A public anouncement: *drumroll* I do not own any intellectual rights to the characters and places that I shamelessly kidnapped form the Harry Potter series, and - to a lesser extend - from other popular science fiction franchises like Star Wars, Aliens, Assimovs Robot Series and many more. But I had an interesting thought yesterday, when I couldn't move due to post-Christmas-dinner induced coma: Would you say that Fanfiction is taking up the culture of the early pre-books cultures, where the stories were heard and retold over and over and every time each narrator added or twisted something in the story more to his liking. And when the stories were quite popular the bards were adding yet more and more tales of the heroes - which explains the whole trainwreck of Homer's Ilias quite well. It sounds quite close to fanfiction if you ask me.
But now to my own trainwreck of a story, steppig on the shoulders of giants - you know the drill ...
~o~
Chapter 9: Step five, eight and two of an overly sophisticated plan
"Harry, what happens to the Elves that are freed from the wardstones?"
"Ermm, they are free?" Harry and Fluffy were on their way to Gringotts, where the guards were again showing Harry a surprising amount of respect by even opening the doors for them.
"Thank you Ward Clawslicer." The Goblin guard stared at the talking Hellhound with the glowing eyes that had obviously forgotten to learn his dog role properly and remembered his name.
"Ahh shite! Please don't tell anyone, he is incognito." Harry tried to safe the situation and avoid attracting any attention.
"Mr. Potter, incognito means that nobody is able to recognize you. Your talking dog is as much rememberable as a your first enemy you kill in battle, his face will haunt you until the end of your days."
"Warrior Clawslicer, you make the most appalling compliments to a simple hellhound like myself." Fluffy rumbled in his hollow dog-of-doom voice.
"You are most welcome." Clawslicer opened the door even wider to invite them into the bank while his colleagues were chortling quite unprofessional.
.
The office of account manager Ragnok had been expanded and there were quite a few Goblins working on a world map that covered a whole wall and had many red, some yellow and one green headed needles stuck in it. The green needle marked Harrys home in Grimmauld Place in London they were told and the others were strewn all over the world wherever the Leylines intersected on land. Twelve yellow needles were in Great Britain, a large red one at Hogwarts and another large one at an unpopulated area in Ireland that was named 'Tara'. The yellow markers represented the positions of the wardstones with bound elves that had already been prepared for access. The red ones were showing the point where the Goblins still had to dig their way to the wardstones.
There must have been nearly 900 pins on the map, the majority of them still red.
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"To answer your question from before, when it's true what is written in Hogwarts a History, the elves will have to return to the same families that sacrificed them because of that ancient slavery spell, without the family they would perish or have to bind themselves to another magic beeing. I think we will have to figure out of how to overcome that, before we send the elves back into slavery." Fluffy, now again in the Stormtrooper outfit picked up their conversation from before.
"Don't look at me, I am more the action type of wizard. All together I might know about only 3 to 400 spells, my athrimancy is awful and when doing runes I stay strictly to the books and draw them as closely to the original as possible, thank good I have a good visual memory." Harry said defensively.
"Ohh I wish there would be a place where all that secret knowledge of the Wizards would be gathered in one place, so that a simple robot like myself would be able to scan through it and come up with the solution immediately."
Harry looked at Fluffy. "Don't patronize or manipulate me, I hate that!"
"Well then don't make it so easy! You know that I would never patronize you." Fluffy replied.
"Why can't you simply say that you want to go to Hogwarts and read the forbidden Library?"
"An excellent idea Harry! I strongly believe you are right, we might find the solution somewhere in a library, either in Hogwarts, the Ministry or in one of the other large libraries and magic book collections. I wonder whether your family manor had a large library as well."
"What family manor?"
"The one next to Hogsmead, THE Potter Manor that belonged to your great-grand parents and your family for almost 900 years now?"
"Manor?"
"Let me guess, the wizards never told you about it?"
"Where?" Harry managed to speak through his clenched teeth. He was looking at Ragnok but the Goblin just shrugged. The old family bank accountant looked rather exhausted and frail lately, maybe a side effect from drinking to much, everytime Harry visited.
Fluffy continued: "So it's fideliused I guess. But you should be able to find it, assuming that it was put under the Fidelius by your family and not the Ministry. Strangely enough I can remember reading about it in the Ministry cupboard without feeling any fideliussed influence."
Harry scratched his head. "That might actually be a side effect of the Tattoo."
At this point Ragnok took part of the conversation again, "Regarding Potter Manor it must be something more like a family secret, cast so long ago that it is shortly before collapsing altogether. You will need to wear your family ring to find it and make sure that the defenses will not drain you by accident when you approach it. Take the floo from Gringotts, I have heard the wizards are already searching for you to award you another honor medal or something."
"I guess it is more that they would want to petrify me again." Harry said gloomy.
"I guess you're right - no I don't actually I believe they will be going for a more permanent solution. Now that they have their Quidditch back, I guess they are more concerned about your possible derogatory influence on the current setup of wizard society, since you are the richest, most powerful wizard alive, you have an overwhelmingly good looking companion and you have a grudge against them."
"Let's claim back Potter Manor, establish a Floo connection and a secure arrival point for the mooners if possible." The obviously enraged small form of Harry radiated small tendrils of exess magic. Fluffy changed back into the form of Alabastor and snatched the staff from Harry who was in the form of his Gandalf impersonation and looked more like a very angry, radioactive glowing, senior citizen who had just discovered that someone had eaten his weekly ration of blueberry pie in his home for the chonologically challenged.
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One reclaimed property, another Pixie infestation and half a day of reparo charms later they were standing in the halls of the mostly empty but stunning beautiful Potter Manor that was more a sturdy medieval castle including a collection of watchtowers and something like a private midevial Quidditch field with stands for at least a thousand people. So far they had not even covered a quater of the castle and nothing of the extensive caves that they could see on the half torn map they had discovered in the shambles of the library. It would require weeks to restaurate each of the nearly 1000 books they had found so far. On the other hand, much to Harry's delight, two of the castle towers were inhabited by two large flocks of magic owls. They had immediately taken a liking to the new owner since he had unlimited amounts of bacon with him that he generously shared with every owl that approached him.
"Now we know from where your literate ambitions come from." Alabastor quipped at Harry.
"Alabastor, I think it is time for you to apply for a teachers position at Hogwarts. Your already astounding grasp of wizard history and your sarcastic streak will qualify you as a teacher for history or divination. While the current teachers will without question try to sneak out and watch the Quidditch World Cup teams train you might be a welcome help to the school. From what I have gathered the school - like everything else in wizarding Britain - must suffer from a severe lack of actual wizards and even more from wizards that are not total Quidditch lunatics. I really wonder who is doing the work in the castle since all the elves were enslaved to the shield wardstones."
"Ok, agreed, that will be fun. Can I please lend the stormtrooper air thingy? I want to arrive in style and make a memorable impression when I get there. They must believe that I have at least some ridiculous wizards powers when I arrive like that. It would really help my credibility …"
"Hmm, I understand what you mean. You must leave a good first impression of being a proper wizard, so that they will give you the job. Let' see, you can simulate being an animagus, we will change your Serbikov gun back into something like what we did to the pahser rifle so if you shout out some stupid incantation and shoot through a stonewall it will give you some credibility. Additionally I can lend you the invisibility cloak, you do not need air neither something to eat, you are stronger than anything in the forbidden forest, you should be able to cast a lumos spell by switching on the targetlight of the gun - provided you find the transfigured switch ... Hmmm." Harry scratched his unshaved chin thoughtfully.
"Hmmm what now? I would bet that my good looks will buy me at least half of the credibility to mimik a real Hogwarts teacher." Alabastor took a pose he had obviously copied from the back of one of the unsufferable books of Gilderoy Loockhard.
"... but still you lack a certain flair of wizard appearance, let me help you with that." Harry brought up his wand.
"Oh no …"
.
It was only a short flight with the imperial air bike thingy since Potter Manor was in the close neighborhood of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade.
The afternoon training sessions on the Quidditch grounds had just finished and a large flock of teachers and children were going back to the castle, disputing about lost or won bets and the blatant lack of proper flying abilities of Quidditch players nowadays. The crowd became distracted from their musings when an impossibly fast wizard in a stylish green, golden and dark red robe zipped past them, towards the castle. The watching spectators let out a noteable "ahh" when the wizard landed in front of the entry gates instead of crashing into the building like his incredible speed had indicated. Again some bets were lost.
When the first children reached him he had already shrunk his flying apparition by touching it with his - for the lack of better words - wand which looked more like a club that he held at the wrong end. Animated stars and fat golden ducks were pictured on his pompous clothes that had golden rims wherever the tailor had seen an opportunity to fit one in. His raven black hair always looked like it was moving in a magic air breeze that gave him a dramatic aura, wherever he went.
Alabastor was having a lively chat with the children about the possible impact of using his alien flying bike in a Quidditch game, but more or less they all agreed that it's superior speed could not be used in the confined space of the field because it was not agile enough. He had won over the hearts of the boys by admitting that his broom-replacement was a relic of the recently beaten space lord and promising to offer a ride when the occasion would allow. At that point headmaster Rimfield finally reached them with only slightly puffing from the undignified run uphill to the castle.
"Mr. Moony what a nice surprise, I have seen you at the Potter hearing in the wizengamot and I must admit that I am more than curious to learn what an interdimensional traveler like you brings to our humble school. Is this about the Quidditch training maybe?"
"Headmaster Rimfield, it's a pleasure to meet you in person, I have read so much about you and Hogwarts and this impressive institution, that I could not stay away. I have to admit that I am not much of a Quidditch fan myself but more impressed by the overwhelming weight of history and amassed knowledge that this school represents." Alabastors beaming smile and selected words had won over the hearts of the female part of the audience in a second, only Headmaster Rimfield looked a bit disappointed when he heard that the man was apparently not a Quidditch fan.
After a quick tour through the castle Alabastor found himself in a negotiation about the terms of his part time employment.
"Mr. Moony, I appreciate your offer, but the positions of history and divination are taken by our most ahhh how to put it, hem most dedicated teachers who are not at all compelled or disturbed by the Quidditch training camps nearby.
Nevertheless I have an open position that failed to be teached for over six decades now here at Hogwarts and I dare to assume that you are more than qualified to teach it, regarding your recent involvement of Mr. Potters dealings with the alien Dark Lord. I will be honest to you, I think you deserve to know the full truth. The position of teacher for Defense against the Dark Arts has a curse on it that proved to be deadly at times. For over 200 years now there was not a single teacher beside Mr. Potter that could hold the position for longer than a year and our pupils are forced to learn from books what should be trained by an experienced practitioner. Since you indicated that you do not want to teach permanently it would benefit both sides if you could fill our permanent vacancy for a short while and teach our pupils your special brand of abilities.
How about a week of test teaching defense against the dark arts and we see whether you and our pupils come along and we can decide to prolong your stay?"
"Headmaster Rimfield, you are making THE most thoughtful and reasonable suggestion I have heard from a wizard during my stay here on earth so far. I can see that the board choose well when appointing you to your position.
I happily agree on the condition that I can follow my more bookish ambitions in my free time and explore the library of Hogwarts. I would like to learn as much as possible about this realm, since it seems that I cannot and would not like to return to my original - ehhhem - origin."
~.~
A busy week at Hogwarts.
During the evening Alabastor discovered the solution the wizards had found for their lack of elve servants. A hand full of muggleborn wizards were serving the meals and he spied from his colleagues that the kitchen was apparently receiving their meals from a muggle service which they all found a bit despising. The food had to be flooed over each mealtime from a disguised home for the elderly.
Although the wizards were obviously nosy, Alabastor noticed that they lost interest as soon as he told details that would not fit into their believes, like for example about the moon cities that he had visited. The teachers of Hogwarts were wearing their ignorance of the muggle world with a kind of defiant pride, but as a teacher for defense against the dark arts they allowed him his own brand of wackiness.
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The forbidden section of the Hogwarts library became Alabastors nightly home. The nosy students who kept showing up from now to then through various secret tunnels were soon reporting the strangest things from their encounters. It seemed that their new teacher against the dark arts could see through walls or bookshelfs with his glowing eyes and that he already knew every student by name and house. He even told some of them the class schedules for his first lessons on the next day to tell their housemates. He was always polite and not at all concerned about their forbidden nightly activities so most of the children were looking forward to their first lesson of Dada the next day.
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Nothing inspires the young mind better than a figure of authority with good looks and an obvious dark secret, so that Alabastor had a surprisingly large group of spectators, most of them female, when he brought the first years out to the lawn in front of the lake.
"Everyone seems to expect from me to share some kind of insightful and inspirational speech that will set you on the right path and so on, so please think about something reasonable that will prevent you from following the dark arts. I for myself feel a bit out of place to tell you not to hurt someone, because I have done so without regretting it so far, but I am still young and the life will teach me differently without any doubt - if the books are to be believed. Indeed beside of my obvious skills in history and divination, I myself am quite limited in my magic to some very destructive spells. So destructive indeed that I cannot teach you these spells because they will not help you in average confrontations.
What you will learn from me in your first lessons is a most vital advice that will be helpful in any unbalanced combat situation, for example when confronted by a mischievous wizard gangster pointing his wand at you.
So let's see who of you has already a bit experience in this field.
Imagine an adult points his wand at you from some distance and shouts to surrender your wand or he will incapacitate you in whatever fashion and you have reasons to believe him as well as not follow his orders. There is still some people around the corner that would help you. What would you do?"
"Shield!" One of the first years said.
"A splendid idea Miss Pennywaters but no Banana, since I strongly believe that you cannot cast a shield charm until you are more magical capable. Secondly just in case that you would be able to cast a strong enough shield, there is the unfair advantage that your attacker has. He is an adult that can cast many times more than you would be able to shield. Furthermore even if he was an equal opponent like another student you would still be at a disadvantage because shielding is much more draining than casting a stupefy."
"Cast faster! I can do a "stupify" already." Another student provided.
"We will put your StupEfy to good use later this semester Mister Benedict. But again no Banana for you as well, since the attacker has already his wand in his hand and he can shield and since he is the aggressor he has probably a plan about this confrontation. At least you should consider that confronting an eleven year old in a side street is not something you come up with on a whim neither it is a sign of good sportsmanship. I guess, but I don't know your attacker personally so it just a guess."
"How about running away to get help?" A small blond haired girl asked.
"Thank you Miss Clearwater, we are getting into the right direction. First rule of any confrontation is: Think it through if you have time. If you don't have time, follow your instincts like if you are a sane person. I am saying the latter because there are stupid ideas in our heads that we acquired from books or stories. Stories about honor and bravery or how fair or unfair the world should be. In a confrontation there is only you and your will to get out of it unharmed or at least alive. You can still make up a story of how brave you were later.
The most dangerous thing you can do in a confrontation is following the invisible script that seems to be in everybody's mind. So a good idea is simply run away if the situation allows it. There are people around the corner, remember. This is called situational awareness and it is the one thing that will help you ot only in any physical confrontation but as well if you are attacked in a verbal confrontation. It is the little person in the back of your head that always keeps an eye out for the details and possibilities of situations where you are unprotected or are on foreign ground.
Even better than just running away is to dodge the spell first by simply moving yourself out of its way when your attacker is casting it. Remember, he is still some meters away and most spells travel with the speed of about a muggle car at speed or a speedy flying broom. It will give you an advantage for you following escape and it will convince the adults around the corner that this guy is a baddy."
"But spells are really fast!"
"The good thing Miss Clearwater is, that you can train yourself to react faster. Which will give you many advantages in the end: First you can move out of the way of a spell that is cast from a reasonable distance, secondly in a later training stage you can cast your own spell while moving but not while shielding, thirdly you will discover that a superior reaction time and physical fitness will help you with your magic as well, you will be the stronger wizard in a stronger body. And last but not least, physical agility and fitness will give you more options in any confrontation and therefore more opportunities to surprise your opponent.
From what I was told it is regarded as not honorable to not keep to the unwritten script of a wizarding confrontation and not to answer always in kind, but believe me, this is not a duel, this is the dark arts you are facing! There is no kind way to counter a dark wizard! I want to extend that there is no polite or correct way in any real confrontation. If you have the opportunity you will have to kick his balls into the next century, and when he is down to his knees you can give him a massive whack on the head with whatever is available. And only when he is lying on the ground, hopefully not breathing, you can use your magic and switch his eyes from left to right and make up a story that you will tell your grandchildren of how you fought a fierce magic battle with the dark lord, back in your time." Some of the children chuckled.
What followed was half an hour of Alabastor throwing tennis balls with incredible speed and accuracy at the children who where shrieking and shouting a lot. At the end of the lesson almost every first year could avoid being hit by Alabastor when he was 10 Meters away.
"If you want to train your reaction times this game is quite good. You can do it between yourself as well. Throwing the balls will as well train and strengthen your body and it will help you in the end at Quidditch as well. Only those of you who can release a stupefy victim with a proper enervate should begin to train with their wands instead of tennis balls."
The next class of the second years went more or less the same, only that after some complaints they switched to actual "stupefy" spells but Alabastor made sure that his students knew how to enervate each other.
"A spell is in a very unstable state while traveling from your wand to its target, that's something I have read about yesterday in the library, so in theory you should be able to dissolve its intention by interfering with its travel path. Ryan, can you levitate please the leaves around you so that they are hovering in a shield formation in front of you? I would like to see what happens if a stupefying spell from Mister Fortescue here hits the leaves."
The second year students experimented around with the leaves that where lying around and indeed they could stop a simple spell, but the target had to cut the magic connection with the levitated object before the spell hit it or he would be hit via this connection.
After the class a single student approached Alabastor.
"Mr. Moony, why did you call all of the other students by their last name and only me by my prename?" Ryan asked.
"Oh wow, you are really attentive Ryan. My intention was to get your attention and make you address me like you did right now. Because Mister Finchley I have met your parents and they asked me to have a look for you and tell you that you should write them and tell them that you are alive." Alabastor watched the reactions of his student closely and he supported him when his knees suddenly stopped working.
"My parents are alive?"
"They moved to the Moon two years ago and they are very very concerned about you. They asked Mr Potter and me to have a look because they couldn't reach you." Alabastor sat himself next to the now crying boy.
"Headmaster Rimfield came to my relatives and told my relatives that he received news that my parents died and that I am an Hogwarts orphan now and that the Magic Community will take care of me, which is why I lived here before I started school. Oh my god! He lied! They all lied to me. They must have taken their letters." Ryan was taking the shortcut from crying towards rage with astonishing speed.
"I believe so, but I am very happy that they did not delete your memories. Can you please do me a favor and keep this a secret until next weekend? I can send a letter to them if you write it here and promise to keep this secret. I will see whether they can visit or you can visit them on the next weekend. Mr. Potter is arranging something but this has to be super secret because some Wizards are powerful and stupid at the same time, which is never a good mix." Alabastor gave Ryan a pen and paper to write and took his letter. A print of it would be handed to his parents on the Moon by one of his robot companions in another Stormtrooper armor only 10 minutes later.
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The week went on in a constant rythm, during the nights Alabastor copied every book he could get a hold on, using the time-turner to prolong his nights after making sure that nobody was watching. He was finished on Friday morning with both sections of the Hogwarts library and he had even sneaked into some teachers and the headmasters office to scan through their private collection of confiscated or otherwise interesting books that were not for other eyes to see.
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The class of the seventh years were surprised when when their Dada teacher waited for them on Friday after lunch with a bulky rifle in his hands and many more of the students arriving with them at the shore of the Black Lake. Moonys lectures had become more attractive to most of the students than sneaking away to watch the Quidditch teams practising.
"Hello, welcome to the class Defense against the Dark Arts. As you might have already gathered from my previous lessons I am trying to make you able to survive confrontations with enemies threatening to use physical or magical force that are in an advanced position. In this special lesson today I have brought with me a demonstration object that should show to you how easily you can find yourself in the wrong end of an unbalanced confrontational situation, no matter of how cunning and magically strong you are.
Those of you with the advantage of knowing about the muggle world might know what I have here." Alabastor held the rifle up for all to see.
Only one student answered. "I guess I know what that is, its a Serbicow CC and I thought they are illegal."
"Splendid Mr Guthrie, you have recognized it almost exactly, five points to Hufflepuff. This is an advanced model, derived from the CC, the Serbikov Compact Nuklear Battle Canon that was developed by the muggle space forces on Mars only 6 years ago. Interestingly enough it is not illegal by muggle laws down here, because the muggle here on earth don't know it exists, and for almost the same reason you can still see it clearly, despite the effectzs of the MAS field. If the muggle knew about it would be immediately illegal because any scallywag like me could level Hogwarts Castle with it in the blink of an eye." His audiance reacted with a variety of gasps and snorts of doubts.
"This is a weapon of war. It represents how dark things could become if a Dark Lord arises and gets his hands on muggle technology. Muggles have their Dark Lords as well, they are called terrorists or dictators, ursupators, war mongers and other names and just like in the wizarding world they want to get their hands on the most powerful and most fearsome weapons to threat people into submission. As we have learned recently there are even Dark Lords in outer space which have spaceships as large as a major muggle city. They have power because they have scary weapons or posess magical feats that put regular people in disadvantage. And as you might know, muggles have constructed even more destructive weapons like what I have here, that could eradicate whole cities in a second.
This weapon shots a heavy, unbalanced material with really, really high speed at a target and accelerates it even further with an incredibly intense laser beam so that the material on impact is suddenly compressed by the kinetic energy and the further increased laserbeam so that it reacts with a nuclear chain reaction that is confined only by the surrounding explosion caused by the laser impact. In the result you have a miniature version of a highly efficient atomic bomb which is the fifth most destructive weapon the muggles ever came up with.
Allow me a demonstration with the weakest combat setting that this weapon is capable of with the last shot in the magazine. A freshly loaded weapon would be able to shoot 100 times and the explosion could be about thousand times bigger. Please watch the large rock formation I have marked with with a red circle on the top of that hill on the other side of the lake." Before anyone could say a word Alabastor had aimed and shot with an incredibly loud shot and a super bright red laser beam glanced over the lake for a split second. In 3 kilometers distance, a large rock formation exploded in a blindingly bright, white Fireball in complete silence, but they all could feel the impact in their feets.
"Since the target is so far away it will take about 9 seconds until we hear the explosion and you can see the reach of the derbis on the splashes on the lake. Here comes the sound." The booming sound of the violent explosion rolled over them, making some of the younger students flinch and some of the windows of the castle behind them scatter.
"If the seventh years students would please cast a shield over all our heads? Just for security." It looked like Alabastor really enjoyed this lesson.
Some smaller, still glowing stones rained down on them after a few seconds, but thanks for the shields, nobody was hurt.
"What would you think why I demonstrated this to you?"
The students regarded him in thoughtful silence until one of the seventh years girls answered cautiously. "You wanted to demonstrate that there is always someone with a bigger weapon with the motive to make us stop of thinking to highly of ourselves because we know magic. You showed us a weapon that we already know about to avoid the M.A.S. field effect but that is at the same time much, much more powerful. Additionally but maybe unintentionally you showed us that you are either ruthless and cunning by destroying one of the perimeter ward anchors for whatever reason or you are clueless about the ward anchors but wanted to make a very strong point about not underestimating any kind of foe, muggle or not."
"Jeesch, wardstones you say? Did I honestly? Oh boy, I hope I did not end my career with that but there were no runes or markers on the stone this morning so I deemed it safe. 10 points to you Miss Greengrass - aaaand I think you were right regarding the ward anchors, because Headmaster Rimfield is already heading over and judging by his face I can only give you all the urgent advice to train your physical fitness and tactical thinking and keep in mind that your wands and magic will only give you a little advantage while knowledge, preparedness and agility will help you further, you will need it at some point in your life. Maybe even earlier than you think."
~..~
A busy week with ghosts, chaos and goblins
A week earlier.
Just after their preparations for Alabastors departure to Hogwarts were finished and his robot friend had left, Harry decided to get Potter Manor in a better shape. It was much better suited as an introduction camp into the magic world than Grimmauld Place. He had so far found more than thirty rooms that could suit as guest accommodations, a beautiful glasshouse, a large kitchen which still had functioning ovens, water, and everything else that was not electrical.
"Kreacher?"
"Yes Master Potter?" The answer came directly from behind his head but Harry had already adapted to the shenanigans of his eccentric old elf and did not flinch to badly.
"I really would like you to stop that. But since you seem to need something to brighten your day I will not order you to do so.
Could you connect the fireplace of this Mannor to the Floo-Network?"
"Yes I can." Said the elf and popped away, leaving Harry musing whether he would actually do it or whether he regarded his mission accomplished when he answered that he could. He decided to check later but have a look at the dungeons first.
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Harry had to admit that he loved his transfigured Stormtrooper uniform in the Gandalf look. Without it he would have been dead a couple of times already, he had triggered so many magical and mechanical deathtraps and curses on his way through the dungeons that he had lost count. The visual enhancements of the helmet were really being more helpful than his mage sight. The X-ray overlay revealed hidden passages, the thermal scan was so precise that he could see the footprints of spiders that had been fleeing from him when he got close but for some time now there was not even spiders any more. The visual range image in his helmet was crisp and clear, although he knew he stood in perfect darkness. It even showed him a three dimensional image of the caverns he had passed so far. The only disadvantage showed when he removed the helmet to have a short snack and a drink.
"... wondering whether you are a complete moron or … Harry is that you? Why are you dancing around in these godforsaken dungeons dressed as a geriatric oversized mountain Smurf that runs into every deathtrap that I am constantly warning you about, only to brush it of like it is nothing? Have you gone completely nutters in the end?" Without his helmet, Harry became aware that the dungeons were filled with ghostly figures and he recognized the ghost that had seemingly tried to talk with him for quite a while now.
"Sirius? Man, what are you doing here? You haven't aged a day since when you died. Jeez, I would really like to give you a hug but you have either a really bad taste in body hygiene or you are dead like a nail. This will really impact your dating factor!" Harry tried to hug the ghost of his dead uncle anyway, only to discover that he could not feel him beside on his face something reminding of a cold breeze of stale air. His hands passed through him without resistance. Beside of the ghosts all around him everything was pitch black and Harry could not even see his own hands.
"Harharhar, you look like shite yourself, but that's only your material substance, judging by your prevalence for staggering into life threatening situations like now, I would wager that it will not take long until you can visit me directly on the spiritual realm. I must admit that I let my sense of time slip a little, speaking only now or then to the new arrivals from the Veil of Death, but I am quite sure that you are now almost 200 years old. Can you tell me how you came here and where we are? I cannot cross that shitty barrier so I might not be up to date on things like Make Up, but I know my Mother would have killed for anything that would have make her look younger again just like you." Sirius quipped.
"Well that is in fact a longer story and it contains a lot of deaths, dead dark lords, aliens, evil wizards, a lost true love and its betrayal and at the end a talking piece of metal that I call a friend now who is sometimes a monster dog and sometimes a pinup version of Alastair Moody. Ah, I forgot an upcoming war between a lot of people but mainly between Goblins and some wizards that are completely around the bend."
"Oh boy I am jealous now! Why can the living have all the interesting things and we ghosts down here get only the evil or idiotic dead wizards that are pushed through the Veil from time to time." The ghost of Sirius Black stomped around in the pitch dark dungeon. "Believe me that it is boring to no end here and it gets more and more crowded. Lately all the news we can get from the newcomers are about Quidditch which tends to get boring beyond believe when you do not even recognize the team names anymore. I was so bored that I possessed an old runestone for a while but I was even more bored in there.
This damned Veil surrounds this place so that I cannot go anywhere. I think this place was constructed by some evil arse that liked to capture dead souls." The dead Sirius had become dead serious.
"Hmm, do you know that you are under Potter Manor?" Harry asked his Godfather.
"No, what and where is Potter Manor?" Sirius asked back.
"It is seemingly my old family place. Above the ground it is more like a medieval castle with towers and stuff, it looks really old but cool like shit, only the roof is in bad shape and it is mostly empty beside of the kitchen. So if you did not know about it, it might be that even the Minister of Magic did not know about it, which would explain why he is still breathing although he acted against his magic oath." Harry suddenly caught up to something Sirius had said earlier. "Can you really possess a stone?"
"Not every stone but there are a couple of them that are full of runes lying around over there." The ghost of his deceased uncle gesticulated vaguely in a direction. " The guy who constructed this place was by the way one of your ancestors who was apparently really fascinated by death, barmy old sicko. I have the theory that he might be the origin of your family heirlooms and all this stories about the three brothers betraying death and so on. This here is the remain of a super dark necromancer trap that must be older than Merlins times. I would bet my ghostly arse that the stupid Veil is just some kind of killing field combined with a wicked soul trap and ahhh maybe some interthingy connection to the Veil at the Ministry because we are not in the Ministry any more. By the way - is it true what the newer ghosts told me that you got Voldemort and all his Deatheaters in the end?"
"Yes all of them plus so many more. Some of them might be even here since they were executed by pushing them through the Veil.
This place is really wicked. Can you show me where the new souls come from? Maybe I can scare some Unspeakables when I wear this disguise? I have to scare about a century out of their bones to get even for what they did to me. I did not notice any shield when I entered here, so my armor should be Veil proof." Harry planned already a grand succession of the battle on the spiritual realm that he had started on his last visit at the Unspeakables. If he could pass, through the Veil in the other direction this could be really funny and give him another week or so of pretending to still have to fight the dark lord.
"Harry, if the Veil does not touch you in this armor of yours, could you take a runestone in it and maybe I could be transported out of here?"
"Would you be able to leave the stone again?"
"Yeah, no problems, they were designed as soul traps with a Black family secret magic rune design, but I know the way out. I guess some of my ancestors was trying to fish for souls since there is a string attached to them that leads through the Veil. My guess is that the Veil would still block the soul so the rune design did not work out or something. When you enter the rune you are just anchored and cannot move to far away from it without eh - how to say it - de-anchoring?"
"Worth a try then. Go and lead the way old horse, find yourself a good, comfy stone and i will squeeze you into my undergear."
"Suddenly this whole idea looks much less appalling." Sirius ghost muttered while drifting away in search of the runestone.
"What if it does not work and you will simply die? Again?" Harry asked.
"Believe me, dying would be the better alternative than eternal boredom. Beside of one or two of the inhabitants here, most of them are unbelievable self centered and some of them seem to be righteous evil. The older ghosts do speak a strange old English that I cannot understand plus they seem to have really lost their marbles. A lot of screaming and wailing."
"I can hear it, they really do sound more like the ghosts that are described in muggle books." Harry found this whole setting interestingly bizarre. "If this works we can maybe set up a spiritual rescue mission and exorcise the whole place."
This got the attention of the other ghost who so far had just been drifting lazily around them. They started to swarm Harry and spoke all at once and wail and shout all at the same time, trying to convince him to save them or at least exorcise them.
"Harry, I have never said this when I was alive, but your people saving thing is really nice and will get you in the girls knickers but it is incredibly stupid at the same time." Sirius shouted and gestured to a point on the ground that Harry could not see since it was pitch black. Harry staggered over to him when Sirius suddenly shrank down to the ground. In the midst of the considerable racket that the other ghosts were causing now, Harry got to his knees and felt around in the darkness until he found the flat runestone with the frail remains of a string hanging from it. He ripped the string away and squeezed the stone into his armor. After he had placed his helmet on his head again he was glad that it isolated him against the chaos the other ghosts had been causing.
With the visual enhancements of his Stormtrooper visor he could see the dungeon again. On the ground there were indeed some more of the runestones and the remains of strings were leading all in the same direction that Harry had not yet ventured into, according to the map that had updated itself in the corner of his visual field.
The strings were trailing towards a larger arch from where some stairs were leading down in a round hall that looked a bit familiar to Harry, although his helmet indicated that he had not been there before.
"Did it work? I can't see a thing and I cannot move around a lot, it is really full in here. Harry did you work out or have you become fat lately?" The ghostly muffled voice of Sirius sounded through his helmet.
"Silence! Stop haunting my armor. I am not sure where this archway leads but if I have to guess this is the room of the Veil in the Ministry. I don't want to exit there muttering to myself like a lunatic old wizard." Harry stopped in his tracks. "Or maybe I will, just to fuck with them once more."
He went through the arch.
.
Guarding a stone arch in the dungeons under the Ministry of Magic which never did anything else beside of looking imposing and letting out a cold draft now or then, did not attract the Aurors finest and most watchful wizards as guards go. Indeed it was the least sought after post in the whole ministry, ranking only slightly above guarding Askanban Prison, and more than one Auror had disbanded his or her duty to catch up with the others for a quick game of cards or drink a little or both or five. All this applied perfectly to the Auror on duty Ephimeas Filch who had taken the opportunity of several extended bathroom brakes already and was now considerably drunk and snoring on his small desk next to the door. His current state did not help him to process that an old, ghostly looking wizard suddenly stood in front of the Veil, singing strange mystic incantations of power. When he was halfway awake the mystic man addressed him directly.
"You there, hurry up and tell the Minister of Magic and the Head Unspeakable that I am preventing the Dark Lord from re-entering our realm through the Veil. They will have to seal this portal so that he cannot enter from here anymore. I will keep him busy.
EPISCOLON REVERSICUM!" With the last incantation the bearded old man kneeled in front of the Veil like if he made an oath and vanished with a small pop of replaced air.
To say that the Minister of Magic was confused was really not describing the amount of chaos that had kept the Minister from getting one second of clear thoughts for the better of an hour now. All around the Ministry the visibly aged and slightly transparent Harry Potter had suddenly materialized, either muttering strange mystic incantations and ignoring everyone else or alternatively making ridiculous demands like sealing the toilets of the higher ranked Ministry floor for a month to prevent the Dark Lord from raising through the plumbing portal that he claimed to have found. On more than one occasion a younger version of Harry Potter seemed to help his older version, for example when they were reading through some of the books in the unspoken library which they had entered walking backwards. The reports the Minister had gotten already overflowed his generously sized desk when some drunk Auror reported that the room of the Veil had to be sealed or destroyed. At first it had been the aged Harry Potter that demanded it but then a ghost of one Sirius Black escaped from the Veil, claiming that the Dark One is coming and they had to block the evil portal forever.
Just at this precise moment the Floo in the Office of the Minister of Magic flared and the aged Harry Potter stepped out with a glowing magical staff a long beard and glowing red eyes. He completely ignored the magic barrier that should have prevented anyone from entering the office without spoken permission and rammed his magic staff in the floor where it left a sizable hole in the thick Nundu hair carpet that had been a present from the Magical Minister of Egypt a couple of years ago.
"Do like I said! The Dark Spacelord is causing time disruptions that will spread and consume the whole planet if we do not stop him now. Close the Veil, build a wall and never open it again. Do it now, he is out for revenge on the people that caused his defeat. He knows that you are behind it!"
The Minister winced and tore his hairs.
"I have to tell the head Unspeakable to stop feeding his dog." With that, the powerful figure of Harry aimed his magic staff at the ceiling of a corner of the Ministers office. "Disruptor Minimus!" The spell that blasted from his staff with incredible speed vaporized the whole corner walls, ceiling and many priceless paintings of former Ministers. Together with a lot of debris and office supplies from the room above, the Head Unspeakable dropped through the large gap, together with his fat dog and the remains of a comfy cushioned chair that came tumbling down with them as well. Parts of his robes were on fire just like his formerly imposing grey hair and beard. The Minister could not abide from thinking that this was a fitting punishment for ignoring his many calls for help during the last hour of chaos.
"Stop feeding that dog! It is imperative …" The geriatric Harry Potter could not continue his sentence because the Ministers office door was blasted to splinters by a Bombarda spell. A younger version of Harry Potter climbed over the remains, holding the Elder Wand in his hand.
"No, it was a trap! We have been misguided! It is imperative that you feed the dog or the dimension trap will unf …" a major explosion ripped through the Building of the Ministry of Magic. A third version of an aged Harry Potter had suddenly materialized out of thin air in the middle of the room.
"Why didn't you feed the dog? The Dark Lord has gained access to the lower court rooms but I could destroy them so that he had to retreat through that blasted Veil again. Why is it still open? If we trap him now on the other side of the portal we might get a chance of preventing the volcano incident! Oh I hate temporal warfare!" With that he popped away.
The other bearded Harry addressed the Minister and the disheveled Head Unspeakable. "Don't let the dog escape, feed it as much as possible. And close the frikkin Veil." He rammed his staff on the ground which blasted a large hole into the floor - that made him drop with all the debris of three levels of Ministry offices that he had blown to shreds in one go. Before the Minister could even begin to question whether the old Harry version had done this intentionally to get down to the cellars faster or if he had just seen a wizard blasting himself into the next big adventure, the young Harry jumped up to leave the room through his former door. "Feed the dog for Merlins sake and close the Veil! He is harvesting the power from the M.A.S. Field anchors all around the world, so it will take me a while to get him. I will stick to my oath and hunt this demon dark lord out of this twisted time trap.
But when I will return there will be words!
Fawkes!" Harry shouted and the red Phoenix that formerly belonged to Albus Dumbledore appeared in a pillar of flames above his head. Together they vanished in a roar of flames, leaving only a burning Nundu carpet and two confused elderly wizards that were undecided whether to search the ruins of the surrounding offices for a drink or to feed the blasted dog.
.
After a busy week between Harrys Moon and Earth Manor, Harry had prepared for visiting the Goblins. Exiting the Floo in Gringots, Harry noticed a remarkable grown amount of goblins with shovels and freshly sharpened axes in the room. His Goblin Friend Ragnok was nowhere to be seen but his daughter had a considerable argument that contained a lot of pointing with some grim looking officials in front of the world map with the M.A.S. Field Anchors.
"If I might provide some newer information. Currently the Ministry of Magic is quite distracted, which would give you a wonderful opportunity of bringing down the Anchor that seems to be buried under it.
Regarding the Elves - I still have the condition that they have to be freed and not harmed. I have read up a little on elf magic and you can just lay these acorns that I collected from a magically saturated oak next to Potter Manor on top of the anchors. The elves should be able to break away from the stones with the help of the earth magic that is bound to the acorns. This will give them some time to consider their options, they can apparate to Potter Manor where the oak tree is located - which will give them shelter and I have a friend who can explain the situation to them waiting there.
This method will as well prevent that you will have to destroy the anchorstones yourselves. Once the magic of the bound elf gets weaker it will look for another source of magic which is the acorn. The tiny rune on it will lift any remains of other bonds and then a portkey is triggered that brings the elf to the original oak tree.
The beauty of it is that the more anchors collapse the higher is the magic drain on the rest of the bound elves so that it will cause an effect like a chain reaction at some point. Make sure that you wear the armor when you go near the anchorstones, because when they are already drained and the elf is almost dying, I guess he will immediately grab the acorn and the anchor will explode. So either use a long stick to place the acorn or be quick in retreating.
If you are discovered my cover story that this is the deed of the evil spacelord would blow and the wizards will defend the anchors I guess. Or something equally bad. So if possible synchronize with everyone and be really quick in placing the acorns all at once. After that we could be patient and wait until we bring down the Hogwarts anchor and maybe some other of the larger ones, then the increasing drain will do the rest in no time."
During Harrys speech the Goblins had gotten more and more quiet, Now they all looked behind his back. Harry turned around and found the Goblin King standing in the entrance.
"You have heard the man, his plan is so much better than ours that I need not even justify it. Only use your slings to shot and stick the acorns to the anchors from a considerable distance, just in case the elf is already drained. Make sure that your tunnels can collapse smoothly without leaving obvious traces."
.
Ragnoks daughter Riphide came over to Harry and the King. "Harry, my father is dying. He is one of the oldest Goblins alive and it is time for us to decide for his successor. There are many clans who claim your accounts and some duels have already been fought to weed out the weaker clan leaders. I will send in my youngest son who is really good in accounting but he is not the fittest warrior. We might loose your account to the Bonecrusher Clan. But before my father wishes to have a word with you."
Harry went along with Riphide through the endless maze of the Goblin undergrounds. His Goblin Friend Ragnok looked indeed even more frail than before. The Goblin that sat next to him Harry recognized as the ward Clawslicer that Fluffy had chatted to a week ago in front of the Gringotts doors.
"Clawslicer, nice to see you again. Ragnok how are you old friend?"
The old Goblin was laying on his bed and gave the others a sign so that the two of them were left alone. "Harry, let's drop the pretense, I am on the verge of death and we have business to talk. My grandson is not the greatest warrior but he has the sharpest mind and is a modest and loyal fellow. He knows about the extent of your accounts which none of the other challengers and not even the King knows about. Our clan controls through you the majority of assets of Gringotts and any clan who will get their hands on it will most certainly start a cleansing onto the other clans. Something like that had been happening in the past and it always let to a dark age for the Goblins. Please help my grandson to defend your account and my people to survive the war against the wizards that they are obviously planning." Ragnok patted Harrys hand two times and let out his final breath.
Harry stepped out of the room to where the others had been eavesdropping. He had to take some seconds of breathing to lighten the heavy weight that he felt on his breast.
"Clawslicer, you are my new account manager for all of what your Grandfather was responsible. I have been told that there are disputes and I am going to resolve them, because your laws are stupid and I do not want another clan taking care of my accounts. Please cooperate, give me a hair of you and hand me your armor and weapons. I have some bloody accounting to do and the death of a friend to mourn." Harry fished two bottles of polyjuice out of his belt and picked a hair from his head and one from Clawslicer.
.
The Goblin Nation had never seen accountant or ward Clawslicer in a mood like that. He was wearing his - way to clean and unscarred - battlegear, his plain and simple battle axe that had no traces of battle and no gemstones that marked any triumph on it, but he was wearing it with unique pride when he jumped in the challenge pit. He had been accompanied by the owner of the accounts that all clans dreamed of getting their hands on, Harry Potter. He stood at the rim of the pit when his recent addition the Hellhound appeared next to him. Harry seemed to quietly and hurriedly explain some things to his dog, after which it regarded the Goblins with his threatening eyes that were glowing in a dark blood red light.
"My father died today and this is a good day to die! I am calling out the leaders of the clans that want to take over the accounts by rights of battle to settle the dispute in the interest of our main account holder Harry Potter who is my witness. He had expressed his will that this fight has to follow our traditions but he had forced me to say that he will withdraw any last fund that he controls from Gringotts if he discovers any foul play from any challenger.
I am Clawslicer from the Ragnok clan and I claim the accounts of my Grandfather by rights of legacy and by right of battle!" Clawslicer roared, standing in the middle of the pit with his raised axe.
A really imposing Goblin came to the rim of the pit, showing of his golden armor with many scratches and dents and his impressively large battle axe crusted with gemstones. "Whom of us will you challenge first, Accountant Clawslicer of the formerly Clan of Ragnok? Who of us will kick your head into the dragon dens, so that we can start the real fighting between us warriors."
Some Goblins were laughing but became quiet when the small Goblin pointed his axe to the large Goblin and made a circle, covering the full round of all his waiting opponents.
"I don't have time for childrens bragging, I have serious accounting to do! I challenge all of the greedy bastards who have to use their fingers to count to eight! Come here and meet your death!"
A roar went through the ranks of the deeply insulted Goblins and more than 20 heavily armed and battle proven clan leaders, head fighters and some paid mercenaries jumped into the pit.
.
The Ragnok Clan brought their really pale looking major client and his dog into their house. They were followed by Clawslicer Ragnok the Goblin who had just killed and humiliated the majority of the most battle hardened Goblin warriors without getting injured ever so slightly. All the witnesses were swearing that it had been a fair fight, Clawslicer was simply the better warrior. He had used the mass of foes at first to make them get in their own way while methodically killing one after the other. Every time the spectators had assumed that the next swing would behead the small Goblin he simply had bend out of the way using his momentum to drive his own axe into another enemy. He had not bragged or triumphed when his enemies fell, he had simply continued to duck, slice, bend and masacre one foe after the other with the economic meticulousness of a master accountant of death. It had taken only a few minutes until the last of his opponents offered him his axe in defeat without honor. The pit stank of fear, blood and death.
Riphide was joining the polyjuiced Harry who was still outside, throwing some threatening glances in all possible directions to dishearten even the less honorable Goblins of attempting anything against the Clawslicer clan.
"That last warrior who was he? He was by far the cleverest of them and would have won without doubt if it would have been a fair fight against a Goblin. He had waited out until the major players would have been injured and exhausted enough to give him a good advantage and then he would have won because he just faked to be involved in the battle the whole time. I think you should hire him as bodyguard and personal trainer for Clawslicer, I mean me."
"Yes my son, I will do as you say. But now join the others because we opened a barrel of Goblins Nightwatch Whiskey to celebrate your victory."
"Oh by Merlins Beard have mercy on me."
Harry entered the Clawslicer home where a large Goblin Family party was beginning to form - his ears still ringing from the loud laughter of Riphide.
~oo~
Authors notes: Guess what, I thoroughly enjoyed this chapter way to much, it kept getting longer and longer, don't expect me to continue this word-count. And finally I think I have found the whole tonality I would like to keep up until the end of the story.
It's Christmas 2020! So maybe I will find the time to prepare another chapter this long weekend? But the pressure is increasing for me to write the final chapters. I am stuck again in chapter 15 which is currently quite dark alltogether. So my dear readers, do you really want me to publish faster although it increases the probability that you will have to wait longer for the final two or three chapters? No? Ok, you made a good decision ...