Hogwarts Year 3
Chapter 7
Harry grabbed Hermione's hand ,after the feast was over and told her to come with him, it was her turn to spy on the Slytherin's. The two appeared in the Slytherin quarters and Harry showed Hermione how to find the common room and listen without being noticed. As soon as the two had settled in the room started to fill up. Hermione heard why Pansy looked so frazzled as she had only arrived a few minutes before showing up in the Great Hall. Pansy had made arrangements to come by floo since the ride home had been so terrible for her she couldn't trust riding the train. Since she had been found tied up and gagged her parents had demanded to know why. Once they heard it was because she got caught trying to assault another girl on the train she had spent the entire Christmas break being punished, for getting caught. "The worst was trying to explain why I had strange writing on my head which said 'BACK STABBING SLUT' when I looked in the mirror", Pansy was heard to say. Pansy said it took almost four days to get rid of that writing, it kept coming back.
When Harry and Hermione both laughed for a while once they got back inside the quarters concerning what they had just heard. Hermione said it was Luna's spell that put the writing on Pansy's head and a strong Finite should had ended it, but she guessed Pansy, and family, were too dumb to try that. Hermione asked how Harry had brought them to the quarters so quickly. Harry explained that he had made a portkey to take him to each of the places in Hogwarts, Gryffindor and Slytherin's quarters, his dorm room, plus the chamber, and Hermione's necklace would do the same thing – except her's took her to her dorm room. Since this was the first "alone" time they had had, they spent a little time making out before returning to their rooms.
The following weekend is when Harry had a chance to take the present to the basilisk. Harry explained that he understood that the snake wasn't acquainted with human customs but that the "present" was a portkey to take the snake to a safe place where it could live out its life in peace and have somewhere to hunt. Harry mentioned that due to its size it would most likely be the head basilisk in the area. The snake's only regret was that there would be no large spiders there, Harry said that he would find a way to fix that. After letting the snake hunt spiders one last time, Harry stuck the portkey on the snake and activated it. Harry decided to leave the target there for now, it might come in handy later.
Harry left the "snake chamber" open and asked the elves to clean it out so it could be used for other purposes. Harry found that over the holidays the elves had finished cleaning the whole chamber area and it was now ready for remodeling. The first thing he felt should be done was to ask Rocky to carve a square in the floor of the main area, this square was 10 feet along each side and would be the portkey arrival area. The area was then colored red as a warning not to step there or stand there. This would be the only area that anyone could arrive via portkey, so that was where he set the target.
Next he asked Rocky to create several small rooms for the elves to use as their own for bedrooms and such. Rocky was glad to do all this as it was fun for him to rearrange the stone, Rocky even went as far as to smooth the floors throughout the chamber area. It took the elves to create the plumbing system so the restrooms worked and they had running water. While all this was going on the girls were in the library looking over the new arrangement Reggie had done, and they were impressed. Everything had been sorted by subject and was neatly arranged on the shelves. Looking into the potion lab he found that it had been updated and restocked, the elves reported that several strange elves had appeared and thrown out all of the supplies and done the restocking. The ritual room was very clean and had new candles and torches in it.
The five kids discussed the request of the basilisk to move some of the spiders to its new location so it could continue to have access to that delicacy. One suggestion was to somehow tag some of the spiders and send them to the portkey target and let them breed and setup home there. Neville suggested that they use the same idea but send all of the spiders there. Harry didn't like that idea as the spiders served as a defense for Hogwarts that most people didn't want to deal with. Remembering that it was Hagrid who had originally gotten the spiders started in the forest Harry suggested asking him about the idea.
Susan said she didn't think that would be such a good idea as then they would have to tell Hagrid about the chamber and the basilisk. They all agreed that even though they all liked Hagrid he couldn't keep a secret for longer than a week before saying something to someone. "Besides if Hagrid knew about the basilisk he would want to use it in class, that wouldn't be good" Susan added. "Harry, you should have gotten pictures of the basilisk for Hagrid and Remus to use in class. Those drawings in the books aren't nearly clear enough to really study them" Hermione added, and Harry agreed.
The year moved along, the only thing that changed was now Dumbledore took over DADA whenever Remus was "indisposed". The very first class that Dumbledore did with the Slytherins ended with Draco loosing points for not having his homework ready. The most interesting thing Dumbledore did was to bring Fawkes to class and explain that even though the phoenix wasn't a dark creature he was a very interesting one. Even Harry liked that class since it provided more information on his animagi form.
In transfiguration, McGonagall touched on animagi and how to tell if an animal was actually a wizard, or witch, in animal form. She had a combined class with Remus for that one, the first was lecture but in the second half of the double class the instructors asked each student to bring their pet so they could test their spells. That's when things became very interesting in the duo DADA/Transfiguration's class. To start McGonagall wasn't there at the start, but Remus did have a cat with him that glowed when the spell was cast on it. The cat turned out to be McGonagall. The instructors wanted to show that the spell worked. Ron was having a real problem with Scabbers, the rat didn't want to stay still in its cage. This drew attention to him from both instructors since when Ron tried the spell on top of the hyper active pet Ron also misspoke the incantation. When Hermione corrected his pronunciation the rat glowed. That should not happen, and the fact it did drew much attention from both instructors. Remus cast an unbreakable charm on the cage and McGonagall had everyone move back away from the cage.
Remus took a real close look at the rat and said Sirius needed to be called along with Madame Bones. "If I am correct this rat is Pettigrew. If so he will not be staying here long after Madame Bones and Sirius get here, or I will kill him myself.", Remus was heard to say very angrily. "Only if you get him before I do, he was the cause of my parents death" Harry added with much venom in his voice.
A message was sent and very quickly Sirius and Amelia arrived. Harry caught Sirius as soon as he came in and told him they might have a problem, the wards would grab Peter as soon as he changed if he was marked. Sirius just grinned and asked if the wards had been changed or did they still cause pain? The rat had become so agitated that he had been stunned by McGonagall prior to Sirius' and Amelia's arrival. The room was sealed and nobody noticed that Harry had done this. Nothing would leave the room, or come in it, until Harry removed his seal. The rat was removed from the cage and Remus did the forced reversal spell, nothing happened. The spell was tried again with Sirius adding his wand to the spell and the rat wavered but remained a rat. This puzzled both men, until they heard Harry start the same spell, and he was glowing brightly. The rat changed into a sleeping Peter Pettigrew who now had fiery bands around him.
Everyone except Hermione, Neville, Remus, Sirius, and McGonagall moved back from Harry. "Mr. Potter are the bands really necessary? And please calm down you are scaring the other students." McGonagall said as she gently placed a hand on Harry's shoulder. Harry looked at his professor and grinned, but the glow just faded away.
"The bands won't harm him, as long as he doesn't try and change back or use magic. They are more for shock value, but could restrain a troll if needed." Harry answered.
Pettigrew was awaken and he immediately started running off at the mouth, until Amelia silenced him. "He was starting to get on my nerves" was her only reply as she removed a vial of Veritaserum from her robes. "This should be very interesting, and much quieter." Amelia added.
Putting three drops in Peter's mouth Amelia started asking questions. Peter admitted that he was the secret keeper for James and Lily Potter and that it was he who told Voldemort where to find the family. Peter admitted that he had framed Sirius for the murder of the muggles and the destruction of the street that night. Harry asked one question, "Why did you betray the Potter family?"
"The rest of them were so good at spells and potions. They made me feel inferior to all the rest of the people around me. The Dark Lord offered me a chance to be somebody important, a way to outshine those that made fun of me" was Peter's reply. Harry just starred at the excuse of a man and canceled his sealing charm, which caused Peter to be picked up and surrounded by a sick green glow and he started screaming. Harry just whispered that as soon as an auror touched him the ward would release. Sirius grabbed the man's arm, the glow vanished and he stopped screaming. The fiery bands disappeared and Sirius had to apply his own binding spell quickly.
Harry just turned around and left the room, followed closely by Hermione. As soon as they were alone Hermione grabbed Harry's arm and took them both to the Slytherin quarters so Harry could have some quiet time. It was a few minutes later when Harry sat up and said he had forgotten that if Sirius, or another auror, wasn't touching a prisoner the wards would reclaim them. It turned out Sirius found that out when he tried to turn Peter over to Amelia and let go of Peter's arm. Peter's trial was held the very next day and he was sent to Azkaban.
It was Easter and life at Hogwarts had settled down to what some would call "normal". Harry had asked Hagrid about the spiders and was told that there seemed to be quite a few missing, which pleased the centaurs. Hagrid even mentioned that it was his fault that the spiders were in the forest, and told Harry the story of how it happened. Hagrid had a soft spot in his heart for all creature, but was drawn to the more dangerous ones – except the Dementors, those he didn't care about and freely admitted he wouldn't shed a tear if they all disappeared.
Over the Easter holidays Harry was able to install the Death Eater wards in the ministry. The minister complained that it should have been approved through his office first, but it was too late now. The first day fifteen people were caught as they exited the floo system. The problem came when six more aurors were also caught when they responded to the ones trapped. The only department that didn't lose at least one member was the one that Arthur Weasley worked in, it must have not been deemed valuable enough to infiltrate. The aurors were very surprised when they were called to the Department of Mysteries to remove two "unspeakables" from the ward. That department had thought they were hidden enough not to be effected, they were wrong. Now everyone wanted the wards around their houses, only to be told that it wasn't possible at that time, it took too much energy to power the wards – at least that was what was said.
It was also during the Easter holidays that Harry made a quick trip to the dragon reserve and found the dragon leader had returned, and brought several more dragons with him. When Harry happened to mention the basilisk the dragon asked if it was anywhere close as he had not eaten a basilisk in many years, they were too hard to catch. Harry also mentioned his staff Patronus and the dragon had to see it, and laughingly said that should scare anything, except maybe another dragon.
Harry changed the ward that caught Death Eaters, it no longer caused pain, it just sounded like a siren going off when it caught someone, a very loud siren. And nobody could figure how to silence it until the aurors arrived. There were two problems with the wards; one, prisoners had to have an auror hand on them at all time when not in a cell and two, it even caught one in the air above Bones Manor and several muggles saw the strange glow and heard the siren.
Easter was over and McGonagall and Flitwick had a problem, five of them to be exact. They had taught the five much magic and many spells. The problem was they were now getting into sixth year spells in both transfiguration and charms with Harry and Hermione, while the other three were getting into late fourth year material. It was getting harder to hide the advancement of the five. It came to a head one day when McGonagall asked how they had been able to practice the spells and not alert anyone? Harry explained that Hogwarts helped them by blocking their magic from anyone not in the group, especially from the headmaster.
McGonagall said she and Flitwick had spoken and while most of the Charms taught could be practiced just about anywhere some of the transfiguration spells couldn't, and shouldn't without supervision. Hermione countered with asking if anyone supervised all the students when they did homework and practiced out of class? McGonagall admitted defeat on the subject. "I bet that both of you have already tried the animagi transformation, haven't you?" McGonagall asked. Harry and Hermione just looked at each other and nodded. "Well knowing you two, you have animal forms and I want to see them" McGonagall added.
Harry changed into his phoenix form and Hermione into her owl form, neither wanted McGonagall to know about any secondary forms they had. "I should have guessed, Harry you were the second phoenix at the board meeting weren't you? And I guess Hermione has been hanging out in the owl tower watching who sent messages." McGonagall said. Both birds just nodded their heads. "What about the others, are any of them able to change forms?", McGonagall asked. And again both birds nodded.
When Harry and Hermione changed back McGonagall continued her questioning, but neither would tell her what forms any of the others could take. That was up to the individual person to reveal. McGonagall finally admitted defeat again, but asked to see where they had been practicing so Harry changed and offered his tail. The next thing Minnie knew she was in a stone room with many giant snake statues. She guessed correctly that it was the chamber from Harry's second year. But she was surprised when the others just showed up in that red square. Harry just said "Goblin portkeys" in answer to her unasked question. McGonagall was given the tour and she was impressed with what had been done by these five students. She was even more impressed when offered tea and cookies by an elf wearing the emblem of all four houses.
"Professor, you are the first person allowed down here since we took over the chamber. I took a chance and brought you down without asking the others, of course any of them could have brought you down as the portkeys will transport up to three people each. You don't have to worry about the basilisk as I found it a new home where it could live and be free. And I'm pretty sure you don't want to meet my other "large" pet as he would have a hard time fitting in here. I am also sure you have many questions. To answer one of those questions; no none of the elves came from Hogwarts, but several Hogwarts elves helped clean the place up and we do get some of our food from the kitchens." Harry explained.
The six of them spent almost an hour and a half down in the training area with Minnie asking questions and one of her students providing the answers. It when Luna said she would be right back that Minnie learned of the restrooms that had been placed in the chamber. But it was getting time for supper and Harry flashed the professor back to her classroom and said they would meet her at supper and simply flashed out again.
A/N: Yes I give my dragons a personality, they are noble and proud creatures and intelligent in my world. Well Peter is caught and out of the way now. What do you think too humane? Now McGonagall knows some of the hidden secrets; will this come back to bite Harry and his friends?
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