As Harry read the special late-day edition of Daily Prophet, Ivy's warning about a summer "full of surprises" kept running through his head. According to the front-page article a loud siren had gone off in the lobby of Gringotts yesterday afternoon, and the goblins had immediately forced their customers to leave the premises. All the bank's entrances had been sealed with powerful wards, and for the first time since the last goblin rebellion a hundred and forty years ago Gringotts had failed to open its doors for business this morning.
"This is just great," Hermione seethed. "At this rate I will never be able to go to Australia to find my parents and remove the Memory Charm I placed on them."
"Calm down," Harry pleaded. "You had no way of knowing that the goblins could freeze your muggle bank account at Barclays. I promise you that we will fix this, and you will be on a plane to Sydney by the end of the week."
"That is what you said before your meeting in the Forbidden Forest," Hermione said. "Why won't you tell us what happened out there?"
"Because you won't believe me if I did," a glum Harry replied, thinking of the bloodbath which took place right in front of his eyes. "I can't believe it happened myself, and I was standing right there."
"Come on, we believed you when you told us that Snape was a great war hero. What can possibly top that?" Ron asked as he toyed with his mashed potatoes. Fred's untimely death had done the impossible: it had destroyed his little brother's appetite.
"Mr Potter!" a harsh Scottish brogue bellowed out across the Great Hall. "Mr Potter, you will come with me at once!"
"Come on you two. I can't deal with Minerva by myself right now," Harry told his best friends.
Hermione was the only of the three who really respected the old witch anymore, so they let her do the talking. "What is the problem Headmistress?"
"There is a large war party of goblins approaching Hogwarts," McGonagall explained. "They are flying a Banner of Truce, but with the current state of the castle's defenses I don't know if we could hold them off if they decided to attack. I have contacted Minister Shacklebolt by floo, but given the limited number of Aurors at his command it will be some time before he can reinforce us. The goblins are asking to speak specifically with Mister Potter, so I was hoping that he could go out and have a word with them."
"So you want Harry to go out there alone, and get himself killed? Again?" Ron snarled. "Isn't the Headmistress of Hogwarts the one who is suppose to defend the school from attacks?"
"I will go and talk to them," Harry quickly said, hoping to avoid a row.
In his heart though he actually agreed with his tactless friend. While McGonagall had spent the War collaborating with Voldemort's regime, they had been out in the wilderness risking their lives on a daily basis trying to find the horcruxes. Yet once again she was expecting the Boy-Who-Lived to play the hero even if it got him killed. There was also the problem of his new friend Ivy: if she had actually used those zombies to attack Gringotts then the goblins were probably here to collect his head as a trophy.
"No Harry, you are not going out there alone," Hermione said forcefully. "I always thought that Professor Binns was a bigoted fool, but he was right about the goblins and I was wrong. They are deceitful monsters who can not to be trusted under any circumstances. We will wait for Minister Shacklebolt and the Aurors."
"I feel I must reminder the three of you that you stole something of great value from one of Gringotts' Vaults and fled the premises with a dragon, causing a great deal of damage in the process," McGonagall pointed out. "You can not expect the Ministry of Magic to protect you from the consequences of your actions."
The trio exchanged a set of silent glances, and then left the Great Hall without another word. Only when they reached the hallway did Hermione finally speak. "We have been fooling ourselves thinking that Hogwarts was safe. Minerva doesn't have the strength, or apparently the inclination, to defend us."
"But where can we go?" Ron asked. "The wards around Grimmauld Place have been smashed, and the Burrow is too crowded and too depressing."
"And if I was there it would only make your family more of a target for the remaining Death Eaters," Harry added. What he didn't say out loud was that Ginny was at the Burrow, and he was in no mood to deal with her teenage angst at the moment. "We will talk about our future living arrangements tonight if we are still alive after this meeting."
Two hours later a very unhappy Minister of Magic finally arrived, and their party of four made its way out to the edge of the castle wards where goblins had pitched a small pavilion. The twenty Aurors the Minister had brought with him from London were left behind to strengthen the defenses around Hogwarts. Not that they would be of much use against the hundred goblin warriors they were now facing.
"Kingsley be honest with me: if it comes down to another goblin rebellion or handing me over to be executed, which option will you choose?" Harry asked as they walked.
"I know it is a strange concept for you Gryffindors, but let's hear what they have to say before we make any rash decisions," the Minister, a proud Ravenclaw alumnus, replied.
The pavilion was completely silent as they entered, so Harry decided to introduce himself to the most ornately dressed of the bunch. "I am Harry Potter. You asked to see me."
All at once the small creatures prostrated themselves face-down in the dirt. "We humbly beg for your forgiveness, and offer you a Mountain of Gold in hopes of satiating your great rage," the goblin leader said with an odd and unfamiliar accent.
"Harry, what do you do?" Hermione hissed.
"Don't look at me. I haven't been back to Gringotts since we left on the back of that old dragon."
The Minister shot them both a dirty look before switching over to his Auror persona. "Where is your leader Ragnok?"
"He and the rest of the English Clan have been slaughtered to the last soul," the goblin replied.
"All the goblins who worked at Gringotts are dead? How did you discover this bit of information?" Kingsley continued.
"We received a message from Ragnok that his clan was under attack," their leader explained. "We arrived from Norway a few hours ago to find them all dead. According to Goblin Law we have taken over management of the London Branch, and will open tomorrow morning if Harry Potter will allow us to live."
"Why are you blaming all this on Harry?" Hermione asked.
The goblin obviously didn't want to answer that question, but he was too frightened not to. "Ragnok sent word to the other clan chiefs of a plot to bring young Potter under his personal control. Then in a matter of days his clan is wiped-out by an army of goblin Inferi."
"Are you absolutely certain they were attacked by goblin Inferi?" Kingsley asked sharply. "How do you know it wasn't a failed attempt at a coup d'état?"
"No they were Inferi; the signs were very obvious if you know what to look for. And with Lord Voldemort dead Harry Potter is the only known Necromancer currently alive in Europe," the goblin explained.
"I am not a Necromancer," Harry snapped.
"Well, you did survive the Killing Curse twice," Ron pointed out.
"Ronald, you are not helping the situation when you say things like that out loud," Hermione whispered.
Kingsley was studying Harry closely, and he suddenly cast a Privacy Charm cutting them off from the goblins. "You didn't attack Gringotts personally, but you know who did, don't you? Dumbledore might have tolerate your flouting of the law, but I will not. Tell me what you know, or I will place all three of you under arrest for instigating a war with the goblins."
"She told me her name was Ivy," Harry answered through clenched teeth. After the girl had placed him in this predicament he saw no reason to protect her. "She was powerful, incredible so. She was able to kill nineteen goblins, and then turn them into Inferi in less than ten minutes."
"That is impossible," Kingsley said. "Creating Inferi is a process which takes at least two or three months depending on the quality of the corpses being used. Try again Potter."
"I'm not lying. You can give me Veritaserum if you don't believe me. Or we can use Dumbledore's pensieve, so I can show you the memory."
"This is all very interesting, but what about the army of angry goblins surrounding us and the castle?" Ron asked quite sensibly.
"Tell them to donate half of the Mountain of Gold to St Mungo's and the other half to Hogwarts. Then tell them to return to London and reopen Gringotts," the Minister ordered.
"What in the name of Merlin is a Mountain of Gold?" Harry wanted to know.
"It is a very old goblin term for a million galleons," Hermione explained. "Traditionally when one clan lost a war they had to pay a Mountain of Gold to the victorious clan or face extermination."
"Minister you want Harry to give away a million galleons just like that?" an incredulously Ron asked.
"If he didn't kill those goblins then he doesn't deserve any reward," Kingsley reasoned. "You are still maintaining that it was this mysterious Ivy-person who created the Inferi, aren't you?"
"Yes, that is exactly what happened," Harry replied before turning to face the goblins. He ordered them to give half the galleons to St Mungo's and half to Hogwarts, and then gave them permission to reopen Gringotts the next day.
After the goblins left, Harry asked Hermione for a spare bit of parchment. "I have to send someone a message," he explained to the confused witch.
"So, she knows everything what was ever written down by everyone?" Ron asked an hour later as they waited for Ivy in the Forbidden Forrest. "Is that even possible?"
"No, it is not," Hermione huffed. "Harry she must have been using Legilimency on you. It is the only sensible explanation."
"If I was using Legilimency on him then how did I know he wanted this meeting?" Ivy asked after she appeared out of nowhere. The girl was still wearing a set of Hogwarts robes, and was also carrying a red leather suitcase for some reason. "Please put your wands away. I would be most put out if I had to kill any of you."
"What were you thinking when you sent those Inferi to Gringotts?" Harry snapped. "Now the new Minister of Magic thinks I am some kind of Dark Necromancer, and he threaten to send me to Azkaban. I killed Voldemort less than two weeks ago, and they are already starting to turn on me thanks to you!"
"I told you they were Zombies not Inferi, and I sent them to Gringotts for two very specific reasons. One, goblins have an irrational fear of rotting flesh, so much so that they always cremate their dead. They were too terrified by the Zombies to put up much of a fight. Two, I wanted to provoke a hostile reaction from Shacklebolt," Ivy explained.
"Well that plan certainly worked. The Minister now the hates Harry, and thinks that he is budding Dark Lord," Hermione said.
"No, he already hated Harry. Before his death Albus Dumbledore sent Shacklebolt several letters instructing him to watch you closely for any signs of corruption by Black Magic," Ivy replied. "By slaughtering those goblins I simply forced Minister to express those fears openly to Harry's face. Now you know the truth."
"Albus though that I would go Dark?" Harry asked in a small voice. "When I saw him in the afterlife he said that he was proud of me, that he loved me."
"Maybe he did," Ivy allowed. "But that doesn't change the fact that a piece of Tom Riddle's soul coexisted with your own for over fifteen years. Dumbledore had no way of knowing what the long-term effects of that would be, and he felt it was his duty to warn Shacklebolt that you might become a problem at some point down the road. He was mistaken, but he had no way of knowing that."
Hearing Dumbledore insulted by a stranger infuriated Hermione. "How can you be so sure he was wrong about the possible side-effects of a horcrux?"
Ron immediately jumped to his best friend's defense. "Of course the old goat-lover was wrong! There is no way Harry will ever become a Dark Lord."
"That really doesn't matter at this point. What matters is that Kingsley believes it," Harry said. "Why does the Minister hate me personally? I've never done anything to him."
"Shacklebolt knows that you were present at Riddle's rebirth, and he knows that you had to die before Riddle could be killed once and for all," Ivy explained. "From his point of view you should have been executed years ago since it would have prevented the entire war in the first place."
"That theory is rubbish," Hermione declared. "Harry was only one of several horcruxes that Voldemort created during his lifetime."
"Shacklebolt doesn't know about the other horcruxes, and if you told him about them now I doubt he would believe you," Ivy replied. "Albus Dumbledore's habit of keeping secrets has left Harry in a very difficult position. The only way he can satisfy Shacklebolt's paranoia is to become an obedient little Auror who never steps out of line. Is that the kind of life you want to live? A poster boy for a corrupt and inefficient Ministry of Magic?"
"You are trying to manipulate my life just like Albus did."
"Yes, I am," Ivy freely admitted. "The difference is choice: Dumbledore gave you none while turning you into a martyr. I on the other hand want to give you a long and rewarding life, and I will never lie to you."
"You have already lied to him about this whole Archive nonsense," Hermione said in her most insufferable know-it-all manner. "Why should he believe anything else you say?"
Ivy just looked at Hermione, and her emotionless blue eyes caused the witch to step back repeatedly until she fell flat on her arse. "Miss Granger, despite your constant rudeness I am going to give you a gift." She then opened the red suitcase, and showed the trio its contents.
Harry began paging through documents as Ron helped his girlfriend to her feet. "There are passports for all three of us, entrance visas for Australia, and look: Ivy found the exact address where your parents are living! She even got pictures of them. Plus there is a floo address for a local Healer who specializes in Memory Charms."
As Hermione looked at the surveillance photos she began to cry. "You did this all for me?"
"No," Ivy replied honestly. "I did it for Harry,"
"Hey, you also have a passport for little Teddy Lupin and Andromeda Tonks," Harry remarked.
"I thought you might like to invite your godson and his grandmother along for the trip since the rest of their family is either dead or in Azkaban," Ivy offered.
This kind gesture earned her a rare hug from Harry. Unfortunately that hug caused Kincaid came out from behind his veil and point a Glock handgun directly at the boy's head. "Back away slowly Potter."
"Who the bloody hell are you?" Ron shouted.
"Everyone relax. This is Jared Kincaid, my over-protective but well-meaning bodyguard," Ivy explained as she locked eyes with the older man. "Put the gun away. Now."
"Sorry Potter, but no tasting the milk until you agree to buy my little heifer."
"Kincaid, if you ever refer to me as a heifer again I will kill you." Ivy said, and everyone knew instinctively that she was speaking a literal truth.
At this point Hermione—who was still crying in Ron's arms—asked who was coming with her to Heathrow Airport. "It will be expensive, but I have enough money saved at Barclays to pay for three one-way tickets. Getting home might be a little tricky though."
"I can get you to Sydney by midnight," Ivy offered.
Kincaid went pale when he heard that. "You want to travel to the other side of the world through Nevernever? Please tell me you haven't finally gone insane."
"What, is Captain Hook the pirate going to capture us and make us walk the plank?" a laughing Hermione asked as Ron gently wiped away her tears.
"We are all going to die," a terrified Hermione said after Ivy had single-handedly destroyed a large herd of carnivorous giraffes.
According to the Archive when you stripped away the superstitious nonsense Nevernever was nothing more than other dimension which existed parallel to our own. The rules of physics were a bit twisted and the native life-forms were somewhat unusual, especially the humanoid Sidhe. Otherwise it was much like Earth. Only much more dangerous.
"Do try and calm down Miss Granger," Mrs Tonks said as she pushed Teddy's baby carriage along the path they were following. It hadn't taken much effort to convince Tonks' mother to come along with them on their little adventure. She explained that staying home brought her nothing but nightmares about her dead husband and daughter. "We are perfectly safe in the company of a member of the White Council."
"What is the White Council?" Harry asked.
"Purebloods like to think of themselves as being at the top of the food chain, but in truth our magic is very weak when compared to other supernatural beings," Mrs Tonks said. "Or so my great-grandmother use to tell me. Bellatrix, Narcissa, Sirius and Regulus could never sit still long enough to listen to her tales. She often spoke of a mysterious group of wizards who protected the entire world from unspeakably evil threats that we purebloods could not even begin to imagine, not in our worst nightmares."
"Is that true Ivy?"
"Yes Harry, the White Council does exist, and they do see themselves as the ultimate guardians of both the human race and the Earth itself. They are even lead by a man who calls himself the Merlin. However I am not a member of their little club," she replied while magically brushing aside a pair of nasty-looking gophers.
"You mean that there is not only our secret community of wizards and witches, but another secret community of even more powerful wizards as well?" a puzzled Hermione asked. "And this second community is so secret that we don't even know of its existence?"
"Your kind might not know about the White Council, but they know all about you," Kincaid explained. "The Council ignores you because they view you as primitive and weak. Trust me, you should be glad they see things that way."
"Indeed, the White Council has only one punishment if you violate any of their laws: decapitation by sword," Ivy added.
"Decapitation! That is barbaric," Hermione huffed.
"And having your mind slowly destroyed over the course of several years by the Dementors of Azkaban is civilized?" Ivy countered.
Kincaid suddenly stopped and cocked his head to the left. "Oh shite, I hear horses. You know what that means."
"It certainly took her long enough to respond," Ivy said. "We have been trampling though the Lands of Summer for a good twenty minutes."
Harry was just about to ask what was going on when he saw them. There was a lone woman and several men in armor riding towards them on large white horses. As they got closer he began to notice that they were are very beautiful, even with their strange white hair. When the riders stopped just a few meters away Harry revised his opinion: their leader wasn't simply beautiful, she was the most perfect woman he had ever seen in his life. Just looking at her caused him to become intensely aroused.
"Ronald Weasley!" Hermione yelled, and Harry was relieved to see that he wasn't the only one fighting a losing battle with his teenage hormones.
"Miss Granger don't be angry at the poor boy's condition, be grateful for it," Mrs Tonks whispered. "You must have heard those nasty rumors about Headmaster Dumbledore."
Ivy let out a snort before addressing the riders. "Hello Titania."
"Watch your tongue mortal, you are in the presence of the Queen of Earth and Light!" one of the handsome guards declared in a deep and melodious voice.
"She isn't my queen," Ivy replied before waving her hand and sending the buffoon flying for several hundred meters. "You might want to think about teaching your subjects the proper etiquette for dealing with the Archive."
"I see that your mother's stupidity hasn't completely corrupted your bloodline," Queen Titania remarked, and even her sultry voice was flawless. "You are trespassing on the Lands of Summer, and I can not allow an insult of this magnitude to go unchallenged. Plus you killed my favorite herd of bloodthirsty giraffes."
"Shall we have a contest?" Ivy suggested. "If I lose, I shall be your slave."
"And if I lose?" the Queen asked playfully. She had often tried and failed to match wits with the Archive in the past.
"You will swear an oath to act as this child's godmother. He is son of a shape-shifter and a werewolf, and has inherited the greater talent."
"A true shape-shifter with internal magic? You offer excellent bait as always," Titania murmured.
"Ivy, what in the name of Merlin are you doing?" Harry demanded.
"Trust me, have a Sidhe godmother as powerful as Titania will be a valuable source of protection for Teddy. And given his relationship with you, that is something he will need in the future."
"You know you are better at manipulating me than Dumbledore ever was, and I have only known you for a few days."
"True, and we haven't even had intercourse yet."
The Queen of Summer was watching this verbal jousting with a small but highly erotic smile on her luscious lips. "I do so enjoy seeing the Archive in love. It is the only time those of your bloodline are remotely amusing. Very well, I agree to your terms. Shall we play a game of Weiqi or would you prefer chess?"
"Weiqi," Ivy replied as she conjured two golden thrones. Titania provided a wooden board covered with small black and white stones, and she left it floating in the air between them.
"If your girlfriend loses she becomes a slave to that sexy Queen?" Ron asked. "That's wicked brave of her."
"Mrs Tonks, you don't seem very upset about Teddy's role in their little bargain," Harry pointed out as Ivy and Queen Titania began to play the ancient Chinese game. Neither contestant was using their hands, and the floating stone pieces were moving faster than the eye could follow.
"Your girlfriend was right: having one of the Sidhe as Teddy's godmother will be a great asset for him."
"Ivy is not my girlfriend."
"Not yet," Hermione muttered under her breath. "Do you really think these people are the Sidhe she told us about?"
"Just look at them. They certainly aren't human beings," Mrs Tonks replied.
The game only lasted for five minutes, and Ivy won rather convincingly. "The Sidhe are highly intelligent, but they lack the ability to concentrate for long periods of time," she explained after the Queen and her escort had departed. "There are at least a thousand plain-vanilla mortals on Earth who could beat Queen Titania at a game of Weiqi, so the probability that I could lose to her was approximately zero point zero."
"How much longer until we reach Australia?" Hermione wanted to know.
Ivy responded by gracefully opening a portal, and the famous Sydney Opera House was clearly visible in the distance.