Albus Dumbledore read the letter his ex-student had sent him. He was nauseous at the thought of making even a single horcrux, but the thought that Tom had tried making six - he wanted to vomit. But it made sense. And he knew that Remus knew about Horcruxes; Remus himself had asked for permission to research ways that Voldemort could live for so long... but Voldemort had been stopped by Lily's love, so Remus had stopped his research.
Remus should have stopped his research, should have stopped long before he got to Horcruxes. Or maybe he had researched Horcruxes and disregarded the idea? But then, how did he know enough about them to figure out how many Voldemort had made?
Each time, you split your soul in two - the first horcrux had 1/2 your soul, the second had 1/4, the third had 1/8, the fourth had 1/16, the fifth 1/32, and the sixth, the incomplete horcrux inside little Harry would have been 1/64th of Voldemort's soul. That was a rather small piece - it would have been pushed out by a combination of Harry's soul, magic, and Lily's love.
So the real question was, could he trust this information, even if it was obvious that Remus wasn't telling where he got it from?
Before he could figure it out, the fireplace in his office burned green, and his friend Alastor Moody stepped - stomped - through.
"D'you get'e letter? Nasty business, horcrux's are. Need Fiendfyre to destroy 'em. Now, are we going to hunt the bastard down or not? Tell me everything you know about You-Know-Who and we'll do everything we can to get rid of him. And tell Remus, too - the letter was charmed to make sure only the two of us could read it, didn't think you'd notice such nifty work, but Remus was careful. He deserves to know. So start talking, old man."
Albus Dumbledore hesitated for a moment. Harry Potter, the boy of the prophesy, was supposed to be the one to vanquish Voldemort... but that didn't mean he couldn't have help. Exam week was over, school would be out soon, and he'd be free for the summer to destroy the last bits of Voldemort.
He began to tell Moody the story of Tom Marvolo Riddle, while Mad-Eye took down notes to send to Remus.
Apolline knelt next to Harry. The boy had been learning at an extraordinary rate lately, though Remus had refused to teach any of his students conventional topics, stating that those would be learned at school. Instead, the three of them studied Occlumency and Legilimency, Wandmaking from old books and such, a bit of warding, even a small bit of animagus training (meditation and such), and... oddly... speaking French.
He was teaching Fleur to speak English as well.
Well, maybe he was just teaching the three of them to be bilingual. Or maybe he just liked teaching. Either way, Harry learned very fast, and very well; he'd even picked up on what she'd been teaching Fleur about charisma, to the point where she'd just started including him in her lesson.
And now it was time for him to learn his name. His Fae name, the name that would separate his human self from his fae self, so that he'd be able to unlock the full extent of his powers. Contracts, someone's fears, and person's aura... There was a reason the whole of the Celtic people feared and worshiped the fae. They didn't sacrifice to the fae, that's true, but they never went to war against them, leaving offerings of rose-milk in return for the fae leaving them alone.
Harry closed his eyes, breathing deeply. It wasn't meditation, where you were the center. It was looking into himself, as if in front of a mirror.
Childe... something hissed into his mind - and suddenly he was looking into a storm. It was hurricane-like, but moving around a single point, with flashes of lightning... and against all appearances, seemed to be tightly controlled by the center. The storm, no matter how wildly it raged, never moved wider than a certain radius.
And it was wild, like a large mob, screaming and yelling with power... but not randomly. He was powerful, and he was angry, but it was only aimed at certain people.
Oppressors.
He wasn't angry, he was defiant. Righteous anger. He would stand for freedom, but he was far to passionate - there was some sort of hidden darkness. It wasn't a sea, after all, it wasn't collective and repetitive - it was a wild and angry storm. He was a wild and angry storm.
He was Dubhshláine... Dark Defiance.
But for now, he was also Harry Potter, and he needed to tuck Dubhshláine and the lightning it came with far away. He needed to wait, and learn, for no matter how carefully Remus and Richard and Door hid it, he knew he would need to fight.
Right now, he just needed to get better.
Richard, Door and Remus were having a conference.
"So, the defense class is cursed? No one can, well, defend themselves? That's why these Death Eaters were such a big deal - no one knew how to fight against them?" Door recapped. Remus nodded tiredly. They've been over this a million times...
"So why not have recurring teachers? Like, you teach every other year, and an auror teaches during the full moons and the years you don't teach? That way, neither of you teach two years in a row."
It took a moment for Remus to process what Door had just proposed.
"You want me to teach at Hogwarts?! But Harry's -"
"Well, not now. But we'd like it if you'd teach during Harry's years in the Betweener-School." Richard nodded. Harry wasn't going anywhere without someone watching over him.
Then Door said something that would either make the world a better place or burn it down.
"Wait. Volde-guy recruits from Hogwarts because he knows what it's like, right? He knows the old hatreds and such. So why don't we just change the recruitment grounds? It's summer, so you can take Richard and I to this school, and we'll fix it!"
Remus shook his head. A conference with him, Door, Richard, Andromeda and Ted (Apolline watching the children), Headmaster Dumbledore, Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, Snape, Sprout, and Healer Pomphrey... well, that was complicated. Then, setting those from Below or knew about Below into Hogwarts...
Well.
Richard got lost once, so Door ordered up four hundred pieces of parchment to be spread equally and randomly around the school, stuck to the walls- so every hallway had at least one parchment stuck to it. The parchments had maps of Hogwarts that were connected to the wards... which meant that they were like the Marauders' map - they showed the secret passageways (which now had doors and locks). But these maps were so much... better. For one, if a student found another secret passageway, it would immediately appear on the maps, because these maps were connected to the wards... just like the students were. Furthermore, after curfew, the maps would show everyone in the castle - ghosts in gray, teachers in dark red, students in black, and prefects black outlined in silver. If someone wasn't supposed to be in the school, they'd show up in dark green.
Also, there was an inter-house common room. Four roaring fires, armchairs and tables to work at... well, you wouldn't think it was an unused, remodeled classroom just by looking at it.
Door and Andromeda then turned different, old rooms into a football (soccer) field, complete will balls and self-resizing uniforms (purple and black, so anyone can put them on and they'll shrink/grow to fit that person), a basketball field (with the same charms), a huge swimming pool with two changing rooms (male and female), an ice skating rink, a ballroom (at least Richard was as bemused as everyone else was at this point), an art studio (with honest-to-god shelves of paints and other materials Remus couldn't even name), a ballet studio (!), and a music room.
A music room. This took up the most time - there was a huge shelf, containing books upon books on the music numbers of just about... anybody. Everything, Mozart, Back, Beethoven, the Beatles (with words), some band called Sting, some band called Sex Pistols (what? Who names bands with names like that, and who listens to that?!) Then, there were stalls. Each stall was sound proof - you picked the book you wanted, went inside, asked from whatever instrument you wanted, a house elf would bring it to you from a separate room where there were piles upon piles of instruments. In the case of a piano, there were twenty stalls that were huge and already had a piano inside.
Actually, all the stalls were ridiculously big, and could easily fit five people, each with an instrument.
Dumbledore twinkled at this, even as Minerva spluttered, Snape sneered, Sprout blinked, and Pomphrey huffed.
The rooms were situated all around the school, at random, with their locations shown on the maps.
Then Door and Andromeda set about fixing the wards. Apparently, most of them were... down. Because Snape was a Death Eater, and the wards would kick him out.
So Door changed the Dark Mark - she scratched it, a long white line across the ugly picture, so the wards wouldn't recognize Snape as a Death Eater. The wards went up again, with Door adding a few mild compulsions - by the end of the seventh year, the following would be ingrained into every person (unless they actively fought against it):
Do not Judge
Live and Let Live
Look for Truth - whatever anyone tells you take with a grain of salt; look for proof in every statement
Respect EVERYONE
Oh, the first years would still be little swots, and these mild compulsions would fade over the summer - but they would be slight nudges, making more likely to be respectful, to be nice... not to judge... Really, a few years of this, and Voldemort may have some trouble recruiting. Door was clearly interested in keeping Harry safe.
Then Richard started taking care of defense. First of all, Hagrid's giant, three-headed dog was added into the wards - it would have an everlasting compulsion to protect the students, but it would live in its prime as long as Hogwarts stood. The old school brooms were replaced with good riding brooms, and the old brooms were pulled apart. The huge shafts were erected all around the boundaries of Hogwart's grounds, with the small broom-tail sticks between them. They were all sharpened to a point, covered with poison, and charmed to stab any enemy that marched to Hogwarts. Behind the broomstick-fence was spread around the Devil's Snare in a long, thin line. Around five hundred Flying Keys (courtesy of Flitwick) were sent to fly in complicated formations outside Hogwarts' towers, charmed to attack and kill any attackers from the air. One look at the marching suits of armor gave Ted Tonks a brainwave - and Andromeda made a carved wooden nymph for each suit of armor. The nymphs had a bow and arrows each, with several daggers to go with them. They were also beautiful.
Then, the grande Finale - the Training Hall. There were seven rooms, one for each year. Only one student was able to enter a room at a time.
A student would enter. The school would record their magic signature and name (which was how the wards knew where the students were). They would be give a defensive spell, and told to fight against an opponent... an illusion. They would be judged on how well they did - thus, there would be seven separate scoreboards, one for each year, and the students would be ranked by their dueling skilling on the board. They had to fight three times a week, or their ranking was dropped. Each third time they fought, they would be taught a new spell - either offensive, like expelliarmus, or defensive, like protego. If the student didn't use the spell at least once within the next three fights, they automatically dropped to lowest rank. As students got better, they would be made to fight two, then three opponents, all the opponents getting better as the students did. All seven scoreboards were to be posted in the inter-house common room, and in the four common rooms.
It would teach the students a) how to fight, and b) prove the power was not based on bloodlines. If a muggleborn fought better than a pure-blood, what did that mean, after all?
By the end of it, Door made each and every teacher promise not to reverse any of the changes that they brought, and then Door, Richard, Ted and Andromeda left as quickly as they came.
Remus decided that all his friends were quiet insane. And he still had to speak with Dumbledore about You-Know-Who!
Speaking of...
Dumbledore had brought Remus, Moody, and Snape with him as he went to his office. Oh, dear. Severus and he had never truly gotten along...
