Chapter 13: The Minister's Request

He awoke the next morning and it took him a minute to remember where he was. He heard voices on the other side of the door.

"Don't wake him up!" he heard a woman's voice say. "He's exhausted!"

"The Minister of Magic—" A voice began.

"Tell him it can wait!" snapped a man. Then he muttered. "Never before was a time the Minister couldn't wait on the Headmaster."

"He's not the Headmaster—" The voice tried again.

"And the Minister is only the Minister," said another voice.

"He's the Minister of Magic!"

"And Harry Potter is Harry Potter. That seems more important to me."

Harry groaned slightly as he raised himself into a sitting position. He honestly did not want to get up, but the arguing person sounded like Grander and if he was attempting to wake Harry up, it must be important.

He rubbed his hair absentmindedly, attempting to make it tame itself. He shook himself mentally and tried to look wide awake.

He opened the door.

"Harry!" Grander said instantly. Harry saw that he had been arguing with the portraits.

"What's up?" Harry asked.

"Oh, but look at him!" said a witch, talking to Grander. "He's dead on his feet!"

Harry scowled. "I'm not a kid, you know," he muttered.

Grander seemed slightly amused by this. The corners of his mouth twitched but Harry was glad he said nothing of it. "The Minister of Magic requests your presence."

Harry frowned slightly. "What for?"

Grander shrugged. "I'm only the messenger."

Harry nodded. He was feeling slightly more awake now and rather hungry. "How about we get some food?"

Grander grinned. "He thought you might say that. He's requested your presence in the Great Hall. The students are already in class."

"What time is it?" Harry asked as they waited for the staircase to bring them to the bottom.

"2:00," Grander said promptly.

"In the morning?" Harry asked incredulously.

"In the afternoon," Grander corrected as they stepped out. Harry could see from the natural light streaming in through the windows that he was not joking.

"I slept that long?"

"Longer than you expect, probably," Grander said. "I've been in to check on you, of course, but you've been sleeping constantly for two days now."

"Bloody hell," Harry muttered, running his fingers through his hair. Grander glanced at him, amused.

They reached the Great Hall without another word and Grander pushed the doors open. Grander was sitting at the teachers table, looking rather annoyed.

"Good afternoon," Harry said smoothly. "Lovely day, isn't it?"

"You've placed charms on the castle," Crocker said, getting straight to the point.

"Just one," Harry amended.

"One?" Crocker asked in disbelieve.

"Yep," Harry said, sitting next to him. "I'm starved. What do we have in the way of food?"

"I'll have the house elves bring you something," Grander said. He hurried from the room.

"In my day," Harry grumbled. "You only had to ask the plate what you wanted and it would give it to you."

"That's ridiculous," Crocker said, waving his hand as though he thought Harry was being stupid. Harry couldn't help but grin.

He rubbed his eyes, trying to get the sleep out. "So what bring you to our humble establishment?"

"Nothing's working properly!" Crocker said. "My $600 watch started ticking backwards!"

"Who'd spend that much on a watch?" Harry asked, taken aback.

Crocker waved his hand dismissively. "The issue here is not my watch, it's the fact that nothing's working! Half of the teachers didn't wake up this morning because their alarms didn't go off!"

"You came all the way down here to tell me that?" Harry asked blankly. "Don't you have more important, Ministry related things to worry about, like...preventing Voldemort from entering?"

"Voldemort's goal," Crocker said firmly. "Is to bring down Hogwarts. That means I will do everything I can to prevent him from doing just that. He will attack soon—especially since you announced that you planned to strengthen it. If Hogwarts falls, then you fall and everyone's hopes fall. I can't allow that to happen."

"What do you plan to do?" Harry asked calmly. "I can stand against Voldemort, but I cannot stand against him and all his Death Eaters at the same time."

"I will post Ministry members at the castle," Crocker said.

"What can they do?" Harry asked reasonably. "The technology cannot stand in the face of the advanced magic I intend to place here. The only way they can protect the people here is if they knew more magic."

Crocker hesitated. Harry's eyes narrowed suspiciously. Crocker obviously wanted Harry to do something. Suddenly it clicked in Harry's head.

He shook his head. "I don't have time!" he protested. "I have plenty to do without training your Aurors!"

"I thought you wanted this place to be safe!" Crocker protested. "There isn't a person in this world that belongs in this time that knows more magic than those people! They want to learn! They would be excellent students and it should only take about an hour out of your day!"

"I'm not going to be at my full strength," Harry argued. "I've only put a single spell over the castle and I'm already drained! Using more magic could be difficult!"

"All the more reason!" Crocker said. "If you're not up to your full strength, Hogwarts is going to be vulnerable. And because Voldemort knows you're here, this is where he'll attack! You need more protection!"

Harry opened his mouth to argue but Crocker cut him off. "If you're not going to do it for me, do it for the students. They came here to learn and already you have them looking over their shoulders, their hands inching toward protection devices that aren't even guaranteed to work with these new spells! You owe it to them to protect them from things that they can't protect themselves from!"

Harry frowned slightly, but there was no getting around Crocker's logic. Casting a distinctly disgruntled look at Crocker, he said, "Fine. But only an hour a day. I don't have the time or the strength to do more."

There was an excited yell from the doorway to the hall. Harry looked sharply at it and saw Grander, looking not at all abashed at him outburst hurrying to the table, a house elf carrying a tray of food right behind him.

"And the teachers?" Grander asked excitedly.

"What about them?" Harry asked, though he knew where Grander was going.

"The teachers can participate too, right?" Grander hurried on at the look on Harry's face. "The students are going to need to know that their teachers can protect them!"

Harry glared at Crocker and Grander both. "I had better get paid for this." he grumbled.

"I think the happy face on the children should be payment enough," Crocker said in a voice that suggested it would. Harry glowered but said nothing.

* * *

Harry ran his fingers through his hair, a habit which he had broke himself of year ago and that was beginning to resurface.

"You're here to learn something of magic," Harry began. He tried not to look at the unconcealed excitement on a few people faces—Grander's included.

"I am here to teach you, though I'm not entirely confident how much I can teach you in only an hour."

"The Minister wanted to make it more," Harry heard a mutter. "But he said he would only teach an hour a day."

"That's enough, Grander," Harry said, feeling distinctly stupid at telling off people who looked years older than him. Grander looked distinctly abashed that Harry had heard him. Harry cleared his throat nervously.

"Yes, anyway, I'm not quite sure where to begin, seeing as how I don't know how much magic you know. Er...yes?" A woman in the front seat had raised her hand.

"Alice Benton," said the woman in a clear voice. "We have learned the basics, of course, such as matches to needles—" There was scattered muttering around the class at that time and Harry had the distinct impression that she was virtually alone in the mastery of that skill. "And the unlocking charm."

"Gees, Lady," said a voice behind her. "Where did you go to school because the rest of us went to Hogwarts!"

Harry's emerald green eyes fell upon the speaker. It was a man and Harry thought there was something recognizable about him. He shifted uncomfortably under Harry's steady gaze.

"Perhaps you would like to demonstrate the extent of magic that you know," Harry said in a soft voice that nonetheless carried.

The man got cockily to his feet. "Indeed, er...Professor." He said the final word with an undeniable slur on it.

He pulled out his wand. The second he waved it Harry was on edge, his wand in his hand. His grip was wrong and he was no where near powerful enough to perform the charm without the words.

"Impedimenta!" Harry said angrily. The man froze halfway through. Harry walked calmly up to him and extracted the small devise from the hand in which he carried his wand.

He did not remove the man from the jinx as he turned calmly to the class, his anger apparent despite his calm features.

"I was told that I would be teaching those more advanced in the art of magic than all others in this time. Instead I get children that pull useless pranks in class with devises that would not have worked properly with the magic in the air as it is and would perhaps have exploded without warning, causing injury."

Harry waved his wand and the man was released from his jinx.

"I would have you know now," Harry said calmly to him. "That if something of this nature happens again, you will kindly leave and not foul my presence by letting me see you again."

He spoke the last words harshly and snatched away the man's wand which he still held stupidly in the air before him. The man scrambled for his seat and Harry sat his wand on the desk.

"I will not waste time turning matches to needles. We can, perhaps, learn the unlocking charm. It has proved useful before. Ms. Benton," Harry said, gesturing to the woman who claimed to be able to do the charm. "Perhaps you can demonstrate."

The woman seemed rather hesitant now. She stood up and Harry waved his wand at the nearest door. It locked with an audible click.

The woman pulled out her wand and walked over to it. She cleared her throat nervously and said, quite loudly, "Alohomora!"

Nothing happened.

The woman bit her lip nervously and tried again. She said it stronger this time. "Alohomora!"

This time the lock clicked. A smile spread over her face and Harry had the impression of a first year just completing their first charm.

"Good," Harry said, nodding. The woman sat back down hurriedly, looking immensely pleased with herself. Harry held back a sigh.

Not wanting to use a lot of magic, Harry simply duplicated the door lock instead of actually conjuring new ones and made the students come to the front to pick them up. When they were seated again, Harry said, "The charm is 'Alohomora'. You will practice on these locks. Begin."

The class exchanged looks but, slowly, Harry heard a few shouts of 'Alohomora!' though he heard 'Alomohora!' just as often.

He walked around the class, correcting grips and pronunciations. By the end of class, he had only managed three people to get the charm to work at all. When the hour was up, Harry announced to the class, "I know that you did not decided to take this class for homework, but I think that learning the theory behind the charms might help. A two page essay is due tomorrow at the beginning of class covering the ways that the charm and/or similar charms can be and were used in the past. And please work on the charms tonight so that I might not have to spend another day on them. Class dismissed."

The class left without another word. Grander stayed behind.

"That was fun!" he said enthusiastically.

"You didn't even get the charm right," Harry said, raising his eyebrows. "Yes, but did you see what you did to that Auror that tried to pull that trick at the beginning of class?"

"I must have missed it," Harry said sarcastically. Grander grinned and Harry rubbed his eyes wearily. "If we have many more sessions like this, we're really not going to get anything done."

"I tried to prepare, I really did," Grander protested. "But I wasn't sure what to study."

"You want me to assign a book?" Harry asked, suddenly thinking it wasn't such a bad idea.

Grander shrugged. "It might be helpful. I've no idea where I'm to find the information on the Alomohora charm."

"Alohomora," Harry corrected absentmindedly. His mind was buzzing. "I'll have to see about the book thing. I don't know just a lot, but I'm sure I can find them? Have you ever heard of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self Protection? That was my first year book, though I'm not quite sure how I even remembered that."

"If you know the title," Grander said helpfully. "I'm sure the Minister could find it for you. I doubt you can find an adequate book in the bookstore. The Ministry has tons of ancient books."

"I resent being called old," Harry said, smiling slightly.

"No offense meant," Grander said, smiling as well.

Harry thought for a moment. "It's been a week," he said simply.

Grander understood instantly. He shook his head emphatically. "I think you mean it's only been a week! How can you think of going again so soon?"

"It's not so soon," Harry said. "And I'm trying to get Hogwarts back to its old strength as soon as possible."

Grander frowned. "And you think by killing yourself it's going to help?"

"I'm not going to die," Harry said.

"Everyone thinks they're immortal," Grander grumbled. "Gonna live forever! But you can't! You're going to die of exhaustion if you're not careful!"

"Yeah," Harry said quietly. "But I'll just keep coming back."

Grander's frown deepened. "Don't do this to us, Harry! We need your help if we're going to relearn magic!"

"I'm not trying to kill myself!" Harry said, annoyed. "I'm trying to protect against Voldemort!"

"Let someone help you," Grander said quickly. "I can help!"

"The magic flow would kill you," Harry said quickly. "I can't risk it."

"I'll be okay," Grander said stubbornly. "What if the Minister helped, or the Headmistress? They're better at magic than I am!"

"The magic is too strong!" Harry said, shaking his head. "You don't know what it's like. You can't just jump in, cold turkey! You have to practice!" Despite the situation, Harry did not miss the beginnings of a smile flit across Grander's face.

"What?" Harry asked angrily. "Do you see something amusing in this?"

"Of course not!" Grander said hurriedly. "It's nothing. But really, Harry! Don't you think maybe you could let someone be out there? Just out there, they don't have to help or anything! They can be moral support!"

"You can't be out there," Harry said stubbornly. "You'll be part of the initial blast. You'd still be in harm's way."

"It looks to me that no matter what I do I'll be in harm's way," Grander said stubbornly. "Or have you forgotten the main threat that is Lord Voldemort?"

"I haven't forgotten," Harry said. "And I'm already feeling stronger. I need to get this done as soon as possible!"

"As soon as possible," Grander muttered. Then he looked at Harry. "Even if it kills you?"

"It won't kill me," Harry said, annoyed. "I've already waited a week! Besides," Harry tone quieted, though he didn't really believe anyone was listening. "I can't forget the message Voldemort sent me. I've been watching and so far as I know, they don't have anyone!"

"What?" Grander asked blankly. Then he remembered. "You mean when Voldemort told you that 'we have him'? He's probably just trying to get you worked up about something."

"Maybe," Harry said. "But that doesn't seem like Voldemort's style. Anyway, the sooner I get the wards up, the safer I'll feel."

"What will you put up this time?" Grander asked.

"This time it will only go on the castle," Harry said. "A strengthening charm. It should make the castle three times stronger. Still, right after that I'm going to have to start to break the castle of its reliance on technology. None of it's going to hold up after that. I'll start with the common rooms."

Grander suddenly became very excited, seeming to forget the earlier disagreement. "Are you going to put a portrait there to ask for the password?"

Harry blinked. "I suppose..."

Grander seemed exceptionally excited. "It's like moving back in time!" he said gleefully. "This is amazing!"

"Sure," Harry said, eyeing the apparently crazy man suspiciously. "I suppose I'll have to put some of the Headmaster and Headmistress paintings up. I'm not sure I trust any of the others."

Grander clapped his hands together. "Can I pick? Please?"

"I suppose," Harry said blankly. "I'll have to check it before we can put it out. Some of the old Heads still maintain house prejudices."

"Right," Grander said, "Check for prejudices. On it." He left quickly, almost skipping.

Harry shook his head at the crazy man. At least he hadn't let Grander talk him out of performing the charm.

He set off down the hall, toward the direction of the Headmistress Chiden's office. He would need her consent before anything else.

He knocked loudly on her door and pushed it open when he heard her say, "Come in."

"Oh, hello, Mr. Potter," Chiden said when she saw him.

"Hi," Harry said. "I was wonder when the soonest time was that I could perform my next spell on the castle."

The headmistress frowned at him. "It's only been a week."

"I know," Harry said. "But this time I don't plan to do the entire grounds, only the castle."

"I see," Chiden said. "And what do you plan to put on it?"

"Just strengthening."

"How will that affect the technology in place all around the school?"

Harry sighed. "Odds are it will go completely haywire."

"Haywire?" the headmistress asked blankly.

"Crazy," Harry amended. He had found that some words he used meant different things now than it had for him while others had left use altogether.

Chiden sighed. "How are we supposed to keep a school running when things like that keep happening? A calculator exploded in a girl's face the other day in the middle of Divination after telling her repeatedly that 24 plus 36 equals 7."

"It's 60," Harry said blankly. "Why does she need a calculator for that?"

"I don't know," Chiden said. "But that's not the issue. How can you correct this?"

"I can't 'correct' it," Harry said, frowning. "They'll just have to work it out on paper."

"So your solution to the problem of Voldemort is to let us loose everything we've learned?" the headmistress suddenly seemed quite angry though Harry was not quite sure what he had done to upset her.

"Everything you can do with technology," Harry said, slowly, choosing his words carefully. "Can be done easier than magic and without previous preparation."

"Magic is holding us back!" Chiden said crossly. "Technology is the future! We didn't even have calculators 600 years ago when the rest of the world had been using them for hundreds of years!"

"And look how much our math skills have improved," Harry said sarcastically. "We need a calculator to add 24 and 36."

"That's not the issue!" the headmistress said heatedly.

"Yeah, I've heard that a lot lately," Harry said, his anger getting the better of him. "Everyone is completely sure that they and they alone know exactly what's best for the people and the world and the future! Perhaps you would like to add your opinion to my mental stack of irrelevant comments because that's how much it's going to mean to me!"

"This is my school!" Chiden shouted.

"It is!" Harry snapped. "I'm just trying to fix what you messed up!"

"And what makes your opinion the right one?" Chiden said. "What if technology really is all we need?"

"Then you would have no trouble defeating Voldemort, would you?" Harry found himself shouting as well. "You're being completely irrational!"

"Oh!" Chiden said sarcastically. "I'm being irrational, am I? You come back and automatically assume that everything you know is right and everything we know is wrong!"

"I know that Voldemort would have killed an entire hospital without the least bit of resistance!" Harry snapped. "I know that a little girl would never have been able to move her arm properly until I healed it! I know that with a single charm on the school, your entire way of life has been disrupted nearly beyond repair! Is that what you want me to see? Or is there something I'm missing?"

The headmistress seemed to have swelled. "In our way of life, there were no more murders until you came along! I know in our way that people were actually happy!"

"And your way was destroyed because of something that wasn't properly buried!" Harry snapped. "Who in their right mind buries Voldemort next to his parents where everyone can see him?"

"People who have no need to fear murderers!" Chiden snapped. "Unlike you!"

"Well forgive me for attempting to keep you all alive!" Harry snapped. "I suppose that unlike me, the innocent children here have no need to fear Voldemort!"

"They didn't need to until you came along!"

"If I wasn't here they'd all be dead by now," Harry said, his voice lowered. "And so would you."

"You don't know that!" Chiden snapped.

"But I know Voldemort," Harry said firmly. "And I know that he wouldn't simply let you be because you weren't hurting anyone. London wasn't hurting anyone and now look at it!"

Harry did not wait for her to reply. He turned on his heal and marched out of the room and didn't stop until he was inside Dumbledore's old office and sitting with his arms crossed, fuming in the chair at the side of the room.

"Do you want to talk about it?" asked a previous headmistress tentatively.

"No," Harry said shortly.

There was a moment a silence.

"Who does she think she is?" Harry burst out angrily. "Talking to me like that? Haven't I done enough so she doesn't have to talk to me like a spoiled child that needs his toy taken away?"

"Who?" a wizard tried.

Harry ignored him. "I didn't even say anything! She just started yelling at me and saying that I'd messed everything up! What kind of crazy psycho is she? Does she think that I wanted to come back and defend the world from Voldemort?"

"Maybe she just doesn't understand—" a witch tried.

"And then she starts raving about how everything was much better before any of this ever happened and how some stupid calculator blew up—and who needs a calculator to add 24 and 36 anyway?—and how I wasn't to do my strengthening charm on the castle because then none of their precious technology would work properly!"

Harry paused for breath and none of the portraits seemed entirely sure what they were supposed to say. Well, none except the ex-head of Slytherin house, Phineas Nigellus.

"How dare she!" he said with venom.

Harry barely noticed who was talking. "Really! And it's not like I was begging on hands and knees for someone to bring me back!"

"Why should she possibly talk to you that way?" Phineas continued.

"Honestly!" Harry said, waving a hand for emphasis. "Do you think I'm doing this for my safety?"

"Of course not!" Phineas said. "You don't need any extra protection!"

"I can defend myself," Harry snapped. "It's them who don't know how to fight properly!"

"What idiots!" Phineas snapped as well.

"They can't even perform an unlocking charm!" Harry said "I spent all hour..." he trailed off, realizing who he was talking to.

"Are you quite finished?" Phineas asked, looking rather bored.

"Yes," Harry said, gritting his teeth.

"Because there are more important things to do than rant about something that we can't even do anything about," Phineas said. "If she won't let you do the strengthening charm, you'll have to do it without her permission."

"Did she really tell you that you couldn't do it?" Dumbledore asked.

"Those weren't her exact words," Harry admitted. His eyes lit up. "She didn't, did she? I'll just have to do it at night when no one will be up."

"Then you had better get some sleep," Dumbledore said. "Do you plan to do it tonight?"

"I think I'll wait a night," Harry said thoughtfully. "With another spell, the technology will be all screwed up and no one will be able to get into their common rooms."

"You'll need portraits," Dumbledore said.

"I'll do it," said a witch. "I was head of Hufflepuff house in my day and I'm rather anxious to get out of this same room after all these years."

After her came several other people asking to go as well, 'just until Harry could get someone else to do it'.

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Me: That's all. I'm done now and my sister wants the computer. Please review!