Chapter 7: Regrets of a Ravenclaw

Barty Crouch Jr. was now very worried.

Dumbledore and Marchbanks had reportedly taken Dobby aside and interrogated him on what he knew about Lucius. There was virtually no way that Crouch would not be indicated in Lucius' plot. True, Dobby's testimony itself was useless to Dumbledore, as it wasn't admissible in court, and it couldn't even be used to establish a reason to search Malfoy Manor, but if Dumbledore knew that Crouch was a former Death Eater, he could make Crouch's life more difficult.

Barty Jr.'s only consolation was that he knew his father wouldn't believe it until Dumbledore had admissible evidence. Once his father did have evidence, he'd turn on his own son in a second. Though it might not be enough to save his political career at that point.

So Barty Jr. needed to keep an eye on Dumbledore. But how? If Barty tried to get some sort of position that took him to Hogwarts, Dumbledore would see right through that. The truth was that Crouch had considered his options, and had found them all lacking. And that was when his father had mentioned the seat on the Board of Governors.

That was exactly the sort of position that he needed, but he'd never get it. He was too young, and didn't have enough money to make up for that. But his father probably could get the board to confirm someone as a representative of the Minister's office. And that was when Barty Jr. realised that he had the perfect candidate already under his Imperius.

Dolores Umbridge could be the newest member of the Hogwarts Board of Governors.

XXXXX

The announcement that Dolores Umbridge had placed her hat in the ring to join the Hogwarts Board of Governors was very unwelcome news to Sirius and Harriet. Sirius had actually thought about putting his name in for the position, but had decided that he was probably too young to get it. But now he was loudly wishing he had. With the Ministry's endorsement of Umbridge, her confirmation was probably a sure thing.

Still Harriet couldn't see how swapping out one pureblood supremacist for another was anything other than a lateral move. In any case, Umbridge wasn't likely to have any impact on the day to day lives of the students, so she figured she'd let Sirius and Dumbledore worry about this. If she could ever bring herself to talk to the headmaster again. As things were, Harriet now knew she needed to be on the lookout for Barty Jr., who was now confirmed as a Death Eater sympathizer. If only they could have taken that news to Barty Sr. Unfortunately, the rift between him and the progressives meant he would likely see that as an attack on him. The Minister could be rather vindictive when he got angry.

The trip back to Hogwarts promised to be low key, but Harriet had other plans. As usual, she and Hermione sat with the other Gryffindor girls on the train, but Harriet made an excuse that she was going to go visit Ron and Ginny at the first chance she got. It wasn't a lie, she would visit them but Harriet didn't want to have to explain why she first wanted to visit Malfoy.

Malfoy was sitting alone, which was very unusual. Very few people sat alone on the Hogwarts Express, there wasn't enough room. Still, it made sense, everyone in his year in Slytherin either saw him as a pureblood bigot or a blood traitor at this point. Harriet still leaned towards bigot, but she admitted that Draco might not be a hopeless case yet.

"Hey Malfoy," she said as she poked her head into his compartment, "Do you have a moment?"

Draco's eyes went a bit hard when he saw her, but he nodded.

"I just wanted to say that even though I know you weren't doing it for unselfish reasons, I am grateful that you helped save Colin," said Harriet.

Draco nodded. He looked briefly like he wanted to say something. Then he shook his head.

"Thanks for freeing Dobby," said Draco.

"What?" asked Harriet, surprised.

"It wasn't right. Dobby was always loyal to us, and he was always punished for stupid things, often things that weren't his fault," said Draco, "I wasn't better than my father really, at least not until recently. He wanted to be free. So… thanks for doing it."

"You aren't mad about what happened to your father?" asked Harriet.

Draco laughed, "I'm just glad he isn't in jail. Which if that basilisk had done an even slightly less thorough job of destroying that diary, he might be."

"Listen Potter," siad Draco, "I get it. You're trying to figure out if I've gone soft on the mudbloods. And I haven't. I just realised that I don't have to be a… a petty thug to get what I want."

Harriet nodded as she backed out of Draco's compartment. Draco had become far more dangerous by his clearheadedness. Now if they could only get that menace aimed at the right side! That was also beyond Harriet's power though, so she had no more reason to antagonize Draco. So she headed off to look for Ginny.

XXXXX

Things were going well back at Hogwarts. Hermione was very excited for the rest of the year, and things were looking up for everyone. Harriet was finally starting to settle down and get busy on her school work. That was a minor miracle if you asked Hermione. Harriet was very smart, almost as smart as Hermione herself (not that Hermione thought about it in those terms), but she was easily distracted. The lack of a great mystery to solve was very clearly good for Harriet's school work. Not that she was bad normally; Hermione was impressed at how well Harriet had done even while distracted. But Harriet would now have a chance to excel.

Ron was doing better in his classes as well. His first year he had been a bit hopeless, but he'd actually started paying attention. He wasn't suddenly a genius, but he was now a solidly average to above average student. One thing Hermione noted was that Ron tended to take a longer time to grasp difficult concepts, but once he grasped them they became second nature to him.

The one thing that Hermione was a little wary of was the fact that Ron quite clearly had a crush on Harriet. And Harriet hadn't even noticed. Not even a little bit. Which probably shouldn't have surprised Hermione; Harriet seemed determined to keep all her relationships on a platonic level for as long as she could. She had never once talked to Hermione about any boys she liked. Well, Hermione could understand that a bit. Her experiences with males, aside from Sirius, had been a bit fraught. Harriet would probably take a while to warm to them, at least until her hormones started doing the work for her.

All that being said, when Remus had offered an extra credit assignment, Harriet had been up for it. A report on a historical piece of art. Hogwarts was a great location for such a report, as most of the paintings qualified for the report, and most could even talk to you. But of course Harriet had gone the most ambitious route with this.

Which was why Harriet and Hermione were now in the Chamber of Secrets, looking at the giant mural of Hogwarts. Which, Hermione suspected, was probably not a place that anyone would want them to be, given that there was still a basilisk down here.

The basilisk wasn't particularly interested in coming out though. According to the books Hermione had read on basilisks, they only needed to eat once every two or three years, and often spent most of their time sleeping. Hermione wasn't particularly worried about the basilisk attacking them. She was worried that they would get in trouble.

Still, Hermione had to admit, this let her do some real first hand historical analysis. She could actually compare the descriptions of Hogwarts in Helga Hufflepuff's journals to a contemporary artistic depiction. And be the first person to do it! This was the sort of thing that a person could publish!

And Helga had left an amazing account for her to analyze. Most of Helga's writing was dry, mainly accounts of what she needed to do to keep Hogwarts running. The lists of equipment and supplies that she needed were incredible veins of historical knowledge. But Helga had been proud of Hogwarts. It had been her castle before they turned it into a school, and she had loved the renovations that had been done to it. Her descriptions of the gardens and architecture were stunningly detailed, and matched Slytherin's mural very closely.

Except in one major detail. The dome on top of the Main Keep was not anywhere in evidence in Helga's writings. The Main Keep was gone, but what had replaced it was the Main Tower, which housed the Grand Staircase. In fact, the Main Tower was made up almost entirely of what was left of the old Main Keep. And Hermione was certainly sure that there was no dome on top of the Main Tower.

"Why did Slytherin paint that?" wondered Hermione.

"Maybe he liked the design?" guessed Harriet, "He used it twice."

"What do you mean?" asked Hermione.

"Well, the dome is pretty much identical to the top of Ravenclaw's gazebo," said Harriet.

Hermione looked closer. The architecture was indeed identical between the dome and Ravenclaw's gazebo. But the gazebo was a small wooden building, the dome on top of it was aesthetic. The amount of magical skill necessary to create such a dome out of stone would have been immense. The engineering skill necessary to create such a thing out of stone in 9th century Scotland… well, the very idea was laughable.

"The dome wasn't a real thing," said Hermione, "It's artistic license."

But that didn't make sense. The dome didn't fit in with the architecture around it. It stuck out like a sore thumb. It was almost like Slytherin was drawing a parallel between the gazebo and the top of the Keep.

Hermione leapt to her feet as she understood what this could mean. "Oh! Ohhhh! The dome is the location of Ravenclaw's study!"

"You mean was?" asked Harriet, "The Main Keep was destroyed, remember?"

"But this mural was made after the battle with Morgana," argued Hermione, "that was why it was drawn. And prior to the battle, Ravenclaw's study was in the gazebo! This is Slytherin's clue to the location of her study! And… it is probably still there."

Hermione leapt to her feet and began running for the door. She heard Harriet scrambling behind her. For once though, Hermione had little trouble keeping a lead on her more athletic friend.

XXXXX

The Grand Staircase was a bit of a maze at times, but Hermione and Harriet had a secret weapon. Morgan had confided that she had spoken to Godric Gryffindor about the enchantments placed on the staircase. He'd admitted that the staircase tried to anticipate the needs of its users, but was very bad at it. But if you put your hand on a certain spot under the main balustrade, you could command it to go to a location.

"Top staircase," said Hermione. The staircases instantly began to reconfigure, to muffled cries of annoyance from people on higher levels. Without hesitation, Hermione began up the stairs, Harriet right behind her.

Even with the stairs cooperating, it took a while for the two girls to climb the tower. But they finally reached the top, which was, thought Hermione as she looked down, rather dizzyingly high. At the top, there was one final staircase that liked to move around, but it seemed to link to nothing.

"Ravenclaw's study," said Hermione, holding her hand against the spot on the balustrade.

The staircase shifted towards the dead center of the oncoming wall. But it didn't reach all the way. Instead a small staircase descended from above to connect to the Grand Staircase.

Hermione rushed up, and followed this staircase. As soon as the staircase ascended into the ceiling, it became a short spiral that led to a door. Hermione grabbed the door handle, but it didn't move.

"I think it requires a password or key," said Harriet.

Hermione thought for a moment, then said "Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure."

The door lock clicked.

"Really?" asked Harriet, "Rowena Ravenclaw's most famous phrase?"

"It wasn't as famous back then most likely," said Hermione as she turned the handle.

She wasn't prepared for what she found.

The room was surprisingly well lit. Light came in through slits above. They wouldn't be obvious from the outside, but they let in plenty of light. But what that light revealed wasn't the books Hermione expected, but thousands of glass vials. All in little racks all around the room. And in the middle, a giant basin. A very old Pensieve.

"Where are her books?" asked Harriet confused.

"Merlin," swore Hermione, "These are Rowena Ravenclaw's memories. She left behind her memories! This is the biggest historical find… probably ever!"

Hermione looked around the room in awe. This was huge. Way bigger than anything she had anticipated. It changed everything.

"Are you going to try a memory?" asked Harriet

"Should I?" wondered Hermione.

"You found this place," said Harriet, "You should be the first person to see something here."

Hermione couldn't argue with that, and moreover, she didn't want to. She went over to one of the racks and looked at it. One of the vials was simply labelled, "Uther."

Hermione chose that memory. Conjuring water into the Pensieve, she released the memory into it. Then she put her face down into the bowl.

With a rush of air Hermione fell into a forest. The forest looked vaguely familiar. It was almost like the Forbidden Forest, but the trees were a different mix than she had seen before. Snow was everywhere.

Hermione looked around. She could see a keep rising in the distance. She suddenly realized that it was Hogwarts' old keep. But none of the other towers had been built yet. This memory must pre-date the school.

It also made sense that there would be more cold weather trees in the Forbidden Forest, Hermione realized. The climate of the Middle Ages had been much cooler than the modern climate.

Suddenly Hermione realized she was not alone. Other people were in the forest, a lot of them. Men carrying weapons and shields moved in formation. Behind them stood two women. One was nearly 30 years old, and had raven black hair. She was tall and stocky, but her eyes carried something in them, some far off look that Hermione couldn't identify. The other woman was little more than a teenager; blonde haired and thin. She was also quite short; barely five feet tall. And she had pointed ears. Hermione gasped. She was part elf!

"You did not have to do this Helga," said the dark haired woman, "He would have left you alone."

"No, Rowena. He wouldn't have," said the half-elf.

Hermione realized they were speaking modern English. Something must have been translating for her.

Suddenly there was a tremendous sound. Turning, Hermione saw another army approaching. This army was much bigger, and out in the open. Rowena's army drew itself up at the edge of the trees. Hermione didn't have to be a tactician to realize the situation was bleak. They were outnumbered at least 3 to 1.

Behind the main lines of the army, riding a horse, was a man with black hair. He was very tall and was wearing a crown and a fine mail shirt. He must have been at least 35 years old. Next to him was a red haired, younger man.

"And that is Uther Pendragon," said Rowena Ravenclaw, "The last of the true Atlanteans. Aside from his children I guess."

"That would make the red haired man…?" began Helga.

"Gawaine," said Rowena, "Skilled wizard, excellent tactician, a bit of a hot head. I was hoping Uther would leave him in Mercia to deal with Gryffindor and Slytherin."

At this point it was clear the Uther's forces had seen them, so both sides formed into shield walls. Hermione could see that the defenders were badly outflanked. This would end quickly unless something changed.

Uther's forces began to advance. The advance was slow and inexorable. The Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff forces had a few archers, but not enough to slow that host. And soon Uther's archers were also moving into range. It looked bad.

Suddenly both Helga and Rowena began casting spells. And large ramparts of earth rose out of the earth on each of their army's flanks. Suddenly the entire Pendragon army was being funneled to the front of their line.

From here, Hermione could see Uther smirking. With a wave of his hand and a shout, his archers advanced to a position where they began pouring down arrows on the enemy. Uther himself began to move up, leading a small column of horsemen. He didn't seem concerned.

Hermione suddenly understood. Uther's archers were interspersed in a line of heavy infantry. Once Rowena's shield wall broke the front line would open up and let the heavy infantry charge. Good at hand to hand combat and heavily armored in mail, these warriors would make short work of the defenders.

The two front lines met with a horrible crash. The Ravenclaw line was stretched thin, but it held. Still, Uther's forces had more weight and were pushing back the front. Soon those earthen ramparts would be useless, and Uther's forces would push past them and spread out again. Hermione had to admire Uther's cool.

Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff cast dozens of spells at the front, trying to slow the push of the Pendragon shield wall. No luck, it continued to push. Within moments they would push past the earthworks.

And right then a cry went up from the Pendragon archers. Horsemen had charged them from behind and were scattering them in all directions. A big burly man with brown hair and a beard led them. In one hand he had a beautiful sword, in the other he held a wand. Archers scattered before him. The heavy troops were no better, none of them being equipped with spears, and they began to scatter. But they didn't go as far.

Uther waved at his horsemen, trying to keep them from engaging, but his commander didn't hear him. The man ordered a countercharge. Hermione was puzzled. Why stop them? They had the advantage of numbers.

The leader of the relief force just grinned. And with one wave of his wand lightning began to rain down on Uther's horseman. No horse would abide that! The horses scattered and ran.

"Who is that?" cried Helga.

"Godric Gryffindor," said Rowena, her face clearly shocked, "By the stone, he came north! Which means…"

A new force had begun to advance, a shield wall larger than that belonging to Ravenclaw, but not as large as that belonging to Uther. Still it was coming at Uther's forces from behind.

Gawaine began screaming orders, and the Pendragon forces began arranging a second shield wall at the back of the formation. As he did this the leader of this new force came into view. A tall, bald man with an immaculately trimmed mustache wearing satin robes. He rode his horse out to meet Gryffindor and clapped him on the back in a congratulatory manner.

"Salazar Slytherin," said Rowena with a smile.

Gawaine began to cast spells, attempting to hit Gryffindor. Slytherin blocked the attack contemptuously. He didn't just block it, he sent it back at Gawaine. Gawaine managed to duck and both Slytherin and Gryffindor dismounted and began to advance to engage him.

"Now! Advance!" yelled Rowena. She charged forward on foot, unleashing spell after spell. Helga ran behind her, shooting out waves of force from her wand. Their ferocious attack carved a hole in the center of Uther's line, and Ravenclaw troops poured through. Uther's shield wall collapsed. And suddenly the Pendragon army began to disintegrate.

Rowena was locked on one person, one goal. She advanced directly towards Uther. Uther pulled out his wand. It was metal, with a runestone at the back end of the wand. An old fashioned Atlantean wand. He could cast fast, very fast, but so could Rowena. She hurled spell after spell at him, each of which was dodged or neutralized in turn. But then Helga's spells came in. And Uther was off balance.

Gawaine had engaged Gryffindor, sword to sword, while Slytherin cast spells from a distance. Gryffindor seemed to be enjoying the fight, but he didn't call off his friend. Gawaine was barely able to keep from being swatted by Slytherin's extremely accurate and dangerous cutting curses.

And a cry went up from Uther's forces. Hermione turned back to Rowena to see that she had disarmed Uther. But she didn't cast another spell at him. Instead she levitated towards him at an incredible rate. As she approached him she bent down and snagged a sword from the ground as she passed it.

"This is for my father!" Rowena screamed, her eyes burning with hatred. And she stopped right in front of Uther, planted her feet in the ground, and stabbed him straight through his mail shirt.

Hermione whistled. She must have used magic to amplify her strength. That should have been impossible!

Uther fell forward onto Ravenclaw. Hermione ran forward, and at the last moment she heard Uther's last words.

"How does it feel to have doomed this world?" he asked, "To have killed the last pureblooded Atlantean?"

"We don't need you," said Rowena, her voice full of disgust.

"You will need my children," said Uther.

And then Rowena pulled out the sword. Hermione looked away as she heard Gawaine's shriek of rage as his lord died.

And the Army of Uther Pendragon began to flee. Those who could not flee surrendered. The battle was over.

Salazar Slytherin had captured Gawaine, who was now bound, and he and Godric Gryffindor walked over to introduce themselves to Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff. And for one moment Hermione saw them together all at once.

And then the forest fell away as Hermione emerged in Rowena Ravenclaw's study.

"I just saw the battle of Hogsmeade," said Hermione, unable to process what she had just seen quite yet.

"Wicked!" said Harriet, "Can I see?"

XXXXX

It took Harriet a while to convince Hermione that they needed to keep their discovery secret until they could publish it.

"Listen, we want the credit for this discovery, right?" asked Harriet.

"Of course," said Hermione.

"Then we have to keep it quiet until we have a paper in the mix," said Harriet.

"Harriet, we're second years," said Hermione, "Who's going to publish our paper?"

"Anyone," said Harriet, "If we do this right. But if we don't get a head start on this, then someone will get called in, and they'll get the credit. We'll only be a footnote."

"You really think that will happen?" asked Hermione.

Harriet pulled out a copy of the Daily Prophet and set it down in front of Hermione. The headline read "Gilderoy Lockhart: All His Advetures? Stolen!"

"Okay, you have a point," said Hermione, "but we'll need to convince Professor Lupin to let us work on this jointly. This is supposed to be a solo extra credit assignment."

"Leave that to me!" laughed Harriet.

Harriet led Hermione down to Remus' office.

"Hello, Harriet, Hermione," said Remus as they entered.

"Hello Professor Lupin," said Hermione. Harriet just grinned.

"Need assistance?" Remus asked.

Harriet nodded. "We have a really good idea for a project. It's so good that we might even want to publish it. But, we kind of would need to work together to do that. So we wondered if we could write our paper jointly."

"That sort of defeats the purpose of the assignment," said Remus, kindly but firmly.

"But if together we were capable of producing something publishable, wouldn't that be a worthwhile exception?" asked Hermione.

Remus considered that. "All right, if you have a paper that I think can be made publishable by some relatively minor assistance by myself, I will let you write it jointly," he said finally, "What is your topic?"

"We want to compare the mural of Hogwarts in the Chamber of Secrets to Helga Hufflepuff's descriptions," said Harriet.

"That… could actually be really groundbreaking," said Remus, "Yes, that might be publishable. But you'll need an escort to go down to the Chamber."

Hermione shot Harriet an angry glance, but Harriet ignored her. "Professor," she said reasonably, "You wound me."

"I know you," said Remus, "If I didn't say that, you'd be heading there alone and without an escort."

"No," said Harriet, "You wound me because you haven't assumed that we already did this so we wouldn't get slowed down waiting for an escort. We already have all of our notes ready. We just have to write the paper and prepare our supplemental materials. As technically no one has read Hufflepuff's journals, and no one has seen the mural, we'll need to make copies and translations."

Remus stared at Harriet for a long while, then covered his face with his hands. "You're going to be the death of me, you know that right?" asked Remus.

"Oh please, you'd have done exactly the same thing," said Harriet.

And Remus, the former Marauder, had nothing to say to that.

XXXXX

Hermione was getting distracted.

It was a rare thing, but it did happen occasionally. Umbridge's confirmation to the Board of Governors had been unwelcome; her politics were vile. Apparently she'd been poking around in the school already. It was all very annoying.

Then there had been the fact that Hermione was falling behind in her coursework. Okay, that wasn't precisely accurate, she was falling behind where she wanted to be. She was barely ahead anymore. Most of that was her work on this project of course. Once it was complete she'd go back to being way ahead.

She'd taken to hiding herself away in Rowena's study. She'd had to promise Harriet that she wouldn't look at any more memories without Harriet present, as Harriet felt it wasn't safe for Hermione to be in a memory unaccompanied. Of course Harriet wasn't here right now. It was Saturday, and Harriet had a Quidditch match today. Which reminded Hermione that she really needed to pack up.

But as Hermione was collecting her papers, one of the vials caught her eye. This vial sat alone on the back corner of the table. It seemed intentionally out of the way. Hermione picked it up to examine it.

It was labeled "Morgana."

Hermione stared at that label for a moment. Surely Harriet wouldn't mind if Hermione watched this one, would she? Hermione's mind began to race at the thought of what she might find here. Finally, Hermione couldn't take it anymore.

She had to know what was in that memory. Harriet would understand if she was a little late to the Quidditch match.

XXXXX

The Quidditch match was going as well as Harriet could expect. The Hufflepuffs just weren't a good team this year. They had good teamwork, and were good at keeping the quaffle once they had it, but they were predictable and easy to defend against. Gryffindor was really running the score up against them.

Harriet was left covering Cedric. Technically, she could have searched out the snitch herself, but playing cover on Cedric meant that neither of them caught the snitch, and Gryffindor kept running up the score. That was important. This way, even if they lost to Ravenclaw, they'd win the cup. Assuming they won this match of course.

In the end Gryffindor did win, and Harriet did catch the snitch, though it was a narrow thing. Cedric and Harriet had raced to the snitch, and Harriet only got it because of a lucky weave on the part of the snitch. Harriet pumped her fist victoriously. Gryffindor had won by 250 points!

Harriet looked around for Hermione. She hadn't seen her earlier in the match. She finally saw her, down on the ground near the edge of the pitch. Harriet flew down to meet her.

"Get here a bit late?" teased Harriet.

"I, uh, lost track of time," said Hermione. Suddenly Hermione's face went beet red.

"What's wrong?" asked Harriet.

"It's hard to explain," said Hermione, trying to regain her composure, "I looked at a memory that was a bit...uh, adult. There is more to it, but I need to figure something out before I tell you more."

Harriet grinned. That did sound funny. She hoped Hermione would be willing to share what she had seen.

But she missed just how worried Hermione looked.

XXXXX

Harriet wasn't very happy when he saw that Dolores Umbridge was sitting in on their History class.

"Don't mind me," she said, "I'm just observing."

"Of course," said Remus civilly, though Harriet knew that he trusted her about as far as he could throw her.

"So today we are discussing the First Goblin Rebellion," said Remus as everyone found their seats, "Anyone know what caused the war?"

Padma raised her hand. "Muggles intruding into traditionally Goblin lands left them looking for more land," she said when Remus pointed at her, "When they turned to the Wizard's Council they were denied additional lands."

"That is not entirely true," said Remus, "Muggles did indeed settle in areas that were claimed by the goblins, but King Henry checked with the Wizard's Council first. The Wizard's Council authorized it in retribution for the reclamation of a number of goblin artifacts."

"Artifacts that had been sold to wizards," said Dolores Umbridge, her eyes growing dangerous.

"Goblins hold that any goblin artifact belongs to it's creator and his descendants in perpetuity," said Remus, "While this is no longer recognized by the Ministry, it was recognized by the Wizard's Council at the time. By law, the goblins of that era were entitled to retrieve their lost goods. It isn't clear whether the Wizard's Council was simply reneging on the deal they'd made with the Goblins, or whether they simply objected to the unilateral means by which the goblins reclaimed their artifacts. In any case, the goblins decided enough was enough and declared war. Their initial attacks killed King Henry and led to the very brief reign of Empress Matilda. The Wizard's Council was forced to the peace table by King Stephen, as he was trying to solidify his reign and wanted peace."

"In any event," said Remus, "The resulting treaty gave the Goblins sovereignty in their lands, and allowed the Goblins a representative on the Wizard's Council. The first had been maintained more or less to this day, though Goblins control much less land now, and attempts to revoke Goblin sovereignty have been common, though all have failed. The second was revoked after the goblins took violent action to end the depredations of mass Goblin murderer, Yardley Platt, in the 16th century."

"Yardley Platt was an upstanding scholar and thinker," said Umbridge, "His tragic murder…"

"Yardley Platt murdered at least 70 goblins in cold blood," interrupted Remus, "He was a butcher. As the modern curriculum that I am legally bound to teach states very clearly."

Umbridge simply nodded at that and sat back. She couldn't really argue with that.

Finally the class was over and Harriet and Hermione ran to the front of the class. Umbridge seemed to take note of this, but didn't hang around. It was as if she was somehow offended to be there. Harriet fumed at that. How dare she treat Remus like that!

"We completed our paper," said Hermione, pulling out the paper and all the supplemental documents.

"I…" started Remus as he looked at the sheer volume of materials they were handing him.

"You should read the paper first," said Harriet, "We'll be in the Gryffindor common room. When you finish it, well you're going to want to speak to us."

XXXXX

And Harriet was right. When Remus finished reading the paper, he did indeed want to speak to them. As did Morgan.

"You found the Study of Rowena Ravenclaw?!" she cried excitedly.

"And it has her memories stored there?" demanded Remus.

"Do you think someone would be interested in publishing this?" asked Harriet calmly.

Remus suddenly began to laugh. "That's what this is about! You wanted to make sure some old crusty historian didn't take your credit!"

"This… this is incredible, I would very much like to see some of these memories," said Morgan.

Harriet realised that Hermione was glaring at Morgan after that. She wondered what had set that off. When she asked Hermione, Hermione just said, "I'll tell you soon."

XXXXX

Hermione took a deep breath outside Morgan's office. This wasn't something she wanted to do, but Hermione needed to be sure of this. She needed to hear the explanation for herself. She had a feeling that this wasn't going to be good, but she figured that Morgan had earned exactly one chance to explain herself. To explain why she had lied.

She knocked deliberately. Moments later, Morgan opened the door.

"Yes Hermione?" asked Morgan.

"Professor, we need to talk," said Hermione.

Morgan invited Hermione in. Hermione sat down in the chair in front of Morgan's desk.

Morgan had shit the door and sat down in her own chair. "What's the matter?" asked Morgan.

Hermione steadied herself. "Rowena had some memories. They were about you," she said carefully.

Morgan pursed her lips. She was clearly apprehensive about this line of discussion.

"What kind of memories?" asked Morgan.

"Well the first memories were when you were at Hogwarts," said Hermione as red filled her cheeks again, "I saw… well you were lovers. That is my main takeaway."

Morgan nodded. "We were," she said, "and I was what we would consider 'of age' at the time. Hogwarts didn't have the same strict year structure based on your age, not at first. I was fourteen when I entered Hogwarts, and I was twenty when Rowena and I first… became intimate. "

"It still wasn't appropriate; you were a student," said Hermione.

"I agree," said Morgan, "Now. Back then it wasn't necessarily uncommon. And I did care for Rowena. She had such a difficult life, forced to marry a man she didn't love, unable to truly connect to her daughter. That was a tragedy, what happened to Helena Ravenclaw. Let me be clear though, Rowena did not pressure me to become her lover at any point, and she did not show any interest in me until I was an adult."

"That's good to know," said Hermione, "But it honestly isn't that important in the grand scheme of things, it was just embarrassing to… see that. The bigger problems are the other two memories. I saw why you broke up."

"Ah," said Morgan simply, "yes. She caught me working on how to create a geas."

"What exactly is a geas?" asked Hermione.

"It's an old form of magical contract," said Morgan, "How it works is the bonder gives the bondee a task. If that task is completed, the bondee is given a reward. Upon receiving that reward the bondee is bound to follow the will of the bonder until they are released."

"That sounds rather extreme," said Hermione.

"There is a reason it isn't used anymore," said Morgan, "well that and the fact that if you want mind control, the Imperius is easier."

"But it was the third memory that was really disturbing," said Hermione, "It was your meeting with Rowena right before you were driven from Avalon permanently."

Morgan visibly blanched. "Okay, the thing you have to understand about that was that I was not in my right mind at that point. I had just come back from Wales and my son was attacking my brother. I was not in good head space at the time."

"She said you seduced Arthur," said Hermione, accusingly, "Mordred was your son by Arthur."

"No!" said Morgan, "I, uh, I…"

Morgan hung her head as she realised she was caught. "I used the geas on him," she admitted, "Though I removed it right afterwards."

"Why?" asked Hermione.

"Because we were the last pureblooded Atlanteans," said Morgan, "And Guinevere was barren. I thought this would buy us one more generation. Instead it cost us everything."

"One more generation to what?" demanded Hermione.

"An Atlantean could reunite the Atlantean runestone easily, without the consequences that would otherwise have to be dealt with," said Morgan, "Consequences like death."

Hermione shook her head. "You lied to us," she accused.

"Yes I did," said Morgan without hesitation, "and I was right to do it. You and Harriet are only 13 and 12 respectively. You are too young for a teacher to be discussing this sort of thing with you. And…"

Morgan shook her head. "I didn't want you to think less of me. I am ashamed of what I did."

Hermione sat quietly for a long time. Finally she said, "I still have to tell Harriet."

Morgan nodded. "I understand," she said.

Hermione did feel a bit sorry for Morgan, but she knew it was up to Harriet to decide what to do about this. Still, despite Hermione's feelings, she realised that Morgan would lie if her purposes suited her. That meant she wasn't nearly as reliable as Hermione had hoped.

Hermione stood up. "Thank you for your belated honesty," said Hermione.

And she walked out of Morgan's office. She'd tell Harriet the next day.

XXXXX

Except the next day huge news became the focus of everyone's attention, even Hermione's. Dolores Umbridge had been endorsed by the Minister for Magic to become something called Hogwarts Inquisitor. From now on, Umbridge would wield official state power to help streamline the learning process. Apparently she had the votes on the Board of Governors to approve this.

"What do you want to bet Crouch supported this because Remus was teaching that the goblins were very badly treated prior to the goblin wars?" asked Harriet.

"No bet there," said Hermione, "But I'd bet that Umbridge is up to something more."

And Harriet had to agree with Hermione there.

Author's Note:

Okay, yes I took a plot point from year 5 and moved it to year 2. But I bet you don't guess where this is going. The next few chapters are just bonkers.

The goblin stuff in Remus' class isn't necessary backstory exactly, I put it in mostly for flavor. This chapter had a lot of exposition though, which led me to look at the rest of the story. The level of exposition in part 3 is a little too high in my opinion, but I guess that gets it out of the way.

Hermione's concerns about Morgan are something that until now has sort of been ignored by moat of the main characters. They know theoretically that Morgan was a Dark Witch in her previous life, but what does that mean? What did she do? Who did she hurt? As a student Harriet doesn't necessarily need to know any of these things. But Morgan has taken a special interest in training/helping Harriet, which means her motivations are super relevant. The question at this point isn't so much "Is she evil?" but, "What motivated her to turn evil in her first life, and can it happen again?" Hermione is beginning to suspect that Morgan might have the best intentions in the world, but might still be dangerous anyway.