The Magical World Exposed
by Healer Pomfrey
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
Warnings: COMPLETELY AU! If you don't like this, just stop reading and write your own story more to your liking.
When Ronald finally appeared, together with an Hungarian Horntail, Harry knew immediately that his classmate wouldn't have a chance to fulfil the task without his help.
Ron merely stood there and stared at the dragon, seemingly without a clue as to how to grab the dragon's egg that he was supposed to save. Finally realising that he would have to move, he slowly walked in the direction of the dragon, which did not go well with the most aggressive of the four dragons that were participating in the task.
'Now,' Harry thought. He quickly pulled the school broom out of his robe pocket, enlarged it and made it hover over right in front of Ron, who happily grabbed the broom, mounted it and took into the air.
'All right,' Harry thought to himself as he eagerly observed the scene, 'now distract him and you can get the egg.'
However, seeing that the dragon set to follow him and could fly as fast as himself, Ronald decided to flee and made the broom go right through the open window into the Gryffindor common room.
Fortunately, the dragon remembered his egg and immediately returned to the grounds instead of attacking the tower.
"Ron, you can't just run away," Hermione blurted out in disbelief, causing Harry to shake his head in annoyance.
"Stupid boy," he heard Bagman mumble to McGonagall. "He would have needed the egg for the second task."
"Is there any other way that he can participate in the second task then?" the headmistress queried, making Bagman shake his head in denial, before he rose from his seat and announced that the first task was finished.
Ron never knew who sent the broom to his rescue, and he did not even bother to ask.
HP
Harry and his friends were disappointed on the one hand, excited on the other hand upon hearing that they could not return to Potter Manor during the Christmas holidays, since a Yule ball was going to take place on Christmas and they were all asked to participate.
Annette offered to teach the friends how to dance, and during the last two weeks before the beginning of the holidays, the children spent the evenings at home and practised dancing.
'This is much fun,' Harry thought to Hermione, who agreed, smiling.
'I think we're slowly getting to the point that we don't have to fear making fools of ourselves in front of everyone,' she replied, smiling.
During the last Hogsmeade visit before Christmas, in which Harry and Hermione still did not participate, so as not to endanger other students, Annette, Molly and Mrs. Granger travelled to Diagon Alley to buy dress robes for all of them. Unbeknownst to everyone else except for his wife, Harry instructed Gina to accompany the three ladies and ask Madam Malkin to take the money for all dress robes from the Potter vault.
"I wonder who is going to accompany Ron to the ball," Ginny spoke up on the evening before the ball. "This morning after breakfast, he had the gall to ask me if I could go with him. Of course, I told him that I'd be only participating with my husband."
Finally, Ron appeared at the ball with a Gryffindor first-year in tow. She seemed to be a very shy but nice girl, however, without any more experience of dancing than Ron seemed to have.
"He's such an idiot," Ginny blurted out, seeing his faint attempts to dance, which everyone assembled in the Great Hall observed, since the champions and their partners had to open the dance. "Why didn't he practise together with us? I told him that Annette was teaching us."
"Well, don't worry about him now," David replied in a soothing voice. "Let's go and have some fun in the meantime." Together with Harry, Hermione, Neville and Susan, they headed to the area that was reserved for dancing, and it was only hours later that they retreated and sat down again.
Unbeknownst to Harry and Hermione, they were the centre of focus of all Hogwarts students during that evening. Not only because Hermione was beautiful in her dark blue dress robes with her hair pulled up in a fascinating way, but also because the young couple seemed so natural as they danced together, almost as if they were only one single unit.
"This was really fun," Harry said, happily, when David and he returned home shortly after midnight.
"That it was," David replied, grinning, before he added, "I wonder if the two of you are going to make it onto the front page of the Daily Prophet."
"Why would we?" Harry asked in surprise, causing everyone to laugh.
HP
As every member of their extended family except for Harry and Hermione had assumed, the dream couple of Hogwarts made it to the front page of the following day's newspaper - much to the chagrin of Ronald Weasley, who was not even mentioned let alone shown in a photograph in spite of being a champion.
HP
Additionally, Ron became extremely mad that he was not allowed to participate in the second task, stating that it was much easier to rescue something or someone out of the lake than to fight a dragon, a Hungarian Horntail at that.
During the third task, Cedric made it his duty to help the younger boy. Nevertheless, the redhead had to give up and sent red sparkles for help after a few more minutes.
The Triwizard Tournament ended with Cedric Diggory's victory, and Hogwarts spent the following three days partying.
'Thank Merlin that I didn't have to participate,' Harry thought more than once during these months.
HP
To Harry's and his family's relief, Mr. Malfoy did not attack during the Tournament, and rest of his fourth Hogwarts year passed peacefully.
It was shortly before the beginning of their OWL exams that one day, a house-elf stepped in front of Harry in the middle of the Transfiguration class.
"Lord Potter, I is Tipsy, Mr. Filch's elf," she introduced herself. "Mr. Filch wants me to take yous to him immediately."
Harry stared at the small elf in disbelief. "It's in the middle of the class," he replied, incredulously.
"It's urgent," Tipsy insisted. Before Harry knew what happened, the elf touched his left hand and simply popped them out of the classroom.
"What do you think you're doing?" Harry asked, angrily, glaring at the elf who chose that instant to simply vanish from the spot, leaving the boy standing in front of the caretaker.
"Mr. O'Brien, please follow me into my office quickly," Filch instructed Harry, who wearily followed the caretaker, wondering if he was dreaming or if the situation was real.
"Lucius Malfoy is just on his way to attack Hogwarts along with about twenty followers," Filch explained, causing Harry to snort in disbelief.
His eyes widened, however, when Filch pulled a wand out of an inner robe pocket and pointed it at a white parchment on his table that came into life right away.
'Like the Marauders' Map, but it has the grounds on it as well,' Harry thought, amazed, before his admiration turned into shock upon seeing a number of black dots walking right out of the Forbidden Forest towards the castle.
"If I'm correctly informed, you're a wind phoenix," Filch spoke in a business-like voice. "Can you flash outside and conjure a storm?"
"No idea," Harry replied, while his mind went haywire and wanted to know why Filch had been able to cast magic and why he knew about his Animagus form. Forcing the questions out of his mind for the time being, he transformed into his phoenix form and flashed outside, where he flew over the grounds, concentrating on the need of conjuring a storm.
Suddenly, an idea crossed his mind. Seated on a tree near the lake, hidden from the evil wizards' view by large leaves, he concentrated on the wind. 'Wind, I need you to move Hogwarts upwards,' he thought, letting as much magic flow into the thought as he felt comfortable with. From his spot, he observed how Hogwarts was slowly lifted upwards, before he deemed it high enough and continued to merely hold the castle at the same height.
Malfoy once stopped walking, staring at the castle with an expression of pure disbelief.
"Let's see if we can still reach the dungeons," he instructed his followers, and the group hurried forwards.
Two minutes later, the last of the evil wizards had reached the spot under the castle, looking upwards in apparent confusion.
'That's it,' Harry thought, excitedly, before he wished the storm to take Hogwarts back to where she belonged.
No one saw the wizards under the castle, and no one was ever going to hear anything from them again.
'Oh Merlin, I'm a murderer,' Harry realised, suddenly feeling absolutely horrified. 'I killed them all.'
'What happened?' Hermione suddenly asked, apparently noticing the amount of distress that Harry was in.
Before Harry could reply, however, the huge entrance doors opened, and Filch stepped out of the castle together with a small group of wizards.
Like in a trance, Harry left his safe spot and flew down to the ground, where he hesitantly transformed back into his human form.
"Thank you, Lord Potter, for getting rid of another evil wizard and his followers for the British magical world," one of the wizards spoke up, smiling at the boy.
"Excuse me sir," Harry replied in confusion, slowly trailing off, when Filch opened his mouth.
"Mr. O'Brien, I need you to keep this for yourself, but ever since the possession by Voldemort, I'm not a Squib but a spy for the Department of Magical Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic. These are my colleagues. We found out about Malfoy's plan to attack, however, none of us has such an enormous ability as yours. Therefore, we decided to ask for your help."
Harry let out a long sigh, before he added, "and make me a murderer."
"Lord Potter, you're not a murderer," one of the men contradicted in a firm voice. "All of these wizards were previously followers of Voldemort and have murdered many innocent people. You'll hear from the Minister of Magic and will probably receive the Order of Merlin for your help."
With that, the wizards vanished from the spot, leaving Harry alone with Mr. Filch.
"Who knows about your position, sir?" Harry asked, still confused about the fact that the caretaker was not a Squib. "I mean, you're playing your role extremely well. I'd never have guessed..."
"Only Healer Pomfrey knows," Filch replied, grinning, "and I want to remain it this way. Do I need to obliviate you?"
"No sir, I can swear you a wizard's oath that I'm going to keep your secret," Harry promised in a firm voice.
"Please accompany me to the headmistress' office," Filch continued. "We must inform her what happened, even if my colleagues will inform the ministry and the minister. The whole school must have noticed that Hogwarts was lifted into the air for a few minutes and will want an explanation." Seeing Harry cast him an anxious look, he said in a soothing voice, "Don't worry, you've done absolutely the right thing."
HP
Not only Filch and Minerva, but also all members of Harry's enlarged family told the boy that he was not a murderer and that he had done well vanquishing the evil wizards. However, they could not really prevent Harry from feeling bad about the matter.
Fortunately, the OWLs commenced just a few days later, so that Harry became efficiently distracted from everything.
It was only in the evening of the last day of classes, when Mr. Weasley showed up at dinner time to award Harry the Order of Merlin first class once again that his actions against Lucius Malfoy returned to the front of his mind.
Harry was just about the refuse the reward, which was endowed with one million Galleons, when he spontaneously decided and immediately informed Mr. Weasley that he wanted to donate half of the money to St. Mungo's and the other half to the Department of Magical Mysteries.
"I shall see to it," Mr. Weasley promised, before he informed Harry that he and the headmistress had something to discuss with Harry, David and their wives immediately following dinner in the headmistress' office.
HP
Together with Hermione, David and Ginny, Harry made his way to the headmistress' office, wondering what McGonagall and Mr. Weasley wanted to speak about.
To the children's surprise, they noticed that all adults of their enlarged family, who were residing at Hogwarts, were present in the headmistress' office as well.
'What have we done now?' Harry thought to Hermione, who comfortingly laid her hand on his arm, thinking back, 'Nothing.'
"Since your teachers and I had the impression as if the four of you were far ahead of your classmates in most subjects," the headmistress finally began to speak, causing the four to gape at her in disbelief, "I have asked the Ministry to give me the results of your OWLs before the end of the school year." Seeing the children's disbelief change into expectation, she smiled, before she continued, "Congratulations. You have all received solely Os in all subjects."
"Wow," Ginny blurted out, smiling at David, happily.
"Well done, all of you," Molly added, smiling broadly.
"Therefore," McGonagall continued, "I want to suggest taking your NEWTs at the end of the summer holidays."
'What?' Harry thought, completely shocked at the suggestion.
"But Professor, we haven't even begun studying for the NEWTs," Hermione spoke aloud what all four of them thought.
"Believe me, you'll do well enough," Remus spoke up, smiling, reassuringly.
"Especially if you know the reason," Sirius added, grinning.
"So what is the reason then?" David queried, giving his father a questioning look.
This time, it was Mr. Weasley to explain. "We, means the Muggle Prime Minister, the Minister of Magic, the headmistress of Hogwarts and Professor O'Brien from a Muggle university, have decided to work closer together. Therefore, we have four positions to fill, which we want to suggest to the four of you."
"Cool," David blurted out, looking from Ginny to his brother.
"The three of us have discussed this matter for a few months already, and we'd like to suggest the following," Mr. Weasley continued. "We offer David a position at the British government responsible for the relationship between the Muggle and the magical world. The position will be that of an undersecretary to the British Prime Minister."
Noticing that the children were too stunned to reply, Mr. Weasley continued, "For Ginny, I'd like to offer the equivalent position at the Ministry of Magic as coordinator for the Muggle - magical relationship. Hermione," Mr. Weasley continued, "could become an assistant professor with Cillian for the newly founded subject of Magic."
"Oh yes," Hermione spoke up in apparent excitement. "I'd love that."
"As Harry," Mr. Weasley continued, "is the owner of Hogwarts and Hermione needs all the assistance she can get from our school, Minerva would like him to become the headmaster of Hogwarts, while she will remain as your deputy in addition to Professor Snape, at least until you'll be of age." With that, the Minister quieted, curiously looking at the children.
"Thank you very much for offering these positions to us," Hermione was the first to reply. "I believe that we're all going to accept, don't we?" she asked, glancing at David, Ginny and Harry.
A triple "Yes" was the response.
tbc...