I had fun towards the end of this chapter, so in the words of Wednesday Addams. 'Be afraid. Be very afraid.' ;^)

Usual disclaimer, no rights to anything from JKR's stories.

Harry had to go back to the Chamber of Secrets several times over the next week, to use Parseltongue to give the goblins access to different parts of the chambers behind Slytherin's bust. He had no trouble going along with Gringott's suggestion to remove the doors and seal up the opening because they could access the chamber magically and as Ulfr had said, the Myddril in those doors was worth an absolute fortune. Luckily, as the head of some of the original families, Harry had a number of maximum security vaults at Gringotts, so it wasn't too hard to empty one of those vaults to use for the Myddril and basilisk parts.

He also heartily agreed with the proposal to fill in the pipe down from Myrtle's toilets and the tunnels under Black Lake, because he wanted to close off an unmonitored entry point into the castle which could put the students at risk, but more than that he wanted to see Dumbledore's face if he ever got desperate enough to blast through the wall in Myrtle's toilets to try and get to the Chamber of Secrets and found that there was nothing but dirt and stone on the other side of that wall. He knew that Dumbledore had no legal claim to anything in the Chamber of Secrets, but he also knew that he'd try to get his hands on anything he could.

The fact that the tunnels gave them somewhere to put the material being excavated for the structure the dwarves were building underneath the Rookery, as well as providing a good deal of the dressed stone they needed for the new structure worked out all round. The dwarves were also building a new house at the Burrow for Xeno to officially move into, so that he would not have to face the ghosts of his past all the time. Arabella Figg would also be relocating there with her cats and kneazles when they didn't have to bother keeping up the act about Privet Drive for Dumbledore any more. It would probably be good for both Arabella and Xeno to have company.


Other plans were progressing for the Grangers to sell their Dental practice and house so that they'd be ready to leave Britain when the situation in Magical Britain escalated (when, not if, they had plenty of evidence to show that the trials and tribulations of the Seventies were bound to be repeated). In the meantime, the Grangers had moved into the Regency Era Town House that the House of Potter had hidden a fidelius charm close to the Ministry of Magic in London, so that Dumbledore, the Death Eaters and the Ministry couldn't find them. While some of the family were too entrenched in their lives in Magical Britain to leave unless there was a total catastrophe, Harry was getting to the point where he couldn't put with much more from Dumbledore and the Purebloods controlling the Wizengamot and the Ministry. This of course meant that Hermione and Luna would be going with him, and arrangements were in place for Auntie Patty and a few others to leave at the drop of a hat as well.

Dumbledore had managed to get laws passed in Magical Britain which ensured that if any Muggleborn and Muggle-raised students left the Magical world before they got their OWLs, they and their families would be obliviated of any and all knowledge of the Magical World and they would have their magic bound (most who were raised in the Magical world couldn't imagine wanting to leave it so it was mainly the Muggleborn and Muggle-raised who were effected by this). They also denied anyone without an established Magical family in Britain the right to transfer to another school outside Britain until after they had their OWLs. The intention of this was obviously to force the Muggleborn and Muggle-raised to stay at Hogwarts until after they got their OWLs, because the only alternative was to have their magic bound and them and their families to lose all memory of the Magical world, and anything else the Obliviators felt like removing 'to protect the Statute of Secrecy'.

What the traditional Purebloods tried to ensure that they never found out about though was the fact that Magical Britain couldn't survive without the constant influx of money that the Muggleborn and Muggle-raised students brought in from the Muggle world, because the concept of earning money from investments didn't exist in most of the Magical world (the Goblin Nations understood it quite well and the Druid Houses who were close to the Goblin Nations also profited from this, so many of them were wealthy). The traditional Purebloods didn't want to have the Muggleborn and Muggle-raised in their world, so they were abused and denegrated at Hogwarts and everywhere else, and the Ministry and most other employers in Magical Britain were structured to lock them out of most worthwhile jobs or positions, no matter how much better qualified they were. As a result, most of the Muggleborn and Muggle-raised students returned to the Non-Magical world soon after they finished Hogwarts, but the Statute of Secrecy prevented them warning anyone else unless they already knew about magic, so there was an on-going intake of Muggleborn and Muggle-raised students for Hogwarts. The fact that the Ministry had mandated for several decades that the Muggleborn and Muggle-raised paid at least twice as much as anyone raised in the Magical world for their Hogwarts fees, changing money and everything they had to buy in Magical Britain ensured that there was a steady influx of funds to offset the money leaving Magical Britain and going to other Magical countries.


This obviously got right up Harry and Hermione's noses, so the family had been working on ways around this. Harry and Hermione had been learning about magic ever since Hermione turned eleven, and Luna had been learning magic from her parents and their magical library for even longer. Even leaving that aside, with the time chambers they'd been learning magic for nearly seven years of elapsed time by the end of their first school year, and their prodigious abilities made it more like twice that. Having all the magical reference and text books and being tutored in small groups for the practical applications of magic meant that they could progress at their own rate, and they were doing the British and ICW exams for home schooled students to monitor their progress.

They'd passed the exams for the first four years with flying colours before they even started at Hogwarts, and Harry, Hermione and Luna had all taken their British and ICW OWLs in every available subject except Divination by the end of September, getting straight 'O's. They'd taken their British and ICW NEWTs with the same results over the Christmas break, which was why Harry wasn't worried about Dumbledore expelling them out of spite when they confronted him about the Chamber of Secrets, because they were already safe from obliviation under the existing laws, so by the time they had to deal with the basilisk they were getting ready to take the exams for their first masteries, much as Harry and Luna's mums had been doing in their Seventh Year.

They were working on their non-magical education in parallel to their magical studies and Luna took her Eleven-Plus before they started at Hogwarts, so she spent the next seven months in the outside world working through the secondary years, taking her A-Levels in the Easter Break and then starting on her university courses. Harry had taken his A-Levels before they started at Hogwarts and started working on his degrees by distance learning with Hermione, as well as helping the others.

Sue, Neville and Megan weren't anywhere near as advanced as Harry, Hermione and Luna, but having all the extra time and materials for study and tutors who were better than the Hogwarts staff in most subjects and who also summarised the unimportant parts of the syllabus for them meant that they were churning through the subjects too. They were doing the British and ICW exams as soon as they were all comfortable about passing them (Auntie Patty had taught at Hogwarts and she and several of the other adults in the family were registered as accredited tutors with the Ministry and ICW), and while they weren't getting straight 'O's, it was mainly 'O's and a few 'EE's.

Most of their teachers had been giving them different exercises and homework to the rest of their classes, but Dumbledore was clueless about that because the other students didn't really understand that what they were doing was so different. This meant that it was quite a shock to most of the school at the end of the year when Sue, Neville and Megan sat their British OWLs with the Fifth Years. Harry, Hermione and Luna had been planning to sit their British NEWTs again with the Seventh Years just to put on a show, but Dumbledore had given them the excuse they needed to leave by then.

It was even more of a shock when they dropped their glamours as they left and were revealed to be years older than they should be, because very few people in the student body or staff had a clue about how they could have done that, and Dumbledore wasn't one of them. Simple logic should have told them that the members of the Hexapod had somehow managed to compress four or five years into the previous school year and made them think about what magic would do that, but as many Muggleborn and Muggle-raised witches and wizards had noted over the years, logic and the Wizarding world didn't seem to mix well.


Petunia was also spending what time she could in Dudley's 'wardrobe' studying magic and her business management courses, and those who remembered Lily smiled as they saw the same stubborn streak that had made Lily do everything she could to overcome anything that stood between her and her goals. Dumbledore had nobbled Arabella to make her fail out of Hogwarts at the end of her Third Year, and that was as far as Hagrid had gotten before he was expelled too so they were mainly revising the first three years, but Petunia put enough effort into her studies to keep up with them. She couldn't match them in any practical wand exercises, because they both had more magic than her, but she had the determination and intelligence to match them in everything else and that was enough to keep up.

Petunia's determination to be able to wave her results in Dumbledore's face and prove him wrong about her pushed Arabella and Hagrid to work harder as well, so the three of them sat their British OWLs soon after Sue, Neville and Megan did. They mainly got 'EE's and a couple of 'A's, but they each got at least one or two 'O's too, and given the fact that they'd managed to achieve that in just over three years of elapsed time, they were quite happy with their scores. Hagrid was even happier to get 'O's and 'EE's when he sat his NEWTs after the OWLs, as he'd been collecting and studying the text books, getting pointers from the teachers and practising with the dodgy wand he'd knocked up using his old wand core and a brolly for nearly fifty years and he'd covered most subjects up to the NEWTs.

Dudley was progressing more slowly, but he was still an eleven year old boy who hadn't managed to do much before so getting through the first three years' magical subjects in a bit over three years of elapsed time and doing well, especially as he was also in the top ten of his year at Stonewall after almost failing Primary school, was quite an achievement.


In normal Wizarding time though, they held the trial for the deaths of Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle before the end of the school year, but it didn't go to plan for Lucius Malfoy and Minister Fudge. While Malfoy was planning on Dumbledore taking all the blame for his Heir and the others' deaths, he was caught out when the Acting Chief Witch managed to convince the Wizengamot to accept Veritaserum testimonies and memories for the trial, and agree that no-one involved was exempted from providing Veritaserum testimonies or memories. Malfoy's delusions of grandeur had made him forget one key fact, that he was no longer a Pureblood Lord, so he couldn't claim the exemptions that he and the other Pureblood Lords had had made into law after the war to protect themselves from being made to confess to what they'd done in the war.

At that time Lucius had indeed been Lord Malfoy by right of his wife's title, but that bastard Black had stripped Narcissa's title from her when he called for the dissolution of their marriage and recalled everything given to Narcissa as dowry and wedding gifts, so her title now belonged to her Blood-traitor sister's Half-blood daughter, something Narcissa's sister seemed to be taunting him with as she smirked at him from the Potter box. He had to concede that Andromeda Tonks played the game well though, as she chose the box of whatever House she was representing which would have the most impact on the current session, and there could be no doubt that the Potter seat focussed the issue on the children at Hogwarts and was far more powerful than the others.

It wasn't too difficult to derail Malfoy's show of righteous indignation at his son and his friends 'murders' by raising the question of how the dark object which caused their deaths and other students' petrification got into Hogwarts. Amelia had played up the danger to all the students enough to get support from most of the Wizengamot to have Malfoy questioned under Veritaserum and made to provide the relevant memories when he refused to answer the question about what Tom Riddle from the diary was referring to when he mentioned him by name and implied that he'd failed to perform his duties properly. Anthony Abbott was silenced and bound when he started demanding that the memory be destroyed after hearing Riddle complaining about his twelve year old daughter not being a virgin, but he wouldn't be leaving the chamber until they got to the bottom of the discussion that young Duke Potter had witnessed at Kings Cross Station.

Lucius Malfoy's fate was sealed the moment he testified under Veritaserum that the diary he convinced the gullible Abbott would give the advice needed to coerce Harry Potter into breaking off his betrothal with the Mudblood so that he could be made to sign a betrothal with the Abbott family was in fact a way to bring his master, who he knew as Lord Voldemort, back to a corporeal state by draining the life out of whoever wrote in it, and that it was somehow related to opening Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets and releasing the monster. Of course Dumbledore, Fudge and Fudge's toad-like 'Senior Undersecretary' Delores Umbridge did everything they could to stop the proceedings, but the Druid Laws dictated clear and severe punishments for instigating something that could have easily wiped out most of Magical Britain's Most Ancient, Ancient and Noble Houses' next leaders. Anthony Abbott didn't fare much better when it was his turn, because even the Wizengamot laws were clear and decisive in regard to attempted line theft of Most Ancient or Ancient Houses and Families, especially if they were Noble.

The only thing that saved Hannah Abbott from the same fate was the fact that she was clueless, twelve and doing what her father told her, but she would be wearing the DMLE's tracking bracelets for the next ten years at least so they could monitor where she went and control her if necessary. Her life would be rather less comfortable than it had been prior to this though, because the Abbott Family had lost the Baronet and holdings that made it a Minor House and most of its family fortune. The prospect of a betrothal or good marriage for her had also been destroyed by the memories they viewed in an attempt to absolve her of being a willing and knowing part of the line theft attempt that had her father kissed by a dementor, because the silly little tart couldn't help thinking about what she'd willingly and eagerly done in broom closets with various boys when the memories were being taken. These memories not only confirmed that a magical betrothal was not in her future because she was definitely no virgin, they pretty much guaranteed that most houses would never allow her sons to marry her, as the Half-blood daughter of a disgraced house of reduced circumstances who was well on her way to becoming the new Molly Prewett was not something most houses were prepared to have their names associated with.

Narcissa Rosier (after Sirius called for the dissolution of her marriage and cast her out of the House of Black she'd reverted to her mother's maiden name) was also a victim of drastically reduced circumstances, as the House of Malfoy was eradicated in Magical Britain and its Baronet and just about everything it had left was forfeited to Lucius' victims. Narcissa got a small cottage and a modest stipend that would allow her to live comfortably enough if she gave up her pretensions of being a society lady.


Using information from Malfoy's testimony, they managed to force a number of lesser Death Eaters like Crabbe and Goyle to testify under Veritaserum and they were also sentenced to go through the Veil of Death for their crimes. Like Malfoy, their fortunes and any titles they held were forfeited, and where they were the heads of their houses or families they were eradicated in Magical Britain, but once again those with money and influence got off scot free, which Harry and the others were sick and tired of seeing.

The Wizengamot's refusal to accept any wrong doing on Dumbledore's part yet again infuriated Harry, and the most they could do to Minister I-Never-Met-a-Galleon-I-didn't-Like Fudge for taking seven bent Aurors to Hogwarts to illegally drag Hagrid off to Azkaban without a trial on Malfoy's orders was permanently remove his dedicated Auror bodyguards on the basis that continued exposure to nefarious elements in the Minister's office had been proven to corrupt the integrity of the Aurors assigned to his office. The fact that the said bodyguards and five other associated Aurors who had accompanied them on an unsanctioned and illegal operation were all sentenced to serve time in Azkaban was accepted as proof of this. When Umbridge demanded to know when the Minister's proper bodyguards were going to be replaced, trying to make mileage on Amelia in front of the Wizengamot, Amelia told her that the bodyguard duties had been formalised as part of the Patrol Officers' schedules, as that would be the on-going arrangement.

The Toad gave her a perfect opportunity to put her in her place when she screamed that nothing short of Senior Aurors were suitable to watch the Minister… "The duty of Senior Aurors is to protect Magical Britain from Dark Witches and Wizards Miss Umbridge. Are you formally advising the Wizengamot that Minister Fudge is in fact a Dark Wizard? If so we are required to launch an official investigation into the matter."

"What? No, of course not! I never said any such thing! I was merely pointing out that the safety of the Minister is of the utmost importance and therefore we must have suitably qualified Aurors to protect him."

"I must have missed it Miss Umbridge, when was it that you were an Auror or Magical Law Enforcement Patrol Officer in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement again?"

"What are you talking about? I have never been an Auror or MLE Patrol Officer!"

"Exactly! If you had, you would know that Aurors are not trained to be bodyguards, they are specifically trained for and tasked with hunting down and dealing with Dark Witches and Wizards. The DMLE personnel who have the most appropriate training and experience to protect the Minister or anyone else are the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol Officers that the DMLE is assigning to serve as the Minister's bodyguards. And quite aside from having the wrong skills to serve as bodyguards, Senior Aurors are the highest paid DMLE officers because of their specialised skillsets, experience and dangerous duties allowances. The Minister's office has being reducing the DMLE's budget ever since the war, using the justification that the dangers of the war no longer exist, so tying up two of the dozen Senior Aurors we have left by having them sit outside the Minister's office twiddling their thumbs is both a waste of precious resources and putting the rest of Magical Britain at risk for no good reason. The DMLE will assign the most appropriate personnel where required Miss Umbridge, do not presume to try and order me or my department about again!"

Umbridge was winding herself up to another tirade so the Acting Chief Witch ordered her silenced and bound, then used the fact that she had a captive audience. "I have to wonder what criteria was used to select you for the Minister's Undersecretary's position Miss Umbridge, because you appear to know hardly anything of what a witch in your position is required to. I would suggest that you read the Ministry's regulations and get a proper understanding of both your and the Director of the DMLE's rights and responsibilities post haste Miss Umbridge…. Because if you attempt to interfere with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement again, Director Bones will have ample grounds to bring you to trial and that could well lead to you being incarcerated in Azkaban alongside the Minister's disgraced bodyguards and those other thugs who you seem to be so enamoured with. Consider this your one and only warning!"

As soon as she was released, Umbridge jumped up and shouted that she didn't have to take this from her then stormed out, muttering unintelligible threats under her breath.

Once she'd left the Chief Witch looked at Fudge. "Minister Fudge, I would strongly suggest that you make it a priority to either get your Undersecretary under control or dismiss her, unless you want to be dragged into the trouble she seems determined to make for herself. And as you made no attempt to prevent her making those ridiculous and totally unacceptable demands of Director Bones on your behalf or disrespecting me, I would suggest that you read the Ministry's regulations yourself, because in case you have forgotten, you are also required to comply with them, just as every other member of the Ministry is."

Fudge scurried off, worried about the threat he read in that warning, which left the way clear for the final item of the session, restitution for the wizard who was almost framed for opening the Chamber of Secrets and being responsible for students' deaths a second time in less than fifty years. Most of the Wizengamot knew Rubeus Hagrid from Hogwarts, but they wouldn't have recognised him if it wasn't for the fact that he was still over twice the height and four times the size of most of them, and his voice if not speech remained the same. Dumbledore couldn't believe that this was the same oaf he'd kept on as the gamekeeper at Hogwarts for nearly half a century because his hair and beard were neatly trimmed, he had trimmed down considerably and was dressed in respectable robes, which bore the Potter crest to indicate that he was a vassal of that house as Potter had told him.

It didn't take anything more than Harry's memory of what Riddle told him and Hagrid's own memories of what happened in Forty Three to get Hagrid cleared of the previous charges and have his expulsion and ban on having a wand and using magic in Magical Britain revoked (Their magic lessons inside the trunks were effectively in the Goblin Nation, not Magical Britain, and Hogwarts' original designation as an autonomous entity from Magical Britain to protect it from political interference was never officially revoked.), plus Fifty Thousand Galleons compensation for being almost framed twice and unfairly expelled.

None of the family were at all surprised that Dumbledore used his (part time recently) position as the Chief Warlock to stop them forcing him to show his own memories of the events in Forty Three. They had fun watching him panic at Hagrid's response though when when the Acting Chief Witch queried him on the remarkable change in his appearance and manner. "It was my liege Lord, Duke Potter Ma'am. He was concerned that there was something wrong with me when he took me under his protection because his parents' letters had described me as a good friend, so he insisted that I be examined by healers and they discovered bindings on my intellect and magic and numerous memory and compulsion charms on me. The Duke had them remove the bindings and charms as he'd already had similar bindings removed from himself and he and his friends have been working with me since then to help me improve myself. The bindings, memory charms and compulsions had apparently been on going ever since I started at Hogwarts in Nineteen Forty and the guilty party is believed to be at Hogwarts, so the Department of Magical Law Enforcement advised me to try to cover up any changes until now because they were investigating who did this to me Ma'am."

The Chief Witch and a number of others in the chamber turned to look at Dumbledore when he said that and saw him squirming, so she asked Hagrid whether he was planning on finishing his magical education now.

"Yes Ma'am, you see while I was banned from practising magic in Britain, the way I saw it was that ban only applied to using a wand 'cause that's the restriction placed on the Goblins, and I wasn't restricted from learning about magic. So I've been reading all the books on magic I could since then and practising whatever I could without a wand…. And I have also been practising with a wand outside of Magical Britain. The healers told me that I'd been fighting against the bindings and restrictions all along and apparently they had been reapplied several times after I managed to break through them but everything came back when they were removed."

She wished him luck with his endeavours, and then Harry presented him with the wand they'd had custom made to match him in France. Few missed the warning look Harry sent Dumbledore's way as he did that.


Dumbledore either missed or ignored Harry's warning though, because when Hagrid went back to Hogwarts, he tried to fire him because he wouldn't allow anyone being loyal to anyone but himself in Hogwarts. They were waiting for this though, so the matter was taken straight to the Hogwarts Board. After the others on the Board had vetoed them getting rid of Dumbledore without irrefutable proof, it wasn't too difficult to turn their own arguments against them to stop them firing Hagrid without cause and take hiring and firing rights off of the Headmaster.

Hagrid had passed both his OWLs and NEWTs and been accepted to start working on his masteries in Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology under Xeno Lovegood inside the next month, so he was more qualified than some of the so-called Professors at Hogwarts. Sirius and Amelia used that to correct the blatant bigotry of having a totally unskilled Human Squib caretaker with fewer and far more basic duties being paid twice as much as the Part-Giant Wizard gamekeeper with three years of formal magical training who was recognised across the Magical world for having considerable specialised knowledge of magical creatures, so Hogwarts was made to pay Hagrid over forty years worth of salary adjustments. After he had his NEWTs and had been accepted as Xeno's apprentice, Hagrid was being paid the same as Aberforth had been when he was working on getting his masteries and between the back pay and the compensation payment, the newly recognised Head of the Ancient Druid Family of Hagrid was quite well off. Needless to say, Dumbledore and the Pureblood bigots on the Board weren't at all happy about being made to pay that much to someone they denigrated as a Half-breed, and Dumbledore was even less happy about having to put up with Argus Filch's constant screeching tirades ever since he was told that his salary was being halved.


After losing face in what was known as the Chamber of Secrets trials, they caught Dumbledore trying to sneak laws through in Wizengamot sessions that would allow him to override the laws that prevented him from commandeering the basilisk and everything else in the Chamber of Secrets. When they blocked these new 'laws' from going through, Dumbledore finally got desperate enough to blast through the wall of Myrtle's toilets, and Harry got his wish, seeing the recording from the goblin crystal hidden in Myrtle's toilets of Dumbledore demolishing everything in a temper tantrum when he discovered soil and rocks where he was expecting to find a large pipe leading down under Black Lake to the Chamber of Secrets.

That was enough to make the old fool publicly accuse Harry in the Great Hall of stealing the contents of the Chamber of Secrets which rightfully belonged to Hogwarts, which was what Harry had been waiting for. When he leapt to his feet, just about everyone in the Great Hall could feel the wild magic roiling about him, so it went silent as they waited for an explosion. Most of them were surprised and a little disappointed that he sounded in control as he called out. "Professor McGonagall, would you do me the honour of reminding Professor Dumbledore what I showed and told him when he called me to his office well after curfew on the night after I rescued Miss Abbott from the Chamber of Secrets please?"

"Certainly Duke Potter, you showed Professor Dumbledore the ring which confirmed that you have been magically accepted as Earl Slytherin, Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Slytherin, reminded him that the History of Magic confirmed that the Chamber of Secrets was created as something private to Salazar Slytherin and therefore totally separate from Hogwarts and advised him that it was located outside the boundaries of Hogwarts and that you would fight anyone who attempted to steal what rightfully belonged to the House of Slytherin in the Wizengamot and on the duelling floor."

Harry bowed to her. "Thank you Professor McGonagall."

Then he turned to Dumbledore. "Well Dumbledore, we defeated your attempt to steal what rightfully belongs to the House of Slytherin in the Wizengamot, so I presume that the fact that you attempted to physically get to the Chamber of Secrets to steal what does not belong to you and have now had the gall to accuse me of stealing my own property means that you wish to face me in an Honour Duel?"

Most of them could see Dumbledore going pale, and the family members in the Great Hall knew what had come out of the Chamber of Secrets trials, so they were betting that he was now remembering Hagrid's comments about Harry getting the bindings on his magic removed and that Harry now was now the master of the Elder Wand as he watched the magic roiling around Harry. Dumbledore made a desperate attempt to bluff his way out of this. "Don't be ridiculous boy! You're nothing but a child, there would be no honour in the Greatest Wizard of the age defeating a silly little boy like you!"

The grim smile Harry gave him at that made everyone between them scrabble to get out of the way.

"Oh, don't worry about that Dumbledore, I'm not as young as I seem..." With that, he clicked his fingers and dispelled the glamour so that he suddenly stood there as his natural auburn haired seventeen year old self, a foot taller and much better built. "You see my advisors felt that it would be more prudent to maintain the false image of me that you peddled to the Magical world for the ten years you left me buried in the Non Magical World as a human house elf so that we could work out what you were up to. As you can see, I am no longer a little boy and I have reclaimed my wand from you, so you won't need to hold back."

Dumbledore fell back on his old fail safe. "What Dark and unnatural rituals have you used to change yourself this much Potter? You have obviously taken those young witches' innocence and purity to advance your Dark plans!"

Hermione and Luna leapt to their feet as well, removing their own glamours and turning on the tears as they did so. "Please make him pay for these insults to our honour My Lord! This beast has publicly accused Lady Luna and myself of having given up our innocence and virtue! I implore you to defend our honour!"

Harry was laughing at Hermione over their link for watching Gone With the Wind too often as he 'comforted' her and Luna then turned to the High Table. "Professor Flitwick! Would you do me the honour of setting up the duelling wards and being referee for us please? My Lady Hermione is absolutely correct, this slur on her and Lady Luna's Honour will not be borne! I may have been prepared to agree to arbitration for the House of Slytherin matters but not this!"

Just then another voice spoke up from the doors of the Great Hall. "I quite agree Duke Potter! I was called here to attempt to convince you to accept reconciliation on the Chamber of Secrets matter, but this disgusting slur on the ladies' honour is unconscionable! Professor Flitwick, may I offer my assistance to set up the duelling wards?"

Filius bowed to her. "Thank you Madam Bones, I would be delighted to work with you to create the wards, and I would be honoured to act as your referee Duke Potter."

Dumbledore's knees started shaking when Harry caught his eye and made it clear that he was going to make him suffer as he'd never suffered before for doing that to Hermione and Luna. He tried calling silently for Fawkes to get him out of there, then called out loud a number of times, getting louder and more desperate each time until Fawkes finally appeared in a flash of flame. There was no mistaking the disgust she was expressing in her squawk at Dumbledore as she stayed just out of his reach, then flashed away, and it was clear to most in the hall that she was leaving him in disgust. Looking over at the main doors of the Great Hall, it was plain to see that he wasn't getting out that way either because the Aurors who came with Bones had formed a barrier across the doorway.

It was only when he was pulled out of searching for a way out by Potter barking "Dumbledore! Get down here and face me you pig!" that he realised that Flitwick and Bones had already created the wards and Potter was waiting inside them.

He was forced to accept that he had to face the boy, man, whatever he was, so he trudged down off the dais and to the duelling wards as if he was heading for the gallows, because he believed in his heart of hearts that that was exactly what he was doing.

Harry was talking to Hermione and Luna over their link and assuring them that he wasn't going to kill the old bastard, just hurt and thoroughly humiliate him, adding with a mental chuckle that they may want to look away if they didn't want their stomachs turned. Hermione regretted asking what he was going to do, because he sent her an image of a singed, naked Dumbledore.


Dumbledore stumbled as he entered the bounds of the duelling wards because he'd looked up and seen Potter with a wand in each hand. The transformed Elder Wand was in his dominant hand, but the wand in his off hand wasn't the holly and phoenix feather wand he'd gotten from Ollivander, so he didn't know what it was. He wished that he could believe that his having two wands was just for show, but he somehow knew that Potter would be able to use both simultaneously. He had to keep up appearances though, so he pulled out one of his backup wands and held it in his off hand.

Harry casually leaned out of the way of or batted away the hexes and curses that Dumbledore was throwing at him with increasing desperation for a while, taunting him in Mermish to goad him into tiring himself out, as Mermish was a language that Dumbledore prided himself as being one of the rare few to have truly mastered. Then, when he started to flag, Harry smiled at him and cast a lightning fast bludgeoner that pulverised his off hand and destroyed his backup wand. He waited until it registered on Dumbledore that he'd been playing with him and could have easily destroyed him right from the start, and then he did, throwing a furious barrage of hexes and curses simultaneously from both the Elder Wand and his mother's wand, each hitting exactly where he intended and with precisely enough force to hurt, but not leave any permanent damage.

~~~~~ Warning, disturbing image follows ~~~~~

He finished with a momentary flash of a little known even hotter variant of Fiendfyre that could have easily burnt Dumbledore to a crisp if it had been held for more than an instant, but all it did as it licked around him was burn away his clothes, outer layers of skin and every hair on his body. Harry followed it immediately with an Aguamenti to wash off the charred remnants and cool his skin, leaving Dumbledore standing there white (he would be red-skinned when his body had time to catch up with what had happened, but that would take at least thirty seconds), hairless, naked and dripping in all his…. Glory, and then casually turned his back on him and walked away from the old man who was too broken to present any threat as Professor Flitwick dropped the duelling wards.


He went to where Hermione and Luna were standing near the doors and hugged them, then turned back to face the Great Hall. "We have had it with the thievery, corruption and bigotry that is all too rampant in Magical Britain so we are leaving until things like that..." He flicked a hand in Dumbledore's direction without looking, and most of the people in the Great Hall were trying not to look that way either. "Have been purged and Magical Britain is worth living in. All of you who agree with that.." Waving at Dumbledore again. "In believing that it is somehow my duty to save you from Voldemort again when he returns can get stuffed! For a start, it wasn't me who stopped Voldemort last time, it was what my mother, who half of you would have reviled for being a Mudblood, did to protect me that stopped him, and even if Dumbledore and Voldemort want to believe that some so called prophecy that that drunken sot up there made up to try and get a job says that I am the one who must stop Voldemort, why the hell should I? Most of you Purebloods look down on me for having a mother who came from the Non Magical world, even though my Mum was far better than any of you, and you look down on Hermione for being like Mum and Luna for being different, and they're better than all of you too! So if your terrible Lord Voldemort, who was really a common Mudblood by the name of Tom Marvolo Riddle, comes back, get off your arses and deal with him yourselves because I'm not going to do it for you! He's. Not. My. Problem! He's a problem that your stupid bigotry created, so you can clean up your own mess! I'm just glad that we have Regents who can stomach you lot enough to stay here and handle our business for us, because I certainly can't!"

He stopped and turned to Amelia, continuing at a lower volume but most of the hall could still hear because everyone was too shocked to speak. "I hope that you understand that I do not include the House of Bones or our other allies in my comments Madam Bones, but the insults and expectations have just gotten too much for us. As I said, Magical Britain will see us when it has gotten rid of the scum like that..." waving at Dumbledore again " And the Death Eaters and their toadies who run the Ministry. Well it may see us sooner than that if anyone else tries to do what Dumbledore did and try to take what is rightfully our's, but if anyone is that stupid, I will tear them and everything they believe in apart, when I'm finished all that will remain will be the wailing of their ancestors. The scum of Magical Britain have taken too much from our families and our allies, I will not allow them to take anything more from us! As my Regent is not here, may I prevail upon you to remind the Ministry and the Wizengamot that the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter and its Associated Houses, my Betrotheds' and Godfather's Houses between them have the power to bankrupt Magical Britain and leave it destitute, and we will do so if anyone tries to take anything that is our's?"

He could see that Amelia was trying to cover up her smirk as she looked over his shoulder at the expressions of shock and horror on the faces across the Great Hall. "I truly hope that it does not get to that Duke Potter, but I will tell them, and that the House of Bones…." Neville called out "And Longbottom!" "And Longbottom will be standing with you if it does…. But for now, I am afraid that you have done the poor souls in this hall a disservice and we need to remove that disgusting sight that you left behind you before everyone is turned off their food!"

Harry was fiddling with his watch as he bowed, and Hermione and Luna took his arms as he straightened. "I do apologise for creating that image Madam Bones, but I'm afraid that my temper got away from me due to the disgusting slur that creature made against Lady Hermione and Lady Luna's honour! I will not hold you from your duties any longer and wish you a good night..." With that he pressed the rune that activated the portkey to take them to Potter Manor and they disappeared.

Amelia shook her head, but only the Aurors were close enough to hear her mutter. "He may be more like Lily and much more polished most of the time, but that boy is definitely his father's son!"

She flashed a grateful smile at Minerva for conjuring a cloak to cover Dumbledore's nakedness as soon as Harry and the girls had flashed away and calling an elf to pop him off to Poppy's infirmary.

It was amusing to hear that, while it had been stomach turning, Dumbledore's naked form at the front of the Great Hall hardly rated a mention in the maelstrom of discussions that swept through the hall as soon as the three left. The shallow ones were discussing how incredible those three had looked in their true forms, many others were trying to dissect Harry's performance on the duelling floor, but the majority of the discussion was about what Harry had said before they left.

At most of the tables, students were scribbling down what he'd said while it was still clear in their minds, and some of the staff were too. Some were shuddering at the thought that the event which could bring about the fall of Magical Britain was the result of the actions of the Wizard that most of Magical Britain had all but worshipped for at least half a century, but seeing the way his phoenix abandoned him in disgust and then watching him being destroyed by the Boy-Who-Lived for that disgusting slur on his betrotheds' honour made it hard for them to respect Albus Dumbledore any more… Few had missed the fact that Harry hadn't cared about the accusations thrown at him about using Dark rituals, but he was incensed when Dumbledore attacked his ladies…. That line 'when I'm finished all that will remain will be the wailing of their ancestors' sent shivers down people's spines though, because it sounded like the harbinger of doom. There wasn't an owl left in the castle within thirty minutes of Harry and the girls' leaving, because everyone was trying to get word to their families about this momentous event straight away.


At Potter Manor, Harry and the girls couldn't stop laughing, but Hermione was poking him in the chest as she said. "I'm watching Gone With the Wind too often am I? What's that say about you and Old Testament movies then? I almost had to bite my tongue off to stop myself laughing at your 'all that will remain will be the wailing of their ancestors' line!"

"Come on! I thought it had a good ring to it and I could see out of the corner of my eye that they were lapping it up…. Besides which, it was actually from a western, the original line was something like 'all that will be heard is the wailing of their women' as I remember. That aside though, I was serious about what I said to Auntie Ami, if the Purebloods try to take what's our's I'll destroy them. Uncle Gringott quite likes the idea of having Magical Britain go back to being just the Druids and the fae actually, because the people's records show that everything was much more peaceful and happier when it was like that a thousand years ago."

A few hours later, most of the family were at the Manor. Amelia shook her head tiredly at Harry. "Well you've certainly thrown the kneazle among the pigeons young man! The entire Wizengamot was called in for an emergency session tonight because of what you did and said. On the upside, after watching your duel with Dumbledore, no one wants to even blink in your direction, or Hermione, Luna, Susan, Neville or Megan's either for that matter, so I suppose I should be thanking you for that because Susie should be safer…. But on the other hand…. You have the Wizengamot and especially the Ministry terrified! The way you destroyed Dumbledore has convinced them that Dumbledore is right and you are the only one who has any hope of stopping Voldemort, so they're desperate to find some way to stop you leaving. Some of them were actually suggesting burning Dumbledore and some of the others you referred to at the stake to try and convince you that they'll do whatever you want…."

She pointed at Sirius, who perked up at that idea. "Don't encourage him! We're not going to allow anyone to be burnt at the stake, not even Dumbledore! At the moment I've got nearly everyone in the DMLE out guarding witches and wizards who are convinced they're going to be dead by the morning."

"I actually had Fudge on his knees, begging me for protection from the ones who want to sacrifice him to appease the God of Vengeance…. Yes, he actually called you that and he wasn't the only one. More than a few of the ones who have made derogatory comments to or about you, Hermione or Luna wet themselves and more while they were watching that duel…. And why in the name of the Gods did you come out with that wailing of their ancestors line? Half of them are calling you the Prophet of Doom and thinking that the world is going to end now! For a boy who doesn't believe in prophecies you've got quite a knack for coming out with lines that sure sound like one!"

Hermione sniggered. "I thought it sounded very Old Testament, but according to him, he was just paraphrasing a line out of a western!"

Amelia shook her head again. "I think the only one who was happy when we left that session was Tiberius Ogden, because he's raking in a mountain of gold from all the Firewhiskey people are drinking to try and get the image of a naked, hairless Albus Dumbledore out of their heads. You better believe that I'll be sending you the bill for whatever it takes me to get that image out of my head! Poppy wouldn't let them drag Dumbledore out of the Infirmary tonight, so they've called another session tomorrow to make him explain what the hell he thought he was doing and work out how they can smooth things over with you."

It was Harry's turn to shake his head tiredly. "Most of them have the attention span of a goldfish Auntie Ami, by tomorrow they'll be back to believing that he's infallible and coming after me for attacking 'the great man' like that. I think that Hermione, Luna and I need to leave tonight, go off to one of my properties overseas and use the official channels to get there so that they know we've really left." He turned to the girls. "Any preferences ladies?"

Hermione looked at Luna as they tossed a few ideas back and forth. They eventually decided that they'd seen all the European properties, and they were too close to Britain anyway, but they hadn't seen the American ones yet. Luna pointed out that it would make more sense to hop across to their apartment in Paris and then use the French Portkey office to avoid any chance of being detained in the Ministry's one.

Harry was quite happy to agree to that, but he turned to Auntie Andi. "They need to be made to understand that I was quite serious about destroying anyone who tries to take what's ours though Auntie Andi. Do we have anything in place that we can use to destroy a few of the Minor or Noble Houses that have tried to cheat us or refuse to repay their debts?"

Andi gave him a feral smile. "You're a sweet boy Harry, but every now and then you come out with something that proves you're a true Black…. Yes, I'm sure that between Ted, Gringott and I we can manage to wipe out enough of the houses who have crossed us for the rest to get the message that it's a very bad idea to try and cheat your or the girls' houses, and make a profit of course, with at least one or two of them being big enough to prove that we have the power to take on anyone we need to. While you're correct about their attention spans, their survival instincts are strong enough to ensure that they remember who to avoid crossing, and I'll have fun making sure that they understand that the God of Vengeance and his Goddesses are most definitely in that category."

They all laughed at him when Harry grimaced at that name. "Hey, you always say that you hate being called the Boy Who Lived because you didn't do anything to earn the title, well everyone saw you earn the title of the God of Vengeance when you utterly destroyed the wizard they believed to be the most wizard powerful since Merlin and the vanquisher of Dark Lords without even breaking a sweat… or we could use the Prophet of Doom if you prefer that?" Andi smirked at the horrified expression on Harry's face when she said that. "Okay, we'll leave it as the God of Vengeance then shall we?"

She just laughed when he muttered. "You're evil!"


It didn't take long to agree that Patty and Dora would be accompanying Harry, Hermione and Luna, then everyone got changed, shrunk their trunks and put them in their mokeskin pouches before stepping through the Goblin Floo into Harry's apartment in Paris. It was just a short stroll from there to the Ministère des Affaires Magiques de la France building where they arranged for an International Portkey to take them to the MACUSA Headquarters in New York, using their British Magical Passports (they had citizenship in a number of Magical countries all over the world) so that the British Ministry of Magic would be notified that they'd taken a portkey to America. As soon as they arrived in the MACUSA Headquarters they immediately portkeyed away to the Potters' brownstone a couple of blocks away in case the British Ministry sent anyone to try and talk them into or force them to return to Britain. The Potters maintained residences close to all the Magical Government Headquarters but they didn't want to take the risk of walking there in case they were followed, the fidelius charm was still up but anyone following would be able to identify where they disappeared and stake out the area to catch them when they came out.

Efa, Emyr and their familiars were all at the house when they arrived, because they'd just used the Goblin Floo.