Disclaimer: Oh J. K. Rowling brilliant queen of the Harry Potter universe, I thank you for allowing such a lowly creature as myself to play with your creations in your world.
Authors Notes: PLEASE READ: Thank you for all your reviews, I love you all for them but I have a small grumble, some of you tell me that you have read some or all of my other stories and I can't find your names on their review list's? I think that either one review per story or one for every ten thousand words sounds fair and would be quite encouraging for me.On a lighter note, I believe that the word 'proper' comes into Hermione not having had an orgasm and as this is a nearly seventeen year old Hermione we are talking about I thought it would be obvious that she will have read about the subject. Although I can't exactly see Mme. Prince keeping a vast selection of books on the matter in the Hogwarts library, Hermione is Muggle born so she will know where to find the information.
So now please read on and I hope you enjoy my efforts and PLEASE REVIEW.
Chapter 4 - Godric's HollowThe next day started in a very similar pattern to the previous one with the normal sounds of the house infiltrating through the door and the far off noise of the party although today they seemed to be making even more noise than the previous morning.
The trio were soon up showered and dressed then they made their way downstairs and out into the garden for breakfast. The table they had sat at yesterday morning was almost full but they could see that a space had been left in the middle of one side for them.
As they sat down some elves set fresh food before them together with several jugs of pumpkin juice, sitting directly across from them were Lavender, Parvati and Padma, so Harry said, "I'm glad to see that you have dumped Cho, how are you all enjoying the party?"
Padma took the lead and said, "Cho's constant whinging was really annoying me it must drive you mad, she never has anything happy to say. She kept saying that if you had killed Voldemort sooner Cedric.... Sorry oh I'm so sorry, you don't need to hear this rubbish Harry." She had tears in her eyes and was looking so contrite almost devastated.
"It's alright Padma," he took her hand and squeezed it gently, "I have heard variations of this theme countless times so you can guess why I try to avoid her as much as possible. So lets try again, how are you enjoying the party?"
"The party is incredible, it has just got to be the best ever, kids, adults, whole families all the music. Brilliant!" Padma said, brightening up a little.
Quite a while later after a fair bit of idle chatter they went back into the house and said goodbye to Mrs Weasley then they continued on up to Harry's room.
Once again the three of them were stood in their small circle but this time they were holding the GH key that Harry had expanded to about six inches. When Harry touched it with his wand they departed and arrived, with sensations that were entirely reminiscent of the previous day, in a small-enclosed entrance. It had two small windows and several hooks to hang topcoats the only other furnishing was a seat along one side with a boot rack under it.
The door behind Harry looked like the outside door so Ginny opened the other one and they went into what was obviously the living room where they were greeted by two house elves who bowed and said in unison, "Welcome master and your friends."
The female elf never gave them chance to respond and continued, "My name is Mina and his name is Moro," hitching her thumb at the other elf, "I am the cook housekeeper and Moro does all the outside work. If you require something from the main house you only need to call the elf's name and they will come to assist with whatever you need, currently the only access is with the key you used and for the family's elves. This whole area is unplotable so not even owls can find us, this is the 'Access Control' book and as you know it will allow you to modify the restrictions on the area, I suggest you have a look around the cottage it won't take long and you don't need a guide." Mina went through one door and Moro disappeared with a pop.
Harry flicked quickly through the 'Access Control' book and placed it on a bookshelf, he had no intension of modifying any protective wards at the moment.
They started looking around, Mina had not been lying, two reasonable sized bedrooms with built in wardrobes they had a toilet- shower room between them, the bathroom and the living room. Everything was spotless including the fairly large kitchen where they found Mina and she gave them some tea and biscuits as they sat around the table.
Moro came in a few minutes later and said, "Would you like to have a look around outside, master?"
"Please don't call me master, either of you, my name is Harry, this is Hermione and this is Ginny, they would also like you both to call them by their names. We do not like to own or want slaves I would like willing free servants, we will need to compromise somehow and yes we would like to take a look around outside"
Mina had a tear in her eye as she said, "I was told he looked like his dad and so he does, but he talks just like his mum and he sees the world through her eyes. Bless him."
They followed Moro through another porch and out of the back door where they turned to the right and walked slowly around the cottage. They admired the lawn and garden but they realised that Godric's Hollow was in fact a small steep sided oval dingle with ancient broadleaf trees covering the steep sides of the valley. When they had nearly completed their circuit and turned to the back of the cottage they discovered a stable with its doors open, inside were three grey Welsh Mountain Ponies complete with saddles, bridles and reins, ready for them to ride.
"I can't get on one of those!" said a wide-eyed Ginny, "I've never been on a horse before."
She was starting to panic so Harry cuddled and soothed her and Hermione said, "I am sure that these are very placid ponies and Moro would have a very good reason to want us to ride them."
"Hermione is quite right Ginny," Moro said, "you do not have to come, but I am taking you up the side of the valley to 'the Dell' and you will be safer on these ponies, they will not let you fall."
"Are you taking me to my parents graves?" Harry asked.
Moro looked sad and just nodded so Harry transfigured the bottom of his robe into trousers and Hermione asked him to do the same to hers so he did.
Ginny said stubbornly, "Frightened I might be but am I in Gryffindor or what, I will come with you, please do mine as well darling."
They all had a good laugh getting onto the ponies, Hermione was the only one of then who had been in an equine saddle previously and seeing as that was on a donkey at the beach when she was six, they soon realised that it did not count for too much. It was not long however before the ponies with them on board were following Moro up a very steep almost invisible path and they soon realised just how safe and surefooted these ponies were. All of a sudden the path was descending into a small dell and when it reached the bottom there was a flat grass area no more than fifty foot across in front of a vertical cliff face that had crypt doors set in it, the whole area was surrounded by very high ancient trees.
They dismounted from their ponies that immediately started eating the fresh grass, Moro said, "You will just have to touch the doors with the key Harry." Then he went and sat on the grass off to one side with his back against the smooth cliff face and waited.
Harry did as Moro had told him and the doors to the crypt swung silently open.
As the trio passed through the doors torches burst into flame illuminating their path and drawing them on to the joint resting place of Harry's mother and father. The girls were either side of him supporting him as, for about five minutes he just stood there looking at the sealed entrance to his parents resting place, then they all sat on the floor and he started talking, he was telling his parents about his life.
He told them about the Dursleys, how they had treated him, the cupboard under the stairs, Dudley, aunt Marge, everything. He told them about Hogwarts, about Ron befriending him on the train, Quidditch, Snape, the philosopher's stone, Tom Riddle with Ginny and killing the basilisk that had petrified Hermione. About Sirius, how much he had cared for him and about him dieing. The Triwizard Tournament came next and Wormtail's treachery, Cedric's death then Voldemort's resurrection.
A lot of what he said neither of the girls had ever heard before, some of it no one else knew, although he seemed to miss the fifth and sixth years completely. Because he was talking about Ginny and Hermione, what he thought of them, how even now, with Voldemort gone, he didn't think he would survive without them. How much he loved the both of them and that he wanted nothing more than to marry them, to quietly settle down and have a house full of little Potters. How it had been the girls who had given him the strength to finally vanquish Voldemort also how certain he was that his mum and dad would have loved them both as much as he did.
Then he stopped.
He seemed to sit in a dream for about five minutes then he snapped back to life and stood up. He helped both of the girls, who had been crying through some of his story, back to their feet and then he told his mum and dad that they would all come to see them again soon, then they left.
As they followed the corridor back all the torches extinguished themselves behind them and as they passed out through the crypt doors they quietly closed behind them once again sealing the crypt.
They were all very quiet as they made their way back to the cottage where they were welcomed by Mina and made to sit around the dining table as she served them a very nice lunch of liver and bacon in onion gravy with mashed potatoes, this was followed by treacle tart with thick custard. They didn't realise how long they had been or just how hungry they were until they started eating, conversation never started till the desert was served but by the time they were finishing seconds it was once more in full flow.
"What are we going to do now?" Ginny asked.
"I would like to go to the Master Study and do some reading." Hermione answered.
"So would I," Harry agreed, "but I think that the keys return us to the place they start from so we will have to go back to my room and then to the Potters Wheel."
"What am I going to do?" moaned Ginny, "I don't want to spend all afternoon reading."
Hermione grinned, "It seems that we have a television room so I think that we should introduce you to the wonderful world of video films, that should keep you entertained and out of mischief for a while."
Having thanked both Mina and Mono profusely they made their way via the Burrow to the Potters Wheel and then they went with Ginny to the television room. They soon found out that the films were very well organised, with boy's films to the left and girlie films to the right and a lot of general films in the centre. There was a marked off section of films that could be used as Muggle studies instruction videos mixed with documentary films. Hermione found the BBC version of Jayne Eyre then she and Harry spent some time teaching Ginny how to operate the television and video player. Next with the assurance that she was to come to them for help if she had problems they left her watching the video with a Butterbeer beside her and went to the Masters Study.
Hermione settled herself into one of the comfy chairs with the two volumes on the history of the Potters Wheel and was very soon lost to the world.
Harry started off by reading the whole of the Potters Wheel 'Access Book' and by so doing discovered a whole lot of other things to do with the security and operation of the house, but it wasn't only Mad Eye Moody whose motto was 'Constant Vigilance'.
He then went to the library and asked Jiffs if they had any books on Magi, she led him to the far end of the room and he started reading through the titles on the shelves she had indicated. Eventually he found a book called 'Principals and Practices of the Magi' it was printed by the Magisterium and seemed to cover what he wanted to know.
"Can you read that?" it was Godric Gryffindor talking to him.
"Yes sir I can," he was still a little nervous and spoke with deference, "I wouldn't borrow it otherwise. Why?"
"So you are Magi then?" It was as much of a statement as a question.
"We don't know," he replied, "apparently I need to be tested by the Magisterium or something."
"You don't need to be tested, you are Magi," Gryffindor said bluntly, "and you can tell your Headmaster that I said so, nice old boy one of the Dumbledore's if I recall correctly. If you can read that book you must be Magi the wards prevent anyone not Magi even reading the title. I wonder how powerful you are, go and find me the copy of 'The Magic of Myrddin' it's up there somewhere."
Harry went back to the shelves and soon found the book that the Gryffindor portrait had asked for and he came back with it, Merlin had joined Gryffindor in the painting.
"Please open it to page ninety six and start reading." Myrddin requested.
He opened the book and found the relevant page then he started to read. "The title is, 'To Create a Portal into the Abyss.' First find the heart..."
"Stop, stop," said Gryffindor, "put the book back where it belongs." Harry did as he had been asked and returned to the painting and Gryffindor said, "You are of the most powerful Magi, that book was written by Myrddin himself and the last person to be able to read that book was me and that was round about a thousand years ago. Myrddin and I will help train you and if possible nobody else must know of your power, you must bring your Headmaster here to talk to Myrddin and me soon, we may well need to start a school of our own here and we will require his help. Now take 'Principals and Practices of the Magi' and read it very carefully, if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask one of us."
Harry took the book back to the study where he sat back down and started reading it; Hermione was still engrossed so he never said anything to her about his conversation with Godric Gryffindor.
After another hour and a half there was a little knock on the door and Harry opened it with a wave of his hand, Ginny came in and started telling Hermione and him how much she had enjoyed the video of Jayne Eyre. She then asked whether there were many more video stories like that, which launched Hermione off into a lecture on the BBC and the classic British authors.
They decided that it was time they should return to the party at the Burrow, so Harry picked up 'Principals and Practices of the Magi' to take with him, but Hermione noticing that she couldn't read the title asked him what it was. He answered, "Please bare with me, both of you, if you see me reading something that you cannot read, please don't ask. If I can tell you about it I will but in a few days both of you may well understand an awful lot more and I will not say anything else except that your requested presents may well turn out to be a lot more than you anticipated."
"Ah! Harry's caught Dumbledore syndrome," said a laughing Ginny, "he has started talking in riddles."
They left the Master Study and said goodbye to all the house elves they could find then they returned to Harry's room in the Burrow, where Harry was pleased that Ginny and Hermione were engrossed in Muggle literature again. He smiled as he heard Hermione say in a Professor McGonagall sort of voice, "You must stop thinking like Ron. Not everything outside of Quidditch is totally unpleasant to read or learn about. Shut up, me! Let's go and party."
"Let's go down and you two go and party," said Harry, "but I must find Dumbledore and talk to him for a while."
Hermione managed, "Wh..." before Ginny cut her off saying, "Come on Hermione we have some serious boogieing to do." It looked for a moment that Hermione was going to argue but then she smiled and they both kissed him and headed off towards the dance floor.
It was not difficult for Harry to find the Headmaster and when he did he said, "Professor Dumbledore will you come with me please we need to talk urgently." The Headmaster agreed and went to Harry's room from where they went to Merlin's Study in the Potters Wheel; Harry cleared Professor Dumbledore to use the Floo as they arrived.
Godric Gryffindor joined Merlin in his frame and the three sat and talked for about an hour, Harry was reading his book only half listening.
"Right Harry," said the Headmaster and Harry closed his book, "the main question is do you intend to use the upgrade enchantment on Miss Granger and Miss Weasley?"
Harry thought for a minute and said, "I will explain it too them this evening and ask them then if they would like it, if they agree then we will carry on in our scheduled time and it will be completed within ten days. I believe that Hermione will agree straight away but Ginny might wait to see how Hermione gets on, the time-table we have already set ourselves actually allows for this, although that was not the intention when we made it."
Professor Dumbledore then said, "In that case if we assume that next year the three of you will be coming here for lessons, a lot of them will be self study as nobody will be able to help you. Some things I will help with myself when I can, it is quite feasible that by the end of the summer the three of you would be able to obtain top marks for your NWTS in Charms, Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts. Does all this sound reasonable?"
"It does," said Harry and then with a smile, "do we have a Potions Lab?"
"There is a very good one in one of the cellars," said Godric, "although I don't know when it was used last but I will speak to the elves they will soon sort it out, we also have extensive greenhouses so Herbology won't be neglected either."
The Headmaster smiled at Harry's look of disappointment and said, "I think we should return to the party or our absence will be questioned."
Professor Dumbledore and Harry took their leave of Merlin and Godric and used the key back to Harry's room.
As soon as they arrived in Harry's room they knew by the sounds filtering in from outside that something not altogether right was going on so they rushed outside to find a big crowd surrounding the dance floor.
Harry saw Rita Skeeter and asked, "What's going on?"
"I do believe that your trap has been sprung, lets go see," she replied quietly with a grin.
They headed for what they supposed was trouble and the crowd soon parted when they realised who was trying to get through, they found a very strange sight, there were eight petrified wizards with their wands out and they were surrounding Hermione and Ginny.
The girls were stuck in the middle but they looked fairly amused and Harry asked, "What's going on Mad Eye?"
"This bunch apparated in about ten minutes ago and we can't move them," Moody was laughing, "what have you done to them?"
Harry was looking at Snape who was sentient although he couldn't move a muscle, when he explained, "I set an anti greasy haired Potions master fly trap and they are stuck in it."
Most of the audience who heard what Harry said started laughing; Harry put out his hands and levitated the two girls over the wizards then too his side where they took turns kissing him in thanks, but to avoid problems they were only allowed one rather chaste kiss each.
"Professor Moody what would you like to do with this lot?" Harry asked.
"He's not in charge I am," was said by, to Harry's amazement, the ministry official who Harry had silenced on the stage a few nights previously.
"I don't think that you understand," Harry said as though he was talking to a small child, "I am in charge here and I asked Mad Eye Moody ex-professor of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry whom I trust, what he want done with this shower. And what he thinks is best is what will be done." Harry looked at Moody and said "Who is this twit and who invited him?" Rita Skeeter and the crowd were really loving this.
Moody answered, "I don't know Potter he just came with the Aurors but he's not one of them, who is he Kingsley?"
The ministry official interrupted, "I am th..." Harry waved his hand and several things happened, the ministry official went ridged he also went to sleep and the eight invading wizards all went to sleep as well.
"Who is he?" Harry asked Kingsley quietly.
He replied, "His name is Marvin Dinkwater and he is a Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, he just walked into the department and said that he was leading this foray. I don't know how he knew we had just been alerted."
"Fling him in the slammer with the rest," Moody said, "we will check him out thoroughly. We had better move this lot out of the way and let the party go on."
"You can't just throw him in the slammer Mad Eye," a rather smartly dressed lady of about fifty said, "you will have me asking you why he is there. What have you done to him and why? But you're right lets move them all first."
"Amelia, how are you?" said Moody, with what for him passed for a smile. "Harry can we have them in the first tent please, we have cleared it out already?"
Harry waved his hand and the infiltrators disappeared, Kingsley exclaimed, "Where have they gone?"
"Mad Eye asked me to put them in the first tent," Harry said calmly, "so I did."
As they all walked over to the tent Kingsley Shacklebolt and Mad Eye Moody explained why they were worried about Marvin Dinkwater to Amelia Bones, who, with the demise of Cornelius Fudge, had changed jobs from being 'Head of Magical Law Enforcement' to become the 'Minister for Magic'. In the same reshuffle Arthur Weasley had been made the Head of Muggle Liaison, a considerable elevation in both status and salary.
As they neared the tent the Minister turned to Harry and said, "I haven't thanked you for what you did for us all, I was coming to the party the other night to, well party and I would of thanked you then but that bunch of creeps latched on to me and you Ms Skeeter were spot on." She was shaking Harry's hand then just before they entered the tent she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
Hermione said, "That was an extremely dangerous thing for you to do, look." She made a small crack in the tent door flap and Amelia looked out to see a lot of furious girls staring and muttering towards the tent.
Harry conjured an armchair in the middle of the floor then he relaxed the eight petrified wizards placing them in a sleeping line to one side of the tent Dinkwater he sat, slouching, in the chair. Then he said, "Dinkwater will become conscious and answer all of your questions honestly then I will put him back to sleep. When he is revived fully he will not remember the conversation. We can do exactly the same with each of them in turn."
Dinkwater sat up straight with a jerk and said, "What would you like to know?"
Harry left Amelia, Kingsley and Mad Eye questioning Dinkwater, he went with the Headmaster over to the sleeping octet and Professor Dumbledore said, "Who's this Harry, we have no idea, the other seven we know but this one looks strange?"
Harry answered, "He has himself under a very good and quite powerful illusion charm, let me just remove it." There seemed to be a mental struggle for half a minute then the appearance of the wizard changed completely and he started crying in his sleep.
Mad Eye called over, "Albus, have you heard of Artimus Marvolo?"
The Headmaster pointed at the newly revealed wizard and said, "This is him and that is not his real name that's Artimus Smith, he is one of the most powerful members of the Magisterium and if he is our enemy he could be extremely dangerous."
Very quietly Harry said to the Headmaster, "I can reduce his power if necessary, with the power he has at the moment I am possibly the only one who can contain him and I do not want to spend the rest of my life as his jailer."
"What do you mean by reduce his power," queried Professor Dumbledore, "could you make him like a first year Neville for instance?"
"I could but do you remember him before he became Magi?" Harry asked. "It would be very easy for me to return him to that state and it would be both stable and permanent."
"I do Harry," replied the Headmaster, "he was rather like Draco Malfoy, competent but not remarkable. If he were to be locked away like that without a wand he would be no problem to the guards."
Harry did as he had promised and then he started doing summoning charms and collected twenty-seven wands and about fifty phials of various potions plus a dozen of Veritaserum from Snape.
It was seven thirty and Harry, the two girls, Professor Dumbledore together with the Minister for Magic were encased inside a security bubble in the lounge of the Burrow, sipping Butterbeer.
The nine prisoners had been questioned and were now on their way to Azkaban the wizard prison.
Rita Skeeter had been thanked and given the limits to what she could write and then she had left to produce her article for tomorrows 'Daily Prophet'.
The majority of the Aurors had departed, only Kingsley and Tonks remained, they seemed, together with Remus and Mad Eye, to be partying.
"For the sake of my sanity can we all call each other by our first names?" Amelia asked, everyone nodded and she continued, "I really don't know what good curtailing Ms Skeeters report will do, a good cross section of the Wizard World was watching what happened. Anyway the invaders called themselves, 'The Hand of Power,'...
Harry and Hermione burst out laughing and Hermione spluttered, "Sorry everyone but that makes them sound like Middle Eastern Muggle revolutionary crackpots."
With a smile Amelia continued, "They wanted to take over where Voldemort left off, their original idea had been that when Voldemort and Harry fought they were going to kill the survivor and take over Voldemort's organisation. Of course it did not quite work out that way because you also took out his Death Eaters at the same time. Snape survived because Artimus Smith had already removed the link of Snape's soul to Voldemort, this put Snape more in control of his own destiny, in the end it kept him alive. So Harry what did you do to Smith?"
"I can not tell you exactly what I did," Harry answered, "sufficient to say that he is no longer Magi and never will be again. So are we now sure that we have got to the bottom of all Snape's scheming?"
"I am quite certain that we have," the Headmaster said, "and there's a perfectly good party going to waste out there and it only has a couple of hours left, I suggest we go and join it."
It was eleven thirty, as promised the party had finished at ten and it had been declared by one and all to have been the best party in the history of the Universe ever. The detritus of the festivities had been cleared and the garden of the Burrow had been returned to near normal, it was now very tidy and had many new plants and a perfect lawn.
Harry and the two girls were in his room, they were ready for bed and he had cast a silencing bubble around them, then he passed them a quill, ink and parchment then said, "I need to explain something to you about Magi and such things, you can ask any questions you want to when I have finished explaining.
I have finished reading this book it is called the 'Principals and Practices of the Magi' and it has explained a lot of what the power is and some of what it is capable of. It is limited however because it is produced by the Magisterium and like any book written by a committee such as that it only contains the information that they are willing to share with each other. The majority of Magi are extremely distrustful especially of each other so they try not to tell each other anything. However besides what is written here I know a lot of things that I seem to have gathered from 'the Ether', Merlin and Godric told me not to be surprised, or worried, if I found myself starting to acquire knowledge this way.
Now to us, we can of course stay as we are but I have one chance to make each of you Magi," there was an intake of breath from both of the girls, "it is when I take your virginity. You must decide if it is what you want, I do not know so I can not tell you just how powerful you will become, but whatever, it will be very powerful. For my part I would like you both to accept the power if for no other reason than your own safety, so if you decide to make the change almost no one will be capable of harming you.
That's it."
"Wow!" Hermione said, "I knew that you were fretting on something but I would never have guessed at this. Of course I accept as you no doubt were certain I would."
"Ron could have told me you would accept if I had explained it to him," he was grinning, "but let me explain this as well. There are fifteen levels of Magi, Tom Riddle and the Headmaster are level four, Godric Gryffindor was level ten and Merlin was level twelve. Merlin has tentatively placed me at level fourteen, but it is impossible to really place someone who is more powerful than you are, you just know that they are more powerful and if the difference is a lot it is as well to be very polite."
Harry had finished and Ginny said, "It's such a lot to take in, of course my first instinct is to say yes, but really I am not completely sure."
"Let me explain a bit more and perhaps make it a bit easier for you Ginny." Harry said, "We are setting up a special school at the Potters Wheel for the Magi next year and we will drop out of regular Charms, Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts classes. It isn't your birthday for a week and you don't have to definitely decide until then. So if you do it and then feel that you don't like it I can undo it easily but I won't then be able to redo it. So you are certainly not to fret about it, you have time to decide and you can see how Hermione gets on."
Ginny looked relieved and said, "Then you have made it easy for me, the provisional answer is yes!" and she kissed him. "And you do know why it was so easy for Hermione to decide, she's just thinking of all those new books she can read."
This last taunt of Ginny's provoked a lot of tickling and tongue poking out prior to some passionate kissing and things that I will leave to your imaginations and it was all followed by the three of them falling peacefully asleep in each other's arms.
Authors Note: To ensure the constant flow of chapters PLEASE REVIEW.