Getting Back to Azkaban
A/N # 1: Obviously I write AU. If you want canon turn back now because you are going to be severely disappointed.
A/N#2: I appreciate you helping with fixing errors and asking questions. A big thanks to reader1writer1 for some excellent help.
Chapter 14: Reaping the harvests.
The trip to Hogwarts was arranged and carried out with full military precision. While Marge was keeping Voldemort's number one spy enthralled with a crash course in Genetics, Global Strike Forces could have taken a lesson from the goblins on how to deploy troops. One minute the goblin contingency was checking off the last of their lists and then they were grabbing the portkey to take them to the drop off point that had been agreed upon earlier that night. No one who was not directly involved in the project saw anything.
The Goblin King had sent a team ahead and had them set up a base camp from where they would process the basilisk without the danger of working in enclosed or unsafe conditions. He had told Harry the truth when he said he needed to be up and ready by eight. It had not been necessary to send Harry with the advance team. Therefore, Harry did not go with the advance team.
Eight o'clock the next morning found Harry managing to stand on his feet thanks to the travel lesson Marge had given him and Dudley just before bed last night. Dudley, travelling with him, staggered but stood also. Marge had explained that when working with the goblins it was important to keep on your feet because to fall was a sign of weakness that oftentimes led to a power struggle. It was simply easier to let them think that one stood because of the strength of one's magical core rather than a simple case of disorientation.
Harry and Grimtooth let the Captain of the Guard knock at the door and request admittance to the castle proper for them. The goblin bowed slightly to Dumbledore who was waiting in the great hall to greet the goblin contingent. As he stood he presented a scroll to the headmaster. "Our Nation's King sends his regards. He has asked that you take a minute and review the contract that the two of you agreed upon when you spoke through the fire yesterday. We have come to salvage and process the remains of a basilisk which was killed by one whom the Nation recognizes as both friend and family. If you have any other requests of the Nation they will be considered at the proving."
Dumbledore opened the door and waved the small party in. "Come in, come in. Let us sit and draw a steady breath while I read and set my seal to this document which the Goblin King has so graciously written to legalize this transaction."
Harry's eyes narrowed as he glared at the wording the old man used. Recognizing that there might be trouble later if he skipped any part of the salvage process he stood and cast sonorous on himself. "I, known and recognized here at Hogwarts as Harry James Potter, come knowingly to claim salvage rights to the basilisk which I slew with the aid of Fawkes, a Phoenix, and the Sorting Hat, a magical construct which delivered to me the Sword of Gryffindor by which means I delivered the killing blow to the basilisk. I received no aid in destroying the beast from human hands although Ronald Bilious Weasley had attempted to aid me, but was stopped when part of the tunnel we were in collapsed trapping him on the other side of the fall."
He took a breath and began again, "I know of no human besides myself who has a claim to the basilisk carcass. I will, however, ensure that because of the location and the other people involved in the incident, make reparation payment to Hogwarts from the proceeds of the sales, and will donate to certain individuals compensation for their time and effort in aiding my successful mission."
Dumbledore slapped the parchment down on the table and began to read. He was vexed with the King's audacity to send the paper to begin with. He hated it when he was limited to certain terms when handling treaties and this could have been a lucrative deal had he not had to follow protocol.
But, follow protocol he must. He called for Minerva to bring his small pensive so that he could pull the memory of their conversation and compare it point by point with what the King had written. He called for refreshments for everyone while he organized the verification team. He could not even use the people he normally would because he had Professor Flitwick standing there saying he would handle the pensive memory since it was his specialty as a Charms Master. The goblins had then provided their Pensive observer and then requested that he name an examiner for the contract. Of course Severus Snape just had to volunteer to do duty for him…
None of this was going the way he wanted it to. Harry was supposed to help him, not be one of the bad guys. Where had it all gone wrong? That blasted prophecy had a lot to answer for. He had spent some sixteen years trying to get it to end favorably and now he had this mess blow up in his beard!
Once the paperwork was taken care of all the team had to do was go up to the second floor and open the bathroom sink. The goblins found it vastly amusing to slide down the pipe and with little more than a desire to have a great deal of fun they quickly found a tunnel that led out into the forest extremely close to where the base camp was set up.
It soon became apparent that the goblins were making extra trips out through the tunnel just so they could come back in and jump down the pipe. How Dumbledore really felt about that was subject for another day. It really was not comparable to the water slide at Six Flags over Texas, but some days it is just the little things that count.
Every bit of the carcass that was usable was salvaged and accounted for. Even with the paltry sum of 20 percent of the proceeds going to Hogwarts, the school was set for several decades. What really caused Dumbledore to become emotionally distraught was the way the rest of the beast was divided: Harry took 20 percent, the Nation took 20 percent, the Victims of the basilisk was given 20 percent, and the last 20 percent was put into a trust fund from which other magical British schools, hospitals, and orphanages could receive aid when needed.
When the Victims found out that Harry had set up a trust fund to fund different charities from the sale of his basilisk they too decided to put money into the fund. The fund got an even bigger boost when Colin Creevy and Ginny Weasley wrote a series of articles and took pictures of the Chamber of Secrets.
There was just no way that Albus could hide the Chamber of Secrets and use it for anything other than what it was probably originally intended for after the articles were published. The children loved to play on the slide as much as the goblins had. Hogwarts took it upon herself to build a small block fort at the end of the tunnel where the children could make their way out of the chamber and walk back into the school through a small courtyard.
Eventually the basilisk was rendered down and sent out into the world to be used. Harry Potter became even more wealthy than he was previously and the Potions Master Snape could be seen wandering the halls at random times muttering about some people just have all the luck while others who work all their lives have little to nothing to show for it.
But, again, all of that was for a different day. At this point Grimtooth and Harry were upstairs in the Hospital wing speaking to Healer Pomfrey regarding the possibility of her performing the operation to remove the horcrux from Harry. Poppy was not thrilled that she was being asked to stop someone's heart, but she did recognize that they had a valid plan. She also felt that it would be in Harry's best interest to not have the procedure done. At least that is what she said.
As she was telling Harry and Grimtooth that while the idea had merit she could see no real way to accomplish the task. Harry would simply have to go to St. Mungo's and see what the people upstairs in spell trauma could do for him. Then she handed him a prescription for pain medications and told him to have it filled at the same time.
Harry caught on to what she was really doing and stopped arguing with her. "I really wish you would do this for me, Poppy. I trust you like my own mother."
Poppy laughed. "I don't need flattery, Harry. Now get out of my office and if your head is hurting I suggest you go get some pain potions from St. Mungo's."
Grimtooth played his part. "I do not see the logic of you sending my son to a different hospital when you could do the operation here just as easily." He snarled.
Poppy Pomfrey had lived a long time at Hogwarts and knew most of what went on around her. For several years now things had not been right with Albus Dumbledore and his Harry Potter obsession. She had known from the first that there was something off about the little boy that Lily and James brought in for her to admire. The child's magic simply did not match that of his supposed parents.
Lily told her later that the baby had been born at the hospital the same day she and Petunia had been taken to the hospital after being in an auto accident. Poppy knew that the pregnancy dates were not correct so she did a bit of digging at the hospital where the Evans girls had been taken. She left there seething mad that Albus Dumbledore would play with people's lives the way he did. There was no way she could fix the problem either without letting him know she was on to his game.
Poppy had been keeping a detailed journal of all the abnormalities at Hogwarts and passing the notes off to her friend Augusta Longbottom to feed the information to Algie Croaker, an Unspeakable who worked at the Department of Mysteries downstairs in the Ministry of Magic.
Harry and Grimtooth went back downstairs to where the goblins were just finishing up the project by cleaning the site so that none of the blood or venom would be accidently ingested by someone in the Chamber later. Most of the contingent would be staying at the base camp for at least another day, but Harry, Grimtooth, and Dudley would head back to Gringotts London just as soon as the reinforcement guard for the project site showed up.
The reinforcement guard was right on time. They showed up some fifteen seconds after Voldemort and a bunch of his minions apparated in on the site.
Harry walked out of the tent and encountered the self styled dark lord. He was in pain from being that close to the source of most of his headaches disregarding the possession. "Hey, Voldie, figures you'd show up after all the work is done. What can we do for you?"
Voldemort's red eyes gleamed with anger. "I just came away from a discussion with a friend of ours and I want to kill you because I am tired of your constant interference."
Harry just shrugged, "OK, I was actually on my way to see a friend about helping me kill myself, but this will work just as well probably."
Voldemort was usually very long winded about this sort of thing, but it is not often that one's mortal enemy gives them permission to kill them. He decided to quiet down and get the job done. Without further thought as to why someone would want to be killed he raised his wand and incanted aveda kedavara. The spell hit Harry right where it did the last time. The results were also rather like the last time.
Harry stood there screaming with blood trickling down his face and Voldemort was writhing around smoking and steaming as he got smaller and smaller. Dudley, being the smart arse twit he usually was, started singing, "Ding dong the witch is dead, which old witch…"
He did turn and catch Harry as he started to tumble though. He was just in time to witness the curse scar on Harry's head emit a strange black tinged cloud that screamed also then seemed to shatter into ashes carried away by the wind.
Healer Bloodroc peeked his head outside of the tent and snarled, "Get him in here so we can monitor him. We have a lot of work to do on that boy before he is completely healed."
Dudley scooped Harry up and carried him back into the tent. While all the death eaters were watching their lord and master discussing the weather and other topics with Harry the goblins had been binding them tight with goblin magic and portkeying them off the site and into a lovely reception area just outside the goblin holding cells.
Some ten minutes after the main batch of prisoners were escorted up from the goblin cells and walked publically through Diagon Alley and into the Leaky Cauldreon. From there the political prisoners were escorted to the Ministry of Magic where they were escorted to another set of cells while they awaited trial by the Wizengamot.
The march of shame of some twenty prominent wizards dressed as death eaters by goblins dressed for war had captured a lot of attention. One such person happened to be Petunia Evans Dursley. It took her all of five seconds to figure out what had happened. It took her another five seconds to spot Lucius Malfoy in the line and that was when the shit hit the fan.
Lucius Malfoy learned the folly of his ways when the skinny, horse-necked witch moved right up into his face and began screeching. The gist of the rant was that since he was such a stupid two-faced, manby pamby, mealy mouthed, inbred, homicidal maniac that she would never relinquish custody of her son to him and furthermore when her boys got back from Hogwarts she would be filing legal action against him to remove the other son from his custody since he was forever spending his vacations from reality in various jails while his stupid slut of a wife committed adultery, or was that bestiality, with a pseudo snake.
It then became a bit of a game for the people in the alley to name all the death eaters in the line up. Marge had instigated the game while Vernon was writing down various bets as a bit of fun on the side. It turned into a 'kodiak' moment when Marge became excited and started waving and calling at her father and older brothers.
For some reason Rockwood Sr., did not really want the whole of Diagon Alley to know he was a death eater that had just been caught again. He was so cross in fact that he stepped out of line and tried to kick her.
That turned out to be a waste of time because the next thing he knew he was suspended upside down and the draft that usually swirled under his robes was now chilling him unmentionables. Needless to say that sight did more to scar the psyche of the inhabitants of the alley than any death eater attack could ever have wished to do.
Marge simply made the comment as she did the flippindo spell and set him back on his feet that when her dogs picked up fleas and such she decontaminated them posthaste. It would appear that the last sixteen years of being gone from the wizarding world had not cleaned some of the inhabitants up at all. Maybe part of the terrifying image of encountering a death eater was the fear of being infected by tiny livestock?
The ladies would have probably stayed to get a little more of their own back but the sight of Grimtooth showing up without Harry and Dudley set off Petunia's parental instincts and she immediately nudged Marge and inclined her head in his direction. They turned and followed him back to the bank without asking any questions. Somehow they just knew that whatever it was he had to tell them it was not going to be as welcoming as most of the news they had been hearing lately.
The sight of Harry lying on a hospital gurney was not Petunia's first choice of 'meet and greet your only son'. The only reason she did not go into panic mode was the fact she had seen Death pick the boy up and throw him back out the door more than once. For some reason the Grim Reaper did not want the child known as Harry Potter and no matter how miserable and painful the boy's wounds were, he always got sent back from 'there' with a large metaphorical rejection stamp slapped on him.
So, taking a deep breath to compose herself, she threw back her shoulders and marched across the room to where Dudley was sitting beside him, shoulders hunched and tear tracks visible on his pale drawn face. "You might as well stop crying, Dudley. If growing up in our house did not kill him a stupid spell fired at him is not going to do the job."
Dudley looked up at her, a wan smile flittered across his face as he processed what she had said. "Mum, he didn't even think twice about it, he just went out to meet the snake man and the sick bastard just threw the killing curse at him as easily as you put sugar in my tea cup."
Petunia grinned at him. "Son, putting sugar in your tea cup has always been a lot of work. I either need to cheat and use a serving spoon before I bring the cup to the table or I just scoop sugar into the cup and add tea."
Marge, standing beside the indomitable Petunia, heard them bantering gently and felt a small flash of jealousy that she had not been equal to the task of raising this child. She knew in her heart of hearts that she could have tried harder to keep him with her. And then the spark burnt out and she was looking at the boy whom she loved to call neffy-poo simply because he wanted everyone to recognize him as a hulking big lad. She had been there a lot while he was growing up and had done her share of damage while contributing to his delinquency. It really was only due to Harry, dementors, and boarding school that Dudley turned out ok.
So, there they were back to gathering around a sick bed waiting for news. Healer Bloodroc had cast several spells which the healers at St. Mungo's were not sure were even legal, but if they kept Harry alive then no one was going to argue with him.
Vernon was another one who really believed that Harry would be fine. He had seen the boy conquer insurmountable odds ever since he came to live at Number Four Privet Drive. The ladies pretended for each other. Dudley just desperately clung to the fact that Harry could not quit now that he was so close to winning. And then Draco Malfoy, who had been waylaid by Dobby, walked in on the family and all hell broke loose.
The first thing he did was tell everyone to get up off their dead asses and do something positive. As they all stared at him in shock he smirked and said, "Potter has been in the hospital more times and longer than any other student in our year. All he is doing is sleeping and rebuilding his magical core. I have seen him like this twenty times already and will probably see another hundred before our lives are over. Now, put some positive energy into this room."
The goblins saw the wisdom of what the young Malfoy was saying. Maybe a good party would generate enough energy to rejuvenate Harry faster. They actually had something to celebrate. The sale of the basilisk parts would make Gringotts London the top quarterly earner for all Gringotts banks and would probably be enough over the next quarter to make them top yearly earnings for the system also.
Grimtooth was called in and the situation was discussed. A party was definitely in order. He decided that the party would start in the Gringotts lobby and spread out into the Wizarding shopping district. The ambient magic levels always surged when the magical world danced properly. His theory was that cross species dancing and singing should make for some unprecedented energy spikes. It might even raise the protection levels of the wards guarding the alley from the muggle world.