A New Tournament

by killgore444

A gift from the future provides a little bit of hope in a time of need. OP Harry, Ron and Hermione, but with a plausible background to support it. No bashing, even of disliked characters.

7. Chapter 7: You Just Might Get It!

A New Tournament

Chapter 7: You Just Might Get It!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this. All rights reserved to the respective owners of Harry Potter and Stargate: SG1. If I did own any of it, it would have gone very differently.

And probably been not as good.

Summary: A gift from the future provides a little bit of hope in a time of need. OP Harry, Ron and Hermione, but with a plausible background to support it. No bashing, even of disliked characters.

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Would people please just stop reading the notes if they annoy you? They're not going away, so stop demanding it. Last chapter was over sixteen thousand words of story content, and less then a thousand of notes and I still got harassed over it. I was damn tempted to write sixteen thousand words of notes, and a couple of paragraphs of story as a response, but evidently I'm not an actual dick. So your still getting fourteen thousand words of content.

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Yes, I know, it's been a horribly long time. I tried to get this out before Christmas, but couldn't make it. I know, someone who writes fanfiction unpaid had other things to do right, who would have thunk it. One of those things was an interesting challenge I came across: How long can you go without your computer? For me, quite a while actually. I managed two months without even turning it on and several more without the internet. I'm actually proud of myself. Of course a large part of that was all the sniping over my notes, so, go figure.

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Editing because I download wrong doc from before I corrected some of the spelling/grammar errors. I also had wrong name in several locations.

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Barty Crouch jr hurried through the halls of Hogwarts. His meeting with his Master had ran longer than he had anticipated, and for whatever reason, his polyjuice potion wasn't working right (he suspected house elves where sabotaging it). A surprising level of uncertainty had entered into the duration of his potions, and he knew, just KNEW it was because of that ridiculous clothed elf. The Foeglass he'd taken from his uncle, Alastor Moody, had, as of Saturday morning, shown a large group of house elves, all of whom eyes were visible, along with two specific elves wearing clothes who were even more recognizable.

One of them he could swear was Winky, and Dumbledore had confirmed she was in fact working at Hogwarts. He'd tried calling her several times, but she wasn't responding, something she should be doing for a Professor even if her ties to the family have been broken. But then again, she was showing up in his foeglass, so she's probably figured out he isn't actually Alastor Moody and therefor not actually a professor.

The other elf wasn't known to him, though he was clearly visible, and fully colored in, like he was standing in front of a normal mirror. What that actually meant, he wasn't certain, but he was working under the assumption that the elf was actively working against him in a directly hostile manner, although why he hadn't simply informed the Headmaster Barty couldn't figure out, he'd clearly allied himself with the other elves. And the other elves were not responding to him either, although they didn't seem to be as actively hostile as Winky and the other elf.

Barty couldn't tell if the elf had informed Potter or not. Potter and his two friends were becoming much more visible in the foeglass than even Dumbledore or Snape, but not completely. He couldn't figure out if that meant they were told, and didn't believe, or if they were actively working against whomever put Potters name in the Goblet without knowing who it was.

So he'd made arrangements to meet with his Master. Who had not been pleased. Gone was the idea of building things up till the end of the year. He needed to grab Potter now and put him somewhere he could be contained until the potion Wormtail was brewing could be completed. Fortunately, the news that Potter had been sighted visiting Nurmengard of all places, had made his Master cognizant of the fact that there was a large group of people who he had no control over, some of which he wasn't in a position to even guess what they'd do, much less accurately predict (seriously, what the hell was Potter doing visiting with Gellert Grindelwald of all people).

That and the disappearance of Potter's two friends had thrown things off track by a wide margin. For the first week after Potter's name came out of the goblet, everything had been going right. He'd managed to get Weasley away from his friends a couple of times in the weeks proceeding and sow a little bit of resentment in him before hand (no charms though, nothing that could be so easily detected), with rather predictable results. Weasley had more than a little issue with jealousy. Granger was a little more difficult, but her crush on the Weasley boy was causing problems for her and Potters friendship.

But then Weasley disappeared out of the dorm, and Granger walked right into a, until now, unknown secret door. A door no one has been able to open, or even find, since, and he'd been watching her though his magic eye when she went in, so he knew exactly were that door SHOULD be. And hadn't that been a screwed up deal. In retrospect, he probably should have remained silent and dealt with it quietly, but he'd been playing the part of 'Mad Eye' Moody, and in his surprise at her going through that door, had spoken out.

Not that it was all bad though. Molly Weasleys reaction to the bints disappearance had been priceless, he'd actually thought for a second she'd attack Dumbledore. He'd also managed to cause more than a little chaos throughout the school, and had even caused a couple of international incidents when he searched the Carriage and Boat of the other two schools. A few words here, a comment there, and the students are ready to kill each other. Although he can't take all the credit there, someone else has been stirring that pot as well, but he was having a hard time figuring out who.

Surely it wasn't the ELF!

Someone else was also carrying out a grudge against other students as well. Ironically, he was probably the only person in the school who actually believed the Malfoy brat that he was being framed, and he'd taken more than a little pleasure in twisting that particular knife. He even thought he had an idea of WHO it was that framed him, his suspect had been a little too shocked about such a upstanding person as Draco Malfoy having such items, but the only motivation he could think of was over Quidditch, and he didn't think that a student, even a Slytherin, would be that ambitious as to send a fourteen year old to Azkaban over a game.

But he'd been wrong about such things before.

Has a result of everything though, his Master had Wormtail make contact with several higher ranked Deatheaters, as well as a couple of dozen low ranked and newbies too young to have joined before that fateful Halloween (it always amazed Barty how his Master seemed to actually care so much about the education of his recruits and how they had to be at least sixth years before he'd allow them to join) , brought into the fold by their parents or older kin, and now facing their actual Master.

A Master who had given them a specific task, help Barty Crouch jr secure Harry Potter and cause as much chaos in Hogwarts as possible. The plan was simply, and if it worked, would indeed create a lot of chaos. His Master had given him a couple of jars with space expansion and weight reduction charms on them, and the newbies had climbed inside. Barty would then go around Hogwarts placing the individual jars at locations they wouldn't be found by the professors or Aurors. Since his uncle was so trusted by the Aurors, and he belonged here, it was unlikely he'd be questioned.

Which was why he was hurrying so much now. He was potion master enough to have gained an intuitive grasp of when a potions duration would expire, and he was running out of time now, he'd already gone through the last of the potion in his flask, each dose barely lasting ten minutes. He was hoping the potion he had brewing in his chambers would still be good, but couldn't shake the feeling that that damn elf was going to do something to it, assuming he hadn't already. If that was the case, he'd already gotten permission to alter the plan from his master.

He was definitely going to make that bloody elf suffer though.

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While his duplicates were busy preparing to retake his ancestral home, Harry had another duplicate investigating some of his other properties. One duplicate was investigating the house in the muggle neighborhood. When he arrived, wearing muggle clothes he'd transfigured beforehand, and wearing his cloak, he noticed that there was a party of some sort being set up in the yard.

It didn't take much to realize that one of the children was about to have their eleventh birthday. The large eleven written on what looked to be old sheet was a large clue. Thinking back fondly to his own, rather eventful eleventh birthday put Harry in a good mood, and he started to sneak in to investigate.

His good mood quickly vanished when he crossed what seemed to be a ward line. It was a weak, old and worn down ward line, but one just the same. It also seemed to have a secondary affect that would actually effect the residents. Something not normally seen in wards.

As he started to try and unravel the mystery of the wards, he heard a crash and a cry of fear from the house. He could hear a young boy trying to explain that he hadn't meant to do 'It' and who Harry bet was his mother trying to calm him down, followed immediately by a fluffy cat racing out the cat flap.

A cat with glowing neon green fur.

Harry pocketed his cloak and cast a quick Accio on the cat, catching it just as a man came rushing out to grab it before any neighbors saw. On seeing Harry holding the cat, he came to an abrupt stop, seeming unsure what to do at that point.

"Hello." Harry said holding up the struggling feline, "Like that cat. Any idea were I can get one in this color?"

"Um… …not sure what you're talking about young man, but if I could have Gooey back, I'd be rather grate…" He broke off seeing Harry failing to stifle a laugh.

"Sorry" Harry said, "I once turned a teachers wig blue in class, so you can skip trying to make an excuse or explain it away. I KNOW what's going on. May I come in?"

"Uh, sure", the man said holding the door open for him, "So you actually know what's happening to my son? You're not about to take him away to some mutant school to try and fight crime wearing tights are you?"

It actually took Harry a couple of seconds to grasp what the man was really asking, and that he wasn't entirely serious (but he was partially serious). "No, but I'm sure if your son is the one having his birthday today, he'll be getting an invitation to a very special school. But don't worry. If he's ever in tights, it's because he was the victim of a prank. Names Harry by the way." Harry said sticking out his hand.

"Issac Markum," The man replied, taking Harry's hand just as a women and several kids stepped around the corner. "This is my wife, Tracy. The little sprogs here are my twins Deanna and Valery." He gestured at a couple of rather adorable five year old girls. "Next up we have Chad, Bethany and Eric." pointing at a seven year old boy, a nine year old girl, and a ten year old boy. "You've already met our cat Gooey, and this here is the Birthday boy Mathew. He said he knows what's going on with the kids." The last he said having turned to his wife.

"I do." Harry said putting the cat down on a couch and pulling out his wand. A quick flick, and the cat had resumed what was hopefully it's normal coloration. "Congratulations young man, you're a Wizard!" With that, Harry pointed his wand at a stack of paper plates for the party, and transfigured them into small Mickey Mouse replicas and animated them with a fast 'Piertotum Locomotor' charm, causing them to jump up and start teasing a very startled cat.

Harry glanced at the family, and saw them staring at him with very blank faces. Even the younger ones didn't seem to be able to say anything, although the twins were watching the origami Mickeys rather than him, even as Gooey stated to chase them around, reminding Harry strongly of Crookshanks chasing the gnomes. "So, when's the party start?"

"Uh, about an hour from now." the boy's mother said, "I'm not sure I can believe in magic. Are you sure that's what's going on? That whoever told you this wasn't just pranking you?"

"Shall we sit?" Harry said gesturing to the furniture. "Missus Markum, the man who told me is quite literally a giant. He busted down the door and grabbed my uncles shotgun out of his hands and twisted it up like a pretzel. And no, I don't consider that a bad thing, if you've ever dealt with my uncle, you'd be very much in agreement that Uncle Vernon was in the wrong."

So, over the next half hour or so, Harry gave them a quick rundown of accidental magic and a short overview of Hogwarts, before Mrs Markum noticed the time and everyone went to get ready for the party. When no one was looking, Harry created another duplicate to run to Diagon Alley and get Mathew a present. With the exception of whoever the new DADA professor would be, all the teachers used the same books year after year, it was no problem to know what he would likely need the next year, and the family wasn't exactly rolling in cash, so Harry decided to get Matt a set of the year one class books, minus whatever was needed for DADA. Harry figured that would save the family about ten to fifteen galleons, or about four to six hundred Pounds. Harry couldn't remember how much those books cost him his first year.

While thinking of this, he happened to glance out the window and saw something he didn't anticipate, but really should have. Out on the edge of the property, Professors Flitwick and Snape stood talking. Flitwick, Harry could see coming to visit a muggleborn family, but not Snape. Harry threw his cloak back on and snuck outside to try and eavesdrop, but they broke apart before he got close, and it was at that point that Harry remembered he knew a whole slew of sense enhancing magic.

Cursing to himself, Harry was about to create a duplicate to follow Snape when the greasy git disapparated. So Harry followed Flitwick back to the house. If nothing else, Harry would get an idea about how one of the professors handled this instead of Hagrid.

Flitwick was clearly used to this however, and simply walked up to the door and gestured, didn't even use his wand Harry noticed, and a solid knocking sound came from the door. When Mr Markum came to the door, he was rather nonplussed at the appearance of Flitwick. After a second of awkward silence, Mr Markum snorted, "I take it you've got my sons invitation to Hoag Wards."

With a raised eyebrow, Professor Flitwick corrected him, "Hogwarts actually, it's named after a flower common to the area. And I am most curious on just how you knew that much."

"You better come in then." Mr Markum said stepping out of the way.

Harry quickly went through the side door where Flitwick wouldn't be able to notice, and got back to the living room just in time to hear him start. "Now, right before I left for here, I received word from the Department of underage magic at the Ministry that there was a bit of accidental magic involving a cat. Normally someone from Magic Reversal would respond, but since young Mathew turns eleven today, I was asked to take care of it. Could I see the cat?"

"But Harry already took care of it." Matt blurted out.

Seeing the quizzical look on the professors face, Mrs Markum explained. "There was a young man here until a few minutes ago. About fourteen, fifteen years old, said he went to magic school. He's the one who fixed Gooey and told us about the school. But, it's nice to see that he wasn't just screwing around with us."

"Did he have messy black hair, and a lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead?" On seeing their nods, Flitwick sighed. "Oh, young mister Potter and his friends have been having a rather busy weekend. Although it is nice to see he hasn't gotten killed yet."

"I take it then that he wasn't supposed to tell us about all this then." She said.

"Oh, there's no actual rules saying students can't inform future students, as long as they ONLY inform the student and their immediate family. It's just that young Harry has become the center of a rather large controversy at school, and no student is supposed to leave the grounds except under certain circumstances. Indeed, since his name was called by the Goblet to compete in the tournament, he shouldn't even be ABLE to leave the grounds, as the goblets magic would keep him from going more than a mile or two. Nor should he have been able to cast the counter-charm on your cat without setting off the underage magic wards."

After another short silence, Mr Markum asked a question that took Harry off guard. "You just mentioned miles, and during Harry's talk with us, he mentioned feet and inches several times. Do you not use the metric system?"

Harry had to catch himself from laughing as Flitwick looked at him before realizing what Mr Markum meant. "Oh, um no. The old Imperial system was created with more than a little input from wizards and witches and is based on sound Arithmancy principles. Where the metric system is built around muggle mathematics, the Imperial system is built around magic." At that he started to give a few demonstrations of playful spells.

During that, there was a tapping on the window. Hedwig was tapping on the glass, holding onto a large cloth bag. With a gesture, the window opened and Hedwig flew in, making Harry wonder if his duplicate was right outside, or if he'd gone back to Hogwarts, or even if he'd gone somewhere else. Harry tuned out the Professors explanation about owls as he pondered the possibility of one of his duplicates, of which he was one, deciding to go independent. Or even to attend several of the other schools of magic simultaneously. Or even muggle school. It had possibilities, though Harry wasn't sure he would want to spend extra lives in school. Visiting tropical resorts however, that he could see himself doing.

Since the other Harry's had come back from Ice Tower with the information about those strange metals, maybe he'd try and work out how to build a space ship and explore the other planets. Before he could delve into speculation about what would happen to Remus if he was taken into space and saw the moon directly, he heard Beth begging Matt if she could read one of the books. This got a surprising response from Flitwick. "Young lady. While I see no problem with you reading 'A History of Magic' or other books about magic, it is imperative that you NOT study any of the books that contain actual spell work or other applications of magic. Through much pain and sorrow, we have learned that magic should never be practiced before your eleventh birthday, just as we've learned that in order to ever control it, you must begin studying before your fourteenth birthday. Sad and unfortunate things have happened to those so young as their brain has not developed enough to safely practice."

"And this goes for the rest of you as well. Please do not become a object lesson to others. Even the old pure blood families heed this, and only those who just missed the cut off date for the year before ever come to school knowing any spells. If anything, the old pure blood families have seen what can happen, and will punish their children for trying far more harshly than the ministry will. Now, 'History of Magic' is perfectly acceptable. As is 'One thousand magical herbs and fungi' and 'Magical beasts and where to find them.' "Magical Theory' and 'Magical drafts and potions' are a little bit iffy for you young Bethany, but shouldn't be a problem for Eric. Or of course, your parents. The other books however have instructions for actual spell casting, and should only be read by Mathew, or Eric after his own eleventh birthday."

"But please note, Mathew will need these books, along with a few others, once the school year starts for him, so you have around 8 months or so to peruse them. Sometime next summer, Mathew should get his actual invitation, and he will learn what ever extra books the new DADA professor will be adding. Since all six of you children have demonstrated accidental magic at times, I might be able to swing sending you a few of the books in the library that are geared to younger children as well. Several of my students have old children's books they've outgrown, and it's long been a policy of Ravenclaw students to donate those books to the new muggleborn students and families. Indeed, since Harry Potter seems to have, rather understandably, taken an interest in your family, I'll see to it you get a full and complete set of 'The Harry Potter Adventures.' His embarrassment over that should be enough to curtail his involving himself into notifying new students."

"Why would he take such an interest in us?" Mrs Markum asked.

"Because with everything else happening to him right now, it was inevitable for him to have taken an interest in his parents. And this house was where his Mother grew up. And, since his Mother graduated, every single child, under the age of ten when they moved in, and as spent at least one full year here, as become a wizard or witch. The last child to have lived here who this didn't happen to, was Harry's Aunt Petunia. And my understanding is they didn't move in until after her tenth birthday."

"Now, if you'll excuse me, there is a lot going on right now at school, and I need to notify the Headmaster that Harry has been spotted here. That and the spells Severus cast to make your quests think that the party started an hour later than the invitation said will be wearing off in a few minutes. I trust I don't need to remind you to keep this secret from them? No! Then good day to you." With that Flitwick walked out the door, and Harry, like the family watched out the window until he met up with Snape and they both disapparated.

"You learn something new everyday it seems." Harry said out load, causing several shrieks of surprise.

"You've become a talking head!" one of the boys yelled hiding behind his father.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Don't tell anyone I have this OK." Harry said pulling his cloak fully off him. "It's a family heirloom that's been passed down for over a thousand years. I don't want it confiscated. By the way, if he does send you those books, don't believe them. My life growing up was NOTHING like those books made out."

"As for why I took an interest in you. I really didn't. I found a reverence to this house in my Dads diary, and according to the bank statement I got from Gringotts yesterday, I own the house, but my uncle has been collecting the rent and not passing it on, or performing maintenance. I'll be dealing with that over the next couple of months, so if he tries to evict you, send a letter to Hogwarts, I'll deal with the bank."

"Now, why don't you take your books upstairs and put them away. I AM sorry about that by the way. But no one told me about the reason they never inform muggle raised children about magic until they're eleven before. Anyway, like the professor, I need to leave before anyone else comes to investigate, and I'm sure they will. It's OK to tell Professor Dumbledore about the cloak, he already knows, but please don't tell anyone else. Have a nice day, and HAPPY Birthday Matt!" Harry said, shouting out the last as he walked out the door, disapparating back to his tunnel.

That was interesting he thought. It's possible to grant children magic. That was very interesting indeed.

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Harry was trudging slowly back to the Gryffindor dorms. Well, sort of. He'd had an urge to divert to the third floor near Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, and his notes he made under the influence of the potion and some divination spells he'd learned that morning agreed with the urge. And considering how this weekend went from being horrid to spectacular due to the influence of that potion, he wasn't going to start ignoring it now.

Not when it was so close to wearing off. Something important might happen. WOULD happen Harry mentally corrected, Dobby had asked to borrow the Sword Kindness. That couldn't be good. As it stood though, he was being harassed by an annoying insect that looked like a particularly ugly type of dung beetle that had started to buzz around him about the fourth floor.

He'd thought about making a duplicate to go back to the dorms and just continue to sleep in the room, but decided against it for now. Not only was he still unsure about the possibility of one of his duplicates going independent if they were separated long term, but he didn't want to condemn one of them to suffering under the scrutiny of the school, or in Snape's class when he wasn't willing to do it himself. That, Harry thought to himself, is an almost guaranteed to make a duplicate turn on him.

He'd actually used a note pad when going through his memories from the duplicates and made check marks for every duplicate created, destroyed [he tried not to think killed] and reabsorbed to make sure he got them all. He did NOT want a duplicate running around independent.

Still though, despite everything, this was hands down the best weekend of his life. He'd learned hundreds of new spells, to a degree not even Hermione could match. Relearned almost all of the spells he already new from the past to a much higher degree and could even cast a lot of spells silently now, like all the professors. He learned a surprising amount about runes, some Occlumency and even a smattering of Legilimency and arithmancy. Not to mention about a dozen new languages and an immense amount about his family.

And most importantly he'd managed to get a girlfriend. Multiple girlfriends in fact. He'd had his first kiss, the first time he'd ever seen a naked girl. He'd taking more then a little amount of time relieving himself when he got back. He was extremely glad the room protected him from the wards that let the professors know when anyone under fifteen got active. Hell, he'd even seen girls kissing each other. That was enough, despite his dislike of everyone right now, to get him curious about some of his female classmates and wonder what they'd look like kissing each other. The thought of Hermione kissing fellow fourth year Gryffindors Lavender or Sue Li, Parvati or even Salley-Anne Perks, not to mention some of the other girls in their year, or even other years was an incredible turn on, and something he'd never thought of Hermione, as something other than a friend, or even sister…

…'No!' He thought to himself [and more pointedly, the potion]. She WAS his friend, and yes, even a sister he wished he had. Besides, she had a serious crush on Ron [which was reciprocated] and despite everything with Ron, he did hope they'd be happy together. Not that he was successful in completely banishing his thoughts however, but he was forcing himself to think of of her being happy, which him using a potion to alter her mind wouldn't do. And it was that thought which managed to kill his fantasy. That smacked a little to close to mind control for his taste.

It didn't count with Vanessa, Joan and Lea however, Lea had admitted they were already that way. For several years in fact. All the potion did was tell him HOW to go about attracting them. Harry doubted that even a potion as powerful as Felix Felicis could alter past events that far back in time. For that matter, was it even capable of altering peoples sexual preferences? Harry was pretty sure it would be illegal if it was. At least he hoped the Ministry would be smart enough to outlaw something like that…

…Who was he kidding? They probably sold it to parents to make sure their kids turned out right. He just hoped that Collin never got a hold of any. Or for that matter, that second year girl, Romey, Ronda, Romilda, Robbin, no, Robbin was the last name of one of the other second years. It didn't matter, he wasn't interested in her or her vane personality.

Although that did bring up the question of why wizards didn't use it to prevent squibs?

Still, best weekend ever! Ron would be so jealous when he found out. 'Damn it!' Harry thought to himself, 'that was what was wrong now!' He didn't want to make him more jealous.

"Harry?" And speak of the devil. Harry turned around and saw Ron standing in the doorway to Myrtle's bathroom.

"Ron."

"I'm sorry Harry!" Ron blurted out before Harry could say anything else however. "I'm really sorry ok. I know I've been acting like a prat this past week, and feel like shite because of it. I… …I just never…" He came to a sputtering end to his words at that point, looking down at the floor.

"So," Harry began awkwardly, fell silent, thought about venting on Ron for a second, then thought better and finally finished; "So, we going to be acting like girls here or something?" Ok, he thought, that sounded way funnier in his head. Ron stared at him for several seconds in shock. Finally Harry threw his arm around Ron's shoulder, to happy to be talking to him again to hold his grudge. "Come on little sis, let's get you back to the dorms."

"You do realize that not only am I about nine inches taller than you, but I'm also about eight months older as well? That makes you the little sister."

"I'm not the one acting like a girl. Or coming out of the girls bathroom for that matter. What were you doing Ronda, hiding in the Chamber of secrets?"

"Yeah, yeah little Heidi," Ron said, grabbing Harry in a headlock and giving him a nouggy, "As a matter of fact I was doing a little exploring down there. Since I can mimic what you said to open the sink, I could get down there. I even remembered to grab a broom to fly back up. Did you know Dobby is working here?" He finished releasing Harry.

"Um, yeah. Well, not until Friday night, but I've been dealing with him all weekend. Why?"

"Oh, he brought one of those expanded space tents for me to sleep in down there. Even made sure I had food. Told me to stay down there until just now, he even said he made sure that Moody wouldn't be able to see us with his magic eye. Said something really important needed to be done at just the right time or lot's of people throughout world would die, but he didn't really explain."

"So I explored some down there, managed to get into the chamber and found the basilisk. You know, I always thought you were exaggerating it's size, or you know, you being so short was skewing your perspective or something, I mean, basilisks are only supposed to be a little bigger than a King Cobra. That damn thing was IMMENSE! Anyway, I did a little exploring in the chamber itself, found Slytherian's study. Dusty, but only from a couple of decades worth, not centuries, so I suppose I sat in the same chair that You-know-who sat in. Even read some of his old schoolbooks he left down there, they had a much better defense teacher then. Made doing some of my homework feel strange, but that's something I just couldn't pass up, farting in You-know's chair. If there was any other rooms down there, I couldn't get them to open."

"Er, yeah. The password to let the basilisk out wasn't open, so I assume Slytherian would have used something else for any other rooms as well." Harry said, his good mood dying. "Did Dobby really say 'people throughout world would die' when he talked to you?" Harry asked, his mind only skimming over everything else Ron said, not really processing it.

"Yeah. You up to something?"

"Not that I'm aware of. I'm pretty sure Dobby has other ideas though." Before he could continue, he heard a sound he recognized, but coming from a location no one was in. Paranoia spiking, he cast a silent 'Homenum Revelio' and getting a ping other than Ron, Harry whipped around, already beginning to silently cast 'Expelliarmus' at the invisible target even as his wand was still dropping into his hand from his new wand holster.

Putting a little more mental humph behind the spell, he watched it sail down the short corridor hitting the target even as Ron was drawing his wand from his pocket and dodging to the side. Luckily his spell hit before the target could defend himself, and a wand sailed to Harry's free hand while the target became visible again.

A now visible, and very surprised Headmaster. "Er, Professor, sorry." Harry said rather sheepishly, walking back to him to hand him his wand back, "You startled me." He added in defense of his actions.

Dumbledore stared at Harry for several seconds before glancing at his wand, then slowly, holding his hand out for Harry to place it in. "If I may," the Headmaster began, "What gave my presence away?"

"Er, you made a sound of some sort." Harry replied, glancing off to the side, hoping beyond hope the Headmaster didn't ask for further explanation. Not that it mattered, Ron was completely failing at hiding a smirk.

"Yes, well, if you'd been in attendance to Dinner tonight, you would have rather enjoyed, I think, the burritos the Elves served. I'm afraid I've developed a fondness for them when I was in the south western part of the States for the ICW a while back, and particularly enjoy the taste of refried beans." At that, both Ron and Harry lost their battle for self control and burst out laughing.

Slight smile on his face watching them, Dumbledore seemed to recognize that both needed a good laugh right now, but also a assessing look at Harry and the wand. "Here Harry, I believe this now belongs to you," he said much to Harry's surprise. "This particular wand has little loyalty to any one owner, but goes to whoever bests the current holder. Use it well Harry." He finished, odd tone to his words Harry thought, like what he was saying had meaning on more than one level.

"Sorry about that Professor, I…" Harry cut himself off, he really HAD meant to disarm whoever was there, and not in a friendly spar or training session manner. He'd read a couple of books on wand lore, so knew that that meant there was a chance it's loyalty would switch. But the way the headmaster said it, meant that this particular wand was more prone to it than most. And the way the Headmaster said 'Use it well' was odd, and reminded him strangely of when he received his Dad's cloak in first year. His reading this weekend HAD included not only children's books, but some of the more obscure history texts and divination spells, and had also included some stuff on famous and legendary wands, and he thought he recognized this one, plus he now recognized the mark on them. "Is this Grindelwald's wand?"

"I took it from him, so yes, it once was, but no more. It was mine from that point to this, and now it is yours, Harry. Take care not to lose it."

"So I've now got two of the pieces?" Harry noticed Dumbledore's eyebrow rise, and Ron's look of confusion, . "Does this mean that my cloak will once again work against you?" He asked trying to mask what he was feeling with a little teenage belligerence.

"I dare say it will be harder, but not impossible to detect you without that wand." the Headmaster replied, "Perhaps I should create a pair of glasses that mimics Professor Moody's eye."

"Would it work if it wasn't part of the original set?" Harry returned, "I mean, the set was actually six pieces, not three. The brothers only received three of them as ransom for not killing him, there was still the Eye of Seeing, which Professor Moody has, the Mirror of Death, also described as a portal of some sort, which is lost, and the Stone of Life which is also lost. Plus of course, the Spirit Stone, or Resurrection Stone, which the youngest brother received which is also lost. Supposedly, they're the only things that work against each other." Ron's surprised 'Bloody hell!' when he clued in to what Harry was talking about went unremarked upon as the Headmaster once again stared at him. "Or am I mistaken?"

"In all honesty Harry, I'm not sure. The legend of the Three Brothers is a woefully incomplete record of the events surrounding the items, assuming there is any truth to them at all. But I must say, I've never heard of the other three items, nor even considered the possibility that one would need to collect more than three." The Headmaster said, not surprising Harry thought, he'd only learned of it when he'd gotten curious and asked the 'How-to' book how to prevent Moody from seeing thru his cloak, and branched out to learning about the Hallows as a group. "Was this what you discussed with Gellert when you went to see him yesterday?" Dumbledore asked a slight frown on his face, as if he was trying to decide if he'd be willing to believe it or not.

"You know, I don't think the topic of the Hallows even came up." Before Harry could continue, a new presence made itself known, as Professor Moody came 'jogging' around the corner, his clop/stomp footsteps oddly muffled, as if he cast a silencing spell on them. His look of shock when he noticed them was surprising, since normally he always knew were everyone was around him.

As Harry looked at him, Moody looked more and more awkward and desperate, and just in general looked WRONG somehow. Acting on instinct, almost certainly potion influenced, Harry quickly cast the spell 'Finite Miscugliem', the anti-potion version of the spell 'Finite Incantatem'. Unfortunately, Harry couldn't yet do this one without speaking it aloud, so Moody had a chance to dodge. Luckily he didn't, hearing the Finite portion of the spell, he must have assumed that Harry was casting the anti-spell version, which wouldn't affect potions. So the spell hit him square in the chest and almost instantly, he began to change shape, all three of them recognizing the affects of a polyjuice potion coming to an end. Moody dropped to his knee as a normal leg regrew knocking his fake leg to the side, and a natural eye dislodged the magical eye.

Rising to stand before them was a man, mid to late thirties, graying black hair oddly familiar, if sinister looking face, and a look of complete rage on his face. "Barty, it's been some time since you last graced this facility with your presence." The Headmaster said as glowing runes, made from the flames of the Flagrate spell (don't get that one confused with Flagrante Harry thought to himself) appeared hovering around his hands, "Although the reports of your death in Azkaban seem to have been exaggerated."

The man snapped his wand up and almost immediately the green light of the Killing Curse shot out, even as the Headmaster threw up a rock column in front of Ron and Harry and tried to dodge to the side. Luckily enough, Harry had already begun to silently cast 'Cerise Protego' and a shimmering red shield sprung up in front of Dumbledore. The green light went thru the shield, transforming into brown light and striking Dumbledore, causing him to double over for a second before righting himself in surprise.

A surprise echoed in the face of the other man. A look of abject fear replaced the look of rage as he called out 'Forthwith' while casting another green light at Dumbledore, who seemed to trust the new defence against it and hunkered down behind it as Harry cast it again around Ron and himself as the column descended back into the floor.

Dumbledore , who was working from the extreme disadvantage of no wand, had already cast several more defensive magics on the three of them. Harry was ninety percent sure if he wasn't worried about Ron and him, the Headmaster would be much more aggressive, but was wasting most of his efforts on protecting the two of them.

Meanwhile, about four or five individuals wearing the cloaks and masks of Death Eaters, had fell out of the other mans pocket at the word forthwith, landing in a heap at the feat of the fake Moody. Harry wasted no time throwing a couple of 'Pretoria' spells at the lot. Despite laying at the bottom of the pile, one of them managed to shield them from his spells. Ron's unusual contribution was a 'Engorgio Incendio' combination which seemed to engorge the flame from the Incendio spell from a basic single target, or starting a fireplace, to taking up most of the hall. With all the shield spells up, nothing much came of it, but it was a major distraction. And enough for the Headmaster to go on the offensive, thrusting his hand out, the Death Eaters all went flying down the hall. Dumbledore, shifted slightly to be able to look at Harry while still watching his enemies, "Harry, the shield you used, how do…"

"Add the word Cerise to the front of Protego." Harry cut him off, "If the shield is red, it'll protect against the killing curse. You'll still get really sick though."

"I can LIVE with sick Harry, you two need to get back to your tower. NOW!" He added when it looked like both of them would rather stay and help. Turning back towards his now very cautious foes, he touched his throat and began to speak even as both Harry and Ron began to run back to the tower, his voice thundering thru the halls. "All Hogwarts students, please return to your dorms. All of our guest students, please return to your respective lodging. All teachers please go to to the nearest student dorm or lodging to aid in it's defence should that prove needed. If your way is barred due to spell fire, please retreat to the Hospital wing. Filius an… Sectu…"

The Headmaster's voice cut off for a couple of seconds, and Harry considered going back, but Ron grabbed his arm. "No Harry, for the first time since coming here, the adults are doing their jobs and protecting us instead of depending on us to protect everyone! LET THEM!" So maybe Ron noticed that he had been spending more effort on protecting the two of them than defeating the bad guys as well.

Even as Dumbledore finished his, whatever that was, not a speech Harry thought, it became clear that getting back to the dorms might not be so simple, as there seemed to be several other groups of Death Eaters, as well as several Aurors fighting and causing chaos as well. He pulled Ron into an alcove and pulled out one of his cudgels from an expanded pocket, giving Ron a quick run down of how to use it; "Just swing this end at the bad guy, he'll be hurt and impaired. If you need him down for good, think 'Max power' at it, they'll go down hard. You can throw it at someone and it'll work,but anyone can pick it up and use it." He then cast 'Kage Bunshin no Jutsu' on the two of them enough to get about five duplicates each really glad he was wearing his ad-hock armor under his school robes now, but rather wishing he could have worn his conjured battle robes with those extra defensive spells built in. "Come on!" Harry said when it looked like Ron was going to question about the duplicates. And then they went back to running.

As they rounded the corner to the balcony above great hall and the main stairway, they saw Professor Flitwick along with an unknown Auror and some suits of armor, on the first level fighting a large group of Death Eaters. The Rons once again cast 'Engorgio Incendio' on the group of Death Eaters, but with a much more open area and no way of knowing which area the others were casting at, the spells spread out in a few, more even, dome shapes, which while avoiding the Professor and the Auror, only hit about half the bad guys.

It was one of those that managed to cast 'Glisseo' on the stairs just as the group of them started to ascend them, causing them to slide down towards the first level. Which while inconvenient, and making it so they had two more levels to ascend, wouldn't have actually been bad, except one of the Death Eaters hit the stairway with a 'Finite Incantatem' about halfway down. The sudden change from smooth slide to steps turned the ride rather more bumpy. As he was being bounced around, he wondered whether the potion was just winding down, or if this was a needed encounter. It was at this point Harry saw Ron bounce right into the railing, his head going between the supports while his body continued down causing him to snap out, breaking his neck. This caused the weird vibe Harry had been using to tell which one of the Rons was the primary to switch to one of the duplicates, saving his life.

Harry and his duplicates managed to land roughly on their feet at the bottom of the steps, almost in the group of Death Eaters making it difficult for Flitwick and the Auror to target this group of scumbags. Harry and his duplicates began casting again with three of them casting defensive magic while Harry himself and the other two went for offensive magic going with several 'Bombarda', Expulso, and one or two 'Confringo' spells, but the Death Eaters had already cast the 'Fire Freezing' charm on themselves by this point causing Harry to switch to 'Acer Gelu' and freeze them instead of burning them.

Two of the Rons got right up and into hand to hand range, Harry's cudgel working impressively well, with one rather notable strike that Ron got in coming down directly onto the top of the Death Eaters head who's mask had come off. A Death Eater they had both seen from time to time, Gregory Goyle's father. Ron must have been using 'max power' because the 'Expulso', 'Reducto', and 'Flipendo' affects made it a rather surreal, if messy attack. 'Reducto' causes things to be explosively blown away, 'Expulso' just causes things to blow up, and 'Flipendo' knocks people around causing them to go end over end. One of two other Death Eaters that Ron had hit had been blown back after a hit to the chest, missing a large portion of his chest, like a kid striking a pinata, if you replaced the candy with body parts. The other one had been hit in his wand arm when he tried to block Ron, the 'Flipendo' flinging him around while his arm blew up in a spectacular and bloody amputation before he landed on his head and lost consciousness. Goyle however had all of that directed straight down from the top of his head to his feet, causing the 'Expulso' to affect every part of his body, 'Reducto' to blow his remains out in a relatively even circle, and the 'Flipendo' to turn that circle into a cloud of small chunks and bloody mist covering all of them in blood and viscera. It actually caused combat to pause for a couple of seconds.

The other three Rons cast 'Aguamenti' at the Death Eaters, yet it was apparent that what they got wasn't water, but something rather more rancid smelling as all three targets that were hit started gagging and gasping while trying to shield their eyes. Harry cast a 'Alchemyst' spell on the liquid Ron was shooting out, turning it into a mist and making it an area affect spell that Harry could somewhat control, spreading it to more of the Death Eaters, even as Ron explained. "Skunk Musk. Since 'Aguamenti' can actually create any non-magical liquid, I decided to give them a taste of nature. Nice addition by the way."

"Thanks" Harry said while mulling over what Ron had just said. He vaguely recalled Hermione mentioning that once, but he'd never really thought about it. The first thing he had thought of at the time was chicken broth, so had mostly ignored the spell. Now his mind went to something he remembered from before Hogwarts, when Dudley was still forcing him to eat all manner of unpleasant things. One had always stood out more than the rest. One so bad Aunt Petunia had actually made him stop. Ghost Peppers! If Harry could create the juice from a Ghost Pepper, it'd be even more effective than skunk spray. Before he could enact it however, Goyle was hit and combat paused.

Then the last of this group of Death Eaters went down to stun spells from Flitwick and the Auror (and a sword thrust from on of the last two suits of armor in the great hall), who quickly ran over and joined them. But before they could say anything, a beach-ball sized area of darkness, surrounded by purple electrical looking affects came sailing into the hall. Professor Flitwick cast 'Avea Apara' creating a orange, dome shaped shield around them and one of Harry's duplicates cast 'Scindo' on the globe just as it exploded, managing to part it's area of affect, creating a cone that wasn't effected by the blast and helping in protecting them (Harry wasn't sure even a 'Avea Apara' spell could have stopped that blast). Thankfully, Flitwick's shield protected them from debris, not the least of which was an entire set of stairs from one of the upper floors landing on the dome with a terrifying crash.

None of the Death Eaters who had been merely unconscious survived. Harry REALLY wanted to learn that spell.

Even as the blast was still echoing though the castle, two more Death Eaters came flying in on brooms, Nimbus 2001s if Harry wasn't mistaken. Flitwick cast a 'Densissima' charm on the air in front of one of them, turning it into a viscus mass, similar to thick, invisible syrup. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, just slowing you down and making you work to move, but at the speed they were flying, he might as well have done a bellyflop off Gryffindor tower onto the ground. He smashed into the glob, losing consciousness, before slowly sinking to the bottom of the mass, and then falling to the ruble strewn ground.

The Auror got the other one with a 'Incarcerous' spell, not tying the Death Eater up, but tying him to the remains of the stairway banister. Specifically tying his neck to the banister with a noose. Creating an effect similar to what killed the other Ron. Evidently, he was fed up with how deadly the spells they were using are and decided to stop trying for prisoners.

Just as they were starting to actually breathe again, several voices outside the entry called out a spell none of the wanted to hear, the shouted 'Agni Incaendium' from several different voices sent chills down their spines. Fiendfyre! As the beasts of diabolical flame came roaring into the great hall, one of his duplicates cast 'Yam Securitas' summoning a Stag headed warrior made of Blessed water, carrying a shield and sword to do battle with one of the beasts of flame. Harry was really glad he'd learned those summoning spells now, even has he himself was casting 'Finite Invocazionum' (the version of finite for use on rituals and summoning magic) on another of the figures of flame.

Flitwick meanwhile cast a spell similar to what Dobby used on Malfoy at the end of his second year, and Dumbledore used earlier, and propelled all the death eaters, even the flyer from before, most of their fiend fire, and a good chunk of the rubble outside. Turning towards Harry to ask a question, Harry beat him to the punch, showing how to cast 'Finite Invocazionum' by doing so on the last bit of fiendfyre still inside along with his summoned water elemental warrior. Harry then wished the two of them good luck, grabbed Ron, telling the Professor they were heading for the dorms. The Professor sent the last two suites of armor with them as he and the Auror left to go outside and deal with the fiendfyre that had broken lose from the rather stupid, and now dead at the flaming hands of their own servants, Death Eaters.

Several of his duplicates had begun to summon lions using the 'Felidia' summoning spell he'd learned that afternoon, so before they were even back at the steps, they were accompanied by a pride of male lions (Harry didn't know why they were all males, but decided now wasn't the time to ponder).

Climbing the stairs was even more tedious and exhausting than normal due to the need for haste, running up seven flights of stairs isn't easy. Combined with the need for even more vigilance than normal, not only did they need to watch out for more Death Eaters, but the stairs themselves, by reason of alarms or damage to them, were even more active and mobile than normal. Before they reached seventh floor, they had to descend a level twice to take a different set of stairs as they moved under them, and had to jump across an opening that they were to close to fully stop before hitting open space.

They'd just made it back to the third floor balcony again though, when they noticed a couple of Death Eaters enter the hall below. They hadn't seen their group yet, so one of Harry's duplicates suggested a new spell they learned, and both Death Eaters became victims of conjured anvils thanks to the 'Acme' spell. Ron looked at Harry strangely as the four large anvils fell, with a whistle, onto the two Death Eaters below. They heard the whistle just before impact, and both had looked up and been hit in the face by something a lot bigger and moving as fast as a bludger. Harry made a mental note to modify his armor to include a top covering shield.

They managed to make it back to right before the Fat Lady's portrait before they encountered anymore Death Eaters. This group had set up an ambush in the hallway, though they were completely unprepared for the lions, who set the ambush off early. Harry and Ron exchanged more spell fire with them, but they were to close for anything other than really quick spells, giving the adults who all used silent casting a huge advantage. Harry though, could also cast silently, and Ron still had the cudgel, and the lions, although most were quickly dispatched, they did distract and impede them. The last three of Ron's duplicates were 'dispelled' in the fighting, but allowing for the new primary Ron, Harry and one of the lions to reach the portrait.

Calling out the password, they jumped inside ordering the Fat Lady to go to the next password on the list, but two of the Death Eaters managed to get inside before one of his duplicates outside managed to close the portrait, staying outside to deal with the last of them outside before fleeing to the Room of Requirement.

As the stumbled inside, Ron fell to the floor, the cudgel rolling away across the floor, leaving Harry to try and grapple with the rather large Death Eater, the lion having managed to get the other ones head in it's mouth and was shaking him like a dog with a new chew toy. Harry heard people yelling and screaming, but couldn't afford to pay any attention, fully concentrating on his fight as he was thrown around before being knocked in the back of the knees by the thrashing lion.

Harry managed to catch a glimpse of a sword blade flying by, inches over his head were just a second before his own back had been (and a second before that, the Death Eater's back had been before he twisted), striking the Death Eater in the stomach, and causing him to drop to the ground with a moan of… …Was that pleasure?

Getting up off the ground had never been harder, or more desperately needed, with the sounds of fighting outside the portrait. Between the lion thrashing someone around, Vincent Crabbe's father thrashing around in ecstasy, a blood soaked Ron desperately trying to stand and set himself for an attack and his own blood soaked shoes and robes, chunks of Goyle still falling from both of them, it took a bit to get to his feet.

Once he had, he saw a horrifically injured Hermione, the sword Kindness held out in front of her with blood running down it's edge explaining Crabbe's reaction to his injury. Ron grabbed Hermione in a hug, not smart in retrospect, but nothing bad happened thankfully. Harry was pretty sure his luck was on it's last legs with that final bit.

Looking beyond Hermione, he noticed Professor McGonagall, Nearly Headless Nick, and virtually the entire Gryffindor house standing and looking at them in complete shock, the Professors mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, trying to speak, but no words making it to her mouth. The rest of the house almost as bad. Sending a mental nudge down the magical link to his summoned lion as he put a hand on it's back to calm it, causing it to drop the now very dead Death Eater to the ground. "Stand guard at the entry. Don't let anyone through unless allowed by myself, Ron, Hermione, McGonagall, Nick or one of the Prefects." He order it, pointing to each person as he named them, and each Prefect separately. "Ron, the cudgel!" He said, pointing to were it had rolled. Ron quickly grabbed it before anyone else got brave enough to try.

Looking down at the still living Death Eater, he was startled to realize that he was right about who it was. Crabbe's father was rolling on the ground, shite eating grin on his face. Growing enraged that someone like him could find pleasure after this, he cast 'Finite Incantatem' on him knowing that the effect the sword had was based on a charm. Crabbe's moans quickly changed to screams of pain, basilisk venom having been embedded into the blade.

Harry then bent down and cast 'Rennervate' on him to make him more aware of what was going on, and slapped him hard enough to make him focus on him. "You're dying you know. The only thing that can save your life is Phoenix tears, and I highly doubt Fawkes is willing to save your life after tonight. You will die screaming in pain, like you have made so many do before." Harry told him, before pausing and looking for a second at Hermione. "But if you answer my questions, truly answer them. Then I won't prevent her from using the swords magic to turn your pain back into pleasure. You're choice!"

Seeing him nod yes, Harry began. "What was the purpose of the attack tonight? What was your intent?"

"We were to help Crouch grab you and cause as much damage and chaos as possible. If possible, kill some students and any professors we could, but their deaths were really irrelevant. We were to then cast fiendfyre on the castle as we left to draw out more defenders to kill as we left." He replied, as members of his house seemed to finally make a sound, even if it was just a sputtering and incoherent muttering.

"Who ordered this?"

"I'm not sure." Seeing Harry's look of disbelief, he went on. "I'm not! He claimed he was the Dark Lord, but he looked like an even more messed up house elf than that stupid little cretin that Lucius used to keep." He finished, not understanding the renewed rage once again on Harry's face.

Standing up, "Anyone else have any questions for this piece of shite? He's only got a few minutes left to live, so ask now?" Turning to Hermione, "If you want to ease his suffering, I won't stop you. But it's up to you."

"I killed him Harry! I killed the father of a classmate. He's dying because of me." She said, the look of appalled shock making her already injured face look even worse. "I killed him, but I can't bring myself to stop his pain. Not after what he said!" She cried, tears falling from her eyes.

"NO!" Ron shouted, "No you didn't. You are not responsible. He made his own choices. HE is the reason he is dead." With that, Ron took off his robe, thankfully wearing some muggle pants and a shirt underneath, threw it over Crabbe's form, and before anyone understood his intent, brought the cudgel down, pumping as much of his own magic into it as he could, down on Crabbe's chest with a blow that cracked the floor beneath him. Like Goyle earlier, his form literally exploded outwards, though this time there was more large pieces and his cloak helped to contain (a little, it at least didn't go up as far) the blood spray. Crabbe's head went spinning off, bouncing around like the ball in a pinball machine before coming to rest at the feet of the second year girls.

"RON!" Several people shouted with various degrees of shock and horror. The second year girls looked ready to vomit, their feet covered in the last of the blood that had been in his head, the rest in a merry path across the common room before meeting up with the much larger blood splatter in the area around the three of them.

Ron looked up and glanced around, "What the hell are you doing?!" He yelled at everyone, "Can't you hear the fighting going on outside? Why haven't you set up defenses? Gotten the kids upstairs and blockaded the stairway? What if it had just been Death Eaters? Half of you morons would be dead before you even understood what was going on!" Ron paused for a second in thought as Nearly Headless Nick bent down and stuck his hands into the chest of the other Death Eater and shaking them around like someone washing their hands, before Ron continued, his chess skills coming to the fore. "Everyone under seventeen, get your arses upstairs to your dorms. Girls especially since most of the attackers seemed to be male, and the anti-male charms might help you! Form up defenses and create blockades on the landings! Each year is responsible for defending the next younger year! Prefects under seventeen, you're in the stairwells as well, get things organized and be ready to take the forefront of defense should those out here fall! Everyone else, create barriers in here! Do what it takes, but if you can't stop invaders cold, at least slow and injure them enough that the younger students might be able to hold them!"

Harry watched everyone still looking at them in shock, decided they needed motivation and cast a weak 'Sonorus' on himself. "DO AS YOU'RE TOLD! MOVE IT!" The affect was almost instantaneous. Harry gave it another second, watching them run around like chickens with their heads cut off, but at least doing something, Nick repeating his 'hand washing' act in the head of Crabbe. Harry decided it was a ghost thing and wasn't his concern.

Deciding he didn't need to be so loud now, he cast 'Quietus' on himself just now noticing that he had been using Dumbledore's wand, and looked at Ron and Hermione. By unspoken agreement, both Harry and Ron took Hermione by an arm each and guided her to their favorite corner. Harry then cast 'Avea Apara' around them, causing a large, partial dome to form around them, it merging and conforming to the stonework of the corner. He then cast a 'Muffliato' so anything they said, or any noise they made couldn't be heard outside, but they could still hear past the barrier. Then he used 'Ex nihilo' to conjure curtains so no one could see in, he even remembered to make sure to cover over them so no one with a broom could see in, and they'd have privacy. He then used 'Ex nihilo' again to conjure up three buckets and handed them to an increasingly green looking Ron and Hermione, took the last bucket and promptly joined the other two in emptying his stomach.

He was so bloody fucking done with this place!

llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

Rita Skeeter was not having a good day. Or rather, she was no longer having a good day. It'd all started early this morning when that stupid little mudblood shite managed to scoop every actual real reporter the Daily Prophet had on it's staff and found out that Harry Bloody Potter had been at Nurmengard visiting none other that Gellert Grindelwald. Making it worse was that she had already made arrangements with Fudge to openly get her past Dumbledore's ban on her presence inside Hogwarts in a couple of weeks. She'd been so looking forward to rubbing his face in on that point.

But oh no, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore couldn't have that! After some incident at Hogwarts involving Lucius Malfoy's son nearly getting expelled, Dumbshite Dumbledore had made a statement that NO press would be allowed on school grounds. That the Weighing of the Wands would take place in Hogsmead, and that a press conference would be had at that time with a single representative from each magical media outlet from each country with a student competing. Details of press being allowed to watch the tournament itself would be made available at that time.

So she had decided that the only real response to that was to sneak into the school and do a little bit of investigative reporting. What she'd found out throughout the day had been nearly a dream come true. Potter and friends were actually missing, even if Potter at least had been spotted several times. Horrific levels of violence between the houses that had left over a dozen spending the night in the infirmary. The Malfoy Scion was very close to being not only expelled, but arrested and sent to Azkaban for possession of several dark artifacts of a nature to allow him to dominate and control members of the opposite sex. She had nearly broken her cover and accidentally transformed laughing so hard at that. Now Malfoy was in a desperate race to insure that his brat would be allowed to stay out of prison, much less stay in school long enough to take his O.W.L.s and be considered a wizard when he turned seventeen.

Evidently even Fudge had limits on what he'd take bribes to allow. Although, to be fair to Lucius, she was pretty sure that it was a case of the Prophet's senior editor seeing blood in the water. Fudge wouldn't be willing to go so against the public outcry over someone having the ability to rape their daughters with impunity after all. Rita rather doubted Fudge would survive if he was really that dumb.

It was kind of sad actually, that the most normal thing was Mad Eye Moody. No rants about conspiracies to murder him. No random attacks on people. Nothing except him being thrust right back into being an Auror. He'd actually been placed in charge of the other Aurors that had, for 'Some-Reason' been placed on school grounds.

Still though, the one thing that information had eluded her on was the one thing she'd came here for. Potter!

Other than finding out he was missing, she'd had very little luck getting any details about him. She'd overheard the little half-breed goblin telling the other Teachers that he and Snape had just missed him when delivering an invitation to a mudblood. There was a rumor that he'd been seen in the rather seedy and dark leaning Madam Walpole's bookstore she'd overheard from a couple of Aurors. Combine that with the whole visiting Grindelwald thing, and it put Saint Potter in a whole new light.

And quite apart from the idea that little Saint Potter was visiting the devil himself, there was all sorts of questions about HOW Potter was able to make the visit. One, the power of the Goblet was supposedly able to keep those bound to it within a very short distance. Which would have actually ruled out the trip to Knockturn Alley as well. Then there was the apparent fact that he'd done it without the permission of Dumbledore, much less his assistance. Even if he could Apparate despite his age, it's not like Nurmengard advertised its location.

It'd been after midnight when she'd finally found Potter wandering around after curfew. Following him had been surprisingly easy for someone who had a reputation for moving around unseen. It was almost has if he WANTED her to follow him. That really should have been her first clue-in that things were about to go bad.

She'd watched with some amusement the meet up with the Weevil brat. While she found their discussion rather amusing, and Very MALE, the blood-traitor's comments about He-who-must-not-be-named rather scandalise. She'd need to spice up their conversation a bit though. Add in a few lines about how heartbroken poor Harry was, and the entirety of the magical world would be at the blood-traitor's throat. There really weren't that many of her readers who were intelligent enough to understand that this was how teenagers acted. No, she was sure she could turn Ron Weasley into a demon as far as her readers were concerned.

Seeing Potter disarm Dumbshite was thrilling. And also rather chilling when one considered what she knew about his activities this past weekend. If the Great and All Powerful Dumbledore couldn't take Potter has a teenager, who would be able to beat him as an adult? She actually thought about writing a piece about how the Darklord had sensed Potter's evil nature, and had only attacked his family to protect the magical world. She dismissed it almost immediately. Even her readers weren't that dumb.

Lost in her own thoughts, she almost missed the conversation with Dumbledore and was taken off guard by the references to the Deathly Hallows. Potter had two of them, and Moody had the third?! No, wait, Potter has said six pieces to the set.

It was a shock when Moody showed up and Potter almost immediately attacked him. Surely he wasn't so power mad as to go for the third piece right in front of Dumbledore? Moody turning into Crouch jr however sent her back, and nearly caused her to once again accidentally transform back into her human shape. She watched in awe as Crouch cast the Killing Curse at Dumbledore, and was just as shocked as everyone else when Potter cast a shield that protected him.

She'd debated staying with Potter or watching Crouch and his friends duel Dumbledore. But in the end, she decided the duel would be more interesting then watching two kids run away from a fight. She'd give Dumbledore credit, if only to herself, he was in fact a Grand Warlock with a mastery of battle magic that defied her understanding of the term. Alone, against six opponents and lacking a wand, or any other focus, he was still winning.

Using only runes he'd drawn in midair, he'd managed to utterly destroy one of them, and knock out two others when THE Explosion happened. Both sides had been knocked on their asses when the entire floor, for lack of a better term, rippled. She'd taken shelter from the fight in a tiny cranny where the archway met the ceiling so she could watch the fight. But the walls and ceiling hadn't been immune to the blast and she'd been knocked silly when the stone she was clinging to gave way and fell.

When she came to, she realized that she'd missed the end of the duel. Crouch and friends were all laying around either dead, or knocked out and bound. She tried to find the Eye, but gave up under the assumption that Dumbledore wouldn't have left one of the Hallows sitting around untended were anyone could find it. It was that that made her pause, no one had come to Dumbledore's aid, even after he had requested it. That and the blast had come from somewhere. This put a little more energy into her movements. Not only was she missing the story, but there were Death Eaters about, and despite her being sympathetic to their anti-mudblood views, she wasn't a Death Eater, so they wouldn't ignore her.

Deciding to go back to her insect form (when had she became human?), she was greeted by incredible pain, sticking her halfway through her transformation. It took her a couple of seconds to understand what happened; she'd broken several bones. She'd need to sneak out of the castle in her halfway state to get to a point she could disapparate from so she could get to an unlicensed healer she knew. She couldn't transform in either direction now.

Trying to sneak as a three foot tall, half insect wasn't easy. Especially since none of her limbs were at the same level of transformation. Her left lower leg was completely human (if somewhat shorter), her lower right leg was mostly insect, but had a human foot. All her other limbs were similarly mismatched, as were her eyes, making it hard to see. So she was completely surprised when she was smacked in the back of the head by something hard, dropping her to the floor.

"Dobby apologizes to Miss Dung Beetle. But Dobby can not allow Miss to spread her filth on the Great Harry Potter. Therefore Dobby must regretfully remove the poop eater from being a threat."

WHAT THE HELL?! Did a bloody fucking house elf attack her? And a clothed elf at that. Mentally cursing every person who had ever freed an elf, she tried to grab her wand with one of her mismatched hands, but the fucking elf just swatted her arm, snapping yet another bone and making her fling her wand away.

OK, she'd need to actually use her charm on this creature. 'Worst case scenario' she thought to herself, 'it casts an Oblivate on me and I'm revealed as an animagus. I've still got my notes in my bag, and my quill was still dictating everything I saw, so I'll still be able to get my story and even get this filthy thing destroyed.'

That was when she noticed it was reading from a small, muggle style notebook, muttering to itself. "Forgetting something. Dobby is forgetting something. Oh, here it is. Remember to take the filth eater's bag before killing her. Yes, she must be told that she is going to die and why." With that, it flipped it's notebook closed and vanished it away before walking up to her with and casting a cutting hex at her, cutting through the strap on her bag and going deep into her shoulder.

"Stop, please, I'm begging you." she tried to cry out, but it came as only a whisper of pain. "Please!"

"Dobby is very sorry, but even Miss Dung Eater must understand that the life she has chosen, to destroy the lives of others, would one day bring her to her death. Dobby is most regretful, even if Miss has earned her pain and death for the misery she has inflicted on others. But that misery wouldn't have led to her death this day if Dobby hadn't had the realization that Miss Dung Beetle's words would have a two percent chance of causing most of the human race to be destroyed. So while Dobby must punish himself most strenuously, he must still kill Miss now."

"Two percent? You're going to kill me over something that likely won't even happen?" What the hell, those where minuscule odds. Surely her life was more important than that? Seeing someone approach them, she tried calling for help. "Please HELP! An elf is trying to kill me. Please help me." She again tried to call as the ghost of the Bloody Baron floated down the hall.

"May I inquire what is going on here? A House Elf trying to kill a hum… …well something?"

"Lord Baron sir." The fucking creature began, "This woman is a direct threat to several students here at the school, and I've reason to believe that she could likely cause what the muggles call, A Mass Extinction Event. Therefore I believe that she represents a threat more severe than the Death Eaters who have attacked this night." The creature said with far more respect then it showed her, while levitating up it's notebook for the ghost to read. "I became aware of this possibility when, under the influence of Felix Felicis, I visited Professor Sybill Trelawney and received a true prophecy from her."

As it fished it's rather self righteous excuse, the ghost just stared at it for several long moments before nodding and gliding over to her. "Since she is an enemy of the school, I'll make sure she can not come back as a ghost." He explained as he stuck his hands into her chest, increasing her pain immensely. "It is the duty of the Ghost Council to this, so no one should be suspicious. And maybe future reporters will figure out that writing stories trying to drum up support for exercising us from our homes is a very unwise thing to do."

"Please! You can't do this. You can't…"

"Miss Dung Beetle, Dobby has gone through much effort to make sure the enemies of Hogwarts were revealed now, before they could do much harm. On a night when the students were all protected, and there was extra help in the Castle to help defend it." Waving the notebook around again, it continued, "Dobby has put much effort into insuring that the bad evil wizard pretending to be Professor Moody was tricked into revealing himself to the Great Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore. Dobby has had much work making sure that the Auror patrols heard things that made them pause in their routes so they would be in the best place to defend the students and school. Everything that has happened this night, has been part of Dobby's plan Miss Dung Beetle. Now Dobby has much more work to do this night, and Dobby must end this before Dobby is discovered. Goodbye Miss filth eater."

The last things Rita Skeeters ever saw was the Ghost of the Bloody Baron washing his hands in her chest and a large stone falling at her face.

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The path to Harry's wish fulfillment chapter : [in order]

Getting Ron back as a friend! Complete.

Proving he wasn't some stupid schmuck to be pushed around! Complete.

Step 1 of getting undeniable proof that he didn't enter himself in the tournament!

Step 2 of getting whoever did enter him DEAD!

Step 13 and 14 of acquiring the skill and power to WIN!

Steps 9 thru 15 of getting enough respect and fear from people!

Step 5 of gaining political power.

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'Yam Securitas', 'Felidia', 'Cerise Protego', 'Engorgio Incendio', 'Finite Miscugliem' and 'Finite Invocazionum' are all my own inventions, even if both protego and incendio are cannon spells.

'Ex nihilo' is the incantation I made up for the cannon spell Dumbledore uses to conjure stuff from nothing.

'Alchemyst' is a spell I'm less sure of. I've seen three different HP stories have something similar, (A)D&D, both 2nd, 3rd also had spells that did something similar (and that's were I THINK the incantation came from, as did PFrpg and MtA.

Pretoria: from Backward-With-Purpose-Part-I-Always-and-Always chap 38

Inobservatus chapter 39 of Seasons-of-change

Acer Gelu is from Larceny, Lechery, and Luna Lovegood! chapter 61

Scindo from chap 13 of Kicking-Gotham

Densissima from chap 58 of Intensity

Avea Apara from Intensity chap 7

Agni Incaendium from I-Still-Haven-t-Found-What-I-m-Looking-For chapter 12

Acme from Make-A-Wish chapter 38

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Thank you Aleh for you help. Honestly, your going over and pointing out my mistakes in grammar/spelling is the reason I post here before posting on FFN. Once I post there, I don't like to do edits. It's why I ignored stuff from chapters I already posted.

So, what does everyone think about part 3 of chap 7? Or just the chapter in general?

I'm hoping this puts paid on the idea that I'm following the story without deviation despite Dobby and Harry altering everything. Some things will follow cannon religiously simply because they were set up before the story divergence. For all that people complain when a story has the same tasks as the book, that shit was set up before the school year even started, they just had to get an extra dragon when Harry was added. Although he's going to handle them differently. If nothing else, fake Moody isn't around to offer advise anymore.

That having been said, the actions they have taken HAVE had major impacts on how others have acted. Dumbledore and Madam Bones are actually working together and Dumbledore is no longer worried that she's just a stooge for Fudge (he was the one who appointed her after all). Bones is no longer worried that he's just a senile old man who needs to be removed, though she IS still worried about his mental health, it's more worried about stress. She's also starting to think outside the box.

Dobby and Winky have got a whole bunch of irons in the fire. They tricked Crouch and Voldemort into revealing themselves when they were weak and the good guys were strong. And in the Christmas spirit, Dobby's got himself a list of who's naughty and nice, and isn't the least bit scared to check people off the first list. Of course, one wonders why his notes said he should explain to Skeeter WHY he was killing her before he did so.

Hermione's ordeal will be explained next chapter.

This is the point where I planned to have Harry seriously reconsider his desire to stay at Hogwarts and in England. So while I do in fact intend for him to remain British, he is going to be waffling a bit. After all, he's got three really good reasons to move to America right now (and a lot of good reasons to want to leave). Of course, he's still bound to the tournament, so Dumbledore has till the end of the year to convince him to stay. Harry also still has a pocket full of dead basilisks.

Ron is in trouble. He's always been at the edges of Harry's adventures up to now. And while violence hasn't actually been that rare, deadly violence has only been used by him against giant spiders up till now. Now he's killed his fellow human beings and has to deal with that emotionally (and legally). While most of the people he killed were in the heat of battle, Crabbe was a flat out murder of a prisoner who had surrendered. Murder that took place in front of his sister and brothers, a quarter of the students (EVERYONE in Gryffindor), his head of house and the Deputy Headmistress and a member of the Ghost Council. A free PoV to the first person to guess how I intend to Try and get Ron off that legally.

Ginny, Fred and George are suddenly looking at their brother and his friends in a whole new light. While their epiphany started in chapter two, this chapter sent it spiraling. The twins especially are dealing with the realization that if it came to a straight up fight, Ron would likely wipe the floor with them. All three of them are now wondering how much of that resentment Harry brought up in chapter two is going to turn into aggression from Ron now.

The rest of the students just got a (not so)pretty good look into the Trio's adventures. The younger girls especially need only look at Hermione to now understand what standing next to Harry might cost them, and why being the 'Damsel in Distress' for their hero, Harry, to rescue is probably a REALLY DUMB thing to wish for. Plus a lot of them have to now figure out how to get blood and entrails out of their clothes (that's a student chore since House Elves don't touch clothes). Oh, everyone in Gryffindor can now see Thestrals.

Professor McGonagall has just had the same realizations as everyone else, but has the added burden of arranging mind healers for her entire house and wondering if she needs to start protecting her students FROM the Trio as well. Combined with what Hermione told her (when she told her off), McGonagall is wondering if she really just failed them.

Next chapter is mostly going to be repercussions and more world building.

BtW, what do you all think of my world building? I may regret this, but I actually want to know what you think about things like what Nick and the Bloody Baron did. About how I set up things with House Elves and the law, and the Department of Mysteries. Things like that.

Oh, something else I need to reiterate on: I like throwing out Red Herrings. Not all the conclusions Harry comes up with are accurate and he is just as capable of misreading something as he was in canon.

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The Morphin' Physic4ist: Bye Bye.

Manatheron: The thing is, the HP universe is filled with varying skill levels. It also has a lot of unknown and lost magic. Those spells really aren't that different than the normal refilling charm, which in canon was able refill a bottle of magical liquid endlessly (at least over a single night). And indeed, if he liquefied the metal, a normal refilling charm WOULD work, just use more energy/calories. I also had the only copy be in his ancestors research books, so no one else knows about them.

As for the effects of the Philosophers/Sorcerers Stone, that's something for a later chapter. Suffice to say, what people believe about them doesn't match reality.

KrisB-71854: So much of your review came SO CLOSE it was almost painful. Your comment about a running battle was particularly funny. :) And as you can see from this chapter, Dobby isn't done.

Dumbledore managed to get the Idiots Guide to Time Travel, complete with drunken ramblings for someone even more foolish about it than him. Check out 'Backward With Purpose Part II: The Book of Albus' by deadwoodpecker for information about that guide.

As for the reading speed, the classes are imprinting the knowledge into his head. And he isn't JUST remembering what he read, they are translating it to actual ability. He doesn't just learn a recipe, he learns how to cook it.

Tolotos: I use £40 per galleon, not the canon £5. I also have the galleons be normal sized coins and coming in at 50 coins per lb of weight, which is about £2,000 per lb. Still low, but I'm assuming that the Goblins are working the system a little. Plus they have access to better mines and thus more gold.

Shinobi Gatana: We shall see.

Fallow57: Thank you, and you as well. I tried to get this out as a Christmas present, but timing didn't work and life hit me upside the head.

Numanumafan8201: I've actually got a pretty good idea about how time travel works in my story. Thank you though. As other people have pointed out though, what I've written is inconsistent. That was done intentionally since none of the people speaking have all the knowledge. What they know, will conflict with other things they KNOW as well as what other people know as well.

Glrasshopper: I've not forgotten I owe you a PoV. Trelawney will be the ending PoV of chapter 8.

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See you next chapter!

killgore444

"If you're calling reality a hateful, cruel, and jealous place... then I cannot honestly refute your statement."

"Don't try to understand women. Women understand women, and they tend to hate each other."

"I think I finally get why girls are said to be catlike; it's got nothing to do with grace, but how their similar thieving opportunism keeps trying to make off with your stuff when you aren't looking."