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An Old and New World
by Lens of Sanity
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Chapter Twenty Eight: A Slightly Successful Siege
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"Okay, let me get this straight," declared Hermione. It was a day later and they were still recovering from that... clustergasm. "Everything that happened at Châteaux Delacour, happened with only a single Time‑Turner."
"Yes," agreed Harry.
"I want to plot the course it travelled..." she said, filching some parchment and a quill from her Scholars Pack, the expanded satchel Albus bought her for Christmas.
Though it took her three days more, that piece of parchment was now scrawled over with a huge number of crisscrossing lines, scribbled notes, rubbings out, crossings out, asterisks, and people's names suffixed with numbers.
...
Bellatrix-Three had arrived at Hogwarts and warned Dumbledore of the attack. Dumbledore had then collected Sirius, Lily, Hermione, and the Time‑Turner, then travelled to France. Leaving Tonks, Mad-Eye, and Scrimgeour to defend Hogwarts Castle.
Bellatrix-Three passed on Harry's orders to Luna, telling her in turn to track down her first self to offer assistance.
Out in the French countryside Albus, Sirius, Lily, and Hermione all met up with Harry-Four, who ordered them all to use their Time‑Turner and spin-back one hour. They then follow directions to the rendezvous room obtained through the use or abuse of Legilimency.
Dumbledore offered the Time‑Turner to Harry-One once he got to the rendezvous room, and Harry-One span back one hour to think.
Harry-Two shouted about how he'd fucked up, span back becoming Harry-Three, and he went in search of Malfoy. Failing because one of Draco's bodyguards let loose unrestrained Fiendfyre in their frantic attempt to escape.
Harry-Three span back with Bellatrix-One, becoming Harry-Four and Bellatrix-Two respectfully. Those two used Disillusioned animagus forms to run through the werewolves without having to get too involved, eventually finding themselves on Caerbannog. In the airship's atrium they discovered waiting for them both a Time‑Turner and the Cloak of Invisibility.
Harry-Four gave Bellatrix-Two the Time‑Turner which was around his neck, and picked up the one on the floor for himself.
Bellatrix-Two span back five more hours alone becoming Bellatrix-Three, giving instruction to the youngest versions of Albus and Luna. This was more or less the earliest point in the Time‑Turner timeline. Sort of. Bellatrix-Three placed the Cloak of Invisibility and Time‑Turner in the atrium for later collection, waiting several hours, and seeding the woods with Tam's inferi horde.
Harry-Four gave orders to Dumbledore and the group before making his way back to the rendezvous room at a breakneck sprint. He drank an offered Invigoration Draught and listened to some advice about taking Hermione before entering the room. He span back with Hermione as advised, becoming Harry-Five.
Harry-Five escorted Hermione out to the Death Eater battle, and she saved Dumbledore by tagging the Helga Founder with a spell called Starfall. Once the dust settled Harry-Five performed a number of diagnostics to determine what time, and to which destination the Founder had apparated.
He then went in search of an Invigoration Draught, and ran into Tam-Two. Neither knew where in the timestream the other was, so spoke little to each other to prevent too much confusion.
Harry-Five offered Harry-Four the advice about taking Hermione, and gave him the Invigoration Draught. Once in the rendezvous room he decided now was the time to go fight the werewolves properly, and Tam told him the past version of herself was outside.
Harry-Five took Dumbledore, Lily, Sirius, and Tam, then span them all back one hour. Becoming as he did so, Harry-Six.
Dumbledore went north alone and the rest of their band of misfits travelled east. Harry-Six and the group were rescued in the nick of time by Fleur and her vampire army. Harry-Six entered into a fight with the Founder Godric, ending with his grizzly incapacitation hundreds of feet above the earth.
Tam-One revived him in the rendezvous room using Legilimency and healing supplies, and he span back his final hour, becoming Harry-Seven.
Harry-Seven kissed Fleur and sent her back a full six hours. This might have been the earliest point in the Time‑Turner timeline. Sort of. Physically? Though not sequentially? Anyway, Fleur travelled to the United States, met with Deacon Frost and negotiated an army. It wasn't all that hard, Frost had met her before, and he liked Harry.
Fleur and the vampires then saved Harry-Six and his band from the werewolves.
Tam-One took Fleur's Time‑Turner, transfigured the unconscious Harry-Six into a coin, and then legged it back to the rendezvous room. Stowing him in a plant pot, Tam-One span back an hour to rest, obtain healing supplies, becoming as she did so Tam-Two.
Tam-Two ran into Harry-Five who was searching for an Invigoration Draught but neither spoke much in order to prevent too much confusion.
Tam-Two made it back to the rendezvous room, wrote her previous self a message to go wait outside, and used the healing supplies as well as Legilimency to revive Harry-Six. After a while everyone left, and Tam-Two offered the Time‑Turner to Luna-One.
Luna-One escorted Tam-Two from the room along with Lunas-Two through Six. Following a ten minute wait she joined her eldest self, hiking to the location Helga would supposedly appear, each covered by an analogue true Cloak of Invisibility.
Luna-One set her single element Earth Seal and channelled much magic through it, before spinning back one hour and becoming Luna-Two.
Luna-Two played a little table tennis but eventually did the same, instead deploying a single element Fire Seal.
Luna-Three did the same only with a single element Metal Seal.
Luna-Four did the same only with a single element Water Seal.
Luna-Five did the same only with a single element Wood Seal.
Luna-Six did something similar, only without the table tennis, and it was with a finicky five elemental Core Foci. She then caught a glimpse of what was going to happen to her final analogue. Spotting tentacles wrapping themselves around arms, legs, and torso, before they dragged her into a gaping void. Luna-Six kept her composure and span back her final hour, becoming Luna-Seven.
Luna-Seven noticed right away that the Time‑Turner was spinning like mad, and glowing starbright white. She and Harry-Seven had a conversation in the rendezvous room, and eventually found herself incanting All Under Heaven.
The instant Luna-Seven's magic touched her previous analogues' magic, the Time‑Turner exploded.
And all of this, from wedding to rendezvous room to Helga's death, happened within the span of about ninety minutes of sidereal time, had such nonsense been witnessed from the point of view of a Châteaux Delacour bystander.
...
"Wow," said Harry, paging over her completed notes. "That is indeed very complicated."
"You've read the letter from the time subdivision in the Department of Mysteries?" asked Hermione.
"The one filled with more swearwords than any professional correspondence has a right to contain?" She nodded her response emphatically, chestnut locks falling across her eyes. "Yeah Hermione, I have. Those pansies don't know the first thing about time travel!"
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They had immediately left Châteaux Delacour and returned to Scotland, but because Hogwarts was under siege they'd parked Caravel Caerbannog in an out of the way location on the Shetland Islands. It was kind of surprising how little this actually changed life in the castle. Death Eaters, Death Eater controlled Aurors, and Goblin Barges camped outside the walls and wards. None of it made much of a difference.
With Dumbledore, the Order, and the deposed Ministry of Magic all taking residence within the school, there were enough personnel to keep the protections strong enough to hold off any assault. Apparently this had been tried several times, with Voldemort himself leading the attack while Harry and his friends were mucking about in France. Scrimgeour showing a hitherto unseen depth of competence while directing the forces during those initial stages.
The man had apparently been a decent Auror at one point, so that side of him shouldn't have come as such a surprise to Harry, the "idiotic politician" persona having thrown him back when they'd first met. The upshot of this burst of competence from the former Minister was that he'd held the castle long enough for Dumbledore to return, leaving the Death Eaters little to do until the ancient wards were torn down.
And even though Harry was far from an expert when it came to ward building or curse breaking, he knew that Hogwarts had some of the most bitching protections in the world.
Anyway, as perverse as it seemed, Monday the tenth of February 1997 rolled around, and Harry Potter found himself sitting in Arithmancy class, just like any normal sixth year student. He wasn't even that far behind. Hell he was still a little ahead of the rest of the class despite having died a week after Halloween last year... and missing all the classes for the duration... and then failing to show up for the one week since Tam cured it... his focus more geared toward a kidnapping or perhaps rescuing of Fleur Delacour from marriage.
Harry's magic was still painfully limited, Poppy ordering him to do nothing overly strenuous for "the foreseeable future," which he of course took to mean "where anyone could catch him."Overall this was a fantastic time to kick back, do some planning... and hopefully a little revengeance. A word which not only combined the awesomeness of vengeance with the visceral nature of revenge, but also annoyed Hermione no end when you used it. Win-win.
On the way to Potions class a little later, he spied a familiar rear three quarters, politely greeting, "Good afternoon Pansy."
"Go fuck yourself, Potter," Pansy responded in a tone even more polite.
Wow, cheerful girl!
Groping his way stealthily into the room, Harry sat himself down, enthusiastic about the upcoming lesson. Ignoring the Slytherin girl's look of absolute loathing, Harry cast his mind about for today's Snape related attack angle.
"So Hermione, they say the thirteenth use of dragon's blood was found to be Snape Remover," Harry began to his friend's look of dismay, not long after the Potions Master entered. "And that's why he uses such distinctive hair care products. Isn't that correct Professor?"
Snape didn't respond.
"Don't want them to have one over on you, it's understandable," Harry continued. "...I mean, Constant Vigilance and all that!"
Yeah, nothing. No response.
"..." The room got a little awkward.
"Mr. Potter, if you would turn to chapter four of Advance Potion Making. We are brewing the third Everlasting Elixir," Snape said in an even tone. "Be careful when adding the Fluxweed shavings."
"..." Something wasn't right.
"W-what?" Harry asked with wide eyes.
"Chapter four." The man turned and scribbled helpful advice on the blackboard.
"What?" Harry pleaded to Hermione, who just shrugged. After nearly ten minutes standing over his cauldron without moving, Snape made a move to see what the problem was. After minutes looking the greasy man in the face with incomprehension Harry questioned. "You mean that you, we—, I..."
Harry trailed off.
"What's the point in even attending to potions if you're not going to play anymore!" He shrieked like a girl and ran from the room.
"..."
"What a drama queen," commented Hermione.
"He gets it from his mother," Snape said absently, returning to his class.
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"But Mum," Harry complained in a whiny voice. "You've ruined one of my favourite classes."
"I was shown a Pensieve memory of your first Potions lesson with Severus. The man was acting appallingly," Lily explained slowly.
"You can't expect me to be nice to him!"
"Not if you don't want too. He played a major role in killing your father, and tried to get you killed also," the auburn haired woman informed him. "Once I witnessed the relevant memories I... hurt him a great deal..."
"I hope you don't mean hurt him emotionally," Harry said in distain.
"No. Poppy was forced to remove a... from his..." Lily trailed off. "Look, regardless of what happened, Severus has now agreed to be at minimum neutral with regards to his teaching methods. You can simply choose to ignore him if you desire."
"But I was well on the way to causing him to have a stroke!" whined Harry.
"Come on, I'm feeling a little nauseous." Lily ignored his comment. "Where we headed? You said 'the crew' were going to hold a planning meeting this evening."
"The Room of Requirement, also known as the Come and Go Room. It's on the seventh floor," Harry said, moving onto the next topic. "And it's just an informal brainstorming with my friends, not the full Order of the Phoenix."
They travelled up several flights of stairs, across corridors and through secret passageways hidden behind portraits and tapestries, eventually reaching the corridor on the seventh floor with an entranceway already waiting for them. Seated around a large comfortable looking table were Sirius and Bellatrix Black each of whom had cracked open an icy can of Heineken, Albus Dumbledore enjoying a tall glass of white wine, beside Snape and his glass of whiskey.
There was some muttering along the lines of; "What the hell is he doing here," but the fact he'd broken cover in order to offer information leading to Fleur's rescue, led Harry to allow him stay. Grudgingly. Because Albus asked him to. So long as Snape promised not to talk. Or take up too much space.
Tonksy was deep into a bottle of top-end cider and Tam waxed poetic about a blonde ale she'd discovered called Hoegaarden, a can of which she too was well in the way through. Harry sat himself next to them, snatched up a frosty can of Carling Extra Cold, and with a crisp crack, began drinking it down.
"So by 'brainstorming meeting' you meant, we all sit around getting drunk?" Lily asked, taking a glass of the headmaster's white.
Fleur placed herself near Harry, but with her back slightly toward him. Running a hand through messy hair he idly whispered "Vinomenti!" conjuring for her a fine red wine which had precisely the same body, aroma, and taste as a 1956 Mouton Rothschild. This was a feat of magic which was undeniably impressive, demonstrating both preparation and great skill.
Fleur did not—by look, word, or gesture—acknowledge this fact, causing Harry to smile.
"Of course brainstorming involves getting drunk!" he answered his mother's ridiculous query. "Luna once settled on using a guitar solo to overcome a multi-octave soul rending ward! That's not the kind of solution one stumbles upon while sober."
"Oh," she said, emerald eyes glittering. "Okay then."
A little time past with the group in idle discussion of various related and unrelated topics. Lily was enjoying her son's company, as she'd not really had much chance to get to know him. One being dead while the other was alive mostly made spending time together a little more difficult than it ought to have been.
Hermione bounced into the room a little late, happiness just radiating off her.
"Okay, what's happened?" Harry asked his oldest friend.
"What makes you think something happened..." she began defensively. At his eyebrow raise she gave it up as a bad job, squealing, "I'm an animagus!"
"Really?" Tam asked, sharing her excitement. "I thought you weren't in touch with your animal form enough to begin learning."
"That was last year," the brunette waved off her girlfriends concerns. "Professor McGonagall had me take the Animagus Revealing Potion again this evening. I had a vision."
"So what may I ask is your form Hermione?" Albus asked, a little caught up in his apprentice's exuberance.
"Yeah kiddo, spill!" commanded Tonks.
Hermione got a bit antsy, looked about the room, avoided her girlfriend's eyes, and did not reply.
"What?" asked Harry.
"My form is just too funny," she confessed with an uncharacteristic giggle. Sirius' eyes lit up and Harry was about to prod, but she cut across them both. "Put a bunch or privacy, silencing, and obfuscation wards on Tam and I'll tell you... once Professor McGonagall teaches me to fully transform I want it to be a surprise."
There were a few tilted heads and confusion. Tamsyn did not look pleased, and loudly protested against being kept out of the loop. Eventually the redhead was surrounded by all the requested privacy wards, light, dark, grey, bright, and neutral in nature. Confusion curses, misdirection, notice-me-not variants, and overlapping spells the kind of which were used in the most twisted of brothels.
Basically, even with a month's preparation, and armed with the Elder Wand, Tam was not going to be able to eavesdrop on the conversation. After triple checking the wards Hermione confessed to her unfortunately appropriate animal form:
"I am a Mongoose animagus."
The room laughed at the Heir of Slyherin's misfortune.
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The group kicked back and relaxed for a while, throwing out a few truly awful ideas on how to defeat Voldemort, and needling Tam by refusing to share Hermione's animal form. Dumbledore must have been drinking before he even entered the room because he kept going on and on about deploying the power of love to take down a Dark Lord. His rationale being that thanks to all his ritualistic mutilations, Voldemort was incapable of feeling the emotion.
Fine.
Harry had in fact already defeated Voldemort using this method, a fact he kept reminding the old man. Hells, Luna had almost died doing it for Merlin's sake! Nevertheless Albus wouldn't leave it alone and kept drawing the conversation back to weaponized love being the only solution.
"I think I've had enough," Lily said, putting down her third empty glass. "I've been feeling all sickly and nauseous for days now. I don't know what's wrong with me."
"I'm telling you it's easy—," Harry said to Tam from the other side of the table, as Bellatrix fired a spell at his mother. "You go: 'Hey Flighty, doesn't Mars look really bright tonight?' I creep up behind him with a shovel, all invisible like. And then, when he looks up, I take a mighty swing and bash in his brains!"
"Okay, firstly that won't work," Tam commented, tossing an empty can negligently over her shoulder. "You cannot believe for one moment a shovel impact would be strong enough to harm the body he's using."
"Huh, blue," said Bella from the other side of the table, before casting the same spell on herself, with the same result. Blue.
Harry frowned at his brother's comment. "I bashed his brains in with a wandlessly summoned gravestone once, didn't I? You were there at the time!"
"Yeah, but I'd been charged with collecting 'Blood of the Enemy' from you—," Tam informed. "And you'd been spending most of your energy mouthing off, talking about what a smashing idea it was to resurrect Voldemort, and how you'd always wanted to make a difference in evil."
"So?"
"Think Trials. The first two bodies I created for Voldemort were incredibly weak because you didn't really see yourself as his enemy." The redhead said this as if it were obvious. "The body he's currently using has Amelia Bones' blood running through its veins, and she most certainly thought of herself as an enemy of the Dark Lord."
"Oh, yeah that makes a kind of sense," Harry admitted. "So the shovel idea is out then?"
Lily finally noticed her belly was glowing the exact shade of blue as Bellatrix. "What's going on?"
"Congratulations," the tiger animagus said happily. "You're pregnant."
"I'm what?" screeched Lily.
"She's what?" Harry, Sirius, and probably a few others yelled together.
"Pregnant," Bella repeated simply.
"How can she possibly—?"
"How can I possibly—?"
It was right then Harry noticed his mother was not the only person glowing blue. About an hour's worth of sputtering ran through the Vorpal Bunny's mind over the course of the next five seconds. "But I thought Hogwarts put Contraceptive Potion in all the food?" he said aloud. And with a small nod to himself in consideration, finished, "—Only, I'd just recovered from death, so there was none in my system."
Everyone was looking between Harry, Lily, and Bellatrix. Swiftly coming to several conclusions at once, Harry proceeded to take them all in stride. "If it was you Sirius, I'm going to kick your arse!"
Fleur and Hermione were both wide eyed and spoke together, "You and Bellatrix are going to have a baby?"
"Two," Bella threw in. "I caught pregnancy the first time Harry got re-birthed as well."
"Wait," Hermione slashed into the conversation again. "That doesn't even make sense. Harry's first re-birth was at the end of July. If what you're saying is true you'd be more than six months through by now."
"Yes," Bella agreed negligently.
"Explain," Harry stated. He didn't know how either, or indeed what could possibly be going on, but something told him he was going to like it.
"Harry is always getting himself into dangerous situations, and I didn't think he'd want me dragging an unborn baby into fights when I'm protecting him." She stated this as though this was obvious. Which it kind of was, and it was even true that Harry wouldn't think it a good idea.
"So you killed it?" Hermione asked appalled.
"What? No," Bella said. "I stuck it in the Squib."
"..."
Harry started laughing, a full belly laugh which caused a number of the people in the room to look at him strangely.
"The Squib?" The, as yet un-transformed, Mongoose animagus asked.
"Sh—, She's," Harry tried haltingly to get out, over his sniggering. "She's talking about Filch."
"Oh, that's funny," Tam said joining in the laughter. Spotting Hermione's glare she changed her mind. "Tragic! Oh, that's so tragic. That's what I meant to say."
His mother, momentarily thrown from thoughts of her own imminent child, asked "How can a man—?"
"He won't be the first guy to take a kid to term."
"He won't?" Hermione asked incredulously.
"Hell no, it happens all the time."
"It does?"
"Yeah. Sticking kids in Squibs is pretty common too—" Sirius broke in. "I highly doubt cousin Narcissa would 'defile' her body that way."
"She didn't," confirmed Bellatrix.
"If it's a girl we have to name it Rose," Harry said, controlling his giggles.
"Aww, but Blacks always name their children after star constellations," she pouted, fluttering her big purple eyes.
"Sorry, but I decided when I was seven that my eldest daughter would be named Rose. Way back when I used to tend the flowers in my aunt's garden," Harry began. "Besides, it's an Evens family tradition to name girls after flowers."
"Oh, okay Harry," she readily agreed. "So if they're boys you'll let me name them after astrological phenomenon?"
"Sure."
"Thanks Harry."
Hermione's brain had slipped into neutral gear. Harry was about to be the father of two children, despite being a year younger than she was! Somehow he didn't seem all that concerned about it, even though in her opinion, Harry was by far the most immature person in the whole world! Men can become pregnant in the magical world apparently? And the kid already had a name! And Lily was pregnant too...
"So are we fighting then?" Harry asked his godfather.
"It wasn't me!" protested Sirius.
"It wasn't anyone!" screamed Lily.
"So you're carrying the second coming of Jesus?" Harry asked his mother sarcastically.
"No, the last person I made love with was James three months ago. Erm, fifteen years ago?"
"Did you rape and obliviate my mother Snape?" he asked pointedly. "Because that really is something I'll have you tortured into insanity for!"
"I've not been obliviated!" Lily attested. "I'm too good at Occlumency for that."
"So, you're saying that you carried a kid through your death?" Harry asked dubiously. Thinking it through he decided that was probably possible. "Cool. I have a new brother or sister. Is it too late for Gender Forcing? I already have a brother, so can you make sure it's a girl?"
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Harry woke suddenly.
The second thing he noticed was a stampede of rhinoceros' rampaging through his brain, in the fifteenth worst hangover he'd ever had. The first thing he'd noticed upon waking was a soft pair of lips wrapped around the base of his... The third thing he noticed was that the person who woke him was Pansy Parkinson.
Fuck!
What the hell happened last night?
Okay. Backtrack. They'd been in the Cum and Go... Come and Go Room! And they were trying to cum up with good Voldemort battling ideas. Oh, and Harry arrived at something totally obvious which none of the others had even considered. There was some other stuff they wanted to do first, but Harry decided it was only a matter of time before Voldemort was toast!
Harry clenched his eyes shut and tried to ignore what was happening below his waist in the waking world.
Bella and Lily and Filch were all pregnant. He remembered that. And Bella said the dates matched so that as soon a Filch gave birth, she could stick her second kid back into the caretaker straight away... Hermione hadn't liked that, and liked it less when she found out the hate-filled man's permission hadn't even been asked!
They'd all started drinking in earnest, coming up with baby names. Harry managed to dredge up that much, and recalled everyone vetoing his suggestion they name one of the kids after the Horsehead Nebula.
...
Oh Gods, Merlin, and Circe. Harry thought, as he went Vesuvius into his hateful companion. I remember what happened!
...
...
They were all laughing and joking, drinking a whole lot more than was necessary, and generally roughhousing in a boisterous alcohol quaffing kind of way. It was fun.
"How about: Severus Vernon Potter?" Tam suggested, once more applying a subtle Shrinking Charm to Hermione tight while blouse.
"No, No. It needs to start with an 'A,' so his initials will be ASP. 'Cos he'll be a filthy Slytherin, and Asp is a kind of snake, get it?" Harry said laughing. "Adolf Severus Potter!"
"Why are you trying to ruin your younger brother's life before he's even born?" Lily asked, hiding her amusement.
"Because you need to Gender Force a sister for me," Harry replied unashamedly. "I'd love the opportunity to be all protective and intimidating toward all her annoying admirers once she's old enough—" Harry accidently sprayed Hermione's tighter white blouse with 'Vinomenti,' soaking her in fine red wine. "—and I never got to do that with Hermione because I actually like Tam!"
Hermione stylishly rubbing away most of the dark red liquid, and showing all the guys some pretty admirable assets—thanks mostly to a stealthy Vanishing of her bra—she scowled attractively at Harry. "Keep it up and I'll ruin your evening!"
"Yeah, what you gonna do?" Harry asked, too drunk to stop himself poking a sleeping dragon.
"Fine!" She stomped over to Fleur, grabbed her wrist and dragged her across the room, then forced her hand into Harry's, commanding, "Shake."
Harry gripped the French woman's hand in bemusement and Hermione cast some spell. Cords of light became visible and Hermione smiled in triumph. "What did you do?"
"Oh, I didn't do anything. You did," Hermione said with a terrifying smile.
"What?"
Albus came over on unsteady legs, squinted, then declared, "Congratulations!"
"Je ne te comprend pas," Fleur voiced her confusion.
"I thought so, ever since you told me the full story," Hermione said smugly. "You interrupted a magical wedding. And Magic is all about intent."
"Ri-ight." Harry drew out the word.
"So when you said the vows Harry, I suspected you really meant them. Intending to take the woman you love as your bride." The evil schoolgirl said this with a smile. "And she did the same, really wanting to marry the boy with those mischievous eyes... even if he did look like Malfoy."
"..."
"Sorry, what exactly are you saying to me?" asked Harry.
"Well Harry, Fleur—" Hermione started, fulfilling her promise to ruin his evening, "—allow me to be the second to congratulate you both on your marriage."
...
"What?"
"..."
"..."
"She's not my wife!"
"He's not my husband!"
Harry and Fleur—at the exact same moment—screamed in chorus.
"..."
Mrs. Potter and Mr. Delacour looked at one another for an instant. At the same time as Sirius, Tam, Hermione, and surprisingly Lily, all said, "This is going to be so much fun."
...
Harry came back to the present.
It hadn't been too long after that Harry stomped toward the Slytherin dormitories. He'd used a trick Tam taught him of and yelled in Parseltongue: §Through my veins runs the Noble Blood of Salazar Slytherin. I demand access to his house!§
Opening the door to the Slytherin common room in such an obvious way was something Harry wished he'd known in second year. Nevertheless he grabbed Parkinson from her place by the fire, threw her swearing form over his shoulder, and dragged her to his private rooms.
The sex had been pretty fucking incredible actually.
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It was late April and Draco Malfoy was in his ancestral home, lounging comfortably in a high backed, mahogany chair. Things for the most part had been going quite well. Hogwarts was still under siege and there were occasional attacks on Death Eaters, but overall the Dark Lord and his organisation were the unquestioned rulers of Great Britain.
The plot with Gerard Delacour and his daughter had failed a little under two months past, but Malfoy didn't care all that much. Easy come easy go. The plan falling through wasn't something which bothered him at all as he'd enjoyed the idea mostly for poetic reasons.
The Dark Lord himself was visiting which was fairly unusual, as the man mostly preferred to stay in one of his personal strongholds. Voldemort's presence was unusual but not terribly out of the ordinary. Attending him was the Godric Founder, and even after all these weeks Draco still hadn't gotten used to the man's different body. Apparently it once belonged to a Senior Auror by the name of Gawain Robards, before his capture and subsequent... enlistment.
Godric himself was just as lost in thought as Malfoy, staring down at his wand of nine inch blackthorn and unicorn tail hair. Witches and wizards as a whole spent entirely too much time contemplating there wands, and Godric was no exception. He didn't like the wand attuned to Auror Robards magic, the constant reminder of his current weakness a needle under his skin.
Frank Longbottom had been god's sent, the man had a tremendous magical talent and the founder felt he'd have been able to match well in a duel even with the Master.
Then the blasted boy killed him.
The system set up by Voldemort allowed the Founders to survive their death. The strongest—or most strategically placed in the case of Lockhart Salazar—were kidnapped, and painstakingly tortured using the Cruciatus Curse until they went blissfully insane. This was so the subject would not have the necessary will or intent to fight possession by Horcrux.
The soul and personality fragment in the objects would take over the subject's body, and use their inherent magical talent. This was as a counterpoint to Tamsyn, the Riddle Diary, who had completely abandoned her object, subsuming and possibly destroying the girl's soul in the process.
Tamsyn could use her own magic, not that of the Weasley girl she'd killed. With enough time and training this gave her the potential to match the Master.
Conversely he Founders could abandon the body they were using. In the event of the host's demise incredibly powerful portkey variants were enchanted into the Horcruxes, rendering them capable of ripping straight through normal anti-escape wards. This was what had saved Godric after Châteaux Delacour, and Rowena last year at the City of the Dead's fall.
So Godric was alive again, which was good. However it made him realise how much he relied upon such immense magical reserves, and this in turn caused him to glare hatefully at the blackthorn wand Gawain Robards bought so long ago from Ollivander.
Had Godric known he'd be dead for good in less than thirty minutes, he may have held a more reasonable attitude.
But he didn't. And he wasn't. And so he died.
Kaboom!