get your brain fixed.”

Madam Pomfrey shook her head. “The headmaster doesn’t allow anyone to go to Saint Mungo’s. Not even me.”

Harry noticed that Dumbledore smiled, hearing this.

Madam Bones, whilst giving Dumbledore the stink-eye, said to Madam Pomfrey, “I’m sure you misheard him. Because otherwise, I’d need to arrest the headmaster for endangering students, and you would be putting your mediwitch vows at risk. I mean it, Poppy—go.”

Madam Pomfrey did not look at Dumbledore before she flooed away, using the Saint Mungo’s emergency floo. Seconds later, a Saint Mungo’s healer entered the hospital wing through this same emergency floo, to serve as Madam Pomfrey’s temporary replacement.

Then Madam Bones said to Dumbledore and Fudge, “All right, Minister, headmaster, you have the floor. Say whatever you were going to say.”

Fudge said to Harry, “Boy, I need you to stand up in the Great Hall and announce that you were mistaken about You Know Who, that he’s not back!”

Harry said, “He is back! He resurrected himself, he Crucio’d me and I duelled him. He’s back!”

“No, no, he can’t be back! You’re—you’re mistaken. Or...”

“Or what? I’m lying? This year I’ve been called a liar and a cheater by the entire Hogwarts student body except for only five people, yonder headmaster asked me if I had put my name in the Goblet when he knew I hadn’t, and now the Minister for Magic is calling me a liar too? I've had enough!”

Lily said, “Corny, you went from the unglamourous Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, back in 1981, to Minister for Magic? How did this happen?”

Fudge said pompously, “When you died in ’81, I was the Junior Minister in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. I had a title then, I had responsibilities. Nine years later, the people recognised my innate abilities and elected me Minister in 1990.”

Harry saw his mother roll her ghostly eyes. Clearly she had the same opinion of Fudge that her son had.

Just then, Ghost-Cedric flew through the wall. “Oi, Harry, I heard you’re back in the castle now. How are you feeling?”

Dumbledore interrupted: “Who told you that Harry was back, Mr Diggory? Which portrait, or elf, or ghost told you?”

Everyone else acted as though Dumbledore had not spoken. Harry said to Cedric, “Yeah, I’m back and I’m fine—”

Madam Bones said, “You are not ‘fine,’ Mr Potter, you are recovering. You were hit with the Cruciatus Curse twice—this is not something that can be put right with some wand-waving or with you gulping a single potion.”

Dumbledore said angrily, “Mr Diggory, I am waiting for an answer to my question. I am most keenly disappointed in you. Now, who told you Harry is back?”

“I’m not going to tell you, Albus,” Cedric said. “I stopped being a Hogwarts student at 9.23 last night. Since I died in Little Hangleton, Lancashire”—in England—“I’m now a visitor ghost, not a Hogwarts ghost, so I’m not required to give you more respect or obedience than I choose to. So why am I disrespectful? Here’s a hint: I know all your secrets—at least the secrets that relate to Harry Potter. This year you didn’t stop a plot to kill Harry Potter that you could have and should have, so now I am dead.”

“I am disappointed in you, Mr Diggory. It goes against Hufflepuff values for you to hold a grudge.”

“What do you know about Hufflepuff values, Albus? You hear ‘loyal and hardworking’ and you think ‘ready-made minion.’ ”

Then Cedric turned completely away from Dumbledore and asked Harry, “So what’s happening now?”

Harry said to Cedric, as though Dumbledore were not nearby and fuming, “Minister Fudge doesn’t want to believe that Voldemort is back. He’s arguing with me.”

Cedric said, “Minister, it was Voldemort himself, in his possessed-baby form, who ordered Peter Pettigrew to kill me. James, Lily and I witnessed Harry duel resurrected-Voldemort, later last night—I assure you, Voldemort is quite alive now.”

Dumbledore yelled, “Mr Diggory, answer me! Who told you that Harry was here now?”

Cedric said to Harry and to Madam Bones, “Did you hear something?”

Lily smirked. “It was the distress call of a mature Multicoloured Bloviator.”

Fudge yelled, “You Know Who can’t be back! You’re all lying! Or mistaken! Or something.”

Cedric said, “Then you probably don’t want to know that when James, Lily and I came out of Voldemort’s wand, I saw Death Eaters there with Voldemort. One of those Death Eaters was Lucius Malfoy.”

“Interesting,” commented Madam Bones.

Fudge said, “I refuse to stay here for this!” Fudge pulled a tiny moneybag out of his pocket, used his wand to enlarge the moneybag to full size, then all but threw the moneybag at Harry. “Your winnings, Mr Potter, one thousand galleons. Congratulations,” Fudge said, then he rushed out of the hospital wing.

James taught Harry how to shrink the moneybag small again. Harry put the shrunken moneybag in a pocket.

Then James said to Harry, “It’s lunchtime. Shall we head to the Great Hall? It’s been seventeen years since your mother and I sat at the Gryffindor table.”

Madam Bones said, “Which is my cue to make my way back to the DMLE.” But she did not (yet) head for the doors. Instead, she was eyeing Dumbledore.

Dumbledore said, “Harry may go to lunch after he has told me everything about what happened after he and Cedric grabbed the Cup together.”

Lily said, “No. Once Harry and Cedric left the grounds of Hogwarts, what happened to them stopped being the concern of a headmaster. Their story is Amy’s to hear, and Saul Croaker’s, and the Diggorys’, not yours.”

“Except I am Harry’s magical guardian—”

“QUIT LYING, ALBUS!” roared James. “We believed your lies in 1981 and we died because of your pretty, but worthless words! ‘When you truly need me, James my boy, I’ll be there.’ But who was it who actually showed up? Hagrid—five minutes too late. And now Lily’s and my ghostly knowledge tells us that you had no intention of honouring your promise. Is it any surprise that you became ‘Harry’s magical guardian’ after you lied to the Wizengamot about our wills?”

Harry said, “Enough of all this, let’s go eat.” He headed to the exit doors for the hospital wing, along with three ghosts and Madam Bones.

Dumbledore switched targets: “Mr Diggory, I am disappointed by your attitude. Should you continue being obstinate, I shall have no choice but to exorcise you from the castle.”

All three ghosts stopped drifting towards the doors, turned, and grinned at Dumbledore. Harry noticed that the ghostly trio grinned like vampires, not ghosts. Harry wondered what the ghosts knew that the headmaster did not.

“You can try to exorcise him, Albus,” James said, still smiling cruelly.

Cedric laughed scornfully. “I’m not a bit worried, Albus. You haven’t expelled Malfoy and you haven’t sacked Snape, and they’ve done much worse than refusing to answer one nosy question.”

Dumbledore now looked at Harry, thundering, “Harry, come back here! You are still a student here, and subject to my authority! Tell me what happened!”

Harry and Madam Bones turned to face Dumbledore. Harry said, “When my name came out of the Goblet, you were the supposed discoverer of the twelve uses of dragon blood, the supposed Defeater of Grindelwald, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, the Supreme Mugwump of the ICW, the master of ceremonies during the Goblet Choosing Ceremony, and my supposed magical guardian.”

Lily said sarcastically, “Albus Dumbledore, so accomplished. But there sure are many supposeds in your CV.”

Harry continued, “Yet when I told you I didn’t put my name in the Goblet and I wished to not compete, what did you say to me? You put on your sad, sad, helpless face and said sadly and helplessly, ‘Harry my boy, there is nothing I can do.’ Dad is right, you are a liar. I’m hungry, so I’m going to lunch with Cedric and my family.”

Harry spoke the word that he always refused to describe the Dursleys with. He wondered if Dumbledore caught the significance.

“Thirty points from Gryffindor, Harry; and detention tonight with Professor Snape!”

“Yeah, whatever, Albus,” Harry said.

Dumbledore snapped, “Harry my boy—”

By now, Harry and his group had passed through the doors of the hospital wing, and so Harry did not hear the rest of whatever Dumbledore said.

****

12.00pm, lunch in the Great Hall

Harry’s ghost-parents sat on either side of him at the Gryffindor table, whilst Cedric haunted a piece of bench amongst the sixth-year Hufflepuffs. Dumbledore at the High Table was his usual jovial-acting self; he showed no sign that Harry and three ghosts all had recently disrespected him.

****

A few minutes after noon, as soon as usually-late Dumbledore had taken his seat at the High Table, a delegation of ten students left the Hufflepuff table. They gathered in the fourth-years part of the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw aisle and all faced Harry.

The ten Hufflepuffs were made up of at least one student from each year; except the delegation had two students from sixth year, and fourth year was represented by Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones and Justin Finch-Fletchley.

The seventh-year Hufflepuff took half a step forwards. He said, “Scion Potter, I jumped to conclusions about you entering the Tournament, and I have slandered you repeatedly. I apologise for my misdeeds, which I deeply regret.”

The seventh-year ’Puff stepped back, one of the two sixth-year Hufflepuff students took half a step forwards, then she repeated what the seventh-year Hufflepuff boy just had said.

So it went, from oldest to youngest, with even the first-year Hufflepuff girl giving Harry a formal apology.

For five of the ten Hufflepuffs, their delivery was wooden, sounding unbothered and unemotional, as though they were merely reciting words they had memorised. But Harry noticed that the two sixth-year Hufflepuffs, as well as Hannah, Susan and Justin, were all five blushing scarlet, and none of the five could look Harry in the eyes.

****

Elsewhere in the Great Hall

Cho Chang got up from where she was sitting, which was amongst the fifth-year Ravenclaws, and walked over to the sixth-years part of the Hufflepuff table. Cho asked softly, “Cedric, may I speak with you alone?”

Cedric stood up and floated through the wooden bench to reach where Cho was standing in the Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff aisle. Then Cho walked, and Cedric floated, to a corner of the Great Hall. The closest people to the couple, the first-year Slytherins, were about twenty feet away, but Cho put up a Silencing Charm anyway.

Only then did Cho notice something disturbing: How Cedric was looking at her was wrong. There was no sign of his former affection for her, and she saw no trace of his sexy smile.

His look said only, I’m waiting. Whatever it is you brought me here to tell me, get on with it.

Cho took a deep breath and said, “Cedric, being your girlfriend was the best thing that ever happened to me. I’ll always treasure the memories of our time together.” Then she looked him in the eyes and added, “I miss you, Cedric. Merlin, I miss you.”

The ghost of Cedric reached over and grabbed Cho’s shoulders—which felt like someone had laid snowballs on those shoulders. Cedric said, “Cho, I no longer wish to spend time with you. You should put me out of your mind and move on.”

“WHAT? How can you say that?”

Cedric shook his head. “You really don’t want me to answer that.”

Cedric turned away from Cho and floated across the floor towards the Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff aisle. Cedric did not give Cho even one backwards glance.

****

Back at the Gryffindor table

Sometime during lunch, James began addressing Hermione (who was sitting across the table from Harry and his parents) as Future Lady Potter. Hermione’s eyes went wide, but Lavender’s and Parvati’s eyes went wider. The two youngest Weasleys looked murderous, but the twin Weasleys were grinning.

Blushing Harry asked his ghostly father, “Why are you calling Hermione ‘Future Lady Potter’? We haven’t even kissed yet!”

“ ‘Yet’?” repeated a Weasley twin.

“But you want to kiss her, right?” asked a Patil twin.

Lavender asked Hermione, “And you want to kiss him, right?”

Hermione paused for several seconds. Then instead of answering Lavender’s question, Hermione stood up from her piece of bench. “Gryffindors charge ahead,” she murmured cryptically.

Hermione walked round the Gryffindor table, till she was approaching Harry’s side of the fourth-years’ part of the Gryffindor table.

All three Potters watched Hermione approach. Harry was puzzled about what Hermione was planning, but the ghost-Potters both were grinning unashamedly.

The rest of the Great Hall was silent, except for murmurs of “What’s she planning?”

When Hermione was standing in the aisle behind Harry, she said, “Harry, please turn and face me.”

Harry spun around on his piece of bench, whilst still wondering what Hermione was about to say or to do.

Hermione put her hands on Harry’s shoulders, whilst she raised her voice and said, “Harry, you are no cheater. You are no liar. Sometimes you stink—after Quidditch practice.”

The entire Great Hall laughed at this.

Hermione continued, “You saved me from a troll in first year, you saved the school from a basilisk in second year, and yesterday you survived Voldemort’s—”

All the Hogwarts students hissed, hearing that name.

“—evil plot to kill you. Those Roy Locke books are silly lies, but you are a true hero and”—Hermione raised her voice even louder—“I love you.”

So saying, Hermione bent down and kissed Harry on the lips.

The entire Great Hall suddenly got noisy.

Harry put his hands on either side of Hermione’s face and lengthened the kiss.

Pandaemonium.

When Hermione and Harry finally stopped kissing, she murmured, “Your father looks way too proud of himself. I think he pranked us.”

****

But Harry’s happy moment was not allowed to last—

“YOUR DISGUSTING DISPLAY OF PUBLIC AFFECTION TURNS MY STOMACH, POTTER,” Guess-Who was yelling, “AND IS ANOTHER PROOF OF YOUR ARROGANCE, THE SAME AS YOUR FATHER’S. FORTY POINTS FROM GRYFFINDOR, POTTER, AND YOUR DETENTION WITH ME TONIGHT SHALL BEGIN A HALF-HOUR EARLIER.” Meaning, the detention would begin during the last half-hour of dinner.

Hermione blurted, “Harry, look at your mum!”

Harry looked over next to him, to the piece of bench that his ghost-mother had been haunting before Harry’s and Hermione’s kiss. Now Harry’s ghostly mother was not there.

Instead, the ghost of Lily Evans Potter was quickly floating through the wood, the food and the students of the Gryffindor table, the Ravenclaw table and the Hufflepuff table. As Lily floated into the gap between the seventh-years’ part of the Hufflepuff table and the left end of the High Table, the ghost stopped, then looked at the middle of the High Table.

“Albus,” Lily snapped, “You gave my son detention today simply because he refused to tell you what happened after he and Cedric were portkeyed out of the maze. You insisted that Harry tell you, even though it isn’t your place as headmaster to know DMLE and DOM business—”

Dumbledore said pompously, “Lily, I must—”

“It is especially not your place to know Harry’s story, since the things you know, you never tell. There was a prophecy made about Harry, but you still refuse to tell him what the prophecy says; and James and I, you made our wills a state secret! Which meant that until this minute, nobody but you, James and I knew that the quite innocent Sirius Black was supposed to be Harry’s guardian, instead of my awful sister Petunia and you, the lying Leader of the Light!”

All through the Great Hall, Harry heard “Sirius Black is innocent?” “Sirius Black was supposed to raise Potter?”

Then Lily switched targets: “Minerva, you were James’ godmother. Yet you allow James’ son to be publicly humiliated by students and a misbehaving professor, whilst you stay silent? Do you lead the House of the Brave, or are you Albus’s timid minion?”

Dumbledore said sternly, “Mrs Potter, that is enough disrespect to my Deputy. I insist you return to your seat—”

“Shut it, Albus!” Lily replied.

Harry heard gasps from every part of the Great Hall.

Meanwhile, Lily resumed her floating movement till she was floating in front of where Professor Snape was seated at the High Table.

Lily said, “Sev, Sev, Sev. Did you know that in our third year, I daydreamed about marrying you? There are ‘LE + SS’ hearts in my third-year diary, if anyone doubts.”

Snape spoke in a tone of voice that Harry never had heard before: “I didn’t know this, Lily. I didn’t know you ever felt this way about the wizard boy from the poor side of co*keworth.”

Lily now spun in place, so that she was speaking to the students at the four tables—

“What can I tell you about Sev? In first year, we were partners in Slughorn’s Potions class. Sev as a first-year rescued the potion I ruined by stirring the wrong way. So it’s no surprise to me that in his twenties, Sev became the youngest Potions Master in a century. My one-time friend has earnt this honour—good for him.”

Next to Harry, James chuckled. “She’s really buttering him up; it means she’s about to turn vicious.”

Lily said to the students, “I still cared for Sev in fourth year and fifth year, but I became alarmed by Sev’s close friendship with loathsome Lucius Malfoy. That platinum-haired peaco*ck put me in the hospital wing how many times? He called me ‘mudblood’ how many times? Yet Sev was friends with him. Then at the end of fifth year, after James, his friends, Sev and I all had sat our OWL exams—”

Harry was surprised to see Snape cringe.

Lily spun in place then; now she was facing the Potions Master again. “AT THE END OF OUR FIFTH YEAR, MY ONE-TIME FRIEND CALLED ME A ‘FILTHY MUDBLOOD.’ ”

Now Lily did another half-spin, facing four silent tables—

Lily said, “What else to say about Sev? Two years later, and less than a week after he sat his NEWTs, Sev became a Marked Death Eater. He should feel quite proud of this—no other half-blood ever has been given this ‘honour.’ ”

The students murmured, hearing this.

“Oh, you didn’t know? Sev’s father, Tobias Snape, was a Muggle. Sev’s witch mother Eileen was cast out of the Prince family for marrying Tobias the Muggle. Or Eileen was cast out because Tobias Snape beat his wife and son and Eileen the witch allowed this, I’m not sure which.”

Harry looked over at Snape—the man looked sick.

“Then the day came in 1980 when a prophecy was spoken about my son Harry, before Harry even was born.”

Dumbledore chattered at Harry’s mum; she ignored the headmaster’s orders and commands.

Lily continued, “Sev heard the first part of the prophecy: ‘The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies.’ ”

Lily called back over her right shoulder, “SOUND FAMILIAR, SEV?”

Dumbledore, meanwhile, ordered the ghost-woman to say nothing more about the prophecy. Lily complied with a shrug.

Lily continued her tale: “Now suppose you’re Severus Snape. You’ve just heard a prophecy that links your former friend’s son and the Dark Lord Voldemort. The kind thing for you to do, the good thing, would be to reconcile with your former friend because you know she’ll be freaking out when she hears about the prophecy. Is this what Sev did? No, Sev TOLD VOLDEMORT EVERY WORD OF THE PROPHECY HE’D HEARD!

“So this is why Sev now is Head of House Slytherin. It’s because he calls Muggle-borns mudblood, he betrayed me, his friend, and he’s cozy with Voldemort. Salazar Slytherin would be disgusted by my former friend Sev, but Sev perfectly fits in with Tom Riddle’s House Slytherin and Lucius Malfoy’s House Slytherin. Pretty good for a half-blood, I say.”

Harry heard voices asking, “Who’s Tom Riddle?”

Meanwhile at the High Table, Harry saw that McGonagall’s face had turned white.

Lily had more things to say: “Cedric tells me that Sev always is saying to Harry in the Great Hall, ‘You’re just like your father!’ It’s meant as an insult. But did you know that the aforementioned father, James Potter, once saved Sev from a werewolf attack at the risk of his own life, here at Hogwarts? Even though James hated Sev as much as Sev hates James? My husband-to-be proved himself a man that day. James the father saved Sev from a werewolf; Harry the son saved Hermione Granger from a troll and, second year, Harry saved the entire school from a basilisk.”

Cedric stood up. “Lily, nobody at Hogwarts knows that the petrifications were caused by a basilisk, or knows that Harry killed the basilisk. Albus has been keeping unnecessary secrets again, this time to preserve his reputation as a great headmaster.”

Lily curtseyed to Cedric. “Thank you, Cedric, for setting us straight.”

Harry saw that Dumbledore looked angry. Gosh, wonder why.

Then Lily turned round to face Professor Snape again. “In case I wasn’t clear, Sev, I consider ‘You’re just like your father,’ when said to Harry, to be a compliment. Meanwhile, Sev, you are just like your father—who was a bully.”

Lily had one more thing to say to her former friend: “Harry got his first kiss today, here in the Great Hall. It was a Patronus-worthy memory—but you gave him detention for the kiss. You are despicable, and you deserve all the misery I’ve just caused you.”

****

Not quite two hours later
1:55pm, in McGonagall’s office

Minerva schooled her fixtures to not look surprised when the ghost of James Potter floated into the room.

“Hello, James”—since Minerva was James’ godmother, she used his given name in private—“what can I do for you?”

“Two things I’m here to tell you. First, in a few minutes, Lily and I will be calling an all-Lions meeting in the common room—”

“Without getting my permission? Or is this what you’re doing now?”

“Lily and I are former Gryffindors, and we died upholding Gryffindor values—I think we can be trusted to host a meeting without talking like Slytherins, thank you very much. Not to mention, Cedric has told us that you never enter the common room except to fetch Harry, when Albus wants to talk to him for some meddling reason. In a few minutes, Lily and I will tell the Lions what they need to know, but won’t ever know, so long as you feel you aren’t permitted to breathe without Albus’s permission.”

“You should show proper respect for the headmaster. He—”

“He put Harry with my magic-hating Muggle sister-in-law and her husband, despite knowing what our wills said! They abused Harry, and Albus never checked up on him. And the sod is so secretive that he’s never told Harry or us about a prophecy that’s about Harry—and Voldemort—and that Dumbledore heard spoken before Harry was born. Don’t you think Harry is entitled to know why a Dark Lord keeps trying to kill him?”

“I don’t know what to say, James.”

“Anyway, I came here to tell you that in a few minutes, Lily and I will holding a meeting to let the Gryffindors know what has been happening with Harry, and mainly we’re going to be tongue-lashing the Lions for treating Harry like rubbish. This is the first of two things I came here to tell you.”

“And the other?”

“Harry’s life up till now has consisted of him being treated like sh*t on someone’s shoe and he had to endure the bad treatment. He had to take sh*t from Vernon and Petunia Dursley; and he had to take sh*t from Professor Snape. The Snape-sh*t is mainly because you seem to think that being a Hogwarts professor means that Snivellus is exempt from all child-abuse laws.”

Minerva started to speak; James jerked his hand up, palm out, in a Stop gesture. “But now Harry has his parents back, even if we’re only ghosts; and Harry has Amelia Bones knowing what’s going on. Most importantly, Harry now knows that Snivellus’s chatter in the Dark Idiot’s ear led directly to Lily and me getting killed and Harry becoming an orphan. So you need to do something about tonight’s detention.”

“I need to do something? I expect that Severus will make Harry scrub cauldrons nonmagically, just like every other detention.”

“Are you really so blind, Minerva? Or so thick? Tonight’s detention will end one of three ways: Snape dead, my son dead, or Harry expelled. The fourth theoretical possibility, that Harry meekly serves detention under the very man who spoke to Voldemort the prophecy about Harry, which led to Lily and me being Killing Cursed, for sure won’t happen.”

“Then before tonight’s detention, I need to speak with the headmaster.”

“Meaning, you’ll let him make the final decision, which is to choose what’s good for Snape over what’s good for Harry. If you hand the decision to Albus, if you shirk your clear responsibility to my son that you carry as Gryffindor Head of House and as Deputy Headmistress, just so you can avoid Albus telling you he’s ‘disappointed in you,’ then you’re either lazy or a coward, Minerva Kirstie McGonagall.”

James turned and floated out through the wall.

Minerva walked out of her office, magically locked the door, then did something that she did only seldom, these days: she went to visit Gryffindor Tower.

****

2.02pm, in the Gryffindor common room

As soon as Minerva walked in, Lee Jordan quietly asked one of the Weasley Twins, “Bugger, what’s she doing here? I was really eager to hear the ghost-Potters speak.” Lee did not need to add But now we won’t be allowed to listen to them.

Lee Jordan clearly forgot that Minerva McGonagall, a cat animagus, had superior hearing.

Now Minerva snapped, “The ghosts of James and Lily will speak soon, and I came to hear what they have to say. This is why I’m here.”

“Ri-i-ight,” one Weasley Twin said. “And you’ll listen respectfully—till either ghost says something critical of our Glorious Bearded Leader. Then you’ll order us all to go to our dorms and you’ll drag Harry to the headmaster’s office, because obviously Harry ordered his ghostly parents to say bad things about Dumbledore.”

The other Twin added, “Once Harry is in the headmaster’s office, the old man will explain to Harry, using many pretty words, that everything the ghosts said that makes Dumbledore look bad was due to lying, misunderstanding or exaggerating, or James Potter was pulling a prank.”

Minerva snapped, “Is that how you see me, Misters Weasley? As merely the headmaster’s spy and errand girl?”

The Twins asked in unison, “Which answer do you want from us—the answer that spares your feelings, or the truth?”

Minerva was stunned by the question. Didn’t these children see how hard she fought for her Lions?

But then Minerva realised: Her arguments with Albus always occurred behind closed doors, and in the end, she always acquiesced to Albus’s demands. Argumentative she might be, in secret, but in the end she was Albus’s minion.

****

Once the “Here’s what has been happening with Harry” meeting began, James and Lily did almost all the talking. Cedric talked a bit, because his ghostly knowledge was the most current. Harry, whilst holding Hermione’s hand, spoke only about events that the three ghosts’ ghostly knowledge did not cover—battling Quirrellmort in first year, what happened in the Chamber of Secrets in second year, and what happened after Cedric’s death in the Little Hangleton graveyard. Harry, however, refused to give any details about Voldemort’s resurrection ritual.

James and Lily were angry at Ron Weasley, and they did not hold back their words. Lily called Ron a “disappointed would-be Tournament cheater,” “the Boy Who Lived fanboy who got to live the dream for three years” and “Harry’s Wormtail.”

Harry’s mother’s angry words against Ron Weasley were so unflattering that the Twins jokingly wondered whether ghosts could be owled Howlers.

James and Lily put the Boy Who Lived myth to bed. It was not fifteen-month-old Harry who had defeated Voldemort and had survived the Killing Curse; these events had been caused by a Potter-grimoire Protection ritual and, in Lily’s words, “some seventh-year Runes knowledge that I used in a way that nobody before me had thought of.”

Lily refused to give details.

****

A little after 3pm

Harry, who was escorted by Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick and two Potter ghosts, was taken to Gringotts. Just before entering the bank, James and Lily asked Sprout and Flitwick to swear on their magic that they would reveal nothing that happened inside the bank without Harry’s permission. Such oaths were given.

Professor Sprout also apologised to Harry for Sprout believing that Harry had not put his name in the Goblet but not saying this publicly, and for acting “cold” towards Harry in class. Surprised Harry accepted her apology.

Once the group was inside the bank, Harry discovered that the Potter family had an account manager at Gringotts! Apparently this was a big deal.

When Harry first met the Potter Account Manager, named Axefrenzy, the goblin stared at Harry’s forehead-scar. This was nothing new. But what was new was that Axefrenzy then made strange gestures with both hands, and scowled.

Axefrenzy then said, in a disgusted voice, the Goblinspeak word to’iglekvi’eng. Professor Flitwick looked shocked. Axefrenzy then asked Flitwick an angry question in Goblinspeak. Flitwick’s clearly-embarrassed reply included the name Dumbledore.

Axefrenzy then did something that shocked Harry’s escorts, both living and ghostly: Axefrenzy refused to conduct bank business till a goblin healer was brought into his office. The goblin healer, Shaftdust, glared at Harry’s forehead-scar, waved her hands near the scar, scowled, spoke angry words to Axefrenzy, then left. (One of those angry Goblinspeak words that Shaftdust spoke was Ragnok. Confused Harry thought, Isn’t Ragnok the Director of Gringotts?)

Right after the goblin healer left, Axefrenzy asked Harry, “You have received no owl-post from Gringotts since 1981, correct?”

Harry was confused. “I haven’t, but why would this matter? Nothing happens in my trust vault unless I walk in and take money or Mrs Weasley takes money. Hardly seems worth putting an owl to work for.”

James did a ghostly facepalm.

Axefrenzy took several deep breaths, then said, “Heir Potter, Gringotts has been sending you bank statements and requests for a meeting since your eleventh birthday. Evidently you have received none of our owl-mail. Also, you never, never, never let anyone else have your Gringotts key, for the same reason you never let an adult possess your wand.”

“Oh.”

With Harry suitably chastened, only then did Axefrenzy allow Harry and his party to conduct the bank business they had come to do.

Harry had come into the bank intending to put on the Potter Heir Primary ring. Instead, he wound up with the Potter Head of House ring, because last November, Magic had declared Harry to be “of age.” Dumbledore had given Harry no hint about this.

After Harry put on the Lord Potter ring, he wound up being given keys to the Potter Family Coinage vault, the Potter Family Heirlooms vault, and keys to eight gift vaults. (One of the gift vaults contained a shrunken new car in stasis!) On the advice of Axefrenzy, of Flitwick and of both of his ghostly parents, Harry ordered that his trust vault, and the two Potter Family vaults, all be rekeyed. Then Harry ordered all his vaults to be audited. Happily, rekeying the three vaults took only minutes.

At James’ suggestion, Harry called for the four Potter family house-elves whom, until that moment, Harry had not known existed. After the house-elves finished hugging Harry and dancing round him, Harry turned over all eleven vault keys to the Potter house-elves.

Either Dumbledore or Molly held the no-longer-workable key to Harry’s trust vault. Harry wondered what would happen the next time (s)he presented this voided key to a teller.

****

After Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout, the two Potter ghosts and Lord Harry Potter all returned to Hogwarts, James told his son, “I was never Lord Potter, not for one minute, but I know what the title means. The first thing for you to know: The days of people giving you sh*t—”

“Language, James,” said Lily.

“—and you having to take it? Those days are over. Now, let’s find an empty classroom and hide there until dinnertime, and I’ll start to teach you Lord Potter knowledge that Albus as your magical guardian should have taught you, but probably didn’t teach you.”

Harry said, “I definitely need to hear this, but let me grab Hermione first, so she can hear it too.”

James and Lily exchanged grins. Harry could not figure out why.

****

A bit less than two hours later, Harry would make a choice that would change his life—a choice that he could make only because of his new Lord Potter ring.

Chapter 5: The Eventful Sunday, Part 2

Chapter Text

About two hours after Harry’s Gringotts visit
Sunday, 25 June, 5.17pm in the Great Hall
Seventeen minutes after the start of dinner

Draco sauntered over to the Gryffindor table, with his two hulking bodyguards following.

“Scarhead,” Draco said, “you find new ways to disgust me. You need your dead mudblood mother to fight your battles for you, and you kissed a mudblood in public. You talked Cedric Diggory into grabbing the Triwizard Cup along with you, and he’s now dead because of this. But what can anyone expect from a half-blood?”

Harry was surprised not to hear Ron yell “Shut up, Malfoy, you slimy snake!” for the 4 538th time. But right now Ron was eating his food and was not speaking to anyone. Apparently James’ and Lily’s rebukes of Ron in the Gryffindor common room had greatly affected Ron’s mood.

Harry looked at Draco and thought, I should thank the stars it wasn’t Ron who hit me with this problem. Aloud, Harry said to Draco, in a voice that was thick with pity, “You stupid sh*t. You thick, gormless, stupid sh*t.”

“WHAT?” shouted Draco.

“Harry my boy, control your language,” said an unwelcome voice from the High Table.

Whilst staring at Draco, Harry stood—then he showed Draco his new ring.

Harry spoke formally: “Draco Lucius Malfoy, Heir Primary of the Ancient House of Malfoy—”

“What the bloody hell?” a Weasley Twin murmured.

“—you have spoken grievous insult to me, Harry James Potter, Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter.—”

“Bugger me!” said the other Weasley Twin.

“—The law gives me the right to kill you where you stand.”

Harry thought, If I make this convincing, I can scare the blond-haired fool into finally treating me respectfully. Best-case scenario: Narcissa Malfoy orders her son to apologise publicly.

“POTTER!” Snape yelled.

Harry said, “Hush, professor, this is House Potter business. As Slytherin Head of House, you surely know this.”

Harry turned back to Draco. “Wizarding Britain will be better off with you dead, and I will be better off with you dead. But good news, little dragon: I’ll not kill you now. I’ll not maim or injure you now. Make sure that your father hears about this, that you’ve offended someone who now outranks you and him both. Also tell your father: Since he attended Voldemort’s pep rally last night, I consider both him and you to be worth less than flobberworm sh*t, and starting today, I’ll treat you both accordingly. Dumbledore won’t hold you accountable for your bigoted hooliganism, little dragon, but I will.

“Now run along, Draco Lucius Malfoy, Heir Malfoy—you’ve a letter to your father to write.”

Draco tried to sneer, but Harry could tell he was scared. “Potter, if you did kill me, if I let you, my father would come after you and he’d kill you.”

Harry sneered back, “That’s no surprise, that he’d try. Your father already tried to kill me, two years ago, after I tricked him out of a house-elf. Some wizards relax by watching Quidditch games; your father’s idea of fun is murdering people—then claiming ‘But I was Imperiused!’ Yeah, right.”

Now Harry turned to Draco’s shocked-looking bodyguards. “Oh, Vincent Crabbe? Gregory Goyle? Last night, your fathers also were in that graveyard with Voldemort, and like Lucius Malfoy, your fathers were dressed up as Death Eaters. I saw your fathers there, and Voldemort named them. But right now I’ve no complaint against them or against you. Let’s keep it this way.”

Then Harry added with a smirk, “Draco? You can avoid all the problems I’ll make for your family if you apologise to me, right here, right now.”

Draco sneered, “I’ll never apologise to you!”

Harry held his smirk. We’ll see about that.

As soon as Harry stopped speaking, Draco did not quite run back to the Slytherin table, but he left the Gryffindor table faster than he had approached it.

Dumbledore spoke up, “Harry my boy, I am most disappointed in you. You prove yourself unworthy of the Head of House ring you wear due to a goblin’s mistake.”

Harry replied, “And I am disappointed in you, headmaster. My parents are dead because of your broken promise to them. You had promised them that if Voldemort attacked, you would come and fight alongside them. You never showed up that night, and they died.”

After Harry sat down, James leant over and murmured to him, “Do you feel like pranking the entire Malfoy family? In 1981, rumour said that Lucius Malfoy had about two million galleons in the Malfoy Coinage vault.”

Harry stood up again, and Sonorus’d himself loud. “Little dragon, tell your father that I, Lord Harry James Potter, shall spare your life on one condition: Lucius sends me a Gringotts bank draft by 1 July”—six days from then, and the day before students boarded the Hogwarts Express for home—“for one million galleons. This figure is nonnegotiable, by the by—and to be honest, I hope he’ll refuse to pay me. Quietus.”

****

One second later

Dumbledore stood up and said, “Mr Malfoy, that ‘Lord Potter ring’ must be a fake. Because I did not give Harry permission to claim such a ring. In any case, Harry is underage.”

Harry did not scowl, he laughed. “Oh Albus, are you for real? Has someone dripped Confundus potion on your sherbet lemons? Professor Flitwick, Professor Sprout, you have my permission to tell what you know about the ring.”

Professor Flitwick said, “Albus, earlier this afternoon, Pomona and I escorted Mr Potter and his ghostly parents to Gringotts.”

Professor Sprout said, “Back on 24 November, Magic declared Mr Potter to be ‘of age.’ I’m sure you received parchmentwork from Gringotts about this. It’s a pity you never shared this parchmentwork with Mr Potter.”

Professor Flitwick said, “Mr Potter’s parents smiled big when he put on the Lord Potter ring. The second thing he did as Lord Potter was to order audits of all his vaults.” Flitwick stared at Dumbledore and added, “Why Mr Potter would ask for this, I can’t guess. After all, he was the only person allowed access to his trust vault, and nobody had access to his other vaults from 1981 till today.”

Harry looked at Dumbledore. The bearded headmaster looked worried.

Harry stood up and said, “Last Halloween, headmaster, you told me so sadly, ‘There is nothing I can do’ about getting me out of the Tournament. But now that the Tasks are over, and I’ve survived the Tasks and I’ve survived Voldemort, I want to tell you ‘Thanks!’ Thanks to you and you alone, Albus Dumbledore, I’m Lord Potter two years early!”

****

Minutes later (5.48pm)

Susan at the Hufflepuff table frantically wrote a letter to her Aunt Amelia, then dashed outside to elf-post the letter to Auntie. Susan’s letter reported the whole Draco-Harry incident, including the fact that Harry now was Lord Potter. Susan couldn’t hear all of what Draco had said, just Scarhead and twice mudblood, but Susan clearly had heard Harry’s reply—both the regular-volume part and the Sonorus’d part.

Susan’s letter to Auntie noted that Draco, Crabbe and Goyle had been coming to the Gryffindor table since the beginning of first year, and Draco had insulted Harry in every visit. In all those visits, and in all the insults that Draco had spoken during those visits, neither Dumbledore nor McGonagall nor Snape ever had taken a single House point from Draco nor had those professors assigned Draco even one detention. However, Snape always had been quick to take points from Harry and to assign detentions to Harry, basically for breathing too loud, and Dumbledore and McGonagall always had upheld Snape’s punishments by their silence.

Susan was of the opinion that Harry would kill Draco, because if Harry didn’t, Draco would think himself unpunishable if he killed Harry.

****

About an hour later
At 6.30pm, in the Hogwarts dungeons
Half an hour before the end of dinner

The door to the Potions classroom opened up from the inside. Harry was on one side of the door; Snape was on the other side. “Get in here, Potter,” Snape ordered.

“Speak to me courteously, professor,” Harry said as he walked through the door. “If you’d caught Malfoy and Parkinson snogging in the Great Hall, you would’ve awarded them House points, and we both know it.”

“I don’t want your cheek, Potter!”

“And I don’t want any Death Eater teaching me Potions. But we can’t always get what we want.”

“Whining, just like your father!”

“Bullying, just like yours!”

“Goddamn you, I’ll see you expelled for your disrespect!”

“I’ll show you ‘disrespect’. Tell me, Snivellus, what did you the half-blood need to do to ‘earn’ Voldemort’s Dark Mark, hmm? Something you did for the Dark Lord on your knees, maybe? Did you swallow? Or is buggery your usual form of devotion?”

“You worthless brat!” Snape’s wand now was in his hand, then Snape made a slashing motion with his wand. “Sectumsempra!”

“Protego!” was Harry’s quick response.

Pop. Click. Click. Click. An elderly Hogwarts house-elf suddenly appeared in the Potions classroom; an instant later, the house-elf’s first finger-click created a magical shield in front of Harry that protected Harry from Snape’s deadly spell. The house-elf’s second finger-click yanked Snape’s wand out of his hand and onto the floor. The third finger-click bound Snape in ropes.

“Chunky goes to tell Professor McKitty what bad Potiony Snapey try to do.” Pop—the house-elf vanished.

An instant later, both Potter parents appeared inside the shut door.

Harry let his Protego shield fade away, then he looked at the floor whilst he asked the ghosts, “Are you angry at me? I insulted a professor.”

“A professor who lost control of his temper,” James pointed out, “and tried to kill you. The blame is not yours.”

Harry said, “Mum, Dad, I can’t tell you how much I want to kill Snape whilst he’s helpless. One Cutting Curse or Piercing Curse, with fierce intent, and Severus Snape would no longer be amongst the living.” Then Harry raised his chin up. “But I refuse to kill a helpless man. I’m no murderer.”

“Of course you aren’t,” Snape sneered. “You’re too timid to do what needs to be done.”

Harry replied scornfully, “Is that what you Death Eaters call murder? You’re the wizard here with the Stupidity Stamp on your arm, which I guess makes you the expert.”

Lily said, “Harry, we haven’t much time. Albus will arrive here soon, then he’ll order Sev released from these house-elf ropes, and you’ll be back to Albus making decisions about your life. Quickly, quickly, cast Incarcerous on Sev, but in Parseltongue: §Incarcerous§.”

Harry did so. On top of the blue ropes that already bound the Potions professor, now appeared orange ropes that cocooned him. (It being Harry’s intent that no way could Snape escape.)

Snape said, “You’re a Parselmouth, Lily? When did this happen?”

Harry’s ghostly mother replied coldly, “I discovered this after a startling conversation with the portrait of Akbar Slytherin and his snake. This happened sixth year.”

James explained to Harry, “After your mum no longer was speaking to Snivellus.”

Lily sneered at Snape. “I the ‘Gryffindor Princess’ followed Akbar’s directions and found the entrance to Slytherin’s Chamber, and I was actually down in Slytherin’s Chamber for ten minutes. Which makes me more of a Salazar Slytherin-type Slytherin than any of you minions of Tom Riddle who once wore green.”

James said, “Lils, honey, the clock is ticking.”

James then asked Harry, “You know how to cast a Patronus, right?” At Harry’s nod, James then said, “Albus invented a trick with the Patronus Charm that lets you send a spoken message to someone. You don’t need to find a Floo fire, and the message goes faster than sending an owl.”

Snape said disapprovingly, “Potter, you’re actually revealing Order of the Phoenix secrets to the brat? That’s disloyal. But coming from you, I’m not surprised.”

James laughed scornfully. “With Albus, everything is a secret. He has yet to tell Harry even a word about the prophecy that is about him.”

A half-minute later, Harry, after being coached by his ghostly parents, was about to speak the incantation to send a Patronus-message to Amelia Bones. But then Harry had a thought—

“Mum, Dad, you say Dumbledore invented this ‘cum nuntio’ version of the spell? So right now, he could be speaking a message for Hagrid in his hut, right?”

Harry’s parents agreed this was possible.

Harry said, “Hagrid’s a mate, but he’s totally obedient to Dumbledore. If Dumbledore said, ‘Hagrid, don’t let Amelia or any Aurors enter Hogwarts,’ Hagrid would do it. He wouldn’t question it, even though the order was illegal. Then Madam Bones couldn’t come here and arrest Snape.”

Snape said, “I deserve not to be arrested. Potter, after the headmaster gets me out of the mess you’ve created, I’ll see you expelled.”

“Yeah-yeah, uh-huh, right. You’ve been threatening me with expulsion since September of 1991. Maybe Dumbledore doesn’t value your advice like you think he does?”

Then Harry cast Expecto Patronum cum nuntio ad Amelia Bones. Harry’s parents were amazed at seeing his fully corporeal Stag-Patronus; whilst Snape looked annoyed.

When the Stag-Patronus came close to Harry, Harry recorded this message for Madam Bones—

“Madam Bones, this is Harry Potter. Professor Snape tried to murder me with a spell—”

“Sectumsempra,” Lily prompted. “Sev invented it, and it’s nasty.”

“—Sectumsempra, which Snape invented. My parents and I want him arrested for attempted murder, and for everything else you can throw at him.”

Cocooned Snape glared at Harry.

Harry continued, “Hagrid, on Dumbledore’s orders, might not let you through the front gate. So if you can, try to floo into Professor McGonagall’s office. Anyway, Snape, my parents and I all are in the Potions classroom in the Hogwarts dungeons. End.”

Harry watched his Stag-Patronus fly through the south wall of the classroom and disappear. Harry murmured, “I love magic.”

Pop. A house-elf arrived in the Potions classroom.

The arriving house-elf turned out to be Chunky, the elderly Hogwarts house-elf who had saved Harry’s life. Chunky brought Headmaster Dumbledore with him.

****

One second later

As soon as Harry saw Dumbledore in the classroom, Harry pointed his wand at Snape’s forehead and hissed. On Snape’s forehead appeared, in orange letters, “Would-Be Murderer.”

Lily hissed, “§Where did you get that spell?§”

Harry replied, “§I took a spell that Hermione invented in third year, and I Parseltongued it. Now Dumbledore can’t remove it.§”

Meanwhile, Dumbledore had ordered Chunky, “Get rid of those ropes.” Chunky clicked his fingers. The orange ropes did not disappear, but for a few seconds they hung loosely—till the orange ropes tightened themselves, and Snape again was held fast.

Dumbledore frowned. “Why aren’t the ropes gone?”

Lily replied, “The blue ropes that Chunky tied up Sev with, those ropes are gone. But the orange ropes that Harry wrapped Sev in, those ropes were made by Harry casting in Parseltongue. So Chunky can’t get rid of those ropes.”

And neither can you, Albus, Lily did not need to add.

Dumbledore said, “Harry my boy, I insist you remove that insulting message on Professor Snape’s head, and vanish those ropes.”

James said, “You give my son high-handed orders before you even know what is going on? Snivellus tried to kill Harry! And if Chunky hadn’t intervened, Snivellus could damn well have killed him.”

“After Harry provoked him sorely, I am sure. Harry, I am waiting, I insist you vanish those ropes.”

“No. Not happening. We wait for Madam Bones to show up, then I’ll vanish the ropes.”

Lily asked Harry, “The ropes you’ll vanish tonight, but not the message on his forehead?”

Harry grinned. “That message stays till the end of Snape’s trial. This way, Dumbledore has to let me attend Snape’s trial. Otherwise, on the day of the trial I’ll hear the sad, sad, words, “Harry my boy, I cannot let you testify at Professor Snape’s trial because you would not be safe.’ ”

“Harry my boy, you wound me. My concern in my every waking moment is keeping you safe.”

Harry said to his parents, “I can’t decide whether he truly believes this, or he’s trying to nobble everyone in Wizarding Britain into believing this. In any case, his statement is a bloody lie.”

“Harry, it frightens me, how you are turning Dark.”

Lily growled, “What exactly do you mean, Albus, that Harry is ‘turning Dark’?”

Before Dumbledore answered, Harry answered: “When the headmaster orders me to do something that would go against my best interests and I refuse, I’m turning Dark. When the headmaster orders me to do something ridiculous and I don’t jump to obey like everyone else in this castle, I’m turning Dark. If he orders me to do something ridiculous and I ask, ‘Why should I do this?’, I’m turning Dark. If I speak Parseltongue, so that Dumbledore doesn’t know what I’m saying, I’m turning Dark. The thing is, I’ve fought Voldemort one-on-one three times since I came to this wand-waving insane asylum, and if I’m turning so Dark, why haven’t I joined Voldemort instead of fought him? I say it’s Dumbledore who is going Dark, since he hasn’t fought Voldemort once since 30 October 1981, and Dumbledore hired Voldemort to teach in this school. Also, Dumbledore has a Death Eater”—Harry chin-pointed at Snape—“teaching here. Correction: a Death Eater teaching poorly here.”

Dumbledore acted like Harry had not spoken: “Harry, I insist that you remove that insulting message from Professor Snape and I insist you free him. You also must learn to forgive, Harry, starting with Professor Snape. If you do not forgive other people’s misdeeds against you, you will go Dark; it is only a matter of time.”

Harry walked up to Dumbledore, not stopping till the young wizard was two feet away from the old wizard. “Before I can learn to forgive, I must be taught to forgive. Will you teach me to forgive, professor?”

“Yes, Harry, I would be pleased to teach you forgiveness. You—”

Harry’s foot shot out; he kicked Dumbledore hard in the shin.

Dumbledore screamed in agony and pulled his injured leg up; this put the wizard off-balance.

Harry’s left hand pushed on Dumbledore’s chest, and the old man fell over on his back. Meanwhile, Harry’s right hand held his wand. “Expelliarmus!”

A bumpy wand flew out of Dumbledore’s pocket and towards Harry; Harry caught Dumbledore’s wand with his left hand.

The bumpy wand began telling Harry things, and for two seconds, Harry got distracted. But then Harry remembered his plan. Harry tossed the bumpy wand over his shoulder, then he walked up by the shoulders of the supine old wizard.

Harry laid one foot on Dumbledore’s chest. Dumbledore was not being injured from this, but neither could Dumbledore sit up or go anywhere. The only way that Dumbledore could get Harry’s foot off his chest would be by physical force—and Harry was willing to bet that it had been over a hundred years since Dumbledore had done any wrestling. Now Harry had the old man’s complete attention!

Dumbledore froze—and to Harry’s amazement, also shut up.

Harry noticed that cocooned Snape was staring at Harry in shock.

Harry looked down at Dumbledore’s frightened face. “Ten minutes ago, Snape tried to kill me after I gave him a schoolboy insult. You insist I must forgive him. Forgiveness is easy to talk about from your golden throne when it costs you nothing to say. Now I’ve done to you what Snape did to me: attacked you with no good reason. Just now, when you were on your back, I could have put my foot on your neck and could have crushed your larynx; instead, I put my foot on your chest to hold you down. At the least, I have you helpless now; at worst, I could have nonmagically killed you. Are you just a little bit afraid of me now? So teach me about forgiveness, Albus—right now when you’re angry at me and afraid of me. Tell me you forgive me for kicking you in the shin and for almost endangering your life.”

“Harry, I am deeply disappointed in you. You have detention with Mr Filch every night till you board the train, and for your first week of fifth year.”

At that moment, the classroom door was yanked open and Madam Bones and three Aurors rushed in. Madam Bones took in the scene at a glance: James and Lily looked angry, Snape was cocooned in orange ropes, Dumbledore was lying on his back on the floor, Harry Potter’s foot was pressing down on Dumbledore’s chest, and two wands lay on the floor.

“Merlin on a mushroom,” Madam Bones blurted, “what is going on here?”

“Oh, this?” Harry replied calmly. “The headmaster promised he’d teach me about forgiving people who continually sh*t on me.” Then Harry sighed theatrically. “But it turned out to be another Dumbledore broken promise. It’s odd how he doesn’t preach forgiveness when he is the victim of unprovoked attack.”

****

A half-hour later, in Amelia Bones’s office in the DMLE
Snape is in a holding cell, despite Dumbledore’s blather

“Come in!” Amelia ordered at the knock.

Senior Auror Nigel Grenwick walked in with a rolled-up parchment, which he placed on Amelia’s desk. Amelia estimated the length of the parchment when unrolled to be four feet.

“You asked Bartemius Crouch, Junior many questions, I gather,” Amelia said to Grenwick.

“We did,” Grenwick said. “We had to three-drops”—potion with Veritaserum—“Crouch twice, that’s how long his interrogation lasted. By the by, the Minister won’t like some of Crouch’s answers.”

“Hit me with the biggest bits,” Amelia ordered.

Grenwick said, “The big news is, you can’t Imperius someone into becoming a Death Eater. Well, you can make him or her put on the robe and the mask, but the Dark Mark? It fades completely in five minutes if the person is Imperiused. Also, you can’t Imperius someone to hate, so Imperiused ‘Death Eaters’ can’t cast the Cruciatus or the Killing Curse. However, it is possible to Imperius someone and to command him or her to Imperius someone else.”

“Brilliant,” Amelia said sarcastically.

“So all the Death Eaters who escaped Azkaban by claiming they were Imperiused? They lied. And speaking of Death Eaters, Crouch listed all the ones he knew. Lucius Malfoy was the first name Crouch mentioned. Peter Pettigrew was the fourteenth name. Crouch last saw Pettigrew the day before the Third Task. Many Wizengamot seat-holders in the Dark faction also got listed as Death Eaters. Also Corban Yaxley,” a Senior Auror in the DMLE.

“Go on,” Amelia said.

“Crouch last saw You Know Who two days ago, the day before the Third Task. Back then, You Know Who looked like ‘an inferi baby, but with red eyes.’ Crouch hasn’t seen You Know Who since the resurrection ritual.”

Amelia nodded. “Cedric Diggory’s ghost described Voldemort before the ritual as looking like a baby, but ‘hideous.’ ”

Grenwick said, “There’s one other interesting thing our interrogation revealed: You Know Who intended for Harry Potter to die in that graveyard, soon after the resurrection ritual. Crouch, who wasn’t there for the resurrection, couldn’t explain why You Know Who didn’t kill Potter.”

Amelia snorted. “Harry Potter is twice lucky this week. Not even an hour ago, Professor Snape tried to kill Potter, but a house-elf blocked the spell. Anyway, Snape is now in a holding cell, becoming reacquainted with purging potion till our healer thinks Snape no longer can resist Veritaserum.”

When Grenwick left, Amelia read through the Crouch-interrogation parchment, and drew up questions about Death Eaters and Death Eater activities. Master Auror Barker would add Amelia’s questions to his own list of questions to ask Snape (once the purging potion had done its work).

Albus Dumbledore could shout to the stars that he had “complete confidence in Professor Snape,” but Amelia finally had the chance to prove that the greasy-haired Potions Master was a Dark wizard. If Dumbledore did not succeed at his political tricks to pervert the course of justice, Amelia would see Snape in Azkaban for life, or even Kissed, if such was what the man deserved.

Chapter 6: Fudge Gets a Clue

Chapter Text

Still Sunday, 25 June
After 7pm

After dinner, whilst Harry Potter was serving detention in the Potions classroom (then was being questioned by Madam Bones), Harry’s fellow Gryffindor Neville Longbottom was writing a letter that Neville’s honour demanded he write. Neville’s letter was to Lucius Malfoy, of all people.

25 June 1995

To Lucius Abraxas Malfoy, Head of the Ancient House of Malfoy, greetings.

Lord Malfoy, an incident occurred this evening at dinner, between Harry Potter and your son. I don’t know if it is a good idea or a bad idea for me to write to you, because House Longbottom and House Malfoy usually are enemies; but I am writing to you to let you know what actually was said, so you can make informed decisions.

What I imagine Draco wrote to you was something like this: “Dear Father, today at dinner, I and my good friends Crabbe and Goyle were strolling about the Great Hall, and we happened to wind up at the fourth-years part of the Gryffindor table. I greeted Potter politely, then that half-blood threatened to kill me, but he then said he would not kill me if you paid him a million galleons. How outrageous, when I did nothing to deserve it!”

NOTES: Draco’s insult below about Harry Potter’s “dead ... mother” refers to the fact that since yesterday, Harry always is in the company of the ghosts of his parents. Earlier today, the ghost of Lily Potter publicly humiliated Professor Snape in the Great Hall. Draco’s other insult refers to Harry Potter at lunch today kissing a Muggle-born witch at the Gryffindor table.

.

DRACO MALFOY: Scarhead, you find new ways to disgust me. You need your dead mudblood mother to fight your battles for you, and you kissed a mudblood in public. You talked Cedric Diggory into grabbing the Triwizard Cup along with you, and he’s now dead because of this. But what can anyone expect from a half-blood?

(HARRY POTTER then shows DRACO MALFOY a ring on his hand that I never saw HARRY POTTER wear before. Even more surprising, the ring is not the Potter Heir Primary ring, it is the Potter Head of House ring.)

HARRY POTTER: Draco Lucius Malfoy, Heir Primary of the Ancient House of Malfoy, you have spoken grievous insult to me, Harry James Potter, Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter. The law gives me the right to kill you where you stand.

PROFESSOR SNAPE: POTTER!

HARRY POTTER (to PROFESSOR SNAPE): Hush, professor, this is House Potter business. As Slytherin Head of House, you surely know this.

HARRY POTTER (to DRACO MALFOY): With Voldemort back, it’s only a matter of time before you become a Death Eater, little dragon, so I’d be doing Wizarding Britain a favour by killing you now. But good news: I’ll not kill you now. I’ll not maim or injure you now. Make sure that your father hears about this, that you’ve offended someone who now outranks you and him both. Also tell your father: Since he attended Voldemort’s pep rally last night, I consider both him and you to be worth less than flobberworm sh*t, and starting today, I’ll treat you both accordingly. Dumbledore won’t hold you accountable for your bigoted hooliganism, little dragon, but I will.

Now run along, Draco Lucius Malfoy, Heir Malfoy—you’ve a letter to your father to write.

DRACO MALFOY: Potter, if you did kill me, if I let you, my father would come after you and he’d kill you.

HARRY POTTER (to DRACO MALFOY): That’s no surprise, that he’d try. Your father already tried to kill me, two years ago, after I tricked him out of a house-elf. Some wizards relax by watching Quidditch games; your father’s idea of fun is murdering people—then claiming “But I was Imperiused!” Yeah, right.

HARRY POTTER (to VINCENT CRABBE and GREGORY GOYLE): Oh, Vincent Crabbe? Gregory Goyle? Last night, your fathers also were in that graveyard with Voldemort, and like Lucius Malfoy, your fathers were dressed up as Death Eaters. I saw your fathers there, and Voldemort named them. But right now I’ve no complaint against them or against you. Let’s keep it this way.

HARRY POTTER (to DRACO MALFOY): Draco? You can avoid all the problems I’ll make for your family if you apologise to me, right here, right now.

DRACO MALFOY: I’ll never apologise to you!

(DRACO MALFOY, VINCENT CRABBE AND GREGORY GOYLE then leave the Gryffindor table and return to the Slytherin table.)

HEADMASTER DUMBLEDORE: Harry my boy, I am most disappointed in you.

HARRY POTTER (to HEADMASTER DUMBLEDORE): And I am disappointed in you, headmaster. My parents are dead because of your broken promise to them. You had promised them that if Voldemort attacked, you would come and fight alongside them. You never showed up that night, and they died.

HARRY POTTER (to DRACO MALFOY): Sonorus. Little dragon, tell your father that I, Lord Harry James Potter, shall spare your life on one condition: Lucius sends me a Gringotts bank draft by 1 July for one million galleons. This figure is nonnegotiable, by the by—and I must be honest, I hope he’ll refuse to pay me. Quietus.

.

What you want to know is, Does Harry Potter intend to kill Draco? I truly cannot say. Harry is not a violent person—I never have known him to attack someone; he always defends at first, and only then attacks. On the other hand, I never have caught Harry in a lie, and he never has made a threat or a promise that he has no intention of carrying out. Today I cannot imagine Harry killing Draco, but I also cannot imagine Harry threatening to kill Draco unless he planned to do so.

Neville Franklin Longbottom, Longbottom Heir Primary

****

Later that evening, at Malfoy Manor

Lucius Malfoy might be the supposed owner of Malfoy Manor and its lands, but Lucius now had a no-nose houseguest, and it was he who now made the decisions for House Malfoy. Lucius now was merely a pretty-faced minion with a fat vault key (for the moment).

At the moment, Lucius was shaking Longbottom’s letter in his hand and yelling, “Potter has insulted me! He calls me a killer? I will kill him! After I make him suffer! I shall Crucio him till his brain catches fire!”

“You will not kill him!” the Dark Lord yelled. “Only I may kill Potter!” The Dark Lord glared at all the Death Eaters in the room. “Am I clear?”

Narcissa curtseyed, Alecto Carrow belatedly curtseyed, and all the Death Eater wizards bowed their heads—though Lucius did so whilst wearing a sullen expression.

“My lord?” Narcissa asked softly. “May Lucius pay Potter the one million galleons to spare Draco’s life?”

“No,” the Dark Lord replied. “Lucius soon will need this money for other things.” Lucius frowned, hearing this. The Dark Lord continued, “As for Draco, I won’t be angry with him when he successfully defends himself from Potter’s attack, or even makes his own preemptive attack. Draco is a Pureblood and a Malfoy, is he not? I’m confident in his survival.”

Lucius looked over at Narcissa. Narcissa’s expression was a pleasant mask.

Lucius thought, Narcissa’s sister Bellatrix, if similarly provoked, would be casting Unforgivables by the dozen.

****

The next morning (Monday, 26 June)
7.06am, at breakfast
In the Great Hall, Hogwarts

A few students had noted that Professor Snape was not seated at the High Table, but they probably assumed that the dour professor had overslept.

Dumbledore also was absent from the High Table—but this presumably was due to his usual practice of coming to breakfast late.

Harry was seated at the Gryffindor table, with Hermione seated next to him on his bench, and his ghostly parents seated on either side of the young couple. Now Harry stood up, Sonorus’d himself, and spoke—

“Professor Snape isn’t here because last night he was arrested.”

Harry heard gasps from all four student tables.

Harry continued, “Last night Snape tried to kill me during my detention with him. The reason he didn’t kill me was because Professor McGonagall”—Harry turned and bowed to her—“sent a house-elf to spy on my detention with Snape. The house-elf shielded me from Snape’s deadly spell, then made Snape’s wand fly away, then tied him up with ropes.

“Folks, I need to be honest here. I started the incident by insulting Snape with words that were way over the line. If I had spoken a similar insult to Professor Flitwick or to Professor Sprout, he or she would have angrily taken a basketful of House points and would have assigned me a slew of detentions. Professor Flitwick or Sprout, however, would not have tried to kill me. Snape did try to kill me, and he’s—”

Dumbledore walked into the Great Hall.

“—now a guest of the DMLE,” Harry said. “Ah, and the headmaster already has told me that he won’t allow me to testify at Snape’s trial this Friday. To keep me safe, supposedly.”

Harry shot Susan Bones a meaningful look. I might need your aunt’s help with leaving the castle this Friday.

Dumbledore said, “Harry, again you disappoint me. You force me to extend your stay at the Dursleys this summer.”

Harry laughed, “I’ve a title now, Albus; I’m Lord Potter, remember? Heir Potter plus ‘of age’ equals Lord Potter, remember? And no bloody”—Harry glanced at Hermione and at Ghost-Lily—“And no way will I spend even a moment with the Dursleys this summer, old man. Quietus.”

****

Ten minutes later, elsewhere in the Great Hall

Ghost-Cedric again was haunting a piece of bench amongst the sixth-year Hufflepuffs. When Cho Chang entered the Great Hall, she strode straight towards him, only stopping when she was standing less than a foot away from where the ghost was sitting.

Cho put her hands on her hips and demanded of Cedric, “Yesterday you spoke coldly to me. Why?”

Cedric answered, “Cho, for the sake of the love I once had for you, I won’t answer that. I’m dead, we’re over, move on.”

“Bollocks, just answer me: Why are you so cold to me now? Tell me!”

“No.”

Cho threw her hands in the air and stormed off towards the Ravenclaw table.

****

An hour later, at 8.15am

Owls came, carrying letters and copies of this morning’s Daily Prophet. Leading the news was the dramatic end of the Third Task, including the death of Cedric Diggory; Harry returning to the Winner’s platform along with three new ghosts; Harry proclaiming that You Know Who had returned (and the ghosts agreeing with him); and the arrest of a supposedly dead Death Eater who had been impersonating retired Auror and Hogwarts professor Mad-Eye Moody.

Snape’s arrest was not reported (it had happened too late for deadline), but everything else that had happened yesterday—including Harry’s elevation to Lord Potter, and Harry and Hermione kissing—the Prophet reported. The speeches that the three new ghosts and Harry Potter had given in their respective House common rooms were quoted in full. The question-and-answer session with Ghost-Cedric in the Hufflepuff common room was quoted in full, and the Prophet printed an artist’s sketch of what Voldemort might look like now.

In the pages of the Daily Prophet, Dumbledore looked like a schemer and Fudge looked like a moron.

Fudge still was denying that You Know Who was back, but the Prophet was proclaiming this news boldly. Rita Skeeter guessed in print about all the reasons why Fudge would say that Voldemort was not back when the Dark wizard clearly was back. Rita’s list of theories neglected to include “Oi, people, it was an honest mistake!”

****

Harry saw an owl arrive with a personal letter for Draco Malfoy. Harry did not think much about this, till Draco looked Harry in the eyes—across all four House tables—and smirked.

Harry realised he had a big decision to make, before he boarded the Hogwarts Express on 2 July—which date also was the day after the deadline that Harry had given to Lucius Malfoy. Harry’s big decision to make—

Did Harry admit in public, “Draco, when I talked about killing you, I was only trying to frighten you into treating me better” or should Harry seriously try to kill Draco?

****

Also at 8.15am, a Gringotts owl brought a letter to Professor Flitwick at the High Table. Seconds later, Flitwick handed the letter to someone below the table—a house-elf, presumably.

Pop. A house-elf appeared by Harry’s piece of bench at the Gryffindor table; the house-elf was holding out a Gringotts letter. “Flobby has letter for Dobby’s Great Master Harry Potter from Professor Flitter.”

The letter had been written by “Ragnok, Director of Gringotts London,” and was addressed to Harry, care of Professor Flitwick. The letter explained that Gringotts was using this roundabout mailing method to stymie the owl-mail redirect that Dumbledore had put on Harry.

Ragnok’s letter asked Harry—and if he wished, his ghost-parents—to return to Gringotts at the beginning of summer hols in July. At that time, Axefrenzy would inform Harry of the results of the audits of the eleven vaults Harry controlled.

Also, so the letter informed Harry, goblin healer Shaftdust had found a horcrux, which was the Darkest of magic, in Harry’s forehead-scar. Gringotts healers could remove the horcrux from Harry’s scar without permanent harm, whenever Harry could give Gringotts healers three hours for the ritual. The price of the ritual was not mentioned in the letter, beyond “You can afford it.”

Gringotts would redirect the owl-mail redirect on Harry at the same time as they worked the horcrux-removal ritual, for free, since this would benefit Gringotts and Harry both.

(Later on, Harry read the text of the letter to his parents. Lily pointed out that Saint Mungo’s had spotted no problem in Harry’s forehead-scar; or had thought that the horcrux could not be removed, so had not mentioned it; or had thought that the horcrux could not be removed without killing Harry, so had not mentioned the horcrux.)

****

An hour later: 9.12am
Outside Minister Fudge’s office at the Ministry of Magic

Cornelius Fudge arrived (late) at his office, whilst escorted by his nephew, Auror John Dawlish. Fudge found three people waiting for him: his friend and advisor (and oftentimes “campaign contributor”) Lucius Malfoy, Senior Undersecretary Dolores Umbridge, and DMLE Director Amelia Bones. Bones was holding a parchment that, rolled up, was many layers thick.

Fudge mentally groaned. Whatever lengthy document Bones was holding, Fudge hoped he would not be forced to read every word of it.

Fudge pasted on a smile and asked, “What trouble have you brought me today, Amelia?”

She looked at him with a serious expression. “Minister, what I have to tell you, you need to hear in private, just you and me, with no bootlickers or”—she shot a look at Umbridge—“toadies listening in to this briefing, who have their own agenda.”

Lucius declared, “I am Lord Malfoy of the Ancient House of Malfoy, I am no ‘bootlicker’!”

Fudge asked, “Amelia, why would I want to ban Lucius and Dolores from your briefing?”

Dolores answered the question before Amelia did: “Because she wants to raise herself up into becoming your chief advisor!”

Amelia shot Dolores a You’re a moron look, then calmly replied, “Minister, what I’m here to tell you will define the rest of your ministership, and will define how history remembers you. You really don’t want other people telling you what you ‘should be thinking’ this morning. Which is what they want you to think.”

“Except, Madam Bones,” Lucius purred, “you will be telling our Minister what he should be thinking.”

“Not so. I shall give Minister a summary, as objective as I can make it, of what this parchment says, then I’ll leave the parchment with the minister to read if he wishes.”

Fudge nodded reluctantly. “I’ve always found Amelia’s briefings to be objective and factual, not opinionated or biased.”

“What is this briefing about?” Lucius asked. “What does your parchment say?”

Amelia answered, “How nosy you are! Are you Albus Dumbledore under Polyjuice? When I refuse to answer, will you tell me how disappointed you are in me?”

Fudge was a stupid man and he knew it; but he was smart enough to suspect that Amelia’s briefing was somehow about You Know Who. If this was the case, then Fudge could see no advantage to Lucius and Dolores, who both were blood-purity bigots like You Know Who, listening to Amelia’s presentation.

So Fudge told Lucius and Dolores, to their clear annoyance, that they had to leave. Then Fudge looked over at his receptionist Morganella, and told her to cancel all his appointments till noon.

****

Later, in Fudge’s office

Fudge was almost begging Amelia: “Surely you’re wrong here. Why would Lucius admit to something embarrassing like being Imperiused when he wasn’t?”

“Because according to Crouch, Voldemort trying to mass-produce Death Eaters by Imperius was a failed experiment. The Dark Marks of Imperiused Death Eaters faded away almost instantly, so the Dark Lord couldn’t communicate with them and they couldn’t communicate with him; and Imperiused Death Eaters couldn’t cast two of the three Unforgivables. But Voldemort let the story go out because the rumour frightened people—if he was successfully using Imperiused Death Eaters, you could be attacked by your nearest and dearest, and how frightening would that be? After Voldemort started the rumour that some Death Eaters could be Imperiused, Lucius Malfoy played on that rumour and played you, Minister! He got a pardon without Veritaserum questioning and without making an oath on his magic, but gullible people now believe he’s not a ‘real’ Death Eater.”

****

“And Lucius definitely is a Death Eater?”

“Crouch testified that Lucius Malfoy was a Death Eater, Harry Potter heard Voldemort call Lucius Malfoy by name, and Ghost-Cedric and Ghost-Lily recognised him at the graveyard. Ghost-James, who was an Auror when he was alive, recognised Lucius and many other Death Eaters at the graveyard, some of whom are now seat-holders in the Wizengamot.”

“Bloody hell, Amelia. Bloody hell.”

Then Fudge asked, “And Sirius Black isn’t a Death Eater?”

“Crouch didn’t name him as one, Black didn’t come to Voldemort’s resurrection party, and Black’s supposed ‘murder victim,’ Peter Pettigrew, is alive and is himself a Death Eater. It was Pettigrew, in fact, who murdered Cedric Diggory. Then too, Sirius Black never got a trial—after his arrest, he was sent straight to Azkaban.”

“Merlin, Amelia, I’m the bloke who arrested Black! He spent all those years in Azkaban for at least one crime he didn’t commit, because of me?”

“Not because of you, Cornelius. It was the trifecta of Bagnold, Crouch, Senior and Dumbledore who signed the parchmentwork that sent Black straight to Azkaban without a trial.”

“Then get the man a trial, Amelia! This Friday, give him a trial!”

Fudge thought, If Sirius Black gets a trial, Lucius will squawk, but it seems I should cut my ties with Malfoy.

****

“So You Know Who was alive two days ago? People saw him?”

“Crouch, Ghost-Cedric and Harry Potter all said that before the ritual, Voldemort looked like a monster baby. After the ritual, all three ghosts and Harry Potter agreed that Voldemort looked like a man with red eyes and a snakelike face.”

Revolted Fudge showed disgust.

****

Six minutes after Amelia left, whilst Fudge was reading Amelia’s parchment, Dolores walked in after a token knock and asked, “What bad information has that Bones witch been telling you?” Dolores also walked round Fudge’s desk so that she could read the parchment, when Fudge had not invited her to do so.

“Back off!” Fudge yelled—to the shock of both of them.

Fudge realised for the first time that Dolores was not merely trying to give him helpful advice so that he could better do his job, she was trying to influence his thinking. She already had been pushing him to believe that Harry Potter had murdered Cedric Diggory. Which was believable only if One, you believed that Harry Potter was that sort of person; and Two, you had not heard the rumours that said that Dolores herself had been promoted to Senior Undersecretary after years and years of causing deaths and serious injuries to her rivals at work.

Now Fudge glared at his Senior Undersecretary. “Amelia was right, I need to read this parchment and I need to think about it, and how dare you stroll in here and demand information and go looking at what I’m reading, as though I work for you! Leave here, Dolores, and take Lucius with you if you see him. The only person I want in here before lunchtime is Morganella—maybe. Now get out!”

****

At twelve noon

Cornelius Fudge was in mourning.

He mourned the end of his friendship with Lucius Malfoy—or at least, Fudge had thought of the relationship as a friendship. In hindsight, it was obvious now that Lucius saw the Minister only as a bribable moron.

Lucius was not wrong—Fudge had finished Hogwarts with only four NEWTs, and those four had been only Acceptables. Fudge’s professors had not expected him to achieve anything in life.

But now everyone in Wizarding Britain knew Cornelius Fudge’s name, he was invited to the best parties and many people slipped him moneybags just for saying yes to this and no to that.

Cornelius Fudge would miss that lifestyle.

But now Cornelius Fudge, for the first time since he had revised for his NEWTs, would have to do hard work and would need to make hard choices. If he did not, he would be No-Confidenced at best and would be sent to Azkaban at worst; and in either case, historians would mock him.

On the other hand, if Minister Fudge set himself firmly against You Know—Voldemort, blast it, the Dark wizard’s name was Voldemort—if Minister Fudge set himself firmly against Voldemort, ol’ Corny could be corpse-y within a week.

This thought gave Fudge pause. But then he decided he would rather be described by the Prophet as “Fudge the dead but heroic Minister” than “Fudge the disgrace.”

His decision made, Fudge then parchment-aeroplaned Amelia to send a Master Auror to Fudge’s office; any Master Auror would do. When the man arrived, Fudge then summoned Dolores to his office.

Fudge told Dolores that she was a blood-purity bigot and he did not need such people advising him anymore; also, there were rumours about her being dodgy. As a result, she was sacked, effective immediately; and was ineligible for rehire. Furthermore, so Fudge told angry Dolores, the scary Master Auror was here to watch Dolores Umbridge pack up her belongings (and only her belongings), then to escort her out of the Ministry building.

Dolores made vague threats against Fudge: she would “pay [him] back double for this humiliation.” The Master Auror grinned like a vampire and commented, “That’s the stupidest thing you could have said, Umbitch.”

****

Dolores Umbridge wound up being arrested when she tried to pack up a box of Blood Quills that belonged to Gringotts but somehow had crawled into her desk at work.

Minister Fudge quickly made an offer to Director Ragnok at Gringotts, to turn Dolores Umbridge and her Blood Quills over to the goblins. Umbridge was never seen again.

****

The next morning (Tuesday, 27 June)

This time, when Cho Chang walked into the Great Hall for breakfast, and found Cedric haunting a piece of bench amongst the sixth-year Hufflepuffs, she sat down on that piece of bench. Immediately her body felt like she was standing starkers outside during a Scotland winter, but she made herself sit there. “CEDRIC, TELL ME WHY YOU ARE AVOIDING ME!” she yelled at the ghost with whom she was sharing space.

“Very well,” Cedric replied.

He floated out into the Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw aisle, then turned to look at Cho. “You demand publicly for me to share personal information? Fine, I’ll tell personal information publicly.”

Then Cedric’s voice got louder, so the entire Great Hall could hear—

“The Daily Prophet has quoted me saying some of what I know from ghostly knowledge, but I know more than what the Prophet has quoted.

“What else do I know? Cho, you’ve pretended, even this week, to love me, when in truth you’ve felt no more affection for me than for a puppy. Why did you bother with the pretense? You believed, until I was killed, that after I sat my NEWTs, I would be offered a contract to play professional Quidditch as a Seeker. Not because I was a great player—Potter is much better than I ever was—but because I photographed well. When I was signed to play professional Quidditch, you wanted to be married to me, and wanted to share in the money and glamour that I would get as a professional Quidditch player.”

Cho silently looked at Cedric; she had no idea what to say. She would be a fool to say That’s not true.

Cedric continued, “After I would retire from playing professional Quidditch, you figured I’d become active in politics, in the Wizengamot. If I did become active in politics, I’d have done it because I enjoy talking to people and I like to make them happy; but you believed that if I were good at politics, it would be because people were awestruck by my charm and good looks.” Cedric shrugged. “You wanted to someday be the wife of the Light Coalition’s star politician; you wanted to be the Light side’s Narcissa Malfoy.”

Cho still did not know what to say.

Cedric continued, “You aren’t a nice person, Cho, and even here at Hogwarts, you show this. Nymphadora Tonks has a rare gift, she is a Metamorphmagus, but for the year you two shared a school, you mocked her for being clumsy. She was clumsy because her centre of gravity changed every time she shape-shifted, but you didn’t care about any explanation.

“Two years ago, after the school learnt that Harry Potter could talk to snakes, many times you sat at the Ravenclaw table and mocked him: ‘I’m Harry Potter! Sssss!’ But Cho, you’ve done worse than to use me for social climbing; you’ve done worse than mock both Tonks and Harry Potter.”

Cho dreaded what Cedric was about to say.

Now Cedric stared at Cho. “Luna Lovegood in Ravenclaw has her own rare magical gift: She can see things nobody else can see. Sometimes she sees the present; she knows things that it should be impossible for her to know. Sometimes she sees the future. Sometimes she sees auras. Oftentimes she sees things and she doesn’t know what to call them. For this last part, you’ve mocked Luna, calling her ‘Loony.’ But here’s where you’ve become despicable, Cho: You, a prefect, have stolen and have hidden a photograph of Luna’s mother—who died in Luna’s arms when the child was nine. You have stolen and have hidden some of Luna’s clothes. You and other prefects have set the Ravenclaw door-knocker to ask Luna impossible riddles, effectively banning her from the Ravenclaw common room. Many times this year, Luna Lovegood has been forced to sleep outside in the corridor, underdressed and cold, because of you.

“You’re despicable, Cho Chang, and I do not wish to keep company with a deceiving, mocking, thieving, despicable social climber like you.”

Professor Flitwick listened to everything that Ghost-Cedric said to Cho, then Flitwick revoked Cho’s Prefect badge, right there in the Great Hall in front of everyone.

****

Meanwhile

The Daily Prophet reported that Monday afternoon, Minister Fudge had given a speech in the Ministry Atrium. In this speech, Fudge had said that new evidence had persuaded him that Voldemort indeed had returned, and that the Fudge ministership was fully committed to ridding Wizarding Britain of Lord Voldemort and his murderous minions.

Fudge put his intentions plainly: “Whatever the DMLE and DOM need to hunt down Lord Voldemort and his beasts in silver masks, I shall authorise in writing. I shall skirt the law to protect you. Because if Lord Voldemort isn’t stopped, I will have much worse than a No-Confidence motion to worry about. But if my signatures stop that monster and end him, the voters won’t care about legalities. If I’m seen as doing something that worked, I’m golden.”

Fudge’s first act, to demonstrate his new commitment to fighting Voldemort, was to drastically boost the budget for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

Lord Voldemort could not be reached for comment.

****

AUTHOR’S NOTE: In this chapter, Voldemort says to Lucius and Narcissa, “As for Draco, I won’t be angry with him when he successfully defends himself from Potter’s attack, or even makes his own preemptive attack. Draco is a Pureblood and a Malfoy, is he not? I’m confident in his survival.”

This is just after Voldemort has told Lucius and the other Death Eaters that none of them have permission to kill Harry Potter, and only Voldemort himself may kill Potter.

Anyway, Voldemort clearly intends for Lucius and Narcissa to infer Your son Draco may injure Potter as much as he can, even put Potter in hospital, but Draco may not kill Potter. But Voldemort does not say this aloud, believing the extra words to be unnecessary.

Chapter 7: Worth Only One Knut

Chapter Text

Three days later (Friday, 30 June), 8am

Harry Potter was still alive. After Draco had received his letter from his father on Monday morning, Harry had not gone anywhere outside the Gryffindor common room unless accompanied by Hermione and Neville, and/or accompanied by the Weasley Twins. Draco had made no attempt to attack Harry in the corridors or in the Great Hall, because there always had been a Pureblood witness present.

Now, Friday morning, Amelia Bones sent two Aurors—who were not named Moody, Shacklebolt, Jones or Tonks—to Hogwarts to fetch Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. Both students would testify at Sirius Black’s trial, and Harry would testify at Barty Crouch, Junior’s trial and at Snape’s trial.

Dumbledore tried to claim that Harry Potter, even in the company of two Aurors, still was not safe, and would not be safe unless Dumbledore himself accompanied the two students to Courtroom Ten.

Master Auror Barker said archly, “In the circ*mstances, headmaster, you escorting Lord Potter to Snape’s trial would be seen as witness tampering, and I’d be demoted if let you do this. Go run your school, headmaster.”

****

However, Albus Dumbledore did not remain at Hogwarts. Dumbledore in fact already was in Courtroom Ten when Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and the two Aurors walked in.

Alas for Chief Warlock Albus Dumbledore, he, over his protests, was forced by Wizengamot vote to recuse himself during the trials of Crouch, Black and Snape. Cyrus Greengrass served as Acting Chief Warlock.

****

The trial of Barty Crouch, Junior was short, but Amelia Bones dropped one surprise into it. Amelia’s Aurors put Crouch in the chains-chair and, by Fudge’s order, dosed him with Veritaserum. Only then did Amelia announce that she would not ask Crouch, a Death Eater, for the names of other Death Eaters—and she would not discuss her reasons for this omission.

Amelia saw Wizengamot seat-holder Lucius Malfoy smile smugly, undoubtedly sure that Fudge had protected him and that Malfoy’s Death Eater secret was safe. Amelia thought, Both statements are wrong, you vermin.

Under Veritaserum, Crouch, Junior admitted to escaping Azkaban. Worse, he admitted to assaulting retired Auror Alastor Moody, then impersonating Moody for ten months, all as part of a Voldemort plot to force Harry Potter into the Triwizard Tournament, then to kill Potter at the end of the Third Task, after a ritual had resurrected Lord Voldemort.

People in the visitors’ gallery gasped in horror.

Crouch, Junior also admitted under Veritaserum to arson, rape and murder, including the murder of his own father.

Harry Potter briefly was questioned by Amelia Bones. Potter testified that in the graveyard, Voldemort was resurrected after a ritual; Amelia Bones asked no questions about the ritual.

Needless to say, the murder by Barty Crouch, Junior of Barty Crouch, Senior, all by itself, got the younger Barty sentenced to a snogging session with a Dementor, right there in the courtroom.

****

Sirius Black, at the end of his trial, was acquitted of all charges (except for being an unregistered animagus), and was awarded G1 199 950 in reparations. Sirius Black also received a written and spoken apology from Minister Fudge on behalf of the Ministry. Amelia was shocked when Fudge did this.

****

Severus Snape was brought into Courtroom Ten wearing magic-suppressing handcuffs—and with “Would-Be Murderer” written on his forehead till Harry in Courtroom Ten removed the message.

It turned out that Snape’s attack on Harry Potter was not his only involvement with murder—Snape had murdered three Pureblood “blood-traitors” during the 1970s. Dumbledore tried to blather “But Severus killed those other people just to keep his cover as a spy”; but this time, the Wizengamot was not buying.

Snape was given the Kiss, right there in Courtroom Ten, whilst Dumbledore glared at Harry Potter and whilst Hermione Granger rubbed Harry’s back.

****

The entire time that Harry and Hermione were in Courtroom Ten, they were missing the end-of-term examination in Transfiguration. No surprise to Harry, the entire time that Hermione was in Courtroom Ten, she had her Transfiguration textbook open in her lap. (However, during Sirius’s trial, when Hermione actually sat in the chains-chair to be questioned, her Transfiguration textbook was closed and bookmarked.)

****

After the three trials ended and Harry was free to move about Courtroom Ten, Harry made a beeline for Amos Diggory. Harry presented the surprised man with a moneybag with five hundred galleons in it—Cedric’s share of the Triwizard Tournament winnings.

(The other five hundred galleons, what Harry considered to be his half of the winnings, Harry already had gifted to the Weasley Twins.)

****

After the two trials, Harry, with Sirius and Hermione following in his wake, walked up to Madam Bones. Harry pulled a foot of parchment out of his pocket, which he presented to her. “Madam Bones, would you send this to Mr Saul Croaker at the Department of Mysteries, please?”

She took the parchment, replying, “Yes, I can do that. Is what it says secret, or can you tell me?”

Harry replied, “Cedric dictated the words to me; I just wrote it and signed it. But it says that Voldemort is alive because he broke off pieces of his soul and attached them to objects; and I as the Chosen One of a prophecy ask the Department of Mysteries to hunt down and to destroy those soul-pieces, which Cedric and Gringotts both call horcruxes. The parchment lists all the horcruxes and where they are. My scar is a horcrux, according to Gringotts, but I‘ll get that fixed without needing the Unspeakables.”

Immediately Hermione gave Harry a nuclear-powered hug.

Madam Bones said, “I’ll deliver your letter, and soon, but why ask me to be your postal owl? Why not owl this from the castle?”

“Cedric believes that Dumbledore would never let my letter leave the castle, and I’d be Obliviated to forget all about horcruxes except for the Diary, which is a horcrux I already destroyed. Dumbledore would rather have Voldemort alive because of undestroyed horcruxes, if it meant that once again Dumbledore could boast, ‘I know things that nobody else knows.’ ”

Hermione hugged Harry again.

Sirius startled Harry by giving Amelia a kiss on the cheek before she decided to leave.

After the kiss on the cheek, Sirius immediately asked Amelia if she had any plans for tonight.

Smiling Amelia shook her head. “Other than waiting for Susan to arrive home on the Express in two days, no plans at all.”

“I’ll owl you,” Sirius declared, speaking in a deep and sexy voice.

****

In Courtroom Ten, after Madam Bones finally walked away, Harry began the process of saying goodbye to Sirius and returning to Hogwarts. This saying goodbye was a long process, because Harry really, truly did not want to be parted from Sirius, now that Sirius was a free man.

Albus Dumbledore strolled up during the long goodbyes. The headmaster said pompously, “Sirius my boy, congratulations on regaining your freedom.”

Then Dumbledore lowered his voice. “Now I have a most important task for you: Contact the old crowd and tell them that we are returning to the fight. After you have passed this message to everyone in the group, stay with Remus till I contact you both.”

Sirius nodded and turned away, towards Courtroom Ten’s exit doors.

Harry stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “Hold on. Dumbledore is an artist with words. If he says something vague like ‘contact the old crowd,’ he’s being secretive. Who is this secret ‘old crowd’ that he wants you to contact? Much more importantly for me, the minute I get you back in my life, he orders you away from me on some ‘most important’ mission. Suspicious much?”

Sirius leant down and murmured in Harry’s ear, “The secret organisation is the Order of the Phoenix. Your parents, Peter Pettigrew, Remus and I all were members.”

Dumbledore whipped out his bumpy wand, waved it about, and suddenly Courtroom Ten went silent.

Harry saw Hermione speak to him, but he could not hear her at all. He felt annoyed.

Dumbledore said, “Sirius, I am disappointed in you, talking about such a thing here. You have no way of controlling who is listening in.”

Harry said to Sirius, “If my parents belonged to this super-secret organisation and Dumbledore here was in charge of it, no wonder my parents died!” Harry glared at Dumbledore. “Sirius, Dumbledore had Dad’s Invisibility Cloak and Albus here didn’t give it back to Dad—blimey, Mum and I could’ve hidden under the Cloak that night!”

Then Harry turned to Dumbledore. “Sirius has a house, which he mentioned once. It’s somewhere in London. Why should Sirius live with Remus instead of in his London house?”

Dumbledore replied, “Because it is not safe to live there now. The Fidelius Charm on Black Manor collapsed in 1985, when Walburga Black died. The building needs a new Fidelius, and this is a spell I can cast.”

Sirius said, “Thank you, Albus, I appreciate it. Sure, I could hire Gringotts to put up a Fidelius, but the goblins wouldn’t be cheap.”

Harry, knowing how high-handed Dumbledore could be, asked, “And the Secret Keeper will be Sirius, right?”

Sirius nodded. “Of course.”

Dumbledore said pompously, “No, I shall be the Secret Keeper, since that house will be Headquarters for that organisation.”

“WHAT?” Sirius yelled.

Harry said, “I bet you didn’t realise, Sirius, that when you agreed just now to run Dumbledore’s ‘most important’ errand, you also agreed to give up effective ownership of your house.”

Sirius glared at Dumbledore. “I agreed to no such thing.”

“And I demanded no such thing,” Dumbledore replied, giving Harry his I am so disappointed in you look.

Harry sneered, “Oh please, pull the other one, it’s got bells on it. Sirius, here’s an interesting fact: By the time I turned eleven, the headmaster had my trust-vault key. Until recently, I never knew I was supposed to have it. My point is, since I turned eleven, he’s had it, Hagrid has had it and Molly Weasley has had it, but me? Dumbledore has never given it to me.”

“Harry my boy, you do not show maturity enough to use your trust-vault key wisely.”

“I see. I’ve fought Voldemort three times since I came to your madhouse magic castle, since I’m ‘the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord’ ”—Dumbledore inhaled sharply—“and I’ve slain a basilisk, but I can’t be trusted to be told a Prophecy that is about me, or to fill a moneybag without my headmaster standing one foot away. Sirius, please note.

“My point is, Sirius, twelve years in Azkaban has made you a bit mad. Or at least, that’s the excuse Dumbles will use for why you shouldn’t be allowed to decide who may come into your house; the all-wise Leader of the Light will decide the list of people for you. If Snape were still alive—the headmaster’s favourite saying is ‘I have complete confidence in Professor Snape’—I bet Snape would be the first person Dumbledore would let come in his new house that only on parchment still belongs to you.”

Sirius, hearing this, growled.

Dumbledore said, “You have a big house, Sirius, that is well suited for the Order’s needs, and I am in charge of the Order. Do I need to invoke your Oath of Obedience?”

Harry said, “Bugger, did my parents also give Albus Oaths of Obedience? No wonder they didn’t do the smart thing and flee to Australia!”

Then Harry turned to angry-looking Dumbledore. Harry demanded, “Where were you living before Hogwarts hired you as a professor? Or were you sleeping in a sheep barn?”

“Dumbledore House,” grinning Sirius replied, as Dumbledore scowled.

Harry said to Dumbledore, “Make Dumbledore House the Headquarters for your anti-Voldemort organisation, instead of taking Sirius’s house. Or go walk up to Lucius Malfoy and demand his house—I’m sure it’s big enough and grandiose enough for you.”

By now, Sirius was scowling. “Harry makes good points. Albus, if you’re going to threaten me with making me your little inferi just for giving you mild pushback, then I hereby resign from the Order of the Phoenix—”

“Sirius my boy, you—”

“Furthermore, you have forty-eight hours to owl Harry’s trust-vault key either to him or to me. And after the way you’ve treated Harry since Samhain, believe me that when Gringotts makes me the Secret Keeper for the London house, no way on earth will I tell you the Secret.”

“Actually, Sirius,” said Harry, grinning, “I’m now Head of House Potter”—Harry let the ring be visible for a second—“so you’re no longer my guardian. The bearded schemer here was so eager to force me into the Triwizard Tournament, I wound up ‘of age’ as a result.” Harry laughed scornfully. “Albus old man, you have until I board the Express”—in two days—“to hand me my trust-vault key, or else Axefrenzy at Gringotts will receive a letter from his client—who no longer is you.”

Harry now spoke to Dumbledore as to a drooling moron: “As for ‘contact the old crowd,’ headmaster, you have access to a Floo and have access to postal owls, do you not? I see no need to bother Sirius with this task, now that he can openly spend time with his godson.”

****

After this conversation, the Aurors returned Harry and Hermione to school. Sirius, meanwhile, headed off to Gringotts to claim the Black Head of House ring and to set up his house in London to be Fideliused.

****

The next morning (Saturday, 1 July), at breakfast
In the Great Hall

Harry received a note by owl from Sirius—

I went to Gringotts. I now am Head of House Black, and you now are designated Black Heir Primary. Claim the Black Heir Primary ring as soon as you can get to Gringotts.

Draco Malfoy now is designated Black Heir Secondary.

By the time you arrive in King’s Cross, my London house will have the Fidelius on it. But I’m not sure that I want you to see the house. It’s filthy, it has pests in nearly every room, it needs repair and my only servant is a bad elf who is also old. Do you know where I can find a second house-elf to bond with?

After discussing the question with Hermione, Harry sent the owl away with this scribbled answer: “Call for a house-elf named Winky. She’ll be overjoyed and relieved if you bond with her.”

****

A second owl that Harry did not recognise, landed on the Gryffindor table with a letter for Harry.

The letter turned out to be from Lucius Malfoy, who finally was replying to Harry’s offer to spare Draco’s life, in return for a one-million-galleon bank draft.

The parchment had no bank draft enclosed. However, it did have, sticking-charmed to the top of the writing, a one-knut coin.

Potter,

You might wear a pretty ring now, but the fact remains that you’re the half-blood son of a mudblood and a blood-traitor. The idea that you can kill my Pureblood son if he sees you coming is laughable.

Here is one knut. it is all the money I ever will willingly give a half-blood.

Enjoy your remaining life, what little of it you have. In a battle to the death between you and my son, I know whom I’m betting on.

Lucius A Malfoy
Head of the Ancient House of Malfoy

At the Slytherin table, Draco stood up and said mockingly, “Well, Scarhead, I see my father sent you a letter. Did he send you that one-million-galleon bank draft you wanted?” Draco’s tone of voice said I know the answer to my question is “Not in a million years.”

Draco looked confused when Harry replied cheerfully, “He did in fact pay me. Let me break the sticking-charm so I can show you.”

Seconds later, Harry flipped the one-knut coin into the air, then caught it. “One knut, little dragon, that’s all your father thinks you’re worth.”

The entire Great Hall laughed, as Draco’s face turned red.

Laughing Harry continued, “Actually, Lucy asked me to do a Severing Charm on the knut, and send half the coin back. He thinks one whole knut for you is overpayment.”

Even the Slytherins were laughing now. Daphne and Tracey high-fived.

Then Harry put both his fists on the wood of the Gryffindor table and stared across the Great Hall, directly into Draco’s eyes. No longer smiling or joking, Harry said, “Since your father refuses to make things right with me, then it’s all up to you, little dragon. Apologise. Now.”

Draco’s laugh was scornful. “You’re deluded, Scarhead, you worthless half-blood. Apologise to you? Never.”

Harry’s eyes still were staring into Draco’s eyes. Now Harry’s eyes said Make peace with your Maker, little dragon. You won’t be alive much longer.

Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled merrily.

****

Saturday morning after breakfast, whilst the fifth-years and seventh-years sat their last day of OWLs and NEWTs respectively, Harry and Hermione sat their Transfiguration examination with Professor McGonagall.

Saturday night, Hogwarts held the Leaving Feast. During the Leaving Feast, Cedric Diggory was honoured. Ghost-Cedric gave a speech, in which he lavished much praise on Harry Potter. Cedric repeatedly called Harry “honourable.” Harry blushed at the praise, and Hermione kissed Harry’s cheek. Cedric blamed his death on Peter Pettigrew and on Voldemort.

When Harry made a face like he was going to stand up and claim some of the blame himself, Hermione hugged Harry hard. As a result, Harry remained seated.

****

When the Leaving Feast ended, McGonagall informed Harry (in Hermione’s hearing) that “The headmaster wishes to see you in his office now. The password is ‘co*ckroach Clusters.’ ”

Harry said, “it doesn’t matter what the password is. I refuse to meet with him alone.”

When McGonagall started to puff up, Harry raised his hand in a Stop gesture. “For the past week, the headmaster has been demanding to know what happened after the Third Task. Either as headmaster or as my fraudulent magical guardian, he has no authority to ask this. He assigned me detentions for the rest of this term and for the first week of fifth year”—Hermione hissed—“for handing Snape over to the DMLE after Snape tried to kill me. After Albus forced me into the Triwizard, he can kiss my arse.” Then Harry looked scornfully at McGonagall and added, “Now you go tell him all that.” The words Run along, girl, I’m done talking to you were not said, but Harry clearly implied them.

Hermione said, “I see a compromise, professor. By the Hogwarts Student Handbook, 1938 edition, whenever Harry is summoned to meet with the headmaster, he may demand that his Head of House also attend the meeting. Go with Harry and he’s not alone with the headmaster.”

“Wouldn’t work,” Harry said. “That would require Professor McGonagall here to look Albus in the eyes and say, ‘No, Albus, I won’t leave, deal with it.’ Professor McGonagall here would rather assign me a detention in the Forbidden Forest after curfew than backchat the bearded schemer.”

Shockingly, McGonagall agreed to go with Harry when he met with Dumbledore. Harry, not trusting McGonagall to fight for him, also brought Hermione.

After Dumbledore tried to order McGonagall to leave and Hermione to leave—and was refused by both—he slid a Gringotts key across his desk and said, “Here’s your key, Harry. Now go to your detention with Filch.”

With those words, the meeting was over. Harry was the first person out the door, before Dumbledore said anything else to him.

****

The next day: Sunday, 2 July
The deadline has expired for Lucius Malfoy to pay one million galleons to Harry to save Draco’s life

During all of Saturday and through Sunday morning, Harry succeeded at avoiding an ambush by Draco, by use of the Marauders Map, his Invisibility Cloak and by Ghost-James and Ghost-Lily acting as invisible lookouts.

As a result, both Harry Potter and his nemesis, Draco Malfoy, were alive Sunday morning to board the Hogwarts Express at Hogsmeade. But on this train trip, Harry did something different—

Harry chose a compartment for himself and for the ghosts of his parents, then told Hermione, Neville and Ghost-Cedric to go sit elsewhere. When Draco would invade Harry’s compartment during the trainride, an event which Harry was sure would happen, Harry did not want any of his friends getting hurt when Harry killed Draco.

Harry tried to explain to Hermione and to Neville why Draco had to die, and why Harry had to be his killer: “If Hermione walked up to Lucius Malfoy at King’s Cross station and said to him, ‘You look ridiculous with that long blond hair,’ Lucius could kill Hermione then and there, in front of witnesses, and it would be legal. It would be a git move, yes, but it would be legal. Lucius Malfoy is Head of House, Hermione isn’t, he belongs to an Ancient House, she belongs to a lower house, New House Granger, so the law would let Lucius kill Hermione just because of one spoken insult.”

Neville nodded.

Horrified Hermione said, “But that’s barbaric. Couldn’t Lucius Malfoy forgive the insult? Then he’d be seen as charitable.”

Neville shook his head. “He wouldn’t be seen as charitable, he’d be seen as weak. The Head of a House that was enemy to House Malfoy then might bribe a dishonest goblin to take gold from Malfoy vaults, the enemy Lord figuring that when Lucius Malfoy discovered the theft, he’d take no vengeance and the theft would succeed. Or a scion of the enemy House maybe would bully Draco and harass Narcissa.”

Harry nodded. “By the same law and custom that lets hypothetical-Lucius kill hypothetical-Hermione over one insult, I’ve been permitted to kill Draco since he insulted Mum, Hermione and me a week ago. But back a week ago, I didn’t want to kill Draco by law, I only wanted to make him sweat. And also I hoped to get a public apology from Draco or some money from Lucius if I could. So Neville, you were wrong when you wrote to Lucius, I did make a threat that I had no intention of carrying out—a week ago.

“But that was then. After a week of thinking about it, I’ve decided: Draco Malfoy has to die. You see, Voldemort will start marking new Death Eaters soon, if he hasn’t already started; and when he starts marking Death Eaters, Draco will be first in line. As a Death Eater, Draco will be especially murderous. I’m saving the lives of many Muggles, Muggle-borns and ‘blood-traitors,’ if I remove Draco before he ever can be offered the Dark Mark. Madam Bones can’t act against Draco until Draco commits a crime; and Dumbledore won’t act, even after Draco’s hands and arms become painted red with blood. It’s up to me.”

“It’s always up to you!” Hermione exclaimed. “You are the one who then will suffer the consequences, again!”

Harry shrugged. “Just like with the basilisk, the people who should have solved the problem, instead drank tea and dithered, so solving the problem of Draco’s future murders has fallen to me.”

Hermione was not happy to be told that Harry absolutely, positively would not let her stay with him. Neville had to wrap his arms about Hermione’s waist to drag her out of Harry’s compartment, in order to get her to leave.

****

Whilst the Hogwarts Express chug-chug-chug’d towards King’s Cross, Harry, Ghost-James and Ghost-Lily sat in Harry’s compartment and waited for Draco to come.

Chapter 8: Harry 2, Malfoys 0

Chapter Text

Sunday, 2 July 1995
Aboard the Hogwarts Express at 11am

When the train first began to move south from Hogsmeade Station, Hermione was sitting in a compartment with the Twins, Lee Jordan, and Neville.

Harry Potter was not in the train compartment that Hermione & Co were sitting in.

Hermione was crying. She had not cried in years—Halloween of 1991, in the girl’s lavatory, had been the last time and place she had cried—but now she was crying because she was frightened. She was afraid that the next time she saw her boyfriend, he would be dead.

But Harry had absolutely not been persuaded to let Hermione be with him when the deadly duel with Draco came. “Hermione, I imagine him killing you, sure at the time that he could kill a Muggle-born and be acquitted. Or I imagine me killing him, then you being arrested as an accessory, whilst the Pureblood Auror blathers some flimsy excuse. Please, Hermione, you and Neville go sit with the Twins. I’ll fight much better if I’m not worried about my friends—or about my girlfriend.”

Now in the train compartment in which five Gryffindors waited for news about the sixth, the Twins were being unusually serious. Hermione figured that the Twins were worried about Harry too.

****

Elsewhere on the train at 11am

Pansy asked, “Draco, aren’t you scared, even a bit, of Lord Potter killing you today?”

Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy and Sam Flint (the younger brother of Marcus, and a one-time Slytherin Reserve Seeker) were sharing a compartment. Each of them hoped that the Dark Lord would Mark them soon.

Now Draco snarled, “Don’t call Scarhead ‘Lord Potter’! He isn’t worthy of that title, because he’s a half-blood.”

Sam Flint said, “You’re avoiding Parkinson’s question, Malfoy. You could be killed today—aren’t you scared?”

“Oh, please,” Draco said haughtily. “A half-blood fighting a Pureblood? No way can I lose! Then when he tries to kill me but I kill him instead, I can claim everything Potter-related by Right of Conquest!”

Crabbe asked Draco, “You sure about this? You’ll win because he’s a half-blood and you’re a Pureblood?”

“Of course I’m sure!”

Crabbe and Goyle exchanged a look, the meaning of which, Draco could not guess.

****

Yet elsewhere on the train at 11am

Harry was confiding to the ghosts of his parents, his thoughts about killing Draco today—

“Mum, Dad, Cedric and his ghostly knowledge told me what was truly happening since I came to Hogwarts. Dumbledore each year pushed me into a crisis by making me think, ‘A catastrophe is coming, and only I can prevent it.’ ”

Ghost-James asked, “You really thought that only you could fix the problem du jour? Even when you were an ignorant first-year? What about the professors solving the problem?”

Harry snorted. “No adult at Hogwarts ever spoke up and said, ‘Don’t worry, Harry, I’ll fix this. You go be a kid.’ So I battled Voldemort to save the Philosopher’s Stone in first year, I battled Voldemort’s horcrux-shade to save Ginny Weasley in second year, I battled Dementors to save Sirius Black in third year; and a week ago, I thought, ‘I have to walk into the maze and try and win the Cup, or else I’ll lose my magic.’ ”

Ghost-Lily asked, “Cedric truly said that Albus was setting you up to experience all those nasty things?”

Harry nodded. “Ghost-Cedric has told me that Dumbledore’s scheme was to get me so used to thinking ‘Only I can fix this’ that Dumbledore could tell me ‘Because of the horcrux in your scar, the only way to defeat Voldemort is to let him kill you’—and I’d walk out to my death. Then Dumbledore would flame in and defeat an exhausted Dark Lord, then step on my corpse to better be seen as he accepted the cheers of the crowd.”

Lily snarled, “Which is why we are taking you to Gringotts as soon as possible and getting that monstrosity out of your scar, so Albus’s honeyed arguments won’t sway you into killing yourself!”

James nodded firmly. “We both sacrificed our lives for you, not so you would be tricked into sacrificing yourself!”

Harry said, “Anyway, killing Draco is a big step; just the thought of it scares me because of how much it’ll change my life. But it’s the first action I’ll take since I came to Hogwarts that I know is my free choice, not an idea that the headmaster has planted in my head.”

Then Harry added, “But I never expected things to go this far. I was sure that Narcissa Malfoy would order her son to apologise to me publicly, or Lucius Malfoy would pay me to leave his son unhurt.”

****

A minute later

To distract himself from the coming battle with Draco, Harry was telling his ghostly parents about his first year. “...So there I was, staring at you with me in the Mirror of Erised, and it was so, so beautiful. Then Headmaster Dumbledore walked into the unused classroom, looked straight at me, and said—”

“Hold on,” James said, “Dumbledore knew you were in that particular classroom and he knew exactly where you were within the classroom, when you were wearing your True Cloak of Invisibility at the time?”

Lily said, “Albus could have put tracking charms on Harry so he knew that Harry was in that classroom, then he guessed that Harry would be standing in front of the Mirror.”

James said, “But what if it wasn’t a guess? The True Cloak of Invisibility can’t be tracked and it can’t be summoned, but it also was in Albus’s possession for a time, before he gave the Cloak to Harry.”

Lily said, “You think Albus impaired it?”

Harry said, “Dumbledore always can see me when I’m wearing it.”

Lily said, “Bollocks, you’re right, Albus did alter the Cloak.”

James suggested that Harry get his Invisibility Cloak out of his trunk and lay it on a bench seat. Then James suggested that Harry hold his wand-tip over the Cloak and cast “Accio segniter Cloak,” which in theory would have no effect on the True Cloak of Invisibility.

But this was not what happened. A line slowly rose up towards the wand-tip, where one part of the Invisibility Cloak was hemmed.

It turned out that at that place in the Cloak, a cotton thread had been sewn in. The cotton thread was the same silver colour as the Demiguise threads that surrounded the cotton thread, but when Harry examined the Cloak closely, the cotton thread reflected light differently than its neighbours.

Lily suggested that, rather than try to pull the thread out, Harry cast Evanesco impostor thread to vanish the invader. After Harry cast the spell, the True Cloak of Invisibility could not be summoned, and no tracking spell would stick to it.

Harry said to his parents, “Dumbledore will hate this when he finds out.”

****

A few minutes later

James asked, “So when are you planning to hunt down Draco?”

Harry replied, “If he hasn’t come here by an hour before we reach King’s Cross, I’ll go look for him in every compartment. I’m not looking forwards to it—instead of facing three Slytherin wands, I’ll likely face six, and die. But I don’t think I need to do that—all of my past history with Draco leads me to think that long before we’re almost to King’s Cross, he’ll come to my compartment with Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, and Draco will attack me as soon as he sees me.”

Lily asked, “When this happens, what are your plans?”

Harry grinned like mischievous Sirius. “To do things that Draco Malfoy is not expecting.”

****

Later
In the compartment occupied by Fred, George, Lee, Neville and Hermione

The compartment door was jerked open; Draco, Crabbe and Goyle stood in the doorway.

Draco had drawn his wand, but did not yet cast spells. All the Gryffindors immediately drew their own wands and aimed them at the three Slytherins.

“Where’s Potter?” Draco demanded, after seeing that Harry Potter was not in the compartment with them.

Hermione replied, “Three compartments towards the front. He’s waiting for you, little dragon. He plans to kill you.”

“Is Rubbish-Bin-Mouth with him? Weasley?”

Hermione replied, “No, Harry no longer is friends with Ron. That ship has sailed.”

The Twins said, “Actually, that ship—”

“—sank at the dock.”

The Twins said in unison, “Ickle Ronniekins will regret losing his friendship with Harry for the rest of his life.”

Draco said, “Wait, Potter is alone in his compartment?”

Neville replied, “His ghost-parents are with him as advisors, and they are cunning.” Unlike you, Draco.

Draco laughed scornfully. “Oh, this will be easy.”

Now Neville was the wizard who laughed scornfully. “You stupid sh*t. You thick, gormless, stupid sh*t. Goodbye, Draco, I’ll skive off your funeral.”

As soon as the compartment door was slammed shut and the Slytherin trio were walking towards the front of the train, Hermione used the “talking Patronus” trick that Harry had taught her, and sent a Patronus-otter to Harry: “Draco is coming.”

****

A Patronus-otter burst through the rear wall of Harry’s train compartment. The Patronus said, with Hermione’s voice, “Draco is coming.”

Then the Patronus faded away, its job complete.

“Showtime,” Harry said to his parents. Oddly, Harry now was completely calm.

Harry donned the True Cloak of Invisibility, drew his wand, then dropped to the floor right by his compartment door.

Five seconds later, the compartment door was jerked open. Draco said, “Avada—where’s Potter?”

Invisible Harry on the floor thought, Draco, you just blew your last chance.

Invisible Harry on the floor hissed, “§Incarcerous-Incarcerous-Incarcerous.§” All three Slytherin boys, and their wands, were wrapped in orange ropes.

Harry did not remove his Invisibility Cloak till he was standing again and his wand was pointing at the trio. Harry said, “You’re caught, gentlemen.”

Draco spoke angry words and threats, which Harry ignored. Crabbe and Goyle said nothing.

Harry then walked up to Vincent Crabbe, who looked nervous. “Accio Vincent Crabbe’s wand,” Harry incanted. The specified wand wriggled through the orange ropes, then flew to Harry’s hand.

Because Harry had brought Crabbe’s wand to Harry’s hand with Accio instead of Expelliarmus, Crabbe was not subjected to pushback and did not fall over.

With an overhand throw, Harry threw Crabbe’s wand over Goyle’s shoulder, to land on the floor of the corridor.

Harry said, “There’s nothing to worry about, Vincent Crabbe. I haven’t harmed you and I haven’t harmed your wand, but now you can’t use your wand against me.”

Harry then Accio’d Gregory Goyle’s wand, which Harry then tossed over Vincent Crabbe’s shoulder and into the corridor.

Lastly, Harry Accio’d Draco’s wand. But this time, Harry tossed Draco’s wand onto the bench seat where his parents were sitting. “I’m keeping this wand as a souvenir,” grinning Harry explained.

Draco, who still was tied up with orange ropes, still was threatening and blathering, so Harry hit him with a Silencing spell.

Then Harry carried out the next part of his plan. “Dobby.”

Pop. The always-cheerful house-elf appeared—that is, always-cheerful till Dobby saw Draco. Whilst Draco, seeing Dobby, was silently acting even angrier and more threatening, Dobby was scowling and the house-elf gave Malfoy the two-finger salute.

Meanwhile, three second-year boys were in the corridor, trying to squeeze past Draco and his companions. Harry told the younger boys, “Get out of this corridor, gentlemen, either into a compartment or into the next carriage. You really won’t want to be here soon.”

As the three second-year boys rushed towards the door at the forward end of this carriage’s corridor, Draco looked worried for a few seconds; then his haughty sneer returned.

When the corridor was empty except for three tied-up Slytherins (and two Slytherins’ wands), Harry said, “Dobby, use elf-magic to lock the two doors for this carriage’s corridor, and lock all the compartment doors in this carriage except for my door. Be sure to lock Hermione’s door.”

With an elfin finger-click, those tasks were done.

Harry explained to his ghostly parents and to his unwelcome visitors why he gave that order: “I don’t want any uninvolved kids seeing what’s about to get messy.”

Draco, if anything, looked haughtier.

Harry asked Dobby, “You know these two boys with Draco, right?”

Dobby nodded. “They bees Crabby and Girl. Evil former master make they’s fathers make they protect evil former master’s cruel son.”

Draco silently yelled something at Dobby.

Harry asked next, “Do you know who Pansy Parkinson is?”

Dobby replied, “She bees evil witch who she fancies evil former master’s cruel son, it bees mystery why.”

Harry chuckled, then said to Dobby, “In a few seconds, I’ll vanish the ropes from Crabby and Girl—erm, from Crabbe and Goyle. When I’ve done that, I want you to elf-pop Crabbe and Goyle into Pansy Parkinson’s train compartment. Do not harm them. I want each boy to arrive with his wand in his pocket. Again I say, do not harm them. Understood?”

Dobby beamed. “The Great Master Harry Potter shows kindness to the minions of evil former master’s cruel son. Dobby will do.”

Harry, with wand in hand, stepped directly in front of Vincent Crabbe, then hissed, “§Incarcerous undo.§”

As soon as Crabbe’s orange ropes vanished, Harry stepped sideways till Harry was standing in front of Gregory Goyle. “§Incarcerous undo.§”

An instant later, Goyle’s orange ropes vanished. Dobby clicked his fingers, and Crabbe and Goyle vanished.

Harry now stood in the doorway of his compartment. His ghostly parents, and Draco’s wand, were behind him; Draco—who was tied up and silenced—was in front of him; Dobby the house-elf was beside him; and Hermione was locked in the train compartment that was three doors to the right.

Harry enlarged the Silencing Charm, then said to the blond, “My parents and I can hear you now, Malfoy. What do you want to say to me?”

Draco sneered, “You won’t live to see sundown.” Which would be an hour or so after the Hogwarts Express arrived in King’s Cross.

Harry shrugged. “Maybe I die today, maybe I don’t. I’m used to feeling mortal fear, which is a feeling I’m sure you’ve never experienced.”

Harry paused, then said, “For what it’s worth, Draco, I didn’t know I was insulting you when I refused to shake your hand on the firstie train. Belated apologies.”

Then Harry pointed his wand at Draco’s neck. “Diffindo.”

****

One second later

Harry undid the Parseltongue Silencing Charm and the Parseltongue Body-Bind spell on Draco. Draco’s headless body dropped to the floor of the corridor.

Harry cleaned the blood-spatter off his wand, his wand-hand and his clothes.

Harry walked back into the compartment. He walked past his silent parents, who were hugging each other, and went straight to his school trunk. Harry dug out a prewritten letter from his trunk, then handed the letter to Dobby, with instructions. One second later, Dobby clicked his fingers, then he, Harry’s letter and Draco’s two-part corpse were elf-popped away.

Immediately Harry began the work of cleaning the blood off the wall, window and floor of the corridor.

When Dobby returned, Harry asked Dobby to do his own blood-removal in the corridor; even though to Harry, the corridor now looked clean.

When Dobby told Harry that the corridor was completely bloodless, Harry told Dobby to unlock all the elf-locked doors.

Harry thanked Dobby, who elf-popped away, then Harry walked to the door of Hermione’s compartment and knocked.

That door immediately was opened—by Hermione.

Harry said to her, and to everyone else in her compartment, “It’s done. No student saw anything they’ll want to forget, and Dobby and I cleaned up the blood.”

“What happens now?” Hermione asked.

It was Neville who replied: “Now Harry takes much sh*t from Headmaster Dumbledore, even if Madam Bones lets him walk.”

****

Meanwhile, in King’s Cross station

No crowds of parents stood on Platform 9¾ now, because the Hogwarts Express had travelled less than halfway on its southern journey. At this time, the only magicals on the platform were two bored Aurors Second Class—rookies.

The pair were only curious, not alarmed, when they heard the sound of an elf-pop. But fear hit the Aurors’ minds, full force, when they saw what had joined them on otherwise-empty Platform 9¾—

Laying there was the headless corpse of a teenaged boy, with blood oozing from the neck. Six inches away was the white-blond-haired head of that teenaged boy, with the head’s neck likewise oozing blood.

Only one teenaged boy in all of Wizarding Britain had hair this colour. But just to make sure that little doubt about the dead boy’s identity became no doubt, a parchment letter, fan-folded, was laid on the dead boy’s chest. The parchment was addressed to: “LUCIUS A MALFOY.”

At the same time, a copy of this letter was elf-delivered to Barnabas Cuffe, the Editor-In-Chief at the Daily Prophet.

****

Hours later, after the Hogwarts Express has arrived at King’s Cross

The Head Boy and Girl kept all the students on the train except for themselves, Susan Bones, and Harry Potter.

The Head Boy, Head Girl and Susan left the train immediately, but Harry delayed leaving the train.

Harry, who was standing just inside the rear door of the last train carriage, saw Susan Bones run to her Aunt Amelia, who was surrounded by an entire herd of Aurors. For a minute, Susan spoke (but Harry could not understand her words), and Madam Bones listened without interrupting.

When Harry stepped down from the last train carriage, some of the Aurors with Madam Bones watched Harry closely. But most of the Aurors turned to closely watch Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy.

To Harry’s relief, Madam Bones did not give the order to arrest him. But this did not mean that Harry was problem-free now—Lucius Malfoy looked murderous.

Maybe Lord Malfoy’s bad mood was because of the letter that Harry had written to him, with Lucius’s one-knut “payment” being sticking-charmed to the top of the parchment?

2 July 1995

A week ago, your son Draco insulted my Muggle-born mother, my Muggle-born friend Hermione and me. Which was stupid, because when he spoke those angering words, I outranked him. Today I killed him for those three insults, and for his many other insults, going back years. You lot made up the silly rules, Lucy, I just took advantage of your rules to rid myself of a worthless wizard.

However, Lucy, I promise you that if Draco recovers from the overpowered Diffindo I gave him, I’ll pull a Dumbledore and give Draco unlimited second chances.

Here is your knut back, Lucy. I’m sure you stole it from a Muggle-born or a “blood-traitor” you murdered, so I don’t want the blood-soaked coin in my pocket.

By the by, when Fake Moody taught the Unforgivables in DADA class, he hit me with the Imperius. I threw it off after ten seconds. You have publicly admitted that you’re mentally weaker than a half-blood, Lucy.

Draco once said in the Great Hall, “Malfoys bow to no one.” Remind the “no one” whose ... hem ... you kiss that a Prophecy says I will vanquish him.

Lucy, did you ever do the research about who Tom Marvolo Riddle is? He had a Squib mother and a Muggle father, and he grew up in a Muggle orphanage. “I am Lord Voldemort” is an anagram he invented at sixteen. I bet you feel foolish now, nobbled by the supposedly-Pureblood Dark Lord Voldemort, who actually has only slightly higher rank than what you call a mudblood.

Harry James Potter
Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter
Heir Primary (even before I killed your son) of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black

****

“What’s the delay?” Lucius Malfoy now yelled at Madam Bones. “Arrest the murderer of my son!”

“I shall not,” Madam Bones calmly replied. “Minister Fudge and I agree: Lord Potter followed the law.”

Lucius Malfoy, wand in hand, spun to face Harry and incanted, “AVADA KEDAVRA!”

With the distance between Lord Malfoy and Lord Potter, Harry had about half a second to avoid the Killing Curse. Harry used this time to dive to the left, then to drop and roll. By the time Harry had his elbows and knees on concrete, his wand was in his hand.

“Lancia! Lancia! Lancia!”

Harry sent three Piercing Hexes, with a 5-degree spread, back to Lucius. Harry intended for one of these Piercing Hexes to drill through Lucius’s heart.

By the time Harry’s Piercing Hexes were about to strike Lucius, Harry had to roll to the right, to dodge Lucius’s second Killing Curse. But by the time Harry got his elbows on the concrete again, Lucius Malfoy, Head of the Ancient House of Malfoy, had been magically shot in the heart after he twice had tried to kill Harry.

****

By the time that the Hogwarts Express had arrived in King’s Cross, ghostly James and Lily had told Fred and George Weasley, Lee Jordan, Neville, Hermione and Harry the full text of the Prophecy to which Harry and Neville were subject. (Eight days ago, Harry and Hermione had heard part of the Prophecy, but not the full Prophecy.)

“sh*t, bugger and f*ck,” Neville had said, when he had learnt that he was the Reserve Chosen One according to the Prophecy that had turned Harry’s life to sh*t.

There was one part of the Prophecy that nobody, not even Lily or Hermione, had caught the implications of, when the Potter ghosts had shared the Prophecy on the train: “[E]ither must die at the hand of the other.”

What this turned out to mean was that unless Voldemort sent someone to act as his Hand to kill Harry Potter, then whilst the Prophecy was active, nobody except Voldemort could kill Harry.

Alas for poor Lucius now, no prophecy had given him a charmed life, whilst Harry had expected a deadly attack on Platform 9¾ and had made plans accordingly.

****

Harry just had killed Lucius Malfoy.

Harry was confused when an ornate ring, with an M carved into its stone, appeared on his hand next to his Lord Potter ring, then the new ring merged with his Lord Potter ring. The new ring started to tell Harry’s mind everything that he ever would want to know (and much that he did not want to know) about House Malfoy.

Seconds later, Harry gasped, then snarled, “That utter wanker!”

Harry whirled about to stare down the Head Boy and Head Girl. Then Harry yelled, “Keep the students on the train!” This clearly confused the two seventh-years.

Then Harry said, “I call here Malfoy house-elves Goldy, Hunky and Raspy.”

P-p-pop. Three house-elves—who were bruised all over, and were wearing filthy tea towels—appeared on Platform 9¾. They looked at Harry with fright—because Harry’s face looked furious, he realised.

Harry calmed his face, then leant forwards and spoke lowly, so that only the house-elves could hear. “I’m not angry at you, I’m angry at dead Lucius Malfoy over there. I try to be kind to house-elves; ask Dobby if you don’t believe me.”

All three Malfoy house-elves now looked relieved.

Harry said, “There’s something I need for you to do right now. It’s disgusting though; I apologise. Use the sheets in Draco’s bedroom, since Draco won’t be using those sheets anymore.” Then Harry spoke one more sentence of orders.

Pop-pop-pop. The three Malfoy house-elves vanished.

Two seconds later—

Pop-pop. On the concrete platform near the cooling corpse of Lucius Malfoy, near to but not touching Malfoy’s pool of blood, appeared two dead humans. Each dead human was wrapped in bedsheets. By their shape, the sheets-wrapped corpses were female.

Chapter 9: After Lucius Dies, Part 1

Chapter Text

Still Sunday evening, 2 July
Still on Platform 9¾
Shortly after the duel between Harry Potter and Lucius Malfoy

Pop-pop. On the concrete platform near the cooling corpse of Lucius Malfoy, near to but not touching Malfoy’s pool of blood, appeared two dead humans. Each dead human was wrapped in bedsheets. By their shape, the sheets-wrapped corpses were female.

Harry glared across the platform at Narcissa Malfoy. “DID YOU KNOW ABOUT YOUR HUSBAND’S ‘HOBBY’? BY ALL THAT IS HOLY, I HOPE THAT YOU DID NOT!”

Narcissa’s face paled, but she stood straight. “Harry James Potter, the new Lord Malfoy”—the crowd gasped, hearing this—“I tell you truthfully, I did not know details. I did not want to know details, in order to keep peace in our marriage. Do with my answer what you will.”

Harry paused in thought, then said to Narcissa, “To be clear, Narcissa Black Malfoy, you did not choose Lucius’s Muggle girls—these two and the others before—you did not Imperius them, you did not kidnap them, you did not imprison them in the dungeon, you did not torture them and you did not kill them? Obviously you did not rape any of Lucius’s Muggle girls.”

Narcissa looked like she wanted to cry, or to scream, or to vomit, but her back was still straight. “I did none of those things. I shall swear an oath on my magic, if you wish.”

“Please do,” Harry replied.

After Narcissa gave the oath, Harry said, “Very well. I hold you blameless.”

Narcissa looked greatly relieved—for one second. Then her face turned emotionless again, “Thank you.”

Now Harry turned his attention to Madam Bones. “Inside the sheets are two dead Muggle teenage girls. Blondes, because Lucius had a preference for Muggle blondes for his ‘fun.’ Lucius never asked their names, so the Head of House ring doesn’t know their names. Lucius Imperiused them, and kidnapped them, in Canterbury, on 28 June. They’ve been dead only a few hours; when Lucius was informed that Draco was dead, he rushed into the dungeon and AK’d both girls in his blind rage.”

Madam Bones said solemnly, “I shall see that these girls are turned over to the Muggle police in Canterbury.”

Madam Bones gave quiet orders. Seconds later, two Aurors and the two sheet-wrapped girls disappeared from Platform 9¾.

Harry looked at Narcissa. “As Lord Malfoy now, I’ve the responsibility to arrange Lucius’s funeral, and Draco’s. I delegate both those tasks to you, and I’ll agree with all your choices. Otherwise, Lucius’s ‘funeral’ would be me vanishing his corpse, just like Lucius liked to vanish the corpses of all but the last two of his dungeon playmates.”

Narcissa nodded. “I will arrange their funerals, by your command. By your leave then, Lord Malfoy,” she said, curtseying.

Harry nodded.

But rather than leave, Narcissa said, “I speak to you now as Lord Potter. Harry Potter, Lord Potter, I ordered my son Draco to apologise to you for his hateful words, but Lucius wrote Draco too, commanding my son to ignore my order. I tried to resolve my son’s conflict with you, but my effort was not enough. I regret my failure.”

Harry said, “I accept your apology. Is there anything else you wish to ask me or to tell me?”

Narcissa looked at Harry for several seconds, then her left hand went up high enough that her elbow was level with her neck. Her right hand came over and pulled down her left sleeve, showing everyone her bare left forearm.

Narcissa said in a loud, ringing voice, “I do not carry the Dark Mark, nor will I in the future.”

Harry heard murmurs of surprise from every part of Platform 9¾.

Then Narcissa gave Harry an imperious look as she added, “With that said, I will not voluntarily invite your Muggle-born girlfriend Granger into Malfoy Manor.”

Harry discarded the first ten things he could have said. Instead, after a pause he said, “Thank you for your honesty. Now I dismiss you.”

Narcissa drew her wand, then both the living Malfoy and the dead one Apparated away.

Harry again summoned the three Malfoy house-elves, then asked them to clean all of Lucius’s blood off the train platform. They did so, looking gleeful.

In the second or two that the three elves were finger-clicking, Harry took a deep breath to calm himself. He had a speech to give.

****

Harry dismissed the Malfoy house-elves, then turned to look at the Head Boy and Head Girl again. “Let me say some words to everyone, then you can release the students. Are either of you Muggle-born?”

Both seventh-years shook their heads no. The Head Boy sneered besides.

Harry rebuked him: “Don’t look so offended at the question. In two years and some months, my girlfriend Hermione Granger will become Head Girl—count on it—and she never knew that magic was real till her eleventh birthday.”

“A mudblood,” a witch’s voice said from the crowd.

Harry raised his voice: “To whomever said that, are you a Death Eater too? Or are you too cowardly to take the Dark Mark, with its risk that you could be arrested? I despise Lucius Malfoy and I’m glad I killed him, but he had one virtue: He had the courage of his convictions, unlike all you unMarked blood-bigots in the crowd. Come now, bigot witch, don’t be shy, I’m sure that most of the wizard-raised people here believe as you do, that Muggle-borns are lesser human beings and Muggles are animals, am I right? Some of you, I’m sure, think Lucius Malfoy was not evil, he was vulgar—you think it’s fine to bait Muggles, but Imperiusing, kidnapping, raping, torturing and killing Muggles is in poor taste.”

Silence.

Harry eyed the crowd of Aurors and magical-raised parents: “Here’s something I think is hilarious, people: The Muggles who know about the magical world, they sneer at you. Here’s one reason why: You lot still are writing with feathers in 1995, and you truly think you’ve better people than Muggles because you can make those feathers float? Another reason Muggles sneer: Muggles can send messages across the world at 186 thousand miles per second; you lot use owls. Muggles have travelled to the moon and back. Have you lot achieved similar?”

The crowd muttered angrily, hearing this.

Harry said, “But let’s get back to what I intended to talk about: the Dark Failure Voldemort. I call Tommy Riddle—his real name—‘the Dark Failure’ because six times he’s tried to kill me, but”—Harry spread his arms wide and grinned. “If you haven’t heard, eight days ago the Dark Failure managed to get himself resurrected, with my unwilling help, and soon he’ll try to conquer Wizarding Britain again. The Dark Failure and his silver-mask-wearing minions also will try to kill me. Listen up, I’ll be trying to kill him, and them, too. I”—now Harry’s voice sneered—“won’t shoot Stunners and I won’t give unlimited second chances.” Speaking normally again, Harry said, “I suspect that Death Eaters killed my Muggle grandparents, and Death Eater Lucy just now tried to kill me, so I owe the entire bad bunch payback.”

A male voice in the crowd said, sounding shocked, “You’ll kill them? You won’t use Stunners? But Dumbledore says—”

“Dumbledore?” Harry yelled. “When Voldemort came for the Potters in 1981, Dumbledore stayed away and let my parents be killed! This isn’t my opinion, this isn’t slander, this is my ghostly parents’ ghostly knowledge! Only a fool risks his life following Dumbledore’s orders. Not to mention, I’ve a personal grudge against Dumbledore: Two different ways, the old man could’ve prevented me being forced into the Triwizard Tournament, yet Dumbledore let Voldemort’s plot succeed. So away from Hogwarts, I’m done with Dumbledore.”

Amid the silence that Harry’s last words caused, Harry turned about and looked at the Head Boy and Head Girl—and at Ghost-James and Ghost-Lily, who were floating silently next to the seventh-years. Harry looked at the Head Boy and sneered, “It’s okay to let the students off the train now. The half-blood is done speaking.”

****

Harry was pleased to see that Hermione and Neville were the first of the penned-up students to rush off the train.

Whilst Hermione was hugging Harry and whilst Neville was shaking Harry’s hand, Harry was surprised to see both Susan Bones and her Aunt Amelia looking at Harry with wide-eyed amazement.

****

Garston Goyle and Vincent Crabbe, Senior knew that somehow Harry Potter had killed Draco Malfoy during the trainride, and these two Death Eater wizards had witnessed Harry Potter kill Lucius Malfoy on Platform 9¾. Now Garston and Vincent were shocked to see their sons step off the train, alive and healthy. A minute later, the fathers’ shock turned to confusion when their sons told their tale, of Harry Potter showing student-Crabbe and student-Goyle respect and kindness, before beheading Draco.

Crabbe and Goyle, the Dark-Marked versions, realised they needed to think about their families’ future, even though thinking did not come easily for either wizard.

****

Elsewhere on Platform 9¾

Harry and Hermione were holding hands. Harry, Hermione, the ghostly Potter parents, Neville and the Weasley Twins were joined by Sirius and by Neville’s grandmother with the vulture hat. Also present: the dental Grangers. (Sirius had escorted them from the Muggle side of the barrier. Sirius now had a hand on each Granger parent’s shoulder so that the Muggles could see and could hear the Potter ghosts.)

Augusta Longbottom and Sirius now were trying to tell the rest of the group about the “bold political message” that Harry just had sent (supposedly).

“What did you just say?” Hermione asked.

Harry shrugged. “Lucius Malfoy tried to kill me but I killed him instead, then I told the truth as I saw it.”

Emma Granger gasped. Dan Granger grinned.

Sirius laughed. “In the process, Harry made it clear to everyone listening that he opposed ‘the Dark Failure’—what Harry called You Know Who—but neither was Harry a minion of Dumbledore’s. It was glorious.”

****

Molly Weasley strode up then; Harry presumed she had something to say to Fred and George. Harry was wrong.

Molly glared at Harry and said, quietly for her—she was heard only in southern England, Wales, the two Irelands, and northern France—“Young man, you should be ashamed of yourself, saying those hurtful things about Headmaster Dumbledore! If you were one of my—”

Lily snapped, “But he’s not one of yours, Molly. I am his mother, and what I’m now known for is, I died for him. What are you known for as a mother, Marion Guinevere? For publicly humiliating your own children. Now you want to publicly humiliate mine? Begone with you!”

James said, “Molly, there’s something you should know about your bearded hero. Albus sent Fabian and Gideon”—Molly’s twin brothers—“on a mission where he knew Death Eaters were waiting, in order to protect the life of his Death Eater spy, Severus Snape. Albus thought Severus’s one life was more important than both of your brothers’ lives!”

Molly said, “You’re lying! There’s no way you can know those things!”

Lily snapped, “Ghostly knowledge, bint!”

James continued, “Also, Albus knew that Peter Pettigrew was a Death Eater traitor, but did nothing, so Lily and I died.”

Harry looked at Molly Weasley and said, “I told the truth that Dumbledore wants hidden so that foolish people”—Harry shot Molly a scornful look—“will believe Dumbledore is of the Light when he’s not. Gryffindors tell the truth even when it makes powerful people angry, and are never ashamed of doing so. Now here’s more truth: Anyone who defends Dumbledore annoys me, and you’re pushy besides; go away.”

Molly huffed, but she left.

****

Seconds later

Harry smiled at the people in his group. “People, my life since Cedric and I grabbed the Triwizard Cup together has been a roller coaster. The good parts have been quite good—one week ago, I became Lord Potter, and I got some houses to live in. Tomorrow evening at six, I want to invite all of you to join me for dinner at Potter Manor. I don’t know how much the manor house has been repaired in a week—the Floo fireplace might be out of order, and ‘dinner’ might be Muggle takeaway that’s served in a tent on the Quidditch pitch. Still, I want all of you there—”

Harry smiled mysteriously. “Especially since tomorrow morning, I’ll visit the goblin healers, and tomorrow evening, I might have something major to celebrate!”

****

Meanwhile in the headmaster’s office, Hogwarts

As soon as Molly Weasley returned to the Burrow with her ginger brood, she Floo-called Albus and told him that Harry Potter had ended the Malfoy line, killing both Draco and Lucius.

Albus of course was deeply disappointed in young Harry. But more than this, Albus was shocked—how could Harry possibly have achieved this feat?

The horrifying thought burrowed into Albus’s brain: Maybe, just maybe, when Harry battled Tom in their prophesied battle to the death, Harry would win. If this happened, all of Albus’s plans, going back to the spring of 1980, would be ruined!

Albus wrote Harry a letter for Fawkes to carry. Albus’s letter expressed his deep disappointment in Harry, and warned the boy that he was turning Dark. Flagrant disrespect and insults (in Draco’s case) and two attempts to kill Harry (in Lucius’s case) did not justify killing!

****

An hour later

Fawkes flamed out again, then soon returned to Albus with a letter from Harry—

To Albus, the old man who let my parents die:

I could’ve been raised with Sirius and Remus, or with the Longbottoms, or with Amelia Bones and Susan. But nooo, you made sure I grew up treated worse than Tom Riddle ever was. So if I’m “turning Dark,” whose fault is this?

In any case, I killed Draco because he was about to kill me! Also, he insulted my mum and Hermione, plus I figured it was only a matter of days before Draco took the Dark Mark. As for Lucius, did you really, truly suggest in your letter that I Stun him, then hand him over to the Aurors to stand trial? Wow, are you foolish! Lucy regularly bribed his way out of holding cells and out of facing criminal trials, but nobody can bribe his way out of a pine box.

Today I prevented two evil wizards from committing future murders, tortures and rapes. But I don’t expect you to understand, and I no longer feel like wasting time explaining. Goodbye.

Lord Harry James Potter

****

The next morning (Monday, 3 July)
At House Parkinson

Last night, Voldemort had been in Knockturn Alley, recruiting more Death Eaters, instead of in Malfoy Manor, when ownership of Malfoy Manor had shifted from Lucius Malfoy to Harry Potter.

(Voldemort thought, Lucius, you incompetent! You couldn’t kill one fourteen-year-old boy?)

Right after Potter had become Lord Malfoy, Potter had changed Malfoy Manor’s wards and/or rewrote the Ward Ledger, and twelve Death Eaters had been fatally expelled from Malfoy Manor—including Wormtail, Voldemort’s second-best spy.

(Severus Snape, Voldemort’s best spy, had been executed in Courtroom Ten three days ago. Voldemort was out of good spies now; this annoyed him.)

When Voldemort had been told that Harry Potter now owned Malfoy Manor and had worsened the wards there, immediately Voldemort had commandeered House Parkinson as his new headquarters. Peter Parkinson had been smart enough not to refuse Voldemort’s order.

This morning, Voldemort was reading the Daily Prophet. He did not need to read long before he was screaming in rage.

“POTTER THE HALF-BLOOD CALLED ME ‘THE DARK FAILURE’? I’LL KILL HIM FOR THAT!”

Then Voldemort looked at every cringing Parkinson face, and he got even angrier. Nobody dared say the words, but clearly every Parkinson was thinking—

You’ve tried six times and you haven’t killed Harry Potter. What makes you think you’ll succeed the seventh time?

****

Meanwhile at Potter Manor

Harry received an owl-letter he never expected—it was from Vincent Crabbe, Senior and from Garston Goyle.

Enclosed were two Gringotts bank drafts, made out to “Harry J Potter,” each for a thousand galleons.

It took Harry four readings to get the sense of Vincent’s and Garston’s jointly-written letter; those two wizards were masters at misspellings.

After Harry mentally corrected all the misspelled words and weird punctuation, what the letter said was this—

From Vincent Crabbe, Lord Crabbe, and Garston Goyle, Lord Goyle,

To Harry James Potter, Lord Potter and Lord Malfoy,

We write for three reasons. The first is to thank you for showing kindness and respect to our sons, Vincent Crabbe, Junior and Gregory Goyle. When you killed Draco Malfoy, you also could’ve killed Vincent and Gregory. But you didn’t. Instead, you spoke to our sons respectfully and you treated them good. We thank you for acting honourably.

The second reason we write you is to tell you that when Lucius Malfoy was alive, he loaned us money which we couldn’t repay. So he made us his vassals. Lucius made us make our sons be Draco’s bodyguards. Galina Goyle, when she starts Hogwarts a year from now, would’ve been Lucius’s and Draco’s personal servant. People smarter than us tell us that the money we owed to Lucius Malfoy, we now owe to you. Those people also tell us Vincent, Gregory and Galina are supposed to work for you, now that Lucius and Draco are dead.

By the by, even after we today pay you a thousand galleons apiece, House Crabbe still owes you G9 026 and House Goyle still owes you G10 683. We, Vincent and Garston, don’t know when or if we ever can pay you any more coins. Sorry.

The third reason we write you: We’ve a big problem, and we don’t know what to do. This is the big reason we write to you now. When we, Vincent and Garston, became Lucius’s vassals, Lucius made us each take an oath on our life that we would not kill or hurt Lucius or his family. Now people smarter than us say that this oath has been switched from Lucius to you. If we as Death Eaters try to kill you or your betrothed or your wife or your children, we’ll die because of the oath. But if the Dark Lord orders one of us to kill one of you and we don’t, HE will kill us. What do you want us to do?

Vincent Crabbe, Senior
Garston Goyle

Harry thought about the Crabbe-Goyle letter. Then he wrote a note for the goblin healers—“Can you do this?”—and sent Dobby off with the note. Two minutes later, Dobby was back.

Written at the bottom of Harry’s note was the goblin hospital’s reply: “Yes. G20 000 apiece.” Meaning, £100 000 apiece.

Now Harry wrote a letter to the Dark-Marked Crabbe and Goyle—

Monday, 3 July 1995

To Vincent Crabbe, Senior, Lord Crabbe, and to Garston Goyle, Lord Goyle, greetings.

I’ve an offer, if you both are willing to get rid of your Dark Marks. The offer—

The goblins can remove the Mark from each of you for a steep price, but I’ll pay this price. I’ll forgive you the roughly ten thousand galleons you each owe me as Lord Malfoy. I’ll free Vincent, Gregory and Galina from being servants to me or to my family; House Crabbe and House Goyle no longer shall be vassals of House Malfoy.

This is the nice part of my offer.

The not-nice parts of my offer:

1) Before 10 July (one week from today), you each will stand before Slicesword, the Malfoy account manager, and before me. After I formally cancel your debts and your vassalage, then you’ll swear an amended oath on your life that you won’t kill or harm the following people: a) Me. b) Hermione J Granger, my Muggle-born friend, even if I never betroth her and never marry her. c) Narcissa Malfoy. d) The witch or witches who is/are betrothed to me, whilst they’re betrothed to me. e) My wife or wives. f) My children.

2) You’ll get your Dark Marks removed at the goblin hospital before 10 July. I’ll pay the galleons, but you’ll suffer the pain.

3) You’ll leave Britain forever, never to return, by 10 July. I don’t care where you go, once you leave Britain, and it’s better for you if I don’t know where you are. When you leave Britain, you may take with you whatever fits in a vault or fits in trunks, but anything you own but you can’t take with you—such as house and lands—you’ll sell to me. I’ll pay you by 10 July what the goblins tell me is a fair price.

What my offer means to you: Once Voldemort can’t find you because you don’t have the Dark Mark anymore and because you’re nowhere in Britain, he can’t kill you and you won’t be put into a situation where your oath will kill you.

Harry James Potter, Lord Potter-Malfoy

****

Meanwhile (Monday morning, 3 July)
In Manchester, England, at Manchester Magical Academy

A thousand years ago, the Founders of Hogwarts had designed the school’s defences to withstand a nonmagical army led by princes and bishops. On the other hand, the defences at Manchester Magical Academy, the school for nonmagically-raised magical students, were designed to keep out Pureblood magicals who believed themselves superior to “mudbloods.”

At Manchester Magical Academy, it was expected that sooner or later, Death Eaters would attack the school. Because of this expectation, the headmistress, the deputy headmaster and every MMA teacher was expected to fight off the invaders when such attacks happened. As a result, the faculty trained in defence constantly, under the direction of their “general,” DADA teacher Mark Armstrong.

At Manchester Magical Academy, DADA was not a joke course, unlike at Hogwarts. At MMA, Defence Against the Dark Arts was a deadly-serious course for the administrators, the teachers and the students—

—and the DADA teacher was up to the challenge. Mark Armstrong could not duel Mad-Eye Moody and win, but Armstrong would win against any other Auror. Armstrong, like Moody, understood the difference between duelling and magical fighting: No rules applied in a fight, and Death Eaters did not “duel.”

As previously stated, the MMA faculty and both administrators, besides their expected duties, trained regularly as a small army. And twenty-one MMA administrators and faculty members, working together as a team, going up against twenty-one Death Eaters? Pity the silver-masked inbreds.

****

This morning, the headmistress of MMA, Mersey Norwood, felt stunned when she read this morning’s Daily Prophet. Yesterday Harry Potter had killed Draco Malfoy, the Malfoy Heir Primary, then had sent Draco’s father an insulting letter (which the Prophet had printed). Then Harry Potter had magically fought Lucius Malfoy to the death and had won. Then Potter had given an impromptu speech in which he had defended first-generation magicals (Muggle-borns) and nonmagicals (Muggles). Potter also had declared publicly that he had a first-generation witch as his girlfriend!

The first-generation girlfriend-witch had the unique name of Hermione Granger.

Immediately after reading the Prophet, Mersey Norwood telephoned DADA teacher Armstrong. What the two of them discussed: Should the MMA-faculty “army” offer to help Harry Potter in his fight against Voldemort?

At the end of the telephone call, Norwood and Armstrong decided that they would offer Potter unconditional help right now, but only conditional help after 1 September.

Next, Mersey sent an email to Royal Air Force Air Marshal Chester Chadwick. MMA alumni were sprinkled throughout the four branches of Muggle Britain’s military; Air Marshal Chadwick was the highest-ranking of those MMA magical alumni who served the Queen under arms. Norwood’s email to Chadwick said, “Do whatever you need to, in order to get hold of this morning’s _DP_. Then think about what you’ve read.”

Then Mersey, taking initiative, wrote Harry Potter a letter (on paper, and printed out with a laser printer). Mersey’s letter told Potter basic facts about MMA, told him You rock, Harry Potter! We’re all rooting for you (in more dignified words), and further told him, “If there is anything that Manchester Magical Academy can help you with, feel free to ask. Until 1 September, we also offer wands who will fight for you.”

Mersey was about to attach the letter to MMA’s one postal owl when she had a realisation: Harry Potter probably gets much fan mail from strangers. If he receives this letter now, from someone he doesn’t know and from a school he’s maybe never heard of, he’ll give the letter no more than a glance, then he’ll toss my letter in the bin. For him to listen to what I’m offering, my presentation must be in person.

Mersey had no guess at all how to email or to ring up Harry Potter—assuming that Harry Potter had a computer or a telephone. But with a bit of research, she might be able to discover Hermione Granger’s parents’ home telephone number.

Mersey left MMA for the Manchester Public Library, which had telephone directories for the biggest cities in the United Kingdom. Hopefully Hermione Granger’s parents lived in one of those big cities, and not in Littletown in Boringshire, whose telephone directory the Manchester Public Library would not collect.

****

An hour later, back in the MMA Headmistress’s office

When Mersey rang up “Anne S Granger” in London, the answering voice was an old woman’s.

“Hello?” the old woman said cautiously.

“Hello, I’m Mersey Norwood, the headmistress of Manchester Mentality Academy”—the school’s name in the nonmagical world—“in Manchester. Can Hermy-own Granger be reached at this number?”

The old woman suddenly became much more friendly. “You’re a school headmistress, you say? I’m not surprised you’re looking for my great-granddaughter, because she’s a genius. Anyway, my great-granddaughter’s name is pronounced Her-MY-oh-knee, please note.”

Anne Granger was much friendlier now than at the start of the conversation, but she was not a trusting fool. She questioned Mersey about Mersey’s background and about the school that Mersey supposedly headed. The Statute of Secrecy meant that Mersey several times had to improvise lies—

—which, it seemed, Anne caught Mersey doing.

Abruptly Anne Granger laughed and said, “Please stop speaking—all your little lies must be hurting you. When I was a girl, whenever people talked about Great-Grandfather Hector, they’d stop, pause a moment, then choose a different word than what they were about to say. Whatever Great-Grandfather Hector was a genius at, I’m sure it wasn’t quite ‘pharmaceuticals.’ My point is, you did the same thing, these last few minutes: pausing, then choosing words, when you talked about Manchester Mentality Academy. My grandson and his daughter do the same thing to me whenever they talk to me about the boarding school in Scotland that Hermione attends. I suspect that my grandson, his wife, my great-granddaughter and you all are keeping a secret from me. Is there anything you’d like to tell me now?”

Mersey sighed. “We indeed all are keeping a secret from you, but whoever tells you the secret will get in major trouble. I’m sorry.”

****

A minute later
At the home of Daniel and Emma Granger in Crawley, West Sussex

The telephone rang.

Hermione’s parents, who were off work today, were still in their bedroom and, Hermione suspected, would remain there for a while. Meanwhile, Crookshanks refused to ever answer the telephone, so it was Hermione who grabbed the handset. “Hello, Granger residence,” she said.

Not quite a minute later, Hermione said angrily, “You’re a liar! There’s no such school as Manchester Magical Academy, or I certainly would have heard about it! Not to mention, why didn’t you visit me on my eleventh birthday?”

“Do your research, Granger!” snapped Mersey Norwood, the caller. “Send an owl to the WEA,” the Wizarding Examinations Authority. “They’re either too Pureblood to advocate for MMA or they’re too much in Dumbledore’s pocket to advocate for MMA, but they do have an MMA brochure to send you if you ask. So ask. I’m ringing off now, but I’ll ring you tomorrow, after you’ve confirmed that my school is real and that I’m not a Death Eater impostor.”

****

Meanwhile (Monday morning, 3 July)
In the office of Minister Fudge at the Ministry of Magic

Fudge tapped this morning’s Daily Prophet, then said to Amelia, “Lucius Malfoy is dead. And Harry Potter killed him.”

Amelia could not get a sense of what Fudge was feeling. Aloud, she said, “Potter killed Malfoy after Malfoy twice tried to Killing-Curse the boy. With no legal justification, I point out.”

Fudge chuckled. “Potter now has Lucius’s vaults. I bet You Know Who is cheesed off about this.”

Amelia nodded. “I would love to see Voldemort—or as Harry Potter calls him, ‘the Dark Failure’—in Diagon Alley soon, holding up a parchment saying ‘Will Dark-Lord for food.’ ”

Seemingly changing the subject, Fudge asked Amelia, “How can I help you fight You Know Who better?”

“Change our Rules of Engagement when we fight Death Eaters and Voldemort. No more ‘Stunners only.’ ”

“And what should the Rules of Engagement be changed to?” Fudge asked.

Amelia knew that when dealing with politicians, the rule was Ask for more than you want, so the politicians can whittle you down to where you want to be. Thus Amelia replied, “Give us ICW”—the International Confederation of Wizards—“Rules of Engagement. Meaning, we cast nonlethal spells so long as the bad guys cast nonlethal. But as soon as any bad guy casts a lethal spell or an Unforgiveable, we may respond with spells just as nasty, or nastier.”

Fudge shook his head hard. “I don’t want Aurors of the British Ministry casting the Entrail-Expelling Curse. How about we say ‘If the bad guys cast any lethal curse, the Aurors can reply with Avada Kedavra’?”

“I like it, but I need this new rule put in writing, with your signature.”

Fudge and Amelia spent five minutes working out the wording, but at the end, Amelia had her new Rules of Engagement.

Those silver-masked brutes in black robes were about to get a nasty surprise!

****

Meanwhile (Monday morning, 3 July)
In Gringotts

The first thing that Harry did at Gringotts was to visit Shaftdust the goblin healer, to get the horcrux removed from his scar.

The process was expensive and painful, but Harry could afford the expense, and Harry had grown up with pain. It helped that Harry’s ghostly parents had come to Gringotts with him, so were there to talk him through his ordeal.

Then Harry visited Bladebloody, the Black account manager, to collect his Black Heir Primary ring.

****

After claiming his Black Heir Primary ring, Harry was set to leave Gringotts then, but James all but ordered his son to talk to Axefrenzy about the basilisk.

Harry and Axefrenzy wrote a contract (which James helped Harry negotiate) in which Gringotts would render the Chamber of Secrets basilisk, and the money from Gringotts selling the rendered basilisk parts, skin and venom would go into a new vault, L4548.

When Axefrenzy watched twelve-year-old Harry’s battle with the basilisk, as recorded by a goblin memory-crystal, the goblin took a deep breath, then said almost calmly, “I estimate that your royalties from the sale of basilisk parts, skin and venom will be more than one and a half million galleons.”

After the contract was signed (with a Blood Quill), Harry warned Gringotts that the goblins would need a Parselmouth in order to get into the Chamber. “Not so,” Axefrenzy replied, claiming that a goblin-made recording of Harry hissing §Open§ and §Close§ would work just as well.

Axefrenzy’s estimate of “one and a half million galleons” turned out to be way low. But Harry decided to keep that amount in Vault L4548, and to split the extra actual payment (about G700 000) between the victims of the basilisk. Even Argus Filch, the owner of Mrs Norris, received money. Half of the victim-fund money went to the living relatives of Myrtle Warren, once those relatives were found.

****

Later Monday morning, 3 July
Back at the Granger house in Crawley, West Sussex

When Hermione heard the sound of door-knocks—not a doorbell—and the sound was coming from the back door—not the front door—Hermione ran upstairs to her bedroom and grabbed her wand from under her pillow.

Just before Hermione opened the back door with her left hand—her wand, pointed at the floor, was in her right hand—Hermione saw who was standing just outside of the back door. Hermione wondered, What is Mrs Weasley doing here?

Through the back-door window, Hermione saw that Mrs Weasley had her left hand in the pocket of her apron.

Hermione opened the back door, left-handed. “Can I help you?” she asked, in a voice lacking friendliness.

Mrs Weasley said pompously, “Headmaster Dumbledore has decided that you are in danger, as a friend of Harry’s. I’m here to escort you to the Burrow, where you’ll be safe.”

Arguing with Mrs Weasley was pointless; instead, Hermione yelled, “DAD? MUM? COME TO THE BACK DOOR NOW, PLEASE!”

Mrs Weasley huffed. “There’s no need to bring the Muggles into this, and I’ve other things to do. Come now.”

Hermione replied, “They’re my parents, and they’re coming. Deal with it.”

Monday was one of the dental Grangers’ two days off, so when Dan and Emma Granger arrived at the back door, they were wearing casual Muggle clothes. Hermione saw Mrs Weasley frown.

Dad asked, “What’s going on, Pumpkin?” Dad’s voice sounded wary.

Hermione answered, “The headmaster has decided that I’m in danger, I suppose because of the Dark Failure; but the headmaster’s reasons for saying this are, as usual, a secret.”

Mrs Weasley scowled.

Hermione continued, “The headmaster also has decided that I’m to be taken to Mrs Weasley’s house, which is supposedly safe. Of course, if the Weasley house were truly safe—meaning that the Dark Failure couldn’t get in there—shouldn’t the Weasleys be granting sanctuary to many more people than one bossy, know-it-all Muggle-born?”

Then Hermione glared at Mrs Weasley. “You’re here as part of some devious Dumbledore trick. I refuse to go with you.”

Mum said, “Not to mention, witch, school isn’t in session, so the headmaster has no authority over Hermione. She stays here.”

“No!” Mrs Weasley declared. “Headmaster Dumbledore has ordered you to go to the Burrow, and You. Will. Go.”

Mrs Weasley’s left hand came out of her apron-pocket; now Mrs Weasley thrust her left hand towards Hermione.

But at the same time, Hermione was backing away out of reach. “DOBBY!” Hermione yelled (it being the first idea that came to mind).

Pop. “NO!” Dobby clicked his fingers. “Molly Howler-Weasel not touch the Great Harry Potter’s Miss Grangy with Portkey!”

In an instant, Mrs Weasley was tied up with blue ropes. An eight-of-hearts playing card lay at the bound witch’s feet.

****

Meanwhile in House Parkinson

Lord Voldemort still was furious with Harry Potter, but now he had cooled down enough that he could plan.

Voldemort’s previous plan with Harry Potter had worked brilliantly. The Dark Lord’s eager minion had forced Potter into the Triwizard Tournament, causing Potter to fear for his life for nearly eight months. If he, the Dark Lord, had managed to resurrect himself, then to kill Potter, the magical power that Voldemort would have gained at the moment of death of eight-months-terrified Potter would have made Lord Voldemort the Dark Merlin.

But Potter had not died after the resurrection ritual—worse, Potter was now publicly mocking Lord Voldemort, calling him “the Dark Failure.” Worst of all, the Death Eaters now were leery of their Dark Master, clearly believing that Potter’s insult was true.

Now Voldemort wanted revenge on Potter—but alas, Voldemort attacking Potter Manor was not a good plan now, for many reasons.

On the other hand, Potter’s mudblood was almost defenceless; Voldemort could kill the girl tomorrow if he chose to. But before Voldemort Killing-Cursed the girl, he wanted her to know her death was coming, he wanted her to feel fright and helplessness—and Voldemort wanted Potter to feel just as helpless, because he would be unable to soothe his girlfriend’s anguish.

But how could Lord Voldemort the Dark Lord demoralise and then kill Hermione Granger? This needed a plan—a genius plan. Fortunately, the Dark Lord had much practise at inventing genius plans.

Chapter 10: After Lucius Dies, Part 2

Chapter Text

Still Monday morning, 3 July
Still at the Granger house in Crawley, West Sussex

“No!” Mrs Weasley declared. “Headmaster Dumbledore has ordered you to go to the Burrow, and You. Will. Go.”

Mrs Weasley’s left hand came out of her apron-pocket; now Mrs Weasley thrust her left hand towards Hermione.

But at the same time, Hermione was backing away out of reach. “DOBBY!” Hermione yelled (it being the first idea that came to mind).

Pop. “NO!” Dobby clicked his fingers. “Molly Howler-Weasel not touch The Great Harry Potter’s Miss Grangy with Portkey!”

In an instant, Mrs Weasley was tied up with blue ropes. An eight-of-hearts playing card lay at the bound witch’s feet.

****

Five minutes later

The attempted kidnapping of Harry Potter’s girlfriend by Albus Dumbledore’s biggest fangirl was political enough that the top cops in the DMLE were brought in. Master Auror Barker and Senior Auror Grenwick questioned the three Grangers, Molly Weasley and Dobby the house-elf; and Barker collected Hermione’s memory of the attempted kidnapping.

As if this were not trouble enough for Molly Weasley, Amelia Bones was in the Granger house as well, listening closely to everything said.

The three DMLE people and the Granger parents all looked shocked when Hermione said angrily, “In 1981, when James and Lily just had died, Sirius Black had toddler-Harry with him. Headmaster Dumbledore wanted possession of Harry, so that he could put Harry with the evil Dursleys. Did the headmaster himself take Harry from Sirius Black? No, because then the headmaster could’ve been arrested for kidnapping. Instead, the headmaster ordered the trusting fool Rubeus Hagrid to kidnap Harry. Today, Headmaster Dumbledore wants me away from my parents—and I’m sure, he wants me away from Harry. But once again, he isn’t kidnapping his victim, he’s found a trusting fool to do it.”

Hermione glared at the red-haired woman. “I want the trusting fool nailed to the wall for attempted kidnapping. And I’ll bet she also planned to keep me locked up at her house, till 1 September at the least, so also charge her for false imprisonment if you can.”

Seconds later, the two Aurors, Madam Bones, Molly Weasley and the playing-card Portkey all were gone from the Granger house. One second after this, Dobby likewise elf-popped away.

Dan Granger said, “Back to breakfast; my food is getting cold. Pumpkin, life for us has never been dull since you discovered you were a witch.”

Hermione hugged her father.

****

At noon
In the office of high-ranking Royal Air Force officer Chester Chadwick

Air Marshal Chester Chadwick had received the email from Manchester Magical Academy headmistress Norwood in the morning; but only now was he able to read today’s Daily Prophet in his office. The doors of his office were locked now, by both stout RAF locks and by Colloportus.

Chadwick was shocked by what he read in today’s Prophet.

Apparently the Dark Lord’s real name was Tom Riddle, and he had attended Hogwarts from 1938 to 1945. When Chadwick included his middle name, Marvolo, his full name anagrammed to I am Lord Voldemort. The “Pureblood” Lord Voldemort was using a fake name, had grown up in a nonmagical orphanage, and his parents were a Minimal and a nonmagical!

Chadwick was even more shocked by what he read about Harry Potter. Harry Potter had killed the son, Draco Malfoy, for “insults ... going back years,” then Potter had killed the father, Lucius Malfoy, in front of witnesses, after Lucius Malfoy had tried to kill Potter. Chadwick never had even heard of gaining a lordship By Right Of Conquest; but Potter had become Lord Malfoy in exactly this way.

Most shocking of all to Chadwick, was Harry Potter’s throwaway remark, in his letter to Lucius Malfoy, about a Prophecy. The Prophecy itself was not quoted (beyond “a Prophecy says I will vanquish [Voldemort]”). Still, Chadwick had to wonder, Is this Prophecy the reason that Lord Voldemort has tried to kill Potter six times so far, but has failed every single time?

After killing Lucius Malfoy, Harry Potter had given an impromptu speech on Platform 9¾. Chadwick was utterly gobsmacked, reading this speech in the newspaper. The speech did not read as though the Head of a Noble and Most Ancient House had given it, nor did it read as though a typical Hogwarts student had given it. Instead, the speech read like something a militant MMA student would give.

Apparently Harry Potter despised, with good reasons, Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of the castle school. Chadwick felt relief that Potter was not another bedazzled minion of that fool Dumbledore.

Chadwick noted with approval that Potter’s girlfriend, named Hermione Granger, was a first-generation witch, not a magically-raised witch. Chadwick was sure that Potter had been criticised at the castle school for his choice of girlfriend, even though this Hermione Granger was apparently an exceptional student.

During Potter’s speech on Platform 9¾, he had said, “Listen up, I’ll be trying to kill [Lord Voldemort], and [his Death Eaters], too. I won’t shoot Stunners and I won’t give unlimited second chances. I suspect that Death Eaters killed my Muggle grandparents, and Death Eater Lucy just now tried to kill me, so I owe the entire bad bunch payback.”

Chadwick stroked his chin; he now had a decision to make. What Chadwick wanted to do, after reading those words of Potter’s, was something that would get Air Marshal Chadwick court-martialed—and worse.

****

That evening at 6.00pm, in the DMLE holding cells

Molly was a Pureblood who had been arrested. Normally this meant that she could not be questioned under Veritaserum without her consent; so no surprise, when Molly was put in a holding cell, she yelled, “I refuse consent for Veritaserum!”

But there was another way that a Pureblood could be questioned under Veritaserum: by the written order of the Minister for Magic. Fudge decided that if Harry Potter’s girlfriend almost was kidnapped, no way would Fudge let the would-be kidnapper walk free because of lack of evidence. So Fudge signed the order, and Molly was “three-dropsed.”

Interrogation of Molly Weasley revealed that Dumbledore had cast a Fidelius Charm on Charlie Weasley’s old bedroom, with Molly as the Secret Keeper. Molly’s plan was that once Hermione would be portkeyed to the Burrow, Hermione would be taken to the Fidelius’d bedroom, where rescue by outsiders would be impossible. Wards would be set on that bedroom so Hermione could not leave the Fidelius’d bedroom without Molly’s permission. Food would be brought to Hermione in her room—

Food which would be potioned. By 1 September, Hermione Granger would have no more interest in Harry Potter than in Argus Filch, whereas Hermione would think that Ron Weasley was the most wonderful wizard in the school, and that Albus Dumbledore was the wisest.

Luckily for Molly, planned false imprisonment and planned potioning were not crimes. On the other hand, solid evidence proved that Molly had attempted to touch Hermione with the playing-card Portkey, which would have taken Hermione to the Burrow against her will. Even more unluckily for Molly, whilst Hermione was Muggle-born (and so usually could be mistreated without arrest), Hermione was also an underage witch. The kidnapping or attempted kidnapping of an underage witch were crimes that Wizarding Britain law took seriously.

Molly would be tried before the Wizengamot on Friday, 7 July.

****

Meanwhile (6.00pm) at Potter Manor

Potter Manor turned out to be not in as bad a shape as Harry had feared. True, the roof was damaged, and some of the bedrooms were exposed to the outside weather; also, the wardstones had needed replacing and charging (at premium goblin rates). Still, Harry could, in theory, host every one of his dinner guests overnight in a suitable bedroom and—best of all for Harry’s girlfriend—the Potter Manor library was fully functional.

Dinner was held in the family dining room, not the formal dining room. Augusta Longbottom looked offended when she was told this, until Sirius said to her, “Baby steps, Augusta, baby steps. Harry never has had a choice of which of two tables to eat at before.”

Harry said, “Which of three tables, if you include the one in the kitchen that the house-elves use for food-preparation.” Augusta looked scandalised at the idea of eating in the kitchen—the kitchen was for house-elves.

When Harry glanced at the Weasley Twins, each Twin instantly shot both hands up, palms out. Meaning, This is one argument we’re staying completely out of.

Augusta Longbottom was a Pureblood traditionalist, though she was “Light” in some of her views. The Granger parents, who were quite Muggle, were each wearing a runed bracelet so that they could see and hear Ghost-James and Ghost-Lily. Fred, George and Sirius each enjoyed causing chaos. In all, Harry’s dinner guests were quite a mixture.

****

Harry told his dinner guests—two Potter ghosts, two Longbottoms, three Grangers and three pranksters—“This has been an eventful day for me. First, I went to visit the goblin healers—more about them later.”

Hermione shot Harry her You have information, and you will share it look.

Harry continued, “After treatment from the Gringotts healers, as soon as I returned here, I was visited by a different group of Gringotts goblins: warders. So now we here eating dinner don’t need to worry about Death Eaters strolling in.”

Fred (or was it George?) said, “Thank you. Whenever I need to worry about Death Eaters entering the house, it surely dampens my appetite.”

Harry continued, “Whilst the warders were working, I received both an owl and a letter delivered by Fawkes the phoenix. The owl brought today’s Daily Prophet. I’m on almost every page except the Sport section, seems like. My new name for Voldy earnt me a subheading: ‘Potter calls YKW “The Dark Failure.” ’ The Society page mentioned that yesterday I called Hermione my girlfriend.”

Emma Granger choked. “This made the newspaper?”

Hermione replied, “Mum, a week ago, when Harry and I kissed in the Great Hall, this made the newspaper too.”

Dan Granger facepalmed. Augusta Longbottom shot him a disapproving look.

Hermione asked Harry, “What did Dumbledore say in his letter?”

“He’s keenly disappointed that I killed two people that could have been redeemed; he states I’m turning Dark. Then he had the gall to accuse me of throwing a ‘childish tantrum’ in public, on Platform 9¾. Everything I had said there yesterday—about Muggles being much more than two-legged beasts who plough their fields all day, and about how I think blood-bigotry in Wizarding Britain is disgusting—was reduced to fourteen-year-old me throwing a ‘childish tantrum.’ He ignored mentioning that elsewhere in my speech, I accused Dumbles of letting my parents be killed and letting the Dark Failure kidnap me last week.”

Sirius looked at the Granger parents and explained, “Dumbledore is unable to even think the words That other bloke might be right and I might be wrong.”

Now Harry grinned. “I wrote back to Dumbledore and said, “The first thing Draco said after he jerked open the door to my compartment was Avada. Tell me again how ‘redeemable’ he was. You, Albus Dumbledore, are a fool. I caused the deaths of a Death Eater and a future Death Eater, yes; but you stood aside and let Voldemort’s plot to kidnap me and to resurrect himself go forwards. How many people henceforth shall die by Voldemort’s wand, because of your inaction? Maybe I should check your left forearm for the Dark Mark?”

Sirius almost fell off his chair, he was laughing so hard. Augusta looked at him, scandalised. The others smiled.

Harry said, “What else happened today? I was elf-popped over to Malfoy Manor, which I now own. I was quite disappointed that the portrait of Lucius Malfoy has not awakened yet—I figured we'd have a lively discussion.”

“Really, you think so?” Sirius asked, smirking.

Everyone, even the Granger parents, laughed.

Harry continued, “I changed the Malfoy Manor wards to War setting, then edited the Wards Ledger so that only I, Narcissa Malfoy, Sirius and Hermione can enter the manor house. After I edited the Wards ledger, twelve Death Eater hangers-on who had been eating Lucius’s food were ejected from Malfoy Manor, dying from the”—Harry glanced at the Granger parents—“dying from a nasty, nasty curse when they were ejected.”

One of the Twins said, “If the twelve Death Eaters had paid for their food, all twelve would be alive now.”

The other Twin said, “Evidently Harrykins really hates spivs,” freeloaders.

Harry continued, “One of the twelve dead Death Eaters had a silver hand. Poor Peter Pettigrew has done his last rat-sneak ever.”

“YES!!” blurted Sirius. Augusta shot him a look.

Harry grinned at Sirius, then said, “Voldy wasn’t there when I upgraded the wards, alas. I’m hoping he’ll try to reenter Malfoy Manor—to which he was allowed free access when Lucius owned the place—so Voldy can experience the Boy-Who-Lived version of Lord Malfoy hospitality.” Harry grinned cruelly.

****

Two minutes later

Harry had just explained to his dinner guests what a horcrux was.

“Anyway,” Harry explained to the Granger parents, “if any part of your soul is outside your body when you die, you don’t die die, you become a wraith. This is what happened to Voldy on Halloween of 1981, why there was no body found. One part of his soul was attached to a diary in my second year. I destroyed the horcrux in the diary”—Harry noticed that the Twins were tense now—“but that’s a story for another time.”

A Twin said, “Thank you for not telling that story now.”

The Granger parents looked puzzled. Hermione shook her head—Don’t ask.

Harry continued, “As for the horcrux in my scar, Mum’s magical protection wasn’t enough to keep the horcrux out, but her protection was enough to contain the horcrux so that the horcrux didn’t possess me. That would’ve been horrid.”

Dan Granger choked. “ ‘Possess’ like in The Exorcist?”

“Exactly.”

All three Grangers shuddered.

Ghost-James shoulder-hugged Ghost-Lily, then kissed her cheek.

Sirius said, “How about a round of applause for Lily, who not only saved Harry from the Killing Curse, but also from You Know Who’s unwelcome trick!”

Every living person, and James, applauded. Harry could not tell if a ghost could blush, but Lily looked down at the table whilst she smiled.

Harry resumed his tale: “When I went to Saint Mungo’s, they never said that there was anything nasty in my scar, or if there was, that they could heal my scar. Whereas in the goblin hospital, their attitude was ‘Give us twenty thousand galleons and we’ll clean out your scar, and we’ll fix your owl-mail redirect for free.’ ”

Neville blurted, “Twenty thousand galleons?”

Augusta said, “Neville, it’s rude to discuss other people’s spending in public. Or your own, for that matter.”

Neville looked down at the table. “Yes, Gran.”

Hermione explained to her parents, “Harry’s ritual at Gringotts cost him £100 000.”

Dan Granger did a spit-take.

Harry said, “Oi, I would’ve given them my entire trust vault to get the result I got this morning: Voldemort’s horcrux is completely gone from my scar now. YES!!”

Everyone at the table (except Augusta) cheered.

Harry smirked. “But don’t tell the goblins I was willing to pay them my entire trust vault if they’d insisted. The goblins are tough enough negotiators already.”

Everyone laughed.

Harry now looked steadfastly at Augusta Longbottom. “After the goblin healers drove Tommy out of my head and I was feeling good feelings towards the goblins, I did something that wasn't my place to do. But Neville’s my mate, and Alice Longbottom is technically my godmother, so I don’t apologise for what I did.”

Neville asked, “What did you do?”

“I told the goblin healers what I knew about Neville’s parents. That Bellatrix Lestrange had Crucio’d Frank and Alice Longbottom for a long time, and now they were in a permanent dreaming state in Saint Mungo’s. Then three goblin healers told me the same thing: ‘The Cruciatus Curse doesn’t work like this.’ Depending on how much exposure a Cruciatus victim got, the patient would be found conscious and, with potions, eventually would recover; the patient would be found raving mad, and would be raving mad for the rest of his life; or an unconscious patient would soon have his ... automobile nervous system?”

“Autonomic,” Hermione corrected.

“...Would soon have his autonomic nervous system fail, then the patient would die. The three healers I talked to, what they theorise is that Bellatrix hit Neville’s parents with a second curse, and it’s this curse that has put Frank Longbottom and Alice Longbottom into a years-long dream.”

Neville looked gobsmacked. “I could get my parents back?”

****

After dinner

Harry invited the Grangers, the Twins and Sirius to stay the night. The Granger parents would get to see Hermione perform magic—no way would they refuse. As for the Twins, time at Potter Manor meant peace and quiet; neither would they refuse. For Sirius, Potter Manor was nostalgia; he basically had lived here during school hols, during the last part of his Hogwarts years.

****

The next morning (Tuesday, 4 July)
At the Granger house in Crawley

After breakfast this morning, Potter house-elves instantly transported the three Grangers from Potter Manor to the Granger house.

Today was Tuesday, and Tuesday was the other day of the week when the dental Grangers were off work. Now all three Grangers sat in the sitting room, excitingly discussing the magic they had seen (Dan and Emma) or had done (Hermione). The conversation was riveting for all three Grangers when the telephone rang.

Dan Granger answered the telephone; within seconds, he was handing the handset to Hermione. The caller was Mersey Norwood, the headmistress of Manchester Magical Academy.

By now, Hermione had received and had read MMA’s promotional brochure, so her attitude was 180-degrees different from yesterday. In fact, Hermione question-bombed Headmistress Norwood over the telephone—

“What magical courses do you offer? What nonmagical courses do you offer? Are your nonmagical course accredited? I’m starting fifth year in September, so is it be too late for me to transfer to MMA? Harry was born to two magical parents, but he’s grown up in the nonmagical world, so may he transfer to MMA too?”

Headmistress Norwood replied, “Rather than answer your questions over the telephone, I’d prefer to answer your questions in person whilst your parents are there. Is your address still Number 24, Churchill Way, Crawley, West Sussex? And when do you expect your parents to be home?”

Excited Hermione replied, “You’ve our correct address. This is one of my parents’ days off, so they’re here now. I invite you to come here soon.”

The headmistress replied, “Before I come, may I ask you for a favour? Can you contact Harry Potter, and ask him to come to your house? I’d like to talk to him at the same time I talk to you and to your parents.”

Given what Hermione just had asked the headmistress, the request made sense. So Hermione, whilst still holding the handset, called out, “Greyclay!”

Pop. “Lord Potter’s Miss Granger calls Greyclay?”

“Greyclay, the headmistress of another magical school wants to talk to my parents, Harry and me all at the same time. Would you please ask Harry to come here? Thank you.”

****

Five minutes later, in the Grangers’ sitting room

Present in the sitting room were the three Grangers, just-elf-popped Harry and just-Apparated Headmistress Norwood from a school that Harry never had heard of. But the WEA knew about this school, and Hermione showed Harry a slick promotional brochure that MMA had written.

How could Wizarding Britain have a second magical school, and Harry never have heard about it? Either this was another example how Harry was woefully ignorant about the wizarding world, or Dumbledore had figured out that MMA would be the ideal school for Muggle-raised Harry, so had done something to the school that was both magically powerful and completely unethical. But whilst Harry certainly was ignorant about many things, he suspected that Dumbledore had made MMA so hidden.

To Harry, MMA sounded amazing. He really liked the idea of the school using enchanted magical photographs of the teachers to give each student one-on-one teaching in each class. The only reason that Harry didn’t grab a ballpoint pen and sign the paperwork right this second to transfer to MMA was that the school had a nasty, no-exceptions rule for transferees like him and Hermione—

Any student, beginning on his/her nineteenth birthday, who had not completed his/her schooling was banned from the campus. This was not a disaster, only an inconvenience, because every course that MMA taught in the school, MMA also offered by correspondence. Students over eighteen could complete their education through MMA, but such students now would need to use Royal Mail or a postal owl.

But if Harry transferred to MMA, he would have only four calendar years to learn seven years’ worth of nonmagical subjects, or else he would be forced to take correspondence courses. Harry was not sure that he could avoid slamming into the age-nineteen deadline.

(Hermione was ten months older than Harry, so in theory the age-nineteen deadline would be even worse news for her than for Harry. But Harry had no doubt that Hermione could easily beat the deadline.)

Now the Granger parents were sold, and Hermione clearly was biting her tongue so as to not push Harry into signing the school-transfer documents. But the Granger parents did not sign anything, because Harry was not yet ready to sign anything; Harry smiled in relief at his girlfriend’s parents.

The atmosphere was happy—We finally get the opportunity for the kids to get a great magical education. But the happy atmosphere unhappied quickly when Headmistress Norcross said, “Ahem. Mr Potter, I’ve another reason I came here to talk to you. I want you to know that the MMA administrators and faculty, all twenty-one of us, offer until 1 September to fight alongside you against Voldemort and his Death Eaters.”

“Blimey!” Harry blurted. He paused to consider, then said, “Thank you. I accept your offer.”

****

A little later, at Saint Mungo’s

With much noise and fanfare, Augusta Longbottom, Neville Longbottom and the four Longbottom house-elves withdrew Frank and Alice Longbottom from Saint Mungo’s, and took the patients to Longbottom Hall. Augusta told the Saint Mungo’s healers that her son and daughter-in-law would receive care at Longbottom Hall from freelance Muggle-born and American healers.

The Saint Mungo’s healers, hearing this, did not quite sneer, but Neville could tell they wanted to.

Unconscious Frank and Alice Longbottom were indeed removed from Saint Mungo’s and were taken to Longbottom Hall. What the smug Saint Mungo’s healers did not know was that four Longbottoms then immediately travelled to the goblin hospital that was below the bank—where the Longbottoms were met by Harry Potter.

****

At the goblin hospital below Gringotts

The goblin healers’ diagnosis: Frank and Alice Longbottom had been hit, fourteen years ago, with the Sislaulss Curse. The goblin healers spelled a potion into each stomach.

By the afternoon, Frank and Alice were rolling round on their beds like normal dreaming sleepers. This was the most activity they had ever shown; the healers were optimistic for a full recovery—that is, a full recovery from the Sislaulss Curse.

But the Longbottom couple had been bedridden for nearly fourteen years. Even though the healers expected for Frank and Alice soon to wake up and for their brains to work right, the couple would be invalids and could not do anything. The healers proposed a solution, but it would be expensive—

A time-dilation chamber, set to a twelve-to-one time-elapsed ratio, for ten days. Within the time-dilation chamber, Frank and Alice would get 120 days of physical therapy and healing potions.

Augusta frowned when she heard the price, but agreed to pay it. Then Harry spoke up: If there was room in the time-dilation chamber for one more person, besides the Longbottom couple and the Gringotts employees, Harry offered to pay for Neville to stay in the time-dilation chamber for four months with his parents.

Harry had never seen Neville do the “sad puppy-dog eyes” routine, but now Neville looked puppy-dog-ly at Augusta, and she agreed to this change to the contract—especially since Harry would be who paid the extra galleons.

Only then did Harry casually mention that as soon as Frank Longbottom regained consciousness, Neville would need a new, seven-galleon wand. Which Harry likewise offered to pay for.

****

At 4.00pm, far below Gringotts Bank

Outside the time-dilation chamber, neither of Neville’s parents had opened their eyes yet, but their eyes were moving back and forth under their eyelids, and their hands and legs twitched. Frank and Alice Longbottom were levitated into the time-dilation chamber and each was laid on a bed.

The physical therapists, healers, potioneers, house-elf cooks and Neville Longbottom, all walked into the time-dilation chamber. Neville brought with him his school trunk and his brand-new wand. Neville’s school trunk, besides holding schoolbooks, contained Neville’s father’s wand—which was Neville’s old wand—and Neville’s mother’s wand.

Just before the outer door was shut, Gran shocked Neville by hugging him goodbye. Her voice sounded strange to Neville’s ears when she said, “The next time this door opens, your life will be so much better.”

****

Harry Potter watched the emotional goodbye between the Longbottoms whilst it happened, but did not take part.

A goblin shut the door, then shooed Augusta Longbottom away from the door and beyond a red line on the stone floor. The goblin waved both hands, and an archway of goblin runes, an archway of runes that surrounded the door, now changed from black to glowing blue. On the door, the number 120 appeared, also glowing blue.

The goblin quickly backed away behind the red line.

Just outside the red line, the runes-activator goblin wrote on the stone floor with chalk, “END 14 July, 4.06pm.”

Harry smiled with satisfaction. Augusta Longbottom did not see this smile; and the goblins, if they saw Harry’s smile, did not care.

Harry was satisfied not only because Neville was getting his parents back and Augusta was getting her son back. Harry had plans for Frank and Alice Longbottom, and now those plans had a much better chance of succeeding.

Chapter 11: A Unique Map

Chapter Text

Meanwhile (Tuesday, 4 July, 4pm)

Albus Dumbledore had dodged the Killing Curse, metaphorically speaking. Harry’s trust vault had been audited on 25 June, and Albus had not been found guilty of wrongdoing. But had that audit been performed only nine days later, Albus would be on the goblin sh*tlist.

Albus had possessed the key to Vault L687 (Harry’s trust vault) since November 1981. But except for paying Vernon Dursley two hundred galleons each month, converted to Muggle money, Albus had done nothing with Harry’s vault. Anytime between November 1981 and 25 June 1995, Albus could have looked Director Ragnok in the eyes and said, “Audit the vault, I dare you; I have done nothing wrong.”

But on 24 June, the situation concerning Vault L687 had changed.

When Albus had sensed that Harry and Mr Diggory had been portkeyed away from the Hogwarts grounds, Albus had figured that Harry would be dead within the hour and—amongst many other consequences—all three Potter vaults would be locked down.

But when Harry had returned, alive, with the news that Tom was resurrected, Albus had made a new plan on the spot: Albus would resume the Order of the Phoenix, which would need money, and Vault L687 would provide the money.

This was only logical. James Potter, when alive, had been generous in his galleons-gifts to the Order, so it made sense that James’ son would continue the tradition of funding the Order. And the resumed Order definitely would need money—some information could only be obtained by Mundungus Fletcher meeting with dodgy people in dodgy places and Mundungus handing over gold coins.

Back on 24 June, it had never occurred to Albus—who, after all, worked three well-paying jobs—that the money to pay for Fletcher’s future bribes should come from Albus’s vaults, not from Harry’s. Albus’s reasoning back then, for spending Harry’s money instead of his own: When Harry was killed by Voldemort soon, Gringotts would lock down Harry’s vaults, so why not Albus spend Harry’s money now, whilst he could? Albus did not expect to suffer for this decision: he had complete confidence that whenever Harry found out about Albus tapping into Vault L687, Albus would bedazzle the boy into belatedly allowing Albus’s withdrawals because they were intended “for fighting Tom.” No way could the boy argue with that reason.

However, Albus had been no hurry to actually take Harry’s money. By his plan, Albus would not actually visit Vault L687 till 2 July or 3 July, after Hogwarts students had boarded the Hogwarts Express.

Such had been Albus’s plan by the time he had retired to bed on 24 June.

But the very next day, 25 June, Harry had claimed the Lord Potter ring—aggh, without Albus’s knowledge or permission! When Harry had claimed the Lord Potter ring, Albus had lost access to Vault L687, and suddenly Albus’s plans for spending Harry’s money had become moot.

Now Albus had a horrible moment of imagining: Imagining himself taking a fat sack of galleons from Vault L687 on 3 July, newly-minted Lord Harry Potter claiming his keys and ordering his vaults audited on 4 July, and the goblins on 5 July saying to Albus, “Gotcha!” Albus liked gold more than most wizards did, but he had no wish to be sentenced to mine gold!

But this horrid imagining was only an imagining; Gringotts would never arrest Albus. On the other hand, how was Albus supposed to lead the Order of the Phoenix with only Dumbledore vaults as the sources for Order money?

****

Three days later (Friday, 7 July)
Courtroom 7, Ministry of Magic

Molly Weasley was put on trial for the attempted kidnapping of the underage witch Hermione Granger.

Before the trial, Dumbledore had shown up at the Granger house and had asked Hermione to “show forgiveness” by dropping the charges against Molly, “who is a thoroughly Light witch.”

“And your most fervent minion,” Hermione had replied. Then Hermione had smiled sweetly as she had asked, “Speaking of showing forgiveness, Headmaster, are you still insisting that Harry serve detention during the first week of fifth year, after he kicked you in the shin at the end of fourth year? I’m showing Molly as much forgiveness as you’ve shown Harry.”

****

Once Molly’s trial got underway, she was questioned under Veritaserum, by Fudge’s written order; and Hermione’s pensieve-memory was shown in court.

Between the crime-victim being a Muggle-born, and Molly testifying in court that “Albus Dumbledore told me to,” many Wizengamot seat-holders were inclined to vote for acquittal, regardless of the facts of the case.

Many seat-holders voted to acquit, but not enough. Still, Molly’s punishment was light: only one year in Azkaban’s light-security wing—meaning, no Dementors.

****

The next morning, the Daily Prophet, in its write-up of Molly Weasley’s trial, quoted Molly’s own testimony that once the kidnapping succeeded, Molly intended to imprison, to love-potion and to indifference-potion, Miss Granger, so the girl would fall out of love with Harry Potter and would fall in love with Molly’s youngest son. The Prophet, quoting Miss Granger’s after-trial press conference, called Molly Weasley a “trusting fool”; then the Prophet asked why the trusting fool had been tried and sentenced, but not the “bearded mastermind.”

Since 26 July, when the Daily Prophet had quoted the three ghosts and Harry Potter in two Hogwarts common rooms, the Prophet had become more and more critical of Albus Dumbledore.

****

The next day (Saturday, 8 July)
At Granger and Granger Dental Clinic, Crawley

For dental patients, Saturday was a day off. But at Granger and Granger Dental, Saturday was a workday.

This particular Saturday, the dental clinic got a walk-in patient, Ian Bond. Walk-ins did not happen often—most of Dan’s and Emma’s patients were repeaters. What this meant for poor Ian Bond was that he had to wait for either an opening or a cancellation.

It was mid-afternoon before Ian Bond sat down in a dental chair, with Dan Granger (and dental-assistant Lisa) as Ian Bond’s dental caregivers.

What Dan noticed immediately, as soon as Ian Bond was in his dental chair, was that the patient was in his forties, was physically fit and he had the haircut of a military man or of a policeman.

Dan’s gut feeling was that Ian Bond was a fake name, and that Dan’s patient was here under false pretenses. It did not help Dan’s peace of mind that his patient, supposedly here to get a teeth-cleaning, barely needed one.

Dan tried to figure out what mad plot “Ian Bond” was trying to carry out at Granger & Granger Dental, but Dan could not think of any plot that fit the facts.

Dan and Emma paid their taxes, and Granger & Granger Dental paid its taxes, so the man was not here from Inland Revenue.

Dan and Emma engaged in no criminal activity, and Hermione was completely law-abiding (except to protect Harry Potter). Conclusion: “Ian Bond” was not here to work an undercover criminal investigation.

If Dan’s patient’s real name was Ivan or Achmed, and he was trying to find out what secret work Dan had done, back in Dan’s days serving in the Special Air Service—then Ivan or Achmed was spying on Dan two decades too late!

Besides, “Ian Bond” probably was not a foreigner, because he had a flawless British accent—though this did not necessarily mean anything. (Dan once had met a German man who never had been to Britain, but who spoke British English with a British accent—which came from the man watching many, many hours of BBC programmes, beginning as a child.)

Was “Ian Bond” here to investigate Lisa? Was Lisa doing dodgy things in her off-hours? Dan’s gut feeling was that this was unlikely.

Could “Ian Bond” be a magical person sneaking about? Dan dismissed the thought immediately. Judging by Hermione’s stories and by Dan’s own experience, magicals were arrogant, and as unsubtle as a pink elephant. If a magical man wanted to know something that Dan Granger knew, the wizard would not sneak in and give a false name—no, the magical would simply whip out his wand, mind-whammy Dan and ask Dan his questions.

Dan was stumped. The only thing that Dan was sure of was that “Ian Bond” had not been named Ian Bond at birth.

****

Eventually the teeth-cleaning was finished, and “Ian Bond” was out of the chair and standing. The patient looked meaningfully at Lisa and asked, “Mr Granger, may I speak to you alone?”

Lisa shrugged; the patient’s request was unusual but not normally alarming.

Dan handed Lisa the patient-folder for “Ian Bond” and said casually, “File this please, Lisa?”

Lisa took the patient-folder, gave “Ian Bond” an impersonal smile, then walked out the door (which she shut behind her).

When Dan and his patient were alone, the patient said, “ ‘Ian Bond’ is not my real name.”

Dan quickly backed up two steps. “I’ve been trained in hand-to-hand combat.”

The patient raised his hands slightly, with fingers spread and his palms facing Dan. I am harmless. “I’ve the same abilities as Hermione has. If I’ve time to draw my wand, it doesn’t matter what you’ve been trained in. I mean you no harm, but I need to make sure that certain people don’t know I’m here. May I show you my driving license?”

Dan said, “Strangers usually butcher my daughter’s name. How do you know the proper pronunciation? Are you a Hogwarts professor?”

“Ian Bond” chuckled. “Please, don’t insult me. I’m an MMA alumnus, and Wednesday I spoke with Headmistress Norwood. May I show you my driving license?”

“I assume your driving license is in your wallet, and your wallet is in a trouser pocket?”

“That’s right.”

“Which pocket?”

“Left rear pocket.”

“You’re left-handed?”

The falsely-named patient shrugged. “I am.”

“Sounds sinister,” Dan said, making an obscure joke.

Then Dan got serious. “Here’s what happens now. You put your hands up as high as they’ll go. Then I’ll frisk you for guns, knives and wands. When I’m satisfied that you no longer are carrying a weapon, or if you’re carrying a wand, the wand is magically hidden from me, only then will I remove your wallet from your pocket and I’ll view your driving license. Understand?”

“I understand, yes.”

“When I’m close enough to you to frisk you, if you make any unfriendly moves, you can’t possibly draw your wand and cast a spell before this Muggle hurts you badly. Fair warning.”

“Ian Bond” put his hands up high. He said, “Except for giving a fake name and address, I’ve played straight with you and everyone else in this dental clinic. You needn’t fear me.”

Dan replied, “Ian Bond, for the next few minutes, I want you to fear me.”

Dan, as promised, frisked the man—all the while watching the wizard’s hands. Dan found no guns and no knives. Dan knew that a frisking would not find a wand that was in a forearm wand-holster, but Dan did check for a wand in the waistband of the man’s trousers, in the pockets of the man’s trousers and in his shirt pocket, and within his sleeves. No wand was found.

Dan said, “It seems that you’re no danger to me. I’m removing your wallet from your trousers pocket now.”

Dan removed the man’s wallet from the pocket, then stepped diagonally backwards and to the right, so that Dan was now directly behind his fake-named patient. Dan could see everything “Ian Bond” was doing, but “Ian Bond” could not see Dan at all.

Seconds later, Dan said, “You may put your hands down, Mr Chester Charles Chadwick. You’re several hours away from where you driving license says you live. I trust that now I’ll hear a complete and truthful explanation for all the cloak-and-dagger you put our clinic through?”

Ian Bond a.k.a Chester Chadwick replied, “I came here to give you that explanation, but I want to speak my explanation to your wife Emma as well.”

Ten minutes later, the door opened, and Emma Granger slipped into the room where Dan Granger and Chester Chadwick waited.

****

Chester took a deep breath and began to speak—

“My name is Chester Chadwick. I’m magical like your daughter; and like her, I have nonmagical parents. Unlike Hermione, I was visited at age eleven by both Professor McGonagall of Hogwarts and by Headmistress Norwood of MMA. To eleven-year-old me, there was no contest between the schools, so I took a huge risk—I became part of the first class at a brand-new magical school. I became a first-level—a first-year—at MMA when it opened in 1962; the school has become even better in the thirty-three years since.

“Skipping over the next thirty-three years of my life, in 1995 I’ve the rank of Air Marshal in the Royal Air Force. If you don’t know, I’m a general. I also am the highest-ranking magical person in any branch of Her Majesty’s nonmagical military. Any questions so far?”

The Grangers had no questions.

“Wizarding Britain and Nonmagical Britain signed a treaty in 1642; this treaty is how Wizarding Britain has autonomy in the British Isles. The president of the Republic of Ireland and the British Sovereign, acting jointly, can end this treaty, with effects both legal and magical. However, until the treaty is ended, the 1642 treaty says that the nonmagical military may not make war against Wizarding Britain. Any of us magicals in the British military, as soon as we are rated as ‘Group WW,’ have to sign a paper saying that if we are caught doing anything that might be considered as making war against Wizarding Britain, and we are not following the orders of the Crown, we not only will be court-martialed, but also our magic will be bound and we will be made to forget all knowledge of magic.”

Dan Granger whistled.

“Unfortunately, in the 1970s, Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters were considered to be part of Wizarding Britain, and the two magicals in the British Army who raised wands against those evil wizards were court-martialed and were demagicked.”

Dan Granger hissed; Emma Granger looked horrified.

“A prophecy was made about your daughter’s boyfriend, Harry Potter—the prophecy says that only Harry Potter can defeat Lord Voldemort. I helped compile a magical document for the RAF that will greatly help Mr Potter neutralise Voldemort’s Death Eaters. Perhaps because this RAF document is so useful, it is considered an Official Secret. If I show this document to anyone who isn’t cleared to see it, I commit a court-martial offense. If I hand a copy of this document to Harry Potter and he uses it to make war against Voldemort and his Death Eaters, I’ve violated the 1642 Treaty of Separation. But I’m here to do the very thing that will get the book thrown at me if I’m caught doing it: I came here to personally hand a true copy of this RAF document to Harry Potter.”

Emma Granger asked, “How have you protected yourself from getting caught, then being court-martialed and demagicked?”

Chadwick replied, “Today is a Saturday; it’s two days before I have to show my face at the office. This morning I drove my personal car from where I live to a car park somewhat close to here, I parked my car, then I hired a taxi to bring me here. Once I arrived here, I gave your girl a fake name and address. If I’ve done everything right, there is no way for the RAF to prove that Air Marshal Chadwick came close to anyone who knows Harry Potter.”

****

That evening
In the Grangers’ dining room

Present were all three Grangers, Harry Potter, the ghosts of Harry’s parents—and a fit man in his forties whom the Granger parents introduced as “Ian Bond.”

Harry’s ghostly mother smirked. “ ‘Ian Bond,’ huh? As in a combination of ‘Ian Fleming’ and ‘James Bond’?”

Dan Granger rolled his eyes.

Ghost-James asked, “Is this another Muggle thing I’m missing?”

“Ian Bond” made a wooden wand appear out of his right sleeve, and pulled a tiny slip of paper from his pocket. “Ian Bond” looked over at Dan Granger and said, “I didn’t have this paper in my pocket when you searched me.”

“Now to business,” said “Ian Bond.” Using his wand, he enlarged the slip of paper to where it covered most of the dining-room table. Enlarged, Harry saw, the paper was a detailed map of the British Isles, overlaid with a grid of blue longitude and latitude lines. Scattered over the map were red squares, with blue and black text next to each square.

“Ian Bond” continued his work: He cancelled the no-copying spell on the big map, duplicated the map, recast the no-copying spell on the original map, shrank the original map back down to a slip of paper, then put the original map back in his pocket.

Then “Ian Bond” did a strange thing. He cast a Silencing Charm on himself, then cast a spell on the duplicate map. Because of the Silencing Charm, Harry could not hear the incantation for the spell that “Ian Bond” cast on the duplicate map.

Harry looked over at Hermione. Hermione looked frustrated.

As soon as “Ian Bond” dropped his Silencing Charm, Hermione demanded to know, “What was that spell you cast?”

He replied, “A spell to remove my magical signature from the duplicated map. You don’t need to know the incantation.”

Hermione huffed.

Meanwhile, Harry was continuing to study the big map that “Ian Bond” was gifting to Harry. The map was titled “FIDELIUSED LOCATIONS IN BRITAIN.”

On the big map of the British Isles were many red squares; next to each square was a black label, such as “SELWYN ANCESTRAL,” and in blue, a precise description of the square’s location, down to a tenth of a second of longitude and a tenth of a second of latitude. Also written in blue: the red square’s Apparation coordinates.

Two red squares were labelled “UNKNOWN 1” and “UNKNOWN 2.” The Nott family apparently had three properties under Fidelius—NOTT ANCESTRAL, NOTT 2 and NOTT 3—whereas the Parkinson family had only one property under Fidelius (PARKINSON ANCESTRAL).

Harry noticed that Potter Manor, labelled “POTTER ANCESTRAL,” was correctly mapped within Wales. POTTER 2 was somewhere in London; POTTER 3, POTTER 4 and POTTER 5 were scattered about Wales.

“What exactly is this map that you’re giving to me?” Harry asked.

“Ian Bond” replied, “The map is a Fidelius written secret, in map form, for every Fideliused property in Great Britain—“

“How?” asked Hermione.

“—only magicals in the Royal Air Force could have made this map, the process was time-consuming and ridiculously expensive, and I won’t reveal sources and methods for how we labelled the map, but the map is accurate.”

Emma Granger said, “Could someone please explain to one lady-dentist Muggle why all you magical sorts look gobsmacked?”

Ghost-James, Ghost-Lily and Hermione jointly provided a tutorial about the Fidelius Charm. Hermione concluded with “...Up till now, the only way I could see the Selwyn ancestral house is if the Selwyn Secret Keeper told me the secret verbally, or someone handed me a parchment on which the Selwyn Secret Keeper had written the secret.”

Then Hermione looked at “Ian Bond” and asked, “But what this map does, it gives a second secret to each Fidelius’d property? I don’t need to hear what the Selwyn Secret Keeper says in order to see Selwyn Manor, and the Flint Secret Keeper doesn’t need to talk to me for me to see Flint Manor?”

“That’s correct. By the by, you’ll find that this map acts like any other written Fidelius Secret, in that if you try to tell someone who hasn’t seen the map, where Selwyn Manor is, you can’t speak the words and you can’t write the words.”

Harry asked, “Why are you giving me this, sir? This is information dynamite; why is a schoolboy being given it?”

“Because, ‘schoolboy,’ there is a prophecy about you and Voldemort. Thanks to a telephone call I made to the Royal Wizard, both Her Majesty and I now know the words of your prophecy, though I don’t pretend to understand it.”

Harry sighed.

“Ian Bond” continued, “More importantly, you gave a speech on the train platform in which you spoke up for first-generation magicals. Why did you? Because your mother was first-gen and your girlfriend is first-gen, so you know how badly this society treats us. Besides fighting Voldemort, you will fight for us. Albus Dumbledore talks in sweet platitudes about us—but isn’t it odd, nothing for first-gens ever changes. Meanwhile, nobody else in the Wizarding Britain government even bothers with pretty speeches.”

Hermione gestured towards Harry’s new map. “Is it illegal for Harry to have this?”

“Ian Bond” sighed. “Quite illegal. Both Mr Potter and I now are violating the Official Secrets Act. But the people who may see this information legally, who serve the Queen under arms, are forbidden by treaty from acting on what the map tells them.”

Harry squared his shoulders. “If I’m thrown in a Queen’s Prison for owning this map, I’ll make sure I’ve earnt the prison sentence. Death Eaters, I know where you live, myuhaha!”

“Ian Bond” grinned. “If I’m going to be hung for a lamb, I might as well be hung for a sheep. Listen as I tell you interesting facts about wards. Dome-shaped wards are impractical, so most rich magicals don’t put their house under dome-shaped wards. However, dome-shaped wards can be made useless only by a curse-breaker bringing them down; until then, dome-shaped wards are deadly, even from above. On the other hand, cylindrical wards fail 999 feet up, but nobody knows this. If you’re on a broom 999 feet up, you can silently fly directly over Selwyn Manor if they have cylindrical wards, no matter what those wards are supposed to do to invaders. Then if you descend straight down on your broom, the Selwyn Manor wards won’t hurt you because you’re inside the wards. You can spray-paint rude words on the roof of Selwyn Manor, and the wards won’t harm you even slightly.”

Hermione stared at the Grangers’ pseudonymic visitor, her face looking shocked. Meanwhile, Harry grinned evilly. “Thank you for telling me this!”

****

Two days later (Monday, 10 July)

Vincent Crabbe, Senior and Garston Goyle now had left forearms that were free of the Dark Mark.

These two wizards now also had adjoining houses in a small town in New Zealand.

The local wizards and witches noted that the newcomers had Pommy accents, but otherwise thought the new arrivals to be unremarkable.

The Kiwis thought that the Crabbes and Goyles had fled Britain to escape Voldemort—which was true, but not in the way that the locals believed.

****

What the Crabbe family and Goyle family did not know, and what Harry Potter had not known when he had given them a one-week deadline, was that those two families had escaped Britain just in time.

After dithering and dithering, yesterday Fudge finally had given Director Bones permission to make a mass arrest of Death Eaters—all of whom were from prominent families. Director Bones then had taken a pensieve-memory of Harry Potter’s time in the graveyard. Mad-Eye Moody and Ghost-James then had watched the memory, listing the Death Eaters they identified. Between this list of Death Eaters who had come to Voldemort’s resurrection, and the Death Eaters whom Barty Crouch, Junior had named in his interrogation, today Director Bones wrote a complete list of Death Eaters to arrest—

—minus thirteen Death Eaters whom Harry Potter had killed, one way or another; and the elder Crabbe and Goyle who had removed their Dark Marks and had fled the country.

Director Bones decided she would not seek extradition for these last two.

****

Meanwhile in Riddle Manor

Yesterday Lord Voldemort had been away from House Parkinson, trying to recruit more followers, when Aurors had arrested all of Voldemort’s Death Eaters who had attended his resurrection, or whom Barty Crouch, Junior had known. One such arrested Death Eater had been Peter Parkinson.

When Voldemort had returned to House Parkinson, he had realised that if the DMLE knew he was living there, they would return in force to arrest him or even to kill him, and Voldemort could not count on the Parkinson family fighting at his side. Worse, upon Voldemort’s return to House Parkinson, Peter Parkinson’s teenaged daughter had spoken to Voldemort in a resentful tone of voice (till Voldemort had taught the bint manners by use of the Cruciatus Curse).

The Dark Lord had been forced to flee to the place he hated: the ancestral home of his Muggle father who had deserted his mother. Once Voldemort took possession of Riddle Manor, he reactivated the wards that he had installed decades ago, and he put the property under Fidelius, with Imperiused Percy Weasley being the Secret Keeper.

Life was not good right now for the nearly-immortal Dark Lord. Souring Voldemort’s mood even more: Both Harry Potter and his mudblood girlfriend were happy and were optimistic about their futures. This double-happiness could not be allowed to continue.

****

AUTHOR’S NOTE: It would be out of character (and highly illegal) for Chester Chadwick to explain to the Grangers plus Harry, the magical details of how the map was created. But the key part of Chadwick’s unexplained explanation comes from my story “Daphne’s Letter from the Future.”

What else to tell you?

Whenever an RAF aeroplane was taking high-speed photographs of Britain from an altitude of more than 950 feet above the ground, and the aeroplane just happened to be inside the boundaries of a Fideliused building’s wards when the camera snapped a photograph of the ground below, the photograph captured the “invisible” building.

I leave it vague how the various Fideliused magical buildings on the map each were accurately labelled.

Chapter 12: Dinner with Frank and Alice

Chapter Text

Four days later (Friday, 14 July), 8am
Courtroom Ten

Twenty-four Death Eaters had been arrested on Fudge’s order, earlier this week, and today they would be put on trial. Their questioning at trial would be under Veritaserum questioning, which also was by Fudge’s order—

Supposedly the Death Eaters would be put on trial today.

Then Chief Warlock Dumbledore dismissed all charges against all the defendants. He explained, “I refuse to subject these prominent citizens to Veritaserum questioning, during which they can be asked inappropriate and embarrassing questioning, and they must answer fully and truthfully. Also, I am deeply disappointed that all the ‘evidence’ against them comes from only two people: Bartemius Crouch, Jr, who had incentive to shift the blame for his crimes to others; and Harry Potter, who has killed both Lucius and Draco Malfoy, and is unrepentant for taking their lives.”

(The next morning, the Daily Prophet would describe Amelia Bones’s angry look at Dumbledore, when Dumbledore dismissed all charges against all twenty-four “alleged” Death Eater defendants, as “murderous.”)

****

Later Friday morning, 14 July, at House Parkinson

When Voldemort was told that all the arrested Death Eaters had been released, he Apparated from Riddle Manor to House Parkinson. Nobody at House Parkinson told Voldemort he was not welcome back.

Then Voldemort summoned the Death Eaters to House Parkinson. There he told them all, “Here is a list of three old women—Muggles all.” The list has each woman’s name, her street address, and Apparation coordinates for her house.

Voldemort divided the assembled Death Eaters into three teams—Team Purity, Team Death and Team Panic. Each team was assigned one name on the list.

Then Voldemort told the Death Eaters, “Make your plans now, but don’t go to your assigned house until after dark. Leave your woman dead and her house destroyed. Kill anyone magical who shows up to challenge you. Show no kindness and no mercy to anyone. These three Muggles’ deaths will help the cause.”

****

Hours later, 4.04pm
Underneath Gringotts Bank

Harry, Hermione, Ghost-James, Ghost-Lily and Augusta Longbottom were on the “safe” side of the red line that was by the time-dilation chamber’s door.

According to Harry’s Tempus spell, the chamber would finish its time-dilation in two minutes.

Ten days ago, the chamber door had a glowing-blue 120 showing. Now the door showed a glowing-blue 1. The archway of runes that surrounded the door still glowed blue.

Harry and his ghostly parents were all three silent as they waited. Augusta Longbottom was rigid in her silence—all her muscles were tense and her face was expressionless. Harry could not guess whether the old witch was excited to see her son and daughter-in-law again, with them healthy this time, or Augusta Longbottom was dreading what was only minutes away.

One person in the waiting group was not silent: Hermione was questioning the goblin who operated the time-dilation chamber.

Two minutes later, the 1 on the door briefly was replaced by a glowing-blue 0, which then disappeared. The archway of runes that surrounded the door, went dark.

On the other side of the door, Harry heard Neville’s voice: “—anyone will notice I’m different?”

The chamber-operator goblin stepped across the red line to the door. He opened the door.

****

Harry’s first impression of Frank Longbottom was If he were Muggle, he’d be playing professional rugby. That, or raiding British coastal villages. Frank Longbottom, who had been unconscious and clean-shaven when he had gone into the time-dilation chamber, now had a blond moustache and blond beard to go with his blond hair. Frank Longbottom also was muscular now, when before, two high-ranking Aurors were the only wizards Harry had ever seen who made time for getting sweaty and bringing the muscle-burn.

Alice Longbottom had light-brown hair, a dancer’s shape, and her face looked like an older, female version of Neville’s face. But Neville Longbottom seldom smiled, whereas now Alice Longbottom was beaming as though someone had handed her a fat moneybag on a sunny spring day.

“Oh, Harry, look at you!” Alice exclaimed. Then she did something that no British Pureblood ever had done before: she hugged Harry.

Harry’s brain froze.

When Alice Longbottom finally dropped the hug, she turned to Hermione. “And you must be Harry’s girlfriend, the one who’s smashing school records, just like Harry’s mother. I’m glad to meet you ... Herminny? Or is it Hermi-own? H-E-R-M-I-O-N-E.”

“Her-MY-oh-knee,” Hermione corrected, enunciating slowly, but she was smiling as she spoke.

Then Hermione looked over Alice’s shoulder and said, “Blimey, Nev, you’re—wow.”

Neville Longbottom was an inch taller than he had been, ten days ago. But the other reason that Neville seemed taller was that now he stood with his shoulders back, with his back straight and with his chin up. It was obvious to Harry where this new self-confidence came from: once-pudgy Neville now was slim and muscular. Before now, of the wizards in Harry’s year, only Dean Thomas and Blaise Zabini had the build that came from regular exercise.

Now Harry slapped Neville on his hard, muscular back and said, “Looking good, Nev.”

Neville grinned. “It’s all because of you, Harry. I can’t begin to thank you enough.”

Frank the modern-day Viking stepped in front of Harry, with grinning James and Lily floating on either side of him. “Heir Potter, it was your suggestion that led to Lady Longbottom and me being cured of the Sislaulss Curse and being able to resume a normal life. You are a credit to House Potter, and I look forwards to renewing the Longbottom-Potter Alliance for a new generation.”

Harry said blankly, “Longbottom-Potter Alliance?”

James explained to Frank, “Albus has kept Harry woefully ignorant of his heritage.”

James explained to Harry, “House Longbottom and House Potter have been allied Houses since sometime in the 1400s.”

Harry looked at Neville, annoyed. “Why didn’t you say anything about this?”

Neville said lowly, “I assumed you knew about the Alliance, but didn’t want to be allied with a Squib.”

Hermione huffed. “Honestly, Neville. With your new wand, you’re clearly not a Squib.”

Harry said, “Please, Nev, in the future, don’t assume I know anything that isn’t taught in class. Dumbledore really has kept me in the dark. When it comes to House Potter stuff, figure that I don’t know any more than Dean Thomas knows.”

All this time, Frank Longbottom had stood patiently waiting. Now Harry said to him, “Lord Longbottom, Dumbledore has succeeded at putting me with bad family, and keeping me away from good family. Neville is my best male friend, but putting you and Lady Longbottom back on your feet not only is good for you two, it’s good for Neville, and it gives me more good family.”

Hermione hugged Harry. Seconds later, Alice hugged Harry too.

By now, other humans and some goblins also had come out of the time-dilation chamber; a Muggle-dressed woman in her thirties had given Neville a hug. (To which Neville responded during the hug, “Thank you for teaching me, Potions Mistress Miller.”)

Frank looked about, then said, “That goblin wants us gone from here. Fine, we Longbottoms will head up to the bank and I’ll talk to Axeberzerker, the Longbottom account manager. Then after that, I invite you Potters and Miss ... Dagworth-Granger?”

“Just Granger,” Neville corrected his father, “Hermione Granger.”

Frank continued, “My apologies, Miss Granger. Anyway, I invite you Potters and Miss Granger to dine with us this evening in Longbottom Hall.”

Harry saw Augusta Longbottom scowl, and take a breath to speak. Then she blinked. Clearly she had realised that she no longer was the decision-maker in Longbottom Hall.

Harry and Hermione accepted the invitation, of course. Harry then sent Greyclay, the Potter head house-elf, to the Granger house to leave a note on the dinner table from Hermione that said she would not be home this evening.

Meanwhile, Alice was saying, “Frank honey, before we have a big fancy dinner, why don’t we all go to Fortescue’s after our Axeberzerker meeting? It’s been fourteen years since I had Fortescue’s ice cream, plus people should know that Frank and Alice are back.”

“Ooh, ice cream,” Lily said. “Delicious and cold in July. I miss it.”

“An excellent suggestion, Alice,” Frank Longbottom said, grinning.

Then the modern-day Viking man turned to Harry and asked, “Will you and Miss Granger wait here whilst Alice and I get updated on our finances, and Neville learns about them?”

Hearing these words, Augusta frowned.

“We’ll wait, sure,” Harry said, “but I will be paying for Hermione’s and my ice cream.”

****

An hour and a half later, in the Gringotts lobby

The four Longbottoms walked out of a door to the back of the lobby. “Let’s get that ice cream!” smiling Alice said to Harry and to Hermione.

Seconds later, the group was walking out the inner doors into the “Enter, Stranger, but take heed” anteroom.

In the anteroom were a wizard and a witch, by the outer doors. But they were not exiting the outer doors, they were looking through the glass of the outer doors; the wizard and witch looked frightened.

Now Harry heard screams, somewhere outside.

“What’s going on?” Frank demanded.

The frightened wizard replied, “Death Eaters attack! In Diagon Alley!”

“Bugger,” said Ghost-James. ‘I want so much to fight them.”

Frank said, in a tone of command, “Mother, as soon as you are outside the doors, Apparate home!”

“No, Frank, Neville needs protecting. I’m staying!”

“As your head of house, I’m ordering you to leave. As for Neville, he can fight now.” The words No thanks to you were unspoken but were clearly implied. “Mother, will you comply?”

“Yes, Lord Longbottom,” Augusta said meekly.

Frank then looked at Harry. “You and Miss Granger don’t know how to Apparate, do you?”

“No, sir.”

“Very well. Alice, Neville and I will protect you and Miss Granger.”

Harry thought, Protect me? Nobody ever has promised me this before.

Meanwhile, Frank continued, “Group, follow Alice and me on three. Neville, protect your friends. One ... two ... three.”

Frank and Alice each shoved a door open, and rushed to, then rushed down, the white steps.

Harry, out of the corner of his eye, noticed as he ran that the two goblin guards on either side of the outer doors, who normally each had his axe behind his back in an axe-scabbard, now each was gripping his axe with both hands.

****

By the time the group of five (plus two ghosts) had left the bottom step of Gringotts, the group had formed itself into Frank and Alice in the first row and the teenagers in the second row, with Neville between Harry and Hermione. James and Lily floated behind the teenagers.

It was impossible for Harry to miss the Death Eaters in Diagon Alley—eight males and a female, each wearing black robes and silver masks, surrounded by corpses—and happy as they killed.

“PUREBLOOD SUPERIORITY!” yelled a male Death Eater, who then cast the Killing Curse into a shrieking group of bystanders. One bystander dropped limp.

Out of the five living Gryffindors who just had run out of Gringotts, the first offensive spell was cast by, of all people, Hermione: “Stupefy!”

Hermione’s spell flew into the group of Death Eaters; down went the Pureblood-Superiority male Death Eater.

“YOU DARE, GRYFFINDOR MUDBLOOD?” yelled the female Death Eater. Then she pointed her wand down. “Rennervate.”

“That’s Parkinson,” Neville growled.

By now the awakened Death Eater was attempting to stand. Death Eater Pansy pointed out Hermione to him.

Meanwhile, Frank and Alice had not been idle. Frank, who was to the right of Alice, cast Bombarda, which impacted in front of the Death Eaters, right of centre; Alice cast Bombarda to hit the cobblestones in front of the Death Eaters, left of centre. For whatever reason—caught by surprise?—the Death Eaters did not shield against the magical explosions.

The result? Many tiny chunks of cobblestone flew upwards and punctured the Death Eaters. Death Eaters screamed and dropped.

The Pureblood-Superiority Death Eater and Death Eater Pansy still were standing. The male Death Eater pointed his wand at Hermione and yelled, “Avada Kedavra!”

At the same time, Death Eater Pansy cast the Killing Curse at Neville.

Less than a second later, Neville spun a quarter-turn, tackled Hermione, and brought them both to the ground, in what surely had to be a well-practised move.

The Killing Curse sailed over Hermione and Neville; she and he were unharmed. But now Harry was furious.

Harry pointed his wand at the Death Eater who just had tried to kill Hermione.

Meanwhile, Alice’s overpowered Diffindo had removed half of Death Eater Pansy’s wand arm.

Harry did not think about spells he had learnt, but acted purely on emotion: Harry hissed in Parseltongue, “§Death!§”

A girly-pink spell burst out of Harry’s wand. Hermione’s would-be killer shielded against the spell, of course; but the girly-pink spell flew through the Death Eater’s shield-spell as though it were not there. The Death Eater flashed pink for an instant, then dropped limp.

Harry just had invented an improvement to the Killing Curse.

“sh*t,” said an onlooker, “Potter just killed!”

Death Eater Pansy now had her wand in her uninjured hand, but she did not point her wand at the Gryffindors. Instead, her silver mask was facing Harry straight-on—which Harry figured meant she was staring at him wide-eyed—as she blurted, “Green unicorn, green unicorn!”

Bleeding, one-and-a-half-armed Death Eater Pansy disappeared.

As Neville helped Hermione to stand, Frank, Alice and Harry walked up to the group of eight remaining Death Eaters, with the two ghosts following. The Gryffindors discovered that one Death Eater was silent and unmoving; seven Death Eaters were screaming and bleeding out.

Not only the three Longbottoms, Hermione, Harry and his ghostly parents were approaching the fallen terrorists now; onlookers were creeping closer too.

Frank pointed his wand at one silver-masked screamer. “Don’t worry, I know how to make the bleeding stop. Avada Kedavra.”

The crowd gasped.

Immediately Alice joined Frank at casting the Killing Curse on all the fallen Death Eaters—even the one who supposedly was already dead. Harry was about to join them in their grisly work, with Harry to cast the Improved Parseltongue Killing Curse, except that Frank asked Harry not to. “You’re underage, Harry, and Alice and I are taking a huge legal risk. I see no reason for you to share this risk.”

****

When the red-robed Aurors arrived and investigated, they were surprised to discover that the dead masked magicals, though they were dressed as Death Eaters and had committed terroristic murders like Death Eaters, all were twenty years old or younger, and none of them had the Dark Mark on his left forearm.

Harry found out that the young wizard whom Harry had killed with his pink Parseltongue curse was named Samuel Flint. Flint would have turned seventeen in nine days.

The Aurors remarked that they would go to House Parkinson and would discover whether Pansy Parkinson had bled to death from her injuries. If a House Parkinson house-elf had acted promptly, probably not.

Senior Auror Dawlish wanted to arrest Frank, Alice and Harry for the crime of “Murder of a Pureblood.” But Dawlish was overruled by Master Auror Barker, the highest-ranking Auror on scene. Barker explained to his scowling subordinate, “Fudge said we may kill Death Eaters now, John—you know this. I refuse to split hairs and say it’s legal to kill Marked Death Eaters but it’s illegal to kill unMarked, wanna-be Death Eaters during their murderous initiation. Hopefully when word of this ‘battle’ gets out, would-be Death Eaters will decide they’d rather clean cauldrons nonmagically than take the Dark Mark.”

Then Senior Auror Barker asked Frank, “May I ask why you killed off every Death Eater here, instead of Stunning them and handing them over to the DMLE? I’m not criticising you, I’m just curious.”

Frank Longbottom shrugged. “It’s foolish to leave an unrepentant murderer alive.”

****

When the group of five heroic Gryffindors (plus two ghosts) finally made their way to the ice-cream shop, all their ice creams were free, by order of Florean Fortescue.

****

That evening, at Longbottom Hall

All four Longbottoms, Harry and Hermione (who were seated next to each other) and the two ghost-Potters had seats at the table in the formal dining room. However, no empty dishes, goblets or silverware were set in front of the ghosts.

As soon as the meal began—signalled by Frank Longbottom taking a forkful of food—Harry looked at Neville’s parents and said, “Do you realise that you two are the only people in Wizarding Britain who don’t think of me as ‘the Boy Who Lived’? To you, I’m just toddler-Harry grown up. God, it’s nice to be treated normally by someone besides Hermione.”

Hermione smiled at him.

Frank said, “Not quite true—before our ‘naps,’ Alice and I also knew you were the supposed ‘Boy Who Lived.’ We read about the ‘duel’ between you and Voldemort, two days before we went into our dreaming-comas. We read in the Prophet that James and Lily were dead, you were alive, and Dumbledore claimed that you had survived the Killing Curse, then had ‘defeated’ Voldemort. Which the Prophet took to mean ‘had killed Voldemort.’ But because we knew that the Prophet is full of exaggerations and lies, we believed almost none of the things we read.”

Grinning Harry said, “You didn’t think like everyone else in Wizarding Britain, A toddler god waddles amongst us?”

Alice smiled. “No. And we couldn’t understand why Dumbledore was claiming something so silly. To Frank and me, it was obvious: Lily had done something clever, just as she’d done so often before, and this time she saved Harry’s life.” Alice smiled at Lily.

Frank said angrily, “Dumbledore was being a right berk, but we didn’t see it at the time. When Sirius was thrown in prison, supposedly for betraying the Potters as their Secret Keeper, we wondered why Dumbledore wasn’t fixing this. After all, Dumbledore knew that Pettigrew, not Sirius, was the Secret Keeper for that house.”

Harry asked, “And it didn’t scare you, that Pettigrew was the Secret Keeper at my house, Voldemort somehow got in, and Pettigrew was also the Secret Keeper for your house?”

Frank shook his head ruefully. “On the 2nd”—of November, 1981—“Dumbledore sent us a Patronus-message and told us, ‘It is safe to come out of hiding now.’ He didn’t mention Pettigrew—and we, trusting fools that we were, didn’t ask. We assumed that if Pettigrew was somehow a problem, Dumbledore had fixed the problem. Anyway, we dropped the Longbottom Hall wards down from War setting. Then Alice sent Dumbledore a Patronus-message back, which said that, with Sirius in prison, she was now the Potters’ choice for Harry’s guardian, so kindly hand the boy over for us to raise. Alice said this to Dumbledore on the 2nd, Dumbledore never showed up with toddler-you, and on 3 November, the day after Alice laid her demand on Dumbledore, she and I got our house invaded and we were put into fourteen-years-long dreaming-comas. What a coincidence.”

Lily snarled, “Amy Bones was our third choice for Harry’s guardian. She never saw the wills and Albus never told her how she was mentioned in them. Amy found out about her guardianship only three weeks ago, from us, her ghostly friends, not from Albus. What a Machiavellian git.”

Harry said sadly, “Three people who could’ve been my guardian got tricked out of that. Meanwhile, I was stuck with three magic-hating, berk Muggles who were the reason that Salazar Slytherin hated Muggles.”

Hermione rushed away from her chair and hugged Harry in his chair. Augusta Longbottom frowned.

****

Later

Harry asked Frank and Alice, “Have you ever heard the words of the Prophecy that was spoken about Neville and me?”

Alice replied, “Dumbledore told us privately that he’d heard a prophecy spoken, but he told us we were safer if we didn’t know the exact words.”

Lily snorted. “Ri-i-ight, safer. Funny how that turned out: Of the four of us parents, two died and two were put into dreaming-comas.”

James said, “Thanks to ghostly knowledge, Lily and I know all the words of the Prophecy. We’ve already told these kids, so Frank and Alice, you need to hear the bloody Prophecy too.”

James then recited the Prophecy: The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies [snip] the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...

Harry asked, “What did you four adults do so that you ‘thrice defied’ him’? Everyone else but me, the first time they duel Voldy, they die within minutes.”

Frank replied, “Everyone else except Alice and me, and your parents, just stand there like their shoes are sticking-charmed to the ground. Most people think dodging spells is first-year stuff, whilst putting up shields shows you’re a real wizard. Nonsense! If your habit is to stand in one place and to cast Protego, you’re buggered when an Unforgiveable comes to you, because those can’t be shielded against! So don’t stand in one place, dance!”

Harry said, “Tell me about it. Twelve days ago on Platform 9¾, Lucius Malfoy cast the Killing Curse at me. Because I was far enough away, I dived to the side, and his curse missed. Then I cast three Piercing Hexes at him. He could’ve dodged them, or put up a shield. He did neither one. Instead, he cast a second Killing Curse at me. Which I also dodged. But by then, one of my Piercing Hexes had drilled through his heart—goodbye, Lucy!”

Alice nodded. “This goes to something else that Frank and I know: Whenever possible, back up! Remember this: Spell speed is 74 feet per second. If you’re far enough away, you can dodge the Death Eater’s spell, then can cast one of your own. I can’t count how many times I downed a Death Eater whose curse I’d just dodged, and who, just like Lucius Malfoy, stood there openmouthed till it was too late to duck my spell, because the idiot had cast an Unforgiveable and had never expected a counterattack. Slight change of subject: Harry and Hermione, you’re a couple, right?”

Harry smiled whilst Hermione said happily, “We are definitely a couple.”

Alice said, “Both James and Lily, and Frank and I, became each other’s regular duelling partners besides becoming romantic partners. I was much calmer fighting Death Eaters when I knew that the person fighting next to me had my back.”

Now Frank grinned at Neville. “People, may I brag on Neville? For the last three months, inside time, Alice and I have taught Neville everything we know about magical fighting. Neville will shock the Slytherins this September, I guarantee you! Partly because of Alice’s and my, ahem, brilliant teaching, but also because now Neville has a wand that’s well suited for him.”

Harry saw Frank shoot Augusta an angry look.

****

Later

Frank said, “I first met James when I was six and he was four. So I knew him for seven years before he went to Hogwarts and became a Marauder. At Hogwarts he was known as a prankster, but I knew him when he was just a little boy who liked to fly on a toy broom and tell smelly-troll jokes.”

Harry asked Frank, “I know you weren’t a Marauder, but how much of a not-Marauder were you? Did you help them sometimes, or was pranking something you weren’t interested in?”

Frank glanced at his mother and said, “No, I was a serious student. I came to school to learn how to be Lord Longbottom someday, not to play.”

“Ahem,” said James, giving Frank a sidelong look. “I came to Hogwarts to learn how to be Lord Potter someday, but I figured I’d learn that stuff later. Meaning, during my NEWT years. For my first four years, I saw Hogwarts as the Marauders’ playground. But to answer your question, Harry, Frank was my best non-Marauder friend, but he did have a trick. Alas, Frank’s trick wasn’t flashy. The Marauders liked ‘flashy.’ ”

Neville asked, “What was your one trick, Dad?”

Alice was the parent who answered: “Frank can wordlessly levitate eight things at once. Meaning, he can bash in the heads of eight Death Eaters with rocks all at once, and they don’t expect that.”

Frank drew his wand and held it over the table, but not pointing at anything in particular. With no warning, the six living people’s dinner plates, plus Harry’s and Hermione’s goblets, slowly rose into the air, floated in place for a few seconds, then slowly dropped back down to the table.

Frank said, “I’ve never heard of anyone else able to do this. But it’s not flashy.”

Alice said, “But Frank, that thing you did with the suit of armour was flashy. Or rather, impressive.”

Seeing the three students’ puzzled expression, Frank explained, “If I point my wand at one of the suits of armour in a corridor, I can levitate both feet, both knees, both hands, the head, and the jaw. What it looks like is the suit of armour singing and dancing.”

Lily said, “I’ve seen Frank do it, turn a suit of armour into a marionette. Yay, Frank!”

The blond man blushed. Neville grinned.

****

Later

Frank had asked James what the nastiest prank was that the Marauders had pulled against the Slytherins.

James looked sideways at his ghostly wife. “It was something against Snape that got Lily right cheesed off at the time. I won’t tell that story because, looking back, the prank was something I’m ashamed of now, and I don’t want Harry to lose respect for me.”

Ghost-Lily hugged her husband.

James continued, “But I’ll tell you the nastiest prank I ever played against another Marauder. In seventh year, I just had learnt about Fleming’s Law. Anyone know what this is?”

James was looking at Hermione when he asked, and Hermione dutifully answered, “Fleming’s Law says, ‘It is impossible for magic to duplicate a soul or a spirit, so it is impossible for magic to completely duplicate a person.’ ”

James smiled. “Ten points to Gryffindor. Polyjuice Potion duplicates the appearance of someone else, but the drinker keeps his own mind; his mind isn’t rewritten to duplicate the mind of the person he now looks like. Enchanted portraits and enchanted statues have the appearance of a person and the voice of a person, but what seems to be their mind is actually a big and complex simulation of the person’s mind when he or she was alive.”

Hermione said, “This would explain something I’ve wondered about: Why do we have a living headmaster running the school, instead of a group portrait of the Founders running the school?”

Lily answered, “Magical portraits weren’t invented till 1226, so there is no enchanted group portrait of the Founders or any individual portraits of them. But the reason we don’t have the portrait of a dead headmaster as the current headmaster of Hogwarts is that portrait-personalities can’t handle radical change—a crisis or something completely new. I can remember arguing with the portrait of Akbar Slytherin whether my Muggle parents wanted to burn everyone in Hogwarts—including me—at the stake. I could not convince Akbar that Muggles thought differently now!”

“They do?” Augusta Longbottom asked.

“Yes!” Lily and Hermione said together.

“They don’t want to burn us all at the stake?”

“No!” Lily and Hermione said together.

Harry said, “Ahem. Whilst this is educational, I want to hear how Dad used Fleming’s Law to prank Sirius, Remus or the rat.”

James smiled at his son. “Despite what Death Eaters tell you, ‘creatures’ are the same as humans, so far as Fleming’s Law is concerned. Using transfiguration, you can’t duplicate a goblin, house-elf, centaur, merperson, Veela or, surprisingly, a troll or a giant. But anything lesser, no problem. I could transfigure a parchment to not only look exactly like someone’s dog, but the new parchment-dog could perform all the tricks that the original dog could. Anyway, back to my story. I tried to figure out how I could transfigure something into a duplicate of Sirius, and I finally figured out a way.”

Ghost-James now was looking into the eyes of every living person as he grinned evilly. Ghost-Lily, meanwhile, was rolling her eyes.

“Give up?” James asked the room. “I transfigured a cut of lamb chop into an exact duplicate of Sirius, whilst intending that the duplicate have no soul. What I wound up with was a Sirius-duplicate that was freshly dead. It was still warm!”

Harry said, “I don’t know whether to say ‘Yay, Dad!’ or ‘That’s horrible!’ ”

Lily said, “Twisted was my reaction.”

James chuckled. “I put dead duplicate-Sirius in Sirius’s bed and shut the curtains. He—the real Sirius—discovered the impostor at bedtime. He jumped back so far he almost hit the next bed over, and he screamed blue murder.”

Lily smiled coldly. “Sirius paid you back for that prank, dear husband. Oi, did he pay you back!” Then Lily looked at the three students and said, “The counterprank of seventh-year Sirius wasn’t pretty at all. But it was well deserved.”

James scowled.

****

Later
In the Floo Room, Longbottom Hall

Harry and Hermione, holding hands, and the two ghostly parents all were facing the three youngest Longbottoms. (After afters, Augusta Longbottom had made an excuse and had gone upstairs. Before then, at the dinner party, she had not said much but she had frowned a lot.)

Now Harry looked at Frank and Alice and said, “Voldemort is back and, according to the Prophecy, it falls to me to kill him. I know how ridiculous this sounds, because I’m fourteen. Yet the situation isn’t completely hopeless—according to the Prophecy, I have ‘the power to vanquish the Dark Lord,’ and I ‘will have power the Dark Lord knows not.’ But what this ‘power’ could possibly be, I can’t begin to guess.

“Anyway, I need help. McGonagall is Dumbledore’s lapdog—and Dumbledore, I’m convinced, is trying to get me killed, though I can’t guess why. Which also means I want nothing to do with Dumbledore’s Order of the Phoenix. Lord and Lady Longbottom, I’m hoping that you’ll help me fight Voldemort—the Prophecy describes you as ‘those who have thrice defied him,’ and this gives you a brilliant job reference. I’ll take whatever orders you give, Lord Longbottom.”

The three Longbottoms looked at Harry for a long time, not speaking. Finally Frank Longbottom said, “Is Dumbledore plotting your murder? I don’t know. But Dumbledore is the reason I can’t return to the Order of the Phoenix—he never, not once, brought the fight to the enemy. We were on the verge of losing to Voldemort’s tiny group of crazies till a toddler saved the country. I’d rather work with that toddler, the son of James and Lily, than the bearded old buffoon who won’t listen to good advice.”

Neville said, “I’ll fight with you, Harry, if you and my parents will let me.”

Harry did not need to ask Hermione what she would do; her squeezing of his hand told that story.

****

Meanwhile, in the Department of Mysteries

By now, all of Voldemort’s horcruxes had been destroyed except for the horcrux in the Dark Lord’s big snake and a horcrux in Hogwarts.

The big snake’s horcrux was undestroyed because the big snake always was with Voldemort, and Voldemort was behind wards somewhere.

The horcrux in Hogwarts was undestroyed because the Unspeakables could not enter Hogwarts without Dumbledore’s permission, and Dumbledore was being a berk. Dumbledore would allow the Unspeakables to enter the castle before 1 September only if Harry came with the Unspeakables, and Harry agreed to certain conditions set by Dumbledore.

****

After Hermione left Longbottom Hall and returned to her house in Crawley

Both of Hermione’s parents were weeping.

Hermione’s father Dan had received a shocking telephone call from his father: Dan’s grandmother Anne Granger had died when her house had caught fire due to a gas-main explosion.

Not five minutes later, Emma Granger had taken a call from her sobbing sister Elizabeth: the sisters’ mother, Connie Taylor, had been murdered as part of a burglary gone bad. The criminals had set fire to the house afterwards, in an attempt to cover up their crimes.

Hermione wept too, when she was told her parents’ sad news. She had not been close to her great-grandmother Anne, but Hermione had been quite close to “Granny Connie.”

The Granger family spent the rest of the evening telling stories about their two dead relatives, and trying to decide how they would attend two funerals that might well be held at the same time.

When Hermione (eventually) fell asleep, she thought, What a tragic coincidence, that two deaths in the family happened at the same time, and both involved a house on fire.

Then Hermione thought, in the instant before she fell asleep, Something seems wrong about this.

Chapter 13: Dark Lord Death Threat

Chapter Text

Still Friday, 14 July
Later that evening, in Longbottom Hall

Frank Longbottom wrote a letter, duplicated the letter, then sent the Longbottom owl out with both copies of the letter, to two addressees. The duplicated letter—

14 July 1995, Longbottom Hall

To Amelia Bones, Director, Department of Magical Law Enforcement,
To Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,

Greetings from Auror First Class Frank Longbottom (also Frank Longbottom, Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Longbottom); and from my wife, who is Auror First Class Alice Longbottom (and Lady Alice Longbottom).

Alice and I no longer are in the Janus Thickey ward. We both are walking and talking, and are ready to go to work. Ah, but what work?

Both my son Neville and Harry Potter tell me that the “competency” of the latest bunch of Hogwarts DADA professors, with the exception of Remus Lupin, has become a sick joke. Hogwarts students desperately need Alice or me to be the DADA professor at Hogwarts during the 1995-1996 school year.

Harry Potter tells me, and his ghostly parents agree, that Lord Voldemort has resurrected himself and is now recruiting followers. The DMLE desperately needs two Aurors who have experience with fighting Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

Both of you desperately need either of us. The compromise that Alice and I came up with is that we jointly will teach DADA on a one-year contract, then we will probably return to the DMLE in July of 1996.

Albus Dumbledore, Alice and I each resign our membership in your “secret” organisation.

(signed) Frank Theseus Longbottom
(signed) Alice Antonia Longbottom

Amelia Bones wrote back with “This is great news, that you and Alice are back amongst us, and healthy! I’m sure Neville is overjoyed. I’ll talk with you soon.”

Albus Dumbledore replied to Frank’s letter with a teaching contract for both Frank and Alice. But Dumbledore also sent a long letter that—

a) tried to both guilt-trip and flatter, Frank and Alice into remaining in the Order of the Phoenix;

b) asked when and how Frank and Alice had talked to Harry Potter, and asked what Harry Potter and the ghostly Potters had told Frank and Alice; and

c) implied that Harry recently had gone through a quite traumatic experience, thus was a bit mad (as proven by him recently killing two wizards), thus Harry’s words should not be believed.

Frank and Alice each signed the teaching contract and they owled it back. Frank did not reply to Dumbledore’s letter.

****

The next morning (Saturday, 15 July)
At the Hogwarts front gate

Hagrid’s eyebrows shot up when he saw who was waiting for admittance. “Oi, Harry, didn’t expect ter see ya till September.”

Harry jerked a thumb over a shoulder. “This mob and I need to talk to Dumbledore about something important.”

Standing behind Harry were eighteen Unspeakables and eleven house-elves (including Dobby). Of the Unspeakables, only Director Saul Croaker had his hood pulled back and his mask off, so that an outsider could determine his age and gender.

“Whatcher doing that’s so important, Harry?” Hagrid asked, as he unlocked the gates.

Harry replied, “There’s something evil in the castle and they’re here to find it and to remove it, but we need Dumbledore’s permission.”

Once Hagrid opened the golden gates, the eighteen Unspeakables and Harry walked across the grounds to the entrance doors—because Harry did not know how to Apparate, and the Unspeakables were magically blocked from Apparation on Hogwarts grounds. The eleven house-elves were not stopped by this restriction and could have elf-popped directly into the castle; but instead, the house-elves walked with the Unspeakables and Harry.

Actually, the house-elves had to run, in order to keep pace with the human wizards and witches.

As the group walked on grass, Saul Croaker asked Harry, “Nervous?”

“Not nervous, I’m angry. When I get in the bearded idiot’s office, it’ll take all my self-control not to Stinging-Hex Dumbledore till I’ve worn my wand down to a stub.”

Then Harry sighed. “But he needs to be talked-to about the horcrux in Hogwarts, and I need to be with you when you and he talk. It’s for—”

Harry and Saul Croaker spoke the last three words in unison: “—the Greater Good.”

****

Harry, over a dozen Unspeakables plus Croaker, and almost a dozen house-elves rode the moving steps up to the door to the headmaster’s office. It was Croaker, not Harry, who knocked on the door, so that Dumbledore could not cast Harry in the role of “supplicant.”

“Come in, everyone,” Dumbledore’s voice said cheerfully from the other side of the door.

Croaker walked in, then Harry, then Unspeakable after Unspeakable, with the many house-elves bringing up the rear.

“Harry my boy,” Dumbledore said with a shark’s grin, “so good to see you. Did Saul tell you why I insisted that he bring you along?”

Harry walked up to the headmaster’s desk and put his fists on the wood. Harry snapped, “He told me only that you would let the Unspeakables search the castle for the thing that’s keeping Tommy alive only if I was part of this group. He also said that once I got here, you’d demand something of me that I would not want to do, but if we wanted your permission, I’d be obliged to agree to this thing.”

Dumbledore shot Saul Croaker his disappointed-grandfather look. “Saul, you were supposed to tell Harry ahead of time. He was supposed to know what was expected of him before he came here. Explaining to him now will take time, and I am a busy man.”

Harry rolled his eyes at Dumbledore’s attempted guilt-trip.

Now Saul Croaker walked up to the desk and put his own hands on the edge of the desk—though his hands were open, with his palms down, instead of his hands balled into fists. Croaker said, “Why did I not do what you wanted, the way you wanted it done? Because I don’t see you as anything more than a two-sickle Merlin, and I don’t take orders from you.”

“Fight, fight!” one of the Unspeakables murmured. Harry saw ten or twelve Unspeakables crowd in closer to where Dumbledore, his desk, Harry and Croaker were. Undoubtedly Dumbledore’s entire view was of Harry, Croaker and the pushier Unspeakables, with the less aggressive Unspeakables and all the house-elves hidden from the headmaster’s view.

Now Harry sneered at Dumbledore, “Well, whatever it was that was supposed to have been explained to me, but that you’re supposedly too busy for you to tell me now, I could always go to McGonagall’s office and have her explain it, hm? After all, she does all your other work, right? Whilst you sit here and suck on sherbet lemons all day.”

Croaker said, “I can’t believe your gall, Albus. When I told you that Voldemort made horcruxes, that they’re what will keep him alive when we kill him again, and that one of his horcruxes is right here in this castle, any reasonable headmaster would’ve said, ‘Hurry, get the horcrux out of my school right now!’ Instead, you say, ‘I’ll let you take it away only after I bugger Harry.’ ”

“Maybe literally,” Harry said. “After all, Albus old geezer, you do speak to me familiarly, you keep trying to get me alone in the headmaster’s office that is next to the headmaster’s suite, and you offer me candy. In primary school, we children were warned about men who do these things. Next, you’ll ask for my help to rescue the scared puppy that’s hiding under your bed.”

“Harry my boy, I am most disappointed that you would say that!” Dumbledore said.

Harry rolled his eyes. “Which isn’t the same as ‘I make oath I don’t molest young boys,’ everyone please note.”

Dumbledore’s face looked angry. “I think it’s time I told you, Harry, what the price is that you shall pay to have any hope of vanquishing the Dark Lord.”

Harry laughed scornfully. “Aren’t you assuming something, old man? That I’m so eager to defeat Tommy that I’ll put up with every sort of codswallop from you? The Prophecy that you still have not told me about, says I’m ‘the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord.’ Guess what—maybe I’ve the power to vanquish the Dark Lord, but with each day I spend in Wizarding Britain, I lose more and more, the desire to bother myself with Tommy. Wizarding Britain is an overflowing chamber pot, so how about I walk away and let Tommy have this place if he wants it so badly? Which is my long-winded way of saying ‘Tell me your terms, old man, but I’m sure I’ll say no.’ ”

Dumbledore looked shocked (but Harry did not for one second believe that Dumbledore actually was shocked). “Harry, you would abandon Wizarding Britain to its fate after Tom killed your parents?”

“Correction: after Tom killed my parents and you had promised to help them fight Tommy but then had stayed away when the fighting broke out. I’m just as angry with you as I am with Tommy, believe it! And let me remind you: Tommy plotted to get me made a Triwizard Champion, but you let his plot succeed.”

From the back of the mob of Unspeakables, a maybe-male, maybe-female voice asked, “What exactly does the headmaster want Harry Potter to do, as the price for us Unspeakables being allowed to search the castle for the horcrux?”

Dumbledore smiled. “Thank you for asking, whoever you are.”

Then Dumbledore looked at Harry. “I’m your sixteenth cousin, four times removed. For the Unspeakables to go search for the horcrux, first you must name me Potter Heir Primary, then you must abdicate so that I become Lord Potter, then I shall name you as Potter Heir Primary.”

“Is he barking mad?” an Unspeakable asked.

Croaker made the rocking-hand gesture.

To Dumbledore, Harry said sarcastically,“Suuuure, I’ll let you have the Lord Potter ring. But when do I supposedly become Lord Potter again? On my seventeenth birthday? On my twenty-first? Or do I again become Lord Potter only when you die of old age, except that you’ve a barrel of Elixir of Life that you hid away under Fidelius in 1992?”

Dumbledore said pompously, “When you would prove to me that you have sufficient maturity, I would abdicate and you would become Lord Potter again.”

“Yeah, right. Considering how you didn’t give me my trust-vault key till a few weeks ago at age fourteen, and you gave me the key only when I threatened you with goblin justice, it’s clear I wouldn’t be given the Lord Potter ring till your Lifestone went dark. No, nuh-uh, forget it, ain’t happening, I refuse to name you, Albus Dumbledore, as anything other than Rat Bastard of the Century.”

“Harry my boy, if you want the Hogwarts horcrux, you are really not in a position—”

Knock, knock.

Dumbledore looked at something on his desk that Harry could not see, then Dumbledore looked at Saul Croaker. “How is it that one of your Unspeakables is on the outside of the door when nobody left the room after you all arrived here?”

Croaker shrugged. “Maybe one of my people figured out a way to Apparate from your office to elsewhere in the castle, but the trick doesn’t work when someone tries to Apparate into your office?”

Dumbledore raised his voice: “Come in, late-arriving Unspeakable and visitor house-elf.”

Harry turned round to see what was happening, as the crowd of Unspeakables and of house-elves parted in front of Dumbledore’s desk. An Unspeakable walked in, with Dobby the house-elf at the Unspeakable’s knee. The enchanted grey robes that the Unspeakables wore, meant that Harry could not guess whether the newcomer’s shape was male or female, and the Unspeakable spoke with both a man’s voice and a woman’s voice, in unison. However, the newcomer’s two unison voices spoke with the same American accent—

“Hey guys, sorry I wasn’t here earlier. This castle is much bigger than Ilvermorny, and it has ghosts in it! Anyway, I got turned around, coming back from the bathroom. Sorry, Director Croaker.”

Saul Croaker said, “Just get in here, Thirty-Seven. We haven’t yet received permission to search the castle for the horcrux.”

“Nor will we get permission from Albus,” Harry snarled, “because the price of his permission is I agreeing to doing something I refuse to do.”

Harry then drew his wand and cast the Tempus spell. “It’s 8.26. Director Croaker, we’re wasted enough time with ‘the Leader of the Light.’ Let’s go.”

Dumbledore said, “Harry, if you walk out of here, my terms won’t be so generous next time.”

“I don’t see how they could be worse. Unless you’d also demand that I give up my Lord Malfoy ring, I suppose.”

Dumbledore nodded. “But I’d wear that ring only for a year before I’d abdicate as Lord Malfoy. The Leader of the Light has a reputation to uphold, after all.”

“Yeah, right,” said Harry. “Director Croaker, go now?”

****

As soon as the Unspeakables, the house-elves and Harry walked out into sunshine, Saul Croaker ordered both the Unspeakables and the house-elves to find and to destroy all listening charms.

Twenty-six listening charms were found. Nine of the twenty-six listening charms were on Harry.

When the zapping of listening charms had been completed to Croaker’s satisfaction, Croaker called Unspeakable Thirty-Seven forwards and asked him/her, “I gather you found the horcrux?”

“I did,” said Unspeakable Thirty-Seven—who now spoke with a British accent, not an American accent. The Unspeakable pulled a lead box out of a pocket of his/her robes. Shrunken down, the lead box was about the size of a man’s palm. As Unspeakable Thirty-Seven dropped the lead box back into his/her pocket, he/she said, “It’s the Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw—and You-Know-Who ruined it.”

As the large group resumed their walk to the gold double gates, Harry praised Croaker: “It’s so clever how you planned this. A mob of Unspeakables and a mob of house-elves entered the Hogwarts grounds, and the Hogwarts wards told the headmaster how many magicals and how many house-elves were in the group—”

“Nineteen human magicals, including you, and eleven house-elves,” Croaker said.

Harry continued, “A mob of Unspeakables, a mob of house-elves and I walked into the headmaster’s office. He never noticed that the numbers did not quite match: that one Unspeakable and my house-elf friend Dobby entered the castle but they at first did not enter Dumbledore’s office.”

Unspeakable Thirty-Seven thumped his/her chest, then said, “Dobby and I didn’t enter his office, yes, until this former Hogwarts Muggle-born who knew the castle well, and who has watched way too many films made in the States, strolled in late and pretended to be a lost and confused American—all the while with the horcrux in my pocket. I deserve a BAFTA award.”

Croaker asked Unspeakable Thirty-Seven, “Where did you and Dobby find the horcrux?”

The Unspeakable answered, “In a giant room on the seventh floor that has a thousand years of junk in it. I was a student here for seven years and I never knew about that room! Mainly because you need to know a special trick, in order to get into the room.”

Harry clapped his hands together once. “This has been a good morning. We got the next-to-last horcrux, I didn’t get talked into giving up my Lord Potter ring, and—best of all—we tricked Dumbledore!”

****

A half-hour later

Harry sent a message-Patronus to Hermione: “I’ve no reason to attend Hogwarts now, so I’ve signed the student-transfer request for MMA. I expect to buy many, many stamps on my nineteenth birthday, because this will be the only way I complete my MMA education, but I’m still going to MMA. As many times as you’ve helped me in the last four years, it’s time I did something to help you. End.”

As Harry sent off his message-Patronus, he thought, I wonder if Dumbledore will come to MMA and try to make me serve detentions for my first week as an MMA student.

A minute later—

Pop. Dobby appeared next to Harry, but Harry had not summoned him. The house-elf looked worried. “Great Master Harry Potter’s Miss Grangy asked Dobby to brings you to her. Miss Grangy be owled a letter from nasty Dark Lord, and Miss Grangy be crying.”

****

Seconds later, in the Granger house

As soon as Dobby elf-popped Harry into the Grangers’ sitting room, sobbing Hermione ran to Harry and hugged him with all the strength she had.

“Oh, Harry, I’m so scared—for my parents, and for me! Voldemort sent me a letter, and he threatened my entire family!”

****

To Potter’s mudblood girlfriend—

If you don’t already know, your great-grandmother on your Muggle father’s side, Anne Granger, is dead. Your grandmother on your Muggle mother’s side, Connie Taylor, also is dead.

My Death Eaters killed them. Soon my Death Eaters will kill your Muggle parents, Daniel and Emma Granger. Be afraid, mudblood.

Soon after that, I will kill you. Be very afraid, mudblood.

Tell Potter that I decided to share the misery. Besides my people killing two people who are related to you, the Death Eaters killed Potter’s grandaunt, Violet Evans Resshert.

I am no “failure.” Soon I will be the greatest Dark Wizard that the world has ever known, famous as the Dark Merlin and the Magical King of Britain. Potter, before he dies, will regret having publicly insulted me, as he weeps over three Granger graves. He himself will die soon afterwards, I swear.

The Dark Lord Voldemort

****

Harry looked about the quiet sitting room. “Where are your parents?”

“It’s Saturday; they’re working. But they almost left work when I told them about Voldemort’s death threat.”

Then Harry said, “The first thing I’m doing is to hire Gringotts goblins to guard the Granger family at home and at work—don’t argue. The other thing I’m doing is—may I make a copy of this letter?”

“Why? Our three dead relatives are Muggles. The DMLE won’t do much more than to write three reports.”

Harry replied, “I want a copy of Voldemort’s letter so I can send it to the Daily Prophet. After I send the Prophet the copied letter, what will I do about the Death Eaters who killed members of both our families? I’m going to kill the killers. And I have the perfect plan how to do it.”

****

Hermione copied Voldemort’s letter. An hour later, Harry sent the copied letter to Barnabas Cuffe, who was the Editor-In-Chief at the Daily Prophet, along with a note—

To: Barnabas Cuffe
From: Harry Potter

This is a copy of a letter that Tom Marvolo Riddle (anagrams to “I am Lord Voldemort”) owled to my Muggle-born girlfriend, Hermione Granger.

The DMLE has confirmed to me that the three Muggle women whom Voldemort mentioned in his letter, indeed are dead. My girlfriend is frightened and my girlfriend’s parents are frightened. I was never told that I had a Grandaunt Violet, but she now also is dead; I’m upset.

You might decide not to print the Dark Lord’s letter. After all, Tom Marvolo Riddle is a Muggle-raised half-blood, and I know that proper Purebloods have no interest in reading what such a person has to say.

But if you decide not to print the letter tomorrow, hold on to the letter anyway. You’ll be glad you did.

What do I think about Riddle’s letter? The Dark Failure, Tom Marvolo Riddle, keeps threatening to kill me, but I’m still here!

****

After Harry owled the letter to the Daily Prophet, he owled another letter to his account manager at Gringotts.

This letter hired goblin warders to ward the Granger house, price was no object; and hired seven invisible goblin guards to protect Hermione’s parents at Granger & Granger Dental Clinic, during any hours that the parental Grangers were at work.

This was Harry’s expensive way of reacting to Voldemort’s threat.

But then Harry got clever, proactive and vengeful.

Harry was about to anger Tom Marvolo Riddle even worse than when Headmaster Dumbledore had refused to hire Tommy as the DADA professor.

Chapter 14: Harry 24, Death Eaters 0

Chapter Text

The next morning (Sunday, 16 July), quite early (3.17am)
Just outside the wards of Nott Manor
Nott Manor is the eleventh Death Eater home Harry has attacked this morning

Pop. Harry and Dobby appeared in the night darkness, just outside the Nott Manor wards. And not only Harry and Dobby instantly came here—both of Harry’s shoulders were ice-cold, which meant that Ghost-James and Ghost-Lily had made the trip too.

Now Harry began folding up Ian Bond’s map—

Pop-p-p-p-p-p-pop.

—as the four Potter house-elves and the three (remaining) Malfoy house-elves elf-popped in close to Harry, Dobby and the two ghosts.

Also elf-popped in with the seven new-arrival elves: an open-topped wooden box. In the box was a chain that at the moment was coiled up within the box. One end of the chain was attached to the inside bottom of the box; the other end of the chain ended inside a red rubber ball. The steel chain was delicate, the links not much bigger than would be found in a gold necklace; but the chain was long: 1 001 feet.

One house-elf or another conjured a floating lightball, which gave the house-elves and Harry light enough to work. A floating, opaque lampshade was conjured at the same time, round the lightball, so that if someone in Nott Manor looked out a window now, they would not see the lightball.

The Malfoy head house-elf Goldy gestured, and the chain in the box uncoiled itself, with the red rubber ball at the end of the chain rising straight up. In less than a minute, the chain was extended to its full 1 001-feet length vertically.

Meanwhile, six of the seven remaining house-elves were conjuring something that looked electrical—

The six house-elves conjured a vertical disk about a centimetre thick, of unglazed porcelain—meaning the white disk was rigid and electrically nonconductive. The diameter of the disk was the length of a man’s hand. Near the edge of the disk, on opposite sides, were two copper nails, finger-length, that started at the back of the disk, went through the disk and stuck out in front. In the middle of the back side of the disk was a huge capacitor that was fully charged. Thick-enough insulated copper wires connected each end of the capacitor to the nearer copper nail.

The electrical contraption was then enclosed in a hollow rubber ball. The inside diameter of the hollow rubber ball was the same as the diameter of the disk. The copper nails were the right length in front that they brushed up against the inside of the front of the hollow rubber ball. On the outside of the hollow rubber ball, fluttering wings appeared.

Once the whole thing was put together, the round thing with wings made Harry think he was looking at the love child of a Quaffle and a Snitch. Rather than name it something plain like “the giant Snitch with a deadly electrical contraption inside” or give it the military-bureaucracy name of “Dark-Mark-Targeting Magical Assassin,” Harry called it the thingy.

Once construction of the thingy was complete, three of the house-elves enchanted the thingy in some way. Dobby enabled the thingy to sense where (and if) the Dark Mark was in the house. Potter house-elf Daisy enabled the thingy to sense when the target (the Dark-Marked person) was in the same room as the thingy—meaning, no wall or floor was between the thingy and the target. Malfoy house-elf Hunky enabled the thingy to sense humans and house-elves in the house, so that the thingy could avoid flying into them.

The hoped-for end result? If someone (Thaddeus Nott) in Nott Manor was Marked with the Dark Mark, the thingy would go straight to him, whilst flying round everyone else in the house—

—then Thaddeus Nott would be electrocuted.

****

Whilst the house-elves were working to cause the death of Thaddeus Nott, James remarked, “Thaddeus’s ancestor Cantankerus Nott, however-many generations back, came out with The Sacred Twenty-Eight in the 1930s. It was supposedly a listing of the only acceptably Pureblood families in Wizarding Britain. House Potter was excluded by name, because back through the centuries, Potter heads of house had a ‘disturbing habit,’ according to Cantankerus Nott, of marrying half-bloods and Muggle-borns.”

James paused to kiss Lily on the cheek.

Harry smirked. “If this is why we Potters aren’t on the list, then advance warning: Come 1998, House Potter will be excluded anew. If Cantankerus Nott thought Pansy Parkinson would be a more desirable bride for me than Hermione would be, his brain was a cauliflower.”

Then Harry’s voice got sombre. “Mum, what can you tell me about Grandaunt Violet, who was murdered by Death Eaters?”

Lily answered, “Violet Evans Resshert was the younger sister of your grandfather, David Evans. Aunt Violet truly loved life. She exercised when British married women did not exercise, she wore bright-coloured clothes, and she flirted with everyone male—pimple-faced bagboys at the market, neighbour men, younger male relatives and older male relatives. But women who knew her didn’t mind her flirting, mostly, because she flirted with her husband Orwald so outrageously that it was sometimes embarrassing to watch. I’m sure that those two were, well, intimate like rabbits, even in their fifties.”

“Aunt Petunia never mentioned Grandaunt Violet. Aunt Petunia for sure never introduced me to her.”

“I’m not surprised. Tuney couldn’t stand Aunt Violet. I remember one time, when Tuney was fourteen. Tuney yelled at Aunt Violet, ‘Why can’t you act normally? What must your neighbours think?’ ”

“What did Grandaunt Violet say to that? Were her feelings hurt?”

“No, she looked at Tuney with a pitying smile and said, ‘Young lady, nobody on their deathbed ever has said, “I should have spent more time listening to the neighbours.” ’ ”

****

When the process of enchanting the thingy was completed by the house-elves, Harry pulled a parchment from his pocket and unfolded it. On the parchment was “1 2 3 4 5,” each numeral being large and coloured black.

Somehow the house-elves made the thingy fly straight up, always flying parallel to the steel chain, till the thingy was at the same height above the ground as the red rubber ball. Not below the rubber ball, not above the rubber ball, but beside it, the house-elves claimed. Harry could not see the thingy when it was in darkness and 1 001 feet above the ground, and neither could the house-elves see the thingy, so high up—but all eight house-elves assured Harry that the thingy was in that exact place.

Somehow the house-elves then moved the thingy horizontally, so that it was still 1 001 feet above the ground but now was directly over Nott Manor. (At a height less than 999 feet, attempting to work this step would have crashed the thingy into a wards-wall and the thingy would have been fried. But 1 001 feet up, no wards-wall prevented positioning the thingy directly over Nott Manor.)

All this time, the Snitch wings on the thingy had been fluttering. Now the thingy began a controlled 20-miles-per-hour descent—inside the Nott Manor wards. Meanwhile, Malfoy head house-elf Goldy made the chain drop down and coil itself inside the open wooden box.

Once the thingy began its steady descent, with the thingy’s wings flapping the entire time, it took thirty or forty seconds for the thingy to contact the roof of Nott Manor at 20 miles per hour.

As soon as this happened, the black 1 on Harry’s parchment turned glowing white.

House-elf magic on the thingy meant that the thingy vanished the part of the roof that the hollow rubber ball or the wings touched—and vanished only what they touched. Seconds later, the thingy was in the attic of Nott Manor without having made a sound, and the roof had a hole in it whose shape had the profile of a much-oversized Snitch.

Now the thingy hovered in the Nott Manor attic and scanned for the presence of a Dark Mark inside the house. Within seconds, the thingy detected the Dark Mark; at this moment, the 2 on Harry’s parchment lit up glowing-white.

****

If the thingy found no Dark Mark inside the house, the thingy would fly up and through the roof, making a second strangely-shaped hole in the roof in the process. This was what had happened at “Selwyn Ancestral” (Selwyn Manor). When that had happened, the thingy, after flying up through and above the roof, had flown through a wards-wall straight to Harry Potter. Then Harry had pulled out the Ian Bond map, had shown the map to the house-elves, and the house-elves had popped themselves, the chain-box, Harry and his ghost-parents to “Selwyn 2.” Lord Selwyn had not been detected there either, but he had been detected at “Selwyn 3.” Which had turned out to be fatal for Lord Selwyn.

****

Once the thingy found Thaddeus Nott’s Dark Mark, the thingy headed straight for him—by continuing to use its localised-vanishing power, this time on walls or floors—whilst avoiding hitting any other living being in the house.

Once the thingy got close to Thaddeus Nott, at 3am he most likely was lying in bed asleep, and would not know he was under attack till copper nails were pressed against his upper chest and a fatal current passed through his heart.

****

On Harry’s parchment, 1 meant the thingy had touched the roof of the Manor house.

2 meant that the Dark Mark was detected inside the manor house. The thingy began its hunt for Thaddeus Nott.

A minute after 2 lit up, 3 lit up. (“There are no more walls or floors between the thingy and the target; the thingy is in the same room as the target.”)

Seconds later (though Harry could not see it), the oversized-Snitch part of the thingy flew over against Thaddeus Nott’s chest, then vanished the front half of the hollow rubber ball, leaving the copper nails in front uncovered. The fluttering wings continued to push the rest of the thingy forwards, and the copper nails were pressed against the Death Eater’s chest, on either side of his heart. At which time, the capacitor discharged its stored-up electricity—into Thaddeus Nott. An instant later, 4 lit up. (“Target is electrocuted.”)

At the same time, 5 lit up. (“No life-signs detected in target.”) The unglazed-porcelain disk, the rest of the hollow rubber ball, and the fluttering wings, all vanished themselves; only the electrical contraption remained.

This would leave investigating Aurors with some minor mysteries to think about. (“What is this strange copper thing, how did it kill Lord Nott without magic, and why do the walls and ceilings have strangely-shaped holes in them?”)

With a wand-wave, Harry cleared the parchment—which turned all five numbers black again—shoved the status-parchment into his left trouser pocket and pulled Ian Bond’s map out of his right trouser pocket.

Helpful Dobby moved the work-lightball and lampshade to float over the map.

“Good job, house-elves,” Harry said. “You know the drill, everyone gather round the map.” After a pause, Harry stabbed a red square on the map with a finger. “I think we’ll hit ‘AVERY ANCESTRAL’ next.”

The lightball and lampshade vanished, then the house-elves, Harry, his ghostly parents and the wooden box with 1 001 feet of chain in it, all popped away.

****

At 4.04am, at House Parkinson

Peter Parkinson lost his life in bed; the cause of his death came as a shock to him. The House Parkinson wards went into default mode—everyone not named Parkinson was banned in a deadly way—until later in the morning. Late morning was when Caitlyn Parkinson, who was now Regent Parkinson, edited the Ward Ledger.

Caitlyn Parkinson refused to rewrite the name Lord Voldemort into the Ward Ledger. Caitlyn’s one-armed daughter Pansy demanded that Caitlyn reinstate the Dark Lord, but Caitlyn held firm.

****

Whilst all this happened, Voldemort was, fortunately for him, in Russia instead of asleep in House Parkinson—else he would have been expelled when the wards had gone into default mode and would have been nastily ended by the wards.

In Russia, Voldemort was trying to recruit former Durmstrang students into becoming Death Eaters. He was having no luck. He heard no Das but many Nyets; and two different Russians called him Temnyy Proval. When Voldemort demanded a translation, the two Russians laughed in his face instead.

Luckily for Voldemort, when he portkeyed back to Wizarding Britain, he went to Borgin & Burkes instead of to House Parkinson. It was at Borgin & Burkes that House Parkinson’s one house-elf, Perky, delivered to the Dark Lord a letter from Caitlyn Parkinson—

“My husband Peter is dead, killed by Harry Potter. I’ve no wish for Potter to come after me or after Pansy, Heiress Parkinson. As a result, you no longer are welcome to House Parkinson coinage or food, or welcome to a bed here; your name has been crossed out in the Ward Ledger.”

Voldemort snarled angrily, then thought, Looks like it’s back to Riddle Manor for me. I hate that place.

****

Anyway, the same day at 5.27am
Back at Potter Manor

The task of assassinating twenty-four Death Eaters was complete. Harry now hugged all eight of his house-elves—as a magical Thank you, and to give each house-elf a much-needed magical recharge. Fortunately, Harry had magic enough that he barely felt the loss of magic to his house-elves.

Harry and his house-elves, as a team, had killed off twenty-four Death Eaters during the night. Harry now was either a mass murderer, or an amazingly effective avenger, take your pick.

****

Harry had seen thirty Death Eaters in the Little Hangleton graveyard. Barty Crouch, Junior, when questioned under Veritaserum, had confirmed those thirty and had named another nine, not counting himself.

Back on 24 June, Voldemort had had thirty-nine Death Eaters not in Azkaban, plus Barty Crouch, Junior. Crouch had been Kissed after his trial. What had happened with the other thirty-nine Death Eaters?

Harry had duelled and had killed Lucius Malfoy on Platform 9¾ on 2 July. This killing made Harry become Lord Malfoy.

The next day, 3 July, Harry as Lord Malfoy had upgraded the wards at Malfoy Manor, and had struck out many names from the Malfoy Manor Ward Ledger. This had killed twelve Death Eaters who were in Malfoy Manor at the time. Interestingly, none of the ejected and painfully-killed Death Eaters had been Heads of House, as it turned out. Peter Pettigrew had died then; so had Walden Macnair.

This had left twenty-six Death Eaters alive. Harry had persuaded Crabbe (Senior) and Goyle to leave Britain; this left twenty-four.

All twenty-four had been heads of house. All of them had owned manor houses that were under Fidelius—and thus, they all had had manor houses that were located on Ian Bond’s map.

Meanwhile, some of the twenty-four head-of-house Death Eaters, or maybe all of them, had murdered Violet Resshert, Anne Granger and Connie Taylor.

But this early morning, 16 July, those twenty-four head-of-house Death Eaters had themselves been killed, by Harry Potter and by his house-elves. However, if everything had gone according to plan, nobody else had died. No wives had died, no sons had died and no daughters had died.

The only Death Eaters that Tommy had now were the ten who were in Azkaban, plus however-many whom “the Dark Failure” had recruited in the last three weeks—some of whom the DMLE had arrested in the last two days. The way Harry figured it, Voldy didn’t have many available followers now, thanks to Harry (and his house-elves) and thanks to Amelia Bones (and her DMLE).

****

Harry, before he went to bed, wrote a letter and owled it off—

16 July 1995

To Barnabas Cuffe, Editor-In-Chief, the Daily Prophet

Yesterday I sent you a copy of the letter that the Dark Failure sent to my Muggle-born girlfriend. In the letter, You Know Damn Well Who informed my girlfriend that his masked minions had killed two Muggle relatives of hers, and had killed a Muggle relative of mine. He Who Must Be Named Tom Marvolo Riddle then threatened to kill my girlfriend’s parents. Clearly the reason the Dark Failure wrote the letter was to incite fear.

Of the three Muggles who were family to my girlfriend or to me, who were their killers?

Two days ago, Chief Warlock Albus Dumbledore dismissed all charges against twenty-four arrested Death Eaters, merely because they were “prominent citizens.” Less than a day after Dumbledore dismissed all charges against those twenty-four Death Eaters, the aforementioned three Muggles were dead, murdered in cold blood by some or all of these twenty-four “prominent citizens.”

This morning, I killed all twenty-four Death Eaters whilst they slept. I killed no wives, I killed no children; but the Death Eaters themselves were terminated by electricity (Muggle artificial lightning).

My girlfriend’s and my three Muggle relatives are avenged. But also please note, inciting fear works both ways. Lord No-Nose will have a hard time recruiting minions from now on, because potential minions know that they not only have to worry about being killed by the DMLE under Minister Fudge’s new rules, but new-recruited Death Eaters also will be terminated by Harry Potter.

You surely want to know how I killed those twenty-four Death Eaters in their own homes and in their own beds. Alas, Barnabas my boy, I must keep my method a secret for the Greater Good (of me).

Harry James Potter
Pissed-off BWL and Head of House Potter

****

When Harry was about to go to sleep—even as the morning sun was shining—his ghostly parents were with him in his bedroom.

James said, “Son, may we ask you something? Why did you kill the Death Eaters all by yourself? You basically told Frank you would follow him as a war leader, and you do everything with Hermione, but this morning, they weren’t here with you.”

“They weren’t here because they didn’t know to be here. I didn’t tell them I was doing this.”

“Why? Why keep them ignorant of this?”

Harry sighed. “Because there’s a good possibility that next Friday”—when the Wizengamot would meet—“I will be put on trial for twenty-four counts of ‘Murdering a Pureblood.’ If I’m tried for those crimes, it’s certain I’ll be Kissed. But even if the worst happens to me, Frank and Hermione won’t be sent to Azkaban because they didn’t do anything, because they didn’t know anything.”

A minute of silence followed. Harry was almost asleep when a thought occurred to him. Harry’s eyes flew open and he looked at his parents.

“Want to know something?” Harry said. “When I first heard the Prophecy, I thought it was ridiculous. But now I believe it.”

“Why do you say this?” Lily asked. “I’m sure I don’t believe it, and I am half the people who told you the full Prophecy.”

“Why? Because the Prophecy starts out, ‘The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches.’ It doesn’t say ‘defeat the Dark Lord,’ it doesn’t say ‘kill,’ it says ‘vanquish.’ But listen, if I Killing-Cursed Voldy, but all his Death Eaters were hale and hearty and preaching his murderous message, would he be vanquished? No. So to ‘vanquish’ Voldemort, I have to put down all his Death Eaters like rabid dogs, either before or after I kill Voldy himself. You follow me so far?”

“Yes,” James replied.

“In the past fortnight, I’ve killed thirty-seven Death Eaters, starting with Lucius Malfoy, all by myself. Thirty-seven, by just me. No innocent bystanders have been harmed, no Death Eater wives or children have been harmed, and I haven’t suffered a scratch. Now consider this: Three weeks ago, all of the minions of Tom Marvolo Riddle, not counting Azkaban Death Eaters, were forty in number. Now thirty-eight of those forty are dead, and I organised the other two to leave Britain. A Dementor took Barty Crouch, Junior, but the rest of the thirty-eight dead Death Eaters were next-great-adventured by me, all whilst I remained unharmed. This is absurd luck, this is ridiculous luck. But I successfully did all this. The explanation how I achieved this has to be that ‘The Prophecy made it happen.’ ”

Chapter 15: It Came with the Birthday Card

Chapter Text

The next day (Monday, 17 July)

Voldemort’s letter to Hermione, and Harry’s snarky letter to the Daily Prophet, both were printed in Monday’s Prophet.

The Prophet reported that just as Harry Potter had written in his letter, twenty-four heads of house who also were Marked—and whom Chief Warlock Dumbledore had dismissed all charges against, two days earlier—each had died in his bed, in his manor house that was under Fidelius and that was behind wards, without the wards failing.

Another mystery about the twenty-four deaths: Each dead wizard was found with a copper contraption lying on his chest or on his back; and whilst the copper contraption had been conjured by house-elf magic, and residue of house-elf magic had been found in each dead wizard’s bedroom, the Death Eater had been killed by no recognisable spell.

An assisting mediwizard who was Muggle-born—Muggle-borns never were hired as healers, much less as medical examiners, even when the Muggle-borns had the NEWT scores to qualify—determined the cause of death for those assassinated Death Eaters: nonmagical electrocution.

Yet another mystery about the twenty-four Death Eaters’ deaths: how each copper contraption had entered each manor house. Shaped holes in the walls and ceilings that led to a shaped hole through the roof of each manor house, offered tantalising clues; but how each copper contraption had traveled from wherever it had been made, to each manor-house roof, remained a mystery, because every dead Death Eater’s manor house supposedly was protected by deadly wards—which had not stopped the copper contraption.

The Prophet noted that this made thirty-seven Marked Death Eaters whom Harry Potter had killed; plus Harry Potter had killed an underage unMarked wizard who had been wearing the Death Eater costume at the time, and who just had unsuccessfully cast the Killing Curse at Harry Potter’s girlfriend, Hermione Granger.

****

Harry, contrary to his prediction, was not arrested for “Murder of a Pureblood.” However, he was questioned vigorously on Monday by an angry Amelia Bones, who informed him that, Lord Potter or not, he had no legal justification for avenging the deaths of Hermione’s relatives.

Harry replied, “But I am justified under your laws in killing any of the twenty-four Death Eaters who killed my Grandaunt Violet, right?”

“Yes,” Madam Bones admitted.

“Tom Riddle, in his letter to Hermione, implied that all twenty-four Death Eaters killed all three Muggle women. Because of this passage in Voldy’s letter, I killed all twenty-four Death Eaters. You want to charge me with murder? Prove Riddle’s paragraph wrong. Prove that one particular Death Eater, Serenus Selwyn, say, did not kill Grandaunt Violet, and you can charge me with Selwyn’s murder.”

Madam Bones scowled. “I can’t prove any of them innocent in that way. When we discover that a Muggle has been murdered by Death Eaters, the Auror investigation is brief and routine, unless the Muggle is important in Muggle Britain. I can’t tell you who killed Violet Resshert, I can’t tell you who set her house on fire and I can’t tell you who cast the Dark Mark.”

“Then you have no evidence against me for murder.”

“How did you know where the twenty-four Death Eaters lived? Every manor house you attacked was under Fidelius.”

Harry replied, “This is a House Potter secret, Madam Bones.” A newly-minted House Potter secret, admittedly.

“How did you kill them, the twenty-four Death Eaters? How did you get those copper weapons through the wards and into the houses without the wards activating?”

Harry replied, “This also is a House Potter secret, Madam Bones.”

****

Also on Monday

Dumbledore sent Harry a letter, via Fawkes. In the letter, Dumbledore said that he was keenly disappointed in Harry because Harry had robbed twenty-four Dark souls of their chance at repentance and redemption, and Dumbledore was even more convinced than before, that Harry was going Dark.

It took Dumbledore two feet of parchment to say this, but oh, Peter Mark Roget would have been impressed by the words Dumbledore used.

Harry read Dumbledore’s letter aloud to his ghostly parents and to Hermione. All three Potters rolled their eyes; Hermione huffed—

—after Hermione had smacked Harry’s arm for putting himself in deadly danger, twenty-four times.

In the letter, Dumbledore also insisted that Harry come to Hogwarts “within twenty-four hours of the receipt of this letter” for Dumbledore to inform Harry how the Chosen One of Prophecy needed to fight Voldemort from now on.

Dumbledore still had not told Harry the Prophecy that was about Harry and Voldemort, and now Dumbledore was making reference to the Prophecy so he could give Harry orders? And with Dumbledore’s letter confidently assuming that the Bearded One understood exactly how the Prophecy was to play out in the future?

This was boy-bovine byproduct.

Harry dashed off a reply, which Fawkes carried back. Harry wished he could see Dumbledore’s face when the Leader of the Blight read the body of Harry’s letter—

“The Prophecy talks about Tom Riddle and about me, though not by name. The Prophecy talks about my parents, and about Frank and Alice Longbottom, though not by name, as ‘those who have thrice defied’ Voldy. But you, for all your claimed expertise, aren’t mentioned in the Prophecy at all. You could leave Britain and leave me, to take a long journey to the Sahara desert, or to the Amazon rain forest, or to Brisbane, Australia, and the Prophecy wouldn’t tremble even slightly because of your long absence. Since the Prophecy mentions my parents, and Frank and Alice, as fighters who made Voldy sweat, but doesn’t mention you, to whom do you think I’m going to listen about Voldy? Don’t expect me in the castle before 1 September.”

****

Four days later (Friday, 21 July) at the Ministry of Magic

Friday’s Wizengamot session was, for Harry, not boring at all. The session started with Frank Longbottom formally reclaiming his Wizengamot seat. This should have been humdrum—I was a Wizengamot member, then I was sick for fourteen years, but I’m recovered now, so I’m back—but a long-bearded old man with a gavel objected to restoring the seat to someone who “one week ago, slaughtered eight innocent children as though they were chickens.”

Harry saw Frank shoot Dumbledore a you’re an idiot look. “You’re referring to the ‘innocent children’ who all were dressed up as Death Eaters, complete with robes and silver masks? In that group of nine, I know of only two who were under seventeen; but one of the nine was twenty years old. In any case, all nine of them, including the ‘innocent children,’ already had killed magicals when we engaged them. One of the ‘innocent children’ cast the Killing Curse at Harry Potter’s girlfriend; another of the ‘innocent children’ cast the Killing Curse at my own son. My wife and I did not slaughter eight helpless chickens, we stomped on eight disgusting co*ckroaches.”

****

Soon afterwards, the formal Wizengamot enquiry about Harry Potter’s killing of the twenty-four heads-of-house Death Eaters began. Chief Warlock Dumbledore tried to cause trouble for Harry, but did not succeed.

First, Dumbledore, whilst full of self-righteous fury, demanded to know why Harry had not been arrested for twenty-four counts of “Murder of a Pureblood.”

Amelia Bones replied calmly, “The law says that Lord Potter may avenge the death of his Muggle relative, and we have no evidence that exonerates any of the twenty-four in the Muggle woman’s death.”

Dumbledore said with great assurance, “This vengeance-defence against murder does not extend to the death of a Muggle relative.”

Harry replied, “My defence is not forbidden by the law; it’s just that no head of house has claimed this before I made the claim today. But then, back in 1981, I did something else that nobody ever had done before, and I was in nappies then.”

“Harry my boy, your so-called defence is contrary to law. You must trust that I know about what I speak.”

Rather than argue with Dumbledore more, Harry looked at Percy Weasley. “Clerk, please read me the text of the law to which the Chief Warlock refers, if such a law exists.”

Dumbledore said, “Harry, I see no reason to bother Mr Weasley with something trivial.”

“Whether or not I’m to be charged with twenty-four murders is hardly ‘trivial,’ Albus! Clerk, your answer?”

On Percy’s table were many thick books. Percy pointed his wand at the first thick book, paused, pointed his wand at the second thick book, paused—until Percy had wanded every one of the thick books.

Then Percy took a breath and said loudly, “The laws that state that a head of house may kill to avenge the death of a relative, say nothing about whether the relative must have magic.”

Harry, hearing this, then went on the attack. “Let me remind you, Albus Dumbledore, of the Treaty of Separation of Magical Britain from Nonmagical Britain, which was signed in 1642. This is the treaty that says we in Wizarding Britain aren’t subject to the laws of Parliament, but can make our own laws.

“In the 1642 treaty”—Harry pulled from his pocket a parchment that Hermione had written—“Paragraph Seven says in part, ‘If a magical person murders a nonmagical person, the courts of Magical Britain shall sentence that magical person to death.’ Dumbledore, by the treaty, those twenty-four Death Eaters should have been arrested for murder of three Muggles. But nobody in Wizarding Britain has been arrested for that crime since the seventeenth century.

“Instead, the twenty-four were arrested for Death Eater Activities and for—Are you ready, folks?—Muggle-Baiting. Muggle-Baiting! As though they had turned Grandaunt Violet’s hair blue. The first charge would have brought the twenty-four a sentence of life in prison, but the second charge? They would have been fined a hundred galleons apiece for murdering three Muggles.

“But even those punishments, which were less than the treaty demands, were too much for you, Dumbledore—you dismissed the charges! Well, the treaty says the twenty-four should have been sentenced to death—so what you, Dumbledore, were too craven to do, I did. I put them to death.”

“Harry my boy, they deserved the chance to repent. You took that away from them.”

“Don’t be silly. You dismissed the charges last Friday, they killed the three Muggle women sometime between Friday and Saturday, and I killed all twenty-four on Sunday morning. They had until bedtime Saturday night to repent. Those of the twenty-four who hadn’t repented by bedtime, deserved what they got.”

Then Dumbledore demanded to know how Harry had killed the twenty-four. Harry replied, “It’s a Potter family secret, so I don’t have to tell you.”

“I know of no previous Lord Potter who killed his enemies within their warded properties.” Meaning, I’m calling you a liar.

Harry retorted, “I ‘m Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter. A Potter family secret is whatever I say it is. Move on, Chief Warlock.”

“Harry my boy, you can be sent to Azkaban for defying the Wizengamot.”

“Am I defying the Wizengamot, or am I defying one nosy old man who thinks it’s his Merlin-given right to know every secret of Harry James Potter, whilst refusing to speak his own secrets that relate to the life of Harry James Potter? Two words: Aisle 97. So I’ll take my chances with Azkaban, Albus old man.”

A man in his forties who was wearing Wizengamot robes raised his wand and lit it. Dumbledore said, “Yes, Cyrus?”

The man said, with irritation plain in his tone of voice, “Chief Warlock Dumbledore, I’ve a question for Lord Potter.”

Harry did not give Dumbledore the chance to grant or to refuse the man permission to ask. Harry looked at the wizard and said, “Yes, sir?”

“Lord Potter, I’m Cyrus Greengrass, Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Greengrass. Daphne and Astoria are my daughters. My question to you is, Why didn’t you kill those twenty-four Death Eaters with a curse of some sort, with some sort of deadly magic? Why did you kill them all with Muggle electricity?”

Harry was not so much surprised by the question as surprised that this magically-raised wizard had not stumbled over the word electricity and had pronounced it correctly.

Harry replied, “With the exception of Severus Snape, who was a half-blood before his death, all Death Eaters are Purebloods, and are ridiculously proud of being Pureblood. The twenty-four Death Eaters who died Sunday morning each were killed by a half-blood, with a Muggle cause of death. I not only killed those disgusting Death Eaters, I insulted them.”

****

Hours later that afternoon, when the Wizengamot session adjourned till the next Friday, Harry had not been tried for anything or had been convicted of anything; he had not been sent to Azkaban. During the session, Harry had not spoken even a hint how he had killed the twenty-four Death Eaters within their warded and Fideliused manor houses; and of the entire Wizengamot, only Dumbledore had acted disrespected by this.

Of course, Harry’s situation was helped quite a lot by the fact that the Wizengamot seat-holders of the Dark faction—who certainly would have demanded answers from a half-blood whelp who was acting above his station, and who certainly would have voted for Harry’s imprisonment in Azkaban—all had died unexpectedly in strange circ*mstances, five days earlier.

****

On Sunday, 16 July, Voldemort moved back into Riddle Manor—now it’s thirteen days later (Saturday, 29 July)
Outside Granger & Granger Dental Clinic, Crawley, West Sussex

Saturday, 29 July was a comparatively warm day for England. For Chester Chadwick’s little part of the Royal Air Force, there was no work to be done till Monday (though this could change on short notice). Granger & Granger Dental Clinic in Crawley, on the other hand, on Saturday was at work, helping people who suffered from painful mouths or from dirty teeth.

Chester Chadwick, just as he had done three weeks earlier, started his personal automobile, drove to Crawley, parked his car in a car park, then hired a taxi to take him to Granger & Granger Dental.

After Chadwick had paid the taxi driver and had climbed out of the taxicab, he was holding a bright-blue envelope in his right hand. Only a few people knew that Chadwick’s right hand was actually his off-wand hand.

Any Muggle who saw the bright-blue envelope in Chadwick’s hand would expect the envelope to contain a birthday card. They were partly right—a funny birthday card was inside the bright-blue envelope—but other things were in the bright-blue envelope besides a funny card.

Chadwick was just about to grab the handle for one of the front doors of the dental clinic when a wrinkly-skinned black arm—and only an arm—appeared out of nowhere, grabbed Chadwick’s right arm and yanked him sideways.

One second later, Chadwick was no longer standing on pavement, but was standing by a potted bush. Standing nearby, and trying to stare Chadwick down, were two goblins.

It occurred to Chadwick that these two goblins might not be the only goblins here. There might well be another dozen goblin warriors surrounding him now, all of them invisible.

****

Each of the two (visible) goblins was wearing armour, and had a big axe that was carried in an axe-scabbard that was strapped to the goblin’s back. One goblin was holding a flat-topped piece of stone with runes carved on top. At the moment, all those runes glowed white. The other goblin was holding a runes-carved, flat-topped piece of stone, with a yellow gemstone and a purple gemstone stuck to the stone.

The right-side goblin, who was holding the white-runes stone, looked at Chadwick and said, “You plan to do business with Granger & Granger Dental Clinic, wizard?”

Chadwick replied, “I do, yes.”

“You don’t have evil intent, or my partner and I wouldn’t be speaking with you politely. But before you pass through those doors and you do business with the Muggles, you’ll answer our questions to our satisfaction.”

“Fair enough,” Chadwick said. “Ask your questions.”

The goblin who was holding the two-gemstones stone commanded, “Tell us a lie so we can demonstrate the Truthstone.”

Chadwick said, “I attended seven years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry.”

The purple gemstone lit up then, and glowed brightly for five seconds.

“Now say something true.”

Chadwick said, “The current Queen of the United Kingdom, Elizabeth the Second, is the daughter of King George the Sixth.”

This time it was the yellow gemstone that glowed for five seconds.

The goblin on the right ordered, “Tell us why you are here, wizard.”

Chadwick said, “Harry Potter is the boyfriend of the Grangers’ daughter. I wish to pass a message to Harry Potter without either the Ministry or the government of nonmagical Britain noticing.”

The Truthstone’s yellow gemstone glowed.

“Why do you want to avoid attention from the nonmagical government?”

“Because I work for the nonmagical government. If I’m caught with what is in this envelope, I’ll have my magical core bound, I’ll be Obliviated, then I’ll be thrown into a Queen’s Prison.”

The Truthstone’s yellow gemstone glowed.

“What is in the envelope that you don’t want the nonmagical government to see?”

“I won’t answer that, because I don’t know you and you haven’t earnt my trust. But suffice it to say, I intend no harm to any of the Grangers and I intend no harm to Harry Potter, but I intend much harm to ‘Lord Voldemort,’ otherwise known as Tom Marvolo Riddle.”

The Truthstone’s yellow gemstone glowed for half a minute, because Chadwick meant every word he just had said.

“You’re being vague in your answers, wizard. Hand over the envelope so that we can learn what is inside, to confirm that it won’t harm the Grangers.”

Suddenly Chadwick’s wand was in his left hand. “If you want the envelope, goblins, you’ll have to take it from me. You might die if you try.”

Each goblin shot a hand up and back to the axe that he carried, but neither goblin pulled his axe from its scabbard. Instead, the two goblins carried on a short conversation in Goblinspeak.

Then the white-runes goblin, whilst still touching his axehead, said, “We permit you to pass through the doors, wizard.”

Chadwick restowed his wand up his left sleeve, glared at the goblins, then walked through the front doors and inside.

****

In the Granger & Granger Dental Clinic waiting room

The receptionist said, “Good morning, sir. May I see your appointment card, please?”

Chadwick approached her with a smile. “Actually, I’m not here for dental work. I have something that I ask you to pass on to either of the Grangers, so they can pass it on to their daughter, so she can pass it on to her boyfriend. It turns out that Harry is a distant cousin of mine.”

A seventeenth cousin, maybe; but Chadwick was certain that a magically-complete genealogy would reveal that Chester Chadwick and Harry Potter were related somehow.

Meanwhile, Chadwick was handing the bright-blue envelope to the receptionist. On the front of the envelope, Chadwick had written, “To Hermione Granger’s boyfriend Harry—Happy birthday from Cousin Ian.”

The receptionist smiled warmly at Chadwick. “How sweet. I promise that I’ll pass this on to Mr or Mrs Granger within the hour. When is”—she glanced at the envelope—“Harry’s birthday?”

“Two days from now, the thirty-first. He’ll turn fifteen.”

“And who should I say brought this in?”

Chadwick smiled playfully. “The name is Bond, Ian Bond.”

****

That evening, in the Granger house

The three Grangers were being visited by Harry and by his ghostly parents. Emma Granger told Hermione, Harry and the ghosts the tale of Ian Bond’s surprise return visit, whilst Emma pulled an envelope that was eyeball-stomping blue from her purse. She handed the envelope to Harry.

Harry discovered that inside the envelope were a funny birthday card, a piece of paper that was folded in quarters and a letter.

The funny birthday card said, “You’re almost an adult—soon YOU can enjoy taxes, hangovers and pattern baldness. (Happy birthday!)” The birthday card was signed “Ian Bond.”

The folded paper, when unfolded, consisted of a labelled colour photograph, with added text. The photograph was not a glossy photograph that was printed on photo paper; instead, the photograph was made of coloured inks that were printed on regular copier paper. Harry suspected that what he was looking at was a regular colour photograph, photocopied.

What the copy-paper-and-coloured-ink photograph showed was the grey roof of a building that was surrounded by grass and some trees; the camera-angle was straight down. The building and the trees all had dark-green shadows that extended slightly down and to the right; the photograph had been taken when the day was close to noon. Judging by the length of their respective shadows, the building was only a bit taller than the trees that surrounded it.

The photograph had one oddity to it: beyond both the roof and the trees were six white, smoky lines that together made a regular, but slightly rotated, hexagon. At the vertices of the smoky-lines hexagon, the photograph showed small, bright-red circles.

Underneath the photograph was a glued-on label, “Riddle Manor.” To the left of the photograph was a left-pointing arrow that had been drawn with a ballpoint pen and a ruler, and had been given the glued-on label, “To the Little Hangleton cemetery.”

Another ballpoint-pen-and-ruler arrow pointed to the bottom of the page. This arrow had a glued-on-label, “North.”

A rectangle of text in the lower-right corner of the paper gave Riddle Manor’s location, down to a tenth of a second of longitude and a tenth of a second of latitude. Also written in the rectangle in the corner: Riddle Manor’s Apparation coordinates (even though Riddle Manor’s wards would not let either Ian Bond or Harry make use of those Apparation coordinates). The longitude/latitude and Apparation numbers matched those for one of the red squares on the “FIDELIUSED LOCATIONS IN BRITAIN” map, but Harry could not remember which red square those numbers were for.

The photograph had been printed on a piece of paper that had been cut out with scissors, then glued to a slightly bigger piece of paper. The “Riddle Manor” label, the “To the Little Hangleton cemetery” label, the “North” label, and the rectangle with longitude/latitude and Apparation information, each had been written with an electric typewriter, and each typed text had been cut out of its original paper, then had been glued to the paper that had the coloured-photograph photocopy glued to it.

Now Harry sniffed and said, “I smell rubber cement.”

Hermione said, “The ‘glue’ isn’t a sticking charm?”

Dan Granger said, “Didn’t you say once that casting any spell on an object leaves a magical residue? Can Aurors identity whose magical residue it is?”

Hermione said, “Yes, they can, if a sticking charm is used. Last time, Mr Bond used a spell that I don’t know, to remove his magical ID after he magically copied the Fideliused Houses map, but for some reason, he chose not to use that spell this time. Which means that if he wanted Magic not to reveal his identity, he had to skive off sticking charms.”

Emma said, “I’ll bet that Mr Bond wore rubber gloves, so there are no fingerprints to be found, either.”

The letter that came with the funny card and the labelled picture likewise had been written with an electric typewriter. The letter said—

This is where Lord Voldemort (Tom Marvolo Riddle) is hiding behind a Fidelius and wards, 117 metres west of the north-west corner of the Little Hangleton cemetery. On the other thing I gave you, this house is labelled “UNKNOWN 2.”

What I’m sending you, though it has been created entirely nonmagically, has the magical power to act as a written Fidelius Secret for Riddle Manor. (Meaning, if you Apparate or elf-pop to just outside the wards and you look, you can see Riddle Manor now.) The red circles in the picture show where Riddle Manor’s wardstones are at. Those wardstones probably are buried a few inches underground.

Several days ago, the building had twenty-seven people in it.

Before you show the picture to any magical person who works for any nonmagical government in Britain, remind him or her that it’s illegal for him to act on the information you’re about to give him, with dire penalties for him if he breaks the law.

Ian Bond

“Holy sh*t,” Harry breathed. “I need to check this out. Dobby!”

Pop. “The Great Harry Potter calls Dobby?”

Harry showed Dobby the picture and the text that came with the picture. “See these Apparation coordinates? Dobby, I need you to take me as close as you can get to there, but outside the wards.”

Hermione reached for him. “Wait, Harry, it’s not safe!”

Harry actually paused for thought. “You’re right, Hermione. Dobby, lay elf-invisibility, no-sound, no-smell and no-aura spells on both you and me.”

Dobby clicked his fingers, then seemingly both Harry and Dobby disappeared.

One second later, the pop of elf-Apparation was so quiet, Hermione barely heard it.

****

Emma said, “I’m confused. What’s happening?”

Hermione was wringing her hands as she answered: “It seems that Voldemort had put his Muggle family’s home behind wards”—which, the Granger parents knew, acted as a magical brick wall—“and put his house under the Fidelius Charm,” which made the entire property invisible and forgotten. “But this did not matter before now, because Voldy wasn’t using Riddle Manor for anything. But sometime in the last three weeks, Riddle has moved back into Riddle Manor and he’s using it again. Ian Bond already knew where the house was, he just didn’t know it was Voldemort’s house. Now Harry needs to know where Voldemort’s house is, and so Ian Bond just has told him. Anyone who looks at that paper that came with the birthday card, can see Riddle Manor now, and now Harry knows where to dig to expose the wardstones.”

****

Five minutes later

Hermione was frantic by the time Harry and Dobby finally returned. When the pair returned, Harry was uninjured, but he also was quiet.

“Well?” Hermione demanded.

Harry said, “Just inside the wards is a wrought-iron fence. The white paint is peeling and the metal is rusting. The grass is overgrown. The manor house needs a lot of paint and a lot of repair; it looks like a Halloween haunted house. I also,” he sighed, “caught glimpses of a giant snake slithering through the grass. I’m sure the snake is Nagini, which is Voldemort’s familiar and the last horcrux.”

“Oh, Harry!” Hermione said. She rushed forwards and gave Harry a fierce hug.

“But even though Riddle Manor looks abandoned, Dobby says there are twenty-nine magical people in the house now.”

Hermione nodded. “Him and twenty-eight Death Eaters, I’m sure.”

Harry continued, “Part of the reason that it took me so long to return here was that Dobby and I walked to the Little Hangleton cemetery. There I found the headstone of Tom Riddle that Pettigrew tied me to, five weeks ago. Nearby was the moulded-concrete Grim Reaper statue which, that night, seemed to me to be an omen. I found the place in the cemetery where Tommy’s resurrection-ritual cauldron had been. The cauldron is gone now, and no grass grows where it was.”

Hermione hugged Harry again. “You sound sad.”

He shrugged. “Horrible memories. Between the Acromantula in the maze, and Pettigrew and Voldemort having me at their mercy, so many times that night, I thought I had only seconds to live.”

But then Harry looked at Hermione and smiled. “But now my life is so much better. I’m alive, I’m healthy, I”—Harry shot a smile at his ghostly parents—“can talk to my parents, and I have you, Hermione. Just as good as these things, I now know where Mr Noseless lives, so I can end him for good. Tommy, soon I will vanquish you!”

Chapter 16: Prelude to the Attack

Chapter Text

The next morning (Sunday, 30 July)

Neville was fifteen and Harry was fourteen. Harry and Hermione (and Ghost-James and Ghost-Lily) went to Longbottom Hall and gave Neville his birthday present: Muggle gardening tools. Everyone (except the ghosts) enjoyed birthday cake and ice cream, and the atmosphere was festive.

But then Harry’s expression turned sombre. He asked Frank, Alice and Neville whether he and Hermione could speak with them alone. Augusta was not overtly excluded—but she was not invited either. Harry did not trust her.

Frank led three other living people and two ghosts into the Floo Room, then asked, “What’s on your mind, Harry?”

Before Harry spoke, he pulled from his pocket the picture-version Fidelius Secret that Ian Bond had given him, then Harry unfolded the paper.

****

Fifteen minutes later, in the Little Hangleton graveyard in Lancashire County, (northern) England

Present were Harry, Hermione, the Potter ghosts, and Frank, Alice and Neville Longbottom. At the moment, Harry was showing everyone else except Frank, the headstone of Voldemort’s Muggle father, Tom Riddle—

Harry said, “This was where I was tied up. Cedric Diggory died over there”—Harry gestured—“the cauldron was there”—Harry gestured in a different direction—“and Voldemort and I were duelling over there”—Harry gestured in a third direction—“when the ghosts came out of Voldemort’s wand. Until that moment, I had nobody to help me, and I was facing Voldy and thirty Death Eaters. I was sure I was about to die. Mum and Dad, if I could, I’d hug you both for what you did for me, right after you came out of Tommy’s wand.”

Lily and James could not hug Harry, but Hermione and Alice could hug Harry and they did, each witch crying as she hugged Harry. Neville’s eyes were shiny, and he slapped Harry on the back.

Meanwhile, Harry had conjured binoculars, and now Frank Longbottom was studying Riddle Manor through those binoculars.

When Frank brought down the binoculars, he said, “Your bloke Ian Bond achieved something amazing. Riddle Manor is under Fidelius, yet we can see it. If we can see it, we can attack it. And Voldy will be smug and complacent beforehand—meaning, we’ll find fewer defences. So who will fight with us? Hm, we need—”

Harry interrupted: “Here’s whom we don’t need. We don’t need the Order of the Phoenix, in any way, shape or form. Nor should we work with the Aurors.”

Frank looked like he wanted to snap out an angry reply. But as he was taking breath to speak, Alice grabbed his arm, and this silenced him.

Alice said calmly, “Please explain, Harry.”

“First of all, I want no involvement with the Order, which is run by Dumbledore. His version of ‘working with us’ would be to demand all information, to keep much of his own knowledge secret, to give orders which he’d expect to be obeyed unquestioningly—and then, if we’d survive all this, he’d allow the Death Eaters to slither away.”

Lily said, “James and I obeying Dumbledore got us killed. Frank, Alice, you obeying Dumbledore put you into comas for fourteen years.”

Harry nodded emphatically. “I say not only no, but bloody hell no to Dumbledore.”

“Language, Harry,” said Hermione.

Frank said, “Okay, yes, I completely agree with you: No Dumbledore, which means no Order of the Phoenix.”

Harry nodded, then said, “No to the Aurors too—to get hired as an Auror, you had to pass a NEWT in Potions.” Frank and Alice nodded. “Whilst Severus Snape was the Potions professor, to get into NEWT-level Potions, you had to have achieved an Outstanding on your Potions O.W.L.”

Alice asked, “EEs weren’t good enough for Snape?”

Harry shook his head. “He refused to accept EEs. Thanks to Snape giving extra Potions teaching in the Slytherin common room, many Slytherins in a year got the Outstanding O.W.L they needed in order to be admitted to NEWT-level Potions class, two or three Ravenclaws did it, but only one Hufflepuff and one Gryffindor, typically. Oftentimes the Gryffindor dropped NEWT-level Potions rather than suffer Snape’s mental torture, even with the Gryffindor knowing he was hurting his own future.

“So bottom line: most of the new-hire Aurors for the past twelve years have been former Slytherins. Hm, what possible problem could we have, putting former Slytherins at my back when I’m fighting Voldemort and Death Eaters?”

Hermione bit her lip nervously, then said, “Actually, I’d be nervous about any Purebloods fighting alongside me, present company plus Sirius excluded. Even if those Purebloods had Sorted into the other three Houses.”

Frank took a calming breath, then said, “Explain please, Hermione.”

“One time in the Great Hall, I heard some Ravenclaws talking about what they would do if Voldemort never had been ‘killed’ in 1981. One Ravenclaw said, ‘I wouldn’t worry too much. I’m not a half-blood and I’m not a Muggle-born. So long as You Know Who was convinced I wasn’t a blood-traitor, he’d leave me alone.’ I think this is a common attitude amongst the Purebloods since Voldy came back. What happens if some Pureblood gets Pettigrew’s idea that the surest way to convince Voldemort that you’re not a blood-traitor is to betray the real blood-traitors—also the half-bloods and Muggle-borns?”

Harry nodded. “That’s why I want to accept the offer by Headmistress Norwood at Manchester Magical Academy, for her teachers to fight with us. They can fight, they will fight, and they won’t betray us.”

Frank looked sceptical. “How can you say they can fight? They’re professors!”

Hermione said, “Actually, they call themselves ‘teachers.’ It’s less pretentious.”

Harry snapped, “Because at MMA, all the teachers except one are Muggle-born. All the students are Muggle-born, or are Muggle-raised half-bloods. The MMA teachers have expected since 1962 to be attacked by blood-purity bigots, and they expect the Aurors to not show up, or else to stand there and to cast a few token spells. So the MMA teachers plan for attacks, and they train for attacks. They’d much rather fight Voldy now, at a time of their choosing, than wait for that certain day when Voldy attacks them.”

****

Later that morning, at Potter Manor

Frank didn’t like Harry’s suggestion, of the MMA teachers being Harry’s supporting army against Voldemort, but Frank couldn’t argue with Harry’s and Hermione’s logic. Thus when Harry’s small group would attack Riddle Manor, they would not do so alongside the Order of the Phoenix and they would not do so alongside the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

A meeting promptly was set up at Potter Manor, between Frank and Alice, Harry and Hermione, James and Lily, and Manchester Magical Academy’s Mersey Norwood (the MMA headmistress) and Mark Armstrong (the MMA DADA teacher, and general of the MMA “army”).

During the meeting, both of the MMA people agreed to all the MMA teachers fighting Voldemort with Harry, Hermione and the Longbottoms—it seemed that all of the MMA teachers were eager to put You Know Who in the ground. Then Headmistress Norwood made a surprising suggestion—

“Are you aware that every class that MMA teaches, whether first-level Charms or seventh-level Computer Literacy, is available by correspondence? The only thing the correspondence-student needs, other than paying the fees and buying the textbooks, is a Gringotts magical mailbox; but many students also use the internet to send much of their correspondence by email.”

The adult Longbottoms looked blank. Hermione said, “I’ll explain later.”

Headmistress Norwood continued, “Most of our correspondence-students receive their enchanted photographs by magical mail, but return their homework as emails instead of as magical mail. My point is, by now MMA has a long list of email addresses, of current and former correspondence-students and day-students. Why don’t we email them all and ask them, ‘Would you like to join us in kicking the Dark Lord’s arse?’ ”

Harry asked, “Aren’t you worried about some magical person receiving the email, then telling Voldy?”

Norwood laughed scornfully. “The people who would do such a thing, don’t have email addresses, nor would they be caught dead taking courses from ‘the mudblood school.’ ”

Hermione said, “She’s right, Harry. The magically-raised who even know about MMA, probably think MMA teaches Muggle-borns better ways to push a plough and to thatch a roof—making the school be rubbish that no self-respecting magical person wants to associate with.”

Harry asked Headmistress Norwood, “How many of your correspondence-students are current or former Hogwarts students?”

“Directly or indirectly, all of them. The few former-MMA correspondence students are adults over nineteen—and they all had transferred to MMA day school from Hogwarts before they became MMA correspondence students.”

Harry looked at Frank and sighed. “The DADA Curse has been round since the 1960s. Figure that anyone who learnt DADA at Hogwarts after the 1950s, except for Aurors, probably would be sh*t during an actual magical battle.”

Norwood said smugly, “Unless the Hogwarts student took MMA’s DADA class, either by correspondence or as a transfer day-student.”

****

The next day (Monday, 31 July), at Potter Manor

For the first time since Harry had been one year old, he had a birthday party, organised by his godfather Sirius, with suggestions by Remus, James and Lily. Besides inviting Harry’s true friends (Hermione, Neville, and the Weasley Twins), Harry’s ghostly parents had persuaded him to invite kids who were at least a bit nice to him, most of the time: his Gryffindor yearmates; Hannah, Justin, and Susan from Hufflepuff; Luna and Su from Ravenclaw; and Blaise, Daphne, Millicent and Tracey from Slytherin. (Harry did not know Luna Lovegood of Ravenclaw at all, but invited her on Ghost-Cedric’s recommendation.)

Ron was not invited. House Potter was wealthy, yes, but House Potter could not afford to give Ron Weasley access to free food that House Potter would be paying for.

During the birthday party, Sirius conjured a wooden dance floor. The dancing was to music by Celestina Warbeck and the Weird Sisters; but also by Michael Jackson and Blondie. Seven times, Luna Lovegood requested that the disk jockey play “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley.

Five times the Weasley Twins waltzed with each other, even when the song played was not in three-quarters time.

Harry danced more dances with Hermione than with any other girl; but every other girl there asked Harry to dance with her once. Lavender and Parvati asked Harry to dance with both of them at the same time; so did Susan and Hannah.

During the entire birthday party, Harry was nonstop-smiling; so were James, Lily, Sirius, Remus and Hermione.

****

After the party guests had left, except for Hermione, and after Remus had left, Harry looked sombrely at Sirius and said, “I’m cooking up something dangerous. Before I tell you what it is, I need from you, a vow on your magic.”

Hermione pulled a slip of paper from a pocket of her tight blue jeans, and handed the paper to Sirius.

Sirius read aloud, “ ‘I, Sirius Orion Black, swear on my magic that I will volunteer no information about Harry Potter to Albus Dumbledore, except when this information is about Harry’s Hogwarts education; and I will refuse to answer all questions from Dumbledore about Harry Potter, except when those questions are about Harry’s Hogwarts education. So mote it be.’ ”

Harry did not tell his godfather that if everything worked to plan, Harry would get no Hogwarts education in the future. If so, Dumbledore’s future attempts to pump Sirius for information about Harry would be a 100-percent waste of the old man’s time.

Now Sirius’s eyebrows shot up. “If I swear this, I’m forbidden to answer any of his questions about your life outside Hogwarts, right? Even if you’re standing right there and you give me permission to answer his question?”

Hermione said, “Forbidden, yes. If Harry’s in-person permission is allowed as a loophole, then Dumbledore will just mind-whammy Harry, or coerce him, or bamboozle him, info giving his permission.”

Harry said, “Also, why should Dumbledore be told anything? He’s not my magical guardian anymore, and I’m not in his Order of the Phoenix. He now is entitled to know nothing about my life except for Hogwarts.”

Sirius nodded at Harry’s words, drew his wand and gave the oath. Harry felt relief.

Then Harry told Sirius, “I know where Voldemort lives. Sometime between now and 1 September, Hermione and I, three of the four Longbottoms, the faculty of Manchester Magical Academy, and whatever Muggle-born volunteers I can recruit, will attack Voldemort and his Death Eaters, and we’ll kill them all. I invite you to be part of this attacking force.”

“No Ministry help? No Aurors, Hit-Wizards or Unspeakables?”

“No. Big-time security risk.”

“What about the Order of the Phoenix helping?”

“Ha. Only if I want Voldemort and the Death Eaters to lead long and healthy lives, whilst my fellow attackers are bloviated to death.”

“Remus?”

“He’d find a way to tell Dumbles, no matter how his vow was worded.”

Sirius sighed and nodded.

Harry continued, “I don’t want Dumbledore to even suspect I’m up to something involving Voldemort till my grandchildren receive their Hogwarts letters.”

“What about the Weasleys?”

“Ron is no longer my friend. You know this, right? If I invited both the Twins and Ron, Ron would just cause problems. If I invited the Twins but didn’t invite Ron, Ron would throw a tantrum and he’d shoot his mouth off everywhere, and the wrong people—Voldy and Dumbledore both—would find out what I was planning. In no time at all, Dumbledore would be in front of me, telling me how disappointed in me he was, and saying that I should let older, wiser and bearded heads make all the decisions about Voldemort, whilst I ‘enjoy my childhood’—meaning, whilst I go to Privet Drive and be beaten, starved and overworked.”

Sirius said with a grin, “I’m sold, Pup; tell me when and where, and I’ll be there. Are you putting me in charge of training the Muggle-borns?”

“No. Actually, Frank and Alice Longbottom, and Mark Armstrong of MMA—they would be training you. Voldemort will be hit with new attacks he isn’t expecting.”

****

The next day (Tuesday, 1 August 1995)
At the Potter Sheep Ranch in Wales

The Potter Sheep Ranch had not been on Ian Bond’s Fidelius map—because whilst the property was protected by wards, it was not under Fidelius.

Two days ago, Headmistress Norwood of MMA had mailed out emails that hinted in general what misdeeds some people, “including Harry Potter,” were going to make “soon,” which ugly Dark Lord and his minions that Harry & Co were going to make the misdeeds against, and asked the email recipient if (s)he wanted to join the fight.

However, anyone who worked for the government of nonmagical Britain, at any level, was urged not to volunteer, because if (s)he did, (s)he could get his/her magic bound, be Obliviated, then be thrown in prison. Bummer.

Anyway, two days ago, Norwood had sent bulk-emails that asked for volunteers for an anti-Voldemort magical task force. Today, the volunteers would come to the Potter Sheep Ranch to be evaluated and be trained. The would-be fighters were given Apparation coordinates for the Potter Sheep Ranch; and for fifteen minutes, Harry would drop the wards.

****

After the volunteers (plus Sirius) arrived at the Potter Sheep Ranch, and before anything else happened, each volunteer (plus Sirius) had to swear on his or her magic that—

(S)he would not discuss anything that happened today except with other volunteers who had come today, for one year (meaning, till 1 August 1996). If (s)he passed today’s screening, (s)he would be given orders today, and would receive training today and perhaps would receive training again before the battle, but (s)he was not permitted to divulge those orders or his/her training to anyone who was not here today, or who had failed the screening, till 1 August 1996. Included in the orders was a limited bit of information that could be shared with outsiders; divulging this permitted information was not a violation of the oath.

Stripped of all the lawyerly preciseness, what the vows said was this: You won’t tell Voldemort any information that he would find even slightly useful; and if some third person wants to tell Voldemort “useful” information, this other person can’t, because you won’t have told your friends, neighbours, family and coworkers anything useful either—until a year from now, when your silence no longer matters.

****

After the oaths, the next order of business was to evaluate/screen the volunteers. The evaluators were Frank Longbottom, Harry Potter and Mark Armstrong (of MMA). The evaluators had three advisors: Alice Longbottom, Hermione Granger and Mersey Norwood.

About a third of the volunteers turned out to be current or former Hogwarts students. They were, or had been, taking MMA correspondence courses in Muggle subjects that Hogwarts did not teach. Fourteen of the Hogwarts-connected volunteers, besides taking nonmagical courses by correspondence, also were, or had been, taking correspondence courses in Potions, History of Magic and DADA, which Hogwarts taught badly. Three volunteers were former Hogwarts students who had transferred to MMA, but then had been banned from the campus when they had hit age nineteen, so were now completing their magical/nonmagical education by correspondence.

About two-thirds of the volunteers turned out to be MMA students who never had attended a different school.

Frank and Alice Longbottom and Mark Armstrong duelled the volunteers—auditioning them as magical soldiers. However, some volunteers, all from MMA, asked for a different audition: all three evaluators v. a team of three volunteers.

The results of all the valuations? The MMA students were uncanny; those Hogwarts students who had not taken the MMA course in DADA by correspondence, were inept.

What caused jaws-dropping by Harry, Frank and Alice (and by observer Sirius) was that the MMA volunteers practiced during their “auditions,” magical combat that used many Muggle elements. Groups of MMA volunteers fought as magical squads, not as one-on-one duellers.

Those who had studied MMA-version DADA also knew a spell to turn their wands into magical ruby lasers. When the magic-laser spell was powered highly enough, the magic laser could both cut a body part off a person’s main body and could cauterise both the body part’s and the main body’s wounds—which meant that the body part could not be magically reconnected to the main body. Needless to say, Hermione almost swooned when she learnt about all this.

Besides the three evaluators having to dismiss the inept fighters who would only get themselves killed if they faced evil magicals who were fond of the Killing Curse, the evaluators also had to send away those who were under seventeen. Justin-Finch-Fletchley was blackballed twice.

****

When the evaluations were finished, the three evaluators had fifty-one Muggle-borns (ahem, “first-generation magicals”) who were good enough at magical fighting.

But then Frank and Mark had one last Gotcha for the would-be fighters: “Soon a house-elf will come to you and will hand you a paper that has the Apparation coordinates for the Potter Sheep Ranch written on it. You have one minute to speak to the house-elf and to Apparate to where the paper says to go. It is a violation of today’s oath to leave the Apparation-coordinates paper behind. Plan to stay at the Potter Sheep Ranch for ninety-six hours, for training; pack enough clothing and toiletries. Don’t worry about packing food or water; Harry Potter will feed you. During the minute after the house-elf has notified you, you may tell people in your life only these two words: ‘I’m gone’; you should already have notified your work, your school and your family that you will be out of touch for ninety-six hours. The oath you took today means that you may not tell anybody about why you will be absent for ninety-six hours, only that you will be.”

The evaluators lost five people from this order; five people were willing to risk their lives against Voldemort, but were not willing to miss four days of work or of school.

This left forty-six qualified anti-Voldemort fighters. One of the forty-six asked, “After the solid ninety-six hours of training, when do we attack You Know Who?”

Frank Longbottom answered, “We’ll leave the Potter Sheep Ranch and attack Lord Voldemort sometime during those ninety-six hours. But if you don’t know when the attack will be until it’s the last minute, neither will Voldemort know.”

****

Once Frank, Alice and Mark had their final list of the forty-six new volunteers who would serve in the anti-Voldemort task force, Frank, Alice and Mark spent the rest of the day giving review DADA training to the forty-six, plus the twenty-one other MMA teachers who also were volunteering to fight in the task force.

****

The operational security for this so-called attack was amateurish; it was pathetic. Any career Russian spy who somehow heard about what Frank and Alice, Harry and Hermione, Sirius, and the British Muggle-borns all were plotting “secretly,” would have fallen out of his chair, tears of scornful laughter streaming down the spy’s face.

Had Lucius Malfoy been alive, perhaps the Muggle-borns’ plot would have become known to Lucius (and soon afterwards, to Voldemort), and the overconfident Muggle-born attackers would have been painfully slaughtered on the day of their attack. After all, Lucius had been evil enough, and had been clever enough, to perhaps Imperius someone at MMA to pass on to Lucius, anything noteworthy that the mudbloods might be doing.

But any Imperius that Lucius might have laid on any Muggle-born, to report juicy information to Lucius, failed with Lucius’s death. And nobody else who served Voldemort had as twisty a mind as Lucius, except for Voldemort himself.

Meanwhile, Voldemort thought he knew who his enemies were, but Voldemort was wrong. Voldemort believed that Harry Potter was stupid and of only ordinary magical power.

Voldemort also believed that Potter, for all that he grumbled about the bearded old man, obeyed the old man’s orders—the same as everyone else on the Light side. So this left only Dumbledore for Voldemort to worry about. Voldemort considered Dumbledore to be a first-rate duellist, almost the equal of Voldemort himself, but as a commander of magical troops? Dumbledore was a pacifist who never took anyone else’s advice. Meaning, Dumbledore was to Voldemort an annoyance, nothing more.

Voldemort, by the day after his resurrection, had concluded: With only Dumbledore to stop him, it was only a matter of time before Voldemort was Magical King of Britain. Then Voldemort would turn his covetous attention to Europe.

Admittedly, that lucky, lucky boy pest, Harry Potter, had dealt Voldemort many setbacks in the last month. But this was all that Voldemort’s Potter-caused problems were—setbacks. Voldemort still would someday be Magical King of Britain; it would just take longer to get there, because of the annoying boy.

Thus Voldemort took no more notice of what British Muggle-borns might be plotting in August 1995, than what Ecuadorian shamans might be plotting in August 1995.

Voldemort’s inattentiveness would cost him.

****

Someone else was likewise out of the loop, and remained unaware of the planned attack against Voldemort: Albus Dumbledore.

Chapter 17: First-Gen Avengers Assemble!

Chapter Text

The next day (Wednesday, 2 August)
One month after the deaths of Draco and Lucius Malfoy
At Potter Manor

Pop. Goldy, the head Malfoy house-elf, appeared in front of Harry. “Lord Malfoy,” Goldy said, “Widow Malfoy ask for oddensse”—an audience—“wit yous.”

Harry looked at Hermione with a raised eyebrow. Any idea what this is about? Harry’s eyebrow asked.

Hermione shook her head.

Harry said to Goldy, “Sure, bring Narcissa here.”

Pop. Pop. Goldy elf-popped out, then elf-popped back in, now holding Narcissa Malfoy’s hand. For a second, Narcissa frowned when she saw that Hermione was in the room.

Narcissa curtseyed and said, with a pleasant expression, “Lord Malfoy.”

Harry stood up, bowed to Narcissa, kissed her knuckles, then sat down again. “Widow Malfoy.”

Then Harry said, “Thank you, Goldy, you may go.” Pop.

Harry said next, “Hermione, would you go somewhere else, please? I’ll talk to you later, unless Widow Malfoy requests secrecy.”

“No problem, Harry,” Hermione said. She kissed Harry on the cheek, then headed to the kitchen. Narcissa’s face was a mask, but Harry suspected that Narcissa felt relief at Hermione’s departure.

Harry called for Greyclay, and asked the head Potter house-elf to serve tea and biscuits.

Over the next ten minutes, Harry and his visitor drank the tea and ate the biscuits.

Then Harry turned to face Narcissa fully. “Now, what can Lord Malfoy do for Widow Malfoy?”

She replied, “On 5 July, I conducted the funerals for my husband and my son. I have met my final obligations to House Malfoy.”

Harry said, “So you have. I was told that as funerals go, the two funerals were impressive. Live music, speakers, and many, many flowers.” Harry did not need to mention to Narcissa that for many reasons, Harry had not attended either funeral.

Narcissa seemingly changed the subject: “I checked on Vault L1214 today. Thank you for paying me the ten thousand galleons,” which was Narcissa’s monthly Widow Stipend, according to the marriage contract that Abraxas Malfoy and Arcturus Black had signed. Today Harry had made the first G10 000 transfer from the Malfoy coinage vault to Narcissa’s personal vault.

Now Harry asked, “You were worried that I wouldn’t pay the ten thousand? That I’d force you to live out your remaining years with only the coinage that was already in your personal vault?”

Narcissa did not say Yes, but neither did she say anything like No, I trust you.

Harry said, “Hermione—my genius Muggle-born girlfriend; Draco might’ve mentioned her—thinks it’s an interesting legal question: What exactly does it mean that I’m Lord Malfoy by Right of Conquest? When must I follow rules and obligations that bound previous Lords Malfoy, and when can I throw out the House Malfoy rules and start from scratch?”

As an aside, Harry said, “It doesn’t help me now that I was raised as a Muggle, so don’t know any magical-Britain rules, despite whatever lies Dumbledore has told the Wizarding World.”

Then Harry looked at Narcissa. “Even if my being Lord Malfoy BROC means that I legally could laugh off your Widow Stipend, I wouldn’t. Did Draco tell you that I rescued Hermione from a troll, two months into our first year? That I rescued Ron Weasley’s sister Ginny from a basilisk, at the end of my second year? I not only believe in chivalry, I practise it—I wouldn’t let a woman starve if I could stop it.”

“You practise chivalry even when the ‘damsel in distress’ was Lucius Malfoy’s wife and Draco Malfoy’s mother?”

“Even so.”

Narcissa dropped a curtsy. “Thank you, Lord Malfoy. I am reassured.”

The rest of Narcissa’s meeting with Harry lasted only minutes. She told Harry that she had asked Sirius Black, the Head of House for Narcissa’s birth-family, for permission to leave Britain forever. Sirius had granted such permission. Now Narcissa was asking the head of her marriage-family for permission to leave Britain.

Narcissa did not explain why she suddenly wished to leave her home country, never to return, and Harry did not ask her why.

Harry gave his permission for Narcissa to leave Britain; then he asked Narcissa where future Widow Stipend payments were to be sent—to Vault L1214, or to a different vault?

Narcissa pulled a quarter-foot of parchment from a pocket of her robe. On the parchment was written, “Pay Narcissa Malfoy’s Widow Stipend to Vault R7489.”

Harry asked, “What Gringotts is this vault in?”

“Gringotts Roma.”

Harry said, “Speaking hypothetically, if you were willing to pay two vault-rental fees instead of one, you could rent a vault in Gringotts Sydney, Gringotts New York, Gringotts Paris or Gringotts Delhi. Then you could tell Gringotts Roma to take whatever coinage came into R7489 and to send the money to the other vault. This way, nobody in Britain, not even I, would know the country you actually were living in.”

Narcissa, her face pleasant and otherwise expressionless, said, “This is a clever suggestion.”

Harry signed Narcissa’s note. Then Harry called for Goldy to deliver Narcissa’s note to Slicesword, the Malfoy account manager; then, Harry now told Goldy that Goldy was to take Narcissa Malfoy back to Malfoy Manor.

Harry, it turned out, was the last person to ever see Narcissa Malfoy in Britain.

****

Three days later (Saturday, 5 August, 5.34pm)
At the Potter Sheep Ranch
The members of the task force have just Apparated in to coordinates A7CBx9C62 0811xAA74 0000x0000
Hour 0.1 of the 96 hours

Harry looked out at the throng of would-be Voldemort-killers in front of him. Harry Sonorused himself, then began to speak—

“Good afternoon, my name is Harry Potter. Before I introduce your trainers or myself, I require each of you to make this magical oath: ‘I swear on my magic and my life that I will not pass, by either magical or nonmagical means, any sort of information to anyone who is not currently at the Potter Sheep Ranch, until ninety-six hours have passed or until Harry Potter releases me from my oath. So mote it be.’ ”

Seventy-three oaths were taken, spoken one oath at a time. Even Hermione, Sirius and all three Longbottoms spoke the oath. The oaths being individually spoken, took a big part of an hour.

****

Then Harry spoke to the crowd again—

“Before I introduce your trainers, let me introduce myself. As I told you about an hour ago, my name is Harry Potter. For those of you who’ve had exposure to Wizarding Britain, I’m the Head of House Potter—a House that is about a thousand years old, give or take a few centuries. Anyway, I’m your host—the bloke who will be providing you with food for the next four days, tents, and lawn to pitch those tents on. Why tents? Forty-six of you are volunteers to fight the Dark Failure—Voldemort—and twenty-two of you are Manchester Magical Academy faculty who also have volunteered to fight the Dark Failure. These numbers add up to be sixty-eight volunteers. Unfortunately, Potter Manor isn’t big enough to hold sixty-eight guests. Sorry.

“If I look fifteen years old and sound fifteen, it’s because I am fifteen. How I became Head of House Potter at fifteen is a long story—but the short version is, a schemer who thought of me as his personal chess piece, outsmarted himself.

“Each of you here, with only six exceptions plus me, is what MMA calls a first-generation magical, or first-gen for short, and is what Hogwarts calls a Muggle-born. Each of these terms means a magical person with both parents being nonmagical. Because of what first-gens are, they spend their first eleven years of life in the nonmagical world. Many of you find the word Muggle-born offensive, but it’s the word I learnt at Hogwarts, so apologies in advance if it slips into my speech.

“Anyway, I have two magical parents but I didn’t grow up in Magical Britain, I grew up in nonmagical Britain between the age of fifteen months and eleven years. So I’ve the same outsider’s perspective on Wizarding Britain as all but six of you have. This explains why my girlfriend Hermione is a Mug—is a first-generation witch. The magically-raised kids at Hogwarts are a bit like space aliens to me.”

Harry saw Neville look at him with a puzzled expression.

Harry continued, “By the by, my girlfriend Hermione is a first-gen genius, and my mother Lily was a first-gen genius. The blood-purity bigots at Hogwarts, their brains all explode when a witch with two nonmagical parents scores higher marks in magical classes than do they the Purebloods.

“The other thing you need to know about me is that when my mum was pregnant with me, a bloody Prophecy was spoken about me. In a few words, the Prophecy says that I somehow have the power to ‘vanquish’ the Dark Lord, but I’m not guaranteed to win. I could die.” Harry shrugged.

“Honestly, I change from one day to the next, whether I believe the Prophecy or not. On the one hand, the woman who spoke the Prophecy is a drunk, and usually a fraud. On the other hand, the Prophecy correctly predicted the date of my birth: 31 July 1980. Also, every time I’ve tried to kill Death Eaters, I’ve been successful, without me getting hurt even slightly—which the Prophecy predicts would happen. Anyway, here’s the full text of the Prophecy...”

A minute later, Harry said, “...It doesn’t matter whether you lot believe the Prophecy or not; it’s not even important whether I believe the bloody thing. What’s important here is that the Dark Failure has heard only part of the Prophecy, but what he’s heard, he completely believes. Listen, six times now, he’s tried to kill me—the first time was when I was fifteen months old, and the last time was a bit over a month ago. Six times he’s tried to kill me! Hence the name, ‘Dark Failure.’ ”

The crowd murmured. Harry saw Hermione’s chin come up.

Harry continued, “I’ve decided that I’m sick of all these attacks, and it’s time that Voldemort suffered the maybe-deadly surprises. This is why you’re here. As I said before, everyone here, with only six exceptions plus me, is a first-gen; so the Dark Failure’s minions want to kill you all. Why?

“Let me tell you a shameful secret about the Purebloods in Wizarding Britain: They’re inbred, so they get hit with birth defects. One of these birth defects is a child being a Squib, or Minimal—meaning that this child who is born to two magical parents, has no magic. The opposite of you lot, in other words. Now, the Purebloods don’t want to admit With as much as our families are inbred, of course we’ll have Squib children from time to time. No, they say, ‘The explanation for our Squib relative is, erm, the explanation is, erm—some rotter Muggle-born stole all the magic from our poor victimised baby relative!’ The Dark Failure knows better, since he’s the son of a Minimal and a nonmagical. But for Voldy to conquer Wizarding Britain, he needs the help of the Purebloods, so he tells the Purebloods what they want to hear. Which is, ‘Those mudbloods are Underwizards, and our society will be much better off if we kill them all.’ But remember this: When Purebloods act all snooty and superior to you the ‘mudblood,’ they hate you because you have magic, but a close relative of theirs doesn’t, and they’re scared that one of their future children won’t.”

Hearing Harry’s words, the three Longbottoms looked gobsmacked. On the other hand, Sirius was smirking.

Harry continued, “Sometime in the next ninety-six hours, we’ll go to where the Dark Failure Voldemort lives, we’ll battle him and his Death Eaters, then all those mask-wearing inbreds who say ‘I want to kill mudbloods’ will be put down like rabid dogs, by mudbloods—or rather, by first-generation magicals.”

The crowd cheered. Hermione was grinning, and clapping enthusiastically. So were Sirius and Ghost-Lily. But Ghost-James, the three Longbottoms, and an old woman in witch’s robes all looked like they did not know what to think.

****

Harry then introduced the six wizard-raised magicals in the crowd—

“First, my ghostly father, James Potter.” Ghost-James bowed to the crowd. Harry continued, “He and my mother, working as battle partners, fought Voldy three times without dying. The reason they’re dead now is because they were betrayed by a so-called friend, Peter.

“Next is Sirius Black, who was my father’s closest friend. I’m told that when Sirius Black was an Auror, he arrested many Death Eaters after outfighting them.

“Next, Frank and Alice Longbottom, and their son Neville. Frank and Alice, like my parents, survived three duels with Voldy, but then were likewise betrayed by Peter. Frank and Alice, unlike my parents, ‘only’ were put into magical comas for fourteen years.

“The last wizard-raised person I want to point out is Ophelia Burke. She graduated from Hogwarts in the year ahem, and now teaches Arithmancy at MMA.

“Finally, let me tell you about your trainers, who will spend some part of the next four days teaching you how to fight evil Death Eaters and evil Voldemort—

“Your first trainer is me. My theoretical knowledge of magical battle isn’t much—Hogwarts hires a new DADA professor every year, and all but one are a disgrace—but I’ve duelled one Death Eater to the death, and I’ve duelled the Dark Failure three times. From these duels to the death, I’ve learnt some things.

“Two more of your trainers are Frank and Alice Longbottom—who as I said before, duelled Voldy three times and survived.

“My parents can’t duel you, being ghosts, but they also survived three battles with Voldy, and they’ll offer advice to anyone who’ll listen.

“The last of your living trainers is Mark Armstrong, who normally is the DADA teacher at MMA. He has taught DADA at MMA for nineteen years. He has a mastery in DADA, with his Mastery Project being ‘Incorporating Nineteenth-Century Nonmagical Army Tactics when Teaching Magical Combat to Untrained Magical Fighters.’ ”

****

An hour and a half later (7pm, two hours before sunset)

The “Welcome, everyone!” speechmaking was finished, and the training had begun. The fighters now were training how to defend themselves against the Killing Curse.

For this training, the fighters were using a transfigured pouch at each fighter’s waist that was filled with pebbles, and using a training spell that Hermione had invented: Avada Colourchange.

All Avada Colourchange did was to send a bright-green blob of light in the direction that the wand was pointed. If someone was hit by the green blob, he or she turned green for a second, and this was all.

Avada Colourchange, just like the other Avada spell, took six syllables to incant and travelled at spell-speed (74 feet per second).

Since Avada Colourchange was not an Unforgiveable, theoretically it could be blocked with a Protego spell. But the fighters were not practising blocking Avada Colourchange this way; instead, they were silently levitating a pebble out of their pouch and into the path of the green spell, then enlarging the pebble till all of the green blob was absorbed by the enlarged pebble.

Needless to say, when practise first started, nobody except the trainers blocked the green spell even half the time. But nobody was bothered by this. People made jokes about their own ineptness—

“...(Rest) boom, boom, boom, another one bites the dust! (Rest) boom, boom, boom, another one bites the dust! And another one gone, and another one gone, another one bites the dust! Hey, he’s gonna get you too, another one bites the dust!”

The method of training was this: Frank Longbottom put the trainees into a circle that was 147 feet in diameter, which was the diameter of the wards-circle that was made by the wardstones at Riddle Manor. In the middle of the 147-foot-diameter circle were ten training dummies that cast the Avada Colourchange spell, about once per second per dummy. Each training dummy spoke the spell aloud but in a monotone voice, before shooting the green blob out of the dummy’s wand.

What made practise tricky for the trainees was that each training dummy, before each incantation and spellcast, rotated to face a random trainee, so could ‘kill’ any of the trainees in the circle. From the trainees’ viewpoint, any of the ten training dummy could shoot the Avada Colourchange spell at any trainee, at any time.

In the first hour of training, Harry heard many No Fairs spoken, and was tempted a few times to say those words himself.

****

Three days and 13.4 hours later
Wednesday, 9 August, 8.25am
The Potter Sheep Ranch

Frank and Alice Longbottom, Harry Potter and Mark Armstrong looked at their task force of fighters.

Sonorused Harry Potter said, “You’re ready. When the Avada Colourchange spell is cast at you now, you’re ‘surviving’ it almost every time.”

The crowd applauded and cheered.

“I almost feel sorry for the Death Eaters, who don’t have a Plan B when they shoot the Killing Curse at someone and he doesn’t die.”

The crowd laughed scornfully. In the crowd, Sirius shot Harry two thumbs up.

Harry continued, “Change of subject: Has anyone not seen the aerial photograph of Riddle Manor that acts as a Fidelius Secret for Riddle Manor? Speak up now if you haven’t viewed it.”

Silence.

Sonorused Mark Armstrong told the crowd, “It’s been eighty-seven hours since we ordered you to come to the Potter Sheep Ranch for ninety-six hours. If Lord Death-from-Fleas is aware of our plans, he won’t expect us till nine hours from now. Who here wants to wait the nine hours, filling the time with more Avada Colourchange drills and running inside the fences, and who wants to surprise the Noseless Idiot by attacking him now?”

The crowd yelled, “Now! Now! Now! Now! Now!”

Sonorused Frank Longbottom said, “All of you know your main assignments and your backup assignments. We’re ready and the Portkey-ropes are ready; let’s go!”

The crowd yelled loud and long.

Harry had one more thing to say to the crowd: “Act as my Hand and vanquish those wankers, including the Dark Failure Voldemort!”

After Harry Quietused himself, he rushed towards where Hermione, Neville and Sirius were standing. Harry said with a grin, “The Dark Failure is only minutes away from many, many surprises that he has never imagined.”

****

Eighteen minutes later (Wednesday, 9 August, 8.43am)
Outside the Riddle Manor wards

Eleven days ago, Harry had described Riddle Manor to Hermione; Harry’s description made the place seem like a haunted house in the daytime. Eleven days later, this description still fit. Inside the wards, the iron fence was rusting and needed paint, the grass was high, the house needed paint and repaired shutters, and shingles were missing from the roof.

By now the task-force attackers had found Riddle Manor’s six wardstones. Harry’s ghostly parents pointed out to him that Ghost-Cedric was floating by one of the wardstones; and—to Harry’s shock—“Moaning Myrtle” (the ghost of Myrtle Warren) was floating next to Cedric.

Embarrassed Harry rushed over to the two unexpected ghosts, with his ghostly parents and Hermione following him. Harry said, “Cedric, how did you know to come here? I, erm, forgot to tell you about our attack on Tom today. And Myrtle, I thought you couldn’t leave Hogwarts.”

Both Cedric and Myrtle gave the same answer: each of them had been drawn to come to this place now.

Hermione gestured towards James and Lily, and said to Cedric and to Myrtle, “The four of you will have a great view of the action that’s about to start.”

Then Harry got an idea for a prank that the ghosts could pull on Voldemort—a prank that was Marauder-worthy in its cruelty, and which would build on Harry’s own cruel prank against Voldemort.

Aloud, Harry asked the ghosts, “How would you four like to help the attack on Tommy?”

“How?” asked Myrtle. “We’re not solid, and we can’t cast spells. We’re worthless.”

“Worthless, are you kidding? Being a ghost, no attack spell works on you, and you can still talk. Which means you can make psychological attacks against the sod who murdered you.”

Harry quickly explained what he wanted from the ghosts. All four ghosts grinned evilly.

****

After Harry’s quick talk with the ghosts, the task-force attackers were gathered in groups right beyond each wardstone. The designated wardbuster for each wardstone had removed the foot of dirt that had buried the wardstone, which resulted in exposing the wardstone to daylight.

At this point, nobody inside Riddle Manor had come outside to look or to cast curses. Harry figured that Voldemort and his Death Eaters did not know that Harry & Co were even here. However, the ignorance of the bad guys would end in the instant that the first wardbuster started to destroy a wardstone.

Whilst the wardbusters were exhuming the wardstones, and whilst the ghosts of Myrtle Warren, James, Lily and Cedric watched the wardbusters work, Harry performed a small chore.

Harry pulled Ian Bond’s written-Fidelius Riddle Manor-picture out of his pocket, then Harry drew his wand. Everyone who needed to see the Fidelius-picture in order to carry out the attack, had seen the picture by now, and the picture incriminated Ian Bond, so Harry intended to get rid of the picture. Harry pointed his wand at the picture and vanished the picture.

With this done, Harry pulled his shrunken-down broom from his pocket and, with his wand, restored the broom to proper size. Harry stowed his wand, then grabbed his broom and gave Hermione a quick kiss.

Then Harry covered himself with the True Cloak of Invisibility, drew his wand again, and climbed onto his broom.

Harry flew in an upward helix, flying always outside the cylindrical wards but steadily higher. Thanks to a spell that Hermione had invented at Harry’s request, Harry’s wand now spoke like a BBC presenter, continually telling Harry his height above the ground.

When Harry was 1 001 feet above the ground, he levelled off. He flew in a slow horizontal direction till he was directly above Riddle Manor. Then Harry slowly descended, inside the wards that had not fallen yet, whilst he waited for the “excitement” to begin outside the manor house.

****

In theory, there were two ways to bring down wards.

One way was to expose the wardstones to light and air, then to mark through all the runes that were carved on each wardstone. But the markthroughs would be magically ignored if they were done with a penknife, or with a single tap of a hammer and chisel. For the markthroughs to undo the runes they marked through, the markthroughs had to be carved to the same depth as the runes. Which, if the wardbuster was using a hammer and runes-carving chisel to chisel out deep-enough markthroughs, would take time.

It was a safe bet that the Death Eaters, once they discovered the attackers’ presence, would not give the wardbusters the needed time.

The other way to bring down wards was for six groups of many, many magical people to all point their wands at a wardstone, all at the same time, and to push their magic into “their” wardstone. The overall effect of all six wardstones being heavily magicked at once would be that the wards would overcharge and would collapse.

However, these magicals who were pushing their magic into a wardstone were defenceless against attack. Whilst standing outside of an Egyptian tomb, with nobody nearby, this was not a problem.

But at Riddle Manor, which had defenders, and these defenders were presumed to be eager to cast Killing Curses, magicals pushing their magic into a wardstone—and in the process, becoming too magically weak to defend themselves—was no option at all.

Thus there was only one choice how to bring down the Riddle Manor wards: markthroughs of all the runes on all the wardstones.

For the Riddle Manor wardstones, the runes were carved half a centimetre deep. Which meant that the markthroughs had to go half a centimetre deep. Fortunately for the attackers, the wardbusters did not need to work with hammers and chisels. Instead, the wardbusters had the Lumos laseri (laser-beam) spell, which MMA had invented. Each wardbuster intended for each markthrough by magical laser beam to carve the markthrough half a centimetre deep. Once the work began, it took each wardbuster and his magic-laser spell less than a minute to effectively mark through all the runes on his wardstone, which turned the former wardstone into a mere paperweight.

****

However, “less than a minute” could be a long, long time, in human terms.

As the quickest wardbuster made his first markthrough in his wardstone, the task-force attackers heard what sounded like a snake’s hiss—except the sound was loud, and the noise came from Riddle Manor.

****

When the snake-hiss alarm was sounding loudly, what was Harry hearing?

“§Wardstone 3 is being sabotaged. Wardstone 3 is being sabotaged. Wardstone 3 is being sabotaged...§”

****

About a minute after the start of the snake-hiss alarm, and before the wardbusters had finished all their markthroughs, the front and rear doors of Riddle Manor opened and Death Eaters poured out.

The first Killing Curse was cast even before the lead Death Eater had stepped out his door.

****

Voldemort, his Death Eaters and Nagini all were ignorant of the fact that, in addition to the attackers they could see, Harry Potter was hovering invisibly on his broom, 643 feet above the ground floor of Riddle Manor. Harry, under his Cloak, held his wand in one hand.

****

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Earlier in this chapter, I wrote, “Thanks to a spell that Hermione had invented at Harry’s request, Harry’s wand spoke like a BBC presenter, continually telling Harry his height above the ground.” Hermione invented nearly the same spell, also at Harry’s request, in my story “Daphne’s Letter from the Future.” The DLftF version of Hermione’s spell expressed the height in digits.

Chapter 18: The Fearmonger is Frightened

Chapter Text

Still Wednesday morning, 9 August, 8.47am
Still at Riddle Manor, in the ballroom (which now is Voldemort’s throne room)

“§Wardstone 3 is being sabotaged. Wardstone 6 is being sabotaged. Wardstone 5 is being sabotaged. Wardstone 1 is being sabotaged. Wardstone 2 is being sabotaged. Wardstone 4 is being sabotaged.§”

When Voldemort heard the Parseltongue alarm that informed him that one of his wardstones was being sabotaged—followed immediately by Parseltongue alarms for the other five outer wardstones—Voldemort’s first thought was, Who would dare attack ME?

A Sonorused man’s voice came from outside: “EVERYONE WHO CAN, CAST A WIDE-ANGLE GROUND-LEVEL DIFFINDO. LET’S GET RID OF THAT FENCE AND ALL THE TALL GRASS.”

Meanwhile, Voldemort was yelling at the Death Eaters who were in the ballroom with him, “We are being attacked! Kill all the attackers!”

A woman’s voice spoke from behind Voldemort: “You’re sending them to their doom—and we’re eager to see it.”

Voldemort spun about. Floating in his ballroom were the ghost of mudblood Myrtle Warren, who had been Tom Riddle’s first kill; the ghost of the Triwizard boy whom Wormtail had killed with Voldemort’s wand; and the ghosts of the Potter couple. It was the mudblood-bint Potter ghost who had spoken.

The ghost of James Potter looked past Voldemort to all the Death Eaters. “Mates, I hope each of you has written a will. My son and his friends have surprises for you.”

The ghost of the Triwizard boy grinned at the Death Eaters. “You’re all spares, and outside they’ll kill all the spares.”

Ghost-Myrtle said, “Your wives and daughters will cry in the lavatory.”

Belatedly Voldemort realised that he had heard no feet running out of the ballroom. Indeed, all his Death Eaters were still in the ballroom, staring in fear at the four ghosts.

Voldemort snarled at his minions, “You have a choice: kill outside or be killed here. Hear me well: Those people outside, they will be easy to kill; but if you stay here, you will be easy to kill.”

Voldemort’s Death Eaters hurriedly conjured robes and masks, then ran out of the ballroom, then out the front and back doors.

Voldemort sighed. The British Death Eaters, all new recruits, were pinheads—not a one of them had earnt an Exceeds Expectations on his NEWTs. But most of his Death Eaters were not British, they were newly-recruited foreigners, and they spoke English with strong accents. But British or foreigners, these Death Eaters all were Purebloods, they all felt entitled to a good life, and they all were angry at the world—which meant that every one of them could cast the Killing Curse. For a Death Eater, what else was needed?

Outside, a Sonorused male voice said, “DEATH EATERS COMING OUT THE FRONT DOOR.”

A different Sonorused male voice said, “DEATH EATERS COMING OUT THE BACK DOOR.”

Immediately afterwards, Voldemort heard many loud screams outside. Voldemort smiled in satisfaction.

Now the Parseltongue alarm changed: “§The wards are down. The wards are down. The wards are down. The wards are down...§”

Voldemort thought, sh*t! I don’t need this aggravation!

Immediately afterwards, the Sonorused wizard who had spoken twice before, said, “ALL ATTACKERS, MOVE BACK ONE HUNDRED FEET TO MAKE A LARGER CIRCLE.”

Voldemort almost smiled. He thought, The attackers are retreating. My Death Eaters are taking lives.

Now Voldemort walked out of the ballroom, through the manor house to the foyer, with Nagini slithering next to him (and with those four damned ghosts floating nearby). Voldemort noticed that nobody had bothered to shut the front door. When Voldemort looked out the front door, he expected his attackers to be red-robed Aurors, brought here by either Amelia Bones or by “Mad-Eye” Moody. Surprise—Voldemort saw no red Auror robes, and saw no flamboyant robes worn by the bearded fool. Instead, almost all of the attackers were wearing Muggle clothes—and many of the attackers were wearing those damned American denim trousers!

Potter! Voldemort realised. It’s Potter the mudblood-lover who is attacking me!

Voldemort shut the front door. If the attackers saw him looking out the front door, he would be targeted by everyone.

“What a coward you are, Tom Riddle,” Myrtle’s ghost said. “Your minions are out there getting killed, and you’re hiding in here where it’s safe.”

The ghost of the Triwizard boy said, “Where you think it’s safe. We know something you don’t know.”

The ghost of the mudblood Potter said, “Actually, we know many things you don’t know. Like how Harry survived your Killing Curse.”

The ghost of James Potter said, “What you know not, Dark Lord, will get you in big trouble.”

Voldemort shot the ghosts a haughty sneer. “Why am I inside the manor house? The plan I’m following now has worked perfectly for me in the past: I shall remain behind—inside Riddle Manor, in this case—until my Death Eaters have killed off most of the enemy forces. Your people, in this case. Only when the enemy forces know they are beaten, when the survivors are few in number, are demoralised and are feeling hopeless, will we, Lord Voldemort and Nagini, appear in their midst and—”

BOOM! came a loud, surprising noise from overhead.

“What was that?” Voldemort demanded.

Myrtle stroked her chin. “Hm, it sounded like a bomb.”

Ghost-James grinned. “A bomb, sure enough.”

Voldemort snapped, “Don’t be ridiculous.”

****

Harry Potter, who was Cloaked invisible, was 643 feet above the ground and was directly above Riddle Manor. Harry conjured a bomb like what aeroplanes dropped (except undersized and coloured sky blue), and let the three-foot-long, tail-finned bomb fall.

Then Harry moved horizontally, putting himself directly above a different part of the Riddle Manor roof. He stopped, motionless in every direction, then conjured another undersized, sky-blue aeroplane-bomb and let it fall.

Six seconds after Harry had conjured his first mini-aeroplane-bomb, it hit the roof. BOOM! But by then, two more bombs were falling and he had just conjured another bomb.

Harry was grinning; he was having a blast. The Riddle Manor roof likewise was having a blast—with more to come.

Harry’s plan was to at least turn the Riddle Manor roof into Swiss cheese. If he could make all the load-bearing walls collapse, this would be even better.

****

BOOM! came another loud noise from overhead.

Voldemort thought, Why Bombarda my roof but not my walls? This makes no sense.

BOOM!

My house got Bombarda’d aga—

BOOM! BOOM!

Now the entire manor house shook.

BOOM!

“STOP THAT!” Voldemort yelled, whilst shaking his first at the ceiling. The ghosts laughed cruelly.

Voldemort yelled at his unseen bomber, “I AM LORD VOLDEMORT!”

The ghost of James Potter, sounding completely unimpressed, said, “Which is an anagram of Tom Marvolo Riddle.”

BOOM!

Myrtle’s voice oozed fake sympathy: “Brings back memories of Hitler’s V2 rockets hitting London, doesn’t it, Tom Riddle? Everyone living in London was terrified, remember? Explosions happened anywhere in London, anytime. Loud explosions. And oh, the agonised screams were loud too. You lived in London when you weren’t at Hogwarts—poor pitiful Tom, I bet the Nazis made your summers scary.”

Then Myrtle started to sing—

Deutschland, Deutschland über alles,
Über alles in der Welt,
Wenn es stets zu Schutz und Trutze
Brüderlich zusammenhält.

BOOM!

Voldemort snapped at the ghost, “Stop singing that! Lord Voldemort causes fear, he does not feel fear!”

The ghost of the Triwizard boy said, “Uh-huh, sure, right, I believe you completely.”

In response to Voldemort’s I do not feel fear words, Myrtle gave her former schoolmate a cruel smile and—as the roof BOOMed again—Myrtle resumed singing.

Von der Maas bis an die Memel,
Von der Etsch bis an den Belt,
Deutschland, Deutschland über alles,
Über alles in der Welt!

Now Voldemort heard a whistling sound overhead; as the whistle’s pitch got higher, the whistle got louder. Voldemort was trying to figure out what spell would make a whistling sound overhead with a changing pitch, when—

BOOM! Another climbing-pitch whistle. BOOM!

Horrified Voldemort realised that at least part of the Riddle Manor roof was gone now, and maybe part of the topmost floors, and this was why he could hear the bombs fall whilst he was on the ground floor. sh*t!

Voldemort now could not stop himself recalling nights in Wool’s Orphanage in London during the war years. He had felt terror because nobody knew when and where Hitler’s V2 rockets would strike next. What had been worse, young Tom Riddle had known that nothing he had learnt at Hogwarts would protect him from those rockets.

BOOM! Now part of the ceiling in the foyer collapsed.

Voldemort shouted, “NAGINI, WE NEED TO LEAVE THIS HOUSE!”

Terrified Voldemort did not want to be buried alive, and Riddle Manor was coming apart by the second.

Voldemort conjured a protection-bubble for Nagini, then floated the snake-bubble towards the front door. Voldemort saw that the bubble was way too big for the door, so he vanished the door and the surrounding wall that was blocking the bubble, and that was blocking him beside the bubble.

Voldemort, with bubbled Nagini floating alongside, ran through the hole where the doorway had been—BOOM!—and ran outside. Voldemort was shocked by what he saw.

****

Meanwhile

Hermione wondered, Was it ten minutes ago that those Death Eaters burst out of Riddle Manor? Or ten hours ago? Or ten days?

All Hermione knew was that however short or long a time it had been, the time had been intense—just as intense as meeting the troll in the lavatory.

Three times in the past however-many minutes, a Death Eater had cast the Killing Curse at Hermione. But because of Avada Colourchange that Hermione herself had invented, lots of practise at the Potter Sheep Ranch, and a pouch full of pebbles, Hermione had blocked the Killing Curse three times!

But Mark Armstrong, the DADA teacher at Manchester Magical Academy, had gone one step further. He had taught the people who had been training at the Potter Sheep Ranch a counterattack to the Killing Curse.

Today, Hermione had used Mark Armstrong’s trick. Today, Hermione was standing shoulder to shoulder with the three Longbottoms, as Neville-Hermione-Alice-Frank. Each time a Killing Curse was sent towards Hermione, whilst she blocked the Killing Curse, the rest of Hermione’s foursome cast a Killing-Curse volley back at Hermione’s would-be killer.

Hermione quickly noticed that Frank always aimed at the Death Eater’s knees and slightly to the right or left; and Frank’s Killing Curse usually hit its target, even when the Death Eater dodged the other green curses.

Hermione returned the favours when she Killing-Cursed a Death Eater who tried to Killing-Curse Neville, and when Hermione used the Lumos laseri (laser-beam) spell to slice Alice Longbottom’s would-be killer in half.

The Dark part of Hermione loved the Lumos laseri spell, once she had used it. Casting a Killing Curse at a Death Eater who was a hundred feet away, meant it would be slightly over a second before the Killing Curse would hit, so the Death Eater easily could dodge Hermione’s Killing Curse; but the Lumos laseri spell sent forth death at a speed of 186 thousand miles per second—nobody could dodge that.

Another argument in favour of killing Death Eaters with the laser-beam spell: Hermione noticed that all the first-gens who were former MMA students attacked the Death Eaters only with the Lumos laseri spell; they did not bother with Avada Kedavra.

Sirius Black still used the Killing Curse, however. Like Hermione herself, Sirius looked alive whilst he killed Death Eaters. Sirius was in a mutual-protection foursome along with Ophelia Burke, the MMA Arithmancy teacher who had completed Hogwarts. As Ms Burke was decades older than were the witches whom Sirius preferred for “fun,” Hermione figured that Sirius had joined Ms Burke’s foursome because Sirius’s Gryffindor chivalry had kicked in.

What else was happening during the battle?

Twice Hermione saw a chunk of debris raise itself off the ground, then zoom across the ground and hit a Death Eater in the back of the head—with enough force to kill him instantly. Both times this happened, Frank Longbottom smiled.

Hermione had noticed that even at the start of the battle, when the Death Eaters first had run outside from Riddle Manor, the first-gen attackers had outnumbered the Death Eater defenders. Now Hermione grinned, since it was obvious to her that Harry repeatedly calling Voldemort “the Dark Failure” had ruined Voldemort’s recruiting efforts. Voldemort’s evil army was tiny!

Overall, what was happening now was glorious for the task-force attackers. Death Eaters in the (previous) Voldemort War (which ended in 1981) were accustomed to enemies who either died or fled, after using Dumbledore-approved nondeadly spells; today it was the Death Eaters who were dying and dying and dying. And as for fleeing—

Grinning Hermione wondered whether today’s Death Eaters had figured out that today it was the first-gens who had put up anti-Apparation and anti-Portkey wards. The Death Eaters’ only hope of escape was by Floo—except that if Riddle Manor had a Floo (which was doubtful, because the House was Muggle), this Floo fireplace was being crumbled to bits by Harry’s conjured bombs.

Hermione missed Harry, who was not here. Harry was broom-flying invisibly over Riddle Manor, dropping conjured bombs on the place. Indeed, the reason that the task-force attackers had pulled back was not to give themselves over a second at spell-speed to dodge Death Eaters’ Killing Curses, but to avoid being hit by chunks of exploding Riddle Manor.

Harry’s plan was to bomb Riddle Manor into rubble so that Voldemort and his big snake no longer could hide there—after all the Death Eaters were dead. When Voldemort and the snake came outside, and the Death Eaters all were dead, then Harry and Voldemort would be in Endgame.

Not ten seconds after Hermione thought this, the front door and the wall around the door disappeared. Through the new hole floated a transparent-green sphere with Voldemort’s big snake inside, with Voldemort himself next to the green sphere. Voldemort ran out of the house—as though frightened out of his wits?

A second later, the ghosts of James, Lily, Cedric and Myrtle floated out the door-hole.

Hermione counted in her head—six seconds after Voldemort and his bubbled snake came outside, the roof stopped exploding.

****

When Voldemort ran through the hole where the doorway had been—BOOM!—and ran outside, he was shocked by what he saw.

The iron fence was gone, and the tall grass was lying sideways on the ground. Only the trees still stood—except that one tree had been blasted into slivers.

Debris from the bombing of Riddle Manor covered the ground, everywhere between the ruined manor house and the circle of mudbloods.

With the grass cut down to the ground, Voldemort now could see holes in the ground where the wardstones had been exposed. Voldemort saw a few dead denim-trousered enemies near those holes—enemy fighters who had died trying to protect the wardbreakers. Voldemort saw only a fraction of the enemy dead he expected.

The living enemies were far away—a hundred feet outside the circles that the six wardstones made—but even as Voldemort noticed this, he saw that the mudbloods were running forwards, their faces showing bloodlust. Change that: the running attackers were mudbloods (including Potter’s mudblood girlfriend), but also the running attackers included three Longbottom blood-traitors and Sirius Black.

Only then did Voldemort notice that his Death Eaters were gone; only two Death Eaters stood alive. A few of the dead Death Eaters had the marionette-with-cut-strings final posture that was caused by the Killing Curse; but many Death Eaters looked like they had been cut in half, by a giant who had wielded a giant fiery axe that cauterised as it cut.

****

Voldemort saw that now only two Death Eaters were standing. One of the Death Eaters already had a Killing Curse flying towards a mudblood attacker; but then the attacker levitated a pebble that enlarged into a big rock in midair, and this big rock flew towards the Death Eater even before the Killing Curse hit the rock. So when the Killing Curse made the rock explode, the rock-pieces flew away from the defender-mudblood, not towards him.

Voldemort was shocked to see the Killing Curse be successfully defended against, by someone other than “Mad-Eye” Moody.

The other Death Eater, meanwhile, had noticed that Voldemort and Nagini were outside. The Death Eater shouted at Voldemort, “Ubivat ni kalnite!” It was the last thing he ever said—

Now mudbloods’ wands each made a line of bright-red light, and Voldemort’s last two Death Eaters were cut in small pieces.

Meanwhile, that damned Sonorused male voice said, “THE DARK FAILURE IS OUTSIDE. SLICE THE SNAKE!”

****

Angry Voldemort was vicious. He cast the Killing Curse again and again, he cast the Cruciatus Curse again and again, and he cast vile curses that only the cruelest of ancient wizards could invent.

The result of Voldemort’s dozens of curses? Enemies screamed and enemies died—but only a few. Again and again, Voldemort’s curses were blocked!

Voldemort never asked himself why the enemy magicals never attacked him, but instead attacked only the Nagini-bubble.

Several dozen bright-red lines hit Nagini’s protective bubble, which collapsed.

Then the bright-red lines sliced up Nagini, as though she were snake-shaped roast beef.

Voldemort felt the end of his familiar-bond then, and felt a yank on his soul at the same time.

A black smoke rose from Nagini’s corpse. The black smoke briefly formed into young Tom Marvolo Riddle’s face, then sank into the ground.

“Tommy?” said Ghost-James, cheerfully.

“Guess what,” cheerfully said the mudblood-bint Potter.

Cheerful Ghost-Myrtle said, “You’re—”

The ghost of the Triwizard boy said cheerfully, “—Mortal.”

The four ghosts said in unison, “All your horcruxes are gone.”

“WHAT?” Voldemort yelled.

Ghost-Myrtle said, “And now you have a special enemy on your Six.”

Voldemort made a 180-degree spin. Harry Potter was looking at Voldemort—through sunglasses, which Voldemort never had seen the brat wear before. But Voldemort had no interest in why Potter did whatever he did.

Potter did not speak, but instead he slowly walked towards Voldemort. Whilst Potter was walking forwards, he slowly raised his straight right arm, to point the wand in his right hand at Voldemort.

But Voldemort did not give Potter the chance to cast whatever spell Potter was planning. Voldemort thrust his wand towards Potter and yelled, “AVADA KEDAVRA!”

So great was the force of this Killing Curse, Potter’s body spun about, even as it dropped limp.

As Voldemort gazed down at the bane of his existence, who now was dead, he heard a teen-girl’s voice: “Oh no, alas and alack. Darn it, blast it, fiddlesticks. Woe is me. Alas.”

That had to be Granger. Voldemort turned and locked eyes with her, and was just about to say something gloating and cruel to her, just before he killed her.

Then Harry Potter—who was somehow not dead and was not wearing sunglasses—was revealed in front of his mudblood girlfriend and Frank Longbottom. The boy was revealed when both Granger and Longbottom pulled an invisibility cloak off Potter.

Potter’s wand, when itself revealed, was pointed straight at Voldemort’s chest.

Potter hissed, “§Death.§” A pink(!) spell travelled from Potter’s wand towards Voldemort.

Voldemort, who had cast the Killing Curse too many times to count, failed completely to block a Killing Curse.

****

A second later

By now, the four ghosts were standing near dead Voldemort. Thankfully, Voldemort did not form a fifth ghost. (This had been a worry.)

Harry Sonorus-summoned Mark Armstrong and the other task-force members who had been fighting on the back-door side of Riddle Manor. Seconds later, the task-force attackers walked round from behind ruined Riddle Manor, levitating three bodies. For the first time since the battle had begun, all the task-force members were in the same place and could see each other’s faces; but now the task force was victorious in all of its objectives, and Harry had slain Voldemort. Needless to say, everyone was grinning now.

This was when life for Harry, who hated public acclaim, got a bit uncomfortable.

Hermione, Sirius and Alice each hugged Harry to thank him “for everything.” All the surviving first-generation witches—most of whom, Harry did not remember the names of—likewise hugged Harry. Ophelia Burke curtseyed to Harry. Frank Longbottom, his son Neville and all surviving first-generation wizards shook Harry’s hand. Ghost-Cedric bowed to Harry; Ghost-Myrtle curtseyed to Harry.

After everyone had their Hurrah for Harry moment, the task-force members who knew how to do such things, now went off to take down the anti-Apparation and anti-Portkey wards. These specialists also took down the big and powerful Silencing ward that had prevented the villagers in Little Hangleton from hearing the repeated bombing of Riddle Manor.

Harry was not involved in removing wards, so he was talking to people and to ghosts about the battle, when—

Harry saw a ring of light, three feet in diameter, appear above Cedric. Another such ring appeared above Myrtle.

“It’s time,” Myrtle blurted. “Oh my, oh yes, it’s time, I never thought...” She could not say more.

Cedric looked at Harry; Cedric’s face looking amazed. “I—we—are being called to go on. Our murderer is dead, killed by the Chosen One of the Prophecy; so it’s time for Myrtle and me to receive our eternal reward. Harry, thank you so much, thank you. If you could, please say goodbye to my parents for me.”

“I will,” Harry promised, even as he wondered, Why don’t my parents get to “go on” too?

“Thank you, Harry,” Myrtle said. She was crying happy tears.

Cedric and Myrtle were rising now.

Cedric looked at Harry and said forcefully, “Harry, I don’t blame you for my death. So don’t blame yourself.”

When the upper part of each ghostly body passed through the ring of light, Harry could see nothing above the ring. When all of both ghosts, from head to feet, had passed through each ghost’s ring of light, the two rings disappeared.

****

AUTHOR’S NOTE: In Chapter 12, Ghost-James revealed that it was possible to transfigure something into a perfect but lifeless copy of a real person. Also in Chapter 12, Frank Longbottom revealed that he could do eight wordless levitations at once, which could be humourously used to make a suit of armour seemingly sing and dance.

The sunglasses were there to cover up Lifeless-Harry’s vacant stare, and the sticking-charmed wand in Lifeless-Harry’s hand was a fake. Hermione’s “grief” afterwards was quite fake—could you tell?