Magical Mind-Twister

A/N: I want to thank everyone for your reviews and encouragement. I know my updates can be few and far between but I do love reading all of your comments. In the last chapter I had a review that complained that I was both too detailed and too slow in the development of the story line. I can only admit that this is true but also for a purpose. I am in fact an actual author, my manuscripts are in constant revision from editors that work with my publishing company, Penguin Books. One of their pieces of advise was to work on slowing down how fast I tend to rush things (As you will notice if you've read my other story Gondolin Heroes) and to work on the details.

I am deliberately trying to be as detailed as possible so unfortunately, this will not change. However, I am starting to get more of the plot developed and fleshed out so there will be more actions and puzzles to figure out.

Also, while I know my reasoning behind Hadrian's limited involvement is somewhat weak, Voldemort and Dumbledore are not the main focus of the plot conflicts... yes there is a hint there. Regardless, I want to thank the reviewer for your comments as all advice is welcome. I do want to know what you think and your were very respectful in the way you presented your arguments.

A/N 2: Yes in this chapter is the beginning of a slash development, however I will not do any explicit scenes as to be honest I cannot write them, or any scenes of that kind. (its also why my other story has stalled…) so you may see the beginning of well, courting so be forewarned. Should anyone wish to write those scenes feel free to post it but send me the name and title so I can give credit and direct those interested to it. Same for my other story Gondolin Heroes.

A/N 3: COOKIES TO WHOEVER FIGURES OUT WHO THE TRAVELERS ARE

As Hadrian sat in his quarters he couldn't help the itch that was present in his magic as though it was calling...or pleading for something. It was enough to drive him to distraction to the point that even the Flamel's noticed. When they had cornered him after lunch he was sadly unable to give them the answers they sought as he didn't know them himself. When he explained exactly what his...symptoms were Perenelle got a knowing and smug look on her face. They had left him alone on the walkway next to his office even more confused than before. Judging from the smirk Nicholas gave him at dinner Perenelle had passed on what she had figured out. Of course neither was willing to tell Hadrian what was going on.

Hadrian looked up as Fawkes and Hedwig landed on his desk not bothering with their perches which were right next to the open window they had just flown through.

"Fawkes, Hedwig, what can I help you with?" Hadrian asked. Both phoenixes traded a look and turned back to Hadrian.

Well Harry-Mage we think you need to be told who is coming through time so that you can work with the goblins to prepare for their arrival next week. When they arrive you may be more than slightly distracted and won't give it the attention you could if you do it today. Also, their arrival will cause many things to change, hopefully enough to withstand the darkness that is slowly but surely building. Hedwig stated and Hadrian nodded but looked confused at her last statement.

"What do you mean Hedwig, what darkness?" he asked.

Hatchling, you have had a lot to focus on in the last many turnings of the sun. the darkness has been building slowly for the last several hundred years but only in the last 60 has it become large enough to draw the attention of the phoenix council. Something is coming hatchling and it is not going to be for the benefit of the world. That is why the council believes these people are being pulled through time as their aid will be invaluable. You will need to begin contacting all prior students of the academy and warn them to begin preparing as what is coming may very well be the darkest event in the last two millennium. Fawkes told him and by the end of it Hadrian was pale. Dear Merlin, what in Hades name could be so bad that the phoenix council was worried? Hadrian pulled a piece of parchment towards him and began writing a to-do list. He needed to begin contacting the Phoenix Academy Alumni as well as all his other contacts to begin preparing, though judging from the lack of haste of his companions frames, they still had some time to prepare. He would also send Hedwig into the sanctuary to pass the warnings on to the creatures.

"So just who is coming through time?" Hadrian asked, wondering who they were that even the goblins would need time to prepare for their arrival. Though it was reassuring that who ever they were, they were on magic's side.

Harry-Mage I want you to think very carefully. You have possibly the greatest magical conflict the earth has faced in millennia, what you need are people who can go head to head with anything you throw in front of them and who are extremely protective of the magical world. You need people who are steadfast, intelligent, willing to risk themselves to save others and the out minded thinking to twist a war-front to your advantage. That is exactly who you are getting. Hedwig said and watched as Hadrian slowly put the clues together, a sense of awe and worry appearing on his face.

"You can't mean who I think you do..." Hadrian said with a dry throat and gulped when they nodded confirming his thoughts. Oh dear Merlin, Morgana and Circe… With that thought Hadrian's eyes rolled to the back of his head and he passed out on the floor of his study leaving the two phoenixes to stare in amusement at the downed figure.

How do you think he will react when he finds out that two of them are his dominants? Hedwig asked and traded what could only be the phoenix equivalent of hysterical laughter with Fawkes.

It was ten minutes before Hadrian roused himself and stood up holding his head still looking horrifically shocked.

He noticed that both phoenixes seemed to be amused by something though he had no idea what. He sat down heavily in his chair and pulled another parchment towards him and began writing a letter to FireAxe the current Goblin King requesting a meeting as soon as possible. He placed the missive into an envelope and after sealing it handed it to Hedwig who vanished in a swirl of ice crystals. Hadrian placed his head into his hands wondering how he was going to get everything set up in time without tipping his hand to the rest of the world. Especially to the families of those coming. It may be easier to use his personal vault to create theirs as it would take years to sort out the lordships due to the families descending from them were still very much alive though unaware of their lineage.

He looked up as Hedwig returned bearing a different envelope, this one with the official seal of the Goblin King. Gently taking the envelope he opened it and saw that FireAxe would see him at six this evening which was at seven tomorrow morning here in New Zealand. So he would leave at 6:50 am here so that he was a few minutes early as right now England was 13 hours behind New Zealand. He tossed the letter into the fireplace unwilling to take any chances. He walked from behind his desk and stared down at the walkways filled with students heading to their next classes as today marked then end of their first full week here at the Academy. The new students had handled the influx of returning students well and managed to only wind up lost a few times before they managed to learn the routes to and from their classes. The academy currently held just over 1,000 students that currently attended the school either as normal students or those pursuing their masteries.

Hadrian didn't know for sure why the current class only held 18 students as the list for next year held 120 possible students and very few would decline. The new students were settling in well and Hadrian was surprised at how studious Ron and his counterpart were in this reality. Honestly this Ron was even more driven than original Hermione seemed to be. He wondered what had caused such a drastic change from the original time line. Hadrian looked at the door as he heard someone knocking to come in.

"Enter," he called out and turning saw his visitors were the Flamel's, he was glad they had come he wanted to let them know about the warning he had gotten maybe they would have some advice as well.

"Ah Hadrian we just came to give you the report on the first years but what has you so worried?" Perenelle asked and Hadrian knew she had noticed because well he honestly wasn't hiding it. The fact that something was so dark and ancient as to worry magic itself enough to pull these people through time, it honestly sent shivers through his body. Even Voldemort and Grindlewald, and Grindlewald had been a world wide threat hadn't warranted this amount of concern.

"Please sit I have just received some news from the phoenix council that is not even close to being good news." Hadrian waited until they had sat down in the two chairs in front of his desk, both now worried as well.

"It seems that over the last several 1300 years an enemy has slowly but surely risen. They have been building their power base for many, many years. It is only recently that the Phoenix Council has sensed the build up of evil. We do not yet know who it is, or what they want but the fact that they are this patient does not bode well. The people being pulled through time are in direct relation to this as it seems even magic is worried, she is sending them to us as aid. From what the Phoenixes tell me we still have several years before they make their next move, though it seems it will begin within the next decade. I will begin to send out warnings to our Alumni and my other contacts to keep on the look out for anything dangerous or suspicious. Also, we will need to brace the wards further as I will not risk the school and sanctuary. It seems we will need to switch them to war mode, I would rather have them fully active at all times then wait and hope and not have them power up when we need them." Hadrian told them.

"You're right Hadrian this is most definitely not a good thing. For something to have lived this long… we will need to be vary cautious as to how we proceed if we tip our hand..." Nicholas trailed off. Hadrian tried not to grimace at the thought.

"I have a meeting tomorrow with FireAxe and I will pass on the warnings. I will also contact the leaders of the Vampires, Were's, Elves and Fey. We need as many people as prepared as possible." Hadrian said. Perenelle and her husband nodded before she spoke up looking thoughtful.

"Hadrian dear, you know how loyal the house-elf race is to you correct?" She asked. Nicholas looked at her confused which funny enough was the same expression Hadrian wore.

"Yes Perenelle, but what does that have to do with this?" Hadrian asked wanting clarification on whatever crazy scheme she was thinking of next. It was part of the reason that he wanted them to be one of the first people 'in the know' about the developing situation. The way her mind worked would make his own cry. She nearly always thought outside the box and came up with wacky, insane ideas that almost always worked.

"Well, we need a secure way of knowing what is going on in all corners of the earth and we need to establish a better information network in such a way that no one notices. So we use house-elves. Their everywhere and with their popping ability they can instantly relay information between us and the rest of the alumni and various contacts. And really who would think to watch what they say around a house-elf?" She said and the males jaws dropped. It was brilliant, simple and uncomplicated meaning that it would be that much more difficult to discover. It took advantage of the wizarding populations natural disregard of the house-elves.

Hadrian nodded to himself and standing straighter he called out softly.

"Mipsy..." and only seconds later a female house-elf, appeared. Mipsy was Hadrian's personal elf and was devoutly loyal to Hadrian. Her pristine tea towel also held the Asher Family Crest.

"Mipsy, I have to ask you a question and feel free to refuse." Hadrian said. He wanted her to make this choice of her own free will. All the elves involved in the spy ring would.

Mipsy nodded though she had a slightly horrified look on her face at the thought of telling her beloved master no to anything.

"There is a great evil that has been steadily rising the last millennia. It is great enough that the Phoenix Council is worried. I was wondering if you and any other elves would be interested in forming a little spy network and keeping an eye out well everywhere for anything suspicious. We don't know who or where the mastermind is." Hadrian said and watched his friend work her mind around what he was asking of her. This was not a decision that most house-elves had to make or even contemplate making so he was not begrudging her the chance to think this through. This was no small favor after all.

"Mipsy will do so Master Hadrian, and will talk to the other elves to get their help as well." Mipsy said nodding her little head carefully as though her whole world had shifted with this one decision and perhaps it had in a way.

Hadrian let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank you Mipsy, this is a great help and may end up saving countless lives. Please make sure to thank any other elf that agrees to help as well. Please be careful though Mipsy if you think that you may be in danger or its too risky I don't want you to say and wind up hurt or worse killed." Hadrian told her. The little elf nodded and popped away with a serious look on her face and Hadrian trusted her to decide who it was safe to ask for help from and who it wasn't.

He stood and smiling in slight relief that there was a least something being done to thwart the plans of this latest and from what he understood, darkest threat. It made him feel slightly more secure about the future know that a plan was in place.

"Well, let's head to the Great Hall and get some food. No sense in stressing further at the moment. I will send out the letters to the alumni and my contacts after the meeting with FireAxe tomorrow." and with that the small group left for the Great Hall still deep in thought about what the future might bring.

As Hadrian prepared to meet the Goblin King he had written up a list of everything that needed to be transferred to the new high security vaults for the travelers. It was going to be a rush to get things done before they arrived. Also he would then need to talk to the Goblin King about the lordships that would be returning as it had been many years since these particular titles had been claimed.

Hadrian looked at the sun and judging the time to be about a quarter to seven he willed himself to Diagon Alley and vanished from his office in a swirl of blue fire. As he re-appeared in the busy alley he allowed himself a small smile at the familiar sight. He may no longer call Britain home but it would always have a special place in his heart. It was after all the first place he became free. As he walked towards Gringott's he took a deep breath and smiled as the magic free-flowing through the air swirled around him. Magic was still a thriving entity and Hadrian had noticed that there were much fewer squibs born in fact for every squib born in this world there had been twenty in his last. Currently in the last 10 years only one squib had been born and Hadrian knew his efforts to keep magic alive were at least partially succeeding.

Hadrian entered the bank a calm, serene look on his visage giving away nothing about the reason for his urgent business. There was only one other person in line, but when the head goblin looked up at his entry and saw who the newest customer was he promptly got up and began leading Hadrian down the twisting hallways to FireAxe's office. It took ten minutes before they finally arrived due to the maze like set up that the goblins used. With a grateful nod and two galleons to the head goblin in thanks Hadrian entered the office at precisely one minute to six in the evening British time.

"Greetings FireAxe, thank you for seeing me on such short notice. Unfortunately the news I bear is anything but good." Hadrian stated not wishing to waste the goblins time. The goblin raised a brow and leaned forward in concern.

"Just what grave tidings do you bring Phoenix Wizard?" FireAxe asked.

"I have been informed that the Phoenix Council has identified a great evil that has been building unnoticed for the last 1300 years. It has just finally reached a precipice that brought the councils notice to it. Several people are being called through time by magic to give aid to this new threat and are due to arrive next week. My purpose here is two fold. One I want to warn you and your people of the coming conflict. For it to be bad enough to warrant intervention from magic itself..." Hadrian paused and saw FireAxe wore the same expression of concern that he and the Flamel's had upon receiving the news.

"The second reason was that I need to set up several high security vaults for the visitors with these items to be placed in the vaults. I will be back in five days to set up further...protections on each vault so that only the rightful owner can gain access. Also you may want to warn the account managers for those accounts that they are going to want to claim the lordships. As it has been more than ten years since an active holder has held the titles they are free to claim them." Here Hadrian handed FireAxe the list he had prepared and waited as the goblin king looked at what was being done. As his eye read through the document you could see when it clicked and he looked at Hadrian in slight worry, excitement and fear.

"For magic to call these… I understand your worries even more. I will prepare my people for the coming conflict. We will begin to prepare for war, thankfully it seems we have a little time to prepare." FireAxe said and Hadrian nodded relieved that the Goblins would be standing against this new threat. Unlike most Hadrian did not want them to swear loyalty to himself. He just wanted either neutrality or the promise that if they were attacked they would retaliate. The fact that the goblins would be standing with them was more than Hadrian could have hoped for. He quickly bowed to the Goblin King and excused himself from taking up anymore of his time.

Once back outside he realized that he had been in the meeting for an hour and with a wry grin vanished once more in a swirl of blue fire. He re-appeared back in his office and sat down to begin preparing the missives that he needed to send out. All of them would have privacy and secrecy charms on them to prevent unwanted eyes and ears from learning the information contained within. He needed to create a sort of form letter or he would never get them all finished in time. It would take awhile as it was to write over 100,000 letters.

With a slightly tired sigh Hadrian pulled a fresh stack of parchment forward as well as the schools register and opened it to the very first page to begin with the oldest surviving students.

Meanwhile unaware of the turmoil that was beginning, Ron sat at his desk and pondered on his first week of classes. He absolutely loved the academy. There was so much knowledge that he gained each class along with little tidbits hidden in the professors words that he had to look up in the library, further developing his knowledge. The bookcases that a been filled only slightly were now almost halfway full. His notebooks contained paragraph after paragraph of information. He had joined a study group that met on Saturday night and was joined by Emily, Silay, Hermione, Ivanna, Neville, Orion and Eli. They tossed ideas back and forth as they all had different areas that they excelled in. Ron had found that Battle Magic and Soul Magic came easier to him than others, though not to say he was a poor student in the other classes he just had to work a bit harder for the same level of work. He was enjoying the challenge immensely and despite his worries over the hard work load he was actually coping fairly well and enjoying the work involved.

The teachers were brilliant and were always willing to answer any questions, even if it was to explain why they couldn't understand the answer just yet. Honestly, Ron could not imagine going anywhere else for school. His bond with Spectre had stabilized to where Ron was able to communicate with him through impressions and feelings. He was told along with the other students that after they reached maturity and their own magic stabilized they may actually be able to communicate mentally through words not just impressions.

Ron had also begun to trade steady letters with Bill and his Dad, telling them about school and the progress he was making. With Bill he would often ask questions about a quirk of magic; like how Ron and his friends used a different style of focus besides wands. Bill had told him that wands had been mass produced to allow average witches and wizards to achieve stable, consistent results with their spells. The specialized focus Ron used was tailored to his magic's...personality for lack of a better description. Ron did magic better when he focused and had a clear image of what results he wanted. Adding in wand motions would have just confused him and slowed him down.

The Bracelet focus he used allowed him to build up his magic, form a clear image and speak the spell or will it to fruition while waving his hand. According to Bill this was the same methods ancient wizards used when wielding their staffs. After talking to Professor Flamel, she told him that this method of magic was fairly common in what the muggle world referred to as third world countries as they still maintained their own traditional ways of using magic instead of the more expensive wands. The other advantage to not using a wand was that when a magic user was put into conflict against a wand user they would often snap the others wand, not only was that a missive insult, it also left them crippled and unable to use magic until it was replaced. Academy students would often learn spells that could be done without any type of focus so that should their focus ever be lost they would not be defenseless.

Also each focus had a return rune placed on it so that if it was ever taken the owner could simply will it back to them. Bill had told Ron that he was actually going to go to Kyoto to get his own focus the first chance he had. He also gave Ron advice about which books were going to be the most helpful to his studies although he had to transcribe whole sheets of information for Bill once the red-headed curse-breaker realized that the Library here at the academy contained books written by the Founders of Hogwarts. In fact he had written down several pages of information from one of Salazar Slytherin's books about dragon's and sent it to Charlie. The letter he had received had made him laugh himself sick as the dragon tamer had gone on and on about how amazing the information was and how it filled in so many holes in the knowledge that the tamers had about dragons. The letter was so scatterbrained and thrown haphazardly together that it was obvious the return letter had been the last thing on Charlie's mind.

Ron finished his Transfiguration Essay and once he had placed it into his satchel for tomorrow, left his room to prepare lunch. As today was Sunday, he had Emily and Hermione coming over to join Silay and himself for the afternoon so he needed to prepare a lunch for four people. Ron was still on the basics but today they were having spring rolls, a dish Ron had found surprisingly simple to make and fast as well.

As Ron made lunch he though about his dad's letter. Apparently his mother was still being difficult over the situation but was slowly calming down. Ron snorted to himself, honestly he would believe it when he saw it. Ron hated to admit it but it would be a while before he would view his mother in anything other than a suspicious light. Too many times he had seen as he took last place in her mind. He loved his dad but doubted that he would ever have as close of a relationship with his mother. He had already resigned himself to the thought that he would most likely be staying with Bill once school let out. Ron had also not failed to notice that his dad had not mentioned Percy at all. Ron set the filled platter of Spring Rolls on the bar top and cleaned up his mess. Ron was right in thinking that he enjoyed cooking, it served as a good way to balance his thoughts along with drawing, something that he was told by Professor Kenshin the Mind Magics teacher to take advantage and to do one of them at least once a day to allow himself to organize his mind, the beginning of occlumency.

Ron looked up as his friends entered the Talan and smiled to himself. While things may not be perfect at home he had a great group of people surrounding him and supporting him, even if they didn't know all the gritty details. While his whole world may have been turned upside down on itself he still had his anchors, and that made everything a-okay.

As several people began their preparations, thousands of miles away in a dry, sandy desert a figure walked over the sands, though no foot prints were left in his wake. The plan had been derailed by Phoenix Academy and the choke-hold that magic had been caving to was now non-existent. He had hoped that with his manipulations the last two major wars of the magical world would have allowed his puppet to begin the process of erasing magic, but his puppet had been thwarted once more by that dratted headmaster of Phoenix Academy. The blasted man had destroyed many of his plans without even trying and it was infuriating. But no matter he still had many plans and options available and as he crested the last dune and looked at the dig site he smiled. Soon his servant would return to his side, free of the imprisonment it had suffered these last 3400 years. He himself had only partially freed himself enough to begin his plans 1300 years past.

As the dig team pulled several stone caskets from the sand the figures eyes landed on the smallest one but also the one covered in the most runes. Yes soon...soon magic would be gone and the world would be free...