"To the Hogwarts Class of 1997!"
Dumbledore raised his goblet in a toast, and was promptly followed by the rest of the Great Hall in a similar fashion. Even the Slytherins, who normally would not be expected to display any outward sign of emotion, grinned and toasted along with Dumbledore.
"Now, as I know many of you are eager to get to the festivities, I will occupy no more of your time. Facere musica!" cried Dumbledore, bringing his arm across his body in a broad sweeping motion. Immediately, a lively, upbeat collection of strings and woodwinds began to sound across the Great Hall, drawing many of the recently graduated to dance in a circle around the center of the Hall.
The Gryffindors, naturally, being of brave heart and great courage, were the first to also lose any qualms about humiliating themselves in front of others and began to attempt to lead the rest of former students in dance. Hufflepuff wouldn't let them go at it alone, so they, too, joined in, followed carefully by the Ravenclaws who attempted to dance with more poise and grace. The Slytherins, rolling their eyes at their companions' foolishness, decided to try to save them all some collective humiliation by compensating for the group's utter lack of dance skill by merging into the mob.
Those that were too shy to join the group of dancers, or unlucky enough to be on its outer edge, eventually gravitated towards the tables laden with all matters of delicacies and strong spirits. They would form clusters and talk quietly, mostly singling out individuals in the dance circle that had managed to mortify themselves in a spectacular fashion.
Among all the dance and drink, fun and festivity, few eyes but the sharpest saw a single person detach themselves from the revelry and head out into the castle.
Harry Potter quietly slipped out of the Great Hall, walking silently down the main hall of Hogwarts. He glanced down at his robes, noticing that the emblem that usually emblazoned his right breast had been replaced by the Hogwarts coat of arms. He supposed it made sense. After all, living seven years with three other groups of people and one was bound to pick up their strongest characteristics. A small flash caught his eye, and he saw that his watch had caught the light streaming from one of the stained glass windows in the hall.
It was a traditional wizard's watch, which meant nothing other than the fact that it was singularly unique. A gift from his late godfather that he inherited on his 17th birthday, it had the sun, moon, and stars dancing along its face. It performed the basic time-telling function, which depended upon the position of the sun relative to the center of the watch face. Likewise, the moon's position dictated its current phase, and was actually shown – a useful feature that helped in the creation of certain concoctions and activation of rituals, as well as serving a secondary purpose in warning when werewolves were wandering about. The stars, though, were incredibly special, as they were enchanted to brighten or dim depending on the intention of any present magic. They would also speed up and zoom around the more ambient magic the watch detected, making it an excellent indicator for strong wards and magical items. Fortunately, it's range was limited to a few meters, preventing it from going haywire in Hogwarts.
"Potter!" Harry glanced behind himself, tensing up when he saw Draco approach him. Noticing his stiff posture, Draco turned his empty palms upward, a puzzled expression on his face, and asked "Why did you leave soon? I'm not going to hex you, you know," he began to drawl, and Harry dropped the rigidness from his body. "Look, Malfoy, just get back to the party. I have some last minute stuff I need to take care of, and I'll be right back down. I'll see you soon," he promised. Malfoy searched his face, looking for any sign of deceit, and, finding none, turned and began to walk back to the Great Hall, tossing out behind him "My offer still stands Potter. And I do hope you'll take it. It would be most enjoyable to spend the summer in the Manor with someone my own age".
Harry sighed, and continued his journey back to the tower, feeling slightly guilty for having lied to his best friend. He wouldn't be seeing Malfoy for a very long time, and he fervently hoped his would forgive him. Knowing how much Draco valued their friendship, he thought it probable that he wouldn't simply throw it away, but the next time they met, he'd have to have his wand ready to reattach any potentially missing limbs from that encounter.
Picking up his speed to avoid any more confrontations, he reached the tower entrance within a few minutes and walked straight through, all the common rooms open to every graduating seventh year. Grinning at having his dorm being on the lowest level, Harry entered and noted with relief that the House Elves still hadn't taken his trunk. He went over to the foot of his bed, shrunk it and placed it in his pocket, and suddenly began to feel incredibly nervous. What if his plan didn't work? What if he ran out of time or one of the teachers decided to go check up on the library or his absence? He wiped his sweaty palms on his robes, and pulled out his watch to reassure himself of the time, and jumped in shock.
The stars on the watch were neither bright nor dull, but spinning around at a mad speed he had never seen before, indicating a ridiculously large magical presence, all within a few meters of himself! He glanced around nervously and noticed, for the first time, a piece of folded parchment on his bed. He picked it up, unperturbed as it began to unfold itself, although his eyebrows did raise and spidery writing began to develop on his touch, indicating the presence of an Identity Charm. He scanned the note, then began to laugh weakly and settling down on his bed. He looked at it again, and began to re-read to make sure it wasn't really a joke what he was experiencing.
Mr. Potter,
I assumed you would be returning to your dormitory and leave amidst celebration without informing anyone of your plans. Luckily enough for the clever old man, I had heard about your planned escapade and have decided to assist you in your endeavors. Before his untimely demise, your father left a rather special item with me for safekeeping, which I now return to you. If you have not already noticed, that superb watch of yours will inform you of a large magical presence in the room. Do not be alarmed, as this is only an ancient artifact of incredible power. I have placed it underneath your pillow for your convenience. I have also lifted the alarms and copyright charms on the books in the restricted section, although I have tuned the wards to provide you with a bit of a challenge to make sure that you can handle anything you decide to copy within. There is no need to resort to stealing, and I would have helped you if you simply asked. Finally, I have decided to provide four books from my personal collection for your benefit, and I hope that they will help you on your journey. You will find them resting inside your trunk, which I have also taken the liberty to organize. I wish you the best of luck, Mr. Potter.
Albus Dumbledore
Harry continued to stare at the letter in disbelief, but eventually managed to collect himself, his opinion that Dumbledore was an incredibly powerful and mad wizard stronger than ever. He couldn't believe that Dumbledore, of all people, would store an ancient artifact of incredible power right under his freaking pillow! The man clearly had no sense of responsibility. Harry glared at the letter, and then sighed before fearfully lifting his pillow, surprised at the midnight folds of what was obviously an invisibility cloak. He was touched by the expense of the gift, before his mind froze once again thinking back on Dumbledore's letter. Oh hell no, he thought in panic¸ Dumbledore did not just gift me with one of the greatest artifacts of legend and decide that a safe, temporary storage space for one of the Deathly Hallows was underneath MY PILLOW! Harry tried to calm himself, before being subject to Dumbledore's madness made him a victim of a brain aneurysm.
He felt the otherworldly cloth in his hands and opened the hood, the blood draining from his face as he recognized the symbol of the Deathly Hallows emblazoned on the inside of the cloak in shimmering silver. He quickly folded the cloak and slipped it into his pocket, along with the letter, determined to study the magical properties of the cloak later. He got up and left the tower, making a beeline path for the library and his free access to the Restricted Section. Flinging the doors wide open, he strode in determinedly into the restricted section, pulling his wand from his sleeve, and stopping short at the sight of Hermione Granger, of all people, sneaking about in the restricted section.
Harry cleared his throat loudly, making her squeak and jump around, tensing up even more at the sight of him. "Granger," he began coldly, "what on earth are you doing here? Shouldn't you be the good studious Ravenclaw and ask before taking?" She narrowed her eyes and bit out "I don't see why you should be the one talking, Potter. You aren't exactly the ideal representation of innocence either. Besides, I doubt even you would manage to get past the wards here. They seem to have been made stronger".
Harry hummed thoughtfully and didn't deign her with a response, instead waving his wand around and casting diagnostic spells that caused the wards to flare up, a blend of orange, blue, green, red and purple. He began to look for a starting point, anything that would help him unravel the highly complex ward scheme. Finding none, he cast more targeted spells, and the feedback that he received only caused him to groan aloud. He turned to Hermione and said "Just in case this is going over your head, Granger, the orange is a basic intent ward that will activate if we want to read or take anything unless we have a Restricted Pass tuned to the specific frequency of this ward that will suppress our intent. That ward is the one we want to take down, because it activates all the other wards. Of course, it's been modified so we have no way around it, and will have to try to take down the other wards instead."
"Next ward activated after the intent ward is a repulsion ward. Theoretically, given that our magic is stronger than the source magic for the ward, we should be able to overpower it. Given that this is Hogwarts and these wards have probably been feeding off of the cumulative magic of hundreds of students for well over a thousand years, I doubt even the combined effort of ten Dumbledore's would be enough to brute force a way past the repulsion ward. The next two wards, the green and red, work in tandem. The red is supposed to knock out any person without authorization by providing a sort of area of effect Stupefy. Again, we might be able to resist it, but it's got the magic of Hogwarts behind it and it won't stop being active until it detects unconsciousness. That also brings me to the green ward. It's highly complex and, given the right circumstances, could be incredibly dangerous. It's fascinating, really, because this ward is a tightly controlled magical leech. Any of our innate magic will be sucked out from us at a moderately fast rate, once again only stopping upon our unconsciousness. It works incredibly well in conjunction with the stunning ward because our lowered magical levels make us more susceptible the magical stunning effects."
"The final ward, in my opinion, is the most dangerous in this setup. Purple wards are wards that target not the body or magic, but the mind, in this case our cognitive and reasoning skills. Upon triggering the intent ward, this mind ward is the first one activated, followed by the stunning and leeching wards, and then topped off with the repulsion ward. We don't like each other, Granger; let's not try to sugarcoat it. But we will have to work together if we're going to take this down". Her eyes were wide at his clipped, informative report, and her demeanor suggested something akin to respect for the detailed knowledge he had just demonstrated.
"The way I see it, one of us will have to trip the first ward. There's no way to disable the intent ward in a reasonable amount of time. While one of us is being attacked by the wards, they will be vulnerable to disabling. There should be an anchor somewhere, and it won't be visible until I'm actively fighting the wards. I'm stronger magically Granger – don't give me that look – so I'll subject myself to the attack. You better be able to disable the wards before I'm unconscious, or, this is going to end badly for us". Hermione's mouth was set in a determined line, and she gave him a level look before giving him a jerky nod. Harry walked forward, projecting his intention to free one of the books from the shelves, when the assault began suddenly.
Harry fell to a knee, attempting to raise his rudimentary Occlumency barriers to defend against the choking grip of the mind ward, when the stunning and leeching wards joined the fray. Harry was losing the three-pronged assault, and rather badly too. Damn Dumbledore! That mind ward's really strong! And I never want to experience this leech again! "Hermione," Harry groaned, before collapsing on the floor, struggling weakly and barely holding on.
Meanwhile, Hermione was frantically casting detection charms while running between the many shelves of the Restricted Section, looking for the anchor so she could destroy it, and was finally rewarded after a few seconds with a vision of multi-colored ward lines attached to a book. Hesitating at destroying a book, her groaned named and the subsequent collapse of Harry forced her into action and one Reducto later the wards peacefully faded out of existence. She rushed over to the now-unconscious Harry and used Ennervate on him. He moaned, and then turned his head to the side and promptly threw up. Sighing, she Vanished the mess and stood by him as he propped himself up.
"Damn it, Granger, what took you so bloody long?! I felt myself dying there!" he raged. She silently offered her hand, which he batted away. He managed to drag himself up, pale as a ghost with sweat beading his forehead and dampening his robes. "Anyways," he continued "I don't really want to know why you're here, but I'll just tell you that you don't have to steal any books. The copyright charms have been disabled for a few hours, so copy whatever you need. I doubt you'll get to copy everything you want, seeing as how that's the whole library". She blushed, but shuffled past him and straight into the section dealing with advanced spell creation.
Shaking his head at his disliked partner-in-crime, Harry slipped deeper into the shadowy recesses of the Restricted Section until reaching the Runes section. He waved his wand and began casting duplication charms at every individual book on the shelves, before sealing them with a permanence enchantment. It was slow work, and it took him several hours to clear the entire section on Runes. He glanced at his watch and noted that his schedule was becoming rather tight. He had an hour before he needed to leave Hogwarts, and there were still several books he needed. He pulled out his trunk and returned it to its regular size before he proceeded to cast a mass shrinking spell on the hundreds of books he had copied, which almost knocked him out with the sudden and huge drain on his power. He sent them packed neatly into his trunk when he noticed four regular sized objects sitting on top. Remembering Dumbledore's letter, Harry decided to investigate the four books he received later as to not waste time.
Re-shrinking his trunk, Harry went looking for a few books on advanced ward theory which he copied and packed into his trunk before he went hunting for the last four books he needed. He found Ancient Artifacts and Living Legends, easily enough and with a bit more difficultly, Rituals: Paths to Power and Moste Potente Potions, but was having no luck in finding Magicke Moste Evile. He wasn't trying to become a dark sorcerer, but he needed the information that it could provide him with in his upcoming journey. Frustrated, he cried out an Accio and was surprised when the book zoomed into his hand. His face burning, he was glad that there was no one there to witness his running around like a headless chicken while looking for the book. He duplicated it and enchanted it into permanence, before sticking into his trunk and sneaking out of the library. Eager to leave quickly and avoid any potential confrontations, Harry slipped into one of the many passages he had discovered in his time at Hogwarts which led to the entrance of the castle.
Easing open the door, Harry glanced around, and noticing the coast was clear, walked across the grounds. He cleared the castle gates and, hesitating looked back at the castle. It stood in night, the light of the moon striking it gently and illuminating its' many facets, but shadowing just as many at the same time. He sighed, saddened at permanently leaving his only home. He looked up at it one more time, clouds obscuring its highest turrets and spires, before spinning in spot and disapparating with a quiet pop.