I Know Your Secret

The Ultimate Secret of Headmasters Past

Hope looked over the new entrance to the heads office half-amused as she didn't like having to destroy pieces of history but it had been that stubborn they were left with little choice and this was the most efficient as rewriting the wards was too much and very few people had that kind of talent.

They ended up having to tear apart many wards and old enchantments to get in too. They had employed Bill Weasley and his team of ward crackers from Gringotts to get the job done without causing any unnecessary damage.

Bill had been only too happy to have the extra work while in the country, and the fact it was messing with Dumbledore added some icing to the job. Dumbledore had been pestering his mother and father ever since they decided to side with Hope. He was still annoyed that his brother Percy was a ministry stooge, and that Ronald was a Dumbledore worshipping puppet.

Hope and her body guarding girls entered the door and luckily a friend of Bill's managed to get the moving stairs working again, so they stepped on them, and they started ascending them to the top as walking too much could be a drag where they stepped off at another wooden door, entering without knocking.

The office was different. It was plain so far with a large oak desk and empty chair in front of it with many screaming and abusive paintings on the side wall cussing at Hope and her guards. Then there was a huge library of books and trinkets lining the walls; a giant telescope, and a phoenix on a golden perch.

"Oh, Fawkes is still here!" Hope commented in surprise. "You really plan on staying don't you?" she asked as she slumped down into the comfortable office chair at the desk where several monitors set on with Windows systems for her to use, in lock mode.

The phoenix gave her a note of agreement. "Well, whatever," she said, shrugging, "but betray me and the school to Dumbledore bird an I'll have to test out how immortal you really are!" she threatened, smirking while the bird seemed to gulp and her bodyguards took stations at the door to her new office since McGonagall was happy staying where she was, and Hope wanted to have all of the stuff Dumbledore left behind checked out as well as search for the 'mythical' Hogwarts Vault that was said to be in the headmasters office somewhere.

"This is a travesty!" one of the previous head teachers paintings said loudly while he glared at Hope, "a pathetic little girl using the headmaster's office as her own personal study!"

"Dumbledore will be back!" another agreed wholeheartedly.

"I'm sorry did you say something?" she asked, looking up at the men while rolling her eyes while they were outraged as she was amused with them and wished she got to piss off the real deal years ago.

However, they looked around when Luna Lovegood and Hermione Granger came around a corner from where the large telescope was on the tiered balcony that ran around the upper floor. Why an idiot who had no imagination would look to the stars was beyond them.

"Hope!" Hermione called down with a grin. "We've finally found the headmaster's vault!" she said in glee while the previous heads looked on in terror.

"You cannot open it!" one of them roared in panic.

"Nonsense...!" Luna disagreed. "It's actually quite poor magic... so Kairi, can we open it?" she asked, causing Hope to grimace as she still didn't have a clue how Luna found out her first name as she had been using her second name as it sounded more, normal, and hopeful, and glared at Ginny while she blushed as it was likely her doing. But then Luna was a reporter, and a good one, having a father who was a somewhat reporter helped her out as she had some experience in the art of being a snoop.

Hope shrugged with a cool sigh as they ignored the paintings cries as she climbed the stairs up to join her friends. "Hang on, Luna, weren't you with Ginny plotting something with Daphne and Susan?"

"Oh, yes I was," she agreed with a wide smile happy Hope noticed her so much. "That was a lot of fun, but that was also this morning, and I have been helping Hermione for the past two hours, and now we finally have the vault, and know how to open it." She was beaming with as much excitement as Hermione as they led her to a huge metal door that flickered with an illusion of bare wall a few times as the enchantment had obviously been messed with by Luna and Hermione.

"Wow, a bare wall, who would have suspected in all of this junk that it was the one spare wall with space for a secret door?" Hope asked sarcastically while Luna and Hermione both looked just as disappointed in the past headmasters. "So how do you open it?" she asked curiously.

"It's already unlocked, and now!" Hermione said, flicking her wand they continued to ignore all of the screaming, desperate paintings. Lights blazed to life within the dark vault as the door burst open dramatically as they would have thought as the previous headmasters did share douchy traits with Dumbledore.

They looked around in awe as it contained stacks and stacks of books and scrolls of ages undetermined, likely worth thousands to millions of pounds or galleons depending on the currency they preferred at the time. However, most importantly there were several paintings on the walls, shielding their eyes from the sudden light.

However, they didn't look at them properly at first as they saw the glass coffin in the centre of the wealth of knowledge. It was like ice, and Hope walked over, staring within as there was a young girl inside with her skin in states of bursting open. She was blonde and about their age wearing standard black robes of an older style. She was about thirteen or fourteen with her face frozen in a terrible agony. Other than that she would have been pretty with pale skin, nearly perfectly preserved within her confinement. There were gems in the coffin at her feet of beautiful icy blue, glowing up and out elegantly.

"I hate him you know?"

They were startled by the voice of a depressed girl as the coffin lit up with white light shining up from the girl's body. Then a transparent, not quite ghost form of the girl sat weightlessly on top of her coffin, cross-legged and bare footed, perfect, not mangled or hurt and in pain like her body was.

"He would visit me once a year on my birthday, but this year he came early!" she said coldly. "He just smiles while I tell him how I wish for him to die a terribly painful death! When he came though, he told me he had to leave, and that evil was forcing him away from the school, and ignored me when I told him he was evil, but he did tell me he would be back for me!" she said while her cool blue eyes looked down at her body beneath her butt.

"It's horrible being half-dead!" she said as she sat back, placing her hands behind herself to lean on. "I can't even go more than a few metres from my own body, which is why I am within this crypt too far to scream for help, the other side of the door. I am but a prisoner of my own older brother. I still couldn't say whether it was Alberforth, Albus, or Gellert who hit me with that curse, but… no… I do know who hurt me, and even in death, I couldn't just die and get some rest."

"You are... a Dumbledore?" Hope asked in shock, feeling pity for the girl, and a longing to comfort her in her arms because she knew what it was like for her own family to hurt her, as she had the stupid Dursley's to deal with for most of her life.

The cute blonde nodded her head with a sigh. "I was six and attacked by some muggle boys. I was playing in our back garden, and had some bouts of accidental magic. I suppose I went crazy with heartache, pain, and fear. My father went to jail for attacking those foolish boys as a muggle hater; I wish he had not. My magic had become unstable, and I would have went to hospital where they would keep me, and that wasn't good; they wouldn't care to understand and hurt me more. I would never get any help, and my freedom and happiness would have been forfeit through no fault of my own.

"Then I killed my mother in accidental magic; I blew her up," she said with a lump in her throat and a whimper of shame. "Albus resented having to take care of me after that, maybe he even feared me because of it!" she hissed. "I was fourteen when he and his friend Gellert Grindelwald got into a fight as Alberforth challenged him-them, and for once Albus chose me and our brother. I do not know what happened after that but I was frozen within this magic, neither alive, nor dead."

"It's okay now Ariana!" She was soothed by the cool voice of a woman on the wall. She wore a long black dress with a corset to boost up her assets. She was a beautiful brunette with cool green eyes and Hermione and Luna both gave each other looks as they noticed the resemblance to Hope.

She looked back with a light dusting of pink to her cheeks. "Thank you Morgan!" she said, embarrassed.

"You're Morgana le Fay?" Hermione asked while the woman nodded. "Then you were locked away to stop you from influencing students?"

"She wasn't all legends made her out to be, quite different in many respects, but I suppose that would be nice if it was true!" interrupted a man wearing dark green with silver coloured armour and a ruby encrusted sword on his hip. He had wild red hair and a neatly trimmed red goatee around his lips. "She was my favourite students. She came with her friend, Emrys, but there wasn't much we could teach that they didn't know, so they became students for only a short while. It was annoying that Morgana didn't have any interest in men, and liked flirting with Rowena, but I suppose it was amusing. It wasn't long after they arrived that we made her and Emrys teachers."

"Godric Gryffindor!" Hope muttered in awe as it was written on the bottom of his golden frame. "The school was stolen out of your power by following head teachers!"

"Indeed!" interrupted an older man with brown hair. He was tall, thin and clean shaven wearing a royal blue tunic and black 'tights' and blue robe left open.

"Merlin... wow... that's an earlier likeness, but then I don't think I've seen a picture where you don't have a beard and white hair!" Luna commented as if she was talking about the weather.

Merlin looked at her in surprise. "This is me as I lived and breathed. I never did like more than a bit of stubble, gets itchy quick. But as Godric was saying... Morgan and I travelled to Hogwarts together to learn, but in that we stayed to teach. I was in Salazar's house and we became close friends, while Godric had Morgan, and tried to get her to be his, but she didn't have eyes for him, but another."

"Well, introductions are in order!" interrupted a beautiful red haired woman as she slid over into Morgana's painting, holding the other witches hand. She had blue eyes and was wearing a long flowing icy blue dress, pretty much showing that Morgana had eyes for her. "I am Guinevere, and yes I was queen of Camelot, and also a witch, and back then I was a student, and did not understand what love was when I married Arthur, and Lancelot covered for me and Morgan when we were sneaking off together, which was where the legend of Morgana le Fay as the great and powerful evil witch of legend came from, 'kidnapping' me. Though, she was extraordinarily gifted and powerful witch, which was likely what drew me in at first, she never was bad.

"Anyway, I can tell you more some other time, introductions, I almost forgot you haven't been introduced to some... sorry, I tend to babble when I'm nervous. These are Rowena, Helga, and Salazar since you have been introduced to me and the others!" she finished introductions.

"Charmed!" the man with the rough beard, and black hair said with a slight bow of his head. He was dressed in black armour and he had muscles upon muscles. His eyes were dark but friendly. He was a warmer person than any of them expected, but they had just gotten proof that history glossed over things, lied, or bent the truth as he would be depicted as a noble, not a fierce warrior.

"I am Rowena Ravenclaw. It is nice to meet you!" the woman in the blue robes said neatly. She had long blonde hair to her waist and cool brown eyes. She must have been a lady of wealth when she was alive, and maybe she actually had title in the muggle world as it was obvious she was actually muggle-born rather than the pureblood history mentioned, but the same was surprisingly likely with Salazar.

"And I am Helga Hufflepuff," the last woman said with a slight Norwegian accent. "What are you children doing here anyway?" she asked in curiosity. She was wearing a yellow dress. She had short brown hair, and pale grey eyes, but like the other women was nicely shaped and beautiful, though she had some more detailed curves and much huger assets.

"I threw Dumbledore out ages ago!" Hope commented with a shrug while they all looked at her in shock. "Bastard old man messed with me for the last time. Now we're practically at civil war with the ministry and we are creating the Unified Mystical Commonwealth to set right what he and everyone else have done in their greed to the magical world while my company Fairytale holds Fairytale Academy, formally Hogwarts aloft."

"So you are Hope Potter?" Morgana asked with a small grin.

"Kairi Hope Potter!" Luna corrected as she liked Hope's first name so much she felt it was a shame not to use it every chance she got.

"I like that name," Guinevere said with a small smile. "Kairi; sounds oriental, but anyway, you can call me Gwen, everyone else does."

"Yes, well, these are Hermione Granger, and Luna Lovegood!" Kairi/Hope introduced her friends. "I still can't believe the previous head teachers are still screaming at us. We cut them off from leaving their frames to keep them 'loyal' to the school, but we're trying to find a way to destroy them all, as some are 'unbreakable'."

"Head teachers are chosen mainly by their willingness to make sure we never leave," Merlin said with a sigh. "We're dangerous to the administration of the ministry and school because of our knowledge and talent, which even after our deaths are here within us, and we weren't some of the greatest mage in your history for nothing, so none of them could destroy our paintings. Then that fool Albus Dumbledore dumped his sister within this vault with us. He wasn't even trying to find a way that she would survive outside of freezing her, even though we could have tried to help her ourselves as she is still innocent, but without a living person we are powerless, especially disconnected from the school. I don't even think he really thinks about her anymore."

"It's not very nice!" Ariana commented with a shrug as she had gotten used to it and found everything so boring. "But at least I've kind of gotten over the attack on me all those years ago. Not much I could do but think and let it go. Those boys ruined my life, but then Albus ruined my death! I don't think those boys understood what they did to me was wrong because of the evils in the world!"

Hope moved forward and smiled, reaching out to the apparation of Ariana's consciousness, she stroked her ghostly cheek.

"I will try to save you," Hope said with a sad smile, "but not like this," she said when suddenly the girl screamed away as Hope was pointing her wand at the ice.

The gems stopped glowing as the ice started melting at increasing speeds while she continued to scream in terror and pain.

"Hope, what do you think you're doing? Hermione cried out in horror. "You're going to kill her!?" she yelled out, but Luna surprisingly stopped her from interfering holding her around her arms while she struggled, and none of the paintings said anything, but watched in sadness and hope.

Ariana sat up screaming and withering in pain as the ice became a puddle, slashes grazing her skin, pealing it roar. Hope pointed her wand at the girl as she dropped to her knees beside her, muttering repeatedly as her eyes wouldn't leave Ariana's as she held the girls face as her skin split and pealed.

"That's it girl, you have it!" Salazar said. "The skin splitting curse, terribly potent...!"

The blonde girls screaming had lessoned to whimpers as she was crying, curled up, bloodied in Hope's arms, but the bleeding had stopped and the curse, over slowly.

"Hope," Ariana's disused voice muttered while she had tears in her eyes.

"W-what's happening?" Hermione asked as they watched as the girl was alight with silver and shrunk within her clothes but she was still cut up. It stopped and she was just a small child in oversized robes.

"The unicorn blood in the ice that kept her alive...!" Morgana said. "It can give a normal person a half-life to kill a creature so pure to survive on its blood. But to have the pure creature's death forced on another innocent creature so that they could live – magic sometimes acts in ways we cannot predict. I think it wanted to give her another start. It would never be able to do more than a few years, but eight on such a young body?"

"It's okay now Ariana!" Hope said, kissing the girls forehead. "Everything will be okay from now on, but why the old man never knew what curse hurt her-?"

"It was his!" Ariana's small whimper was almost missed. "A-Alberforth didn't know magic like it and Gellert threw the torture curse around, even using it on Alberforth."

"Never mind now sweetheart," Hope said, cooing over the small girl. "You're safe now," she said before looking up as her guards had turned up. "We have to get her to our mediwitch," she said before standing with Ariana curled up, cradled in her arms. "Hermione, Luna, get this lot out and replace the previous heads with them if you could be dolls."

"How did you know?" Hermione asked before she could leave the vault. "How did you know what spell to counter?"

"It's a part of the Project!" she replied as she walked out, "and Gellert was very forthcoming with information, but believed Ariana was dead!" she finished as she left down the stairs and out of the office.