Chapter 19: New Objectives

Harry listened carefully to the snores of Ron Weasley, checking to see if the only other boy in his year who had chosen to stay at Hogwarts over the Christmas break was truly asleep or not. After just a few minutes, Harry was confident that his companion was indeed in a deep slumber. Climbing quietly from his bed, he resized the Timeland access trunk and climbed down inside.

As he opened the door of the vanishing cabinet, he paused for a moment, thinking. He'd never considered how strange it was that an object used as a method of transportation was disguised as a typical cabinet. Why was that? And it wasn't just this set of cabinets, of course. The matching pair from Hogwarts and Borgin and Burkes looked like normal armoires. Harry frowned as a related thought came to mind. How did a set of matching cabinets end up with one in Hogwarts and the other in a secondhand store in Knockturn?

Unfortunately, there was no time to ponder these thoughts. He had work to do. Harry quickly traveled to Timeland then made his way to the office.

The teenaged Gryffindor let out a soft groan as he looked at the stack of paper sitting on his desk. He was going to be sneaking away from Hogwarts to meet with his team the next day, and he still hadn't even read half of the reports Peter had sent him. Fortunately, having the opportunity to make use of accelerated time solved the problem of his procrastination, but he still wasn't looking forward to all the reading he needed to do tonight. Sooner started, sooner finished, he reminded himself as he sat down and began to read, a pad of paper and a pen beside him for taking notes.

In some ways, it was fortunate that things between himself and Hermione were still a little stilted. After all, Harry would be hard-pressed to come up with a reason for disappearing for several hours. As things were now, however, he doubted that she would even notice. Not for the first time, Harry felt a little squirm of guilt at this thought. Hermione was one of his first friends, and while they certainly had their differences, he still didn't like the idea of their relationship falling apart so easily. And if he were honest with himself, it was as much his fault as it was hers. Yes, she shouldn't have tried to make decisions for him, but he shouldn't have lost his temper, and he shouldn't have been so quick to suspect that she had told McGonagall about the Firebolt.

There had been mistakes made on both sides; he could see that now. But fixing those mistakes was a more complicated endeavor.

But now was not the time to worry about it. Taking a deep breath, Harry sliced his palm with the sharp potions knife and clenched his hand into a fist, the warm blood running over his fingers and dripping into the wooden bowl on his desk. He hadn't intended for the cut to be particularly deep, but still, the blood flowed quickly. Opening his hand and healing the wound with a soft 'Episkey', Harry stared at the thick, crimson liquid.

During his time learning with Professor Ivankov over the summer, Harry had been taught about many forms of magic that could potentially be used in a combat situation. Blood magic had been one of those forms, though Ivankov had only covered the basic theory. Harry had never tried it before, but he would be lying if he said he wasn't curious about it.

The problem was that blood magic was, while not quite illegal, certainly frowned upon. If anyone were to discover that he was practicing such "dark" magic, Dumbledore would no doubt be informed, and would use it as an excuse to monitor the dark-haired teen even more closely. For my own good, of course, Harry thought sarcastically. And most of the people in Magical Britain would agree that such a course of action was justified. They certainly wouldn't approve of their beloved child hero practicing such foul sorcery.

But did that mean that he shouldn't learn it at all? If it one day saved his life, wasn't that worth it? Much like the issue with Hermione, Harry pushed that thought aside and focused on his present task.

Removing the necklace from around his neck and carefully placing it so that the strange, metal charm was submerged in the blood, Harry carefully set the bowl in one of the drawers of his desk, then slowly slid it closed to ensure that none of the blood spilled.

He took a deep breath, then walked over to the door on the far side of the dorm room. This was the moment of truth. Hopefully, the blood would be sufficient to maintain the monitoring charm on the necklace, but he would have no warning if it didn't work for some reason. And if he was correct in his assumption that Dumbledore was the one who had placed the spell, the headmaster would no doubt be alerted if the trick with the blood didn't work.

It was just another one of the many small risks that Harry was taking. But if it worked, Harry would be able to travel where he needed unimpeded and undetected. With one last glance back at his desk, Harry walked through the doorway and down the staircase to the common room.

To his surprise, the Weasley twins were sitting on the large, maroon chairs nearest the fireplace, apparently discussing something of great import, though their hushed voices were inaudible from across the room. Harry paid them no particular attention as he exited the common room on his way to breakfast.

Breakfast passed without incident, which Harry chose to interpret as a good sign. After all, if the monitoring charm had been broken, surely Dumbledore would have tried to find out how and why. But, by all indications, the spell was still in effect, the results carefully spoofed so that the headmaster would be unaware of Harry's activities.

Harry set out immediately after he finished eating, using the invisibility cloak to hide from prying eyes as he exited the castle and began the long trek to the ward boundary.

To his surprise and relief, he managed to stay on his feet when the portkey deposited him in the office, though it was a close call. He had arrived a little earlier than planned, but his employees were all present and ready, so they were able to start without delay.

"Thank you all for coming," Harry began. "I have some matters that I would like to address with some of you individually, but there's no need for us to deal with that as a group, so I'll come to your offices after this meeting. I do have a few matters I would like to bring up for discussion, but first, Peter is there anything that you feel we need to address?"

The blond man shook his head. "Nothing right now."

Harry looked around the room. "Anyone else?"

Though there were no vocal replies, it was clear that none of the others had any matters they wished to present to the group.

"Okay, then my stuff…" Harry said as he pulled out his notepad and reviewed his notes from the previous night.

"First, as I understand it, the muggleborn advocacy group Equitas had four leaders. Three of them were killed by Voldemort, but the fourth, uh," Harry glanced down to double-check the name, "David Möller, is alive." He looked over at Michelle. "Is that correct?"

"As far as we know," she agreed.

"I think we should try to find him," Harry said. "I realize it's unlikely that he has any critical bits of knowledge, but the more we can understand about the time period when Voldemort came to power the better off we will be. Any clues or additional information he can give us can only be to our benefit."

Though most of the people around the table seemed to support this idea, Michelle frowned. "The one thing that makes me a bit hesitant about that idea is that Möller didn't have the best reputation with the group. I've spoken with a few other surviving members of Equitas and they generally agree that he tended to support more violent actions," she warned.

"We're talking about a group that was opposing the people that went on to become Death Eaters," Malcolm pointed out. "Is that really such a bad thing?"

It was Mac that responded. "During the late sixties, there were persistent rumors that Equitas would attack Pureblood businesses or even homes in retaliation for supposed prejudice. The general consensus now is that most of those attacks were actually false flag operations conducted by the earliest Death Eaters themselves to drum up support and provide the organization with a semblance of legitimacy, but it's quite likely that some of those attacks really were perpetrated by Equitas. If Möller was one of the driving forces behind the more aggressive approach they took, especially in the later years, I'm not sure that we would want anything to do with him."

Michelle nodded. "A group called 'Eye for an Eye' claimed responsibility for those attacks, but many people believed that Equitas was ultimately responsible."

"We're not asking him to join our group," Peter countered. "Just answer some questions. We're planning on interrogating the imprisoned Death Eaters. Why would an overenthusiastic, or possibly even violent muggleborn be any different?"

"Even if he was an extremist before, people can change," Dan added. "And if he is still an extremist, it wouldn't be a bad idea for us to know where he is and what he's up to."

Harry rubbed his chin as he thought. "Michelle and Peter, see if you can find him, but don't contact him yet. If we can't find him, this whole debate is moot. If we can, then we'll decide what to do at that point," he finally decided.

Both individuals nodded in acknowledgment of his instructions, and Harry continued on to his next topic.

"Thus far we've been playing nice with Veritas," the teen said, "but I think we need to start being a bit more aggressive. We have a newspaper, let's use it. We can start running stories about ministerial corruption, Hogwarts' falling academic standards, anything along those lines. I know that we plan to expose many crimes by Fudge and Malfoy and their ilk, but I think that it would help if we were to start laying the groundwork now so that when the truth comes out, instead of it being a complete shock, people see it as proof that Veritas is a good source of information." He paused to look around the table. "What do you all think? Is that a viable idea?"

"I like the idea, but I don't think we have enough real newspaper-worthy stories at this point," Chad said thoughtfully. "If we use up all of our good stories now, they will have faded from the public awareness before we're ready to make our move."

"Chad's right," Dan said. "Two words I never thought I would say, granted, but it's true nonetheless. Without more reports, we'd be better waiting."

"Dan, You're meeting with these people almost every day," Michelle reminded him. "Is there any way you can give us some more dirt to use?"

"No," Harry interjected immediately. "We don't want to risk anybody getting suspicious that something they mentioned in confidence to Dan later being reported in the paper. That's too big of a risk."

"Actually, I think one of the best sources of information is at Hogwarts with you, Harry," Malcolm said. "From some of the talk I've heard at our meetings, I suspect Umbridge is heavily involved in many of the shadier actions of the ministry. As I understand it, she's sort of the 'go-to' person in the ministry for bribes and blackmail."

"Which probably explains why such an incompetent and odious woman has attained such an important position," Peter observed.

"Okay, I'll look for an opportunity to get more information from Umbridge, but for now we'll hold off on using Veritas to put pressure on the ministry." Harry jotted a quick note on his pad, then looked up once more. "Next item, Chad suggested that we build a movie theater in Diagon Alley. I like that idea, I think it's a great way to show magical people that non-magicals can do impressive things as well. But I had another thought as well. What do you all think about us making movies of our own?"

There was a moment of silence. "That's ambitious," Peter finally said.

"That's putting it mildly," Malcolm said.

"I'm not saying that we are the actors, or that it is just us doing all the work," Harry clarified. "What I mean is, we make a film production company that hires people as needed to make the films."

"It's an interesting idea," Chad replied. "Magic would give us a huge advantage. Special effects would be very easy for us. Human transfiguration allows the actors to look exactly like we want without any need for makeup or prosthetics. We might even be able to use actors for multiple roles."

"The reason that I brought this up now is that I think it would… synergize… well with something Michelle is working on," Harry explained. "Michelle, you expressed interest in writing a book about the defeat of Grindelwald, correct?"

"Yes, though I actually hadn't mentioned that to the group yet," the sole female in the room agreed.

"Then, could you tell us about that," Harry requested.

The blonde woman was clearly caught off guard, but rallied quickly. "Well, I have tentatively entitled it 'Fall of a Tyrant'. As Harry said, it's the story about the rise and ultimately, the defeat of Grindelwald. While I do want it to be as accurate as possible, I think it will be very advantageous for us to point out how little Dumbledore actually did. His victory there is his primary claim to fame, but in truth, he just swooped in at the last minute and took all the credit, even after ignoring multiple requests for aid from the ICW over the course of several years. He only joined the fight when Grindelwald was on the run."

"I think that if we were to make a movie of that, it would help to draw interest and spread the story further. And we have a unique opportunity coming up. Grindelwald was captured during the summer of '45, right?" Harry asked, looking over at the resident historian.

"August 19th, 1945," Michelle confirmed.

"Which means that the fifty-year anniversary is coming up in a year and a half," Harry pointed out. "If we can have a book and movie ready, that would be a very powerful and effective way to tell the true story, which would help to reduce Dumbledore's reputation."

"A lot more people would see a movie than read a book," Mac agreed. "Especially if it was the first magical movie made."

"I'm not saying that we start filming right now, but let's look at the possibility. Michelle, if you could come up with a basic outline for the movie, and Chad and Connor, if you could start looking into what equipment we would need." All three people nodded.

"And that's all that I wanted to talk about with the group," Harry announced.

Harry returned to Hogwarts an hour later, after having taken the opportunity to follow up individually with each of his employees on their respective projects. Once more using the invisibility cloak to sneak into the school undetected, he was pleased to note that his absence had apparently gone unnoticed.

Harry took a deep breath, trying to prepare himself for the conversation ahead. Gryffindors charge forward, he reminded himself.

"Hey, Hermione," he said casually as he approached the table in the library where she was seated, books piled all around her.

"Harry," his friend replied, surprised. "Where have you been? I haven't seen you all day."

"Working on some spells, and just spending some time on my own," he lied easily. "I wanted to apologize," he said quickly before she could ask anymore about his activities. "You said that you wouldn't make decisions for me, and you always keep your word. I shouldn't have doubted you, or thought that you were the one to tell McGonagall without any proof."

"I was tempted to," the girl admitted. "It just really frightens me that someone is trying to kill you and you don't seem to care."

"I care," Harry assured her, "but I don't think that schoolteachers are the ones who should be trying to find the one behind these attacks. That's what aurors are for."

"You're the one that said the aurors aren't doing their jobs," Hermione objected.

"Yes, those particular aurors aren't, but I'm sure that there are others who would, and I am convinced that if Dumbledore really wanted, he could arrange for more diligent aurors to be assigned to the case," Harry said. "But if we keep talking about this, we're both just going to get frustrated, and that's not what I want. I know we have different opinions, but I still want us to be friends."

"Me, too," Hermione agreed softly.

"So, let's just agree to disagree respectfully," Harry suggested with a smile.

"Okay," the bushy-haired girl said. "I will respect your right to make decisions for yourself and make no attempt to coerce you to do things you don't want to do. But please be careful."

"I will do my best to be careful," Harry confirmed, though he knew that the two of them likely had different interpretations of what that statement should mean.

"Thank you," came Hermione's quiet reply.

There was a pause for a moment. "So, what are you working on?" Harry finally asked.

"The essay for Divination," Hermione responded, eyes once more turned to the heavy texts on the table in front of her. "Have you even started it?"

"No, I find that my inner eye works more effectively as the due date draws closer," Harry said airily, not quite able to keep a straight face.

Even as she continued to read, Harry could see Hermione roll her eyes. "You mean you procrastinate until the very end then just make up something."

Harry grinned. "To-may-to, to-mah-to."

"Well, that's not going to work for this assignment," Hermione stated with no small amount of satisfaction in her voice. "This one isn't about making up your own predictions, it's about analyzing and interpreting other famous prophecies."

She handed him a paper, and Harry began to read.

"A Chosen One shall come, born of no father, and through him will ultimate balance in the Force be restored."

"And in those last days before the great tribulation there shall come one, an undead, cursed with a soul. And he shall stand against his own, and when the conflict has ended, his reward shall be death."

"And after peace has been restored again in the land, then shall the Champion of Justice lead his people forth unto the stars; ancient truths to discover, and the ancient enemy to vanquish."

"When the darkness gathers, and the red star bleeds, then shall he come forth, the Deliverer, even the Prince that was Promised, he born amidst salt and smoke."

Harry reread the list, frowning. "Interesting," he commented.

"They're particularly significant because those predictions, or, at least, close variants of them, have appeared in multiple cultures," Hermione said in a distracted voice, not looking up from the book she was studying. "They all date back thousands of years, and experts agree that they are all real prophecies that will someday be fulfilled, but nobody has any clue of when that will be."

"So, I'm not asking you to just tell me the answers here, but if you could point me in the right direction, that would help," Harry admitted. "I really wouldn't know where to start on this."

Hermione looked up with a sigh, though Harry was pleased to see that she had a small smile on her face. "Well, Sebastien's Commentary on the Korrkoricon and Other Prophetic Writings provides a solid overview of the different divination traditions across the world, using a few of those prophecies as a reference," she said, pushing a large, blue tome over to him. "The commentary also has a list of sources for further reading that you should probably consult."

"Thank you," Harry said with as much sincerity as he could muster.

Harry frowned up at the staff table. Of course, the one time I actually want to see her, and Umbridge is nowhere to be found. In fact, I don't think I've seen her at all over the break.

The realization surprised him. All of the other teachers were still in attendance. Even Trelawney had made more appearances than usual over the past week.

Still, even if Umbridge had returned home for the holidays, it didn't matter. When the break was over, the pink toad would return, and when she did, Harry would find a way to interrogate her. And all those juicy little secrets she was keeping about the injustices she had facilitated and the crimes she had helped cover up would be his.

A/N – Just for the record, in case you can't already tell, I am not using anything from the 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' movies. Didn't ever bother seeing them, and from what I've heard, I'm not missing much. Same with Cursed Child. This is based on the seven original books, and I've added backstory and extrapolated as need be to flesh things out more, especially concerning Dumbledore, Grindelwald and Voldemort.