Head Start

by Kratos1989

Harry Potter learnt early on in his youth that if he wanted things done right, it was best to be done himself. That decision will make all the difference when he arrives to Hogwarts. Tags are inside the foreword chapter.

15. Book 1-14

Disclaimer:

I solemnly swear that the literature and works of the Harry Potter Verse belong to JK Rowling, Bloomberg and Warner Bros. The only thing I own are the one-shot ideas that popped into my head and whatever OCs I would create for them. This is a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life or fiction are purely coincidental. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...

Mischief Managed Damn It!

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Title: Book 1, Chapter 14

Posted Date: December 5 2022

Note: For this chapter, imagine Law and Order scene changing sounds.

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(Present day, DMLE Department)

Footsteps echoed down the hallway as Amelia Bones and her two guards moved to interrogation room 2, all of them carrying something to prepare for the guest of the day. Amelia had light bags beneath her bloodshot eyes that suggested she had ignored her sleeping period and drank a lot of caffeine to keep her awake, but her gait was steady and purposeful as she moved to the door. After checking with her guards, she pulled out her wand and badge to begin a series of complicated actions that made certain patterns appear on the door briefly before dimming and the sounds of locks being undone came from it. Pocketing her badge, she and her guards entered the room and shut it tight.

"Apologies for the wait, Mister Potter. We just got back from our latest interview with one of your professors." Amelia turned to face the boy and his barrister who were sitting calmly at one end of the table.

"There is no problem. It can't be easy having to deal with this latest incident at Hogwarts." Harry waved at her with a smile. "If anything, this is quite fast."

"Well, most were cooperative, while a couple were being obtrusive." Amelia somewhat admitted that. Harry shared an eyebrow with Jeremiah.

"I am guessing you have yet to interview Dumbledore." The barrister worded it as a statement. "Otherwise you would be more delayed." Amelia gave a shrug of one shoulder in reply.

"If you don't mind, let us begin the questioning so that you can return to Hogwarts quickly." Amelia and the other Aurors took their places and set up the Dicta-Quill along with the recording crystal. After a quick test of the items and introduction of all the people in the room, Amelia reached into the evidence bag to pull out another crystal.

"Mister Potter, can you please confirm that this is your recording crystal on the day of the incident?" Harry leaned forward to see while Amelia helped to rotate it in the air around while activating the crystal briefly to show the images.

"Yes." He answered while nodding and leaning back.

"Now, due to the incident happening on different levels of Hogwarts, we will be needing a copy of the recording in your crystal to help us with the case. Would you allow us to do so?" Amelia asked clearly.

"I allow Amelia Bones, Director of the DMLE, to have a copy of the recording to aid her with her case, with the understanding that she and her crew have signed the NDA forms to ensure that my work is not to be disclosed to those outside of the case and not to harass me into handing over my work. Let magic test my intent and make it so." Harry spoke clearly with his body briefly glowing green to confirm his action. Amelia silently let out a breath before pushing forward while placing the crystal next to one of her guards.

"Now, this has been told to your barrister to pass on to you, but I am to inform you that we will be using this recording as a point of reference, and as Mister Gottwald has told us earlier that you are willing to undergo Veritaserum and submit Pensieve memories to clarify any points that contradict any of our evidence, we may end up doing it sometime later for double confirmation. Do you understand what I am saying, Mister Potter?"

"I do, Madam Bones." Harry nodded.

"Then without further ado, where shall we start?" Harry hummed before looking at the Auror currently preparing to activate his recording crystal.

"I suppose the best place to start would be when Professor Flitwick was supervising the inspection for the Union Room and my new lab."

~ooOOoo~

(22 hours ago / Hogwarts, Harry's Lab room)

"Very good, your experiments are yielding excellent results and are on point." Filius ticked off another item on his checklist as he stepped away from the table. "I believe these will do until your other experiments can be brought back for review."

"Thank you, professor." Harry beamed as he got a stamp of approval on his report card for the experiments. "You guys now know what to do for your own experiments in the near future?" He turned to his friends and almost grinned at them writing in notebooks provided to them while scrutinizing all that had gone on, all wearing white coats and standing behind the single clear plexiglass as part of his safety procedure when dealing with some of the more volatile experiments. They were looking like junior scientists in that get-up.

"I believe so." Terry scratched his head with his pen. "I certainly did not expect so much to go into the inspections, and you only have these few experiments to demonstrate first? Is this the type of thing you do in the muggle world?"

"The ones I could get back quickly." Harry tidied up his workstation before setting the barrier. "The others not seen here are more unstable so they require different means of transportation. As for your other question, it depends on the type of work being done. Some would require more stringent checks to get the approval."

"So the experiments are graded and inspected based on the level of complexity and purpose, and they require a certain level of expertise, especially when dealing with volatile potions or spells…" Hermione was feverishly writing everything and underlining key points while muttering. At least she got over her previous mood regarding house elves for now.

"Okay, time for decontamination." Harry led the way to the decontamination partition that was set up in one of the spare rooms used for some of his experiments involving advanced charms, waiting for all to enter before he went in and closed the door behind him. With a press of a button, small bursts of water appeared above which startled the others except the professor, and they got blasted with clean air. Harry then asked them to remove the coats and place them in the basket provided before initiating the next step of decontamination. A brief application of rune magic to check them for spell and potion residues, and they were clear to leave the decontamination partition and out of the room.

"So all experiments need to have these types of procedures?" Hermione asked as Harry locked the room.

"For different types, Miss Granger." Filius answered as he checked off another item on the list. "It has been a requirement for students asking for separate rooms, but it has not been enforced as much as I want it to be. Mister Potter is the first one in a long while to do so for all experiments with his own additions. And on that note." Filius looked to the students "I would need to review your notes later just so we are in agreement with the protections, and to keep Mister Potter's experiments secured."

"You guys remembered that disclosure contract you signed?" Harry mentioned noting a few confused looks. "It is standard paperwork to ensure that no one can speak or reveal information on our work. It more or less phased into obscurity over the years since the students do not bother much with it, but it helps to make sure no one tries to commit espionage."

"Ah, that makes sense." Terry nodded, likely remembering his talks with Justin.

"Right, there is only one more task to do for this inspection." the professor turned to his student. "I need to go through your security."

"Is that another requirement?" Michael asked, prompting Harry to share a look with the professor to the slight confusion of the other students.

"In a sense. Much like the procedures of handling your experiments, there are some standards to fulfill for the security of your room. As I had mentioned on your first visit to my previous lab-room, other students did not bother to go through with them over the years as they felt that they were redundant. Needless to say, a number of them fell to sabotage, theft, or espionage." Harry answered.

"When Mister Potter approached me with his request before the year, I had to emphasize the need for security." Filius took over as Harry went to prepare for the next part of the inspection. "There have been too many accidents and thefts in the past involving the lack of security for students conducting private experiments, so I needed to make it clear that he has to keep his work safe from intruders. That is made more important with his current fame, people would try to see if there is anything to grab, sabotage, or even sell for the novelty of them being done by Harry Potter." The other students blinked as one at that last bit.

"Fanboys and fangirls are scary." Terry remarked at that with wide eyes.

"Don't I know it?" Filius and Harry turned to look at each other for saying the exact same thing at the same time, and it was clear to the others there was a light air of comradery for that.

"So since Harry implemented the security, you need to test it?" Padma hesitantly interrupted the moment to ask that question.

"Indeed, it is part of the checks, otherwise I cannot sign off on his work." What the professor and Harry did not share was how insistent certain people wanted to know about his work and his security, the latter being demanded since "someone" was complaining about not being able to enter the room without Harry's expressed permission to inspect his work, and insisted on it being stripped down or removed completely. Filius would merely write in his report that the security was adequate and leave it at that, knowing how much it would infuriate certain people.

More frustration for them, and more amusement for Filius.

"Shall we do the Union Room first? Your friends would be expected to maintain that room in the future." Harry tilted his head before nodding. They made their way back into the room in question and were on the way to a door that had been locked beforehand when a small chiming sound echoed in the room.

"What was that?" Terry blinked at that.

"Someone is outside the room with no intentions to harm the residents or to steal. A guest." Harry answered as he went to the door while discreetly holding his wand and activating a secondary barrier to stop anything going through when he opened the door. (No reason to let down his guard just yet) When he saw the opposite room, he briefly wondered if the person was invisible or playing those door pranks involving knocking the door and running away. A squeaky voice drew Harry's attention towards the ground where an elf was standing before him with a smile.

"Hello, who might you be?" Harry knelt down to its level.

"Dudi the house elf, young master." The being answered with a decidedly male voice as he bowed. "Head Elf Gobber sent Dudi to check if the young master wishes for Dudi to work for him during his time in Hogwarts." Harry slowly nodded as he considered the offer. If he was merely preparing for himself, he would not really require an elf.

But it was more than just him at this point, and food prep was getting a little tedious.

"Dudi, would you like to come in?" Harry opened the door wider to let him through.

"Young master invites Dudi like a person?" The elf asked with wide eyes and for a brief moment Harry feared he was going to have a house elf fanboy.

"Please calm down." Harry had to make sure the elf did not start brawling. Thankfully the elf did not go off but it was a close one considering the vibrating body. "I grant visitation rights upon Dudi the house elf into the Union Room for the day." A brief glow around the elf and he was able to follow Harry inside to look about.

"Hey guys, this is Dudi." The elf bowed to them at this point. "As you guys know about my issues with the food around here, the head elf had offered the services of Dudi to help with the cooking and some minor cleanup." The others nodded while Hermione looked ready for another talk. Better head that off.

"Dudi, before we continue, could you help to answer some queries regarding house elves?" Dudi tilted his head to the side. Harry merely motioned to Hermione. "Miss Granger is a first-generation witch and she has some questions regarding house elves that I hope you could clear her doubts on. Just be prepared for a lot of questions." Dudi nodded at that and moved forward to the witch in question for her to start asking, and for a moment Harry prayed for the elf as Hermione proceeded to question the elf thoroughly with the other students around to keep her from overwhelming Dudi.

"Perhaps we should proceed with the inspection while they are at it?" Filius asked amusedly. "You can demonstrate the security later to them." Harry nodded and they moved to a door that had a different color with a symbol representing a padlock and was securely locked by the far end of the Union Room. Harry lifted his bracelet in front of the door as the symbol glowed, then some loud clicks resounded from the door before the symbol changed to a light green. Harry grabbed the handle and turned it to open the door, stepping to the side to let Filius enter before he closed the door. After that, he turned to face the security he had helped to set up for the Union Room.

It was a fairly reasonably sized room that could hold a bed and a desk if needed, which was big enough to hold an apparatus consisting of several spheres of rock of various sizes arranged in a pattern and held together with thin rods of copper. Each stone had been painstakingly smoothened to a fine shine and had different symbols etched into them, with the smaller stones forming the outer ring with a small gem at the top, and in the center of the apparatus was a singular stone that was roughly the size of a watermelon with more runes and symbols etched in neat rows for easier tracking. Currently all the symbols on the stones were lightly glowing green to show that they were operating properly, and there were thin wisps of white mist floating above the main stone.

"I have seen different ward systems in my life, and I am always fascinated with them. Yours is certainly an intriguing specimen in its own right." Filius commented as he walked about the contraption. "Now if I remembered our last conversation regarding your security, you were adding something else but you had issues."

"Yes, Professor." Harry took out his set of notes for reference before talking. "As stated, I was trying out a different combination based on the guide book from one of the Curse Breakers at Gringotts. The current setup as you can see helps to mitigate the issues of having to etch the entire rock from scratch."

"It is a decent design. From what I can tell, you moved most of the standard runes to the smaller stones to make room for the specialized protections on the central stone." Filius moved closer to the bigger rock to look at the rock. "I really do think you should get Professor Babbling to view this. I may have some knowledge of runes due to my links with Gringotts, but she would be more helpful in this venture."

"Only if you are in the same room, sir." Harry may have sounded a little desperate at that statement, but he was totally in the right since the first time he approached the young professor regarding some of his ideas, she seemed to swoon and was all over him asking a lot of questions in a manner that made him think of an older Hermione. And for some reason, a lot of the senior male students kept giving him thumbs up before getting smacked at the back of the head by the female counterparts.

"Of course." The professor chuckled at his reaction, considering he was there to guide Harry to the professor and watched with amusement their interaction. The pointed glare from the boy merely increased his chuckles. Whatever he wanted to say got interrupted by a few knocks on the door.

"Hmm, wonder what is that about?" Harry went to the door and opened it to find Hermione and the elf outside. "Is something the matter?"

"Dudi wanted to tell you something." Hermione lightly gestured for the elf to look at Harry.

"Hogwarts wants to talk with Mister Potter about big security." Harry blinked at that statement before checking his ears.

"Dudi, I think I misheard you. You said Hogwarts wants to talk with me?" The elf nodded while everyone else looked at them with funny expressions. "Okay, how do I do that?" The elf tilted his head to the side as though listening to a voice before nodding.

"Hogwarts tells Dudi to tell the young master that you go to the other room that has your new big stone ready first."

"What new big stone?" Filius turned to Harry who sported a sheepish look. "Mister Potter?"

Uh oh, the professor was using that tone.

"Erm, you know that I have been experimenting with new security measures? That is how I got the new system for this room going." Harry answered while pointing a thumb over his shoulder at the apparatus behind him, mentally laughing at how Hermione tried to stand on her toes to see it. "Thing is, due to how crazy some of the tests can get, I had to grab a lot of rocks outside Hogwarts around the lake and near the treeline of the Forbidden Forest. And I had to borrow a couple of the empty rooms down the corridor to test some of them out to avoid destroying the lab. One for etching, the other for assembly. I made sure to lock them up tightly every day." Harry added that last bit in a rush at the expression on the professor's face.

"Hogwarts really wants to talk to the Young Master now." Dudi reached out to pull at his sleeve. "It is urgent." Harry let the elf pull him along, pausing to let the professor and curious students leave the room so that he could lock up quickly. They merely moved three doors down, nearer to the end of the corridor when Harry stopped in front of a door that was different from the other rooms.

"Looks like you are also doing the same thing that you had warned us about, huh?" Terry chuckled at Harry's embarrassment.

"I was still trying to work out the kinks of the security, and given how unstable they can be after activation, I needed to make sure I did not blow up any of the rooms by accident, so I used one of the newly fixed rooms which I had reinforced to contain the blasts to hold the rocks, and then I go about trying out the wards." Harry opened it with another one of his odd circles (to the rest) and opened it for them to enter. The others entered to find what looked to be an eccentric's idea of a rock collection with stones of various sizes and textures lined up in neat rows by the wall, with some sort of machine in the corner that was moving lightly etching the surface of a rounded stone as it turned at the base. Attached to that was something resembling a conveyor belt to feed stones of similar size to the machine.

"I am guessing you are using one of your power sources to operate that?" Hermione looked closer to the machine before moving back with a wince. "Ow! And also under a silencing charm. That is loud!"

"Another reason why I did not put this in my lab, because I would need to reapply it a few times. Instead, I just used runes to set this room up so that no one else would hear the noise from the equipment." Harry remarked as he came closer to check. "Ah good, this is almost complete."

"So this is where you can make your ward stones." Michael looked about the room.

"More along the lines of attempting automation." That answer got Hermione, Lisa and Su looking at Harry with gleaming eyes.

"You are able to automate magic?" Lisa asked. From what Harry knew of Lisa's family, her uncle was a first generation wizard who wanted to try his hand at something similar to factory work and wanted to think of ways to use automation with magic, and so far it was with limited success.

"Only if I do it in small steps, and even then it is still a challenge to get them moving with a power source." Harry answered as he looked again. "Okay, this is just the room for me to etch the runes. The next one is the one we should get to." With that, he went to the side door to open it and walked in with the others to find an unusual setup.

"The stones are lying about?" Michael's confused tone was evident. The stones in question were on the ground with tape holding them in place where several chalk circles were roughly drawn. There were pebble sized stones that were by the wall with their own markings, some of which appeared to have been failures given the big cracks in them. The center of the room though held their main attraction: a giant boulder big enough to reach Harry's shoulders and to dwarf the professor comically, split in the middle to show what looked to be a glass core the size of a grapefruit being held within a frame of brass and gold. The surface of the boulder was intricately etched with runes and pictograms in neat lines and with gems of various colors placed in strategic places, with the top sporting a pebble-sized diamond of all things.

"Harry, how much did it cost to make that?" Hermione asked with a slightly strained voice.

"The rocks and boulders are from the lake or the forest. If you are talking about the gems and the diamond core?" Harry hummed. "Not so much in terms of monetary costs, they were the cheap cuts that no one wanted. I do however owe a favor or two to get them for the testing. The guys I got them from too were interested if the jewels can be used in warding systems."

"Cheap cuts?" Lisa sounded like she was about to have an aneurysm. "That big chunk is a cheap cut?!"

"Your friends have a skewed sense of monetary cost." Su looked at the green gem with a glazed look that must have awakened some feminine instinct around jewelry.

"I do hope you have your transactions in written form?" Filius asked with concern.

"I do, both sides wanted to make sure that it was all written out with conditions to ensure that we all agreed to this test." Harry nodded as he considered some of the warders he spoke to for his personal lessons. Both humans and goblins were intrigued at the possibility of the jewels being used for warding large areas since smaller pieces could be done for individual persons. The goblins in particular were considering the idea of using said jewels to serve as temporary batteries for the stones in the event the supply of mana from the leyline got cut off for any reason.

In other words, he was their guinea pig.

"So why are we here?" Michael asked.

"Dudi?" Harry asked the elf who tilted his head again to listen to whatever was being told to him.

"Hogwarts is asking Mister Harry Potter to talk to her while having one hand on the big stone." Dudi pointed to the boulder. "She says to do it like you did on Halloween." Harry blinked before positioning himself by the boulder.

"Hold on a minute. Is this safe?" Filius asked the elf. "This has never happened in my years at Hogwarts."

"Hogwarts will not harm the Young Master!" Dudi sounded indigent at the insinuation that Hogwarts would hurt Harry. "She wants to talk!"

"Okay, we got it mate." Terry tried to calm the elf down with Hermione by his side.

"Yes, the professor is just trying to make sure that no one gets hurt or gets blamed for something out of their control." Harry would give Hermione some credit regarding her look at the professor to try and make him agree, but he had to do this request from the elf right now. Harry bent down on a knee so that one hand was touching the floor while the other was resting on the boulder, then with a breath, he reached out with his senses.

'Hello? Can you hear me, Hogwarts?'

In response, the familiar weight of the wards settled on his shoulders along with the usual feeling of someone poking his cheek. This time though, it was more inviting to him and he took the opportunity to dive deeper into his psyche and the wards of the castle. It did not take long for him to open his eyes to find himself in his mindscape, but one that was pure white around him as he had intended. Another pulse of magic along with a poke of his cheeks drew his attention to the hand that was next to him, which gave him the impression of an energetic little girl greeting her favorite person in her own way while hanging on to his back.

It was strange to say the least.

'I am guessing you are Hogwarts.'

The pressure shifted slightly and Harry had who he presumed to be the avatar representing Hogwarts in front of him trying to tell him something with gestures and expressions. He could not see any definite features, only that the avatar was shown as a five-year old girl with semi dark hair and dark robes like the Hogwarts school uniform but with the emblem of the actual school instead of the house and with colors of all four houses. It was like trying to look through a foggy glass with little success.

'I'm afraid I do not understand what you are trying to convey. Are you trying to tell me something? Can you not speak?'

The image of the girl pouted and stomped her foot repeatedly before pausing and pointing at herself and then at the boulder that popped into his head. She tried to move closer only to be pulled away by what looked to be chains connecting her legs to some shadow that Harry could not see but felt chills from just looking at it. He was not sure why but he could feel malevolence and dark intent from it.

'Do you want to touch the stone? Perhaps to be free from that?'

The avatar nodded frantically while trying to get the chains away from her. Harry paused before deciding to intervene by imagining a lightsaber to cut the chains, his body tensing at the sudden hiss of pain that came from the shadow as the chains weaved about in agitation. The avatar used the chance to get as far as she could away from the shadow and hide behind him. Harry decided to enforce the image by imagining walls around the shadow to keep it back until his business with Hogwarts was completed. It worked but based on the effort and the shuddering of the walls, it would only hold for a short while. He better get this done.

'Hogwarts, what is your business with me?' The avatar looked up at him before moving to the stone and beckoning him to come next to her. She placed a hand on it and held out the other hand to him. Harry was a little hesitant to take the hand, but the avatar was able to pull off a very convincing pair of puppy dog eyes while pouting despite the lack of features, thus crumbling his resolve.

Next time he ought to build up a resistance for little girls pouting at him.

A sudden crack drew Harry's attention to the make-shift barrier that was now cracking and showing wisps of smoke escaping from the gaps while a loud growl was coming from it. Harry decided to act like a stereotypical Gryffindor and placed a hand on the boulder while reaching out to the girl with the other hand. For a brief moment, he held back to look at her, then pressed his palm firmly against the avatar…

'Well, that was rather anticlimactic...'

Harry's thoughts stopped when something clicked inside him, and then without warning, the image of the boulder glowed brightly with a loud humming, after which the glow started to spread up both of their arms. Harry tried to pull back both arms but was unable to as the light went past his neck and down the other arm to where their palms were sticking together. The light from both ends touched one another just as bells started ringing in the background and the sensation of power flowed through his physical body like he was drowning at the bottom of a waterfall. From the corner of the eye, Harry could see the shadow writhing in pain from the light and burning away into nothing.

And the last thing he heard was the sounds of a little girl cheering in his ears with the bells ringing in crescendo, and what he thought were the sounds of animals roaring in triumph.

~ooOOoo~

(3.10pm, Hogwarts Corridor / Witness statement from ICW warder)

"Hey Mic!" One of the younger members of the warding team called out to his partner. "Found another one of those anchors here!"

"Okay, mark it out on the map and write out what you know about it." A dark skinned man with a bandana on his head answered back. "Seriously, how on earth did all of these get etched and not be noticed?"

"Well, to be fair, they are very tiny." Another warder next to him commented while they checked one of the pillars. "And based on the numbers, you would need either a lot of time or a lot of people to do these. From what I heard about the supposed DADA curse, this was evidently done by that dark lord of Britain because he was refused the job. Supposed to be a way of making all the applicants feel his suffering until he gets the job."

"The guy that no one can speak the name without flinching?" Mic snorted at that.

"He evidently placed a Taboo on the name to pinpoint who was using his name and launch attacks at the location." His partner answered while checking his work.

"Stupid if you want my opinion, Dave." Mic remarked as he walked down the corridor to check one of the rooms. "Placing a Taboo on the name to make people afraid to say it, that would end up making future generations not know who he is or what he did for that matter, no one would know what his actions would be for. Not like that Grindelwald fellow, now that was a Dark Lord that people would know to fear."

"Well, British Dark Lords have their own way of thinking. I mean, think about the one from China a few decades ago. That guy had the idea of creating his own version of Cockatrices to attack the empire. Cross breeding that species with Acromantulas of all things." The now named Dave shuddered at that.

"Yeah, that was messed up." Mic shuddered as well. There were no photos of the creature spawned, but there were illustrations of the cross-bred, and all agreed unanimously that there were creatures that should never be allowed to be cross-bred ever. There was no other way to describe the monstrosity than to say that it should only remain in the depths of people's nightmares.

"Hello, what do we have here?" Dave's voice interrupted Mic's thoughts as the man lowered himself to his knees to peer at something etched at the corner where a pillar was erected. "Ah, thought so. Tricky little bugger."

"Another one?" Mic sighed in exhaustion. This was what, the 232nd rune? At this point, he was half convinced that students over the years had etched their own set of runes for fun and the nutcase dark lord decided to put the supposed curse to effect with all the runes found in the castle when he was refused the job and wanted to throw a tantrum.

"Yeah, and this one is very well hidden. I almost dismissed it because of the pillar blocking the wall." Dave straightened up while marking it out on the map. "It is only because I noted how the ants were moving around it that got me thinking." Mic looked down at where he pointed and saw the ants making a very big arc around a spot of the wall, which did make it obvious that something was odd with that. He had to focus on his Occlumency to bypass the perception charm to see the cluster of runes etched and hidden in the shadow of the pillar. He had to give the dark lord some credit, with how many of these anchors were in the open, he would have dismissed this anchor himself.

"Now how are we to remove that one?" Mic asked.

"Remove the pillar for a while? I mean it is just decoration." Dave's suggestion got one of the junior warders passing by to pause and look at him with wide eyes.

"Erm, sir?" The two seniors turned to look at the junior. "With all due respect, that is a very bad idea. Especially with McGonagall around." The warder shuddered at that.

"Oh right, you came here to study before moving to the Iceland academy, didn't you, Ted?" Dave mused as he recalled that tidbit. In that sense, the junior member was lucky to only stick around for a year before leaving the school.

"Yes sir. McGonagall is very particular about any type of modifications to the castle." The younger warder answered. The other two hummed in tandem at that bit of information.

"Well, we can't afford to stand around and speculate on this." Mic spoke out his thoughts. "While we have removed or at least deactivated the majority of the runes, there are still a number that keep appearing in spots like this. From what little I can see of this, this cluster is more complicated than the others, and if this is one of the power clusters powering the curse, we should get rid of it now."

"We can just manipulate the rock to give us access to the cluster, remove that and put it back. Easy." Dave answered. The younger member looked undecided but he gave a nod to them on this. Mic immediately pointed his wand at the pillar to make it bend like jello while Dave transfigured some of the tables to create a support structure around the pillar to hold the weight.

"Okay, here we go." Dave pointed back at the cluster and dismissed the charm hiding the rune from them. "Well this is a doozy." The other two bent down to see what was in the cluster of runes, the younger member palling at it for good reason. The cluster was a set of seven runes etched in a heptagon, the first set they had encountered thus far, and this design meant that they could not just cancel or scratch out one rune. All seven needed to be removed at the same time without disrupting the spell in any manner. And from what the seniors could see, this rune cluster was done with opposing symbols to create a feedback flux effect for maximum effect on the curse, likely to amplify the curse to have escalating features as was theorized by their leaders.

They needed to remove the cluster as a whole, which normally would not be a problem for the senior warders, but due to removing other power anchors found about the school, the power has been redistributed to the remaining runes that have yet to be removed or identified. They would need to somehow deactivate this cluster without having the power distributed to the last set.

"Okay, how do we do this?" Mic hummed. "Any ideas?"

"Well, these symbols are of two separate cultures, but thankfully still from the Middle Eastern countries." Dave remarked as he checked it closely. "Problem is the design, we need to stop all seven from getting power, but I can't see the connection."

"Can't we just remove the actual brick?" Ted scratched his head in frustration. His query made the other two look at each other with pondering expressions, before turning to him.

"That might be the best option." Dave turned to Mic. "How should we go about it?"

"I can cut out the mortar while Ted pulls it out slowly. You have better senses, so you can monitor the cluster, see if you can disconnect it out of the network." Mic readied his wand while looking at Ted. "Ready for this, kid?" The young man took a breath as he took out his wand before nodding.

"All right. Here we go." Mic waved his wand and some of the mortar surrounding the actual stone started to flake and come off while Ted gently eased it out of the wall and Dave monitored their progress. They briefly paused when they watched the cluster glow before receding, then they continued until the mortar was completely around the edge and Ted started to pull it out faster. The brick was almost out of its spot when Dave spotted something.

"Stop!" Ted held the brick as Dave looked closer at the brief glow of light that he could see. "Slowly pull it just enough to have it out of the wall and keep it level." Ted did as he said and this time Dave could see the strands of magic connecting the back to the castle wall. "Clever. I see how the cluster is drawing power. Very tricky to do, this one must have been added when the man did the job application."

"Can we remove it?" Dave hummed at the query.

"I will need to disconnect it slowly while Ted holds it in place. But it is doable." Dave gestured for Ted to move the brick a bit more for him to have some room to do his work. Dave then proceeded to unravel the strands of magic connecting the cluster to the castle, doing it slowly to ensure there was no backlash. As long as no one decides to interrupt, it should be fine.

"Hey kid, don't go playing with that dung bomb!" Someone shouted outside of the room.

"BOOM!"

"What the heck!" Dave fell to the ground while his wand fired off another dismantling spell at the strands, which would have been fine if not for Ted trying to regain his footing from the sudden volume and accidentally pulling the brick closer to Dave, with the end result being Dave's spell hitting the rune cluster instead, causing it to spark sporadically before cracking down the middle and crumbled away to dust. The trio of warders looked at the brick in horrified silence before the castle itself started to shake violently and shouts from outside the room suggested that the statues started to move forth with weapons banishing at them.

"Well that happened." Mic muttered. A sudden slam drew their attention to the statue that had been outside the room earlier and was now advancing on them with a nasty looking mace.

"Son of a B~"

~ooOOoo~

(3.12pm, East Wing Corridor / Based On Ex-Auror's Veritaserum Testimony and Pensieve Memories)

"Professor Quirrell." The man with the turban turned to face a pair of Aurors. "Sorry to bother you on this, we just want to run a few more questions with you."

"O~of course, Aurors." The professor stammered as he followed them to an empty classroom for the questioning, inwardly cursing the number of Aurors moving about in Hogwarts ever since they came on Halloween night. It was very difficult to keep them from discovering his tracks from the forest where he led the trolls to the front doors of Hogwarts for them to wander about. It was even more difficult to track them while he left to make his next attempt at the Third Corridor only to find Severus Snape waiting for him while sporting a bloody leg courtesy of the Cerberus as his reward to cut him off. Quirrel was cursing from both that and his lord silently torturing him through their connection at the prospect of one of his followers switching sides.

The only thing that came out of it was his Lord's confirmation that the actual stone was not at the end of the obstacle course, merely a facsimile of the actual stone, which meant that Quirrel did not need to go through with the obstacle course. That also meant that Quirrell was now running out of time to keep his body from breaking down thanks to the possession of his body. He really did not want to resort to going into the Forbidden Forest for Unicorn Blood.

A part of him idly thought that he should have reconsidered the deal back in Albania but he made sure to kill that thought quickly before his master could hear him.

"Ah, damn it! My quill broke." One of the Aurors checked about his robes with a frown.

"Seriously, Tails?" The other shook his head in frustration. "What about your crystal?"

"Had to hand it over to Madam Bones for the latest report." He answered with a sheepish expression.

"Darn it rookie. Fine, just go grab another Dicta Quill from the others, think there is a team a level beneath us." His partner waved him off. "I can hold the fort." Auror Tails paused briefly before moving out of the room. After he left, the other Auror waved a wand to lock the door before turning to Quirrel. The follower was considering his options when the Auror derailed his thoughts.

"Mr Lord." The Auror bent on one knee and lowered his head. "It has been a long time, I have finally found you."

"Y~ you must have mistaken me for…" Quirrel tried to dissuade the Auror.

"I am not talking to the puppet." The Auror interrupted with a glare directed at Quirrel. "My Lord, what do you ask of me?"

"Quirrenus, I will take over for now." That was the only answer the man would get before his body slumped forward slightly, before it straightened up, cracked the neck and a pair of red eyes looked down at the Auror with a stern face.

"It has been a while, McLaggen." The man looked up to see his visage, and Voldemort was pleased that he only flinched slightly at the sight of his eyes displaying a hint of his displeasure. "A decade has passed since my unfortunate accident."

"I have not forgotten, my lord." McLaggen looked back down to the ground, a slight shudder of his shoulders an indicator of his nervousness. "We have been hoping for direction, but we were uncertain about your situation. I am truly glad that you are alive."

"News of my demise has been greatly exaggerated." Voldemort remarked before his eyes narrowed. "And it would appear that quite a number of you took advantage of that to get yourselves out of Azkaban by declaring the Imperius Curse taking control over your actions. You must have enjoyed your freedom quite nicely while I was recovering." The increased shuddering of McLaggen was indicative of the man's knowledge that he was now in the red.

"Do not bother to lie your way out. I am more than aware of all that you and your compatriots have done and NOT done in these few years." Voldemort kept silent that he only knew a few of those who claimed innocence, enjoying the sight of his agent trembling at the thought that his actions were laid bare for all these years. Considering this was the younger cousin of the McLaggen family, and he still appeared to have the tell-tale signs of getting nervous, he should be breaking right about… now.

"Please my lord! It is not what you think!"

Ah, like clockwork. How he loved his timing accuracy.

"Oh, do tell." Voldemort was honestly a little curious what excuse would be given to save his hide, it was a bit of a hobby for him to see if any of his followers had the best excuse to avoid punishment. His favorite thus far was one that involved an Auror, an Obliviator, a few out of date Erumpent Horns, Firewhisky and a few Knockturn Hookers. The retelling of that incident sounded so ridiculous that he barely managed to send the recruit reporting at the time away without the usual torture cursing and silenced the room before he let loose a bout of laughter that honestly helped him to relax a little before an operation.

He even gave that man an opportunity to prove himself in the following mission, and he did it quite well in his opinion.

"When the Ministry tried to round us up back in 1981, we had to make certain that news of your demise was enough to trick them into relaxing their standards so that we could lie our way out, and it was thanks to Order 66 being passed through the law books that the leading members could reject the use of Veritaserum on us. After that, Lord Malfoy went to send out his feelers to find you. At the same time, he wanted us to do what we could to undermine the power of the Ministry from the inside." Voldemort hummed as he considered what was told. Lucius for all of his pride was a true politician in his own manner, but then he was Abraxas's son whose silvertongue helped to pave the way for his influence in the Ministry. His current son Draco seemed to have some tact based on his observations in lessons and the few interactions with Potter, but it was early years still.

"We did try to find you in Albania, but we could not do so openly, and then with Bones taking over from Crouch, those of us related to the DMLE had to lay low for her to not notice. She keeps doing random checks despite Malfoy's whispers to the Minister to slash the budget." McLaggen kept talking.

"I see." Voldemort paused to consider all he heard, and partly to make the Auror more nervous. It was petty on his part but he really wanted to make him, and by extension the others, to squirm. "Very well, you are doing your best to maintain the quota. You are off the hook. For now."

"I understand, my lord! Thank you for your mercy!" McLaggen answered. Voldemort was going to answer when a shot of pain flashed through the body he was possessing.

"Tch! This body is not able to sustain my essence much longer." Voldemort raised an arm and pulled back the sleeve to see dark veins going along the length of it with traces of aging evident around it. "Clearly, his compatibility is failing rapidly."

"Is there anything I can do to help, my lord?" McLaggen looked up, his tone clearly trying to convey his helpfulness in order to reduce the potential punishment. Voldemort opened his mouth only to pause as he considered a couple of ideas that popped into his mind. Given how the Auror flinched slightly, he was not so successful in keeping the smirk appearing on his face.

"There might be something for you to aid me in."

Before the corrupt Auror could ask, the ground shook violently to throw them to the ground, and Voldemort could hear nearby students screaming in fright at what was going on. While trying to process that, Voldemort felt his connection to Quirrel break, and the host body briefly woke up before he started screaming in agony as the body started to turn to smoke beneath his clothes and the man proceeded to combust without warning. Auror McLaggan yelped but grabbed his wand to try and save the body, but the water did not put the flames out for long and the body broke apart.

"My Lord!" The traitorous Auror stepped forward to try and do something, helplessly watching the body crumble to ashes. Then some of the ash and smoke rose to his height and gathered into a rough ball, emnating an energy that caused him to step back unconsciously from fear. It condensed itself before a pair of crimson eyes appeared in the smoke.

"My lord?" McLaggen took a few extra steps back without meaning to and hit the wall behind him. The eyes narrowed before it spoke.

"You would have to do." With that. the cloud surged forward with a roar as it parted to show a mouth of ash coming right for the Auror.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHGGGGGGHHH!"

~ooOOoo~

(3.20pm, Harry Potter's Warding Experiment Room)

"OW~" Harry blinked and winced from the pain in his head as he tried to get up from the ground. "Did anyone get the number of the bus that hit me?"

"Only if you can tell me where the Hippogriff that hit me is." Filius answered while groaning from his side.

"Young master is okay!" Dudi's voice made the both of them wince from the volume, but helped to center their positions and turned to where the elf was along with the other students who rushed forward to check on them.

"Are you okay? Wait, that is a dumb question. Of course you are not okay!" Hermione was babbling as she alternated her checks on Harry and Filius.

"Don't worry, Miss Granger. I think the only injuries we have are those to our pride." Filius winced again while rubbing his back. "And maybe my spine for that matter." Harry groaned while rubbing his arm where it hit the floor.

"What happened though?" Terry asked while providing a wet towel. "We were just checking our notes on the procedures since all you did was touch the boulder and the floor when the entire room started shaking like crazy and Dudi went to move us all out of the room."

"Not sure." Harry answered while accepting the towel. "I think I was interacting with Hogwarts, or at least the avatar of Hogwarts. She was being restrained by something so I had to help her out and then granted her whatever she wanted."

"That might explain that thing then." Padma mentioned with a slightly uneasy look. Harry's querying look prompted her to point at something behind them, which prompted him and Filius to turn around to see what she was talking about. The two were still in the same room but now noticed that the giant boulder was having all the symbols glowing on it, with the medium sized rocks hovering at hip level and moving around the bigger stone like planets around the sun and the smaller stones acting like small moons orbiting around them. Adding to the planetary feel was the presence of a white mist that moved between them along with actual rings of light around one of the medium sized rocks like a smaller version of Saturn. The copper braces that had held the smaller stones appeared to have melded together to an intricate circle beneath the stones and were lightly pulsing with light and power.

"Okay, that is new." Harry blinked as he got up to inspect his project up close, whatever pain had been forgotten at the sight of this. Filius followed soon after in a similar manner. "When I designed this, a solar system was definitely not what I had in mind."

"The feeling I am getting from it is quite pure to say the least." The half-goblin answered as he looked at the closest stone and reached out with a finger only for the stone to move away and correct its course.

"Does that mean your wards are activated?" Hermione's query put a damper on their curiosity and had Harry moving to the nearby table to grab what looked to be a square looking glass with a crude bronze handle. He then directed that to the stones and looked through with a steady eye, pausing every so often as he focused on one of the stones. He then lowered it with a sigh.

"She is right, not only is it activated, it is going at full strength and doing a lot of reinforcement of the wards." He frowned slightly. "But I made sure the power runes were disabled until I finished with the designs. And from what I can tell, the wards are responding to something else other than me. I only have partial access for now."

"Is it dangerous?" Filius asked while looking at the stones. Before Harry could answer, Dudi interrupted with a smile.

"Young master need not worry, Hogwarts will not harm you." Everyone else blinked and looked at the house elf.

"Dudi, are you saying that Hogwarts has taken over my ward protection system?" The elf nodded sheepishly at Harry's query.

"For that to happen, Hogwarts is more than sentient, it can actively choose to do actions similar to a human." Hermione seemed almost giddy at that bit of information.

"But why is it doing this now?" Su pointed that out.

"Hogwarts wanted to be free." Dudi waved his arms like he wanted to convey the matter with exuberance. "Hogwarts has been hurting for so long now, past headmasters keep chaining her up. She feels trapped." Harry idly noted that house elves were very expressive with their faces and ears as Dudi's ears drooped down like a puppy as he talked before they perked up. "But Hogwarts has watched Mister Potter create his protections and felt the young master's wards and thought them good for her protection. She feels that she can protect the students better with Mister Potter's system, so she asked Dudi to get Mister Potter to help her. Hogwarts's wards are now working with Mister Potter's wards to be better."

"Erm, Dudi? Hogwarts does know that I am still working out the kinks on this particular set, right?" Harry felt a little faint knowing that a sentient castle had been keeping an eye on him and wanting to use his protections for itself but this was insanity!

"Harry, is that supposed to be doing something?" Terry called out while pointing out one of the medium sized rocks that was currently glowing a bright "angry" orange with several red scripts moving about like those seen on the big screens by the malls. Harry barely reached out when the rock moved closer with slightly darkened mist trailing behind it, as if it was getting hot from whatever was agitating it. Harry was a little leery to handle it, but went to look closer to see what was making it the way it was.

"Okay, this stone deals with the protections for the unwanted visitors and possible dangers to the owner." Harry spun the globe and touched the gem at the top to project what looked to be the targets. "That is an odd reading."

"This reminds me of some of my brethren's wards." Filius came forward to see the image of a dark smoke whirling around like something was squirming inside, and the odd image of a person changing into a rat and back. "Not the most communicative but still useful."

"I have no idea what the first one is, but the second?" Harry waved a hand to superimpose the second image. "What do you guys think?"

"Considering it keeps shifting back and forth like that, I wager someone like Professor McGonnagal." Terry answered.

"That is a good deduction, Mister Boot." Filius nodded. "Question now is who is the possible animagus that is supposedly invading Hogwarts? Can your ward system narrow it down?"

"Let me see if this is still following what I had intended." Harry pulled out his gloves to put them on and activate a rune on the back before handling the glowing rock gently, pressing certain symbols to get another rock resembling Jupiter to come nearer. A quick tap on the jewel at the top projected an image that took a few seconds to solidify and sharpen to show the actual castle.

"Mister Potter, you should meet with Professor Babbling after this. You could possibly be allowed to enter your OWLs for this." Filius remarked as the students oohed and ahhed at the display before them.

"The fact that a sentient castle was able to take over the wards means I might have to do that if only to have another teacher checking my work." Harry answered while fiddling with the stones. "To be frank, my understanding of ancient runes is mostly supplemented with my lessons in symbology and pictography. Not to mention, I am currently going with a different set of lessons that are different from Magical Britain's since what is considered an elective here is something to be taught within the first year. For all I know, what is considered common here could be a different issue elsewhere."

"Really?" If Hermione were a dog, she would have her ears straight up and a tail wagging.

"This is one of the perks of the advancement program that you are now in yourself, Hermione." Harry paused briefly to look at her. "My situation is a bit unique as I aimed to get my OWLs and NEWTs early to finish my magical education in order to focus on modern curriculum. Part of it includes the option to take up subjects from overseas that are compulsory to be learned in the first year, which includes ancient runes, arithmancy and basic foundations to ward creations. However, you are going to be tested heavily on your knowledge for the examiners to properly determine your level. So if you really want to take up the same subjects as I am, be prepared that we may be working on different types from other countries and different year groups. You have the advantage of starting a little later than me, so you can read through the itinerary before getting into the subjects you want."

"I will learn them one way or another." Hermione had a very determined light in her eyes. Harry had no doubt she would get it when it was her turn for the advancement exams.

"And done." Harry did something to make the image zoom in on where the supposed intruder was, and blinked at the location. "Wait a minute. That is outside of the room, by the far end of the corridor." That got Filius drawing his wand faster than any of them could see.

"Dudi." The elf snapped to attention at the tone. "Can you head outside and check the corridor before returning to me? Do not be seen." The elf nodded and popped away. "Students, you will wait here." Before any could react, Filius went back to the main door and waited with a serious expression not often seen by the students. He raised a hand to tell the students to hold back in the room and stay silent just as Dudi popped back into the room silently.

"Professor Charms, the Not Rat is just two doors away, trying to get inside the Young Masters room." Dudi answered immediately in a serious tone.

"So the intruder is like Professor McGonnagal." Filius remarked along with Dudi nodding. "Now what to do?"

"Professor." Harry stepped forward at this point. "I can activate the outer defenses for the room to keep the intruder in place, but you may need to check on them. My settings are still a little on the hard side."

"Hard side?" Terry asked.

"Slam into the opposite wall at roughly 20 km per hour." Hermione, Su and Lisa winced at that image, getting the idea of a person smashing into the wall.

"Oh, that will leave a mark." Su snarked.

"That would do, knocking them out would be ideal at this point." Filius gave his thoughts on the matter. "Okay Mister Potter. Get your wards to keep the intruder out and perhaps knock them out as well. I will check on them." Harry nodded and did something with his hand. A few seconds later, a loud clang was heard from outside and Harry nodded at Filius who left the room promptly, returning shortly after with said rat in a conjured cage.

"Well, that is one ugly rat." Michael wrinkled his nose in disgust at the sight of it, something that the others did as well given how it was fat, dirty, and clearly getting on in the years with the graying coat of fur and what looked to be a toe missing from its front paw.

"Hang on." Hermione looked closer at the rat. "That's Scabbers."

"What's a Scabbers?" Terry looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"The pet rat of Ronald Weasley." Her wrinkling nose made it clear how she thought of the boy. "He keeps carrying it around in his pocket and feeding it when they are at the Great Hall. And this rat likes to scamper around the Gryffindor dormitory without him controlling the damn thing. Why, this one kept going to the girls' side…" Hermione drawled as she took note of what she said before paling and looking at the rat again. "Professor, you said it could be like Professor McGonagall?" The half-goblin blinked before his eyes widened in realization and he looked at the rat in disgust.

"Hermione?" Harry had the sinking feeling he knew what she was fearing as her body started shaking while the girl backed away from the rat. "Ah, crap baskets."

"What?" Michael looked between them while unconsciously moving along with Terry to block Hermione from the rat.

"Think about it guys. The rat may be an actual man who keeps moving around the school in his rat form, including areas accessible to girls only." Harry brought his hands up with the glove runes glowing while his eyes were glaring at the rat. The others thought a bit before each of them realized what he meant and they reacted accordingly with the girls moving away from the rat and crowding around Hermione while Terry and Michael looked a little trigger happy with their wands.

"You know, I have been meaning to practice on some charms." Terry fingered his wand.

"And I do need something to test my Transfiguration." Michael answered with his own set of words and a gleam in his eyes.

Yup, they were pissed. Not that Harry would not understand as he had some spells that he wanted to test out and there was an ideal test subject right now for all of them.

You know, for science.

"Boys, as much as I would enjoy teaching you the finer aspects of spell casting on a very fine test subject, I would ask that you hold your tempers and wands." Filius maintained his composure and tone even though it was clear that he wanted to unleash his goblin heritage. "Mister Potter, you have your recording crystal." He worded it as a statement instead of a question, but Harry took out his crystal to show it. "With you students as my witness, I wish to first test if the rat is genuinely an Animagus." Filius reinforced the cage first before firing off another spell which caused the rat to glow a variety of colors which did not make sense to the students, but evidently so for Filius given his darkening expression. It went even darker when the rat finally glowed a blood-orange color and stayed for a few seconds.

"It would seem your protection scheme works well for its first run, Mister Potter." Filius remarked as he canceled the spell. "I am going to need to contact the DMLE on this. I can ask them to help identify this man, and it is a man in his thirties based on the spell check."

"Well, you could not have a better time to do that." Lisa quipped while looking like she wanted to stomp on the rat. Before the professor could answer with a quip of his own, a hum was heard from the ward room, prompting Harry to check on what was going on now. He soon came back with the same stone projecting a different image and with a big frown on his face.

"What is the matter, Mister Potter?"

"We may have a problem." Harry held up the stone that now showed a smaller image of the rat now in the cage, and the black cloud now superimposed with it inside the image of the castle, which from the looks of it, was approaching the Great Hall. "Whatever is the second danger is currently moving about, and?" He paused as he tilted his head, unknowingly at the same time as the elf next to him, before continuing. "Hogwarts is trying to tell me that this one is more dangerous than the rat. She has been trying to inform the headmaster to get it out but he did not listen?" His confusion was clearly heard at that last part and the others were looking at each other with quiet expressions.

"And the green figures?" Su pointed at the projections in question.

"Hogwarts just called forth the protectors to stop it." Dudi answered. "Hogwarts has full access to all protections now and will do everything to protect the students." Dudi titled the head again. "Announcement is coming." Before any of them could say, a loud gong of the bell was heard before a voice called out, echoing in the corridor they were in.

"All students are to return to their dormitories immediately, there is a clear danger in Hogwarts. This is not a drill or a joke, all students are to cease their activities and return to dormitories immediately."

"I do not recognize that voice." Hermione frowned as the message repeated itself. "Is it one of the staff?"

"No, I do not know anyone with that voice." Filius answered.

"It is Hogwarts. Professor Whiskers and Kitty are not able to make announcements." Dudi replied.

"The fact that the castle has to do it means something is really wrong right now." Filius looked at the captured rat before turning to Harry. "Do you have a room or something to secure this? I would need to hurry down to the Great Hall if the intruder is not stopped." Harry hummed to himself before answering.

"There is a storage cupboard that is not used at the opposite side of the corridor. I can modify the material to be stronger than rock, and between us, we can secure the cupboard with more spells."

"That will do. Let's do this now please." Filius and Harry moved out of the room, followed shortly by the other students while the house elf popped away. They went to the stated storage cupboard where Harry did his usual material alteration to change the inner parts of the cupboard and the door to be solid iron to ensure the intruder could not use magic. Filius added his set of spells before placing the rat in the cupboard, stunning it once more for precaution.

"Right, that is done." Filius announced as they shut the door and he placed more locking spells on it to keep it that way. "I would be escorting you to the Ravenclaw Tower, and you will stay there."

"What about you, professor?" Filius shook his head at Terry's query.

"I need to go to the Great Hall to check on the intruder, and to find any students that are in need of assistance." The half-goblin added another set of spells on the cupboard door, and as an afterthought, summoned one of the heavier cupboards from the spare rooms to place it in front of the door. "That should do it. Now let us leave." The sudden increase of vibrations in the stone work made the students agree, and with a lockdown of the room wards, they all moved to the Ravenclaw Tower while bringing along one Junior Auror and other stragglers with them, some from other houses and were too far to get back to their own. Harry listened to the chatter half-heartedly as they moved, raising an eyebrow at the Auror talking about attempted possession of his partner.

They did get to the Ravenclaw Tower with Filius using his position to gain automatic passage for the other students to enter, the Junior Auror standing by to keep an eye out with his wand out. It was as his group was going to enter that Dudi appeared out of nowhere.

"Hogwarts needs Mister Potter's help!" The elf hopped on one foot and rushed towards Harry. "She needs Mister Potter to go and save students!"

"Wait, Dudi!" Before anyone could react, Dudi touched Harry and popped away. Filius swore and ushered the other students inside and told them to stay put before he moved to the fireplace, his growling hiding some choice words of what he would do when he got his hands on the elf and student, while the Auror did something with the badge to call for backup. The students stayed silent for a moment before Terry broke it with a snort.

"Seriously, when Harry is around, there is no shortage of excitement."

"No kidding." Was his collective answer from the others.

~ooOoo~

(Hogwarts, Great Hall / Multiple testimonies)

"Well, that was weird." Harry blinked as he steadied his footing. He was used to his own teleporting trick,zand had experienced Floo Travel and side-along Magical Apparition (his least favorite travel method of all), but whatever type of teleportation the elves used, it was really efficient to say the least. The best he could describe it was "blinking", like literally in the blink of the eye, he was sent to another location.

He would have to look up on that later. Right now, he had to deal with the ongoing spellfire that was going on in the hallway. Harry moved to where the screams were and found several students huddling by different parts of the wall, pillars and suits of armor using their shields to block spellfire, to get shelter from the spellfire that was going on between Aurors and the unknown assailant that in the distance appeared to be covered in a thick fog of dark smoke. The Aurors were split between defending the students in the area and fighting the assailant.

Perhaps he could give them a hand.

A clap later and several walls of iron appeared to provide cover while the floor acted like rubber and moved the students or other injured people to his side and to relative safety. The Aurors closest to him saw what he was doing and nodded at him before renewing their assault with more vigor, calling out to their companions that they had help in getting the students out of the way. The sixth and seventh year students who were by Harry helped to get the other students out of the way and assisted with covering their escape. Once they were done, Harry moved out of the way to make sure he did not get caught up in the proceedings, which was good as the assailant appeared to be agitated from losing the hostages and fired off random curses before sighting him behind one of the walls.

"Potter!"

And that was the first time Harry felt it.

A pressure that fell upon him like a weighted blanket, with the feeling of absolute WRONGNESS trying to pervade his mind and spirit. A feeling of absolute dread that wanted to crawl into his mind just from the first utterance of sound.

This was the first time he felt absolute fear, and he really did not like it.

His magic reacted to that fear and mandalas appeared above his shoulders to fire off bolts of light at the assailant who summoned the debris around him to block the attacks before diving into the Great Hall. "After him!" The Aurors ran into the Great Hall while trying to get any students left in the hall to leave the area quickly. Harry took the moment to lean against the wall and let out a breath that he did not know he had held from that moment.

"What on earth was that?" Harry honestly never felt something that bad in the few years. The closest he had to compare with was when whatever crap was removed from his scar when he created his first set of wards after his summer camp. This felt stronger and a lot colder, and so Bloody WRONG that he had to get away from that.

A scream broke his thoughts and drew his attention back to the doorway. Evidently there were still civilians in the Great Hall and they could not get out. He may as well do something on his end.

'Sorry about this request, Hogwarts. I need to make a quick doorway here.' Harry thought as he placed his hands on the wall that more or less faced the inner sanctum of the Great Hall. In response, the now familiar weight of the wards settled on his shoulders, but it felt lighter and he got the impression that the castle wanted to tell him something so he closed his eyes briefly and got the image of the avatar waving at him and pointing at the wall he was holding, before miming with her hands to act like she was moving bricks. He barely got the idea in the head when he felt the bricks beneath his hands moving and he opened his eyes to find the bricks having moved on their own without him using any magic to create an archway with a stone door.

"That is new." Harry muttered before shaking his head and placing a hand on the handle while preparing a shield in front of him as he opened it. Good thinking as a stray spell immediately hit it. Harry held back briefly to control his heart before risking popping his head around the corner.

The Great Hall that once held four long tables and benches now resembled a war zone with said tables and benches destroyed into big chunks of wood and spell burns on the stonework. Certain areas of the hallway have the students huddled into groups while using whatever was available to shield themselves from the stary spells going around. The Aurors were also doing what they could to take the intruder down, but the dark mist covering him and the sharp movements helped him to dodge the attacks with ease, not to mention the Aurors trying to limit their strengths again.

Time to help them out again.

Harry slammed his hands to the ground again, this time using whatever debris and stonework available to create a wall that could protect the students and more importantly direct them to his side to exit quickly. The ones closest to him certainly noted that and made their way to him with the senior students sticking around to help out, with the exception of some of the more unruly students that he recognized to be those blood bigots.

"Potter!" The wall shook and cracked a little, prompting Harry to strengthen it while the students coming around the bend screamed and rushed to get out of the hallway with some almost tripping in their panic. The senior students were at least helping in their own way, the fifth years at least helping to get the others to calm down and move on while the sixth and seventh years helped to reinforce the wall facing them to ensure no spells would destroy the wall. It took a while but the students from the far end had evacuated and thus leaving the senior students and Harry to hold the fort. They left shortly after, and Harry was going to collapse the foundations when the wall disintegrated before him, leaving him exposed to the attacker who had managed to push back his opponents with ease.

"There you are." Shivers went down at the voice that seemed to drip menace easily with each word. Before Harry could move, he felt someone pushing him from behind, forcing him to turn on his heel to find someone with Slytherin colored robes closing the door with a victorious smirk. Well, he was now officially pissed. He would think of that later as he moved to dodge the spell aimed for his torso, rolling to the big piece of table that got wrecked from the onslaught of spells.

"Come now Potter, why are you so shy?" The assailant mocked him with that odd wasping tone that gave the impression of two people speaking at once. "You were more lively during Halloween when we last met." The boy paused at that statement and frowned briefly before it cleared up.

"Am I right in guessing you were the one that attacked me while invisible and later with that troll?" The cloud of smoke appeared to shiver along with the dark chuckles the assailant gave.

"Yes, and I have you to thank for making me bleed and surviving that troll."

Okay, now he may have some personal stakes on this.

He did not ponder long as an urgent need to move descended on him, a need that he followed in the nick of time as the wood broke and shattered into deadly splinters. Harry pulled out his wand while one of the sigils appeared around his free hand, and then fired off a spell that he had read from a third year spell book involving stunning the opponent. The opponent blocked it with a plate, but the force of the spell was enough to blow the smoke away from the assailant, revealing the identity of the attacker for the first time. From what Harry could tell from the clothes, the person appeared to be one of the British Aurors, but the face shown to him was honestly a little gruesome to say the least; one side of the face was that of a young man in his late thirties with light blond hair that was in a mess as though he got into a tussle. The other half of the face though was pale and stretched with part of the mouth cracked with a snarl, with odd scale markings near the ear. The transition between the two was uneven as though someone tried to melt the wax of a completed mannequin and stretched it badly. The crimson red eyes were directed at Harry with a fair bit of maniacal hate.

"Nice to meet you in person, but I don't believe I know you very well." Harry spoke while glancing at the Aurors who were getting up.

"Oh? You do not know me?" The man tilted his head to the side, and it took Harry some effort to not gag at how the skin stretched around his face and neck like it wanted to tear but held on. "I would think you would know me very well. After all, you and your mother are the reason I am in this state." That got Harry to pause briefly to consider his words before his eyes widened at the thought that popped into his head.

"I believe the muggles would describe it as, 'the light bulb lit up'?" The man smiled very eerily at his expression. "You see what I have become? Feel what I must do to survive. I have to force myself to possess the bodies of animals and humans, to act as a parasite to survive all these years. But there is something in this school that could help me, an item that Dumbledore had placed here in a feeble attempt to draw me in as bait."

"Must be one hell of a bait to get you coming still." Harry muttered while glancing at the Aurors who were getting themselves back up.

"You could say that. After all, if you are stuck in this state" The possessed man raised a hand before lowering it "you would do whatever is needed to get out of it."

"Who the hell are you?" One of the Aurors called out while holding her wand. The possessed man turned with a raised eyebrow.

"Ah, a young one, you are? Understandable that you do not know me." His eyes moved to someone else. "But you remember me, wouldn't you, Professor Flitwick?" Harry turned to find his head-of-house near him with his wand gripped tightly and an expression that was a cross of fear and anger.

"Professor?" Harry called out to Filius.

"Mister Potter, come over here, now." Harry startled slightly but moved at the stern tone the half-goblin professor had while keeping his eye on the intruder.

"Yes, you do remember me." The possessed man chuckled again. "Then again, we did meet a few times on the battlefield in the past."

"And I wished you stayed dead." Filius snarled.

"Oh you wound me." The man placed a hand on his chest. "We had such good chemistry between us."

"And every time you try to curse me to death, You-Know-Who." The Aurors that were coherent looked to him with shock and fear at the possessed Auror.

"Well, you did try to flambé me the last time before I went after the Potters." The man shrugged, "And it is good to see that my moniker has not been forgotten."

"For now." Filius pulled Harry behind him, with some of the Aurors helping automatically to put him behind them.

"Well then." A smile that looked so wrong on his face appeared. "Let's see if you remember our little game." With a quick flick of the wand, he conjured up a huge wave of fire that towered over them and flashed quickly to their side. All the Aurors and Filius waved their wands as one to hold it back while Harry took the opportunity to create a clear wall for them to view while protecting them. That helped as a good number of the Aurors had lost their staminas and needed to pause, thus watching the flames hit the wall. That also helped to see the now known Voldemort cast something that splashed against the wall and seemingly eat into it.

"Scatter!" One of the seniors gave the command for them to do so, Filius grabbing Harry and somehow jumping a fair distance despite the size and weight difference, just as the wall crumbled and the fire continued to get through. "Damn it, that flame is going to get us if we can't stop him!"

"Let me be of assistance." Filius pointed the wand at the ceiling where the scene of a midday cloudy afternoon changed to a stormy maelstrom that somehow started to rain actual water on them and more importantly smother down the flames. Voldemort however was not deterred by that and manipulated the water to gather together and form a giant serpent of water that hissed realistically before lunging forward. Most of them scattered on time but a couple were caught in the torrent and moved about as the serpent reformed itself, clearly drowning in their attempts to escape.

"Cover me!" Harry decided to help out by summoning the drowning Aurors out of the water construction with his arms out, using memetic motions of his hands to help with the action. With them out, one of the seniors fired out a spell that froze the construction before it exploded. Filius used that chance to collect the shrapnel and fired it back at Voldemort who did something to slice it in half while midair.

"Thanks lad!" The Aurors called out to Harry while grabbing their comrades who were sucking in as much air as they could after getting out of their watery prison. "Watch out!" Harry saw what one had sighted and summoned all the debris together before converting them into a mishmash creation of a defense to fend off the bombardment of spells at them.

"This is getting us nowhere." Harry hissed as he maintained the structure.

"How is it possible that You-Know-Who is still alive!" One of the younger Aurors was freaking out at this. "I thought he was dead from what Potter did as a kid!"

"Common sense tells you that there is no way I could have done anything as a baby. It had to be my mother performing a last-ditch magic spell to defeat him. Not to mention there was no body left for identification." Harry snapped at him. "Furthermore, who would know what really happened that night?"

"But Dumbledore." The younger one tried to argue only to be silenced by the senior Auror.

"I do not think this is the time to argue about what happened in the history books. Right now, we need to take whoever that is down and get our Auror back, one way or another." The old man declared before firing off a few spells back at Voldemort.

"So he is possessed?" Filius asked as he maintained the shield.

"Yeah. McLaggen came down with that smoke coming off him and then his face started changing to that as you saw. From what I could tell, he had struggled for a while and then lost the fight to that creep." One of the females spoke out.

"Okay, definite possession." The flash of fire drew Harry's attention to the flames that were reaching the top of the makeshift barricade. "Damn it." A quick pulse pushed the burning wreckage back at the possessed man who fired off some cannon spell at it to destroy and then transfigured the broken pieces into facsimiles of hellhounds that leaped forward at that. "Ah come on!"

"Come now. Surely you can do better?" Voldemort asked in a mocking tone. "The Aurors back in the day at least gave me some challenge."

"Screw you, asshole!" One of the Aurors flipped the bird only to yelp from the fireball aimed for his head.

"On three, Reductos! One, Two, Three!" The leader called out and fired off a red spell followed by the others that destroyed them with the few that escaped getting taken out by Filius and Harry's spells. With that settled, the man then slammed his wand to the ground to create a tidal wave of stone masonry back at their attacker, forcing him to move away for the first time while providing cover for them.

"I am open to suggestions here!" The leader shouted while maintaining his protection.

"Take him out hard, the lad is gone." One of the ICW officers spoke out, earning a few glares from the British side.

"I will not be losing one of my men to some egotistical wraith! There will be no 'taking him out hard' on my watch!" The leader rounded on the ICW officer who remained cool under his scathing glare.

"Gentlemen." Filius's strict tone interrupted them both. "Now is not the time to go at each other's throats. We need to resolve this quickly."

"Right, but how?" Another senior Auror muttered while moving his hair away from his eyes frustratingly. The action drew Harry's eyes to a cross that evidently came out of the man's collar. And that was when he had a crazy idea.

"Are you Christian?" Harry asked the man who blinked at the sudden query from nowhere.

"Yeah, go to church and all." The man answered with a raised eyebrow.

"Do you know enough of the bible to say the verses?" Harry asked urgently.

"Somewhat, but what does this have to do with anything we are dealing with now?" The Auror asked frustrated with the others looking on while alternating their attention to the attacks. As for Harry, he just got confirmation for a very crazy idea.

"Because I would need you to perform an exorcism in the next few minutes." That got the Auror and the others to stare at him like he had an extra head growing out the side.

"Lad, I think you are barking the wrong tree." The Auror spoke after a few seconds to restart his brain. "I may know the bible thanks to my Sunday visits to the church, that does not make me a priest or an exorcist. And Aurors do not really do actual exorcisms or spirit banishments, the Unspeakables are the ones you are thinking of." Harry shook his head quickly while firing off several bolts of mana at Voldemort.

"I do not need you to do the whole shebang. I just need someone to speak out the actual verses." Harry answered quickly. "I have read a little on exorcisms and spirit banishments, so I might be able to jury rig something to help with that. But we got to do this quickly."

"Do you honestly believe you can do that? You are just a kid." The man's partner scoffed at him.

"At least I know something to help with the situation. Do you have a better idea that can get that bad guy out of the Auror's body? Or are you hoping to keep blasting spells at him to save your buddy?" Harry asked her with a glare.

"Okay, we will try your way." The Auror stopped his partner with a stare. "What do you need?" Harry pointed at his cross.

"I am going to create a few amplifiers to help with the exorcism, I need someone to make sure they don't get destroyed." He reached into his pocket, trying to find what he needed and got them out to show the Aurors four vials of some clear liquid. "When we start the ritual, throw these at the amplifiers and then start speaking those bible verses."

"What are those?" The male Auror asked while taking one. "And if I may ask why you have these?"

"Holy water mixed with the essence of true silver." Harry answered before moving a little to prepare himself. "As for the other question, I believe in constant vigilance since my life is more or less open to everyone. Any other questions before we begin?"

"Do you require assistance with anything else?" The ICW officer asked with a couple of his team nodding seriously. Least they were willing to give him a chance.

"Protect the amplifiers in any way you can. I can deal with the ground etching, but the amplifiers are going to be vulnerable if that guy sees them forming." Harry answered.

"When does our friend start speaking these verses? Or what are the amplifiers to throw these at?" Filius asked while the others moved to prepare with the vials in questions.

"You will know it when you see it." He moved in time to avoid a shot from Voldemort, idly hearing the man's partner complaining about following the orders of a wannabe Moody before getting silenced. He did not pay attention to that woman and just focused on the task at hand.

Speaking of hands? 'Clap!'

The ground below him rumbled before pillars appeared around Voldemort to restrict his movements and then spikes came out of their sides to pierce him, but the wizard quickly banished them along with reducing the pillars to rubble and turned them into snakes that he did something to make them come after Harry. The boy moved away from them and thrust his wand to push them away, inwardly wondering why he was hearing words in between their hissings but ignored it in favor of firing off several bolts of mana at Voldemort to force him to move and dismiss anything that he would not want him to notice.

"Oh good, I was wondering if you have forgotten about me." Voldemort spoke like he was chiding him.

"Not likely." Harry created his mandalas and held his arms in a boxing stance. "We are just getting started." Without much delay, he punched the air with a straight right to fire off a mana shot like a shotgun, forcing Voldemort to conjure up a shield to block them, loud bangs showing the shots making contact with the shield. Harry took the chance to "step" right by his side and deliver an elbow to the side, sending the man flying by way of a force multiplier spell and an acceleration spell he found in one of his study books the other day. He did not let up from the attack and unleashed a mana storm that rained shots on the man, covering the area with smoke.

Now that the man was temporarily handled, time to do what he needed to do.

"Here we go. Get ready!" Harry slammed his hands again to the floor to create more spikes to attack Voldemort while four crossed shaped pillars started to grow out of the floor with only a few meters from the wall. At the same time the floor started displaying a few indented patterns that would not be very visible to the average eye unless they were focusing on them, and that was without a fight going on.

Perfect for him.

"Help Potter out!" He heard the male Auror call out to the rest who proceeded to unleash a lot of their more destructive spells at the intruder, knowing that they could not afford to hold back at the supposed Dark Lord. Professor Flitwick was helping with defense to ensure Harry did not get caught in the attack but still able to throw in some pot-shots for good measure. That was helpful since now he needed to find a power source to connect the sigils to power them up. He mentally apologized to Hogwarts as he prepared to etch a rune to draw some magic from the castle itself when a weight appeared on his shoulders again and he had the sense that he did not need to do that.

Best to follow the thousand odd year castle.

"ENOUGH!" Voldemort snarled and thrust his arms out in a spread arm movement to send out a shockwave of magic that knocked most of the others to the ground. "I will not be denied my revenge!" Harry held back his tongue and focused on finishing his construction while grabbing a smaller vial from his pocket. He only had one shot at this.

"Time to die, Potter!" The possessed Auror fired a green spell at Harry, making everyone scream with a few trying to do something to stop it. Filius was the closest in summoning debris to block the path, and it worked for a moment before a second spell was sent immediately. Harry forced a little more power to his construction to create a steel wall to blunt the attack at the last second. A loud 'clang' followed by the metal denting heavily showed the amount of power that was thrown at him.

But that bought him enough time to finish what he had in mind and powered it up. From where he knelt, lines of light travel about the lines etched in the ground, creating an intricate pattern of a Christian cross with multiple holy symbols glowing brightly. The four cross shaped pillars were glowing as well but with gold lines instead, giving the overall feel of something descending to pass judgment.

"What is this!" Voldemort snarled as he hissed in pain, the dark smoke around him being dispersed almost instantly by the light. "Why does it burn!" Indeed, whatever skin that was touched by the light appeared to be turning red and the part belonging to Voldemort appeared to be cracking into ash.

"A little something courtesy of the church." Harry spoke at this point while standing up with the vial. "No offense, but you are not invited into the school. You would need to leave."

"Damn you, Potter!" Voldemort tried to fire a spell at the pillars, but it fizzled out as it reached one of them.

"If nothing else?" Harry tilted the vial to deposit the contents of what looked to be mercury that hit one of the patterns on the ground, causing the lines to shine better. Harry could spot the pillars getting the vials shattered on them to activate their abilities. "An original from me. [Letzte Ruhe Verdammt]." That created a crescendo of noise that lightly shook the Great Hall as the crosses lit up as one while the Auror started to chant out verses of the bible while a few others covered them to avoid getting the ritual stopped. Bells were heard in the background as a magic circle appeared right under Voldemort and he started screaming in anger and pain. The light started getting too bright for most to see, making them cover their eyes to handle the glare, but Harry, Filius and some of the Aurors hiding behind cover squinted to see the smoke coming out of the body before it seemingly erupted out of the body, rather obvious with all the white light surrounding it. The owner dropped to the ground while the dark smoke twisted and turned on itself with a loud roar that chilled the spines of all in the Great Hall. It condensed itself into a rough ball before something resembling a face appeared in the middle of the cloud.

"PPPPppoooTTTTtteeeeeRRRr!" The voice hissed like an angry serpent.

"I Kill. I let live. I harm, and I heal." The male Auror continued speaking as he held out his personal cross that was currently glowing a light blue. "Be crushed. Those defeated, and those grown old. I welcome thee into thy hands. Only in death, may life be granted." The entity roared and cursed as the circle beneath started getting brighter with some of the symbols appearing in the air around it.

"You cannot stop me, I am immortal! I will return!" Voldemort screamed at Harry who was struggling a little to keep the runes intact from the amount of power that was going through them. There was a lot more power than he was used to back home and he was doing what he could to stop the runes from burning out by the sheer purity of mana powering them.

"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you." The Auror then thrust his cross forward. "Now begone demon, and never darken these halls with your taint!" At his proclamation, the bells reached a crescendo of chiming and small balls of light appeared about them with what looked to the entire range of colors known to men. The cloud of menace then screamed as it was forcefully banished out of the Great Hall, briefly halted by a smaller cloud that came out of the ceiling and slammed into it, seemingly changing the cloud of smoke into a more humanoid form before continuing and smashing through the window. The wails diminished after a while and the crosses finally started to power down, the dimming of the lights acting as a go-ahead for all to lower their wands and slumped down to the floor. Harry himself was lying flat on his back and panting from exhaustion, his body feeling like he had warm water going through his veins from all the magic he had to pump out for this ritual.

"Mister Potter, can you hear me?" Harry turned his head to the left where he found his professor looking over him with concern while lightly gripping his arm.

"Yes, Professor." Harry sighed tiredly. "That was nerve-wracking, not to mention exhausting." Filius chuckled as he held up a hand to the boy for him to grab on and then pull him up despite the boy being double his size. Harry had the brief moment of seeing the other Aurors on the ground with a few attending to them and the ground being scorched from earlier before the doors opened up to show Amelia Bones and Auror backups coming through, the whole lot of them stopping to see the absolute mess there was there.

"No offense, Professor." Harry spoke while stretching. "But I need a vacation." Filius snorted at that.

"That makes the two of us, young man."

~ooOOoo~

(Present Day, DMLE)

"And that is it." Harry ended the tale right as the recording ended, taking a sip of water to quench his thirst from almost three hours worth of talking and Veritaserum testimony. The latter came about when Amelia Bones wanted to confirm some details that may have sounded unbelievable so he had to drink a watered down version of Veritaserum to ensure that he was more or less encouraged to tell the truth without getting the full strain on his heart and brain that came about from ingesting that potion, with the side benefit of not needing the antidote afterwards.

But damn, did he really need the little boy's room right now!

As for the adults, their reactions varied. Amelia Bones was stern despite being very tired from the interrogation, and was clearly trying to wrap her head around the situation he went through. The two guards following their boss were looking at Harry with wide mouthed expressions, probably wondering how an eleven-year-old had more action in two months than them in a few years. An Unspeakable who had arrived to aid with the Pensieve memory collection was the hardest to see, but Harry had the impression that they really wanted to drag him for some "testing".

As for his barrister, he was calm as a cucumber and taking orange slices while listening in.

Where did he even get them?

"Are there any other questions for my client?" Jeremiah asked while he checked his notes being written by his pen flying about the paper.

"Don't mind me asking this question, this is more for clarification for future inquiries that would come." Amelia spoke out while she consulted her own notes. "Your knowledge on wards and protection is impressive for one your age, but would it be considered too much? You had effectively created a brand new ward scheme for a semi-sentient castle that took over said scheme to rejuvenate or restart the protections. To be fair, you clearly did not expect that to happen."

"I don't think anyone would expect anything of that sort to happen." Harry nodded at that statement. "Originally that ward scheme was meant to be tested for my personal residence, or one of the smaller properties that was left for me. It was using a fair bit of what I had learned so far and some experimental methods I have read that did not make it past the theoretical stage after their conception."

"I see." Amelia manually added a note to her recording before looking up. "And you can confirm that you did not know the identity of the wraith until it called you out?"

"I can honestly say that I did not know that Hogwarts was playing host to the entity that was apparently the previous Dark Lord of Magical Britain, aka Voldemort." Harry answered truthfully while slightly frowning at the adults' reaction to the name. "Are the rumors true that he had placed some type of spell on his name to make everyone scared to say it?"

"Yes." Amelia, whose only indication of her fear being a light twitch answered. "He had placed a Taboo on his name so that anyone saying it would end up attracting his Death Eaters to their location. Outside of being under heavy wards, no one can say his name without becoming a homing beacon."

"Well that is a bummer." Harry could only say that.

"Quite." Jeremiah quickly recovered himself. "Anything else?" Amelia hummed as she looked through her notes before shaking her head.

"Nothing on my end. What about you, Mister Potter?" Harry closed his eyes briefly before opening.

"What of the rat that we caught? Were they an Animagus as Professor Flitwick had deduced?" Amelia looked at him for a moment before answering.

"They were, and the rat was a man that had been declared dead for roughly a decade now." Amelia paused before continuing. "Due to the incident happening in front of the ICW officers and with this inspection going on, the ICW Aurors have come forward to take the suspect to their jail cells in the main ICW office. I suspect that we will have to cooperate with them to ensure no one tries to pull a fast one, since the suspect in question has been linked to a recent case that I have to reopen for investigations."

"Does that happen often?" Harry asked.

"Not often, but with how high profile this is, some people may not like the negative attention and would want to get rid of the problem as soon as possible." The expression on her face said it all.

Politics, the bane of proper justice.

"What of the young man who had pushed my client into the hall after saving his life?" Jeremiah asked with a big frown, one that was shown on Amelia's face as well.

"We will be investigating him, and one of the ICW Aurors was around to witness it, so depending on the situation, he too will stand trial on the ICW courts." Jeremiah nodded with a stern expression.

"I believe that is all." Amelia raised her hand to shake, Harry answering in kind. "Thank you again for your time."

"There is no problem, Madam Bones." Harry answered in kind. Amelia shook hands with Jeremiah before turning to her recording notes.

"I, Amelia Bones, Madam Director of the DMLE, am concluding the interrogation with the student named Harrison James Potter with his legal counsel Jeremiah Gothwald in place of his legal guardian, Michael Thornwood, in regards to the investigation into the recent intruder attack. Let the records reflect that the witness has willingly taken Veritaserum and an oath to tell the truth and magic has tested his intent to be truthful with any antidotes taken to override Veritaserum nor have his memories tempered.. This is what I say as of 5:25pm, British time. Ending Transcript."

---

(Cue Law and Order Ending Theme)

== (Authors Notes) ==

Not sure if I can get the next chapter out before Christmas, if not, this would be an early Christmas present. At least I have recovered from my Covid, even if my health is messed up for a while. For those who are thinking this is going slow, you can be happy to know that we are entering some time skips, and if all goes to plan, first year would be over in the next few chapters. Currently trying to do up a chapter for my FSN DxD fic.

Until then, I put my pen down for now...