The next day the outrage was palpable in both the local and international news. The aurors had found the imposter, but charged in with their wands drawn instead of trying to fool the man while he didn't know the game was up. A bout of spellfire later left four injured aurors and the unknown death eater with unknown wounds.
One auror had succeeded in dislodging the magical eye. Denying the death eater the advantage it offered. Despite his own injuries he managed to evade the other aurors and some students saw his polyjuice potion wear off. Thankfully to all involved he decided to run instead of taking hostages or causing carnage.
Harry was annoyed he didn't think of trying to hunt down the man himself. He had expected the man to disappear in thin air. 'Well there is nothing I could do. And I was fending off Hermione being rather insistent.' he mused as he felt some understanding why Albus kept everything under the wraps and how awkward it could be. He knew Cressida and Mia were itching to know as well but deferred to his 'You do not need to know'.
The last thing he wanted was the girls digging for information on his behalf. Potentially informing Voldemort that they were onto him. At least that was the reason Harry suspected Dumbledore kept everything quite. The rest of the news was not that interesting to him although he was surprised by the depth of the bio the Prophet ran of Cedric. He put the paper away and started to mentally review the year.
"Is something the matter Harry?" Hermione asked curiously as she noticed Harry spacing off on his thoughts. "Huh? No. I was just thinking about what happened this school year. I started as an average wizard, got duped into a tournament and ended up being a Campione, a godslayer. And most importantly I got a beautiful girlfriend." "If you told us this at the start of the year we would have laughed." Hermione agreed with a blush at the compliment.
Harry let free an amused smile at the idea of some person telling all the changes in his life. "Indeed." he answered as he gently took her hand below the table. "There are parts of it I would have taken notice of however." he added. Hermione blushed and squeezed slightly and the pair lost themselves in the eyes of their partner.
"This is so sugary it makes my teeth rot." Fred interjected, jolting the two young romancers out of their daze. "Quite right, smarter brother of mine. I have holes all over my teeth now." George concurred. Harry glared at the two pranksters who promptly hugged each other while mock shivering. "The Campione is angry, dear brother!" "We are doomed, doomed I tell you brother!"
"Hermione." Harry said sweetly. "Do you think the headmaster would object if I drowned them with my new authority." "Only if it is done out of his sight so he can honestly tell everyone he couldn't do anything." Hermione replied in an innocent tone. "And make sure no-one finds the bodies. It is a lot of paperwork for everyone involved." she added gravely
The prankster twins blinked in surprise. "Really?!" Fred blurted. "The paperwork is your biggest worry?" "A Campione usually don't bother with that." Cressida said calmly with a serene expression. "Harry is just thoughtful of the effort I have to go through." Mia did a poor job of hiding her smirk. "He is also very generous with helping to hide the bodies. I don't have to put all that training in digging to use."
"I would be worried if you were not smothering that laugh." George accused with narrowed eyes. Harry gave Mia a disappointed look for giving away the game before letting the girls verbally spar with the twins. Hedwig flew in with a letter and Harry only had to glance to confirm it was for Hermione. His girlfriend had borrowed his loyal owl to contact her parents.
He passed on the message to his girlfriend who soon smiled. "Harry. My parents are inviting us all for dinner when we come off the train. "All of us?" Harry asked mildly surprised. Adding Sirius and Remus to his entourage he had five people. Trying to fit eight people in a single car would be a rather uncomfortable thing to do. Sirius had let him know that he would never see the Dursleys again, for their safety.
"Dad is borrowing his friend's minibus. So we can all fit in." Hermione answered. Without being asked Cressida paused her talk with the twins and gave Harry a fresh letter to write on without being asked before returning to the friendly banter. Harry wrote down the change of plans while Hedwig patiently waited on his shoulder.
He added a short description of Hermione's parents before folding up the letter. "For Sirius. Give him a good peck for me as well." Harry added. He gave Hedwig a thorough rub on her head. "Thanks girl." the snowy white owl precked and winged away.
"Well that is the first part of our summer figured out." Harry said as he watched his beloved owl disappear in the rafters. He missed the momentary nervous look Hermione sported for a moment before she hid it. "I wonder what Sirius has planned out. I am slightly worried really." he joked. "Judging from Remius' letters it would probably involve Veela."
Hermione sighed. "He really is an unrepentant playboy isn't he?" "I am afraid so." Harry agreed with a nod. "Now let's finish breakfast and get ready for the last lessons of the year."
From a simmering cauldron a misshapen man rose naked from the liquid. He stepped out of the cauldron with a slight wobble that caused a deep scowl to mar his noseless face. "Robe me." he commanded his waiting attendants. The rat-like man scampered into action while the other figure still wrapped in dressing pressed his head to the ground begging for forgiveness.
"You are forgiven." the returned lord snapped to the sniveling minion. "Your access to Hogwarts was reaching the end of its usefulness. Alastor Moody is also a man of great skill and power. That you kept him alive and locked up for a year spells well for your skills." he turned towards the Rat. "My wand." The ivory item was handed over to him in great reverence.
"Thank you master." the minion groveled as a large snake started to coil its way up around its master. "Rat, attend me. You clean up this mess." the dark lord ordered his minion as he strode away. Peter Pettigrew scrambled after his lord. Once out of earshot the lord stopped and turned around. "Rat. You are to seek out those I trust and bring them here."
Without a word Peter disappeared and Voldemort patiently waited as man after man was brought before him. To his disappointment only two of the eight collected figures were garbed in the robes and masks death eaters wore. "I see you have grown lax in my absence." he commented in a mild tone. "I have learned some of you have grown fat as well during my time away." he gave a pointed look to a certain Malfoy.
"Master… I have worked hard in preparation for your return…" he started to protest. "Silence. Whatever political influence you gathered is useless in the face of Potter's ascension to Campione. One stern word from the boy and the ministry will flop on its back and wait to be taken by him."
"He is just a…" Malfoy's reply was cut off by Voldemort's rebuttal in the form of a crucio curse. "Your arrogance blinds you." Voldemort said in a lecturing tone as Malfoy collapsed with a scream of pain. "In my younger days I attempted to ascend on myself. But I failed to get into a conflict with a heretic god."
He let up the curse and Malfoy moaned something incomprehensible. "You see, that paltry curse now absolutely has no effect on Potter now. His magical reserves will now make the scions of the most pureblood houses look like barely capable mudbloods. That I need to lecture you on this is disappointing."
As punishment Voldemort hit Malfoy with a different torture curse and as the man silently writhed in pain on the ground to Voldemort's satisfaction he focused his attention on his now very attentive group of minions. He scanned their minds briefly for any hints of treachery before he started shelling out his orders.
"This is quite worrisome." Dumbledore said thoughtfully as his hand stroked his beard. Before him was the bared arm of Severus showing the return of the dark mark in full force. "And he has not called upon you at all?" Severus shook his head. "I have asked around in the 'old crowd'. Lucius tries to hide it but it is clear that he has suffered the dark lord's ire."
"So he has returned." Dumbledore said with a sigh. "I shall rally my own 'old crowd'. Do you have any idea what his plans are?" Severus shook his head. "No. But he is looking for something." "I suspect the subject matter will be Campione. If he still has his eyes set on Harry then he will need a special weapon. Or Merlin forbid, become a Campione himself."
Severus shivered at the idea of the dark lord with the power of a Campione. The Potter brat had shown him just how powerful those kinds of people were. And said brat had been quite responsible with it. Far more so than Severus would have thought.
The other two schools left without too much fanfare. Harry had the feeling the Durmstrang headmaster was especially happy to make himself scarce. More than a handful of Hogwart's lads were unhappy to see the Beauxbatons ladies leave. Harry briefly spared a moment to muse how many would really stay in contact.
The train ride back to London was uneventful. Only marked by the interesting point that for a change Malfoy decided not to antagonize Harry and his friends. With a trunk in each hand he led the charge out of the train and straight into the flashes of the press. Resisting the urge to swing his trunk into the camera nearest to him he instead put up a fake smile, a nod and proceeded to look for Sirius.
The ruckus however made it far easier for Sirius to find him. Remus Lupin dug into the deep experience and knowledge of pranking he had as part of the brains of the Marauder team and created a suitable colorful creation. The Daily Prophet would need to buy some new camera's as their current ones were far too busy trying to crawl under the robes of the ladies and make panty shots.
The rest would get some NEWT grade practice in undoing spellwork.
Padfoot and Moony spirited Harry and his entourage through the crowd into the muggle side of the station without causing further trouble. In a brisk pace they ushered them out of the station and into a nearby restaurant. "Mom, Dad!" Hermione shouted as she surged forward towards a couple. "Hermione!" the woman Harry assumed was Hermione's mother answered and enveloped the girl into a hug.
'Well that explains where Hermione learned her crushing hugs from.' Harry thought with a smile as he watched the family reunite. "Shall I take those trunks off you?" Remus asked and Harry blinked. "Huh? Oh sure." he handed them over and the werewolf headed outside. Harry returned just in time to see Hermione and her parents approach him.
"Mom, Dad. This is Harry Potter, on his left is Mia Develd and on his right is Cressida Layla. Everyone. Emma my mother and Dan my father." Hermione introduced and hands were shook overall. Harry was not unaware of the critical look Dan Granger gave him. Emma on the other hand was delighted "So these are the faces to put next to your names. Hermione especially wrote a lot about you Harry."
Harry could not repress the blush and the tinkling laughter coming from Emma made Harry hope she'd approve of him. Emma started to herd the group towards the minibus while Dan dealt with the bill. The man soon took the wheel and started to guide the vehicle into the busy London streets.
"I have to ask." Emma said over her shoulder as she double checked that all the teens and wizards were buckled in. Her daughter had warned her wizards and witches were not that well versed in the normal world. So far the weathered man Lupin seemed to be fine but she could see that wrongly convicted Black was doing his best to fit in.
"Cressida and Mia are a bit older than you and Harry. Did they finish Hogwarts this year?" Harry blinked in surprise and couldn't stop himself from looking at Hermione in surprise. The said witch shuffled nervously. "Not exactly." she replied evasively. The look Emma shot directly and Dan through the mirror made it clear her parents knew her well enough that she was hiding something.
"They are here because Harry is a Campione." Sirius said carefully as Hermione offered no answer. "Campione?" Emma repeated with a frown. "I thought that was another title that Harry seems to gather every year judging from her letters."