Hogwarts Year One

Hogwarts Rebellion

Albus Dumbledore was awaken by a shift in the wards of Hogwarts. Someone or something had changed the wards he had placed around the castle. As he went into his office he saw that many of his indicators were silent, or melted. The instrument that allowed him to detect strong magic was nothing but a silvery puddle. Unknown to him, deep in a secret area of the castle a young student laid his hand on a special stone, in his other hand was a staff with its butt stuck firmly into the stone and dirt floor. The staff started glowing, the student started glowing, and that glow spread to the stone which started glowing.

Several weeks prior someone had tried to injury or kill Harry Potter and his friends as they returned to the castle from class. Prof. McGonagall had been notified and after looking into the matter had told the Headmaster about the incident, who said he would also look into it. Next Harry, and friends, were caught outside after curfew and given detention by McGonagall with Hagrid. Again the Headmaster was notified of this and the results of the incidents. Neither of these things seemed to bother the Headmaster much.

The night after their detention with Hagrid, Harry, Hermione, and Neville were in Harry's new quarters sitting, reading, and talking amongst themselves about what had happened to them. Harry heard Hogwarts calling him and telling him that they needed to talk about the wards and the magic that was the castle. Harry asked if there was anyway Hogwarts could take some type of form that his two friends could see and hear. Hogwarts told him not unless she had much more magic to work with. The amount she had now was more than enough to do the daily protection but to do as Harry asked she would need much more.

Harry explained what he and Hogwarts had been talking about to Hermione and Neville, he asked them what they thought. Hermione seemed to think for a few seconds then said, "Harry remember what Rick or Remus said, 'Magic is like a muscle, the more you exercise it the stronger it becomes'? Now in our training we run to increase our strength, I even carry weights to add to the exercise's results. Maybe Hogwarts needs to 'exercise' her magic more, to make it stronger, somehow".

"Maybe we need to give Hogwarts more power than she gets just from people touching the ward stone in the great hall and drawing from all the students in the castle. If there was some way to give Hogwarts the power that Hermione used in that Reducto spell or the power you used to contain that thing in the forest. Then maybe she would be even stronger, magic wise", was Neville's comment.

Harry told Hogwarts that he would see what he could do to increase her power base, but he would need to study more rituals and such first. He asked her to ignore, turn off, or remove any of the wards that were not really needed and were not part of the basic ones first set. She said she would see what she could do about that.

One of the first things Hogwarts did was to inform Peeves that unless he settled down she would eject him from the castle. After that many of the students noticed that Peeves wasn't being as much of a pain - the professors didn't notice though. To help with the energy building Harry would have Reggie transport him to the great hall at night and Harry would sit with his bare feet on the ward stone there while Hogwarts and Reggie watched out for anyone coming.

As he was sitting there one night Harry wondered why Hogwarts wasn't able to draw power from the earth through her ward stones, so he asked her. It turned out a previous headmaster had moved the main ward stone and it no longer had a connection to the earth, or at least not a very good connection. Hogwarts explained that with new construction and repairs it was not possible to move the stone again and that was where the headmasters recharged the stone now for over 500 years. Harry wasn't sure how to fix that problem.

Harry and Hermione had been studying runes but had found several that they didn't understand and seemed out of place in most combinations they found. Harry had been informed that Dumbledore was censoring any incoming or out going mail of Harry's, so Harry used Reggie to relay messages to Sirius, Rick, and Ragnok that didn't need to be seen. Harry still used Hedwig to send letters home and to receive letters from home, just to keep Dumbledore occupied and in the dark. Harry giggled one day as a thought came to him from his muggle side, he was treating Dumbledore like a mushroom - he kept him in the dark and fed him bull dung.

One night Neville mentioned that the greenhouses were getting low on the dragon dung they used for the plants and that Prof. Spout said it happened every year about this time, as school got closer to the end of session the supplies got short. Harry asked Neville if Prof. Spout could use more dung, especially fresh dung. Neville explained that the dung had to be mixed with other things first and allowed to age before it was weak enough not to "burn" the plants it was used on, dragon dung was very strong.

Nobody noticed that some of the wards and spells around the castle were changing, those that Dumbledore has set to monitor student, and staff, activities were reduced in priority with that energy rerouted to the protection wards of the castle. The wards still didn't extend to the Forbidden Forest, the Quidditch pitch, or Hagrid's hut, but they were getting there slowly. As Harry studied and learned more about wards he would try new ones on Hogwarts and if they didn't work or if they interfered he would cancel them. One new ward set was strictly for Harry's use, he set wards to monitor Hermione and Neville so he would know if they got into trouble.

Trouble was exactly what found Neville one day as he was going out to the greenhouse assigned to him for his own use. A group of Slytherins were waiting for him so as soon as Neville walked into sight they started tossing jinxes at him. After the first one was deflected Neville was aware of the Slytherins' spells and put up a shield. The shield was too weak and the spells started breaking through the shield. Neville was scared at first but soon settled down; now he was mad and started returning spells, strong spells. When one of the boys threw a Reducto curse at him Neville lost it. Suddenly there was a mound of earth swelling around the boys completely enclosing them and Neville was sending stunning spells at them, strong stunners.

Harry was notified of the trouble and told Hermione Neville was in trouble as they ran out to try and help. By the time the two got to where Neville was the trouble was over, five Slytherins were stunned and lying on the ground. But now there was another problem, Neville was glowing slightly with magical power. Harry had never seen Neville show so much power, weak compared to Hermione and himself but very strong for Neville. McGonagall, and a prefect, came up and as soon as she saw the glow around Neville she knew what could happen. Neville could burn out his core and possibly kill himself or injury someone.

Harry ran to Neville and told him to calm down and that he had to redirect the power somewhere else. Harry told Neville a spell to try and told him to aim it straight up. Neville did as Harry told him and Hogwarts was treated to a large display of fireworks overhead. Many students, and staff, were surprised at the display that suddenly appeared over Hogwarts. The Weasley twins were envious of whoever had done that display.

The glow around Neville disappeared and he fell to the ground. McGonagall examined him and said he needed to be taken to the nurse quickly. With that statement Neville just up and disappeared suddenly worrying and concerning Prof. McGonagall. In the hospital wing Poppy was surprised to see a student appear on one of the beds with two strange house elves holding him. Back at the greenhouse McGonagall's usual elf appeared and told her what had happened to the injured student, now McGonagall could relax some. It was then that someone pointed out the five boys on the ground.

Dumbledore showed up to find out what caused the fireworks and was told what had happened since McGonagall had arrived. The boys were ennervated and questioned as to what happened. The story they told didn't sound right and Dumbledore quietly scanned their minds and found the truth, but didn't say anything. McGonagall didn't believe the boys for one second when they said Neville had attacked them without cause. Things were getting out of hand when the boys suddenly changed their story and admitted they had attacked Neville and he had attacked back only in self defense . Nobody, except Harry and Hermione, believed them when they said the earth just attacked also and helped Neville.

Snape showed up and tried to accuse Harry of having something to do with this but McGonagall told him Harry was in the Gryffindor common room and she had only been a few seconds behind him when he arrived here. Harry's wand was examined and nothing found to indicate that he had had anything to do with the attack. The wands of the five boys were examined and many spells were found that shouldn't have been there, including the Reducto curse. Snape reported that every Slytherin student in the castle had suddenly found themselves back in their common room and they couldn't get out. A few students had literally been caught with their pants down and were very embarrassed.

Hermione noticed Harry smile and when he saw her notice he just mouthed "later, Hogwarts". Harry, Hermione, and McGonagall went to check on Neville. Once in the hospital wing Poppy told them that Neville would be fine, just magical exhaustion - a few potions and a nights rest was all that was needed. What Poppy didn't say, because she wasn't allowed, was that the parental binding on Neville's core was completely gone, shattered from the inside out by his core. Neville was able to tell McGonagall what had happened, he left out his elemental, and why he had stunned the boys. Since his story pretty much matched the one the boys had finally told McGonagall was satisfied, but dreaded telling Augusta Longbottom about it.

As soon as their roommates were asleep, Harry and Hermione met in the new quarters. Hermione could hardly wait to ask what had made Harry smile, Harry told her what Hogwarts had done and that several of the Slytherin girls were very embarrassed being caught with their pants down. At that Hermione started laughing so hard she fell off the couch. Then Harry told her about Slytherin being forcibly detained and not allowed out of their dorm until breakfast, even the prefects. Harry also said that he was proud of Neville for standing up for himself.

The next morning Augusta Longbottom came to Hogwarts, and she was not happy. Dumbledore tried to put it off as a prank gone bad but Augusta was a smart witch and wasn't about to fall for that line of dragon dung. She informed Dumbledore that this would be presented to the school board, of which she was the chair person; there were some changes needed and she intended to start them immediately. Just before lunch Neville was released from his bed and he joined Harry and Hermione at lunch, where he quietly told them what had really happened and thanked Harry for sending him to the med-wing. Harry explained that Hogwarts had sent the elves to take care of Neville.

To say Dumbledore was having a bad day, was an understatement, first he discovered that most of his personal wards weren't responding, then Augusta Longbottom came and promised a board review of the activities at the school and him,finally he found that he had very little contact with Hogwarts and she wasn't responding except very minimally. What else could go wrong Dumbledore wondered just as his floo flared and he as told to expect Amelia Bones and Sirius Black in the next few minutes on official business. When Bones and Black showed up they said they had a complaint from a parent about the safety at the school and were there to investigate. At that moment Snape came in and complained that none of his "snakes" could leave the dorm except to eat, if they tried to go anywhere else they were sent back to the dorm. Dumbledore just sat at his desk shaking his head as he looked at the two wizards and the one witch standing before him.

Since it was a day without classes it wasn't easy to find all the kids that Amelia and Sirius wanted to talk with, namely their own charges Harry and Susan. The two, plus Hermione and Neville, were found out by the lake having a picnic and practicing simple spells from class. Susan was surprised to see her aunt at the school, Harry had been informed as soon as Sirius was on the grounds. Sirius explained that Augusta Longbottom had filed a formal complaint about what happened to Neville and they were there to investigate. Neville told his story again and neither adult was happy hearing that five boys attacked Neville, and lost.

By the end of the day Dumbledore was informed that a Ministry level investigation had been requested to look into the safety of the students at Hogwarts. Dumbledore was cautioned that any further "pranks" like the one against Neville would result in the offenders being taken before the Wizengamot. Yes, Dumbledore had had a very bad day; he could only hope that it would be better tomorrow. But it wasn't over yet, Slytherin lost 250 points for attacking another student and the record showed that Hogwarts herself had deducted the points, and nobody was going to argue with the castle.

A/N: Sorry so short but I felt this needed to be written. Now Dumbledore has some real problems. Unless I change my mind the next chapter will be the showdown between Harry and Quirrmort.

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