Chapter 8

Naive

11:25 am 9th June, Hogwarts.

Naive, that is what he'd been this whole time, so used to being assured of himself, his plans, he really needed a good wake up call, and he had just received it in the most effective - if also unwelcomed - way. His actions were too careless, planning too sloppy, perhaps he'd somewhere along the line had got lost in the new luxuries afforded to him by his environment, it was time for him to be hard on himself, to move out of his comfort zone, and achieve what he was there to achieve.

He sighed once. Heavily.

Then he moved to look at the grounds the last of the students leaving, it was a sight that always endeared him, students who had grown another year, not only under him but along him, it didn't matter how many years he had been teaching but each year bought its new experiences and lessons just like it brought new students, his mind drifted towards a particular group of students, specifically the four who had ventured down the underground chambers to protect the stone, from Snape as far as they were concerned, but while their attempt was misguided and information lacking, it was the courage that counted, also given that they first did try to approach someone in authority rather than jumping without looking ahead, so yes he was proud of them, at the same time highly worried, he just hoped he can make it upto them, and that those children wouldn't have to be embroiled in a senseless war like their parents were, and if not that at least he would be able to arm them sufficiently, young Neville especially.

He turned from where he was standing, in his office, near the window, and then he looked at the subject of his current predicament, a letter, sent to him by his mentor and friend Nicholas and his wife Perenelle, though she had too taught him quite a lot he considered her to be more like a mother than simply a mentor, she was after all quite like his own mother Kendra, and there was nothing worse than knowing that not only had his mistakes cost them so much aside from the pain it caused them, but they actually forgave him for it, given that he hadn't deserved it, especially since they were going to destroy the stone soon at the summer equinox, all said and done, now the only thing they could hope for was that whoever held the stone now didn't brought forth unimaginable death and destruction.

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07:35 pm 4th June, Hogwarts Room of Requirements.

Harry opened his eyes and immediately got up and into a sitting position, a look at his surroundings told him he was in his sanctuary, the stone was safely within his grasp, and not to mention from last what he had seen of Quirrell he was beyond help, and at that moment if someone like Flitwick, Minerva, Snape, or Dumbledore had seen him they'd assume that he looked angry, there was nothing overt in his facial expression, but, his body language looked liked a string that had been pulled so tight that it was about to snap, but that would be an assumption, not based on facts but on their own perception, in reality Harry was busy replaying the whole scenario in his mind, starting from when he reached the forbidden corridor, first he went through the events as they were, then he went through them again, this time he analyzed where he could have made better judgement based on the abilities he had at the moment - like simply unleashing a torrent of his Fiendfyre on Quirrell or simply burying him alive hundreds of feet below the chamber using Gaea, but he hadn't, he had been naive and underestimated the importance of experience in battle - and trying to gather any facts he had missed the previously, then he was overlapping the events with some of the schematics he had right now, skills and spells he had started creating and learning albeit they were still a work in progress, he would have to increase his speed, be more efficient.

Then he went over the key points that he concluded from today's events.

He had to study whatever his mother had done more deeply than before since whatever happened today, - a few days after he had entered the wizarding world and made the plan to bring back his parents he had gone to the place where it had all started, Godrics Hollow, and inspected the murder scenes of both of his parents, while he hadn't found anything near his father's place, he had found a blood contract, just above where his mother had died, he hadn't known that back then and was able to make little to no sense of the symbols etched on the ceiling, but had made note of it and through his research on magic he had learned of blood contracts and practical implementations of runes in them, - the power that defeated Quirrell and by extension once again defeated Voldemort were not his own, right now he had no idea of what they were but they had a pyrokinetic feel to them, not only because they burned his opponent but also because of the heat he felt at that moment, and this ignorance was not good, depending on what it was it could affect how he would bring them back, especially his mother, at first he had been working on the assumption that the contract simply took one life (mother in this instance) in exchange of protecting another (him) from the one who took the life (Voldemort) of the first one, but that kind of magic shouldn't be so…. Potent, so, long lasting, and given that the term used in that contract was Anima, which meant life in latin and he had been working on that assumption, but he had failed to take into consideration a scenario where it wasn't life but possibly soul which was being referred to, which made the matters quite complicated, so yes, another study of the contract was necessary.

He needed to increase his speed at which he had been completing his current projects and start working on future ones. Fast.

Deal with the Philosopher's stone he was in possession of.

He stood up, and picked up the broken wand that had been lying ignored near him, hogwarts sent both him and his wand to this room as soon as the fight was over, quite possibly like an incentive for helping out, afterall it wouldn't be good if someone, especially the headmaster, discovered him in that state, he would be under quite a lot of scrutiny, not that he could possibly care about it, but the headmaster could stop him from achieving his goals, not to mention he could also create problems after his goals had been achieved. As he had started to come to the realization that bringing back his parents was not a simple matter of making habitable and functional bodies for their souls, but also providing them with other amenities like social interaction, hence, not antagonising someone who could destroy that was a basic facet of his plan. 'Of course should they truly become more than a hypothetical threat they would be taken out of the equation'.

Snapping out of his thoughts he focused once again on the wand in his hand, he brought together both the pieces, holding them together linking one broken end to the other in such a fashion that the wand didn't look broken at all, and then he poured his magic not simply through the wand as he did to perform spells but also on the wand, it was a simple reparo spell used to fix what was broken, but the sheer scale of power dumped into the spell made it so that not even the best wandmaker would be able to tell if the wand was ever harmed, his wand, 13 Inches of Indian Banyan tree along with a core of tail feather of a Raven, custom made by Ollivander after every other wand in his shop failed to be a match for him, it had served him well as it was meant to, it still had utility to him, the nature of utility might have changed but it was useful nonetheless, he slowly tucked it within the wand holster he had bought with the wand and removed the stone that was in his pocket and started contemplating what to do with it.

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09:02 am 18th June, Law foster home, room No 13.

It had been 2 weeks since the debacle with the stone, he had analyzed the stone whenever he could, he had poured his magic in the stone so that he could get a feel for it, the stone held nearly 5 centuries worth of knowledge, all for him to learn, every time the Flamels had used the stone they had left an imprint of their magic on it and 5 centuries worth of imprints meant he could interact with them just like one would interact with a magical portrait, except where the latter held the personality of the subject, hence they dispersed any and every bit of knowledge at their discretion, and forcing them to do otherwise was a time consuming and delicate affair, while the former similar to the latter, didn't have the same safeguards, it was easy for him to learn all he wanted to from it, his knowledge of all fields of magics took a sharp increase, he had gained a lot of knowledge of what could be called the Arcane, though he would probably would never use them, for most of those spells were, inefficient, incomplete, and above all inferior to the spells he had been working on, at least that is what he had found in his study.

Now, he was going to send the stone back to the people whom it belonged to, but that was an issue he had to tackle after he was done disposing his breakfast, every morning he received a plate of eggs with a glass of milk, and he took it to his room while others thought he was going to eat it, he packed it and everyday he diligently gave it to homeless people he could find, he didn't eat, he hadn't eaten anything since the time he was four and uncle Vernon decided not to waste rations on him, but he was not a wasteful person, and he decided to best utilize these resources by giving them to those who would need them, also he knew that the mundane, magical or otherwise frowned on such….abnormal behavior, hence why he kept up the ruse, it helped that people usually left him alone, except ms Judy, the matriarch of this family who interacted with him every evening, and asked him general questions for some reason he couldn't understand yet.

He changed into another set of his school shirt and pants, transfigured in the exact way as they had been when they had met ms Lane, he hadn't cared for something like this ever, he never got his clothes dirty, since he didn't sweat his clothes never smelled bad and since he didn't take baths he never had an occasion to change clothes, and whatever dust and grime that latched itself onto his clothes was usually disappeared using a simple Evanesco charm, but, here it was expected of him to change clothes daily, to take baths daily, and to carry out other menial tasks that the mundane performed, though time consuming he performed them because it was easier than trying to skirt around them.

Stuffing the packed food in the pocket of his trousers which had been enlarged with an undetectable extension charm, he got out of his room which was on the first floor, going down to the living room he encountered the other residents of the house, kids around his age, the oldest being a Charlie Bradbury, a Redhead orphan who was about 16 years old, she was also his room mate, and the youngest being young, John Snow, a four year old boy. There were 17 residents in total, excluding him, out of which 5 were the Laws, Judy, her husband Richard, their son Alex, and his wife Alex, and their son, grandson to Judy and Richard, Arthur who was 3 months old.

"Oh! Good morning Harry, how are you?" began Judy as soon as she saw him, she frowned slightly when she saw the empty plates in Harry's hands, she had hoped that they boy would eat with everyone, but she kept her patience because she knew that pushing him to do something he didn't want to would probably backfire horribly.

He gave her a short, yet curt, nod and when the others greeted him similarly, he nodded at them too, he went to the kitchen sink and started washing his cutlery, everyone in the house had a certain amount of chores to attend to, mainly cleaning their own rooms, everyone above the age of ten, which were only 5 children including him, were additionally responsible for taking care of their set of cutlery after eating and along with that they were assigned a child whose cutlery they had to care for, nothing else. Charlie and Alex, as they had demanded to be called, cooked the food everyday, since he traded in stocks he was a stay at home husband and father, his mother Judy was usually busy taking care of the children and so she had been made to retire from the more time consuming chores like cooking and laundry, his wife was busy taking care of their son, who being an infant was apparently quite time consuming, so he usually told her to refrain from doing any other chore, and his father while couldn't cook much and still occasionally went to look after his business, as a carpenter, had retired actively, and took care of any repair works needed at the house.

As soon as he was done washing and appropriately placing the cutlery he and went and sat at the sofa, placed in the living room patiently waiting for John, who was his charge, to finish his own breakfast, in the meanwhile he was planning how to deal with the stone, and weighing in the pros and cons of each plan he had come up with, 15 minutes later, John hollered, "I'm done!" and started waving his hands around wildly, Harry simply got up from where he was seated, went to the dining table and collected the cutlery of his charge in one neat pile, and then immediately picked up that said charge and set him on his left shoulder, where the boy promptly started to wiggle and squirm, picking up the cutlery in his right hand he took both to the sink, first he placed the items in the sink and turned on the tap to let the sink be filled with water, then he held down his charge in such a fashion that his face was directed towards the sink while his feet were still in air and let his face be drenched in water for a while, then he removed a handkerchief from his pocket and promptly cleaned off the boy's face. After which he let the toddler down so that he could he around while he washed the plates just like he had done this past week.

The other residents of the family were still baffled by the scene that had played out in front of them, and had been for the past week, except Judy and Richard, while the former had taken care of many children since the time she started fostering, she knew that children were more complex than they were usually given credit for, and that some children were for some reason that made no sense and tended to differ with child to child, were quite independent yet almost clung to children younger than them, while the latter who had more of a outdoor experience with people from many walks of life, chalked it up to effects of being placed responsible for someone younger, as it was an experience that was more unique than words could express.

After he was done with the cleaning, he turned towards the people who were still seated in the living room, giving the residents a nod Harry strode out of the room - and consequently the house - at a sedate pace, when he was far enough that he deemed no one would be looking at him from the house, as the house itself was on a farm on sussex, far enough from prying eyes and unwanted intruders to allow the children play out in the fields to their liking, yet close enough to be practical, he casted a notice me not charm on himself, an extra precaution to avoid breaking the statue of secrecy, then finding an isolated place down the lane and Teleported to Diagon alley.

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08:45 pm 18th June, Warrington, Manchester.

Harry was waiting near a warehouse to collect some goods he had ordered to be procured, the Knockturn alley as it turned out, was highly sophisticated, connected, and branched out, some of the things that he had needed fell out of the legal permissions of the law on their availability in the market, both muggle and magical respectively, while others were things he could buy only if he were an adult, so certain entrepreneurs at the alley set up some of their contacts to procure whatever he needed in exchange of some gold, which he had of course made out of the stone he had returned just today.

He had gone to Eeylops Owl Emporium, and bought a snowy Owl, the owl would be quite useful for picking up future items he couldn't pick up in person, for a multitude of reasons, since he had learned the address to the Flamels by their imprints in the stone, it was a simple matter of writing a note that simply stated that he had by accident came in possession of their stone and was returning it to them now, and all he requested is that they not divulge any information about him, especially his owl, to anybody, at all, as he knew they were connected to Dumbledore, and it would be better to not have to be scrutinized by the headmaster, he had of course taken extra precautions, he hadn't written the note by himself, he had simply paid someone in the Knockturn alley to write a vague note, in German, which would make sense only to those who had all the clues, the stone being the biggest one, and the fact that no one had been mentioned by their names to avoid any complication in the event of failure.

Waiting by the warehouse he soon heard some people coming by behind him, he turned to them and saw two men one was nearly 6ft tall while the other about 5ft 7in, in their early 40's with brown hair, and dressed in grey hoodies and faded out jeans, but most importantly were the two red monkey caps on their heads by which they were to be recognised, they called out, "you mr Freak Boy?"

He nodded, he knew that giving out his real name was not a good idea in illegal transactions, so he gave the only other names he knew that were his.

The taller one of the duo fished out a box from his jeans, he could feel the magic emanating from it and he knew that the box had been charmed with an undetectable extension charm, "here's the product, you got the cash?" he asked.

Harry simply removed the bag, again, charmed to be expanded, and showed it to them.

At this he continued, "Okay so, here's how we're going to do this, at the count of three you throw our bag at us while we throw your box at you, we verify the contents and then we scram, got it kid?"

Harry nodded again.

"One," he began

"Two,"

"Three," he finished and launched the box he held towards Harry, just as the bag of Gold had been launched at him and his partner, both the parties soon had what they needed, and the verified the contents quickly, without even looking at each other again they turned on spot and left for wherever it is they needed to be now.

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08:00 am, Hogwarts Headmaster's office.

"Ah, Severus come in," began Dumbledore as he watched the potions master enter his office, his deputy sitting in front of him, calmly sipping on her morning tea.

Taking his seat the potioneer began, "can we get to the reason for this urgent summons? I have a few brews that have i would prefer to attend unless circumstances dictate otherwise".

Without any preamble or tact, yet not unkindly he began, "has there been any increased activity in the mark?"

"No," was the short reply.

Just a month before the start of the last academic year Severus's mark had itched, once, and just a few days after that Quirinus had applied for the DADA position. Most people would have dismissed it as a coincidence, but they weren't most people, hence their current vigilance. And after the debacle with Tom, Quirinus, and the stone, he had told these two the whole story of what had transpired in the underground chambers as they were the only members of the Order on the Hogwarts staff.

"Very well, as usual stay alert and keep me updated," he didn't need to elaborate as he knew what they were talking about in whole. So he proceeded with the other subject for the day, "it seems a few days ago both of my former mentors received their lost possession, by an anonymous sender".

At this while Snape's face remained impassive, at least to those who didn't know him as well as these two did, Minerva's eyebrows rose high, "they didn't inform me anything more than what i have just informed you, as it happens there was precious little to go on, and what little they had, they are keeping it to themselves, apparently our anonymous helper wants to remain so"

At this both of them gave nods of understanding.

"While i don't know how useful it would be but i would appreciate it if you both kept an extra vigilant eye on the student body," he continued with a rare display of hesitancy.

While Snape nodded immediately, Minerva while hesitant like her friend gave her consent too, because she knew that while she hated this it could help to try and save her students from some of the worst possible mistakes the could make.

"Very well, that is all i would like to discuss for today, and i believe it is time for us to head towards breakfast," he gestured at the clock behind them mounted on the wall, which was displaying the time 08:33.

And so the proceeded to promptly exit.

A/n : That's it for today folks, and with this we draw a curtain on the first year.

Next year has some surprises, and will take a quite darker turn.

Till later.