Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Harry Potter or Oh My Goddess.
Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Order of Merlin (First Class), Grand Sorceror, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards and Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was currently an extremely frustrated and worried wizard. His most important project for the past decade had gone seriously off course, and he could not for the life of him figure out just what had occurred.
The first warning he'd had was when one of the silver instruments in his office had abruptly stopped working. This was concerning, as this particular instrument was set to monitor the blood wards that protected one Harry James Potter from Voldemort. Of course, Dumbledore would never allow that kind of information to ever become public. Blood wards were highly illegal regardless of the intentions of the caster, plus Dumbledore had no desire to ever admit that the only thing the wards did was protect the Boy-Who-Lived from You-Know-Who exclusively.
Any other wizard or witch wouldn't even notice the wards if they should attempt to do the boy harm. And there were plenty out there who would - Lucius Malfoy might have played the smart game of appearing to have redeemed himself, but other Death Eaters that had been pardoned due to "coercion by Imperius" were not nearly as devious and might have had a go at the young hero regardless of the personal cost.
This was part of the reason behind Harry's placement in the muggle world. Security from obscurity was an appealing prospect to the aged Headmaster, as it was a tactic he'd used with great success in the past to hide things as varied as the true nature of his wand right through to the truth regarding his earlier relationship with one Gellert Grindelwald.
The larger part of the reason had been, naturally, the upkeep of Harry's blood wards. The Supreme Mugwump had needed a blood relative of Lily Potter, nee Evans, and his search had come up mostly dry. Petunia Dursley, nee Evans, was his only choice. As a result he had completely disregarded the advice of Minerva McGonagall and had left young Harry in the care of his aunt.
He had taken a few precautions, of course. He'd left Arabella Figg nearby to keep an eye on things and then used a relatively unknown charm that helped the existence of Harry Potter fade into the background. All files and reports regarding the Boy-Who-Lived now enjoyed the benefits of something that made his records very hard to notice, let alone find. The last thing the Headmaster wanted was for somebody at the Ministry of Magic to reveal the secret after finding Harry's files by accident.
Now, however, it looked like the wheels had fallen off the cart - to use a muggle expression. The behaviour of the instrument - which had gone from peacefully spinning to a dead halt almost instantly - seemed to indicate that the blood wards hadn't decayed or failed. Decaying wards would have been evident by a steady decrease in the speed of the rotations, while failed wards would probably have seen the instrument self-destruct (Dumbledore kept permanent magical barriers around his wide collection of instruments to guard against such an eventuality). The sudden and almost instant cessation of all movement indicated one thing - somebody had removed the wards deliberately and intentionally. They had not been breached or destroyed; they had been unwound and depowered.
This was very worrisome. Dumbledore did not know of anybody outside of the Department of Mysteries who had the skill to achieve such a total dissolution of such powerful wards with so little fuss. Even the best ward breakers at Gringotts would have caused magical surges in the process of dismantling such a ward scheme. That the process had gone so smoothly meant that whoever had done it was a true expert.
It also meant that Harry Potter was not protected from Voldemort. Albus wasn't sure which prospect worried him more - the fact that the boy prophesied to defeat the Dark Lord had lost his most powerful protection, or that a new player had entered the game...one who might rival the Chief Warlock in terms of skill and expertise.
Wizards and witches of that skill level were rare. Rare enough that Dumbledore knew them all, through groups like the ICW as well as professional gatherings such as academic conferences. For somebody on that level to be in the UK without Dumbledore being aware was very disconcerting for the aged Headmaster.
His first response to the failure of his device was to floo to Figg's house immediately and walk to the Dursley household as fast as his old legs could manage. The results of his investigation had been less than satisfactory. The Dursleys had started off by shouting at him and attempting to force him to leave. He had eventually resorted to paralysing and silencing them, only allowing them to speak when he wanted answers. Not that he got anything meaningful from them until he, reluctantly, used his impressive Legilimency skills on them.
What he had found shocked the Supreme Mugwump. Three blood relatives of Harry on his mother's side? Relatives who apparently knew about the magical world, and knew of Harry's status as a wizard? Albus had never heard of these people before, and was deeply suspicious of their claims and purported identities.
All other investigations at the Dursley household proved fruitless. A quick scan revealed that Harry was nowhere near and that the blood wards had vanished from the face of the planet. No residual magic was left to even give a hint of what had been done to dispel the wards, which indicated a skill level that dwarfed even Dumbledore's. The complete absence of any signature magic traces meant that whoever had lifted the wards had used exactly the required amount of power and not a skerrick more. That kind of precision was practically unheard of.
The Dursley's memories of the forms they had been compelled to sign were the most useful result of his investigation at Privet Drive. They were muggle adoption forms, which meant there would be a paper trail to follow up. Accordingly, Dumbledore had headed for the nearest Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
When Urd returned to their new home in Hinckley, she found that Skuld had beaten her there by a few hours. It was hardly surprising - non-magical bureaucracy may be ludicrously complicated and irrational, but it paled into insignificance when compared to a system that was equally labyrinthine but also staffed with people who weren't just incompetent, but maliciously unhelpful as well.
Of course, Urd was used to hostile bureaucracies. She had spent three months of her early career as a fully licensed goddess in the Niflheim liaison office. Humans had nothing on a bunch of demons who were deliberately working on creating the most impenetrable wall of red tape possible.
"Hello Urd. Have you finished with the Ministry of Magic?" Belldandy greeted her eldest sister with her usual smile. The one guaranteed to warm up the coldest days at the North Pole. Urd couldn't help but smile in return.
"It is all sorted out. They were difficult to get on with at first when they realised that we are 'only half-bloods' but I managed to persuade them to do what we needed."
"How did you manage that, Urd?" Keiichi asked, wandering in from where he had been working on his motorcycle. Shipping costs had compelled Keiichi to leave his beloved BMW in Japan, so on his arrival in the UK he had set out to purchase a new bike. Due to his job he had acquired a 1982 Triumph Bonneville T140. Right now he was spending a lot of his spare time working on his new bike, which meant that he was covered with engine oil more often than not.
Urd addressed the man she was sure would be her brother-in-law soon. "There are two ways to get things done at the Ministry of Magic in this country. The first is to be a so-called 'pureblood' with the right connections. The second is to be rich enough that any Ministry worker you meet wants to be your friend on the off-chance that you'll pay them for the favour. I just hinted that my family has a large quantity of gold stashed away and they all bent over backwards to help me."
"Urd! That was dishonest!" Belldandy scolded.
"Not really," Urd replied with a smirk, "first of all we will soon have a large quantity of gold stashed away. I'll be setting up an account with that Gringotts bank the magicals in Britain seem to favour sometime in the next few days. Second, I never bribed anyone or even promised them money. I just let them know I was wealthy and they helped me out of their own free will."
Belldandy frowned slightly. She hated hearing about this kind of corruption, but knew that they had to work with the system as it was. At least in the short term, reform could come later if needed.
"At any rate, back to the task at hand. How is our cousin handling things?" Urd asked.
Belldandy brightened a bit. "He seems quite fine. He was nervous at first, and is more than just a little fearful, but I gave him an early dinner soon after we got home and he's now in his new room asleep. He should remain that way until tomorrow."
"Good. Then we really should finish up and secure this property, pronto." Urd said seriously. She was relieved that young Harry seemed to be taking the changes well, she had fully expected the abused child to have freaked out at some point. Or broken down into tears.
Belldandy nodded, and turned to Keiichi. "Dear, could you please find Skuld and ask her to join us in the yard? We will need her help for this."
"Sure thing. Do you need my help at all?" Keiichi asked, fully expecting to be left out. He rarely had anything to contribute to the goddess' magical work.
"Actually, we might need your help moving some rocks around for the initial array," Urd stated, "once the wards are set up we can get rid of them, but the initial ritual will need a specific runic mandala. Up to some heavy lifting, K1?"
Keiichi shrugged. "I suppose so. Are we doing this now?"
"Yes dear, the sooner the better. Come with me, Urd, I'll show you what I've mapped out so far..." Belldandy said as she led her sister out to the garden.
Albus Dumbledore was feeling marginally better as he left the muggle Registrar's office. A few subtle charms and mild Legilimency probes had garnered him the information he wanted. One Harry James Potter had been formally adopted by his second cousin Belldandy Morisato and her husband Keiichi. Everything was by the book; the relevant forms for the Dursleys to relinquish their guardianship, forms for Miss Belldandy to become the new guardian, the necessary files regarding family background etc.
The big giveaway was that everything had been processed in the space of a few hours, whereas normal practice would have the entire exercise take months or years to complete. Obviously magic had been involved, but Dumbledore wasn't able to determine exactly how this miracle had been worked.
The most useful bit of information that he had found was the address for where Keiichi and Belldandy Morisato lived. That would be the Headmaster's next port of call...once he figured out where Hinckley was.
"Ah well, I guess the Knight Bus will have to suffice." With that, Albus held out his wand in the required fashion, and was soon rewarded with the arrival of the purple triple decker. Climbing aboard, he greeted Stan Shunpike and gave his destination. After declining the offer of a toothbrush, he settled down and did his best to ignore the lurches that the bus made as it dodged lorries on its way north.
Urd inspected the mandala that Belldandy had traced on the ground.
"It looks good, Bell. I take it that you've found a local source of energy to supply it?"
"Yes, Urd dear. This site has been a centre for ritual for thousands of years, all because it is situated over the junction of two ley lines. We can tap into that and get all the energy we need without harming anything that may depend on the ley lines elsewhere."
Urd whistled. She had been hoping for a minor earth power line or a local spirit who could be persuaded to help. Two ley lines, and the junction between them? That was serious power right there. Even minor ley lines had enough energy to keep the most determined demons away...if used correctly. The local wizards wouldn't stand a chance.
"Sounds good to me. I take it Skuld has double-checked your work?" Belldandy was easily the best of the three Norns at creating wards, but it always paid to check. Skuld was ideal for this, as she had created a program for error-checking mandalas. Naturally. Urd suspected that one day Skuld would attempt to create a software program that would replace the Almighty in the decision making process if she was given a chance.
"Yes, sister. Now we just have to position some of the rocks that we acquired from the local gardening shop. After that we can energise the mandala and establish the wards."
The next hour or so was spent carefully positioning small boulders of various types in specific positions within the mandala. Once everything was in place, Belldandy turned to Keiichi.
"Harry is still asleep, but this may wake him up. Can you please go inside and sit with him until we are finished? He may need reassurance when he wakes up in a strange place."
"Sure thing, Belldandy." Keiichi agreed affably. He had seen the sisters create wards before and while he would like to have watched, he could skip this one without any stress. Plus he could see the value of having somebody on hand to calm young Harry if needed.
Albus Dumbledore exited the Knight Bus some distance from his ultimate destination. While he could have had Stan drop him off right at the required address, he felt that a small degree of discretion was required. Accordingly, he waited for the bus to move off before he started a gentle walk to the address listed as Harry's new residence.
He had never been to Hinckley before, and was working from a copied street directory he'd found in London before he caught the bus. He estimated that he was about a mile away as the owl flies when he felt what seemed to be a massive build-up of magical power.
It is coming from where Harry should be, the old man thought worriedly, I cannot dawdle now!
With that thought, the headmaster started a series of short-range apparations in the general direction of where Harry should be. Corner of St Francis Close and Tudor Road!
At said address, the process of building the wards was going well. There had been no surge of power when the ley lines had been tapped, and the mandala was channelling the energy nicely. All three goddesses were perfectly synchronised and had encountered no problems.
Inside the two storey house, Keiichi was sitting quietly in Harry's bedroom on the upstairs level. Harry was still sleeping peacefully in spite of the lightshow going on just outside his window. Keiichi was taking the opportunity to read through one of his "Learn to speak English" books that had been permanently attached to his required reading list ever since he took the job with Triumph.
The wards themselves were taking place fairly nicely, and would be self-sustaining once established. The structure included a permanent tap into the ley line intersection under the church, negating the need for any ward stones to act as an anchor. Once the ritual was complete, the mandala would fade naturally and the temporary rune stones could be placed in more decorative locations. Belldandy already had the first stages of her new garden mapped out, and was looking forward to working on it with Harry.
Dumbledore was now racing up Tudor Road towards his destination. A church of all places, he thought to himself, what kind of person lives in a church? Apart from priests, that is.
To his trained eye, the magic playing over the site was obvious. It looks like somebody is setting up wards, but I've never seen anything like that before. Just what are they doing?
Just as he was coming up to the property boundary, there was one final surge of magic before the swirling energy settled down into...
That's a ward scheme, alright, but it isn't one that I've ever seen before. Merlin's bones, if what I'm seeing is correct...they rival the wards at Hogwarts! Not nearly as much power, but the structure more than compensates for it! Who are these people?
Steeling himself, he went to the front door and grasped the knocker.
The Norns had just finished their ritual, and Skuld was busy checking the results on her terminal.
"OK, it looks like everything worked out as planned. We are now warded for demons, magic-users of hostile intent as well as the usual protections against natural disasters such as fire, flood, storms etcetera. The ley line tap is stable and should last for a few decades before we have to tweak it, so that's worked out better than we anticipated."
"That's good news. Thank you, Skuld." Belldandy said as she watched the mandala slowly fade from view.
"OK, I guess the next step is to-" Urd was cut off as the doorbell sounded. The biggest issue with their new home was that the front door onto the street was to the church, which was separate from their house. The Norns had contemplated reworking the old house of worship into another residential area, as the current house didn't quite have enough space for everybody to have space to live and work (Urd's laboratory was currently still packed into crates until she could find space), but that was a task for the future.
In the mean time, they had a problem of knowing when to answer the front door, as the knocker could not be heard from the house. Skuld had not been deterred, and had wired up a device on the knocker that sounded a doorbell in the main house when it was used.
Urd's face went impassive. "A guest. And judging by the timing, I think I know who it is. You two start working on the scans we'll need for Harry tomorrow - I'll go and handle our visitor."
"Will you need help, sister?" Belldandy asked in a pleasant tone. Urd caught the hidden message in her sister's tone of voice.
"Don't worry Bell," she said with a smirk on her lips, "we won't need anything drastic at this point. He isn't the type to require me to get...active. Though that may change in the future. For now, however, our paperwork will be enough."
With that, Urd marched off in the direction of the church. Belldandy and Skuld glanced at each other, before heading inside to find the living room. It was time to work up a full schedule of scans that would give them the information they would need to properly care for the newest addition to their family.
Dumbledore had been standing at the doors to the church for a few minutes and was starting to wonder if he shouldn't just enter uninvited when one of the doors finally opened. Albus remained impassive as he saw a young, attractive, extremely tan woman with hair that was grey bordering on silver. An impish grin was fixed to her face, as she seemed to weigh the Supreme Mugwump up in a single glance.
"Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, I presume?" She greeted him.
Albus offered a small smile. "That is correct. Who do I have the honour of addressing?"
"Urd Odinsdotter. I would ask you what you wanted here, but I think we both know the answer to that already. How about you come in, so we can discuss this in private?"
"I think that would be advisable."
Dumbledore was slightly concerned. He had sent a gentle Legilimency probe at the young woman the instant he first established eye contact, but it was...strange. Almost as if there was nothing there. He resolved to probe harder if necessary - only Riddle had ever been able to keep his mind fully secure from Dumbledore's Legilimency.
As soon as the door closed, Urd turned on the Headmaster. "I'll be frank. You are here to find out what has happened to Harry Potter, and to take him back to his...relatives." Urd almost spat the last word out, surprising Dumbledore.
"Well, I am here to tell you to give up right now. We are Harry's closest living magical blood relatives. The Dursleys have proven themselves to be grossly inadequate to the task of raising a magical child. We have obtained legal guardianship of our cousin in both the magical and non-magical world, and we will not relinquish it to anybody without good cause."
Dumbledore bristled internally, but remained calm on the outside. "My dear, there is more at stake than..."
"You mean the blood wards?" Urd cut him off. Dumbledore's control slipped for a moment and his shock showed. "Yes, we know all about those. I also disbanded them permanently after we had Harry safely away from that horrible place. Even if you did take him back to Privet Drive, you cannot re-establish the wards. They are gone, Dumbledore."
Albus' expression was stern. "They could always be recast-"
"Really? So who would you sacrifice to do it? Petunia or Dudley? Considering that Vernon is not a blood relative, it would have to be one of those two." Urd said, cutting the Headmaster off again.
"What do you mean, sacrifice?" Dumbledore asked angrily.
Urd shook her head in disgust. "Honestly, you stake so much on those precious blood wards of yours and yet you don't know the first thing about them. Blood wards of that scale require a lot of blood to establish. In Harry's case, it was Lily Potter sacrificing her entire life that allowed them to be cast. The only way to repeat such a ward scheme would be an equal sacrifice. So which Dursley would you kill to keep Harry safe?"
Dumbledore was shocked into silence for a few moments. He had no idea that Harry's blood wards had been...that intense.
"Even so, there is more at stake than you realise!"
Urd smiled mockingly. "There is a lot more that I am aware of, old man, than you would believe possible. We know only too well that the Dark Lord Harry defeated in 1981 is still a threat, and that Harry will be forced to confront him again. We are fully prepared to raise Harry in a safe environment, and bring him up such that he will be ready for the tasks life will throw at him. Something you spectacularly failed to do."
Dumbledore was horrified that critical information had leaked. He drew his wand rapidly, to Obliviate the young woman of information that could spell doom should it fall into the wrong hands.
Unfortunately for the Headmaster, Urd was faster than he was and had anticipated this move. She caught his wrist before he could bring the wand to bear and twisted his arm behind his back, bringing her behind him and locking his wand arm in place.
"Bad move there, Albus. Trying to obliviate somebody you know nothing about." She glanced at the wand that was now right in front of her face. "Oh, and the Elder Wand too? You have been busy, Dumbledore."
Albus was too shocked to respond. He had never seen anybody move that fast before, not even Voldemort at the peak of his power. And the casual reference to the wand he had taken from Grindelwald...
"I'll make this clear. Stay away from Harry Potter. Do not try to contact him, do not approach him, do not bother him in any way. We will look after him and keep him safe. When he turns 11, send him his acceptance letter to Hogwarts - and forget any attempt to blackmail us over that, we both know that Harry must attend. Send it with somebody you trust if you like, we won't mind. Until then, stay away. You won't like what happens if you don't. Understood?"
Dumbledore nodded, hoping that the woman would release his arm before it was torn out of its socket.
"Good. In that case..." Urd frog-marched the Chief Warlock to the front door, which opened as they approached.
"Good bye, Albus. We'll probably meet again in two years time. Until then..." She shoved the old man out the door, where he staggered in an attempt to avoid falling over. She then slammed the door behind him.
"Stupid old git. He's the real reason why we're here fixing things." Urd muttered to herself as she walked back to the house.
Outside, Dumbledore took a moment to collect himself before he apparated away. I will need to consider my next move carefully, he thought, starting with researching blood wards properly. If what she said is true, I'll need a new way of keeping Harry safe from Tom. Once I have more information, I can return to retrieve Harry and place him in a secure location.
Urd entered the house at the back of the block and found her sisters looking over several notebooks full of text written in Divine code. She raised an eyebrow as Skuld and Belldandy looked up.
"Any problems, dear sister?" Belldandy asked gently.
"Not really. He did pull his wand with the intention to obliviate me, but I put an end to that without damaging him."
Belldandy's eyes narrowed. Urd got the hint. "OK, I may have bruised his ego and hurt his arm a bit, but it was nothing permanent. I even let him keep his wand. One thing, though - he has the Elder Wand and is its current master."
Skuld looked surprised. "I thought the humans had lost Hel's little gift centuries ago. Any idea where he got it from?"
Urd shook her head. "It was a surprise to me as well. Maybe I should write to my mother and let her know that it is back in circulation. Nah, maybe not. So, how have you gone on the scanning front?"
Belldandy picked up a sheet which seemed to have a summary. "Skuld and I cast a preliminary scan from here and have used the results as a guide to tomorrow's examination. We've compiled everything into this list. Could you check it over and see if we missed anything?"
Urd took the proffered list and read it through thoroughly. Her eyebrows climbed higher and higher as she went down the page.
"Whoa. I had no idea it was this bad. This is a lot more than I thought we'd need. Anything in particular that is worrying you?"
Belldandy looked pensive. "There's something about his scar that is just not normal. It worries me, and we need to check it thoroughly. I fear we may have a lot of healing ahead of us."
Urd nodded. In this area, Belldandy truly was the expert. "Whatever you say, sis, as far as I'm concerned you're in charge of Harry's health. Now, I think we need to bring Keiichi downstairs for another planning meeting. We all need to be brought up to date with what we have done so far and what happens next - including some complications in the paperwork Skuld and I filed today."
"What complications?" Skuld asked. She hadn't bothered reading the forms she had submitted and rushed through earlier that day, she had just assumed that it was all correctly filled out and would do the job.
"Er, I think that's a story that should wait until we're all in the room together. Bell, can you fetch K1?"
Belldandy looked at her sister with a suspicious glare, before she headed upstairs towards Harry's bedroom. Urd groaned internally. Now, how do I break it to my sister and Keiichi that they are now married under Britain's laws?
Author's notes: There is no church at that address in Hinckley. I picked the place using Google Maps because it is close to a park.
Somebody commented that no Norwegian man would ever have the surname "Odinsdotter". Which is correct - the patronymic/matronymic system would have sons named Odinssen, daughters named Odinsdotter (although in Urd's case she may have been Hildsdotter originally). Norway abandoned the patronymic system in 1923 according to Wikipedia, which means that Violet Evans' husband would probably have been named under the patronymic system at birth but would then have had a surname chosen for him when the laws changed (this happened to my family in Sweden). To make the Norns' surname work, I've decided that poor old Thor Odinsdotter suffers from the Scandinavian version of "My Name is Sioux" thanks to some unfortunate choices on the part of his parents.