After the Headmaster and his professors arrived, David, Hermione and Ron were ushered out of the room and told to return to their common rooms.
As David was leaving, he saw Madam Bones approaching along with a couple of Aurors, with one of them likely to be Kingsley Shacklebolt.
With the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement present, David knew he wouldn't have to bother with trying to save Barty Crouch anymore.
Even with Barty Jr alive, David knew the Minister would still reject the resurrection of Voldemort out of fear and probably some help from the likes of Malfoy and other Pureblood supremacists that had his ear.
But with Madam Bones most likely going to witness the confession of Barty herself, even if she was to be stonewalled, at least it would leave some of the Ministry more prepared for the grim future ahead of them.
There was also the chance she would also reject the confession of the Death Eater, for she was also apart of a corrupt ministry and had been for years without changing all that much in the running of the magical community.
David just didn't know her all that well to make a more accurate assumption of what was going to happen. He knew the Dark Lord killed her personally, entailing that she was a competent witch who would have stifled his growth to power if left alive, but things were changing now, and David would have to wait and see.
David kissed a shocked and worried Hermione goodnight and parted from her and Ron, going towards his common room to get some sleep.
"Mel," David called, changing out of his school robes.
"Master?" Mel asked, appearing before him.
"Try to get Dawlish to give us an update of what's going on tomorrow morning, or if you can't get in contact with him later on in the day is fine. I just want to know what's been decided and such," David explained.
"Has something happened, master?" Mel asked, curious.
It took David a second to realise that he hadn't told Mel about Voldemort and his return, he was just so tired it slipped his mind.
"Harry Potter was taken out of the school via a portkey. The portkey was the Triwizard Cup and it took him to a graveyard where his blood was used to help Voldemort acquire a body," David explained.
"The… the Dark Lord has arisen?" Mel asked with fear in her voice.
"Yes. He has," David said, nodding at her sadly.
Mel was swamped with fear that the Dark Lord had returned, she remembered the War and how the lives of Elves deteriorated immensely as his power grew. She also obviously knew of his distaste for Muggleborns and her own master was one.
Shaking slightly, Mel nodded and said, "Of course Master. I'll make sure he gives us a report."
David smiled at her before grabbing his wand to cast a Hygiene Charm, not wanting to walk the dormitory halls tonight, warm bed looking too inviting.
David got two reports from Dawlish the next day.
The first was that rumours of Voldemort and Sirius Black spreading within the Auror department and Madam Bones was tight-lipped, having multiple meetings with the Minster all morning.
There was not much else as Dawlish wasn't present for the confession of Barty Crouch Jr, but he did give news that the man had been kissed.
David wondered if one of the Death Eaters close to him and confounded or manipulated him into bringing Dementors as 'protection' after the events and the graveyard were complete.
It would have made more sense to bring Aurors, which were many and well, sane, rather than the soul-sucking depression demons with him as 'protection'. It never made sense to David, even in the original timeline.
It was after a hectic day of talking with Hermione about what had happened that David got his final report of the day from Dawlish.
Minister Bones had been demoted and following which she had promptly resigned.
There was an uproar in the certain circles of the Ministry, but it seemed certain people were running damage control and the outrage was somewhat contained.
There was a lot of talk about this being a misuse of power from the Minister, but nothing would come of it until it was too late, Voldemort would be properly exposed in a year and Fudge would be out.
David didn't expect Madam Bones to be forced to leave the Ministry, but it seemed he'd underestimated Fudge's fear and delusions regarding the matter of Voldemort.
This may just mean she would survive Voldemort as she was no longer in the ministry to hamper his rise, but she may join again during Rufus Scrimgeour's reign of power.
He also wondered if she would be joining the Order of the Phoenix. The only person who could probably reveal to him if she had or hadn't would be Hermione, but she suspected Dumbledore would request she stay silent on the matter, even with her dating and trusting David.
That was fine, though, if Madam Bones joined the order, David would just have to recruit people on his own once Voldemort completed his coup de' tat.
It wasn't what he wanted, but he knew long ago that not everything would go to plan, and he had contingency measures in place in the case of Madam Bones being unable to gather Aurors who wouldn't be happy with the reign of Voldemort to fight back against the Death Eaters and Snatchers rounding up and killing fleeing muggleborns.
Dumbledore gave an alternate speech at the end of the year ceremony.
With Cedric surviving, his speech didn't have the same gravitas and weight as the previous one. Cedric's death was a rallying point for many students and funnily enough saving would probably result in Harry having a harder time dealing with the next school year, with many students being sceptical of the return of Voldemort.
If Cedric could be convinced of his return, it would immensely help in convincing certain students of the Dark Lords return, for he was the Hufflepuffs golden boy. He also seemed to be quite thankful for Harry due to his actions in the lake, saving him and Cho Chang from the freezing water.
But things were going to be rough for Harry. The Minister was already starting to bribe The Daily Prophet and their competitors weren't that popular in magical Britain.
David was mulling over purchasing a couple of the competitors with the money the Ministry was going to deposit into his account soon.
It would slow down some of his efforts internationally, but he could also use it as a voice of reason as the Prophet sold itself out to the highest bidder.
It would be a massive investment and time sink, for the workers of the paper would need to be heavily guarded.
Voldemort would most definitely not allow a newspaper to speak out against him, silencing those that dared to do so. Even more so if they were more respected compared to the Quibbler.
~I don't have the time to run a newspaper… I could hire someone to do it for me, but who? I really don't have any contacts outside of Hogwarts~
Sighing in frustration, David left the Great Hall with his confused Ravenclaws.
"The old mans has gone barmy!" one Ravenclaw shouted as they closed the door to their common room behind them.
"Yeah… You Know Who rising from the dead? And all we got is Potter's word?" another agreed, with voices of agreement ringing out.
David sat with the other fourth years in the common room, as the rest of Ravenclaw split up.
"What do you guys think of all this?" Goldstein asked.
"I don't know Anthony… I mean its Dumbledore, but You Know Who coming back?" Sue replied, shaking her head.
Padma nodded slowly in agreement and so did the others in their year level.
David felt he had to speak up, "Either you trust the headmaster, which most of us do. Or you don't and reject the Dark Lord returning."
"Yeah, but David. This is You Know Who. You don't understand! You're muggleborn, you didn't grow up hearing the stories, man…" Goldstein argued, a little shaken up.
"I understand more than you think, Anthony. I'm muggleborn after all. Its people like me he'll be after, not you. What reason does Dumbledore have to lie?" David asked them.
"David, no ones saying they don't trust the headmaster… but we have to go on his and Potters word about this," Sue argued trying to placate David at the mention of his parentage and the fact that if he really was back, David would be high on his list of people to kill.
"Yeah, in case you haven't noticed David. But people don't really trust Harry all that much after the stunt he pulled with the tournament," Terry Boot argued, a Ravenclaw that David didn't really speak to much, but Sue and Padma were close to him.
"Look do you really think Dumbledore would announce to the entire school that Voldemort," David said, causing everyone to flinch, "Was back, if he wasn't entirely sure of it? Not even Dumbledore would trust Harry blindly on this. Also, in case you guys haven't noticed, Karkaroff disappeared right after Harry returned."
"What does the Durmstrang headmaster got to do with this?" Anthony questioned, scoffing.
"Igor Karkaroff was a Hogwarts student. He was also a convicted Death Eater who got out of Azkaban after selling out his 'comrades'," David explained.
"What? No way Karkaroff is a Death Eater. They wouldn't let him free, right?" Padma asked.
"Are you sure David?" Sue asked him.
Looking around, a lot of people were silent listening into their conversation, pausing their own.
"Yeah, he disappeared last night. Ask the Professors if you don't believe me, and all of you can check out the list of previous students tomorrow morning before we have head back to King's Cross," David explained.
David heard someone mumble behind him of how they saw Karkaroff running away.
"The Durmstrang students did seem kind of off… and there was no sign of their headmaster at the feast…" students said around him, struggling to fault his logic.
While that didn't convince Ravenclaw entirely, a lot of students did seem to be worried and were thinking over what David said and he suspected large groups of students checking the Hogwarts registry in the Library first thing tomorrow and once home, asking their parent's who worked in the Ministry what they knew of Karkaroff.
"People don't believe me and Dumbledore, do they?" Harry asked the group as they sat in the compartment, taking the long trip out of Hogwarts and back to London.
"Course they do mate, its Dumbledore," Ron said, disagreeing, "Right, Hermione?"
Hermione just struggled to say anything and just gave Harry an apologetic look, further ruining his mood.
"Don't listen to her mate, this is Dumbledore we're talking about," Ron argued, stressing the headmasters name again and glaring at Hermione.
Hermione just sighed in annoyance, wondering what compartment David was in and how long until it would be okay for her to leave Ron and Harry to it and see him.
"So… I think I can come to visit you," Hermione whispered as they got their trunks out of the train.
"What are you going to tell your parents?" David asked as he helped her pull her trunk out.
"I'll tell them I'm going to stay at the Weasley's…" Hermione whispered back, looking to see if anyone was listening in.
David just raised a brow at that.
"What? Does David Cross not want his girlfriend to come to visit him in his lavish mansion?" Hermione questioned with a grin.
David scoffed and said, "No. I'd love for you to come. Just surprised you're willing to lie to your parents about it is all."
"A small lie won't hurt them…" she mumbled, feeling guilty but still willing to do it to stay with David for a bit.
David just smiled and said, "Look, I see your parent's. Let's go, Hermione."
After a quick lunch with Hermione's parents, they went their separate ways, with David heading into Diagon Alley and from there Gringotts to check out his accounts.
"David Cross, here to visit my vault," David said to goblin teller, handing him his golden key before the goblin could request it.
"Mr Cross," he replied with a nod, taking a look at the key with an expert eye.
"Everything seems to be in order. However, I've been requested by Ragnok to also register your wand to your account… now that it is once again a high-profile vault in the deepest depths of Gringotts," the goblin explained.
"I see… that won't be a problem," David said, handing the goblin his wand to look over and register to his account.
As the goblin looked it over, David asked, "I'll be going overseas soon and may purchase a new wand. Will registering a second to my account be a problem?"
The goblin looked at him with a scrutinising look confused as to why a wizard would want a new wand when this one worked perfectly fine, "No… While we most certainly do not recommend it as it lowers the level of security of your vault by having two wands linked to it. It is not an issue."
David nodded at that and waited patiently for the goblin to finish its inspection of his wand.
After handing it back to him without a word, the goblin recorded the information in a large ledger and also on a separate sheet of paper which he handed to his helper with a few orders in Gobbldegook, the language of the goblins.
David remembered from his lessons in History of Magic, that it was a name given by Wizards and Witches to the language, rather than its true name used by goblins.
He was eventually escorted down into the deepest depths of Gringotts, passing many levels of security.
The goblin waited patiently outside of his vault as David stepped inside and saw the large collection of neatly organised goods and gold Galleons inside.
There were suits of armour that had strange runic markings, multiple bookshelves filled with foreboding books that gave off an aura of dark magic and various weird magical instruments sitting in glass cases.
There was also lots of furniture left in the vault, covered by a white cloth, most likely by Mel to avoid it getting covered in dust.
David took his time looking over the collection of books, remembering the names of books David wanted Mel to take back to the Manor.
He didn't have to time right now, but once the war was over David wanted to make a copy of every book here to be kept at the Manor while the originals were preserved deep inside Gringotts for the centuries to come.
"Mel," David called, realising that going through all of the various trinkets in the vault was going to take some time without her.
"Master?" she said appearing with a pop and happy to see him.
"Hello, Mel. Nice to see you. I need your help," David said, greeting her.
"How can I assist you master?" Mel asked.
"Tell me what we have down here. If I go through it all myself, I'll be here for the whole day," David explained and requested.
"Of course, master. Starting here, we have the journals of the long-dead members of House Cross, starting from the founder of your house," Mel explained happily.
The very next day, back at Cross Manor, David was getting ready to travel to the capital of Belarus, Minsk.
David decided to take a plane to the northern European country, forgoing the magical forms of travel as they would likely leave a paper trail of him entering other countries while being a minor and also hint at what he was going to be doing in the country.
While Fitz had a very large range of teleportation, the phoenix hadn't ever been in the country so it would be quite dangerous to flame across the continent.
David also didn't want to fly to Minsk, for one, while he did enjoy taking a broom out and viewing the Isle of Skye from above, the trip would be close to something like three thousand kilometres.
Even with a Firebolt, it would be a tedious and long journey via broom, being constantly exposed to the elements was not fun at all.
Mel would be accompanying him on the plane, charmed to look like an adult and David's companion for while he was tall for his age, didn't look over eighteen.
Once they arrived in Minsk, David could summon Fitz via their familiar bond quite easily and they no longer would have to bother with flying back home on an airline.
However, David planned on also going to Germany to track down the shop, Gregorovitch Zauberstäbe which was owned by the famed wandmaker who had learnt his craft by studying the Elder Wand.
Wands created by Mykew Gregorovitch may not be any more powerful compared to Ollivanders, but David was curious to see for himself if Viktor Krum's praise from the wandmaker was true or not. He also wished to travel to America and visit the wandmakers from Ilvermony, but he just didn't have the time, so the German wandmaker would have to do for now.
"Master, your bags are packed. Our flight leaves in an hour, we should make for Heathrow as soon as possible," Mel called out to him and she and Greenie rushed to prepare breakfast for him.
Taking a seat at the table, David poured himself a cup of black coffee that was expertly brewed by Mel and took a sip of the warming brew.
"New beans?" David asked, liking the fruit undertones the coffee had.
"Yes master, grown by witches in the Amazon," she explained as she plated up his food.
"Thank you, Mel," David said taking a bite of his breakfast, "You'll be okay on your own Greenie?"
"Most certainly Master!" Greenie said while nodding vigorously.
"Hermione will be visiting once we get back from our trip… will it be safe to have the Griffins around?" David asked a little worried the dangerous magical beasts wouldn't like the presence of a human they weren't comfortable with.
"Not to worry master, I've completed their training and the only humans that need fear them are intruders and thieves," she explained happily, proud of her accomplishment.
"I see… I'll trust your judgement then," David said while giving a worried look at Mel, who just smiled and shook her head.
"Shall we?" David asked Mel, as he got up from the table after finishing his breakfast.
Mel nodded, took his hand and popped them to the airport, already having gotten David's bags while he was eating.
AN: So final numbers, HP was chosen on the other site and GoT here. I'll likely do GoT and focus on this, but what do you guys think of a Stargate story?