Harry Potter and the Shadow Legion

Chapter 20

Mad-Eye kept them occupied for the rest of the day having them practice accuracy while moving. He had set up an obstacle course around the lake with three dozen targets. Their mission was to run the obstacle course as fast as possible, while hitting each of the targets. If they missed one, he hit them with a stinger, from his real wand. Needless to say, they did it flawlessly after only two tries.

At the end of the day, the four were completely exhausted, to the amusement of Aurora, Gabrielle, Dan, Ivan and Sirius, who had been enjoying the 'show' for most of the afternoon. Since they had helped Alastor to set out the obstacle course, it seemed perfectly justifiable for them to watch the kids struggle through it under Alastor's 'encouraging' teaching method.

The next few days followed the same pattern, Mad-Eye woke them up at 5:30 and had them work until 14:00 in the afternoon. Then they had some hours for themselves, until Neville joined them at 19:00 for their evening work-out.

With the 8th of August, dawned a day Harry, Hermione and Fleur had been dreading since their stay at the Burrow. Today they would head to Diagon Alley to get their supplies for Hogwarts. But today was also the day that Gilderoy Lockhart would be signing his autobiography at Flourish and Blotts, which, for some reason, was in its entirety on the Hogwarts book list for all years.

Ginny and Molly had been discussing it enthusiastically over the past week and they had both agreed on a strategy. They would enter the shop and just refuse to leave until Lockhart had posed for a picture with the both of them and signed it.

That morning at the breakfast table Harry, Hermione and Fleur were teasing Ginny about Lockhart until Sirius and Remus walked into the kitchen. They would be coming along to Diagon Alley as extra security, as Aurora had said, "There is going to be a mass of people at the Alley today and Gabrielle and I have only one pair of eyes each."

The entire 'security' detail, or the 'babysitters' as Sirius called it, consisted of, Aurora and Gabrielle, Sirius and Remus and Dan, Ivan. Originally Dora had wanted to come as well but McAndrews had picked that day for field training so Buckingham Palace was understaffed, causing Dora to have to fall in there.

Emma also had to work so she was going to Avalon, but Jean-Paul, Apolline, Gabby and the Weasleys would meet them at the Leaky Cauldron.

At 9:55 they all gathered in front of the fireplace in the travel room and Ginny was the first to grab a handful of the sparkly powder and throw it into the fire turning it green. "Diagon Alley," she said and disappeared. The others followed her in quick succession, with Aurora arriving as last.

They greeted Tom and waited patiently until the others would arrive, Jean-Paul had pulled a few strings and the Delacours used an international portkey that dropped them off next to the hearth in the Leaky Cauldron.

While Fleur greeted her parents, Harry gave a hug to Gabby, who had pounced on him the moment they arrived. "Look, look Harry I lost a tooth." She said proudly before showing him the gap where one of her upper front teeth was supposed to be.

Just as Harry was about to answer, the floo flared up and the Weasley's started to arrive. It took half a minute for all 8 Weasleys and Joanna to arrive, and once they had it became a little crowded in the pub so Gabrielle proposed to move to the alley where they would have more room.

They made their way to the alley, after telling Tom to prepare lunch for 22 people, and soon they were walking in the bright sunlight of Diagon Alley. There they decided to split up. Arthur and Molly would take Ron to get all of his basic supplies like wand, cauldron, and robes. Fred and George, Percy, Bill and Charlie and Joanna all went off alone or in pairs. Jean-Paul, Apolline and Gabby stayed with the others, who made their way leisurely towards Gringotts.

When they arrived at the bank they immediately went to their standard desk, with Griphook behind it, and Harry said, "Good day Griphook, may your days be filled with glory and your enemies fall before you."

Griphook inclined his head with a grin and gave the reply, "Greetings Noble visitor may your wealth increase a hundredfold and your enemies flee in fear." Turning to Aurora and Gabrielle he added, "Started the lessens in proper etiquette I take it?"

Both women nodded with a grin and Gabrielle said, "We have, we need them all to be ready when the time comes and there is much for them to learn."

Griphook nodded agreeing and said, "Well then, what can I help you with this fine morning?"

Aurora grinned and said, "We just want to visit Harry's trust vault, it's time the kids got an allowance."

Griphook nodded and since there were no other members of Most Noble and Ancient Houses besides Elizabeth, he could just close his desk and lead them towards the carts. The Delacours, Sirius, Remus, Dan and Ivan decided to wait for them above ground and remained behind in the marble hall while the kids and Aurora and Gabrielle followed Griphook.

An exhilarating ride later, they arrived at vault 687 and Aurora fished a small golden key from one of the pockets in her jeans. They all wore casual clothing as opposed to wizarding robes since it was easier to move around in them. Whilst the kids had only their school wands with them, Aurora, Gabrielle, Dan and Ivan were all armed with SILH's, though they were camouflaged so as not the draw attention to them.

Aurora handed the key to Griphook who used it to open the vault and once the door was opened, the kids gasped in amazement.

Mounds of golden Galleons, piles of silver Sickles and heaps of bronze Knuts were waiting for them in the vault and Gabrielle said with a hint of amusement in her voice, "This is your pocket money for this year kids, 50,000 Galleons, a fraction of what is in the real vaults of the House of Potter."

The kids turned towards her and Aurora and Harry asked, "All right mom, you keep avoiding it but now I want an honest answer. Exactly how much gold is in the Potter vault?"

Aurora and Gabrielle shared an amused grin before they both looked at Griphook who turned to the kids and said, "The current balance of the Main Potter vault stands at, 10 billion, 875 million, 203 thousand and 97 Galleons." The only response they got from the kids was blinking eyes before they all fell backwards in an identical move.

It took half a minute for Aurora and Gabrielle to wake the kids and when they had Harry asked softly, "Why on earth have I never heard about the fact that my family is so insanely rich?" The only reply he got was his mothers shrugging their shoulders in a non-answering way and Gabrielle handing Harry a familiar golden credit card.

"This is yours now Harry. We have used it to buy everything for you until now, but it is time that you learn how to handle money so you and the girls can use it now. Don't lose it and spend it wisely, the vault is refilled every year on your birthday, but I urge you all not to go overboard and start buying ridiculous things."

The quartet promised her that they would behave and Aurora said, "Very well then go back to the surface and you can spend until lunch on your own. We will go for your school supplies after lunch. Take the others with you, we have some other things to arrange while we are here."

Harry and the girls quickly gave them a hug before they followed Griphook out of the vault, before the goblin closed it again and they entered the cart to return to the surface. Aurora and Gabrielle knew the layout of Gringotts so they walked the short distance to a hidden doorway that led to the office part of the bank. Once there they headed for Ragnok's office and Gabrielle knocked.

When they were told to enter they opened the door and entered the office. Ragnok was alone and motioned for them to take a seat before his desk on which lay a large pile of documents.

They exchanged polite greetings until Ragnok addressed the subject he had invited them for. "I have asked you to come here, because I have managed to buy the remainder of the shares of the Daily Prophet of those who were willing to sell them."

Aurora and Gabrielle looked a little curiously at the goblin leader, as he had ensured them that he would manage to buy all of the shares for them.

"Currently you own 78% of the shares, the remaining 22% are in the hands of the Ministry of Magic and they are unwilling to sell. Apparently Pudgy is afraid that they will no longer publish only what the ministry wants them to, if they no longer hold a substantial percentage of the shares."

"Well he is not wrong," Aurora remarked, "but it is unfortunate for us. Try offering twice the market value and if that doesn't work, let us know and we'll go talk with Pudgy, see if we can 'convince' him of the importance of freedom of press."

Ragnok nodded and took the top quarter of the pile of documents and handed them to Gabrielle. "Then if you would sign every third page of this pile we can finalize the purchase of the shares."

They did as he asked and after they both signed, the relevant parchment glowed green before disappearing. When they were done Ragnok took half of the remaining pile and handed those also to Gabrielle.

"This is the documentation of your purchase of Isla Craig, the process to make it unplottable and the right to exploit the mine there."

After they signed these as well Ragnok handed them the remaining pile and said, "These are the contracts of sale for the carcass of the Ironbelly you two slew in Transylvania. It was sold for a total of 8 million, 400 thousand Galleons, which have already been added to your vault."

The two women nodded and after singing the last pile of papers, they stood up and said goodbye to Ragnok. They made their way back to the marble hall and found the Delacours still waiting for them. Taking the lead, Aurora and Gabrielle led the Delacours into the sunlight of Diagon Alley.

They spent a few hours just strolling around the shopping district, occasionally running into others from their group. Just before 14:00, they made their way towards the Leaky Cauldron for lunch, where they met the others.

During lunch the kids spoke enthusiastically about what they had bought. Apparently Harry had been unable to resist the temptation and the kids had went to a magical jewelry story. The three girls were each wearing silver hoop earrings, with small golden dragons circling around the hoops. Harry himself was the proud owner of a new chess set. The board was made from dragon bone inlaid with black onyx, while the pieces were from white and black marble.

When Harry saw the looks of his mothers he went red and mumbled softly, "Sorry mom, but it was too tempting."

Soon Aurora and Gabrielle got a big grin on their faces and Gabrielle said, "Don't worry Harry, we had expected something like this, just don't make a habit of it." Harry nodded and the girls went to show off their new earrings to the others.

After lunch they went as a single group to do their school shopping. First up was the apothecary where most of them waited outside as the shop was too small. The others simply handed a list with what they needed to Aurora and Molly who were the only ones' brave enough to face the smell.

After fifteen minutes the two women came back out of the shop and handed out 8 bags, one to each of the kids. Next stop was Eeylops, where they bought bags of owl-treats for Pidgy, Hermes, and Pig, Ron's new owl which was even smaller than Pidgy.

When they got to Flourish and Blots, they saw that the line was extending 500 feet from the front of the shop. By far the greatest part of the queue was formed by women and girls, here and there an extremely bored husband, son or brother squeezed in between.

With the exception of Ginny and Molly, the entire group took a collective, 'SIGH,' before joining in at the back of the queue.

It took them nearly two hours before they made it into the shop, and then another 45 minutes before it was finally their turn. All that time Ginny and Molly didn't shut up for a single minute, all the time telling everyone else about the amazing things Gilderoy Lockhart had done.

When they finally stood before his table, Gilderoy Lockhart put a flourishing autograph on the front of a book using an extremely large peacock feather, before looking up and handing the book to Ginny who nearly swooned as he smiled at her.

As Lockhart looked past Ginny to the next ones in line, who happened to be Hermione and Fleur. He gave them a lecherous smile which caused Harry, who stood behind them and saw it, to growl softly.

The growl drew the attention of Lockhart who looked towards Harry and saw his scar. What happened next caused the biggest scandal in Diagon Alley since Aurora's confrontation with Rita Skeeter.

Lockhart jumped up, ran around his table and stormed towards Harry. When the girls went to stand before Harry to keep Lockhart away from him, he shoved them aside roughly, causing Ginny and Fleur to fall to the ground with a surprised yelp.

Harry saw red. As soon as he saw Lockhart touch Ginny and Fleur, he roared and stretching his right leg, he kicked the approaching Lockhart in the stomach so hard that he doubled over in pain. He followed the kick with a right hook to his jaw, breaking the bone in three places, taking six of his teeth and causing his wig to fly through the shop.

"DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE TO TOUCH ONE OF MY GIRLS AGAIN, OR I WILL TEAR YOU TO SHREDS YOU BASTARD!" he roared as he kept punching the face of Lockhart, opening gashes all over it and giving him two spectacular black eyes.

When he had turned Lockhart's face into an unrecognizable lump of flesh and broken bones, Aurora and Gabrielle decided that it was enough. The entire shop stared in awe as Harry was beating the shit out of Lockhart, until he was being dragged away from him by his mothers.

The only sound in the entire shop was Sirius, Remus and Ivan who were rolling on the ground laughing so hard they had tears streaming down their cheeks. The reason was obvious as Lockhart's wig had landed before them and every picture of Lockhart in the shop was trying their utmost to summon the hairpiece, which was of course completely impossible.

Harry kept roaring and kicking until Fleur took his head between her hands and pressed a kiss on his lips. Harry immediately slackened in his mothers' arms and they decided it was safe to let him go. The two kids ignored the dozens of people who were pressed into the shop and kept kissing until Gabrielle more-or-less forced them apart. Several camera flashes had indicated that the journalists of various newspapers had gotten the story of their lifetime.

In the meantime, someone had obviously apparated to St. Mungo's and gotten some emergency healers, as half-a-dozen white robed witches and wizards came rushing into the shop to take care of Lockhart.

It took six healers more than half an hour to get him to a point that he was once again recognizable as a human being.

All that while Harry and the rest of the kids had been held apart in a corner of the shop, guarded from sight by Aurora, Gabrielle, Ivan, Dan, Sirius, Remus, Jean-Paul, and Arthur. Molly and Ginny had been completely disillusioned by the actions of their hero, and were sitting next to Harry, Fleur, Hermione, and Gabby.

The others had spread out around the shop and were doing their best to assist the shopkeeper into getting everyone out of the shop who did not have to be there.

When the healers had succeeded in patching up Lockhart enough to allow him to speak again, he stood up and, picking up his wig from the ground and putting it up again, he came towards them. Only to be stopped by Aurora, who went to stand directly in front of him with her arms crossed and said "What do you want, Lockfart?"

Ignoring the grinning of the others, Lockhart bit through the pain he still felt and said, "I wish to apologize for my actions. I was rash in my enthusiasm to see Harry Potter and I thought he would relish the opportunity to take a picture with me. After all, he is the second most popular wizard in the land, after me of course."

The sheer amount of self-glorification and adoration he showed with every word he said was so overwhelming that both Aurora and Gabrielle couldn't keep a scowl from entering their faces.

Unperturbed by their looks and the growl coming from Harry, Lockhart continued, "To make amends for my rash actions I would like to offer free sets of my books to each of the school going children of your company. After all, they shall be needing them for their school list for next year."

Now Aurora's scowl turned in to a frown and she asked, "What complete idiot was stupid enough to put that rubbish you call books on the reading list of Hogwarts?"

Either he didn't hear her insults or he ignored them and puffing out his chest he said, "It gives me great pleasure to introduce you to the next Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor of Hogwarts, me."

He looked as if he expected them to bow down and worship him, but what he did not expect was for Aurora to growl out, "We'll see how long you last, but two things. First, I'm putting a veto on your books. Not a single book that is written by you will be allowed to be taken into the school. You will reimburse everyone who bought your books and now wishes to return them and put a decent book on the list, or I will do so myself if you are to incompetent to manage even that.

And second, remember one thing very clearly. We are at Hogwarts to protect the students, not the teachers. So you ever lay a finger on any of the students, and Harry's threat will be the least of your concerns." The venom in her voice was so obvious that even Lockhart couldn't miss it and he swallowed audibly before making a hasty retreat to the healers, who took him to St. Mungo's for further healing.

When the obnoxious new professor had vanished, Aurora muttered, "What complete moron hired that idiot to teach DADA. I'll have to check it out but it'll surprise me if it wasn't one of his drooling fan girls."

After this eventful encounter, the group bought the books that were on their lists, except those of Lockhart of course, and concluded their business in Diagon Alley.

When the kids came down for breakfast the next morning, they found Aurora and Gabrielle laughing about an article in the Daily Prophet. The kids sat down and Gabrielle handed them the newspaper.

'SCANDAL IN Diagon Alley,

By Rita Skeeter.

Yesterday afternoon the shopping public in Diagon Alley was shocked by a sudden brawl between two of Britain's most famous wizards. Bestselling writer and international hero Gilderoy Lockhart was suddenly and violently attacked by Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived.

When I interviewed several of the eyewitnesses, they all said the same thing. Mister Lockhart, in his haste to get to Harry Potter, pushed two of Mister Potter's female friends who fell on the ground as a consequence.

In defense of his friends, Mister Potter continued to give his fellow celebrity the beating of a life time. How big the damage to Mister Lockhart's image will be has to yet to been seen, but no doubt the shame of being publicly beaten up by a twelve-year-old will stay with him for quite a while. The damage to Mister Lockhart's health was so severe that it took six healers half an hour to patch him up enough to be transported to St. Mungo's, where he will remain for at least another day.

Some might say that such excessive violence was uncalled for, but when asked for an official comment, Mister Potter's spoke goblin had this to say. "Mister Potter was in his full right to do as he did. Under article 26, section 5, of magical law it states that, when someone under the protection of a founding family is attacked, hurt or injured, any member of said founding family can respond with any amount of force he or she deems appropriate. And since Mister Potter is an adopted son and the heir apparent of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Emrys, his actions were fully justified.

In the aftermath of these events, it was revealed that Mister Lockhart has been hired as the new DADA professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, though his teaching methods has been immediately hampered by the actions of High Lady Aurora Emrys. Using her founding Veto, she ordered Mister Lockhart to remove his own books from the reading list and to reimburse anyone who had already bought his books for school.

For the Daily Prophet this was Rita Skeeter.

"Hmm,' mused Harry. "She is a lot friendlier towards us then she was last time. Why would that be?"

The knowing grin shared between his mothers told him enough. But he still asked, "What did you do?"

Gabrielle stopped grinning for a moment and said, "We wrote that article and sent it to Rita Skeeter with a warning that she should send this in as her own article, or else she would have to prepare herself for a little visit from us."

Now the others laughed as well and breakfast was eaten in good spirits. After breakfast the kids went outside to finally test their birthday gifts. When they stood on the grass next to the lake, they all pushed the button on their keys and four ATV's appeared. They were all the same coloring as Harry's but they carried the initials of the respective owner on the gas tanks.

Stepping up they repeated the actions they had been shown by the marines in America and within seconds the four machines were humming smoothly. Playing with the throttle a little the kids carefully made their first lap around the lake. But as time went on they kept increasing the speed until they were throwing up large chunks of grass and sand behind their wheels as they fully opened the throttle.

They relocated to the lake shore and now were racing half in the water and half on the beach, causing them to become soaked as they raced for first place. After about three hours the engines started to sputter and when they looked at the gas meters they saw that the tanks were as good as empty.

Letting go of the throttle they let the ATV's run out until they stopped and they turned off the engines. With a sigh Harry said, "Charles." And said elf appeared with a huge grin plastered on his face and his hands filled with cleaning supplies.

He dropped everything next to Harry and with a cheerful, "Good Luck," he popped away again, leaving the children to clean their new toys.

It took them nearly half an hour to get the ATV's spotless again and when they were done, they pressed the buttons on the keys again and the ATV's were sent back to Avalon.

The remainder of August was spent with just having fun and training.

It wasn't until the 31st of August that something interesting happened. Harry and Fleur were engrossed in a passionate kissing session, part of a bet between the girls about which shirt Harry would be wearing, which Fleur won. Suddenly Fleur pulled back with a suppressed yell and Harry could taste blood, which freaked him out.

When Hermione and Ginny came running from where they had been sitting on the bed, they saw that Fleur's tongue was bleeding and had a puncture mark on it. Looking confused towards Harry they saw that he was a shocked as they were. But when he opened his mouth to apologize, they saw what was wrong, Harry's canines had turned into fangs.

When Harry saw their stares, he carefully used his tongue to inspect his teeth but was again shocked to feel the fangs. Bringing his hands towards his mouth he frantically began to touch his new teeth, as if he couldn't believe that he had them.

Totally freaked out, the girls began to inspect their own teeth and soon came to the same conclusion, they all had fangs. For a few moments they all panicked until Hermione remembered what Aurora and Gabrielle had told them last year when they had introduced the idea of becoming animagi.

"Wait guys," she said, "remember what mom said last year, our own bodies are likely to adopt aspects of our animagus forms." The others calmed down a little when they also remembered what Hermione mentioned, Aurora and Gabrielle had indeed told them that.

Deciding to check if what they thought was indeed the case, they sought out Aurora and Gabrielle. They found them in the gym, doing something they had seen them do more often in the time since their reveal as the Dark Angels. They were sparring.

They were both barefoot, and clad in nothing more than spandex shorts and sports bra's. Both were wielding small steel shields, each round and 30 inches across in their left hands, and large double headed battleaxes in their right.

Spinning the axes in their hands they slowly circled each other while trading the occasional blow which the other blocked with their shield. Their fight more resembled a dance, full of grace and deadly elegance, as they spun around each other. Their blows were powerful enough to kill any normal man, but they blocked them as if they were gentle caresses.

Eventually their sparring ended as they struck their axes together so hard that both handles shattered in their grasp and the axe heads fell to the ground. Turning to the kids they give them a grin, and placing their shields against the wall, they each took a towel to wipe the sweat from their heads.

"What's up kids?" Aurora's question seems to startle the kids and they realized that they were staring.

Quickly clearing their heads, Harry took the lead and said, "We discovered something," and pulling apart his lips, he bares his newly discovered fangs.

Now with a look of interest, his mothers immediately went to his side and inspected his fangs. They were roughly twice the length of the rest of his teeth and ended in vicious sharp points. They were teeth meant to sink into a prey and not let go.

When they were done inspecting Harry's fangs they looked towards the girls only to see them repeat Harry's move and bare their fangs as well.

Now both Aurora and Gabrielle got a devilish grin on their faces and with a nearly hungry growl in her voice Aurora said, "Well then, I guess it is time for your first hunt."

Author's note:

Well there you have it, this chapter is one I have been looking forward to since the beginning. From here on we will see the quartet's transition from children to warriors, as Aurora and Gabrielle lead them on a path towards the inescapable fate of war.

As on the subject of the contest, I think it is a little obvious as to what is going to happen to him now. None of you have gotten it completely correct, but I have declared a winner, the one who has gotten closest. I will contact that person via PM.

I cannot promise when the next chapter will come but I do promise it won't be as long as last time. I will try to update this story at least once a month but hopefully more often. My job is busy as hell at the moment so I don't have much time to write.

MM