Disclaimer: See previous chapters
Chapter 3.
August 20
Harry woke up with a start, gasping for air. He noticed he'd fallen asleep with his glasses on, as he could see the Gryffindor dorm perfectly. Absentmindedly, he thought about the lessons of Dumbledore and Death, and wondered if he should correct his eyesight. Eventually he decided against it, because she liked his glasses. Her memory made Harry grin, but it quickly vanished as he took in the state of the room. It was like it hadn't been repaired at all. His bed had scorch marks on them and only Ron's was still standing. The others were reduced to firewood. The window only had half the glass remaining and the shards were spread across the floor.
'What's going on? Dumbledore and Death thought it would take about a month for them to fix all damage to the castle.'
Harry got out of bed, quickly took a shower in the one working till, put on some semi-clean clothes, his cloak, pocketed the ring and wand, while extending his pocket slightly with his magic so he wouldn't accidentally break it. Looking into a cracked mirror, he noticed he was still visible, even though he was wearing the cloak. He smirked, that meant he had full control over the Hallow and he could activate and deactivate it whenever suited him.
He activated the cloak, ran down the stairs, climbed through the portrait hole, and ran down the stairs to the Headmasters' Office. "Headmistress," he chastised himself in his head. Dumbledore had been adamant about the fact that it was now McGonagall's.
The rest of the castle wasn't in a better shape than his dorm, Harry sadly observed. Most of the paintings were abandoned, windows were shattered, doors were unhinged and he had to dodge rubble every other step. Once or twice he had to adjust his route because a stairway was too damaged to use. Harry was glad at least most of the blood and all the bodies were removed.
Arriving at the Gargoyle, Harry waved the Elder Wand and thought about his intention to see McGonagall. The Gargoyle had a blue faint outline for a second before nodding and leaped to give Harry access to the staircase. Harry slowly walked up the revolving staircase, worrying about the state he was going to find the Office in. There were a couple of people in the office, if the number of muffled voices was any indication.
Harry knocked and entered the office without waiting for a response he entered the room. A gasp and several exclamations of his name greeted him. There stood Headmistress McGonagall (that title would take some getting used to), Madam Pomfrey, Professors Flitwick, Slughorn and Sprout.
McGonagall took the lead, 'Mr. Potter! I am glad to see you're back on your feet. I feared you wouldn't wake in time to say goodbye to the school,' she ended her sentence sadly.
Harry was shocked, Hogwarts' closing? 'What do you mean, say goodbye?'
McGonagall sighed and seemed to age 10 years. If Harry hadn't known better, he wouldn't have identified the witch before him with the one fighting Voldemort just a couple of months ago. 'The Ministry deemed the damage too grave to repair. It would require more Galleons than they'd like to spare at the moment.'
Slughorn nodded sadly, Flitwick had his gaze on the ground and clenched his fists while Sprout cursed softly. Madam Pomfrey was busy waving her wand over Harry's head and seemed to ignore the talk around her.
Harry mulled this over, but frankly he couldn't make sense of it all. 'I don't understand. Kingsley should know better!' He finally said.
McGonagall looked confused, then understanding dawned. In a bitter tone she explained, 'Harry, you've been in a coma for almost 4 months, Kingsley was appointed Interim Minister on May 2nd, but when he refused to tell the public how exactly you defeated Voldemort, nor did he let reporters to your room he was immediately fired by the Wizengamot. He's now awaiting his trial for "dubious activities during the war" in Azkaban.'
Suddenly, the remaining glasses started to vibrate, a gust tore through the room and the few silver trinkets of Dumbledore levitated of their shelves and started to orbit around Harry. Harry's eyes flashed violently green and dangerous, his shoulders tensed and he clenched his fists in frustration. In a strangled voice, he asked, 'You mean to tell me, that after 9 months of running, hurting and STARVATION, it only took them 4 months to turn everything into shite AGAIN.'
When nobody responded Harry roared in frustration, the glasses shattered and the some of the trinkets exploded. This seemed to calm Harry down, as the gust subsided and the remaining trinkets fell out of the air.
'Don't worry. I'll fix that,' he said in a strangled voice. Then, he straightened and eyed everyone in the room. In a more confident tone he said, 'In fact, I'll fix everything. If you want to watch the fireworks, I'll be at the Lake.'
With that, he held the Elder wand up and the Sorting Hat flew to his hand. Then, he turned on his feet and left the room, 3 more destinations clear in his mind.
Transforming in his Animagus form, he traveled to the 7th floor in front of the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. He scanned the floor and quickly found a black tar-like substance sticking on it. "Intention matters, nothing else," he repeated in his mind.
'Reparo'
The tar like substance remained just that and Harry deflated. Then, he remembered the ring and put it on. Immediately, Harry felt more power flow through him. Focusing on the task at hand, he tried again.
'Reparo'
The substance began to bubble and slowly started to turn back into a diadem. After a minute the diadem was restored to his former glory. Just to be certain, Harry waved a pattern above the diadem to check if even a fragment of the Horcrux remained.
Satisfied with his findings, he picked up the diadem, transformed again and traveled to the Chamber of Secrets. There, he repeated the process with the Cup Ron had discarded after Hermione destroyed it.
Finally, he transformed again, traveled to the Grounds, where he pulled out Slytherin's locket from his pouch and restored that as well. The remaining teachers had joined him outside and were eyeing him curiously. Harry ignored them and turned his ring 3 times on his finger and 4 shades surrounded him.
Two wizards, two witches. Their images couldn't be more different. Gryffindor donned in Red and gold, with his sword at his side looked regal and proud. Slytherin was observing the Grounds and Hogwarts with a mixed look of disgust and disappointment. Ravenclaw was observing Harry and Hufflepuff looked like she was about to cry with all the destruction around her.
'Welcome back Founders, I hope you're enjoying your time back here at Hogwarts,' Harry said cynically. The four turned to him, all looking annoyed.
'Why have you summoned us child?' Slytherin asked.
Harry sighed, 'I need your help. The Ministry doesn't want to fund the repairs needed for the school and is corrupt once again. I could fix it alone, but that would drain my magic and might put me back in a coma.'
'What can we do to help?' Hufflepuff asked, eagerly moving forward.
'I have collected items for all of you that meant something to you when you were still alive,' Harry said as he gestured to the 4 items, 'so I was hoping you could channel some of your magic into it, that I could borrow to repair the school.' Then as an afterthought, he added, 'Oh, if you happen to know a spell that could repair the castle and everything inside at once, well I wouldn't mind you sharing.'
Ravenclaw snorted, 'You're asking for a lot boy.' Seeing Harry was about to protest, 'but do not worry. We want our legacy preserved, so I'm in. I'm glad you found my diadem, even though I cursed its existence at the end of my life.' She laughed bitterly at that, then pulled out her wand and started syphoning her magic in the diadem.
'Oh, and the incantation Reparo Draco Dormiens Totalum should do the trick.' She winked at Harry, 'Made that one myself. Wanted to have a simple means to repair the school in case we were attacked.'
Gryffindor, who had turned to the Sorting Hat and was already putting his magic in it, chuckled. 'Yeah, and the hundreds of hours you spend in my private library for that spell was so worth it in the end, wasn't it Rav-Rav?'
Ravenclaw turned red, 'Don't call me that in public!' Harry was strangely reminded of Ron and Lavender, and felt a little sick.
Hufflepuff smiled, syphoning her magic in her cup, 'Guys, focus on the task at hand. The lad needs our help and I certainly want a new set of 'Puffs sorted before I die of old age again.'
Slytherin was also putting his magic in his locket, but he was frowning. 'Boy, this was done by my descendant?' Harry nodded, and Slytherin sighed. 'Figures I get the crazy ones. Cunning and ambitious, my arse. There's a difference between cunning and loathsome. Attacking a school with minors,' he spat on the floor with disgust. He eyed Harry up and down, 'You were in my House, were you not, Young Parseltongue?'
Harry grinned, 'Gryffindor actually, but I had to fight the Hat for that.' Gryffindor cheered, while Slytherin looked even more annoyed, yet he didn't stop his magic flowing into the locket.
When all four items were glowing their respective House colors, the Founders disappeared and Harry focused on the incantation, his intention and Hogwarts.
'Reparo Draco Dormiens Totalum!'
A deafening roar echoed the grounds, reminding Harry of his Fourth year, followed by a loud rumble. The stones of Hogwarts grinded against each other, fallen boulders reattached themselves to the structure, windows were put back together, wooden beams were renewed and flew back into place. Towers were rebuilt, staircases repaired and classrooms were put into place again. When that was done, the broken tables, portraits, closets, cupboards were put back the way they were.
Finally, Harry used the last of the magic of the Founders to clear the Grounds. Harry turned to the teachers, panting slightly, 'that was harder than I thought. Everything is repaired again, so you can open Hogwarts for the upcoming year.'
Harry winked at McGonagall, 'that is, if Filch can clean the entire castle before that date.'
Laughing, he apparated away, leaving a stunned audience.
Slughorn started to laugh, his belly bouncing with the rhythm, 'Ho ho ho, that's all James though. Lily never talked to a teacher like that! That boy will go far.'
McGonagall was gaping like a goldfish, opening and closing her mouth with no sound coming out.
Recovered, Flitwick had pulled out his wand and started on some basic incantations to protect Hogwarts. Sprout snapped her fingers in front of McGonagall's face to get her attention. 'I'm going to the Greenhouses, the plants need to be taken care of. I trust you can owl the rest of the teachers and the students that Hogwarts will be opening?'
McGonagall nodded and started her trek towards the Owlery, muttering with a small smile, 'That boy is going to be the death of me.'
That's all for now. Hope you enjoyed.
I want to thank everyone who fav/follows the story, every reviewer and basically everyone who took their time reading it. I've had several questions about the pairings. If you haven't read my profile (who does that anyway?), I very much like the canon pairings, but that doesn't mean they'll magically just happen. Much has happened, more will happen and happy endings are so much better if the protagonist has to work for it, right? I'm not spoiling if there will be a happy ending, but if that happens, they'll be canon.
1 reviewer in particular, has expressed her distaste in the pairing but I really don't know , I have no idea what a Night/Shadow Phoenix is, so no, that's not his animagus form. I don't think I've ever seen this animagus form with Harry before, but then again, there are over 700k stories, so who really knows?
