Standard Disclaimer: I own nothing in regards to Harry Potter or Jujutsu Kaisen. All properties therein are those of their creators. I am only a writer working on my skills with worlds and characters that I love.
Chapter Seven - The Third Floor Corridor
Some Time Later
Harry was just finishing his three hundredth pull-up when the door to his trunk slammed open and Draco bustled inside, nearly tripping over his feet the entire way down the stairs. "Harry!" he exclaimed.
"Yeah?" The dark haired boy dropped from the bar and walked over to greet his clearly panicking friend. "What's wrong?"
The blond took a few moments to get his breathing under control again before he shoved a note into his hands and said, "I couldn't find Hermione. So I went to knock on her door and it just… opened on its own. That note was on her bed.
Harry took it quickly and skimmed through its contents.
*I have your friend and the Ravenclaw too. If you want them back, come find me in the bowels of the third floor corridor, Potter. Prepare for your end.*
"Well that is rather ominous." He muttered.
"What are we going to do?" Draco asked. Those were their friends missing right now. "Should we get one of the teachers?"
"That's an excellent idea, Draco. Come on."
The two ascended the stairs and a short time later found themselves knocking on the door to the transfiguration classroom. It was rather lucky that Minerva was grading papers at her desk at that moment as she opened the door to view them but a second later.
"Mr. Potter, and Mr. Malfoy. What matter brings you to my door? It's the weekend after all, should you not be playing outside?"
Instead of answering, Harry handed the woman the note and watched as her face grew ever more stormy. "We were hoping you'd know what to do here. The alternative is me going on a rampage."
Minerva nodded and stuffed the note in her pocket. "You were right to come to me. Now let's see, Albus is currently gone from the grounds. Some ministry matter came up that required him to attend. Damn idiot took a broom of all things so he'll likely be gone for some time."
"What about the DMLE?" Draco piped up, earning an approving nod from the older woman.
"Ten points to Slytherin for logical thought and appropriate reactions. Come with me." She took them both through the classroom to her personal office and promptly stuck her head in her fireplace. Five minutes later she came back up, magicking away the soot from her face at the same time. "Aurors are coming, but with how short handed they are the soonest they can arrive is twenty minutes from now."
"Hermione and Padma might not have that long!" Harry burst out.
"I know that, Harry." Hoping to ease his stress, McGonagoll referred to her favorite student by his first name for the first time since school had started. "So I am going to go down there and try to buy some time."
"We're coming too."
"Absolutely not!"
"If you don't take us with you we are just going to follow you anyway."
Minerva steamed over this for several seconds before realizing nothing short of a stupify would keep these boys away, and if the troll was anything to go by that might not even work. "Fine. But you stay behind me at all times and do exactly as I say."
The children were quick to agree and soon the three were making their way to the third floor corridor with wands drawn. Upon arrival Harry and Draco got to watch in awe as McGonagoll became a force of magical nature. A three headed dog, who had been sleeping over a trapdoor while a magical harp played, suddenly found himself launched across the room and chained to the wall with metal links that rose from nowhere.
A large batch of devil's snare below them was incinerated in an instant before they were levitated down. A room full of flying keys came next, but the teacher simply blew the door to the next room off its hinges with an overpowered concussive spell.
When they reached the chess set she was all set to levitate them over safely when Harry intoned, "Black menagerie." To her shock a host of monsters blacker than night leapt from his body and smashed her chess pieces to… pieces.
"What was that?" Both she and Draco wanted to know.
Harry shrugged as his monsters returned to him. "My most powerful attack. Yuki actually beat those curses, but she let me have them instead of exorcizing them completely. Let's keep going."
The Scotswoman found herself wondering not for the first time why Albus had insisted the teachers not make their obstacles lethal. Getting down this far had been literal child's play, as in she could easily see children getting past these obstacles.
The challenge after that would have been the troll, but for obvious reasons it was not there and Professor Quirrel apparently had not seen fit to replace it yet, so they all passed right on through and progressed to a point where they were faced with three things. One, a logic test involving potions. Two, Hermione and Padma, bound and unconscious in a corner. And three, a shadowy man just visible through a wall of flames. Clearly the kidnapper. Before anyone could react, Minerva drank the potion, instructed them to get the girls out, and ran through the fire to confront the strange figure.
Silence reigned for all of two seconds before Draco saw the cruel smile forming on his best friend's face. "What are you going to do, Harry?"
"Isn't it obvious? That bastard took our friends, Draco. I hate it when people mess with my things."
"That's no doubt a fully trained wizard. You can't beat that."
The cruel smile turned downright predatory at those words. "But of course I can, my friend. I'm the boy who lived, and he's a walking corpse. He just doesn't know it yet. Get the girls to safety and I'll see you soon."
Before the blonde could argue any further, Harry pumped his body full of his cursed energy and dived through the fire, not even pausing to smirk at how it didn't affect him.
He walked into a warzone that he only barely understood. McGonagoll and what seemed to be Professor Quirrel were locked in mortal combat, spells flashing faster than the average eye could see and the very room itself warping to the will of the casters with impaling spikes of stone and bullets of glass going off in every direction.
As he watched, trying to determine the best possible strategy, a stray spell came out of nowhere and impacted his chest, sending him flying into the wall.
"Harry!" Minerva's eyes locked onto her fallen student and her opponent took the chance to scream, "Incarcera!" Links of chain stronger than diamonds locked around the transfiguration mistress's body, pinning her arms and legs in place and causing her to crash to the floor, her wand skidding across the stone.
All was silent, and then Quirrel started laughing. Wait. Quirrel's lips weren't moving. The turbaned man slowly unwound the fabric from his head and turned his back to the terrified teacher, revealing the corrupted visage of Lord Voldemort himself.
"Well," His voice was a pained hiss, too serpentine to be anything resembling human, "if nothing else is accomplished tonight then at least I have silenced Harry Potter. Now come, Minerva McGonagall, there is something in the mirror I wish for you to retrieve." The backwards being reached down to retrieve the newly struggling witch, but before his fingers could make contact they were crushed in the jaw of a red skinned monstrosity with the head of a bear and the body of a jungle cat. The possessed man hissed with pain, launched the beast across the room, and apparated to the other side of the space at once. Of course it was only after he reappeared that he realized he'd sent his attacker straight at the mirror, causing it to shatter from the impact. It was inconceivable. After all the protections Albus had wrought, he'd not added an indestructible charm to the mirror!?
Free for the moment, the professor shot her head to the side and saw the young Mr. Potter, standing tall, proud, and literally excreting a hoard of red, black, and green monsters. "Night Parade of A Hundred Demons." He bit out with a dark grin.
For his part, Harry felt amazing. Better than he ever had. The concussive force of the spell that had hit him had knocked his body over, but instead of pain, it was almost as if the energy sent had been absorbed directly into his body, flooding him with strength and vigor. It was as he sent his opponent running that it hit him. He had been unknowingly absorbing magical energies in the form of cursed energy into his body since he was five years old. From there he had trained specifically to channel and mold it into strength and power. The act was pure muscle memory now and when the dark wanker had sent a 'magical' attack at him he'd unknowingly been gifting him with a boost. Oh the possibilities! He'd never been able to summon this many of his servants at once before!
That was for later though. Right now he had a kidnapper that needed killing and an actually decent teacher that needed freeing. He started by sending the hoard Quirrel's way in all directions, and the troll right up the middle, forcing the dark lord to jump from one position to another to avoid death, all the while he kept firing a torrent of spells at the beasts to try and even the odds.
Meanwhile Harry ran to Minerva's side and asked, "How do I get you out?" He was worried that putting enough force out to break those chains, or getting the troll to do it, would only hurt the older woman.
"My wand!" Minerva turned her head to the side, and seeing the focus lying by the wall, the boy who lived quickly retrieved it and put it in her hand. A moment later McGonagall transfigured her chains into a length of loose cloth and pulled herself free.
Harry nodded at the sight and said, "Pure magic will not harm me now. At least I don't think so. Let me take those hits and focus on defensive transfiguration until you have a shot."
The transfiguration professor did not like anything about this situation, but she knew there was no choice. This was the only room that Albus had seemed to take the defense of seriously, and it was lined completely with anti-apparition runes. The only way out was to crush the foe before her.
So she hunched her shoulders, raised her wand, and the duo got to work. Voldemort, now fully in control of Quirrel's body, shot up into the air like a rocket, enraged at the destruction of the mirror. He started off with a flurry of spells intent on death and decapitation, but Harry or his creatures met every one, and each time his body was impacted his eyes grew wider, his smile darker, and after a while a visible aura of power began to emanate from his form.
As Minerva started her own volley of spell fire the boy launched himself across the room with an ax of all things in his hand, using his smaller beasts as launching boards to get into the air and begin trying to cleave his former defense against the dark arts professor's body in two! He kept catching up to the distracted man over and over again to swing anew, and each time the dark wizard apparated away. Fun fact about anti-apparition wards, they only stop people from coming in or out of a set location, not from making the jumps inside the barriers themselves.
Voldemort, eyes wide at the stunning displays of power, and aware that none of his other spells had worked, apparated like mad around the room to dodge Minerva's spells and the hellish animal's bites, and sent conjured spears and transfigured knives at the boy, watching with fascination as he worked to dodge them. It was clear to him now that only physical attacks would do. Oh bother.
Harry was dodging out of habit at this point. He knew regular blades could not hurt him, but who knew about the magically conjured variety. He'd need to test that later, but first he needed to end this fight. He could go on, and clearly his foe could as well, but McGonagall was starting to flag. Age and lack of practice had dulled her cardio to a staggering degree.
He skidded to a stop beside her, digging his ax head into the ground to slow his momentum. "I have maybe one more distraction in me before my cursed spirits will need to return to me. Every second they are out in this large a number saps at my energy."
The older witch nodded, neither taking their eyes off the faux dark lord as he continued to dodge the monsters leaping strikes. "I'll be ready."
With a nod Harry ran to the other side of the room, set his feet in a power stance, and raised his hands over his head, latching onto the awareness of every cursed spirit he had let out. When he had them all in hand he pulled them into a single force behind and over him.
"Hey ugly!" Harry shouted, getting the two faced man's attention. "You shouldn't have messed with my friends! Bestial Wave!" He forced his hands down in front of him and the monsters swarmed forth as one, reminiscent of a tidal wave of claws, teeth, and tentacles.
At once Quirrelmort summoned a shield to hold them off, but the difference in weight pushed his feet so hard into the ground that the stone cracked beneath them.
The possessed man screamed under the weight of his barrier and as it flexed and glowed under the might of his magic and concentration, Minerva capitalized on the distraction and sent a piercing hex straight through the dark wizard's forehead. For a moment he seemed almost shocked that it had connected, but as blood started to freely fall from the golf ball sized hole in his head his body fell to the ground and the cursed spirits claimed it.
As Quirrel fell, and the swarm eventually started pulling back into a clearly winded Harry's body, the witch thanked the gods he hadn't been expecting the young Potter's particular brand of insanity. Had he been prepared she wasn't sure she would have ever had the chops to do what she had.
However it wasn't finished. As the witch and wizard marveled at their victory a specter of wrath rose from the corpse, and shot straight through the ceiling. Harry and Minerva gave each other worried looks at the sight, neither sure as to what exactly had just happened, but they didn't have long to think before the flames behind them flash froze and shattered, revealing the startled visage of Albus Dumbledore.
He took one look at the shattered mirror, the horribly mauled corpse of his defense teacher, the panting transfiguration teacher, and the currently grinning boy who lived and roared, "What in Merlin's name happened here!"
The next day saw Hermione and Padma waking from their potion induced slumber in the hospital wing to a pair of worried emerald eyes. "What happened?" Padma spoke up first.
"You-you were both kidnapped yesterday." Harry answered slowly.
Eyes wide, Hermione asked, "By who? Were-Were we-"
"You weren't touched." Harry assured her. "It's a bit of a long story but Professor Quirrel was hosting the undead spirit of the dark lord Voldemort. Professor McGonagoll explained it and she and I think he took you both because he saw how close we were and wanted to draw me out. Needless to say, we made him suffer for it."
"So he's gone now?"
"Quirrel is dead and old Voldy fled like a bitch." Harry smirked. "But that's the past and I can explain it in greater detail later. Right now the leaving feast is about to start and we're dangerously close to missing it." He reached his hands forward, offering one to each of the girls before him. "Would you two lovely ladies care to join me?"
"Won't Madam Pompfrey have a problem with us just walking out?" Padma had heard horror stories about the control freak matron of the medical ward.
"If you were actually injured then sure. But you were just unconscious. Come on."
The girls took his hands and they were off. Because it was an important event Padma had to sit at the Ravenclaw table, but each of the core group was still keeping each other in sight. They had no intention of letting one of their number be taken again.
As the chatter carried on and the students stuffed their faces for the last time, Headmaster Dumbledore stood up from his massive (and a huge sign of compensating for something) chair and addressed the hall at large. "Another year has come and gone, and I'm sure we have all made some excellent friends and experienced memories that will stick with us for a lifetime. First, I would like to address the elephant in the room. You may have noticed that Professor Quirrel is not with us. He left last night to deal with a personal family matter and will not be returning next year. (He was definitely not planning to tell a room full of impressionable youngsters that the man had been murdered!) Our thoughts and prayers are with him."
"Now, time for the presentation of the house cup. It is with great pride that I announce, the house with the highest number of house points was….. Slytherin!"
As the tapestries around the hall magically swapped colors to green and silver Harry and his friends openly smirked. They knew for a fact that they were responsible for the win. Their own grades notwithstanding, Harry had insisted that the house he resided in would be one of excellence, as was proper, and his fellow Slytherins were too terrified of him to not study when he told them to get top marks.
Things went about as expected from there. The bearded goat gave some more asinine comments, wished everyone a happy summer, and announced the train would be leaving within the next three hours. The children laughed, talked, and carried on as usual. At the Slytherin table it was all cheers and exuberance, even though most of the older students had long since realized that winning the house cup meant absolutely nothing in the grander scheme of their lives.
Nothing strange happened until the students were leaving the school grounds and making their way onto the Hogwarts Express to return home. It was there that both Hagrid and Professor Snape (of all people) stopped Harry and led him aside.
"Here ya are there 'arry." Hagrid rumbled, handing the boy a thickly bound leather photo album. "Sorry I 'aven't called ya over for a spot a tea this year, but I was working on me special project here. I called 'round, and asked ery'one I could, and scrounged up some photos of your parents."
Harry practically ripped the book open and glued his eyes to the moving photographs of a man with glasses that looked a lot like him, and a woman whose features called to him like none other. From the furthest memory he could recall, the one wish that burned brighter inside him than any other was the desire to know what his parents had looked like. He wasn't disappointed.
For several long minutes he stared at that first image, unable to look away for a moment before a soft hand gripped his shoulder. Harry looked up into the serious gaze of Severus Snape and beheld the thickly packed envelope in his hand.
"Mr. Potter… Harry. You have impressed me this year. The quality of your work in potions has been exemplary, and your conduct… nothing like your monster of a father." The man visibly braced himself before handing over the envelope. "Your mother and I were close friends for several years. In this envelope are the collected letters between us from our time in school. I thought you might appreciate seeing writing in her own hand."
For the first time in years Harry dropped all the airs of his pride and looked into Snape's eyes with pure gratitude. "Thank you, sir. You're not as mean as you seem, are you?"
Severus smiled (A sight so strange it caused several weaker students to break out into tears of anxiety) "Don't tell anyone. I wouldn't want your classmates to think I'm soft."
"Wouldn't dream of it, professor."
"Have a productive summer, Mr. Potter." Snape nodded to the boy in farewell and took his leave, Hagrid right on his tail.
As the train whistle sounded, announcing its imminent departure, Harry spotted his friends waving him into their car and thought to himself that this was going to be the best summer of his life.