AN; I'm now using a G5 as my trusty (or not) PC died on me, my formatting will suck for a while before I get everything fixed. MS Word is useful for some things I guess... I am really sorry about the month since I last updated this story. I cold quote the most common fanfic authors' excuses (final/exams, sickness, moving, writers block, computer troubles, etc...) and they'd all be true (July was busy for me), but in reality I think I just have ADD. I got distracted by the shiny new story (At the Hands of the Other, read it if you haven't) and didn't update my first baby... Ok, technically my first baby would be Hands of Justice but I haven't even daydreamed that story in months (I worked out how it would end and then lost incentive to write it down...).
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A portkey dropped Harry at the base of Mount Everest in Nepal. One day he would return and see how the Runs differed here on Earth than in the Realms. but for now he had a mission. He looked up at what in any other world would be the Keep and grinned. Somewhere up the mountain there should be a Dark Altar he could use without worrying about outside interference from picky governments. Isolated as it was it could be ideal for his travels. He cast a bubble head charm, grabbed a Opal wind and soared towards the peak.
Standing at the Summit of Mount Everest was a real experience and he saw why people bragged about it. He'd come back with a camera later, ought to be good for a few pub stories. Closing his eyes, he opened his mind and expanded his magical senses looking for the Altar. He found it about three quarters of the way up the mountain and went to investigate. His senses lead him to a small cave whose entrance had long been covered in ice. He considered blasting and melting his way through but then decided to just use craft to pass himself through so as not to reveal the entrance. The ice was just short of two meters thick before he got to the open cavern that lead to the Altar. Deciding to take his possessiveness a step further, he carved the boundary marker runes for a Fidelius charm around the entrance and cast the spell. Now only he knew where it was...
He walked to the back of the cave and called in his ritual implements to open the Gate.
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When Harry arrived in Kaleer he immediately went to Beales the butler. "Would you please inform the High Lord that Prince Potter seeks an audience? I will await an answer in the drawing room."
The butler returned quickly and gestured Harry to follow him to Sataen's public study. Sataen was waiting for him and rose when he came through the door. "Harry, good to see you again. Is there a reason you mysteriously showed up and started acting formally?"
"Well sir, I need some help from you in an official capacity so I thought it best to ask properly."
"Nonsense. You're family now. What's on your mind?"
"Do you remember what I told you about Tom Riddle and the Horcruxes?" Seeing the High Lord nod, he continued. "Well we've already destroyed three and I've found a fourth. The problem is that it was a rather significant object in it's own right before becoming a container for a soul fragment."
"So you came to me hoping to save the artifact and force the spirit to move on, I see the problem."
"Manipulating the Soul with the most evil of magic is a bit out of our normal curriculum at school. I was hoping your millenia of knowledge concerning death and spirits might help."
"I'll give it a shot, what do you know about how they are made?"
"Just that the item to be used is prepared in advance through some evil rituals, then after committing murder a piece of the soul is ripped from the body and placed within. A second spell is used to seal the soul inside and prevent it from passing on."
"Theoretically then we only need to undo the last spell to unseal the container and then deal with the soul. Let me see it and I'll work on it."
Harry called in the glasses, "These once belonged to one of the most well known witches in the world. She helped found our school and paved the way for modern education as a whole. As odd as it may seem the majority of us would like to see them intact when I am done with them. I could have destroyed it like the last one but like I said, they're valuable to some people."
"Hmm, you're right. This is a very perverted bit of magic. I haven't felt anything this tainted by death and corruption since the destruction of Terrielle fifteen years ago."
They set a few wards and spells on the room to keep the magic and possible spirit contained while they examined the glasses. After enlarging them to a more manageable size, they carefully studied the energy patterns and layers of spell work.It was made difficult by the fact that the glasses had numerous charms and spells on them prior to becoming a horcrux. They wanted to preserve those original charms if they could.
"Hmm... Look here Harry, there seems to be a gathering of magical energies right here. If we were to flood it with power like so..." A few sparks rose from the glasses, "We will apparently accomplish nothing."
"No, not nothing. Look now the focus has moved over here." He pushed a bit more magic at the changed focal point and was rewarded with more sparks. "And now it moves over there..." As the High Lord pushed a bit, the glasses suddenly exploded and took a chunk of the table with them.
"Oops?"
"Hermione and McGonagall are going to kill me. Well lets make sure we are at least one fewer soul than we began with."
The pair did a few quick scans and confirmed they had succeeded in destroying the Horcrux and not just turning it into several smaller ones. Mentally Harry cringed as he anticipated the reaction when he told everyone else that he had to mark a Founder's artifact off as a cost of war. The wizarding world seemed to revere them for some reason.
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Harry was out hunting. He walked down Kockturn Alley towards one of the safe houses Borgin had identified for him. He didn't know what he should really expect, but he was hoping to put a damper on some of the activities. It was unlikely anyone would be in the safe rooms right now, the death eaters had been quiet lately probably in anticipation of a major project. Aside from the attack at Rachel's home, there were two other minor raids but nothing major since the winter holidays. The attack at Rachel's home was also the first real test of Harry's wizard's oath. The other two raids, while regrettable, he had no knowledge of until after the fact. With Rachel calling for help he would have had to fight if it were Voldemort himself, even if it ruined his plans. He swore to protect the innocent and he had as well as he was able.
He stopped his musings as he approached the first hidy-hole. He became invisible and silent before he entered the front door. The man behind the counter had rudimentary mental shields and Harry was forced to use brute force to break them since he was never trained for subtlety. The mental powers of the Blood weren't quite occlumancy and legilmancy, but they worked in similar ways. A legilmans could have been in and out of this man's mind unnoticed. Harry was as subtle as a wrecking ball and half as polite as the man fell to the floor clutching his head. After taking a glance into his head Harry regretted the necessity of leaving him alive. He obliviated the knowledge that his mind was searched and left him to rise to his feet with a killer headache
The back room was empty of scumbags but Harry couldn't count on it staying that way. Someone would need this safe haven and he was going to make sure it was most unsafe. The room was filthy and covered in cobwebs, but therefore secret and reasonably safe. There was barely room to stand upright and a tiny cot took up most of the floor space. Harry wove a detection ward across the only door into the room and set it to trigger six bursts of his Black strength. There were three places it would fire from just to be sure that no matter where the person was when they came through the door, they would be hit. Each point would fire twice in less than a second. The first would eliminate any shields the victim might have up, and probably kill them. The second was to be what some called, "a security shot," just to be absolutely certain the target was dead (and if already dead, smeared all over the walls). If a large man, for instance Fenrir Greyback, were to completely fill the doorway the results would be nothing short of spectacular. Harry charged his new weapon and slipped out the door. His next target for the night was a group safe house, which Borgin said could comfortably hide fifteen. The shop proclaimed itself to be "Dexter's Foci; crafters of wands since 1612" but the tiny front room and small workshop gave lie to that since it was a three story building of decent size. Harry circled the building and laid a shielding ward but left it without a trigger and uncharged. The book of basic web weaving and Craft wards Lucy gave him at Winsol was getting a workout tonight. To any Warlord with a Jewel, these traps would be child's play and easily defeated. To a wand using wizard, it was alien magic. Harry climbed the secret stairs Borgin had told him about and gave the password to the door at the top. He found himself in a rather nice flat with a variety of supplies including a box of emergency portkeys labeled with their destinations. Some had "fun" sounding code names and one was even marked "Spinner's End Safe Room", others just led to various dark alleys and semi public places. Harry decided to pocket these treasures, especially the one that might lead him to Snape. He laid another detection ward, but this one was tailored to the purpose of the room. It wouldn't activate until there were at least three people in the room for a full two minutes. This was to allow time for their "friends" to enter as well. When that happened the doors and windows would become Black locked and trigger the traps. The room already had anti-apparition wards, as well as a portkey ward he assumed excluded the box of emergency portkeys he had stolen. He added twelve different firing points to shoot two blasts each, and started on his trickiest bit of magic for the night. He had read about a trap called a Witch Storm, which used the caster's power to mimic the effects of a deadly lightning storm while draining the victim's strength to increase the area the storm covered. Initially it would just cover the room, but if the room were full at the time it might grow large enough to cover Knockturn Alley, striking anyone who bore a Dark Mark with deadly power. It was the most complex ward in Lucy's book, relying not just on a stronger caster than victim, but also a recognition web. He was setting the recognition web to attack anyone who shared something in common with everyone in the room. If the group trapped in the room was large enough to spread the storm into the alley. it was most likely the only thing they would have in common for the web to pick up on would be the Dark Mark, support for Voldemort, or hatred for muggles. After the people targeted by the storm were dead, he could do many things with any remaining power it had stored. He could leave the storm raging until enough people passed under it to drain it's power, but that would be very dangerous as any powerful victims would only feed the storm to longer durations. Harry decided that when everyone in the initial building were dead it should release the energy as if it were a bomb, to destroy the structure itself. He tied the activation of his wards so that the intrusion wards would spring the energy blasts first and if still active (in other words if people were still alive) to trigger the shield ward outside and then the Witch Storm. He set about charging his wards. The blasters and locks were simple and barely touched his strength but he poured a lot of energy into the Witch Storm and the Shield around the building itself.
He set up similar traps and explosions in each of the other places set aside for Death Eater use. When they needed it most, he wanted there to be no where for them to run. He tried to vary his traps to the best of his abilities. Some simply exploded, some used a blaster set up. Three locked the doors and activated Serpensortia spells and a recording of Harry asking all the snakes to attack anyone inside. The Serpensortia spells should summon forty Black Mamba snakes. Two more used similar locked rooms and a Witch Storm. One involved perfectly sealing the room and banishing all the air once it was occupied. Sadistic? Yes it was, but it would also be very effective. All over England rooms and flats became death traps without anyone being the wiser. He confiscated any portkeys he found for later abuse and harrassment. Now there was just one more trap to set...
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Harry looked over his set-up. Completely muggle except for one notification charm, given the placement of that charm the whole rig should be completely undetectable unless you already knew it was there. Harry had gone to "borrow" an SAS specialist later in the week. The kidnapped soldier was "encouraged" to build him the most clever of his traps. Harry only violated the laws a bit, the compulsion charms he used, while strong and illegal were not the Imperious. Under orders from Harry the SAS demolitions expert carefully laid the stolen C-4 he had acquired with the grenades into a long piece of angle iron. The explosives were pressed against both sides of the V shaped bar such that all the force of the explosives would blast into what is called a cutting charge. The expert assured him that this device could cut through a foot of reinforced concrete as he laid cherry veneer over the outer edges. He rigged up a temperature sensor that would blow the charge when it registered more than thirty degrees centigrade.
Harry and the soldier carefully placed the sensor and attached the device in it's final resting place. When it detonated, the notification charm (which was in the dead center of the charge) would make a small ping sound in Harry's head letting him know to come verify the kill. The soldier was obliviated and returned to his barracks to wake up from the sleeping spells Harry cast on him.
Two days later, Severus Snape entered his private chambers in Spinner's End and prepared for bed. He lay down on his cherry wood bed and fell asleep. A few minutes later, the temperature sensor hidden just beneath the surface of his mattress warmed up with his body heat and an electric current flowed from two carefully hidden batteries into two blasting caps at either end of the cutting charge that had been attached to the underside of his bed across the line where his neck would be if he laid his head on the pillow. The charge blew up exactly as advertised and a few minutes later Harry arrived to find a line of gore on the ceiling and a beheaded Snape on the broken bed. His body was promptly delivered to the Ministry with the Dark Mark on display.
Harry was quite impressed with the precision and decided to reward his unwitting helper. He cast a slight forgetfulness charm on the enchanted pistol he had acquired and left it in a wrapped package on his bunk. His friends noticed that he never seemed to change the magazine in that gun, but chalked it up that it had to be done when they weren't paying attention. Honestly, he just forgot he was supposed to and since he never ran out of bullets in his silenced gun, it didn't seem odd at all. It ended up saving his life, and the lives of his friends on more than one occasion. It eventually became a family heirloom with a legendary history of never jamming or running out of ammunition at just the wrong time. They called it luck and it was two hundred years before a wizard was born into the family who recognised the truth.
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The Black Dog pub was quiet tonight. The patrons enjoyed their drinks and jeered at the football match on the telly, but nobody started any trouble. When the stranger walked in the front door nobody paid him any mind. Later they would all have trouble recalling his face or even the color of his hair, but for now they were content to ignore him. He walked to a shadowed corner and sat down in a booth next to an elderly gentleman.
"Are you Amorillo Rosier sir?" The newcomer asked.
"So what if I am?" The elder gentleman shot back.
"Just checking, Avada Kedavra." A flash of green light lit up the corner for a brief instant. Harry grabbed the old man as he slumped over the table. He slung the old man's arm over his shoulder and silently put an animation spell on his feet. "I've got to get this bloke home, why didn't you cut him off an hour ago?" Harry asked the barkeep, but didn't stop for an answer as he and the dead Death Eater staggered from the muggle pub into the night.
After staggering into an alley Harry apperated him to the Ministry where he dropped him in what he was jokingly calling the "night deposit box" for scumbags. He pulled out his wand, "Point me Augustus Rookwood." His wand spun in his hand and refused to point to the clever Death Eater. "Point me Joseph Travers." gave him a direction and Harry set off to avenge the murder of the McKinnon family.
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Rachel and Andrew were delighted to relax at Grimmauld Place and speak with the House Elves. Rachel wandered the house endlessly searching for something new to do. When Andrew reported that he was no longer in any pain, and Rachel determined that all of his numbers were green (though she didn't really know what they all meant), they called Harry on his mirror and he arranged for them to be returned to their home. Their house had been repaired and all evidence of the Death Eaters completely erased. If they hadn't known better, they would never have guessed that a gruesome skirmish had taken place. All traces of blood were gone, the furniture and doors repaired, and scorch marks from spells painted over.
They quickly got back into their usual routines of work and school. Rachel would occasionally have a small nightmare, but the knowledge that someone was out there somewhere who would rescue her helped. She and Harry often talked in the evenings now, on magic and many other subjects. When he told her about them, she begged him to buy her a training broom so she could fly around her back yard. He resisted on the grounds that flying in a muggle neighborhood was a bad idea, but privately wished he could get away with it.
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Lunch in the Great Hall was disrupted by evil cackling from, of all places, the Gryffindor table. Harry's friends stared at him as he waved his hands over a small rock covered in runes.
"Harry, what are you doing now?" Hermione asked him.
"Umm... Nothing?" Harry tried to put an innocent face on.
"Not a chance, spill it."
"Hold on a few minutes and let me charge this stone first." He called in his Red jewels and started pumping raw magic into the stone. "That should do it, now to set the portkey..." He called in one of the emergency portkeys he had stolen and set it on the table. He placed the stone on top of it and quickly moved his finger from the stone before shouting the activation phrase.
The entire Gryffindor table disappeared, dropping food and drinks all over the floor. Angry shouts rang out as people got some on their clothes. "Oops, I'm sorry guys, that wasn't supposed to happen!" Harry yelled.
"Mr. Potter, my office, now!" The headmistress told him.
"I'll pay for it!"
"My office!"
"Yes ma'am..."
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"Now, would you care to explain what was so funny before your table mysteriously disappeared, or perhaps where the table is now?" McGonagall asked Harry as soon as they arrived in her office.
"Not really." He said.
"What do you mean, not really?"
"You asked if I would care to explain. I don't particularly feel like it."
"Let's try again. Why did the table disappear?"
"Ok then, the table disappeared because a specially modified portkey whisked it away. I wasn't thinking properly and placed the portkey directly on the table instead on a plate or something else. When the portkey activated, it took the table with it."
"Very well, would you please go retrieve the Gryffindor table?"
"Not on your life!" Harry exclaimed.
"Why not?"
"There are three reasons I would much rather pay for a replacement. Firstly, I don't know where it went. Secondly I don't know if it is still intact. Thirdly I don't particularly feel like it is my time to die just yet."
"Ok, you're going to have to explain what you were doing with the portkey since it is obvious that removing the table was not your intention."
"Well, I meant to send old Snake Face a gift. I had stolen a portkey that was marked to lead to somewhere Death Eaters should check in after an attack. So I set up my gift and set it on the portkey before activating it quickly."
"So that would be the cause of the evil cackling?"
"Yep. I set up a special blend of magic in a small stone. First I carved detection, charging and spell storing runes in my rock. When it gets within five feet of a wizard or witch it should cast a shattering spell on the rock."
"So you planned to pelt a death eater with pebbles? That is hardly justification for losing a table."
"I wasn't done yet, then I set another set of spells so that when the rock breaks it will release a huge amount of magical energy like a bomb. Hopefully the one I just sent should level the building trapping or killing anyone inside. Once I charged the runes, I had to get rid of it quick before the shattering spell was triggered. I set a delay on it just to be safe."
"So you're saying you lost a table that has served in the great hall for hundreds of years and endangered the lives of countless schoolmates to send a letter bomb to the Dark Lord?" McGonagall asked in a tight voice, her lips a line so thin as to be almost invisible.
"Oh! Letter bombs!" Harry pulled out a quill and parchment. "I could put the same spells on a parchment triggered for whenever someone takes them out of the envelope..."
"Mr Potter, this is not something you should be doing in the school! Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and Gryffindor House in particular do not approve of terrorist tactics and sneak attacks. I understand that you are out numbered and under trained, but that is no excuse to expose the rest of the students to such behavior! In the future if you are going to use such tactics and methods for your little Guerilla war please keep them away from impressionable minds."
"Yes ma'am." Harry said meekly.
"Now that the reprimand in out of the way, twenty five points to Gryffindor for planning ahead and not rushing into a situation blindly. Twenty five points for creative spellwork. Minus fifty points for losing your table. And a detention with Professor Flitwick for bypassing Hogwarts Wards with an illegal portkey. You will write an essay on how the wards were circumvented and how to prevent it in the future."
"Thank you Professor, it won't happen again. I'll talk to a master carpenter to commission a new table. Does it have to be an exact match to the others?"
"If it doesn't you will have to replace the others too. Who were you going to consult to replace it?"
"I've got a carpenter that I've used for a few other projects in the past. He made a nice door for me. Speaking of which, would you and Professor Flitwick care to inspect my final Charms project next Tuesday after dinner? Everything should be finished then, though I'll have to arrange for another one of those illegal portkeys."
"Curiouser and curiouser... I seem to recall you swearing to me that you didn't leave Hogwarts when working on the project, and now you are saying you will need to make a portkey. Well at the very least mastery of the portkey charm will earn you some points in Flitwick's books."
"I just hope I am not expelled." Harry muttered.
"What was that?"
"Nothing..." The angellic look returned but she wasn't fooled.
"Harry, is the plan proceeding well?" a voice called from one of the shelves.
"Of course Allistair, the book is written and properly enchanted. If it is alright with you, I'll do the final spell later this week so everything is covered." Harry told the Sorting Hat.
"Uh-oh, the both of you are in on it. Next you'll tell me that Hogwarts herself is deserting me to help Mr. Potter on his nefarious deeds." McGonagall had an amused smile on her face.
"You have no idea. Harry's a genius and we, the non-human residents of Hogwarts, are all for this plan of his. It will certainly make life more interesting. Hogwarts is very amused but neutral on it though. She isn't going to help either side, though she does help certain students more often than they deserve." The Sorting Hat assured the Headmistress.
"Oi! Most of the time, I'm the one saving Her, not the other way around." Harry said.
"And how many times have you avoided detention because the staircases shifted at just the right time to help you avoid your pursuers?" Harry was silent under the glare of the Headmistress, "That's what I thought. Hogwarts said to tell you to make sure the new tables are pretty."
"I thought I promised to replace the Gryffindor table as it was." Harry said sullenly.
"And Hogwarts thinks you need to be punished beyond points and a detention. You don't want the Castle you live in mad a you do you? Make sure you get pretty tables."
"Alright, you win. I'll find some nice tables. May I go now?" Seeing his two opponents nod Harry left the room.
As soon as he was out the door, McGonagall laughed heartily, "I've never seen anyone really win against him. Sometimes you can convince him that you are right, but nobody wins against him when he decides he's firm on something."
"You just didn't have enough leverage, or weren't using what you had. Hogwarts could make his life here very uncomfortable if she wanted. Between the House Elves who run everything, or the paintings who watch everything, and me who knows some of his most troublesome secrets, things could get interesting if he didn't keep us happy."
"How did you get to be holding his secrets?"
"Well some of them he asked me to, and others I found in his mind whenever he put me on his head. He's put me on his head and talked to me more than anyone in centuries. I could even spoil some of his secret plans for the future, but for now I won't."
"Why not? You won't help the Headmistress against her students?"
"Are you admitting you can't run the school without looking into student's minds? That's not the way we play the game now is it?"