Just for clarification I got the name Yormgen from a game called Tales of Vesperia. It is the name of a town in the game and I decided to name the place in this story Yormgen because I couldn't be bothered manufacturing another name.
My thanks to those of you who wrote back in response to my question at the end of the last chapter. My apologies if you were one of those I replied saying "Your view seems to be the consensus" but there is only so many time I can write the same detailed reply over and over again.
On balance I accept that Homophobia and demonization of smart people play little if any part in Dumbledore bashing.
On another note, no one managed to guess who Harry spotted in the forest at the end of the last chapter. I wonder how many of you will be surprised.
Please review.
The Innocence of Fear
Harry had no idea that ghosts could move so fast. The fact that he was on a Nimbus 2000 helped, but he didn't want to go too fast with such a young passenger, especially as Elira could not communicate any distress to him in English.
Thankfully the Bloody Baron seemed to be slowing down. Unfortunately he was heading in completely the opposite direction from Përmet, Harry felt a little guilty about detouring Elira away from her home, but he couldn't just ignore a potential lead on Voldemort. The fact that the ghost of the Slytherin Dungeons was all the way in Albania could not be a coincidence.
Harry followed him over some hills that would have taken him days to traverse on foot even if he knew which way he was going. Once over the hills Harry saw immediately where the Baron must be heading. The forest stretched far and wide and there was nothing but the green tops of the trees as far as the eye could see, with one exception. There was a patch of forest where the trees were dead bare and white. Next to the patch of dead white trees was a clearing.
While the Baron headed for the white patch, Harry landed himself and Elira in the clearing. As silently as he could, he deactivated the disillusionment, put the Nimbus in his magically expanded rucksack and extracted the invisibility cloak from the rucksack. He held a finger up to his lips to signal Elira to continue being quiet, then covered both of them.
Elira took a moment to marvel at the material she was coated in, then followed Harry's coaxing and went with him towards the array of dead trees. The entire feeling of this patch of trees was completely different from the rest of the forest.
Harry felt highly disturbed at being such a place. It felt as if he'd come to the scene of a great and horrific crime. A glance at Elira indicated that she was also highly disturbed. She was shaking, not from cold but from general unease. Harry placed a hand on her shoulder and massaged it. She looked up at him and took strength from his presence. Harry allowed Elira to hug him, it was an odd feeling being a young girl's protector, but Harry decided to ponder that particular anomaly later.
The Baron stopped and hovered before a tall dead tree.
"You're late." Came a woman's voice.
Harry and Elira almost yelped in shock, both of them turned to see another ghost, this one female, float over from within the trees.
"My apologies." Said the Baron sincerely.
"Let's just get this over with." Said the female ghost. Harry was sure he'd seen her before, and that she was one of the ghosts that stayed in Hogwarts, but there were over a hundred that resided in the castle so he had no idea who she was.
"This is as much about you as it is me." Said the Baron. "I still blame myself…"
"As you should." Snapped the woman vindictively.
"…but this is your Death Day, as well as my own." Said the Baron. "Now do you want me to go first?"
The female ghost looked irritated. "No I'll go first, the sooner I no longer have to spend time in your company the better."
"We both have to go back to Hogwarts Helena." Said the Baron.
"I have no intention of going back with you." Snapped the woman angrily. But Harry could see a hint of regret on her face.
"I understand Lady Ravenclaw."
"Ravenclaw?" thought Harry.
The Baron sighed and floated away from the tree. Helena Ravenclaw, assuming Harry got her name right, hesitated for a moment looking at the Baron out of the corner of her eye. Then she approached the tree.
"Mother." She began "I am so very sorry, for my stubbornness. I was jealous, I feared I could never amount to your great legacy. I didn't mean to steal your Diadem, nor did I ever mean for it to be hidden in this tree for all those years. I am sorry that I was too much of a coward to join you in the next world and shall regret that decision for the rest of eternity. I love you."
Harry wasn't sure if ghosts could cry or not, but Helena seemed to be dearly upset. She floated away through the trees.
"Your turn." She mumbled as she went.
The Baron stared off at her for a time, then went up to the tree and gave his own words.
"I am sorry to Professor Ravenclaw. I failed you and I severely disappointed Professor Slytherin long beforehand. It has been nearly a millennium since we died, yet your daughter has still not forgiven me. I had not known that your Diadem was missing and I thought she was acting out of misguided anger towards you. After Professor Slytherin denounced me and the rest of the Council of Hogwarts, you and your daughter were the greatest comfort to me. I was always grateful for your kindness and your friendship to me, I will never forgive myself for betraying the House of Ravenclaw like I did, Neither will Helena and I don't expect you to in the Realm of the Dead either. I will continue to atone for the sin I committed at the end of my life, even though I do not believe I will ever atone for it completely. I hope one day Helena will tell someone about that boy who came and took your Diadem from here, because of my place in House Slytherin magic will not allow me to inform those who belong in the Realm of the Living what the heir of my House has done. Besides which I will not betray your daughter again. I hope only that one day your great treasure will be found, that Diadem should not be lost to those of this Realm. My love for you and my love for your daughter shall never die. I will continue to watch over Hogwarts alongside Helena, from now until the end of time."
The Baron floated off into the trees and took to the sky once more, he was going back to Hogwarts.
Harry was about to take the cloak off when Elira grabbed his hand and shook her head back in the direction of the forest.
Helena Ravenclaw emerged from the trees again, she had been hiding from the Baron and listening covertly.
"Idiot." She grumbled venomously. She was obviously angry with the Bloody Baron, but she also looked really hurt and betrayed. Helena glanced at the tree before finally taking off and making her own way back to Hogwarts.
Harry and Elira stood still for a few minutes, then Harry looked at Elira, who in turn looked back at him then smiled with a toothy grin.
Harry would have laughed but he couldn't believe what he'd just heard. From the context it looked like Helena in life stored a treasure of her mother Rowena Ravenclaw in this tree and Voldemort at some point came here and stole it.
Things began to make sense, Harry still didn't know why Voldemort wanted the Diadem but it now made sense why he had come to Albania. He had obviously coveted the Diadem for one reason or another and had come here, to this very spot to steal it. Then he had come back. Harry was only guessing, but when Voldemort lost his body 14 years ago, he must have been really vulnerable. He was not one to entrust his safety to anyone else, nowhere in Britain would have been a safe for him. But if he knew of a place where he could flee and hide, a place where a relic had been lost of hundreds of years where no one other than he and two ghosts had set foot.
On reflection it might not have been a smart idea. It would have been smarter to seek out someone like Crouch Junior who was loyal and smart enough to resurrect Voldemort or else someone like Wormtail who was easy to manipulate. Maybe Voldemort preferred to work alone, or maybe he didn't think he could trust any of his followers enough to ensure his revival. That was now obviously not the case, Harry saw those pensieve memories of Crouch Junior and the others who tortured Neville's parents. They had actively been trying to find and revive Voldemort. They knew, like all the other Death Eaters knew, that Voldemort was still alive.
"Harry?" came Elira's voice.
Harry was brought out of his musings by the little girl tugging on his hand and pointing to the ground. At first Harry saw nothing but dead leaves and animal bones, this was definitely Voldemort's sanctuary, but then he saw it. He raised his wand
"Depulso!"
His banishing charm cast away the forestry debris and revealed something very unusual. On the forest floor there was a giant crest carved into the soil using a red substance that looked disturbingly like blood. It was obviously a Rune, probably used in a magic ritual, but for what Harry had no idea.
"Cerno Enodo!"
Harry cast his diagnostic charm over the rune. The white light changed to red then began fluttering random colours of the rainbow.
"What in the world?" said Harry. Unfortunately his knowledge of the detection spell was too limited to tell him anything about what these readings meant. Sighing he reached for his rucksack and pulled out a disposable camera. He took a few different pictures of the Rune, then for good measure took pictures of the surrounding area as well just to be sure.
Meanwhile Elira was getting bored. She wondered around the wooded area, keeping Harry in sight. Spying on the ghosts was fun, even if she couldn't understand a word they said, but Harry taking pictures of a dead landscape was no fun. To make matters worse she was getting cold.
Harry finished up and just put his camera back in the rucksack when he registered that his breath was becoming visible.
"What the?"
He looked over at Elira who was beginning to shiver.
"I'd better get you home." Said Harry. He picked up his Nimbus and then beckoned her over. Following some disillusionment charms Harry kicked off from the ground.
As he and Elira soared through the air, things got colder and colder. At first Harry put it down to the wind blowing against them. But then he realised that the sun was still out, the sky was blue and there was no wind. Something felt off, then Harry remembered something other than the weather that could make one cold.
"Oh no."
ORACLE2PHOENIX
The Albanian Wizarding Militia, and organization somewhat comparable with Britain's Department of Magical Law Enforcement, existed to deal with the usual problems that faced any law enforcement agency, Magical or Muggle, would deal with: Thefts, Drugs, Murder or put simply: crime. As a Magical Law Enforcement organization, they had the added responsibility of dealing with dangerous dark creatures as well as combatting Dark Magic.
It was much smaller than the variant in Britain. There was no one called Auror, or Hit Wizard or Magical Law Enforcement Officer. The members of the Albanian Wizarding Militia, excluding administrative office staff and others, were simply call Militiawizards and Militiawitches. The Militia were expected to act as magical police (like Law Officers), combat specialist (like Hit Wizards) and specialists in dark magic (like Aurors).
Militiawizards Veton Mala and Artan Dosti were partners in the Militia. The last 48 hours had been extraordinarily hectic. There had been a number of attacks on Muggles looked disturbingly like they were carried out by Dementors. This was particularly worrying as Dementors had not been seen in Albania for nearly fifty years. The nearest place with known Dementors was in a Wizarding Prison in Austria. Albania, along with most of Eastern Europe had declared Dementors as creatures too dangerous to live several decades ago. During the war with Grindelwald, his supporters had used them in a series of atrocities against hundreds of innocent people, both magical and non-magical. When the war ended much of Eastern Europe declared Dementors too dangerous to exist and organized their removal from their territories. None had been seen in Albania since the war ended in 1945.
For Mala and Dosti, as well as their colleagues, it was imperative they find this Dementor and catch it before someone was seriously hurt. Thankfully none of the victims thus far had received any permanent damage, but people were scared and there was a large amount of pressure on the Militia catch them. The task was made considerably more difficult as no one in the Militia was capable of casting a corporeal patronus and no one had extensive experience using the basic version of the charm against a real Dementor.
The two of them had just finished investigating the latest attack at a farm in the Skrapar District when they got a message from the Ministry in Tirana.
"Report to Kafene Topali in Përmet." Said the voice from Mala's Mirror. "Loran says that his daughter is missing and he can't find her."
"Yes Captain." Said Mala.
"How old is Loran's girl now?" said Dosti.
"Seven or eight, I think." Said Mala "Come on, let's go and see what's going on."
The two men apparated into the back garden of Loran's café then entered the building. Upon entering they found Loran sitting at one of the tables under the watchful eye of one of his staff members and two of his regulars.
"Militia." Said Dosti, identifying himself "Alright Loran, let's get started right away. When did you last see her?"
It soon became apparent something was wrong, Elira had been playing with some Muggle children who witnessed her enter the street where the café was located with the intention of going home. Calling in help from Tirana; Dosti, Mala, three other Militiawizards and one Militiawitch began knocking on doors in Përmet, both Magical and Muggle as well as discretely conducting diagnostic charms. Within less than two hours they were convinced that Elira was not in the village or the nearby settlements.
Late that evening, Mala and Dosti were debating whether or not to call for more reinforcements and risk compromising the search for the Dementor, when a silver stag patronus, of all things, charged into the café and went straight for Loran.
"Elira safe… Weather preventing travel… be back tomorrow… Harry…"
Mala spoke a little English, but not very much, "Who was that? What is he preventing?" he started demanding answers from anyone who could give them. If Elira was kidnapped then they would need to act carefully. But then he noticed Loran seem to relax and take great big breaths of relief.
"It was Harry." Said Loran "He said she's safe and he'll bring her back tomorrow. He can't right now because of the weather."
"The weather?" said Dosti "What has the weather got to do with it?"
Loran explained about meeting a teenage boy called Harry and how he was off in the forest doing research.
"Are you sure he didn't kidnap her?" said Dosti, suspicious about a teenager going off into the forest with a little girl.
"I'm quite sure." Said Loran "Harry didn't seem like the type. Besides, as much as I love her, Elira has a tendency to be nosy. In all honesty that's probably what started her friendship with Harry."
Mala and Dosti were not keen on the idea of waiting until morning. But they were left with little choice. They had no chance of tracking Harry in this weather on the ground and none of the Militia had the appropriate training to fly broomsticks in a night time aerial search in this weather.
For lack of better things to do, Mala and Dosti had Loran go to bed and left two of their colleagues to guard the premises in case Harry and/or Elira turned up during the night.
The following morning when they arrived back, neither Harry nor Elira had shown. The weather had cleared up so Mala decided to organize a search when an alert came in from Tirana.
"We have confirmed sightings of two Dementors heading into Fir of Hotova National Park. Intercept immediately!"
ORACLE2PHOENIX
Harry turned around to see two Dementors bearing down on him and Elira. At the back of his mind, he could already hear his mother's last words. Taking advantage of his new broom he bent forward, squashing his charge in the process, and accelerated to the maximum speed the broom would allow. Ordinarily he would have been able to outrun the two of them, but with a passenger his broom was too heavy to reach a fast enough speed.
Elira began to feel faint and found herself slipping off the broom. Harry managed to right her, but unfortunately they were going so fast that her sudden movement jerked the broom downwards and they fell into the trees. Harry pulled up and managed to make a rough crass landing on the forest floor. Thankfully he and Elira were still in once piece but the Dementors no longer had to chase them.
These two had been following Harry all the way from Cumberland, they were maddened with lust for his soul and to see him with a second vessel meant that each Dementor would get there feast today.
Harry pulled his wand out of his robes just as one of the Dementors began its attack on him. Such was the force of its assault, Harry dropped his wand and fell back as his entire body sized up. He was blind, he couldn't see. But he could feel. As the cold breath of the Dementor seemed to suck his very self out of his body, Harry reached down to his boot and pulled the spare wand. He absolutely loathed using it, but if this one was assaulting him, then the other was doubtlessly going after Elira. They were both in danger.
"Expecto Patronum!"
It was not a stag that emerged from this wand. Maybe it was because it had never attempted a spell so aligned against Dark Magic, but Harry could not use the Yew wand to incant a strong enough Patronus to drive the creature away. The wand however did help him. The Dementor was knocked back about ten meters.
"Accio wand!" said Harry picturing the brother to the wand in his hand. His wand.
Harry's sight returned just in time to see the Holly wand fly towards him. His hand released the Yew wand and caught that which had chosen him four years ago and, with fire in his heart, thoughts of Ron and Hermione and the friendship that meant everything to him imprinted in his mind, Harry glared down the Dementor.
"Expecto Patronum!"
Prongs the stag burst forth from the Holly wand knocking the Dementor far into the air. Harry turned to see the other one over Elira and to his shock he could see the light of her soul slowly passing upwards out of her mouth through the Dementor's air channel.
"Get that bastard." Roared Harry in anger. Prongs charged down the second creature and it went flying into the trees ahead.
He ran over to his eight-year-old friend just as her soul sank back into her body.
"Elira?" said Harry
She gasped for air and cried out in shock. Harry looked behind him and saw the first Dementor charge back towards him. A millisecond later Prongs went into full guardian mode, stood next to Harry and Elira and expelled a shockwave of patronus light knocking both that Dementor and the second one, which had also chosen to try again and attack again, back away from the two of them.
Harry was certain he could keep Prongs up indefinitely, which was a good thing. He had never come across Dementors this fanatical before. Usually they backed off once they realised that they could not penetrate a patronus, but these ones kept on coming back.
Elira upon realising that Harry was protecting her from these absolutely horrible beings clung on to him as hard as she could.
Harry felt arms tightly rap around his waist and Elira burry her head in his side.
"Send them off." Said Harry.
With one massive expulsion of light, Prongs sent the Dementors with such a force that they were unable to move back towards the two of them. They turned and fled.
Suddenly a voice called out from the distance.
"Stop… them…" Harry turned to see three men and a woman in uniform flying towards him and Elira on brooms.
Not knowing what their intentions were, Harry summoned back the Yew wand and slid it down his left sleeve, using his watch strap to hold it in place, and trained the Holly wand on the incoming people, ready to fight off anyone who attack him or Elira.
"Stop… Them…" called out Mala.
Harry was confused because the other people with the man didn't seem all that interested in firing curses at him. Then Harry realised that the man in question was talking to Harry.
"Stop… them…" he pointed to the Dementors. "Return… them…"
Harry suddenly realised. He turned to his stag patronus and shouted "Go!"
The stag shot off at his command and for the first time in Harry's life he was using his patronus to capture Dementors.
Prongs was much faster than the Dementors and quickly caught up with them. He knocked the first one to the ground then sent the other one down next to it. Prongs then used his ability and influence to hold them in place.
Mala approached Harry. When they had spoken to Loran, he and Dosti had been sceptical that a fifteen-year-old boy could cast a corporeal patronus. But here they were with a fifteen-year-old boy casting a one that was definitely on the more powerful end of the spectrum.
"Come…" he said indicating his broom and pointing to where Harry's patronus was pinning down the Dementors.
Harry nodded "Accio Nimbus!" his broom soared over to where he had crashed it. He mounted and turned to his unexpected charge. "Elira?" He pointed in front of him.
Elira nodded meekly, still shaken by what had happened, and climb on the broom in front of Harry.
Dosti suddenly began protesting about something, but Mala shut him up.
"Is there a problem?" asked Harry.
Dosti pointed to Elira and then at the female officer.
"Dosti!" said Mala angrily. "Let her go with him, he clearly means her no harm."
Harry had no idea what was being said. But Mala then beckoned Harry to follow him and took off in the direction of the Dementors. Harry took off with Elira and flew towards his patronus.
Mala hovered near where the creatures were trapped. "Take…" he indicated the Dementors and pointed towards the North-East.
Harry frowned, he then pointed in the opposite direction and said "Përmet?" then he pointed at Elira.
Mala shook his head and pointed at the Dementors again "Dangerous… take to… avanpost…"
"Avanpost?" thought Harry "Is that a place?" Then another type of post came to mind, these people were clearly some foreign form of Aurors or police, "Outpost?" said Harry
"Yes." Said Mala. "Come… dangerous…"
Harry nodded. Mala was right, Dementors were dangerous and this man seemed to want to take them into custody. Harry decided to go with them, maybe someone at this outpost could speak English, maybe they could also get Loran to come and pick up his daughter.
He flew along with the Militia and had Prongs take the Dementors along by force.
ORACLE2PHOENIX
It took them nearly two hours to escort the Dementors. The creatures were no match for Prongs but they fought like crazy against the silver guardian. They also fought like crazy to get to Harry and Elira, as if sensing their negative emotions.
Eventually they reached the North-Eastern boundary of the forest. There was a small Wizarding village in the mountains just off the forest. Yormgen.
Harry had originally thought of starting his search for Voldemort's lair over in this town but decided not to when the ordinance maps revealed the terrain outside the village to be to hilly and the wildlife data did not show the same patterns of deaths that the Përmet data showed. Unlike Përmet, Yormgen was a complete Wizarding settlement, the residential area was about half the size of Hogsmeade but there was a large industrial estate where Albanian Wizards had factories producing various items. This was also where the Albanian Magical Research institute was located. One of the reasons he had initially wanted to start here was because the institute did not hold the same concerns as Britain and France did regarding the Dark Arts. It was likely that Voldemort had come here at some point before the first war to learn more about Dark Magic which he couldn't learn in Britain.
Harry had suspected that Voldemort must have travelled abroad to learn more about the Dark Arts sometime between finishing school and the beginning of the First War. It now seemed that Voldemort had most likely stolen the Ravenclaw Diadem so it was possible he had also spent more time in this area, perhaps at the Institute studying Dark Magic.
As the five brooms descended with the Dementors under escort, people in Yormgen turned to see them. It was hard not to notice a group of flyers forcibly escorting a pair of what Magical Albanians considered the darkest creatures on Earth.
At the sight of them, the people in Yormgen all cheered with joy and happiness. Crowds began to form around the group as they touched down and there were several camera flashes. The Militia on the broomsticks, as well as some others coming out of the outpost exercised some quick crowd control. With an urgency to get inside, Mala directed Harry into the building, Elira kept a firm hold of Harry's arm as they escorted the captured creatures inside.
ORACLE2PHOENIX
Upon entering, Harry with Prongs and the captured Dementors were directed down to a dungeon like area. Except this was no ordinary prison, there facilities were not designed to hold people, not even witches or wizards. It was obviously a location dedicated to incarcerating dangerous magical creatures.
The overall size of the Dungeon was about the same as the Great Hall at Hogwarts, but it was filled with all manner of pits, cages and cells designed to keep a variety of dangerous creatures. In one pit there was about a dozen bowtruckles wandering about trying to find a way out, but the creatures were unable to climb up stone that made up their hole in the ground. Another pit was filled with water and covered up by a large plate of glass that Harry was sure had received extra enchantments as this pit was filled with a trio of Kelpies that were desperately and ferociously bashing against the glass. There were magical creatures kept all over the place, all of them classed as varying degrees of dangerous. Harry however believed he had custody of the most dangerous type of creature in this chamber.
"Here!" said Mala pointing to an open cell. Harry guided the two Dementors inside and had Prongs sit half on one side and half on the other side of the bars. For good measure Mala locked the cage.
With a few waves of his wand, Mala summoned a desk and some chairs and placed them in front of the Dementors' cage.
"Please… sit…" he indicated.
Harry sat down and deposited his rucksack on the table. Elira ignored the chairs and forcibly sat down on Harry. With his free hand, Harry pulled her into a hug and she cried on his shoulder.
Mala looked sympathetically at the two of them. "Please… wait… I be back…"
Mala rushed off back upstairs while Harry sat monitoring the Dementors and comforting a crying eight-year-old. They were not alone with the magical creatures, there were about two dozen Wizard guards who, while monitoring the other dangerous creatures, were looking at the two of them and their prisoners with differing levels of amusement and admiration. It was rather odd after all for a teenager to be the main escort for some of the most dangerous magical creatures on the planet.
Mala was only gone a few minutes when he, Dosti and a middle-aged woman came downstairs.
"Are you Harry?" asked the woman when she got to them.
Harry turned and said "Yes?"
"My name is Rea Kongoli. I am a translator from the Department of Foreign Magical Affairs at the Albanian Ministry of Magic. As I understand, you don't speak Albanian so I have been seconded to the Albanian Wizarding Militia for the time being until your involvement with us ends."
"My involvement?" said Harry "I don't understand."
"I'm afraid that, despite our best efforts, no member of the Albanian Militia can hold a Corporeal Patronus. Also thus far, we are unable to find someone within the Albanian Ministry or any other reliable source that can do this either. Therefore we must politely request of you that you stay with us for a short period of time to ensure the Dementors do not escape."
"How long?" said Harry, not liking the idea of being stuck in an Albanian Auror station, or whatever this place was, for long period of time. "As much as I hate Dementors, I can't stay here indefinitely."
Kongoli turned to Mala and relayed Harry's question in Albanian.
"My colleague Mala here says that a pair of specialists will come here from Russia to commandeer and eventually relocate them to the Siberian Starvation Ground."
"The what?" said Harry.
"The Siberian Starvation Ground is a location run by specialists attached to the Russian Ministry of Magic. It is a vast, unplotable restricted area where Dementors are taken in order to be killed. There is no known method for ending a Dementor other than by starving it to death. The Starvation Ground is guarded by hundreds of specialists in the Patronus Charm from Magical communities all over the world, but mainly Russians. They might be interested in recruiting you."
"Sorry but if I can't speak Albanian I doubt I'll get far in a place like Russia." Said Harry.
Kongoli chuckled.
Mala then began talking and she translated for Harry.
"The specialist should arrive here tomorrow night." Said Kongoli. "In the meantime Mala and Dosti here, as well as others, would like to examine the Dementors and find out where they came from. Also apparently you are involved in the disappearance of an eight-year-old."
"That would be this one." Said Harry indicating Elira.
Kongoli looked confused and shocked.
"It's really not like that…" said Harry, sure that the translator was thinking he was some kind of deviant. "She followed me into the forest and…"
"Perhaps we should get started." Said Kongoli.
She yapped to Dosti and Mala in Albanian and then the three of them sat down.
Mala opened an empty file and began filling in information while Dosti placed a box on the table and tapped it a few times with his wand.
Dosti began talking and Kongoli translated.
"This is a recording box, it will record everything we say as soon as it's opened." Said Dosti.
"Ok." Said Harry.
"Can I please have your full name?" said Mala.
"Harry James Potter." Said Harry.
At that declaration everyone, Elira included, looked at him stunned. Harry mainly put it down to living alone with no other company but an owl and a house-elf, but since leaving Hogwarts his hair and gotten even messier and his scar was now covered most of the time. For the sake of verification he lifted a little of his hair out of the way.
At the sight of the cut on his forehead Elira squealed in shock and delight, dropped to the floor and began jumping about chanting "Unë jam miq me Harry Potter. Unë jam miq me Harry Potter."
Although he was normally irritated by people reacting to the Boy-Who-Lived part of him like this, Harry was nonetheless pleased to see that Elira was much happier after her time in the forest.
Dosti began talking really quickly and really excitably.
Harry looked to Kongoli "Um… can you tell me what everyone is saying."
Kongoli snapped out of her shock "Um… well… oh my… Yes. Dosti is saying that he should have recognised you sooner from the Triwizard photos and Elira is constantly repeating 'I'm friends with Harry Potter' over and over again."
"Right." Said Harry. "Elira?" said Harry.
Elira stopped and looked at Harry with a mischievous gleam on her face "Po?" ("Yes?")
"Um…" forgetting the presence of the translator, Harry patted the chair next to him. Elira ignored it profusely and climbed back on his lap.
"Mr Potter." Said Mala "Um…" Mala gave the rest of what he wanted to say to the translator.
"Mr Potter, can you tell us how young Miss Topali here ended up in your care?"
Harry explained how he flooed to Kafene Topali and then trekked through the forest nearly half a day before it got dark.
"It was starting to rain and I didn't know whether there would be a risk of mudslides, so I kept on going until I was near the top of the hill and took shelter under a rock face. I had barely settled a few minutes when I heard a scream and found Elira here a little down the trail I had created."
"So you didn't even realise…"
"Not until I heard the scream. I mean the signs were obvious, I kept on detecting another magical presence but I assumed it was coming from Përmet, but then I found Elira."
Dosti began talking.
"Why didn't you simply bring her back to Përmet?"
Harry took a deep breath "It was dark, the rainfall was absolutely torrential. Even if the weather wasn't so bad, neither she nor I had the strength to walk through the forest without some rest and food and there was no way I could safely fly with a passenger in those conditions. I realised the only option was for Elira to spend the night with me and for me to take her back to her father the following morning. Speaking of which, has someone contacted Loran? Because he must be worried…"
"Our colleagues are fetching him now." Said Kongoli. "He should be here soon."
Mala began talking and Kongoli began translating.
"You were on your way to Përmet when we found you right?"
"Yes." Said Harry "You saw how that ended. By the way I tried sending a message to Loran last night with Prongs there… do you know if he got it… did it work?"
"Yes." Said Mala "It work… Prongs?"
"My Dad's nickname at Hogwarts." Said Harry "His Patronus was also a stag, or so I gather. This guy has always been Prongs to me."
"While we're on the subject?" said Mala, through Kongoli "How did you learn a patronus? You're only just of legal age, I'm pretty sure you're not in England."
"When I was thirteen a prisoner escaped from Azkaban, a Wizarding Prison somewhere in the North Sea. There was some concern that he would come to Hogwarts, so our idiot of a Minister decided to have several hundred of them guard the school boundaries. I'm highly sensitive to their presence and tend to pass out when near them, so my Defence teacher taught the charm to me, after a while I managed the basics. Despite specific orders from Professor Dumbledore, the Dementors crossed the boundaries and attacked me twice. The first time I fell off my broom and spent a few days in the infirmary, but the Headmaster chased them off. The second time it was just me and a friend they attacked. It was a desperate moment but…" Harry pointed at his silver guardian.
"At thirteen?" said Dosti. "Someone taught you the charm? How?"
"He mainly trained me using a Boggart. It was nothing like the real thing but it was considerably better than nothing."
"Boggart?" said Mala. "Maybe we should have someone try that. I don't suppose you could spare your Defence teacher for a few weeks?"
"He's not our teacher anymore, he was forced to resign." Said Harry.
"A man teaches a thirteen-year-old to do that and gets sacked?" said Dosti. "What'd he do?"
"Nothing. Another teacher with a petty axe to grind revealed to everyone that he was a werewolf and he chose to leave before anyone decided to kick up a fuss over it."
"A werewolf?" said Dosti "Who would dare allow a werewolf to teach children?"
Kongoli probably shouldn't have translated that, but it was too late now.
Harry jumped to his feet, Elira barely managed to land on hers as she fell off his lap. "That werewolf is the only teacher we've had who has done a proper job and is also the only one who hasn't tried to kill or obliviate me. Granted last year's guy was actually an imposter, but if you want me to continue guarding these things you will keep such comments to yourself."
"What's the big deal they're…" began Dosti.
"Artan!" shouted Mala. He didn't like werewolves any more than his partner but right now they needed Harry's help. He turned to the boy in question "Please sit down."
Harry did so and Elira climbed onto his lap again and hugged him. She didn't know much about werewolves, but if Harry was friends with one then they were all wonderful as far as she was concerned.
"If that's everything then I think we're done." said Harry, before reaching for his rucksack. He pulled a number of cereal bars and indicated for Elira to take one. Then he also retrieved a piece of parchment and a quill and began writing choosing to ignore the three Albanian adults.
Mala and Dosti looked at each other, they had clearly rubbed Harry the wrong way. The only reason he hadn't stormed out of the building was because he hated Dementors to much to leave them in the company of people who couldn't form corporeal patroni.
"We still need to examine the Dementors and find out where they came from… if they're tagged." Said Mala, through Kongoli.
Without looking up Harry said "Don't let me stop you."
ORACLE2PHOENIX
When Madam Bones decided to meet Harry she did not expect to find the future fate of the Wizarding World on her shoulders. Between the criminal investigations into the office of the Minister for Magic and the chaos left behind in the Department of International Magical Cooperation after Barty Crouch had gone missing meant that the entire Ministry was a mess. The fact that they were also now in a state of civil war did not help matters.
The attack on Appleby was followed by another series of more brutal attacks in the Muggle world, which included the murder of a MP in the Muggle Parliament. While Bones' people tried to sort out those problems and appease the British Prime Minister, the Death Eaters had launched an attack in the middle of Diagon Alley. Thankfully a team of Law Officers were on station and no civilians or shop keepers were injured. But one of her law officers was murdered and two more were in St Mungos. To make matters worse, before reinforcements could arrive, the Death Eaters all managed to escape via portkey after leaving the Dark Mark floating in the sky.
Meanwhile a number of Department Heads at the Ministry were being difficult in giving their cooperation to the newly formed war council. There was still some doubt amongst some members of the Ministry as to whether Fudge should be facing such a rigorous investigation and some of those people were being deliberately difficult to Madam Bones.
"I don't care how underappreciated you feel Mrs Edgecombe or what your views are on this surveillance. A Senior Law Officer will be on station in your department to monitor the use of floo travel for suspicious individuals."
Mrs Edgecombe glared at Madam Bones for nearly a minute when the door to the war council room burst open and Percy Weasley came running in.
"Sorry to interrupt Madam Bones but there is a delegation from the Albanian embassy here, they are demanding to speak with someone representing the leadership of Britain. They claim we've committed an act of war against Albania."
ORACLE2PHOENIX
"British?" said Harry "What do you mean the Dementors are British?"
"All countries that have Dementors are obliged by international law to control their populations and tag each one with an identification code." Said Mala. "These two are registered to Azkaban Prison."
"But why are they here?" said Harry. Then a thought occurred "They followed me, didn't they?"
"That is our hypothesis." Said Dosti. "You are not on the run from your Ministry by any chance?"
"No." said Harry. "But… I have managed to make enemies of some people in the Ministry. Our Minister is currently being investigated for corruption, misuse of authority, extra-judicial abuse of authority and a ton of other stuff. I'm the one who approached the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and got them to open an investigation."
"Are you suggesting that people in your government sent these Dementors to… assassinate you?" said Mala.
"I can't think of any other reason. Unless they've defected to Voldemort…"
There followed a round of flinching, thankfully Elira was too engrossed in a drawing she was doing to pay attention to the conversation.
"We have been following events in Britain." Said Kongoli. "From what we can tell the Dementors are still under control of your government and while there have been a number of attacks by the Death Eaters there has not been any other significant shift in the balance of power. Your Minister is still in his position but under investigation by Madam Bones' Department."
"Then I would have to guess that someone inside the Ministry ordered them to attack me." Said Harry. "I didn't tell anyone I was coming to Albania so no one could have predicted them following me here."
"That is irrelevant." Said Kongoli. "Sending Dementors into Albanian territory is considered an act of war. I'm sorry but as a member of the Department of Foreign Affairs I must inform the Minister of this development. He will undoubtedly want to come and talk to you.
ORACLE2PHOENIX
Later that day Loran arrived at the outpost and was escorted down to the basement.
Upon seeing her father Elira cried out "Baba!" and ran up to him and pulled him tightly into a hug. Harry awkwardly waved at him from his position guarding the Dementors.
Scooping his daughter up, Loran walked over to Harry.
"It seems your research trip has turned into quite an adventure." He said happily. "Thank you for sending that message, it made me sleep much easier."
"It's nothing new to me." Said Harry. "Forests, Dementors, plots to kill me. It's just like being back home."
Loran looked at Harry quizzically.
"Baba. Baba." Said Elira excitably "Kjo është Harry Potter." ("Daddy. Daddy. This is Harry Potter.")
Harry didn't need to everything Elira said to know what she was saying. As Loran looked at Harry with sceptism, he lifted his hair away from his scar.
"All this time, I've being talking to the Triwizard Champion and the worlds youngest war hero and I never even realised it?" said Loran.
"I wasn't sure how well known I was in this country and I wanted to conduct my research without drawing any unwanted attention." Said Harry.
"I guess that's no loner possible." Said Loran.
"It's not exactly necessary anymore." Said Harry. "I finished my research this morning, well the part I need to do in the forest anyway."
"Does that mean you will be leaving us soon." Said Loran.
"Not immediately, but I will be going soon." Said Harry. "I have one last thing I need to do here and it shouldn't take long. But now that there are people who know I'm is in Albania, I need to get out of here before they come after me."
"You mean these Death Eaters in your country?" said Loran.
"Amongst others." Said Harry "I left a lot of angry and concerned people back in Britain and I've been hiding from them for over a month. They will come here if they think they can catch me."
"That's a shame." Said Loran. "I think my daughter is going to miss you."
"After the last 24 hours I would think that you would want me to keep my distance." Said Harry.
"Nonscence. What Elira did was her own fault, not yours. And from the sounds of things it is some one in your Ministry that is to blame for the Dementors. I will be keeping a close eye on her for quite some time, but I would like you to come and visit us again before you leave." Said Loran.
Harry smiled "I'd like that. But at the rate thinga are going I might not be able to. Apparently my country has just declared war on Albania by sending these two over here. As soon as the Russians come here and take over for me, I'm expecting to be arrested as a Prisoner of War or something."
Loran looked a bit taken back by that information. "Well they've asked you to guard these things. So I doubt they want to arrest you."
Harry personally didn't have the same view. The Militia had basically told him that no one else was avaliable to guard the creatures, it was possible they would turn on him when his usefulness had expired.
"We'll see."
Probably because he was feeling sympathetic, Loran and Elira stayed with Harry until later that evening. During that time a medic from the Militia came and looked over the cuts and bruises Elira had obtained in the forest and confirmed that she was absolutely fine. When the two of them left, the medic came back and told him to drink a stimulus potion that would keep him awake all night and through tomorrow.
Faced with nothing better to do, Harry performed the memory extraction charm that Madam Bones performed on him. He would need a pensieve to view it, but as he couldn't perform the charm back in Britain because of the Underage Restriction, he thought he might as well do it now while he had the opertunity. It was a memory of the Bloody Baron and the Ravenclaw ghost in the forest.
Having already started earlier in the day, Harry began writing down everything he could figure out from the encounter with the ghosts. Assuming he was free to go after the Russians arrived, Harry planned to get some sleep back in Tirana and then visit the Albanian Magical Research Institute. Hogwarts had archives so it was not inconsevable that there were also some in this institute.
ORACLE2PHOENIX
After hours and hours of being awake, the door to the basement opened and a man only slightly thinner and slightly taller than Vernon Dursley entered flanked by two body guards and Kongoli.
Harry by this stage had given up making notes and one of the guards had provided him with a pack of cards. So he had resorted to that great passtime: solataire. He stopped what he was doing when Kongoli came up to speak to him.
"Mr Potter. Allow me to introduce you to Tarek Hassan. The Albanian Minister for Magic."
Harry shook the man's hand as he said "ello, ello Mister Potter..."
Despite that English, Kongoli translated everything else the man had to say.
The man kept on trying to ask Harry what he was doing all alone in Albania. Harry told him that he was conducting research in the forest. But the man kept on asking what else Harry was up to. It was obviously an attempt to find out what he was doing in Albania but Harry had no intention of discussing Voldemort or Death Eaters or Soul Avatars with anyone.
"So how long do you plan on staying with us? Your reaserch must be nearly finished."
"It is." Confirmed Harry "I'll be out of the country soon."
This seemed to please the man somewhat. "Well I hope you will not hold bad memories of my country after this most atrocious incident."
"No I won't, I've had an... interesting time here." Said Harry.
The Minister didn't stay to long. It was late afternoon when Dosti and Mala came in escorting two men in red and brown coloured furry robes that looked thick enough to keep one warm in the North Pole... or Siberia.
"So this the kid?" Said one of the men looking at Harry.
Harry nodded.
"Harry Potter I take it?" said the other man. "I is Makar Deletsky."
"Pavel Barsukov." Said the first.
Both men had deep Russian accents.
"Let us be taking that off you." Said Delesky.
"Expecto Patronum!" He incanted in a deep Russian accent. A silver coloured patronus formed what Harry thought was some kind of wolf.
"Gray wolf." said Barsukov referring to his partners silver animal. "Expecto Patronum!"
"An octopus?" said Harry at the sight of the eight armed creature.
"Yes. My favourite dish. Don't get to eat a lot of it in Siberia, but hey it's all for a good cause. Speaking of who taught you that?"
"Oh Professor Lupin. One of my former Defence teachers."
"Lupin?" said Delesky "Not Remus Lupin?"
"You know him?" said Harry in surprise.
"Oh yes. He worked with us for quite some time. Over ten years ago. Then he moved on. It's good to hear he went back home."
"Remus was in Russia?" said Harry.
"Oh yes. Poor bloke is a werewolf. Can't get much work. He stayed with us for a year nearly before our ass of a boss found some reason to give him the fire. Remus spending most of his time travelling round planet. I am pleased to hear he be returned in Britain. He apparently ran away after some terrible experience. If you see him again, tell him Makar said hi."
Harry nodded and for the first time in nearly 36 hours Prongs left him. Harry suddenly found himself panting.
"Hmm holding that so long is never good idea. Even we do it in shifts." Said Delesky. "Maybe you should go and sleep?"
"Yeah thanks." Said Harry. "Is there a floo I can use." He asked Mala, while slinging his rucksack.
Not ten minutes later, Harry found himself back in his hotel room in Tirana. It didn't take much longer than a blink of the eye for Harry to fall asleep.
ORACLE2PHOENIX
The following morning Harry woke up and took stalk of everything that happened. He knew that he couldn't stay long. By now every witch and wizard in Albania would know he was in the country and if those in Britain didn't know yet they would by the end of the day. Harry's only option at this stage was to get to the archives in Yormgen and try to find what he was looking for there and finish his business in Albania by the end of the day.
Harry made some excuse to the hotel staff about having to go away on some emergency and told them he would not be coming back. Everything he had with him was stuffed inside his rucksack and thankfully the hotel staff didn't ask any questions about where the suitcase he came in with was.
ORACLE2PHOENIX
Harry flooed to a pub in Yormgen after getting the address at the restaurant in Tirana. Before leaving however, when no one was looking he snuck into the bathroom and performed a colour changing charm on his hair turning it Weasley red. A look in the mirror and Harry was convinced no one would immediately recognise him as Harry Potter.
When he got to the pub he got some quick directions then made his way to the Research Institute. He asked the receptionist if he could talk to someone about accessing the archives. A few minutes later he met by an elderly woman who took him to a basement area where they were all stored. The storage area was nowhere near as large as the one at Hogwarts but it was pretty large.
The archivist left Harry to his work and returned to her desk.
"Find me Tom Riddle." Said Harry, thankful that the search method was the same as it was for Hogwarts.
A box emerged from a shelf and a small file emerged from that box and flew towards Harry.
It was a student file. Harry was relieved to find that the contents were both in English and Albanian, saving him the trouble of having to get it translated. The file was nowhere near as large the file that was at Hogwarts but it was something.
According to the file, Tom Riddle spent six months studying a course called "the Power of Defence". But that was pretty much all it said. It didn't say what was in this course or how Tom performed. It just confirmed that he'd paid his fees, where he was staying during term and a few other minor details that were largely useless.
"The Power of Defence?" said the archivist when Harry asked her. "That's an old course, we stopped doing it over 30 years ago though. Hang on." She waved her wand and a leaflet came out from one of the boxes on the shelves. "This details the course contents during the late 1940s when this Tom Riddle was here. The course was dropped following a series of legal reforms that illegalized much of the content. Feel free to make magical copies of each of those, I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help."
"No thank you." Said Harry. "You've been very helpful."
He left the Institute with copies of both the leaflet and Tom Riddle's student file. A glance at his watch revealed that it was too early for Lunch. All things considered Harry decided he had to get out of the country as soon as possible. There in lay a problem.
The Ministry in London would know that he was in Albania by now and Dumbledore would know as well. Moody mentioned Dumbledore being head of an organization called the Order of the Phoenix, and that organization probably suspected he used Muggle means to get out of Britain and would guess that he planned to use the same means to get back in.
Harry strongly expected Dumbledore to be monitoring as many routes back into Britain as he could, at the very least he expected Heathrow and the other London airports would be watched for Harry's return. Therefore Harry had to find another way back into the country. He didn't want to dare using a magical means to re-enter because he didn't know whether those means would be detected. What little Harry knew of warding charms was that there were likely wards that detecting people who flew in and out of the Britain by broomstick, possibly even if he wore his invisibility cloak.
Harry decided his best bet for getting back without detection was to find some random and obscure route that no one else would think of. There were enough airports in Britain that accepted international flights that Dumbledore's people would not be able to investigate them all. Harry could get a connecting flight from Albania to one of those European cities that had flights to place in Britain that weren't London. But he still had no idea of knowing which airports would be watched.
Harry found his way back to the pub in Yormgen and ordered himself a butterbeer whilst he thought things over.
He remembered from Primary School that one of his teachers mentioned getting a ferry to France or Belgium, but many of those routes were popular and Harry was sure Dumbledore would check them as well.
Then there was the Channel Tunnel. Harry had been in the Muggle world when the tunnel was opened last year. There was a chance that even some Muggle conscious members of the Wizarding World may not yet know about the crossing. But there was also another problem, the tunnel had received a lot of profile while it was under construction so Dumbledore's people may know of its existence but even if they didn't Harry was sure Hermione did and he was still worried she would point this out to the Order in hopes of recapturing him.
Harry grumbled to himself, causing people in the pub to give him strange looks.
After a few minutes to himself he decided his best bet was to re-enter Britain as quickly and as obscurely as possible. No one had turned up while he was at the Yormgen Outpost so it was probable that any reception committee would not be organized yet. With that thought in mind he Flooed back to Tirana, quickly found a payphone and pushed a large amount of coins inside. He dialled the 44 (international code for Britain) then he took out his wand and pressed it against the Number Five.
There followed a dialling tone.
"You have reached the Gringotts Hotline, how may I direct your call?"
"I have an account with the Muggle services department. Can you please direct me to someone able to process requests from the seahawk group?" said Harry.
"Certainly, please hold."
Harry waited not thirty seconds before a voice replied.
"I am able to serve the seahawk group. Please give your identification."
"Harry James Potter." Said Harry.
"Very well Mr Potter. Do you wish to alter your arrangements?"
"Yes. I would like to cancel my flight from Tirana to Heathrow and to come back to Britain as soon as possible arriving in a destination that is not in London."
"An obscure destination?" asked the caller.
"If possible." Said Harry.
"I can get you a flight that will take you to Edinburgh Airport after a change in Zurich."
"Anything a bit more obscure?" Harry asked.
"I do have one that goes via Paris to Aberdeen." Said the caller "It isn't cheap though."
"I'll take it." Said Harry. "When does the flight leave?"
"2 o'clock Tirana time." Said the caller. "In about four hours."
Harry took a deep breath. "Alright. I'll be there. Thank you."
"No trouble sir. Please pick up your tickets at the Air France desk under the name Harry Potter."
"Thank you." Said Harry.
He hung up the phone.
"Four hours." He said. "Guess I'd better go say goodbye."
ORACLE2PHOENIX
"Harry." said Elira happily as he dropped out of the Floo.
Harry took the young eight-year-old in a hug.
"Hello Harry." said Loran coming through from the kitchen. "Fancy an early Lunch?"
"Please." Said Harry "I'm sorry but I'm flying back home in just under four hours."
Loran stopped smiling. "Ah!" he said.
"I'm really sorry but there are people after me and if I need to head back now before they send people to airports to wait for me."
Loran nodded in understanding. "I understand. Elira."
Harry felt his heart break looking at Elira as she was told that he was leaving. He pulled her tightly into a hug as her eyes began to water. "I'm sorry."
Elira perked up slightly when her father brought out chocolate cake. But she still had a frown on her face the entire meal, even as she was given a second slice.
"I take it you're research is finished?"
"Yes." Said Harry "I found everything I think I can. The rest I think will need to be done in Britain."
Loran nodded. "This is to do with your war isn't it?"
Harry thought about denying it, but decided not to "Yes."
"I hope you found the answers to all your questions." Said Loran.
"I found some, but to be honest there are now more questions." Said Harry "Such as where did Tom take that Diadem."
"From the ghosts?" said Loran.
Harry looked surprised. Loran nodded towards the grumpy girl with chocolate paste smeared on her cheek.
"I won't tell anyone." Said Loran "You don't have to worry."
"They're from Hogwarts." Said Harry "One is the ghost of Slytherin House and I think the other is of Ravenclaw. It looks like that patch in the forest is where they died. It also looks like that patch was the epicentre of whatever caused all those animals to die."
Loran nodded. "I'm sorry you couldn't find the answers to all your problems here."
"I never expected to. Besides which, I answered a few important questions here."
"And found more questions." Said Loran.
"In fairness you can't find answers without questions… most of the time." Said Harry "These are questions that need answers and were always going to need to be asked and I'm getting a bit philosophical now."
Loran chuckled for a moment but then looked serious "Harry. Those Dementors were after you… but they tried to go for my daughter as well… when you get back to Britain… can you find out who was responsible?"
Harry nodded. "I may not have to. Right now our Ministry is a mess, but I believe in the person whose trying to fix it. If I know Madam Bones, she'll be running a thorough investigation. She may have even already caught the person responsible. Either way, if she doesn't, I'll do all I can to figure it out."
Loran nodded "Thank you."
"Harry." said Elira "Do të ju shkruani për mua?"
Loran smiled "My daughter is asking if you will write to her?"
Harry smiled "Sure. Just wait until you meet Hedwig."
"Hedwig?" said Loran.
"My owl. She's gorgeous. I'll write as soon as I get back... well maybe I'll sleep first. It's been a rather rough holiday and it's still a long way back."
Loran smiled. "Thank you Harry. Please let me know if you decide to come back here. I would very much like to learn more about your tales of adventure."
Harry smiled, then frowned. It was time to go and catch his flight. "I need to get going soon." He looked out his bag of money to pay for lunch.
"Not this time Harry." Said Loran. "This shall be my treat."
"But..."
"I insist." He said, then turned to Elira and told her Harry had to go now.
Elira looked up at Harry pleadingly. He once more took her into a hug. He didn't know how long he'd been holding the little girl when a flash distracted the pair of them. They looked over to see Loran smiling at them with a camera.
"Can I try another with you both smiling?" He said. Then he repeated the question in Albanian for Elira.
Harry rubbed the tears from Elira's eyes and they both turned to smile for the camera.
ORACLE2PHOENIX
The last week had been so eventful that Harry almost forgot that, according to his passport, he was eighteen-years-old. On the flight to Paris the crew tried communicating their concerns to him first in Albanian then French before someone realised he only spoke English. When he landed at Charles de Gualle, he was escorted to a detention facility because the French authorities were much more skeptical of his claim and thought his passport was a forgery. They scrutinized it for any defect they could find, but the Goblins had it done properly and officially. Thankfully they didn't try searching his bags, which included a rucksack with an undetectable extension charm.
They eventually let him go after finding nothing wrong with his passport because the alternative was making miss his flight and there was no concrete proof there was anything illegal about him.
By the time he landed in Aberdeen, Harry was really sick of travelling and it was nearly ten o'clock at night, or eleven if you were in Albania. Harry got through customs with the minimal hassle, the border guards accepted he was really eighteen with much less sceptism than the French, or the Albanians or even the English. Harry got on a bus bound for Elgin, it had barely gone a few miles from the airport when disembarked at a stop in the middle of nowhere.
He then waited until there was no one around.
"Dobby!" he said.
The little elf materialised "Harry Potter has returned safely." Said Dobby happily.
"Yes. Can you please take me home? I have had enough of hotels, forests and travelling. I want my bed." Asked Harry
ORACLE2PHOENIX
Before going to bed, Dobby insisted that Harry eat something. Reasoning that he could pen a letter to Elira while the elf cooked him a very late dinner, Harry relented and looked out some parchemnt and a quill.
Hedwig was very happy to see her master again.
"Hey girl. How have you and Dobby been?"
Hedwig gave a light screech.
"Good for you." Said Harry, not knowing what else to say. "Fancy taking a letter to Albania. I made a friend over there. She doesn't speak English but could you deliver this to her and give her my best?"
Hedwig nodded and held out her leg.
"Thanks girl." Said Harry.
After eating Harry found that he could wait just a little longer before going to sleep. So he went to the library and found a battered and severly out of date copy of Hogwarts a History. In it he looked up as much as he could about Rowena Ravenclaw. There was mention of a Diadem that had been lost around the time of her death. There was also a detailed drawing of it with the words 'Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure' engraved on the surface. Harry also read up on Rowena's daughter Helena. Helena Ravenclaw was now the ghost of Ravenclaw Tower, known as the Grey Lady. It also stated that she along with the person who would become the Bloody-Baron were found dead in Albania shortly before Rowena died.
This confirmed what he already knew. That the Diadem was stolen by Helena and hidden in Albania. Harry could place Tom Riddle in Yormgen during 1947, which indicated that he was the one who stole the Diadem. The question was where did he hide it?
"Dobby thinks Mr Potter should go to bed now." Said Dobby.
"I agree." Said Harry getting up. He would organize this new information with everything he knew in the morning, then pursue other leads.
"By the way has the Ministry, or anyone else tried contacting me?"
"No sir. But the paper this morning stated that you was in Albania. They might still think you are."
"Here's hoping." Said Harry an idea forming. "Maybe we can take advantage of their distraction and visit the village?"
"Not before you have had some sleep sir." Said Dobby.
Harry nodded and yawned "Good night Dobby."
Harry wandered into his bedroom and looked around. It was good to be home.
Ok so Harry is back in Britain. I'm not entirely sure how I want the next chapter to go so it may take a little more time than this one did.
Please review