I like to hold myself to an impossible standard in my professional life, however I draw comfort from the fact that, despite my standards, in this instance I own nothing and I'm being paid for nothing that is written on this site so that doesn't really mater here. I still try to put out my best work, but I don't fell like so much an abject failure when the content isn't perfect... hmm, that's not all that comforting when I read it out loud... for a better disclaimer see chapter 1.
Chapter 4: Plots, Plans, and Restless Nights.
Leo strolled casually into the ministry atrium with just a hint of a smile on his face. The ministry was like a kicked ant hill, with memos and notices whizzing through the air in the form of paper airplanes, as various departments exchanged information and collaborated to try and sort out the mess Leo had caused with his earlier antics. Visitors to the ministry all seemed to be whispering and exchanging speculation upon the same.
While Leo had expected the ministry to be in such a state, he had also expected to be confronted and apprehended not two steps through the door; this was not what happened. Surprisingly, Leo only met a token resistance at the security desk, where they didn't even ask to deposit his sword after he dropped his 'Lord Peverell' title but merely checked him in via his wand and ran a dark detector over him in search of contraband.
The dark detector utterly failed to detect 'dark intent' in any of the enchanted items Leo carried on his person. Despite the fact that none of the charms on the items were overtly malicious, many had been applied to items used to kill; A charm to guide and duplicate was harmless on a hand mirror used to see the back of your head, but deadly on a chakram. This would have been easily fixed by a manual search and additional spells but these people seemed content with the gaps in their security.
That was how Leo found himself walking into the department of magical law enforcement fully armed and thoroughly disenchanted with the current administration; Hadn't he just given them a warning about tightening their security?
Leo was standing in a moderately long cue, awaiting his turn to state his name and business to the Auror at the reception desk, when he finally got the reaction he had been expecting. "That's him," Snarled an elderly goblin, who was being escorted into the department by a Wizard from the Goblin Liaison Office, "That's the bastard who attacked Gringotts, Arrest him! The Nation will have his head!"
There was an almost comical moment of silence following that statement before all hell broke loose. The wizards and witches in the cue in front and behind Leo scattered, running in random directions and blocking the Aurors line of sight. Reinforcements came running from the doorway to the right of the reception desk, wands drawn and searching for the source of the disturbance. The man escorting the Goblin took a fearful step backwards and was bowled over by civilians bolting for the entrance way, and the Goblin snarled, shouting profanities in Gobbledegook, as he was nearly trampled by those attempting to be anywhere else.
Meanwhile, Leo had shrugged out of his outer robes, unbuckled his sword to fall to the ground, and raised his arms to let his tunics sleeves slide free from his forearms before interlacing his fingers behind his head. A moment later he sidestepped away from his possessions, simultaneously dodging the stunner of an overly enthusiastic rookie. When the commotion cleared he was standing, clearly relaxed, with a roguish smile, "Why don't we see if we can get this little misunderstanding cleared up."
The goblin sputtered in outrage for a moment, "Mis... understanding? Misunderstanding! You attacked Gringotts, murdered citizens of the goblin nation, stole a dragon, and did severe damage to Gringotts property! What exactly do you think has been misunderstood!"
"Well, firstly, I did not attack Gringotts nor did I murder any of its citizens..."
"Liar," the goblin interrupted, spittle flying from its mouth as its face became more apoplectic, "I was there, I saw you!"
"Rather," Leo continued as if he had not been spoken over, "I responded to a challenge issued by Chief Blood Fang; his words being, 'I dare you to try us, you earless sheep fucker,'" Leo repeated in gobbledegook, with a capital pit accent that made the Goblins eyes bulge comically, "I'm willing to provide memories of said challenge, and will swear an oath to their authenticity. If your Chief failed to notify you of this challenge then that was his problem, not mine. Some goblins may have been killed during the course of the challenge, but they were in the employ of the challenger when the challenged, me, killed them. Thus, under goblin law, they were not murdered." As Leo slipped into gobbledegook the wizard accompanying the goblin translated for the sake of the Aurors.
"As to your accusation about the theft of a dragon," Leo chuckled, "One could no more own a dragon then one could own the sun, you could make the claim, but you'd be a liar or a fool. Thus if your accusing me of stealing a dragon, then I accuses the Goblin nation of enslaving a free race as defined by the Serathan treaty."
At this the goblin went pale, while the wizard accompanying him asked the question on most of the audiences minds, "The what?"
"The Sereathan treaty, which was brokered by the ancient elves and signed by the leaders of all the peoples of all the free races, was put in place to ensure that Carantar, The Old One, would never again be freed to visit his atrocities upon the world. The Old Ones followers refused to sign this treaty, so their magic was stripped from them and bound to the free races so that none could bring about the return of their master.
Leo answered the wizard but his gaze, which grew increasingly hateful despite his smile, never left the goblin, "The treaty was worded very carefully to ensure that it would remain binding to all the free peoples, even should the civilizations that originally agreed to the treaty fall. This was done by gathering together powerful magics that symbolically linked the blood of the leaders to the bloods of their respective peoples, so that when they signed in their blood they essentially bound all those who would descend from their people to this agreement. An awe inspiring piece of magic, I know. Without going too much into the very complicated and very long document, all signatories also acknowledged the 'free' status of all the others signatories; the 'Mother of Dragons', who's true name can't be pronounced with a human voice, was among them.
The Goblin was looked increasingly uncomfortable as Leos smile morphed into a snarl, matching the hate in his eyes, "As the Goblins have acknowledged the free status of the Dragons, they have acknowledged that they are free entities which can not be owned, therefore the entrapment and torture of even lesser dragons makes them slavers." Leo spit the word out like a curse.
The Goblin searched its tricky little mind for a moment before smirking and going on the offensive, "Slavery is not a crime in the goblin nation, but drawing your wand within the walls of Gringotts bears a death penalty!"
Leos malicious laugh was not what the goblin expected, "I didn't draw my wand once while on goblin soil, I slayed your brethren with potions and steel. As to your claims about slavery you know as well as I that goblin slavery is only practiced legally upon those condemned to death, so unless those dragons had trials their imprisonment is unjust. Further the treaty of Medel was clearly violated as it pertains to the treatment of slaves held in goblin captivity, to that point you should tell your employers that their time hording wizard gold may soon be at an end." At this point Leo was the focus of many shocked and confused looks, "The best you can hit me with is disrupting trade on the Gringotts floor, and I'll happily cross swords with that Fangless, son-of-a-Hob you call chief. That balless, dunglicking-thief would have the chance to answer for the negligencehe and his ancestors have allowed in matters concerning my families vaults; A family that produced Warriors in both its magic and mundane lines."
Now the goblin was alternating between nervousness and outrage. He could see clearly that this had been a trap, one laid for Chief Blood Fang not himself, but despite this it would do much damage to his reputation if he failed to bring any charges against the young wizard. If the wizard could prove negligence against a warrior family it could be very bad for the goblins of Gringotts and the accent of a pit fighter didn't do anything to ease his mind. Worse then that though was the prospect that the Goblins might have to shell out reparations for violating the treaty of Medel. The goblin was almost desperate when it shouted out, "You used Necromancy in your attack!"
There were startled gasps from the Aurors, some of whom had been lowering their wands but now brought them to bear again.
Leo shrugged, allowing his anger to bleed back into his occulmency shields until he was again calm, "Animal necromancy is not a crime in either justice system." Seeing the disbelieving looks upon the faces of those around them he sighed in mock dejection, "Fine, you can detain me while you look it up. I was here to provide memories of all the pertinent encounters anyways."
Two hours later Leo was leaving a DMLE holding room and collecting his belongings. , who Leo had learned was actually the head of the goblin liaison office, was waiting with the Goblin who Leo had no interest in learning the name of and Albus Dumbledore, of all people.
"Mr. Potter?" Albus radiated a grandfatherly calm. He wore a slight smile on his face, his posture was relaxed, his hands folded behind his back, and he had a twinkle in his eye; In other words he displayed a disarming facade, palmed his wand, and applied a cantrip to attract the eye to facilitate passive legillimency. The more that changes...
"I prefer Lord Peverell or Potter-Black, Mr. Dumbledore," Leo projected just enough anger at the old man to imitate what Albus should receive from a passive scan. After his words to the man in the atrium there was no point hiding his dislike from him, and showing Albus what he expected to see would hopefully mask Leos capabilities, "What is it that you want?"
As Leo had not stopped walking, Albus was forced to walk and talk at the same time, Leo knew he would hate that, "A moment of your time, if you will."
Leo knew what the man was trying to ask, but continued walking anyways, "Speak."
Albus showed a hint of annoyance, most people would miss it but Leo caught it easily; you get to know a guy when you spend enough time trying to smash into his mind and rip apart his fondest memories. He had little recourse against Leos power play if he actually had need to speak with him, and so the older wizard settled for accelerating until he walked just a fraction ahead of Leo. To observers it would look as if Leo was following him and not the other way around. Again, the more that changes...
"The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures is very interested as to the whereabouts of the Dragon you stole." Albus stated in a conversational manner, "I do hope you know that you can not keep it?"
"I have no intention of enslaving the dragon I liberated," Leo told the old man, struggling against the part of himself that wanted to turn on the spot and burn Albus to ash; not that it would show in his face, "In fact my next stop was going to be to their offices." Leo stopped abruptly, turning to face as the other wizard pulled to a stop next to the angry Goblin he was babysitting, "Though it occurs to me that I could just as easily give this to you."
From one of the pockets in his sash, Leo produced a single broken chain link from the Ukrainian Ironbellys bindings. "This should allow you to scry for her, she's invisible and on her way to Romania."
Albus looked openly surprised, "You cast a disillusionment spell on a dragon?"
Technically he put up an illusory bubble around the dragon, and anchored it to the remaining chain about the dragons neck, but if Albus wanted to waste time trying to figure out how he could get something that complex to stick to a spell resistant dragon that was fine with Leo, "The spell is set to fail when she passes the reserves wards, we wouldn't want invisible dragons wreaking havoc now would we." Leo knew exactly how much damage that could cause.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go file some custody papers. It would seem a blood relation of mine is in the care of uninformed muggles, which is not the proper place for the heir to a Most Ancient and Noble House."
Leo held no illusions that he would gain custody, while his lordship allowed him to legally file for such a thing despite his age, there was no one alive who would remove a child from their family of fifteen odd years to be placed in the care of another sixteen year old. That being said, if the look of panic Albus tried to hide was an indication, this little stunt would keep the old man thoroughly distracted. While he was unsure of how exactly Albus had become the magical guardian of Harry while other closer blood relatives existed, he did know that between attempting to hold that position and dealing the international incident Leo had caused with the Goblins the old man would be very busy. After Leo added the cherry to the top of this particular sundae Albus' many positions would keep him running ragged.
Again came that urge to cackle, but Leo only allowed the cocky grin of his persona to brighten slightly. He idly wondered if he would make the effort to resist had he been raised by his mum and not a heartless politician bent on world domination. Funny that the more caring influence in his life would have made him seem more stereotypically evil.
"You're much too young to take on such a responsibility, you really..." Leo tuned him out, but the old man didn't stop talking until after the papers were signed. At that point Albus rushed away to speak with a woman in one of the back offices immediately.
The instant the old goat turned his back Leo was on the move. He wanted to get to the daily prophet before they finalized tomorrows print. Best case scenario Leo would get three marks with one curse, worst case just one. Oh yes, Albus would be very busy.
Hermione was quite puzzled. She sat outside amongst the trees of the Burrows orchard, where it was quiet enough for her to hear herself think, staring at a small notebook as she worked. Hermione was used to being puzzled, One might think a genius intellect would lead to less time being puzzled however she spent her time actively searching for and solving puzzles, which she found to be a rewarding experience, and so it was not really a novel experience for her. What was novel was the amount of time she'd spent working on this particular puzzle; it had been some time since she had been faced with such a vexing one.
If she was entirely honest with herself her need to solve puzzles and unravel mysteries was probably half the reason she had ended up tagging along with Harry and Ron in her first year; well, that, the stupidly heroic rescue on Halloween, and the lack of other friends. She didn't regret helping them, she would never regret helping them, but at times she did reflect that life would have been simpler if she wasn't spending so much time bailing her boys out of life threatening situations. That reflection had become more and more infrequent as the years marched on, and it became more and more instinctive for her to jump head first into these mysteries without having to be asked. That was why, seeing the look of hope and confusion on Harrys face after the fiasco at the department of mysteries, she had set about to help the only way she knew how. Research.
Now she was mired in contradictions and speculation. She was used to problems becoming more clear the more information she gathered, however this one just kept getting more confusing and convoluted. Hermione blamed an intentionally obtuse government that refused to release information that should be public domain, and the magical media with their less then accurate reporting. Of course she couldn't come up with a proper theory if her information was so flawed. The media was, however, one of the only sources of information she had on this particular topic; Leo Potter-Black.
This summer Leo had been in the newspapers even more then Harry himself, though now a days mention of one almost always lead to mention of the other. Whats more, the prophet couldn't seem to decide if the boy was a villain or a hero, switching stances even more rapidly then they had when talking about Harry. One moment he was Harrys Dark Twin, the next he was valiantly standing up to Lord Voldemort. He was leading death eater attacks on Gringotts in the special evening edition, and by the next morning he was our misunderstood hero who contacted had them about his quest to single highhandedly free all the enslaved and mistreated creatures. She read he was an evil necromancer in the morning and before the sun had set Hermione was reading the heartfelt thanks of parents who claimed Leo had walked into St. Mungos to heal their terminally ill children like some kind of messiah.
The prophet appeared to have finally picked a side after Leo agreed to an interview with Rita Skeeter for the prophet, where he answered questions under oath, followed by a second more laid back interview for Witch Weekly. The first, titled 'Who is Lord Peverell?', addressed concerns about his death eater involvement, his supposed status as a dark wizard, and his earlier attack on Gringotts. The second Titled 'My Date with Leo Potter-Black' was supposed to shine some light on Leos past. It painted the picture of a poor forgotten orphan boy who just wanted to meet his last remaining family and who threw himself into dangerous situations to try and prove his worth to a world too obsessed with the boy-who-lived to even know he existed. Both shined much less light then they appeared to.
Hermione read the first article twice before she noticed Leo never answered with a simple yes or no. As far as she could tell he had danced and weaved around his oath expertly, only truly confirming that he was not currently a death eater, and that he had as of yet not broken any of the laws he was accused of in any of the instances in which he was accused. He had stated that with a surprising amount of eloquence and in more nebulous terms but Hermione was certain he had broken many laws he had not been accused of and possibly some he had been, just on other instances. That however didn't help her much considering what she and her friends got up to in their spare time. When it came to questions about being a dark wizard he had again ducked the topic by stating everything as a matter of opinion. It was not lost on her that he had managed to completely avoid stating his own opinion and she would be watching very carefully when following his advice to 'let his actions speak for themselves.' When asked about Gringotts he had been more straight forward in his answering, stating that his cause had been proven just and right before goblin courts but quickly diverted the conversation to the ethical treatment of self aware creatures. It had taken two more read throughs and an owl order for a book on goblin law before she realized Leo implied he had ended at least one goblin line with his casual use of the phrase 'no more bad blood between us.'
The article left her with many mixed feelings, especially when she later saw pictures of Dragons in goblin captivity that Leo had sent in a package to the ICW and various world news organizations. That package had included copies of ancient treaties and law books that Hermione had been informed were too rare for her to get original copies of and that she hoped to find in Hogwarts extensive library. While Leo had the laws of multiple countries on his side and the treatment of the dragons had been simply barbaric, she couldn't condoning the killing of so many goblins; even if it didn't technically break any laws.
The second article hadn't included any oaths, and was again more evasive answers then anything else. Added to that was Skeeters 'creative flair' and she couldn't tell where Leos answers started and Skeeters insinuations began. Mostly that piece of trash just emphasized that Leo was charming, the Lord of an 'old respected Family', single, and had a mysterious tragic past. It was the opening to a trashy romance novel and exactly what witch Weeklys subscribers wanted to read. Other then that, it had made insinuations about Dumbledore trying to keep Leo and Harry apart and Hermione was convinced not even Skeeter was sure if they came from Leos mouth or her Quill. For gods sakes the article was supposed to shine light on his background but only added more questions without answering any of the old ones! Hermione knew this was intentional when Rita promised more interviews to follow, she was obviously going to milk this for all it was worth.
Somehow the seemingly simple question of 'is Leo really related to Harry?' had become a many headed hydra. The first 'yes' had lead to a string of unanswered whys and hows. How was Leo related to Harry, Why didn't anyone know about Leo, How had he been hidden for so many years, Why hadn't he come to Hogwarts, How did he learn all his magic without the ministry knowing about him, Why was he in the ministry on the 18th of June in the first place, how did he overpower the two most feared and respected wizards in Britian, why did he flee afterward if he was just going to turn himself in, why were the ministry keeping all of his interview records sealed. The list went on and on, seeming to grow by the day.
Rumors had been swirling that Leo would be attending Hogwarts this year. Hermione didn't need to ask herself why, she was sure it had to do with Harry. She was just unsure what he wanted from her best friend. That was a good part of what was troubling her now, it was why she was examining Leos every action to try and see the right and the wrong of them. Hearing the rumors one question had jumped to the top of her list, is Leo a threat.
His evasion around the question of if he was a dark wizard troubled her, but did not prove him to be dangerous to Harry. As much as the English wizards liked to pretend only dark magic was dangerous, she had seen what you could do with supposedly neutral cutting charm, or even a first year levitation spell. Besides Professor Lupin had been classed a 'dark creature' and, barring a full moon or Lux lunæ charm, she couldn't rationalize calling him a threat to Harry.
She was so caught up in thought that when she was called back to the Burrow she got up to walk without consciously noticing. She suspected she wouldn't be able to figure it out, but she decided to argument map that most important question tonight. She wanted to have an educated opinion before they got on the train tomorrow but with spotty reporting she wasn't sure how educated her opinion could really be.
Bellatrix cackled in a most unhinged manner, Lucius chuckled with a slight edge of fear in his eyes and Severus allowed his face to remain set in its customary half sneer; his gut was telling him to remain silent.
Severus felt an ever growing sense of unease, he prided himself on being able to read the mood in a room and knowing how best to react to get the outcome he desired. At the moment he was at a loss. While some might think his unease was in spite of of the laughter around him, the truth was it was because of it, or more specifically because of the dark lords reaction to his report.
The Dark Lord was laughing, not the slight chuckle he allowed himself when tormenting an enemy, and not the cruel cold laughter he that used as a psychological weapon to dishearten enemies and rally allies. No, this laughter was something much more disturbing, something terribly wrong.
The Dark Lord Voldemort, most feared European dark wizard since Grindewald, was leaned over in his chair, clutching his abdomen as a single tear rolled down his face, nearly roaring with laughter. It left Severus repeating over and over to himself, 'what the fuck? What. The. Fuck.' With the occasional 'Am I going to die?' thrown in for good measure. Okay, so maybe he was a little more then just uneasy, but he would likely die,'oh, Merlin! This is it,what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck,'
long before he admitted that to even himself.
He was desperately trying to think of what in his report could have possibly been so funny, as The Dark Lord had never offered more then the slightest of smirks on such an occasion before. Severus was also hoping beyond hope that the joke wasn't on him, because the Dark Lord had an equally dark sense of humor.
The Dark Lord suddenly stopped laughing. Quick as a viper, He had his wand in his hand and Lucius was writhing and screaming in agony under the influence of a silently cast Crucio. The change was so swift Severus nearly jumped.
Bellatrix did jump, then cackled even louder with glee. Severus hadn't thought the woman could be more insane but whatever the Potter-Black boy had done to her had clearly proven him wrong. She pouted when The Dark Lord ended his spell and in a showcase of her strange new powers over him it somehow convinced him to reapply the spell for a short time more. Severus wouldn't have believed the Dark Lord could be... indulgent to her twisted whims had he not seen it himself.
"You should not laugh when you don't understand the joke Malfoy, no one likes a brown-noser." The dark lord said in a causal tone as he lifted the curse. Severus was very glad he had not followed Malfoys lead and laughed. "As for you..."
Severus resisted the urge to show fear, though even with his occulmency some bled through, when the Dark Lord turned a stern gaze upon him. The ten seconds the dark lord spent examining Severus where the longest of his life. Bellatrix had an eager look in her eye, she had never liked him, never believed he was truly a triple agent as he claimed. Now she was alternating between looking at him like an attack dog and the dark lord like a puppy.
"You may report that the plans for the werewolf attacks this month and tell the old fool of the poison that will go in the muggle water supply," The Dark Lord seemed to consider for a moment, "you may suggest that you weaken the potion to be non-lethal to garner more favor within the Order, but I still expect the elderly to die and the young or infirm to be chronically weakened."
The dark lord paused to allow for a confirming, "As you command, My Lord."
"You may also inform Dumbledore of three Slytherin recruits bound for the front lines and of the duress I am placing the Cornfoot family under. Dracos mission is doomed to fail anyways so you may also warn him the boy will be after him. Finally, you will watch Leo carefully, just as you have watched Potter. Report to me what house he is placed in, and about his academic achievements." The dark Lord showed a ghost of his earlier mirth, "During your reports about Leo you will refrain from commenting on how he reflects his fathers arrogance. You may go."
Severus was very surprised by the orders, as the dark lord had never attempted to curb his insulting of James Potter before. He was, however, much too intelligent to ask about it no matter how confusing the whole situation was.
"Yes my Lord, my Lady." bowed still slightly put off by the new etiquette required and unsure of how Bellatrix had achieved her new station. While the damage of Azkaban had been healed by Severus potions regime, he had never thought the Dark Lord had cared for carnal pleasures. While Bellatrix was surely an attractive specimen, Severus would never have expected The Dark Lord to kill her husband to claim her. It was a mystery.
He almost made it to the door before he heard The Dark lords voice, little more then a whisper, silky and seductive, "Bella..."
Severus closed his eyes in resignation before an eager voice was heard, "Crucio!"
The Dark Lord laughed.
Fawkes sat upon his perch, his melodic and soft song echoing about Albus' office in an ethereal manner, refusing to be dampened or dimmed. Each surface that the phoenix song touched reflected the sound without any loss of energy, allowing the immortal to harmonize with itself and build an orchestra of sound. The strength of the song built again and again as the phoenix sung the most complex and beautiful song of its long life.
The charm was a simple one, and Albus wondered if this had ever been done for a phoenix companion before. He wondered if any before him would have needed it.
His lemon drops weren't helping. Nor was the lemon candy floss, the lemon jelly fruit slices, the lemon taffy from that ingenious Wonka fellow, the lemon rock candy, nor the lemon pops. If Albus was to be perfectly honest with himself even the potions Severus brewed for him, ingenious how the man could make them almost taste of lemons, did not seem to help his pain.
His cursed hand was slowly and excruciatingly sapping his life force, and Albus was growing tired. He may have held up better had it not been for the infuriating efforts of the Peverell boy, who Albus had nearly stopped thinking of as a potter at all. Leo had taken the influence of Albus' many positions and twisted them against him. It seemed his every office was being flooded with petitions and requests.
As Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot he was renegotiating with the Gringotts goblins on banking and law enforcement policies in an attempt to prevent another rebellion and he had Muggle-borns, half-bloods, and half-breads screaming up a storm in the ministry atrium; protesting laws so old the most the Wizengamot had never given thought to their existence.
In his position as Supreme Mugwump he was stuck in a pitched battle over the honoring of inter-species treaties, some long forgotten before the age of Merlin, treaties that once more struck upon the blurred line of what was a beast and what was a being. The goblins again became a sticking point as some pushed for reparations, others swore by appeasement and the rest swung radically in both directions or sat on the fence refusing to pick sides. The long international conferences seemed to be getting nowhere, and the problem only became more complicated when activist groups from around the world arrived at was was intended to be a secret conference to protest things that weren't even up for discussion.
He was so hectic that he nearly forgot about the custody hearing for Harry Potter. Luckily he had blocked the boy in question from coming in to speak for himself; that could have been disastrous, if the barest hint of Harrys treatment at the hands of his relatives came to light... Albus shuddered at the potential consequence. The political fallout of that in these busy times would be too much of a destabilizing factor.
Unfortunately it appeared that that once more was just a distraction. While Albus had been pleading his case against a surprisingly rousing and eloquent Leo, he had received warnings that the wards at no less then five locations he was watching had come under attack.
When the trial concluded, Albus checked each of the alerts by order of priority. First he had checked for an escape attempt at Nurmenguard and finding nothing out of the ordinary proceeded on. The headquarters of the order at Grimmuald place was checked next, and again no disturbance had been found. The wards at Albus' personal residence, which was more a shrine to his deceased sister then anything else as Albus was almost always at Hogwarts, Also showed no indication of what set them off. The wards to warn of another attempt on Gringotts were also a false alarm, though it did nearly start a second international incident when the goblins realized he had layered his own warning into their own wards. Finally the Hogwarts wards, which would take the longest to breach, appeared undisturbed as well.
It was only when he deactivated the alarms at Hogwarts and all the alarms tripped again that he realized the diversion was more then it appeared. His thoughts went first to Harry, who he checked upon and found to be fine, before the Headmaster began to suspect something more was going on.
He had called the order to be on high alert but when no news of horrible attacks or break ins were reported he had been concerned. While he recognized that it was most likely a diversion, Albus had still needed to find what was setting off the alarms and rectify the issue.
It was Alistar who discovered the issue. His magical eye detected a strange enchanted item within one of Albus pockets. As it turned out, the wards had not been triggered at all, but rather this device had released a specialized confundus charm to make Albus believe that important wards were being triggered.
Neither of the men had ever seen such a device before but considering the staggering number of magical patents the Peverell boy was applying for they both easily deduced the source. The why didn't become apparent until later that week when Mundungus Fletcher was found in some sort of a trance by Alistar attempting to portkey nearly the entire contents of the Black Family library to parts unknown.
When he was discovered he admitted to Alistar that he had been paid a large sum of gallons to retrieve and send specific books to Harry Potter. Alistar reported that the bag of gallons turned out to be a bag of aluminium wrapped chocolates, and that while Mundungus didn't appear to be under the influence of any known curse, he seemed unable to accept that the chocolates were not gold.
As soon as Albus had arrived, Mundungus had broken out into a surprisingly rousing musical number about Lemons and wanting his money back. Attempts to lift whatever curse afflicted him, and they initially suspected an impirious curse, all had no effect. They had been forced to wait until he concluded his song before the stupor lifted by itself.
A brief legilimency probe had resulted in a memory of Mundungus leaving the headquarters, a swaying pocket watch, and a cloaked figure. The figure had slowly morphed into the form of Harry Potter and asked Mundungus for a favour, one which he was happy to comply with. Mundungus memories all became indistinct and fuzy from there until when he awoke from his stupor.
Albus had reexamined the confounding device he and Alistar had discovered earlier and learned it had some form of tracking charm hidden amongst its various components. Leo had used it to find the location of the fidelused headquarters, but still unable to circumvent the wards had waited to find and enthrall someone to do it for him.
Two crates of twenty books had been portkeyed out, and neither could be retrieved. Albus couldn't even find out which books had been taken, as no one had cataloged the dark tomes that had already been removed from the library.
Albus couldn't worry about that however as other issues were quickly snowballing out of hand. He had been so busy he had barely had anytime for his administrative duties at the school.
A frustrated sigh escaped him despite his familiars soothing song. What had he done to the boy that would warrant this kind of action? Leo didn't appear to be working with the death eaters; if he were he would have coordinated his distractions to coincide with attacks or other death eater activity. Furthermore many of the petitions that he had put forward before the Wizengamot directly contradicted the goals and ideologies of the pure-blood faction; which made Albus wonder if it was really wise to block the boy from taking his seat until he attained his majority.
The shouted threat in the ministry was not forgotten. Albus had searched his memories, placing vial after vial of silvery strands within his pensive, but could not find any indication as to where he had meet the boy before. It was quite vexing.
Further he had checked the memories of order members that had been at the battle to try and find where Leo had emerged from, only to find that the boy had suddenly... bled into visibility running through the death room, rushing towards the atrium.
The issue Albus had at the moment was that Leo was not acting like a piece as he had originally assumed, but more like a player himself. With his creeping mortality on the horizon and his delicate plans already in their late stages, a new player could devastate Albus' end game. Albus needed to learn more about Leo so that he could adjust his plans to compensate.
Inspiration struck Albus.
He crossed the room with swiftness of one a quarter of his age and quickly extracted an old tome from one of his shelves. He skimmed the rules and regulations until he found what he was searching for and a triumphant grin spread across his face.
He would wait for Severus to get back from his delayed report to Tom and inform him of this new plan. Hopefully the boy took the bait.
His smile fell when he locked back to the pile of overdue paperwork on his desk. Albus let out a dejected sigh as he reached for his near empty bowl of lemon drops.
Fawkes song continued to echo long into the night.
He was standing in a grand ball room, making small talk with two faceless politicians with a fake smile plastered on his face. He hated these events, hated being paraded around like a prize hippogriff, hated memorizing his talking points and scripts. It irked him that he had to show deference to people he could have outsmarted at the age of ten, while they talked down to him thinking he was still 'just a boy.' He was tempted to make fools of them, tempted to do something that could get him in trouble.
As he was beginning to lose his composure he felt a hand on his arm. He turned, as did the two faceless men, to see the most gorgeous girl in the world at his side. Luna.
"Excuse me, but could I steal my date for a dance?" Her light and happy tone even put a smile on the faces of the faceless men, who assented with laughs and a few 'witty' remarks. The simpletons.
He happily lead her to the dance floor as her favorite song began to play; beautiful but slightly sad, like she was the day he found her. Suddenly these events didn't seem so bad.
They twirled and spun as the ball room faded away. He didn't notice the way it grew dark until it was just the two of them in a large circle of light, the way the other occupants of the ball room stepped back from the floor until they became one with the darkness around them. All he saw was the sheer bliss on Lunas face as they glided along.
She was feather light, and more graceful then a swan. He wasn't a great dancer but she made him look like a natural as she floated in his arms and queued him to spin her with slight motions in their joined hands. It was too soon that the song began to wind down towards its bitter end.
When the music finally drew to a close with a long and quavering note, Luna stepped towards him with a look of such love in her eyes that it made his heart ache. She leaned towards him, eyes closing slowly and lips parting slightly.
Happily he leaned forwards to reciprocate, but was surprised to feel her cheek brush past his as she whispered breathlessly in his ear, "It's your fault."
He jerked back as if struck, looking into her eyes to see them filled with nothing but loathing. The boundary that had formed between the light they stood in and shadows around them shattered into a thousand iridescent shards. Luna stepped back as the shadows surged forwards, destroying her in their eagerness to reach him...
Harry awoke, choking down a scream whilst bolting upright in his bed. Quiet sobs rocked his body and it was only years of refusing to cry in front of the Dursleys that kept him from waking Ron, whom he shared a room in the burrow with. Guilt and pain crashed over him in waves, as he fought the urge to curl up and die.
For a few tiered moments 'its all my fault,' repeated in his head like a mantra, before his rational mind began to function once more.
What was all his fault? Why did hearing that from Luna have him in tears, and for that matter why had he been having a dream about Luna in the first place?
His sobs subsided slowly as these questions turned over in his head. After less then a minute he had calmed himself and was finding his reaction to the dream to be rather odd and embarrassing. He had no idea why he had reacted that way to her words.
The reaction might have made sense if it had been Sirius saying them but he was placing blame for that firmly on Bellatrix, Voldemort, Snape, and Dumbledore in that order. The crazy bitch had killed him, Voldemort had lured them in, Snape had practically battered down Harrys meager defenses to let Voldemort in and had taken longer then reasonable to send reinforcements and Dumbledore shouldn't have kept so many secrets. Harry accepted that he had a part to play in how rashly he had charged in but he had spent enough time tormented by that to realize it got him no where. Besides if Dumbledore had just trusted Harry they could have gone together to remove the damn prophecy before Voldemort had a chance to set the trap, Harry had asked him about it in his first year.
As Harrys anger began to mount, he was struck dumb by an entirely different thought. His train of thought hit a mountain side of confusion that was summed up by the question, "why did I want to kiss Luna?"
In the tallest tower of Fort Peverell, Leo sat in the sill of an open window; his back against the frame, his left leg bent with a foot against the opposite frame and the other swinging lazily above a multi-storied drop. His left hand mimed the violin chords to a haunting piece as it rested on his bent knee, and his right measured the time with taps on the exterior wall. Both were unconscious actions, as Leo was using an advanced occlumency technique to not think. With an empty mind and vacant expression he stared up at the moon.
In an hour he would try to go back to sleep.
AN: So this took longer then it should have considering its length but what can I say sometimes the words just don't flow, and i didn't want to put out something too far bellow my own standards. This can be an issue cause I'm almost never up to my own standards; I largely ask too much from myself as noted in the above disclaimer.
Some of the characters felt really wooden the first few times I tried to write them. It took a few re-writes to get this far but i didn't want to leave people waiting for too long.
Let me know if anyone feels drastically out of character over the next couple of chapters. That's when I'll be introducing Leo to the majority of the important characters so if characters start off feeling wrong it'll just get worse if i don't correct them.
