A/N: Heeheeheeheeheehee…I've just had a marvelous idea, one worthy of Rowling herself, in my opinion. Heck, it may be part of why the Harry Potter books were so fleshed out with detail and attention and a clear direction. Well, her version of the idea anyway.

In other news, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has come out. It's a great read, and I'd recommend it to any Harry Potter fan, especially us fanfiction readers and writers, because it's probably the biggest fanfic to hit bookshelves since that guy wrote about Albus, James, Scorpius, and the rest of the next generation's lives at Hogwarts and got published, with some approval from Rowling. But, as the main action and meat of the play takes place firmly in 2020, I'm afraid that my fic needs to address it somehow, and I'm afraid that while many plot points and quirks would be fascinating to absorb into my fic's cannon, many things also very firmly would not.

I may make some rather major (and possibly even spoiler-y) references in this fic going forward, because the playwrights created a fun universe, though we'll see, and nothing too official has been drawn up. Just be aware, there is more Harry Potter lore out there (some of which rather majorly disagrees with mostly unrevealed plot points of my story) and it's a great read. I'd even recommend and Londoners who are lucky enough to have the play in their city go see it, though the cliffhanger between part one and part two is positively despicable, so I wouldn't see it for the first time in parts. If you happen to be if the unfortunate lands outside of the realms where there's a play to see though, the play script is a really good read, with plenty of action, some real feeling and emotions, and a fascinating look at the Harry Potter universe.

Though I do question a few of the author's decisions about plot points. Honestly, just because REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED in the fight at the Ministry doesn't mean that they can't REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED.

Oh. That may have gotten into some spoilers there. My apologies, I'll allow you all to read the story unspoiled. Anyway, back to my story…

"Congratulations, Professor Hauter," Galatea said, extending her hand for a congratulatory shake. Harry stared dumbly.

Then the strangest thing happened. With a small pop, almost like the aparation of a house elf, but quieter, a small box appeared in midair about a foot off the ground, before falling with a light thud. Harry continued to stare dumbly for approximately half a second before his auror training kicked in.

"Protego!" he shouted, erecting a shield around the box while hastily grabbing Galatea and backing away.

"What is it?" she asked. Her wand was now at the ready.

"I have no idea. And that's enough to put me on edge. Whatever it is, it may have even penetrated the wards of Hogwarts itself, unless I miss my guess, and anyone willing to send something like that has a very, very good reason to do so. So far, we've been attacked by personnel sent in through the wards without permission, personnel who always retreat before we can question them. I wouldn't put it past them to be trying a new approach."

As if on cue, the shrill whistling that indicated the new wards activating began to shriek.

Galatea looked around, "And what might that be? The headmaster said something about a new ward earlier, and also not to worry."

"That, I'm afraid, means that the new ward is active. Which means that in all likelihood we are under attack once more," Harry almost cringed at the thought. They just kept coming, didn't they? Then another thought occurred to him, "Of course, another possibility is that this triggered the ward, but also drained it so greatly that it needed to recharge for a few seconds before activating its secondary function, the alarm. In that case, we should be even more cautious, because the ward successfully worked earlier, and whoever sent this put quite a great deal of effort behind it."

Calling forth a memory of his wedding day, the joy of holding his newlywed wife in his arms, Harry focused the joy into a message, and then pushed both through the incantation, "Expecto Patronum!" Prongs burst from his wand and disappeared in search of the headmaster to inform him of the unexpected box that had appeared.

"Who was that for?"

"Dippet will want to know where the ward breach is precisely if he can't pin it down himself, and also that there are two people on-site, ready for action."

"Good idea," Galatea said, turning her attention back to the box. It was small and square, perhaps a foot long, wide, and tall. Overall, it didn't seem terribly threatening, though it did look almost faint, as though it faded from reality a bit before being brought forcibly back. It could have been a trick of the color, but it could have been an unusual enchantment as well, and many other things besides.

After a period of silence, Harry turned to Galatea and was about to ask whether they should back off more, or perhaps even investigate, when a familiar silver raven swooped up behind them and spoke in Albus voice, "Armando has determined that the ward failed, but the only disturbance was near your reported location. It was quite a focused assault, so you are likely dealing with the only intrusion. We will join you momentarily, until then it would be wise not to approach."

Harry took that in for a second before asking, "So, should we back off a bit more, just in case?"

"We should be far enough away to react, without being so far that it will be unclear what to do."

"Hmm."

And so they waited.

Harry was just beginning to theorize vaguely about the possible intentions of the nebulous force that kept attacking when he heard footsteps. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Galatea turn. He maintained his focus on the box, and his shield, just in case. Beside him, Galatea called out, "Albus, Armando, it's good to see you. Do you have any idea what's going on? Could the wards detect what penetrated them?"

"I'm afraid that as a new ward, detecting much more than the status using Hogwarts' auxiliary wards is presently beyond us. None of Hogwarts' other wards but our newly erected one would have effected this object's transit," Dippet replied, confirming Harry's fears. They could be dealing with anything here.

"Sweet Morgana, what kind of transit are we dealing with here? I though Hogwarts' wards kept everything out!" Galatea exclaimed, clearly distressed at what may as well have been a universal constant being broken. Hogwarts' wards were just that secure, especially in the minds of the people. Of course, Harry knew a thing or two that challenged those ideals.

"House elves can get in, Galatea," Harry said, pausing to let that sink in.

"What?"

"Of course, the average witch or wizard doesn't give it a second thought, but what is the highest law of a house elf, something that overrides everything else they know?"

Galatea appeared puzzled, but she, like most witches and wizards who knew of house elves, knew the answer to this question, "Their master's orders," she said, "But what does that have to do with this?"

"Galatea, call a house elf from the kitchens for me," Harry said, "Surely you know at least one by name, as a professor."

Galatea furrowed her brow briefly, but then called out, "Mupsy!"

And, with the signature pop, a house elf appeared behind Harry. He heard it say, "Yes, miss professor? Is you wanting something?"

"Mupsy, thank you for coming," Harry interjected, "I was actually curious what you could tell me about this box over here. It could be dangerous, but do you perhaps have a subtle way to find out?"

Harry was still focusing on the box, and maintaining his shield, but he knew from experience, bitter experience in a few cases, that a shield meant little to a determined house elf. He also happened to know that detecting something with the potential to harm their master was a house elf specialty. So while he heard small noises of surprise at the question, he himself wasn't surprised, even when, after only a few seconds of focus, the house elf spoke up again.

"The shield is stopping something from happening, sir," Mupsy began, moving a few steps forward, "and Mupsy can't tell what it is. But it isn't bad, sir, or dangerous. This box might be a trick by some tricksy student, but if you'd like, I can remove it, sir."

"Thank you Mupsy, but if this is as harmless as a prank, we can take care of it outselves," Harry said, relaxing, "Unless Galatea has something else, you may return to work."

After a quick look at Galatea, the elf apparated away.

"Now, Galatea, can you tell me what was odd about that encounter there? There were a few things, but one was quite important."

Galatea thought for a few seconds. "Is it how quickly the elf determined that the box was harmless?"

Harry subtly shook his head, still not relaxed enough to take his eyes off of the box. "No, though Mupsy's declaration that the box wasn't more harmful than a prank at worst was quite surprising, though I'm inclined to believe her. There was something monumental that just happened, however, right here at Hogwarts itself and no one blinked. What was that?"

This time, it was Albus that responded, "A being apparated, worked magic, and then proceeded to disapparate. Within arguably the most powerful wards in Britain, Europe, and some say the world."

The silence was profound.

After waiting several seconds, Harry broke the silence to say, "And no one even blinked. Because everyone who know anything about house elves knows that their highest, unbreakable law is their master's orders, and the house elf in question was simply following orders. What's so unusual about that?"

This time, Harry could nearly hear the wheels turning in the professors' heads.

"So," Galatea hesitantly asked, "are you saying that penetrating Hogwarts' wards isn't just possible, it's easy?" She sounded quite rightfully scared of the notion.

"Of course not. Most witches and wizards overlook house elves, but Hogwarts has the largest population in Britain at least, and whoever hired all of them knew what they were doing. It turns out that a house elf, while capable of bringing someone along via side-along apparation, cannot get through any wards a wizard could not while doing so. They also can't bring anything too complicated along with them, or even too big. Certainly nothing more dangerous than a muggle weapon, as those are unenchanted. If they attempt to bring something like that with them, they begin to trigger and get stopped by wards just like a wizard would. And once that research had been done, it was clearly decided that while overlooking them entirely was foolish, house elves would hardly be able to bring harm to the school, especially as they are bound to serve.

"My point in this demonstration was that penetrating the wards of Hogwarts is as simple as being able to work around them, as the house elves do. Now our new ward stops far more complex means of transport than apparation, so whatever the house elves are using is either completely impossible to completely understand or so simple we wouldn't think of it. But the point remains; Hogwarts' wards are quite fallible, and constant vigilance on the part of all staff members is required to keep all threats at bay, even on a good day. After all, nearly anyone can walk right in the front gate when it isn't kept shut, and all the staff gets is advance notice of their presence. So the idea of the wards failing should not be a foreign one, to any of you." Despite his focus on the box, Harry could feel the surprise coming from the professors. It may need to be said, but no one wanted to think of Hogwarts, one of the beacons of safety, as fallible. And yet, if they did, everyone would work all the harder and be that much safer.

After a length pause, Dippet said, "Well, though you make a good point, a more relevant question is how, in this instance, the wards were penetrated. We managed to confirm earlier, through trial by fire, that the ward we put in place functions as intended. Why did it fail?"

"Well that may actually be easy to answer," Albus said, "I theorized that the further an object or person has traveled through…the extra dimensions, the more velocity of sorts it will have, and the more power will be required to keep it at bay. As we are dealing with far more experienced witches and wizards in the field, they likely know a few tricks that we may not think of. As the wards were overwhelmed this time, I believe that they may have simply taken their method a step further and added more dimensions of travel, which resulted in the same problem we initially had of wards designed to stop a lesser form of travel being overwhelmed by a greater one."

"Also, tellingly," Harry added, "There were no personnel sent using this method. Whatever makes it different from what we were dealing with before may also make it unsafe to transport a human."

"And do you think we can stop this method too?" Dippet asked.

"We should, in theory, be able to layer further reinforcements onto the ward we have already created to defend against dimensions as high as we can conceive of. The only reason we haven't yet is because you approved of some experimentation, and decided that probing the attackers' capabilities was worth the risk, especially as the staff would be informed of the danger," Albus replied.

"Of course," Harry said, "We should first deal with this box. I'm inclined to trust a house elf's magic enough to lower my shield and see what I've been preventing from happening. Opinions?"

"Of course we should scan it ourselves!" Galatea exclaimed, "A house elf may be well and good, correct even, but in a matter such as this, we ought to be completely sure!"

Harry restrained himself, understanding how Hermione must feel every time house elves were brought up. "What is the highest, unbreakable law of the house elf, Galatea?"

"The order of their master, but I don't understand—"

"And what have I demonstrated about house elves and their extraordinary capacity to follow that highest law?"

"You have demonstrated that they can work around wards that everyone though were impenetrable, but—"

"No, you are thinking in terms that are far too narrow, Galatea. What did a house elf just do?"

Galatea paused to think. "She apparated inside Hogwarts?"

"No. Think more broadly. One thing that everyone who knows of them knows, for a fact, is that you cannot apparate inside of Hogwarts! So what did a house elf just do? A house elf just did the impossible."

"But…what does that have to do with anything?"

"Think, Galatea. If a house elf can do the impossible, what else can they do, especially at the order of their master, when it benefits their master?"

Galatea was silent as she pondered that.

"I have a shield covering the box we want to analyze, and I can only think of three spells that won't be at best affected by that, and two of those would break the shield as they attempted to detect what was behind it. Yet when I asked a house elf, she knew confidently that it was something even she, with magic designed for servitude and housekeeping, could deal with. Now if you have a reliable way to detect what is under the shield that definitely won't trigger anything in the box, like Mupsy used, then you are free to use it. But one characteristic of detection magic is its bluntness, its propensity to trigger traps and attract notice. I feel much safer removing my shield from the box and placing it over myself than attempting to parse out what the box can do through magic."

There was a lengthy pause as everyone considered Harry's words. Finally, Albus spoke, "And how confident are you that Mupsy's estimation of the danger is correct?"

"I am very confident. The only task I have ever known a house elf to completely fail at is one that required incredible knowledge, unbelievable power, or extreme fortune to pull off. As this only in the bleakest of circumstances requires any of those, I don't believe a house elf would fail."

There was a pause, and Harry heard Galatea shift beside him. Then Dippet's voice came from behind him, "If that is the case, then you should proceed. The distance and an adequate shield should provide cover and time to escape if necessary."

Nodding, Harry took a breath to steel himself, before releasing the magic that held the lightly shimmering blue dome around the box and incanting, "Protego!" as he conjured a similar, but larger shield around the four adults.

For a few long seconds, nothing happened. Then the box seemed to solidify properly as a small, white flag appeared on top of the box.

"The universal sign of a cease-fire," Albus said quietly.

As they waited, nothing more happened. Eventually, it became too much for Harry and he said, "All right. I don't think anything more is going to happen. While this could be a trap, I'm inclined to believe otherwise. Whatever it is though, I don't think it will do anything else unless we actually approach it and investigate."

"And if it is a trap, that is when it springs," Albus said without commitment.

"Yes, but this is the closest we've gotten to communication with the attackers since this whole fiasco began, and I'm curious what they have to say," Harry countered.

"Perhaps it would be wise for some of us to investigate, as others back off in case of emergency," Dippet suggested.

"That's a good idea," Harry said, "I'll certainly investigate. It's likely something related to me, and I need answers."

"I suppose a good question, Perry, is whether anyone else should investigate with you or whether this matter might be…personal?" Albus posed the question almost as a statement. Harry looked at the man, seeing a raised eyebrow and a quick jerk of the eyes toward Galatea.

Of course. Only three of four people here knew that this was, in all likelihood, a message from the future. Hell, it might not be wise for anyone other than him to see it. Albus was useful to have around.

"That's a good point actually," he said, eyeing Dippet in hopes that the man had caught on, "I can think of a few things that could be in there that shouldn't be seen by certain eyes."

Catching a questioning glance from Galatea, Harry merely shrugged. There wasn't a whole lot he could say on that topic that didn't sound sketchy.

"So, I go check the box out, and you three remain quite cautious?" Seeing three hesitant nods, Harry nodded himself. "Then let's do this," he said, almost to himself. He lowered the shield and walked toward the box. It just a normal box, aside from the flag sticking out of it. Just a normal, wooden box that had been sent through the wards of Hogwarts. Harry tried and failed to convince himself it was nothing to worry about. Putting up a brave front because he intellectually knew how good house elves were with magic was one thing. Actually testing himself on the word of house elf was quite another. Come to think of it, if the house elf was to be trusted (and if it couldn't he was in trouble anyway) he didn't actually have to trust the creature. Pranks never killed their victims, and this was far from a prank. So a detection spell wouldn't trigger anything harmful, unless he was already going to…no, he wouldn't think about that. He flicked his wand, casting a general detection spell for enchantments on the box. It came up clean. He cast a spell to determine the physical contents of the box. Something very oddly shaped indeed, and engraved to boot, on top of a piece of paper. By this point, he had reached the box. Turning, he was only slightly surprised to see another shield erected. That made sense, even if it didn't inspire confidence.

"As far as I can tell, there's nothing dangerous in the box. I'm going to open it now," Harry said, "Wish me luck." Then, steeling himself once more, Harry bent down and examined the box. While the lid wasn't immediately apparent, as it seamlessly fit into the wooden construction, it also didn't appear difficult to remove, so Harry grasped it and lifted.

It was about as anticlimactic as could be. Carefully balancing the still-attached flag, Harry set the lid aside and examined the contorted piece of engraved sculpture in front of him. It took up most of the space in the box and had no easily definable shape, though it was roughly spherical. Far from a perfect sphere, however, it had indentations that nearly hollowed the shape out, and more resembled a twisted piece of clay that had been poked and twisted by a bored child than anything, save the complex engravings running over its surface. There seemed to be many straight lines that wrapped all around the various surfaces, with runes whose meaning escaped Harry in various places. Deciding that perhaps the paper he'd detected underneath the object would tell a more thorough story, Harry gently lifted the…thing off of the paper, keeping it out of view, and removed the paper from the box. Harry had a suspicion that whatever-it-was might not be advisable to have in the past, and it never hurt to be safe.

Turning his attention to the paper, Harry read the first nine words printed on it and gasped out loud.

A/N: Yeah, sorry. There's a lot more happening in the background of this episode that I have to figure out, but I can't tell you about without spoiling major plot elements to come, so it's a wee bit short. I am sorry about that.

Best of wishes,

feauxen