Chapter 7 Bring to Order
somewhere in the western part of Oz:
The black Police interceptor rumbled up the highway and slowed, pulling into the fuel stop and diner. The door opened and a leather clad boot hit the gravel, followed by another. We pan up and the dark haired enforcer of the law gazed back, anonymous behind mirror shades. He shifted his toothpick from one side to the other and indicated the car to the fuel stop attendant. The lanky blond grunted and went about opening the hood and trunk, inserting the correct hoses and nozzles. He was checking the oil levels when the officer walked away. "Grub" The attendant said nothing, but nodded assent.. as his footsteps crunched away in the gravel, the attendant stood and stretched as he closed the hood over the supercharger. he wiped his hands on a rag and looked out towards the west, at the ocean waves hitting the shore on the other side of the highway. He looked longingly at his board, leaning up against the caravan that he lived in and then shrugged, heading over to attend to a road train that was currently sucking down a thousand gallons of diesel.
The Policeman sat in a booth and looked blankly at a menu, then threw it down in disgust. A fat, frowzy blond woman in a plain dress and apron stood at the side with her order book. "Coffee, number 7, extra bacon" she wrote it down and went to the kitchen window where heat was coming out along with cursing and the sounds of cooking. An angry looking man snarled and threw more meat on the grill, while berating the Abo kitchen helper/dishwasher/cleanup man.
The food came out through the window and the grille went silent, as the cook stood looking out the side door of the diner, squinting at the sun. The Abo was silent watching the cook's back, and pondering. "soon you will be leaving here, cook man, and someone will replace you.. thank the earth mother for your release." the thought went through the dark mans mind, he then went back to his business of monitoring his charges, and he shuffled out the back door and checked on the blond fuel boy.
The blond waitress brought out the Policeman's dinner, and poured some fresh coffee. "I haven't seen you about these parts before, Officer" she caught sight of the Officer's name tag..
M. Rockatansky he munched some toast and drank some coffee, and sat back. "Mostly work the inner lands..bike gangs, bandits.. don't get to the coast much." He gave her a smile. "You been here long.. his eyes looked to her name tag..."Mum?" "I don't know, maybe a year, maybe forever..I can't tell." her eyes wandered off into ..some other place.. "All I can remember is this place, I don't recall anything before I was here. " she sighed. "My boy, out there..He works the pumps ten hours a day, and then goes out in the surf until after dark..I worry he will get lost." She looked out the window and across the highway at the waves hammering the beach. Off in the distance a freighter slipped across the horizon.
meanwhile back in the UK.
"Its late September and I should be back at school"
The song lyric floated through Harry's head.. he wasn't at school, he was in Diagon Alley, striding purposefully toward his destination, a gaily colored and adorned building, which announced loudly to the world "Opening Soon!!!" the once and future headquarters of Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes. Harry stopped to survey the garish storefront and shook his head in amazement.
"They certainly don't do things by half do they.." The Weasley twins had worked hard for the last year, building a client base, starting with a mail order business and now, finally, they were making their move to open a retail store for their goods..and now Harry was going to throw the proverbial monkey wrench in the works, albeit for a good cause. He knocked on the door and the door talked back in response..
"Oi there, lets not get too familiar, bub!.."
Harry grinned and hammered on the door once more, as the door protested.
"Ay ay ay.. quit it already, we'll open next week, come back then.."
He had a thought and leaned in to whisper the phrase "I solemnly swear, I'm up to no good" If a door could ever snap to attention, this one did so.
"Well, why didn't you say so the first time, instead of fondling my knockers.. cheeky boy."
The door clicked and opened with a eerie creak, and a sepulchral voice "Enter oh worthy investor" followed by a scary laugh worthy of a haunted house. He shook his head and laughed at the showmanship. The twins appeared , sliding down fireman's poles, greeting their friend, and pulling up short..and somewhat suspiciously..
"You don't quite look.... like our investor..
"In fact".."You look"
"suspiciously neat and tidy"
"Where are the"..."Ratty clothes"
"and the scrawny".
"underfed"
"ickle"..
"Harry we know and love"
they were speaking twinspeak. in their usual annoying manner, hereafter, assume that they are speaking in the patented Weasley patois.
"How would you guys like to make more money than you can imagine?" he spoke casually, as if offering to share lunch or something.
"More than we"
"Can imagine?"
"We can imagine"
"Quite a bit"
"Both realistically"
"And unrealistically"
He smirked at them. "Imagine this.. no more sticking your head in a fire to make a floo call, no more waiting for an Owl to deliver a letter, no more being unavailable to your friends and family, for whatever reason...being able to communicate with your mundane friends no matter where they are, whether they can receive owls or not."
They looked at him suspiciously.
"But what if we want to be unavailable?"
"unavailability is important too , you know."
Harry rolled his eyes at this, and said nothing, but instead reached into his pocket, and pulled out what appeared to be a common mobile phone.
The twins looked at this and commented.
"We've seen those before"
"Tis a muggle Celly phone"
"Or at least it looks like one.."
"Gred, do you detect a certain?"
"Yes Forge, I do, a certain.."
"Feel of magic"
"Around it, in fact"
"It feels like"
"Hermione the powerful"
"And lovely "
"had much to do with this"
"fancy bit of technology"
"Very good, boys, now tell me how it works, I'll give you a hint, the base object is really a celly phone, and will work anywhere you can get a signal in the UK, but there are some other things added, here." He reached into his bag and handed each brother their own version. The brothers lay one of the items on a bench and worked together casting spells and charms , investigating the properties of the device, Harry wandered into the living area of the shop and found a coolbox, pulled out three butterbeer and returned to the bench where they were writing notes and almost to the point of taking it apart. He place a butterbeer in front of each twin and asked. "times up,What can you tell so far?"
"Well, it is very clever and"
"Well put together"
"We particularly like how she made"
"the base mobile immune to magic"
together they spoke
"How did you do that?"
Harry picked up the device, and with an incantation , split it into two pieces, the part in his left hand was fully magical, the part in his right, fully mundane. "Do an engorgio, to about two yards.." he held his arms out to their full extension. The device was expanded to a full six feet long and the twins were in awe as they looked closely at the surface of the huge mobile phone.
"Oi, Harrykins, whose idea was this, hers or yours?"
"A bit of both, we were discussing how to engrave the runes in miniature, and the idea came to me to expand it " he gestured "It even works at this size." he pushed a five inch button and the screen lit up. "We had to put the runes on in layers, inside and outside the case, on the buttons, on the screen, every chip and diode inside, I suppose we could have just hollowed it out inside and lay our magic into the empty case, but we wanted full functionality.."
"So, you are saying that"
"these are fully functional?"
"can you call"
"Katie or Angelina?"
"Sure, do you have their numbers?"
"Yes'
"Yes"
"Ok, how about AFTER I leave.. I don't think I want to listen in on those conversations.." he had a snarky grin.."How about I show you the magical side of the phones." They nodded. Harry re-attached the magical overlay on the device, and showed them the contact points, and how to make the interface work..understanding dawned on the two inventors-slash pranksters..
Harry opened his own phone and showed how to 'boot it up' and expand the screen to a usable size. He spoke into his "Gred" Gred's phone buzzed and they looked at it, it buzzed again and Fr-Gred pushed the appropriate button and Harry's face appeared in the screen. They both looked closely and back to Harry, but were shocked that Harry was nowhere to be seen.
"What"
"Where are you?
"Harrykins?"
They could see him smirking at them in the screen.. He moved the viewer around and pointed it toward...
The twins both jumped up and away from the phone, spinning around to confront Harry who was behind them.. as they had seen their own backs in the view..
"Gotcha!!"
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And so it came to pass that the British magical telecommunications industry was given into the hands of two of the biggest pranksters and businessmen in the history of modern magic. It was not long, in fact it was almost supernatural how fast the M-phone came into the hands of virtually every magical person over the age of eleven, and how fast the tool was embraced by all. Only a few hardline purebloods refused to use the device, and thus were left far behind in business and culture and, well, just about everything.
__________________________________________________
A daily news program was posted at seven am, noon and six pm, and eleven pm. these times the magical community went slower, quieter, because everyone was still captured by the novelty of it, and the added benefit, that the newsreaders were deemed to be trustworthy. Much was said in the early stages of the daily newscasts, and every member of those teams, reporters, investigators, everyone was required to swear an oath to tell the truth, and if they were found to be wrong in a statement, they would make a public statement to that effect..it became a given that anything quoted on the news report was factual, and could be trusted.
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all this cost money, for salaries, for actual hardware, that is to say, the magical phones and equipment to broadcast..it was all paid for via quiet and subtle advertisements.."This newscast was brought to you by ..." and those establishments were pleased to find that the business did materialize. Flourish and Blotts did a series of ads based on a cooking and home improvement series of books that, although had steady sales, was still kind of slow..a few ads mentioning the books and soon they were the 'must have' series of books for every household..
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After a few weeks of only four newscasts a day, the M-phone network announced channels, where half and hour long shows were broadcast. A channel with nature and discovery shows, the major sponsor of which was The Quibbler.. one expose/slash/documentary was an hour long inquiry into Gilderoy Lockhart, interviews with the people who really did the deeds and the stories that went along with the events.. a timeline was shown for the places and times he was supposed to have been, and the spells that were supposedly used..well, the name Lockhart soon became a euphemism for fool, braggart, idiot.
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On the weekend before the Halloween ball, a two hour special was broadcast.. The true story of Tom Riddle, and the myth created by him, of his power. Great swaths of memory from Harry and many others were used to show his rise to power, and identifying by name and face his lieutenants, the Malfoys, the Notts, the LeStranges.. Every known associate was shown and their face and status displayed, for all to see.
Lucius Malfoy :Dead
Draco Malfoy : Captured
Rookwood : Dead
Rudolfus LeStrange: Dead
Rastaban Lestrange: Dead
Bellatrix LeStrange: Dead
the list went on for a long time.
names dead, names captured, names still at large, with pictures and last known whereabouts, and a posting of bounty on each and every one, with a contact listed.
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The Weasley Wizarding Wheezes became a secondary business for the brothers.. true , it was their first attempt at business, and had a special place in their hearts, but they had bigger things to do. Alica Spinnet and Angelina Johnson eventually became the spokespeople/slash/ newsreaders for the M-phone network, Lee Jordan would end up being the lead sportscaster, covering everything from Quidditch to dueling tournaments, but that would be a year or two in the future. Gred and Forge worked out of an office next to the WWW, in a series of buildings that became the hub of the M-phone network, off to the side, there were workshops and warehouses manufacturing potions, wheezes, M-Phones, the Wesley brothers became, in short order, the biggest employers in the magical world.
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Ron Weasley was disgusted. His brothers were never home anymore, they were always off in their business, doing something that was on the verge of mudblood loving.. the headmaster of the school was apparently away in a dither and hardly ever seen in the school anymore.. the word was that his mind had finally cracked.. Harry.. used to be his best mate and bud, now didn't have time for him.. and Hermy, she wouldn't let him try and get a feel up.. somehow, the last time he had tried, he woke up in the infirmary with a sore arm and no memory of what happened.. "stupid mudblood bint, and every time I see her, she's with that Parkinson slut.." Rom mumbled and grumbled. It had been some time since Ron had been right.. in fact, he had always had an undercurrent of anger and jealousy of everyone and everything.. he was too lazy to work at advancing himself.. His brothers offered him a job working in one of the manufacturing facilities, with a chance to work himself up in the business, learn from the bottom , as it were. He was having none of that, what he wanted was a manager position, running the show, he didn't want to get his hands dirty.. He was offered a position working his way up in the Ministry, since Arthur was now on the executive council, rebuilding the government.. there were a lot of unoccupied positions in the Ministry, since so many had been taken away, so many had just plain disappeared from the beginning of summer. Ron was still angry with Percy, feeling that his older brother had abandoned the family, but the truth was that Percy was working hard for the protection and advancement of the family.. and his own family. He had proposed to Penelope and they were to be married this year, and the whole family was invited. The truth of the whole matter, concerning Ron, was he was just as much of a bigot and jerk as Malfoy was.. two samples of the same pattern, different, but just alike. The whole situation with the DoM and the cognivores was that when he became tangled up with them, his mind was affected, more that anyone knew. He became paranoid, secretive, angry, bitter.. all his emotions were magnified by a significant amount, and deep inside, he found that he liked to lash out and hurt people, he liked to go out into the muggle world and find victims to thrash, rape and beat.. in truth, he was becoming a perfect Death Eater.
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from the evening news........
"And in the latest news from the American west coast, the yearly salamander migrations are having the usual problems common to dealing with ten foot long fire elementals, here, live from the mountains of California, Nigel Hawthorn"
"Good Evening, this is Nigel Hawthorn in Southern California, behind me you can see the fires consuming hundreds of acres of land, trees, buildings and grasslands.. The fires are the result of a rigidly controlled set of rules, having to do with the local governmental authorities doing their part in the making of offerings and rituals to the correct elementals.. thus the huge fire you see raging behind me is the offering to keep the elemental forces in check for another year, and avoiding the burning of entire cities as has been seen in the past." Our viewers may recall the great San Francisco fire of 1906." "Many will claim the fires were just the aftermath of the earthquake of the same time, but it was a great battle which caused the earthquake, and the fire was started by escaped salamanders from the battle zone.. In an attempt to keep the resulting population of salamanders under control, the authorities have negotiated a contract with their clans, allowing them free passage to the high mountains and deserts yearly, and give over certain lands that they can burn, and while so doing , breed."
The controllers of these annual rituals and migrations, are a group of heliopaths who are the local conservators of the magical wildlife.
the local Magical authorities have a good working relationship with both the elementals and the heliopath tribes, and their biggest complaint of late is the dealings with the local mundane authorities, who have a problem with putting something called 'mobile home parks' in the migration pathways.' "This is Nigel Hawthorne, for the M-BBC, in Southern California."
"Thank you for that report, Nigel, and in local news, another captured Death Eater has been put to death by dementor." The Death Eater in question is the betrayer of the Potters in 1981, Peter Pettigrew was captured on September first, lurking about Hogwarts, gathering information for his master, the Dark Lord Tom Riddle"
(video clip of Dementors at Azkaban shown here)
"Pettigrew was an associate of the friends, James Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin, who were well known for their pranks while at Hogwarts". "When Albus Dumbledore suggested the Potters hide under the fidelius charm in October 1981, the assumed secret keeper was Sirius Black, James Potters best friend and blood brother." " In an attempt to distract anyone from attacking the Potters, Black, who would be obvious choice was to be a decoy, as they had Dumbledore make the other friend, Pettigrew, the secret keeper."
"This brings up the question, why did Dumbledore allow Black to be arrested and sent to Azkaban for 12 years,without trial when he KNEW that Black was not the betrayer of the Potters." "Pettigrew was captured the first day of school, by the private security forces hired and managed by Potter and his crew."
"In the intervening months, Pettigrew has been questioned, and found to be a key figure in the dark magic restoration of Tom Riddles' Voldemort persona, and in spite of being a rather weak wizard, has been central in many of the machinations of the latest dark lord." "Pettigrew will likely be the last person executed by this method under the new administration, since the dementors are being phased out, and are to be destroyed in the next year" An official ministry spokesman reminded us on this matter during the press conference about Pettigrew."
(cut to Ministry spokesman)
"The dementors are a construct of dark magic, and have no natural reason to exist, except in the twisted mind of their creator, and as such are to be destroyed by the second quarter of next year, at the spring solstice. a ritual has been designed and set up for when the circumstances are correct, and we as a nation will be free of these foul creatures."
"There are some that think these are a useful tool to be used in the control of prisoners, and should be held in reserve for such use, but it is the decision of the new government to remove these horrible things from any possible use." "If this were the mundane world, we would be vilified for torturing and abusing prisoners for exposing our criminals to these fouls and horrible creatures"
"Those of us who have been exposed to these dark creations can do nothing but agree with the new Government's assessment, and support it wholeheartedly."
"Yesterday in Crawly, a new ....."
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Harry clicked off the desktop M-phone newsfeed and leaned back in his chair, eyes closed.. and sighed. "It would be nice to be nothing, but Harry, the 6th year student, with no more worries than to make good grades and the next game, and time with my girlfriends.."
"Well, you have good grades, you could play on the team if you really wanted to, and your girlfriends still love you, in spite of your incessant brooding.."He opened his eyes and regarded his betrothed, and smiled. "I know, I know, I'm kvetching too much, sorry" He rolled back and pulled Daphne into an awkward sitting/standing embrace, and sat her on the desk in front of him, while he sat in the chair. He scooted up to her, legs on either side of his, and burrowed his head into her bosom. as she nuzzled the top of his head. His hands gently cradled her derrière, and slipped up her sides, his thumbs tracing the line defining the bottom of her breasts. He leaned his head back and she her head down and they kissed.
They were still kissing when the office door opened and two more women came in.. Hermione and Pansy, who smiled at the sight of their husband and sister-wife to be kissing. "Save some for us, now.." Hermione joked. the two kissers broke and sat back, grinning, as they were surrounded.. Hermione kissed Harry, and Pansy kissed Daphne, and then they switched, Pansy gave Harry a quiet gentle kiss, and Hermione and Daphne much the same. Somehow, everything on Harry's desk got pushed back, much of it hitting the floor, as two more women assumed their places on either side of Daphne, leaving Harry overwhelmed by female freshness. He sat back in his chair, surveying the situation. "Hmm.. Three beautiful women, what to do, what to do.?"...
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1 October 1997
Albus Dumbledore was in a dilemma, here it was
October, he had
yet to find his missing potions master, his base of power was being
eroded daily, many of the purebloods that he used to manipulate
society were disappearing, his puppet, Fudge was gone, and replaced
by the horrible reality of an honest man, well, Arthur, Rufus and
Amelia.. he might be able to manipulate one at a time, but all three,
nearly impossible.. and Tom, where had Tom gone to?.. after Potter's
defeat of Tom at the Greengrass manor, no one had heard from him, and
that was disturbing. None of the known marked death Eaters was
available, most all had gone missing in the late summer and the
beginning of the school year. Harry and his followers had taken over
an entire tower of the school, and no one could get in without
having permission, not even him, the Headmaster.. He had tried to
manipulate the houses to force the Potter clans to cooperate, but
since there were people from all houses in the Potter tower, it was
moot.
He came to the entrance, and noted that the two former Slytherin boys, Crabbe and Goyle were standing guard at the door. "Good Afternoon, Vincent, Gregory, might I enter to speak with Mr Potter?
Vincent spoke while Greg whispered into his wrist "Good afternoon, Headmaster, We will contact his office and see if he is available, May I interest you in some tea?" he gestured and a comfortable chair and tea set appeared in an alcove next to the entrance.
"Why, thank you Vincent, very nice bit of conjuring, I must say" "Thank you sir, I have had good teachers getting me caught up" Dumbledore sipped his tea as Vincent stood by "Caught up you say?, who may I ask is your teacher?" Vincent was about to answer, but placed a finger in his right ear and listened for a moment. "Lord Potter-Black is available, if you would follow me sir?" Dumbledore nodded and placed his teacup on the table as he rose from his chair. They entered the main door as another well built and armed wizard took Vincent's place alongside Greg.
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The tower was nothing like it had been, the last time Dumbledore had been there, it had been somewhat run down and unoccupied, because the student population was down from it's height of over a thousand students, and the need for more classrooms and dorms. this tower had once been part of the Ravenclaw dorms and classrooms. back when it had been full, there were study rooms, a potions lab, a dueling room, in fact everything a Clan home would need. Apparently Harry and his advisors had chosen well. The galling thing about Harry and his followers taking over these rooms was that he, the Headmaster, could do not a thing about it.. in centuries past, it was not uncommon for warring factions to take to their own private space, regardless of House affiliation, or situation. There had been a time when there was actual warfare between two clans, right there in the hallways, and if you knew where to look, you could still see the scarring and damage from spellfire and actual physical weaponry.. that situation was one of the times where the Ministry of Magic had stepped in and used actual Auror Troops to put down the rebellion, and also place some of their own control in Hogwarts, a control that was not, technically legal, since Hogwarts was legally under the territorial control of the Scottish government, although not under their legal control. The legal control of Hogwarts was really supposed to be held by the founders and their designated heirs.
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Dumbledore followed Vincent through the entry hall, where there were barriers to a physical assault, to enter, you had to go through an airlock type of arrangement, step laterally to the right, where there were armed guards watching the ingress of any visitors.
there was a curious gateway that beeped as he stepped through it, the operator wrote down some notes and touched a button. The headmaster raised an eyebrow as to what the device was, and his question was answered by Vincent. "The gateway is a detector, sir, it checks for Imperious or compulsions, it checks for Polyjuice potions and it is also a metal detector, looking for weapons." He nodded with understanding, it was amazing what these people were coming up with, blending magic and technology. He admired the x=ray picture on the screen, enjoying seeing the bones of the next person behind him. he shook his head and indicated to Vincent to lead on. He then looked to the guards operating the junction.
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The headmaster didn't immediately recognize the guards, because they were wearing armor and masks, and were rather intimidating in aura.. he recognized it after a moment.. these armed guards were werewolves..how did Harry get them into his school without his notice?. they passed a practice room off to the right where people, both male and female were fighting, no, practicing hand to hand combat methods, off to the end of that, was a locker room, where people in various stages of dress were attending to weapons and armor, all powerful and deadly. a third room, a classroom with a large screen at the front, displaying the faces and names of known Death Eaters, with statistics, last known whereabouts, associates, a fully armed and dressed team was watching and taking notes, apparently getting ready for an assault. Vincent led Dumbledore past several more rooms, a huge library, a production studio, where he recognized the M-network news readers getting ready for the afternoon broadcast. Finally they entered a suite of offices, where Harry was holding court. The well dressed and powerful looking young man was speaking with people on several screens at once, while Daphne, Hermione and Pansy were watching from the side. Harry looked up and nodded at the Headmaster, and indicated a chair at with the ladies, and the old man sat, greeting the women politely serving tea and biscuits as Harry finished his conversations.
"Welcome to Potter Tower, Headmaster" Harry rose from his seat at the desk and came to the comfortable couches that the girls shared.
"So how did you like the tour, showing off some of our capabilities and projects?" he smiled.. "If we were still participating in the normal school year and functions, then we would probably get quite a few points, but since we have a practical and experience advantage, we thought we should just keep clear, so it's fair for the other students.." Dumbledore pondered this statement, and agreed.. "That seems to be the most civic minded thing anyone could have done..may I ask, how did you manage to get an army of werewolves inside the walls of Hogwarts?".
"You may, we walked in the front door twenty seven days ago" The headmaster looked back, pondering, "that was the second day of school, immediately after you fought with Tom, correct?" "You are correct, that very night, in fact.."
The old man pondered for a moment. In spite of the loss of power and connection, he still had over a hundred and fifty years of life experience. "are you the same Harry who left here in June last year, the young man grieving for the loss of his godfather?..are you that young man or are you someone else....Harry?"
Harry looked at the girls..no, women in his life.. and communicated briefly with each. his gaze returned to the Headmaster, and his face turned to resolve. "I could say the same about you, Albus Percival Brian Wulfric Dumbledore".. how do we know that Grindewold didn't possess you back then in 1945?".. the old man pondered the question and sighed.
"Well, suppose that you could contact someone who knew me before the incident with Gellert, but that is only anecdotal evidence..and thus, suspect."
"So then, what could I tell you that would convince you that I am indeed the Harry that walked out these doors at the end of last term?.. I suppose I could quote the prophecy to you, and suggest what plan I think you may have had for me.. but that might just make me angry. " his face was blank, and Dumbledore knew that he was caught. "Let me make it easy for you" he pulled out his wand and held it in a 'T' "I swear that I am indeed the Harry Potter that was here last term" his wand glowed a bit to confirm the oath.. Dumbledore didn't notice the smirk from the ladies faces, and accepted the oath at face value. "Very well, then, you are you.. have you done some kind of ritual to enhance your abilities, skills or strengths?"
Another smirk from the ladies.. "Let me answer that one Headmaster" Hermione injected. "I can say without any doubt, that the Harry you see before you is all Harry, un-enhanced by ritual, potions or dark magic.." she smiled at her fiancé "He is an all-natural work in progress" she frowned a moment.. "Actually, I take back part of that statement.. Harry is taking a variety of potions to help overcome years of malnutrition and abuse at the hands of his relatives, no thanks to you.."
The old man didn't even have the grace to be embarrassed about the statement. Harry spoke up. "Actually, I have a bone or six to pick with you, starting with the Fidelius charm you placed on my parents cottage in Godric's Hollow..everything I have read and studied concerning this charm is that the caster MUST be aware of who the secret keeper is, thus, you KNEW that Pettigrew was the secret keeper, and not Sirius."
He glared. "How do you explain the twelve years of incarceration as betrayer of my family, it seems you have betrayed us quite well, all on your own"
The old man, the *MOB spoke."My boy..." but was immediately corrected.
*Manipulative Old Bastard
"I am not 'your boy', first you are not relation to me, whatsoever, and thus you have never had any right to control or influence me". "Secondly, I am not a boy, I have lived twenty two years, and so, am well past the age that can be considered a boy, now explain about the Fidelius charm and why you left Sirius to rot in Azkaban for twelve years."
The old man tried to explain about the need for Harry to be with his relatives and his mother's sacrifice, and the story he was weaving, but was interrupted again, this time by Pansy.
"I want to know why you created the myth of 'The Boy who Lived' and all the attendant crap that went along with it.. You don't really know what happened that night, unless You were there with Voldemort., or maybe your pet Death Eater was there and you saw his memory..I'd bet that Snape was there, because he hated Harry's father and would want to see him dead, and then he could claim Lily as his own.."
Dumbledore was shocked, because the statements made were almost verbatim to what he had viewed in Snape's mind, the day after the Potters were killed. Snape had been there, and watched as Voldemort killed James Potter, and while his Master was upstairs killing Lily, Snape stood gloating over James Potter. Snape had run up the stairs at the sound of Lily screaming, and saw her fall dead as he entered the room, and was stunned and bound by Voldemort before he could fully enter the room. Snape was the only one to see the actual demise of his Master.
When the killing curse was cast at Harry, Snape couldn't see the actual event,because the body of Voldemort was blocking his view, All Snape could see was the green of the curse flash, and the body of his master evaporate like dust. Snape then did what any self respecting Death Eater would do, he ran and hid.
"We know you created the entire mythos of 'TBWL' and made him part of the culture, both an icon and a target..all you had to do at the time was quietly take him away and put him with a family that was listed in the Potter's will, and said nothing of what happened that night.. if anyone asked, say, "I don't know", or is it your need to be the infallible old man of magic, or are you just a *Manipulative old Bastard?"
Once again, he had no answers that were not questioned, and every answer he spoke was questioned..these young people had way too many answers.
---===0|0===---
Harry was realizing that he had screwed up on a massive basis. He had let the desire for revenge get in the way of gathering important intel, he had executed Lucius Malfoy, when he should have captured him, should have taken him into custody and stripped his mind of every bit of information. It was all well and good that he had captured the Malfoy lands, businesses , vaults, everything in all the hidden names and accounts, but he lost his greatest treasure when he had beheaded The Malfoy. He was determined to not ever let something like this happen again, ever. Whenever possible, he took prisoners, and put them to the test, stripping them of any useful, and not so useful information, building and compiling a database of actions for the last twenty years.. and because he had begun this process, he had found out things hidden, things never mentioned by anyone, by inference. It was the concept of negative space, you see the picture all around the empty spot, and by inference figure out what was there.
Harry called all his Captains.. Major Remus of the Wolfpack, Croaker of the DoM Arthur of the Ministry, Fred, representing the twins enterprises, with George online with him. Philip Greengrass was there as an advisor, having many years of experience passed to him through his family. Dobby was there representing the interests of the elven nation, for that is what it had become, a nation. Bill Weasley was there with a few associate cursebreakers, there was a runes master, a potions master, Filius Flitwick , a Charms Master.. In the end of things, this was the 'power he knew not' that would defeat Tom Riddle.. Harry knew his limitations, he knew his capabilities. He was not the Übermage, he was not !SuperHarry!, he was a healthy twenty two year old wizard, who knew how to delegate..and how to ask for help. He was the ultimate manager, he could get things done by letting people do what they did best.
he was flanked by his Betrothed as he sat at the head of the table, Pansy was to Hermione's right, as Hermione was to Harry's right.. where she belonged. He stood, and the table grew quiet, everyone's attention focused on him.
"I screwed up, big time." questioning looks crossed many faces, as he continued. "We have massive holes in our database of information, that I caused.." he gestured to the massive whiteboard of information, with hundreds of names, places, actions, timelines.. the whiteboard was an epic work of magic, in itself.
"I executed Lucius Malfoy on July 28 and thus lost a veritable font of information." he looked at each person and creature sitting there, waiting. "I know the exact time, date and position where he died, and what I want to know is this. "Can we extract the information from his mind from our current position in time?" he wrote the date time and magical coordinates in the air with his finger. the time kept advancing, albeit quite slowly, because they were under time compression...but even then it still advances.
There was much muttering and notes written and passed back and forth, questions were asked.. "Can the site be accessed?" "Yes, it is owned by the clans now, although cousin Narcy Black has the right to half of those lands." "Is the building still there, I heard it exploded?" "No building, but we can erect a scaffold if needed." more discussion, mainly between the Runes and Charms masters, though Croaker called in a specialist, who Harry recognized as the master of the Time Room at the DoM. He greeted the man, and filled him in on the question at hand, and asked if the old man had any problems with working with the group.
"Actually, Lord Potter, I really work for you, if you recall, the Ministry was only my employer in name only." he wheezed a bit. "The DoM is still, and always will be owned and final authority will always be the Clan Potter." Harry bowed to the man's reminder that in the beginning and in the end, Potter was the name on the office door.
---===0|0===---
It took a week of negotiation, but the group came up with a plan, and set to making it happen, they jokingly called it Project Retcon, since several of the participants were Comics fans, and thus exceedingly clever. The project was fairly simple, set up a catch and containment sphere on location, set the entry side for the correct time and date, and when Lucius loses his head, the physical part would kit the floor, just as it had then, but his mind, personality and more importantly, all his knowledge would be extracted and captured..and placed in an artificial brain in a jar. One of the creature specialists at the DoM was quite helpful, in that he could replicate the brain sucking effect that the Cognivores used in stripping a person's mind, so that bit was taken care of. The Time master was hesitant to suggest his part of the creation, because the pain involved might drive the subject mad. The discussion that followed was ended when Harry reminded the assembled that this was Lucius Malfoy, second only to Tom Riddle himself in cruelty and disdain for human life.
The medical section created the jar in which the Head of the Malfoy was placed..on the base was a brass nameplate with the name of the occupant, the birthdate, and death date, and two buttons, marked "pain" and "pleasure" The extraction worked quite well, the settings were put in place, the device powered up and the complete memory of the departed Malfoy was extracted, and placed into the head , which floated in a nutrient potion.
They gathered around the jar. "Does it have any magic available to it?" they refused to call it a him, or a person, it was a device, and they treated it as such. "No magic, other than the magic to keep it functioning, alive as it were" "So there's nothing it can do to affect the environment around it." "No, there's no magical core, like you or I, the magic was ripped from it when it was killed. all we have here is memories, no soul, should be very little personality, but from what I remember of the git, you don't want the personality." "Good, lets get to it then."
---===0|0===---
"Ennervate" The head in the bottle twitched and blinked..but looked off into the distance.. "Anybody home?" the head moved the mouth, but no sound came out. nothing coherent. "Ennervate" the spell was cast again. same result. "Dump a bit of pepper-up into it" An eyedropper was used to insert about five drops of the potion. This worked, the head came awake, as if it shook itself, but having no body was unable to move, the ultimate in no leverage or traction. the mouth moved, no sound came out, but there seemed to be words forming. Again, no body, no lungs, no voice. The charm for a lipreading spell was used,
"..... have you killed, you can't hold me, do you know who I am?.. where am I , where are you, I demand you release me at once.."
"Shut up, you are our prisoner, and you cannot escape, in fact, you are without a body, and you are dead, in every sense of that word, so shut up and listen for a moment."
This shocked the prisoner/carnival exhibit. it took a moment for it to regain it's voice. "Explain." it sounded as if it was giving a command, in fact, it sounded as if it were using it's magical voice, a thing that affected those of weak mind. "Are you trying to influence us somehow?, because it won't work, you have no magic of your own to use, and the magic around you is necessary for your continued existence.."
And by the way, here is something for you to ponder, every time you lie to us, you try to hide something, everytime you attempt another trick like you just did, you can expect punishment.." the hand reached out and pushed the 'pain' button. The face's features twisted in agony. but the sound was cut off. The finger released the button, and the face went slack. "Like that?, it's wired in directly to your pain/pleasure center of your brain.. I can do that all day, and you won't be able to escape it, and you won't be able to retreat into insanity.. there is no escape."
"Now then, lets demonstrate the other end of the spectrum, shall we?" "A simple question and answer session."
"What is your name?"
"Lucius Xavier Malfoy"
"Your birth and parents?"
"June 21, 1955, My father was Abraxas Malfoy, My Mother was...."
"Well then, you answered ten questions correctly, and thus you shall be rewarded" the hand pushed the pleasure button for one second and the face twisted again, this time in ecstasy.. "So then, did you like that?..good, now lets start with a few hardball questions.. Who recruited you to be a Death
Eater?"....
---===0|0===---
Dobby was enjoying his time off.. his ..Friend Harry had adopted him into his own family, thus breaking the centuries old curse on the elven clan.. it was as simple as that, an elf had to be adopted as an equal, and the curse lifted, letting The People begin again.. Lord Harry and Lady Hermione had adopted Dobby as a Potter, making him an equal, and a part of their family, not as a servant.. The Lord Black and the Lady Black had adopted Winky, Dobby's sister as a Black family member, and she had been released from the centuries old curse that kept their growth stunted and deformed, and made them dependent on wizards for magic.. When they were enslaved as House Elves, they couldn't leave a family because they would wither away and die. Dobby himself had been on the verge for several years, and only his friendship with Harry had kept him alive, actually more alive than he had been as a Malfoy family elf..
Winky was another story entirely, she was literally on the verge of death when Lord Black adopted her, she had gone into drinking to dull the pain of her magic being ripped from her, and that didn't help matters any.. Dobby shuddered. He had no actual relatives left in the world other than his little sister.. Elven families under the curse were not proper elven families, but a hodge podge of associations. The wizards had forced matings, to supposedly 'improve the species' an amazing statement, since the wizards themselves were killing themselves off via inbreeding. The elf society, such as it was, is basically matriarchal, through the mother. Dobby's mother was also Mother of Winky, although by a different father.. under the wizard way of doing things, they hardly knew who the father was, because the methods that were , to say the least, barbaric.
"Never again, never. We will change this, and then the real Elven nation will be free."
Dobby's thoughts returned to his new found female, very female friend..
Tinky of the Greengrass clan..she had been the soon to be Lady Black's personal nanny elf, and was the current caregiver for Miss Astoria..Since the Greengrass and Black-Potter houses were allied, it would be a simple matter to maintain a relationship with the young female..he was determined to do so, and sought his friend's advice. Between assignments and during speedtime he had moments alone with the young Tinky.
The young elf had been adopted properly by the Greengrass Clan, now that they knew the benefits,, and the joy of having a new family member. Tinky still was the nanny and watcher over Astoria, and loved the girl deeply, and thus, spent all her time with the girl, helping her with her lessons, making sure she knew how to eat right and take care of herself.. Tinky was so proud of her other girl, Daphne, who had grown up to be a very beautiful woman, and would soon be the Lady Black. Tinky still came to Daphne's call, and while there with her girls had become acquainted with the elf in black, that had rescued her Astoria..The elf in black was Dobby..THE Dobby. In elven society, he was as famous as Lord Harry was in wizarding society. Tinky was flattered by the handsome elf, he paid very close attention to her, giving her small gifts and helping her where she didn't really need help. but it was a nice gesture.
Dobby was with the young elf, who when adopted, received her full growth.. long blond hair, beautiful, she would be Arwen to Dobby's Aragon. He was strong and handsome and by elven standards, considered a bit strange, but wise.
---===0|0===---
location: Potter Tower-Hogwarts
date: 30 October 1997
"Tell me where we are"
Sgt James was speaking:
"At present we have in custody 34 active Death Eaters, and all of those are actively being interrogated or in stasis."
she looked at her list
"we have listed 55 DEs dead, either by execution or in combat"
"This leaves Tom Riddle with less than ten active DE's and a unknown number of unmarked supporters"
"Can we estimate how many unmarked supporters and sympathizers?"
"we have lists of confirmed sympathizers and supporters, but it may be comprehensive, it is by no means complete"
"We understand this, but can we make some kind of vaguely close assessment?"
"If you insist"
"yes, Please" he sounded tired.
"we can account for three hundred first string threats, those who, for whatever reason were never marked, or are not under direct orders from Tom, then are fellow travelers of a sort."
"How many can we capture in the next five days, without making too much fuss or attention?" this was directed toward the command structure of the Wolfpack.
a whispered conference and the answer. "At least with minimum violence, we think about two hundred of this list"
The twins spoke up at this.
"We think we can"
"draw in quite a few"
"with a sting"
"we've seen it done"
"by the muggle police"
"one department even"
"threw a party, and as a surprise"
"the parties were arrested."
He looked at them and nodded. "coordinate with Captain Lupin, then.."
Lupin spoke. "When do you want this to start?"
"start right now, Get as many as can be had before 31 October as you can"
"We'll set up in Borgin's shop, shell it out and invite everyone on his customer list..get the warehouse ready to receive." the twins set about inviting the wizarding worlds' dark elite to a blow out party..they had only ten virtual days to work with before tomorrow..
"Well if you are going to leave, your report first"
"Oh, yes"
"The M-Phone is selling rapidly, virtually every magical household has at least one, and our market saturation is coming fast..
"we have sold in thirty days over twenty thousand units..we have hired twenty more workers to do the subassemblies, and have skilled workers assembling the units."
he looked at them sharply..
"Never fear, esteemed leader, every worker is under a NDA oath..they can't reveal anything, even if they wanted to"
"Good. how about the News network and the channels?"
"Coming along nicely, four broadcasts a day,we expect full programming by mid November, and then we start sales of the new big screen wall units."
"So, financially?"
"Significant money, and we are getting inquiries from overseas, The US, Europa , all over." "We think franchises and licensing fees, unless someone has a better idea.."
they looked around, and no one had any big ideas one way or another..
"Ok guys, go set up your sting party.." they nodded and rushed out.
"M-network content?"
"We have outstripped the Daily Puppet and are now THE news source for every witch and wizard under 25, and at least 60 percent of everyone else."
"How many subscribers amongst the pureblood contingent?"
"by
name 27 that we know of, most all of those are neutral or light side,
but possibly six or so are known dark."
"any chance of targeted broadcasting?"
"very good chance."
"How"
"We're running a guess the trivia contest, and the winners are already picked out..once they win, the first release of the new Big Screen wall units with the built in monitor, we're in"
"Nice..well done"
"Wolfpack?"
"We're in good shape, no injuries currently, all arms at ready. Team one is on stand down, team two is on alert, team three is in training." he looked at his clipboard. "we can field 66 fully armed and ready troops in ten minutes, if we pull in everyone, then 117 within 90 minutes."
"I thought your squads added up to 100?"
"We have 17 folks not part of the regular teams who work in the support teams, but can step in at a moments notice."
"Oh, ok, cool"
"Anyone have anything else?"
The potions master spoke up. "I have a product that I want every staff member to use on a weekly basis..it is an anti-polyjuice shampoo, use it once a week, and if you are especially paranoid, I have a potion that the medical section will administer that does the same thing, belt and suspenders effect." he looked around. "If in the course of your duties you need to use Polyjuice potion, use only the dash-p formula which will be available from the med department..any questions?" everyone looked to Hermione, because she almost always had a question, and that question frequently opened up new avenues of experimentation.. She pondered for a second.
"Will your shampoo help control our hair?" she indicated her and Harry's signature hair. much laughter.
"I believe it will, if it doesn't, we'll tweak it until it does.." he grinned at the question. "Thank you all for your time." and he sat down.
Harry stood "Anyone else?"
noes all around..
"Alright then, dismissed, lets get to it for tomorrows big party.." he turned to leave and was followed by his women. "Where are you going to in such a hurry?"
"he grumbled. I have one more meeting with Dumbledore before we set Fudge to confessing."
"Why are you feeling so angry ?"
"Because even in spite of the promises he has made to cooperate, he is still playing his games.."
"Well, if it's come to this,then we need to force him out of the castle, permanently..and give the control over to Minerva."
"she needs to be set free of the bonds on her also.."
"Fine by me, lets do it.", but to make this happen,I will need to use the Time Turner.."
"We do need to be elsewhere while we are here.."
"What about keeping Dumbledore out once the wards are reset.?"
"I'm going to go get Fudge under way, first, then I will
"Lets go and see Minerva and get her freed up from the bonds on her, then we'll face the wrath of Dumbles.."
"Check the map"
"I solemnly swear I'm up to no good"
"He's in his office, where's McGonnegal?"
"in her office, looks like Ron got another detention"
"Wanker"
"Language"
'well he is.. remember, I slept in the same room with him for five years, if he wasn't snoring, he was.."
"Harry, quit it!"
"I'll just say that I am glad I sleep in Potter Tower now."
"well, of course, now you sleep with me"
"and you make it quite hard for me to do that, you know.." he emphasized the word hard..and then flinched as he got whacked by two women..
---===0|0===---
Harry used his Unspeakable robe and intimidated Fudge and dosed him with a powerful Veritaserum and compulsion charm mix, while the Minister was stunned in his office, Harry and Croaker inscribed semi-permanent runes on soon to be ex-minister of magic. The runes were what they were calling 'hard magic' that is, they runes were self powered, by absorbing ambient magic, and were not reliant on anybody to cast a spell or charm. The design of the runes used on the Minister were that he was forced to confess his sins in public, and vow that what he said was true..this of course was the kiss of death for a politician.. the first rule you learn as a politician, is "never tell the whole truth, if possible, never tell any of the truth."
Croaker and Harry put on a show in the Minister's office, and shortly thereafter, they were treated to the spectacle of Fudge handing out rope for his lynching..With a bit of luck, he would take down quite a few other 'politicians' with him.
Fudge was performing his duty and Harry and Croaker were standing there as witnesses, when Harry hissed at the older man. "hey Algie, got one for you" Algie hissed back "do tell" "Define politics"
"huh?" "Define Politics".."Ok, I give" "You give too easy, now then..'Poly'-many..'Tics'- blood sucking insects" Croaker groaned..Harry stood, hidden by his Unspeakables robe, anonymous, mysterious, as did Croaker..
---===0|0===---
An observant watcher might see the shoulders of the taller Unspeakable shaking, if one looked closely. The skinnier of the two Unspeakables scanned the members and visitors of the Wizengamot, checking Auras and looking for signs of guilt or fear, or worse. He found a few that were worth watching, and he murmured into his remote M-phone giving instruction to various parties. When the group broke up, several members of that esteemed organization were scheduled to vanish, since their arms exuded dark magic. Harry watched with interest as the Grand Mugwump tried to keep his anger and frustration under control.
Fudge had by this time petered out and stopped speaking, and was just now realizing what he had just admitted to.. The two gray clad Unspeakables faded from view and vanished without a trace.
---===0|0===---
Harry set aside his cloak and popped away to Hogwarts, and made himself ready at the gates. He did some stretches and a bit of bouncing, getting the blood going.. also it was fairly cold, northern Scotland, after all.
A gong sounded and Dumbledore appeared at the gate.. His portkey no longer worked, and he could not enter, thus he ended up in a pile on the road to Hogsmead. He looked around , stunned at the fact that his dedicated, official Headmaster type portkey didn't work, he didn't even realize that Harry was standing there watching him.. He rose and stepped toward the gate, which was physically closed and locked, and as he touched it, was thrown back, his hand stinging with the power of the gates protection hex.
"You won't get in, not through the gate, not through the tunnels, not by land, sea or air.. Hogwarts is closed to you, Mr. Dumbledore. It's time to retire, now go home, your brother is waiting on you."
---===0|0===---
"What?, how did you do this, how dare you!" the old man was furious, and stepped into Harry's space, they were nose to nose. The old man was angry and turning colors that Harry had only seen on Vernon's face before.
"You dare and keep me out of my own school?, You can't stand against me, boy!" the spit was spotting Harry's glasses, he closed his eyes and took them off, gently slipping them in a pocket. He gave a sad smile at the raging old man and snapped his head forward, breaking the old man's nose and half knocking him out. At the same time he snatched the wand from where it was pointing at his chest, it's tip glowing with some powerful curse. Harry put the wand in his boot, out of sight, and crouched over the fallen ex-headmaster. "I said, It's time to retire, old man.. you have done great things for our world, but the truth is, you have lost sight of what's really the greater good. Go now, your brother is waiting, stay at your house and watch the news, let us take care of Tom. Retire with dignity, and I'll make sure that you are remembered as a great man and not an old fool."
Dumbledore sat there in the snow, holding his broken nose, tears coming out between his fingers, along with the blood.. His bleary blue eyes looked up to the cool green of the young man. "My wand.."
"No, I'm keeping it, it won't work for you now, anyway.. I am now the master of the Elder Wand, in fact all three of the Hallows,correct?
"How..how did you know?"
He held out a hand and pulled the old man up. "We'll talk later, after I have eliminated Tom and all his followers..for now..go see your brother, get your nose healed, we'll talk, I promise."
Sadly, the old man looked up at the gleaming towers he once commanded, and back to the young Lord. bowed his head and walked away, vanishing with a small 'pop'
The young man in question gazed mournfully at the point his ex-headmaster vanished, shook his head, and took out the time turner, spinning it backwards enough times to jump back into the flow.
He had a new Headmistress to appoint.
---===0|0===---
Tidied up for posting on my Yahoo Group
8-2-09
