Chapter 21—Tell me I am not dreaming
Ragnok sent a message for Harry and his wives to get to Gringotts as soon as possible.
"Ah, Harry, Ladies please take a seat as you will probably need one."
"So has the world ended or just more of the same?" I asked knowing with my luck both could be true.
"Your friend Ron Weasley…"
The girls were already up out of their chairs…
"Perhaps a poor choice of words, your acquaintance Ron Weasley attacked a girl and is in Azkaban. He roughed her up pretty good before she got a knee in and raced to her father. The father is the head of the largest block on the Wizengemot and a good friend of the Minister of Magic." Ragnok stated.
"And?" Daphne asked.
"It finally caught up on the old coot, he is no longer Chief Warlock and the Board of Governors showed him the door. Flitwick in charge of Hogwarts, Snape has disappeared, what was there as teachers have run for any cover they can find."
"So everyone wants us to be at Hogwarts" I guessed.
"Yes as Voldemort has threatened to burn down Hogwarts since Dumbledore is gone and Dumbledore has threatened to burn down Hogwarts since they fire him." Ragnok always had the best news.
Therefore, everyone wants us back to teach and handle their problems, right?" I asked.
"It appears so; they have threatened to shut down Hogwarts if you all don't return." Ragnok just raised his hands in surrender." Yes now that all the internal problems are over even Longbottom says he will return.
So back it was back to teaching, Slughorn had returned to potions and the girls and I pretty much filled in the rest.
/Scene Break/
Returning to Hogwarts was not a fanfare event. While Dumdum was still Chief Warlock he had spread word of Mordred and Slytherin being the next dark lord. Of course with him being the "Leader of the Light" it was just nasty. We had finally had enough and Rita was told to write articles, that The-Boy-Who-Lived is Harry who had done his duty by doing in Voldemort and that's how he is now Lord Slytherin. That had helped when Dumdum went down in disgrace, but he didn't believe Harry was TBWL and said so many times. He had also gotten Ron released from Azkaban. So arriving at Hogwarts was a mix of those who believed and those who didn't believe.
We were not back but a few days when we ran into Hagrid. He was softer than a stone wall but just as immovable, he was sobbing in his tent size hanky. Aragog had disappeared and Hagrid just knew it was done by the Ruddy big snake roaming the forest. The other spiders wanted nothing to do with Hagrid. It seemed Daisy was keeping the spiders under control, yum, yum.
/Scene Break/
"So what students the 'floe' can't handle the elves will help remove?" I asked. "Just remember if the Deatheater or Dumdums crowd get in I will call Daisy to roam the halls."
"I think it's a good plan, if we have students we cannot remove from Hogwarts we will lock them in their common rooms so Daisy can do her thing." Flitwick added.
"Amelia says that the rumors on the street are that someone is hiring an army of English and foreign fighters." Susan added.
"Yes it seems that there will be a fight here at Hogwart, but what does the Ministry say? Are they going to help and how?" Hermione demanded.
"Seems they will send, if they can, any free personnel to help" Susan replied.
"Typical, which means we are on our own." I laughed.
The rest of the year went and the only problems were the squabble of kids, it was hard to comprehend that just a few years ago I was one of those kids. I just hoped that our training here at Hogwarts had been changed to prevent too many Ron's or Draco's. Then again when I looked back there was Pansy, Nott, and a host of others many who ended badly based on their training.
The maudlin thinking changed to the Christmas break and we were going to the island. No snow, no cold, only warmth and sunshine on our remote island.
/Scene Break/
Our arrival was well past midnight due to the time difference. The next morning we had a fabulous breakfast, elf provided, and requested a tour of our remote island. The elves popped us to the top of a building or tower we were not sure because when we look around from this look out point… I had to catch Hermione as she fainted.
There were helicopters landing at landing pads, huge boats bringing in hundreds of people to join what must have been hundreds more roaming around our so called deserted island. I also got the impression that the island I last saw that I thought was twice it original size was now double that if I was right. This was a holiday resort of the size I had never heard of, and as we got closer to the mob of people and the activities they were paying for I started laughing almost uncontrollably. The elves somehow had gotten hold of some muggle story books, or maybe all of them. They were dressed up like what the muggles would think were people with dwarfism but in fact were our elves dressed up to look as story book characters. If we were not our own country we would have been sued for copyright infringement, hell just down right theft. There were elves doing hi-ho down one street and another bunch were aliens doing a laser fight with a well known star traveler. The muggle just ate it up and seemed to be having the time of their lives. What set me off laughing was the witch flying in on her broom cackling about little pretty's. I know it was displaying magic but what park in the world did things that the people believed was magical and was just science? There was a couple of "thingamabobs" that I was unsure what made them go.
There was one closed mouth Goblin that I was itching to see about now.
Largo stated that the island was now self sufficient and making money now at a great rate. Here was a place that was warm all year round and then I found that they had come up with a discount for air tickets to come here, they were almost free. I had to ask and they told me that the casino on the other end of the island made up for it very well, thank you.
By now I had lost my wives, they were off and doing all the rides and seeing all the sights. I saw the rollercoaster's etc, that reminded me of my off-handed remark a little while back and I was determined to keep my mouth shut. Largo also stated that all the wives were under elf escort even if they didn't know. So I heated back to the private beach and got a cold drink and watched the waves lap on the shore in my lounge chair. It was not often that I got to be alone, in fact that brought back memories of lonely hours in a boot cupboard under a stairs.
That got me to thinking about protecting Hogwarts but all that was planed out. Even if they attacked right now, the elves would have me there in a flash, if not I could use the Shadow leopard.
'POP' "Master Harry is not happy?" Squeaky was there so I asked Largo to bring some drinks and we sat around and talked. I of course thanked them and told them to thank all the elves for their hard work over the island. Soon they had something to do or were just bored and I was alone again.
/Scene Break/
Late morning I was awoken by a group of wives dragging me into the surf. A bunch of splashing and then a fresh water shower. Breakfast was superb and then I was dragged back to the park to enjoy all the rides. Soon I was back on my lounge chair enjoying the sun. Squeaky 'popped' in and told me I should see the island so her tour started. I was surprised all of the farm lands that existed and the forests, not coconut trees but real trees. Suddenly I had an idea, "Largo" I yelled.
Soon there was a group, herd, or a large gathering of elves and the instructions were given and they popped away. I went back to my lounge chair and a cold drink with a satisfied smile on my face. I'll teach that Goblin not to give me enough information. Actually I was not mad at Ragnok; it just seemed that he liked to keep information from me. Well they all were magical! Then I wondered what the wives would do?
The next morning I got dragged to the shower, breakfast was again superb and after we were in the park the wives disappeared. Revenge was mine.
That evening the wives all dragged their tired bodies back to the cottage for a shower and bed. The only difference was this time when they entered they were greeted by the entire orphanage.
"Ah, my wives return at last. There is an elf per child and all of the children are divided equally between you. So tomorrow you will show the children a good time as us orphans must stick together." There was a cheer from the kids, the wives did not look that happy. By the second night the wives looked like they could do with a girl's night out.
~"I am so happy that I am not there dear. Gringotts is quite busy but not as busy as the tending to all those orphans."
~"Well you have a job, but when you arrive for your weekend you had better pay attention to me and not the rides."
~"After what you did to the others, how could I refuse?"
When Fleur arrived for the weekend we spent most of out time in the bedroom. There was catching up, foot rubs and well you know. When we did come out when the wives were home we found some very frazzled wives. Kids can be quite active.
I then found that Fleur was a fanatic on scary rides, well she was part bird and those rides did fly. My eagle was happy also but the leopard stayed in the shadows. What was great was she loved to hug me tight on the down drops of the scary rides. Fleur was always my number one girl.
/Scene Break/
Back at Hogwarts all settled down into the normal dull every day. I don't peak in our bond but when Fleur is mad, scared or frightened it's hard to ignore. She apparently gave a lecture to the girls about family and their place in it; I really was trying to mentally ignore a pissed off Fleur, especially that part about the male frail ego.
Rumors at Hogwarts are like your blood, it keeps flowing around and around. Most of it is garbage but every once in a while something shows up that is important. You have to filter out the good from the bad. One such rumor was the eminent attack on Hogwarts. It seems that they had recruited giants in the attack, giants only moved in the summer. So we prepared, but for who?
/Scene Break/
All the students were on the train and going home. We all road back to the castle with the thought of packing and heading off to our island. We had no sooner arrived at the castles when the alarms went off indicating someone was trying to force their way in through the front gates. I headed off to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom and down to Daisy. Everyone had glasses and Daisy was happy to have some other hunting opportunities.
As the gates fell and they entered the grounds I was out front. I wanted to be by my self but the wives were just as adamant that they would go with me one way or the other. Arguing with wives is time consuming, a waste of time and never something you could win, so they joined me.
~"Fleur they are here, tell Ragnok to notify the DMLE and send what he can, I hope this is only on Hogwarts and not the bank and Ministry also.
~"Yes dear, be careful."
~"Always my love."
A great battle it was, if that's what you wanted or it was a piece of cake if that was how you saw it. Me? I was just confused who all were here and in the end what they would carry out.
The first thing was the gate crashers, the giants. They came stomping up towards the castle so I took to the air and "French fried" the lot. Now that lightning is very hot and they were very slow. Crispy critters could also be said. Now a falling forty-foot fries is not thought to be dangerous but when the fry is a ton or two in weight, well there was a few Deatheaters that got squashed.
Now come the ex-Hogwarts trained Deatheaters. While the curses were dangerous their aiming training was not a high priority at Hogwarts. Talk about idiots that couldn't hit the side of a barn. Oh for the electronically minded I was attempting 30,000 amperes on those lightning bolts which is think is about average for lightning.
Daisy was working herself off to the right. How do you deal with a hide that is impervious to spells, a sight that kills, and a jaw full of teeth that the poison contained in those teeth will melt metal?
The wives were of course doing all those Founder spells and curses that Fleur lifted from all my study in the libraries. That kept the rift raft on the left dying in great groups. It seemed that whoever was behind this attack had quite a few hundred Deatheaters or mercenaries at their command.
Alas the final death defying battle was to take place, for there was Voldemort running his mouth. Whoops, looks like a joint force operation; there is Dumbledore off to the left with his twinkling eyes. Both are firing A-Ks at me like I would enjoy the results.
Honestly, I just wanted to fry Voldemort and then take on Dumbledore. I had no idea or control it appeared. I directed my strongest lightning bolt to hit Voldemort but an un-attached streamer was visible heading to the earth surface it projection to the left and hit Dumbledore. Both were fried with one bolt and an offshoot streamer of lightning.
That stopped the attack, with Daisy full; she headed to me and encircled me and my wives. The spiders seeing all the fresh food laying around charged in with and eye on Daisy. The Goblins arrived to attack from the rear which caused anyone with a port-key to get gone. The rest were killed or eaten or both. The Goblins were not in for a fight with the spiders so they headed out as soon as the Deatheaters left.
Other than a few spiders picking on Giant bones the area was picked clean in short order. There was nothing to do to wait for the DMLE and make some statements. With that done we headed off to the island.