Harry Potter & The True Power

The Making of Lord Harry James Potter Part 4

Several security goblins surrounded both Harry & Luna. Gringotts was known for its safety. More important than that, Harry was one of the most important persons on the planet for them, second only to Merlin himself and equal to the queen.

It was no surprise that he had been given a security detail. Soon both of them were taken to a conference room nearby. Rather, it would be more accurate to say that he led all of them to the meeting room.

Back in the lobby, today it was the auror Nymphadora Tonks on duty. As Gringotts was the place Harry had disappeared from, it was the most probable place for him to return. As she saw the event take place, she only heard two words, Harry & Luna. Individually, she might not have noticed it but the DOM fiasco had been quite avidly reported in the last few weeks and the name Luna had been there as one of the friends of Harry.

She got up and tried to confirm her suspicions by looking at the two people. But before she could say or see anything, a group of Goblin security guards surrounded them. Usually it wouldn't have mattered because the tallest of goblins were not much taller than four feet and a few inches. But, both the people were down on the floor. A couple of seconds later both got up, with their backs to her and walked away into a corridor. She tried to follow them. As soon as she reached there, she was stopped by a security troll.

She returned to her post. She had been ordered not to leave unless they were sure it was Harry they had seen. She would wait for her replacement to come.

Luna was flabbergasted. Coming here was nothing but a desperate attempt to do something about Harry. The information she had was of extreme importance to him. She was sure of it. And now that she had found him, she was worried even more. "Goblins protecting Harry?" This was something even she couldn't have thought of.

They were walking a long corridor. What was more surprising to her was that it was Harry who was leading them. Moreover, the goblins who were with them felt more like an escort for safety than a security detail for causing a problem at Gringotts. A couple of minutes later, they entered a huge office. It was made tastefully in oak wood. Strangely, all the furniture inside was of human standards. Luna, a bit scared now, came to a halt as the man she was sure was Harry, went on the other side of the table, and smiled.

The moment the name "Luna" had escaped from his lips, Harry was annoyed with himself. In almost all the circumstances, he would never have slipped up. But seeing this girl, whom he felt was completely different from the Luna he knew had put him in a bit of shock.

Suddenly, his eyes stopped on a woman with bubble gum pink hairs trying to look at him. Damn, he cursed himself. He was sure it was Tonks. Luckily, seeing the whole event as well as recognizing Harry, several goblin guards came and surrounded both of them. Acting quickly, he managed to get both himself and Luna up in a fashion that they had their backs to her. After that, he walked thru the long corridors and entered a spare office which was used by senior officers of the Gringotts. It was a charmed office. The looks of the furniture as well as the color combination and style of its contents changed to the taste of the senior officer. Usually, it just looked like their office.

On the way, Harry had read the thoughts emanating from Luna. He was a master mind mage himself and had gone way past the rudimentary techniques of occlumency as well as leglimency. He could read her worries for him as well as that she thought that she had some terribly important thing to tell him. Deciding to trust her, he entered the room and then, moved over to his side of the desk and smiled at Luna.

"Hello Luna!" he said simply.

Luna was taken aback. This was not the Harry potter she had went to fight with just a fortnight or so ago. A few weeks back, he been a shortish teenager but now he looked like someone just out of teens, maybe twenty or twenty one years of age. But there was more, this man, had the bright eyes full of knowledge & wisdom. He had confidence which was quite different from the Harry she knew. He had had the confidence borne of his will to do the right thing. This man had the confidence of being able to do what he wanted.

She was not the daughter of John Lovegood for nothing. Over the years, she had heard of various stories which were too much off the norm. But she knew that this change can only be a result of time and toil. But time had not passed. Suddenly she remembered time turners. She couldn't stop herself and said, "You have been using time turners, haven't you?"

Harry was amused. He had read all the thoughts being projected by her and to say that he was smiling internally would not be wrong. More than that, he was impressed. She had managed to deduce primarily what had happened within a second of looking at him.

"No wonder you are in Ravenclaw. Where have you been hiding yourself all these years?" Harry said smiling. The innuendo was not lost on Luna. She blushed.

"Now that you have found me, why were you looking at all? You are not freelancing for your father's newspaper, are you?" Harry continued. He had not been in his friends' company for so long. He had been lonely and had been yearning for company of his own age. He had been forced to grow up again by the fates.

Suddenly, Luna fell serious. Wittingly or not, Harry had given her an opening to tell him. She had been wondering how to tell all these things to him.

"As a matter of fact, I have something for you, which I think should be of great importance to you." From her purse, she took out a parchment and handed it over to Harry.

Although Harry had found out that she had something important to give him, he had no idea of its import. As he read thru the manuscript of the two articles written by Rita Skeeter, his brows creased with worry. He had known that Dumbledore had made a wreck of his life, but if this article was to be believed, it was a pattern for him. Yet he could not discount the fact that Rita had written all these. She was an artist when it came to misreporting.

"Are you sure it's all true? You know Rita's history with the truth."

"Yes. Father has interviewed her sources as well as the viewed the memory in our pensieve."

Harry nodded, reading it all once again. Though he now had total recall, still it was very hard for him to believe the extant to which all the wizards had been fooled for all these years. Still, he must confirm it all first.

Luna, on the other side of the table, looked admiringly at Harry. He looked so mature, so confident, so…together. It was as if all of his resources were working in a cohesive manner. She was even more amazed at the change in Harry. Such a change could not be just because of passage of time. Lost in her thoughts, she never noticed that Harry was now looking straight at her.

A few seconds later, getting out the muse, she looked at Harry and saw him looking straight at her. Before she could react, Harry said, "Thanks Luna. I appreciate this. Can you arrange for a meeting with Rita? I would like to confirm it myself. It's not that I don't trust you, but there are ways to even fool a pensieve."

Luna was about to say something but was again mollified by the reason he gave for interviewing Rita. Even she was curious about how to fool the pensieves. They were famous for the fact that they only could find a real memory and not a planted one.

"Can I use your floo?" Luna had already stood up and was walking towards the fireplace when Harry nodded. She took a pinch of powder from her purse and said "John Lovegood, The Quibbler." Immediately, the fire turned green and they could see Luna put her face through the fire.

A few seconds later, she receded.

"Rita is already in his office. If you want, we can call them here or we can go there. I haven't told him where I found you as yet." Harry was amazed at the quick thinking displayed by Luna. He was getting more impressed by the minute with this new Luna. He had always liked the old one, but this one was worthy of respect.

"We will go there." Turning to the guards, he said, "I am going to Mr. Lovegood's office. I don't think it would be wise for us to advertise ourselves at the moment. I will activate the amulet if I need any of you." It was clear that the goblins were not happy but acquiesced. "This is getting even weirder!" Luna thought. Goblins were known to be barely tolerable of wizards. The deference they showed to Harry was unheard of.

Harry nodded to the goblins and a few seconds later, Harry passed thru the flu just after Luna.

Voldemort looked at the numerous new death-eater recruits standing in front of him. He had lost quite a few of his senior death eaters in their botched attempt at the Department of Mysteries. He himself had very less trained troops to setup a rescue operation at the moment. He needed some heavy duty recruiting. As the ministry had now accepted his return, there were bound to be some attempts at stopping his death eaters.

In his last rein, his biggest weapon was the fear. Since his near death experience with the young potter brat, there was now hope that he and his death eaters could be defeated. Earlier, his inner circle had been young, in their prime and very powerful. Now, due to all the years of uselessness, most of them had developed paunches and were more or less lethargic. So, he had decided to put some new blood into his followers. There was never a lack of purebloods lusting for power.

As he looked thru the long line of new recruits, he set about managing and organizing them into groups. This fight would be based on terror and terror had a prize. He needed to decide which one of his new followers were good enough to make the payment.

All the wizards and witches he saw were referred internally thru the present death eater rolls. People have this odd thing about power. They want it. He had it. What better way to get it than to join him. Some were even children of the present death eaters. Draco, Lucius's son was among them. It had been made clear to Draco that he would be joining the ranks as a member of the Hogwarts team.

Voldemort had decided to put in a team of young students, without any marks, to spy for him. He was sure that very soon the day or reckoning will arrive. He wanted to have someone attack Hogwarts from inside as well. He had high hopes from him and the team he was going to make.

"Draco!" he called out. The young Malfoy heir came forward and dropped down to his knees. He bowed and waited for the dark lord to command.

Feeling the subservience, Voldemort nodded and said. "Rise Draco! I have a very special assignment for you. Follow me!" With that, Voldemort turned and began to walk briskly inside the manor.

"Draco! I want to place you in-charge of my plan inside the Hogwarts." With that, the dark lord started to tell Draco in detail of what he wanted to do when he went back in and ended up with telling him of the details of the training he was going to go thru for the next 40 days.

Fawkes had been extremely worried. He had felt great concern. He had been unavailable to Albus for the last so many days. As the familiar of the old wizard, he was duty bound to help in any way he can. Yet, under the orders of their king, he had remained incommunicado for the last fortnight. But now, he had to return and he was worried. Due to his connection, Dumbledore was able to understand his thoughts a bit. He had to be very careful.
The absence of Harry's news had taken great toll on all the Weasleys and Hermione, though in different ways for different reasons. Arthur & Molly were worried about their surrogate son. Bill & Charlie were worried but only at the periphery. They were mostly away at very demanding work. It was a concern to them, but not overtly so. They had far more important things to do!

The twins were a bit down but their shop was a roaring success which made up for some of their despondency. It was the three youngest people living here who were most affected. Ron had been worried but when he saw that Hermione was a lot more worried and didn't seem to take notice of him at all. When Hermione had decided to stay at the Weasleys due to security reasons, he had all but decided to make a move. But now, she wasn't giving him time of the day. He remembered what had happened nearly ten days back.

It had been two days since Harry's disappearance and Hermione was still crying most of the times. He had decided to comfort her. She was in Ginny's room at that time.

"Hermione," he had said, "there is no need to cry. Everything will be alright." He tried to calm her and just like that, he had put his arms around her and comforted her. Everything was fine till then. Feeling exhausted, she had put her head on his shoulders and tried to calm herself. A few moments later, as she turned to thank him, she felt Ron's face come down on her and tried to kiss her a bit too forcefully. What had happened, from Ron's point of view was that, as he put his arms around her, she had snuggled closer to him, and calmed down. He felt that this was the perfect thing and as he saw her turn her face towards him, he acted upon his fantasy.

He had wanted to do it since the third year and now he had his chance. He kissed her. He felt her resist a bit, but thought that she was just a bit apprehensive. He wanted to prove to her that he was the best choice for her and acted upon the instruction he had gotten from most of his friends, he pushed.

Hermione was totally taken aback by this event. As soon as she got control of herself, she tried to pull away and Ron's hand pulled her to him. She was getting mad. With a jerk, she pulled away and slapped Ron right across his face and went away crying. She had wanted to go back to her place but Dumbledore had forbidden it. From that day, she had not said a word, despite his several attempts.

He had been having severe pangs of jealousy as well as bouts of hatred towards Harry Potter. He was sure that the reasons Hermione had rejected him was because of her worry for the blasted have-it-all. And now she wouldn't even look at him, let alone speak. His pangs of jealousy were growing newer heads by the second.

He hated Harry Potter. In his eyes, the know-it-all deserved the have-it-all.

Ginny, well Ginny was quietest. If they didn't know any better, she was almost like a different person.

And it went on like that, Arthur & Molly worried, the twins successful, Hermione doing her work & ignoring everybody, Ron getting greener by envy by the second, his envy turning to hatred and Ginny being invisible. It was not a good time for the Weasley family.

John had placed several privacy wards as requested by Luna only a few seconds earlier. He was sitting on the sofa with Rita at his side. Then, a few seconds later, Luna appeared followed by an average tall man with unruly black hair. He looked about twenty. They both thought that he was a guard for Harry and turned their eyes again at the fireplace, expecting it flare once more.

Just then, they heard a small laughter which John realized was his daughter's. They both turned to find her laughing pleasantly with the other man smiling, laughter dancing in his eyes.

Both John & Rita looked again at the young man, and to their horror realized that this young man was the boy-who-lived.

"I am sorry Mr. Potter. I did not realize it was you. I mean, you have…" not finding the correct words, settled for "grown up."

Harry smiled at the obvious discomfort caused by their inability to recognize him. The one thing that had rarely happened to him ever since he had arrived in the Wizarding world. He had enjoyed these few moments of anonymity.

"It's alright, Mr. Lovegood. I have changed a lot." He smiled and then turned to Rita as he heard John say, "Call me John, Harry."

Rita turned her face down as Harry turned to look at her. She was ashamed at everything she had done earlier to Harry. Harry read everything which was floating at the forefront of her mind. Sometimes, he thought that perhaps he was as bad as Dumbledore. He too had this habit of entering other peoples mind to find out what they wanted to know. During his many sessions with Merlin, he had found out that whenever Dumbledore wanted to know what Harry had been up to, he would ask him "Do you have something to tell him, Mr. Potter?" the obvious response by any kid is to think what he wishes to hide and then say no. Just like he had done and in those few milliseconds, the headmaster knew all.

Anyway, both his mother and Merlin had told him that there was a slight but important difference. He never entered the other person's mind. He was just able to read whatever the other person was projecting. A fine line, but none-the-less, he didn't fool himself. He knew what he was doing was wrong. He was invading the other person's privacy. But there was a war on and he couldn't afford to take any chances.

Coming out of his thought, he saw that Rita still hadn't said a thing.

"Rita. I know what you want to say. I won't lie to you and say that it's okay, because its not. I would just like to say that after hearing your side of story from Luna, I would like to give you a second chance and I hope that I don't regret it."

During his long sessions with several political experts, he had seen his slytherin side come to surface. He was very proficient at it now.

Luna was looking at Harry once more in the most peculiar fashion. Frankly, she was amazed out of her wits. If it hadn't been the fact, that she was sure in her heart that this man was Harry Potter, she would certainly doubt it by the way he was behaving. He could certainly have been a slytherin. She didn't know how right she actually was.

"But I would like to tell me your story. I have read the article you wrote, but I need more information as to why you changed your heart. I would like to be frank with you. My trust is very hard to gain, but if you have it, then I will help you in any way I can."

Rita thought about the last statement. She was amazed at the change she saw in Harry. When she had last met him, he had been this wet behind the year puppy dog on the leash of Dumbledore. But now, in a very slytherin way, he had asked her to declare and take sides. She approved. If anyone can take on both the self appointed lords of light and darkness and come out victorious, she was it was this young man.

So she told him her entire story. Of her slytherin background, the siding with Dumbledore and the promise he made, and most important of all, how he kept them. Then she told him of her hatred and how that had been the reason of all her antagonism towards him. She ended with how she found about Voldemort and Dumbledore and her attempt to publish and the subsequent firing and her attempt to get in touch with John Lovegood to find an ally in this war she was now ready to fight.

Harry had been looking at her all along and was now sure that she was telling the truth. As the story ended, he was getting surer that she could be a good ally in his war against oppression in the Wizarding world.

As Rita finished her story, he said, "I am sorry for all that happened to you. Rita, in more ways than one, we are alike. Both our parents were offered protection by the same man for doing the right thing. Although, I will say that the final decision was our parents, the trust they placed on Dumbledore was an important factor in their decision. And the way he went about treating that trust as common-place rather than special, both our families as well as our lives were destroyed."

"For that reason, I can't forgive him and I suspect, neither can you. I hope that our missions are similar and we both will fight in our own ways, to the best of our abilities. If you would agree, I would like to become your ally in this fight for our rights. More than that, I would like you to become a part of the family. My family, which is going to fight, till their last breath for the right thing"

As Harry finished, Rita's eyes were getting brighter as for the first time, she found someone who was ready to include her in his own family. Feeling too emotional, she just nodded her acceptance. For she knew if she said anything, she just might loose control.

A few minutes later, as everybody relaxed a bit after the emotional events which had just unfolded, Harry now looked at John.

"John! In your opinion, what is the best way to set this right?"

John looked at Luna, who looked back at him. Both of them nodded. Harry turned his head towards Luna, as to his surprise, it was Luna who answered the question rather than John.

"Harry. We believe that there are four pillars in our society at the moment. Voldemort, Dumbledore, the Ministry of magic and you. Voldemort is totally against you openly where as both Dumbledore and ministry would oppose your actions thru the glass of public opinion. And there are only three things which control public opinion, The WWN, the daily prophet and the quibbler."

"You have us with you. We need to somehow get control of the other two to start a revolution from inside the community. It is useless to fight for people who won't fight for themselves. We must raise…," she would have continued longer had she not seen the awed looks being delivered by both Harry and Rita.

"What? Can't a girl have some opinions of her own?" she said, exasperated.

They all laughed at her discomfort.

Harry thought it was the right time to act and said, "All three of you be ready to leave for a meeting in three hours time. I will floo you."

With that, he left via floo. They could not make out the words.

Harry arrived in his own office at the lowest underground level of the Gringotts. Till a few days ago, this level had only one office. That too was hardly ever used. It belonged to the queen of Goblins. However as soon as it became clear that it was Harry who was the de-facto owner of the Gringotts, she wanted to vacate it but Harry wouldn't hear about it. As far as he was concerned, Gringotts belonged to the whole goblin race and nobody else's. He had gone as far as to deliver a transfer deed of all his shares back to the goblin race.

The offer had been summarily rejected. This offer had one benefit though, earlier, he had enjoyed his status as the descendent of Merlin. But now, he was respected in his own rights as well. They had insisted at his taking the office of the chief of Gringotts. In the end, it had been negotiated that they would magically re-enhance the floor and make two offices instead of one.

It had been acceptable to both the parties.

Now he had one of the most important offices at Gringotts with an apartment for his use.

Summoning his private assistant, he asked Ragnok to come over at his earliest convenience. He was in front of Harry in less than a minute.

Harry had learned not to waste his breadth telling Ragnok to be relaxed with him. But the idea was accepted. He had bent enough to call him lord potter and very rarely, Lord Harry. It was far better than lord Phoenix was. That was his magical title. Even he didn't know what it meant. Merlin had been delaying his queries. He always said, "All in good time son." Merlin could be so annoying sometimes.

Anyway, as soon as Ragnok came in, Harry asked him.

"Ragnok. I need your help"

"How can I be of service, Lord Potter?"

Harry told him of his requirement to control the media. Ragnok smiled. This was just too easy.

"Lord Potter. This can be easily arranged. As a matter of fact, daily prophet is owned by Constantine Media Company. It also owns the WWN. However, the company is heavily in debt to us. Actually, the CMC is owned by none-other than Lord Malfoy. He has been taking a lot of credit from us and has his company ledged as security."

"I believe his wife was waiting for some amount to come out of the black fortune to pay off all his debts. That's why they have been pressing very hard for the probate of the young lord Black's will. The will was probated yesterday and Mrs. Malfoy apparently fainted from the size of estate, rather, the lack of size. They have washed their hands off and have transferred to onus to you."

"We have already sent in a notice for forfeiture. We should be in control of the company in an hour or so."

The fates had once again smiled at him. He had been quite worried about how to get control but this was nothing but divine intervention.

"How much is Gringotts owed?" Harry asked.

"It doesn't matter my lord. You are Gringotts." Ragnok said sincerely.

"No. I shall be jostling a few big names and I don't want you to be officially connected. You people are my family. I won't put you at risk"

Understanding this, he mentioned a sum which was a pitiful amount to him. He asked the total amount be taken from his special McCall account and the company be transferred to him.

So, nearly ninety minutes later, completing the official takeover, he flooed Luna and asked them to come over to the Gringotts Lobby where they would be met by a goblin security personnel who would be leading them to him.

Fifteen minutes later, John, Luna & Rita entered his office properly awed. To tell the truth, they weren't even sure if they were really awake or hallucinating.

From there on the entire plan came into place and now, at the daily prophet's offices, in a few moments, the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge was coming to meet the new editor and chief reporter of the refurbished and honest daily prophet, Miss Luna Lovegood and Ms Rita Skeeter respectively. He had no idea thru which minefield he just decided to wade thru.

Author's Notes:

I thank all of you for all the reviews. They were my highest for any chapter. Thank you for appreciating my endeavor.

As to my question, you will get the reply in either chapter 19 or 20. I am not sure which. I haven't written them as yet.

But let me give you a hint, two of you were close.

gl

PS : Shadowed rains: sorry for the error. i never knew. let me know if u like this chapter.

Nishrin: its been 16 days since his disappearance. voldy was initially busy getting himself up and then was recruiting. he knows about the wards but also knows that harry is not there. as he is short of key powerful innercircle, he doesn't want to loose any more of his followers. In my book, a dark lord cannot be stupid. he may be a megalomaniac, how can he not be, but being an idiot is another thing.

Aria-chan, edengrave, warra, maben00, justme, anonymous fan, jeff, lady-slytherin-warrior, darkgryffin,karone-sakura,dumbledore, dragonkiss1984: thanks for the review. your guesses are good, but the answer with all the clues left will be in the chapter as mentioned above

ty

gl

as usual, all of you have been great.