Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
Chapter V
Through the next three sessions, they practiced throwing off the Imperius. Occulmency appeared to give all of them an advantage, and soon Harry was hard pressed to make anyone do anything. Albus had been immune to Harry's strongest Imperius curses from the start, but now even Ginny, just in her first year was throwing them off. All thoughts of Wormtail were thrown from Harry's mind. Despite Ron's complaints, all of them were near the top of their classes, and Christmas break was just around the corner. Peter Pettigrew was being searched for, but most efforts were trying to find out how he escaped.
Albus refused to use the Imperius curse, and also detested Avada Kedavra. However, Harry had convinced him to let them teach the others the curse, so long as they consented. Ron, Hermione and Ginny followed Harry fairly loyally, although they did not have enough power to do a strong Imperius or any form of Avada Kedavra. Moody decided he would learn them, but probably not use them, while Remus and Sirius both agreed to learn them and kill if they had to. Sirius knew first hand of the corruption of the prison system, and Remus had some experience with it.
Remus had built up the magical stores of the children immensely, but Harry had found, in his research, a way to make a young witch or wizard come into their full power. Unfortunately, while his friends were more mature then they had been at this time last timeline, he decided they weren't ready just yet.
"Harry! Harry, wake up!" Harry snapped awake. He hadn't gone to bed until about four in the morning the night before, training and researching in the Room of Requirement. During the war in his last timeline, there had been very little time for sleep, and Harry had only gotten about 4 hours per day. However, his new body couldn't handle it the same way as his old one, which resulted in him sleeping a lot more. Harry decided that last night was to be a one time occurrence. "Come on Harry, the train will be leaving soon."
That's right! The train! Harry thought. For the first time ever, Harry was not going to spend Christmas at Hogwarts. After having them all for the summer, Mrs. Weasley had agreed to allow her children to go to the Sirius's place. Unfortunately, Hermione had to go to her house, as her parents had expected to have her the whole summer, and Hermione wanted to see them as well.
Harry rolled over, and got up. He quickly showered, brushed his teeth, and got dressed. Then he grabbed his trunk, and he and Ron went down the stairs to meet Ginny and Hermione. Hermione was waiting there, reading a book. "Hey." said Ron and Harry. "Oh hi," she said, "Ginny will be down shortly, she is finishing getting ready." Ron murmured something that sounded a lot like 'girls'. Ginny waltzed down the stairs and hit him in the back of the head. "I heard that ickle Ronnikins" she commented.
The four of them walked down the staircases to the front of Hogwarts, and waited for the carriages. As they were waiting, Malfoy chose the opportunity to come by once again. Harry was getting really tired of him, but there wasn't much he could do. Harry knew about the vanishing cabinets this time around, and he could also dispel the instant darkness powder, so Malfoy wouldn't be assisting in the murder of Dumbledore this time around. As well, there was hope for the boy yet, so long as Harry didn't kill him before their sixth year.
"So, two Weasels and a Mudblood are going with their Famous Hero, to the house of a convicted murderer?" asked Malfoy. "Bugger off Malfoy!" said Ron. Malfoy opened his mouth to say more, but the rest of the students began filing out, and McGonagall was in the crowd, along with many other staff. He cast them a glare, but then disappeared into the crowd.
The thestral drawn carriages soon arrived, and the four got in. The train ride home was relatively peaceful, as Harry had locked the compartment door, opening it only to get sweets. Soon enough, the four found themselves splitting up for the first time since Harry had come back in time. "See you all later." said Hermione, looking a bit grim at the prospect. "Don't worry Hermione, we'll see you soon!" said Harry. "Yeah." said Ron. Ginny waved, and Hermione ran off to her parents. They left through the barrier, and the remaining three were all sad to see Hermione go.
Soon after, Sirius showed up, strolling through the barriers like the king of the world. He was dressed in an expensive black muggle suit. He was smiling at Harry, and his smile dimmed just a little bit as people recoiled from the man they had thought to be a mass murderer. However, his smile widened again when Harry ran across platform 93/4, friends in tow, to give his godfather a hug. Sirius hugged him back, and then beckoned them through the barrier. Sirius led them to a very nice black car, and they put their trunks in the magically enlarged back. Then the three piled into the backseat, and they drove away.
What they pulled up to however, was not exactly a flat. It was more of a mansion, and Harry voiced this. "Oh, yeah," Sirius grinned, "I forgot to tell you. In the time you have been at school, my affairs have all been settled. I got compensated about 600,000 galleons, and with the inheritance I've gotten, I could afford about four houses like this for several years."
Ron and Ginny were a bit taken aback. They had always lived in the Burrow, a small house maintained mainly by magic. This house was nothing like that at all. What was more is that every room was probably magically expanded. The huge archway looked intimidating. Harry spoke up "Race you to the house!"
All of them took off in a sprint. Harry had forgotten what a kid Sirius really was. Ginny and Sirius broke out ahead, while Harry and Ron were hot on their heels. Sirius won the race, Ginny coming in second, with Harry in third and Ron in last. After that, they romped around the house. Sirius delighted Ginny by turning into his dog form and roaming as a canine, and Ron made him agree to teach them all. Becoming an animagus was something Harry wanted to do, as he had never had the time in the last time line. If they were lucky, they might be able to master it by their fourth or fifth year.
All of them ate an excellent dinner of roast beef, and then they played some Quidditch. Sirius had built a Quidditch pitch in the back, and bought ten Nimbus 2000s for guests to use. As well, he had two sets of brand new Quidditch balls. They played the wizarding sport until it got dark, and then Ron asked who was up for some wizarding chess. Sirius foolishly agreed, and he and Ron went into the living room where the chess board was located. Ginny and Harry went to the kitchen to grab a bite to eat, and they held a fairly long conversation about charms, which was Ginny's favorite subject. Harry didn't know too many charms, as they weren't very good for combat. He did know a lot of healing, and some other useful stuff, but Ginny was interested in theory.
Harry promised to get some books for her on the theories of magic, and then taught her several healing spells. She mastered some of the more simple ones, and Harry promised to work on the harder ones with her later. Sirius mock groans of pain and agony stopped, and Harry heard footsteps on the stairs. Sure enough, a grinning Ron walked up with a slightly glum Sirius. Harry and Ginny hadn't done all that much eating, so Sirius made some dinner while Ron told them all about the three games of chess he had won.
After dinner, the three kids told Sirius stories of the year they had been having so far, and Sirius heaped tale after tale of the Marauder days upon them. Harry was quite happy to hear these, as they were all just as new to him as they were to Ron and Ginny. However, when Sirius brought up Snape, Harry sobered up a bit. The Marauders had made Snape into the person he was now. It was partially their fault that Dumbledore had failed to save him after trying so hard. Sirius moved on to how Harry's parents got together, and Harry perked up again.
Quite late that night, the children turned in, and Sirius went to his room. Each Harry, Ron and Ginny had their own room, which was a change from school, but Harry had no trouble falling asleep. His body was wiped.
The next day, Harry woke up to the sun shining strongly through the window. He covered his head with his pillow, and attempted to find some more sleep. However, with in ten minutes, Ginny ran past his door yelling. "Ron! Harry! Shopping! We get to go shopping!" After running into her brother's room and apparently dumping a bucket of water on him, based of his yelps, she showed up in Harry's room, sporting not a bucket, but a wand. "Agu—" Harry leapt out of bed, and tackled her to the ground. "Ha!" he said. She spun and tried to wrestle him off. She was surprisingly strong for her size, and Harry had to start wrestling in earnest as well.
After a few minutes, Harry managed to pin Ginny with her arms above her head. He sat on her, grinning, until a dripping Ron walked in, wand out, hunting for Ginny. "Oi! That's my sister!" "Relax Ron, I just nabbed her before she could spray me!" said Harry. With a wave of his hand, Ron was dry, and Ron accepted Harry's explanation.
Sirius poked his head into the room. "Hey, kiddos, lets get a move on, k?" A slightly embarrassed Harry and Ginny followed Sirius, with a confused Ron trailing behind. Sirius led them to the fireplace, and pulled a bag of floo powder from the mantle. "Harry, you first. Leaky Cauldron." Harry went through the floo to the Leaky Cauldron, and waited. Ron, then Ginny, then Sirius came through the floo.
"Alright. Gringotts first. Each of you get 200 galleons as a Christmas present from me!" said Sirius.
"What!?" said Ginny
"We can't take that much!" said Ron
"Nonsense. But of course you will damage my pride for yours. How would you feel if I made Harry refuse all of your Christmas Presents? Please don't refuse mine." said Sirius. He led Ron and Ginny over to a corner, and had a talk with them. When they came back, Ron and Ginny seemed slightly unhappy, but Sirius led them to Gringotts.
While Sirius went down to his vault, the three kids went down to Harry's vault. Harry filled several bags heaping full of gold, and banished about four to the place he kept his wand. "Where do those go Harry?" asked Ginny. "Dunno. No one but me can access them though. I've got my invisibility cloak, gold, and my wand in there."
"Come on." said Ron, as he turned to leave. Harry hefted a huge bag of gold, and gave another to Ginny. They went back up to the main level of the banks, and found Sirius waiting for them. Harry transferred the extra bags of gold into Muggle money, and
Sirius handed them each a weightless bag, filled with 200 galleons. "Meet back here by 3:00. It is about 11:00 now, so that leaves more then enough time." Sirius said.
"Ron, Ginny, lets go." Harry began walking, and he led his friends to Ollivander's wands. The others followed him, and he spoke softly. "In order to be effective, in battle and in class, you need a wand suited to you. Take it as one of my Christmas presents to you."
He opened the door to the shop, and the others walked in. He shut the door behind them. The shop was empty, and he rang the bell. Ollivander moved to the front of the shop, and began to speak. "Ah, so rare to see young souls at this time of year. Two Weasleys, and young Mister Potter. Eleven inches and Holly, Phoenix feather of course. Never seen you two before however. Ah, though it seems only yesterday that a young Molly Prewitt walked in here…"
Ollivander continued on for a bit, and then abruptly stopped and grabbed a box from the shelves. "Your name my boy?" he asked Ron. "Um.. Ron." said Ron. "Try this, Nine inches, Oak and Dragon heartstring…"
Ollivander tried several wands for Ron, and finally he pulled the right one. "Yes, yes, Twelve and a half inches, ash, and with Unicorn hair. Now you, my dear. Your name?"
"Ginny."
"Ahh. Try this one…"
Ginny took a good deal longer than Ron. Finally, Ollivander sighed. "I thought it might be. Willow, 10 and ¼ inches… and phoenix feather." he said, whispering the last words. Harry's eyebrows rose. "Sir?" "Yes, yes, a phoenix came here not two weeks ago, and left a feather on my desk. Most peculiar indeed." "Fawkes?" asked Harry. "No… Fawkes' mate."
Ginny hesitantly picked up the wand. Sparks shot out of the end. "Ah, it is your wand. It will be twenty five galleons for both, thank you." Ollivander said. Harry handed him the money. "What's the big deal?" asked Ginny. "It is basically my mom's wand, and our cores are mates." Harry said. "Oh." "Dunno what it means though." said Harry "Lets go shopping, shall we?" The three left the store, and spent the rest of the day going from store to store, buying Christmas presents for their friends.
On Christmas Eve, they went over to the Weasleys' house, and received a pleasant surprise in the form of Hermione waiting for them. They set their presents under the tree, and played outside for a bit. Soon, they were called inside to wash up, and then they all sat down to Christmas dinner.
Christmas dinner was quite enjoyable, and after dinner they sat up talking for quite some time. At around eleven, the children were sent to bed. Fred and George attempted to stay up, but Mrs. Weasley terrified them into sleep.
The next morning, Ron was the first to wake up. Stifling his instinct to yell 'Presents' at the top of his lungs, he snuck down to Ginny's room, intent to pay her back. And indeed he did, using his brand new wand to soak her with freezing cold water. Harry woke to the sound of Ginny screaming. His brain raced, and he Slid into the girls' room.
Upon finding everything alright, he banished his wand, and dried off Ginny. "Alright." he said. "PRESENTS!!!" yelled Ron, bolting from the room. "Shall we?" asked Harry. Harry, Hermione, and Ginny walked down the stairs to the living room.
Ron's yell woke the rest of the family, and Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Ron were waiting only a few minutes until the rest of the Weasleys walked in, Fred and George dragging Sirius along. Arthur stood up, and gave a speech about the meaning of friends and family. After that, all of the Weasley children shot forward like bullets from a gun, grabbing presents and making piles with them.
Harry and Hermione, unsure of the Weasley traditions, waited as the presents were separated into piles. After just about five minutes, all of the presents were sorted into piles. Mrs. Weasley waved her wand, and a name above each of the piles. Harry walked over to the pile with his name above it. None of the other Weasley's had opened theirs yet, so he refrained from opening his until Mr. Weasley chose a present from his pile, and opened it. It was from Harry, and Mr. Weasley gleefully thanked him for the toaster.
Harry opened his presents. A large tin of treacle fudge from Hagrid, and a luxury eagle feather quill from Hermione, just as before. However, the next present caused his eyes to widen. The spells of Albus Dumbledore rested upon two other books. Magik of Yesteryears and The Arte Of Ancient Magic lay with them. Harry read the note that went with them. These books may only be read by you and I. I have added you to the charm recently. Hopefully there are things for even you to learn. Harry had never read these books, and was fairly sure the first one had not existed in his last timeline. Mrs. Weasley gave him a sweater, and a book on household spells.
Ron had gotten Harry a nice set of robes, and Ginny had gotten him a brand new watch, that looked quite expensive. Mr. Weasley had given him a book on obscure wizarding laws, directly from the Ministry, and Fred and George had given him a small box of Zonko's products. Finally, Sirius had given him the knife that would open any lock. After opening presents, thank yous went all around, and then the entire group went in the kitchen for a home cooked Christmas dinner.
The kids stayed up late that night, going to bed about two in the morning. The next day, Hermione had to go home, but promised to come back for New Years. Ron, Ginny and Harry went to Sirius's house that day as well, and would be returning to the Burrow for New Years also. Upon arriving back at Sirius's house, all three kids and Sirius went to bed. The few days they had at Sirius's house were a blur of fun. New Years was a lot like Christmas, and fairly soon Harry, Hermione, Ginny and Ron were getting on the train back to Hogwarts.
Half way back to Hogwarts the train rattled to a halt. "Hmm?" yawned Ron, stretching. Harry felt as though something cold was sliding down his back. "Bugger." he said. "What?" asked Ginny. Harry summoned his wand. Holding it to his forehead, he said "contego animus". A silvery shield began to swirl around him. "What is that?" asked Hermione, wide eyed. "That spell shields against dementors. It is a lot like the patronus charm in casting, and requires power to sustain. Since you can cast the patronus, all you need is the power. I do not know if you have that." Hermione's face paled. "No..n-no!" she began to gasp. "Quickly, try it. I cannot cast it upon you, it must be cast upon oneself." Ginny looked ready to throw up, and Ron seemed paralyzed with fear, but both pulled out their wands and muttered the spell. Faint shields wrapped around them, but then they disappeared, and both gave into fear. Harry cursed. They would need to perform the Coming to Power spell as soon as they got back to school.
A dementor slid open the compartment door. It turned to the three on the floor, and then stared at Harry. It approached him slowly, not understanding why it could sense no emotions. Harry thought of the day Ginny had smiled at him, and thought about how he had regained all he had lost. Expecto Patronum. He thought, pointing his wand at the dementor. A silver stag shot from the end of his wand. As the dementor fled, he debated destroying it, but decided he would wait until they returned to Voldemort. It would do no good for a student to be using spells no one had used for years, and the last time it had been done was by Albus Dumbledore.
The other three got up, and Ron and Ginny grabbed their wands. "I'm sorry." muttered Hermione. "Don't be." said Harry "However, this means we are farther along than I thought. I know a spell that will make your magical stores increase to the amount you would normally have when you turn seventeen. You will have the power of a strong adult wizard, and in terms of brute force, could probably beat McGonagall in a duel, hands down. With that however, comes responsibility. You will need to learn to control your power, and you must not fight with spells during school, unless in defense against spells. Okay?"
All of them nodded, and Hermione asked why he hadn't done this before. "We needed some childhood." he said. They lapsed into silence, pondering the gravity of the situation.
Immediately after arriving back at school, Harry led the others to Dumbledore's office. "Hold on to me." he said. When they did, he Slid onto the staircase. "Whoa, that was weird." said Ron. "Yeah." said Harry. They walked up the stairs. Dumbledore was reading a book behind his desk. "Hello. To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" he asked.
"Dementors. Have you ever heard of the Coming to Power ritual?" Albus looked up. "Why, yes, I do happen to know it. Do you plan on using it anytime soon?" Harry nodded. "Very well. It must be tonight. Do you have the potions?" Harry shook his head. "No, but with power sources as strong as you and I, we can bypass that part." Harry said.
Within about ten minutes, Harry, Dumbledore, Ginny, Hermione, and Ron were in the Room of Requirement. Harry conferred briefly with Dumbledore, and than Ginny, Ron and Hermione were asked to stand in a triangle. Harry stood in the center of the triangle, and began to chant a spell. Dumbledore stood behind Ginny, who was at the top of the triangle, and began to chant as well. The spell took about two minutes, and then Harry and Dumbledore both collapsed. Ginny, Hermione and Ron felt a rush of magic enter them, and they could sense their newfound strength.
Hermione and Ron helped up Dumbledore, and Ginny went to help Harry. However, Harry stood up of his own accord, and Dumbledore graciously brushed Ron and Hermione off after he was standing. "MPT?" asked Harry "Certainly." replied Dumbledore. He turned to Ginny, Ron and Hermione "The Magical Power test is on a scale of 1 to 100. Harry, Voldemort and I are all in the 70s, while most wizards are in the 20s to 30s." Harry and Dumbledore performed the charm on themselves. Harry scored 73, while Dumbledore took a 77. Then, Harry performed it on Ron, and Dumbledore performed it on Hermione. Hermione scored a 56, while Ron broke a 61. Harry moved to Ginny, and gasped as the number rose above her head. "What?" she asked, looking upward. "Seventy-One." choked out Ron. The others seemed speechless, and Dumbledore broke the silence. "Well, Mrs. Weasley, it appears you are now officially the most powerful witch in existence."
"Voldemort has a 74." said Harry "Regardless, now all of you can learn the more advanced spells we have wanted to teach you."
The next few months were a blur of training, studying and fun. Harry and his friends had a few run ins with Malfoy, but nothing got out of hand. All of his friends seemed a lot more mature than ever before, and Harry wondered if the Coming to Power ritual had anything to do with it. In one year, his friends had grown up, magically and mentally. After one particularly tiring training session, he had told Ron "Look at it this way. After this year, you won't need to study for the rest of your life."
At this point in time, training sessions were non-lethal duels, with Harry verse Dumbledore, Ginny verse Sirius, Ron verse Moody, and Hermione verse Tonks, for most of the time. Occasionally, they switched off partners, but only Ginny could match Harry and Dumbledore for power, and she did not have their knowledge base yet. However, she could duel with them for extended periods of time, and the others were all pretty well matched.
Sirius's ego had taken quite a beating from getting continuously beat by an eleven year old girl, until they had a round robin tournament. After seeing her beat Moody, Ron, Hermione, and Tonks, he felt a bit relieved.
Finally, it was the final day of Harry's second year at Hogwarts, and he wished it would never end. He knew that next year would not be nearly as good as this one. He had passed all his exams perfectly, as had his friends. Gryffindor had won the House and the Quidditch cup, and no major problems had reared up. Now, Harry looked out his window and could only see all of their innocence preparing to flee.
A/N: Well, I hope you like it. I wasn't sure if I wanted to end Harry's second year so soon, but I'm not into copious amounts of fluff, and I think I got the important stuff.
Anyway, I still have no beta, so if anyone wants to, let me know.
Any other Questions or Comments will be answered accordingly.
Knighted Lioness: Part of the reason Harry was not 'the top' is two reasons: First, I wanted to show that he couldn't waltz in and blow Voldemort up with no problems. The hardest part of the time travel idea is that everything could be really easy to 'do over' and I don't want it to be like that.
Secondly, I wanted to show that minor differences don't matter that much, and with hard work even major one can even be compensated for. For instance, Hermione has a 56, and Ron has 61. Does this mean that Ron will win every time, because of a five point difference? No. Think of it a bit like an IQ test. If someone scores a 120, and someone else scores a 125, the person with the 120 is not necessarily going to score lower on everything.
Therefore, with a 73, Harry can beat Voldemort or Dumbledore, but not with total ease. However, if he was to face a wizard far more experienced in the 40s, then he could break all of their shields without trying too hard.