The Iron Sole Alchemist Goes to Hogwarts (Chapter 52) The War Begins
by Howlin
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation. This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)
Harry's interview for the Quibbler was printed the same day as news of Lucius Malfoy's arrest for using the unforgivable Imperius curse on a Ministry official came in. It was a solid one two punch for those who doubted Harry's version of events. The Daily Prophet asserted that Malfoy was acting alone, but the revelation that an ex Death Eater had been able to get to someone as close to Fudge as Percy shook people's faith in the Ministry's story, as evidenced by the avalanche of letter Harry was sent the same day the story came out.
The next morning, Harry wasn't at breakfast. Checking in with Ron, I verified nothing had happened to him. He'd gone to see Snape about having another vision from Voldemort. Apparently, Voldemort had been given some bad information about how to get the weapon the Order of the Phoenix was guarding. Now, he was back on track. All this information added up to whatever Voldemort was after being in the Department of Mysteries in the lower level of the Ministry of Magic, near the archway Sloth and I had used to enter this world.
According to Snape, the Order already had all the relevant information Harry's vision had contained. Snape further emphasized that Harry needed to refrain from attempting to penetrate Voldemort's mind until he was much farther along in his legilimency. He obviously thought Harry had sought the vision out rather than it coming unbidden.
Based on information Sirius and Percy were reporting, Fudge was feeling backed into a corner. Evidence and popular opinion were tipping more and more in favor of Harry, but with a months long smear campaign, Fudge was too committed to his original story. I just hoped he was quietly preparing for war.
Sirius used Lucius Malfoy's arrest as an excuse to discuss the Death Eater trials after the last war, and how Lucius Malfoy had gotten off by claiming to have been put under the Imperius curse himself. This proceeded to what Lucius Malfoy had actually done during the last war.
As April came around, the DA was now working on the patronus charm. Lupin had said this was advanced magic of a sort that most qualified wizards couldn't perform. Harry was busy proving that you could teach it to an informal motley of dedicated misfits if you had the right knack for teaching. A number of full body patronuses were floating around the room by the end of the first lesson. After using the Marauder's Map to guide everyone else safely back to their dorms, Harry turned and talked to me and Sloth.
"Why weren't either of you practicing with the others today?" he asked.
Sloth and I looked at each other confused. Then I said, "We're not wizards, Harry. You know that."
"That didn't stop you from practicing the disarming charm, the shield charm, the stunning spell, the reductor curse, the impediment jinx..."
"All those are spells we can emulate with alchemy," I said.
"Find a way to emulate this one with alchemy, then," insisted Harry. "Everyone else was at least getting a silver vapor. It'll hurt their confidence if anyone outright fails."
"It's not about confidence," I said. "Our powers plain don't work the same way yours do."
"We've been really lucky so far," said Sloth. "A lot of spells can be duplicated if we're really clever, but all we can do with a patronus charm is make those pins based on the theory behind the spell."
"If you can make the pins," said Harry, "and you can project glowing images iwth those spy bugs, and you can make solid planes of force with your shield charm, what's stopping you from putting all those pieces together?"
I opened my mouth, then closed it. It would take a lot of work, and a lot of trial and error would be involved, but what Harry was saying wasn't as unreasonable as I first thought.
"Greed?" asked Sloth.
"I'll try to have something by our next meeting," I promised.
My first attempt yielded a glowing blue image of Loki, composed of alchemically suspended air that I could manipulate like a puppet. It would probably trick my fellow DA members, but it would be no real protection against a dementor. For that, it would need a consciousness, a spirit, akin to what I put in my patronus pin, but capable of controlling a body of light as though it were just one of my chessmen.
After a solid week of all nighters, and a notebook filled with my observations, theories, partial successes, and failures, I finally succeeded in producing a short lived, conscious, mobile projection. My result expended red stone energy imbuing the construct with consciousness with the knowledge of how to fight, the will to protected, and utterly incapable of despair.
I was eager to show off my new technique, so when Harry approached me, I didn't notice at first how worried and ill he looked. Instead, I just happily hissed to him that I'd done it, and I hoped we were having another DA meeting soon.
"That's great, Greed, really," said Harry, distractedly. "I've got a question about that recorder I've been carrying around to my legilimency lessons. Is there a way to erase a lesson from it?"
"Yeah," I said. "You just tell it to. Why? What happened?"
"I... I saw something personal of Snape's, and I don't want it spread around."
"It doesn't record what goes on in your heads," I said. "It only records what it can see and hear."
"It wasn't in Snape's head when I saw it," said Harry. "It was in a pensive."
I didn't press Harry for details on what he had seen. I just demonstrated hwo to erase the information. I did ask for details about the pensive itself. Apparently, it was a bowl that wizards could put their memories in to look them over. You use your wand to pluck the memories out of your head and you drop it in the bowl. You can apparently fall into the bowl and experience the memory like you were there, but as a ghostly presence unable to interact with anything or anyone.
Harry left, on his way to the defense professor's office. He wanted to talk to Sirius about what he'd seen. The next time I saw Harry, he looked a lot better.
"I've had a talk with my dad," he said when I commented on it. "I convinced him to talk to Snape about some stuff that happened when they were in school. He didn't get a chance to apologize to him before he died."
"Your dad was here?" I asked, surprised.
"No. Sirius let me borrow his two way communication mirror."
"His what?" I asked.
Harry took out a small, handheld mirror and showed it to me. "It's one of a linked pair. I just say my dad's name, and I appear in his mirror and he appears in this one, and we can talk."
My eyes went wide. "Harry, that's amazing. I didn't even know things like that existed."
"I think they're like the Marauder's Map. Something my dad and his friends invented on their own."
"I see..." I said. "So, with all the warnings about the owls and fireplaces not being secure, James and Sirius have been sitting on the magical equivalent of a cell phone this entire time! The Dark Lord nearly won the last war because his side had pagers when the rest of the world was suck with messenger birds, and something like this has been an option!"
"We should get Sirius to make more," said Harry, picking up my conversation thread. "Load the DA up with them. The Order too now that I think of it."
It turned out the two way mirrors were literally two way. Each mirror was part of a linked pair and could only ever contact the other mirror in the set. Hermione drew up a phone chain so we could distribute information to all the DA members with each of us having to carry only three mirrors each. Far more conspicuous than the coins, we had to be careful not to let Filch catch us with one.
My first use of mine was to call Sloth and give her the details of my psudo-patronus when we were both in our separate common rooms.
Following the Easter holidays, I had a meeting with Professor Flitwick to talk about my options for a career after Hogwarts. I had so much I'd have to do when I got back to Amestris, it was hard to decide where to start, or what to set as my priorities. Being immortal meant I'd get it all done eventually, but figuring out the most efficient way to do it would benefit from advice.
"Marcus, have a seat," indicated Professor Flitwick. Pamphlets were scattered all over his desk, each containing details about a different wizarding career. There were so many of them, none of which anyone in Amestris was currently qualified to do.
"Hello, Professor. We have a lot to talk about."
"I see you've been giving this career advice meeting some thought. That's good. So, what ideas did you want to go over?"
"You remember that I came from a country called Amestris where there aren't any magic schools?" He nodded and I continued. "The truth is, we don't have any magical infrastructure at all. No herbologists tending magical plants, no wand makers, no broomstick makers, nothing. I want to change all that, and it seems to me my best place to start is with a school."
"You want to start your own magic school?" asked Professor Flitwick.
I nodded. "Even alchemy isn't studied in a formal, public institution like Hogwarts back home. It's horded in secretive master, apprentice relationships and studied on one's own from textbooks. A school like Hogwarts could change everything."
"Well, that's a new one," said Professor Flitwick. "Plenty of students have told me they want to teach, but founding a school is a little different. From what you say, your school will be limited to what you learn at Hogwarts, at least until magical theorists can be trained up locally, so you're going to want to focus heavily on your core classes of Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Do you know if your world has the same stars?"
"No," I admitted.
"Then you probably won't need to move on to NEWT level Astronomy, since there's a reasonable chance what you study won't be particularly relevant. The same is true for your History of Magic.
"Herbology is a must, especially since it sounds like you'll be needing to import all your seeds and grow them to a reasonable supply before you can really get started with your potions work.
"Runes and Arithmancy are good for theoretical work, and a solid grounding there might help you fill in gaps in your other subjects once you've got your first few classes out the door.
"Care of Magical Creatures will be more important than you might think. With no established wand makers, and no real idea which kinds of creatures are unknown but present in your world, you'll want as broad a grounding as you can get. Otherwise, you'll find yourself without access to materials for wand cores, which will make teaching everything else so much harder.
"You'll have to decide for yourself how much Muggle Studies will help, given you'll be teaching nothing but muggleborn students. I suppose that will depend on if there are any useful muggle ideas where that you want to bring back.
"Now, as far as Divination, true Seers are rare, and their abilities usually manifest in a useful form without much prompting. Headmaster Dumbledore's frequently considered dropping the subject from the Hogwarts curriculum. I know you're fond of the subject, but it might be wise to focus your efforts elsewhere in your NEWT years."
"That gives me a lot to think about. I suppose I'll need to buy up a lot of wands to hold me over until I can find a good local source for magical creatures. I knew I was going to need to bring a lot of seeds. I guess a lot of what I'll be able to teach depends on my OWLs, since I know I need certain scores to get into NEWT classes."
"Your grades have been consistently excellent. Study hard and keep up with your homework, and I expect you'll have your choice of NEWT classes."
The time for homework was over. Now that the OWLs were nearly upon us, all the fifth years were focused on studying and review. I spent almost half my study hours under the influence of a wit sharpening potion, though in the real exam I'd have to rely on my own skill and memory. All my attempts to divine what sort of questions I'd be dealing with kept giving me warnings about severe violence and impending death.
I did my studying with Sloth, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville. Between us, we had stacks of notes enough to cover one of the large tables in the library. The alchemists among us used red stones to absorb one another's notes in the hopes that something we missed in our own notes would be covered in the other person's.
Finally, the examiners arrived. They were an independent academic group largely above and unconcerned with Ministry politics. Neville'd met some of them before through his grandmother. The only real read on them I could get was that they were old. Old enough to have been doing this same job back when Dumbledore was taking his NEWTs. He was extremely deferential and polite welcoming them in.
The exams themselves were a grueling two week marathon of written and practical tests covering the full dozen subjects taught at Hogwarts. I didn't sleep at all except the night before the Divination test, in case dream interpretation came up. The extra time all went to study and review.
I felt completely confident on the written portions of my exams, but the practicals loomed large each time. I mimicked the effects requested flawlessly, and I felt confident I'd gotten the incantation pronunciation and wand movements right after relentless drilling on them, but in the back of my head, there was the worry that the examiners would take issue with my using alchemy rather than magic.
Charms, Transfiguration, and Defense were all the first week, so I could breathe a sigh of relief they were over. Now, nothing more that required a wand would be coming, and no one had openly called me a fraud. I wouldn't know how they actually felt until the exam results came in. Still, I was determined to get as many OWLs as I could, so after treating myself with some chocolate, I got back to studying.
In the Divination practical, I saw a worrying vision of the head table, empty except for Umbridge in my crystal ball. The tea leaves were less clear, still suggesting a coming disaster. Palm reading one of the ancient proctors indicated that she would yet live to see the old order toppled and a new one put in its place.
Finally, it was our last exam, History of Magic. It was practically an independent study anyway, with Binns' teaching style, but I'd made good use of my time in his classroom over the years, and I knew the material, even if it didn't particularly interest me. I was reading over my completed answers when a few desks over, Harry screamed and fell off his desk. I was on my feet in an instant, but the exam proctor ordered me back to my seat and assured me he'd make sure Harry was alright.
I wrapped my hands around my DA coin while I tried to get back to reading my exam answers. If Harry needed us, he'd use his coin to send us a signal. Finally, it was quills down, and the OWLs were over.
"Harry's in trouble," said a fourth year, Slytherin DA member urgently when I got out of the examination. "Umbridge has him. The real Umbridge."
"Explain later, rescue now," I said once I'd processed that. "Grab whoever else you can find."
A small group of DA members converged on Umbridge's office, called in by word of mouth and by use of the communication mirrors. There we found Umbridge standing over Harry menacingly while he was tied to a chair. Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle were covering Harry with wands, all looking very smug.
Disarming and stunning spells filled the room as our small army burst in. Harry was the only one in the room awake when we closed the door a few seconds later. Neville used his alchemic sword to cut Harry loose from the ropes.
"What happened?" asked Ron.
"Sirius is in trouble," gasped Harry urgently.
"Sirius Black?" asked one of the Hufflepuffs, alarmed.
"Long story. He's on our side," said Sloth.
"Well, Draco figured out he'd been impersonating Umbridge since Christmas," said the Slytherin who'd alerted us. "He let her loose just before the History of Magic exam. She called for backup and the Aurors came to arrest him. They've also taken the rest of the staff in for questioning."
"The Ministry doesn't have Sirius anymore!" exclaimed Harry with a panicked edge. "Tom does. He's torturing him in the Department of Mysteries to make him get the weapon for him!"
"How did he get him away from the Aurors?" asked Hermione.
"I don't know," said Harry. "All I know is what I saw."
"How are we going to get there?" asked Luna.
"There's a fireplace right there," I said, pointing. "I know the Ministry's connected to the Floo Network."
"We'll be a long time getting us all through that," said one of the Ravenclaw DA members.
"We aren't all going," said Harry. "This is Tom we're talking about."
"You're not going without backup," I insisted.
"We've fought him before," said Neville, steeling up his nerve.
"Someone has to stay and guard them," said one of the Slytherins, pointing at "Umbridge, Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle on the ground.
"Okay," said Harry, thinking quickly through his rising panic. "Everyone who's fought him before, with me. Everyone else, guard Umbridge and watch your communication mirrors. If we need you, be ready to come after us."
Floo powder flared, and soon, the eight of us arrived in the Ministry of Magic. (Ginny had counted her efforts to flush Riddle's diary down the toilet as having fought him and we were in too big a hurry to argue. Especially with her jinxing skills likely to come in handy.) The Statue of Magical Brotherhood, a fountain made of gold, depicting life sized figures of a witch, wizard, goblin, house elf, and centaur stood in the center of the entry hall. Security was absent.
No time to worry about how Voldemort had cleared away the security for his trip, we followed Harry to the lift and headed down. The door opened into a black corridor I hadn't seen for years. Harry led the way, having seen the route Voldemort took in previous visions. The eight of us passed through the door at the end of the hall and entered a round room lit by blue flamed candles with identical handleless doors in every direction.
When the door we came in closed, the walls of the room spun about at high speed. When they stopped, there was no obvious way to know which door we'd come in. It was the same spell that I'd run into in the Triwizard Tournament maze last year, but this time, I had no stars to use to orient myself.
With no better options, we'd have to open doors randomly to see what was inside, and if it was the place from Harry's vision. Hermione marked thee doors as we tried them, so we'd know which doors we'd already checked after the room spun again. I identified the viel Sloth and I had used when we entered this world when one of hte doors opened to that room. Ron held up his silver left fist to emphasize the dangers of approaching it.
Finally, we found the room from Harry's vision. As he led us toward a door on the far size of the room, I noticed a cabinet filled with hourglasses amid the numerous clocks and unidentifiable lab equipment. Those hourglasses, I recognized. This was where the Ministry of Magic stored their time turners.
"Acio," I muttered, flicking my wand toward the glass cabinet. The front door swung open and one of the time turners flew across the room into my hand.
"What are you doing?" demanded Hermione.
"Stealing a time turner," I said without breaking stride. "We declared war on the Ministry when we attacked Umbridge. I'm through worrying about Fudge or his laws and decrees."
"Acio," said Sloth, snatching a second time turner. "These made rescuing Sirius possible last time."
"They've got a point, Hermione," said Ron.
After a moment's hesitation, "Acio," was called out once more and six time turners flew into six waiting hands. They were quickly pocketed and the door Harry led us to was opened.
The next room was where Harry had seen Sirius being tortured by Voldemort. Wands out, our party crept silently along one side of the enormous room. It had high, vaulted ceilings and was lit by more candles with cold burning bluebell flames. Shelves reached nearly to the high ceiling, and on each shelf was a small glass orb. Some orbs shone with a silvery light from a mist swirling within, others were dark, grey, and still.
When we reached the right row, Sirius was nowhere to be found. We searched up and down the row and its immediate neighbors. They couldn't have gone far. We'd gotten here very quickly after Harry's vision. Ron called us back to the spot Harry had directed us to and pointed at one of the glowing orbs.
"It's got your name on it, Harry," said Ron.
"My name?" asked Harry.
Indeed, the label on the orb Ron indicated read, "S.P.T. to A.P.W.B.D Dark Lord and (?) Harry Potter."
Ron quickly confirmed none of the rest of our names were nearby. After a long moment's hesitation, Harry took down the orb and stared into it. Suddenly, a dozen masked Death Eaters emerged from behind invisibility spells. They must've been waiting there the whole time. It was a trap. A woman's voice spoke.
"Hand over the prophecy."
"Where's Sirius?" demanded Harry.
The Death Eater threw back her head and laughed. The others chortled along with her while they continued to cover us with their wands. "The Dark Lord always knows!" she thrilled.
"Pick your targets," I hissed in a low parseltongue whisper.
"Wait for my signal," added Harry in an equally low hiss.
"The one doing the talking," called Neville. Even in the low volume snake speech, I detected a hard edge I'd never heard from him before.
The rest of us mapped out our targets in low parseltongue whispers while Harry kept them talking. If they did have Sirius, it would be good to know where he was now rather than needing ot keep one of them alive for Harry to attempt legilimency on. Thankfully, our adventures in second year had taught us that parseltongue was hard to pick out from background noise if you didn't know the language, which let us prepare for Harry's signal.
"I want to know where Sirius is!" demanded Harry.
"I want to know where Sirius is!" mocked the woman, to another brief chorus of chuckles.
"You've got him. He's here. I know he is," said Harry, controlling his voice.
"The little baby woke up fwightened and fort what it dweamed was twoo," mocked the woman using faux baby talk.
"Don't forget to leave their wands intact," hissed Hermione.
"He isn't here," said Harry, dispirited. "He sent me that vision on purpose, didn't he?"
"That's right," said the woman, and I could hear the smirk despite her feature obscuring mask. "Now, hand over the prophecy, or should I start torturing your little friends one by-"
"NOW!" yelled Harry, and everyone sprang into action at once.
Neville showed off his newly acquired animagus transformation for the first time. Leaping at the woman, he turned into a lion in midair. His weight coming down on her, forcing her to the ground, Neville closed his jaws around the back of her neck with a sickening crunch of splintering bone.
In the same instant, Sloth and I raised shields with the bracelets on our left wrists to block attacks from most of the Death Eaters against our group. With her right hand, Sloth fired a bolt of blue light from her wand emulating a stunning spell, which knocked the Death Eater unconscious.
I ignored my wand, which the Death Eaters were used to focusing on in a duel. Instead, I stomped my foot and snapped the fingers on my left hand. A stone spike fatally impaled one of the Death Eaters, and a second's chest exploded messily as explosive gas ignited in his lungs.
Hermione fired a stunning spell that took down her opponent, while Luna fired off a disarming spell so strong her target was hurled into a shelf behind him. His head hit the sturdy wood shelf and he was out cold.
Ron dropped to his knees, clapping and putting up a shield spell with hiss wand to protect from another group of Death Eaters. Slapping his free palm on the ground, he transmuted a chunk of the floor like I had. Instead of spikes, he caused stone hands to reach up and pin down his target.
Black bat wings erupted from the nostrils of the Death Eater Ginny had hexed, flapping in his face and causing him to drop his wand as he grabbed at his face screaming.
Four spells hit the shields we had conjured as the remaining Death Eaters reacted to the fact that they were under attack. With two thirds of their number out of the fighting, and a bloody faced lion turning its gaze on them, the Death Eaters fled. We gave chase, with Harry lagging behind at the rear after pausing to stun the Death Eaters who were out of the fighting but still conscious.
Neville, Sloth, and I were faster than the others and were able to outpace the Death Eaters, catching up to them as they arrived in the room containing the unknown lab equipment and the time turners.
"Adava-" began one of the Death Eaters, but he was silenced by a lion crushing his throat before he could finish the curse. Another managed to get off a stunning hex that finally put Neville down.
Sloth dropped through the floor, out of sight, pupping up within arm's reach of the Death Eater who'd stunned Neville. She reached into his chest and squeezed his heart. He was dead by the time he hit the ground.
I launched a bolt of blue light from my wand and hit a fleeing Death Eater in the back. Motes of blue alchemic light floated from his collapsing body back to my wand and gathered around the red stone at the tip. Absorbing the motes of light, the crystal's rough hewn edges turned smooth and glassy. His life force reinforced and strengthened the power of my red stone.
The others arrived at that point, and five red stunning hexes hit the sole remaining Death Eater. His unconscious form was hurled backward by the force of the spells, smashing into the glass cabinet of time turners. Suddenly, his momentum reversed, and he flew away from the cabinet, which unsmashed itself. He stopped in midair for a split second, then hurled into the cabinet again. He was stuck in a constantly repeating loop.
"Okay, smashing time turners is bad," I commented.
"Is Neville okay?" asked Harry.
"Just stunned," said Sloth.
"I've got the wands," reported Luna happily, holding up the bundle she'd gathered before summoning the remaining ones on the floor.
"That was a lot quicker than I thought it'd be," said Ron.
"Real battles usually are," I said.
"What do we do with the stunned ones back there?" asked Hermione.
"Leave them," said Harry. "The Ministry can interrogate them and finally figure out Tom's back."
"I'd better go back and make sure they stay restrained when they wake up," said Ron, running through the door.
"Meanwhile, we'd best get back to Hogwarts," said Ginny. "We still need to find the exit."
No sooner had Ginny said that than a door opened, revealing the corridor we entered through. Apparently one aspect of the security was making sure the only door you could find easily was the way out. Ron caught up with us, reporting he'd transmuted stone bindings on to all the surviving Death Eaters except the one stuck in the loop. He didn't dare approach him, deciding to let the Ministry's experts figure out how to safely retrieve him.
With no further leads on Sirius or the other teachers, we took the lift back up to the entry hall. Neville was back on his feet and in human form. Hermione had revived him using an "ennervate" spell to counter the stun. He was wiping the blood off his face with a sleeve of his robe. The elevator doors opened and we stepped into the atrium.
"Adava Kedavra!"
No one was on tehir guard when the green bolt of the killing curse flew at us from one side. Her speed still enhanced by a Philosopher's Stone, Sloth was barely able to interpose her body in time. As she got back to her feet, blue sparks dancing along her body as she regenerated, we turned toward the source of the spell. With his flattened, noseless face and red slitted eyes, Lord Voldemort had come to do personally what his Death Eaters could not.
"They all just throw themselves into certain death for you, don't they, Potter?" said Voldemort.
I snapped my fingers, and the air that would have been contained in his lungs flared brightly for an instant. Voldermort had dodged the flame alchemy attack that had killed his subordinate by apparating across the room. Six wands launched disarming spells, stunning spells, blasting crses, and body binds at the Dark Lord. He batted them aside with a gesture before firing another killing curse into our midst.
"Avis!" called out Sloth, creating a dozen tiny birds. The killing curse struck a bird, which dropped dead. "Unblockable my ass!"
Voldemort sent a wave of fire twoard us in response, incinerating the birds. I stomped and transmuted a wall for cover. The flames broke upon the wall, with jets of flame briefly visible around either side of the wall.
"Take care of my prophecy, Potter," said Voldemort. "It will be amusing to review it once I pluck it from your cold, dead hands." He apparated to this side of my wall and shot another bright green killing curse at us.
We scattered in all directions, but the curse ricocheted off the wall, and struck me in the back. Several new flocks of birds had been summoned by the time I'd regenerated back to life, and were fluttering every which way, obscuring the battlefield in a mess of feathers. I'd learned something. Not only could you block a killing curse by conjuring something to take the hit for you, but it could be blocked by a transmuted wall. Not the unstoppable super weapon it was claimed to be.
Harry, Ginny, and Luna had adopted their animagus forms and attempted to lose Voldemort in the flock of conjured birds. Ron and Sloth were clapping and transmuting spikes from the floor beneath Voldemort's feet, which Voldemort dodged using apparition. Neville was standing protectively over Hermione, his wand brandished while she was crouched down near my transmuted wall, fumbling with her time turner.
I snapped, burning away the oxygen in the path of Voldemort's conjured flames, so he couldn't burn the birds away again. Hermione vanished, escaping into the past. At the same instant, the lift opened and she returned on it. She'd brought Dumbledore, the teachers Umbridge had brought in for questioning, and Minister Fudge with her. Seeing our backup, Voldemort didn't reappear the next time he disapparated.
Harry, Ginny, and Luna separated themselves from the flock and resumed human form alongside the rest of us. Hermione stepped away from Dumbledore and Fudge, turning to face them side by side with us. Dumbledore turned to Fudge who was stuttering in shock and outrage.
"I trust the evidence of your own eyes is sufficient, Cornelius," said Dumbledore as the teachers got to vanishing the thousand birds we'd conjured.
"Merlin's beard! Him! Here! Here! In the Ministry of Magic!" palpitated Fudge.
"Half a dozen Death Eaters are down in the Department of Mysteries who can give you details," said Harry dryly.
"And you!" exclaimed Fudge, rounding on Harry. "You and your friends! Unregistered animagi, all of you!"
"You'll find I am registered," huffed Hermione.
"Cornelius, they have just now been dueling with Lord Voldemort," noted Dumbledore. "If you cannot see the wisdom in pardoning any rule breaking that may be involved here on the grounds of obviously being on the same side, I invite you to consider whether you have any Aurors in your employ able to take them in."
"I- Well- Obviously," said Fudge.
"My staff, students, and I shall be returning to Hogwarts now," said Dumbledore. "I suggest you dispatch Aurors to the Department of Mysteries at once. Oh yes, you will also kindly remove Dolores Umbridge from my school and return Sirius Black with a full pardon."
"Release Black?" demanded Fudge.
"Harry has already told you Black was not the one responsible for the Potters' deaths. If you insist on calling Harry a liar again, I shall need to personally make a trip to Azkaban and remove him from the dementors myself." There was a hard edge to Dumbledore's voice that even Fudge couldn't miss.
Dumbledore returned us to Hogwarts through the floo network, and dispatched the faculty to restore order. He directed the eight of us to join him up in his office. Once there, he took a communication mirror out of a desk drawer.
"James," he said into it. "Cornelius will be pardoning Sirius. It looks as though the raid on Azkaban will not be necessary."
"Smart of him," said James Potter's voice from the mirror. "I'll tell Lily and Moony."
Setting down the mirror, Dumbledore returned his attention to us. "I suppose now is the time for explanations. Am I to presume it has been your shape shifting dog which has been attending Order meetings since Christmas?"
I nodded.
"And you, Harry, who have organized a portion of the student body into a fighting force willing to defy the Ministry?"
"I had to do something," said Harry.
"That was not a criticism," said Dumbledore, smiling. "The truth of the matter is, you students accomplished far more of value this past year than I or the Order have managed, and I think for that, at the very least, I owe you an apology and explanation."
"You've been guarding this," said Harry, holding out the glass orb.
"If you will set it down on my desk, I shall show you the prize you have kept from the enemy," offered Dumbledore.
Harry did so, and Dumbledore tapped the orb with his wand. A ghostly image of Professor Trelawney appeared and spoke. "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. Born to those who have thrice defied him. Born as the seventh month dies. And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not. And either must die at the hand of the to her, for neither can live while the other survives. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies."
Professor Trelawney's face vanished behind the glowing silver mist once again. Dumbledore explained that he had been present when Trelawney made that prophecy, as had been one of Voldemort's agents. The agent had heard only part of the prophecy, and it was on that information that he sought out the Potters to kill Harry.
"If you already knew what was in there," said Sloth, "why did you waste people guarding it? Why not just smash it and free up people to go on other missions?"
Dumbledore opened his mouth then closed it again. "Would you believe, the thought never occurred to me?"
"So, it has to be me," said Harry, only now mustering the ability to speak after the explanation. "Either I have to kill him, or he kills me."
"Yes," said Dumbledore sadly.
"You won't be fighting alone," said Ron, to enthusiastic nods all around.
"Okay," I said, "I'm going to get started using these wands to resurrect the Death Eaters' past victims. Now that the Ministry's got its head out of its ass, hopefully they'll be able to resume their lives."
"With Tom acting openly again, we should see about protecting everyone's muggle relatives," said Sloth. "We should move quickly while he recovers from the loss of those Death Eaters. Can the Grangers stay in the castle?"
"He would go after my parents, wouldn't he," said Hermione. "Headmaster, please."
"Wards can be established and protections assigned, Miss Granger," said Dumbledore. "Your family will be safe."
"But doesn't it make more sense to gather up all the families of the muggleborn students in one easily defended place than to assign each of them a wizard bodyguard?" asked Hermione.
"I can use the map so we're sure everyone we take in is who they're supposed to be," offered Harry.
"The castle does have plenty of unused space," acknowledged Dumbledore. "Very well. I shall make the necessary arrangements to shelter everyone's muggle family members in the school."
"The Dursleys are still safe at Privet Drive, aren't they?" asked Harry.
"There is no safer place from Voldemort as long as the blood wards remain in effect," said Dumbledore.
"Then I should go spend my one night there to keep Voldemort out," said Harry.
Author's comments:
The Death Eaters were utterly incompetent during the battle in the Department of Mysteries in canon. Given the improved capabilities of the characters, this could be nothing other than a slaughter.