Harry Potter and the Rewinding of Time
Chapter 2: An Artefact
Disclaimer: Does anyone even know where Harry Potter even is right now? I certainly don't, because I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER. Please take what I write with a grain of salt.
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The door to the defence classroom slammed shut, causing all the sixth years gathered to jump. Harry walked with long strides to stand in front of the classroom, an imposing figure, even more so if you took into account his reputation. He had already put more people into a now dementor-less Askaban (more of Hermione's work) than Mad Eye Moody, and in much less time too. So, it was understandable that his mere presence was enough to silence the assembled sixth years.
"Books away. Today will be a practical lesson." Harry said to the class. He had already had a few classes with the sixth years, all of which had been on the theory of the patronus charm. Therefore, what he said next was not a surprise to the students. "Today we will finally be attempting the patronus charm. Stand up, please." He said. Once everyone had stood up, he waved his wand, and the desks flew against the wall. "Wands out." The students looked understandably nervous as they did so. Harry had spent much time telling them how much concentration the patronus charm required, and everyone in the room was nervous about their ability to do the spell. "Ready?" Harry asked. A few students nodded, but most didn't react. "Well then, repeat after me. Expecto Pat-" Harry froze as his fireplace burst into life, Professor McGonagall's head appearing in the flames. "Minerva." Harry said by way of greeting. He had enormous respect for Minerva McGonagall, seeing as she had led the school in a battle against Voldemortjust on Harry's word.
"Potter." She replied, deathly serious. "I have something you need to see. Come to my office immediately." The students had all stopped to listen in. Harry turned to them, making a decision.
"Davis?" Harry asked. A Slytherin stepped forward. Harry had found that he was reliable and responsible, perfectly suited for the task that Harry had for him. And it didn't matter that he was a Slytherin – after learning the truth about Snape, Harry had managed to remove most of his Slytherin prejudices.
"Yes, Professor?" Davis asked.
"Please look after the class while I am gone. Go over shield charms and basic duelling spells." Harry said, before sweeping out of the classroom to cries of dismay from the students. He smiled grimly before apparating (he had overheard McGonagall when she had created the key to the wards, which allowed him to apparate inside the castle. She had no idea). He arrived just outside McGonagall's office, and the gargoyles jumped a little at seeing him apparate inside Hogwarts. "Griffin." Harry said. The gargoyles jumped aside. Harry climbed the stairs two at a time. He had no idea what McGonagall wanted, but it must be important for him to be dragged out of class for. He opened the door to see McGonagall muttering spells over an open book on her desk. He coughed to gain her attention.
"I have no idea how you got here so quickly, Auror Potter." Professor McGonagall said, looking up from the book. Harry didn't miss her calling him 'Auror' Potter. He knew what that meant – she had called him as an Auror, not as a Professor. She went back to muttering incantations on the book. Harry approached carefully.
"I know many things about Hogwarts, Minerva." Harry replied. "What do you require my assistance with?"
"This book." Minerva replied. She seemed perplexed. "I was searching Dumbledore's collection of books when I found it. It is labelled as a book on substance theory, which I happened to be researching when I found it." She noticed Harry's frown. "Substance theory is the extremely complex theory behind how Transfiguration works. You would have to take a post-school course in Transfiguration to even hear it mentioned." She stepped back from the book. "I noticed nothing suspicious at first. But when I opened it, it was written in a language which I didn't recognise, and I got a Dark Magic feeling from it. I can't detect anything with basic detection charms, but I thought you might want to take a look at it." Harry nodded and approached the book, but stopped short when he was close enough to see the writing properly. He drew in a breath.
"What is wrong?" asked Minerva.
"It's written in Parseltongue." Harry replied. Minerva looked at him, worried.
"Why would Dumbledore have a book written in Parseltongue?" she asked. Harry shrugged. He began to wave his wand in some extremely complicated wand motions, muttering incantations under his breath. Minerva just watched him. "It doesn't seem to have any curses on it, but I won't pretend to be on the same level as Dumbledore. Just in case, if you feel anything strange, head straight to St. Mungo's, Minerva." He looked at her seriously during the last sentence, not unlike what Dumbledore used to do.
"Why not the hospital wing?" Minerva asked.
"The hospital wing is good enough to handle most minor curses, but if a curse can evade my thorough scan of the book, it will definitely not be minor. St. Mungo's would be the safest place to go." Minerva nodded. Harry took some dragon hide gloves out of his pocket and used them to pick up the book. He carried it out of the room. "One more thing, Minerva?" Harry asked.
"What, Potter?"
"Can I commandeer a classroom? This merits at least a basic investigation." Harry said. Minerva frowned, a little surprised.
"It's just a book, Potter."
"Remember Riddle's diary? That was just a book. While this is most certainly not a horcrux of any kind, I have a bad feeling about it. My Auror senses have never failed me in five years of front line Auror work. I doubt they have failed me now." He shrugged. "If I didn't want to cause a huge scene, I would have the full Auror Department investigating this 'just a book.'" Harry replied. She hesitated a second, then nodded.
"You can have classroom 3C, Potter." She said by way of dismissal. She sighed as Harry left the room. She just wanted this over and done with.
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It turned out that this would take some time to get over and done with, much to McGonagall's annoyance. She had not been impressed when Harry marched a full investigation squad into Hogwarts without so much as giving her prior warning. She was even less so when he calmly told her that it might take several months to deal with the book. So, it was not surprising that she was now pacing in her office, venting her anger at the portraits on the wall. Dumbledore's portrait, which had always seemed to be sleeping and unwakeable whenever she wanted to talk to him about the book, was listening with rapt attention as she ranted about this 'simple book'.
"I mean, it's just a book! Yes, it is written in Parseltongue, but there must be hundreds of other books written in Parseltongue! It was a mistake, getting Potter involved, he's worse than Moody. I don't know what I was thinking!" she ranted, pacing her office.
"Minerva?" asked Dumbledore.
"Albus!" Minerva turned to his portrait, annoyed at him for ignoring her earlier attempts to wake him. "What is this book?" Dumbledore seemed to hesitate before replying.
"Just a book I learnt Parseltongue from, Minerva. It is just a simple account of my duel with Grindelwald, documented by Tom Riddle, who was there. I discovered it in one of his old lairs, and took it to learn Parseltongue. I labelled it as a book on substance theory so no one would discover that I know Parseltongue. I like to play my cards close to my chest, you might say." Dumbledore said. Minerva sagged with relief.
"Thank you, Albus. I knew there was nothing wrong with that book. Now I can retrieve it off Auror Potter." She turned to leave to find Harry, but at that point there was a knock on the door. Minerva frowned. One of the silver instruments in the office emitted a puff of smoke in the shape of Harry's head. "Come in, Potter." She said.
"Minerva." Harry said as he entered the room. He carried a piece of parchment in his hand. He opened his mouth to speak, but Minerva interrupted him.
"No, Potter. I need to speak to you." Harry closed his mouth, leant his back against the wall, and motioned to Minerva to continue. She noticed that he looked stressed, but ignored it in her anger. "Professor Dumbledore has just informed me that the book was written by one Tom Riddle, and that it documents the duel between Dumbledore and Grindelwald in 1945. Professor Dumbledore used it to learn Parseltongue. See, nothing suspicious at all." Harry raised one eyebrow, but otherwise did not react. McGonagall continued. "Potter, I want that book returned to this office by tomorrow, and those Aurors out of my castle by the end of the week. No questions asked." Harry raised his other eyebrow. "I also want you to apologise to Professor Dumbledore for suspecting him." Harry raised his eyebrows even higher. "And finally, I want you to please refrain from investigating anything further without my express permission. Am I clear?" she asked forcefully. Harry stood upright, ran a hand through his hair, and turned away from Minerva. When he spoke, it was obvious that his words were measured, as though he had prepared for this beforehand.
"Minerva, you are perfectly clear. And what you say is completely sensible, if you believe what Dumbledore told you." He turned back to a shocked McGonagall.
"You cannot be saying…" she said disbelievingly. She rearranged her features to be stern once more. "Why would he lie?" she asked confidently, but there was a dangerous tone in her voice.
"Maybe you should ask him?" Harry suggested. But Minerva was too fed up with Harry to just follow what he said blindly.
"So, you are suggesting that I calmly asked the greatest wizard in history, the leader of the light throughout both wars with Voldemort, why he lied to us, without a scrap of proof that he did such a thing? No, Potter! I need proof, not just your word, before I do such a thing!" she shouted. She dimly noted that Dumbledore's portrait had fallen asleep, but was too angry to completely notice. Harry took an involuntary step backwards, before straightening up and looking Minerva in the eye.
"You forget I read Parseltongue, Headmaster McGonagall." Harry said. It was Minerva's turn to step back. But before she could reply, Snape's portrait spoke up.
"I thought that you only spoke Parseltongue because of Voldemort's horcrux in you?" Snape commented curiously. McGonagall did not appreciate the interruption. Harry gave a wry smile.
"Nope. Turns out I'm a naturally born Parselmouth." Snape raised his eyebrows. Harry turned back to Minerva as if the interruption had never happened.
"You read it?" Minerva asked. Harry nodded.
"Yup. Although it seems to be in some kind of code. But listen to this section that our codebreakers managed to decode." Harry turned to Dumbledore's portrait. His angry eyes actually surprised McGonagall. She had never seen him so angry. "You might want to listen in, Albus." He fired a charm at Dumbledore's portrait, which caused him to freeze in the chair he had been painted in, eyes wide open. Minerva deduced that whatever he had found, it was something big. She knew she had been close to firing Harry, and she knew that he was enough of a Legilimens to know that. It had to be important for Harry to risk his job as Defence professor. "Let me read this to you. It is dated 21st of August 1973 – near the start of the First Wizarding War. Let's see what is written here." Minerva noticed that Dumbledore had gone white as a sheet. Harry himself seemed nervous, scared even, to read what was on the paper, but the most obvious emotion he was showing was anger. Minerva began to wonder if she even wanted to know what was written on that paper. She suddenly realised that no one had spoken for several minutes.
"Go on, Potter." She said, a bad feeling chilling her veins.
"Of course, Minerva." He took a deep breath. It seemed that no amount of preparation would suffice to make him ready to say what he was about to say. His hand was shaking where it held the paper. His hands were sweaty, and he looked a little pale. "I, Albus Dumbledore, have finally succeeded in my goal." He took another deep breath, summoned a glass of water, and downed it in one gulp. He turned back to his reading. "I have finally managed to gain control over Tom Marvolo Riddle. Now he had finish the work I have started, and place the Muggles where they should be. Then, once Harry Potter dies, killing Tom in the process, I can complete my final goal and rule the combined Wizarding and Muggle worlds."
Minerva stood, stunned, for a few seconds. She felt faint, but she noticed that Harry seemed to be taking the news even worse. She suddenly saw through her anger at him and realised how unwell he looked. She was filled with concern, and all traces of anger at Harry were gone.
"Harry-" she began, but Harry beat her to it.
"Minerva, I hope you understand that I will have to take this investigation further?" he said. Minerva frowned.
"Of course, but you have to get some sleep. You look like you might just collapse in front of me." Harry gave a tired smile, and began to leave the room. Minerva turned to the portrait of Dumbledore. He looked very scared, and Minerva thought that he was nowhere near scared enough.
"HOW COULD YOU, ALBUS?" she shouted. Harry smiled and closed the door behind him. Albus would be well and truly chewed out by the time McGonagall was done with him.
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A/N Thanks for reading! I like to interact with my readers, so leave a review. I might take your advice into consideration!
See you next time,
GlimmerGamingMC
