DISCLAIMER: I do not own Negima or Harry Potter. Negima is the property of Ken Akamatsu, and Harry Potter is the property of J.K. Rowling, and any other series belong to their respective authors.
Italics text = character thinking to themselves.
Underline+Italics = character communicating with telepathy
Bold text = shouting
Bold+Italcs = Casting Spell/Ability
Chapter Thirty-five
The Ministry of Magic and the Department of Mysteries
It was a regular morning at the Ministry of Magic. The Atrium was buzzing with scores of witches and wizards that were coming out or leaving through the fireplaces lined up on the walls. In the far end of the Atrium numerous pops were heard as people were Apparating in and out of the Ministry.
This regular monotony was broken when from the shadow of the fountain that was in the centre of the Atrium rose seventeen people. Everyone nearby stopped and stared at them in shock and fear.
"We're here." Eva announced.
"I really need to know how to do that." Harry said with a wide grin. "It's the first for of magical transport I actually like."
"Hm… I'll think about it." Eva mused with a smile of her own.
"Alright, follow me. We need to register our wands." Harry instructed and led the group to the security desk.
Unlike last time, the guard was paying attention to his surroundings and looked on curiously at the approaching group. There were Harry, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Fred, Susan, Negi, Eva, Asuna, Konoka, Setsuna, Chao, Anya, Ayaka, Ku, Takane and Chisame.
"What brings you back here, mister Potter?" Ernie, the guard asked.
"Business and pleasure. They're fun to mix." Harry chuckled as he handed over his wand.
After his was weighted, the others followed, the Mahora group handing over some regular looking practice wands. The last one was Eva.
"Wand please." Ernie requested.
In response, Eve conjured a ball of ice in her hand.
"Does it look like I need one?" Eva asked in a bored voice before crushing the ball in her fist.
"Um…no." Ernie gulped as he backed away a little.
"Okay, let's go." Harry said and the group followed his to the elevators.
Once there, they took the largest for themselves and had it go to the only lower level – the Department of Mysteries.
The moment the door of the elevator opened Harry forced himself to hide a smile. After the ritual he went through, his eyesight had steadily increased until he didn't need glasses any longer. Still, he chose to replace his lens with regular ones and charmed them like Moody' eye was, to see through anything.
Speaking of the eye, he had managed to remove the transmission spell Dumbledore had placed on it, as well as the ability to see through Harry' Invisibility Cloak. So it was no surprise when he was able to see a bored Kingsley under a regular invisibility cloak.
As the group approached, the bored Auror got on his guard and, after checking to see if there was anyone else besides them around, he took off the hood of the cloak.
"Harry, what are you doing here?" Kingsley asked as soon as his head was visible.
"Oh, hey there Kingsley didn't see you there." Harry said with a wide grin.
"That was the point." Kingsley muttered. "What are you and the others here?"
"Oh, I just have something to take care of at the Department of Mysteries." Harry shrugged as he walked past the Auror.
"What kind of business?" Kingsley asked in a strained voice.
"Personal business." Harry said simply as he reached the door. "Now, please excuse me…"
"I'm sorry Harry, but I have orders from Dumbledore to…" Kingsley began to raise his wand.
He didn't get to do anything else since he found a very sharp nodachi wielded by Setsuna at his neck.
Harry casually strolled in through the doorway and then closed the door. That seemed to have been a mistake since the walls of the circular room started to spin, disorientating him. Eventually, it stopped.
"Hm, normally I would start trying doors, but I have no idea what the place looks like since old snake face never saw it either." Harry muttered to himself. "Well, there's the obvious way, but what are the chances are that will work? Oh well, what do I have to lose?" Harry sighed. "I need to go to the Hall of Prophecies." he called out, his voice echoing slightly in the room.
Immediately, a door on his left opened.
"Note to self: try the obvious more often." Harry muttered to himself before going through the doorway.
He found himself in a well lit room with various objects scattered around, most of them clocks or other time-related things. There were also two desks with people occupying them, both with hoods that his their faces and wands pointed at him.
"Who are you and what are you doing in here? This is a restricted area." one of them said in a harsh voice.
"My name is Harry James Potter." Harry introduced himself with a small smile. "As for what I'm doing here, I'm looking for the Hall of Prophecies."
"What business do you have there?" the other person asked, the voice clearly of a young female.
"I think it's pretty obvious what business one would have in the Hall of Prophecies." Harry rolled his eyes and could sense that the woman was slightly embarrassed. "I'm here for a prophecy."
"Only those that the prophecy speaks of may remove it." the first figure warned.
"I know. And yes, the prophecy speaks of me and someone else." Harry nodded.
"Very well." the first nodded before turning towards the girl "Help him find it and make sure he does not touch anything else."
"Follow me." she instructed and led him through a doorway into a huge dark room with tall shelves filled with small glass globes: prophecies.
"When was your prophecy made?" the woman asked.
"Over fifteen years ago, sometime in the summer." Harry replied after a moment of thought.
"This way then." she led him to the right.
They passed dozens of rows until they reached number 97.
"Look for it, it's around here somewhere." she instructed.
Soon enough, they found it. It was labeled "S.P.T. to A.P.W.B.D. – The Dark Lord and (?) Harry Potter". Without hesitation, Harry reached out and took it off the shelf, wiping the dust off it.
"Lets see here." Harry muttered to himself as he tightened his grasp on the small sphere and channeled a bit of his magic in it as he closed his eyes. Soon enough, he heard it all in his mind. With a sigh, he put it into the pocket of his robes.
Kill or be killed. Great surprise there. That was what he's been doing since he was one. He was slightly interested by the "None may live while the other survives" and "He shall have powers the dark lord knows not" parts of the prophecy. The marking as an equal was quickly explained by the second core he gained the night his parents died: Voldemort was striped of all his power and it was transferred to Harry, making him the Dark Lord's equal to when he started the 'marking', in other words before he cast the Avada Kedavra on him. Now on the other hand, Harry was by far more powerful magically, since in addition to Voldemort' adult core he had his own, MUCH larger immature core, which would continue to grow for quite a while until it fully matured.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing? Put it back." the witch said sharply, snapping him out of his musings.
"Hm? Sorry, didn't catch that." Harry said.
"The prophecy. Put it back on the shelf. You have to leave it here." she repeated annoyed.
"Is there anyway for me to take it?" Harry asked as he discretely made a copy of the glass sphere and place a different memory in it.
"Only after it was fulfilled." she said.
"So you're not brainwashed to believe that Voldemort is dead, huh? Well done, miss Clearwater, good example for Ravenclaw." Harry smirked before adding with a frown when she squeaked at the name of the Dark Lord. "Or maybe not."
"How do you know who I was?" she asked nervously as she put away her hood revealing the face of Penelope Clearwater.
"Lets just say that I remembered your voice." Harry lied with a smile. If his lens could see through invisibility cloaks, what could stop him from seeing through mere fabric?
"Oh." Penelope blinked. "Well, to answer your question, there are a lot of things the Ministry say that I don't agree with. Same goes for many in this Department. Unlike some pompous assholes…" she muttered the last part.
"I take it you broke up with Percy then." Harry chuckled as he placed the fake prophecy on the shelf.
"Before I finished Hogwarts, actually. I liked him when he was younger, but he got too annoying as time passed." Penelope said as she put her hood back on and led him back to the exit.
"Yeah, I notice. And now he's under the direct guidance of the biggest idiot in Britain. Which reminds me I need to speak with Fudge today and knock him down a few pegs." Harry said thoughtfully.
They soon passed through the office they met in and then into the rotating room. With simple "Exit!" from Penelope, a door opened and Harry left, with a small wave to the girl.
"How did it go?" Eva inquired as the group headed for the elevator.
"Kill or be killed. No surprise there. There a few other details, but this is not the place for it." Harry whispered as he glanced back at the invisible Kingsley who was looking about to faint from fear. "What did you do to him?"
"Gave him a detailed explanation of what I'll do to him if he gets in my way." Eva smirked.
"I don't want to know." Harry shook his head. "Let's head up and meet Fudge."
But as the elevator' doors opened at the top floor a very unpleasant voice was heard.
"Hm, hm. What are you children doing here?" Dolores Umbridge made her presence known, and clearly not noticing a certain shinso.
"What did you just call me, you pathetic little toad?" Eva asked in a dangerous voice as the temperature dropped a few dozen degrees.
"My apologies, Lady McDowell! I didn't see you there!"
"We're here to see Fudge. Take us to his office." Eva ordered.
"The Minister is busy, and he has no time for school children." came the arrogant voice of Percy Weasley. "But if you want, I schedule a meeting sometime next year."
"Here's another idea, Wheaterby: get your ass in the Minister' office and tell him you just pissed off more then a dozen Heads of Ancient and Noble Houses that will soon be taking their seats in the Wizengot." Fred said in a sharp voice.
Percy was glaring at his younger brother for the name he used when the rest of the message got to him. He then turned white as a sheet.
"The Minister is in a meeting with the Head of the DMLE. They should be done in a few minutes." Percy mumbled.
"Aunty Amelia is here as well? Good, then we won't need to call for her. Lead the way." Susan said in a voice that accepted no argument.
With a glance at Umbridge who was even paler then him, Percy led the group to the large ornate door that had the words 'Minister of Magic' on it in gold letters. As the door opened the sharp and clearly annoyed voice of a woman was heard.
"I don't give a damn about your grudge for Dumbledore, you are not cutting the number of my Aurors in half just to get more publicity funds!" Amelia Bones roared.
"Amelia, be reasonable! I can't let him and that Potter brat sprout more lies and create panic..." Fudge insisted.
"That's Lord Potter Black Gryffindor Ravenclaw Hufflepuff Slytherin Hogwarts Peverel McDowell to you, Fudge." Harry said with distaste, making their presence known.
Both Ministry officials looked up at that and saw the group, but while Fudge paled significantly Amelia smiled when she noticed her niece.
"To what do I owe the honor of this visit?" Fudge asked in what he wanted to be a pleasant voice. In reality, he sounded like chocking.
"To quite a few things, actually." Harry smirked. "But first, allow me to introduce my companions. Lord Fred Weasley Prewet, Lord Neville Longbottom, Lady Luna Lovegood, Lady Hermione Granger Drake, Lord Negi Springfield Entheofushia Inverse, Lady Konoka Konoe Aoyama and her bodyguard Miss Setsuna Sakurazaki, Princess Asuna Vesperina Theothanashia Entheofushia, Lady Takane D. Goodman, Lady Ku Fei Xing, Lady Ayaka Yukihiro Selwyn, Lady Chisame Hasegawa Le Fey, Lady Anna Kokolova and Miss Chao Lingshen Springfield Entheofushia."
With each Head of House introduced Fudge paled more and more. Harry was half expecting to see his soul leave his body any moment. Amelia on the other hand was having a hard time keeping a grin off her face.
"Yes, a pleasure to meet you all. I am the Ministes of Magic, Cornelius Fudge. And this is Madam Amelia Bones, Head of the DMLE. What may we do today?" Fudge asked.
"Quite a few things, like I said before. It will take a while. But, before that, may we search your office for listening charms?" Harry hesitated.
"Go ahead. Dumbledore was here earlier." Fudge muttered the last part.
One minute later, Hermione was seeing spots.
"That bad?" Harry asked worried.
"Worse. Every inch of this place has at least one spell on it. But Malfoy Sr. and Dumbledore used about 40% each." Hermione groaned.
"Let me try something." Harry suggested. He then conjured a small glass marble and started moving his wand in a spiral before touching the marble. The entire office glowed red for a few seconds before it changed to green while the marble glowed red. With another jerk of the wand, the marble vanished.
"What did you do?" Fudge asked alarmed.
"I transfered all those spells to that marble, and then vanished it." Harry shrugged.
"How?" Fudge asked in quiet awe. "I'm no expert, but that is beyond Master level in Charms."
"I'll be frank with you, Minister." Harry began. "When I destroyed the Dark Lord' body over fourteen years ago, I absorbed both his knowledge and his magical core. But until recently I had both of those as well as a good part of my own core blocked by Dumbledore."
"But that's illegal! Not to mention inhumane! Your magic could implode!" Amelia Bones yelled in outrage.
"Dumbledore put me in mortal danger every year since I started Hogwarts. First year he had me fight Voldemort for the Philosopher' Stone. Second year, he had me kill a thousand years old basilisk and fight a shade of Voldemort in the Chamber of Secrets when he kidnaped Ginny Weasley. Third year he deactivated the Dementor repelling wards around Hogwarts which almost cost me my soul a few times. Fourth year he, as my magical guardian, let me participate in the Triwizard Tournament when I was entered by Crouch Jr., thus making the magical contract binding. Not to mention he put me with my abusive magic-hating relatives against my parents' will."
"I... I see." Fudge said hesitantly. "Does that mean he was also lieing about ..."
"Voldemort is back. That won't change, no matter how much we want it to." Harry sighed. "He murdered my parents, Cornelius, I don't want him around any more then you do."
"But..." Fudge began to whine.
"However, since he wants to keep his return a secret for now, we should take advantage of it." Harry smirked.
"But we need to warn people..." Amelia began in outrage.
"And then what aunty? Right now they are defenseless. If word gets out, Voldemort won't need to lay low. He will cause massacres. It will be the last war all over again." Susan shook her head.
"What we'll do is increase our power first." Harry smirked.
"How will we do that?" Amelia asked.
"Double the number of Aurors and triple their budget. Malfoy was the one who suggested you to reduce their number, right?" Harry asked Fudge.
"Um... Yes. Lucius..." Fudge stuttered.
"Is a Death Eater. And before you even think of giving me that Imperius bullshit, let me tell you that in order for the Dark Mark to be on his left forearm, one has to torture and kill over a dozen people within 48 hours before Voldemort can effectively apply it. And it all has to be done willingly." Harry barked.
"But that means Snape..." Amelia began.
"Dumbledore protected him, and still does. I'll deal with him myself." Harry said in a deadly voice.
"But it will be too obvious to suddenly increase our Auror force." Amelia pointed out a flaw in the plan.
"Not if there will be a failed attempt on the Minister' life tomorrow." Negi smirked. "One of my students has the ability to create perfect golems that can look and do nearly whatever the person they are modeled after can. One of her golems will disguise and try attacking the Minister in public. Luckily, Amelia will be there to use an overpowered bone-breaking curse to hit him in the chest and blow him to smithereens."
"I see. If the Head of the DMLE has to protect the Minister herself, then she needs more Aurors." Amelia smirked.
"We will supply the funding for it until Voldemort has been dealt with." Harry added.
"Why should I help you? How do I know you're not trying to make me lose me job?" Fudge narrowed his eyes.
"Right now, we hold 35% of the votes in the Wizengot. With other alliances we have and plan on having, we'll control around 75%-80%. You either do it or you're fired." Eva said bluntly.
"I… I see… Very well then." Fudge gulped. "When and where will the assassination attempt take place?"
"Tomorrow at 10 in the Atrium be by the fountain with Amelia." Harry instructed.
"Very well. Anything else?" Fudge asked in resignation.
"Yes, there is. I want you to check the files of Sirius Black. You will find that he had no trial and the only evidence came from muggles, who could have easily been confounded. Also, his wand was stolen by Malfoy. I recovered it yesterday. It still has the DMLE evidence seal on it. When you make it public and schedule a trial with Veritaserum, which he will agree to, you can blame the whole thing on Crouch Sr. who was trying to increase his reputation at the time. Neither of you had your positions back then, so you'll just get praise for discovering it." Harry explained.
"Very well, I'll do that right away." Amelia said as she got up.
"We're done for today. Good day Minister." Harry said cheerfully and led the others outside the office while discretely canceling the privacy wards he had put in place and placing some of his own listening charms.
"Do you really intend to leave that idiot in office?" Amelia whispered to Harry as they walked to the elevator.
"If Voldemort tries to assassinate the Minister, rather him then you." Harry smirked. "I have him by the balls and there's nothing he can do about it."
"What do you mean by 'rather him then you'?" Amelia narrowed her eyes.
"Well, to put it bluntly, when Fudge either gets fired or killed, you'll be on the top of the list of candidates for Minister. And with our support, you will get the job." Susan said.
"Why do I have the feeling that there's more to your little group then meets the eye?" Amelia sighed as the elevator doors opened on the floor her department was on.
"Because there is." Harry said mysteriously. "We'll keep in touch." he added as the doors closed once again.
When the group reached the atrium they once again left with through Evangeline' teleportation via shadow and arrived back at Evangeline' Mansion, which was still hidden in muggle London.
"How did it go?" Harry asked apparently noone.
"It went perfectly. All the ward stones are now tagged with the rune Chao-san gave me." said a newly materialized Natsumi.
"Well, let's try it out." Negi suggested as he held up his ring and made a projection appear. But this time it wasn't Hogwarts. No. It was the Ministry of Magic.
"With this, we will be able to keep an eye on every move the enemy would try to pull at the Ministry." Susan chuckled.
"How, if I may ask, did you know the location of each and every ward stone in there?" Hermione asked Eva.
"Oh. I snuck in there a few times to obtain some restricted objects. To be completely sure you're not detected by the wards, you must at the very least know where they are and how they work." the vampire shrugged.
After they gathered everyone in the Order of the Twilight, Harry decided to reveal to them the content of the prophecy.
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ..." said the memory of Trelawney before sinking back in Hermione' pensive.
A long silence followed.
"Well, I believe it's settled." Harry said with a tone of finality, making Neville nod.
"Yes, it is. You're clearly the one marked." Neville said.
"Oh, I meant I have first dibs on the snake." Harry clarified, making everyone else sweatdrop.
"Well, we need to get rid of all the Horcruxes before you can kill him." Ginny pointed out.
"Ah, but here's the beauty of it." Harry smirked evilly, making a few people back away. "Why should I kill him?"
"Harry, are you out of your mind?" Sirius stared at him in disbelief. "That monster…"
"I know what he is and what he's done, Padfoot. I have all his memories up to the night he first tried to kill me, remember?" Harry glared. "I'm just saying that it would be a waste to kill him, don't you agree, Hermione?"
"Either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives" Hermione quoted from the prophecy with an evil grin. "While it's true that it posses a problem that only Harry can kill him, it also means that only he can kill Harry. So, if we were to capture him…" she trailed off.
"Immortality." Evangeline said with a grin. "While it's true that I hate the fact I've lived so long, it's mostly because I was too weak at the beginning and had nobody to trust. Harry on the other hand is a very good position."
"Rich, famous, powerful both magically and politically, engaged with multiple women and immortal." Sirius listed. "Now that's a combination anyone would like."
"Still, while I agree that it would be a good idea, how do you propose we do it?" Moody inquired.
"How I do it, you mean." Harry corrected. "Well, there are quite a few spells I learned from that orb left by Anastasia McDowell. Spells from soul magic." he said.
"You intend to keep only his soul around, huh?" Moody asked.
"No, that's not what I meant. I want him in his current body, since it has my blood in it and makes the connection even stronger." Harry shook his head. "I was talking about how I'll deal with his Horcruxes. I have pretty good idea what 'the power he knows not' is."
"You do? Already?" Negi asked surprised.
"Yes. It's all thanks to Chao. She made a few scans of me after my two cores merged." Harry grinned at the time traveler.
"Well, um…." Chao fidgeted, blushing a little.
"Not those scans." Harry clarified, his cheeks a bit red as well. "I meant the ones on my new core.
"Oh!" Chao exclaimed and tried to ignore the looks she was getting. "Well, according to my scans, his core will never reach maturity."
"That's awful!" Molly cried.
"No, that's actually wonderful." Negi corrected. "The core of a mage gradually increases as we channel magic into ourselves from out surroundings. But we also have limits. At the latest, our cores would mature completely by 25 or so."
"With an eternally immature core, the longer I live, the stronger I'll get in terms of magical reserves. Voldemort has went through countless power increasing rituals, but once his core matured, they became next to useless. But that's not all I meant." Harry grinned mischievously.
"So, what do you have in mind?" Eva inquired.
"I have the power to absorb compatible magical cores." Harry said bluntly.
"Okay…." Hermione looked at him as if he was insane. "How do you find people with such cores? And, you do know that they'll most likely die if you remove them, right?"
"Oh, who said anything about people?" Harry smirked. "In order for a magical core to exist, all that's required is a compatible body and soul. Or in this case soul fragment."
"The Horcruxes!" Ginny exclaimed.
"Yep. As for the body, Voldemort spent nearly a year in a homunculus body before his return, and he could still use his wand. Which indicates a magical core." Harry explained.
"We have the cup, the locket and the diadem. And soon enough we'll have the ring as well." Negi enumerated.
"Yep. We can count out the snake, since it would be too hard to extract the soul. I for one have high hopes for the locket and the cup." Harry added.
"Why is that?" Arthur asked. He didn't really like what they were planning, but he could understand why it had to happen.
"A wizard' core matures at 17 or 18. Around the time Riddle made these into Horcruxes. When the soul fragment it's removed, so is a part of the core. Sure, it repairs itself quite quickly, but his earliest Horcruxes will have potential for bigger cores then the latest ones. So the core form the locket will be bigger then the one from my scar. I can handle it easily, since this time only the core will enter me. The soul fragment will become like that of a muggle or squib at most, and the homunculus will die, since it feeds on magical energy, both from the core and from the potions it has to drink." Harry explained.
"Harry, will we needing unicorn blood?" Luna inquired.
"Theoretically, yes. Practically, no." Harry answered after a moment of thought. "Wormtail had to use it since the effects last longer. But since we intend to kill the bloody things nearly immediately, it won't be necessary. We can use basilisk venom instead of regular one, so the magic of the core will be just as potent. Besides, it would be the epitome of stupidity to taint ourselves by wounding a unicorn."
"Good." Luna smiled. "But, when this is over you'll probably be the most immortal person around."
"There are different levels of immortality?" Sirius inquired.
"More like form of it, actually." Eva clarified. "I for one head quick enough to survive most otherwise fatal wounds, and have eternal youth."
"I think I get what Luna means." Hermione chuckled. "Harry will be magically immortal because of the prophecy as well as the blood connection to Voldemort. He will have eternal youth because of the Philosopher's Stone. And he is supposed to become Master of Death once he gets the Peverel Ring, which holds the Stone of Resurrection, thus gathering all three of the legendary Deathly Hallows."
"There might be some benefits from the Lord Hogwarts thing Neville shoved down my throat as well." Harry mock glared at the Longbottom Head.
"Speaking of titles, we should head to Gringotts and see if there are any other bonds. It would be best to get lists of all our assets as well. We can't stay in this Mansion all the winter break." Hermione reminded them.
A.N.: Done! For those who might have wondered why Harry didn't just use some basilisk venom to get rid of the Horcruxes, now you know. They're gonna squib them!
There are other reasons as well, but that is for later chapters. I'll only say it has to do with our favorite chibi vampire.