Hogwarts Year 5
Chapter 13
Several days after the incident and Headmistress McGonagall was finally notified that Albus Dumbledore was missing and the house showed signs of a struggle, aurors were sent to check on the house and to see if they could find out what had happened. Somehow the news leaked out and the next day the paper proclaimed that Dumbledore was missing and assumed dead. The news of Dumbledore's death was a shock to Harry and the group, while the old man had been instrumental in causing Harry much distress, he didn't wish the old man any harm.
Several articles in the muggle press didn't make it into the Prophet and so most of the magical world wasn't aware of several strange incidents, food stores broken into, people found dead for no apparent reason, or the unusual storms north of Scotland's coast – out in the North Sea. Anything that Hermione's parents noticed wasn't mentioned as they didn't make a connection either.
It was at this time that Harry noticed that his scar was causing a small discomfort, but he didn't think much about it at first. Harry linked the discomfort to all the studying he had been doing and all the practice in spell-work. It was when he tried to clear his mind that he noticed that the feeling in his scar was similar to that he experienced when Quirrell had been around and when they had tried to resurrect Voldemort last year.
As Harry lay in bed clearing his mind for Occlumency exercise he again noticed the dull discomfort and tried to track it down. It was coming from that area he had walled off long ago and used as a place to hold intruders in his mind; the area that had contained a piece of Voldemort's soul, a piece that had been mostly removed by Lucy when she found it. There seemed to be a weak connection here still, so Harry tried to follow that connection back to the source – no such luck. Harry strengthen his mental barrier and the discomfort became less, so he left it that way for now.
When the group got together Harry mentioned the discomfort to Hermione as they encouraged the others to work on their own Occlumency shields and to keep them strong. After a short review of the techniques used for Occlumency Harry and Hermione started to really teach the subjects that they had mastered. The two skipped the subject matter that the rest knew and reinforced what was new and or misunderstood. Tori had several private lessons from Harry as she was the one most behind due to her age. The twins worked with everyone with potions since they were the most comfortable and knowledgeable with that subject. The professors soon noticed a difference in the work of several students in class.
It was during a break that Harry, Hermione, and Neville were talking about Horcrux that the idea came up that they might have been made out of items from all the Founders. This seemed to make sense since the ones they knew of were from the different houses, diary, locket, and ring from Slytherin – not to mention Tom Riddle himself. Harry counted himself as the item from Gryffindor, that left Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff to look in to. "Now I think the items would be something special, like the ring and locket, from each house. What items would meet that criteria?" Harry asked.
It was Luna who offered a suggestion, the missing Ravenclaw Diadem, it had been missing for a very long time and thought to have been stolen by Helena Ravenclaw, Rowena's daughter. When Susan heard what the threesome were talking about she suggested the Hufflepuff Cup, a heirloom of Helga Hufflepuff. Then Luna suggested that they take a look at the bust of Rowena in the Ravenclaw quarters to see what the diadem looked like. And Susan said there was a portrait of Helga in the Hufflepuff quarters and it showed the cup; both were viewed.
It was Dobby who remembered that he had seen something like the diadem in the "come and go room", but when asked if he could show them he told them it was a Hogwarts secret. Lady Hogwarts gave Harry, Luna, and Susan the instructions to find and open the room. They went up to the seventh floor and paced back and forth in front of a picture of trolls doing ballet. A door appeared and when they entered they found a large room full of junk, this must be where the elves put stuff when they removed it from the castle or when they found stuff and nobody claimed it. It took the threesome a while but they finally found what they thought was the diadem sitting on a bust, the possession spell showed that the item most likely contained a soul piece. Harry used the charms Flitwick had shown him and found a compulsion charm on the diadem, which he removed.
The diadem was taken back to the ritual chamber and with Hermione, Luna, and Susan watching Harry removed the soul fragment and placed it into a sphere to be stored. The diadem was them placed in another sphere and taken to Flitwick to be examined more closely. When Flitwick examined the diadem he found a second spell on it that seemed similar to the spell on the ring so Harry tried removing it with Parseltounge – the spell was broken but it took a lot of power from Harry. All of the "kids" were glad they hadn't touched the diadem, that Parseltounge spell was nasty. It turned out that this was the Ravenclaw Diadem and it was placed in a very secure display for all the school to see, after Harry placed a few wards on the case in secret.
The "Fab Five" returned to the "come and go room" and searched it again just in case there was anything else there that might be of use, such as the Hufflepuff Cup, but found only junk, or so they thought. There were several old books located that Hermione went through to see if any of them were useful or contained helpful information. She found an old Potions book that someone had written in the margins many notes, and some of the notes were alternate instructions for potions. Inside the front cover was an inscription that said the book belonged to the Half-blood Prince and the book wasn't that old about 20 years at the most. What really got Harry's attention was a note signed Lilly telling the owner to basically drop dead.
Also amongst the old books was several books on Alchemy, two of them had what appeared to be Dumbledore's initials in them (APWBD). Alchemy hadn't been taught for many years so these might be of use for further study, the last alchemist Hermione could think of was Nicholas Flamel who, along with Dumbledore, had created the Sorcerer's Stone that caused such a mess their first year at Hogwarts.
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It was a week before Easter and Voldemort decided that it would be the right time to attack the Ministry of Magic and retrieve the prophecy that he had been chasing for so long. He created a portkey to take several of his minions to the Ministry only to have them caught up in the new wards when they landed. It was only two days later he found out why they never returned when he saw the front page of the Daily Prophet saying that the new wards had caught several Death Eaters when they tried to enter the Ministry. Voldemort's anger was evident as he inflicted pain on many of his followers. It was time to announce his return so he lead a raid on several families that had refused to join him in the past, or had fought him. One of the places he tried to attack was the Burrow, but the wards caught up the first Death Eater as soon as he landed.
What kind of wards were these, they sure hadn't been in effect when he left. The goblins were known to be neutral so he sent one of the LeStrange brothers to try and get some funds from Gringotts, another Death Eater was caught in the same type of wards. It was Malfoy's comment about the wards at Hogwarts that got Voldemort's attention; what were the same wards doing at so many locations, and who was responsible for them? And why was he so weak?
~X~X~X~
Rick Green was smiling, he had finally been given permission to return to England. He had been recalled to the States just after Christmas due to an increased amount of cases for the MBI and the powers that be wanted a more concise report of what was going on over in England. Rick had given his report and the caseload had been reduced after it was discovered that the cause wasn't in the US but coming from south of the border. A few simple changes in the border wards and the problem was contained, now the mundanes could deal with their drug problems without magical help.
~X~X~X~
Most of the students weren't going home for Easter Break this year due to fear that Death Eaters might attack again. But Harry and Neville had agreed to take a trip to Peaks and from there to go to where the ironwood trees that Harry knew about were located. Harry had changed into his phoenix form for the trip and flashed the two to Peaks, from there they flashed to the trees.
"Well Neville here are the only Ironwood trees that I know about. I really hope you can find a way to get them to grow in a greenhouse plus increase their rate of growth. If there is anything I can do to help just tell me what you need" Harry explained as they looked at the trees.
Neville did something Harry had not seen before, Neville just sat down and laid his hands on the tree that appeared to be the largest. It was a few minutes later when Neville got up, pulled a few simple tools from his pack and then started to dig up a very small plant. Once he had the plant dug up and placed in a magical pot Neville said it was a very young tree that had just started to grow and would be an excellent one to transplant to a greenhouse. Neville also explained that he didn't think the tress had grown here on their own, someone had transplanted these here a long time ago and possibly forgotten them.
"You know Harry it would be nice if you had another bird form, then we could fly around and look to see if maybe there were other stands of these trees somewhere. A phoenix isn't too common and would cause people to notice us. From what I have been able to determine this tree usually grows in the desert and not up here in the mountains. Maybe Alana knows where we could possibly find more of these or could give us a lead as to where to look." Neville said.
The two boys transformed again and went back to Peaks to speak with Alana and maybe the Herbology instructor about where to look for more of these trees. It turned out that the name Ironwood was used for several different trees all over the world and some were not as dense as the ones they had looked at first. The best lead they received was to look in the southwestern part of the US near the border, about 200 Km west of Tucson. Harry flashed them to the area, or as close as he could going by the map Alana had shown him, and they did indeed find some more of the trees. While they were there Harry got the chance to see up close a desert side-winder and added that form to his list of snake forms. While he was there Harry collected more wood for wands and staffs from a few of the trees and Neville collected several seed pods.
Harry and Neville returned to Peaks and enjoyed a snack with Alana, then Neville went to talk with the Herbology instructor as she had more knowledge about American plants than Neville and might be willing to try and grow the trees here in the Peaks greenhouses. Harry and Alana talked about the time compression Alana had setup for the aurors training site. After a few hours the two boys returned to Hogwarts and brought everyone else up to date on their trip, after the update Harry stored his wood supplies.
A/N: Several people have asked about Rick, this chapter explains where Rick has been and why he has been absent from the story.
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