Hello again internet! Neolyph here with more of A Broken Wizard and a Broken Magus. I apologize that these chapters slowed down a bit. I got slammed by finals and the like. Hopefully, with summer break these will pick back up a bit. Also, I changed Dudley's birthday a bit to fit this story. Sorry. Anyway, enjoy!
Review Extravaganza!
Ashzaroth: As I stated, yes Harry is pretty OP for the Potterverse, which is why I'm going to do my best to throw him into universes where he might actually get his ass kicked. Potterverse is where he's going to chill inbetween adventures.
heartfanglives: I've been using Arawn D Draven for that, but if he takes a vacation I'll keep you in mind.
BijuuDamaBomber: Despite their flaws, I've always been a fan of the Harry Potter books. I'll at least finish out this year, though others might be abbreviated or ignored altogether. I have an idea if Harry needs to take an extended leave of absence.
Bonestar: Initially, Sirius won't really know too much as Harry is slightly skeptical of him. I would consider the Tokyo Ghoul universe, but I could just never get into it. Some of the ones I'm considering are Sekirei, Highschool DxD, Heaven's Lost Property, Familiar of Zero, Avengers, Percy Jackson, Overlord, Campione, etc. No
Araytigre: In Sirius' defense, he's been waiting to use that line since he learned Lily was pregnant and that he was the Godfather.
Alexanderthegreat213: I do enjoy writing for you guys, and the reviews really help to motivate me. They are what make all of this worthwhile, knowing that I have fans enjoying my work.
Alvor the Warhawk: Arawn is a great beta, but I also do my best to correct my own grammer. Maybe when Illya is older. Maybe. I love writing Assassin. Perhaps there's just something funny about writing a character that was so famous a killer as to be recorded in the Throne of Heroes. Harry's power increase will come from mastering his existing powers, though I will also be tossing him into universes where he might not be top of the food chain.
Generatedname: I agree, this fic definitely has flaws. If I could go back and rewrite it from the beginning without pissing off my followers, I would. The point wasn't for the Potterverse to pose a challenge physically. Harry gets his kicks by being subtle and manipulative, which is why he chose the long-game when it comes to revenge. He wants to use a scapel, not a hammer. That's why even though he could just murder everyone he's got a nark on, he goes out of his way to be sneaky, because it is a challenge.
Chapter 19: The Stone
Silence filled the conference room as Sirius was met with seven blank stares. He was... Siriusly starting to regret that joke, but by Merlin he'd been waiting to use that line since he'd first learned that he was being named Harry's Godfather. The silence was starting to get really awkward though, he thought as he idly tapped his thumbs together, feeling very much like back at Hogwarts when he'd make a particularly stupid mistake and would have to face McGonagall's withering stare. Seriously, the way Harry and his girl friends were staring at him reminded him far too much of a nonplussed McGonagall to make him comfortable. How could eleven years old have that kind of stares anyway?
Meanwhile, Harry stared down his Godfather, trying to decide how much to tell him. He very much wanted to trust the man, but he really didn't know him. Not to mention, he could tell that this room was being listened in on by Lucius' house elves. Any information discussed here would instantly be relayed to the master of the house. Not that he didn't trust Lucius either, but he still had little measure for the man other than his shrewdness. Any Magus worth their salt was leery of giving away information when they weren't sure they'd be able to control how far it would spread, or how it would be used.
He decided on a minimalist version, essentially the general sales pitch he was going to give prospective allies in his quest against Dumbledore. It essentially detailed his hatred for Dumbledore, plan for revenge, and a tantalizing hint of his greater power. Maybe if he grew to trust Sirius more, he'd tell him more, but for the moment he refused to rush into things, so it would have to suffice. And given how chatty the man was, he wasn't sure he wouldn't blab the details by accident.
Sirius seemed rather receptive to the plan, perhaps it was the inner Marauder in him, or perhaps it was so much time living with Narcissa and Lucius. After reaching a tentative alliance, Sirius finally got out all that he'd wanted to say to Harry since he'd been spirited away by Dumbledore. He apologized, and after eleven years of beating himself up for it, received forgiveness from his Godson. It was clear that there would be a lot of work involved to get close to Harry, but it was a start, and more than what he'd hoped for in the first place.
After that, the meeting was just general catch-up session. Harry learned from Sirius that he was essentially just freeloading off the Malfoys these days, chasing anything in a robe that passed is eye. Lucius tolerated him with the good humor that came from dealing with eccentric in-laws while Narcissa did her best to keep a tight leash on her wayward cousin.
Once they were caught up, he introduced Sirius to Daphne, Sakura, Illya, and the maids. His eye twitched when the man burst into tears once again at the thought of his pup, "taking after his ol' dogfather so much". He continued his attempts at hitting on the maids until Harry had enough and intentionally dropped the spoon he was stirring his tea with under Sirius' chair.
Leanna, in a moment of obliviousness, instantly bent down and lifted Sirius' entire chair into the air with him in it so that she could pick up the spoon.
With one hand.
Sirius was nothing but a perfect gentleman after that until a rather dopey-looking house elf informed them that dinner was ready.
-Break-
The only one unhappy with Sirius Black living with the Malfoys was Draco. He didn't like the idea of someone who had turned away from Pureblood society coming back to it with absolutely no negative repercussions, but with his mother's tolerance for the man there was little he could do. She had tried to remind him that the Pureblood disgrace was the Lord Black, but it would be a cold day in Hell when he'd consider acknowledging a skirt-chasing, pranking obsessed wizard as a Lord.
The blood traitor was bad enough, but now he had to deal with the other Potter invading his home.
Potter.
The name brought bile to his lips.
Every time he traced back his problems since coming to Hogwarts, the name Potter came up. It was like they were intentionally double-teaming him.
On his house front, he had been sorted into Gryffindor, the house of the enemy. He'd attempted to establish dominance in the house, but had been stymied by the older students.
Nobody had told him that the older students would know better hexes than him.
When that had failed, he'd tried turning the most popular boy in the house, Orion Potter, to his side.
The insolent boy had spat in his face and laughed.
While uncouth, since the action had been taken against Draco, everyone else had laughed along. Of course, this was all before he publicly called Hermione Granger a mudblood. Now, he was somewhat glad his attempt to ingratiate himself with the Boy-Who-Lived had failed. All they would have done is make a coalition of the unpopular.
On the other front, the other Potter, the unknown one, had been tossed into the house of the snakes.
His house.
Slytherin was supposed to be his. He'd planned it all out with his friends years before. With the money he possessed from his father, he could vassalize all of Slytherin House and rule over them like a king. He would take his rightful place as Lord Slytherin, or as close as he could get. Just like the Dark Lord.
All of that was ruined when the other Potter was sorted into the house of the Snakes.
Initially, he'd found it hilarious. The Boy-Who-Lived's brother sorted into Slytherin? Within a day of his sorting, several more enterprising students had started a betting pool on how long he'd last. Draco had bet half his allowance, a substantial amount, on Potter being hospitalized or worse within two days. After that, he'd chuckled to himself and returned to his own problems. He'd considered the matter as a good distraction from his own not so stellar situation, one that he'd be glad to enjoy watching unfold.
At least, he'd ignored the other Potter until he started hearing rumors. He was of course Persona-Non-Grata with all of his old associates due to his sorting, but Crabbe and Goyle weren't. As vassals to House Malfoy, they were obligated to be sorted alongside him and could not be blamed for it. So when Crabbe came to him telling wild stories about Potter making power plays in Slytherin, he was understandably upset.
The boy was obviously using his familial connections to purchase the house just like Draco had intended to. There was no way the boy could win the house using guile or cunning. He was a Potter! Neither James Potter, nor Orion, possessed enough cunning to fill an ink-well. They were loudmouths who faced everything head on instead of trying to be subtle, so how could the brother of the Boy-Who-Lived be anything but like them?
And the bastards were just letting him do it! Did the Dark Lord's ideals mean nothing to them? Would they just blindly throw their lot behind the first one that came their way with enough money to save them, regardless of the fact that it was the very family that destroyed them? Had they lost all sense of pride to bow to a first year who belonged to the very family responsible for ruining their families? They weren't snakes anymore, not with that attitude, no, they were dogs, eager to wag their tails for anyone, even someone they should be ostracizing!
It almost made him glad he wasn't sorted amongst such a disloyal lot. He was better off with wizards that knew their place, like Crabbe and Goyle. Granted, he would have appreciated a few others with an actual intellect in his circle, but hopefully in time that matter would be solved.
The final nail in the coffin though was his father inviting the boy over for dinner and not allowing Draco to eat with them, instead confining him to his room with a meal brought by a house elf. His father only did that when he was meeting important guests and didn't want to risk Draco ruining it.
That his father had gone and done this for Potter boiled his blood.
It was fine though, he thought as he fingered his wand.
He would get his revenge in time. He'd show everyone that despite his sorting, he was very much a snake, merely hiding as a lion.
-Break-
While the wizards ate and plotted, the muggles were celebrating.
"Oh just look at how grown up my little Duddykins looks in his new outfit!" cooed Petunia Dursley as she straightened her sons collar.
Today was Dudley's eleventh birthday, and since it was a weekend they were taking Dudley and his friend Piers Polkiss to the zoo. It had been such a nice, normal, positively mundane Saturday birthday so far. Dudley had woken up to his alarm at eight and promptly stormed downstairs to open his precisely thirty-seven presents. He greeted his slightly haggard mother, who was exhausted as usual from having to wake up so early to make breakfast. If there was one thing she missed about the freak, it was that once they'd beaten him enough he had always awoken early to make breakfast and do all of the chores. With him gone, Petunia was forced to do some of them herself.
Shortly after Dudley, Vernon sleepily made his way downstairs and took his morning coffee, flipping open the newspaper. Once Dudley was finished counting his presents, nearly throwing a tantrum at finding himself a present short before Petunia hurriedly promised to buy him two more before the end of the day. Placated, Dudley tore into his breakfast while Vernon praised his son's voracious appetite. After breakfast, Dudley opened up all of his presents; well over a thousand dollars' worth of toys. Once he was done, Petunia gave him his birthday clothes, which weren't included in his regular presents as Dudley wouldn't consider them a "real" present.
"Quite right dear," remarked Vernon as he finished his coffee.
A knock at the door signaled the arrival of Piers and his mother, who exchanged pleasantries with Petunia before leaving her son in her care. Dudley ran over to greet his friend before all of them piled into the Dursleys' massive SUV and set off for the zoo.
The car ride was also comfortably mundane, with Dudley and Polkiss trading stolen trading cards in the back and Vernon screaming out the window at passing cars whenever they did something he didn't like. It was things like this that reminded Petunia of why she'd married the man, he was a nice, normal man, and yet was unwilling to let others walk all over him.
At the zoo, Dudley and Piers whined at the gate until Petunia brought them over to a nearby booth and brought them both large chocolate ice creams, much to their delight. As they toured the various pens, the two boys quickly grew bored and resorted to throwing things at the animals when Dudley's parents weren't looking. Their boredom was alleviated when they arrived at the reptile exhibit.
Dudley dashed into the cool, dark section of the zoo to find the biggest snake there. As he turned the corner, he saw a massive snake sitting on the other side of the glass. He could just picture it eating his cousin, the freak. He pressed his fat face against the glass so he could get a better look. The glass fogged a bit, and he wiped it away with his sleeve to see that the animal was asleep.
How dare it? It was in a zoo! The only reason it wasn't killed was so that it could entertain people who paid to see it!
As he felt a tantrum build up, all he could think about was how much he wanted to march right in there and throw stuff at that worthless snake until it did something. He pounded his fists against the glass in frustration until a strange feeling welled up inside him.
And not the regular strange feeling. He'd just gone to the bathroom an hour ago.
The next thing he knew, he was falling forward. With an enormous splash, he landed in disgusting murky water. He opened his eyes to see two emerald green ones staring right back at him. For the briefest of moments, he thought of the freak's eyes. This thought was dismissed by a much more urgent thought. Or more a primal sound.
"AHHHHHH!"
Dudley rapidly backpedaled along his sore arse to reach the window he must have fallen though somehow. The only thought in his mind was getting the hell out of this cage with the man-eating snake. Despair welled up inside him when his hand met glass.
A low hissing sounded from behind him.
Slowly, he turned around to greet those two green orbs of malice. He couldn't help but dumbly freeze as the enormous snake seemed to size him up, before retracting and coiling back. Dudley sighed in relief, having never watched a nature documentary in his life.
The second his eyes closed, the snake struck.
An enraged hiss filled the air as several hundred pounds of enraged venomous snake flew through the air at the intruder in its cage. Dudley screamed once again and shut his eyes for the end. He just wanted the snake to be gone.
Several seconds passed before he realized that he wasn't, in fact, dead.
Tentatively, he opened his watery blue eyes to see a very angry fluffy white rabbit in front of him, gnawing on his XXL jeans. This proved too much for him and he passed out.
-Break-
"Now where the hell did that boy go?" Vernon thought to himself as he led his wife through the reptile house. His boy was just too inquisitive for his own damn good sometimes. The youngster was going to be the next Prime Minister if he kept being this studious. Vernon had been like that at his age, and look where it had gotten him. A nice, respectable position as a drill salesman with a loving wife, strapping young lad, nice home in the suburbs, and best of all...
No freaks.
He couldn't stand anything subnormal. Like the freak. He'd tried to do the boy a favor raising him by disillusioning him to the thought of anything unnatural. And did he get any thanks? No. Instead he had police officers knocking on his door after the freak had disappeared, wanting to investigate "allegations of abuse" or some nonsense. Fortunately, a very nice solicitor had contacted them and offered to keep the police off their backs. What was his name again?
Fletcher, or something?
Regardless, the man was a miracle worker. The man filed appeal after appeal, and even at one point charged the local constabulary with harassment. He hadn't even asked to be paid! Only said that he represented "a concerned party". Well Vernon wasn't a man to look a gift horse in the mouth, so he just thanked the man and sent him on his way. He still got very dirty looks from pretty much every cop in town, but at least they couldn't gather enough evidence to file charges.
Bloody rozzers. Interfering with how a man raises a child. They had no right. It was no wonder that their country was slowly losing its status as the epitome of dignity and greatness, if the bloody cops themselves were protecting freaks now…
It was at this point that Vernon realized he was so lost in thought that he'd stopped moving altogether. He shook he head to clear himself of thought of the freak when a very familiar scream echoed through the reptile house. He ran as fast as his obese legs could carry him to the source of the noise. He arrived at the snake section, wheezing heavily as he looked around for his boy, Petunia and Polkiss in tow.
A soft thump on the glass next to him caused him to turn his head and recoil in terror to see his boy on the inside of the enclosure with a massive snake coiling to strike. With a war cry, he charged the glass, but with the narrow hallway he couldn't get enough speed to break the reinforced glass. Time seemed to slow as the snake lunged at his beloved boy, getting closer, and closer...
Until there wasn't a snake. Right as it was about to bite Dudley, the snake shrunk down into a small white rabbit. Vernon stared dumbly for a moment, before he got angry. This smelled of freakishness, it seemed centered around his boy. A terrified gasp behind him drew his attention to his wife beside him, hand over her mouth in shock and horror.
-Break-
Internally, Petunia Dursley was panicking. Her son, her beloved Duddykins, had someone gotten inside a locked and enclosed snake habitat and turned its resident into a rabbit. This was a lot like the accidental freakishness Lily had done when she was about... Dudley's age.
No. She wouldn't accept it. There must be a logical explanation for it. There was no way that Ickle Duddykins was a freak like Lily. He was a sweet, intelligent, handsome young boy who simply couldn't be a freak. Lily had once explained to her that the only way to be a freak was if you were... you were...
Related to one...
Still, she wondered why her darling son hadn't used his gift before, but then she remebered that Lily's freakishness had gotten really bad right around the time she turned eleven. It had been there before though. Had her ickle Duddykins been hiding his accidental freakishness from them? Or had they just been giving him so much that he had no need to use it? She didn't know
All she knew was that this was not good. She hated freaks well enough, but Vernon lived to rid the earth of freakishness. It was one of the reasons she'd married him. She'd just never dreamed that her own son would be a freak. She thought back on what she and Vernon had done to the freak that Dumbledore had dropped off to them and shuddered. If Vernon had done that to Harry... he might do the same to Dudley.
No, he would do the same to Dudley. Her husband was very much a "suffer not the witch" sort of person. He seemed to have it set in his head that any problem a child had could be solved by beating it out of them, freakishness included. It was one of the reasons he deliberately never saw anything wrong with Dudley. If he did, he'd be obligated by his own nature to beat his own son.
If Dudley was a freak... a wizard... though.
Vernon might cross the line, and with all of the legal defense that Fletcher fellow had armed their family with the police essentially couldn't touch them.
Even if Petunia wanted them to.
She would have to distract him, or convince him that something else had happened; anything but the truth. But seeing the look in her husband's eyes she knew it was too late. She hoped that she could intervene and keep Vernon from doing something drastic.
-Break-
Sitting in the zoo director's office, Vernon tuned out the man's nervous mix of apologies and accusations as he tried to work out from the security feed both how Dudley got into the enclosure and how the snake which attacked him had been replaced with a rabbit.
Instead, Vernon watched the video closely as the wheels in his head, which were undoubtedly rusty and infested with cobwebs, began turning towards one conclusion.
His son, Dudley, a boy he loved more than any other thing on the planet, was a freak just like his aunt. This couldn't happen. Tuney had explained it to him once that the odds of someone without a freakish relative becoming a freak were astronomical.
But then again... Tuney had brought freak genes into this family.
And now they'd infected his son!
How could he have let this happen? Had he been so focused on making the other freak normal that he'd neglected his own son's freakishness?
In a haze he thanked the zoo director and promised not to file charges before carrying his unconscious son back to the car.
He would fix this, he thought. He would call doctors and specialists. He would throw as much money as it took to figure out the root of this freakishness and cure it. It had to be curable, because that was how the world worked. Normalness would win out over the freakishness. It had to. Because if it didn't... he'd be forced to take other measures.
-Break-
Dudley was scared. Ever since he'd gotten home the comfortable little status quo he'd built up in his home had been shattered. Both mummy and daddy seemed tense, giving him strange looks that they'd never shot in his direction before. When he'd woken up in the car on the way home, he'd originally thought he'd had a bad dream, right until he noticed the wet blanket he was draped in. Apparently, Petunia had been forced to call Piers' mother to come pick him up from the zoo.
His father was currently on the phone, yelling to someone on the other end. He caught a couple of scary words he didn't understand, like "specialist", "operate", "diagnosis", and "unique genetic disorder". Ironically, the only words he understood were the swears his father called whoever was on the other end of the line. Dudley couldn't help but notice how odd his father was acting. He was pacing back and forth and smoking a large cigar with his other hand. His father never smoked inside the house, as his mother hated the smell and didn't want it to ruin her walls and furniture. The fact that his mother hadn't even mentioned it spoke to how distracted both of them were.
His mother was cooking dinner with shaky hands and a wary look on her face whenever she glanced in her husband's direction. Something was obviously bothering her, and Dudley couldn't help but think it involved whatever had happened at the zoo today. As much as it hurt due to lack of practice, he racked his brain trying to figure out what exactly had happened or what he'd done.
All he could remember was that strange feeling that overcame him when he wanted to go in the cage and give that snake what for. The next thing he knew, he was inside the cage. It was like magic!
A quick glance at his father made him glad he'd not said that out loud. His father hated the "M word" and often flew into violent fits whenever his cousin used to say it. With his father's agitated state, it might just make him worse.
Finally, his mother announced that supper was ready, and the family ate somberly. Vernon had finally stopped arguing with whoever was on the other end of the phone by offering to pay "whatever it costs, just fix my boy!" This was what finally confirmed to Dudley that he was the cause of his family's strife.
After dinner, Dudley retreated upstairs to his first bedroom and played some of his computer games until his mother told him to go to sleep.
For some reason, as he laid in bed that night, he thought of the freak.
-Break-
Harry was feeling very pleased with himself. Shortly following dinner with the Malfoys, he received an owl from Mrs. Figg informing him that Dudley seemed to have had his first case of accidental magic. He'd gone out with one of his friends on a birthday trip to the zoo, but when they came back early he was soaking wet, without his friend, and both of his parents were noticeably distraught.
To confirm it for himself, he quickly Kaleidoscope'd to the Dursley residence and Legilimenced his uncle into oblivion until he got the information he was seeking.
Dudley had teleported himself into a snake enclosure and then turned the snake into a rabbit!
For the first time since his birthday, he had a good, long laugh.
Oh this was too good. He'd hoped that Dudley would do something that would attract a lot of attention, but this took the cake!
Safe with the knowledge that his cousin had, in fact, performed accidental magic, he took out a quill to initiate the next phase of his plan. Caster in particular loved this part of the plan. Just the knowledge of it seemed to make her friskier.
-Break-
Vernon awoke the next morning in a much better mood. It had been a full twelve hours since the incident at the zoo and his son was exhibiting no further signs of freakishness. Perhaps it had just been a one-time thing? Like leftover freak genes causing a single bout of freakishness in his otherwise normal and perfect little boy.
Feeling hopeful, he put on his slippers and made his way downstairs to eat the breakfast cooked by his lovely wife. He'd been a bit cross yesterday at the thought of his wife bringing freakish genes into his family, but so long as there were no effects, he just couldn't stay mad at her.
The first thing he did upon entering the kitchen was give his wife a morning peck on the cheek to let her know that all was forgiven before grabbing his morning coffee and plopping himself down at the table. As he sipped his coffee, he heard his son's heavy steps coming down the stairs.
"Get the newspaper, would you son?" he called out to his boy as he passed the front door.
"Dad, there's a letter too," Dudley stated several moments later as he came in with the newspaper.
This was strange. It was a Sunday. One of the comfortably mundane things that always occurred on Sunday was that there was no post. This was suspiciously... unnormal.
"Let me see it," he snapped, not wanting his morning ruined by strangeness.
Dudley extended an envelope. The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in an emerald green ink. It had no stamp on it, indicating that it was hand-delivered. The letter was addressed, "Mr. D. Dursley, His First Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey."
Vernon turned the envelope over, hand trembling. He saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H. When Petunia turned around from the stove to announce that breakfast was ready, she dropped the skillet she was holding in horror.
She recognized that coat of arms.
That school. It was the symbol of that school.
"P-P-Petunia..." Vernon gasped through his shaky breaths.
It was a Hogwarts letter.
-Break-
Harry laughed from Mrs. Figg's house as he watched the Dursleys' kitchen through a scrying mirror that Caster had enchanted specifically for this purpose. Sakura let out her own adorable little giggle at his side while Illya was rolling along the floor in hysteria. Rider and Assassin were maintaining their typical stoicism admirably, but Harry could read them well enough by this point to spot both the amusement and sadistic pleasure they were extracting from this. The maids were occupied with serving their charges tea while giggling slightly at watching their Master's relatives suffer.
Caster and Saber would be there, but Caster was still researching the stone he'd stolen and Saber stated that she wouldn't find the proceedings amusing. Harry knew that she disapproved of his course of revenge, but would go along with it nonetheless. She had sworn to be his knight, for better or worse, but he didn't want to force her into something she was uncomfortable with.
"I'd like to thank you again for delivering that letter so late last night Assassin," Harry commented, eyes still glued to the mirror.
"Something as insignificant as time is of no concern when it comes to fulfilling your will, Master," came Assassin's reply.
Harry smiled, but his own reply was interrupted by the Dursleys overcoming their shock.
-Break-
After shooing their son out of the kitchen, Vernon and Petunia plopped down at the kitchen table to grieve. This was it. This was the proof.
Their son was a freak.
"Vernon," Petunia began tentatively, slightly fearing the look on her husband's face, "what should we do? Look at the address! They know where he sleeps. You don't think they're watching the house?"
"Watching - spying - might be following us..." Vernon muttered wildly.
"But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want-"
Vernon stood and began pacing madly throughout the kitchen.
"No," he said finally.
"No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer... Yes, that's best... we won't do anything...
"But-"
"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Not even if it's our son! These people think in strange ways. If we just ignore it, they'll leave us alone and our son will remain a nice, perfect, normal boy."
Both parents pretended to ignore the silent, "or else" tacked on to the end of that statement.
-Break-
Unable to take further action against the Dursleys until tomorrow, Harry checked in on one of his other projects: the red stone. He, Sakura, Illya, and Daphne teleported to his dormitory where he found Caster in the midst of levitating the stone inside a very elaborate thaumaturgical circle. The nature of the circle was beyond even Harry's expertise, but he knew better than to interrupt something like this, so he waited for the glowing light to die down before greeting his Servant.
"Any progress?" he inquired.
Caster looked slightly ashamed at being stymied by a mystic code of all things.
"Not without further information as to this stone's origin or creator."
Harry nodded, deep in thought.
Perhaps it was time to follow Caster's suggestion several days ago and pay the Groundskeeper a visit.
-Break-
It took about half an hour for Harry and Co. to navigate to the section of the grounds where Hagrid had built his hut. It was situated right on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, an area Harry had already made a mental note to explore for anything of strategic importance. Given what he'd heard, he might find quite a few specimens of interest in there, something that also interested Illya and Sakura, who were curious about magical species of animals.
Why the Groundskeeper didn't live in Hogwarts proper he didn't know, but it sure made things inconvenient for visitors.
The group of seven arrived at the doorway of the massive hut, paused for a second, and knocked.
A deafening barking resounding from inside caused Leanna and Joy to reflexively step forward to place themselves between Harry and the threat, but he stuck an arm out and motioned for them to stand down.
He had an inkling as to what was about to happen, and knew that letting it occur would make the hut's occupant far less wary of him and his companions.
Sure enough, a voice soon called out from inside the hut,
"Be with you in just a second! Back Fang! Back! What's gotten into you? Back!"
The doorway opened a crack, but that was all the animal inside needed as it bounded out and tackled Harry, pinning him to the ground and licking his face.
It reminded him that he needed to pay Prim and Midnight a visit soon.
Soon, a rough hand grabbed the enormous dog by its collar and dragged it off the visitor.
"Sorry about that," came a voice with a Scottish accent, "Fang's usually very polite with visitors. I don't know what got into him."
"It's alright," Harry replied as he pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and dried his face with it.
This seemed to draw Hagrid's attention to his green-accented robes. His posture immediately stiffened and he reached inside his doorway for a... pink umbrella?
"Be careful, Master. I can sense magic in that umbrella," Rider cautioned him over their mental link.
Ah, so he saw Slytherin students and instantly reached for a weapon to defend himself. This was why he needed to rework Slytherin's image. This meeting wouldn't work if Hagrid felt that wielding a weapon at all times was necessary, so he reached up and started scratching Fang behind the ears. The dog plopped its head into his lap, drooling heavily.
Hagrid's eyes flicked between his visitors and his dog for several moments, before his shoulders relaxed a bit and he put the umbrella back into its stand.
"So, what can 'ol Hagrid do for ye?" he asked pleasantly.
Harry motioned for the dog to back off him and rose, brushing himself off.
"We were going around and meeting all of the staff at the school, and since we haven't seen you since the welcoming feast we thought we'd pay you a visit. Do you mind if we come in? It was a long walk down here and it's incredibly hot outside. We didn't really think to bring anything to drink either."
Hagrid seemed to trust Harry, but not his other visitors. He scrutinized them for a moment, looked at Harry, and finally made up his mind.
"Sure, c'mon in. Was just about to have afternoon tea and my kettle's big enough fer eight."
He stepped inside the doorway and led them to a large, handcrafted table with eight stools set up around it. Looking around, Harry noted that everything in this house was enormous, and from the eight stools, Hagrid liked guests.
As Hagrid put the kettle on, Illya and Sakura started playing with Fang while Daphne sat next to Harry.
Both Harry and Hagrid got a laugh out of Fang bowling both girls over and alternating between licking them as they squirmed.
"Harry! Help me!" Sakura squealed from underneath the dog as it slobbered all over her.
"No Big Brother! Help me! It's ruining my hair!" Illya yelled as her inner princess was disturbed by the dog's licking messing up her hair.
"Fang," Harry finally commanded the dog, "come."
The dog lazily got off the two now thoroughly soaked girls and made his way over to Harry where he rested his head in the boy's lap.
Hagrid now seemed far more at ease, which was the primary reason Harry had let the dog go on as long as it had. He gave the dog a thorough scratching behind the ears as a silent, "Good job". Hagrid seemed to be a simple man, and very trusting of his dog's attitude, so letting the animal drool over them was the quickest way to get into his good graces.
A whistling came several seconds later and Hagrid served tea and rock-hard scones to his guests. Harry structurally analyzed one out of curiosity, deciphered its ingredients, waited until Hagrid turned around, and put it in his lap for Fang to eat. He then projected a second one for himself, but altered some of the ingredients so as to make it edible.
Sakura and Illya were both giving him attempts at glares for not saving them from Fang, but with their disheveled states they just turned into adorable pouts. He'd have to apologize later, but they looked truly adorable with the way they were shooting him betrayed stares, their hair sticking at odd angles and their robes covered in drool.
Harry started apologizing to them by waiting for Hagrid to reach into the cabinet for sugar and replacing their scones with edible ones.
The looks they shot him let him know that he hadn't gotten himself off the hook and that they would both be demanding extra kisses and snuggles respectively that night. At least it was a start.
Finally, tea was served to everyone and Hagrid plopped down at the table, taking a bite out of one of his scones with a disturbing crunch.
"So Harry I know from his sorting, but not the rest of ye. Slytherin, I take it, from the robes?"
"Yes," Sakura responded sweetly, "I'm Sakura Emiya. It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Hagrid." She gave him that smile of hers that could make Satan coo and Hagrid couldn't help but grin broadly in return.
"Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds for Hogwarts. Pleasure to meet you little miss."
"Hi Mr. Hagrid. I'm Illyasviel von Emiya, but you can just call me Illya," Illya introduced herself.
"And I'm Daphne Greengrass!" said Daphne, using a faux-bubbly personality. As an attractive blonde, she pulled it off rather well.
"Leanna."
"Monica."
"Joy."
The maids weren't ones for pleasantries with strangers on sheer principle. By remaining aloof and wary, it allowed their Master to get into character without seeming suspicious. It kept people suspicious and wary of them, while they saw Harry as less of a threat, and therefore opened up to him.
Over the course of tea, the children told Hagrid all about their first lessons, while he told them about his job as Groundskeeper.
"And Filch is a right old git," Hagrid complained, "spends all his time stalking around the third floor corridor looking for students coming to take a peek so that he can slap em with detention. Nobody even asked him to do it. I know he's doing it at all times too because he's always sending that mangy cat o' his to stalk me every time I go up to the castle because he doesn't want to leave the doorway. I'd like to introduce that mangy stray to Fang sometime."
"You know," Harry took the opportunity to ask his questions, "that corridor is attracting a lot of attention. I heard from Orion the other day that he managed to sneak in and almost got his leg taken off by a Cerberus of all things. Preposterous!"
Hagrid's face went white.
"Yer brother had a run in with Fluffy!" he yelled before he remembered himself.
Harry and the others put on fake confusion. "Wait, you mean there's actually a Cerberus? Inside Hogwarts? What on earth could be that important that you would need a Cerberus to guard it?"
"Now you listen to me kids, yer Slytherins, so yer supposed to be smart and know how to keep quiet. What that dog's guarding is none of yer business, okay? That's solely between Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel-" Hagrid cut himself off.
"Should not have said that," he muttered to himself, "should not have said that. Now Dumbledore's gonna kill me. Letting somethin like that slip to students... shameful is what it is..."
"Hagrid," Harry cut the mumbling Groundskeeper off, "it's alright. None of us really care all that much what's behind the door. It's not like we're Gryffindors and we're gonna go charging after it. We might even get in trouble just for knowing, so how about this? We won't tell Dumbledore if you don't tell Dumbledore. Alright?"
Hagrid looked so relieved it was heartbreaking. His eyes watered and he pulled Harry into a bone crushing hug.
"Thank ye Harry. That means a lot to me. I was really concerned with ye bein' Slytherin and all, but you and yer pals might just prove that they're not all that bad. Feel free to drop by anytime for more tea. I know Fang'd appreciate it."
Said dog gave a happy bark in response. The eager stare he was giving Harry told everyone just how much he appreciated being scratched by the young Sorcerer, but then again, he had a lot of experience with Midnight and Primate Murder.
With their tea done and information procured, the group departed from Hagrid's hut and went back up to Hogwarts.
"Why didn't you just read his mind?" Sakura asked as they trudged up towards the castle.
"I originally intended to, because I thought he hadn't received any magical education exceeding his third year, but he has a crude wand fashioned into an umbrella. That means he has at least some crude magical training going past his third year. If he does personal errands for Dumbledore and has magical training past his third year, he's likely been taught at least rudimentary Occlumency. I wasn't sure if I should take the risk. If he had practically any levels of Occlumency, he might have detected my probe and clammed up."
"Did I ever tell you that you're very sexy when you're being cunning, my Lord?" Daphne whispered flirtatiously in his ear.
"I agree," Caster said through his mental link, "and you did procure some very valuable information. I think I should find some way to thank you, Master."
"I'll help," Rider chimed in.
-Break-
With a new clue to research, Harry decided to devote the remainder of the day to researching it. His initial instinct was to go straight to the Hogwarts library and research it, but that might cause problems. One of the contingencies of Hagrid's silence on his little slip was that those he'd told remained quiet on the subject. If they had to spend more than a day researching and he wandered into the library or asked the librarian, they'd have to answer some uncomfortable questions and Dumbledore might get involved.
What he needed was a large depository of books outside of the Hogwarts sphere of influence. To that end, he and the girls assumed their adult disguises before teleporting to Diagon Alley.
He and the girls navigated through the various shops and stalls until they found what they were looking for.
Flourish and Blotts.
Normally, finding a keyword amongst such a large amount of books would take days, possibly weeks, but Harry had a secret weapon. He twisted the Ravenclaw ring on his hand while concentrating heavily on the name "Nicolas Flamel".
He opened his eyes and saw... nothing. Not a single mention of Nicolas Flamel in the entire bookstore? He knew the ring worked, he'd tried it out shortly after receiving it in the Hogwarts library. When it worked, little blue tendril appeared and led him to books, but... nothing?
Either a man who had made a stone like that had never done anything the wizards found noteworthy, or someone had deliberately purchased all books with information pertaining to the man.
He'd have to find out who was responsible for this. He made his way up to the counter and politely greeted the bored-looking clerk manning the register. He asked as many asinine questions as he could to annoy the clerk until he could feel the irritation coming from the man. At this point, most people with Occlumency would use it to calm themselves. Considering this clerk didn't, Harry felt safe in probing the man's mind for information on who had recently placed a bulk order for books, but wasn't a student.
The man didn't know, he'd only just started working there.
Smiling, he took a look around the store and, upon seeing that it was empty, motioned to Daphne, who cast the Imperius curse on the man.
"Now, sir," Harry asked him calmly, "may I take a look at your business ledger?"
"Sure thing," the clerk replied, reaching under the counter and pulling out a thick binder. This wouldn't do, Harry thought. He needed to narrow down the information.
"Tell me, how often do you restock your inventory?"
The clerk paused a moment, before replying, "The boss said bi-weekly or something, but I don't really know what that means."
Harry flipped through the ledger entries for the last two weeks, his finger pausing on a large order placed the week before school started by Albus Dumbledore. Looking at the books ordered, Harry knew he'd found his culprit. Half the books had the name "Nicolas Flamel" in them, and the rest seemed to be centered around either famous wizards or alchemy.
Now he needed to know what the man had done with the books. He motioned for Daphne to drop the Imperius Curse and quickly Obliviated the man, but not before placing a handful of galleons in the man's pocket for his trouble.
Harry led the girls out of the store and teleported them back to Hogwarts from the nearest back alley. He pondered where Dumbledore would store books bearing information he didn't want others to know, when Monica informed him that the man had an extensive library of books inside his office.
Well, it looked like he was going to have to do this the hard way.
-Break-
Assassin was in a very good mood. Her god had not only gained a clue to aid him in his research, but he had sent her on a mission to gather more. It warmed her heart to know that He trusted her that much, and resolved to do her utmost to fulfill his wishes.
She would not fail him.
It pleased her to no end how much he relied on her in certain tasks, such as delivering false letters to torment his relatives or breaking into his Headmaster's office to locate and disable and magical defenses.
She wished she could simply torture the Headmaster for the information and then kill him, but her Master had explicitly forbidden that.
And she would not disobey her Master.
It was child's play to her to infiltrate the office. She didn't even have to pick locks or open windows. Wizards had no manner of defending against spiritual intruders, as even Hogwarts had only the barest of ways to control its many ghosts. This was not seen as a concern, because ghosts were notoriously unreliable and could not leave their designated haunt. Not to mention that few people considered them as anything else than interesting manifestations of dead people.
So for a Heroic Spirit to infiltrate even the most powerful wizard in the nation's office, all she had to do was walk straight through the door and walls.
She could feel the magic in the air, indicating various defenses. She felt the prana in the air and traced it back to its source. Following the trail, she came into the old Headmaster's bedroom. She had to physically restrain herself from slitting the man's throat, poisoning his body, controlling his magic, detonating his head, and breaking his spirit for daring to harm her Master. Her god. Her reason for being. The one who had saved her from the depths of perdition with his light and given her both a purpose and love.
There was nothing she wouldn't do for him.
Nothing.
And she knew she was not alone. All of her Master's Servants would slaughter in his name, even the heretic. Saber would be upset about it, but she would kill hundreds if it was to protect her Master or he explicitly ordered it. Such was the nature of her service to the Holy One. And while her very nature as an Assassin made her rather distrusting of someone who held honor in such a high regard, the fact that she could and would go against it for her God was more than enough to have her respect her fellow Servant.
Seething with fury at the old man before her, she traced the magic sustaining the defenses to the wand he bore, which was sitting in a protected case on the bedside table. This was what was sustaining the wards, so she took the wand and returned to her Master.
She hoped this would please him.
-Break-
Harry had waited until after dinner before sending Assassin to scope out Dumbledore's office. He suspected that since wizard used wards instead of bounded fields, he should find out what was powering them. Bounded Fields powered themselves with markers, usually stones, and would deactivate if the stone was destroyed. In compensation for this weakness, Bounded Fields were far more powerful than wards. Rider's Blood Fort Andromeda could kill every living being within the school in minutes if he ordered her.
Assassin came back shortly, prostrating herself and presenting Dumbledore's wand. He gave her a little pat on the head as a reward and sighed when she ended up straddling him in her exuberance.
Harry was relieved when Rider came over seemingly to assist him, but instead of pulling Assassin off of him, she gave a teasing smile and straddled him from behind, encasing him between two pairs of breasts. He just knew that getting her so turned on by his torture and manipulation over the past few days would come back to bite him.
"Master," she whispered in his ear, "we just want to show our appreciation for all that you've done for us."
"You're right," Caster whispered in his other ear as she sauntered over from the small workbench she'd set up, "I do still need to thank you for helping me research the stone."
Harry gulped. As much as he wanted to do this, he still felt he was a bit too young. Little Harry seemed to disagree though, as evidenced by Assassin's moaning from her place on his lap.
Fortunately, Saber chose this moment to come from where she was watching over Sakura and Illya's room, very angry.
And she had a wooden spoon.
Several painful smacks later, three Servants were lying on the floor in various states of pain while Saber twirled the mysteriously unbroken spoon before launching into another lecture on decency and knightly values. Like the time she'd given it to Assassin alone, it was almost universally ignored.
Harry took the opportunity to place Dumbledore's wand in a thaumaturgical circle designed to block magical signals going in and out. If the wand was powering Dumbledore's wards, this should deactivate them. The he confirmed that the circle was functioning, he made his way away from his room and amorous Servants.
He knew that he'd only delayed the inevitable.
-Break-
Harry snuck up to Dumbledore's office. The door was hidden behind a gargoyle, but since it was deactivated Harry checked that the hallway was empty before having Berserker deastralize. When the Servant immediately sent a questioning thought, Harry gave him the disappointing news that no, he wasn't going to be killing anything. Instead, Berserker used his immense strength to rotate the gargoyle door into the open position before astralizing again.
Harry made his way up the stairs and used Panzer to pick the now unmagical lock on the door. Entering the main office, Harry activated the Ravenclaw ring to find the books he sought. As he opened his eyes, he saw blue tendrils extending to forty-some books. He sighed and used a duplication charm on each book, placing the copies in the enchanted book case he'd bought at Flourish and Blotts the first time he'd shopped there.
His job done, he made his way back to his dorm, though not without having Berserker put the door back in position. Wouldn't want to leave a trace as obvious as this one, of course.
Inside his dormitory, he opened up the case and dumped the books inside onto the writing desk. He sighed as he counted well over forty books. On the upside, it meant that the information he sought was likely contained within at least one of these books. On the downside, he'd have to figure out which one.
He only had a couple of hours before he'd have to go to sleep. He knew that if he tried to work more, the girls might just tie him to the bed, and that might give them ideas. He'd only just escaped a rather dangerous situation, he didn't want to walk straight into another one, especially one where he wouldn't be able to move.
If he wanted to get any information tonight, he'd have to deduce which books would have the information he sought. The biographies would likely have the information, but they were too think and dense for him to look through quickly. The books on famous wizards seemed to only devote a couple lines of text to each wizard covered, so it wouldn't likely have the information.
The stone was obviously an alchemical creation though, which meant that the books on alchemy would likely contain lengthy sections dedicated to it. It did seem to be entirely different to this world's alchemy though, but if Nicolas Flamel had created it and he was mentioned in the alchemy books, that meant that the wizards classified its creation as a work of alchemy.
Decided, he began speed reading through the alchemy books. He nearly laughed at the childish understanding wizards had of alchemy. Literally, the introduction to the book stated that the only two purposes of alchemy were achieving immortality and the creation of gold.
Finally, he found the section on Flamel.
"One of the most significant alchemists of all time is the acclaimed Nicolas Flamel. Though his origins are widely speculated on, his skill is not. Through years of dedication, Flamel achieved the completion of his masterpiece, a stone which granted its user the elixir of life, which would make its imbiber immortal. Flamel named his creation the-"
Harry paused for a moment in shock and confusion.
"-the Magus' Stone"
