Disclaimer: I own nothing; it all belongs to J.K.Rowling. I'm just borrowing the characters to play with for a while. This is for pleasure only, no profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.


CHAPTER FIFTEEN

"Professor Potter?" the Headmaster asked.

Harry inwardly was cheering at the massive success. "Yes, Headmaster?"

"Did you by chance just kill Hogwarts?"

Harry blanched. "Oh crap, oh crap. I didn't even think of that."

Albus took a step back. He whispered out, "You did kill…?"

Harry shook his head. "No no. She should be fine, but she is going to be so pissed at me. Oh lordy." Harry began franticly scrambling through his pockets for something before locating a potion and drinking it. His body began to glow and magic was emanating from him in waves. "Oh that's better. Now, let's get some answers here." Harry called out, "Apprentice Dobby!"

Nothing seemed to happen, though more than a few students seemed to whipping their wands trying to cast any sort of spell they could. None were working.

It took about ten more seconds of silence before an exhausted and panting smartly dressed house elf came sprinting into the hall. "Master..." he gasped out between breaths. "Sorry…" he panted, "took…" he huffed, "so long," he finished.

Harry was laughing at Dobby's inability to pop to him. "Settle down and catch your breath, Dobby."

Dobby nodded and was leaning forward with his hands on his knees.

"Why are you so tired? I thought house elves had a nearly unlimited supply of energy."

Dobby caught his breath and replied. "Not unlimited, but a lot. Dobby was in his room, when he felt connection to Master disappear. Then it came back, then you called. Dobby popped as far as the magic would take me. Then Dobby had to run through Hogsmeade and grounds to get here."

Harry's eyes went wide. "You sprinted through Hogsmeade and across the grounds in less than fifteen seconds? Good gracious Dobby."

Dobby nodded and asked, "You called for Dobby?"

Harry shook his head banishing the picture of a house-elf chasing down a cheetah from his mind. "Right, yes. You wouldn't happen to know how Miss Tonks could have possibly broken through some of my protection enchantments and wards on a certain drawer, would you?"

Dobby meekly dropped his head. "Dobby might happen to know."

"Dobby," Harry said warningly.

"Dobby decided to help out old Nicky."

"Why would you do that? You know how dangerous some of the stuff in there is."

Dobby looked up and shrugged. "Because it's funny." Dobby made a cheeky smile and winked.

Harry lost his stern tone and started chuckling back. "Good point, Apprentice."

"Harry!" the Headmaster scolded in a surprising impression of Molly Weasley.

Harry shrugged showing just how apologetic he felt. "I'm sure Nicholas is aware what's happened and is hopefully on his way."

Albus inquired, "I don't suppose you have any more of that potion you took, do you?"

Harry smiled. "I've got quite a bit of it in fact, but it won't do you much good. It's made specifically for a singular person's magical signature. And I think only Nicky and I have ever made it or have it."

"And how long does it take to brew?"

Harry winced. "Just under a week."

Albus sighed. "Oh dear."

Harry explained. "Don't worry though. That particular bomb's nullification field should only last for 48 hours."

"Two days!" Hermione shrieked.

Tonks seemed to be slinking away as quietly as she could.

Harry nodded. "Yup, and just what on earth were you thinking doing that, Miss Tonks?"

Tonks quickly drew the attention of everyone in the hall. "Eeep. I didn't know that would happen, I swear!"

Harry raised an eyebrow. "So you thought you would just throw a different bomb in my face?"

Tonks realized it didn't look too good for her. "It was supposed to be a dungbomb!"

Harry continued, "And have you ever seen a dungbomb that size?"

"I don't know what it looks like." Tonks explained. "Nicholas said it was a new super dungbomb you'd developed that actually followed a person around and resisted being dispelled."

Severus stood up angrily pointing at the Defense professor. "I knew that was you, you cheeky brat!"

Harry laughed, "Actually no, that one was Nicholas."

Severus' face purpled a bit and he exclaimed, "Nnnghaaa!"

Hermione threw her arms into the air in triumph, "I'm not alone!"

All of sudden Albus, Severus, Hermione, and even Draco realized that this entire episode and upcoming 48 hours was an intentional machination of the Defense professor. There were many muffled grunting sounds and angry faces.

Albus stood up and addressed the students still wondering what was going on. "Attention students. Classes today are canceled due to an inability to do anything magical. It appears we can all try living as muggles for the next two days. Any emergencies, problems, or complaints, please bring them to your DADA professor," Albus explained with a smile. "As he is the only one capable of magic, and nnnnghh." Apparently Albus couldn't point out he was to blame for this as he frustratingly discovered.

Nicholas burst through the door with a couple of Unspeakables trailing behind him. "Albus, sweetie, 'nnnnghh' is even barmier than 'nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak'." Nicholas shook his head. "It's unbecoming of a Headmaster."

Albus replied with an angry, "rrubbluhh."

Harry asked, "Did you take your potion?"

Nicholas nodded. "As soon as I reached a non-magical Hogsmeade. It appears that you've managed to nullify the magic all around within a good two mile radius."

"Hey now!" Harry said. "Don't you blame this on me. You're the one who had to have helped Miss Tonks get through those protections."

Nicholas raised an eyebrow. "I told her how to find a special dungbomb."

Tonks defended herself. "I didn't know what it looked like. It was right where you said they would be!"

Nicholas agreed. "No one blames you, Tonky. If anyone, it's the cheeky Defense professor's fault."

"No way!" Harry yelled. "This is your fault, old man. You didn't even know what dangerous things I might have put in there."

"You shouldn't even have dangerous things in a school!"

"I can't leave them lying around where someone as stupid as you could stumble across them. I need to keep an eye on them!"

"I'll give you stupid you rotten-"

Tonks jumped in between the childish bickering. "Stop! Both of you. It was an accident. Neither of you intended this to happen."

Tonks was briefly interrupted by Albus, Severus, Hermione and Draco mumbling, "Muhmuhmuhmmm."

Tonks continued. "But we could sure use two working wizards around here."

Harry and Nicholas seemed to growl at each other and nodded. Harry asked, "Did you bring any prototypes?"

Nicholas nodded. "I brought one of the more powerful rings, and half a dozen slightly buggy wands. And I picked these guys up so they would let you borrow a power stone." Nicholas said pointing over his shoulder at the so far speechless Unspeakables.

"Oh good. So you're going to jolt her awake?" Harry asked.

Nicholas smiled and shook his head. "Oh heavens, no. That gets to be your job. You're the young rascal with more power than brains. I'm getting soft in my old age."

Harry rolled his eyes. "She ever going to forgive us?"

Nicholas smiled. "I think so. You take these two, you know where, and see if you can't kickstart her heart. The portraits and staircases need to be working so people can even get around. Come to think of it, there's probably some scared kids trapped in their common rooms and other areas. Even the ghosts seem to have disappeared. No sign of Minnie either." Nicholas finished with a smile and showed his fingers crossed for luck.

Harry nodded, "Alright. I think Professor Granger would be the best test subject for the ring." Harry said with a mischievous smile. "Something tells me she wouldn't refuse a ring you give her."

Hermione dropped her head in an effort to hide her blush. Nicholas smiled and shook his head. "Get to work, lazy bones."

Harry and the two still oddly silent Unspeakables left the Great Hall. Harry led them through a maze of odd corridors and passages before ending up in front of an unmarked wall. "Unspeakables really don't speak?" Harry asked.

One of them opened his mouth and apparently nothing was coming out. He shook his head resigned. Harry saw their struggles and opened up his legilimency senses and picked up some of their thoughts. "Ahh, I see. Don't worry, I won't search for or share any secrets I stumble across. I just picked up some of your errant thoughts and realized you have a spell on you that allows you to speak only certain things. Apparently the nullification field prevents the spell from allowing you to speak even dormantly. Nice spell. The field seems to stop some of your active defenses of the mind too. Never thought about the usefulness of the potion for interrogations with masters of occlumency. Anyways, stand back."

The two Unspeakables looked a bit unhappy about this but stepped back just as Harry cast a blasting curse that tore massive whole in the wall. Inside was a room, the Unspeakables had never heard of nor seen. The stone was polished and clean and there were runes around all the walls, floor, and ceiling.

Harry explained, "This is the sort of heart of Hogwarts. Her brain, or magical core or whatever you want to call it. I need to try and link the power stone to her and then I'm going to have to just fill her as full as I can."

The Unspeakables nodded understanding though were holding back chuckles at Harry's choice of words.

"I'm probably going to pass out," Harry explained and saw the Unspeakables snickering openly now. "She's going to take a bit more juice than just a tickling charm even with the power stone magnification. Please try to keep her from killing me, if I do manage to wake her up."

The Unspeakables were shaking with repressed laughter. They traded a look and smiled at Harry.

Harry grumbled about mute pervert sadists, and set the stone down in the center of a ring of blood red glowing runes. "Err, you might want to step back a bit." Harry suggested. "Actually come to think of it, you may want to shield your eyes or look the other way too."

The two Unspeakables looked at each other and in unison both pulled out a pair of sunglasses and put them on.

Harry was reminded of secret agents and chuckled a bit. He took a salve out of a pocket in his robes and covered his hands in it. He then placed both hands on the power stone and began chanting a long ancient druidic incantation. His entire body was glowing in power and it was clearly being fed into the stone. Cracks of light began spreading out through the stone, like a spider web growing across the floor. By the time enough of the magic reached the ring of runes, it was like a floodlight just flared to life and a pillar of energy shot skyward from the ring of runes, encompassing Harry. The magic in Hogwarts flared to life and spread throughout the castle.

Harry fell backward after significantly over-exerting himself. He quietly began mumbling, "Listen, sweetie, I'm sorry. It was an accident, I mean… please don't kill me."

The Unspeakables, whose eyes were still stinging even with the protection of muggle sunglasses, stepped forward to grab Harry when the ground around the young man seemed to ripple into liquid that Harry sunk right into, as he fell away into unconsciousness. Just as he disappeared, the floor returned back to its normal stone solidity.

The Unspeakables shared a brief look with each other, shrugged, picked up their power stone, and walked back to the Great Hall.

When they entered the Great Hall, they noticed there were a lot more students in there now, apparently having successfully fled their common rooms. Hermione saw the Unspeakables enter without Harry and asked, "So did she kill him?"

The Unspeakables looked at each other and shrugged. One of them was shaking his outstretched hand right to left as if to say, "Sort of."

Nicholas rolled his eyes. "No she didn't kill him. I'm talking to her right now."

Albus frowned. "You? I'm the Headmaster. Why hasn't she sent me anything?"

Nicholas looked at the Headmaster waiting to see if he would realize the silliness of that question. Finally he answered, "Perhaps because you're not magical at the moment, Albus."

Albus looked sheepish. "Oh. Right."

Nicholas stood there, with a glazed over eyes staring into space. After less than a minute he announced, "Alright people. Hogwarts is up and running. Portraits and staircases and such will work as normal. She's a bit peeved at Professor Potter and is, well," Nicholas paused and decided on, "well she's spanking him for being bad. He's pled his case to her and I think they're settling on his punishment. He'll be back and healthy shortly, but in the meantime it might be nice having a couple days to see how well you all can get along without magic."

Nicholas then took a few wands and considered his colleagues. He gave Hermione a small gold ring, while she blushed and looked down. He showed her how to slide it down her wand and position it securely. This visual example just made Hermione blush even more for some reason. Nicholas then handed out wands to Severus, Draco, Albus, Neville, and Tonks. "You all can fight over these prototypes if you want or redistribute them as you see fit. I'll save one more in case Minerva decides to grace us with her presence."

The staff members were all inspecting these incredibly plain thin brown sticks that had no handle or markings of any sort.

Nicholas began, "Now before you do anything stupid-"

Apparently, irony knew its cue quite well, as Draco had decided to vigorously shake his thin brown stick up and down as if trying to flick a booger off his finger. The wand responded by throwing up on his feet.

"Thank you, Professor Malfoy," Nicholas grumbled. "Please be careful with these, there are still in development and are especially temperamental. Shaking them or trying to channel magic through them will often cause inconsistent results. Maybe they will explode, maybe they will do nothing, maybe they will work as intended, or maybe they will shine your shoes."

Draco, in an unconscious maneuver cast Scourgify on the vomit on his shoes. The wand erupted into a large flame and quickly began cooking Draco's feet. Nicholas cast a quick Aqueous to put out the fire. Draco was unharmed, despite being scared, shrieking slightly, and having shoes that smelled like burnt puke.

"Perhaps someone there is a grown-up who could use Professor Malfoy's wand?"

"No!" Draco whined. "I'll be good."

Nicholas eyed Draco and continued. "These wands will cast stunners, as well as enervates, protego shields, mid-level power summoning charms, levitation charms, a distance messaging charm, as well as conjure water, fire, and grapes."

"Grapes?" Albus asked with a raised eyebrow. He was unaware he was pointing his thin stick towards his Potions professor and a grape flew out of the wand, hitting Severus in the eye rather severely.

Nicholas chuckled. "Yes that is correct. Please don't speak anything else until I finish." The staff all nodded their acquiescence. "We haven't gotten around to securing the triggers properly and they will react anytime you say these words: Stun, Wake, Shield, Come here, Lift, Send, Water, Fire, and Grapes. They should all be correctly reading intent and heat from being held, so you cannot just call out the words and trigger someone else's wand." Nicholas shrugged. "We hope."

"I don't think any of the healing prototypes are quite ready to be tested, and most of these wands should have plenty of these spells in them. There is a limit though. Probably only a couple hundred of each of the spells. If you encounter any problems or situations, use a messaging spell to call for either myself or Professor Potter, as we are going to be the only ones here truly capable of magic. If you set the wands down, you can say the words and nothing should happen, but if they're in your sleeve or pocket and you say them, it's possible there will be enough connection to trigger the spell. Are there any questions?"

Nicholas saw the staff understood and finally asked, "Alright Albus. Just where is Minnie? The entire student body is here as well as the staff except for her now."

Albus shook his head "No idea." He lifted his thin brown stick into the air and said, "Come here Minnie!"

Nicholas looked at the Headmaster. "Did you honestly expect that to work?"

Albus shrugged and barely had time to look up and see an extremely frightened cat seem to fall out of the once again working enchanted ceiling. As the cat fell, she dug in her claws and managed to catch onto Albus' beard her momentum stopping her barely a foot from the floor. Albus responded with a dignified, "Yeowch!"

Nicholas saw this, and after a silent conversation began cracking up. "Oh this perfect." He was still snickering while the cat was angrily hissing. "And another interesting effect of the nullification field. It appears Professor McGonagall was in her animagus form of a cat. And when the magic switch got turned off, she was unable to change her form back. So even when the portraits were working again she still couldn't even leave her chambers, since she couldn't open the door."

The cat in question was snapping its jaws chasing Nicholas in a small circle.

Albus asked, "Can't you just change her back?"

Nicholas paused and the cat in question caught up to him and dug her claws into his lower leg. Nicholas yelped and kicked her away. "Now why on earth would I want to do that?"

The chase was on again. Nicholas running around people and away from the cat. "I mean Hogwarts has enough magic, if she was able to transport her to here, she surely could have transformed her back to normal if Hogwarts was so inclined."

The cat didn't like this answer and kept hissing and chasing after Nicholas.

"I think I'd be best served just following Hogwarts' lead." Nicholas explained as he kept scampering around the staff table.

A voice echoed throughout the Great Hall. "Actually, it wasn't Hogwarts who moved her. It was me."

All those present had time to look up and see Professor Potter appear through the enchantment on the ceiling of the Great Hall. He was falling to the ground and dropping fast. "Aieee!" he screamed in joy at his free fall. All of the staff scrambled back, fearing he might land on them. Harry had time to mutter, "traitors" as the staff all moved out of the way of the inevitable splat.

Luckily for Harry, it never came and rather than bounce off the floor of the Great Hall, Harry was simply sucked into the stone and disappeared. He came walking calmly straight out of the stone wall behind the staff table. "Oh man, that's fun."

Albus had seen Harry pull off some crazy stuff in the past. He had dealt with this before and knew proper procedure was to be concise. "Harry, explain."

Harry smiled. "Oh, I just have to help out Hogwarts some, and she is in turn helping me out some, I suppose you could say. While no other magic is working here, she's punished me into completely redoing and updating all of the wards and protections on the grounds. It might be easier on future Headmasters now." Harry seemed to be considering some possibilities before shaking his head. "Anyways, the whole mini-coma and shock therapy seems to have bonded me and her a bit closer together. I saw Professor McGonagall scratching on her door and realized she was locked in. Speaking of," Harry cast the spell and the school saw the cat grow into the familiar form of their transfiguration professor. "Welcome back, Professor McGonagall."

"Thank you, Professor Potter," she replied while staring angrily at Nicholas. She sniffed and made a pained face. "Oh lord, what's that smell? Severus, are you wearing that cologne again?"

Draco raised his hand, "Ahh, that's probably just the burnt puke on my shoes that you smell."