Chapter 21
The Ministry had been taken, and Amelia Bones had come through it unscathed. She was shocked at how quickly it had all come together. Her own Auror forces were split, on the one hand, the aurors she felt she could trust in to do the right thing, had all turned and sided with the invaders, in most cases working alongside the invaders.
The oldest knew Sirius Black from when he was an Auror, and the younger generally followed the lead of the older.
It had been a given all along, during the 'search' for the escaped convict that if he was found by one of the light aurors, he would have been unnoticed, and escaped detection. It was a wonderful thing in Amelia's eyes when Pettigrew had been captured and Sirius had finally gotten a trial, and been exonerated of all charges.
She had asked him if he was interested in being her head Auror, but he declined, saying his responsibility for his Godson was paramount, but if she needed a hand on some specific things, he was available.
Amelia and Sirius were not that much different in age, she tended to look older than she was, due to her style of dress, in order to appear more conservative she would wear severe stern looking clothes whenever someone was around, but her niece Susan knew that her auntie's favorite getup was more appropriate for a 60's beach party, California style.
Right now she was in her office thinking about leaving and finding a beach somewhere, her head Auror was giving her a hard time about her cooperation with the invaders.
"Rufus, just get with the program, please, both you and I know that too many of the people in the former Ministry were, no ARE corrupt, all a criminal had to do was make a big enough payment and you could literally get away with murder, Malfoy proved that, along with the other dozen Death Eaters he bribed out of the Veil."
Scrimgouer started to protest, but Amelia cut him off.
"I know it stirred up a bees nest of anger, but look at it this way, now you can go and cultivate new political allies without the worry of their crimes taking you down with them as well."
That shut him up.
"Now, there are going to be big changes, but this doesn't mean things have to be completely different, with a bit of wisdom we can improve the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.. now, did you see the tactics used by the different groups yesterday?, I was quite impressed with Lupins Lycan forces, they were efficient and never used more force than needed to get the job done.."
she was interrupted.."But they are dark creatures, werewolves.."
"Rufus, you have to get your head out of the past, after today, there will not be a classification for 'dark creature, maybe an individual, but not as a class.. Greyback, now there's a dark creature, a criminal who revels in violence who works at being evil..but the average werewolf?, all they want is a regular job and to be left alone.. the only reason so many turn to criminal activity is they are hungry and hopeless. Look at the statistics right here!"
she threw a folder across the desk and thumped it with her finger.
"The crimes attributed to werewolves, look at the day they dropped off, and a week later, virtually stopped, do you know why?"
Rufus knew, he just didn't want to say.
"Because that's the week Black sent out invitations to every werewolf in the UK and part of Europa, and he offered them all jobs and wolfsbane and something to live for.. That's why!, now why didn't any of OUR people think of this.. think of it Aurors who are three times as fast and four times as strong as our best auror.."
"I know, I know, but can they be trusted?"
"Rufus, have you been listening to that idiot Umbridge again?, you know as well as I do as an administrator, you show trust and respect for your people and they will jump to be the best they can be, now think, because of the stupid laws we have had to enforce, we have a bunch of disaffected angry, overpowered potential criminals..NOW, Black and Lupin have a mercenary force of over 200 people who will do ANYTHING for them..we should consider ourselves damn lucky that Sirius is on our side."
Scrimgouer scowled. "I still don't like him, never did."
Amelia smirked. "That's because he's one of the three people on the force who you could never beat in a duel"
The lion haired man said nothing, but they both knew that she was right.
"Moody is overseeing this, you know."
This got Scrimgouer's attention.
"What?"
"Moody was captured last year and held prisoner, Black and Potter freed him, and are overseeing his recovery.. they asked him to help and he agreed, I assume, he decided that his moral compass would keep everyone honest, or maybe, he just wants to be at the center of the action."
Scrimgouer sighed.
"What do you want me to do, Director?"
Harry and Hermione arrived back at Hogwarts after the takeover of the Ministry. They managed to avoid the worst of the crowds swarming, asking questions, because they never actually passed through the main part of the school.
Harry used his dedicated portkey and ended up at Potter's Keep, and after a short turn-around there, used the cage to get inside the Wards of Hogwarts.
The cages were still very limited, and there were only a few.
Potter's keep, The back door to the Chamber of Secrets, also known as Centaur Village, The Tower, above Gryffindor Tower. And an industrial warehouse East of London. Gringotts had one in a secure room as well.
In another few days, there would be another transport cage, in the Potter Industrial Group tower, which had direct access to the Ministry.
The couple slipped into their tower room, and crashed on the couches.
There was activity in the room, as the roundup of Death Eaters and named sympathizers was still going on. They had caught a
high percentage of the named Death Eaters, there were a few who were out of the country, hiding or just out of public access.
From every evidence they could find there were only 153 named Death Eaters and probably 300 active sympathizers. In their interrogations the new revolution built dossiers on every person named, either by association, family member, however slim the connection.
It was a testament to the smallness of the wizarding world that it seemed like everyone knew everyone.
The tribunal met several times, every member and had to work out sentences for each and every level of crime.
It was quickly ascertained that to receive the Dark Mark on your arm, at minimum one cold blooded murder, involving deliberate torture was involved.
After having viewed several memories of these events, the entire group, without a single dissenter ruled that having the Dark Mark was a death sentence.
They also decided that if one took that mark, all the assets, real and otherwise were to be seized and used in the reparations funds.
There was a bit of a problem with some of these assets, though, for many of the DE s had very dark objects in their possession or in their vaults.
Once again, the Goblin mercenaries were hired, to dispose of such artifacts, with the proviso that anything they found that had a parseltongue spell or curse on it was to be saved for Harry and Bill to dispose of.
Deep in the bedrock of the Earth, the Goblins took the dark items and drained the magic out of said object, and that magic was neither light nor dark, it just was. That magic was diverted to wards and goblin based uses.
Luna had taken over the meditation chamber and had been in there for several hours.
She was collating thoughts and threads leading to assorted potential realities when Hermione stuck her head in looking for the blond girl.
The soon to be Lady Potter looked in and tried to quietly remove herself, so as to not disturb her friend.
"Hermione, stay..please"
The blond Ravenclaw beckoned her older friend to herself, opening her eyes.
She patted the platform next to her, there in the center of the runic protection circle. Hermione moved in and sat down, cross legged, next to the girl. Luna threw her arms around the bushy haired Gryffindor and pulled her tightly in a hug.
"I am so glad you are here, Hermione, I just want to hold you so tightly, and never let you go.."
Hermione peeled the girls arms from around her, so she could breathe.
"Why is that Luna, I just spoke with you yesterday, it's not like I have not seen you in a year or something"
Luna re-attached herself to Hermione, but didn't hug so tightly this time, and the older girl inwardly sighed at the situation. "Talk to me Luna, make me understand, please"
Luna laid her head on Hermione's shoulder and sighed. "If I must..I must."
she got a determined look on her face, but kept her head where it was.
Hermione looked sideways, trying to suss out what the girl was talking about.
"I have explained how I see the potential realities, the possibles and the different paths, the myriad ways?"
Hermione nodded, remembering the girl's explanation that day last year.
"Well, I let my mind's eye travel up as many of the paths as I can, until they either come to a good conclusion or not, some have been horrible to contemplate, some have been terribly embarrassing, well for me, anyway, A huge number of the bad endings were cut off today, with the capture and death of Tom.. and the Headmaster..with either or both of them, our Harry dies a lonely death, and we are lost..all of us."
Luna twisted around and faced the older girl directly. She was sitting on her knees, facing Hermione, her hands cradling her friend's face.
"I don't know if you understand just how close we came to losing our entire world, it may have taken a year or two, but if Tom had lived, the entire world would have died."
Luna's face was streaked with tears, and she waited for some kind of answer, some kind of response from Hermione.
Hermione hesitantly put out her hand and placed it on the girl's waist and that triggered it. Luna jumped forward and engulfed Hermione in her arms, knocking both girls over. Hermione was partially stunned, having landed on her back with the wind knocked out of her, a squirming Luna on top of her. She though nothing of it, and just patted the girl on the back, trying to calm her fears. Luna, however was responding oddly, and Hermione felt some shock when the younger girl nipped on her neck, and inhaled as if breathing in the scent of your lover.
"Ohno, nonononnooo" her mind was frantically trying to grasp what was happening..
She pushed back on the blond girl and wriggled and got up on her elbows and tried to get out from under, her hair flying away everywhere.
"Luna..Luna..LUNA!"
The younger girl froze in shock, and realized what she had done.
She went instantly red all over and jumped back almost too quick to see.
"Oh, my, I'm sorry, I..I..oh.." she began to cry.
Hermione realized what was going on.
Quickly she conjured up a pair of chairs with a table between them. She practically lifted the young witch into a chair and sat on the other side of the table.
A mental message to Winky and a tea service appeared silently.
Hermione took solace and pleasure in the small rituals of tea. If she had been born in Japan, she would be doing the proper tea ceremony now. Ritual must be followed.
As a proper British Lady, she let Luna compose herself and served her tea. Luna followed ritual automatically, allowing her to get her mind together.
"Luna, I am sorry, I interrupted your meditation, I should not have distracted you." "I understand the risks of distraction while working on your inner organization..I have possibly caused you embarrassment or confusion, I promise as your friend and as a witch that I will keep your secrets on this matter.."
Luna dabbed her eyes, wiping away the tears, and rolled her eyes up and to the side, not really able to look at her friend.
"Um..I think you know, I just reached my womanhood.." she sniffed.
"I have seen so many..sooo..many things.." she broke down crying.
Hermione pulled out her lace hankie and gave it to the girl, and held her as best she could over the table, pulling her head down to her shoulder and patting her back.
"Lets not think about what could have been, you yourself said that now that Tom and the old man are dead, those things won't happen.. right?"
Luna sniffed and sat back, wiping her eyes.
"yes, I suppose you are correct.. it is hard not to think about these other things though." she sighed.
Hermione took her by the hands.
"I have seen it myself, in life and in literature, when faced with death and destruction, a person wants to celebrate life.. it is a common thing to have a baby boom whenever an army comes home from war.. your reaction is much like that, I suspect that your hormones are a bit out of kilter just now.."
Luna sniffed a bit and bowed her head "Yes and no..I saw one future with you and Harry...and I...together." She could not lift her head.
"I cannot get that out of my head, and I have been trying to put it in a box, store it away." She paused. "I could feel the emotions my potential self had..I liked them, and I want them."
Hermione understood exactly what the blond girl was speaking of, she had seen the basics that Mr Cromwell had taught both Luna and Harry on how to protect their mind.
Harry had several file drawers of things he had experienced and did not want to remember, but was unwilling to risk the possibility of losing some important memory.
"What do you mean by...together?"
"I mean that...by some set of ...circumstances, I..um..I.."
Luna burst out crying. Hermione could not help but care for the girl.
The table vanished and the girl was engulfed in the arms of the Gryffindor witch, who hugged her and smoothed her hair and let her cry on her shoulder.
Hermione sent a mental message to Harry:
"Luna is distressed and I need to help her..but I am not sure about my telepathy yet.."
Harry sent back.
"You can do it , you are the most capable witch in our country if not the world, you will do fine..I will stand watch in case you need me."
Hermione whispered in her friend's ear.
"I am going to see if I can help, I am going to enter your mind, with your permission."
Luna said nothing, but nodded. Hermione leaned back enough to look the young Ravenclaw in the eyes. They were tending toward blue today, a sign that the girl was suffering from stress or pain, or some other emotional excess.
The area she could see was the entrance to a great hall, an edifice of epic proportions.
Avatar Luna appeared, wearing the ceremonial robes of the ancient Greek Vestal Virgins
"Follow me please"
Hermione followed down a stone paved path, lined with all manner of magical flowers and plants, great tall sunflowers with faces, who sang and talked to all passersby.
Creeping roses which snapped to attention as the guide and her charge approached, Snapping daisies which wanted to nibble at your ankles.
They found themselves at a small door off to the side of the great entrance, an obscure door, almost unnoticeable in the towers of green jade.
The guide knocked on the door, and a small portal opened. Hermione was not paying attention to this, because her attention was drawn to a curious creature which phased n and out of visual existence off to the side of the door.
The creature had a vaguely tubular body, and no apparent legs, but it did have three circles rotating around itself. Purple and green circles, like a hoop around a pickle. It had a singular eye which looked back and blinked.
The creature made a sound that was along the lines of 'blbrblbrblbr' and the circles rotated faster and it zipped away, off to some other location.
The Luna which answered the door smiled and thanked the guide, and invited Hermione inside.
"I see you met Fenton, he usually hangs out here by the door."
"He, at least I think of him as a 'he' is a blibbering humdinger.. sometimes if you watch closely in the physical world, you can see them near tasty magic.."
The door closed behind them. "Let me introduce myself, I am the head archivist, I make sure all the potentials get sorted into the appropriate files..this last cluster of realities has taken quite a toll on Miss, and I will be glad when things return to something like normal."
Hermione was somewhat stunned at the maturity and seeming sanity of this version of Luna.
She was led into a maze of halls, all branching out into various directions.
"Over this way, it seems that you and your mate have become a part of us, in more ways than one."
They stopped at a branch. There was a stone arch, with oak doors, with runes and odd symbols carved on it. There were fairies and nymphs fluttering around, in and out of the foliage that was growing over and around the stonework.
The door opened.
"The first door. It is sealed. I do not know why, but even I cannot access it, I suspect something traumatic."
The archivist, who looked like a librarian looked at her clipboard over her gold rimmed glasses.
"As far as I can tell, this potential occurs sometime within the next year."
she looked apologetically at her guest. "I am on unmarked paths here, as a seer, most who have a gift cannot see anything about themselves, but can sometimes infer what the path is by looking at the negative space, as it were, by looking at the shape of what is not there."
"However, this seems to be out of the ordinary." she walked down the hallway, toward the next doors, some of which were closed, but some were open.
Her heels clicking on the floor, she kept talking.
"Something is missing ahead, a great absence and quite a bit of pain behind these doors, again, we have not tried to enter."
"Here we are, the first open door."
They stopped and saw inside.
There in a room that Hermione recognized as part of The Keep's private rooms, Harry and Hermione sitting on a couch and Luna laying on their laps, sleeping, and tears running down all their faces. Luna's head was in Hermione's lap, and her body in Harry's, his hands clutched in hers.
The next door showed Harry leaving from the private quarters where it looked obvious that the three were living together. Hermione reading and writing something, Luna curled up with a book in her lap, petting Crookshanks and what was obviously two bedrooms in the background.
All in all it looked like a family flat in The Keep.
The Hermione in the memory jumped up , because she had gotten a mental message of some sort, Luna jumped up as well, wanting to help, She ran to the wall and activated it and there outside was a visual of Shala on her island, under attack by some great sea beast every bit as big as she was, but without flight capability.
Memory Hermione grabbed her comm mirror and was calling people and making plans, as they watched Harry on his broom fighting off the sea-beast and protecting his draconian friend.
"Come" Guide Luna led Hermione toward a set of open doors.
Inside Hermione could see the three friends in a darkened room, lit by a few candles. She could see flesh, and hair. Black, Brunette and Blond.
Older, and more mature, but still, intertwined.
The memory faded. Archivist/Guide Luna faced the brunette.
"Now you know why Miss is upset and disturbed, she is just now reaching her womanhood, and these are new feelings and thoughts..
it is unfamiliar territory, and she is not so sure whether she wants this path to occur or not. The telling point is what happens back there" she pointed to the first door in the sequence.
"We do not yet know what it is, and if it can be changed."
They walked back to the first door.
Hermione's mind racing, stunned at the potential for a ..relationship with both Harry and Luna, and wondering if she could do it, if she was capable of sharing, let alone what Harry or Luna were willing or capable of doing.. Some witches were just a one wizard witch, no sharing, but not knowing the circumstances was frustrating.
"There is nothing saying that this path HAS to come to pass, so we will just wait and see, I think.. but what worries me is that my friend Luna is somehow hurt, and possibly damaged or injured.. I can see clearly that she is emotionally traumatized, and I don't want that for her or anyone."
"May I" she indicated the sealed door. Guide Luna nodded.
Hermione laid her hands on the door and let her senses flow out and around the enchanted wood and stone. She found some small gaps in the seal of the door, some underneath and some by the lock, and peeked, ever so gingerly inside.
She pulled back instantly, shuddering at the shock, her nerves jangling at the feelings enclosed behind that door.
"I need to leave, I think I know how to help Luna."
The guide bowed and escorted her to the front door.
"Thank you Miss."
Hermione nodded and pulled out of the girl's mind.
The girls were locked in place, looking into each others eyes. Luna's had returned to their normal silvery gray. She seemed at peace.
"Ok, Luna, I think I have an idea of what needs to be done, right now, you need to do your centering and meditation. I will be right outside waiting on you." The blond girl visibly calmed herself and began her deep breathing. As Hermione left the ritual chamber, she said over her shoulder.
"I've seen a blibbering humdinger for myself, I will want you to show me how it is you see these things, please?"
Inwardly Luna smiled, this opened up a whole new path of potential realities, hat she would enjoy exploring.
Hermione sat on the stone steps outside the ritual chamber, thinking and came to a decision.
"Harry, Luna showed me some memories you need to know about."
I will show you two things, and I want you to do something for me, please.
"Anything for you, love"
"Set a squad of lycans, goblins, guards around Xeno Lovegood for the time being, don't let him go a day or an hour without some kind of guard, and assign someone to escort Luna whenever she is out of out of our protected places.. anywhere public.
"I will see to it today, may I ask why?"
"Because if Mr Lovegood is not protected, he is tortured and killed while Luna watches, and she will be assaulted, terribly so, I do not want either of those things to happen."
"By who?"
Bellatrix Lestrange, and some others who escaped the roundup."
she showed him the locked door and what was behind it, she showed him the attack on Shala.
She kept the memory of the three of them to herself.
"On it."
Mentally Hermione saw Harry activating his comm mirror and contacting Lupin, making arrangements, and she went on to her other thoughts.
/Shala?/
/Yes, child?/
/I want to show you a memory a friend saw from a potential future/
/show me/
Hermione showed the dragon the memory of the attack by the sea creature.
/what is that, and how do we stop it?/
/an old acquaintance of mine/
/he is the descendant of a shipmate/
/not of the home world/
/so why is he attacking you/
/why do any attack?/
/power, resources, knowledge, control/
/can we stop him?/
/you may not be able to/
/he is very powerful, thick skull/
/no magic will work/
/so, it would have to be a physical attack to stop a creature like that./
/very much so./
/you might want to look up Leftenant Creevy/
This left Hermione wondering.
She wrote a quick m-email to Colin asking if she knew such a a person, and sent it.
Harry finished setting up a security team to watch over Xeno, well, actually he delegated the task, and Mooney called back over the mirror
saying that he was at the point of needing more people to train as lycan forces..if he were able to expand as much as they needed to in the future, they would have the largest standing magical army ..security force in the world. At present they were stretched thin with two hundred lycan troops, and something would have to be done.
Harry asked if werewolves were treated well or badly around the world, and wondered if they could import foreigners to bring into the fold, as the Potter-Black conglomerate, under whatever name was spread around the world.
While he was talking he was sketching in his ever-present notebook.
There were initials. ILMM and over the initials, was a sideways eight, the symbol for infinity.
Under the whole image/logo it said
'Infinite Loop Materials Management'
He underlined it three times.
Hermione and Luna came up the stairs from the ritual/meditation room.
He folded his book closed and stuffed it away.
"How is it, ladies, excited about the new school and classes coming up?"
They had all talked to McGonnegal about the ideas for improving the school and the new classes and instructors, and how long it would take to get the new curriculum in place.
The Hogwarts elves were searching all the hidden places and towers finding the books missing from the library, things that over the years Dumbledore had decided were too dangerous to his plans, things he wanted no one to learn about, things he had wanted kept hidden.
One of the first things that McGonnegal did as Headmistress was call Binns into her office and ask him to retire as professor, and he was very happy to do so, He had been forced to recount the same useless knowledge over and over again for more than fifty years and never wanted to speak about goblins again. Ever. When asked if he was going on to the afterlife, he said he had a few people to haunt , some places he wanted to visit, but would cross over withing a few years.
McGonnegal wished him well and before he left, asked if there was someone he wanted his pay sent to, a descendant, or a friend, and he said that his entire salary had been stolen for the previous fifty years, in fact, ever since he was killed in his sleep.
"You were killed?, by who?"
"By Albus' little killer, Tom Riddle. He dosed me with a poison and a potion and bound me to the post, and I could not be released until the Headmaster or Headmistress of the School did so."
"So, you are saying that Albus was controlling Tom Riddle, in fact encouraging him to become a dark lord."
"That is what I said, Madam Headmistress."
"Oh my lands. No one ever realized how bad he was, he had us all fooled.
"Indeed he did, If I had been able to teach what I wanted to these last fifty years, I dare say there would have been no sleeping in my classes."
"I never knew. I wish I could ask you to tell us all these things, all this knowledge that has been suppressed.."
"Fear not Madame, I am not crossing over for at least ten years, I want to travel and visit all the places I used to know and visit the ghosts of the ancient places.. I dare say. Our young Mr Potter could help with many of those places, freeing people who want to leave this realm to finally be at peace.
"What do you mean, Professor?
"Young Mr Potter is the Master of Death, he owns the three hallows, you know. The Elder wand, the Cloak of invisibility and the Resurrection stone."
"I thought those were a children's story, are you saying they are real?"
"They are, and he controls them. He thinks he gave them back to Death and he is free of them, but he is not, he will own them and be The Master of Death until the day he lays his life down and crosses over voluntarily.
Binns got a grin on his face as she had never seen. "I suspect it will be when her time is over, he cannot live without her, you know."
"Miss Granger"
"The very one."
"My gods, it's nice to be free of that room and that bondage.. I wish I could dance with you Minerva, you were quite the looker when you were a seventh year, still are, in my opinion."
"Thank you, Professor, I must apologize, I never knew your first name, no one did, and it is not in your files..it just says . It has been a point of discussion for years, wondering what your name is."
"Well, I suppose, since you ARE Headmistress.."
he bent over and whispered it in her ear.
Her eyebrows went up to her hairline and she snorted, but kept herself from laughing.
The portly ghost started to fade. "I shall see you in a month or so, Minerva, stock up on dictation quills and parchment, I have a lot of history to tell you."
and he was gone.
She shook her head and actually laughed and applied herself to the huge stack of paperwork that needed done.
Harry stood and summoned a crate from storage. "I am going to go and see Mr Filch, anyone want to come along with me?"
The girls did not and returned to their studies, carefully stepping around the emotional stresses of the earlier evening.
Harry met Mr Filch at the door of his office. "Good evening Mr Filch, I said I would see you tonight and I needed to get away for a while, I have some things for you to use." He indicated the crate that was following him like an obedient puppy.
He turned to the crate and commanded. "This is Mr Filch, obey his orders and those of the Headmistress, no one else"
The crate dipped it's front on it's stubby legs, and waited for orders.
"Sir, you will need to touch it on the Hogwarts Badge for it to follow your orders. Touch it and say "Open"
Filch held Mrs Norris and looked at the thing.
"I can't do magic, you know that, Potter."
"I know that, you don't need to have any magic to make it work, it works off Hogwarts ambient magic, the same magic that makes the stairs move and the lanterns float in the Great Hall, and no one can make it do anything but yourself and the Headmistress, and me, of course, since I built it."
He touched the crate.
"Cleaning tools"
The crate opened and displayed a variety of tools, from dust rags, polishing compound, brooms, mops, the works.
"Every tool here is designed to work, based on the student's magic, it will clean whatever needs to be cleaned, but every bit of magic will be drawn from the student. I expect that there will be some tired students at the ends of a detention." He held up a broom and brushed the floor with it. The area was clean, spotless and the old ground in stains were almost gone. He brushed again two more times and the stains were all the way gone.
"The magic draw on the student is adjustable like this."
he turned a knob on the end of the handle. "Again, only adjustable by you." He turned it up to full and stroked a particularly bad spot where it was heavily traveled. "The power drawn is about the same as heavy spell casting, I could do this for a while, but a third year, probably about three sweeps before they are worn out."
He handed the broom to Filch. Mrs Norris moved up to his shoulder to watch. Filch turned the knob up and down.
"There is seven divisions separated into three levels each. Low, Medium and High, This is both a punishment and a tool to help the students.
"Seven divisions?" "Yes, seven first for firstie, seven for a seventh year.. don't want to harm a person with too powerful a draw on them."
"You understand that lifting weights can help you build muscle?"
Filch nodded. "This will help the students build magical strength. You might want to tell them that the stronger they are physically, the stronger they will be magically, I have noticed that Wizards are a lazy lot and no one does anything physical if they can help it.." he grimaced. "In the muggle world you see kids the age of the students here, fat and out of shape, waddling down the sidewalk, stuffing their faces and getting fatter."
He took the broom and put it back in the crate.
"All the tools are like this, adjustable and makes the subject work both magically and physically."
Filch nodded, but said nothing, an untelling look on his face.
"Here is one that will really help the school."
He pulled out of a special compartment a box. Well, it looked like a box.
"This is a paving stone maker. The student places it on the ground where you want the paver to be, and he has to push his magic into it until this rune lights up. When the Rune lights up, that means the paver is finished, and he can do the next one. It has one power setting, and I expect a firstie could do two or three stones before they are too tired to do another. This is a potentially hazardous tool, so it has a medical monitor charm on it,if the student is not able to make it work, it will not work, you don't want to send anyone to the infirmary for magical exhaustion."
"Won't it make the stone something to trip over?"
Filch asked.
"No, that's the beauty of it, it will sink in so it's flush with the ground, so if the path up from Hogsmeade is level, the pavers will be level. I suppose if we asked , you could have the Headmistress assign some detentions with the intent of leveling the ground, though someone would have to teach the spell for that."
"That sounds useful.. can we see it work?"
"Sure, lets go."
The odd couple went out the main doors of the castle and stood on the dirt road going down to Hogsmeade. The crate faithfully followed along behind, like a wiener dog with short legs.
Harry placed the creation at the base of the front steps and set it level, and touched his wand to the center rune. "There is no spell, just push magic into it."
The box slipped down and was flush with the surface of the road. The rune lit up and it popped out of the ground.
" you pick it up and place it in line with the previous paver and do it again."
he did so and shortly there was another paver. He did about a dozen more, paving across the width of the front steps.
"The pavers are rectangular, and once set, will lock with each other, forming a solid surface, but it will resist frost heaves and potholes."
both men were aware of that problem, for this part of Scotland was prone to hard cold winters.
Filch bent down and looked closely. What's that written there?"
"It has my name and the date I did it. These stones will be marked with he name of every student that has this detention."
"Really? I expect the Weasley boys will provide quite a bit of pathway.."
"They might surprise you Mr Filch, well, at least Fred and George, I have them too busy doing other things to get into trouble..by the way, they helped me with building this, but they can't change how it works, only
I can do that."
He handed the device to Mr Filch. Harry felt a jolt when he did, but the old man did not.
They put the device in the crate, which gobbled it up happily, eagerly waiting for another order. Mrs Norris jumped down from Filch's shoulder and onto the crate and curled up for a nap. The men walked back up the steps into the main doors of the Castle, the crate followed, keeping perfectly level so as to not dislodge it's passenger.
"Thank you, Potter, these will be a great help, as you say, it will help the little..students learn something."
They arrived at the office and the crate somehow grew in height and smaller in footprint, until it was the size of a filing cabinet, with Mrs Norris still asleep on top.
Harry sat down and the old man sat on his side of the desk. Winky made tea arrive silently.
"So, you said you went to Spain for your summer Holiday?"
"I was wondering, Mr Filch, who told you that you were a squib?"
before he could answer, Harry went on. "You are not, you know"
Filch spilled his tea "WHAT?" How do you know, What..how!
Harry held out his hand toward the older man.
The old man regarded that hand with fear and hesitation.
He gingerly held out his own hand, and before the two touched, a magical spark leapt across the gap.
FROM Filch to Harry
"You most definitely have magic in you, if someone told you that you were a squib, they lied. If you cannot do magic, then there is something blocking your magic.. I myself had several blocks on my magic up until I was killed yesterday."
"Now, I have to be careful doing anything magical, it's like I was carrying lead weights around forever."
"Look inside yourself, Sir, feel for the magic."
The older man looked into somewhere, into unfamiliar territory.
"I .. think I can see something.. like a glow from some far away window.."
"Move toward that light"
Later that night, Harry was doing his evening meditations, thinking about what he had found in the old caretaker's mind and magical core. So many blocks and compulsions and commands upon the old man, it was barely possible for him to act as a normal human being.
Harry determined that he would help all the victims of Dumbledore's scheming, and maybe he would be able to pull his adopted world back from the brink.
Hermione took advantage of the canceled classes for the day and entered the library. She gathered up the books and periodicals she had on her list for the day and went to the Smart Girl's corner.
She placed her armload in her normal place and a thought occurred to her, a remembrance of a conversation with Sirius and the portrait of Lily and James.
She looked around to see if anyone was around to see, pulled out the chairs around the table and crawled under it, and laid down on her back.
There in each corner and down the center line of the table were various runes carved and interlinked. At the head of the chain was a surprising rune, one that was surrounded by a crest. A Family crest. Hermione looked carefully at the carved crest and then at the ring she wore. It was the same.
The Crest of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter.
In the center of that crest was a rune. One that looked exactly like the scar on Harry's head, well, the scar that HAD been there before yesterday.
She noticed movement and looked over to see long legs wearing purple trainers.
"Hello Luna"
she spoke. The tall blond girl bent over to peer under the table.
"What are you doing Hermione?, looking for pillitweets?"
Hermione pointed at the carved runes. "I was looking at the work of the former SGC members.. it appears that the House of Potter is a predominant force with the intelligent women in this school."
Luna crawled under the table and lay on her back next to Hermione.
"I see, there, look at this one, a gender ward, allowing only females within a certain distance, but it is tied to the Potter crest as well."
"Yes, look here, there is an exception string..."
Some time later, Harry came into the library looking for the girls and found them there under the table with sketchbooks in hand as a camera as well, long sequences of runes drawn out, as if unfurling the lines of a tangled web.
"Ladies, would you two like to join me for a flight and lunch this afternoon?"
The girls waved him off. "This is too interesting, look, there's a..."
Hermione's commentary was interrupted by Harry crawling under there with herself and Luna. He laid comfortably on the stone pavers of the library floor and looked over the work that spanned back several hundred years.
Between the innate knowledge he had in the sphere of runic spellcasting, and the years of experience he had picked up when he and his avatar had questioned Tom Riddle's horcrux, and combined with all the other sources of knowledge, he pointed out the path that led back in time, as it were to the first set of runes added to this table.
It was warded against people with inferior minds, it was warded against males in general, with the exception of the Potter males, for some reason. Harry was beginning to recognize the different styles of rune carving, and when he came across some that he recognized as his mum's work, he just laid his hand on the phrasing, and said nothing, but the two girls knew.
He broke the silence. "A person could write their mastery thesis based on what's under this table, you know.."
"Well, well, what do we have here?" an amused voice broke their reverie.
They peered around the edge and saw a laughing Daphne Greengrass smirking at them.
"Quite the sight, three pairs of legs protruding out from under the table, what is it, I wonder? Some poorly worded spell?. Some unusual sexual shennanigans?, a dastardly plot of some sort?. "
The embarrassed trio rolled out of their supine study, and got to their feet, hastily placing their assorted study notes on the table.
"We were studying for our Runes Mastery, next time you should join us"
Harry gave Daphne a grin and the girl flushed.
"I'll just bet you were, Potter." she looked at the two females
"Remind me again why we hang out with this prat?"
The furor at the Ministry quieted down. The Tribunal made it's decisions about how to make their rulings and the sentences to be carried out.
They had decided that a Marked individual was beyond redemption, and as such was to be removed permenantly from society.
There was some discussion if that meant executing the person or if a complete wiping of the mind was sufficient.
The Department of Mysteries had some spells and magical methods which could do just that, and return a person to newborne status, and it was a varient of that spell cluster hat had been used on the de-aged Dudley, now Archie Harrison.
When asked for his opinion, Harry said the didn't mind if they could be sure that there was no possibility of a former Death Eater remembering, or acting in their former manner. In other words, do much the same as that which had been done to Dudley, and watch the children carefully and monitor them for the rest of their natural lives.
It was found that Harry's dragontongue/parseltongue ability could manipulate the dark mark that Tom Riddle had created, and remove it from the body and magical core of a person, leaving the former evil out of anyplace to dwell.
Hermione suggested that this was an opportunity to quantify and study the nature/nurture question. She was sure that a person raised correctly would not be evil, but there were those who were not quite so sure.
Quietly Harry inquired about getting the prisoners who were de-aged placed into homes of magical light sided people in other parts of the world, with blood adoption to help overcome any genetic or familial characteristics.
After much arguing and finding out the capabilities of the prison spheres, and stasis spells, The Tribunal approved a limited number of test subjects, and the remaining prisoners minds were to be completely wiped and put into stasis until suitable arrangements could be made.
Just because they had caused much death and destruction was no reason to keep them from helping the magical race of humans.
Someone, suggested turning the males all into females with the appropriate potions and runes and basically turn the entire collection of Death Eaters into a squad of mindless human incubators, taking donations of magical sperm from around the world and breeding some diversity into the British magical community. A maternity incubator with over a hundred magical female wombs, ready to create life
Being that most magicals were still stuck in the nineteenth century at best, this was shocking and thought to be quite mad, and when the bloodline of the person suggesting the idea was discussed, the traditional response was 'oh, a muggleborne, of course'
Privately this idea was considered by Harry and his inner circle, and he wrote copious notes in one of his notebook/idea journals. Along with arguments both pro and con.
A more pressing matter, at least on Harry's mind was the potential for an attack on Xeno Lovegood. Hermione showed him the memory she had extracted from the blocked area of Luna's mind.
They did not want to do anything to disturb their friend, and made sure to never mention it in her presence.
They made sure there was a continuous watch on the maps to the public magical areas of the nation, watching for the few uncaptured Death Eaters, an occasionally captured one who was sloppy or unwary enough.
Lupin looked over the charts listing captured and uncaptured, sympathizers and supporters, and then correlated the facts he knew with the maps and other information sources.
A thought occurred to him, he got out his comm mirror and called Sirius.
After having greeted his old friend, Mooney asked:
"You are The Lord Black, Correct?"
Sirius nodded, wondering where this was going.
"You are the Lord of ALL Blacks, and have the right to command them, correct?"
"That's true, why do you ask?" Sirius was beginning to get a glimmer of what Mooney was thinking.
"We have received intelligence recently that there is a good possibility that Bellatrix will attack and kill someone valuable to our cause soon, if you can order her to stand down, that might solve a few problems, in fact it would solve quite a few problems."
"Tell me what you think I should do"
Sirius had learned a small bit of restraint since his run-in with the Aurors and the Minister at the beginning of the Tri-Wizard.
In truth, if he had been given this idea back then, he would have summoned her on the spot and they would be now battling a furious and insane witch.
"I would like to set up some powerful wards at a location where we control everything, and take her prisoner. Do you think you could get her to accept a prisoner portkey?"
The prisoner portkey was the same as that which all the captured prisoners were given, sometimes while conscious, but more often unconscious.
"I think I might be able to do that., Possibly through Cissy."
"I'll get back to you in a bit, I need to write a letter."
From The Lord Sirius Orion Black
To Narcissa Black, formerly Malfoy.
Dear Cousin.
Dear Cissy.
I have been asked to bring in your sister, Bellatrix, to answer for her crimes.
You and I both know she has gone insane both with her exposure to the half blood dark lord Tom Riddle and with her fourteen years in Azkaban.
She takes some perverse joy in harming people, in killing for whatever reason, and this must stop.
I would like to ask you to assist me in this task, I would rather not order you as Head of the Clan Black, but ask as your cousin and friend .
As children we were close and in spite of the way we were raised, I would like to think we loved each other, and in spite of her actions, I do still want the best for Bella.
The truth is, though, she must be stopped.
All I ask of you as your cousin, and as your friend is this:
Deliver to her the letter I have enclosed, and in return I will promise she will not be executed, kissed or thrown through the Veil of Death.
Dear Cousin, Cissy, you were my only childhood friend before we went away to Hogwarts, and I ask you to do this not only for me, but for all the future generations of Blacks, as well as the rest of the magical world.
Yours, sincerely,
Siri.
Chapter 21.
End
standard Disclaimer.
I don't own any of JKR's characters, I am just playing with them.
For this I thank her.
I disagree, however with the ending of book 7.
TimW