A gentle reminder of my position on anonymous guest reviews people. I am in agreement with the views expressed in every other writer's comment I've seen on the subject, they are generally used by cowardly trolls who take advantage of the fact that they're anonymous to make vicious attacks on the writer that they'd never make if they could be identified so every guest review, the good, the bad and the ugly, will be deleted. The one I just deleted was a polite expression of opinion on points I would have been happy to clarify or debate if it were signed, but it was deleted because it was a guest review. I'm not enough of a hypocrite to only leave the ones I don't mind.
Usual disclaimer, no rights to anything in JKR's stories.
Harry shook his head ruefully as he sat down to his second breakfast at Hogwarts, because it was like that stupid movie Groundhog Day, most of the students were nervous and Dumbledore, Filch and Quirrell were glaring at him from the High Table again. The brighter students at least seemed to have gotten the message, that they'd hit back hard if anyone came after them but they'd treat to anyone who treated them like ordinary students fairly, because some of them were starting to relax and engage in normal conversation. Well some of it wasn't normal conversation because people were asking about the points that had been brought up by Neville and Blaise, and Harry because Dora had mentioned what Harry had said about the ships to some of her friends and people were asking where he'd found out about that. He shook his head again as he thought about Dora, but it was in fond exasperation this time, he loved his cousin but her brain to mouth filters could be a trifle lacking at times.
He was actually looking forward to starting his regular classes today, as because of the Wizengamot session he hadn't made it to any of them yesterday. He wasn't expecting much of them but the point of coming here was to learn to interact with others of their age group…. Well that and the legislation that someone forced through a few years ago which restricted participation in the government in any way, shape or form to those who had attended Hogwarts.
The only part of the thing with Davies that really bothered him was how it could effect the younger Davies son, who had just started as a First Year. He hadn't lost any sleep over killing Chester Davies in self defence or sending a message by heavily penalising the House he was Head of, or his father's death penalty which was mandatory under the old laws for that matter…. but Roger Davies, or rather Roger Smith now as he and his mother had been forced to revert to her maiden name when the Davies Family name was eradicated in Magical Britain…. hadn't been responsible for his brother or father's actions. Hermione cheered him up a little by pointing out that hopefully Roger would take this chance to start over and become his own person without being effected by the poison his father had obviously been doling out to his sons. Money would be tight, to be sure, but they could anonymously cover the costs of his education and arrange for him and his mother to have modest but adequate accommodations. That helped salve Harry's conscience about the one part of this he did feel guilty about.
Even though the regular classes they were attending were for the most part being taught by members of their extended family, they were as disappointing as Harry had expected, because they were being forced to proceed at the rate of the weakest students. In the end, most of the group had gone into Second, Third and Fourth Year because it would have been too frustrating for them to sit through the basic introductions of First Year. It had been a simple matter to register them all as being home schooled and do the relevant exams at the Ministry, especially after Griselda and her Deputy, Hadrian Tofty, were put in charge of the Department of Magical Education in the restructure that made the Wizarding Examination Authority part of Magical Education.
Dumbledore hadn't been at all pleased when he went to convince his 'good friend', the Head of the Department, that the course changes he was proposing were out of the question, only to find that he'd been replaced by Marchbanks and she gave him short shift. She sent him away with the admonition that the changes would happen, and woe betide him if he tried to hold them up or interfere with them in any way.
The routines quickly settled in at school, as word got around the students that trying to push around any of the Druids' Group or their friends was a stupid idea, but if people left them in peace they'd do the same. The glares from Dumbledore and Quirrell and petulant, resentful looks from Slughorn didn't change, but at least Slughorn had learnt to hold his tongue.
It was surprising that none of them realised that the four senior members of the Witches' Coven were part of the Hogwarts staff now and they didn't have much hope of getting anything past them. Given the fact that three of the students were likely to become coven members and five of the Druid Group's regular tutors were also members, Hogwarts was almost the home of the Witches' Coven now.
Madam Hooch, the First Years and most of the teachers were grateful when Harry supplied enough simple but quite adequate brooms to replace all the unreliable and dangerous brooms students had had to learn on for decades, and they had a ceremonial bonfire of the old brooms on the Quidditch pitch. Just about all the students and most of the staff were there to celebrate, because most of the staff had attended Hogwarts since Dumbledore became Deputy Headmaster so they'd had to learn on those dodgy old things themselves.
The four House Masters and Mistresses and Madam Hooch then stood together to overrule Dumbledore when he tried to block the proposed creation of reserve Quidditch teams for each house and provision of an informal reserve competition so that more students could experience playing Quidditch. They did the same for his objections to the proposed caveat added to the rule about First Years not bringing their own brooms to Hogwarts. That rule still applied, but the caveat added was that First Years would be allowed to play Quidditch using the new school brooms if they made the cut.
Minerva, Pomona, Filius and Rolanda made it Horace's responsibility to make sure that his house got the message that any recurrence of the 'time honoured' practice of the Slytherin Quidditch teams using dirty tricks and violence to win would result in lifetime bans for the players involved. After losing the team captain and most of the players on their house team in the first couple of games, the Slytherins got the message that everyone else was serious, so their mostly new team (they were grateful for having a reserve team to supply the players) started playing by the same rules as everyone else. Dumbledore tried to order them to reverse this of course, but spending a week in a pokey old office and draughty teacher's quarters that hadn't been used in decades because he'd been locked out of the Headmaster's office and chambers was enough to make him back down.
The laugh was that most of the Druids' Group had no real interest in playing Quidditch, some of them got onto the reserve teams to have a bit of fun but they weren't serious about it. Their main involvement came down to Harry supplying the new school brooms and him and the girls supporting Madam Hooch and the House Masters and Mistresses' attempts to make improvements.
When Dumbledore tried to take the matter of the staff defying his authority to the Board of Governors to get them brought into line, he knew that it was a lost cause the moment he walked in and saw Griselda Marchbanks, Sirius Black, Lily Potter, Frank Longbottom, Amelia Bones and Cyrus Greengrass, because it was obvious that they made up the biggest power block on the board. They went through the motions of debating each instance he was complaining about, but even his supporters were having trouble agreeing with his position on most of the points because it tended to come down to 'I'm the Headmaster and they must do as I say' without presenting any reason to disagree with the points made.
Things continued in much the same vein up until Samhain, or rather Halloween as it was officially identified as at Hogwarts, Dumbledore would sit in his ivory tower (grumbling about all the work he had to do now because the Board had ordered that, given that he no longer had the duties of the Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwump to take him away from his duties as Headmaster, he would now perform all the duties of the Headmaster's role himself, rather than delegating most of the work to the Deputy Headmistress who had quite enough of her own work to do) except for meals in the Great Hall where he'd act as if he were a monarch presiding over his court. Whenever one of the House Masters or Mistresses tried to make any improvements he'd argue and do what he could to block them until the Board of Governors or Harry and the girls made him stop.
At the Halloween Feast, Harry had a foreboding that something was going to happen but he put it down to bad memories of the night their family was betrayed until the doors of the Great Hall crashed open and Quirrell staggered in, saying "Trolls, in the Dungeon….. I thought you should know" in a suspiciously calm and stutter free voice before doing an incredibly bad acting job as he supposedly fainted.
Dumbledore was on his feet before Quirrell hit the floor and he cast a Sonorous on himself so his voice drowned out everyone else as he ordered the prefects to take the students to their common rooms.
Pomona nodded grimly as Harry caught her eye and cast her own Sonorous to shout. "STOP!" The kindly old matron disappeared as she turned on Dumbledore without cancelling her sonorous. "Are you mad, you old fool, or are you trying to get half of our students killed?"
Dumbledore puffed himself up to put her in her place but she didn't give him a chance. "My Hufflepuffs' and the Slytherins' common rooms are both in the Dungeons where your poor excuse for a Defence teacher has just told us trolls are! My Hufflepuffs aren't going anywhere, and if Horace has any sense, neither are the Slytherins! For that matter, if the other students are indeed being sent to their common rooms, they should be escorted by teachers who might have a chance of dealing with a troll if they encounter it, not other students!"
Harry and the girls cast Confundus charms around themselves so that no-one would be sure if they were there or not at that point and used the pandemonium to pop out of the Hall without anyone noticing, then disillusioned themselves and investigated the Dungeons. They didn't find any trolls in the Dungeons, but when they checked around the castle they found three trolls in a section of the corridor leading to the Druids Tower that didn't have any portraits to note their presence.
Harry used his metamorphmagus ability to transform himself into a Mirka (slightly more civilised and less hairy but much more dangerous cousins of the Yeti, the Gringott Clan employed a few of them for situations where security trolls were far too slow and stupid for what they needed), while Hermione and Luna transformed themselves into Welsh Green dragon animagus forms because the Mirka's size was way beyond any normal human transformation capabilities. They also transfigured Harry's clothes as he transformed so that he wouldn't do a Hulk and end up all but naked when his size increase tore his clothes to shreds, he thanked them over their link for that as he called his heirloom enchanted Myddril (goblin silver, which Tolkien knew of as Mithril) battle axe to him and willed it to full size to suit his current form.
The scenario they were faced with was a problem, because one of the trolls was off to one side of the stairs they would have been expected to use, while the other two were on the other side towards the Druids Tower. This meant that if they started from the stairs as expected, whichever one they attacked first, they would have had another troll at their back unless they split up to each take one of them on, and they didn't want to do that. Hermione quickly came up with the most sensible solution. "Harry, if we get behind that one…" Indicating the one by itself. "You can take it out with your axe, and then we'll all charge the other two together."
That worked for Harry, so about twenty seconds later the disillusioned Mirka and Dragons popped into existence just behind the lone troll and the eight foot long disillusioned battle axe in Harry's hands was slicing though the air at the troll. It was rather disconcerting to see the troll's torso suddenly split in two, with its head, one arm and over half its body down to the waist falling one way while the other arm with its club and the rest of its body fell the other. They didn't wait for the troll to topple to the floor though, as they'd leapt over the corpse and were racing towards the other two trolls.
Mountain Trolls (what these were) weren't very bright, but seeing the other troll suddenly split in two for no apparent reason told them something was up and the pounding of Harry's boots and skittering of the dragons' claws on the floor were enough for them to work out that something was coming at them, something big! The fact that they were both suddenly bathed in dragon fire may have told a Gringotts troll what was coming at them but most trolls had never seen a dragon, so the only thing going through their heads was probably something to the nature of 'Burn! Bad!'.
They didn't suffer long though, because Harry reached them just after the dragon fire did and cut off their heads. Harry vanished the axe (it didn't matter where it went to because they could call the heirloom weapons of their primary houses from anywhere) and transformed back into his natural form, shrinking his clothes to match while the girls did the same, as far as returning to their human forms anyway. They collapsed into a group hug for a few minutes then vanished the trolls' body parts with elf magic to prevent their wizarding magical signatures or goblin magic showing up. Harry have an evil smile and shook his head when Hermione said they really should clean up the rest of the mess too.
"No, I don't know what their game is yet but it's obvious that Quirrell and Dumbledore were both involved in this somehow, and they know that the trolls were here. Given the fact that the trolls had been used to set up a trap here, on the way to the Druids Tower, and Dumbledore seemed so determined to send us here says to me that I was their primary target, for Dumbledore at least, but that doesn't explain what Quirrell was planning….."
He looked up, saying "Baron Selwyn, Sir Nicholas, may we speak with you please?" before he continued.
"Anyway, they both know the trolls were here, so it would probably worry them more if there's enough blood and scorch marks to show that they were killed here, but there's no evidence of who killed them."
The Bloody Baron and Nearly Headless Nick floated through the wall at that point and Harry bowed to them. "Greetings Baron, Sir Nicholas, we were hoping that you may be able to provide us with some information and grant us a boon?"
The ghosts took in the evidence of a battle in the corridor and bowed to them, the Baron waving to Sir Nicholas to respond as he rarely spoke. "Verily My Lord, how may we help you?"
Harry waved about the corridor. "As you can see, we have dealt with some trolls who were let into the castle here. We have vanished most of their remains but are leaving the evidence of their demise to see what the ones who let them into the castle will do when they discover their plan was foiled. The boon I wish to ask is that Hogwarts and the ghosts do not reveal to anyone, especially the headmaster, anything about this. Is this a boon Hogwarts and the ghosts can grant us?"
"Certainly My Lord, as Lady Hogwarts has told you, our first allegiance is to yourself and your Ladies. However your specific reference to the Headmaster is a concern, may we ask why you have singled him out?"
Harry sighed. "Because I am convinced that the trolls' placement here was specifically planned on his part as an assassination attempt against myself and my Ladies Sir Nicholas. I am sure that Professor Quirrell was involved, but I am as yet unsure of what his motives were... Which leads us to my request for information…. Are the Headmaster and Professor Quirrell still in the Great Hall, and do you know where they are if they are not there?"
The ghosts looked off to one side and Sir Nicholas answered. "Lady Hogwarts advises that the Headmaster is still in the Great Hall, arguing with Professors Sprout and McGonagall, but Professor Quirrell is not there. She is searching the castle for him at the moment….. Ah, the portraits have located him heading upstairs, he appears to be heading for the Third Floor."
Harry looked at the girls. "What's he heading to the Third Floor for?"
Luna smiled. "The traps of course Silly!"
Harry shook his head. "Could you explain that for those of us who can only see things in this realm please Luna?"
"Oh, sorry, it's the traps that Dumbledore had the Professors set to guard the Philosopher's Stone..."
Hermione swore. "The what? Do you mean to tell me that that old bastard has been hiding something that valuable and dangerous in a school full of children?"
Harry gave a pained look. "Will you two stop that please? What the hell is the Philosopher's Stone?"
Hermione smiled and patted him on the cheek reassuringly, but ruined the moment by saying. "If you'd paid more attention to your serious studies instead of spending so much time on fighting and politics, you'd know this Harry!"
He just looked at her, it was hard for him to stay miffed at these two but he was making a good try at the moment.
Hermione gave a long suffering sigh. "The Philosopher's Stone was created by the famed alchemist Nicolas Flamel and his wife Perenelle. It is reputed to be capable of transforming base metals to gold, but more importantly it is the only known source of a true Elixir of Life. The Flamels are both well over six hundred years old, which is accepted as the proof of the Stone's ability to create a true Elixir of Life. Many people would kill anyone they had to to get their hands on something like that, which is why it's totally irresponsible to keep it in the school…. There's no way Auntie Minnie and the others would have agreed to that, or kept it a secret that they were involved in setting up traps to guard anything dangerous in the school so Dumbledore obviously didn't tell them about the Stone, and I'll bet they've been obliviated of the fact that they created the traps… The protections Uncle Ragnok's people created to stop him getting into their heads wouldn't stop him obliviating them."
Harry swore, that sounded like Dumbledore alright. "Do we know where Quirrell is now Sir Nicholas?"
"Lady Hogwarts said that he's just gotten off the moving staircase on the Third Floor My Lord."
"Thank you Sir Nicholas." He looked at the girls. "We can't let him get something like that stone, there's something wrong about him."
The girls nodded and without another word, they held hands and popped to the Third Floor together.
It took a while to work out where Quirrell had gone, but they eventually found it by the smell coming from behind one of the doors. They were taken aback when the opened the door, because there was a bloody Cerberus in there, but luckily an enchanted flute was playing, which had put it to sleep. There was an open trapdoor in the floor and all a detection spell cast down the hole revealed was plant matter, so they levitated themselves down into the hole (after sealing the door with spells that no normal student would be able to overcome, because the outcome of a Cerberus meeting normal students would be messy). The plant matter turned out to be Devil's Snare, but that wasn't hard to get past and they went on.
The next obstacle was a room full of flying keys, with a locked door that was resistant to simple unlocking spells on the other side. It took them less than a minute to find a spell which would unlock the door, so they looked at each other as they headed down the hall behind the door, these so called traps wouldn't keep out more than a Second or Third Year student. They had confirmation that this was a setup at the other end of the hall because the next so-called 'obstacle' was a giant wizards chess set with life sized pieces, but it was easily circumvented by popping to the other side of the chess board. The next obstacle was a little more serious, but still within students' capabilities, because it was another troll, but someone had already dealt with it by blasting its head off.
It was the next challenge after the troll that told them who these 'obstacles' were intended for, because it was the first one that any competent student from Fourth or Fifth Year up couldn't be expected to handle. No, this one required logic that was rarely found in the wizarding world and an above average intellect to select the potion that was needed to proceed safely. This one was meant for someone like them, more specifically, it was meant for Lily Potter's son.
It didn't take them long to determine the correct potion to get through the portal to the next challenge, but there was only a single dose in the vial. Once again whoever set this up had shot themselves in the foot by presuming that it would an inexperienced student facing the obstacle though, because they just duplicated the vial a few times. The fact that this challenge was harder than all the previous ones made them pause though, because that wasn't the sort of thing you did halfway through, it was more like what you did in the lead up to the final challenge.
If Quirrell was just on the other side of this portal, he would see anyone coming through. Harry argued that he was the one Quirrell had been fixating on since they started, so he should be the one who went through visible and tried to hold his attention so Quirrell wouldn't notice them as they followed him through, disillusioned and silenced (he knew better than to suggest that they let him go on alone). The girls didn't like that, but they couldn't fault his logic so that's what they did.
It went just as Harry had planned, Quirrell was in the chamber on the other side of the portal, standing in front of a mirror and talking to himself, but he spun around as Harry stepped through. Harry made a big show of asking what he was doing there and that focussed Quirrell's attention on him while the girls stepped away to either side, just slowly enough to avoid attracting attention to their disillusioned forms through movement.
Quirrell snapped "Come here Potter!" and Harry complied to keep his attention focussed on him, even though he could have done without being that close to that smell. Luckily Quirrell ignored Harry's expression as he launched into a traditional villain's monologue with wizarding vocabulary, but Harry was sick and tired of hearing that shite…. Why did most Pure-Bloods have to be such pretentious idiots?…. so he cut him off.
"Yeah, yeah... I know, you're very important and powerful and everyone will bow down before you when you reveal yourself…." He suddenly shook his head in disgust. "Eww! That just conjured up an image I could have of done without seeing, you jumping out in front of a group of little First Year girls and flashing them, but that's not important… Look. Why don't we just skip over all that to the point where you tell me what you're doing here, what's happened to your stutter and what's that creepy looking mirror for?"
Quirrell started to explode at the boy talking to him like that, because while he was supposedly doing very well in class and killing the Davies boy with a table knife the way he did had certainly been an eye opener, with his parents it would have been a surprise if he wasn't a competent wizard and he'd killed Davies like a common Muggle would have, so he couldn't see anything special about him. That's when things went pear shaped, because Quirrell was cut off by a sibilant voice that was apparently coming from the back of his head. "Stop you fool! There is something wrong here, he is not what he appears to be…. Let me deal with him directly."
"Master….. You can't!... it's too risky…. you're too weak..."
Quirrell staggered as if he had been hit with a spell and his face screwed up in pain. Harry grimaced at the idea of being tortured by something inside your own head, Quirrell was a git but he wouldn't wish that on anyone! The voice spoke again. "Do not question my word or my power worm! If I didn't need you yet I'd kill you right now! Now do as I say!"
Quirrell whispered "Yes Master" shakily and reached up to start pulling the turban off. Garlic cloves fell out of the turban's folds as he unravelled it and Harry and the girls realised why he reeked of garlic all the time, he'd been using the garlic to cover up the smell of putrefying flesh that was now growing in the chamber. Harry and Luna caught a glimpse of another face growing out of the back of Quirrell's head from Hermione, because Quirrell was facing away from her as he removed the turban, which explained where the voice was coming from.
When Quirrell finished, he turned around so Harry got a good look at that face, though he wished he hadn't because it was one ugly mug, looking like a mix of human and snake with red eyes. There was no question who it was though, Tom Riddle, no… Voldemort, because there was no trace of the boy Tom Riddle left in this thing.
"Harry Potter! It's been eight years since I saw you last, though you somehow appear to have aged twice that much….."
Harry didn't need to fake his anger as he spat. "You! You were the one the rat let into our cottage to kill my parents… well kill my Dad anyway!"
"Yes…. and once you've retrieved the Stone for me you will show me how you and your Mudblood mother survived!"
Harry smirked at him as he got his anger under control. "That's the pot calling the kettle black isn't it Tommy? If this git who's been carrying you around can read well enough to understand what's written the papers, you should have found out by now that everyone knows that my Mum's blood's a lot purer than your's…. The bastard son of a Common Muggle and an inbred Squib who was so pathetic that she had to use love potions to get him to bed her, oh how the so called mighty have fallen!"
"Silence! You will pay for that you foolish boy!…. But first you will help me retrieve what I need, look into the mirror!"
Harry snorted. "Oh you really need to learn how to work people Tommy boy, what incentive do I have to help you when you've already told me that I'm going to be punished as soon as I do?"
"Quiet! Look in the mirror and tell me what you see!"
Harry was going to tell him to shove it up his arse when he caught sight of himself with his family, including his father and grandparents, and his image winked at him, pulling a red stone out of his pants pocket to show him and then returning it, and when he did that he could feel the stone in his own pocket. He couldn't stop his eyes widening at that and Voldemort caught his reaction, hissing.
"Tell me what you saw!"
"It was a group of people walking on a road made of golden bricks, there was a girl with a little dog, a golem made from clothes stuffed with straw and another one made of tin tubes, and what looked like some sort of Were Lion, but for some reason the girl seemed to look like me, the straw golem had Quirrell's face, the tin golem had Dumbledore's face and the Were Lion had your face….." He couldn't help snorting at that point because the girls were laughing over their links, but he was betting that neither Tom Riddle or Quirrell would have even heard of the Wizard of Oz, let alone read or seen it, so Voldemort wouldn't know that he'd just been called a coward, Dumbledore a heartless bastard and Quirrell an idiot.
But once again, he hadn't managed to cover up his reaction well enough and Voldemort had caught it.
"He's lying! Grab him and open yourself to me! If he won't tell me the truth willingly, I will take it from him by force!"
Quirrell turned around again and grabbed Harry's head, but he started screaming and released him as soon as his hands touched Harry's skin. Harry saw this as a good thing, so he reached out and grabbed Quirrell's head too, trying to reach around far enough to touch Voldemort's face. That seemed to work, because they were both screaming now, and Harry stepped back to watch what happened.
Quirrell's hands blackened and fell away as they turned to ash, and this effect continued up his arms. The same was happening to Quirrell's head where Harry had touched it, but as Voldemort's face turned to ash and fell away, a cloud of what looked like black smoke came out of Quirrell's head. Harry and the girls had seen this in the memories they were shown of the ritual where the soul anchor was removed from Harry, and when they watched other soul anchors being removed from some of the Peverell, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff heirlooms that they'd called to them, so they immediately cast the spells they'd been taught to contain and then destroy the soul fragment that had been released from Quirrell.
By the time Quirrell stopped screaming because his head had turned to ash and fallen away, the girls had removed their disillusionment and silencing charms and joined Harry, and they were comforting each other with a group hug. When they were feeling a little better, Harry pulled the Philosopher's Stone out of his pocket to show the girls. Their banter about what they could do with it was just letting off steam, because there was only one thing to be done with it, return it to the Flamels so that that they would continue to live, and convince them not to be so trusting of manipulative old bastards like Dumbledore in the future.
As the adrenalin died down, Hermione's logical mind came to the conclusion that someone like Dumbledore wouldn't bother coming through all those traps to get to this chamber, so they scanned the chamber and found a door, which opened onto a stairway that led straight up to the Headmaster's chambers. They were about to pop away from Dumbledore's chambers when Harry smirked.
"We need to bring the DMLE in to deal with Quirrell, the trolls and the Cerberus and other traps, but Dumbledore might register the notification when they come through the wards. If they came through the floo though, he wouldn't get any warning before Auntie Ami turns up, and the only floo in Hogwarts that is authorised to be used as a magical transport is the one in Dumbledore's office."
So they went through to Dumbledore's office and called Auntie Ami to bring in Aurors and DMLE Patrol Officers to deal with the mess.
While they were waiting for Auntie Ami, Harry and the girls went to talk to Fawkes, because they'd seen on the times they'd been in Dumbledore's office that she wasn't his familiar as he claimed (or male for that matter, but anyone who knew what they were talking about knew that all phoenixes were female). Harry's rage when they linked with Fawkes was shaking things off the shelves, and the girls weren't far behind because they found that Dumbledore had used blood magic to forcibly bind the phoenix to him as a servant so that he could use her to give credence to his image as the 'Leader of the Light'. Hermione used her Earth Mother ability to draw energy from the ley lines that met under Hogwarts and they used that energy to burn away all the bindings Dumbledore had put on the phoenix. Having the bindings released triggered a burning and rebirth that was so intense that it half melted the golden perch the phoenix was on and Luna picked her up out of the ashes, cradling her in her hands. She immediately formed a familiar bond with the three of them and announced that she would now be known as Ushas, and they were all cooing over her when Auntie Ami arrived with her people. Amelia had also brought Uncle Saul, along with Lily, Pandora and Jane, who were all supposedly anonymous in Unspeakable robes but their children could sense who they were.
Harry and the girls took Auntie Ami, Uncle Saul and their mums down into the chamber, and Saul was furious when he saw the Mirror of Erised (that was what the mirror was), because it was a dangerous and powerful magical artefact that was supposed to be safely locked away in the Department of Mysteries. When he found out who'd given Dumbledore access to take it out of the Department of Mysteries there'd be all kinds of hell to pay, but for the moment his only priority was to get it safely locked away again, so he portkeyed it away to a private vault that only he had access to. They also collected every trace of Quirrell/Voldemort, put them in a box and portkeyed it away to the same vault (he didn't know who in his Department he could trust other than the two witches with him at the moment), then they went back upstairs to go and deal with Dumbledore.
Hermione had filled Auntie Minnie in about what was going on via her communication watch and she'd clued up Pomona and Filius, so they three of them were still haranguing Dumbledore in the Great Hall when the doors crashed open and Amelia stormed in with her Aurors and Patrol Officers, Saul, Harry and the girls and their mums. Half of the students and a few teachers (including Slughorn) screamed when the doors crashed open, and Amelia started in on Dumbledore before he had a chance to say a word.
"What in the seven hells is going on here Dumbledore? Trolls being killed in the halls by dragons and the remains disappeared, a Cerberus on the Third Floor, disappearing teachers, is this a school or a circus of death?"
She shot a glance at the Slytherin tables. "I know that you're teaching Death Eaters' children here, but this is beyond the pale!"
Dumbledore drew himself up. "Madam Bones, I do not…."
"Have a clue? Yes, that is becoming abundantly obvious Mister Dumbledore! Come with me! We're getting those death traps on the Third Floor out of Hogwarts right now! Bring the ones who helped you set up those death traps with you, they have some explaining to do as well!"
Hagrid shuffled to his feet, looking worried, but the other teachers were looking confused.
Amelia made a show of suddenly realising what had happened and turning even angrier as she turned on Dumbledore. "You dared to obliviate some of our best minds without their knowledge, just to cover up your dirty little secrets?"
Minerva wasn't acting as she turned on Dumbledore furiously. "Is she right? Did ye get me and the others to help ye set up something in the castle and then obliviate us so that we wouldn't know anything about it? If you did ye old bastard I'll… I'll… I'll turn ye into a flobberworm and feed ye to that Cerberus Amelia's talking about in pieces!"
She turned back to Amelia as she struggled to get control of her temper. "Do you know which of us were involved Madam Bones?"
Amelia turned to Harry and the girls with a raised eyebrow.
Harry shrugged "There were a Cerberus and a troll, plus plant, charms, transfiguration and potions based challenges, but the potions one was really more of a logic puzzle."
Hagrid piped up at that. "I don' know nothin' 'bout no troll Ma'am. Professor Dumbledore jus' asked me to let him use Fluffy for his test."
Amelia raised an eyebrow at him and he muttered. "Fluffy's th' Cerb'rus."
Dumbledore tried to get control of the situation. "I think a more important question is what these students were doing going to the forbidden corridor on the Third Floor while they were supposed to be here in the feast with the rest of the school..."
Amelia cut him off. "I'm asking the questions here Dumbledore! But if you must know, Duke Potter found himself too upset to stay and watch how everyone here was celebrating the fact that his father was murdered and he thought he saw his mother murdered right in front of his eyes eight years ago on this night, so his betrothed were taking him back to their chambers to give him a chance to grieve in peace, but they saw Professor Quirrell behaving suspiciously so they followed him to see what he was doing."
She glared at him for about a minute longer and then turned back to Minerva. "It would appear to be yourself, Mister Hagrid, Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick, Professor Kettleburn and possibly Professor Slughorn who were involved Professor McGonagall…."
Luna piped up with. "Perhaps it was Professor Quirrell instead of Professor Kettleburn Auntie Ami? After all he was the one shouting about trolls and he knew where to go?"
And Hermione added. "And that logic puzzle for the potions challenge wasn't like anything I've ever seen in the Magical World Madam Bones, it was more like the sort of tests we have in the non-magical world."
Amelia nodded musingly. "I still think we should bring Professor Slughorn and Professor Kettleburn anyway, to see if they recognise anything in the challenges that relates to them."
Dumbledore was looking nervous, and when the people started heading for the door he said. "I'll leave you to it then Amelia, I must..."
"Just where do you think you're going Dumbledore, did you not hear me instruct you to come with us? Now that it appears that you have made sure that you're the only one who knows what's in that death trap, you're not going anywhere but the Third Floor with us, so the rest of us can see…. Fluffy?"
Hagrid nodded guiltily.
"And the rest of these so called challenges."
As he was flanked by two DMLE Patrol Officers with their wands drawn, Dumbledore gave into the inevitable and came along quietly.
Amelia left some of the Patrol Officers in the Great Hall to guard the students.
The Professors were surprised when they were led to a different part of the castle first, but understood when they saw the troll blood, scratches on the floor and scorch marks. While they'd been taken a different way to normal, half of them knew where they were and Pomona would have done serious damage to Dumbledore when she saw what he'd been sending their students into if the Patrol Officers hadn't stopped her. Hagrid and Professor Kettleburn confirmed that there was evidence that at least two or three trolls had been killed there, by at least two dragons by the looks of it…. small dragons, probably Welsh Greens.
Filius tested for magic used and said. "There's nothing showing here except for elf magic, one of the younger elves probably started to clean up the mess but was stopped by an older elf who knew that we'd want to investigate what happened." Everyone nodded, as that made sense, but half of them knew that the so-called 'elves' were standing right there with them.
Amelia turned on Dumbledore. "Are you trying to tell me that you missed dragons getting through your wards too Dumbledore?"
He was shaking his head, confused. "No, there were definitely no dragons passing through the wards in the last few days, just the trolls..."
Amelia pounced on that. "So you admit to knowing that trolls entered into the castle in the last few days and hiding that fact from everyone else!"
He realised that he was in trouble. "No! Well yes, I knew that more trolls were brought into the castle but believed that Quirinus was merely adding them to his obstacle."
"Why would any obstacle in a test need more than one fully grown Mountain Troll? Did you ask him what he was doing, and why? Did it never occur to you that having dangerous creatures like that in the castle was putting the students at risk?"
She shook her head angrily "Never mind, if no one has anything else to offer about what they think happened here, I suggest that we proceed to the Third Floor now. From what Duke Potter and his betrothed have told us about what they found there, there is far more than this that Mister Dumbledore will have to answer for."
Everyone agreed and they headed for the Third Floor. The others blocked Harry from being seen removing the spells he'd cast to seal the door so that when they reached the door, it opened at Hagrid's touch. Dumbledore tried to argue that someone must have removed the spells he'd had preventing students opening the door, but no-one was impressed when he was forced to admit that it would have taken no more than a simple 'Alohomora' to get past his 'protections'.
Amelia and the others were as angry at Hagrid as they were at Dumbledore for having Fluffy inside the school where students could have run into him, but Harry suddenly realised that this was the opportunity to do something they hadn't had a chance to try before and spoke up. "Director Bones?"
She broke off berating Hagrid and Dumbledore. "Yes Duke Potter?"
"I think most of us believe that Professor Dumbledore manipulated and obliviated the other Professors to cover up what was done here, don't we?"
She shot a glare at Dumbledore. "Yes Duke Potter, that's almost guaranteed in my mind, and we will be getting that confirmed by the mind healers when we're done here!"
"Well am I the only one who wonders what may have been been done to Mister Hagrid to make him so childishly trusting of Professor Dumbledore? As far as I know, Mister Hagrid has never shown any of the aggression that giants are renowned for, he's always been gentle and kind to everyone… And Uncle Newt, I mean Master Scamander, has always admired Mister Hagrid and often praised his wealth of knowledge and insights into Magical Creatures to us when he is teaching us about them, going so far as to get Mister Hagrid to tell us about some of the ones he's raised and dealt with. None of that fits with Mister Hagrid unquestioningly doing anything Professor Dumbledore tells him to without a care for the danger it would put the students and everyone else in….."
He turned to Hagrid. "I'm sorry Mister Hagrid, I realise that sounds like I believe you to be some sort of weak willed simpleton but that's not the case at all. I believe that you're far more than that, but you've been interfered with, like the Professors but far more so."
Amelia and the others were staring at Harry, shocked that that question hadn't been raised before, and more than a few of them were suspicious about why it hadn't been raised before. Hagrid was looking confused, and angry as the possibilities of what Harry said sunk in, and Dumbledore was looking rather worried.
It fell to Amelia to answer Harry. "I can't speak for anyone else Duke Potter, but I'm ashamed to admit that that question had not occurred to me before this, but now that you've raised it I certainly agree that Mister Hagrid should be thoroughly tested for manipulations as well, and I'll be getting myself tested too to find out whether it was my own ignorant prejudice that stopped me questioning it myself, or whether it was someone else's outside influence. I must admit that I'm actually hoping to find that it was outside influence and not some hidden character flaw that stopped me."
Hagrid and some of the others nodded at that, most of them angrily, but Hagrid removed Fluffy and took him off to secure him somewhere safe outside the castle while the others proceeded into the traps. Harry and the girls smiled at each other as Dumbledore was nudged none too gently into the trapdoor hole.
Pomona confirmed that the Devils' Snare obstacle would have been set by her, just as Filius' magical signature confirmed that the flying keys were his and Minerva's confirmed that she'd created the giant wizard chess set. As Dumbledore had already inadvertently admitted though, the troll obstacle wasn't Professor Kettleburn's work, and Slughorn's magical signature didn't match what they found on the portals used in the potions/logic challenge, Amelia demanded that they be tested again for a match to Dumbledore's signature after Hermione glanced significantly at him and no-one in the chamber was surprised when they did match.
Amelia made Dumbledore remove the obstacles on the entry and exit to the chamber and they proceeded into the final chamber, where Dumbledore immediately demanded to know what had happened to the Mirror of Erised. Saul took over at that point.
"Yes, I was rather wondering that myself Mister Dumbledore. You see that particular Class Seven Dark Object was supposedly safely locked away in the Department of Mysteries…. So as you can imagine I was rather surprised and perturbed to be shown what school students had found in the school where the future leaders of Magical Britain are meant to be kept safe from the dangers of our world while they are being educated."
Those who hadn't already known discovered why he was the Head Unspeakable as he suddenly demanded.
"You will tell me now who it was who gave you access to remove the Mirror of Erised from the Department of Mysteries!"
None of them were stupid enough to think that they could have resisted that command. Dumbledore certainly couldn't and he blurted out. "Reginald Macmillan!"
Saul looked at Amelia. "If there are any enquiries about Reginald Macmillan Director Bones, you can direct them to my office, but effective immediately he will be being held indefinitely for questioning about what else he has done to betray the Department of Mysteries. It is most likely that the danger of his potentially releasing further secrets which may endanger the Department of Mysteries and Magical Britain as a whole will mean that he will never be released."
Amelia just nodded, accepting that Macmillan was unlikely to survive his 'questioning', as well as the fact that she had no authority to go against the Department of Mysteries in this, even if she wanted to, which she did not.
She turned to Dumbledore. "Do we need to go back out through your obstacles Mister Dumbledore, or do you have another way out of this chamber?"
He just released the door and led the way up the stairs, his mind still reeling from the attack Saul had used to batter its defences enough to force him to answer.
Saul, Lily, Pandora and Jane left immediately to make sure they grabbed Macmillan before he had a chance to run, while Harry, Hermione and Luna went back to their chambers and the rest of them went back to the Great Hall to finish sorting out this mess.
Like his father before him, when he reached puberty, Harry had gone through the rituals to become an accepted Protector of Virtue, which was normally just known as a 'Protector' (or Sacred Gigolo by wizards who thought they were being funny like Sirius, until witches like Lily, Minerva and Pandora heard them say it, at which point they learned to treat the role with the reverence it deserved, but to be fair to Sirius, it was his Great Aunt Dorea who had to teach him to respect magic and women as that was something he couldn't learn from his psychotic cow of a mother or insipid father and that was part of the covens' duty).
The Protector role had been created by the Amazons and officially carried on in the Vestal temples, but it had been an important role in wizarding magical cultures since the Amazons. What it came down to was that it was recognised from the early days that sexual release was as important for women as it was for men, and it was necessary for some tantric rituals, but witches as they later came to be known were found to be sometimes being severely penalised for getting this release, as they lost part of their magic along with their virginity as magic recognised it. The Amazons weren't happy about this, so they came up with the rituals needed to create the protectors, who could give them this release without taking their virgin magic.
In the Ancient Greek and Roman cultures, the Protectors were castrated as part of the rituals, but the Druids managed to alter the rituals to remove that element without threatening the function of the Protectors. This came about through the Druids recognising that the loss of the Druidess' virgin magic was offset by its replacement with familial magic when they bonded with their true mate, so they added elements to their rituals which prevented the Protectors effecting the Druidess' bond with their true mate, whether they be future or existing mates, but the Druids who met the requirements to become Protectors with their altered rituals were very rare, especially as the Druid rituals had to be performed when they reached puberty and they had to already have some form of link with their own true mates.
For most of the last two thousand years, the role of the protectors had mainly existed only in the covens and the Veela enclaves because the requirements for virgin magic in some of the covens' rituals and the sanctity of the Veelas' bonds with their mates meant that they were the only places the witches' virtue was regarded as important enough to justify the limitations of the role of Protector. Most protectors tended to came from the Veelas' male children, because the residual allure and Veela ability to absorb tantric and other energy that Veela males retained made them better suited to this role.
Of course, just like other Veela and non-Veelas, there were male Veela children who only used their abilities for their own ends. This was was why Gancanaghs, as they were known in Britain, had come to have a rather risqué reputation.
Blaise had been too wedded to his mother's plans to exact revenge on everyone who had been involved in his father and twin sister's deaths in any way for him to swear what was very similar to a Hippocratic Oath to become a Protector, because that may take away a weapon he could use against them. He didn't use his abilities to prey on girls, like Harry and Neville he was betrothed to two of the girls in the group to protect them and their Houses and he genuinely cared for them, but if he had a need to use his abilities to exact revenge on those who had harmed his family he would.
Harry, on the other hand, had had several Veela among his maternal ancestors which meant that he retained enough of the Gancanagh abilities to be suited to the role and he had already bonded with his mates, so with his mother and the girls' support he had gone through the rituals when he reached puberty. The personal advantage in this for him, Hermione and Luna was that in upsetting situations, such as they were in at the moment, it allowed them to give each other more comfort than they would have otherwise….. Without risking effecting the girls' status or reputation, which suddenly changing from betrothed to married due to a magically accepted bonding event like officially losing their virginity would do if they got carried away and went further than they planned. This was why Lily, Pandora and Jane had all encouraged them to go along with this. Xeno had known about it from the start because as husband and father to Veela who knew the Protectors' role and the bonds between their children he completely understood the intention behind it, but Jane took her time leading Roger to the point where she felt it was safe to explain to him that they'd done this to protect his little girl.
The morning after Halloween, Albus was in a foul mood, because on top of losing his chance to have Potter killed, he'd lost the Mirror of Erised. (Which hopefully still had the Philosopher's Stone inside it, because if it didn't, Tom had managed to escape with the Stone so he would be able to to return stronger than ever….. Without the Elder Wand he doubted that he'd be able to defeat a strong Tom Riddle, and he'd need the Stone to restore his vitality soon enough.)
Not only that, he had lost his phoenix! When he recovered enough from that mental attack by Croaker to check his office, he had found that his phoenix was gone and its burning had been so extreme that it had half melted its perch. He was wondering whether that might have managed to destroy the phoenix itself, because there had been no sign of the bird in the ashes. He was trying hard to cover up his concerns over this, but with everything else going on this was a serious problem for him. As long as he had a phoenix companion that he could claim was his familiar, everyone had believed that he was the true Leader of the Light, because the stories he made sure were spread saying that a phoenix would only bond with someone who was a true warrior of the light had protected him from those questions about him turning Dark, but now it was gone... He had to find a way of getting another one, or maybe transfigure another bird to look like his phoenix, it wouldn't be able to do any of the remarkable things they can do but as long as people believed he was the companion of a phoenix they'd continue to follow him.
He would also be facing another gruelling session in front for the Wizengamot answering questions about what happened at Hogwarts, and he had to find another Defence teacher in a hurry because Quirrell/Tom had disappeared. No-one would tell him anything about what had happened in the chamber so he had no idea whether Potter had somehow defeated him again or Tom had escaped with the Stone, and there was no way Lily Potter or Black would let him get close enough to the brat to probe him to find out….
The only saving grace he could think of in this debacle was the fact that he'd managed to make Flamel believe that the goblins were lying about the vault being emptied before it was broken into, so he'd stopped demanding that the Stone be returned, and without the Stone the Flamels wouldn't last out the year so he'd soon inherit everything they had. That would give his circumstances a quite dramatic and much needed turn about…. Albus Dumbledore was not meant to be poor, he was meant for great things and it was time the Magical world remembered that!
Having to put up with all the parents' whining about why their brats were being sent home for a week or so while every part of Hogwarts was checked to ensure that there wasn't anything else dangerous left in the castle was just icing on the cake! Having the Board of Governors in his office last night tearing strips off him while his head was pounding from Croaker's attack and ignoring his assurances that the school didn't need to be closed was another thing he wanted to forget.
The parents' whining brought something else to mind though and he nodded to himself in satisfaction, Gilderoy had been whining at him ever since the Harry Potter books had been banned and all monies earned from them claimed by Potter's solicitors. He wasn't making much money from his own ridiculous adventure books so he was constantly whining about being broke, if he was that broke he would jump at the chance to take on the Defence Against the Dark Arts position, especially if he let him set his own books as the text books, yes, he'd send him an owl straight away and as soon as he agreed, get the Daily Prophet to print an article about the new Defence professor and text books with a nice picture of him and Gilderoy on the front page, that would show everyone what a decisive Headmaster he was, the parents could buy the new books before the students returned to Hogwarts. Any that didn't, well they could be ordered direct from publishers, with a suitable charge to cover the expense of sending them of course! He'd heard the Muggle-Born talking about delivery charges so they shouldn't complain about paying a few galleons more for that, why should Gilderoy be the only one who made money out of this?
He shook his head mournfully though. He'd had everything ready for him to lead the Magical world to its true greatness until that Potter bitch returned from the dead, everything had gone to shit since then but it had gotten even worse last night!
While most of the students were getting on the Hogwarts Express that morning, Harry, Hermione and Luna had already left. Finding a couple who had managed to successfully hide from the world for much of their six hundred plus years would normally be an impossible task, but when the Leader of the Goblin Nations lets you call him Uncle Ragnok and one of your official titles is Patron of the Goblin Nations….. the impossible only takes a little longer.
Harry was shaking his head at the strength of the wards around the little cottage he was walking up to. He knew from Uncle Ragnok that the Flamels had been using it on and off for nearly five hundred years, but that didn't explain how strong the wards were. The Flamels obviously knew that someone was entering their wards, but they were apparently taking a wait and see approach, so Harry took the Philosopher's Stone out of the box he was carrying it in and held it up so they could see it.
Five minutes later a furious Comte Flamel was storming out of the cottage, wand in hand and demanding to know whether he was the thief who stole the Stone from Gringotts. Being laughed at by a boy enraged him even more, but Perenelle's voice managed to cut through the red haze that was consuming him just in time to stop him doing something truly stupid. "Nicolas Stop! Don't be stupid! Listen to the boy!"
That made him stop and think for the first time since the boy laughed and said. "I didn't think that you'd be that easily fooled after over six hundred and fifty years Comte Flamel."
When he'd calmed down enough to listen he nodded and the boy continued. "If I had managed to steal anything like that from Gringotts, which would be impossible without corrupting trusted Gringotts employees, would I be here, at an address known only to trusted members of Clan Gringotts itself who have sworn an unbreakable oath never to endanger yourself or Comtesse Flamel, and would I have been able to pass through your incredibly impressive wards if I had any ill intent towards you? For that matter, it is my understanding that you are held in high enough regard by the Goblin Nations to have personally met with Clan Over Chieftain Ragnok the Third, have you not Comte Flamel?"
Nicolas nodded, wondering where this was going.
"If you look to the goblins standing just inside the gate, you should be able to recognise the standards of the personal guard of Over Chieftain Ragnok then."
Nicolas turned and stared at the goblins and it was true, they were bearing the standards of Ragnok's personal guard. No-one would ever dare bear those standards without the right to do so because the stories of the entire families of everyone involved being very slowly and painfully executed were still going around over four hundred years after the last time someone was that stupid…. Which meant that this boy was incredibly important….. "May I beg permission to apologise for my incredibly rash behaviour and have the honour of learning your name good sir?"
Harry nodded easily. "I believe that you will find that there is an external reason for your behaviour when you have yourself examined by trusted and competent mind healers Comte Flamel, because I believe that you've been interfered with, so you do not need to apologise, though I'm afraid that if Comtesse Flamel hadn't managed to get through to you before you acted on the rage you were being induced to feel, it would have gotten rather messy…. You see Uncle Ragnok has a bit of a soft spot for his blood adopted human nephew, but I'd put money on my betrothed dealing with you before Ulfr and Uncle Ragnok's guards did…. And as for who I am…."
He bowed formally to Nicolas and Perenelle and said. "My primary title here in France is Comte Henri James Corbeau, Chef de la Noblesse Ancienne Famille de Corbeau, but I am better known by my primary British titles…. Duke Henry James Potter Peverell, Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter and Peverell and their Associated Houses… and Patron of the Goblin Nations."
Harry gave them time to get their heads around that and then asked for leave to have his companions join them. Once they'd gone inside and everyone had been introduced, Harry got the Flamels' agreement to be examined by the mind healers they'd brought with them, who were personally vouched for by Ulfr, Nephew and Heir of Ragnok the Third. The Flamels were both enraged to find that Harry's suspicions were correct, but they were grateful for having the compulsions, memory manipulations and other manipulations removed from them, even though seeing what steps had to be taken to remove the blood magic used on them enraged them all over again.
After Harry, Hermione, Luna and Ulfr explained to them just what their 'good friend' Albus Dumbledore had been doing, Nicolas used his Family Magic to call all the Flamel Heirlooms and other items rightfully belonging to the Flamel Families to him, getting ever angrier as more and more priceless objects that they'd forgotten about or had been convinced had disappeared over the eighty or so years since they met Albus Dumbledore came to him.
He asked Ulfr to set up a meeting for him and his solicitor with the Director of Gringotts in Paris at his earliest convenience so they could ensure that everything rightfully belonging to the Flamel Families that was in Albus Dumbledore and his associates' possession was returned to them.
Hermione and Luna smiled at each other when the Flamels looked musingly at Harry as Nicolas was saying that, because it was obvious to them that Harry would now be inheriting everything Dumbledore believed was coming to him when they passed on. They knew that Harry would try to talk them out of doing that, which would only make the Flamels more convinced that he was the right one to leave everything to. That must be a problem associated with living hundreds of years longer than everyone else you know, living long enough to become disillusioned with the people you believed worthy of leaving your inheritance to…. Especially when being the Magical world's pre-eminent Alchemist for well over six centuries has resulted in you being one of the richest families in Magical Europe.