Snorting heavily, the black charger leapt over a fallen tree. He was cantering down an ancient road, a Roman one, long since forgotten, buried in vegetation, trees and magical concealment. On his back was a powerfully built man, dressed in a composite armour of basilisk hide and chainmail under a black robe and black hood.
Master Unspeakable Hunter, otherwise known as Hadrian 'Harry' Potter was searching. A rumoured Roman site was leaking large amounts of dark magic and it was so far off the beaten track that a horse was the only way in, despite only being ten miles from Hogwarts. He had a single spear slung in a space-expanded holster slung from the saddle, already coated in the blood of an Inferius, while his sword, a hand-and-a-half bastard sword, hung on his left him while three wands and a battle-staff sat in a wrist-holster.
At seventeen years old, he'd killed Voldemort. On his sixteenth birthday, Harry was recruited as an Unspeakable. By Christmas that year, with the use of temporal dilation spells, he was fully trained in martial arts, firearms, melee weapons and massive amounts of magic.
At the age of twenty, Unspeakable Hunter was one of the most powerful, most skilled and most deadly fighters on the planet. However, he wasn't expecting the sphere of silver light as it burst in a shock-wave under Achilles' hooves.
He was nearly thrown from the saddle as they lurched into a whirlpool of darkness, lurching as the black charger's hooves made contact with solid earth. Despite the horse's rearing and panic, Harry gripped tightly and stayed in the saddles until Achilles calmed.
He found himself on a cobbled road, surrounded by woodland, the road itself rather dilapidated, yet still there, though in places covered by mud. Firstly casting a mapping charm, Harry found himself exactly where he had been moments before. Five different mapping charms later and he was ready to kill someone. A Tempus Anno charm later and he was intent on killing someone.
July 1000 AD
Mentally going over what he had, Harry was immensely pleased that he had a semi-automatic M1911 chambered in .357, though less pleased that he had only around a hundred rounds. His Unspeakable survival kit had around a thousand galleons, the only usable currency that was in the kit.
Sighing irritably, he dug his heels into Achilles' flank, heading to Hogwarts as it was likely the best place to try and set up a return to his own time. Though the black charger had a bad habit of bucking slightly, especially when he was wheeling about and charging back, Harry was immensely fond of him. A large horse, he could carry three people with little strain and a fourth if necessary, he could sense Harry's instructions mentally, could fight or be a gentle mount, depending on what he was commanded to be.
Around twenty minutes later at a sustained light canter, Harry came across a group of people, two women surrounded by a group of men, a dozen in all, clad in what looked like burlap. The two women were wearing nondescript robes of a forest-green colour.
Extending his senses, Harry firstly scanned the two women with Legilimency, not invading their privacy but simply copying the languages they knew across to his own mind. However, a quick glance showed the intent of the group of men, they were bandits, preying on those who travelled the roads in small groups, robbing, kidnapping and usually murdering their targets.
Achilles' hooves were almost silent as he charged forward, Harry's spear hanging in a low grip along his right flank. The first thrust took a bandit through the throat before the leaf-bladed head was wrenched out and thrown in the air where he caught it in a reversed grip, hurling it over his shoulder like a javelin, taking another bandit through the heart.
Leaping of the horse's back, Harry's boots slammed into one of the men, moments before his sword was jammed between his ribs. Swiftly withdrawing the blade from the dead outlaw, he countered a blow and used a bit of elegant sword-work to pierce the attacker's stomach, injecting a horrific number of poisons and other substances which were imbued in the metal.
Sending out two powerful Legilimency probes, he fried and shredded the recipients' minds, bringing the total number of dead to six, leaving another six. Flipping the sword over, Harry reversed his grip on it so that it was aligned with his arm, slashing at stomach level to take out a seventh target before letting go momentarily as he returned his grip on the sword to the proper direction and lunging forward.
The two women were casting spells in multiple directions as the final four bandits sent curses at them, having replaced blades with wands.
Harry ceased holding back, slamming his blade tip-down into the ground before letting a wand leap from the wrist-holster into his hand. His first spell landed on target, pinkish fluid flowing from the unfortunate victim as his organs were liquefied. The second spell in his chain was a lance of fire, white hot and in the shape of his spear. Ten down, two to go.
One was brought down under the combined spellwork of the two women as Harry struck down the last one with a series of lightning bolts, two from the sky and one from his wand. Slipping into light meditation, he reined in his aura as he was visibly leaking magic, something that a wizard, even as powerful as Dumbledore, would have trouble doing.
Gradually, the suffocating levels of magic he was outputting were withdrawn and he holstered his wand before summoning his sword and spear to him, hitting them both with cleaning charms as they flew through the air. All wandlessly. He directed his sword to land in its sheath before tucking the spear into the leather quiver on Achilles' saddle before turning to the women.
"You two okay?" he asked in their common language.
"Fine. Thanks for the help, neither of us is particularly good at martial magic." replied the tall, willowy woman with long blonde hair; "Our associates don't believe women should learn such magic."
"Idiots." Harry snorted; "It's up to you what magic you should learn, not what someone else dictates. Where are you headed?"
"Hogwarts Castle." answered the shorter woman with dark brown hair.
Harry pushed back his hood, showing long raven-black hair tied back in the pureblood fashion such as he'd seen Lucius Malfoy wear when arresting Hagrid. His emerald eyes bored into their souls, and two scars lined his face, a long, thin one across one cheek and a lightning bolt one on his forehead.
Once again drawing his wand, he banished the twelve bodies into a single pile and set them alight before transfiguring Achilles' saddle into a much longer one.
"Coincidence has me headed the same way as you ladies, if I may offer you a ride?" asked Harry.
They both accepted and climbed onto Achilles' back behind Harry who kicked him lightly and took off at a canter, heading to Hogwarts. Despite not having gone any further with his mental probe than learning their languages, Harry already had a fair idea who they both were, though the taller defied the modern descriptions of Helga Hufflepuff.
It took around half an hour to reach Hogwarts as Achilles' had to slow for his increased burden. The castle was a much more fortified building than in Harry's own time, windows were smaller, less open to attack. Towers were crenellated, adorned with machicolations and the keep, which was in his time the main building, was set on a motte surrounded by curtain walls.
After trotting through the gatehouse and heading up to the keep, Harry dismounted and helped each of the ladies from the saddle before tying Achilles up and following them into the castle.
"You didn't tell us your name." commented the brown-haired woman.
"Hadrian Hunter." Harry replied, using the extended version of his first name and his codename.
In the Great Hall were a group of a dozen adults from a tall, bald man with a slight goatee to an attractive young woman with raven-black hair.
"Madam Helga, Madam Rowena, we weren't expecting you this soon. And company." commented a stately man with a blonde ponytail and a small beard on his chin.
"This is Hadrian Hunter, an accomplished swordsman and dueller." Helga introduced.
"Do you think he would be willing to teach fighting?" asked the blonde wizard.
"He better be willing to prove his skill." added the eldest wizard, his voice like layers of silk running against each other.
"If you wish to duel." Harry commented.
A moment later, the hall was cleared and the eldest, the bald, goateed Salazar Slytherin was stood on a raised piste opposite Harry who hadn't even allowed a drop of magic out of his body or even drawn a wand, compared to the other man who was doing his best to intimidate him.
"You don't mind if I don't hold back?" Salazar asked smoothly.
"If you don't mind me holding back a bit for you?" replied Harry as he bowed stiffly.
Slytherin brought his wand up to begin a spell. Harry brought his hand up, wand sliding from the holster even as he slung his favourite spell-chain toward Slytherin. Organ liquefier, head exploder, decapitation, blood boiler, flesh incinerator. Having sent off a dark arts spell-chain, he began a series of grey spells, mainly the extremely powerful Adhaereat cutting curses accompanied by obliteration curses, explosive castration curses and trident piercing curses.
With Slytherin fending off a storm of spells, Harry took a symbolic step back and holstered his wand, waiting for the man to emerge from the cloud of smoke from the burning piste. In hindsight that was stupid as he was engulfed by white-hot flames. Wrenching control of the flames from Salazar, he turned it into a hurricane, an inferno of a storm.
Emerging from the fire, Harry's eyes were glowing a demonic killing curse green and his aura, a matte black sphere around him, was spitting lightning bolts every which way as a furious gale-like wind swirled his hair and billowed his cloak. A different wand dropped into his hand, lengthening to nearly six feet of obsidian-black wood crowned by a massive emerald. A constant stream of dark curses from simple pain cursed to dozens of different physical injury spells spewed from the staff toward Slytherin.
Twirling it with ease, he slammed it into the piste, creating a thousand darts in front of him before sending them off with the barest flick of his hand. A small part of Harry's brain directed his aura to absorb the stream of dark curses whistling toward him as he swung his staff around, grabbing control of the Fiendfyre obliterating his darts and redirecting it back onto its caster, augmented by a stream from his staff.
Though he'd barely broken a sweat, Harry began to rein in his magic as it was trying to control him instead of being controlled. As Slytherin fought against the self-sustaining hellfire, Harry was chanting a long incantation. Sand swept from his staff, the entire hall heating up drastically and finally, a dozen jackal-humanoid figures burst from the sand, wielding sickle-like blades.
Summoning took a lot of magic, but he was powerful enough to do repeated summonings. Using the excess magic he was exuding to power the summoning, Harry finally regained control of his magic, shrinking and holstering his staff. Slytherin was carving up his summons with sword and wand, locked in a heated duel with the last, most powerful one of them.
Allowing his opponent to dispose of the jackal-like creatures, he drew his sword as Slytherin charged him. Harry countered a blow and swept Slytherin's legs out from under him before somersaulting backwards to avoid a wandless slicing curse.
Once again, Harry waited for Slytherin as he returned to his feet and attacked. This time, Harry parried the lunge to his left hand side with his sword turned point down, using his elbow to attack as he slammed it into Slytherin's solar plexus and knocked him out.
Twirling the blade in a show of slight arrogance, Harry brought it up into a salute before spinning it over once in his hand and slamming it home in the sheath on his hip.
"A most invigorating duel." he commented as he jumped off the piste, landing lightly on the stones below.
For the first time, Harry noticed how the walls were pitted with scars, scorch marks and other damage from the furious fight, mostly from the immense number of dark spells he'd fired with his staff.
Returning his staff to his hand, he used a series near-ritualistic spells; cleaning spell, magic cleansing spell and finally a large-scale repair spell one after another. With the hall returned to proper order, Harry shrank and holstered the staff and strode over to where the others were coming out from behind a powerful shield and several layers of conjured stone. With a slight flick of his hand, he tore down the shield in an impressive display of wandless magic.
"Do I qualify?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow as he looked to those emerging from behind the shields.
He inwardly sighed at the obvious hunger in the eyes of the three women, not that any of them were any less than beautiful, but Harry didn't want a shallow relationship based on, at best, physical attraction. Due to the end of line clauses for the House of Black and House of Potter, he'd very nearly been forced into a Ministry-arranged multiple marriage. It was that, amongst other things, that pushed him into the anonymity of Unspeakable life.
"I think so..." said the blonde-haired wizard dryly as his companion, a much older, auburn haired wizard gaped.
"Indeed Myrddin, he's got to be something to beat Salazar! Sal's not a master dueller without reason." added the auburn haired wizard.
"Godric, remember both you and Salazar are ageing." warned the one woman whose identity was still unknown, raven-haired, elegant and powerful.
"Don't think that Salazar is any less a fighter for his age Morgana." reprimanded Myrddin.
Grinning slightly, Harry idly spun a long, thin-bladed dagger in his left hand as he watched the five conscious people other than himself debating whether Slytherin's fighting skill had deteriorated with age. Eventually it was a silver blur spinning around both hands, swapping every few seconds as he skilfully manipulated the weapon.
Tiring of fooling around after a few minutes of bored blade-spinning, he slid it back into the sheath sewn into the interior of his right sleeve. Looking over toward the group, Harry was slightly irritated as he noticed them gaping. The very slight frown that appeared must have warned them as their gaping ceased and Myrddin cleared his throat.
"So, would you be willing to teach combat magic?" he asked.
"I would indeed." Harry replied.
He was just contemplating any terms he would demand before forcing himself to resist the urge to let loose a bout of maniacal laughter. In a massively warded and expanded pocket of his robe was a collection of rather precious items. The three Deathly Hallows, one of two Philosopher's Stones made by Nicholas Flamel and given to him to help win the war, Riddle's wand, a ward destroying device, a dozen wardstones and a collection of very rare books.
"Though, you seem awfully eager to gain a teacher who you know nothing of but my name and the fact that I am a somewhat able fighter?" commented Harry.
At this, Myrddin seemed to visibly tire; "We have suffered losses. There is a group called the Dark Order who thrive on control of our world and chaos in what they cannot or will not control. So far we have been attacked five times in the last month, only one a pitched battle. We are effectively under siege. Anyone willing to help break their hold on the castle is welcome."
"Then you should practice constant vigilance!" Harry barked; "You know very little about me, some of which could be faked. I could have killed your colleague in that duel. You ought to have some kind of safety precaution against infiltration by this Dark Order. Are any of the rest of you good duellers?"
"It has been a while but I'm a battle mage." replied Myrddin as he drew a wand and stepped up to the piste, gently banishing Salazar off.
Grinning in a shark-like manner, Harry moved to the piste, letting a wand drop into his hand as he slid beneath a fan of a dozen stunning spells. He retaliated with a constant jet of fire which spewed from his wand, engulfing the entire duelling stage. Just as he swept aside the fire, Myrddin was forced to blast his way out of a group of stone roots as they tried to entangle him.
As Harry found himself under attack from a gale, interspersed with both horizontal and vertical lightning bolts, he continued grinning and let loose his aura which grew steadily with every lightning bolt that slammed into him. Replacing wand with staff, he harnessed that power, he poured it out into the summoning of half a dozen Anubite warriors and set them on his opponent.
With the jackal-headed humanoid fighters advancing on Myrddin, Harry took a moment to stream sand everywhere before pulling it up into a tornado with the manipulation of the air into a maelstrom current. With a sandstorm around him, he was confident few curses would be able to hit him and maintaining the typhoon didn't take much power, especially as each of his focuses had the Dementor-esque ability to suck some magic out of their surroundings.
Resisting the urge to laugh maniacally, he sent the storm off toward Myrddin as a similar storm of salt engulfed him. He didn't bother to resist the urge to laugh maniacally before chanting a long incantation in an eastern language. The alchemical spell turned salt into metal. What he was doing was slightly different. The salt reformed into a ferocious fifteen-foot golem of gleaming metal.
With a large amount of self-satisfaction, Harry sent the monstrous construct after his opponent and stepped back to see how he would manage it. Apparently Myrddin would manage quite well. The first of his Anubites was torn apart by vines, the second boiled in a summoned geyser, the third barbecued in a stream of fire, the fourth attacked brought down by a pack of wolves which Harry killed with ease, the fifth wrapped in arms of stone which crushed it and the sixth flayed by a typhoon of ice shards.
Warding himself a small space, Harry conjured a comfortable padded armchair and pulled an unlabelled bottle from inside his robe and sat back as his gigantic golem was brought to bear on the battle mage. Over the next ten minutes, surprisingly little damage was done to it until Myrddin performed an incredibly difficult and dangerous piece of battle magic called the Tartarus Gate, opening a portal into the void and flinging his construct into it.
Not bothering to rise from his seat, he sent off a continuous stream of bludgeoning hexes, stunning spells, shield-piercing curses, petrification spells, binding spells and other low-level combat magic. That slowly escalated into blasting curses, severing hexes, fire charms and bone-breaking hexes.
Eventually the combination of a banishing charm and the shockwave from a blasting curse conspired with a dodged cutting curse which sent Myrddin toppling off the piste. Harry looked around the observers with what was clearly a questioning look.
"No thanks, I'll stick to not being humiliated thanks." said the auburn-haired wizard, Godric Gryffindor.
"Shame. Mayhap I'll have to teach you all a bit about fighting. Never simply stick to magic, I'm probably only as good as I am in that I barely ever use shields but instead dodge spells. My magical stamina is linked to physical fitness. That and using swords, daggers and limbs is just as effective." Harry commented as he mentally poked at the wards.
Surprisingly, the Hogwarts wards were neither particularly strong or varied. They were mostly low-level defensiveness with little power. That would need to be worked on. There weren't even any anti-apparition wards. With a slight smirk, he vanished from his chair silently at the same moment as the chair vanished, Harry reappearing stood up next to the group who were stood at or leaning against a table.
"How did you do that?" demanded Rowena.
"Magic." Harry deadpanned; "Is it a skill not commonly known or used amongst you?"
"No, I've seen one wizard using it once but no others." she replied.
Harry smirked slightly and started constantly apparating. With his mental control and power, it was easy for him to constantly move around from end to end, from side to side and occasionally materialising amongst the beams of the ceiling. It was then that he sensed a change in the magic of the hall.
Engaging mage sight, he quickly found someone sneaking in through the doors under an invisibility cloak. Harry didn't even glance in that direction as he flung a bludgeoning hex, a length of steel cable and a stunning spell all from three different locations as he didn't bother ceasing his constant apparition.
After his invisible target was stunned, probably with broken bones and bound in steel cable, Harry finally ceased apparating after appearing right next to the air which was bound in steel cable. He simply summoned the invisibility cloak and moved it to a pocket where it vanished into the expanded space.
After a few moments, he found a pipette full of veritaserum which was quickly administered, three drops on the tongue.
"Why are you here?" Harry asked after enervating his prisoner.
"To map the castle and if possible, kill the defenders before tonight's attack."
With that much information, Harry decided to go for a full mind-scan and dived into his mind with Legilimency. A few moments later, he returned to his consciousness.
"Stupid bastard." he muttered; "Too bad tonight's going to be a veritable massacre."
"Any plans oh great combat magic teacher?" asked Slytherin smoothly upon coming up behind him.
"Naturally. After I am the great combat magic teacher." Harry preened; "But, I don't see any way that tonight will be anything less than a massacre. Could you show me the central wardstone, the defences on the castle however are somewhat pitiful."
He shrugged off his outer robe which itself was nothing more than a layer of comfort and aesthetic comfort. Inside was a shorter robe of pitch-black basilisk hide and Acromantula silk over a cuirass of an alchemical alloy and short patches of chainmail on each of the extremities of the cuirass. Underneath that was a silk shirt and trousers along with near-knee-length basilisk hide boots, all of which had been hidden.
Despite Harry's best efforts in reining in his magic to prevent a visible aura or even a mental one which could cause intimidation, his whole person, from blazing emerald eyes to the daggers visible in the tops of his boots, radiated a sense of power.
Salazar lead him through several passageways which seemed to skip floors, eventually emerging on what would be the seventh floor of Hogwarts with the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy in his own time at the school. Stopping at a blank wall, he paced three times before opening the door which had appeared.
Inside was a chamber of clean stone, with no noticeable seams between blocks, it seemed to be hewn from a single lump with a door on one side. Around half of one side was carved with runes and, sat on a pedestal in the centre, was a marble block recognisable as a wardstone.
Reaching into his robe, Harry quickly found a rune-scribing scalpel and was soon bringing up a selection of rune-series to the forefront of his mind. Ignoring Slytherin, Harry settled down and, after casting a few charms on the wardstone, began carving his runes into the walls.
Quite a few hours later, he'd carved a massive number of runes from various alphabets and languages around the walls and cast nearly as many wards on the wardstone, only awaiting the activation of the activation rune on the wardstone. The other change was the addition of a bowl carved into the top of the wardstone where the activation rune was, protected by a blood ward and the rune for activating the wards would only activate on the addition of the blood of someone keyed to it.
After that, Harry conjured a pile of salt and used more alchemy to turn them into six rings. Each one had a different coloured gem in it, red for Gryffindor, green for Slytherin, yellow for Hufflepuff, blue for Ravenclaw, black for himself and purple for Myrddin and Morgana. With that complete, he used a linking spell which meant that the first blood to touch each ring would key that bloodline into the wards, including complete control. He pumped a massive amount of magic into each, creating a basic level of sentience which would activate dozens of fatal curses in the rings if the wearer tried to use them for ill.
Finally, hours later, though compressed with the use of his Timeturner, Harry emerged, apparating down to the Great Hall where the four founders, Morgana and Myrddin were sat around a table.
"You took a while." commented Slytherin.
"Indeed I did." Harry answered ambiguously, walking in as he continually juggled the six rings, his own already on one finger; "I've nearly finished re-warding the castle, all I need is for all five of you to place a drop of blood on each of these rings. Note that I have enchanted them so only you can either wear or remove them and it takes a simple mental command to summon it to your side."
He placed each ring in front of each person and produced a needle from the seam of one of his sleeves. Within a minute, all that was needed was his own blood-bonding to his ring and the wards would go up. Taking the needle from Gryffindor, he wandlessly cleaned it before prodding his own left index finger, dropping a single drop of blood onto the black stone. Opening up his Occlumency shields, Harry allowed the ring to scan him before he felt the weight of the wards settle on his mind and slammed them to full power, leaching off the intercrossing ley lines below the castle.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I've got an attack force to exterminate." he commented as the warning wards swept across the landscape, finding and alerting him of a large force of wizards camped nearby.
Wandlessly summoning his outer robe, Harry pulled it on and flipped up the hood. A moment later, his eyes lit up an eldritch green through the black void of the concealment-charmed hood. A slight mist arose around him, the one battle spell which he could perform without anything other than a mental command, a Dementor-esque feeling appearing around him. His apparition was different as he wrapped himself in the mist and vanished silently, following the guidance of the outermost alarm wards.
Appearing invisibly in a small encampment, he allowed the Phobos' Mist to slowly roll over the camp. Though he was restraining the psychological part of the spell, it did give him cover to simultaneously kick a wizard into a massive industrial-size cauldron while summoning another out of a tall tree. The former gave him cover to allow the oily contents of the cauldron to flood everywhere as he pushed it over, using the deep-fried contents of it as an excuse for the toppling cauldron. The fire beneath it lit the oil afire and within moments, two were definitely dead and the camp ablaze.
Harry withdrew for nearly half an hour before the fire went out. With a dead cook and a dead sentry, he was happy to continue to attack them in the constant mist.
Five minutes later, a pack of half a dozen murderous wolves padded into the camp, tearing apart nearly a dozen wizards before they were all put down. With a certain amount of satisfaction sweeping across his face from the hidden position on a nearby hill, Harry sent off another pack of wolves before advancing down the hill.
Slipping into the camp, he looked straight through the all-encompassing mist and found chaos. Dozens were dead, torn to shreds, boiled, burnt and otherwise mutilated. Striding in, oozing confidence, he loosed the binds on the psychological part of the mist, allowing masses of fear to effect anyone but himself.
He flung a black-coloured lightning bolt from his wand, streaking through the air with a foul feeling. The dark curse fried the heart of a wizard, and though it had worked, it was mostly a psychological statement. Twirling an elegant pattern with his wand, Harry tore a pair of wizards apart with what appeared to be sword-wounds, though dozens of them appeared in line with the wand-movements.
"We have a hero..." began another wizard as he strolled in. Harry spared only enough attention to blast him apart with a powerful obliteration curse.
He then animated one of the trees, sending it on a rampage, roots acting as legs of a demented spider, lashing out every-which-way as chaos reined. He sensed someone coming up behind him and didn't even turn as he a jet of fire consumed them, bursting from the earth below him. Resisting the urge to grin, Harry stepped forward purposefully, the mist becoming so heavy that his opponents were slowly being asphyxiated as his curses sprayed everywhere.
He'd just twirled his wand over in his hand, splitting a wizard in half from shoulder to hip when he had a lightbulb moment. Applying a massive force of magic, Harry grinned as the mist coalesced around each human near him, wrapping around them. Tuning out the screams, he turned away as wizards died, crushed by the mist, deprived of air or in any one way caused by the many curses he had sent off.
Summoning a small amount of gold, a few bits of jewellery to his pockets, Harry disapparated, arriving in the Great Hall where several people were snoozing in their chairs while the others were either pacing or just sat waiting.
"And my wonderful countenance has once more returned." Harry declared as he began to pull in the Dementor-esque mist.
Gradually, he returned to normal, the eldritch-green eyes being the last feature to return to normal before he pulled off the hood of his outer robe.
"You won?" asked Slytherin expectantly.
"And it was stupidly easy. The one I suspect was leading the attack force stopped to do the evil monologue so I obliterated him. Actually, I caused two fatal accidents, set their camp on fire and set two packs of hungry wolves on them before they realised they were under attack." replied Harry.
He noticed a combination of relief and exasperation displayed clearly on most of the faces around him, except for Gryffindor who was still asleep.
"Well, Rowena, show Hadrian to one of the teacher's chambers." Slytherin.
"Of course Master Salazar." replied Rowena sweetly, looking like she would happily eviscerate Slytherin.
Harry wiped his face of the burgeoning amusement and followed her out of the Great Hall before allowing a slight smirk to appear at her muttered;
"Chauvinistic pigs."
"Indeed, a lady shouldn't be taken for granted or shunned just due to gender." he agreed.
They arrived outside an painting of a Minotaur wielding a single-headed battleaxe on the third floor, just down the corridor from his classroom.
"Fortitude." said Rowena.
The portrait swung open, showing a three-room suite with a garderobe, bedroom and dining room. Though it would need a bit of work, Harry was satisfied for the moment, save for the large amount of dust accumulated. Slashing his wand through the air, every bit of dust rushed toward him, only to be immolated by a concentrated jet of fire and a moment later, parts of the room rearranged themselves, two bearskin rugs shaking themselves out before lying back down on the floor and several torches lighting up in wall-sconces. The stone making up the floor, walls and ceiling were sanded down to a light honey colour and several small windows opened up in the walls.
"Much better." Harry commented blandly.
"You have an unusual mastery of magic." said Rowena.
"A lot of practice and a few good teachers." he replied; "But don't get overly dependant on magic, I stay physically healthy so I'm less susceptible to illnesses, I have faster reflexes, can dodge spells with much more ease and for longer. Also I can cast spells for much longer, notice that after two duels and a small battle that I'm not collapsing of magical exhaustion."
"Do you think you could teach Helga, Morgana and I?" Rowena asked hesitantly.
"I will, just don't expect it to be easy." Harry agreed and warned.
Pulling off his outer robe, he draped it over the back of a chair before walking over to the window and gazing outward, mentally catching up on what had happened and what to do now. Harry had a moderate amount of money of any use, but then, how much were Galleons worth at this time? Gringotts didn't exist in the form he knew from his own time, but an earlier bank run by the Goblin Nation did.
Creating gold with the Philosopher's Stone drained life force, which in turn would be temporarily renewed by the Elixir of Life. He didn't particularly want to be dependant on that. Most other alchemy, particularly permanent alchemy, was dependant on the use of salt, and conjured salt would last a day at most. He needed a way to refine salt for alchemy. Otherwise, he could easily hunt down anyone with a bounty on their heads, with Legilimency, apparition and stunning spells, it would be easy.
Walking through to his bedroom, Harry conjured several tasteful rugs, leaving them strewn around in a slightly haphazard manner. The windows were promptly filled with glass and a tapestry was conjured over one wall. With the predominant colours of red and dark blue, it was comforting and warm.
After conjuring a dresser, Harry dumped his basilisk hide robe and cuirass on it, followed swiftly by his sword-belt, having removed the sheathed weapon from it and put it on the side of his four-poster bed. After that, he kicked off his boots, removing the dagger stored in each. Finally, he was dressed in a green tunic over a loose grey shirt and a pair of fairly tight black trousers and socks.
It was irritating that he only had a few changes of clothes in one of the numerous concealed and expanded pockets of his basilisk hide robe, however, it was not too much of a problem.
Sliding into the bed, the slightly rough comfort of the blankets made him feel that much more at home here than anywhere else, the near anonymity of life a thousand years in the past felt so much better.
Early the next morning, Harry threw on a basilisk hide vest over his shirt and tunic. Covering those, his trousers and boots was a long robe of forest-green velvet edged with Celtic symbols, woven in black into the fabric. Pulling on his sword-belt and buckling the weapon on, he checked that he had everything he needed and was willing to remove from the heavily warded pockets of his basilisk hide robe which was still lying on the dresser.
Smirking slightly, Harry used the privileges afforded to him with the ward ring and apparated down to the Great Hall, though not before putting a disillusionment charm on himself.
Glancing around the Great Hall, Harry took a moment to observe the 'Hogwarts Family' as he christened them. After just a few seconds, he sent a fan of stunning spells across the hall before apparating to the far end. Gryffindor and Myrddin were taken out immediately with well-placed shots.
A powerful shield by Slytherin blocked the curses meant for him and the women, giving them a chance to retaliate in the direction from which he'd fired with a barrage of hexes and curses.
His next stream of stunning spells was more focused with less spells cast, more effort put into making each spell hit. However, the advantage of surprise was lost and his spells were dodged or deflected with a series of bone-breaking hexes amongst less lethal spells directed at him.
Dropping Helga with a chain of shield-breaking spells, stunning and petrification spells, Harry apparated repeatedly, wincing as he barely missed a series of cutting curses aimed at his person. Salazar was throwing detection charms and curses around the hall until Harry was forced to drop his disillusionment charm, accompanied by a continuous stream of stunning spells mixed with shield-breaking spells before disapparating.
Though he animated a roast chicken and set it on Morgana, he was forced to disapparate twice more, each time letting loose streams of curses. Appearing right between the three still standing, he fired a concussion curse right beneath his feet before apparating to the opposite side of the hall and launching dozens of stunning, binding and petrification spells into the epicentre of his concussion curse.
Harry watched with satisfaction as the two women fell, leaving only Salazar left standing, throwing a large number of dark curses after him, though not managing to land a hit because of Harry's minimal-focus-required apparition constantly changing location.
Finally, he conjured a dozen illusions of himself as he brought out his staff, creating a blizzard, complete with snow flurries, in the hall, obscuring Salazar's vision before apparating right behind him. Harry simply tapped him on the shoulder and hit him with a stunning spell the moment he spun round.
A wide sweep of his wand repaired the damage done to the hall before he levitated each of the unconscious and body-bound people into their chairs.
Setting himself down in a spare seat, Harry wandlessly summoned an apple from a carved wooden bowl before firing the counter-curses to the various spells subduing the six others. The wandless 'Arma Sinister' shield he conjured a moment later was very useful as it intercepted a barrage of curses and hexes aimed at him.
"Calm down, I just wanted to see how you'd fair in a proper fight, not a duel." Harry chastised them, idly sectioning the apple with a wandless sword curse.
"Why am I suddenly feeling like I was just beaten by someone barely into manhood?" Salazar asked the world at large.
"I assure you that I am the epitome of manhood!" Harry mock protested; "But I was holding back, not trying to kill but only stun and bind. When you couldn't work out any pattern to my movements, putting yourselves in a corner with your backs to the wall could have been helpful with a view of the entire hall."
"Still smarting that someone who is on an age-level with the girls just beat us handily." moaned Godric.
"Don't judge people on age and gender." Harry said with a sharp glare; "I'll admit to not being overly good at socialising with women as they generally end up blushing and giggling or squeaking and running away, but I had a close friend, the nearest I ever had to a sister, she was a vicious dueller who I wouldn't care to pick a fight with even on a good day."
Nodding slightly, Gryffindor drew a plain, unadorned bastard sword from a rough sheath hung at his side.
"Want to see how you fair against a swordsman?"
Harry smirked and nodded before unbuckling his sword-belt and hanging it on his chair before reaching into a pocket and withdrawing a single-handed longsword which returned from a shrunken state as it emerged.
"This blade is neither poisoned nor cursed." he explained, seeing the glances between the two swords; "This is also a better duelling sword while my other blade is designed to cut through armour, both metal and hide. A battle sword."
That was to forget the selection of blades from across the world and across time which were stowed in a shrunken trunk. Gryffindor leapt over the table, swinging his sword heavily toward Harry who frowned in disappointment and speared a leg of chicken on his sword-point, bringing it up to his mouth to chew as he danced around the numerous blows aimed at him.
Finally flicking the meat-stripped bone in Gryffindor's direction, Harry brought his blade into play, flickering in and out, constantly redirecting, misdirecting, dodging in and out from around his sword in a display of agility and skill as the two were still moving.
Harry was truly a master swordsman as he ran rings around Godric, occasionally putting bursts of bladework in instead of casually redirecting blows or simply avoiding them.
After slamming Godric into a wall, Harry moved away, watching as his opponent drew a dagger from the back of his belt. Reaching into his boot, Harry drew a fifteen-inch hunting knife made from Damascus steel, a slight recurve in the blade, a vicious serrated back edge and the curve petering off to a wickedly sharp point.
Catching the blade of Gryffindor's sword in one of the serrations, Harry twisted under his arm and planted his boot firmly in Godric's back. Parrying a dagger thrust with the crossguard of his sword, Harry used his hunting knife to twist it out of Godric's hand before sending it skimming away with a kick.
"Come on, it's like having a sword-fight with a hundred-year-old man, so slow and inept." Harry taunted.
Growling very much like the lion that was his house symbol, Gryffindor attacked with a flurry of cuts, slashes, lunges and other attacks. Harry evaded most of them while sometimes using his sword to parry attacks, and rarely, riposting. Switching his sword to his left hand and sheathing his dagger, Harry exchanged blows with Godric, steel flashing as they danced around each other, fire-light reflecting off their blades.
While Gryffindor tired, Harry was still perfectly fresh, save for a slight ache in his right arm from the flat of Godric's sword. Finally, Harry kicked the sword out of Godric's hand and swept his feet out from under him, the point of his own sword resting on his neck.
"I yield." declared Gryffindor, accepting the hand up when the sword was removed from his neck.
Harry smiled and lifted him to his feet before swapping his sword back to his right hand, eliciting a comment from Slytherin.
"You can fight with both hands Master Hunter?"
"Aye, it is useful as most people are unused to duelling a left-handed swordsman and should I be injured on the arm I am using, I can swap to the uninjured one. Then constant swapping in a fight puts people off balance a lot." Harry replied, sitting down at the table as he caught a shallow crystal bowl as it spun through the air toward him; "Do any of you know what a Pensieve is?"
Everyone either shrugged or shook their heads.
"A Pensieve displays memories, I'd rather like to have a look at the previous skirmishes with the Dark Order to see what we are up against." Harry explained as he extracted a memory from his head, dropping the silvery strand into the bowl; "Simply concentrate on the memory of the event in question, channel a small amount of magic into your wand and hold it there as you touch your wand to your temple. Withdrawing the wand will withdraw a copy of the memory and releasing the magic will drop the memory strand."
That was when he heard a screech and a loud clattering noise from the courtyard just moments before the doors were flung open. Harry, who had vaulted over the table and had a rather nasty curse on the tip of his wand froze and broke out laughing as a large griffin raced toward him.
Avoiding the massive claws of the enormous beast, Harry dodged several times.
"Sorry Helios, I didn't mean to leave you!" he exclaimed, pausing as the griffin screeched again before butting him heavily in the chest; "Yes I know, but I couldn't help it, you know I was working and that sometimes unexplainable things happen!"
Helios was one his familiars, a magnificent creature he'd raised from being a cub to a fully grown alpha male. In the wizarding world, true familiars are rare as only the very most powerful magicals attracted them.
Smiling naturally, Harry's face lit up at his long-time companion, one of the few who never tried to use him, gain something from him or outright betray him.
"Are the others following?" asked Harry. Two screeches and a bark; "So I'm still on their blacklist for a little while. Shame." Three barks and a snuffle; "You mean they intend to emotionally blackmail me? That's it, no bloody minded mammals are getting one over me!" Two screeches followed by snuffles sounding rather like suppressed laughter; "Laugh it up feather-fur-ball! I was drunk at the time! And it was only one time!" Continued laughter; "Right! That's it! I'm not talking to you!"
Harry stalked off in high dudgeon, muttering about 'cheeky familiars', 'feathered brats' and a selection of choice insults. Unfortunately, he only got a few feet before a large beak grabbed him by the back of his cloak and deposited him back in the Great Hall.
"Feathered house-cat!" Harry exclaimed with a death-glare directed at his familiar who simply turned around and curled up in one corner of the Great Hall before glancing to the table where the Pensieve was filled.
Striding over, Harry immediately immersed himself in the memories, coming out a few short minutes later, looking troubled.
"So, use a mixture of magically enhanced mundane siege weaponry and purely magical attacks. Forces composed of a mixture of both magical and non. However, the magicals are somewhat inept, cannon fodder. They rely on strength of numbers, fear and a few dark curses." he surmised, rubbing his temples; "Counter siege weaponry with Greek Fire. Create our own siege weaponry to use against massed forces."