Another hour or so later, Ron stirred. In a twist that should not be shocking to anyone, he had taken on all of Voldemort's psychical properties. Including the protection of the Horcruxes.
As the Polyjuice potion began to wear off, Ron became aware that his best friend was in mortal danger. Voldemort would surely kill Harry, who always left his guard down when he was near his best friend.
Ron would need to act fast. He had no way of knowing where Harry was, but he suspected he was headed towards or had already arrived at Hogwarts. He couldn't be sure where Voldemort was either. In fact, he didn't even know how he could protect Harry from Voldemort if it came to that. Ron was pretty useless most of the time.
But Ron's friends were in trouble. Swelling with the power of friendship, Ron drew out his wand, summoned a pair of wicked cool shades and tried to think of the most badass one liner he could before he set off to save Harry.
"Time to kill the shit out of You-Know-Who… No that was dumb… Time to slay-ve the day- No wait, that sounds like slave… uh okay… I'm going to kick ass and transform into Dark Wizards, and I'm all out of Polyjuice potion. Aw yeah!"
And with that, he tapped his heels together three times and apparated to the Hogwarts Express.
As Dumbledore paced around his tower as he often did, he became increasingly disturbed by the reports the Order of the Phoenix was sending him.
For one thing, it appeared the entire Weasley family had gone missing, save for Ron, who had mysteriously appeared on the Hogwarts Express. He had apparently been seen acting quite out of character, threatening first years and swearing up a storm.
Dumbledore had ensured that the Aurors on the train had magically hid Harry's carriage from Ron's view and vice versa until Dumbledore would be able to examine Ron and find out what the deal was.
Dumbledore guessed that it was likely a particularly dim-witted Death Eater who was impersonating Ron on the train. It was likely they used Polyjuice Potion to this effect, he deduced.
But there was something else troubling Dumbledore. Each piece of equipment scattered across his room all had their own uses. But one in particular had activated an alarm quite recently.
The machine in question specialised in detecting the most powerful of dark forces. Things that were more powerful than human, closer to deities. This thing was shrieking incessantly, a grave sign that something or someone was coming to Hogwarts that would be incredibly difficult to deal with.
Dumbledore didn't know how powerful the thing or person was, but it suggested incredible magical ability. The level of mastery spoken of most often in fictional tales conjured up by the most inexpert of writers. Dumbledore shuddered at what havoc this force could cause within the school. It could manipulate reality to suit it's whims and change people's personalities for it's own ends.
He marched down the staircase and headed to the Vault, he had long since prepared for such an occasion. Dumbledore noted wryly that being a paranoid old bastard occasionally paid off.
As he marched to the Vault, he walked past to gardeners who were attempting to juggle with their shears.
"What are you doing you motherfuckers?" he screamed rather uncharacteristically.
The gardeners dropped the shears and muttered apologies. But Dumbledore no longer cared. His outburst seemed rather out of place and seemed to confirm exactly what he had feared.
There was a Marty Stu in Hogwarts.
As Harry marched up the stairs with Clash, he failed to notice Clash break into a dashing, if somewhat evil, smile. Clash breathed a sigh of relief. He had made it. Hours of hard work and infiltration had paid off. He had finally entered Hogwarts.
Clash wrapped an arm around Cho, and another around Harry.
"We're home. Home at last."
