Beta: Demos
Original release date: 03/22/15
Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the canon Harry Potter universe or any other universe. Some of the products sold by the Marauders Emporium are my own ideas of current day technology mixed with charms and the likes, unless stated otherwise.
Chapter 25 – Follow the Plan
Slowing to a walk, Professor McGonagall says, "Mr. Potter, this early morning routine of jogging and other exercises has had a profound improvement in my overall health."
Smiling, Harry replies, "Certainly professor. Remus made this a suggestion, so he, Sirius, Neville, and I began this a few years ago. Stated that he has observed that many witches and wizards don't exercise their muscles, instead relying on magic to do everything, exercise the muscles for better health, and for more stamina."
Nodding her head, Professor McGonagall continues walking around the track. Twenty minutes or so later, the Gryffindors meet in the Great Hall for breakfast. Beginning to eat, some rustling of feathers sound as a few owls fly in, headed for the Gryffindor table. Fred and George look up from their plates as two owls, both holding an envelope and a small square box, addressed individually to them.
Opening the letters, George and Fred's eyes widen as they read down the letter. Grasping at the boxes, Fred and George open them at the same time to reveal charmed bags containing multiple galleons.
At that moment, Ron stumbles into the Great Hall, rubbing his eyes with his fists before sitting down. Absentmindedly heaping food onto his soon overflowing plate, Ron takes a single bite before noticing the coins that the twins now hold in their hands.
"Where'd you get that?" asks Ron incredulously.
Putting his money back into the bag and then the bag into a robe pocket, George answers, "Fred and I just got our royalty payment from our work with Sirius and Remus", before looking at the scone covered in honey, which was dripping down the Ron's robes, "and I believe you're making a mess of yourself once more."
Soon more students begin to enter the Great Hall, and Sir Nick floats in before stopping at Harry and Neville's position at the table.
"Hello Sir Nick" welcomes the group of Gryffindors.
"And good morning to you young Gryffindors. I cordially invite you to my five hundred deathday party this Halloween" states Sir Nick somberly.
Cocking his head to the side, Neville asks politely, "Sir Nicholas, do you mind me asking what a 'deathday party' is?"
"Mr. Longbottom, a 'deathday party' is where one celebrates the day one has perished, but celebrates it with others whom have also perished" answers Sir Nick.
"Based on that, not many alive humans have attended a 'deathday' party, have they?" inquiries Hermione, intrigue laced throughout her question.
Perplexed, Sir Nick replies slowly, "Miss Hermione Granger…I daresay you are quite correct."
"We'd be honored to attend, Sir Nick. What time and place is the party being held?" states Harry, quickly fetching his schedule to write in the details.
Quickly copying the details onto a piece of parchment, Harry mutters a couple of 'geminio' on the parchment, quickly passing out the details to Fred, George, Neville, Ron, Hermione, before asking, "Sir Nick, would Ginny also be allowed to attend?"
Smiling wanly, Sir Nick replies, "I don't see why not."
Turning to Ginny, Harry asks, "Would you like to attend with us?"
Nodding her head, Harry quickly passes the duplicated information to Ginny.
At the staff table, Dumbledore turns to Professor McGonagall and states, "Minerva, may I be honest with you?"
Slightly taken back, Professor McGonagall replies, "Certainly."
"I do not approve of your and the other heads of houses to add Sirius's and Remus's warding program for careers after Hogwarts without consulting me first" states Dumbledore with a hint of disappointment in his voice.
"You haven't had much of a voice previously in affairs such as these, so there wasn't much thought put into including you into the discussion" replies Professor McGonagall curtly.
Sitting back in his chair, Dumbledore responds, possibly to himself, "Perhaps I need to get back into being part of those discussions."
/*elsewhere and October 30th*/
Signing his name on the line, Remus pushes the parchment back towards the goblin. Sealing the scroll, the goblin states in a rich baritone, "Thank you, Messrs Black, Lupin. Here is your copy. Have a nice day."
Minutes later Sirius and Remus arrive in their store, eager to begin the day. After finally unlocking the door, Sirius says, "I think we should begin working on building out the property we plan to use for the warding program."
Turning his head to look at Sirius, Remus narrows his eyes and replies warily, "You just want a chance to get out and dig as dog, don't you?"
"We need to begin, otherwise once we get some students interested in the program, we may not have anything ready for them."
Rolling his eyes, Remus looks at his watch before replying, "We can do that later. Now we handle the store."
Mock pouting, Sirius states, "I think we should cut the days we are open to just five days a week, with a box to allow people to place orders after-hours, and then we fill it for the next business day, assuming the quantity isn't an issue, so we can build our workplace for the warding program."
Sighing, Remus says, "We don't really have much business on the weekends, so I propose we can make it every other weekend that we aren't open. Is that suitable to you?"
Smiling at the compromise, Sirius nods his head, then begins to vigorously cast "Scourgify" on the floor. Closing the shop at the end of the day, Sirius heads to the ministry to pick up Amelia, while Remus heads home. A little while later, the trio of adults met in the dining room to eat."
Sliding a piece of paper across the table, Remus says, "Here's a sketch of my idea for the use of the land in Hogsmeade. Please take a look over it see what you think about it."
Sliding it towards Amelia, Sirius continues to eat. Minutes later Amelia slides the sketch to Sirius, who stops and looks over it, eyes widening in surprise.
"Mmm. This is definitely interesting. But why is there an empty space in this grid?" inquiries Sirius.
Finishing his mouthful of food, Remus replies, "For a building of ours that has a balcony all the way around it so we can watch our students perform warding exercises from the ground and the air. Leaving even just a small portion of the roof vulnerable due to the ward not covering the entire house is a security risk. That is unacceptable for our future business."
"I agree, but this begs the question of where do we store the warding schemes and quite possibly our records of sales from the store?" inquires Sirius.
Clapping his hands together, Remus replies, "Through an access point in the building we use to observe the students, we can gain access to a secure underground storage system."
Looking over the sketch, Sirius asks confused, "Why do you have some lines around certain areas of the property?"
"One area is a potential office space, with less restrictive wards, followed by a much larger area for the actual warding program, which will have a more restricted warding system, to prevent intrusion."
Taking a sip of butterbeer, Sirius pauses to think of a reply. "So when you say 'less restrictive wards' do you mean less wards, or wards that won't let humans past it?"
"Possibly both. Why not work on a ward that takes spell power and then strengthens other wards? Or some how use the power to active another set of wards?" replies Remus, grinning ear to ear.
Scratching his chin, Sirius adds, "So optimally the wards are run at 99.999% power, so that more power can be added from oncoming spell fire, in which using the power to stay up under the attacks is offset, and any extra is still added to an overflow buffer which can be routed to other wards that aren't normally activated, but can still be accessed by the ward(s) being hit with spell fire?"
Interjecting, Amelia adds in a chastising tone, "Do either one of you two know what you are talking about? The enormity of the project that you are talking about achieving? The possible backfiring issues that might arise. As much as I hate to bring this up, Pandora Lovegood died just a few years ago from a backfiring spell, and I don't wish to deal with the same. Think of Harry and Susan and how it would tear our family apart."
Exchanging guilty looks, Sirius replies, "You're right, dear. It would be selfish of Remus and I experiment in something quite potentially dangerous."
Lowering his head as well, Remus adds, "Yes, you're correct, Amelia. We were thinking of the future for magic, but not of our somewhat disjointed but functional family."
"Now, let's enjoy the rest of our dinner" comments Amelia, before finishing her dinner plate.
Fifteen minutes later, the trio move from the dining room to a sitting room, to continue conversing.
"I propose we establish at least a baseline set of wards on the property as soon as we can" begins Sirius, beginning the discussion.
"I agree, but we need a secret keeper, and you're in the office tomorrow, right, Amelia?" inquiries Remus.
Nodding her head, Amelia replies, "It is my turn to do weekend duty in the office."
Turning to Remus, Sirius begins slowly, "We could always have Harry meet us in Hogsmeade and he can be the Secret Keeper."
Sighing, Amelia adds dryly, "Sirius, as an interesting of an idea as that is, taking Harry away from Hogwarts isn't my way of achieving your warding goal. Either wait to do it over a break at Hogwarts, or wait until next weekend when I'm not busy at the office."
"Any other reason why you bought this much land?" inquiries Amelia looking over the land deed.
A bit of silence begins to stretch out when Sirius replies, "We…have some potential plans."
"And I assume you need space for your servers for your upcoming public release of the tablet devices, or Omni Play, for matchmaking?" says Amelia.
"Of course. Better to have more than enough servers handling requests than not enough" replies Sirius.
"Are you expecting that many people to adopt the technology?" inquiries Amelia.
Exhaling, Remus adds, "Not immediately, but I believe we have a draw for the customers."
Smiling, Amelia asks, "I'm curious. I figure I'm being quite cynical at this point, but perhaps pitching the ideas, or some of them at least, might help overall. What's the idea?"
"We subscribe to the Daily Prophet, as you already know. Well, our idea is to possibly bring an electronic version, via the Omni Play, to paying customers" states Sirius.
"So you want to provide a non-paper version of the Daily Prophet to those who use the, let's call them 'tablets'? How would you provide such a service?"
Clearing his throat, Remus replies, "Essentially we provide the Daily Prophet, at least if they agree to it, with a unit that allows them to feed in their finished paper, which is then made into 'electronic' pages, which are sent to our mainframe, and depending on the location of the customers, are then sent to their devices, or sent to a smaller server, which then delivers the content to the users who have subscribed. We collect a modest 7.5% of subscription price from the customers and pass the other 92.5% to the Daily Prophet."
Nodding her head, Amelia says, "The idea is fairly solid, at least for those who read the Daily Prophet. Some issues you might run into is, why get the tablet version over a paper copy? What are the incentives, such as price difference? Second item is your demographic. What is your target audience with the tablets? What age bracket is the majority of the owners/users? And does that age group near the age group of the readers of the Daily Prophet? If not, perhaps this route isn't the way to go."
Pausing to think, Sirius remarks, "You do have a point. What do you suggest we provide?"
"Wizarding chess, Gobstones, and the likes, but if it is possible, put it into 3D, or make it seem like they are playing with actual game pieces" replies Amelia.
Tapping his index fingers together, Remus adds in, "I don't believe that your idea, Amelia, of having the pieces in 3D is terribly difficult. Will just need to tweak our prototype camera, and just capture some footage of each piece being destroyed from all other possible pieces and for both colors, then tie into the…you two don't care how I do, do you?"
Shaking their heads, Sirius and Amelia return to conversing for a bit longer while Remus heads to the workshop to begin the 3D modeling process.
The following day after Amelia leaves for the ministry, Sirius stops Remus and asks, "I think we should get Harry to exit Hogwarts through the Whomping Willow tree exit, so he can be the Secret Keeper. What do you think?"
Clearing his throat, Remus responds, "And you don't think that this is a bad idea at all?"
"Yes but despite that, he wouldn't be out for very long, so not much in a particularly compromising position. He could be under James's Invisibility Cloak."
"Sirius, just leave it alone. Let's just wait until Amelia is free, or that one of us performs the Fidelius Charm, and the other becomes the Secret Keeper?" suggests Remus.
A long pause before Sirius adds, "Perhaps you're right."
Chuckling, Remus states, "And think of what Lily would say if anything happened to Harry."
"You're right. Let's just do the warding ourselves and not worry about getting Harry involved."
/*later that day[31st] and at Hogwarts*/
"Should we eat anything before we go" inquiries Hermione.
Shrugging his shoulders, Harry replies, "I say we don't worry about it and if we need to get food later, then we get some food later."
Shortly thereafter, the seven break into twos and threes and make their way down to the dungeons. Descending into the dungeons, the light fades and soon black candles lead the way to the deathday party. Entering the designated dungeon, the septet hear ghastly wailing sounds from a band of ghostly figures.
Shivering, Hermione leans into Neville, who puts an arm around her. Spotting Peeves, Fred and George hurry off towards him, up to who knows what. Floating through table ladled with rotten and spoiling food, Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington greets in a somber tone, "Welcome my friends. Thank you for coming to my five hundredth deathday celebration."
Inclining his head, Harry responds, "And thank you for inviting us to such a monumental day."
Getting upon a stage, Sir Nick begins, "Thank you all for being here, my five hundredth death…" before being interrupted by hearty, or as hearty of a laugh that ghosts can muster, as a group of ghostly horsemen zoom through the wall, chasing a wandering ghostly head.
"Well I never!" exclaims Sir Nick indignantly.
Eyes wide in curiosity, Hermione wanders around, drinking in the sights. A female ghost drifts through the table laden with rotten and spoiling food to come to rest beside Hermione. "Hello Myrtle" greets Hermione.
"Oh, hello" replies Myrtle, drifting slowly into the dungeon.
Some time later, the septet exit the dungeon, heading towards the common room when Harry stops short in the hallway, holding a hand up for quietness.
"…kill…tear…rip…"
Looking around wildly, Harry darts towards an adjoining hallway, head swiveling constantly.
"Harry! What's the matter?" inquiries Neville, catching up to Harry first.
Pausing, Harry replies hurriedly, "I hear, or think I hear a voice, a murderous one at that."
Grabbing Harry's arm, Neville pulls hard as Harry tries to dart away again.
"Harry! I understand you want to discover what's happening, but think about it strategically! The rest of us don't hear anything, and all I hear is some sort of hissing sound, which could be the wind outside or the sound of your robes flapping as you run."
Stopping and contemplating Neville's words, Harry replies in a more calm voice than before, "You're right. I think I'll write to Sirius and Remus about this and see what they say. Perhaps I'm just stressed, and need a break to clear my mind."
"I think it's time to get back to the common room" suggests Hermione.
Nodding his head, Harry follows the others back to the common room. Naught even a minute later, the septet stops suddenly. From the back of the group, Harry asks, "What's wrong? Why did we-", as he comes to the front of the group.
Spotting what the others had seen, Harry just stands still, not believing what lies in front of him. On the wall between two torches, in a dark color, perhaps red, are large sized words, "THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE."(*), alongside Mrs. Norris hanging upside down on the right hand side torch.
"Enemies of the hair, beware?" repeats Ginny in a confused tone of voice.
Before anyone has a chance to reply, the thunderous and far off sound of hundreds of students climbing up the stairwells interrupts. With lighting speed, Harry quickly spews out a mountain load of thoughts, "There's a shortcut up the way from here, but we wouldn't all fit, tossing some Dial-A-Decoys might work, but that would be indicators that we were here previously, Double Trouble Tubes wouldn't stop enough people for long enough…I have an idea. Neville, everyone else, follow my lead."
Half a minute later, students arrive in the hallway, trapping the septet in the hallway. Nearing the septet, the students suddenly grow quiet, with a handful of squelching sounds as well. Quickly muttering and pointing begins in the crowd of students surrounding the septet. Gruffly Filch pushes his way to the front of the crowd, only to stop when he spots Mrs. Norris.
"Mrs. Norris, oh Mrs. Norris, what have they done to you?" utters Filch.
Looking around and spotting the septet clearly well away from the rest of the students, Filch screeches, "You! You have done Mrs. Norris in!"
Arriving in the clearing around the septet, the other professors and Dumbledore remain quiet, until Dumbledore carefully unhooks Mrs. Norris from the bracket before instructing in a quiet but powerful voice, "Messrs Weasley, Mr. Potter, Mr. Longbottom, Miss Weasley, and Miss Granger, please follow me—" before being interrupted by Professor Lockhart with, "You can use my office, headmaster, it's just on the floor above."
Striding into Professor Lockhart's office, Dumbledore gently lays Mrs. Norris down on the desk, closely inspecting every inch. Silence in the office is only punctuated by periodical sobs from Filch, and an occasional comment from Professor Lockhart stating he could have saved Mrs. Norris if he were just a tad bit faster.
After multiple long and seemingly never ending minutes, Dumbledore announces, "Argus, Mrs. Norris is not dead."
Quietness falls over the office as the words penetrate Filch's brain.
"Not…dead? Why isn't she moving?"
Nodding his head, Dumbledore replies, "Correct, not dead, simply petrified, although how is a mystery…"
Angrily, Filch exclaims and points at the septet, "Ask them! They were at the scene when everyone else had arrived."
"No, not even Messrs Weasley at this point in their schooling can produce a petrification like this" declares Dumbledore.
"Headmaster, professors, I'd like to tell my side of the story, if you are ready" states Harry.
All eyes in the room, including the narrow ones of Professor Snape, turn to rest on Harry. The next multiple minutes are quiet, minus Harry's calm and firm voice, recounting the details from Sir Nick's invitation to the deathday party, to how the septet had been a part of the party, and how they had come to the scene of petrification merely a minute or two before the rest of the students.
Stroking his beard, Dumbledore asks, "An interesting tale to be certain."
Snorting, Professor Snape interjects, "Headmaster, surely you don't find their tale of events to be…eccentric? Why in the name of Hogwarts would someone, no less than the Weasley twins, miss the Halloween feast, and not be in the Hospital Wing, or be up to no good?"
Ignoring Professor Snape's comment, Harry calmly states, "I'm quite willing, as I'm sure the others are as well, willing to provide you with our memories of shortly before going to the deathday party to our arrival in the hallway, for view through a Pensieve."
Narrowing his eyes, Professor Snape opens his mouth to speak when Dumbledore's eyes twinkle and he replies, "Oh ho, Mr. Potter. What a bold, but certainly doable way to verify your statement", before turning to the rest of the septet and asking, "and are the rest of you willing to follow Mr. Potter's statement and invitation to view your memories from this evening?"
Nodding their heads, Dumbledore chuckles, and says, "Very well then, Minerva, please follow the students and I to my office. Professors Snape, Flitwick, and Sprout, please escort your respective houses to their common rooms, before coming to my office to attend the viewings."
Exiting Professor Lockhart's office, Dumbledore pauses and places a hand on Filch's shoulder before saying in a comforting voice, "Don't worry, Argus, Pomona has a large batch of mandrakes maturing, and once fully mature, Severus will assist in brewing a restorative potion to bring Mrs. Norris back to her normal state."
Hours later in Dumbledore's office, the four heads of house and Dumbledore exit from the seventh and final memory. Sitting down in conjured chairs, Dumbledore clears his throat and announces, "After reviewing each one of your memories, we have concluded that yes, you seven are innocent of any wrongdoings. I do encourage you seven to not take it upon yourselves to be where you shouldn't be. Now, I believe it is time for sleep."
Wordlessly, Professor McGonagall leads the way out of the office and back to the Gryffindor Common room for the septet.
Author note: Congratulations to everyone for making it to the twenty fifth chapter! :D
The idea for taking the excess power from incoming spell(s) comes from Jharry1960, but the method of redirecting it and using it is of my own imagination. I'd like to thank everyone who reads and reviews, especially those who frequently review, like Katiek121, Jharry1960, Kairan1979, and many others. Everyone who reviews, favorites, follows, and the likes bring a smile to my face every time I see the email notifications. One point is that with the semester winding down, I'm almost certain that I will not be able to post on a two week schedule, although that won't stop me from doing what I can. :)
Using the Harry Potter Wiki, I discovered Luna's mother name, Pandora. (*) indicates a quote from the book.