- Author's Note: This story started out with me considering what would have to change in the Harry Potter books for him to return to Hogwarts for his seventh year instead of simply continuing straight into Auror training. I realized that it would require him to have less tragic memories associated with the school, specifically the deaths of some of the people close to him. I didn't want this to be just a happy-go-lucky story that would substitute in as an alternate epilogue, so I am attempting to follow the style the plot takes in JKR's books. This is entirely written and checked-over by only me, so I am bound to miss somethings. Any questions or comments about characters, plot, or grammar/problems with how it is written are appreciated. I am working on two stories at the moment, both are Harry Potter stories, and I will be updating whichever I have worked on the most (To allow me to keep some buffer room so that if I hit and writers block I can still release a few chapters while I figure things out.). I expect to post every 7-10 days, earlier if I am on a roll like I currently am with Displacement, the other story about accidental time travel and trying not to change the past.
I prefer three to four thousand word chapters for reading things online and will attempt not to suddenly cut the story off to fit this range. I write with a style that will often change perspectives of characters, sometimes overlapping on an event, with the narration from their active perspective as if the reader is a passenger to their thoughts. Spells that are being cast that are written in bold to represent the power and magic of the words and spell.
- Story Summary: It is Harry's eighteenth birthday and he receives quite a few presents from those close to him that leave lasting effects when he returns to his take his seventh year at Hogwarts and figure out what he really wants. One gift in particular, something that Remus found tucked away in a lost attic, that gives him and immediate goal to focus on: a journal of methods to become an animagus. With his new drive to achieve, he puts more effort into everything he does, schoolwork, research, study, being an godfather, dating Ginny, and especially enjoying himself with his friends. He also has to deal with the school's newest Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. With him handling so much, Harry isn't sure if he has time to try his hand at the Marauder's legacy.
Harry Potter and the Last Hunt
Chapter 1 - Birthday Celebrations
The day started with quite a jump, specifically someone jumped on Harry's bed, shook him awake, and cried out, "Happy Birthday!" Harry leaped awake and grabbed onto the intruder in his bed, pushing her down before realizing he wasn't under attack. He absentmindedly reached for his glasses before falling out of bed onto the floor. With his feet still in his bed, he pushed himself up and grabbed his glasses, finally allowing him to who his energetic wake up came from: a happily smiling Luna Lovegood. "You know, Harry Potter, there were quite a few Wackspurts lingering about you so I just thought I might try to chase them away," she continued, glancing to the door and smiling again, "that's probably what Ginny had in mind as well." Harry looked to the door to see his girlfriend's slightly pouting face turn red with embarrassment before she enter his bedroom. She pulled him to his feet and kissed him deeply. He quickly forgot about who else was there and why she had just woken him up. Just as he started to pull Ginny in close to him and let his hands wander, Luna spoke up, "Oh bother, it just seems Wackspurts are attracted to you." The couple, pulled from their passionate moment, blushed a matching red and looked over at Luna sitting on the bed with her legs curled up beside her, staring slightly above the two of them. She then hopped off the bed and left the room, calling back to them, "I do hope everything else today for your birthday can keep your brain from fuzzing out."
"Oh, wow, today is my birthday. It had completely skipped my mind!" Harry said as he shook his head. Smiling at the idea that his birthday is going happen with all of his friends around for the first time, especially not counting last year and all that trouble he had. He pulled off his shirt and tossed it into the corner where it landed on the lip of the hamper. As he moved to the bathroom, he dropped his pants and kicked them off towards the hamper. His head filled with hanging out with all his friends ended quickly when he heard a squeak from behind him. Harry spun around with his thumbs hooked in his underwear and frozen. He had forgotten a now red faced Ginny was in the room with him. He tried to play it off, but his greatest talent for improvisation fell into the category of snarky comments during life and death situations, not being flirty. "Ha, Ginny, ahm… you… me… shower," he stammered before his brain completely left him and he stated, "You're really pretty." At that, Ginny's embarrassment was overwhelmed by Harry's and she started to laugh. She managed to gain control of herself and kissed him on the flushed cheeks, her's were still matching, and said, "I guess Luna was right about Wackspurts," before leaving the room and shutting the door behind her.
Harry finally came down the stairs to overhear the scandalized yell of a Weasley, "He does not get to proposition my little sister! Even if it is his birthday!" Before Harry made it down the stairs he heard a whack, an ow, and the sound of Ron starting in again before being cut off by several more whacks. "Honestly, Ron! It sounds like he was about to die from embarrassment, so don't you start in on him," Hermione chastised. He grinned at the thought of Hermione scolding Ron for being thoughtless, it happened so much that he could just imagine the scene perfectly. Then the twins spoke up, "Don't worry ikkle Ronnikins -"
"- there is no way you would ever find out -"
"- whether or not Harry and Ginny were -"
"- tumbling in the sheets together because -"
"- our dearest little sister is much too clever for that!" The twins burst out laughing along with several other laughs as a very embarrassed Ginny fled the kitchen and bumped into a yet again, equally red Harry. The laughter was cut short when a wispy voice spoke up, "You mean like Harry and I when I woke him up?" At this point Harry and Ginny had slipped back into the kitchen unnoticed because everyone's attention was now on Luna. Harry saw a rather sharp smile on the normally dreamy girl and realized she was pulling one over on everyone when she stared past the bewildered expressions and met Harry's eyes. A sputtering, red Hermione trying to logic her way out of the situation was the only thing that broke the silence before Harry started laughing at their expense. Luna's smile spread as the kitchen filled with laughter once again.
Harry looked around the room at all his friends that had come to celebrate with him. Ron and Hermione, of course, Neville sat next to Fred and George, Molly moved around the kitchen preparing breakfast, no matter how much Kreacher had improved since they destroyed the locket she refused to eat anything he had made, Remus and Tonks, still going by that despite now being Nymphadora Lupin, were discussing something, they had left Teddy with Andromeda for the day, Arthur talked with Bill and Fleur, Angelina, Alicia, and Katie sat together with Susan and Hannah, and last was Gabrielle who sat twirling her wand, she had become something of a little sister to him since she came with Fleur to help Hogwarts rebuild over the summer.
Harry was just starting to smile at Ginny, who had sat sideways and hooked her legs over his left leg, was brought to attention by the clatter of breakfast levitating onto the table and Molly saying, "Food's ready. 'Morning, Harry," as she passed him to sit next to her husband. They had all been living at Gimmauld's place since May. Pancakes, sausage, bacon, eggs, and pitchers of juices filled the table and before Harry could decide on anything, everything started helping itself on to his plate. The syrup floated past and he grabbed it, pouring a healthy amount over his pancakes. He offered and poured a smaller amount over Ginny's before passing it along to Luna who was making some sort of breakfast sandwich out of pancakes, eggs, oatmeal, and fruit. The rest of breakfast was a long, cheerful ordeal, with everyone eating their fill, telling stories, and talking about nothing in particular. It ended with everyone meandering into the living room and leaving the cleaning to Kreacher.
Hermione was the one who got everyone's attention and directed it back to Harry's birthday, "I don't think Harry had any plans besides enjoying today, so a few of us came up some things to make it special." She paused to cast a mischievous smirk to some of her fellow conspirators before continuing, "We all got Harry some presents despite his insistence that they weren't necessary -"
"But bloody well deserved!" interrupted Ron who got a gentle glare from both Molly and Hermione.
"- and some of them go along with the plans so they are getting opened now instead of this evening after dinner. Normally, I would have an itinerary ready for such a full day, but a few you refused to have formally allotted plans." She was punctuated by a small chuckle coming from Harry's old Quidditch team and to his surprise, Molly. Hermione started off by handing him an envelope and said, "I thought it might be fun watch someone else's adventure." She leaned in close and whispered as he opened the envelope and saw enough movie tickets for everyone, "Plus, the look on their faces at the wonders of muggles will be priceless."
He grinned madly and revealed the tickets to everyone, "Hermione got all of tickets to a show this afternoon."
"Like the theater? Harry won't want to sit through a play, Hermione," Ron moaned a bit.
"I actually think it sounds fun, especially since it it is muggle one," he responded.
"No magic? That's gonna make more boring!" the redhead groaned as got up and grabbed a small wrapped box off the fireplace mantle, "At least mine's going to be exciting." Harry opened the messily wrapped present and picked up reddish-brown cloth wand holster. He glanced up at Ron, confused at how a wand holster related to an activity. "That's an auror grade wand holster. I got permission from Director Bones to get you one. It's made of Manticore hair, Merlin, Charlie would have killed me if I got you a dragon one. It is resistant to most charms and a few of the aurors I talked too swear it helps protect you against some of the weaker ones." Ron's rambling brought to a head by a light cough from his mother. "Right. I also got a few of us in for the preliminaries for auror training, no written test, just some magic stuff. I know you're going back to school, but I figure if I can get you to like it, I'll be working with you next year. Maybe most you guys," as he looked at his friends.
As Ron sat back down, Ginny slipped a box onto his lap. Inside was a pocket sneakoscope that was quietly lighting up as soon as Harry touched it. "I've got you all alone for a nice quiet picnic at noon, this will let us know if someone tried to interrupt us," she said as she shot a glance at her youngest brother and her mother. Harry's imagination started going a little wild with speculation and another blush crept across his face. The twins danced their eyebrows up and down at Harry, mocking the suggestive nature of their little sister's intentions, who promptly waved them off. A few chortles came from the room as he stuffed the device into his pocket.
A rattle brought his attention to Luna, carrying a wide, flat box, softly ringing with metal shaking as she skipped towards him. She slid to a stop in front of him and gently dropped the box on to his lap. He lurched as the surprisingly heavy present landed on him and wrapped his arms round it to stop it from falling to the floor. Luna quickly spun around returned to her seat before hopping up onto to it and spinning around to kneel in the overstuffed armchair, all the while talking about her present, "I overheard some muggleborns, at least I think they were, talking about going monster hunting and mentioned hunting something called a pudding in the forest. Don't they sound delightful? I wasn't sure how we could quite capture one, so I made some tools based on what I know of pudding. I've enchanted them to get quite large with a tap of the wand because I don't know how big these creatures might be. We are going to go hunting after the auror auditions."
"At least call them tryouts. Don't make it sound like the theater," moaned Ron, who was entirely ignored by the wistful witch.
"It's a full set that I've enchanted, so there is enough for everyone."
Ron started to complain about made-up creatures when Katie cut him off, "A bunch of friends hanging out in the woods with magic? Sounds fun! Count us in!"
"Doesn't it?" Luna chirped, responding happily, apparently not noticing the group of five share some knowing glances.
Molly then spoke up, "And I've made some plans for dinner. I heard that you have never been to a real magical restaurant and will see to fix that!" The excitement from the news escaped the muggle-raised in the room. "Which means formal wizard wear!" She continued speaking over the cheers turned groans for a few. "And that is where Arthur and my present comes in," she finished with handing Harry a white cardboard parcel with a ribbon tied around it. As Harry opened the gift and lifted up the jacket off the dress robes for the group, Molly smiled and commented, "I know you've grown a bit since the Yule Ball, oh goodness, that was almost four years ago!" She sat back down next to her husband, both had a look of pleasant surprise while they reminisced about how far all the kids have come. Molly's eyes teared up a bit when she realized that it's only one more year until her children were all out in the world. Arthur, noticing his emotional wife, produced a lacy pink handkerchief which she promptly took and dabbed her eyes while she tittered. Arthur took it back, disappeared it with a toss over his shoulder, and took Molly's hand to comfort her.
The group settled down and split up, Susan, Ron, Harry, Ginny, Luna, Neville, Alicia, and Katie all went up stairs to get changed into exercise appropriate clothes. They all met back downstairs in the lounge to relax and wait for breakfast to settle and for the time to be closer to the start of the auror test. Ron came down sporting some Quidditch gear and was promptly sent back upstairs. Susan alerted the group to an embarrassing hole in Harry's shorts that he hadn't noticed when Luna mention something about his clothes helping others ward off Wackspurts and he was sent upstairs after Ron. By the time Ron was allowed to stay downstairs, Luna was showing Harry how large her gift could get by having a spoon grow until it was as tall as her. She passed it to him and he realized it was surprisingly light. After a while, a few of them were joking battled each other, forks against spoons.
Surprisingly, it was Ron who who brought the group's attention to the time and heard them to the floo. They exited into the Ministry at a floo in a dim corner, a decent ways away from the front desk. On their way to check in, the Quidditch inclined of them stretched out their upper bodies. The lady at the front desk ask them their business and then directed them through security and towards room 211B on the second basement level. Guards checked their wands and directed them through archways that detected illusion and concealment charms. Neville's passing through alerted the guards and sent him into a nervous state despite his vast improvement from when her was younger. Harry thought of Neville's unfortunate luck and then on his on as Neville quietly talked to the security and managed to pacify them enough to let him through. As each one passed through the arch, a small badge with their name on it appeared on their clothes. Harry's read:
H. James P.
Dragged-Along Trainee
He chuckled at how these badges seem to detect intent, especially when Ron's read:
Mr. R. Weasley
Excitable Recruit
They made their way to the elevators, which did a great job of reminding Harry why he dislikes most forms for magical transportation. The jerky ride, stopping halfway between floors to let official papers fly through along with occasional sideways motions left Harry nauseous when he stepped out. His breakfast had resettled by the time they reach 211B. Inside there were other people already waiting for the auror training program to start. Harry recognized a few, Seamus Finnigin and Dean Thomas were talking to Parvati Patil, a few people he realized were students who had graduated in the last few years, even an older man his thirties that reminded him of Mr. Fortescue.
Not more than a minute after the last of their group walked into the waiting room, an auror called for the attention of the room. The auror was a squat man that stood at most a few inches over five feet tall, but Harry suspected the gruff looking auror's dragonhide boots added to that. He was sporting close cut mutton chops that told the room that he cared about his looks enough to make sure he was intimidating. The man cleared his throat once before the room fell silent for him, "Ah've be'n told tah look aftah yah lot. M' name's Auror Gerden." He paused for a moment to quickly judge the entire room, when his eyes came across Harry Potter and his friends, the man seemed to notice nothing except that they were the only ones already in exercise clothing. "The lot that needs tah change, the locker rooms are tah the left through here," he told everyone as he lead everyone down a hallway, "Get changed and meet meh in the room at the end."
Harry moved closer to Auror Gerden as most of the crowd broke off to get changed. The man's accent strange, it struck him more as a speech impediment than an effect of where he grew up. The auror, opened the double door and presented the room to the few currently following him, "This is ah training room. Ah'll explain furthah when everyone else gets here, but in thah mean time, might want tah limber up."
Harry glanced to Susan, with her aunt being Amelia Bones, he figured she would have an idea what to expect. He approached her but before he could ask her anything, a large freckled hand slapped him on the shoulder. Ron excitedly started to ramble to Harry about what he expects the training to be, at one point he mention fighting a troll which made Harry think back to the evening he was sorted in Hogwarts and how everyone was nervous and had crazy theories about what would happen. Harry managed to direct Ron's attention to Seamus and Dean who had just entered the room before slipping away to finally ask Susan for advice.
When he turned his attention back to the red head, she was stretching out with a thoughtful expression on her face. "Are you nervous about some training test? After what you've handled?" Harry asked quietly, it taking a second for Susan to register someone was talking to her.
"Uh? Oh. Ah, not really..." Susan was a bit flustered for a moment before collecting herself and explaining further, "I'm not really nervous about the test, I am more worried about my aunt finding out that I applied. She doesn't want me anywhere near danger if she can help it."
"Well, it's great that she worries about you so much."
"Yeah, well, the thing is is that I don't even really want to be an auror. She told me near the start of Summer that she didn't want me anywhere near anything as dangerous as being an auror now that Voldemort is gone." She swallowed with nerves at all the bad memories attached to that name.
"When she told me that, especially with how much I had done, I decided to prove to her that I have what it takes to be an auror even though I think I would rather get an apprenticeship with an enchanter."
They smiled at each other. Harry realized that Susan was amazing. She figured out what she wanted to do and is making sure she'll have her aunt's blessing to do anything she wants. Harry nodded and thought about the future. "Enchanting is runes, right?"
Susan smiled and enjoyed the distraction from her nerves, "There is a lot more to it than carving some runes, there is some transfiguration, there is the arithmancy of knowing how all the magic will interact, and most of it comes down to charms, but then again so much magic falls into the charms category."
"Yeah, hexes, curses, jinxes, actually most things we learned in Defence as well as our DA club were charms. I can only really remember Professor Dumbledore and McGonagall using transfiguration in combat and it is downright scary," Harry added with Susan nodding in agreement.
During the entire conversation Harry had been mimicking Susan's warm up routine. When they finally straightened up, Harry asked, "Do you know any ways to, well, 'limber up' our magic?" He was now reaching as far up as he could, almost forcing himself to yawn.
"Not really, my aunt always told me it was all about the mindset. I get that, but I don't fully understand how and why."
"Maybe a light duel to work out the rust from rebuilding Hogwarts?" he suggested. She nodded and moved a small distance away from him and took a slightly lowered stance, rocking on to the balls of her feet. Harry smiled at her readiness. The stance she had taken was something the DA had worked on together: keep moving, keep dodging, keep your eyes open for opportunities, keep cautious, and finally stay alive. He took a similar stance with his arms wide from his sides like a cowboy from an old Western movie.
The two stared at each other and waited for the other to make the first move. While the tension started to rise, a few people noticed their intent and moved to a safe distance away. Their movement caught Susan's attention and she came out of her stance and spoke up, "Harry, I almost forgot about the others, we can't let any stray spells harm someone."
"So, no duel?"
"No. I just have to put up a dueling shield. I know the spell, but I need a hand casting it. It takes quite a bit of energy to set up the siphoning part of the spell, so I will need you help casting it. The spell is Tawm Sab Nraud Na-ada Mba Ike and it requires some specific gestures, but I'll lead you through them."
After a few practice attempts, the two circled the area they defined as their dueling zone, the gestures and movement required to cast the spell was almost like a dance with slow spinning and both hands directing their magic. After Harry helped power the spell and define the area, Susan took over and established the other behavior of the dueling shield.
Once done, they quickly returned to their combat stances and stared each other down. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry noticed a small shimmer in the are and a slight blurring of of details outside of the spell. He realized that he had never actually been inside a dueling shield, even during his second year, which made him think about how truly incompetent Lockheart was and how little Snape cared for the well being of his students.
Susan noticed the far away look in Harry's eyes and took advantage of his momentary distraction. "You've already gotten sloppy, Potter," Susan called out after a small flurry of stunning charms and stinging hexes flew his way. He grit his teeth as a celtic stinging hex struck his chest, causing him to dive out of the way of the others. It felt like a nail had been driven into his chest. "Couldn't wait to get the jump on me, eh? So much for Hufflepuff loyalty," he quipped back as he threw a few of his own spells back at her. He tried using a blasting curse on the floor to launch shrapnel at her but the spell fizzled and the floor only glowed for a moment. "Maybe I just want to beat you," she replied as she launched more esoteric versions of common spells as she circled him, "after all, who needs to prove themselves to the aurors when I can take on the-boy-who-lived?"
Both of them were now sporting feral grins from their back and forth. They worked at each other, he stumbled from a numbing charm that cut off all feeling to his left leg, she had to switch her wand to her left hand as a powerful itching hex struck the palm of her right hand, his teeth chattered as the sweat he was working up froze, she had to cancel a series of spells that had her moving the opposite direction she meant to be. Harry moved in to finish the duel while she was dispelling his mirror movement curse but as he stepped in with his numb leg to cast a spell of his own creation, he triggered a trap, "Tshem Chu- ahhh!" Harry was launched backwards as a hundred ethereal hands grasped and restrained him. As he passed through the dueling shield, the hands disappeared but the relief at his returned freedom disappeared when he hit the stone floor hard enough to bruise.