This story about Harry Potter playing with runes and upsetting the applecart that is Magical Britain is shared with everyone on FanFiction for fun. Now Harry goes back to playing with runes. How long until that new movie gets released?
Chapter 12: Guest Speaker with Big NewsThe Hogwarts Express arrived, and the carriages quickly moved the students back to the castle under the watchful eyes of the Aurors who guarded the train against another Dementor attack. As the students gathered in the Great Hall, gossip quickly spread that there'd been a loud shouting match in the entry hall just before the students arrived when Dumbledore received some disturbing news from Professor McGonagall. And there'd been shouting that someone else refused to sign a Hogwarts contract.
**SLIGHT SCENE CHANGE**
The exciting news (and of great interest to Harry) was that a mythical creature – a Grim – was seen between Hogsmeade Station and castle. Ginny Weasley was almost gleeful when she told her tale. "The giant dog stuck its head out of the bushes and howled as Ron stepped off the train. It started running toward the station; Ron screamed, but the Aurors and Dementors appeared. Now, everyone screamed, but the Patronus charms drove the Dementors away. Once things settled a bit, the Grim had escaped into Forbidden Forest."
As the feast started, Headmaster Dumbledore appeared unhappy when he announced that Professor McGonagall would be stepping down from her position as Transfiguration Professor (years 1-3) and her grandnephew, another Professor McGonagall, would fill her role for the last term of the school year. And he also announced that Professor McGonagall would retire at the end of the year.
Then, Dumbledore introduced Professor Michael McGonagall to teach the first three years in Transfiguration while the professor hired at Halloween (Professor Norris) would continue to lead the four upper years.
Harry kept an expressionless mask on his face through the announcement – he was pleased that a new teacher would lead his transfiguration classes for the spring term. Potions class with Professor McConnell, an Irish witch, had been a revelation for all the Gryffindors and most of the Slytherins. Even Draco Malfoy settled into an academic mindset with the witch tolerating no jinxes or wild ingredients tossed into another student's cauldron. In January, Pansy Parkinson had been suspended for three days when she was caught trying to throw Yak Dander into Daphne Greengrass and Tracy Davis's potion to straighten curly hair. And the professor in Charms for the first three years of students, Professor Amorita, a wizard from Spain, was effective and followed Professor Flitwick's syllabus.
'This term will be good,' Harry decided. 'I'll make the most of it.'
THE SCENE CHANGES SLIGHTLY AGAIN.
As more gossip filtered out, the students learned that Michael McGonagall had no intention of remaining in the castle past the last day of classes. There wasn't much Dumbledore could do since Minerva had papers signed by her healers that her health was endangered if she continued her current workload. And there were multiple magical seals on the documents that prevented any tampering.
Dumbledore growled that he'd have to find a deputy headmistress, a new head of house for Gryffindor and another transfiguration professor if Professor Norris (teaching years 4-5-6-7) chose not to teach years 1-2-3 next year.
&& SCENE CHANGE &&
RunesThe following day, Harry had a free period before lunch, so he made a bag of gold for the goblins. Once Dobby popped away to Gringotts, Harry rummaged through his notebook of ideas and observations. In the early part of the year, when he began to think about all the things that could be done with runes, one thought had been to find a way to protect his wand from opponents. He looked up duelling charms and found several duellists used to keep their opponents from summoning their wand.
'The spell is Expelliarmus. Now, how do I block that?' Harry wondered. Then in a moment of inspiration, he thought of an idea to turn that spell against his opponent.
'What if when they use Expelliarmus, my wand turns into a spear that stabs them?' He grinned as he imagined Draco's face as the spear hurtled toward him rather than Harry's wand.
'But then I'd still not have my wand,' Harry realised. 'Draco being impaled might be satisfying for a moment, but what if the spear misses?'
He wrote the idea down and decided to revisit it while looking at the spells for the charms to block the attack from summoning his wand. They were spells and charms for seventh-year students and above, and they required multiple preparatory spells cast on the wand and the wizard's hand and robes.
'Why don't they sew these runes into the sleeve of their robes?' he wondered and decided to ask Professor Flitwick or Professor Amorita. 'Probably something about staying inside the lines. And from what Professor Flitwick says, the duelling circuit has particular rules for participants.'
Harry sat back and realised, 'But I'm getting ready for fights to stay alive against Death Eaters, not a duel. Are there written rules – laws – about fights in Magical Britain? Not a brawl but a battle fighting the Death Eaters…who do I know that has an Auror in their family? Maybe I can write to that lady who cried the night the Dementors killed Susan Bones? Madam Bones.'
The page of his notebook filled with ideas, Harry hurried from his private classroom and headed for the dinner in the Great Hall.
SCENE CHANGE
There were many conversations with classmates about their vacation, and several students mentioned that their parents talked about the goblins being excited and dancing every day inside the bank. Happy goblins made the ministry nervous. Merchants and shoppers were cautious along Diagon Alley, and Aurors were visible in defensive positions on rooftops to reassure shoppers.
Ignoring the idiots, Harry sat beside Neville, who worked on a transfiguration essay that Ron Weasley kept trying to read. Neville packed up his inkpot, quill, and papers when the food appeared on the table. But Harry saw Ron steal the parchment that quickly vanished inside Ron's robes. Harry frowned and said, "Neville, Ron just stole your essay."
"Heir Potter," Neville replied with a twinkle in his eye, "You know a proper wizard never works on his essays in the Great Hall – you'd inevitably get spills or grease on the parchment."
Adopting Neville's fake pureblood snobbery, Harry replied, "Heir Longbottom, I remain confused."
Grinning, Neville explained, "It's a fake essay. Just some transfiguration gibberish reaching completely inaccurate conclusions. He'll put his name on it, turn it in this afternoon, and earn a Troll. The new professor will have Ron pegged properly from the first assignment."
Harry stared for a moment, and then his face morphed into a wide grin as he declared, "Best prank of the year!"
"Eh…I'm an amateur compared to your reborn basilisk prank," Neville reminded his friend. "But I'm inspired."
Harry noticed that Hermione was seated with the other girls from Gryffindor and involved in the conversation during the meal. Before dessert was served, he slipped from his place and walked around to Hufflepuff to sit and talk with Justin.
"Potter! I wondered when you'd show up!" Justin joked.
"Hey, Fletchley!" Harry greeted his classmate. "Got that runes homework ready to turn in tomorrow?"
The muggle-born wizard nodded but then changed the subject, "Harry, I need your wild brain to think about something new with runes."
His face lit up immediately, and Harry replied, "Sure, Justin! What's your idea?"
"Over the break, my dad and I went shooting one afternoon – Granger's dad went with us – and we were shooting clay pigeons with birdshot. Shooting the clay targets made me think of the sandstone plates, and that made me think of runes – and you."
Harry listened intently as Justin mentioned how frustrating it was to reload the gun after every shot, and he wanted to see if runes could be used to reload the weapon magically. "It's a single-shot rifle, but I wondered if runes could change that."
"That'll be something for our fifth-year project," Harry said. "And Babbage'll freak out about enchanting a muggle item."
"The Hogwarts Express is an enchanted muggle item, and the ministry can't dispute that. Muggleborns who go back to the real world after Hogwarts use magic in their lives and ignore the ministry." Justin shared this information in a whisper and glanced around the table a bit.
"That makes sense, and let's talk about it later," Harry said with a nod. But then he asked, "What's birdshot? I've never been hunting, and the only thing I know about guns and bullets are the things on the telly where a bad guy and the bobbies have a shootout."
Justin explained that a birdshot shell was made up of a paper wrapping with a hundred or more small pellets packed inside the cylinder with gun powder at the base. 'The pellets explode in a wide-spread pattern to increase the chance of hitting the clay pigeon.'
"Wonder why they created that?"
"The nobles hunt pheasants with the birdshot. With five or so guys shooting at a few birds, one of them is likely to hit a bird or two," Justin explained. "My mom's side of the family – her great uncle something-or-other is an earl with an estate house. He hosts shooting parties for millionaires from banks, businesses and the government."
Harry grinned and quipped, "Movers and shakers, eh?"
"My dad and I talked about Magical Britain over the break. He doesn't think the economy here is all that big. Malfoy talks about his family being rich, but I talked to Ernie last summer, and his father was talking to mine about moving some investments into the Real World. I don't know if they're still talking now since Ernie is dead," Justin's voice faded rather than continue speaking about the young wizard who'd been a good friend.
Harry frowned, "I hear they've taken money from Dumbledore and Fudge, but they're both still holding onto their jobs. In the real world, they'd have been sacked the next week."
Justin nodded and said, "Just think about my idea Harry…birdshot and runes."
CHANGE SCENERY HERE
In the middle of the night, Harry dreamed that he was in a battle with another wizard, and his opponent cast the spell to pull Harry's wand from his hand. But there were runes on his wand to prevent that, and from his other hand, a hundred sharp slivers of metal flew across the space between the wizards and stuck in Harry's opponent while he cast spells from his wand.
"Birdshot!" Harry exclaimed as he woke. He scrambled for his glasses and wand before writing his idea in his notebook while the other boys in the room grumbled before turning over and falling asleep again. If his opponent fired a specific spell at him, Harry didn't have to act for a reaction to occur.
'But what if the wizard doesn't use Expelliarmus?' Harry wondered. His brain began working again.
CHANGE SCENERY HERE Lecture by Amelia Bones
After consulting with Professor Flitwick and Professor Amortia about the differences between a duel and a fight with another wizard, Harry broached the idea of asking some government official to come and speak to the class about duelling versus fighting.
"We can't ignore Professor Lupin's input on this subject, and that means that the headmaster will intervene and forbid this to go ahead.
Professor Amortia said, "Why not let me make the arrangements? Then I can take the fall when Dumbledore gets angry?"
"What do you mean?" asked Harry.
"If the headmaster gets angry, I can plead ignorance about his wishes regarding visitors."
Suddenly Harry grinned and said, "No, let me use the Boy-Who-Lived card here. The headmaster knows I don't trust Lupin."
"Professor Lupin," insisted Amortia. "Don't aggravate the headmaster needlessly."
Grimacing, Harry said, "I don't trust Professor Lupin, and I can say I wanted to ask her opinions and share the knowledge with everyone. The inquiry just morphed into something for my whole class. And at the last minute, my professors made the most of it to include everyone who was interested to hear her speak on a Saturday afternoon."
Flitwick smirked, "Madam Bones will enjoy spitting in the Grand Poohbah's eye, too. Since her niece's death, she's been unwilling to speak with the man in private or public."
And so, on a Saturday afternoon in late April, with the headmaster absent again because of problems at the Ministry for Magic dealing with budgets for the Department of Mysteries, Amelia Bones, Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, was welcomed to Hogwarts Castle by Harry Potter. Her protection detail of four senior Aurors proceeded to check the halls and rooms around the Great Hall as standard procedure. Harry noticed the men and women did have runes sewn into the cuffs of both sleeves of their robes as well as runes all around the hems of their pants and coats.
'I bet there are runes in their hats too,' he decided.
Professors Flitwick and Amortia had spent the morning visiting the dormitories speaking with prefects and students they thought would be interested. A large announcement was posted in the library about 'Learn the Rules for Defending Yourself.' Deputy Headmistress McGonagall ignored the news while Snape, Sprout and the other veteran professor gathered to hear the talk. Professor Lupin wandered into the room but hung at the edge of the crowd – his Patronus dissipated before he could give it the message to take to Dumbledore. Hogwarts herself disapproved of his spying for the headmaster.
In the Great Hall, nothing was altered to forestall any complaints about inconveniencing the elves, as the students gathered at 1:00 PM. With a wave of his wand, Flitwick announced, "Professor Amortia and I are pleased with the initiative shown by Heir Potter to invite Director Bones of the DMLE to come to Hogwarts this afternoon. She will speak to you about the rules of engagement for different types of fights involving wizards and witches in Magical Britain."
Harry stood up and introduced Madam Bones as the youngest witch to ever hold the post of Head Auror and then Director of the DMLE. Then he thanked her for her time and sat down, his notebook and biro ready to take notes.
"Thank you, Heir Potter and Professor Flitwick," the witch replied before she turned to her audience and began. "My name is Amelia Bones, and I am Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. This department is an important part of the Ministry for Magic. My department has two primary roles, the first being to protect the Statute of Secrecy and the second being to deal with wizards and witches who break our laws."
The witch discussed the importance of the Statute of Secrecy and the dangers of revealing the world of magic to the general muggle population. She spoke briefly about enforcement of the law, pointing to her guards and mentioning how the students could identify law enforcement officers by their uniforms.
"The only other witches and wizards who wear a standard uniform are the Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries and the various Quidditch teams," she said with a smile.
"Now, let's talk about the differences between battles, duels, and a fight where you defend yourself. Every witch and wizard walks around with a deadly weapon in their hands at all times. It is a great responsibility not to use your wand as a weapon unless you are being threatened and you fear for your safety, or some other witch or wizard is already throwing spells at you."
"Now, in magical Britain, any exchange of spells between an Auror and a civilian – anyone who is not an Auror – is considered to be a 'battle'. There are specific laws that apply to the types of spells the Auror can use, up to and including the use of an unforgivable spell. Aurors can use Avada Kedavra in defence of themselves, innocent witches, wizards and muggles. However, Aurors cannot use the killing curse until after the attacker has used one of the three unforgivable spells."
Observing her audience – she seldom got to address this many muggle-born at any time, and she wanted to share this information with them. Amelia continued, "The largest battle to ever occur in modern Magical Britain was in April 1980 when forty Aurors engaged a large number of Death Eaters while they attacked Diagon Alley on a Wednesday morning. A dozen Aurors died, and ten Death Eaters were killed with another eighteen captured."
The purebloods in the Great Hall nodded their heads in understanding, while the muggle-born and muggle-raised, like Harry Potter, smirked –the largest attack force ever assembled by the Ministry for Magic consisted of only forty Aurors? Harry caught Justin's eye, and the two exchanged frowns. Flitwick watched the faces of his fellow professors and noticed only Lupin looked concerned to hear the words of Director Bones.
"The purpose of the DMLE is to enforce the laws of Magical Britain, first and foremost being the protection of the Statute of Secrecy. The Dark Lord, He Who Must Not Be Named, and his terrorists violated that statute regularly."
This statement made many purebloods uncomfortable, and several appeared to be thoughtful afterwards. Wondering if Madam Bones had an agenda today, Harry wrote down more questions as the witch continued.
"Now, a fight between two or more individual witches and wizards has different rules. And as an aside, anytime an Auror is not in uniform, they are a regular citizen, and battle rules do not apply until they are attacked. If they start a fight with anyone, then battle rules do not apply."
"In a fight, anything goes except for the unforgivable spells," she informed the students. "You can smash their face, expel their entrails, shatter their bones…and they can do the same to you. And remember, not every spell can be reversed. If you bleed out and die, we can't resurrect you."
"Anytime a fight threatens the Statute of Secrecy, Aurors will intervene and put both parties on the ground until they can sort out the cause of the fight. They may arrest both parties and charge them with violation of the statute which ensures a stay in Azkaban."
"Fights can include brawls in taverns and bars, arguments that get out of hand at family gatherings, drunken parties at the Ministry, and arguments over Quidditch matches." Director Bones paused and looked around the Great Hall before she said, "I have heard of several instances here at Hogwarts that should have been investigated by the Aurors over the years."
"Now, to the question of duels. There are two types of duels – professional duels organised to display the skills and intelligence of different witches and wizards."
Director Bones motioned with one hand toward Professor Flitwick and said, "You have the premier duellist in Magical Britain in residence at Hogwarts. I recommend that if you have any questions about the duelling circuit in Europe, you take your questions to the three-time champion teaching inside Hogwarts."
"The other form of a duel is called an honour duel. These are supposed to be duels between two individuals only, with formal witnesses and some basic rules. They are supposed to begin with a formal challenge that includes the ultimate goal – first blood, unconsciousness, or death of one party in the duel. In my experience, 'fights' are often called 'duels' after the fact, and generally, the DMLE does nothing about them so long as the Statue of Secrecy is not violated."
The witch spoke for another fifteen minutes and then said, "Now, I shall take ten questions from the students and none from the adults."
Many students raised their hands, and Director Bones began by selecting Penelope Clearwater and then Percy Weasley. Next, she selected a witch, then a wizard, and continued back and forth between the sexes. She called on Harry Potter last, and the young wizard stood to ask, "Director Bones, what about muggle weapons? What happens when a wizard shoots another wizard with a gun?"
There was some laughter in the Great Hall, and Director Bones frowned before she stared at the muggle studies professor, Charity Burbage. Then she asked, "Can I ask Professor Burbage if she has updated the class materials in the three years that she has been teaching the class?"
Now several muggle-born students snickered.
"There's no need to update the material. Witches and wizards are so far superior to the muggles; we have nothing to fear from them."
Closing her eyes for a moment as though her head ached, Director Bones turned to Harry Potter and explained, "Current Ministry of Magic law states that witches and wizards have nothing to fear from muggle weapons. Since the Statute of Secrecy went into place, we are not in danger of being burned at the stake or dunked in the nearest pond until drowned, so there's nothing to fear from the muggles. If a muggle gun found itself into your hands and you killed another wizard during a duel or a fight, there'd be nothing said."
"So as long as it is a duel or a fight, I can blast their heads off?" asked Harry. The other students raised in the muggle world smiled while several purebloods frowned, not understanding the reference to a muggle weapon but seeing the smirk on Potter's face.
As 'host' for Madam Bones, Harry escorted the lady to the gates of Hogwarts, where she and her Aurors would apparate away. At the gate, she held out her hand to shake, an unusual thing to do among magical people and being muggle-raised, he appreciated her gesture.
"Send me an owl this summer, Mr Potter," she said. "I believe there is more information I can share with you."
After Director Bones left, before Dumbledore returned, Justin sought out Harry and asked, "Do you plan to carry a gun now?"
Scoffing, Harry replied, "Not until I have need. If the old fogies ever figure out that I used a gun, they'd change the law–probably retroactively." Looking around, Harry mentioned, "Granger looks very worried about what Bones told us today."
"Her and me both," Justin replied. "Wizards can do what they want so long as it doesn't violate the Statute of Separation. Muggle-born wizards and witches are sitting ducks!"
Justin seemed thoughtful and said, "If I shoot someone…a pureblood who threatens my life with spells, but then I banish his body, who will ever know that I did it?"
"Might be hard to banish a whole body, Fletchley," Harry said. "We'll try banishing stones next year and see what your weight class is."
Laughing, Justin left to walk with Hermione while Harry thought for some minutes about using his magnify ring to banish a pile of dead Death Eaters someday…or living Death Eaters.
END CHAPTER