Sadly I don't own Harry Potter; if I did then a great many things would be different. For a start, Harry would have left the Dursleys long ago, and he would have grown as a person. Still, at least there's fanfiction, right?

Anyway, please let me know what you think. We are now close to the end of this round.


The Hell of Fourth Year.

Charlotte stood in the shower, feeling the hot water wash over her body, feeling anticipation for the day coming up while she cleaned herself off after her jog. She just….let the water soak into her skin, enjoying the feeling of the shower so she was ready and relaxed for when she went to the Founders for the next day of training. Ever since she had decided not to bother with theft and just have fun, her days had been more focused.

When she had felt the need to go back to basics, she had become depressed since she was worried her magic had made her too dependent on her abilities to help her commit crimes. But that was not it, she was just stressed out, and she had spent the last month making up for any lost time she could have spent learning how to defend herself. When she had gone back to Edgware Road, she had just wondered what the hell she was even doing there at all, and so she had unwound. She felt a tingling sensation in her groin as she remembered the savage three-way sex with those guys, and she bit her lip while she moaned slightly. She was getting horny but there was plenty of time for that.

She shook off the memory as best as she could, focusing on the matter ahead while she wondered what the Founders would be teaching her now, while she held back her annoyance over the centuries Hogwarts' education had shrunk so badly many of the things the Founders were teaching her were no longer being taught, combined with the things the Founders had learnt in their lifetimes, and combined with her own repertoire of destructive spells…

Charlotte didn't know for sure if it would be enough, but since she had been training as hard as she could even when she had been in London committing those thefts, she hoped it would be. The third task was rapidly coming up, soon she would be finishing the Triwizard Tournament and she would not be sorry to see the back of it. At the same time, she was looking forward to her new eye being put in her socket to replace the one Bones had destroyed. It was nearly grown, thanks to some magical acceleration on her part, Helga Hufflepuff had commented that she was a very powerful witch for that to happen.

In between her days of training, Charlotte was spending her nights in the different clubs in the city, trying to enjoy life as best as she could. More than once she had found herself in somebody else's bed, or she'd been forced to sneak out of a house naked or half-dressed, or she had been found by an angry parent in the arms of another lover and forced to get out before her ears were torn off by the shouting.

Shutting off the shower, Charlotte walked out of the cubicle, grabbing her towels and her dressing gown as she went, wrapping one around her soaking wet hair and the other around her body before she donned her dressing gown.

Once she was dry, Charlotte got dressed in a simple white t-shirt and black shorts, not unlike her regular jogging gear and her sunglasses, and she'd eaten breakfast, she went to the Founders' training room, and she found Godric Gryffindor standing there, dressed in a red tunic and pants in gold. The sight of the Founder of her former house wearing those clothes made Charlotte wonder if the Founders even knew about variety, but she wasn't going to waste her time debating it.

"Morning, Godric," she greeted.

Gryffindor smiled back at her. "Hello, Charlotte," he said. "How was your night?"

"Uneventful," Charlotte hid her disappointment from the Founder, she would have liked to have had sex last night, or at the very least she would have liked the thought of starting off a bar fight to liven things up. "What are we learning today?"

"I am going to go over where we left off yesterday and teach something new at the same time, a trick I picked up in India and another from Japan."

Charlotte was intrigued. She had picked up more than a few martial arts moves over the years, most of them were Muay Thai since it was more involved than anything like karate even if she had picked up a few moves in order to understand the discipline better, so she was more than a little interested in what Gryffindor was going to be teaching her now. Especially since it was a magical trick.

Gryffindor got into a combat stance, "Prepare yourself."

Charlotte nodded silently, effortlessly shifting her body into position. "Bring it on," she challenged him.

Gryffindor smirked before he threw the first spell. From there their session began. The two magical combatants moved slowly at first, sending one spell after another towards the other, testing the other's defences. Charlotte had a steady grin on her face as she fought against Godric Gryffindor, knowing she had fallen into the trap of thinking Gryffindor was a powerful magical duelist capable of throwing out high-powered spells and curses like they were going out of fashion. The reality was different. Gryffindor was a powerful duelist, yes, but he was not a fool when it came to combat. He knew how easy it was to lose ground, to become tired and worn down by using too much magic. So he and many other duelists who had a brain cell in their skulls had learnt to do the opposite thing. Instead of firing one high-powered curse after another, they used a combination of basic spells and curses to fool the other, while using other spells in their repertoire which had nothing to do with duelling. At the same time, they both had to deal with each other's ability to silently cast their spells, it was a useful trick and far better than anything she could have imagined although she had been silent casting for a while it was good to learn more tricks from an expert.

Charlotte dodged out of the way when she saw Gryffindor launch a few spells her way, transfiguring some of their surroundings into different objects, such as a chair into a mirror. Charlotte snorted, remembering the last time Gryffindor had transfigured something into a mirror. She wasn't going to have that. No chance. She jumped back in front of the mirror, waving her wand and transfiguring it into a number of small metal balls the size of baseballs, and with another wave of her wand, she sent them cannonballing their way towards Gryffindor, who managed to dodge them just in time.

Gryffindor gave her an appraising nod, "Very good. You've learnt quickly," then his manner changed completely, flicking his wand and Charlotte yelped in surprise when she felt something sting her backside.

Gryffindor chuckled despite her glaring at him. "A simple cross between transfiguration and charms," he explained, pointing to a spot Charlotte had missed. Charlotte glanced in the pointed direction, cursing the lack of proper peripheral vision without her second eye, and she saw half of a vase standing there although it looked like it was cut in half.

"I conjured that vase with my magic while you were occupied with my other spells," Gryffindor went on with his explanation, making Charlotte lose some of the tensenesses in her posture at the unspoken pause, "and my charm took some of the magic out of the vase, and transformed it into the stinging curse; it is pretty basic, but it was enough."

"Why haven't I heard of this technique?" Charlotte was intrigued, but she had never heard of anything like this before in her time in the magical world.

"Simple, because it was pioneered by myself, Rowena, and Salazar, but it was one of our last projects before we passed on and we didn't have time to document it for other witches and wizards to study and use it."

"Ah, I see," Charlotte said, understanding what her former House's founder was saying and she realised something else, "and because of the fact you didn't have time to further develop it, you can use only basic curses?"

"That's right," Gryffindor nodded. "But really it was just a project that took the connections between the two magical arts to a whole new level; you have to understand spells which combine charms and transfiguration actually do exist and have done for generations. It's just transforming some of the magic from a transfigured object needs to generate a relatively simple curse. The simpler, the better although I had seen Salazar attempt to use more complex spells, especially some of his parselmagic curses, they always ended badly; the last time he tried that, Salazar returned to the castle following an explosion in the forest outside the castle which left a small crater which went down fifty feet, and it left him with half smouldered robes. I've no doubt Salazar and Rowena would have come up with a way of developing it to a higher level, of course. Those two are geniuses, even if it might have taken them years, but it's one of those projects which was shelved shortly after our deaths and the transfer of our minds to the castle. From what I know, neither of them have really bothered to develop it while we try to maintain the castle."

Charlotte had been surprised by the level of destruction caused by Slytherin, and she made a mental note to speak to the Slytherin Founder to see if she could use the same trick; it would certainly be a powerful weapon against any opponent she had in the future since she had little doubt in her mind and soul Voldemort and people like him would not be the only enemies she would be fighting in her future.

"Right, let's carry on," Gryffindor said, and Charlotte grinned. The two of them both got back into the duel, both of them going slowly while they both tested the other's defences, both of them more than aware of the other's tactics. Gryffindor was wary now, he knew his use of the vase had surprised the girl in front of him. The young woman was no slouch when it came to cunning tactics. She was a Slytherin through and through, but it was tempered by Gryffindor wisdom and a desire for truth and justice, and Ravenclaw knowledge and Hufflepuff's hardworking attitude. He'd alerted her to the use of something new and surprising, and she was prepared for him using the trick again since there were more than one basic curses.

He applauded her, but he had no intention of using that duelling method again. He had merely wanted to show her that there was more, far more than what she was aware of. She knew that, but there was more for her to know. She was an eager student, but she was wary and prepared for anything out of the ordinary. Gryffindor approved of that, one of the many rules of duelling was to be prepared for anything unexpected.

XXX

"Are you insane?"

"I know its mad," Charlotte pleaded with Slytherin and Ravenclaw while Gryffindor stood to the side, watching the confrontation with concern. "But think about it; a spell chain somebody like Dumbledore and Voldemort don't understand and wouldn't expect."

"Yes, and you would probably end up killing yourself. Why did you use that spell in the first place?" Rowena glared at Gryffindor.

"Don't blame him. You must have realised I would have found out about this type of defence sooner or later, no?" Charlotte folded her eyes, tilting her head, the light of the room glinting off of her sunglasses.

Slytherin sighed. "Alright, we knew he wanted to teach you that particular spell, but I needed to use all of the shield spells in my repertoire just to stop myself from being incinerated, not to mention blown up. Trust me, Charlotte. Using that is not a good move."

"I agree," Ravenclaw said, although her expression was thoughtful as if she were trying to come up with a way to adapt the spell chain. "You were not there when we saw the damage caused by the parselspell Salazar used, Charlotte. Godric's description did not do it justice. The explosion incinerated three hundred metres worth of forest, reducing enormous trees to ashes within moments, even burning them down through the roots while creating that crater. The crater itself wasn't just a pit, it was created because of the amount of magical instability; the spell was working so hard to do its job, and it siphoned off some of the nearby magic and in the forest near Hogwarts, with specially planted trees in order to help the ward scheme, the forest was saturated with the magic, but the spell was fortunately unstable and it blew up because it couldn't cope with the load. You don't want to use something like that."

Charlotte had been listening to this explanation, and she was thankful Rowena and Salazar had been clearer about the outcome of the incident than Godric's vague explanation because now she was rethinking her stance about insisting the Founders taught her how to use this method to fight. An image conjured itself inside Charlotte's mind, of her fighting some dark wizard and she used this spell to fight but instead he was falling down a large crater some sixty-seventy feet deep while the Earth above rippled as a mini earthquake tore the land apart, the chaos destroying everything around it.

"Alright, you have made your point," Charlotte nodded, deciding to stop pestering the Founders. Not only were they firm, but she herself didn't want to be killed in something like that. Slytherin himself was one of the most powerful and greatest wizards to have ever lived despite the unsavoury reputation he possessed, and even he had been barely able to survive even while he had been able to use some of the strongest defensive spells in his arsenal. Looking at the idea from that angle, Charlotte knew she didn't want to use that spell at all. "But what else can you teach me?" She went on.

The Founders nearby smiled, although Charlotte knew, thanks to their connection to her mind, they had seen her thoughts twist into that decision.

"Oh, I think there are a few spells you can definitely use," Ravenclaw said.

Charlotte's eye crinkled. "I want to know something important; what do you plan to do concerning your plans with the magical world and Hogwarts?"

The Founders weren't particularly surprised when she had asked the question since they were still connected with their mind, although now they had learnt to stop themselves from picking out what she was thinking and speaking them out aloud. When they had first done it to her, Charlotte had still been reeling from the terrible pain inflicted on her thanks to Susan bloody Bones, and she had lashed out at them because they had given her the excuse she had needed to let loose some of the anger she had been bottling up inside of her.

Frankly, even if they hadn't respected her privacy and her eye had survived, Charlotte would still have been furious with the intrusion. She had always disliked how the mind arts took something like privacy of thoughts and tore it to shreds while people like Dumbledore believed themselves above things like that, while others such as Snape revelled in the power of it.

"We're still coming up with some ideas about how to clean up the mess caused by people like Dumbledore, Snape, Voldemort and Fudge," Rowena began, and Charlotte could tell the Ravenclaw Founder had been thinking of dozens of plans which would be credible for the magical world to accept.

"So what's the problem. It's been months since you appeared before me and offered me help, and started regrowing a new eye, but why haven't you appeared to them?" Charlotte asked.

Slytherin sighed. "It's not as simple as that. We can see and tell that something important is coming, something involving the Dark Lord, Voldemort," Salazar's expression became one of pain as he thought about his supposed descendent, the abomination who had learnt the gift of magic and twisted it apart in his insane quest for power and immortality, "Snape and Karkaroff, both followers of Voldemort, have regularly visited Dumbledore's office and told them their Dark Marks are becoming more defined again, suggesting Voldemort's imminent return."

Charlotte nodded. "The Final task. The perfect time for the bastard to return."

It was the only logical deduction she could come up with and the Founders were the same, but what Charlotte could not understand was why Voldemort had gone to such elaborate lengths to finally deal with her for himself when she had been placed in a life and death Tournament. Okay, she knew Voldemort was currently a wraith but surely it had occurred to him anything could have happened to her if he'd ordered her into the Tournament, but surely he wanted her to die by his hand so he could get some closure? She didn't care either way. She didn't care what kind of thought processes that twisted motherfucker came out with any more than she really cared how the Founders took her crass attitudes.

The organisers of the Tournament had gotten the final preparations in place for the final Task which would be on in a few weeks. They had closed off the Quidditch pitch and they were magically manipulating the ground after they'd planted a number of hedges in order to create a maze. Charlotte had already known what they were going to do, but she had visited the Quidditch Pitch when the Champions had been summoned (Dumbledore had wanted to speak to her, but she had got him distracted with an illusion of herself) and she had seen it.

Unlike Cedric, Charlotte hadn't cared about the pitch, and she knew the organisers of the Tournament had chosen the place well. The Quidditch pitch was the most perfect part of the Hogwarts grounds for the Task and it was the logical place needed to grow a maze for the task; flat ground, spaces for the spectators…. It was ideal.

The spell needed to deal with Voldemort was ready. All she needed to do was get close enough to use it, and then she would finally be able to put this nightmare out of her mind for the rest of her life. She wouldn't be sorry either, she only wished somebody like Dumbledore, or someone with a brain and common sense between their ears actually wanted the problem of the insane wizard dealt with so then future generations wouldn't have to fight the same battles over and over again.

"All right, Charlotte," Slytherin clapped his hands, his expression solemn - he had been hearing her innermost thoughts like the others, and he had learnt like the others not to voice them in case they antagonised Charlotte. "Shall we?"

Charlotte followed Slytherin, knowing the man was going to continue teaching her some of the spells he had picked up over the years. Slytherin and Ravenclaw had both taught her how to deal with Voldemort, but there were still tons of spells to learn and she was looking forwards to it.

XXX

There were times Voldemort wished he had found other ways of surviving rather than being reliant on the Horcruxes he had created. When he had first envisioned his immortality, he hadn't expected that one day he would be living like this; living the life of a homunculus, unable to access the large reserves of his magic beyond one or two spells in his repertoire, whereas before Voldemort had lived the life of a ghost between the worlds of the living and of the dead.

From a philosophical point of view, Voldemort had been fascinated by what he had experienced although it had only made him more determined to achieve his long term dream of living forever. Ever since he had witnessed the London Blitz, the sounds of the German Luftwaffe as they swarmed overhead like a host of giant wasps, dropping their bombs on the city until they destroyed everything around them, he had never felt so hopeless.

As the young Tom Marvolo Riddle, Voldemort had been terrified. He had been frightened he was going to die, and his quest for magical power after witnessing the things shown to him by Dumbledore himself, the kind of mastery over magic he could have, would be over when he had been killed by the muggles before his time.

At the time, he had been a Hogwarts student but unfortunately, the stupid teachers didn't care about him or the other muggleborns who were relieved to be away from the chaos, the war, the bombs. Riddle had never really cared about the insane blood supremacist movement, he merely used that as a means to an end; the movement was always trying to find recruit powerful allies and powerful voices, but it wouldn't be until he was old enough to use them as a means of achieving power that he had given the movement the confidence it needed to feel that their long-held, superficial dreams of a muggle-born free country were realised.

Voldemort cared for nothing like that. He didn't really care about the muggleborns although he despised muggles for the way they had treated him, truthfully if Dumbledore hadn't shown him the marvels of magic then he would have found some way of achieving power.

Now, look where he was. He was reduced to this sorry state where he was reduced to a shadow of his former self while he awaited the end of the Tournament. As he thought about the Tournament, Voldemort mused about Charlotte Potter all the time holding in his loathing for the girl who had interfered with his plans in the past.

The girl had certainly grown, and he regretted the fact he had announced his continual survival to her in her first year, but he had been desperate for the stone because if he had left her be until now, he would have likely found a new opponent. Voldemort had so few of them whenever he killed them he always missed them. Charlotte Potter was no different. Of all the enemies he'd had, she was the most persistent. When he had first attacked her as a baby, she'd impressed him when he had sensed her magical power, and when she'd confronted him three years ago, he had been impressed with her strength of will. At the same time, there was just something about the girl that was different from everyone he had met, and there was a shadow lurking around her which he had noticed.

But what Dumbledore had done…

It never failed to amaze him with just how easily Dumbledore refused to even learn from his mistakes, although it never really surprised him that much since Dumbledore was the sort of person who lacked awareness of how the world worked since he was trapped inside his own supercilious plans. The old fool had played many games with dozens of people, Voldemort among them. And they never ended well, either because the poor victim was smart enough to see the games for what they were, or they died. But he still refused to learn from his mistakes. Charlotte Potter was just the latest in a long line of victims, and knowing Dumbledore, Voldemort knew the old wizard was trying to determine Charlotte's allegiances right now. For all of his skills and knowledge, Dumbledore had always had a two-dimensional view of things, and it had finally caught up with him and personally, Voldemort would like to see Magical Britain tear itself apart.

But first, he needed to return to his full strength, and Charlotte Potter was going to be the main part of the ritual he was going to have conducted; Pettigrew was a pathetic wizard, and Voldemort had needed to muster the strength essential enough to create the necromantic potion needed for the ritual.

And when he was finished, Charlotte Potter's blood would be the spark needed to ignite the fire of his takeover of magical Britain.

XXX

As she relaxed on the sofa back at the mill, Nightstar sleeping on her chest while she ate an apple while she watched television, Charlotte took a moment to think while she was relieved lessons were out for the day. After Gryffindor and Slytherin's rounds, all four of the Founders had gathered together, and they had ganged up on Charlotte. One Founders was a challenge enough, but all four of them against her? That was simply unfair although she understood she might have to fight more than one opponent. She had learnt a long time ago when all of this began and her dealings with the Founders had begun, not to underestimate any of them. Any of them. She knew many people today would underestimate Helga Hufflepuff, but the woman knew how to fight.

Charlotte pushed those thoughts away and idly tickled her cat's head.