This Harry Potter story was written for fun. All rights belong to the wonderful lady (JK Rowling) who gave the world Harry Potter to read and enjoy.
In this chapter, Quintus Quirrell and his guest, attempt to rob Gringotts. The son of a couple who defied the Dark Lord three different times, and who was born as the seventh month dies, is in the right place to trigger the protective wards. Let's see what happens next.
Dumbledore's plans for the new school year suffer set-back after set-back.
Chapter 8: End of Tom RiddleOnce the child was settled comfortably in the infirmary for a good night's sleep, the goblins and healer wrote their last reports and retired for the evening. The next morning, Griphook agreed to take Harry to his trust vault and retrieve enough gold to make his first purchases in Diagon Alley.
Following a good breakfast and checking with Healer Grossman, the goblin and young boy hurled into the depths of Gringotts on one of the goblin carts.
"Faster!" called Harry as they spun around a corner with only two of the four wheels on the tracks. Griphook grinned; the boy was a goblin at heart!
They turned around three other corners before they came upon a strange sight – a Gringotts vault door stood open without a goblin guard. Griphook used goblin magic to bring the cart to a safe stop before he jumped from the cart to investigate.
"Who is here! Declare yourself or face the wrath of the goblin horde!" demanded Griphook, a knife appearing in his hand as he ran into the open vault.
Harry noticed the number on the vault – 463 – this was the vault Hagrid was going to visit when they came to Gringotts on his birthday. The boy hopped from the cart and followed Griphook. Hidden behind the door, Harry saw Griphook fly back from the vault, a blasting spell throwing the goblin across the tunnel to hit the stone wall and then slide to the floor and lie still.
Seeing his 'friend' hurt, Harry ran to the door and pushed with all his might; the perfectly balanced stone and steel door moved effortlessly to slam shut and automatically lock. Without a goblin entering a runic code on the door once it was shut, the Gringotts wards determined the vault to be in danger of being robbed; these same wards took offensive action against the intruder.
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Inside vault 463, a wizard moved toward the treasure he sought – the Philosopher's Stone that would give him eternal life and unlimited hordes of gold. The wizard had entered the Gringotts underground and left his goblin escort dead beside another vault. It took ten minutes to reach this vault and another ten minutes to get the door open. He'd stepped inside, his prize in sight, when the voice of another goblin interrupted his moment of triumph.
Voldemort controlled Quintus Quirrell completely which explained the perfection of the blasting spell that threw the goblin across the tracks and into the wall on the other side. But the interruption left the wizard furious.
"Filthy goblins! I shall eradicate them as the vermin they are!" swore the spirit of the Dark Lord. "First Harry Potter, then Albus Dumbledore, and then the goblins of Gringotts!"
But suddenly the vault door moved! It closed faster than the Dark Lord could cast his spell again and the darkness surrounded the wizard. His mind racing furiously, the wizard's wand lit up to dispel the darkness. Apparition was impossible inside the Gringotts wards – unfortunately, testing the wards focused their attention on him.
The wards scanned the wand and the wizard holding the wand inside the vault – a thief for certain! The full force of the wards latched onto the wizard began to pull on the magic of the man with two faces standing in vault 463.
The agony that twisted through Quirrell-Voldemort reminded the Dark Lord of the moment ten years before when he was defeated by the Potters. He felt his magic being pulled out by the wards but rather than surrender, Voldemort reached for his reserves. He pulled on his magic in the five containers with pieces of his soul.
Across Britain, several magical fires erupted, and the speed of the fires pressed the Ministry for Magic to fight the flames while maintaining the statue of secrecy.
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First, a fire erupted and spread rapidly through Malfoy Manor in Wiltshire, destroying the wards that had hidden the estate for over a century. The family and their house elves escaped with a few of the family portraits but the rest of their heirlooms, furniture, and clothing burned. Ministry Aurors arrived and helped to contain the fire to the house while Lucius Malfoy worked desperately to re-establish the muggle repelling wards and hide his lands.
Narcissa comforted her son. "Tomorrow we'll venture to Diagon Alley again and buy you a new trunk and clothing for Hogwarts."
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The next morning, when a delivery owl found her with the new edition of the Daily Prophet, Narcissa Malfoy was disturbed to learn that her aunt, Wahlberg Black, died when fire suddenly erupted inside her well-hidden home in London. An entire block of muggle residences was also consumed by the fire as firefighters worked around invisible Aurors who fought the fire. At least a dozen muggles were killed by the fire and another 27 lost their homes.
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A wildfire erupted in the north of England in the town of Little Hangleton leaving a forested area and a deserted muggle manor home in ashes. Local muggle firefighters battled the fire and it wasn't until two days later that any Aurors appeared to verify that the extinguished fire was magical in origin.
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The reason for the delay in checking Little Hangleton was that a fire erupted in Hogwarts Castle at the same time as the other fires across Magical Britain. The blaze erupted through the roof and appeared to be confined to the seventh floor, but it took Dumbledore and the faculty hours to extinguish the fire with the assistance of every spare Auror. Almost a dozen house elves perished fighting the fire and Dumbledore immediately made an appeal for spare house elves. Aurors examined the ruins of the seventh floor and determined that a hidden room had experienced uncontrollable magic that manifested in a fire.
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Inside Gringotts there were two different crisis – the wards were overcharged by the magic syphoned from the thief trapped and killed in Vault 463. The wards sparked continuously, and curse breakers quickly set whirling dervishes in every ritual chamber to capture and store the excess power.
Simultaneously, a fire erupted in the vault that was held by Bellatrix Lestrange. The mad witch had been convicted earlier the same day for torturing Frank and Alice Longbottom into insanity. This afternoon Bellatrix, her husband, brother-in-law, and a fourth Deatheater, Barty Crouch, Jr., were locked up in Azkaban for life.
With the overflowing power in the wards, the fire suppression magic snuffed out the blaze in the Lestrange vault with the loss of a single relic – an ornate chalice. The goblins recorded the fire and the loss. The next time Madam Lestrange came to the bank, they would break the news to her.
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Dumbledore never discovered that Voldemort and his soul anchors were killed by the son of the Potters; a couple that fought and defied the Dark Lord the prophesied three times. And the boy had been 'born' on 31 July as the seventh month died – another requirement. As the horcruxes were drained of their magical power to support the fragment of Tom Riddle's soul as it was destroyed by the wards in the bank, the containers collapsed and caught fire, setting off the magical blazes across Britain. From the prophecy – the power he knew not were the deadly wards of Gringotts triggered by the 'son' of the Potters.
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The next morning, the Daily Prophet carried the stories of the fires in Wiltshire, London, and Hogwarts. No one outside the bank ever knew of the fire in the Lestrange vault and though several knowledgeable persons saw the wards spark, none of them ever connected the two events. There was never any mention in the paper concerning the fire in Little Hangleton.
An exhaustive investigation by the Unspeakables created more questions and Malfoy made a large donation to the minster and to the Department of Mysteries to stop the report from ever being published. But that only occurred in late October of the next year.
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The second morning, the Daily Prophet reported that the start of the academic year at Hogwarts would be delayed until the beginning of October. The fire, smoke, and water damage in the castle meant a large part of the roof and many floors required repair. Students would leave from Kings Cross on 1 October, classes would be held six days a week, and the Winter Break would be reduced by a week. After the turn of the year, classes would return to a regular five day a week schedule.
This pleased Felicity and she was even more pleased at the knock on her door before she could begin her workday. There in the hallway stood her newest patient, Harry Potter with his copy of the Daily Prophet in one hand and a letter from Hogwarts announcing the delay in the beginning of the school year.
"Morning Healer Grossman," he greeted her. "I came to ask if we can adjust your potion schedule for me? If I don't have to leave for Hogwarts until October and that means we have almost sixty days to repair all the things you said needed to be fixed."
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Delays for First YearAlbus Dumbledore sighed as he stared at the charred ruins of his office. The magical fire – not fiend fire, thank Merlin – had jumped from the hidden room on the seventh floor to his office. His books (many 'borrowed' from other families) were destroyed. Many trinkets were simple puddles of silver including the ones that monitored Harry Potter. He assumed that the fire had destroyed the Potter invisibility cloak and the pensive though the house elves had rescued and hidden those items.
Several of the portraits of former headmasters had been destroyed and most catastrophic, the fire had climbed the stairs into his personal chambers, incinerating one hundred of his favourite robes. The elves claimed that the trunks with all his other robes had been in the Room of Requirement – where the fire originated.
'There'll be no funds to pay for new robes this year,' Dumbledore mourned. 'The governors stepped in and took the purse strings away… As if the roof is more important than my wardrobe! My image is important for all of Britain.'
Apparently, Fawkes had enjoyed the fire immensely but then moved to the kitchens after her burning day – the house elves paid close attention to the phoenix chick, feeding her grapes, apple slices, raisins and cumquats almost continuously.
'What is a cumquat, anyway?' the headmaster wondered.
The headmaster's problems only multiplied from there – Fluffy had escaped from the third-floor confinement, mauled Professor Pomona Sprout and Mediwitch Poppy Pomphrey in the hallways, and then the creature charged a team of Aurors coming to rescue the two witches. In the spell fire, the Cerberus fell with each head cut off. Both witches were rushed to St. Mungo's without any idea when they'd be well enough to return. It was Dumbledore's opinion that their injuries were minor, and they would return soon.
Hagrid remained absent and apparently the giant spiders were leaving the Forbidden Forest during the day, looking for something or someone to eat. In the headmaster's opinion, this unfortunate event created unnecessary alarm in the DMLE – the nocturnal acromantulas were burned out in two days of raids by the Aurors. The centaurs and Aurors made certain none of the spiders survived – Fawkes apparently hunted the smallest of the creatures and none would survive until Halloween once the phoenix was able to fly again.
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There were other matters that demanded information and without time (or the nerve to approach Gringotts directly), Dumbledore spoke briefly to a friendly Auror in the hallway and then approached Madam Bones in the Great Hall where she met with her Aurors and the School Governors.
"Amelia, may I have a private word?"
The Director of the DMLE looked up from her conversation with the leader of the team firebombing the spider nest and frowned. She turned her full attention on him and said, "Albus! There you are! I've wanted to speak to you for the past week!"
The wizard managed to sigh mournfully, "There is so much to do to repair the school before the children return…"
The woman narrowed her eyes – a veteran of law enforcement, she recognized someone dissembling and attempting to control the conversation. Dumbledore had an agenda this afternoon and she decided to allow him to lead the conversation for the next few moments.
"Yes. What can I do for you today?"
The headmaster nodded and said, "As you remember the other day, we have misplaced our groundskeeper, Rubeus Hagrid."
"Yes, the Cerberus was his 'pet'…"
Clearing his throat, the headmaster continued, "Well, yes."
"And you never explained why it was housed on the third floor, how it got loose, or how it mauled two members of your staff."
"Fluffy was misunderstood…"
Amelia stared at the wizard for a moment, glanced at the School Governors who looked horrified, and then back at Dumbledore.
"What do you want, Dumbledore? Shall I arrest Hagrid for endangering the staff at Hogwarts with a Class XXX dark creature?"
"Arrest… Hagrid has my deepest trust, Amelia. I want your Aurors to find him and bring him back to Hogwarts. We need his strength to maintain the grounds."
"When was the last time you saw him and what was he doing?"
"It was the evening of the thirtieth of July and I sent him on an errand."
"To where?"
"I believe he was to be at Gringotts on the thirty-first… that's where he disappeared."
"How do you know he made it to Gringotts? Who would have been with him?"
"I am certain he made it to the bank… It was reported he was in the Leaky Cauldron before lunch and was headed toward the bank."
Amelia remembered the report from the Aurors on duty in Diagon Alley that day; the half-giant escorted Harry Potter through the entrance and then they disappeared into the bank. The sudden appearance of the magical fires in different parts of Britain the next day had overridden any follow-up with the half-giant.
"Very well headmaster, I'll make an inquiry with the goblins."
"I am certain one of your Aurors can handle the investigation and report to me without concerning you and your busy schedule. Perhaps Hesta Jones?"
Shaking her head, Amelia said, "I would never risk a valuable Auror with a goblin's temper. Your man disappeared several days ago – he might be lodged in a dragon's gut now."
"I'll go myself and make the inquiry." Amelia added, "Headmaster, deal with the problems on your wand already – you must manage repairs to the castle and there are at least three positions to fill…"
"What positions?" asked the surprized headmaster.
"You need a healer in the infirmary, a new Herbology professor, a new head of Hufflepuff, and a new professor for DADA."
Again, the Director of the DMLE smiled, "That makes four positions you have to fill quickly, and you have to provide the new professors with an orientation, teaching materials, lesson plans…"
"What do you mean? Poppy will come back and so will Professor Sprout. Quirinusis just took off on some travel and didn't inform me before he left."
Amelia shook her head and explained, "Poppy lost an arm to 'Fluffy'. She'll never be able to resume her duties at Hogwarts. I believe St. Mungo's will rehabilitate her to work in the hospital. Pomona has extensive scaring, but she might be able to return as the head of Hufflepuff this fall, but you'll need a new Herbology professor for at least the next year. And Quirrell was reported dead by Gringotts on the first of August."
"What? Why didn't you tell me!"
Amelia sniffed and said, "The DMLE sent you a letter about the death of your contracted employee. You must have overlooked it."
Marcus Selwyn, the chairman of the governors with the sudden resignation of Lucius Malfoy on 1 August, spoke up, "Director, I shall speak to the head of St. Mungo's and request a fully certified healer be assigned to Hogwarts; someone who works closely with the hospital on all issues here."
"But…" stuttered Dumbledore. "A mediwitch…"
"No, Dumbledore," insisted Selwyn. "Let me take this burden from your shoulders."
"And I shall select one of my senior Aurors as your DADA professor for the year," Amelia said. "Another heavy task removed from your shoulders as you repair Hogwarts."
With that the Director of the DMLE turned her back on Albus Dumbledore though the headmaster noticed that three Aurors kept their eyes on him until he left the room.
St. Mungo's HospitalPomona Sprout couldn't stop the tears from falling from her eyes when she glanced in the mirror. A long scar began in the right side of her forehead and ran diagonally across her face to below the left cheek. It remained inflamed and matched scars on her arms and back. She was being released today and would face the public with the scar plainly showing; she couldn't use glamour charms until the wounds completely healed because the Cerberus was a classified as dark creature.
'Damn Albus Dumbledore and Rubeus Hagrid,' she cursed. 'A Cerberus in the school – this could have been students.'
Her youth was far behind Pomona, but she did like her face without the scar. And the healers were concerned the scars on her arms and back would impact her range of motion – she had to have full use of her arms and her back in her greenhouses!
From the other bed in the room, Poppy Pomphrey was clumsy sitting up – her right arm gone at the shoulder, she would have to train her left arm to be dominate, her spell casting was still restricted to minor charms, so she did not tax her magical core.
"We're lucky to be alive," Poppy said. "I have to find a new career and you have to perform all those exercises to strengthen your muscles again."
"And deal with Snape for the scar reducing potions!" the head of Hufflepuff groused. "The man is the premier potions master in Britain, but I'd almost rather have the scars than deal with him."
Poppy thought for a moment and then said, "Go to the goblins. There's a witch named Goodman… no, Grossman – Felicity Grossman, she has a mastery in potions and she can make your potions."
"At what price?"
"No more than Severus would charge you personally, and you would get them when you want them, not just when Severus had time, or Albus allowed Severus to have time."
"And I wouldn't have to forgive Albus for the dog attack if I have paid for my own potions."
Poppy nodded. "I have a rehabilitation appointment in ten minutes." The mediwitch paused at the door and turned back, "Please write to me Pomona. I will miss you, Minerva, and Filius, if no one else this year."
Crossing the room to carefully hug the mediwitch, Pomona Sprout replied, "We shall make certain to write. Besides you will be the one with news – living in London will be much more exciting than the dreary castle in Scotland. Remember we don't see the sun from before Christmas through the first day of spring!"
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