Privately Tonks was glad that Karen had opened up tonight to parents of the students, as it made getting the extradition team in discretely a trivial matter. Azaria had chosen to accompany her, despite the fact that she could take care of herself, she still appreciated that fact. Getting up to the Dorms was simple enough, and as it was well after dark. As did the dorm check for any students that were trying to avoid the feast which also confirmed the presence of the rat. It all went to pot when she forgot that the beds all have a sound dampening ward on them, so that excessive noises are muted from inside and out. Not something that normally comes up unless you share the dorm with the twins, as it doesn't affect normal conversation. But very much something important for their situation, as the flashbangs went off perfectly. But when they stormed the room a moment later they saw Peter jumping out of the window mid transformation.
Rushing to the window they looked out, but a rat was far too small to see at night on the ground.
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Peter was cold and miserable. He knew his cushy life was going to end soon, but he didn't think it would be like this. Was he ever thankful that he'd put an alert ward on the stairs so that he knew to change back into a rat. As that thing could have caused real problems if he had human eyesight at the time. As it was, the sound was loud enough even with the ward on the bed that he almost didn't react in time to get out of the window.
After Voldemort turned up in the school in first year, he knew he now only had one option. He could now discern the faint tug on his magic from his lords mark that indicated what direction he was in. He'd only learnt this because Voldemort had move around the school so much.
As he headed south, he would not have appreciated the irony of the role reversal between himself and the friend he betrayed to avoid Azkaban.
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Albus walked into the Ministry for the first time in two months. It had taken him that long to work out how to defeat the mirror spell the healers had been using, and hide the changes his body was undergoing. Granted the first 3 weeks really were needed, as they allowed him to recover from pushing himself so hard. But those signs had gone away quickly, it was the changes to his eyes and skin that he couldn't hide. He wasn't even aware of the fact his skin had started changing as it had only affected parts of his back so far.
Heading to his office he quickly sorted through the paperwork for things that were actually important. Finding out that he'd missed two Triwizard meetings was galling. Finding out that in his absence Ludo had been so ineffective that the Ministry no longer had any input into the tournament. On the plus side they still had two judging positions.
He heads off to talk to Fudge, and persuade him to replace Bagman with someone more competent like Weasley.
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Karen made her way into the new introductory Triwizard Tournament meeting where they were going to discuss the expectations and logistics of the tasks. She had a couple of pages of ideas printed out for them, first and foremost, that the traditional tournament be only one of a set of Tournaments held at the same time. Just in case they went for it, she had three sets of snooker balls and a copy of the amended rules.
"Good afternoon everyone, thank you for inviting me. I again have some handouts, one of these is probably something you've probably seen before, that is the guide to the Olympics that the non-magicals revived in 1894. Specifically, the guide from last years event in Spain, I've also managed to get a copy of the scoring system that they use for the various events. What I was thinking is that if we're revamping the tournament, we should do it properly and plan for this event happening on a regular basis. The years between events could be used to hold individual tournaments between schools to determine who would participate in the TriWizard. What I will say is that we are going to try to put together a Tournament for the main event that will stretch all aspects of the competitors magical skills, not just the obvious ones. If you choose to do this, then I suggest that you contact some well known masters and see what events you can come up with to test different aspects of magic, and rules on scoring it.
"Sorry for ignoring the Agenda for today, but I thought this would be something that could change your thoughts on the agenda. I've also included a set of snooker balls that our snooker club uses. I think that you should be able to work out everything else in our school pack yourselves though."
That did indeed change the agenda, though more as an increasing of the scope of the project rather than derailing the conversation completely. The government representatives liked it as it was a way of increasing the prestige of their own countries, while the schools liked it as it gave the rest of their students something to do. They did indeed have Ilvermorny participating, which meant that this event now had world wide reach, not just Europe.
After Karen left, it was Madam Maxine that was the first to voice what was on all their minds.
"Mon Dieu, I thought the stories from the Ottoman Court were exaggerated. It was all I could do to not agree to everything there and then. Do you think she even knew she was doing it?"
The Bulgarian Ambassador grimaced, "I doubt it, she seems too nice for that. It wasn't as bad as when we were at the ICW meeting in August, but the school is full of titans like that."
The headmaster of Ilvermorny shook his head, "I think that the best thing we can do is meet again in a couple of weeks, and if we still think it's a good idea then one of you can table it as an agenda item at the ICW. What? You think that just because I'm a headmaster means I don't understand international politics?"
The after-meeting meeting continued on well into the evening without Karen there.
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Harry and Hermione both got letters a couple of weeks after Halloween. When she opened the letter Hemione squealed in happiness. Rereading it she squealed in happiness again and grabbed both Harry and Daphne before disappearing from the Great Hall, the letter still fluttering to the table by the time they were gone. Smiling and shaking her head, Karen summons the letter to her hand to see what was so exciting. Reading the letter she shook her head again and passed it down the table as she got up and went round to summon her Lectern.
"Meditation class, I'm sorry to say that you're going to need to do it with only Hogwarts today. Magi Hermione just received her membership to the Library of Alexandria, I presume that means that Magi Harry did too. They will all be receiving a detention with Professor Binns, and Hermione will also have her Library and offsite privileges revoked for two days. Which I'm sure that those of you who know her will realise, is a far worse punishment than our standard punishments."
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Harry fell on his bum as he was abruptly no longer sitting down, Daphne sprawled out on the floor across from him for a similar reason. The sudden heat of the Mediterranean making both of them sweat in their clothing that is better suited to early winter in Scotland.
Retrieving his letter Harry got off the floor, "OK Hermione, what's the sudden rush to get wherever we are?"
"Our memberships to the Library of Alexandria have arrived! Didn't you read your letter?"
Harry pointedly looks at the sealed letter still in his hands, "I was going to read it after I'd eaten breakfast."
"But, the library, how can mere breakfast be more important than that!"
Daphne sighs, "Hemione, you didn't even stop to let anyone else know where we were going, let alone classes."
"But Library!"
"Harry, keep her here for 10 minutes, I'm going to go back and let the teachers know what's happening. I'll also see if one of the teachers can play chaperone with her rather than us."
Stepping back to the great hall, she was just in time to see Karen vanishing her lectern. Not sure that was a good thing she firms her back and walks over to the headmistress.
"Headmistress, might I have a quick word please?"
"Certainly, Daphne, how can I help you?"
"Harry's currently keeping an eye on Hermione, they both got their membership to the Library of Alexandria today. Neither of us think that we could stop her from spending the day there. What we were wondering is, is there a staff member I could take back to chaperone her, if not, can I get permission for both of us to spend the day there please?"
Karen sighs, "You're still both going to have a detention with Binns, but only the one. Go on then, it is a school day you know, so we're not exactly flush with staff. Oh, and don't forget to apologise to your meditation class tomorrow."
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While Harry and Hermione were waiting across from the library entrance, they watched people passing by. It was while they were waiting that Harry saw Albus Dumbledore stride down the street. His eyewatering clothes in top form as the people in the street paid him no more mind than one of the labourers heading to work. Nudging Hermione, he nodded over in the headmaster's direction. Hermione's eyes widened as she watched the Headmaster go into the Library.
Once he was out of sight she turned to Harry, "What do you suppose he was doing here?"
"I don't know, but when Daph gets back I'm going to dust off my invisibility cloak and find out."
"You could go and get it now."
"Nuh uh, no way. If I leave you alone you'll be in there before either of us can come back. Then we'll never find you."
Hermione snaps her fingers.
It doesn't take long for Daphne to reappear and fill them in with what she discussed with Karen.
Harry cocks his head to one side, "Is it me, or is it quite hard to remember that Karen is the headmistress, while it's quite hard to forget that Mr Dumbledore isn't the headmaster?"
The other two look thoughtful for a moment before Hermione replies, "I would say it's because we knew Karen before she became the Headmistress, but that doesn't explain Daphne. Instead, I think it's because Karen is so much more involved in the day-to-day life of the school, rather than being someone we only see at mealtimes and when something goes wrong. While Mr Dumbledore was always out of the school or otherwise unavailable because he was doing something to do with his other jobs."
"It could be. Anyway Daphne, could you keep an eye on Hermione for 5 minutes while I grab my invisibility cloak?"
Soon enough they were all inside the Library, with Daphne coming in as a guest of Hermione and Harry. Once they had Hermione settled at a desk, Harry donned his invisibility cloak and silenced his shoes. Making his way around the library, he used his magic to step around people rather than trying to dodge or squeeze past them while he looked for Albus. After the third person turned their head in his direction, he also started to suppress his magic. This had the side effect of reducing the magic he was using to step until it was around an hour into checking the different alcoves and passages that he found a simpler way to move the short distances. This method was also simpler and quicker too. Resolving to practice it later he continued searching and eventually found Albus fetching a book from a shelf while placing another one back. Following him back to his desk, he saw that Albus had a lot of notes on a couple of pads. After watching him for a few minutes, he backed away and tried to step back to Hermione's desk with the new technique. He quickly gave up when he realised that it wouldn't work like that. Using the original method he stepped back instead.
Hermione jumped as Harry spoke from behind her, "Hermione, do you know of any way to copy all of someone's notes very quickly?"
"Harry! Don't do that!" she whispered harshly, "And for your information, no I don't."
"Ok, I'll go ask Beth." As he finishes his sentence he steps back to Hogwarts outside Bathsheba's classroom.
Seeing that the door is closed, he knocks on the door and waits for a response. When the door swings open he steps into the classroom only to be pinned in place by the gaze of 20 5th year students.
"Erm, Runemaster sorry for interrupting, I was hoping that you might know of a way to copy a large set of notes very quickly."
Beth squints at him for a moment before deciding that he's probably not trying to cheat and it's related to something he's found at the Library.
"Hmm, as a matter of fact there is. It's how magical newspapers get printed." She thinks for a few minutes before waving her hand and creating two clay tablets and clay inkwell, all of which are decorated with runes. Conjuring some ink in the inkwell she summons one of the student's notes and tries the stones on the notes and a blank stack of parchment. Nodding at the results she sends the notes back and conjures a set on each students desk and one for Harry.
"Now class, these are more than a little above your level, but it will be interesting homework. To use these just pour a bit of magic into the inkwell and source stone. The place the source on the notes you want to copy and the destination on a blank pile of parchment at least as large. When you're ready push some magic into the destination stone and away you go. What we'll do for the rest of the class is go over the runes that you haven't seen yet. Your homework for the week will be to write me an essay describing how the runes work together, how you identify the source stone, and how the three items are linked with runes. Harry I've made your source stone the red one, but I expect all three of you to do the same work.
Everyone should note that this won't work on anything that has even basic copy protection charms on it, so don't think it will allow you to copy books from the Library."
Harry groaned, "Thank you Professor Bathsheba."
With that he steps back to the Library, and buys a stack of parchment and a skin of ink from the reception. Stones and parchment in hand he makes his way back to Albus' desk and waits for the old man to get up again. He's about to give up when Albus does finally get up and take the book he was looking through away. Quickly, Harry activates the stones and waits as he sees the notes copying. He figures that the stack is the most important to get due to the quantity followed by the individual sheets lying across the desk. It's when he's halfway across the desk that he finds a journal underneath one of the sheets of paper. Nervously he places the stone on the journal and activates it, nothing happens. Cursing under his breath he picks it up and conjures a blank duplicate before quickly stepping back to the school.
Praying that Beth can copy it so that he can get it back before Albus notices it's gone, Harry barges into her classroom.
"Magi, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I need to know if you can copy this quickly?"
Hearing the use of her title she takes the pre-offered journal, smiling evilly she then says, "Take over my class while I'm doing this for you."
Before Harry can reply she disappears into the Library.
Spinning round Harry spots that he's in the 3rd year class, heaving a sigh of relief he pulls out the three items that Beth gave him earlier. Tearing off a corner of parchment he transfigures a piece of chalk. Concentrating he takes the source stone and painstakingly copies out all of the runes.
"OK everyone, I don't expect you to understand this, hell I don't understand it and I've got to write an essay on it for next week. What I want you all to do is get together into groups of 4 and write down as many runes you can recognise as you can. Feel free to use your books. Now it's unlikely that this is using more than one alphabet, as I'd have no chance of understanding it if it did, so your first task should be to identify which particular alphabet it's using."
It's half an hour later, and one sex change to be more comfortable, and really pushing her knowledge of runes to the limit, that Beth comes back with two journals.
Glancing at the board she looks at Harry, "Why you cheeky little wotsit, here's your journals. What do you have them doing?"
"Keep the copy as it will probably just be coming back to you. I've just set them to identifying the runes they can in the structure, I was going to then have them all share what they'd found. I need to try and get this back."
With that she steps back to the library, takes a moment to make herself invisible before checking the desk that Albus was working at. To her dismay the desk is now empty.
Going to find Hermione and Daphne she plops herself down on one of the chairs and sighs.
Daphne is the one that replies as she looks up from a book she's browsing, "What's up Harry?"
"I may have taken a risk to much, and let Albus know that someone's following him."
"Why do you say that?"
"I tried to get his journal copied, and it took too long."
"Have you forgotten that you're a Metamorphmagus? Just make yourself look a bit older and not you and say you found it on the floor by one of the shelves near where he was."
"Thank you for reminding me, I guess because I never really use the ability I forget I can do more than look like this or my base form. Before I forget, Hermione, Hermione! You'll want to listen to this too. I may have inadvertently given all three of us 5th year Runes homework."
"What do you mean may?" Hermione asks.
"Well, I wanted to copy the Headmaster's notes and so I went to Beth. And well, she was teaching her OWL class and decided that they should do their homework on the objects she gave me. We have one advantage over them, our source stone is red."
Daphne pitched her voice low and dangerous, "What exactly is our homework?"
Harry gulps, "We need to write an essay describing how the runes work together, how to identify the source stone, and how the three items are linked with runes?"
"So let me get this straight, not only do you and I have a detention with Binns, we now also have to do OWL level runic homework with less than 2 months actual practice."
"Yes, well, erm. I'm going to take this journal back to the reception desk."
Stepping to another part of the library, she makes a note of the shelves she's near and transforms herself and her clothes into a near duplicate of one of the women she saw walking around near here. After that the drop off goes without a hitch. The rest of the day, not so much as Daphne is right on her case about the homework, and even manages to drag Hermione out of her research in order to utilise the library resources to work on the three items.
It's Hermione who has the bright idea to just look up the rune scheme to see if someone else has already designed it. The clue comes when she's quizzing Harry and finds out it's from magical printing presses. After that it doesn't take long to find a detailed description of the whole thing and how and why it works.
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Later that evening all of the Magi are sitting in the Sanctuary with fresh copies of all the stuff that Harry had copied. Minerva is looking ill while Hogwarts just looks grave.
With a finger on a passage in the later part of the journal, Hogwarts groans, "When I still had a body, the stuff I'm reading here would have given Albus Dumbledore a death sentence."
She raises her hand to forestall any objections, "I know that our political capital isn't where it should be, which is why I said when I had a body. If we can verify the things at the beginning of the journal and get those sources to the international press, we may be able to take his political capital down enough that he is fair game. At the moment, we can't do anything except try to publicise the fact that there are only a few ways to give a squib magic, and all of them involve a lot of hard work on the part of the squib. Victoria, I want you to see if you can find a trustworthy reporter. Harry, Hermione, and Daphne, you need to arrange an international portkey to the USA, South America, and Russia. You'll have detentions with me for the lost classes, so be ready to lose your weekends. If we get any leads on the missing tablets we need you to be able to take people to places they might turn up. Yes Victoria, I know you've done a lot of globe trotting as you called it, however you have your own duties to attend to that can't be excused. Or have you given up on Sirius, the British government, and international politics? No, once you've found the Journalist, you're going to need to visit the international courts quietly and leave them a copy of the journal and notes that we found."
Turning to Ginny, Dudley, Luna, and Nicole, she continues, "You four, I want you to watch the library during your free time, do it in pairs, and maybe ask Harry if you can borrow their cloak. The rest of you, you need to come up with a counter to the old version of the tablet, one that can be applied without access to the tablet. I know, I know, they're just children. But that's why they're doing the least dangerous stuff. The stuff that needs doing, but we don't have enough adults to do that and the things they can't do. Or would any of you rather they were sent to the Courts while Victoria found the locations? Do you think they have the aptitude to decipher the tablets and design a counter? Do you want to send them off into the dream for 100 years to learn what they need while they're still growing here?"
Karen deflated before she started her objections, "You have a point".
