After the excitement of Saturday's revelations and then Sunday's events and planning, Harry's energy began to ebb away in mid-afternoon. Dobby popped away and then back with tea and biscuits for his wizard while Ironstream coached him on several exercises to practice twice a day until the first task.
"And if Dobby Potter Elf can pop me and several goblin mages into the Chamber of Secrets, we shall prepare the carcass for the show during the first task."
"What kind of magic do you use?" asked Harry.
"We have what we call animation magic. Goblins love muggle cartoons the antics of cats and mice, rabbits and coyotes – some creature from the States – inspired us to animate objects beyond what wizards do with teacups. To make the carcass of a thirty-metre basilisk rage at a queen dragon, roar at the crowd of wizards, and then bow down to you, is a challenge we shall relish."
Harry thought for a moment and then turned to Dobby and asked, "Dobs, can you and other elves handle transporting the basilisk from the cavern under the school to this place where the dragon will be?"
"Yes, Mr Harry Potters," Dobby replied confidently. The elf preened to have been given a nickname already too. "And when youse be done making wizards soils themselves, Dobby and elves move to warehouse cavern here in Grinning Goblin's Banks."
"How do I activate the carcass?" asked Harry before he and Ironstream agreed on a dry run the night before the first task. Dobby would pop Harry to the cavern to practice at 9:00 PM that night.
"Now before you go back to Hogwarts, you need to put on your rings and apply some glamours."
"How many rings do I have to wear?" the teenager asked.
"Three – one as Lord Potter family, one as Heir of Black, and one as the Heir of Slytherin."
"I thought Draco Malfoy was in line to be the Black heir – at least that's what he keeps insinuating," Harry said. "I don't want trouble with Draco Malfoy."
"Here, put on the rings and we'll talk for a couple more minutes," Ironstream insisted. "When you put them on, they will merge together and will only appear when you want them to be visible."
The ring for Lord Potter was several centuries old and contained a lot of magic that was well received by the teenage wizard's huge core. The ring for the Black family heir slipped onto the same finger and flashed bright white with magic. When the eyes of teenager and goblin were able to see again, Ironstream turned his head to the side and spit. Dobby stared before he bowed and said, "Mr Harry Potters be's become Lord Potters-Blacks. He be's very powerfuls…more powerfuls now."
"Shite! Lord Black!" cursed Harry, making Dobby laugh.
The goblin grinned and explained, "Lord Potter-Black, if your vassal Mr Draco Malfoy gives you any problem, he will find his magic acting up. His mother was Narcissa Black before she married Lucius Malfoy, and her dowry was substantial. All you need do is flash the Black family ring at him, and he'll fall in line or risk being disowned."
"Why would his father disown Draco?"
The goblin smirked, "The marriage contract between Malfoy and Black has several restrictions that Lucius and his wife have violated. If Lord Black questions the contract, the marriage can be dissolved and the progeny becomes 'Draco No-Name,' a vassal of the Black family."
When Ironstream offered the small box with the Slytherin family ring, Harry stared at for a moment – a serpent – of course it was a serpent. Again, there was a flash of green magic this time and the teenager scowled as he became Lord Potter-Black-Slytherin.
With the aid of a large mirror conjured by Dobby, Harry glamoured his figure to mimic his old power levels and restored the image of the cursed scar on his forehead.
He was an inch taller after the release of his magical core, but he'd explain that as natural growth. And the clothes were the same with the shaggy hair cut.
"Vault Manager Ironstream, thank you for all your help. Call Dobby Potter Elf whenever you need him to take you to the Chamber or to send me information. I don't want the headmaster to see me getting letters from Gringotts."
"Very good Vault Holder Potter-Black-Slytherin."
Harry grimaced hearing his full title, but then asked, "How did I become the Heir of Slytherin, anyway?"
The goblin grinned and said, "Your mother, Lily Evans, was the first magical child in the Slytherin line in more than four hundred years."
"I thought Tom Riddle…" Harry began but then stopped, waiting for Ironstream to comment.
"That poser had some connection to Slytherin and could speak to snakes. But the Gaunt family got their connection through a bastard of the Slytherin line. His claim never allowed Riddle to don a ring or access a vault."
Dobby grabbed his Mr Harry Potter's leg and popped his wizard back to the gates of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The gates were open because it was only 4:45 PM and Harry grinned at his elf who vanished from the view of any wizard or witch, before he walked along the path to the front door, pushed it open and walked across the entry hall to the doors of the Great Hall.
Harry moved to the Gryffindor table and sat down – realizing that he was tired and looking forward to dinner. He decided, 'I'll give Ron Weasley a run for his money tonight with the amount of food I put away. But I'll do it with proper table manners.'
Just after 5:00 PM, the first students began wandering into the Great Hall for supper. No one paid any attention to Harry until the Gryffindors entered the hall and hesitated to walk by him. Neville Longbottom was distracted by a book on plants when he walked inside but he sat beside Harry without a second thought.
"Evening Harry," Neville said when he put the book down. "Have a good weekend?"
"Sure did," Harry replied. Then he mislead the other students so that the eavesdroppers would hear his cover story. "Wandered around London, ate all kinds of great muggle food, and saw several movies."
"What are movies?" asked the sheltered pureblood wizard. Harry explained the idea of movies to Neville and left the boy and several other witches and wizards very interested in seeing this muggle work of art that sounded like magic. Hermione Granger hurried in with several books in her bag. She grinned when she saw Harry Potter seated in his regular place at the table.
"You came back at last!" she declared.
"I was only gone for one night," Harry countered.
Hermione reminded Harry, "One afternoon, one night, and the whole of the next day!"
"That's what wizards of age can do every weekend. Adults can leave at 7PM on Friday so long as they are back in the castle by 7PM on Sunday," Harry told his friend. "Next weekend I leave, give me a list of things you want, and I'll get 'em for you."
"Where did you hear this rule? How are you an adult?"
Neville reminded Hermione, "Don't you remember the big shouting match at the staff table Saturday night? Professor McGonagall went spare on the headmaster about Harry being declared an adult by all the officials when they made him participate in the tournament?"
Hermione frowned thoughtfully and nodded. Then, her face brightened as she dug around in her book back and pulled out a small book. Handing over the book, she said, "I have something for you."
"One of the witches from Beauxbatons needed help with a set of charms and runes this morning, and I helped her translate them from…well from another language into French. She gave me this book as payment."
"What is the book?" Neville inquired.
"The rules to the Triwizard Tournament 1994-1995 Held at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," Hermione said as she handed it to Harry. "But I glamoured the book to have the title A Thousand Household Charms."
Harry smirked, "That's great foresight, Hermione."
Rings! Wonderful Rings!The meal was underway, and Harry remained under the radar hidden between Neville and Hermione. He ate a prodigious amount of food, but he did so neatly and with proper manners. The bones of the chicken he consumed vanished from his plate rather than create the appearance of graveyard like they did around Ron Weasley's place at the table.
There was a hush at the head table after a half hour – Dumbledore finally saw the Boy-Who-Lived seated at the Gryffindor table. While he paused to collect his thoughts and plan the inevitable discussion, he used his funny wand to cast a passive legilimens spell toward the boy when he glanced up. When Dumbledore met Potter's eyes for a spilt second, the spell bounced off Potter and flew across the tables to land in Luna Lovegood's mind.
Albus struggled to remain upright on the throne – the mind of the seer was dangerous to any person stupid enough to try to peek at the future.
The witch huffed and called for an elf to bring her lemon tarts for pudding. 'If that old wizard thinks he can read my mind, I'll show him what for… he'll get nothing lemony for the next ten days when I'm done talking with the elves.'
Dumbledore's mood continued to grow sour – there were no lemon tarts left for pudding this evening. He knew better than to complain about the lack of his favourite dessert on Sundays. If he did, the elven bakers would make nothing with lemon for him the whole of the next week.
The headmaster turned to Minerva and instructed her to bring 'Harry' to his office after the meal. On the other side of McGonagall, Professor Sprout opined, "It would be better if you chided the boy here in front of the entire student body. They'll think he got away with a special privilege if you lecture him behind closed doors."
In an uncharacteristically rebellious moment, Minerva agreed with Pomona and endorsed the idea. From his place further down the table where he as seated on three copies of Hogwarts, A History to boost him up to table height, short Severus Snape voiced his agreement.
Professor Flitwick remained silent, interested in observing the Boy-Who-Lived up close after his weekend in 'London.'
Still eating to fuel his magical core, Harry ignored Professor McGonagall when she appeared behind him. When she tapped him on the shoulder, sparks flew, and she jerked back her hand.
"What did you do? Fifty points and detention!" McGonagall shouted.
Wiping his mouth with his napkin, standing and climbing onto the bench so that he stared down at his head of house, Harry Potter said, "You touched me from behind and surprised me. How else should I have reacted? Thrown you back twenty feet?"
The stone wall was just behind McGonagall, and she would have hit the hard surface with enough force to have broken many if not all the bones in her spine. Angered, the witch hissed, "Fifty more points!"
Harry hissed back, "Make it five hundred! I don't care!"
From the staff table, Professor Flitwick shouted, "Professor McGonagall, you are destroying your own house! For showing adult levels of restraint, I award Mr Potter one hundred points."
With the boy standing above her, Minerva McGonagall was reminded of the few times she could remember seeing Lily Evans incandescently angry – in fifth year Lily Evans ripped strips off Severus Snape and all four marauders after their stupid stunt almost got Severus bitten by Moody – both teenagers would have died as a result of the incident.
"The headmaster will speak to you at the staff table," she managed to say before retreating. While she hurried back to the safety of her seat beside Albus Dumbledore, Harry stepped from the bench to the floor, spoke to Longbottom and Granger and then walked along the outer side of the Gryffindor table.
Several students tried to trip Potter while Fred, George and Ginny Weasley laughed quietly. As Harry passed their seats at the table, Fred whispered, "There'll be pranks galore again tonight in the Common Room for you!"
Turning left at the end of the table to walk down to stand off centre – Harry recognized he could see more of the headmaster's wand moves from the side, rather than head-on. The teenager stood silent waiting for the headmaster to initiate the conversation.
"Harry…"
"Mr Potter," the boy interrupted the headmaster.
"What?" asked the irritated headmaster.
"It is considered proper manners in Magical Britain to refer to individuals by their surname, Headmaster Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore; especially in a public setting such as the Great Hall. You refer to every other student enrolled at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry by their surname."
"But I have always…"
"Headmaster Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, you make me very uncomfortable using my name. You violate the very manners you expect me to follow."
Dumbledore frowned and continued, "Very well 'Mr Potter.' Explain yourself! Where have you been for the last two days?"
Glancing around Harry stated, "Because I have been emancipated by the actions of the Triwizard Tournament, I travelled to London, spent time with my vault manager at Gringotts Bank, and then spent time eating glorious muggle foods like egg rolls, pizza, curry…you should expand the offerings from the kitchens."
The boy grinned, "And then there were the great movies available to view."
Ignoring the boy's ventures into muggle cuisine, the headmaster asked, "What did you discuss with your vault manager?"
Every pureblood in the Great Hall was insulted by the personal question asked by the headmaster – in full view of everyone just finished with Sunday dinner. Harry frowned and replied, "The discussion with my vault manager was private…"
The boy paused and then added, "…Headmaster Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore."
"You are too young to be emancipated! I have managed your affairs for more than a dozen years and you are not prepared…"
The boy's face was set in stone and the headmaster fell silent. Harry replied, "My understanding is that magic itself emancipated me, and the emancipation has been recognized by the Ministry for Magic and Gringotts Bank. That's supposed to be final and something that the Wizengamot can't reverse by vote or proclamation."
At this point in the conversation, Harry felt the familiar mental probe from Severus Snape. Harry listened to the information from his rings and allowed the family magics to handle the intruder.
Severus was so surprised to find defences in place, he forgot himself and wandered deeper into the mind of the young wizard, now a well-defended mindscape. Looking through the scattered memories inside Potter's mind, Snape realized that nothing was as it had been before – there were no memories of the past few days. The narrow-minded wizard searched through the landscape of memories of a terrible childhood and Quidditch games but found nothing.
Mentally, Snape felt uncomfortable suddenly. He was deep inside Harry Potter's mind and found himself dealing with powerful mental defences that smashed against his shields. Stepping back (mentally) Snape found a second set of different defences blocking his exit. Rushing in a third direction, the wizard found a third defence thwarting his departure.
For the next endless second, Severus Snape rushed from side to side to side, trying to withdraw. Snape was buffeted around the mental landscape – he realized that he was back in his own mind now, but his attack had opened the door to these defences – Potter's defences? – and they had followed him back and continued slamming his mindscape about the universe.
'I'm trapped inside my mind!' Snape realized, as images of Frank and Alice Longbottom lying on cots in the Janus Thackery Ward at Saint Mungo's Hospital appeared in his mind. Even though no one could hear him, Severus Snape screamed, 'No! No!'
The defences from Potter's mind withdrew and Severus Snape slumped over at staff table. Freed from the scrutiny of the faculty, Harry Potter left from the Great Hall as the Gryffindor students headed toward their dormitory. Poppy Pomphrey rushed to examine the comatose Severus Snape.
That evening, she defied Dumbledore, floo-called Saint Mungo's and brought mind specialists to the infirmary to examine Snape. They cast spells on the potions master and pronounced him lost in his own mind. They declared the condition to be a side effect of the blast that struck his head just over a week ago in the Great Hall.
When Dumbledore arrived in the infirmary and fussed at the healers, the oldest one replied, "If Snape had been brought to Saint Mungo's for proper care, we might have been able to save his mind if not his stature."
~~~***~~~ Change Scene
Weasley Test SubjectAs the students rose to leave the Great Hall, the Weasleys met to discuss their next prank attack on 'Muddy-Potter.' At first, Ron was reluctant to participate but his jealousy got the better of him and he joined Fred, George and Ginny to plot the attack.
"We'll get Potter as soon as he walks through the porthole!" Ginny declared out loud at the table and her twin brothers high-fived each other, confusing many purebloods who wondered what incantation the slap of hands represented. Ron watched Potter and noticed the Boy-Who-Lived gave no indication that he had heard or noticed the Weasleys.
'Is he faking it or is he really that thick?' the chess genius wondered. Then his pureblood superiority convinced him that Harry Potter was that stupid.
Harry strolled back to the Common Room as if he wasn't aware that the Weasleys planned to attack him. He was last to enter the Common Room and the moment the porthole closed, the Weasleys twins swooped down from the stairs from the boys' rooms, Ron rose from behind the nearest sofa, and Ginny flew down the stairs from the girls' rooms, all four wands flinging Weasley Wheezes and nastier jinxes at Potter.
The other students dropped to crawl away or scrambled out of the way – more than fifty Weasley jinxes flew through the air toward Harry Potter in the first sixty seconds. To defend himself, Lord Potter-Black-Slytherin used his improved wand with the magnification rune engaged.
Hermione Granger prided herself in her ability to observe and analyse new things she'd seen in Magical Britain. But the speed that Harry Potter moved made him a blur, and the colours of the spells he threw back at the three Weasleys were deeper and brighter than the original colours. Potter grabbed the jinxes while they were still approaching him and flung them back, faster and stronger than fired by the Weasley siblings.
At one point in the one-sided battle, the prefects attempted to intervene and cast stinging hexes and boil charms at Harry. Quicker than her mind could absorb the information, Granger saw all six prefects laid out on the floor moaning and crying.
The Second Battle of the Common Room ended with the four Weasleys rotating in the air, their legs attached to their shoulders while their arms dangled useless from the sides of their heads. Their ears were located on their hips and their mouths had migrated to the region of their belly buttons; they croaked continuously, sounding like bull frogs.
Harry left them in the air, croaking and rotating for everyone to see. He turned to the other Gryffindors and quietly asked, "Okay, who's next?"
Screaming loudly, the students fled up the stairs to hide under the covers or under their beds. No one would challenge Harry Potter – the boy had sparks flying from his hair after the fight. Under Harry's stern gaze, the six prefects stumbled out the port hole to head to the infirmary, agreeing loudly that their prank tournament got out of control after supper.
When Professor McGonagall appeared in the Gryffindor common room because none of the prefects reported to patrol, she found the only students present to be Harry Potter and the four mangled Weasleys, still rotating in the air and croaking in time to some tune about a muggle named Jerimiah.
Her immediate investigation revealed that Ron and the twins were drunk on Fire Whiskey (a cheap bottle) and they'd objected to Ginny wearing enough make up to be mistaken for a Knockturn Alley lady of the evening. In the ensuing Weasley brawl, their jinxes and hexes were magnified and out of control.
Harry sat on a sofa reading his transfiguration textbook and denied any knowledge of how the Weasleys came to be so physically jumbled and mentally confused. He assured the unhappy witch, "I doubt anyone saw anything, Professor Minerva McGonagall."
"Ten points and detention, Potter!" McGonagall declared. Of course, Harry didn't care about the points and didn't intend to show up for any professor's detentions.
Before today, he'd used his father's invisibility cloak to move around the school after classes, used reflective shields, and mastered a neat trick of catching spells and throwing them back to drive his tormentors from the hallways between classes. After the first Weasley attack, it had been Dobby who rescued Harry and took him to the infirmary (and moved him to safety again the next morning).
Now, with the power of a free magical core, freedom from the dark magic in the scar on his forehead, the knowledge and magics of three family rings, and the 'souped up' wand, Harry was the most powerful student in the school. All of the professors working in concert with Albus Dumbledore might be able to subdue the Boy-Who-Lived, but they wouldn't all survive. In the Gryffindor Common Room, the Weasleys had not managed to land a single hex, jinx, or joke on their target.
McGonagall called for house elves to move the Weasleys to the infirmary. After Madam Pomphrey examined them briefly, she floo-called Saint Mungo's for assistance. A team of three curse breakers were eventually used to undo and fix the damage to the Weasley siblings. Again, Dumbledore was angry that outsiders knew about the troubles in his personal kingdom and worse, Molly and Arthur Weasley were called to the school – they had to give permission for the body parts switched between Ron and Ginny to be returned to the original body and location.
McGonagall's report of Fire Whiskey and make up infuriated both parents though they were surprised at the power their children had exhibited in the prank war. None of the four children were willing to mention the name 'Harry Potter' while the curse breakers recorded and broke each jinx and hex.
"Your brother Bill will want to study this report," Poppy told the children, increasing their dread of that future conversation.
After that night, there were no further attacks or jinxes by any Weasley sibling or other member of Gryffindor. The students refused to discuss Harry Potter with any of their professors, other students, visitors, or reporters. The Hufflepuffs couldn't complain about being attacked when every spell was simply their own spell, reflected and magnified, so they ceased all casting at Potter.
Professor Alastor Moody was very interested in Potter's techniques and level of magic. He planned to test the boy in every DADA class. The wizard hidden in Polyjuice pants as the powerful Auror decided, 'If Potter is this strong in November and I drill him from now until June, he will be even more powerful, and his blood will make my master unbeatable.'
~~~***~~~ CHANGE SCENE