AN: Sorry this took so long, work and life got in the way and then the holiday weekend pushed this back even further. But even though I have all of those excuses I have to admit a big part of why I let those other things get in the way is because I've gotten bored with this story. It started off good, but I feel like every time I put up a new chapter I'm getting farther away from what made this story good in the first place. With that being said I think I managed to refocus the plot a bit more. This chapter ands a bit abruptly but it was running to long and I had to cut it for pacing. But on the up side the next chapter is ⅓ of the way written. Also to spice up my imagination I've outlined a third one shot for the Unspeakable series, and I'm working on the next chapter of Agent Potter. I've also reread Investigator Steel and I'm looking at possible ways to wrap that up.
The month of September was spent finding a pace and routine. It ended up teaching Harry more than he ever wanted to know about himself. By october his life would change drastically. But for the first two weeks of September they had light classes so the new replacement teachers could find their footing as teachers. The Corners were struggling the most but they had the smallest shoes to fill. On their first day they tried asking basic questions about potions making questions of their classes to assess where the students were. Their results were shocking. On average the students were at least two years behind in Brewing knowledge and even farther behind in ingredient reaction knowledge. They spent the whole month teaching the basics of potions making and ingredient reaction tables.
Sirius on the other hand fell into his role as an educator better than he even thought he would. He took most of the curriculum and tossed it right out the window. It used to be that the first three years were focused on dark creature study. And the next two were focused on spells and dualing. NEWT study was dedicated advanced spell casting and silent casting. He tossed that all aside. Instead he packed dark creature study into one and a half years. The next two and a half years were for learning curses and jinxes. Fifth year was now for advanced spells and dark magic. He cut dueling from the curriculum all together. If you stood in one place and tossed spells at someone it was the quickest way to get taken out in a fight. NEWT study was now all about battle tactics and war casting. To drive this point home he set up a demonstration using Harry. That was a fun class for Harry, not so much for the fifth, sixth, or seventh years. They found the experience terrifying. The whole thing took place in the room of requirement. The room was set up like the first two floors of a manor house. Sirius gathered the fifth, sixth, and seventh years in the seventh floor hallway on Friday of the second week.
"Okay, quiet down you lot. As you all know I've scrapped the dueling lessons from the curriculum. Many of you have complained about that. You all think that dueling is the most important thing in the world. Well, you all, for the most part know how to duel. You all have a good list of spells you know. Some of you know more then others but you know enough to be dangerous. Now with your skills in dueling do you all think you can take on someone younger than you?" Sirius asked.
"Yes sir I think I can can." Bletchley said standing tall.
"So if I was to send five of you into this room that is set up like a house you'd be able to take down a younger kid and bring him out here boud and or stunned?" Sirius asked.
"I know I can take on anyone here." He said puffing out his chest as he got dirty looks from the 119 other students in the hallway.
"Okay. Let me call my test subject and we'll see what you guys are made of. Harry! Come on out!" Sirius called and Harry rolled around the corner. Looking bored. He had Ignis on his shoulder and he was reading a book that looked like it weighed more than he did.
"Harry?" Percy asked looking pale.
"Oh, hey Percy, Penny, Ollie. How are you guys doing today?" Harry asked placing a bookmark in the book and dropping it on the floor by his feet.
"We were doing fine until we saw you." Percy said.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Harry asked acting hurt.
"Nothing Harry, um, Sir. Can I opt out of this whole thing. I fully accept your new idea of battle magic and I would really like to not go into a room with Harry Potter." Percy said looking really afraid.
"You're serious?" Bletchley asked. "He's a first year. How tough can he be?" He added.
"He took out Snape and the bloody dark lord you fool!" Oliver Wood said. He too looked like he really didn't want to be on the wrong side of Harry.
"Okay, I'll make you a deal. I'll send anyone that doesn't want to face Harry in first as one big group. I'll limit Harry to the stunning spell and only the stunning spell. What do you say?" Sirius asked.
"I'd like to skip this altogether." Percy said.
"Sorry Mr. Weasley. This is your best bet." Sirius said. "Now who wants to go in this group?" Sirius asked. Most of the Gryffindors and half the Hufflepuffs raised their hands there were 43 in all. "Okay Harry only stunners. Nothing else." Sirius said.
"Not even my dart gun with the knock out darts?" Harry asked making the older kids eyes bulge.
"No Harry, and try not to hurt anyone. And no killing!" Sirius said with a laugh.
"Right, hold Ignis." Harry said handing his dragon off to his uncle. Before heading through the door.
"Okay, you guys, you will go through the door, you will get thirty seconds to move through the house before Harry starts picking you off. Harry will come out when the last of you are down. That is when your timer will stop." Sirius said opening the door. "Harry they're coming in!" He called out into the entry hall of the house. Before pulling out a stopwatch and sending them into the house. He shut the door behind Percy who was the last one to go in, and checked his watch before starting the stopwatch. A second letter a Hufflepuff landed in the hall from out of thin air. She was quickly followed by three more. Inside the room Percy, Penny, and Oliver were looking around a fully lit game room with a pool table, dart board, and bar. As they crossed into the room they heard a scream of fright before it was cut off.
"We are so bloody cooked." Oliver said looking around the room with his wand up. The room was lit by gas lamps and candles. The whole house was and it gave every room an ominous glow. They heard commotion in the hall and they watched the door until the sounds of panic were cut short. The group relaxed a bit and they hear shouting and glass breaking a room down the hall before it too was cut short. Penny walked over to the window and looked out, it looked like an estate with grass and trees outside. There was a crash upstairs and a smashing of wood along with an explosion that shook the ceiling.
"How am I this afraid of Harry when I know this is just a game?" Penny asked but she got no response from the other two in the room. She turned around and found herself looking right into Harry's glowing green eyes before the world went black. Outside in the hall her body landed next to Percy. And Sirius hit the stopwatch as Harry walked out the door looking the same as when he walked in.
"Three minutes, it was slow kid." Sirius said as the other kids looked at the row of knocked out students in shock.
"You handicapped me with the no killing rule." Harry said.
"True. Still 43 people in 3:12 is not too bad." Sirius said.
"Don't placate me old bean, it was not my best work." Harry said.
"Now gear up for the next group, I'm going to send them in ten at a time. The only restriction I'll set is no permanent damage." Sirius said as he started waking the 43 students up. Harry for his part pulled out his black case and set it on a conjured table he expanded the case and opened it. He took off his robes and made a show of putting on his dragon hide vest over his shirt. He pulled a pair of Ruger mark II pistols out and put them into the holsters on his vest.
"You have muggle firearms?!" a seventh year Ravenclaw asked in shock.
"They fire darts full of sleeping drought. They are totally non-lethal. Just like this knife. It just marks you with red paint to show where the wounds would be. The same for this sword. Sirius, do I get to use the Staff?" Harry asked pulling his merlin staff out and expanding it.
"No you do not." Sirius said helping kids to their feet.
"How about the taser?" Harry asked sparking the taser so they could all see it.
"Nope you could kill someone with it." Sirius said.
"Fine you're still handicapping me." Harry said shrinking the case and putting on his robe.
"Complane and I'll send in bigger groups of combatants." Sirius said as Harry walked through the door.
"Victims." Harry corrected him.
"NO Permanent Damage!" Sirius called through the door before looking at the group of students. "Okay who feels brave?" He asked with a smirk. "No volunteers? Okay you ten. You get to go first. In you go." He said opening the door. For the group of mostly Ravenclaw seventh years. They walked into the front hall and the door closed behind them.
"Okay fan out and stick together. Shoot a stunner at anything that moves." the leader of the group said they walked down the hall as a group. Too bad for them Harry was using his invisible robes and he was waiting in the corner behind the front door. The group made it ten feet before they fell to a hailstorm of sleeping darts. They never even knew what hit them. Ten seconds after they entered the room they landed in the hall knocked out.
"Next!" Sirius called out pointing out a group of mixed Ravens and Badgers. This group rushed into the room and split up which baught them a whole twenty seconds as Harry had to stalk and shoot all of them.
The next group to come through the door where the seventh year Snakes lead by Bletchley and Flint. Harry had fun with this group. He stalked each of them under his invisible robes. He would sneak up on one, grab them with his left hand over their mouth, and run the fake knife across their throat before stunning them with his left hand. It had the effect of letting them know they could have died without having to kill them. Still none of these kids would ever look at Harry with anything but respect and fear. All together it took him ten minutes to take out the rest of the 76 other students. When the last student hit the hallway floor with a red slash mark across their chest Harry walked out of the room putting his practice cavalry saber away. He looked the same as he did when he went in. In fact he didn't even look like he broke a sweat.
"This was entertaining as a time waster but if you'll excuse me I have research to get back to." Harry said taking of his combat gear. He shrank the weapons case but left the table. He put his robe back on, picked up his big book, and with that he looked like he did when he came around the corner a half hour ago.
"Yeah Harry, thanks for handling this for me. I could have done it but I think you drove my point home better." Sirius said trying very hard not to laugh as Harry walked away.
"Now you lot, do you all see the benefit of battle tactics? If you would have worked as a team using cover and fire tactics along with curse breaking spells to detect magic you would have been able to take him out." Sirius said.
"Sir, with all due respect, I don't think a team of hit wizards could have taken him out." Oliver said breaking the tension in the hallway.
"You're probably right. You are also lucky it was just him. If it was him and his two best friends?" Sirius said leaving the idea in the air.
"I think we all agree we need to learn these battle tactics you keep talking about but can Harry teach us?" Penny asked making everyone laugh. But through the laughter there was some nodding heads.
"We'll see. I think before any extra sessions with a pro you all need to learn the basics." Sirius said laughing with the group.
The next day the group walked out to the quidditch pitch with their Nimbus 2000s. The Gryffindor team was already out there running drills. When they arrived the team dropped down and formed a line. They were all in their team robes and they looked ready to kill. The group for their part looked calm with just a hint of boredom to their face. It was a look they had most of the time. It un-nerved the other students. What they didn't know was the group did so much on their turned days that school was rather boring. Take for example the last four days. They worked on lightsaber combat, advanced spells and enchantments, potions testing, and to top it all off they did an hour of flying drills at the end of each day. So the mundane school day tended to be a bit boring.
"As you can see the House team is missing a seeker. From what we've been told we plan on filling that slot with Harry if he can pass the tryout for the position. However, Harry brought up the idea of a back up team or a Jr team to take over for a player when they get hurt or when the player graduates. We know you guys don't play with beaters or a seeker so…" Oliver was interrupted by Harry.
"We can play a full team, we'll even give you one of our back up players to act as your seeker or I can show you how pointless the position is first and we can play without one for this tryout." Harry said.
"Pointless?" Oliver asked.
"Here let me try out for the seeker position now and I'll show you." Harry said pulling a case out of his bag of holding out to show everyone. He opened it up and showed oliver five golden snitches. "These are standard pro level golden snitches. They are charmed objects. I can feel charmed objects with my mage sense. With the help of the castle wards I can even sense my position relative to the ground and the stands in the pitch. To prove to you that the position of seeker is pointless for me to play I would like you to release these five snitches and I will collect all five, blindfolded. You may time me if you wish." Harry said turning his back on Oliver so Hermione could tie a black ribbon over his eyes.
"Is he joking?" Katie Bell asked looking at the rest of the group and her team mates.
"He's not joking, this is how he practices at home. Harry is connected to the wards there too and he does this all the time for fun." Hermione said.
"Okay, let's see this." Oliver said letting the five snitches out of the box.
Harry handed oliver a stopwatch as he got on his broom. He cocked his head up and looked around for a second before smirking and taking off. Oliver hit the stopwatch as Harry climbed straight up until he looked tiny in the sky before he turned and dropped from the sky doing wide corkscrew turns as he dropped. He then arced to the left a bit and scooped one of the small gold balls out of the sky. He pocketed the ball as he jerked up and to the right in a power over loop and collected another one. He spun around and headed towards the Gryffindor stands at full speed and pulled up at the last second to scoop up another gold ball. He dove to the ground and at the last second pulled parallel with the grass and scooped up the second to the last ball and shot towards the base of the middle loop snatching the last snitch before diving at the group and landing right back in his place where he started from. He still had the blindfold on and he pulled the five gold balls out of his pocket.
"As you can see this part of the game is a joke to me. In fact I'm hesitant to even take the spot on the team. It would be cheating after all. I'll have to ask aunt Minerva about it." Harry said taking off the black ribbon. Oliver looked at the stopwatch and blinked a few times. That whole display of panic inducing blind flying only took half a minute and he was sure he was slow stopping the clock.
"Um, I'm not sure what to do at this point. I think we do need to consult with the Professor about this. For now, let's skip the seeker position and play six on six. I see you guys don't have pads…" Oliver started to say but again Harry cut him off.
"I can make them if I can get a close look at your pads Oliver." Harry said.
"Okay?" Oliver said.
"Yeah just take your pads off and I'll copy them for my team." Harry said and Oliver pulled off his pads. Harry took each pad and looked it over for a few seconds before handing it back to Oliver. When he got to the last gauntlet type glove he nodded, closed his eyes and waved at the ground next to him. A pile of black and red pads materialized. Harry waved at the pile and a set floated up to each of his friends. In seconds the group was geared up and ready to go.
"Right, you've never played better so would you like to…"
"Dean, Neville, grab a bat, you're our heavy hitters. Keep the twins busy. Sue you're in the rings. Hermione and Hannah we're on the ball. Michael inbound the ball. Team in the air the rest of you stay loose. We'll rotate out after the first game. We play first to ten if that's good with you Ollie?" Harry asked as his team shot up and lined up in the middle of the pitch waiting for the house team to meet them.
"I guess we're playing first to ten?" Oliver said with a head shaking chuckle.
From the second Michael tossed the ball up Harry's team destroyed the house team. Harry, Hermione and Hannah acted as one unit. They passed, dodged, and stole the ball at every turn. They never just went for the rings, they always attacked Oliver at the same time making him dive left or right so the other one could put it through the opposite ring. What made it worse was Susan was lights out in the rings and Neville and Dean kept the twins so busy they barely had a chance to take a shot at the chasers. In fact Neville managed to unseat Fred with a bludger to the chest as Harry scorer the last point. Harry saw Fred fall and stopped his descent with a wave of his hand as Hermione floated down to check on him.
"How is he?" Harry called out as the rest of the players flew over to check on him.
"He'll be fine. He has a few broken ribs and a concussion from the broom hitting him on the way down." She said casting a few spells at him.
"Should we rush him to the hospital wing?" Oliver asked looking worried.
"No, he'll be fine in a few minutes. But his day of flying around is over. He needs to sit down and take it ease for the spells to work." Hermione said as Fred came to.
"What happened?" He asked before he realized he was floating sixty feet in the air. "WHat the?"
"Relax Fred. I got you. Neville broke a few of your ribs and your head hit your broom when you fell." Harry said patting the twin on the shoulder.
"He hits like a bloody freight train. Good job." Fred said high fiving Neville.
"I took a glancing blow off you earlier and I can say you're no slouch." Neville said.
"Well let's float you down to the ground. You have to sit out the rest of the day to let your ribs heal." Harry said lowering Fred to the ground next to the rest of the group. "Let's keep this game going though. Let's have Dean join your team and let's get Michael and Terry at bat for my team. Hannah take a break. And Neville you're on the ball this game. Is that alright with you Ollie?" Harry asked looking to the team captain.
"Sure, maybe this time we'll score a point." Oliver said looking at his team who looked tired and wore out after ten minutes playing against the group.
"I'd like to say you have a chance but Neville jells better with me and Hermione. This is going to be fast, one sided, and very painful. Sorry?" Harry added at the end with a smirk.
"Yeah, I can see you're all broken up about it." Oliver said rolling his eyes.
Three minutes. That's all it took for Harry, Hermione, and Neville to score ten points. Three minutes of flat out, full speed, on the go play that had the house team looking as beaten as a racehorse at the finish line.
"I'm done!" Angelina Johnson said flying out of the pitch heading back to the castle. "He can have my spot! There is no way I keep it with these three." She said looking defeated.
"Angie! Come back! Just because they're good doesn't mean we don't need you!" Oliver called after her but she was gone.
"Why bother Ollie, by next week we won't be on the team. What's the point sticking around so they can show off some more." Alicia Spinnet said taking off after her her friend.
"I'm sorry Ollie. We didn't mean to… play that hard." Harry said trying to be as un-condescending as he could.
"It's fine Harry. But she is right. With your talents we have to start most of you. Like I said we'll have open tryouts for every position, but…" Oliver said shrugging as he looked at the remnants of his defeated team.
"Ollie, we really didn't want to show off or take anyone's spot. We really just wanted to show you how good we are. You're all older than us, you're cooler, and we just really wanted to fit in." Harry said feeling bad about showboating.
"It's fine Harry, it's just a game." Oliver said causing the twins to look shocked.
"Well it's a game we won't be playing. Not if it causes a rift in the house. It's bad enough we show up every first year we have classes with. We don't need to step on our own house member's toes. We won't be trying out for the team. Come on guys, let's head back to the castle." Harry said leading the group away, even in their retreat they were flying in an arrow head formation.
"What did he just say?" Oliver asked looking shocked.
"He said they don't want to try out for the team." Katie said.
"But But…" Oliver said waving at the retreating group.
"I get it. Since day one the kid and his friends have been trying to gain the trust and respect of the house." George said.
"But come on!" Oliver said.
"We can't force them to try out. We can talk to them next week. For now we need to talk to Professor Mcgonagall about Harry playing seeker. I have a feeling she'll tell us we can't use Harry, but maybe we can get one of them to tryout for the job. We also need to talk to Angelina and Alicia. Come on Ollie. Let's head back." George said.
Harry lead the group right through the Gryffindor tower window they came in one at a time and hopped off their brooms. Harry let Ignis out of the stone and let him climb up on his shoulder. The group headed to the corner they staked out their first few nights and took seats around the table Harry made for them. Harry took his seat at the head of the small table and put his elbows on the table and put his chin in his hands. Blaze got up from his dog bed under the table and leaned against Harry's leg. Hermione reached over from her seat next to him and put her hand on his shoulder.
"So much for the extra practice we put in on the home pitch." Dean said making the group chuckle.
"We have to try harder to fit in." Harry said reaching up to scratch Ignis's head.
"Says the man with the pet dragon." Neville said.
"You're right, I'm the one that sticks out like a sore thumb, but we need to fit in better as a group. Yesterday Sirius used me in a demonstration. Now every upperclassmen looks at me with fear in their eyes. It was stupid of him to ask me to do that and it was even dumber of me to do such a good job. They know I'm powerful but they didn't need to know I was that powerful. I let the game get to me and now they fear me. This is not how we're going to win hearts and minds. We want these people to follow us into the future. Embrace change and new ideas. We're trying to bring about change and making the people that you want on your side fear you is not a good way to do it. When we turn we need to call a meeting with the adults and tell them what's going on. For now let's get the homework out of the way, tomorrow we're going to dive deep into the mind arts for you newer members of the group. You guys need to master the ink trick so we can cut out this homework time. Spending time writing two foot of parchment on spells we can all do in our sleep is burning time we could be spending on learning new and more helpful things." Harry said summoning his bag from his room and pulling out the big book on mind healing he was reading. He had to finish it so he could start working on the mind healing tonic. Hermione for her part pulled a potions book the size of an old dictionary out of her bag of holding and went back to what she was reading.
The team came in at some point during the next hour and they saw the group hard at work so they didn't bother them. At dinner Oliver sat down with Harry and they talked about the team and how they could best help the house win the cup this year. Harry agreed to talk it over with the group and they ended the talk on a friendly level with Harry feeling much better about his position in the house. That night the group met up in Harry's trunk and turned back time. They headed through the door to the Granger's house. Emma greeted the kids with a big smile and a hug but when she saw Harry's shrugged shoulders and sad look she knew something was up. They all took portkeys to their houses with Michael heading to the guest room at the Grangers.
"Kids, what's wrong?" Emma asked.
"We're too powerful and oddball to fit in. Our plan to gain friends and allies in our house and the school as a whole is falling apart. I think we all miscalculated the plan. We need to call a meeting tomorrow and talk about this. As of right now we have pissed off a lot of people and thanks to Sirius I've made the upperclassmen terrified to be in the same room with me. I think we need to scrap most of the plan to fix the wizarding world's problems. As of now, in the eyes of our schoolmates, I'm a freak and the rest of the group are my cult followers. Right now I need to get some sleep." Harry said heading to his room.
"Wow, it's that bad ha?" Emma asked.
"Harry's need to impress people has the whole group looking like show offs. We also need to talk to the old man at some point. I'm afraid of what he'll say is going on with our still alive dark lord and all the other things he's done in the past. It's bad Mum. and every time Harry tries to fix it he makes it worse. Amelia's tactics for maneuvering Harry to be the future leader of the wizarding world are all backfiring." Hermione said looking tired.
"well get some sleep and we'll see what we can do to fix it in the morning." Emma said hugging her daughter one more time before she headed off to bed.
The next morning followed Harry's normal routine. Blaze got up at six and got Harry up so he could go outside. The only change to his normal routine was Letting Ignis crawl up his arm and perch on his shoulder. That morning Amelia and Susan came over for breakfast followed by Aurora and Sirius. Harry made them all plates and he laid out his problems over breakfast.
"I'm sorry pup I didn't think about the consequences before I had you work with the upperclassmen." Sirius said.
"It's fine Sirius, I'm finding out that most of what we've done over the last week has been done without much forethought. I showed off so much that I've made more than half the school uncomfortable around me. We were supposed to make friends with everyone in the school so we could start spreading new ideas to the rest of the kids in the school. They use birds to deliver mail for God's sake. It's so backwards. How are we going to stamp out Pureblood ideas and old rhetoric if the world still runs on old technology?" Harry said shaking his head.
"It gets worse I'm afraid. The goblins want you to stop making so much precious metals and stones. You're messing with the economy. You can still make it and stockpile it but try to keep it out of the market for a while. If you want to make things that's fine but if you make too much gold, platinum, silver, and gemstones the economy will tank." Aurora said.
"Right, I didn't think about that. Crap." Harry said.
"It's okay for know but the gold you made for the hospital, that has to be the last big gold drop you do." She said patting him on the shoulder as he dropped his head in his hands.
"This whole two weeks have been a wash. Everything I did this week made me into a glory seeking, show off, jerk." Harry said.
"Harry we need to talk to you right now." Hermione said pulling him away with Susan.
"What's going on?" Harry asked looking to his partner.
"I hate to break it to you Harry but you've been acting like a glory seeking jerk for a lot longer than a week. Ever since you've started taking advice from the adults you've been showboating. Bosting. Acting like a hero. I've been behind you this whole time because I'm your friend and in a way I am your apprentice, but all of this plotting and scheming needs to stop. You're a Jedi. Start acting like one. Leave all the scheming to these adults. Jedi do good with their deeds. Stop thinking about making alliances, being a leader, or whatever else these adults have been telling you. Just be you. You're walking around the school with your dragon trying to play politics like a future king. Instead let's work on getting Neville's parents up. Let's work on the ten potions we have waiting for testing. Let's get to work Harry. We need to reset." Hermione said locking eyes with Harry.
"How long have you been sitting on that?" Harry asked.
"Two weeks, and I'm not the only one that feels this way. Neville and Sue agree." Hermione said.
"Sue?" Harry asked.
"It's true Harry, you're doing too much." Susan said.
"Okay. First off, if you think I'm being a jerk then you need to let me know faster next time. Secondly, if you say I need to change then let's fix this. From now on we take their council, but we, the group, make the decisions about our lives. Agreed?" Harry asked looking at the two girls.
"Agreed." Hermione said as Susan nodded.
"Okay then, Adults!" Harry called out to the group as they walked back to the table. "After a discussion with my two trusted advisors, we've come to a few decisions. First off, it's been confirmed that I've been acting like a jerk for a lot longer than a week. To curb this bad behavior I've decided to go back to being a jedi and stop worrying about everything. I will leave the political scheming to you fine adults. I will go back to my original plan of helping the world with my deeds and not my words. We, the group, will dedicate our time and effort to helping Neville's parents and then finish the testing on the ten potions recipes we have in the works. After that we will look into maybe trying out for the quidditch team. If not then we'll play for fun on the weekends. My point is we don't need to worry about purebloods, the fact that the wizarding world runs a whole century behind the regular world, or the idea of being a political leader for the next generation of wizards. If this is unsatisfactory to you adults then I don't know what to say to you. Our way of doing things got us this far, your way of scheming and plotting to gain the favor of powerful people has turned me into an asshat and the group into a cult following my ways. I think a few weeks of keeping our heads down and completing our work will gain us more favor with the other students then any plots you guys can come up with. As for the gold, I'll stop making it, but I will continue to make nice things for friends." Harry said.
"But Harry, you have the chance to be a leader of the community one day." Amelia said looking at him like he was mad.
"And maybe one day I will, but until then my deeds will speak louder than my words. I'll still fight the Dark lord, and keep the old man in line. I'll even make friends with the other kids in school, but from now on I'm going to stop being a show off. It's very un-jedi like thing to do so." Harry said.
"I say good on you Pup. If you think this is better for you then I say go for it." Sirius said.
"I just have to ask if you've lost your mind? You can't let minor setbacks dissuade you from building a better future." Amelia asked looking shocked.
"Aunty!" Susan said looking appalled.
"What? He has a name! He has power! He could lead this country today if he wanted to. He has a responsibility to…" Amelia started to rant but she stopped when Harry laid his hand on her shoulder.
"Amelia, I understand everything you're saying. I get it and yesterday you would have been right, but the fact that I could be minister today means that I shouldn't. I'm eleven. I have a name and power. I even let you talk me into going for it but it's not for me. I understand the old man, I do. He probably started out on the same path you had me on. But unlike me he didn't have someone to tell him to get his head out of his own ass. I also understand you. You fought a war for a country that did nothing to fix the problems that caused the war in the first place and you had to claw your way to the top. And I'm also not saying you wrong. You're probably right. One day the people will call on me to run for office, or something like that. But not now. Not when we have more important things to do. You have my support. You both do. If you need me to make a speech or accept an Order of Merlin or whatever you need then I'm your man. But gaining allies, and fostering political ties with other houses is out the window. I'm also done showing off. No more class demonstrations, or anything like that. Now if you'll excuse me we have work to do. Real work. Neville's parents have been shells of their former selves for more than a decade. That ends now." Harry said patting Amelia on the back as he headed for the shed with Hermione and Susan.
"Did he just talk to me like I was a small child?" Amelia asked.
"He did dear, and he's not wrong. He tried your way for two weeks and the group as a whole are being stared at in the hallways. Let him try his way for now. Later on if he finds that he would like to run for office or something like that then you can sheppard him into office, but for now, let him work." Aurora said with an easy smile.
"But how can he not…"
"Let it go Amelia, my son is very hard headed if he's made up his mind and my daughter is with him them that's how it's going to be. Now let us get back to talking about normal things like we are normal people. Aurora how bad are your hormones because of the potion the kids gave you? Mine are off the charts." Emma said.
"The worst." Sirius said before he stopped himself but it was too late. The words tumbled out of his mouth and like pulling the pin on a grenade and tossing the pin instead of the grenade he knew he was screwed. He turned slowly to look at his wife and saw a dragon's eyes staring back at him.
"The worst?" She asked in a voice that froze the air around her and made every warning bell in his head go off all at once.
"Um, well you know what I mean dear, you spend a lot of time crying and I hate to see you cry. Especially when I can't doing anything to help you and it makes me feel like crap and I'll just stop talking now." Sirius said flinching as he waiting for the explosion. He was sure he managed to kick the gernade out of his fox hole but he was sure he was still going to lose an arm or a leg. Instead she hugged him and started crying.
"I'm sorry you feel like that." She said.
"It's not your fault it's no one's fault. It's the potion's fault. Harry better be right about this one." Sirius said breaking the tension and making everyone laugh.
"I'm sure they both are." Emma said laughing along with the group. Michael wandered out the back door in his robe and slippers and took a seat at the table still looking half asleep.
"What did I miss? Anything good? You guys get up way too early." He said yawning. This caused the grown ups sitting at the table to laugh again.
Harry and Hermione spent the weekend and the the first half of the third week of school working on the mind healing potion. Six up days and fifteen turned day were spent deep in study of old tomes and potions texts. By Monday they started testing potion concoctions to find the right mix of old and new magics that complemented each other and didn't explode. Neville and Susan spent the time tutoring the rest of the group on the basics of the ink transfer spell and the basics of meditation and the mind arts. Everyone noticed the new shift in focus for the group. The twins who were looking forward to having fun with the group tried to engage then for a game of cards or to talk about a prank they wanted to pull but Harry sat them down and explained they were working on something very important and they needed to stick with it. The twins were gutted for a few minutes but they nodded and let the group work. It helped that Harry handed them a sack of candy bars and sodas. Percy and Penny saw how hard they were working and they were happy to see the group taking their work seriously. By wednesday night they were sure they had the potion right. It took a lot of hard work to brew and it glowed with magic when Harry added the last few drops of ginseng root extract. Harry floated the liquid out of the gold cauldron and into 60 small test tubes setting in a rack. He waved at the rack full of glass and corked them all before he dropped back into his seat next to Hermione. They were using the brewing station he set up in his trunk and it was way after midnight.
"You think it will work?" Harry asked wiping the sweat off his brow.
"I have no clue until we see it work. It's based on other mind healing tonics and everything we researched lead us to this mix but until we see it working we won't know for sure. But I hope it works." She said dropping her head on his shoulder as she drifted off.
They had been working for twenty hours straight to brew the volatile mix, but it was worth it. They had enough mind healing tonic to heal the Longbottoms and enough to give to St. Mongo's so they could test it on the hospital wing full of patients suffering the same fate as Neville's folks. If this worked like they hoped it would, it would be enough to earn themselves an Order of Merlin third class as well as a commendation from the potion master's guild. Something the Corners had six of. They would hand a set of three doses off to the Corners in the morning for testing and as soon as they gave them the go ahead they were going to take it to Longbottom manor. Harry looked down at his sleeping partner and floated her to the couch. He was going to head off to his bed in the trunk but she held onto his arm and moaned in her sleep as he tried to pull away. He relented and slipped in next to her on his oversized couch. He waved their shoes off and took the blanket off the back of the couch and floated it over them before he too gave into sleep. The two dogs looked up from their bed in the corner and saw their two humans on the same couch and they shared a look between them before they shrugged and went back to sleep.
Neville woke up the next morning in his bed in his trunk. He changed back into his pants and shirt and headed out of his trunk to find two dogs looking at the bedroom door.
"Hey guys, where are Harry and Hermione?" He asked as he tossed on his shoes and grabbed the extra leashes Harry kept by his bed. He leashed up the dogs and took them down to the common room where he saw Susan with a confused look on her face. "Good you're up. You can help me get the dogs out." Neville said grabbing the two brooms leaning up against the corner the group claimed as their spot. He got on one of the brooms and Blaze hopped into the harness in front of him. Neville locked him in as Susan followed his lead with the other broom. They flew out the common room window and head down to the tree by the lake the dogs had picked out as their spot. They let them go and the dogs did their business.
"I wonder what happened to Harry and Hermione?" Susan said.
"They must have fallen asleep in the Harry's trunk. They were brewing all afternoon and they were both still deep in work when I checked on them at ten before I headed off to bed last night." Neville said looking nervous.
"Thinking about your parents?" Susan asked softly as she put her arm around his big shoulders.
"Yeah." Neville said nodding.
"Are you worried they won't be able to complete the potion?" She asked.
"No, I know they can. My brother Harry made me a promise and I know I can count on him." He said looking confident for a few seconds before his shoulders slumped down a bit again.
"Then what are you worried about? You are maybe a day or so away from healing your parents. You should be excited." She said.
"I am, but I'm also worried they might not… I don't know? Any number of things." Neville said watching the dogs run around a bit after doing their business.
"Neville, don't be silly. They are going to wake up, be very confused for a few minutes and after they know who you are and what year it is they are going to do two things. They're going to hold you, and tell you that they love you. Now let's get the dogs back up to the common room and go check on Harry and Hermione." Susan said patting him on the back she went to pull away but he grabbed her in a big hug.
"Thanks Sue. I've been thinking about this for a week now and I didn't want to say anything but… thank you." He said before he pulled away blushing.
"Neville, you're my friend. You never have to hold something like that in. You can always come to me for things like that." She said with a gentle smile.
They rounded up the dogs with a firm word and they flew back into the common room as Hannah and Dean came looking for them. They all headed back up to the boys dorm room and Neville opened Harry's trunk they walked down the steps and saw the two on the couch. Hermione was snoring softly as she lay on Harry's chest. They approached the couch and when they got ten feet from it Harry's eyes shot open and locked on Neville. He was confused for a second until he looked down and saw Hermione. Neville and Sue smirked and Neville backed the group out of the trunk silently. When the trunk lid was closed Hermione looked up at Harry and blushed.
"Who?" She asked.
"Neville, Sue, Hannah, and Dean." Harry said without missing a beat.
"Okay. Well, this is…" She said rolling off Harry and sitting up on the couch.
"Look, you were knocked out, I put you on the couch but you didn't want to let go and I was really tired and well. I tucked in next to you." Harry said sitting up.
"Right, this was, totally fine." She said with bright red ears and cheeks.
"Okay then, I'm um, going to head up and get a shower. I think we have a light day today. But we should drop off the three samples to the Corners before breakfast so they can get started." Harry rambled.
"Yes, I think I'll do the same, In my bathroom though!" She added quickly.
"I kind of figured." Harry said walking up the stairs.
Hermione took the door to her trunk and stepped out. She came face to face with a room full of girls.
"So you slept on Harry?" Susan asked with a smirk.
"Yes, and we were both fully clothed." She defended.
"The lady doth protest too much." Padma muttered causing the rest of the girls to giggle.
"I don't have to put up with you lot." Hermione grumbled as she gathered clothes.
"Oh will you just relax, we're just kidding, but it's not like you two are not going to end up together. You just got a taste of the future. How was it?" Susan asked with a big grin. Hermione turned back to look at the group and rolled her eyes at the looks of anticipation on the girl's faces. She was going to toss a smart answer back at them but then she thought about it and a smile blossomed across her lips.
"Comfortable, and warm, and perfect." She said in a voice that was more dreamy than she was expecting.
"Good." Susan said hugging her as the girls went back to getting dressed as they chatted and giggled.
They dropped the three glowing potions off with the Corners before heading down to breakfast and Mary got straight to work leaving Marcus to take care of classes for the day. From the first round of test she knew she was working with a very powerful potion and that meant she had to be very careful but she also knew the importance of completing the testing as fast as she could so they could get the Longbottoms out of bed. She worked diligently and she double and triple checked all of her results. She also made sure to record everything so she could hand over a full certification signed by a potions master. She worked hard to make sure she covered every test she could think of before she put her magical signature on the proofing documents. It was required by law that she sing off on the potion before it could be administered to anyone in a hospital. She was in essence staking her reputation as a master of potions on the safety of the potion that was created. If at any point someone got really hurt or died from taking the potion it would fall on both the kid's heads but also on her head as well. But even with all that she was done with her work just before dinner. She filled out the Proofing documents and added her blood signature at the bottom. She looked at her watch and saw it was ten minutes to five. She rushed into her her bedroom, down into the trunk she shared with her husband and through the door to the Granger's house. She ran down the stairs and saw Emma sitting in the kitchen.
"What's going on?" Emma asked.
"I just finished the proofing documents and I need to get them to the ministry before the office closes!" Mary said looking at her watch.
"Why don't you take the door to Amelia's trunk? She has it in her office." Emma said.
"She does?" Mary asked.
"Yeah, come on." Emma said leading her back up the stairs two at a time. She grabbed a blue wizard's robe off a coat rack next to the door and hit the rune for Amelia's trunk they ran through and out the trunk lid interrupting a meeting Amelia was having.
"Where's the fire?" Amelia asked.
"I can't talk I need to file these Proofing documents!" Mary called out as she all but ran out of Amelia's office.
"I swear that girl loves to do things the hard way." Amelia said hitting a red gem on her desk. "Magre, called the potion's office and tell them to stay open we have a priority filing." She said.
"Right away director!" Came a response.
"I think we can move the rest of this meeting to tomorrow Kingsley. I think this is important." Amelia said.
"Of course Director." The tall dark man in the red Auror robes sad as he stood from his seat and walked out of the office.
"You didn't have to cancel your meeting Amelia, I'll just head back to the house." Emma said.
"You don't have too. Have had dinner yet?" Amelia asked looking at her watch.
"No, I was going to make a salad. The kids won't be by today. They said they needed the time to work on the potion. Which they finished. Which means they might show up tonight." Emma said trying to figure out what day it was.
"Wow that's complicated." Amelia said.
"You have no idea. With our house acting like the central hub for the kids you never know when someone might come through the door and for what reason. Mostly I just go with the flow of things." Emma said dropping into the seat across from Amelia.
"Well maybe I can take you and Dan out to dinner." Amelia said.
"It's just me for the night. Sirius took Dan, Ray, Ravi, and Sam to the Quidditch game, the Wasps and Harpies I think. The game starts at six but they wanted to get there early to see the two teams practice." Emma said.
"They just want to watch the Harpies stretch and fly." Amelia said laughing.
"Let me guess, the Harpies have a lot of women on the team?" Emma asked.
"The Harpies are the only all female team in the league. You have to meet certain level of beauty to even try out. I would call it a stunt to sell more tickets but they have one of the highest scoring teams in the league. I can tell you this much your daughter and my Susan are going to be prime recruitment candidates for the Harpies if they play on the house team." Amelia said as Mary came in and dropped into the chair next to Emma looking dead.
"Well, it's official, the kids have their first registered potion filed with the potion's department." Mary said.
"You look dead, have you eaten yet?" Amelia asked.
"No, I've been working straight through since this morning so I could file this today. I knew what was at stake with this." Mary said holding the rolled up scroll.
"Well the kids can't do anything until tonight when they turn back time. So with your work complete, lets go eat." Amelia said.
"I'm starving, I nibbled on a bit of a sandwich earlier." Mary said.
"We'll go collect Aurora and head to Crabtree's bistro by the bank. I could really go for a steak." Amelia said standing up and putting on her robes.
When the kids turned back time and came through the door that night they found the women sitting in the living room making their way through a bottle of wine.
"Kids, I filed your potion with the potion department. You can administer the potion anytime you want and I know a few healers at the hospital. I can set up a meeting and get your potion into the hospital." Mary said.
"Great!" Harry said looking excited.