Chapter 15: Good-bye and Thanks for All the Fudge
Ginny woke early the next morning. She remembered last night…chatting after dinner…walking back to their suite…crawling into bed and falling asleep. Harry was snoring softly, still deep asleep. It wasn't very often that Ginny woke up first, since she was not a morning person. She looked at the clock and saw it was 5:30am; deciding that she had things to do, she crawled out of bed, grabbed a dressing gown and headed for Harry's office.
Ginny hadn't laid claim to an office yet, so she using Harry's. As she entered the office, what she saw floored her; there was a letter being self written by itself the desk, there were a number of reports being read as if by in invisible person. Over on the couch there were three books being read, once again as if it an invisible person was reading them. Ginny made her way over to the desk to look at the letter being written; she was shocked to see it was Harry's handwriting.
She was preoccupied that she never heard Harry enter the office, "Would you like to know I am doing this trick?" Ginny spun around and faced Harry "What the fuck is going on here, Harry? I walk in and find all of this happening." Harry led her to their private sitting room, where he sat her down.
"You know that when I merged my magical core with Godric Gryffindor's, I received his powers and his knowledge. I then became the magical and blood heir of the other three founders and received their knowledge and magic too. In order to help his heir assimilate all this information, Godric created a spell that would allow his heir to astral project himself many times and 'live out' lessons. So since that night, I have lived approximately 300 days, via this spell. I finished my 'training' our first night here.
"The last two nights, I have been using my astral projection abilities to accomplish a lot of tasks, writing letters, reading reports, reading books, practicing spells, wandering the castle, and working on my animagus transformations. The cool thing about this type of astral projection is that I remember everything I have done. In order to keep the drain on my magical core low, my astral forms do not take a physical form. And before you ask, I did not do any projecting until we have fallen asleep every night."
Ginny just sat there in shock for a few minutes. This explained everything to Ginny. She knew Harry was doing something to give him more time, she just thought Hogwarts was transferring knowledge to him at night because they next morning Ginny felt like someone had poured knowledge into her ear. She had many questions, and not enough answers.
"Harry, why haven't you told me? You thought I would say that you were cheating, wouldn't you? You don't want disappoint me?" Harry only nodded "Harry, first off you can never disappoint me, never. Now, I have some questions about astral projection. Do you consciously know what your other selves are doing when they are doing it, or does it happen when you…I don't know the proper wording… return to your body?"
Harry sat up a little and answered her "When I first started doing this a few days ago, I had to consciously create my projections and tell it what I wanted it to do. Nowadays I've learned how to have them run automatically. Thanks to my Occlumency training, I can create a 'to do' list in my head and assign it to my astral projection powers. I do not project during the day because it takes a lot out of me, like I said earlier. When I go to sleep each night, I always check on my occlumency shields and I put my 'to do' list on auto pilot; my projections then do whatever they are tasked.
"When the task is complete, my projection will move onto the next item on my list. When they are finished, they disappear and reintegrate with me. When I get up, I have all the knowledge and experience of doing the task. It is still a little overwhelming for me when I wake up, I have to remember that I was asleep and my astral projections were working."
Ginny nodded in understanding. "Ok, how many projections can you do at once, and what about physical training and does it work with lets say pensieve memories?"
Harry laughed a little, "Sow down Gin, ok they day we heard Sirius' will, I had created 300 projections, which almost exhausted my magic. In fact if I didn't have Hogwarts pouring magic into me, then it would have been a disaster. I try to have no more then fifteen projections at once. Each one is an exact copy of me. If one of them cuts themselves while training, when I reintegrate it with myself, I get that cut and the pain.
"One of the things I have been doing is doing thru the pensieve memories that I got from Sirius. It's the reason why I know so much. I have also been working in the room of requirement on physical conditioning. That's where most of my projections go, you see I learned that if multiple projections do the same thing, when I return them back to me, I get the results of that task times how ever many projections there were. Now, I am going to teach all of the apprentices how to do this to a lesser degree.
"I can do this because I have more raw magical power then anyone else and I can also tap in Hogwarts to sustain my power. Would you like to astral project like I do? I know for a fact Albus and Minerva do this very often, it's how they make it look like they never sleep. And Severus does it when he is working on multiple potions, though he doesn't sleep while working."
Ginny nodded in consent so Harry spent the next hour explaining the theory about astral projection. Harry then had Ginny drop into a light meditative state and gave her the lessons he had made on occlumency, astral projection, and how to tap into Hogwarts to sustain her power.
As Ginny processed everything, Harry felt the last of his astral projections return to him, his last one was the one he had sent to the Ministry of Magic to make sure there would be no surprises. While there, it had found that Albus had the same idea. After Ginny was finished processing the new information, they both went to get dressed for the day.
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Breakfast was unusually tense; everyone was worried about the Wizengamot. Well everyone except for Albus, Harry, and Ginny. They were relaxed and just ate their breakfast, making polite small talk with everyone. The Wizengamot session would begin at 11am, Harry and Albus would use Fawkes to travel to Madam Bones' office where they would wait.
As Harry was getting ready to excuse himself to go changes, three flames of fire erupted high above the table. Three phoenixes dropped down and landed in front of Albus, Harry, and Ron. Harry saw that Fawkes had landed in front of Albus; the phoenix in front of him had similar markings but not identical to Fawkes. The phoenix that landed in front of Ron looked almost like the identical twin to the one that was in front of Harry. Harry looked back to Albus, whose eyes were twinkling so much it looked as if thousands of stars were inside.
"I have spoken to Fawkes, these are his two hatchlings, they have decided to bond with two wizards." Both young phoenixes bit the wizards in front of them on their right thumbs, Each took a couple of drops, them moved over to their Wizard's mates, namely Hermione and Ginny and they did the same thing. Once the phoenixes had drunk a few drops from the girls, they dropped a tear onto their wound, healing it instantly, and then moved back to do the same thing to Ron and Harry.
After that was done, the phoenixes took flight and sang a beautiful song, but to Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Minerva and Albus, they heard the phoenixes talking.
Hello wizard kin, as you know I am Fawkes. These are my two hatchlings, Apollo and Mercury. Apollo has bonded with Harry Potter and his mate, while Mercury has bonded with Ron Weasley and his mate. Since they are my hatchlings, I can communicate with any of their humans and you can do the same to me. You can even talk to each other through this bond we all share now."
Suddenly Albus' voice was heard throughout the link "Thank you Fawkes, you four should know it is very rare for a phoenix to have laid a single egg, let alone two if them. If you remember from your classes with Hagrid, phoenixes are single infinite life forms. That means that they cannot die in the normal sense, they burn and die, but are reborn."
While conversations were going on, the three phoenixes landed on table and enjoyed being petted and rubbed by everyone close by. Suddenly Mercury, who was being petted by Remus, screeched and flew into the air. Remus of course was used to animals running away from him; it was just a fact of life for a werewolf. But what he didn't expect was Mercury and the other two phoenixes to dive bomb him and attack the back of his neck where Fenrir Greyback had bitten him. They each took a few passes at him, opening the wound. Tonks and Bill Weasley tried to shoo the birds away when Harry, Ron, Albus, Ginny, Tonks, and Minerva all yelled at the same time "LEAVE THE PHOENIXES ALONE!"
The tone Harry and Albus used caused everyone to freeze where they were. Remus was getting very dizzy and fell forward towards the table. The three phoenixes then landed on or near him. Fawkes on his head, Mercury on one shoulder, and Apollo on the other shoulder; they sang a mournful song and cried into his now open wound. After fifteen minutes, in which time everyone gathered around Remus, a black mist rose from the wound and condensed into a black smoky mass.
Fawkes grabbed it in his talons and erupted in a ball of fire, incinerating the ball of black mass. Fawkes then returned to Remus' head and continued to sing, though he longer cried. Moments later, Remus' wound was healed and the three birds flew off and perched on the backs of chairs. Madam Pomfrey started checking Remus out. What she found was astonishing, there was no sign of the werewolf curse in him; he was longer a werewolf.
Madam Pomfrey immediately took Remus and Tonks to the hospital wing; Severus followed them. After a quick nod from Albus and Ron, Harry told the group what had happened.
"As you all know, Remus was bitten as a child by Fenrir Greyback. Since he was a young child, he has never been able to approach any sort of light sided or innocent animal because of this. Fawkes informed me that when Remus first came to school, Fawkes has spent many an hour studying him. You see a phoenix can see auras around people. When he looked at Remus, he saw two auras battling back and forth. One light blue and the other was a dark red with hints of black tendrils. The light blue aura was Remus' natural aura, while the red was the wolf within him and the black tendrils was the curse itself.
"Over the years, Fawkes saw that the black aura would gain and loose strength, like the tides. However lately, since he had met Tonks, the light blue aura was getting stronger and stronger; today Mercury felt the black aura weaken even more and he attacked it. It took the strong bond the six of us have with Remus that allowed the phoenixes to separate the black tendrils in his aura, which Fawkes incinerated. That left the red and light blue auras. The phoenixes used their power and merged the two auras into a purple aura; Remus is now a wolf animagus. From what I have learned about werewolves and their origins I would say he is a timber wolf."
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After a very long and thorough examination, Madam Pomfrey gave Remus a dreamless sleep potion. She had no idea what the phoenixes had done, but it was amazing. She escorted Tonks back to the Entrance Hall where Harry and Albus were waiting. "Poppy, how is Remus feeling?"
"I gave him a dreamless sleep potion so that he can sleep. According to every scan I have done on him, the werewolf curse is gone. Though he still has some wolfish characteristics, I would assume that they are what remain from the beast within."
Harry chuckled, "You're partially correct, Poppy; Remus is now a wolf animagus, he'll have some wolfish characteristics, but in a good way. Tonks, you ready to be a part of history?"
Tonks blew him a raspberry grabbed a hold of Fawkes tail feather and disappeared in a burst of flames. Harry just shrugged and he and Albus grabbed a hold of one of Apollo's feathers and disappeared too.
They reappeared in a rather large office with hand carved wood furniture. Standing behind the desk was Madam Amelia Bones. She was dressed in her formal Wizengamot robes. The door opened and five men entered the room followed by three goblins. Harry recognized Mackrack and Griphook but no one else. Albus however did, and walked to the group. "Ah George, how good to see you again. The last time we saw each other was in Denver last year for the workshop on alchemy."
The tall man Albus was talking to laughed loudly, "Yes it was. I missed you at the last ICW executive committee meeting. Anyway, this is Gerald Butler from Canada, Dustin Longo from Italy, Michael Smith from the United States, and Jason Bedia from Spain."
Albus nodded to each one of the men, "I believe you already know Mackrack, Leader of the Goblin Nation. This is Griphook, Vice Leader of the Goblin Nation. And I do believe that this is Sliphook." With a bow in acknowledgement Albus continued, "Sliphook is the head of the security detail that is charged with protecting Mackrack.
"And this gentleman" Albus motioned towards Harry, "Is Lord Gryffindor, Harry James Potter, High Lord of Hogwarts, and his familiar, Apollo." With a burst of flame, Fawkes appeared settled onto Albus' shoulder.
"Harry these are the representatives from the ICW, this is the ICW President George William Ford. So, did Amelia bring you all up to speed on what is happening today?" The conversation went on in this vain for several minutes until Amelia said it was time. Amelia and the ICW members left the office. Mackrack and Griphook remained in the office, waiting for Harry to give the order to deploy.
Sliphook was really the field commander Mackrack had assigned for today's operation. Mackrack had fought with him many times and knew that he was capable. It didn't hurt any that he was also Mackrack's brother.
Fifteen minutes after Amelia left, Harry and Albus were escorted to the Wizengamot's chamber. In the interest of safety and showmanship, Harry wore his formal Gryffindor Robes with the battle robes underneath. Harry also added something else to his ensemble, the Sword of Godric Gryffindor.
When they reached the Wizengamot chambers they heard Umbridge spouting off about something. The hairs on the back of Harry's neck stood up on end and he growled a little. Just as Umbridge began to call Harry and Dumbledore unstable, Harry blew open the doors at the far end of the chamber and they walked in, flanked by the goblins guards and escorted by their phoenixes.
Fudge knew he was in trouble Dumbledore was walking as gracefully as always, but his eyes were hard and trained right on him. The person Fudge feared the most however was the boy, Harry Potter. He walked with a stride that told everyone he was pissed off. What scared Fudge the most was the magical power that was radiating off Harry; he was so scared that never noticed the goblin guards take up positions to keep him and others from leaving.
"Cornelius Fudge, under the ancient laws of our land, I hereby challenge you to prove your accusations that I have obtained my birthright through dark means." Fudge didn't say anything, he just sat there staring at Harry, trying to figure out how to get our of the room in one piece.
"Since I see that you have no evidence to prove your accusation, I will provide my own proof that neither Albus Dumbledore nor I are dark. I would like to draw everyone's attention to the two birds on our shoulders. For those of you who have never seen one, they are Phoenixes, one is Headmaster Dumbledore's familiar named Fawkes and the other is my familiar named Apollo. I would like Amos Diggory, a member of the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures to please explain what is needed for a phoenix to bond with a witch or wizard."
Amos Diggory, who had never like attending Wizengamot sessions, had been told by Amelia to show up today. He moved to the guest speaker podium and cleared his throat. "A phoenix is a creature of the light. There is no way that a phoenix can be corrupted by the dark and there is no way that a phoenix can be forced to bond with a wizard. Based on this conclusive evidence, I believe that there is no way Albus Dumbledore and Harry James Potter have gone dark or have used any dark spells like they have been accused of."
Amos then took a deep breath and then tore into the Minister. "Minister Fudge, since Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore announced the return of Voldemort, you have done everything you can to denounce them. Where has that led us? We are defenseless and I am damn sure that is exactly what Voldemort's lackey, Lucius Malfoy, wanted when he paid you all throe bribes."
Now Fudge was upset and he decided to strike a blow against anyone who stood against him. "As the Minister of Magic, I order the Aurors to arrest Amos Diggory, Albus Dumbledore, and Harry Potter for treason!"
Not one of the Aurors moved towards the three men. Instead, they turned and walked out of the chamber, informing the goblins that they would wait outside. As Umbridge began to rise to say something stupid, Harry had enough.
"FUDGE!!! I hereby demand your immediate resignation of your office under the Ministry of Magic Constitution Article 5 paragraph 3; it says, 'The Minister of Magic shall be removed from office if sufficient evidence is found implicating him in dark or illegal activity against the Witches and Wizards of Great Britain.' Cornelius Oswald Fudge, I carry with me complete records implicating you, Undersecretary Delores Umbridge and thirty five other individuals in actions deemed by this body to be against the public good."
Madam Bones and a few of her aides passed out copies of the documents Harry mentioned. It was during this time that the ICW President took command of the session of the Wizengamot.
Three hours, and many doses of Veritaserum later, Cornelius Fudge, Delores Umbridge and the thirty five other people named were convicted of aiding Voldemort and his followers and Madam Bones was selected as the interim minister.
The first thing she did was clear Harry and Dumbledore of any wrong doing and gave them both official apology's; Harry and Albus then took their rightful seats on the Wizengamot and pressed through a number of bills that Amelia had already written up. These included sending convicted death eaters through the veil and a law ordering any person who had been denied proper due process to be brought before the Wizengamot for a fair trial. Amelia then informed the council that Goblins were now in charge of securing Azkaban, the Ministry of Magic, St Mungo's and Hogwarts.
Harry then sponsored a bill that would lift all the restrictions on goblins since they were helping to secure some of the most important locations in all of England. Harry was questioned about what was happening with Hogwarts. Harry explained that Hogwarts is now independent of the Ministry. Harry explained that he had disbanded the board of governors and that all inquires were to be sent to him directly.
Shortly after the Wizengamot's session ended, Harry and Albus headed for their last stop of the day, the Offices of the Daily Prophet. Since Harry owned 65 percent of the company, he decided that it was time for a house cleaning. Harry walked in and went straight towards the Editor-in-Chief's office. After a ten minute meeting, Harry and Albus walked out of the office and headed home.
By the end of the day, Cornelius Fudge, Delores Umbridge, Lucius Malfoy, and ten other convicted Death Eaters were sent through the veil; the Ministry was undergoing a major house cleaning, the Goblins were now the official custodians of Azkaban and all of her residents, and the Daly Prophet was printing the truth. Over all it had been one hell of a day.