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CHAPTER POSTED: 5 July, 2019
CHAPTER SIZE: 32,913
Chapter 7
The Fault-Lines Between Old And New
Harry Forrester And Hermione Granger
Saturday, 11 June, 1994
The line of cars and military lorries passed through a line of thick trees and a high fence, into what looked like an unused airfield from the war. They wound around the roads to a large hanger near the old weed-encroached runway. The hangar doors opened and swallowed the vehicles into the huge black space, and then closed. Harry and the Grangers got out into the huge dimly lit space and watched about 15 soldiers in full uniforms and weapons jump out of the military lorries and move to the walls of the hangar. Some went up several flights of metal stairs toward the roof.
Hermione approached Mr Bonderson, "Do you know where we are staying? And what protections we have?"
He smiled, "Yes, you will be staying in those expanded trunks." He pointed to the centre of the hangar to a set of trunks standing, like small headstones in the centre of the cavernous space. "We have non-magical defences all around the property and magical defences hidden inside the hangar. You should be quite safe here."
Dan was looking around the hangar in amazement, "I think we will need to close up our practice rather early for vacation. Do you have a phone here?"
Harry gasped, "Oh, and I should call my parents again."
Bonderson nodded, "Yes, in that office. Just ask the officer at the desk." He pointed to an office built into the corner of the hangar. "Let me show you your accommodations." He lead them out to the trunks. As they got closer the trunks could be seen as the classic 'steamer trunk' that was over a metre and a half tall and almost a metre square. It was hinged so it would open in a vertical split, but on closer inspection there were four vertical splits for different parts of the trunk. "This area, around the trunks is protected by a very strong ward, and because it's contained within the building and doesn't touch the building, the ward is very hard to detect from outside so this is not an obvious magical target. These trunks are individually very well protected also. You should consider them like a 'safe-room'; a place to escape to in case of danger." He paused, considering, "I suggest you shrink one and take it with you to Boston."
Hermione looked at them rather hungrily, "Yes, that sounds like a very good idea."
Bonderson approached one of the trunks, "You open it in the obvious way." He flipped the locking clips and swung open the first split. It looked the normal steamer trunk with drawers on one side and a hanging closet on the other. "But when you open the second section, it opens to a stairway down into an expanded apartment."
Hermione was staring intently, "What about the other two compartments?"
Bonderson smiled, "Oh, you noticed that, did you?" At Hermione's smile, he continued, "Those are similar to the apartment but they contain equipment. We'll take a look later." He pulled open the second compartment showing a dark stairwell leading down. He disappeared down the dark stairs.
Harry followed, followed by the Grangers.
The lights came on and they found themselves in what looked like a typical 3 bedroom basement apartment. Dan and Emma's eyes kept blinking in confusion.
Hermione put a hand on each of their shoulders and spoke slowly, "Mum, Dad, it's magic. Yes, it's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. It's fine." It didn't seem to help much.
Harry wasn't much better, "I have got to figure out how this works!"
Bonderson laughed, "That would be great. Then you can let me know."
Hermione was still very focussed, "Are there any controls available for it?"
Bonderson nodded, "Yes, there are. Over here." He walked over and opened a small panel door set in the wall at the beginning of the stairs, "These selectors control the trunk's external size, it's invisibility, it's protections, etc. You just need to poke your wand into these selectors and the selected action will be taken."
Dan turned to Emma, "Well, I suppose I should call Jill and get her started on clearing our calendar through August. We'll be going on vacation early this year."
Emma thought for a moment, "Yes. Have her call Dr Wemberton's office and coordinate with them on getting new appointments for our patients."
Dan nodded decisively, "Right. I call her now. Let her get ready for our 'family emergency'." He started up the steps toward the office in the hangar to make the call.
Bonderson looked around the group, "So, how does everyone feel about pizza?"
Harry smiled, but Hermione gasped, "I haven't had pizza since last summer!"
Bonderson looked shocked, "Ah! I forgot – Hogwarts food. A deprived existence. We'll fix that. 20 large pizzas coming soon." He started up the stairs.
In less than an hour Bonderson called down the stairs, "Pizza is here!"
They all trooped up the stairs to find four folding tables set up with stacks of pizza boxes and litre bottles of soda. The smell was enthralling. Everyone was breathing deeply.
Harry just stood and breathed, "Ah – the smell of pizza is like nothing else."
The SAS soldier who drove the car that retrieved the take-away pizzas laughed, "Oh, yes. And that car is going to smell like pizza for a week!"
Within the hour there was not a slice left.
At 11pm, Harry and Hermione climbed out of the trunk and made their way to the office in the hangar. The only light in the hangar was inside the office. A military officer was sitting at a desk, behind a counter, working on a laptop computer, "Excuse me, sir."
The officer got up, "Yes, Mr Forrester, Miss Granger. What can I do for you?"
"I need to call my parents in Boston. Can I do that from here?"
"Yes, let me set that up." He moved to a phone on the desk, picked it up, dialled a number, and started talking to someone about codes and links and clearances. He picked up the entire phone on it's long cord and carried it to the counter and handed the handset to Harry, "It's ringing your home now."
Harry took the handset and held out his arm toward Hermione. She moved to stand next to him where she could hear, too.
The ringing stopped with a click.
"Hello?"
"Dad?"
"Harry! How are you? – Mom's getting on the other phone."
Another click, "Harry?"
Harry chuckled, "Hi Mom. How's everything on that side of the planet?"
Peter was cheerful and chuckling, "We're good over here. Weather hasn't been too hot. How was the party?"
Harry paused, "Well, the party was really fun – until ..."
Peter laughed, "Let me guess, the Queen showed up?"
Another pause from Harry, "No, MI5 showed up."
Alicia broke in with a chuckle, "Like the magical FBI did over here?"
Harry chuckled with nerves, "Yeah, they showed up to provide security for the party."
Alicia took a breath and Peter spoke slowly, "Why would MI5 provide security for your party?"
"Well – Ah – did you hear about the guy who murdered my birth-parents?"
Peter choked, "What? You're kidding!" Silence continued, "No, you're not kidding. Ok, what is this, then?"
Harry tried to stay calm, "He showed up at the party Saturday."
"WHAT?!" Peter and Alicia chorused perfectly.
"Yeah, it kind'a made a mess of the party. MI5 was there and the magical British police and they all drove this guy away. But – we're all in hiding now. MI5 has us hidden in a safehouse. Sort of – protective custody."
"Harry! What the hell have you gotten yourself into?"
Harry gave a shuddering breath, "Well – it seems there was a civil war here about 15 years ago. That guy killed my birth-parents and tried to kill me. A long story short and that's how I ended up in the Emergency Room with mom all those years ago."
Alicia was crying on the phone. Peter was silent but breathing hard.
Harry filled the silence with rambling, "It seems that, since I had something to do with his defeat 15 years ago, I'm this guy's favourite target. So I and Hermione's family need to get out of Britain, because she's my friend and that makes her a target too, so we will be leaving sometime in the next week, to come home – to our house – in Boston."
Silence landed hard and heavy.
Harry couldn't leave the silence undisturbed, "It's – ah ... We – ah ..." Harry ran out of steam against the silence.
Hermione squeezed his shoulder and motioned toward the phone.
Harry looked helpless for a moment, then gave up and handed her the phone.
"Hello? Mr and Mrs Forrester?"
Being a nurse, Alicia was always better under pressure than Peter, "Yes?"
"I'm Hermione Granger. I want to let you know that Harry has been valiantly trying to pry the details of his history out of the hands of a wily old codger who is the head of our government. But no one would tell him the truth. Well – it all came tumbling out after the disaster that was our party. The reason that the Queen asked for Harry's return was that he is very famous over here, because he is credited with stopping the last war. He is known as 'The-Boy-Who-Lived' and is considered the saviour of British wizarding society. It's not important that he didn't actually do anything, the public over here has cast their future onto his shoulders. No one would tell him the truth because they were afraid he would run. And he probably should have. Because the war is starting up again. That's why we are in hiding. We will be leaving to come to Boston in – hopefully less than a week – if that's still alright with you?"
Alicia grabbed onto her thoughts, "Yes, that would be good. Come as quick as you can. – How are you handling all this, Hermione?"
Hermione choked up for a moment, "I am deathly afraid for my parents, and ..." She breathed again, "Magical society over here is broken into levels based on the purity on one's magical blood. If you come from a long line of purely magical blood, or if you come from a family of mixed blood, or from a family with no history of magical blood. My family has no history of magical blood, before me. And that makes me almost the bottom in the social standing."
Alicia started sounding angry, "Almost the bottom? Who is lower?"
Hermione took a long breath and spoke quietly, "Those with no magic. Like my parents."
Alicia growled, "Yes. Come as soon as you can. You will be welcome here."
Peter's voice was rough, "Yes. Please come. And bring that rascal with you." A smile snuck into his voice, strained as it was.
Hermione chuckled nervously, "Yes, I will. He has been handling all this – so well. You should be very proud of him."
Peter chuckled, "Oh, we already are. Have been for years. Do you have the number there, where we can call you back?"
Hermione looked confused, "Let me ask." She pulled the handset away and turned to the military officer, "Do we have a number here, that Harry's parents call call?"
The officer shook his head and motioned to take the phone, "Mr Forrester, this is Left-Tenant Williamson of British SAS. Unfortunately, we have no incoming number to call. But I can assure you that I will have Harry call you on a regular schedule."
Peter chuckled, "Yes, that would be excellent. Help keep me sane, thank you. Can I talk to Harry again?"
"Yes, here he is." Williamson handed the handset back to Harry.
Harry pulled back from hugging Hermione and held the phone between their ears so they could both hear, "Hi Dad."
"Harry, do you know all the things you need to accomplish before you can come home?"
"Well – generally. I haven't picked up much about the magical world yet. Hermione knows that much better."
Peter was deflating as he couldn't figure out how to help Harry, "Ok. Well, let me know what you can, when you can."
Hermione looked in Harry's eyes, who gave a nod, "Mr Forrester, Harry needs to visit the Goblins – the wizarding bank is run by Goblins. There he will go through a non-magical inheritance process for the Potter and Black estates. That, and a few details, and we should be able to leave."
Alicia sounded confused, "The Potter and Black estates? Where did the Black estate come in?"
Hermione paused, "Oh, yes. The man you met in the hospital, when Harry was brought in at the age of one and a half? His name was Sirius Black. He was Harry's Godfather. He had named Harry as his heir. So we think Harry might be able to inherit from the Ancient and Noble House of Potter and the Ancient House of Black. But he won't be able to inherit anything magical – for some very complicated magical reasons. We have to sort all that out with the Goblins as soon as we can."
Alicia and Peter both sighed. Peter started first, "Oh, man. This just gets deeper with everything I hear. Let us know when you can. Thank you, Hermione, for keeping an eye on Harry."
"You're very welcome, Mr Forrester."
"Ok, Mom, Dad, I'll call you again soon."
"Ok, Harry." "Bye, Harry."
The line clicked a few times and went to a muffled silence.
Harry breathed a heavy shuddering sigh as he handed the handset back to Left-Tenant Williamson, "Thank you."
"You're very welcome Mr Forrester." The handset clicked into place as Harry and Hermione slowly walked out the office door and moved back toward the trunks holding on to each other.
Sunday, 12 June, 1994
Harry and Hermione were just finishing breakfast when a knock came at their 'door', the entrance to their expanded steamer trunk. Hermione pushed her wand into the control button to open the door at the top of the stairs.
Down came Mr Bonderson, "Good morning all. Are we all ready to visit the Goblins today?" He clasped his hands and rubbed them together like some sort of mad scientist.
Harry gave him the gimlet eye, "You sound way too chipper for sanity this early in the morning."
Bonderson laughed, "You and the guys upstairs. Ready?"
Harry started to smile, "Sure, why not? Let's go see what explodes today."
Bonderson laughed again, "Wait, who's too chipper today?"
Hermione shook her head and intoned seriously, "Come, children, we don't want to be late."
Dan stood up slowly, groaning, "Sure thing, Mum."
Everyone made their way up the stairs with good-natured grumbling and groaning. At the top of the stairs was Dame Stella and Director Greyson waiting.
Harry bowed lightly, "Dame Stella, Director Greyson, good morning to you."
Dame Stella responded first, "Good morning, Mr Forrester, everyone. Everyone ready for this adventure?"
Mumbles of ascent all around.
Harry was nodding, "Remus said he would meet us in Diagon Alley."
"Very good. Mr Bonderson, would you describe the proceedings?"
Bonderson stepped up, "We will portkey to Diagon Alley. There will be six of us going to Gringotts today. Seven if Mr Lupin joins us. And four SAS members who will provide security for us. We need to stay close together and the four SAS members will form a diamond around us. Stay within their diamond and obey their every command, no hesitation, no questions. Are we ready?"
Nods from all around. The four SAS members were dressed in suits with small arms holsters under their coats. And probably a lot more.
Bonderson pulled out a rope, "Here is our portkey this morning. All of us are in the centre and the SAS will be on the outside facing out. Ready?"
Everyone got into position and held the rope. Harry was holding onto Hermione for dear life when Bonderson called out, "Activate."
Harry landed hard, laying on his back on the ground, with Hermione on top of him. "Owww!"
Hermione got up slowly, "Harry, what happened?"
Dan and Emma were trying to help Hermione and Harry get up.
Harry was moving slowly to get up, "I can't seem to do that without falling on the ground. I'm sorry Hermione, I won't hold on to you next time."
Hermione huffed, "No, next time I'll hold onto you."
Remus stood off to one side watching with a sly grin until Harry noticed him.
"Remus! There you are." He moved to give Remus a hug but two of the SAS members held out their arms and blocked his path.
Remus held up his palms to Harry, "Harry, you need to follow the protocol and wait for your security team to clear your actions. They don't know who I am."
Harry stopped and looked at the two SAS members, "Oh. I've never had a security team before." He squinted at them with a teasing grin, "Do they come with instructions?"
Remus chuckled, "Yes. The instructions are: 'do whatever they say'."
Bonderson came forward running a few spells and spoke to the SAS team, "This is Remus Lupin and he will be joining us today."
The SAS team stepped aside and let Remus inside the diamond, "Thank you, gentlemen."
Harry gave him a hug, "Thanks for coming, Remus."
"Sure thing, Prongslet."
Harry looked askance at him, "Prongslet? Where did that come from?"
Remus chuckled, "That was your nickname when you were a baby. The 'Son of Prongs'."
Harry looked at him strangely, "Sure. Ok. Whatever you say."
Bonderson started corralling the troops, "Are we ready?" At everyone's nod, "Let's go." The group moved down the Alley and made quite the impression. The very large SAS members were quite intimidating with their intense stares. Harry was lost looking at the buildings, the cobblestone streets, the strange merchandise in the windows, the even more colourful people going about their strange lives. It was a bit of true British history that not many got to see. He stumbled along with his head on a swivel and Hermione pulling him in the right direction.
Luckily, Harry wasn't recognised so they reached the end of Diagon Alley without incident. As the group started up the steps to Gringotts the SAS members stepped to the side, saluted the Goblin guards, and let the group enter without them. Harry was trying not to stare at the Goblin guards at the front doors. Dame Stella and Director Greyson stepped forward to greet a group of Goblins standing stiffly and waiting in the lobby.
The lead Goblin bowed and spoke quietly, "Dame Stella. It is an honour. Welcome to Gringotts. Please, all of you come this way."
Even Harry noticed all the other customers in the bank looking at their group with either envy or derision. But no one was not looking. Harry was having a hard time not gawking at all the marble, gold, and very sharp blades.
The group followed the Goblins through a door on the opposite side of the lobby from the tellers. The door lead to a very confusing grid-work of passages all alike with identical unmarked doors at random intervals. They took a number of turns and ended up standing in front of large double-doors. The lead Goblin knocked. At some unknown signal the Goblin opened the door and everyone flowed into a very large space with more Goblin guards at intervals around the room and a throne at one end. On that throne was a very large Goblin. Everyone bowed deeply, instinctively.
The Goblin rose and stepped down the two steps to the floor level, "Dame Stella, it is good to see you again."
"Ragnok. It's good to see you too. I'm very glad we can find common ground and work together."
Ragnok smiled. At least, Harry thought it was a smile.
"Who have you brought with you today?"
Dame Stella made the introductions, each bowing again as their name came up. Harry was introduced as Harry Forrester, much to his relief.
Ragnok kept looking at Harry, "An auspicious group. I am very glad to meet each and every one of you. And you, Mr Forrester. I have heard wondrous things about your music."
Harry was startled, "Thank you." He bowed again and came up with a smirk, "Got a piano around?"
Ragnok smiled, "I'll make sure to find one by the next time you come." He turned back to Dame Stella, "But first, to business. I think we have number of issues still to discuss. And the issue of Tom Riddle and Mr Forrester's part to play."
Dame Stella nodded, "Yes. The key point being whether Mr Forrester can go through a non-magical inheritance process for the Potter and Black estates and not submit himself to the old family magic of those two Houses. And, if in doing so, he would actually – disrupt – the old magics of those families."
Ragnok stared at Harry for some time in deep thought. Ragnok turned to the other Goblins and spoke fast and loud in a strange language. The group bowed and scattered to some unknown purpose. Ragnok returned to staring at Harry intently. "We have some tests that will show us how to proceed. Keep in mind that a non-magical inheritance process is subject to Inheritance taxes."
Dame Stella tilted her head in interest, "And the magical inheritance process is not?"
Ragnok smiled, "No, it never has been."
Dame Stella smiled darkly, "Well. I think we will begin that process with the Death Eater Houses."
A few of the other Goblins came back in carrying bowls, serrated daggers, parchment, and ledgers. They set them on a table that had popped into existence in front of the throne.
Harry's nerves hit the roof, "What are we doing with all those?" The daggers looked frighteningly sharp.
Ragnok chuckled, "A mite squeamish, Mr Forrester?"
Harry felt a little indignant, "Yes, quite a bit."
Ragnok laughed, "That is normally the intent, but since you are considered to be on our side and working toward our benefit, we shall forgo that path. We need a sample of blood but we have some very easy means to do that. We will magically test your family tree but not for inheritance. This will enable us to determine that you are eligible to proceed with the non-magical inheritance process but will not tie you to the family magic." He motioned to one of the Goblins who approached Harry with a small vial.
The Goblin held up the vial, "This will take a sample of your blood, painlessly. You may do it yourself, if you wish."
Harry's interest was caught, "Ok, what do I do?'
"Hold the end of it up to your upper arm. Touch your arm for three seconds, then pull it away rapidly."
Harry did so, and smiled as the vial filled with blood, "Wow, that was completely painless."
The Goblin smiled, "It never broke your skin. No risk of infection."
Harry laughed, "I have got to figure out how magic works."
The Goblin took the vial and poured it out onto a parchment on the table. The blood flowed and formed into writing and diagrams on the page.
Ragnok picked up the parchment, "Yes, you are proven to be Harry James Potter, born July 31, 1980. That makes you eligible to non-magically inherit the Ancient and Noble House of Potter and the Ancient House of Black. But there are complications." He turned to Harry.
"Complications?"
Ragnok continued with trepidation, "The non-magical inheritance process assumes that the person is not magical, otherwise they would use the magical inheritance process. But the non-magical inheritance process will not transfer to you any magical objects, titles, voting rights, magically protected lands or houses. In essence, you can only inherit the cash or easily convertible cash value, minus inheritance taxes, of these estates. It is a long-standing law of the Wizengamot." He bowed his head, "I am very sorry."
Harry shrugged, "I don't know what I would do with any of those things, anyway."
Ragnok looked amazed, "That is a sacrifice of monumental proportions to the British Wizarding public's future. The passing of these thousand year old Houses should not go unmarked."
Harry bowed, not wanting to diminish the sentiment, "What will you do with these things I can't inherit?"
Ragnok turned to Dame Stella, "That will be primarily up to you."
Dame Stella frowned, and was thinking.
Ragnok spoke into the silence, "Keep in mind that, as Mr Forrester breaks the family magic by not inheriting through the magical process, all these magically active items will become magically inert. They will cease to be magical."
A groan came from Remus.
Harry looked concerned at him, "Remus?"
Remus was struggling to speak, "You parent's paintings."
Harry did not catch on.
Hermione put an arm around him, "Magical paintings of your birth-parents, with an image of their personality in them. You could talk to them."
Harry's stomach and jaw dropped. He paled, "Can we keep some of those things – working?"
Ragnok took a deep breath, then looked at his assistants and spoke quietly in that strange language. They conversed quietly for some time. Eventually he turned back to the group, "We may have an idea." He started pacing, "If we assign a Stewardship for the Houses of Potter and Black –" He turned and looked at Remus, "– Say, the House of Lupin, as Steward of the Houses of Potter and Black, then your magic will maintain those items. But the Steward would be limited on what actions could be taken in regards to the Houses. This would erode the old family magic but leave individual objects intact."
Harry got an idea and laughed, "Remus, take all the things I can't inherit and create museums for the Potter and Black families. If I'm so famous, you may be able to charge admission to them."
Ragnok laughed, "That is a good idea. Museums to the end of an era."
Remus laughed, "The Ying and the Yang of that era, joined together at the end by James and Sirius."
Dame Stella looked concerned at Harry, "Are you sure that is acceptable to you?"
Harry shrugged, "I can't inherit any of it, so I think it's the best solution. I'm just hoping that the museums will attract all the attention so I can fade into the background peacefully."
Dame Stella laughed.
And so did Remus, "Yes, that would be a nice touch."
"And," Harry got a sly grin, "A werewolf being the Steward for two of the oldest and most powerful Houses will be – rich, don't you think?"
Remus laughed again, contentedly.
"And you –" Harry pointed at Remus, "– had better take a salary from the income as Steward of the Houses of Potter and Black!"
Remus laughed again and bobbed his head back and forth, "I suppose."
Ragnok nodded, "Very good." He spoke to his assistants and a few moved toward Remus. "They will set up the Stewardship simultaneously, as we proceed with the non-magical inheritance of the Potter and Black estates. It should only take a few minutes." He motioned for the other assistants to come work with Harry, signing an endless supply of parchments, forms, papers, tax documents, legal documents of agency and more.
Ragnok continued, "As we are establishing a Stewardship, the family magic will continue for a time but the family magical structures will fade and eventually fall as we had wanted. But the specific magical items will continue."
Dame Stella asked, "How long will the magics continue?"
Ragnok answered easily, "A day or so."
Harry was sitting waiting for the next document to sign, when the Goblin said, "That was the last, Mr Forrester."
Harry sat back with a big grin, "Ha! The triumph of the human spirit over paper." He shook out his signature hand and stood up, "Well, are we done? Anyone know a good restaurant?"
Ragnok looked very concerned, "Don't you want to know what you have inherited?"
Harry looked confused momentarily, "You mean there is something left? I thought it was all gone."
Ragnok smiled, "No, Mr Forrester. Now that the estates are settled, this is your net worth." He handed Harry a parchment and what looked like a credit card.
Harry looked but no understanding followed, "What's a Galleon?"
Ragnok laughed, waved his hand, and the parchment changed to reflect US dollars.
Harry's eyes bugged out, "What?! Are you kidding me?" His smile matched his eyes and he stared off into evidently a very pleasant future. Harry absently stretched out his hand and passed the parchment to Hermione.
Hermione's eyes now matched Harry's, "Harry – that's – a lot of money." Her voice trailed off quietly as she worried Harry wouldn't be as interested in her any more. Until she squeaked as Harry engulfed her in a huge hug and lifted her up.
"Woohoo! What university do you want to go to? Pick one, any one. We can do it! No problem! Bachelors, Masters, take a few! A PhD or two! Woohoo!" He kept laughing and pulled Hermione into dancing and humming a tune only Harry knew.
Eventually Harry ran out of energy and slowed down, standing, smiling, still lost in his own private fog.
Dame Stella approached, "Mr Forrester, the British government owes you some citizenship documents. What name would you like on them? Potter, Black, or Forrester?"
That pulled Harry out of his fog, "Harry Randall Forrester, please. With two L's and six R's."
"Very good. We shall have them for you before you leave for Boston."
Harry hurried over to Ragnok for a quick hushed conversation before he returned, "Well, anyone know a good restaurant?"
Dame Stella broke in with a smile, "Mr Forrester – Ragnok, Director Greyson, and I need to continue discussing the process of dismantling the Death Eater Houses if they die or are arrested. But if you would like, you, the Grangers, and Mr Lupin, can be escorted by two of the SAS members to one of the restaurants in the Alley and we will meet you there when we are done."
Harry sighed, "That would be excellent, thank you."
Ragnok motioned for one of his assistants to show them back to the lobby.
Harry approached the group of four SAS members on the steps, "Good afternoon, gentlemen. Dame Stella suggested two of you accompany us to a local restaurant until they are done with their discussions. So, who drew the short straws?"
Two members got nudged or pointed at. One looked around, "I guess that's us." He held out his hand, "Specialist Mattson, Specialist Johansen."
Harry grabbed their hands, "Harry Forrester. Let's get lunch. I'm starving." He turned to Remus, "Where are we going?"
Remus smirked, "The Wand and Quill Pub. Just down that way." He pointed down a small side street.
Harry looked excited, "Ooh, never been to a pub before."
Mattson spoke up, "Ah! A tragedy! Cultural deprivation. A heritage missed. Mr Lupin, lead on."
Remus smiled, "Will do. I'll take point. Everyone stay together." He started off.
Harry walked with Hermione just behind Remus, Dan and Emma behind them.
Mattson and Johansen took up the rear.
Harry's head was back on a swivel. It was a much narrower winding alley than Diagon. The alley widened and narrowed randomly, at some points too narrow for four to walk abreast let alone a car. The sunlight couldn't land on the cobblestones. There were shops on the cobblestone level and living quarters in the floors above, with flower boxes on small balconies. Harry thought it looked like something out of Disney World, except they didn't have the imagination to match this. They came to a wide spot in the alley with an old 1800's hand-pump well and stone basin standing in the centre. To one side was a number of tables under umbrellas and chairs in front of The Wand and Quill Pub.
Remus looked around at the outside seating, "We should find a place inside, this is too exposed." He and Johansen went inside to check for safety and find a safe place. In less than a minute he poked his head out the door and waved everyone in. The pub was dark, mainly due to dark wood paneling everywhere. A long bar on one side and booths along the other, with a larger room of booths at the back. They found Johansen holding down a large table in a small room at the back. The walls were covered in paintings. Oil lamps on the walls and hanging from the ceiling.
Remus set down a menu and some paper on the table, "Order up. Put it on the paper and I'll play fetch today." His grin snuck out.
Harry snickered, "Sure, but it's all on me." He held up the card from the Goblins and wiggled it.
Remus frowned at Harry, "Well, ok, just this once."
Harry took the longest to order because he had no idea what any of it was. Eventually, he and Remus went to the bar and put the order in. As they waited for the barman to help them Harry broached the subject he was afraid to, "So, Remus, are you going to be able to come to Boston with us?"
Remus smiled, "Yes, I think so. Would you like me to come?"
Harry smiled, "Yes. Definitely. How long can you stay? Will you need to keep the – Cooperative functioning?"
"I'd actually rather spend some time being a virtual uncle for a while, if you don't mind."
Harry smiled in relief, "That would be really great! What about the Cooperative?"
"I asked Bonderson if MI5 could watch the Cooperative and he said they would be glad to. They even had some plans for expansion. That was very nice to hear."
Harry eyebrows rose, "Wow, that's great. – I think I'm going to need some significant help in Boston."
"Yes? What kind of help?"
Harry sighed, "I was thinking about schooling in Boston and I'm not excited about going to magical school. I would much rather go to non-magical school and figure something else out for the magical part of our education."
Remus nodded absently, then focussed at Harry, "Our education? What does that mean?"
Harry smiled like he'd been caught, "Hermione wants to come with me and go to non-magical school with me over there."
Remus' eyebrows almost hit the roof.
The barman came back and they put in the order and Harry paid for it all. They started back toward the table slowly.
Remus picked it up again, "We'll have to see if we can do that. That would not be possible over here, but we'll give it a try and see what happens."
Harry looked almost desperate, "Remus, I've been thinking about my – our education and I really don't want to leave the non-magical world behind. And I want to show Hermione how much fun music can be, in all it's forms. I don't know if magical school over there has music, but if it doesn't, that's a deal-breaker for me. Do you think we could do normal school and you tutor us during the summer in magic? With how busy I am during the year I can't even imagine doing a magical night-school or even a weekend school. I'm just too crazy busy."
Remus looked at him seriously, like he'd never seen him before, "That would be an absolutely punishing schedule."
Harry laughed, "You don't know my schedule now!" He smiled confidently, "I think it would be well worth it. In fact, I don't think I could do it any other way."
Remus looked very sceptical.
"Music is what I live for. I will fail at everything without it."
Remus took a deep slow breath, "Ok, we'll give it a try." They sat down at the table.
The food came, conversation and laughter followed. Eventually, Dame Stella, Greyson, Bonderson, and the last 2 SAS members showed up and collected some food. Then Dame Stella and Greyson left for MI5 and the rest left for the hangar for an afternoon of planning for the trip to Boston.
Dinner was the only interruption to their planning. Take-away Chinese. They used a different car to pick up the take-away to preserve the pizza smell in the other car. It was a point of laughter for all of them.
At 11pm Harry remembered his scheduled phone call to his parents. It was a weight he was not looking forward to. As Harry and Hermione walked up the stairs from their trunk toward the office, Harry was rambling nervously, "I think I need to talk to my parents, but I don't know what to say to them. They can see right through me. I can't manage to hide anything from them. I just don't know how this –"
"Harry, what's wrong?"
Harry stopped at the top of the stairs, "I'm afraid of what they will say if I tell them about – the inheritance. I – can't tell them. Yet."
Hermione looked at him sadly, "You'll have to tell them eventually. That's not something you should keep from them."
Harry shook his head, "No. I'm – just not ready to tell them – from here. I want to tell them after we get there."
"Ok. But you're worried you can't keep that a secret when you call them?"
Harry nodded, "They see right through me. Every time."
Hermione turned toward the office, pulling his hand, and thinking, "Ok. Let me think."
They walked into the office and Left-Tenant Williamson was already dialling the phone. After a few words, codes, and clearances, he handed the handset to Harry.
Harry sighed, "I don't know if I can do this, Hermione. I'm afraid I'll blow it."
Hermione smiled sadly, "You'll do fine, Harry. I'm here to help."
Harry nodded and listened to the phone ring again. Hermione stood at his side, listening. The line clicked.
"Hello?"
"Hi Dad!"
"Harry! What's up? Do you have any answers yet? – Mom's getting on the other phone."
A click, "Harry?"
"Hi Mom! Ya'all have questions and I have answers. – Well, some of them. But more than I had last time. And some –"
"Harry!" Alicia was starting to growl.
"Yes?" Harry sounded teasingly innocent.
Peter spoke slowly, "Do you value your life, Harry?"
Hermione started snickering.
Harry prattled away casually, "Sure. Should be worth something, I guess. Couple bucks, here'n there."
Hermione slapped him playfully on the arm.
Alicia cleared her throat and tried to start again, "So, Harry. You sound good today. What happened?"
Harry strung it out a bit longer, "Oh – you know – I won the lottery, should be back soon."
Peter's voice was sounding strained, "Harry – can we cut to reality here?"
Harry started to laugh and couldn't stop. He didn't notice Hermione's wand slip back into her pocket. Her laughing charm was barely whispered.
Hermione took the phone from Harry, "Mr and Mrs Forrester, this is Hermione. Harry seems to have lost control of himself, so please allow me to translate for you. We went to the wizarding bank and they helped Harry go through a non-magical inheritance process on the Ancient and Noble House of Potter and the Ancient House of Black. But, as a non-magical inheritance process he couldn't inherit anything magical so all magical items had to be left behind. Then, because it was a non-magical inheritance, he had to pay inheritance taxes, which took a significant portion. Which left a small portion of his family's estate. But it is now all done and we only have a few items to take care of and we will be on our way to you."
Harry could still be heard laughing in the background.
Peter sighed, "Excellent. Can't wait for you to get here. We're all set up over here. It may be a little tight for all of us but we can make it work."
Hermione sighed that she seemed to have escaped questions, "I'm sure we will be able to handle pretty much anything, with no problems."
Alicia crashed the party with suspicion, "Wait – what exactly did Harry inherit?"
Hermione sighed again, and thought how she could gloss over – everything. "Well, the magical items were left in the estate and a Stewardship was established. In that Stewardship all the magical artefacts will be set up as a museum for the Ancient Houses of Potter and Black. Harry's birth-parent's very good friend, Remus Lupin will be the Steward. This was done because, in the magical world, people often have magical paintings commissioned of themselves. The magical part of this painting will include a personality image of the subject. Contained within the Stewardship are paintings of Sirius Black and James and Lily Potter, Harry's birth-parents. And many generations previous. Which means Harry can talk to them and – virtually – get to know them."
Alicia breathed out slowly, "Whoah, that's crazy."
Peter sounded overwhelmed, "That – is kinda weird. Has he – met them yet?"
Hermione sighed again, having seemingly dodged further questions again, "No. We won't have a chance before we leave for Boston. I think all that will have to wait for this war to end. Then it will be safe to come back here."
Alicia sighed, "Wow. That must be horrible. Refugees, kicked out of your own country."
Peter caught up again, "Has Harry recovered yet? What's that rascal up to?"
Harry overheard and started laughing again. And Hermione's wand slipped back into her pocket.
Hermione smiled and just watched him, "Well, not yet. But I think he will be facing some dire consequences soon." She smirked at him, which caused him to get worse. Hermione pulled the phone away from her mouth, "Harry! Stop that!" She pulled the phone back, "Sorry, Harry is being a bit of a problem."
Peter chuckled as Harry collapsed further into laughter.
Alicia laughed, "A problem, eh? Just tell him the Tickle Fingers of Death will be waiting for him!"
Harry just got worse.
Hermione shook her head at him, "Ah, that seems to have made it worse."
Peter sighed, "Ok, well, thank you for telling us all that. And we hope to see you soon."
Hermione smiled, "I can hardly wait."
"Bye, Hermione." "We'll talk again soon."
"Bye, Mr and Mrs Forrester."
Click-click. She handed the handset back to the Left-Tenant.
Harry engulfed her in a hug, "My God, you are so brilliant!"
She deadpanned, "Yes. Just remember who is more brilliant."
He pulled back and smiled roguishly, "Ok. I'll try to be humble."
She pointed a wagging finger at his face, "You should be. Who was it that saved you from all those difficult questions?"
Harry stepped back holding her hand, bowed to one knee with a flourish, "Yes, Ma'am. I am forever in your debt." He held her hand to his lips.
He looked up with such seriousness Hermione froze. Her heart clenched with his deeper implication. She was desperate to not collapse into a blubbering mass, "You, Mr Rascal, still have the Tickle Fingers of Death hanging over you, so you need to behave." Her smile gave her away. And her approximation of those dreaded Fingers, matched with a comic scowl, caused him to jump up and run.
"Gotta catch me!" came echoing back from the hangar.
Hermione smiled at the Left-Tenant, "Thank you." She followed Harry.
He bowed his head, "As you wish." He chuckled and shook his head as he turned back to his computer.
Monday, 13 June, 1994
Hermione finished her breakfast at 8:30 sharp, "Well, I'm off. Wish me luck."
Harry hugged her desperately as she stood up, "You can do it. I know you can!"
She hugged him back, "I'll be back soon. I'm sure it will be fine. Professor Dumbledore is going to escort me there and back."
Harry sighed heavily, "Yes, and Hogwarts is the safest place in England, I know. But – please be careful."
Hermione was truly touched by his almost obsessive care and concern. "I'm only going to Hogwarts for my Third year exams. And I'm not worried about them. I'll be back in a few hours. I'm sure it will be fine."
Harry let out a shuddering breath, "Yes, I'm sure you're right. But – I'll be waiting."
Hermione laughed, "Yes. I'm sure you will. But I don't want to be late for my exams so I need to leave now." She started up the stairs to exit their trunk.
Harry followed to watch her go. "Good morning, Professor."
Dumbledore smiled, "Good morning, Harry." His smiled crumbled, "I'm very sorry to hear about the Potter and Black estates. But I could not think of any way around the difficulties either."
Harry shrugged, "It's ok, Professor. I'm not sure how well I would handle a strict social structure with a lot of expectations around etiquette. I guess I'm just more into function than form, so – it's all for the best."
Dumbledore nodded slowly, "I wanted to let you know that Tom Riddle has – started to come apart at the seams, as they say. Unlike his last war, he has started straight away attacking the Ministry, it's officials, the Aurors, and has broken Death Eaters out of the wizarding prison. My understanding is that your dismantling of the Potter and Black Family magics has panicked him."
Harry took a deep breath, "I'm sorry."
Dumbledore gave aa grim smile, "Don't be. In the last war, he took a lot of time to attack the populace, to sow panic, but this is now time he no longer thinks he can waste. This has actually saved a lot of civilian lives, so far."
Hermione asked, "Do you think he will be effective in collapsing the Ministry?"
"Oh, yes. He is much more focussed in this war. In fact, the next step for MI5 and the Goblins is to start dismantling the Houses of any Death Eaters that die or are captured. This will likely make him even more desperate and drive him to make more mistakes – like overlooking details that are potentially fatal to him and his people."
Harry looked grim, "I hope it resolves quickly, Professor."
Dumbledore nodded, "Thank you, Harry. Miss Granger should be back before the evening meal." He turned to Hermione, "Are you ready?"
Hermione nodded.
Dumbledore held out his arm and they popped away.
Harry sighed tiredly and started back down the stairs into their trunk.
Dan was just starting his breakfast, "Alright there, Harry?"
Harry sat down at the table like a lump, "This must be what it's like when your child goes off to school for the first time."
Emma laughed, "Actually, yes."
Dan looked sober, "Well – except you don't usually send your child to school during a war."
Harry put his head in his hands and whinged, "I'm going to die."
Dan and Emma sighed.
Hermione Granger
Hermione landed next to Dumbledore in front of the gates of Hogwarts. Her shoes splashed slightly as she landed in a bit of a puddle and she grimaced as her socks got a bit wet with cold water.
"Miss Granger, what tests would you like to take today?"
Hermione hopped over a deeper part of the puddle to follow Professor Dumbledore, "All the tests for my third-years classes – and ... Professor? Given that this is not a normal test schedule, will I be penalised if I take a test for a class I haven't taken yet, and get a mediocre grade? I mean – can I take a test and later choose whether I want that test to count?"
Professor Dumbledore began to smile, "Why, yes. I think we can do that."
Hermione smiled, "Then I'd like to take tests for all my third-year classes and most of the fourth-year classes."
He started to chuckle, "I think this will be very interesting. Let's see how much you can do."
They walked into the Great Hall to find McGonagall spreading papers on a table and a classroom desk a few meters away.
"Good Morning, Miss Granger."
"Good morning, Professor." Hermione stood waiting for instructions.
Dumbledore had a big smile, "Professor McGonagall, Miss Granger would like to take all of the tests for her third-year classes and most of the fourth-year classes today."
McGonagall turned to him in surprise, "That does not make sense."
He kept smiling, "She would like to take the fourth-year tests and, once they are graded, decide which test should count."
McGonagall did not look like she agreed, "A test should always count, Professor."
He nodded his head, "Yes, for those classes that she has committed to taking."
Hermione broke in, "I would like to challenge these courses. I have not taken the course, therefore I am not being graded on the course."
McGonagall challenged again, "Then why should you get credit for a class you have not taken?"
"Because, by taking and passing the test, I have shown that I know the material."
McGonagall thought for a moment, "And if you get an Acceptable on a test? Will that count?"
Hermione shrugged.
Dumbledore broke in, "I see you are working this out and I have some work I need to do, so I will leave you to it. Miss Granger, I look forward to seeing what you have accomplished when you are done." He bowed his head and headed out the door.
McGonagall watched him go with incredulity. She turned back to Hermione, "This is not like you, Miss Granger. To accept a mediocre grade is quite out of character. Why?"
Hermione's voice became thick, "Because I will not be back next year."
The shock on McGonagall's face spoke volumes, "Why not?"
"I plan to go to Boston with Harry, and go to muggle school with him. I want what he has. And I need more than is available to me here."
McGonagall struggled with her answers, and questions, "Have you discussed this with Professor Dumbledore?"
Hermione shook her head, "I suspect he knows." She sighed, "And I suspect this is a bit of a going-away present to me."
McGonagall continued to struggle with her thoughts. She turned away to gather her composure. She turned back, "Is this all just to be with Mr Forrester?"
Hermione shook her head, "I have come to realise that I need to be out of this bigoted environment. I have also come to realise that Harry is right. The magical world is not big enough. I can do more than this. I want all that the non-magical world can give, too."
Realisation settled onto McGonagall's face, "Yes. I will agree with that. You are one of the best students we have ever seen at Hogwarts. I would agree you have out-grown Hogwarts." She continued to struggle with her thoughts, "Let us start your tests while I – consider this."
Hermione nodded and sat in the desk.
McGonagall handed her the first test and Hermione dove in deep.
Hermione spent about 30 minutes on each test McGonagall gave her. She completed all her third-year tests, including the practicals, before lunch.
McGonagall and Hermione sat together at the Gryffindor table for lunch. McGonagall was quiet at first.
"Why do you want to go to muggle school?"
Hermione breathed deeply while she prepared her answer, "Look at Harry. Look at what he has been able to accomplish. And look at where he is going. I do not have the same opportunities here. And after I graduate? I will be relegated to some dead-end secretarial job in the Ministry at best, assuming Riddle doesn't kill me for my blood status." She was struggling to keep her breathing even, "As Harry says, life is too short to waste my time here." She huffed, "I should have been sorted into Slytherin, because I want more than what is here."
"Is this only about Mr Forrester?"
Hermione shook her head strongly, "No. Yes, he instigated this. He woke me up. Kicked me out of my magical slumber. But I can't go back to sleep again. I see the rest of the world now and it is so much bigger than the magical world. I – want to stay with him, but even if I don't get that chance I will still continue on this path."
McGonagall thought for the rest of lunch. As the clock struck the hour they started the fourth-year tests. Hermione struggled and fought. It took her most of each hour to finish each test. But finish, she did.
McGonagall seemed to have accepted Hermione's determination to go with Harry. After Hermione turned in her last test, she asked, "Miss Granger, what are your dreams for the future?"
Hermione froze, thinking, then she smiled, "I want to test myself on a larger stage. I want to see how far I can go. I want to be challenged and I want to challenge the world. And I think that will involve both magical and non-magical. I don't know what subjects I want to study yet, but I can't see stopping before I get a PhD."
McGonagall looked confused, "What is a PHD?"
Hermione smiled, "It is far beyond a Mastery. You have to do new research into your subject. Answer questions that no one else has answered before. You have to extent human knowledge into new territory and your new knowledge must be tested by everyone else. And usually, you need to continue doing that into more areas."
McGonagall's eyes grew. "Do you know what area you want to – extend?"
"No, I will need to explore and find out."
McGonagall started to smile, "That sounds perfect."
Hermione smiled, "Yes. I think so."
McGonagall confided in Hermione, "I don't think you will need to worry about Mr Forrester – wandering off. I think he is quite captivated by you."
Hermione smiled, "I hope so. I am quite captivated by him."
"I wish you both long and happy lives. And I would like you to come back every so often and let me know what you are doing."
Hermione could barely contain her smile, "Thank you. I will." She gave McGonagall a hug, "Thank you, Professor, for all you have done for me. I have learned and I have grown so much here."
McGonagall couldn't speak.
Dumbledore came in, "Miss Granger, have you finished the tests you wanted to take?"
She turned to him, "Yes, Professor."
He nodded, "Well, I think Mr Forrester will be very anxious for you to return. Shall we?"
Hermione nodded to him and turned to Professor McGonagall, "Goodby, for now, Professor." She gave her another hug.
McGonagall could not respond.
Hermione walked out with Professor Dumbledore toward the gates of Hogwarts and a new world for her.
Harry Forrester
After Hermione left for her tests, Harry could only sit still for so long. He got up and began walking around inside the hangar. He wandered, he got lost staring, he tried to keep moving. After a while he ended up in the office. Not knowing what was going on was killing him so he thought he would ask, just in case anyone knew anything.
"Left-Tenant Williamson, do you know what is happening? – Outside?"
The Left-Tenant stood up from his desk and came to the counter, "A lot of chaos."
Harry just kept looking at him, expecting more.
Williamson sighed and gave in, "Riddle is attacking very hard, very fast and is focussed almost completely on attacking the Ministry. He has broken about 20 Death Eaters out of Azkaban Prison." At Harry's confused look he continued, "Azkaban is the wizarding prison. It sounds like truly Hell on Earth but they were evidently quite an evil bunch. Madam Bones was attacked at her home and her home was significantly damaged but she was not injured. Four Aurors have been killed – mostly inexperienced ones who were isolated and attacked. There have been a number of attacks on the Ministry building and on Ministry officials. Attacks by Imperioused workers, –"
"Imperi –? What's that?"
Williamson cleared his throat, "People who have had their will overridden by magic and are forced to commit a crime, kill someone, even a family member."
Harry covered his face, "God, that's evil."
Williamson nodded gravely, "Yes, it's the ultimate insider attack. Anyone can be turned into your enemy."
"How can you tell if someone is imperi-oused, or whatever?"
Williamson thought, "It depends on the subtly of the command. It could be almost impossible without very invasive measures, like legillimency."
Harry's eye narrowed, "Ok, what's that?"
"Mind reading."
"Gah!" Harry turned his head and struggled to contain his anger, "Is there any defence against that?"
"Well, the process of legillimency is rather obvious to the victim unless the legillimencer is very good, but there is a skill called occlumency which can block legillimency, but it takes months and years to learn. – Legillimency is also what Mind Healers use to heal mental illnesses."
Harry took a long breath and turned back to Williamson, "What else is happening out there?"
He shrugged, "Bombs sent into the Ministry via the post, by portkey, or the floo, or carried via imperioused workers. The floo network is being attacked regularly. Longbottom Manor was attacked but no significant damage or injuries this time."
Harry's stomach sunk, "Neville ..."
"Yes. He evidently proved himself capable during that attack."
Harry looked closely at Williamson, "Did you go to Hogwarts?"
"No, I'm not magical."
Harry was shocked, "How do you know so much about magic?"
"My half-brother was magical growing up. And we've all gotten a lot of training."
Harry was confused, "Why would you go up against magical people? You would be helpless."
"Ah, but we're not. They just think we are. Not that they can tell the difference by looking at me."
Harry was lost in thought, "But – how do you – even the score?"
Williamson smiled, "Training. Most magicals are completely helpless if you can take away their wand. No physical stamina, no hand-to-hand combat training, most don't even know how to move. And a bullet travels a lot faster and farther than a spell. Most spells don't have much better range or accuracy than a pistol. They also don't get any training in group tactics or actions. Just a bunch of cowboys. The main advantage they have is firepower. Each magical can be equivalent to the firepower of a platoon. But I know our training can more than even that score."
Harry thought for a few moments, "What about that thing that Riddle did at the party? How would you have been able to contend with an illusion that was an area affect?"
Williamson smiled again, "That surprised us but our standard procedures had that all covered. The perimeter units were about 200 metres away from the house with good sight-lines. Riddle's illusionary ward was strictly within the house and was limited because it needed to stay within the defensive wards established by Lupin or it would have broken the illusion. But even if the illusionary ward wasn't limited to inside the house, it would not have been able to affect the perimeter units and 200 meters is well within the range of our rifles. To expand an illusionary ward to over 200 metres range would take an unbelievable amount of power."
Harry slowly nodded thoughtfully, "So non-magical society's need to cooperate and specialise in our functions means non-magical society is stronger than the attributes that magic gives magical society?"
"As a net result? I think so. Now, if magical society every got it's act together and learned to cooperate and form groups effectively, then we would be very hard pressed. But that presupposes that they would recognise that need and act on it. But I don't see them even understanding that need, let alone acting on it."
Harry smiled, "Hmm. I think that means that a balance is possible, if each side realises the strengths of the other. Both sides could enter an effective partnership, assuming there is any way to develop some respect. Or trust."
Williamson chuckled, "I think that sounds like a best-case scenario. Do you have any ideas on how to get there?"
Harry shook his head, "Not yet. But – maybe. It's an idea worth brewing."
Williamson smirked, "Please, keep on brewing. We will need all the help we can get."
Harry nodded absently and wandered off, thinking.
Hermione Granger
As Hermione walked down the path toward the gates of Hogwarts her thoughts were wrapped up in her hopes for her time in Boston. Her time at Hogwarts was done. The thrill and the sadness warred within her.
"Miss Granger, I will send you your results within the next day or two." He stopped just outside the gates and held out his arm.
"Thank you, Professor." She held on and they apparated into the dim light of the hangar.
"Hermione!" Harry's voice carried from near the office as he ran toward them. "I was going crazy. I'm so glad you're back." His hug was warm and soft.
Dumbledore's voice carried his smile, "Mr Forrester, I would like to apologise again for missing the reality of your situation."
Harry turned to him and smiled, "Thank you, Professor. Your information was limited, so I understand."
Hermione looked at her Headmaster, one of her icons of the wizarding world, "These 'powers' seem to have deliberately held back information from you so I don't think you should blame yourself too much."
Dumbledore nodded with a sad smile, "Yes. Except, I am to blame, for entirely too much. All my intelligence did not prepare me for belief in something larger. For – hope. To leave room for wisdom. I thought I knew what that looked like, but all I had was cleverness, and I mistook it for wisdom. I'm just glad Dame Stella has made up for my deficiencies." He chuckled, "I guess that seems to be my primary function in life – to be a warning to those who come after. 'Do not fall prey to this, as Albus did'."
Harry looked a bit shocked, "It can't be that bad, Professor."
"When you have lived as long as I have, Harry, and been involved in so much of the worlds problems, one of the easiest things to collect is regrets. Please, try not to let them gather."
Harry nodded with a somber weight, "Yes, Professor."
Dumbledore smiled, putting that weight behind him, "I wish you both the best and I do hope you will come back and see us again some time."
Hermione smiled, "Yes, Professor."
Harry chuckled, "Yes, you can bet on that, Professor."
Dumbledore nodded and popped away.
Harry Forrester and Hermione Granger
Harry couldn't resist and hugged Hermione again, "You survived! How were your tests? 150 percent on all of them?"
Hermione chuckled, "I'll get the results in a few days. I took all my third-year tests and I took tests for most of the fourth-year classes too."
Harry gasped, "Oh, yes! Go for it! Challenge the world!" He raised his eyebrows with a smirk, "How do you think you did?"
She shrugged, "I finished them all."
"Wow! That is amazing! So – now you're all done with Hogwarts? That's it?"
She nodded, and started to tear up, and couldn't say anything.
Harry looked at her with concern, brushing a few hairs out of her face, "I'm being rather selfish, you know – I'm desperate for you to come with me. But I also want this to be unbelievably good for you. So I want you to promise me, that if it's not good, you'll tell me so I can fix it. Ok?"
Hermione was smiling around her tears. She nodded. Wiping her eyes and clearing her throat, she got her voice working again, "It's just a very big change."
Harry smiled, "About as big of a change as getting involved in this magic business? And castles?" He started a lyrical song voice, "Headmasters, house elves, and dragons, oh my!"
She chuckled at his alliteration to The Wizard of Oz. "Yes, I guess it is."
"Or like going off to Uni?" He raised his eyebrows in question.
She chuckled more, "Yes, I guess it is."
He looked at her seriously, "I don't mean to discount the importance of the change – just don't forget to look forward."
She laughed, "Ok, Mr Rascal. Let's go plan out our vacation in Boston." She pulled him toward the trunk.
After a few hours of dreaming, planning, scheming, and wondering, the adults began to wander upstairs to decide about dinner for the evening.
Harry and Hermione sat at the kitchen table in their trunk waiting for dinner to be delivered upstairs with the troops. Harry looked at Hermione with focussed interest, "So, what do you want to study when you get to University? What are your dreams?"
Hermione smiled at him, "Dreams? I've barely gotten rid of the depression surrounding the bigotry of magic. I haven't started building any dreams yet."
He nodded, "Ok, what were your dreams before Hogwarts came along?"
Hermione smiled brighter, "Well, I wanted to go to Uni and do amazingly well in something very hard. Sorry, not very specific there."
Harry thought for a moment, "Were you more excited by learning the subjects at Uni or what you could do with your knowledge?"
"Oooh, that's a hard one. Both, I think."
Harry nodded, "Can you imagine – law? Medicine? Engineering? Physics? Psychology? Math? Astrophysics? –" He shrugged.
Hermione laughed, "All of the above? Honestly, I can't imagine narrowing it down until I know more about these subjects."
Harry nodded agreeably, "I think taking some AP classes can help figure some of that out. At least as a bare introduction."
Hermione got lost looking into the future for a few moments, "I want to change the world. I want to do something that will determine the direction of the future. I want to help decide what the future looks like. I don't want to leave that to someone else. I want to have my say in where we go."
Harry smiled, "Now, I already know that's going to happen."
Hermione smiled and looked at him closely, "What do you dream about?"
"The same. It's just that I already know the basic direction I want to go; engineering, physics, math – science basically."
Hermione nodded slowly, "Do you think that direction might change?"
Harry shrugged, "Change? Or expand? Probably both. But I'll start with the sciences and see where the problems take me."
"You won't be upset if I don't follow you into the physical sciences?"
Harry laughed, "No, I want you to follow your dreams wherever they take you." He looked at her closely, "And I'll be right beside you, participating."
"You're not worried our interests might diverge?"
He shrugged, "Maybe. But you are more important to me than that. And you get more important to me all the time. I can't put anything in front of you. I'd – break. I'd fall apart."
She looked at him concerned, "But I don't want you to give up on your dreams."
"You are my dreams." He laughed at her shocked expression. "I won't. I think we can work it out. The point is that my commitment to you supersedes my interests. Besides – I have so many interests I can always play with something."
Hermione was still unsure, "Do you want to go to grad school?"
"Yes. Do you?"
"Yes."
He smiled, "Great. It's all settled."
"Wait – what's all settled?"
He smiled deviously, "Everything." He leaned over and kissed her.
"Mmm!" She drew back, "Harry, what about kids?"
"Yes."
Surprise froze her, partly from his answer but partly because she had asked that question without thinking, "What?"
He leaned in for another quick kiss, "Hermione, you're not listening. I love you, with everything I have."
As his words caught up to her she squealed and reached over the table to crush him in a hug and a kiss to end the world.
Within a few moments a voice drifted down the stairs, "Dinner is here." The distraction was reinforced by their hunger. They began to make their way upstairs.
Everyone was sitting around two tables with take-out Chinese food. Including Director Greyson.
After dinner, Director Greyson caught everyone's attention, "Good evening all. Everything alright in our safehouse?"
Nods from all around.
"I wanted to tell you about my recent call to Agent Lawton and Mr Devereaux in the US, as they will be meeting you when you arrive in the US. I needed to coordinate with them our communications about the ritual Harry will perform. Those are all set up. The other issue was Mr Lupin going with you to Boston, specifically his acting 'in loco parentice' for you, or as it's termed over here – your magical guardian. And his ability to act as personal security guard for all of you. We gave them what we knew of his experience, given his work on the Continent and the firms he worked for. They will want to talk to you about some of those details but basically they had no concerns. And the last is that Mr Devereaux has arranged for all of you to have refugee status in the US. They will have all the papers for you when you get there." He paused for effect, waiting for the tension to build, "Which will be 8am tomorrow morning Boston time."
Harry started cheering.
At 11pm Harry was so excited he could hardly stand still, even with Hermione holding him down so he wouldn't float away with excitement. The hangar office was quiet as they waited on the phone ringing.
The line clicked.
"Hello?"
"Hi Dad!"
"Harry! What's up? – hold on, Mom's getting the other phone."
Click.
"Harry?"
"Hi Mom! How's things in the real world?"
Alicia huffed, "Harry, we're dying over here, what do you have to say for yourself? Have you broken anything over there yet?"
Harry laughed, "Not yet, but give me a few minutes."
Hermione started snickering and shaking her head.
Peter broke in impatiently, "Come on, Harry, what's up? Focus kiddo, let's hear it."
Harry sighed with a big smile, "We will be arriving home at 8am tomorrow morning your time."
Harry pulled the phone away from his head as Peter and Alicia started cheering. Harry and Hermione were laughing. Even Williamson was laughing.
Tuesday, 14 June, 1994
Harry woke up 30 minutes before his alarm. He popped out of bed and started getting ready. It was not a time to be leisurely. He wanted to go home and now was the time! He left his room into the kitchen area and started making some tea, to start. He tried to be quiet to not wake anyone. He was mostly successful. He was just sitting down with his cup when Hermione came out of her room.
"Good morning, Harry."
Harry stood up for a hug, "Good morning, Hermione. Are you ready to go?"
They fell into a comfortable hug and stayed in the comfort.
"Yes. I can hardly wait. Your family sounds so nice."
Harry chuckled, "Oh! They are the best. We keep arguing over who was luckier in them adopting me. I still think I am."
After a moment Hermione took a slightly shuddering breath, "I'm just anxious to leave. I am so tired of the threats and the bigotry. I want my family out of here."
Harry smiled, "Well, lets speed things up."
Hermione looked askance, "Harry, we shouldn't wake them."
Now Harry looked devious, "Oh no, we'll just make breakfast. The aroma will drive them wild."
Hermione chuckled, "Ah, your devious side comes out. Let's."
They started in making a Full English breakfast and by the time the food was ready Dan and Emma came out of their room.
Dan saw through them, "Anxious to go are we?" He came and stood behind them looking over Hermione's shoulder as they cooked the last bit of sausage.
Harry played innocent with a matching grin, "Who? us? Naw, just starved."
Dan laughed, "I'm sure, but the chemical warfare is very effective. Now I'm wide awake and starved."
Harry pulled the pan off the stove, "Just in time." They moved to the table and set the pan down. He sat as everyone else sat, "On your mark, get set, go!"
They all chuckled as they started in.
Emma smirked, "Let me guess, first one done loses?"
All she got was a chorus of 'mmmms' from everyone.
Emma turned to Harry as she speared a sausage, "I hope your parents wont be too – cramped by us all descending on them."
Harry was smiling, "They are a little worried how we will all fit in our house, but they don't know anything about magic so they don't have any idea we will be bringing these trunks."
Dan chuckled, "Oh, brilliant. That will be so easy. Will we need to pack things away for the trip?"
Hermione shook her head, "No. We could even ride in the trunks. Nothing outside will affect anything inside the trunks."
Harry was now dragging his jaw, "Oh, man! That's just crazy! I have got to figure out how magic works!"
Dan spoke up next, "Do we have a plan or schedule on when we are leaving?"
Hermione nodded, "Remus said that if we aim for leaving just before noon, that will land us at about 8am in Boston. That way Harry's parents don't have to miss work or anything."
Harry laughed, "Don't worry about that. They will find any number of ways to get time off. They wouldn't miss us coming home for anything. But it does mean they won't have to go nuts waiting for us forever."
A knock came at the door at the top of the stairs. Hermione got up to put her wand in the control button and open the door. "Hi Remus!"
Remus had a huge smile, "Hello all. This is such a brilliant way to hide everyone. I had no idea until after I got inside the hangar that there was anything magical about this area."
Harry was grinning, "So, what's the plan, Stan?"
Remus looked quizzically at him, "I assume I'm playing the part of 'Stan' today?" A grin gave him away.
Harry's grin got bigger, "If you've got the plan, then you get to be Stan. What are we up to?"
Remus shook his head at the flagrant abuse of English, "We go up top-side, shrink these trunks, make a portkey and we're off."
Harry stood up and took a deep breath. "Roger-wilco, Commander." A very rough salute followed.
Everyone's grins just kept growing.
Hermione interjected, "But!" Everyone looked at her waiting, "You must show me how to shrink and unshrink them!"
Remus gave his own salute, "Yes, ma'am."
They heard footsteps coming down the stairs until Bonderson appeared, "Everyone ready?"
The sound of mumbles and chairs moving back construed ascent from all.
Bonderson was first up the stairs, followed by everyone else.
At the top of the stairs all the SAS teams surrounded a table with a cake decorated with a Tardis on it.
Harry broke out laughing when he saw it.
Bonderson spoke for everyone, "It has been such a pleasure having you all here and we look forward to helping you again when you can come back. We wish you the best of luck and if we can help – at any time – please don't hesitate to ask."
The SAS teams clapped and cheered.
Harry raised his hand, "When this little adventure started, I thought sure I got stuck in a Monty Python skit." Everyone chuckled, "But now, I think you have it right, it is more appropriately part of Dr. Who. Thank you all, very much." Harry started a round of handshakes all around.
Bonderson started handing out cake to everyone. As the cake was being consumed, Remus showed Hermione the spells for shrinking and unshrinking the trunks. She, of course, got it all first try as Remus shook his head in wonder. Hermione picked up the two one-inch cube trunks and put them in her pocket.
Remus turned to the group and looked at his watch, "It's 11:35, or about 7:35 in Boston. Are we all ready? Then gather around this rope." He held out a 2 metre rope, "Everyone grab on tightly and do not let go."
Hermione held up her hand, "Remus, can we wrap the rope around Harry? He gets thrown around really badly every time."
Remus smiled, "Ok, let's try this." He ran the rope around Harry's waist and Hermione wrapped her arms around him from behind and held onto the rope. "Ready? Next stop, Washington DC." Everyone nodded with trepidation and a deep breath.
"Activate."
Blackness, vertigo, blasts of wind (or something), then a thump as they all landed on their feet.
Harry was still upright with Hermione wrapped around him, "Yes! Hermione, you saved me! I'm still standing and not throwing up." He turned and hugged her.
Devereaux and Lawton came walking over and Harry saw them approach over Hermione's shoulder, "Hi guys! Fancy meeting you here."
Devereaux smiled and held out his hand, "Welcome to the Dulles International Portkey Arrival Terminal. Mr Forrester, good to see you again. Would you like to introduce us to everyone?"
Harry went through the introductions as everyone held out their papers, including Harry. Lawton spent a few seconds scanning the trunks and he gave them back to Hermione.
Devereaux paused a moment, "Given that all of you are running away from the troubles in magical England, particularly Harry, and you don't know when all that will be taken care of, we are extending to all of you refugee status here in the US. That gives you a bit of cover and saves all of us some time and energy with constantly renewing visas if this takes a long time. These are your papers. " He started handing them out. "Also, Miss Granger, we need to adjust the underage-magic trace on your wand. The British Ministry does not need to be notified when you are way over here." He finished handing out the papers, "Mr Lupin, if you could follow Agent Lawton, he has some questions and some information to give you about your condition and the process of acting as security and tutoring here in the US."
Remus and Lawton took a few steps away.
Devereaux turned to Harry, "Harry, we will go with you to your home so we can mark it as a known magical home. We also suggest you make a trip to Gringotts in Boston in the next few days, and the US Magical Education Department about registering for school. It would also be a good idea if you got a wand during your trip to Gringotts. That is as much a form of ID as it is a magical tool."
Lawton and Remus walked back to the group. Lawton nodded to Devereaux.
Devereaux turned back, "Ok, are we ready for the next step?"
Everyone nodded.
Devereaux conjured another rope for a portkey, "Everyone, hold on to this. We will go to the Boston Magic Isle, then catch a Boston Magical Taxi, or usually called a BMT."
Hermione wrapped Harry up in the rope and her arms again.
Harry leaned over and kissed her cheek, "My anchor. I don't dare go anywhere without you."
She smiled, "Harry, you are too much."
"Ready?" Devereaux looked around, "Activate."
A 1700's port town came into existence around them. They were standing on a pier with an unbelievable view of downtown Boston.
Dan gasped, "Wow, that is beautiful."
Harry laughed, "We must be in the middle of the bay. That's downtown Boston from an angle I've never seen before."
Lawton pointed, "Yes, that's downtown. We are on a concealed island in the middle of the bay. All the navigation charts list this area as a very shallow undersea rock. Repelling and avoidance charms keep it all secret."
Devereaux held out his wand and a blue delivery van screeched to a halt next to him, "Here's our ride. All aboard."
Everyone climbed into the plain blue van, into a very large space. Everyone found a seat at what looked like a large dinning table in the middle of the 'room'. Devereaux talked to the driver about their destination and the scenery started whipping past at a ridiculous rate. Devereaux walked back to the table calmly, "We'll be there in just a few minutes."
Harry was amazed, "A few minutes? Waltham is at least hour away at this time of day."
Dan looked confused, "Wait, we're on an island! How does this van get across the water?"
Devereaux, Lawton, and Remus all smiled at them.
Harry sat back and huffed, "Fine. Yeah, magic. I get it. More handwaving."
Dan just shook his head in amazement.
The van stopped and Devereaux stood up, "We're here."
Harry choked, "You're kidding!"
Devereaux pulled the side door open and looked back at Harry with a sly grin, "I thought you were in a hurry." He stepped out.
Harry gasped and started running for his front door.
The door flew open and Peter came running out, "Harry!"
Alicia was right behind him, "Harry! You rascal!"
They all started screaming before they collided in a monstrous, noisy, hug. Harry was finally home, after a few weeks of non-stop insanity. The clump of Forresters calmed down and turned toward everyone else.
Harry started introductions, "Everyone, Peter and Alicia Forrester. Mom, Dad, this is Dr Dan Granger, Dr Emma Granger, both dentists. You know Devereaux and Lawton. This is my honorary uncle, Remus Lupin. And this? This is Miss Hermione Granger, the saviour of my sanity!"
Alicia moved forward to hug Hermione, "Man! Harry said you were gorgeous, but wow!"
Harry got a 'look' that promised retribution from the middle of that hug. But all he could do was smile like a loon.
Peter was already shaking hands with Dan and Emma.
Dan spoke quietly to Peter, "You've got quite the boy there."
Peter chuckled, "Or he's got me. I can't keep up with him." He glanced at Harry, "And I think that's about to get a lot worse."
Emma laughed, "Yes, with Hermione involved we should all just run for cover."
"Mum!"
Laughter broke out.
Remus was watching from the sidelines with a huge smile.
Until Peter offered his hand, "Mr Lupin. Harry's had great things to say about you."
Remus laughed, "All exaggerations, I'm sure. You've done an amazing job with him. I am in awe at who he has become."
Peter nodded in amazement, "Yup, he's pretty awesome. Not that I can take any credit for anything. I have no idea what I did."
Remus chuckled.
Peter called out, "Come in, everyone come on in. Where is your luggage?"
Remus patted his pocket and whispered, "Magic. We'll show you."
Everyone started moving toward the house. It was your basic three bedroom house, which would normally be way too crowded for five adults and two teenagers, in three families. Lawton started his magical marking task as Remus started scouting for warding strategies as he walked in.
Peter and Alicia had another breakfast laid out on the table. The conversation didn't slow down for a moment until the food was done. Then Peter caught up with the realities, "So, we may be a bit more crowded than I thought, but I'm sure we can make anything work."
Harry smiled his 'I've got a joke' smile, "Um, Dad."
Peter looked at him and got a suspicious grin, "Yes?"
Harry was trying not to laugh, "Dad, we have some magic to show you. It will make everything very easy."
Peter looked confused, "Ok. This sounds like fun. What is it?"
Harry got up and pulled Hermione toward the guest room, "Come on, let Hermione show you."
They all crowded into the guest room and watched Hermione pull two small cubes out of her pocked and set them in the middle of the floor. She touched them with her wand and the cubes inflated into steamer trunks.
Peter and Alicia gasped.
Before they could say more, Hermione flicked the latches on one and swung it open – to a dark stairwell leading down – below the floor. She stood back and waited.
Peter and Alicia's mouths dropped and their eyes couldn't figure out how to focus on that.
Harry had to interrupt their gobsmaked-ness, "Down that stairway is a three bedroom apartment, complete with kitchen. Yes, it's like the Tardis, even if it's not painted blue."
Alicia started to sneak up on the stairway like it might bite, "You've got to be kidding me!"
Everyone else started chuckling.
Hermione started down the stairs and reached back her hand toward Alicia, "Come see."
Alicia squeaked, grabbed Hermione's hand and followed her down. Squeaking kept echoing up the stairs.
Peter woke up and ran after them, "Hey! Wait for me."
Harry just started laughing. He gathered himself and started down the stairs. Everyone else followed.
Peter and Alicia stood and stared, mouths hanging open, turning slowly.
Hermione was pointing, "Bedrooms, the loo, the kitchen. It's all here. My parents and I will stay in this one. Remus will stay in the other one."
Peter was slowly catching up, "Our house just turned into a nine bedroom mansion."
Harry chuckled, "Ah, yeah, magic changes things a bit."
Peter looked at Harry somewhat blankly and seriously, "The world is not going to be the same, is it?"
Harry took a breath to speak, paused, then shook his head, "I want to keep it as much the same as I can. I do not want to go to magical school. I still want to go to Mason High. But – there will be changes, yes. I don't know how there won't be some."
Peter slowly started nodding his head. Then he smiled, "Ok. An adventure, eh?"
Harry nodded with a small smile.
Peter's smile grew, "Did you say 'hi' to Gandalf?"
Harry laughed, "Yes, I did."
Hermione put her arm around Harry, "Did Harry tell you he yelled at the the British Minister of Magic?"
The entire group broke out in laughter.
Remus was cheering, "Yes! A true Marauder."
Hermione couldn't stop, "And the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, and the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards?"
This time everyone was gobsmacked.
Harry covered his face.
Until Devereaux broke out into laughter again, "That is awesome! I can't wait to tell everyone in the office."
Remus stepped over to Lawton, "I'd like to start setting up some wards for the house. Can you give some pointers on the normal strategies and the limits I should abide by?"
Lawton nodded, "Sure, let's go." They headed up the stairs to start the protections.
Peter looked seriously at Harry, "So, what's this International Consternation of Wizards?"
Devereaux laughed again, "Oh, yes. The International Constipation of Wizards is the world-wide governing body. Like the United Nations for Wizards. Except – it's less functional." His smile dropped.
Peter's smile crept out toward Harry, "And you're not in trouble for this?"
Harry just shrugged and shook his head.
Hermione gave a real answer, "No. Not when he was backed up by a Prophesy."
Devereaux gasped, "Whoa! That must have been fun. You don't get those every day."
Peter looked disconcerted, "How 'every day' are those things?"
Devereaux thought for a moment, "I've never heard one in my life."
Hermione smiled, "Harry is wrapped up in five, so far."
Harry started whinging piteously, "I just wanna be normal."
Peter patted him on the shoulder with a smirk, "Everyone needs a goal in life. Somehow I think that's going to be a challenge for you."
Harry groaned.
Devereaux clapped his hands, "Well, shall we go plan the next few days? I think we have a lot to figure out."
Everyone mumbled and started up the stairs to plan. Fitting seven people around the Forrester dinning table was a bit cramped, not to mention finding enough chairs. Devereaux conjured three more chairs to match the existing set, keeping Peter and Alicia in a perpetual state of shock.
Peter froze, "You just created those chairs out of nothing!"
Devereaux nodded with a smile, "Yup. It's pretty easy."
Peter was still gathering his thoughts, "Easy? You do that all the time?"
"Whenever I need to. I don't even think about it any more."
Peter was incredulous, "Things mean nothing to you any more."
"Well – no." He waved his hand at the chairs, "Why would they?"
Peter was still trying to get his brain around the new attitude, "Because I worked a week at my job to be able to afford to buy those 4 chairs and table."
Dan Granger nodded his head, "Yes, that does make for quite a change in perspective."
Devereaux started nodding in understanding, "What it means to me, is that only people have meaning. Things –" he shrugged, "come and go easily."
Peter looked at Harry with concern, "You're afraid of this, aren't you."
Harry nodded slightly, with significant tension.
Hermione moved next to him and held his hand.
Harry squeezed her hand and breathed, "I don't want this to become a wedge between us. Or my friends."
Alicia moved to Harry and wrapped him in a hug, "Not a wedge. A bit of an adjustment? Yeah. But no wedges here."
Harry peeked out of his shared hug and looked at Hermione, "It's been very stressful for you, hasn't it?"
Hermione nodded and glanced to her parents, "Yes. But I think that has more to do with Hogwarts being a boarding school. And the fact that Hogwarts only teaches magic. It – leaves few areas of common ground."
Devereaux spoke up, "I'm afraid it isn't much different over here. The magical community is still very isolated."
Harry looked angry, "I don't want that! I still want to go to my normal school."
Devereaux took a slow purposeful nod and sat down at the table, "Let's talk about that."
Everyone started moving toward a chair.
Devereaux started slowly, "So – first off, you need to go to Gringotts in the Magic Isle, to learn where the magical community is here in Boston. You need to make connections, to learn about the services available there, so you know where to turn when you need help with whatever comes up. Second, Harry, you need to get a wand. You can't really do magic without it. People have tried but it really doesn't work all that well. And third – I'll set up an appointment with the US Magical Education Department so you all can talk to them about what can be done. They are the ones you need to convince to let you stay at your non-magical school."
Hermione looked to Devereaux, "Are there books we can read and learn about the policies?"
Peter asked quietly, "Yes, how do we learn about what's legal or not?"
Devereaux thought for a moment, "There are a number of books available at Poor Richard's Books, on the Isle."
Peter looked confused, "Why is that familiar – 'Poor Richard's Books'?"
Devereaux smiled, "Maybe your thinking of Poor Richard's Almanac, published by Benjamin Franklin in the early 1700's? His however-many-great grandchildren continued running his book shop."
Peter was shaking his head, "Wow. A very new world to learn."
Devereaux nodded, "Yes. I think that's a good list to start with and as other things come up give me a call and I can help with more. If you don't have anything else pressing, then I'll be back tomorrow morning – say 9am? – and we can go to the Magic Isle. Ok?"
Harry got a funny look, "It's just next to the soap aisle, right?"
All the non-magicals groaned, the magicals looked confused.
Hermione shook her head at Harry, "Harry – just ..." She kept shaking her head.
Devereaux started to get up, "Oh! Wait. I forgot. Lawton and I have one more thing for you Harry. Let me go get him." He stepped out the front door, spoke loudly and came back in and sat down.
Remus came in the front door, "Well, the basic wards are up so we are protected and magic is ok in the house." He turned to Hermione, "They are the exact same type and structure as your house in England."
She nodded and smiled her thanks.
Lawton followed Remus who conjured two more chairs, and they sat down.
Lawton pulled a small bit of paper out of his pocket, ran his wand, and the packet grew to a small sheaf of normal papers, "We ran across this after you left for England, Harry. We didn't want to try and deliver it all the way over there, so we decided to wait for you to come back, whenever that turned out to be." He grimly held up the papers, "This is the FBI report on what happened to Sirius Black."
Remus coughed and closed his eyes tightly.
Everyone sat back in their chairs. Stillness covered them and kept them from breathing.
Lawton continued quietly, "The agent who wrote this report 15 years ago, James Landow, guessed pretty well what happened and thought that this report should be buried, to help protect you, Harry."
Harry asked very quietly, "How did burying that help me?"
"Landow got a report from our intelligence officer in the US embassy in London that Sirius Black was possibly connected to you. So when he found this evidence of Sirius Black he looked for you. But he could not find any trace of you, at all. And he knew that all the Death Eaters and bounty hunters in the world would be out hunting you down if anyone found out anything about what happened to Sirius Black, so he buried the report as Top Secret and keyed it to your magical signature. He knew that your magic would start showing up eventually, if you were still in the US, so it was only a matter of time. When your magical signature showed up, this report would be released to us and we could start to help you. Until then, you were very well hidden and therefore safe. So – we waited."
Harry nodded slowly, "Can you give us a synopsis?"
Lawton paused a few moments in indecision, "Maybe I should let you handle this part?" He handed the report to Devereaux.
Devereaux flipped through the papers for a moment getting his bearings, "Well, we don't have any information on how you and Sirius Black got to Boston. But when you were dropped off at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston on the night of November 9th, 1981, there was a taxi cab that had had a catastrophic failure of it's compressed natural gas tank on the Charles River Bridge and exploded. Now, we realise you and Sirius were in that taxi. But back then, it took us a few days to figure out that this was a magically caused explosion. By that time, we had no clues left to track to figure out what had happened. Then, a few days later on Friday November, 12th, 1981, we got a report that a huge magical explosion had happened in the mountains of Western Virginia. Agent James Landow was sent to investigate. He found the top of a mountain destroyed in a huge explosion and the remnants of a magical fight. The issue that tipped us off was that we found the Death Watch signal."
Remus grunted.
Peter grimly asked, "Explain?"
"The Death Watch signal is a rather delicate bit of magic connected to a British Auror's soul that will imprint a magical signal onto an area where they die. We don't use that any more, and haven't for at least a hundred years because it is possible to trace it, and somewhat risky to remove. The signal our agent found indicated that Sirius Black had died there under the attack of at least eight bounty hunters. As best we could reconstruct, Sirius Black had set up a number of defences and traps. And his final defence, a huge explosive hex tied to his consciousness as a dead-man switch. If he lost consciousness for any reason other than sleep, the hex would explode and take off the top of the mountain. We also found residue of a cage ward, which would mean that anyone who started attacking him would not be able to escape his explosive hex if it went off. And they didn't. We found the residue of eight people, and Sirius Black." He sighed, "Which meant the secret of where you were, and who you were, died with him, as I'm sure he intended."
Harry got up and walked around the table to Remus and hugged him over his shoulder.
Remus was quietly sniffing and snuffling with his head hanging down.
Devereaux set the papers on the table, "It's all in here, if you want to read it."
Harry nodded, "Thank you."
Devereaux and Lawton got up and left.
No one dared touch the report.
After a few minutes Harry spoke quietly, "I guess my Godfather saved me, after all."
Remus cleared his throat and started to sit straighter, "Yes. It sounds like he did the best he could." He stood up, picked up the report and headed for his trunk to read it.
Hermione stood up and came to hug Harry.
Harry took a deep sigh and looked around at everyone, "Did we cover everything?" All the adults either shrugged or nodded. He smiled to Hermione, "Want to take a walking tour of my High School?"
She smiled and nodded.
Harry turned to the adults, "We'll be back in a while." They left quietly out the front door.
Remus Lupin
Dan shook his head, "Damn! What rotten luck."
Alicia was barely holding off tears, "Harry is such a nice kid! How did he come out of such a mess!"
Peter sounded a bit angry, "It sounds like he's not out of it quite yet."
Alicia turned to the Grangers, "How did you find out about all this?"
Emma had her hand over her eyes.
Dan answered, "We found out when we picked up Hermione and Harry at Kings Cross Station, when they got out of Hogwarts. Actually – we knew something was not right in the magical world in England, and had suspected for a year or two. But we had no idea it was so bad until the end of school. It seems that Harry coming back to England has – set a lot of problems in motion."
Peter looked concerned, "I'm very sorry you got caught up in all this."
Emma sat up with a bit of a sad smile, "Actually, we are very glad that Hermione has met Harry."
Alicia was struggling, "Why? This just sounds like it landed on you."
Emma smiled more, "Hermione was almost completely alone at Hogwarts. Only one friend, surrounded by bullies and bigotry. It turned out to be a lot worse than we realised." Her smile grew again, "But Harry has changed all that. At the end of this year she and Harry had changed what sounded like most of the school. She is happy, she has goals, she is looking forward to life and a future she is excited about. Even with all this huge mess, I am so happy for her. And I think she has had a very large affect on Harry, too."
Peter chuckled, "Oh, yes."
Alicia laughed, "That's very true. Harry looks so happy now. He was always excited and so focussed on what he was doing, but now? Now he looks much happier, settled. And that is not because of magic, that is Hermione."
Emma nodded, "Actually, Hermione told me that Harry woke her up from her 'magical slumber' as she put it. It has brought her back to the non-magical world – and us. She wants to go to school here, with Harry, and I can't say no. Just the possibility has changed her and made her so happy."
Peter smiled, "Well, she is definitely welcome here. But I understand if you would like to arrange somewhere else for her to stay."
Dan shook his head, "No, if it's alright with you, I think she's been through enough turmoil lately, with more still to come. She can stay here."
Emma leaned over and kissed his cheek, "Thank you, love." She turned to the Forrester's, "And thank you, both of you." Her smile grew huge, "I think this is really a very big opportunity for her, too."
Harry Forrester and Hermione Granger
Harry and Hermione walked around the last building and saw Mason High School across the street.
"There it is."
Hermione was quite surprised, "It's – got trees everywhere."
"Yes. It's like it's surrounded in forrest. I think its beautiful." He reconsidered, "Eh! It could use some paint here'n there." They started walking across the street. Harry pulled her through the parking lot toward one side of the school. "This is the cafeteria, which has the old drama stage in it. The stage is not used any more since they built the new performing arts centre back there." He pointed further down through the parking lot. "But over here is the band room. This is where I live." They walked around a wing of the school and found a small parking area that was enclosed by a fence. "This area is reserved for the band. These are our smaller equipment trailers and that is the semi trailer." He pointed to three eight foot by sixteen foot trailers and a 48 foot semi trailer that was painted with the school logo and a music staff and notes running down the sides. "And there are two thirty foot shipping containers we use to store all our gear. This parking area is where we get dressed in our uniforms when we have a football game in the stadium." He pointed farther down the parking lot to the entrance to the stadium.
Hermione looked unsure, "You get dressed in your uniform out here? In the open?"
He chuckled, "Unless it's raining. You wear bike shorts and T-shirts underneath the uniforms so getting dressed out here is no problem. And since it's heading toward winter, it's cold enough that the heavy uniform is pretty warm." Harry lead her around to the front of the band room. They peeked in the windows in the doors. The room was very large, not quite half the size of the Great Hall in Hogwarts. A shelf ran around the inside of the room halfway up the walls to the high ceiling. It was full of what looked like hundreds of tall trophies. Harry pointed into the room, "Those doors on the other side are practice rooms, the doors on the left side go to a room full of instrument lockers. That door on the far side opens into a long room where most of the marimbas and percussion toys are kept. During Winter Percussion or if it's raining during marching band, the pit practices in here. And the wind ensemble and choir is in here."
Hermione looked at him concerned, "What happens during a marching band show if it rains?"
He smiled, "As long as there's no lightning we do it anyway. We just don't use the sound system."
She looked almost horrified.
He seemed to read her mind, "Some of the fields we perform on are astroturf and some are grass. Grass is the worst if it rains because it all turns to mud." He paused before delivering the punch line, "Some of our shows required us to lay on the field, or crawl." He nodded with a pained look, "Our fourth competition last year was baaad. It never stopped raining. We had to launder all the uniforms before the next weekend. Do you know how hard it is to wash and dry 150 uniforms? And then get all the right parts back to the right students? Just nuts!"
She looked horrified, "That sounds like a disaster."
Harry was leading her around the band room, "Yes, it was. This is the gym." He pointed to a large building that looked larger than the Great Hall. "If we are lucky, we get gym time for winter percussion practice, otherwise we're in the cafeteria or outside on the basketball courts behind the gym. The gym is where we work out all the timing and logistics issues with our show." They peeked into the windows into the dark gymnasium. The lit exit signs gave enough light to get the general shape of the room.
"Timing? What kind of timing?"
Harry took a big breath, "Well, imagine this was a competition venue – which most of them are schools. Our truck would be parked out in the parking lot, along with all the other competitors trucks. We spend a few hours out there rehearsing and warming up, along with everyone else, at the same time. It's really loud and it stresses your ability to keep focussed on your own time and not get lost in someone else's metronome."
Hermione covered her eyes, "Oh, that's crazy!"
"Then, about fifteen minutes before our show time we start pushing all our gear to the gym. Because all our gear is also used for marching band all the gear has really big wheels on it so it can roll on the field. Well, that works well for rolling it all to the gym. But each competition is different in terms of which door we enter through, and leave through. So we have to order which instruments go in first or last and that also determines which way we fold the mat."
"Mat? What do you mean mat?"
He laughed, "We perform on a thirty foot by sixty foot plastic mat that has a painting on it. It's like the backdrop in a play. Except it can weigh up to 600 pounds depending on how much paint is on it, so it's all folded up on a wheeled cart. Depending on which door we enter we may need to fold the mat in a different direction so the picture unfolds right-side up. The whole competition is timed so we have to get on the floor, set up the sound system, unfold the mat, do the show, and get off the floor in eleven minutes or we lose points."
Hermione looked horrified, "How long is your show?"
He was lost in fond memories, "No less than five minutes and no more than seven. We have to get setup-time down to less than two and a half minutes and be able to get off the floor in one and a half. It's a bit of a mad dash."
She was breathless, "Sounds like it."
He smiled, still lost in memories, "At World Championships last year, the University of Dayton Arena has this three story high ramp down to the show floor that you swear is at a forty-five degree angle. Getting an eight foot long, four foot wide, 100 pound marimba down and up that ramp is killer! Luckily we get parents to help."
Remus Lupin
Remus came out of his trunk looking a bit better. He sat down at the table.
Dan looked concerned, "Alright there, Remus?"
Remus took a deep breath and nodded slowly, not looking at anyone, "Yes, I'll live." He dropped the report on the table, "I'm glad I got to read this. It makes me feel better that I know how hard Sirius worked to save Harry." He smiled, "It actually inspires me to work harder to be more helpful to Harry."
Peter chuckled, "Oh, Remus. You have no idea how hard Harry works. Keeping up with him will be amazingly hard."
Remus' smile got larger, "I can hardly wait to see." He turned serious, "You don't mind if I get involved in what he's doing? I don't want to get between you all."
Peter shook his head, "Nah, it'll be fun to have you along for the ride. The parents organisation can always use the help."
Remus' expression turned hollow, "He's about all I have left. All my friends are gone. Family." He shook his head.
Peter was confused, "So, Harry mentioned something about you being a werewolf. What does that mean for you?"
Remus looked depressed as well as hollow, "It means that every full moon I spend three days in a steel cage or I could kill everyone around me."
Peter and Alicia's jaws dropped.
Peter recovered first, "Damn! That's rough."
Emma broke in, "But it also means he is ridiculously strong and resilient all the time."
Remus winced, "Except when I touch silver. Then I collapse."
Alicia squeaked, jumped up and ran into the kitchen, "I'll hide all the silver utensils!"
Remus smiled weakly, "That's very kind of you."
Harry Forrester and Hermione Granger
Hermione looked at Harry in quiet consideration, "It sounds like you have a lot of friends here."
Harry smiled and looked off into memory, "Yes. Like, the entire music department. It's so much fun. I can't walk down the hall without saying 'hi' to about eighteen people."
Hermione's eyes looked afraid.
Harry turned to say something to her and froze. He reached out a drew her in to a hug, "Hermione, I want you to be with me. I want you to experience how much fun this is. I – hadn't thought about how this might be hard for you, stepping into my world. But I know everyone here will absolutely love you. You are – so nice, so smart, so ..." He shrugged and smiled at her.
"Harry, I've never had many friends before. I don't know what that's like. I'm used to being invisible. Not talking to anyone."
Harry shook his head in exasperation, "And I don't understand that at all. You are so beautiful! How could all those guys at Hogwarts not notice you? Were they crazy?"
Hermione chuckled, "No, I think they probably noticed me because of my test scores. But I was untouchable. They couldn't be seen talking to me, and I was not interested in making it easy for them."
"But Neville talked to you – and noticed you."
Hermione looked down, "He's not really my type. I talked to him because I was going crazy and he is genuinely a nice guy – evidently the only one there. He talked to me because he had no one else either and he needed the tutoring help."
Harry nodded and started leading the way back toward home, "Well, I have this old baseball bat that I can loan you when all the guys around here start following you around and driving you nuts."
Hermione burst out laughing, "Oh, come now, Harry. No one is going to be interested in me."
Harry started laughing, "You think I'm kidding? You will instantly be the most popular girl involved in music at this school."
Hermione could not figure out whether to believe him or not, "Why?
Harry chuckled and started ticking off his fingers, "Your beautiful accent, your incredible looks, your amazing talents, your mysteriously showing up next year, and – to a degree the mystery of your association with me." His grin started getting bigger, "You'll even have a lot of girls following you around."
Hermione was incredulous, "What? Why?"
"Because they are going to want to know all about you, partly to know more about me."
Hermione kept her confused look going, "The Spanish Inquisition? Again?"
Harry looked down at his shoes, took a breath, and looked at her, "To be honest, there has been a group of girls paying a lot of attention to me all this last year. I sort of play along and talk to them – I don't want to be rude or unfriendly – they're nice and I like them, but –" He pulled Hermione back into a hug and looked seriously into her eyes, "They don't fit with me. You do. You – catch me, intrigue me, fascinate me. I'm always thinking about you, dreaming about you, wondering what you're thinking, wishing I could show you things. I want you to have what I have. And more." He shook his head helplessly, "I'm smitten. Captured. I am completely yours."
Hermione grabbed his head and pulled him into a kiss that neither would forget.
Remus Lupin
Remus was covering his eyes, with his shoulders hunched up, "Wait, wait, hold on." He turned to Dan and Emma, "You said Hermione's letters said that Harry said that he's very involved with everything and knows everyone?"
They nodded with a smile.
Peter chuckled, "Oh, yeah. Harry knows everyone and is involved in everything."
Remus turned to Peter and Alicia, "So, I'm just a little concerned that with Harry being such an extrovert and Hermione having been such an introvert for so long, that this next year will not live up to – one of their expectations."
Peter smiled, "Ah! But Harry isn't actually an extrovert. He's quite the introvert." At Remus' confused look he continued, "You see, the definition of an extrovert is not about how much time someone spends with other people, it's about someone who gains energy by being around people, and an introvert gains energy by being alone. Harry is still definitely an introvert. He needs his alone-time, his shutdown-time. But other than that, he is one of the most involved kids in that program. We call him a 'high-functioning introvert'."
Remus asked, "So was Harry always this involved in school?"
Alicia shook her head, "No, middle school was rather hard for him. It got better, in a way, in eighth grade. His biggest problem was that his brain didn't fit in his body. But he was not having fun for a while in sixth and seventh. Then he hit high school and absolutely exploded into it."
Peter nodded, "Middle school is the hardest time for everyone." He smirked, "Including parents."
Dan asked, "It got better in eighth grade?"
Alicia nodded, "He was less emotional but then he started getting bored. That's what really worried me, but high school fixed all that."
Emma sighed, "Hermione had a very difficult time all through school. Her intelligence was so far ahead of the other kids and her drive was so high the other kids excluded her from everything. Some of the teachers recognised it and tried to help but there was only so much they could do. Then, magic came along and we all thought it was an opportunity to start over in a better place. A place where, maybe, Hermione wasn't so different than everyone else. But it was actually a lot worse. In the middle of last year we had considered moving her to a magical school in France but we weren't sure it would be any better. We were looking much more seriously at moving after this year. Then Harry showed up and her letters completely changed."
Alicia focussed in, "Really? How did they change?"
Emma had a huge smile, "Her letters went from barely once a week to almost every day. Everything changed. She was talking about the laughter, the music, the teachers reactions, Harry's reactions to everything, the Spanish Inquisition. It was wonderful to read."
Remus chuckled, "Wait – Spanish Inquisition?"
Emma laughed, "For all the time Harry was at Hogwarts, Hermione was excused from classes so she could spend time helping Harry adjust. He would teach her music and she would teach him about magic. So all the girls in Gryffindor would corner her in her dorm every night and ask all kinds of questions about her time with Harry. It drove her crazy!"
Everyone laughed.
Emma shook her head with a sad smile, "Hermione said Harry's music had completely changed that school."
Everyone was covered in silence as they contemplated, until Dan broke out of it, "I think there are some significant risks for Hermione coming to school here next year. Keeping up the pace is not one of the things I worry about – but I think my biggest fear is that she might have a difficult time breaking out of her shell. She has been so isolated for basically all her life. I'm very concerned about that. But I also can't ignore her smile – her absolutely fierce excitement at what she has heard from Harry about his experiences here. I can't deny her this opportunity, so I still think it's worth the risk."
Emma hugged him and kissed his cheek, "Oh, you Mr-where's-my-shotgun Granger. You are such a softy. Thank you."
Everyone chuckled.
Alicia turned to the Grangers, "So, what about you two? You're just – kicked out of your own country? What will you do?"
Dan and Emma deflated.
Dan shook his head, "I guess we are on vacation until this war is over. However long that takes."
Peter smiled, "Well, you are always welcome to park your Tardis trunk here for as long as you want."
Dan smiled, "Thank you. Maybe we'll get to see Hermione this next school year, for once."
Peter laughed, "See her? You can come and help with the band. Be involved. Watch her participate, watch her learn! It is so much fun!"
Dan and Emma lit up with the possibility.
Peter turned to Remus, "What do you think you will do, Remus?"
Remus smiled, "Well, I'm hoping I can talk to the US Magical Education Department and help with Harry and Hermione's magical education requirements. Harry has said he doesn't want to go away to magical school and he says he's too busy during the normal school year to do a night school or a weekend school. He would like to do a summer school, but that would be a huge workload to put the entire year curriculum of magical education on just the summer. I can't see them doing it."
Emma laughed, "Wait, you remember we're talking about Hermione, right? Do you think she'd have any problems with that?"
Remus sat back and thought, then smiled, "No, I guess not."
Peter looked at his watch, "Well, about time for dinner. Shall we?"
Harry Forrester and Hermione Granger
Harry and Hermione walked into the house as the adults were starting to stand up.
Peter caught sight of them first, "Harry! Hermione! I'm playing tonight and everyone is going to come have dinner with us. And you can play with the band tonight."
Harry lifted his hands, "Yes! And Hermione can play too!"
Peter smirked, "Let's get going."
Hermione turned to Harry, "What band are you talking about?"
"My dad's band at the local dinner house. He let's me play with them once in a while."
Hermione's eyes got big, "How many people will be there?"
He shrugged, "A lot less than the Great Hall."
She nodded slowly with a bit of relief, "Ah. I guess."
Harry kissed her cheek, "The great thing is that the guys in the band are really good so it's an absolute blast to play with them." She didn't look convinced so he continued, "It's actually a lot less work to play with these guys than what we did at Hogwarts. With just the two of us you have to fill a lot of the silence by yourself, but with these guys you would play half of what you needed to at Hogwarts. The real skill is playing more tastefully, more meaningfully within the acoustic space the band has room for."
Peter came back into the living room with a guitar case in hand, "Everyone ready? Let's go." Harry ran to get his flugelhorn.
Everyone jumped into the minivan and headed for the dinner house. They asked for a table for nine near the band and Fred gave them two combined tables right in front, and a number of extra chairs. Devereaux and Lawton showed up a few minutes later.
That night was a special evening because the whole band was there. It took the first set for the band to wind down from the day's work and relax into the music. Even so, Harry was so at home in the music. His magic was creeping in to fill the space around them.
At the end of the first set, the band got up for a break, and Peter picked up the vocal mic, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a special treat this evening. My son just came back from a trip to Europe with a special friend and he would like to do some music for you. Ladies and Gentlemen, Harry Forrester!" Polite applause from the audience as Harry got up and moved to the keyboards.
Peter put the vocal mic in the mic stand for the keyboards for Harry.
Harry started in on his introduction to 'When I Fall In Love' and he started smiling at Hermione.
Hermione groaned, "Harry, you rascal!" She got up reluctantly as Peter handed her another vocal mic with a big grin. She pointed at Peter, "And you knew about this, didn't you." She moved onto the small stage area, squeezing between all the stands and instruments.
Peter stayed on stage as he ran the sound board for the unusual configuration of two vocal mics.
Harry started singing the first verse. His magic exploded into the room. Everyone stopped and turned. Then Hermione came in with her arching counter-melody and the room was caught and mesmerised. The flow swept everyone in and covered them. The band sat at the table slack-jawed and stared. Harry and Hermione's sound pulled and tugged, pushed and moved everyone. No one was immune.
As the final note resolved and Harry's improvisations wound down, the band and most of the dinners stood with a cheer. Harry came from behind the keyboards to bow with Hermione.
Peter picked up Hermione's vocal mic, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Harry Forrester and Hermione Granger!" Another wave of applause flowed over them.
Hermione quickly came and sat down at the table, with a bit of embarrassment, while the band came back up for the next set. Harry pulled out his flugelhorn and started getting ready to play alongside The VP.
They played for hours. Harry's excitement and magic pushed the band into a higher gear, with more intensity. The energy was infectious. It was a great evening.
After the band closed their last set and started putting their instruments away, Devereaux and Lawton came up to Peter and Harry.
Devereaux clapped Peter on the back, "Man that was amazing! Very cool! The best evening I've had in years."
Peter was still in his zone of music, "Good! Glad to hear it."
Devereaux turned a bit more serious, "We'll be at your house tomorrow morning for the trip to Boston and – we need to talk." He leaned in close to not be overheard, "We need to talk about Harry's magic. He almost blew the walls down tonight. We need to show him how to control that or it could cause big problems."
Peter nodded as Devereaux gave him a pat on the back and left.
Wednesday, 15 June, 1994
Breakfast had become a significant event at the Forrester household overnight. Seven people crowded around a small kitchen table. Until Remus expanded it.
Hermione had spent the last ten minutes trying to explain the convoluted etiquette required to not anger the Goblins and their short tempers.
A knock at the door had Peter jumping up to let Devereaux and Lawton in.
Devereaux walked in first, "Good morning, all. We all ready to go to the Magic Isle?"
Harry looked suspicious, "Isn't that just passed the soap aisle?"
A few groans barely registered Harry's attempt at humour.
Devereaux tried to lighten the mood, "At least the commute is a breeze."
Everyone started grumbling and moving toward the door.
Outside, Devereaux held out his wand and a blue delivery van with a BMT painted on the side came screeching to a halt. Devereaux called out, "All aboard."
The trip to the Magic Isle was ridiculously easy at less than 30 seconds. Everyone stumbled out of the BMT in the central square of the Magic Isle. A park with trees, benches, and flowers filled the square. Gringotts Boston was one side of the square, and it looked exactly like Gringotts London.
Alicia squeaked, "What's that?"
Hermione stepped beside her and Peter, "That is a Goblin. They run the bank and they are incredibly good at what they do."
Harry smirked, "And, as far as I know, they are the most professional group in the wizarding world."
Alicia held on to Hermione's hand as they made their way up the steps to the front door, between the guards and through the huge doors. The inside also looked exactly like the London branch of Gringotts.
Devereaux lead them to the last teller on the right, "Mr Forrester to see about his account transfer from London."
The Goblin practically jumped up, "Mr Devereaux. Welcome to Gringotts. Please, come this way." He lead the group around the end of the counter and into a warren of square, nondescript, unmarked, random hallways and scattered doors. Until he knocked at a set of double-doors. Then opened them and lead everyone in.
A room just like Ragnok's meeting room. Guards with huge blades in Centurion uniforms standing at intervals. A desk that looked like an acre of highly polished dark wood with a very serious looking Goblin sitting behind it.
The Goblin almost jumped up, "Good morning, Mr Devereaux and Agent Lawton. It's good to see you again." He bowed.
Mr Devereaux bowed in return, "Scalpantar, let me introduce Harry Forrester, Peter Forrester, Alicia Forrester, Hermione Granger, Daniel Granger, Emma Granger, Remus Lupin, and Agent Lawton. Everyone, this is Scalpantar, Director of Gringotts Boston."
Everyone caught the hint and bowed quite seriously.
Scalpantar came out from behind the desk and conjured a large table and chairs in the open area of the office, "Please, be seated. Tea? Coffee?" He made a motion and another Goblin came up and started serving everyone their preference.
Scalpantar sat at the end of the table and looked between Harry and Hermione, "Mr Forrester and Miss Granger, Ragnok speaks quite highly of you both. And – thank you for your kind words to the guards at the front door. I am very glad to have the opportunity to serve you."
Everyone looked a little intimidated but Hermione spoke out, "May your gold flow and your enemies flee."
Scalpantar warmed immediately, "Miss Granger, I see Ragnok was not misplaced in his recommendation. Mr Forrester, –"
Harry interrupted, "Please, call me Harry. I get confused too easily." He waved his hand back and forth toward Peter.
Scalpantar, grinned. "Harry. Let me assure you we are fully prepared to handle the movement of your estate from London to Boston. We will assign an account manager specifically to handle all your needs."
Harry took a deep breath, "Thank you very much Scalpantar. I – need to explain a few things to my parents." He looked nervously at Hermione, then turned to his parents, "Mom, Dad, I need to tell you a few things."
Peter heard the seriousness in Harry, "Sure. What's up?"
"I have some things that I need to tell you. Stuff I couldn't tell you over the phone. I wanted to tell you in person."
Peter and Alicia glanced nervously at each other.
Peter asked, "Ok. You're making it sound bad. Why?"
Harry grimaced a bit, "When I went through that non-magical inheritance – I was left with this." He held out the paper listing his net worth to Peter.
Peter looked at the paper and didn't react until he read to the bottom line. He choked, "Harry ..."
Alicia looked at Peter and grabbed the paper – and squeaked, "Harry!" She gasped, "They left you this?!"
Harry nodded tensely.
Peter was still nervous, "So why are you sounding upset?"
Harry rushed through, "Because it's held in trust until I turn 18 and I need you two to be trustees and help me manage it."
Peter blinked a few times, "Yes, so?"
Harry breathed, "You'll do it? You'll help me?"
Peter chuckled, "Of course! Why not?"
"Because – Because it sounds like it'll be a lot of work – because I have no idea."
Peter laughed, "Yes, it will be a lot of work. And guess who is going to do a lot of that work?" He looked meaningfully at Harry – and smiled.
Harry rolled his eyes with a chuckle, "Ok, ok. That's a deal. I just haven't spent any time thinking about money. It wasn't something I was worried about. Now I'm worried not to mess it up."
Dan smiled, "Harry, you will have as much help as you need, maybe more." He smirked at everyone, "I'm sure we can all help."
Harry sighed, "Thank you."
Hermione shook her head fondly at Harry.
Scalpantar spoke up, "Harry, may I give you some perspective on this problem?"
"Yes, please do."
"If you had one million dollars, you could theoretically invest it such that you could generate five percent return on a properly diversified set of investments. That is not easy to do. Five percent of one million is fifty thousand dollars. Could you live off fifty thousand dollars each year?"
Harry looked to Peter, who shrugged and answered, "Yea, that would work."
Scalpantar nodded, "Yes. But unfortunately, there is this process called inflation which currently is about two percent per year. You must save two percent of your income, to balance inflation, or your net worth will be shrinking every year, which will eventually bring it to zero. So that takes your fifty thousand dollars down to thirty thousand dollars per year. Can you live off that level of income?"
Harry looked to Peter, who shook his head and answered, "I don't know where you could live on that much."
"No, not in Boston. You could move out to the country and find a place where you could live on that, but it would be a very limited existence."
Harry frowned, "I guess a million dollars is not what it used to be."
Scalpantar shook his head, "If you had two million dollars you could generate sixty thousand per year. That is more workable. How many children are you planning to have, Harry?"
Harry choked, "Uh, I – haven't thought about it."
Scalpantar continued, "The problem with those sixty thousand dollars, the three percent of your two million dollars, is that your investments are not growing beyond inflation. If you had two children, then they will eventually inherit, and split, your two million dollar estate and they could lose a portion to inheritance taxes. At one million dollars each, they will not be able to maintain their economic status. At some point they, and their children and grandchildren, will eventually run out of money and return to being 'wage slaves' from then on.
Harry frowned at that phrase, but couldn't figure out how to argue against it.
Scalpantar continued, "But if you can live off of one percent of your investments per year, two percent can go to balancing inflation and another two percent can go toward doubling your estate over more than 30 or 40 years of compound interest. Then you and your two children will be able to maintain their economic status as independently wealthy. Assuming they don't mismanage their money – or marry someone with no self-control – or get a divorce. You, with your significantly larger estate, can remain independently wealthy and so can your children and grandchildren in perpetuity, if the money is managed properly and if it is protected properly. We can help you do that."
Harry looked askance, "Legally?"
"Yes, scrupulously. Acting illegally is never worth the risk. Assuming the laws are reliable."
Harry's eyes narrowed, "And if they're not?"
"Then Gringotts does not operate there. The Gringotts name is well defended and stands for above-board operations only. There are – other groups with other names that may operate in high risk areas and high risk ways. Gringotts does not."
Harry looked seriously at Scalpantar, "That is what I want."
Peter spoke quietly, "Are you sure, Harry?"
Harry nodded, "I fully intend to go to college and get a job. I still have a lot that I want to accomplish." He pointed at the paper, "This means that I have more options. I could volunteer somewhere instead of working. And if I can extend that to include everyone around me – then I want that."
Scalpantar nodded, "We will work up a proposal for our next meeting."
Harry smiled, "Thank you. Um – I wanted to ask you if you know what is happening back in Britain? Has the war started up? How bad is it?"
Scalpantar looked at Harry darkly, "It is plunging off a cliff."
The Grangers sighed heavily.
Scalpantar took a breath to start, "If you remember, at the time you dismantled the Houses of Potter and Black, Riddle seemed to panic. He started attacking the Ministry directly. This was an improvement over the last war because he is not attacking and terrorising the magical and non-magical populace this time. But, since the Ministry is not prepared, they are losing badly."
Harry held his breath, "That was sort of the plan, wasn't it?"
Scalpantar nodded, "Yes. Then, yesterday, Director Greyson started dismantling the Houses of verified Death Eaters who have died or been arrested. We expect this to push Riddle over the edge much faster than we expected. This is turning out to be an unbelievably effective strategy."
Lawton stepped in, "Harry, we are in contact with Director Greyson and he will call us the minute the Ministry falls. That means you should be expecting us to come and collect you to perform this ritual on short notice.
Harry nodded quietly.
Alicia broke in, "Wait wait wait – what is this – ritual?"
Harry covered his eyes, "Sorry, Mom. I forgot to mention that."
Alicia frowned at Harry, "Ok, start mentioning."
Harry smiled in fondness at his mom, "Remember the party at Dan and Emma's house, and the guy who killed my birth-parents showed up? With MI5 and all?"
Peter nodded darkly, "Yes."
"After the party we were talking about what happened, and there was a prophesy given after the party. It's a bit complicated, but it explained that there was another prophesy about 15 years ago which said that there was someone going to be born who had the power to stop this bad guy. The older prophesy pointed to me as that child. This caused this bad guy to try to cheat, by killing my parents and trying to kill me, which trapped him."
Hermione spoke up, "The prophesy 15 years ago acted in the form of a gift. Riddle tried to cheat, which violated the 'gift', both in terms of receiving the prophesy and murdering the subjects of the prophesy, which left him subject to it's terms and therefore vulnerable to this ritual."
Remus nodded to Hermione, "Excellent description."
Harry continued, "It leaves me with the ability to do this – I guess relatively simple ritual – that will destroy this guy. It will, hopefully, stop the war and allow the British non-magical government to rebuild the magical government and fix all the problems that enabled a wacko like Riddle to get started. I must do this or I and England will have no peace or safety."
Peter and Alicia both nodded reluctantly.
Alicia pointed at Lawton, "We get to go along."
"And me!" Hermione and Remus were slightly out of rhythm but clear.
Lawton chuckled, "Yeah, no problem. Everyone can come along, but you can't slow us down. We will likely need to move fast when the time comes."
Everyone nodded with determination, and smiles.
Devereaux looked around questioningly, "Do we have any other topics to talk about? Are we done for now?"
No one indicated anything.
Devereaux smiled, "I think it's time Harry got a wand."
The rest of the group smiled as they stood up.
Harry and everyone thanked Scalpantar for his help.
When the group got outside the bank Harry turned to Devereaux, "So – where do we go to get a wand? Target? Walmart?"
Devereaux snorted, then pointed down the way, "A little shop down here by the name of 'All Those Who Wander'. Ready?"
Harry chuckled, "That sounds suspect. Maybe you should go first?"
Devereaux chuckled, "Come on. This may help stabilise your magic and give you a point to help focus and a gateway to help restrict your magic a bit, so it doesn't splash all over the place at the wrong time."
Down two short blocks and around the corner was a storefront with an intricately carved sign.
Harry followed Devereaux and Lawton through the door to find a small wiry grey bearded man with a cane sitting on a stool at the end of a long counter.
The old man struggled to his feet holding the cane and the counter, "Devereaux! Hello how – And Lawton! I thought I told you not to come back here!"
Devereaux chuckled, "Hello Mr Higgins. Don't you remember that Lawton is now part of the FBI?"
Mr Higgins stepped back in surprise, "FBI?" He looked at Lawton, chewing on his lip, which caused his beard to wiggle continuously. He sounded surprised, and maybe teasing, "They let you in?"
Lawton was holding back a chuckle with all his might.
Higgins mumbled, "Must have been too much cops-n-robbers when you were a kid." He straightened, "No matter. Someone needs a wand, I can tell, I can feel it. Don't be shy – wait –" He pointed toward Hermione, "You have one and it's not mine, is it."
"Yes, sir." Hermione tried to smile kindly.
He moved closer and raised his glasses, "Oh! Hello, lass. May I see your wand?"
She held it out.
Higgins squinted at it, "Ohhh! Olivander. I haven't seen one of his in quite some time." He picked it up and started turning it around, "Ummm. That young whipper-snapper. He's getting better – even if he's only stealing my techniques."
By this time everyone was smiling at Mr Higgins.
Higgins handed back her wand, "Well, who needs a wand, eh?"
Harry took a small step forward, "That would be me, sir."
Higgins turned to Harry, raised his glasses and startled, "Oh! There you are." He squinted, "You look a bit old to be getting a new wand. Did you break one?"
"No, sir."
Devereaux stepped in, "Mr Higgins, Harry here did not show any accidental magic for many years after it is normal, so we did not find him until recently. We're not sure why. But he's now here to catch up on his schooling."
Higgins tilted his head to the side squinting at Harry, "Can you do any magic yet?"
Harry shrugged, "Well ..."
Devereaux stepped in again, "Harry has some very interesting and consistent accidental magic triggered by music. He could show you that."
Higgins nodded, "Let's hear it, son."
Harry smiled at Hermione, reached for her hand, and started singing the second half of the boy's choir part. Hermione just got started singing the girl's part when Mr Higgins started waving his arms trying not to fall backward. Devereaux reached out to stop him from falling.
Higgins was breathing hard, "Whoah, boy! Whoah!"
Harry and Hermione stopped.
Higgins started to fall forward and grabbed for Harry to stay upright, "Where the hell did you learn that?"
Harry was holding Mr Higgins by the arm to keep him upright, "It – just comes out when I do music."
Higgins turned to Hermione, "And you? How did you learn this?"
Hermione smiled, "Just hanging out and doing music with him." She nodded to Harry.
Higgins took a few deep breaths and turned to Devereaux, "We shouldn't give him a wand, we should study this! It will cap and distort this – fountain of magic."
Devereaux looked a bit grim, "Mr Higgins, that is precisely why we are here. Because he has been going to non-magical school and playing music. He sprays magic like the fire department at a fire. It's getting close to violating the Statute of Secrecy."
Higgins looked at Harry, his beard wiggling around like a squirrel trying to escape. "Damn! Double-damn! The first time I meet a natural wandless prodigy and we have to cap him." Higgins turned to Harry, "You could stop doing music."
"No." Harry was starting to boil, "I'd rather lose magic than stop music."
Everyone froze and looked at Harry.
Hermione stepped in for a hug and whispered, "Harry..."
Higgins sighed deeply, "Then you'd lose both. Your music and magic are linked at this point."
Harry looked afraid, "So that means that when I get a wand my music will be affected?"
"Yes." Higgins leaned on his cane, "Or don't get a wand and never go outside magical areas."
Harry's dreams started to collapse.
Hermione turned to Higgins, "Wait – what if we give Harry a wand that's a bad match? A very specific bad match? One that slows down but doesn't cap his magic?"
Higgins turned around and glared at his shelves of wands, "Hhhmm. A very difficult match to find. And – maybe several matches for different circumstances." He turned and started wagging his finger at her, "You, lass, are very smart." He turned and looked at the shelves behind the counter, "Alright. This is what we will do." He huffed and shook his head in frustration, "You're going to make me look like Olivander, taking an hour to find the right wand."
Hermione and Remus chuckled.
He turned back to Harry. "Lets find the perfect wand first, then we will work on the sub-standard ones. They will be the hardest to find." He came closer, "You start singing and I will find the best wand."
Harry started to sing and Higgins started to get lost in the sound and magic. And Hermione snuck in some quiet singing too.
"Wait!" Higgins held up his hand, then pointed to Hermione, "You can't resist singing with him and that clouds his magical signature. In fact just about everyone else does that too. Can I have everyone stand outside the front windows?" Grumbling and confusion started them moving toward the door. Including Mr Higgins. He leaned back in the door, "Harry, you start singing and I will start the selection process from out here, alright?"
Harry nodded and the door closed. He struggled to find a song to sing; nothing sounded right. He ended up singing a slow melancholy version of 'When I Fall in love'. He tried to concentrate on singing as he saw every wand box in the shelves come swooping out in a flowing flying line to fly passed him and back to their shelf. Somewhere in that flying line a wand box broke away and slapped onto his chest and stuck. The swooping line sputtered to a stop and all the wands landed back in their shelf. Harry stopped singing.
The door opened and everyone trooped in.
Harry pulled the wand box off his chest and held it up.
Higgins took the wand out of it's box and held it up next to Harry's face, gauging the two together, "Well –" He looked at Hermione, "Your magic is already linked. This is the best wand because it's a bit of both of you. More Harry than you, lass. But there's still some."
Harry's hand reached out to hold Hermione's hand.
Higgins put the wand back in it's box, "Now we need to hide this one." He handed it to Devereaux, who passed it to Peter. Higgins turned toward the shelves and sighed tapping his chin with his finger. "This is going to be a bit of work."
Hermione could only wait so long, "Mr Higgins, what is it we are looking for? A negative reaction? A specific imbalance between some of Gronig's Dimensions of Harry's magical capacity?"
Higgins looked at her like she grew a third head.
Remus tried to hide his huge smile behind his hand.
Lawton and Devereaux looked quite surprised.
Higgins took a moment to respond, "What is your name?"
"Hermione Granger."
Higgins came to a decision, "Miss Granger, Gronig was a fop with too much imagination and no experience. As they say in Texas, 'big hat, no cattle'."
Hermione smiled, "I agree, but I didn't want to be insulting if you thought otherwise."
Higgins smiled, "And as they say in Japan 'a man with a theory is always at the mercy of a man with experience' and there is no one with more experience than a wand maker." He turned to Harry, "How long have you been having magical expressions?"
"I've only known about magic for about three weeks."
Higgins eyes narrowed and he turned to Devereaux, "When did you first notice him?"
"We began seeing some confusing readings about six weeks ago. They grew steadily clearer so we investigated. It took us a week to pinpoint Harry as the source. We only saw the readings when he was playing music at his non-magical school."
Higgins stood staring off into space for a while. "Let's try this." He stepped back, pulled his wand, and drew a circle on the floor. "Harry, stand in the middle."
Harry moved.
Higgins moved his wand and all the wand boxes in the shelves came swooping out and landed in a wall of wand boxes stacked in a circle around Harry. "Ok, everyone outside again."
Everyone trooped outside to watch.
Higgins spoke to Harry before closing the door, "Now sing again. Sing your favourite song. Loud!" The door clanked closed.
Harry took a deep breath trying to figure out what his favourite song was. After a few very frustrating minutes he realised he didn't have a favourite song he had a favourite style; jazz. So he imagined himself playing in his dad's band yesterday evening. He started singing his horn improvisation part, clapping his hands, stomping his foot, and thumping his chest. He just got on a roll when the door opened.
"Alright, that's enough. You'll knock them all over." Higgins waved his wand and all the wand boxes in the wall swooped back into their shelves.
Harry looked around and there were a number of wand boxes laying on the floor outside of his circle.
Higgins pointed his cane at the wand that was laying farthest from Harry, "That one. Let's start with that one and see what it says."
The wand box floated up and Harry caught it.
Higgins motioned toward the box, "Pull it out and tell me how it feels."
Harry opened the box nervously and lifted the wand. He could only hold it for a few seconds, "Eww!" He fumbled it and dropped it. "Oh, yuck! Pins and needles!"
Hermione reached down to pick it up, "Oh, that's bad." She practically threw it back in it's box.
Higgins chuckled, "Ok. Not that one, then." He waved his wand and the box flew back to it's shelf. "Next!" Another box lifted from the floor and Harry caught it. "Try this one."
Harry took a deep breath to regain some calm and lifted the lid. He peeked uncertainly at the wand, then reached in. Nothing happened. He waved the wand, shrugged, and waved it some more.
Higgins looked suspicious, "Sing something."
Harry opened his mouth to sing and instantly made a squawk and threw the wand back in the box. "Ouch." He shook his hand out.
Higgins nodded, "I thought so. Next!" The previous wand flew back to the shelves and the next one rose from the floor.
Harry opened the box and pulled out the next wand. He waved it, he wiggled it, he shook it. He shrugged.
"Now sing."
Harry opened his mouth – and croaked. He coughed, then tried again. He coughed again.
Higgins again looked suspicious, "Now say something."
Harry frowned, "Achch–akka" He kept coughing.
"Ok, not that one. Next!" That wand was banished to the shelves and the next candidate rose from the floor.
Harry opened it and his expression cleared, "Oh. This one is much better." He waved it, he flicked it, he swooshed it. He nodded.
"Now sing."
Harry opened his mouth and let out a note. It was a bit off, so he tried again. It was better but not quite. On the third try it came out pretty good. "Oh, man, that's so dry. It's – hard."
Hermione looked concerned at Harry.
Higgins turned to everyone else, "Anyone feel anything with that one?"
Everyone shook their heads.
"Ok, Harry, that one looks good to start. Your magic will change as you grow and develop your skills so we may need to try this again in a few months. What you want to do is strap that wand to you when you are in non-magical areas doing music. It must have skin contact. The other one you should use whenever you are trying to perform magic."
Harry nodded resignedly, "Ok."
Higgins motioned toward Devereaux, "Where is the other one? Let's give him a chance to try that one."
Peter held out Harry's first wand.
Harry handed his second wand and it's box to Hermione so she could put it away. He picked up the good one, "Ah! Yes!" He breathed deeply, "Ohhh, that's nice." Harry smiled and hugged his good wand.
"If these wands start feeling different, or things just don't feel right come back and see me again."
Everyone nodded and started pulling Harry out of the store in a dazed state.
Peter was chuckling, "Ok, Harry. I think you need to put that away before you embarrass yourself." Everyone else started chuckling to match.
Harry made a show of reluctantly putting the wand back in it's box and handing it to Hermione, "Here, you keep this. I'll just follow you around like a puppy."
Hermione smiled, "You do already."
Harry grinned, "See? You're just magical."
Devereaux cleared his throat, "Well – how about we learn about the Magic Isle a bit, then we can take a tour of downtown Boston." He pointed toward the main city across the bay.
Everyone nodded and they started off on their magical adventure for the rest of the day.
Thursday, 16 June, 1994
Remus held out his wand to summon a BMT ride, "Well, that was certainly a productive meeting." They stood on the sidewalk outside the local school district offices.
Peter shook his head in wonder, "So easy. Is there anything we wanted but didn't get?"
Everyone shook their heads.
Hermione smiled, "I don't think so. I get to be a sophomore with Harry this next year because they let me register as an Exchange Student, with the option of continuing the year after that if I get good grades. They even let me pick my classes today!"
Peter nodded, "Yeah, giving you Exchange Student status gives them a lot of flexibility in the rules for this year. Then your refugee status lets you continue on next year. The only stipulation was good grades."
The BMT screeched to a stop in front of them.
Remus looked dour and opened the door, "Ok, now that the easy part is done, we need to start the very difficult part; the US Magical Education Department. I do not expect this will be in any way easy."
They all sighed and got in for the ride. It only took two minutes. They barely had time to sit down before the door opened. They stepped out onto the sidewalk in front of a huge granite building with large double-doors with large gold lettering above them; 'US Magical Education Department, Boston Office'.
Peter looked up at the intimidating building, "Remus, did you get any hint from Devereaux on who to talk to?"
Remus nodded, "Yes. He said they should be expecting us." He started up the steps leading the pack, "We are going to speak to Rachel MacArthur, the head of School Compliance Administration. We will need to convince them in order to do what we want to do. The real difficulty is that we don't have much in the way of leverage or even argument to get what we want. They have no reason to say yes, and a lot of reasons to say no."
Harry stumbled on the next step, as his stomach sank.
Remus held open the doors to usher everyone into a rather small lobby with a desk and doors leading in several directions.
The receptionist behind the desk looked up as they all approached, "May I help you?"
Remus started the process, "Yes, we are here to see Rachel MacArthur in the School Compliance Administration."
The receptionist pointed to the left side, "Through those doors are elevators, go to the third floor and a receptionist will give you further directions."
Everyone nodded and started the trek to the third floor lobby. These elevators were only slightly more modern than the 'lifts' in the Ministry of Magic. But the third floor lobby was much nicer, with windows that looked out onto the street below.
The next receptionist pointed them down a hallway to the last door and another secretary.
Remus lead the attack, "Good morning, we are here to see Rachel MacArthur. I think she is expecting us."
The secretary looked everyone over with a critical eye, then looked at a calendar, and nodded, "Ms MacAurthur is in a meeting but she will be with you in a few moments." She pointed to a few chairs. Remus replicated them to make a few more for everyone. There were a few bland pictures on the walls, the scratch of a pen on paper running under a copying charm, the flutter of papers as they flew to their rightful place in the filing cabinets behind the desk. The click of a door and the quiet footsteps of someone exiting an office and walking down the hall.
Remus quietly started coaching, "Let's try to handle one request at a time, ok? We'll talk about Harry first, then Hermione. Sound good?"
Everyone nodded silently.
The door behind the secretary opened and a woman stepped out to the desk, "Miranda, can you ask Felden to see me before the end of the day?"
The secretary picked up a phone and started dialling.
The woman came over to the group, "Good morning, I'm Rachel MacArthur. Are you here to see me?"
Remus stood up, "Yes, we are here to talk to you about Harry Forrester –" he pointed toward Harry, "– and his magical education."
Ms MacArthur smiled, "Ah, yes. I understand you've been hiding from us for a few years, now."
Harry looked a bit chastised, "Not intentionally."
She laughed, "Well, come in and we'll see what we need to do." Everyone got up and started shuffling into Rachel's office. Remus created chairs for everyone.
Rachel dove in, "I got a call from Mr Devereaux at the magical State Department a few days after he introduced you to magic. He explained only a few details of your story. Please forgive me as there is still a lot I don't know about your circumstances. Can you tell me more?"
Everyone looked to Harry. He cleared his throat, "Well, through the end of last school year I have been attending Mason High in Waltham. The day after my last exam Devereaux and Agent Lawton showed up and explained magic and said I was born Harry James Potter in England. He said the Queen sent a very polite letter asking for my return. I went for a visit and – didn't like it much. Devereaux had given me refuge status in the US, which meant I could come back. So I did."
Rachel concentrated, "You were a Freshman at Mason High?"
"Yes. I was advanced a year in elementary school."
"So we need to develop a plan to bring you up to speed so you can join your peers at Salem Academy."
Harry spoke quietly, "No."
She stopped suddenly and looked at him, "You want to be home schooled?"
"In a way. Do you have music classes at Salem Academy?"
Rachel started looking confused, "Not as a part of school but we can schedule around music lessons with reputable instructors." Given Harry's closed look she asked again, "What is it you want?"
"I want to continue at Mason High during the normal school year and take a magical curriculum during the summer."
Rachel laughed, "Whatever for?"
Harry frowned, "Because, evidently, Salem Academy doesn't have any music in school. No band classes, no choir, no jazz. I also don't want to miss out on calculus, science, physics, and all the rest of the subjects available to me at Mason High."
Rachel looked at him like he had slipped a gear, "What for?"
"Because I want to go to university and study engineering, math, or physics and, evidently, Salem Academy won't prepare me for that."
"Those subjects are only available at non-magical universities."
Harry nodded, "Yes. That's what I want."
It took Rachel a few moments to get her brain straight, "Ok – but you are now three years behind in your magical education. To cram four years of education into one full year will be almost impossible, let alone trying to catch up and finish on time while only taking summer classes is – quite improbable. Therefore, not something I would agree to. Particularly since you have no history of magical education to gauge your ability to catch up. From no magic to fourth level in one summer – that would be impossible."
Hermione spoke up quietly, "He is not without magic skills."
Rachel looked to Hermione with a bit of confusion, "– Harry, would you provide introductions and everyone's interest in your situation?"
Harry nodded, "So let me back up a bit. I went to England, specifically Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, at the request of the Queen. While there, Professor Dumbledore –"
Rachel sat up, "The Headmaster of Hogwarts?"
Harry nodded, "Professor Dumbledore began to tell me my history. I was born Harry James Potter –"
Hermione snuck in, "The heir to the Ancient and Noble House of Potter and the Ancient House of Black."
"– and at the age of one and a half, my parents were murdered by some wacko –"
Hermione snuck in again, "A Dark Lord by the name of Voldemort, real name of Tom Riddle."
"– who tried to kill me too, but he – failed. My Godfather brought me to Boston where we were attacked again. I was left quite injured in Massachusetts General Emergency Room. He disappeared and was later killed by eight bounty hunters somewhere in Virginia. I was soon adopted by Peter and Alicia Forrester. –" Harry pointed at them, "– Dumbledore said that I am the subject of about five prophesies concerning this Voldy-guy and that I am now the prime target for murder by the Voldy-guy again. And, while at Hogwarts I made friends with Hermione Granger, and her parents –" Harry pointed at Hermione and her parents, "– and that makes them very large targets, too. This Voldy-guy showed up at Hermione's home and attacked us after Hogwarts got out – five days ago?" Hermione nodded and Harry continued, "As a result, Devereaux has given her and her parents refugee status in the US because this Voldy-guy will continue to try to kill her and her parents, too."
Hermione spoke up, "We have accepted refuge status because this – Voldy-guy –" she smiled at Harry, "– is violently – murderously – bigoted over magical blood purity. I am muggle-born and Harry is half-blood. Not to mention the fact that Harry – or rather his parents – did something to defeat this Voldy-guy in 1981."
Rachel was now looking quite shocked.
Harry tried to keep things clear, "That is why Hermione is here. But I want to continue my non-magical education as well as learn magic. But my non-magical education is so intense and so busy that I don't think I can mix the two. But I think I can keep up with my magical education because I am a straight-A student at my non-magical school and Hermione is top of her class at Hogwarts."
Rachel blinked a few times and turned to Hermione, "Top of your class?"
Hermione bobbed her head back an forth, "I get the top scores in the school." She pulled out her test scores that she got from Dumbledore last night and handed them to Rachel.
Rachel's eyebrows rose way up, "Wait, these fourth year scores are not that great."
Harry smiled, "That's because she is only a third year and took the fourth year tests just for the fun of it last week."
Rachel now looked amazed, "Third year?"
Hermione nodded, "I would like to mention again that Harry is not without magical ability. His magical ability is quite advanced but it is non-traditional. Mr Higgins of the wand shop in Boston called him a 'wandless prodigy' when Harry got a wand two days ago. He can demonstrate that if you want."
Rachel shook her head in confusion, "Wait – we don't have the facilities or staff to teach you a complete years curriculum during the summer."
Remus smirked, "That's where I come in. I have a British Mastery in Defence Against the Dark Arts and I was a Professor at Hogwarts. I am committed to teaching Harry and Hermione during the summers. I am also cleared by Agent Lawton and the Magical FBI to provide personal security for Harry and Hermione, due to the significant threats against them, during the rest of the year. I will be able to help them control their magic and maintain the Statute of Secrecy during the year."
Rachel just sat and stared angrily at each of them. "This is not at all a normal part of our procedures. We –"
"Do not normally handle internationally famous children of prophesy." Remus interjected smoothly.
Rachel softened slightly, "No."
Hermione had a sly grin, "You know, I hate to let Dumbledore win on this one."
Rachel looked confused, "Win? What's this?
"Dumbledore rather smugly bet us we would be back to enrol in Hogwarts next year. I'd hate to have to put up with Dumbledore being so smug all next year."
She stared at them again, and then grinned, "Show me your skills, Harry."
Harry looked a bit sheepish, "Do you have a piano handy?"
Rachel looked quite confused.
Hermione added, "His magic is tied to music."
Rachel sighed and thought for a moment, "I think there's one in the – large meeting room in the basement."
They all got up and trooped all the way down into the basement, with it pipes hanging overhead, dusty floors, and old labels and signs on the doors. They found the piano out in the concrete hall.
Rachel turned to Harry, "Will this do?"
"Sure." He sat down on the bench for a moment to think. The group crowded around in the dim light, the concrete walls, the echos of the hall. Harry could not decide what to play.
Hermione nudged him, "Play your favourite song."
He smiled at her and chuckled. He started into his introduction to 'When I fall In Love' and his magic rose immediately, enhanced by his good wand. The sound echoed in the hallway and filled the small space. His magic rose to fill the building. Since it had been several days since he had last played he was full to bursting with unexpressed magic. He burst into song with an overwhelming roar of magic. Hermione's entrance matched his power as they swirled and danced together. They shared, they pushed, and pulled, to bring the music and magic to new heights of expression. As they brought the song down to a soft close and Harry's soft improvisation as a finale, the softness of it was like a warm hug. Silence only lasted a profound moment.
Applause broke out and filled the hallway. It was full of people. Security guards, maintenance people, janitors, secretaries, and workers. They had felt the magic and heard the music through the ventilation system and tracked it down to listen. It took Harry and Hermione 15 minutes to get back up to Rachel MacArthur's office because they had to shake everyone's hand and receive their thanks and appreciation.
When Rachel reached her chair behind her desk she looked at Harry and Hermione with a smirk, "Well, now how do I get back to some semblance of functionality? I might as well go home after that. Not going to get anything else done, that's for sure."
The group laughed.
Remus brought them back to the important topics, "What do you think about the possibility to me teaching Harry and Hermione the normal year curriculum during the summers?"
Rachel's expression turned serious as she stared at them, "Look, I need to be able to defend my decision. That means I need to see regular progress reports and test results. Both during the summers and during the year. I can't afford to be surprised by anything. Understand?"
Remus smiled and nodded, "Yes, no problem. And, feel free to drop by any time and check in on what we are doing. Consider it an experiment in novel learning styles."
Rachel smiled, "That's a deal. We may be able to, eventually, back off on some of the status reports if you can show me good results. But, for now, bombard me with status reports. Right?"
Remus was still smiling, "Will do."
Rachel's eyebrows scrunched up, "Now I just need to figure out how to fill out all the forms so they make sense." She turned to Remus, "So what is your initial plan?"
"For this summer I will be teaching Harry magic as fast as we can go, and Harry will be helping Hermione with non-magical studies to help her catch up to non-magical school, since she has missed the last three years of it. She has been accepted in Mason High as a sophomore as an exchange student. They will let her continue as a Junior next year if her grades are good."
Rachel smiled, "Excellent. I think we have a deal. I wish you all the best of luck."
Everyone stood up with thanks, handshakes, and promises to do well and they made their way home.
After lunch, Hermione talked to Harry and Remus, "You know, I'm not convinced that having a bad wand is the best approach to – keeping Harry's magic from violating the Statute of Secrecy."
Remus tilted his head, "It seems to be effective. What problems do you see with it?"
Hermione concentrated, "I'm concerned that it will do much more than – curtail his magic, I'm afraid it will stunt his magic. He won't be able to develop it."
Remus' eyes grew, "Oh. That could be. What do you suggest?"
"We need a way to keep his magic from affecting others, not to stop it. So if we had some sort of wards to stop his magic from escaping his immediate personal space, that would let him fully express his magic without it affecting anyone else."
Remus nodded slowly, "Ok. How about a set of duelling wards set into his watch or a ring that will contains his magic?"
Hermione smiled, "Excellent. Then he can keep his good wand on him at all times. He will be able to get used to it, to let it help stabilise his magic and grow his magic. He'll just need to remember to take it off when he is doing magic and put it back on when he isn't. Then, at some point, maybe we can figure out a way to train him to consciously decide to let his magic out or hold onto it without wards."
Remus smiled deviously, "Ok, show me your ward design. Start with the arithmantic expressions and move to the spell sequences. Be sure to include second-order spell interactions."
Her eyes lit up and she smiled as she dove into the problem.
Remus turned to Harry, "Ok, lets start with the foundations of magic – specifically, intent and will."
Friday, 17 June, 1994
Phone ringing ...
Noises ...
"Harry."
"Mmmf."
A hand shaking him, "Harry." His dad's voice was quiet, intense.
"What?" The light in the room came on and blinded him. He squinted painfully and sat up, "What's up?"
His dad put a hand on his shoulder and whispered curtly, "The Ministry has fallen. We need to go. Now."
"What!?" Harry threw the covers off and stood up. The window was dark, "Time is it?" He ran a hand through his tangled hair, rubbed his face, and tried to breathe.
"Five. Get dressed. Lawton is here and we need to go. Riddle is moving to attack Hogwarts." He left.
"Ok – ok ..." Harry started stumbling around looking for clothes as he heard more hurried, whispered, noises from the rest of the house. He got his clothes on, but no guarantee he looked coordinated or presentable. He left his room to find the rest of the house in quiet intense motion. He stood in the kitchen trying to wake up the rest of the way.
Alicia handed him an apple, "Eat this, Harry." She was dressed.
Harry took a bite and hoped it would settle his stomach.
"Harry." Hermione came up and hugged him. She was dressed and ready to go.
"Hermione." He held on for all he was worth. His face buried in her hair.
Lawton poked his head in the kitchen, "How goes it?"
Dan came up to the doorway, "Emma is almost ready." He was dressed.
Remus came out of the guest room dressed.
Alicia set a basket of fruit on the table and everyone moved out of the kitchen following that basket.
Emma came out of the guest room dressed, "Ready!"
Lawton conjured a rope and spoke intently, "Everyone hold on to this. We are going to the Magical FBI Headquarters in DC. We will land in a reception area where everyone's wand will be checked –"
Harry startled, "Oh! I forgot mine." He ran into his room to find his good one and came back.
Remus asked, "Did you bring your good one?"
Harry nodded.
Lawton continued, "Let's just go. No need to waste time explaining." He held the rope out and everyone arranged a good grip on it, while Hermione wrapped it and herself around Harry. "Ready?"
Everyone nodded.
"Activate!"
Blackness, dizzyness, a gust of air, and a bump as they landed on their feet.
"Everyone all right?" Lawton was looking at each of them. "Nothing missing?"
They were standing in a square room, painted institutional beige on plaster, with a flecked grey linoleum floor.
Harry turned to Hermione and quietly asked, "What was that gust of air when we landed?"
She smiled, "Barometric pressure difference between locations. It gets really bad when you significantly change altitudes."
Harry shook his head in wonder.
Another FBI person approached wearing a uniform, "Present your wands, please."
Hermione, Harry, Lawton, and Remus held theirs out as the new agent ran his over each wand while holding a long stiff card under each wand. This left a unique print on each card, somewhat like an indistinct bar-code. "Now drop your wands in this box." He held out what looked like a shoebox. "Come this way, please."
Everyone moved down a wide hall until they hit a stairway as wide as the hall, leading down. They descended several floors worth of stairs, with a small landing on each floor. At the bottom of the stairs the hallway changed to a dark dense stone joined with no visible mortar. The hall came to a set of double doors with a perpendicular hallway that curved forward with large long windows looking into a very large dark space. The new agent mumbled something and torches lit in the dark space revealing a circular room at least 20 metres across with a high domed ceiling made from dark stone.
The new agent stopped in front of the doors, "Harry Forrester?"
Harry stepped forward.
"I'm Agent Jandeski. This is our ritual chamber for today's proceedings. First, Harry, I need you to go in that room –" He pointed at a doorway to the left and behind, a few feet down the perpendicular hallway, "and change clothes into one of the robes that hang on the hooks. These robes are magically inert and non-reactive. Pick any one you want and come back wearing only that. No jewellery, no wand, no hair ties, nothing but the robe, ok?"
Harry took a big slow breath.
Jandeski smiled wickedly, "You do get to keep the robe on for the ritual."
Harry let out the breath in a rush, and a smile. He moved toward the door. He was back in less than a minute wearing a robe that looked like it was made out of thick course burlap. He kept squirming like it itched.
Lawton pulled out a mirror, "Director Greyson."
A splash of noise came out of the mirror, "Greyson here."
"Director Greyson, this is Agent Lawton. We are almost ready."
There was significant background talking and noise coming from the mirror, "Lawton, excellent. The Ministry building fell just after eight this morning our time, Minister Fudge refused to leave and is dead, Madam Bones is now acting Minister, what's left of the Ministry is now hold up in Hogwarts. Riddle has moved his forces and is now readying his attack on Hogwarts. I have another mirror linked to Professor Dumbledore and Madam Bones inside Hogwarts. How long until you can start the ritual?"
"Give us about two minutes to explain the ritual to Harry and we will be ready."
"Understood."
Snippets of conversation and voices came through the mirror in Lawton's hand. The background noise from the mirror jumped way up, "Attack on the wards! Riddle is moving. The attack has begun."
Another voice came through the mirror, that sounded like Dame Stella, "Lawton, you need to start the ritual now. Riddle is now attacking."
Jandeski came up to Harry as everyone gathered around them, "Harry, this is the text of the ritual you need to perform." He handed him a small paper, "You can take this with you so you don't forget, but please read it before you get in there because we can not interrupt the ritual after it has started. The ritual starts when you enter the chamber. You need to walk to the centre of the room, into the centre of the circle, kneel down, recite the first three lines loudly and clearly, count to ten, then stand up and recite the last line with all the volume you've got. Do not leave the centre of the circle until we give you the 'ok', got it?"
Harry looked a bit overwhelmed, "Walk to the centre, kneel, recite all but the last line, count to ten, stand up and recite the last line, then wait for you." He was trying to memorise the paper.
"That's it. Just one thing –"
Harry looked at him with worry.
"Do not leave the centre of the circle for any reason until I say so, understand? This is important. Got it?"
Harry's eyebrows rose and he nodded again, slower.
The background noise and voices from the mirror started to get louder. A voice came through that sounded like Professor Dumbledore, "We see the Giants are beginning to move."
Alicia turned Harry around to face her and poked Harry in the chest "Harry, we are here for you! This ritual is important and means a lot to a lot of people, but we are here for you! We know you can do this and that you will be successful. But we are here because we love you! We will not leave until this is done! For you to be free to have a future free of this crazy guy. Both of you." She glanced at Hermione. "All of you." Her glance included the Grangers and Remus. Harry and Hermione started crying as the group collapsed into a hug.
Everyone heard a voice come out of the mirror, "The wards have fallen! – Acromantulas are coming up the field." Explosions could be heard.
Jandeski nodded to Harry and lead him to the double-doors, "Ready?"
Harry nodded grimly.
Jandeski pulled open the doors and Harry started walking in. Jandeski closed the doors and stood in front of them, "No one is allowed inside until I say it's safe, understand? No one! You can watch at the windows."
Everyone ran to a window.
Harry stepped into the centre of the circle. He could feel the weight of magic settling on him, prickling his skin. He looked at the paper as the weight of magic started to push him down to his knees.
Hermione heard the distorted voice of Dumbledore yelling something over the sound of explosions.
Harry began reciting:
"I was born Harry James Potter. I am a child of Prophesy. I have been given these gifts of Prophesy."
The weight of magic almost pushed Harry into the floor. His lips tingled like he had been hyperventilating. He had trouble forming the words.
"This Prophesy was violated by murdering James and Lily Potter and attempting to kill me. Tom Riddle attempted to subvert and steal the gift that is the Prophesy given to me and James and Lily Potter."
His breath became short as Magic seemed to thicken the air around him. He pushed harder at the third line.
"I claim the debt owed to James and Lily Potter as their descendant. And I claim the debt owed to me."
Hermione heard more yelling come from the mirror, with words like "Giant", "Troll", and "Acromantula" kept spilling out amongst the screams, explosions and booms.
Harry was counting ... 8, 9, 10! He started to stand but he was fighting the weight of all that Magic! He could barely get his feet under him. The Magic was causing arcing electricity between his fingers. He gripped the paper and read the last line – and the arcing flamed the paper! He pushed to standing, the Magic started to squeeze him, he held his hand up reaching toward the ceiling and yelled the last line:
"I ask for Judgment on Tom Riddle! I ask for Justice to be enacted on Tom Riddle! I ask for these debts to be redeemed!"
Lightning struck from all over the domed ceiling to Harry's hand. The bursts of light were blinding and the thunder was deafening even through the stone walls and thick quartz windows. Everyone covered their ears and had to turn away from the blinding light. It continued to strike in a continuous lightning storm.
Harry stood in peace, a moment of silence, while time seemed to have stopped, then a vision took over his sight. He saw the field in front of the doors of Hogwarts, the battle raged, giant spiders were crumpled on the ground, Giants were throwing huge rocks at the castle walls, spells flashed by, explosions threw dirt and rocks into the air. A man in combat fatigues fired an over-the-shoulder anti-tank missile from the front steps and a Giant exploded. A man stood next to him firing a machine gun at the Acromantula's and Trolls coming up the field. Snipers on the walls shot at the larger threats. A giant rock came flying toward the front steps and everyone scattered. The rock crashed into the left door-post and broke the front doors. The rock bounced back and created good cover in front of the steps. The roar of an Apache helicopter gunship came flying over the castle, it's gatling gun blazing and a missile streaking. A Giant died in far-flung pieces.
Harry's eyes were drawn to a group of people who started walking up the path toward the doors, a translucent domed shield covered them as they walked. In the centre was the man with the wavy brown hair, from the party. Except his hair was gone, his nose was gone in some distorted reptilian way. Harry knew this was Tom Riddle. Riddle was intent, focussed on the castle ahead, marching up the field with his lieutenants around him, full of power and arrogance. Then Riddle slowed, stumbled slightly, clutched his chest, and screamed horribly. The dome disappeared. He fell to his hands and knees, wracked with uncontrollable spasms, retching. He tried to crawl, vomiting, writhing, clutching his chest. A woman next to him came to help him, tried to lift him up. Lightning bolts started landing on them continuously. His body jerked and started smoking. He lost a leg in a lightning flash. The woman next to him was hit by the bolts and lost an arm. She fell, her clothes and body burnt and smoking. Riddle lay on the ground twitching, his flesh blackened and smoking as lightning continued to strike. Next to him a huge snake crawled up and was caught in the lightning storm, burning, smoking, and writhing. The other people with Riddle scattered like cockroaches.
The lightning storm in the chamber finally stopped and Hermione came running up to Jendeski, screaming. He caught her and held her struggling as he leaned against the doors holding them shut. "Stop! Stop! If you go in there now you will die! Stop!" She started to collapse against him, crying. "We have to wait for the ambient magic to dissipate before we can open the door. It's not safe yet."
Hermione crumpled as everyone else came to the door with tears rolling down their cheeks, some with hands over their mouths, shaking from the thunder and raw magic that was leaking out of the chamber like heat from a hot oven.
Lawton stood near the back of the group looking at a dial above the doors, as it slowly wound it's way back down toward a zero reading.
Jandeski spoke calmly, holding Hermione as she crumpled to the ground whimpering, "If he didn't step or fall out of the circle he should be fine. We just need to wait to open the door."
Lawton pointed at the dial, "It's below the safe level, now."
Jandeski looked up, then spoke to everyone, "Let me take a peek and see." He helped Hermione stand and handed her to Alicia, who hugged her. He peeked through the door, then closed it, "He looks ok – but his robe is gone. Can someone go get me another robe?"
Hermione ran for another robe, still crying. She was back in 15 seconds.
"Let me go check on him and I'll bring him out." Jandeski opened the doors wide and started toward the centre. Harry, laying in a pink crumpled lump, could be seen but he wasn't moving. Jandeski kneeled down and checked Harry over. He covered him in the new robe, then gently slapped his face to wake him up. Harry startled and started to get up but Jandeski held him down. "Wait, you needed a new set of robes."
Then Harry got up in a controlled manner keeping the robe about him as he stood.
Jandeski helped Harry move wobbling toward the doors and the waiting group.
As Harry approached he saw everyone's panicked expressions, "You know, I think magic is kind'a scary."
Hermione screamed and attacked him with a hug.
Harry looked between Hermione and everyone else, "Riddle is dead. We are all now free." Harry started to quietly cry as the weight began to lift. Everyone else came up to join in the hug.
The mirror in Lawton's hand made noise, then Greyson's voice could be heard, "Lawton, this is Greyson, can you hear me?"
"Yes, go ahead."
"We have received confirmation from Dumbledore that Riddle is dead. The attack is over. Hogwarts did not fall. All Riddle's forces are running and hiding. Dame Stella and I will be meeting Dumbledore and Bones at the Ministry building within the hour to begin hunting the Death Eaters and planning reconstruction."
Lawton let out a huge breath, "Excellent!"
Greyson's voice came out again, "Yes. Please thank everyone over there for saving wizarding Britain. I will call again when I know more."
The noise from the mirror stopped and Lawton stuffed it in his pocket, "Well. Anyone up for lunch?" He ducked as Hermione's shoe came flying passed him.
Monday, 22 August, 1994
Harry and Hermione were sitting at the table eating breakfast when Dan came into the dinning room, "Good morning. How did your audition go yesterday?"
Hermione lit up, "Wonderful."
Harry chuckled, "Mr Monetti got all excited."
Dan started to smile, "Excited? Why was that?" He sat down next to Emma at the table.
Harry couldn't resist telling the story, "He started out just giving a basic audition for wind ensemble. Then we got talking about all the other groups she might join and then Hermione and I played and sang a bunch of tunes." Harry's smile got even bigger, "Yeah – he got rather excited. He started talking about all the things we could do with combining groups, like a jazz choir, maybe adding some vocals to small jazz groups – he even stared talking to Hermione about possibly learning a wind instrument."
Hermione smiled, "Or a few. Or an upright bass?"
Harry chuckled, "I might even add in some drums."
Hermione looked at Emma with a grin, "Needless to say, I got into wind ensemble playing percussion and specialising in piano, Mr Monetti wants me to join the choir, and the jazz band in January. – I'm so excited. It sounds like so much fun."
Harry laughed, "Yup. But first, today you have calculus with Mrs. Conner. She is the best."
Hermione huffed, "Well, come on. I can hardy wait! Let's go."
Harry and Hermione finished their breakfasts in a whirl, took their dishes to the sink, and ran to pick up their backpacks for school.
Hermione gave her parents a fly-by kiss, "By Mum, Dad, everyone. I'll see you tonight."
Harry was likewise involved with Peter and Alicia.
Peter was trying to get his own lunch together, "Have fun at your fist day of school, kids!"
Harry grinned, "Oh, yeah! See ya Remus!"
Harry and Hermione ran to the front door and were gone.
The house was suddenly silent. Until Remus started laughing.
It took a bit before Peter broke in, "Come on, Remus. Share with the class."
Remus could hardly sit still, "I can not believe what those kids are involved in. They look like they are having the time of their lives! I would never have believed Hermione would become so open, so positive, – and it happened so fast. She is now surrounded by a group of girls who are running a lot of the activities. This last week, during marching band camp, has changed my perspective completely."
Peter was smiling, "Yes, I think band camp is the best introduction into high school you could ever find. The new kids learn 150 new friends and get introduced to the facilities before school starts."
Emma looked completely amazed, "Yes. I am so happy for her." She started tearing up, "She has changed so much. This decision – even just this week – has been the right choice for her."
Dan was nodding with a big smile, "Yes. I'll second that. Being involved with the other parents during band camp was such a joy to watch. They instil so much responsibility and dedication into the students." He turned pointedly to the others, "Particularly the attitude that the older students act as mentors to the new students. That is so inspiring to watch."
Peter chuckled, "I think marching band is an activity that is perfectly attuned to high school aged kids. It's still possible in college but I don't think it's as strong."
Alicia asked, "Will you be able to come back and watch some of their performances?"
Emma nodded, "Oh, yes. We will be back for at minimum their last performance, but maybe we can come for another one too."
Dan turned to Remus, "Did you find out what's happening in England? How is all that going?"
Remus didn't exactly frown, but it was close, "Well, do you remember the ritual Harry performed?"
Everyone nodded.
"That ritual killed Riddle in front of all his people, quite horribly. That scattered his people quite effectively. Then Dame Stella made her move on the magical government, with the help of Dumbledore and Madam Bones, who automatically became Minister of Magic after Fudge was killed. Since all the Death Eaters were running for cover, there was no quorum for the Wizengamot. It was suspended, initially with an excuse that they needed to sort out all the inheritances due to all the deaths and arrests. But the reality was that this gave Madam Bones freedom to act as effectively Martial Law. Madam Bones and MI5 have hunted down all the remaining Death Eaters. And, remember, that was all according to Dame Stella's original plan, yes?"
Mumbles and nods from everyone.
Remus smiled, "Well, recently, the ICW caught wind of the fact that Dame Stella was involved in the reorganisation of the Ministry of Magic in Britain."
Everyone groaned and shook their heads.
Remus' smile got bigger, "Yes, that's a right mess. Luckily, since Dumbledore is still both the Chief Warlock of the Ministry of Magic and the Supreme Mugwump of the ICW, he was able to distract, deflect, and generally defend what was happening in the Ministry of Magic from the ICW. And so far, he's gotten away with it."
Sighs and moans from everyone.
Emma looked concerned, "And the Wizengamot is still not reconstituted?"
Remus chuckled, "No. The Death Eater houses have been dismembered and lost their status as recognised houses, and thus their seats. Those seats will likely not be replaced by anyone else so the Wizengamot will just shrink. And if it does, Dame Stella is preparing a motion for the Wizengamot to add, in effect, a House of Commons based on population and Districts, with elections, the works. It basically mirrors the non-magical government structure and includes a clause to keep it mirrored."
Everyone started lightly cheering.
Peter looked unconvinced, "Wait, how will Dumbledore get the smaller Wizengamot to go along with creating a magical House of Commons? Once they have shrunk, why dilute their power even more?"
Remus chuckled, "Because reconstituting the Wizengamot will be dependent upon them approving the motion. Basically, Dumbledore and Bones will be strong-arming the remaining light-side families into approving the motion or the Wizengamot will cease to exist."
Laughter broke out.
"Luckily, the wizarding population, with the straightening out of the Daily Prophet and some healthy competition from the Quibbler, they know they had lost, that the government had collapsed. And they know everything is still a mess. But since everything has always been secretive within the Ministry, they aren't paying much attention. So, it looks like everything will be changed over and not many will have noticed until they start talking about elections to the new House of Commons. The key is to restore government services relatively quickly. Then no one will care."
Dan started to smile, "How close are they to being done with all this?"
Remus nodded slowly, "They still need to find a way to break the curse on the House Elves. But because the curse was put in place for good reasons –"
Emma jumped, "What? What good reasons? When has slavery ever been a good reason?"
Remus held up his hand, "Dumbledore helped figure out that the original curse was put together sometime before 900 or so. And it was put together because House Elves, then known as Wood Pixies, were running rampant and were quite nasty and dangerous. The curse stopped all that, but it was not balanced because it left the House Elves as slaves. So they plan to break the curse and re-issue it as a more balanced contract for services arrangement, including magical and monetary remuneration with standard contract termination clauses available to either side at any time."
Emma was still a bit suspicious, "Have they consulted with the House Elves on this?"
Remus nodded, "Actually, they have. For quite some time. Long before Riddle died. In fact, House Elves will have the ability to report their employers to the Aurors when violations occur."
Emma sighed, "Finally some justice in the world."
Remus smiled, "Just a bit. With a lot more to come."
Alicia looked curious, "More to come?"
"Werewolf rights and government support, a Native People's Treaties with Centaurs, Merpeople, Goblins, House Elves, even Vampires – though that is still a work in progress. Along with education reform, new ethics standards, press freedoms – it just goes on and on."
Peter now looked curious, "So what do you think will be the end result for the wizarding world in England?"
Remus sighed and looked into the distance, "I think – it's like pruning a bush made out of magic. It will grow back strong and renewed in a new shape. A much better shape for all concerned. Though, I think it's going to take quite a while before it's done."
Dan nodded, "Sounds wonderful. I guess that means it's safe for us to go back home. Maybe the end of this week?"
