Disclaimer:

I solemnly swear that the literature and works of the Harry Potter Verse belong to JK Rowling, Bloomberg and Warner Bros. The only thing I own are the one-shot ideas that popped into my head and whatever OCs I would create for them. This is a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life or fiction are purely coincidental. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...

Mischief Managed Damn It!

Title: Book 2, Chapter 00

Posted Date: October 21 2023

(Gringotts, 1988)

Sharpclaw was moving down the corridor, wondering about the summons he had gotten an hour before the end of his work day. He had been a Teller for roughly thirty years before he got assigned to be the banker for a few families of minor births, and more recently, the Ancient House of Windsor. It must have been the last one as the house was previously squibbed out for 4 generations and the usual procedure would be to close it before having the contents split between possible relations, Gringotts and the Ministry. Originally, he was granted the role of managing that family vault as he was getting bored with the other accounts not getting enough investments and no one else was touching that vault, but five weeks after getting the role, there was a notification from the house stone that showed that a possible heir has appeared in the world, possibly a muggle-born who was descended from a squib of the line. He supposed that being in charge of a newly reactivated vault would require some attention to ensure no one, mainly him, would try to play loose with the money left in the vaults.

Rude, but understandable.

"Sharpclaw." The goblin turned to see his fellow goblin banker come around the corner. They were of the same generation that came out of the goblin academy around the same time, and the two had a few drinks and spars to consider themselves brothers in arms and in the complaints of humans.

"Irontooth." Sharpclaw greeted him. "What brings you here?"

"I got summoned by Ragnok regarding a couple of vaults that just went active." Sharpclaw blinked at the reply.

"Same for me. Do you know what is going on?" Sharpclaw asked Irontooth.

"Not sure." They were interrupted by a cacophony of shouts and weapons being drawn, before a group of guards came into view with a few goblins in cuffs and chains that Sharpclaw recognized to be the managers for some of the more famous families in Britain like the Blacks and Diggory. Their eyes bulged at the sight of one goblin completely covered in chains and muzzled, giving him a very demented look as he struggled to move in his restraints. Even with that get-up, Sharpclaw had no trouble seeing who that was based on the ear poking out of the muzzle.

"That is Bronzespitter, why is he tied up like that?" Irontooth stared at the goblin being dragged further down to the cells leading to the dragons. "Orc spit, what did he do?" Sharpclaw shook his head without speaking.

"You two." A guard popped out of nowhere and used his spear end to motion them on. "Get moving, Director Ragnok wants to have a word with you." The two looked at each other with slight panic, trying to think back on whatever they had done to warrant the attention of the director for the British branch. The two moved on to the office where a big goblin was waiting for them, his back facing them as he looked out the enchanted window to look down at the lobby area of the bank. The two came forward to the middle of the room and went down on one knee with their heads bowed down.

"Sire, Sharpclaw and Irontooth have arrived to answer your summons." The goblin grunted and turned to face them, one eye covered with an eyepatch but showing the remnants of a jagged scar, the other being an unusual purple eye with a yellow iris. As he moved forward, it became clearer that he was bigger than most of the goblins in Gringotts, roughly the height of an average human adult in their twenties as opposed to the typical height of an average young teen. The business suit he wore was simple but practical with a badge adorned on the left side showing his pride for the bank, and the crest of his clan on the right shoulder. He paused in front of his table and looked down at the two with one narrow eye.

"Sharpclaw, Irontooth." The two controlled their reactions to bow their heads further instead of a full body shudder at the tone of restrained anger in his words. "I will be asking some questions, and I want them to be truthful, no matter how trivial my questions are. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Sire." The two made sure to answer clearly and to "most certainly" tell the truth. They could tell the truth wards were activated in the office, and likely whatever news Ragnok had gotten had set him in a mood that was begging to be released on poor unsuspecting fools, and they liked to think they were not poor unsuspecting fools.

The next hour had Ragnok asking a series of questions and confirmations that the two goblins were not involved with a conspiracy that had spanned for the latter half of the past century involving a few clans and a selected number of goblins or human employees. The group in question had been working to steal from selected family lines that had been wiped out from the past two wars or from orphans who would suffer mysterious deaths or not be informed of their inheritance, after which they would doctor the records to indicate nothing was taken from the vaults or the orphans.

What struck out to the two goblins was how systematic this conspiracy went, and there was the real worry of a civil war in the goblin society for the entirety of Europe if not for one customer who apparently wanted to return some keys he had found and asked some questions that ended with him getting an inheritance test that showed a couple of the vaults he was entitled to having the records doctored in real time by the ones managing them. There were goblins handling the "Big Name" family vaults that had been around since the conception of Britain's Gringotts, one of whom was Bronzespitter who handled one of the darker family vaults. They also just missed Sowsbreath who was once the manager for the Potter Vaults and recently made into a head ornament adorning the wall of traitorous goblins.

"Thank you for answering my questions." Ragnok ended the interrogation in a decidedly happier mood, having confirmed their innocence on the matter. "At least there is some integrity left in Gringotts."

"Sire, we understand and would grant our aid to rid the traitors from the branch." The two goblins placed a fist on their chests to show their commitment to protect their clans from traitors willing to sell them out for pittance of gold.

"There is one way you can aid me for the moment." Ragnok placed his arms behind his back as he hummed. "As it stands, many of the families are missing their account managers due to this catastrophe, and I am in short supply of reliable managers." Admittedly, it took the other two a while to process that before their eyes went wide and they were gaping at their leader who was amused at their reactions. "Congratulations for your promotions."

"BRUWAH?!" The sound coming out of Irontooth was enough to make Ragnok laugh at them while the guard standing by the wall was smiling at the reaction.

"What is with that reaction?" The leader asked them after catching his breath.

"Sire, we mean no offence, but we are just surprised that we are getting a promotion out of nowhere." Sharpclaw answered in place of his companion who was still out of it. Understandable since he too was feeling the same, they only just started touching on the vaults of Ancient Families just to stave off boredom, and if what the director was implying, they were now going to handle the BIG families like the Potters and the Blacks! Thinking about that got his head in gear so to say. "If it is not rude to ask, to which families are we to handle?"

"Sharpclaw, you will handle the Potter vaults." That answer nearly had him make a sound like his companion. "Irontooth, you will handle the Anatalist vaults. Both of you will be briefed on them later once I have the runners collect all the relevant paperwork and get whatever spells removed from them."

"Sire, how did this come about?" Irontooth got his brain rebooted enough to ask. "I understand it started from someone doing an inheritance test?" Ragnok hummed at the query.

"Indeed, as a matter of fact, this person inherited the same vaults that the two of you started to take over the management and recently reactivated." Ragnok gave a very scary smile. "He is also someone that I believe might give us an edge over the stupid wizards of this country." The two goblins looked at each other at the claim.

What was with their luck?

~ooOOoo~

(Present Day, Gringotts)

"Everything is in order." Sharpclaw gathered up the papers that had been signed and duplicated for official recording and for the customer before him.

"Thank you, Manager Sharpclaw." Jeremiah took his set and placed them into his briefcase. "With this, we can finally end this mess for Harry."

"Yes, I have not realised how many sticky fingers there were involving his vaults and the heirlooms." Sharpclaw frowned with one of his longer fingers tapping the table. "What troubles me is how blaise these people are to effectively rob a child of his heritage."

"Based on the few eyewitness reports, many were under the impression that they were honouring Harry by having one part of the heritage, but somewhere along the line, too many mouths played Chinese whispers and suddenly people got a free pass to get items from a family of long lineage without their leave." Jeremiah shook his head in disgust. "For most, they were genuinely distraught about the lies and returned them without fussing. For those who do some fussing, they needed some talking to get it done but they understood the issue." Jeremiah paused before placing a hand to his forehead. "And then we have the idiots who think they are entitled to the items of the Potter family."

"Old school purebloods with more pride than sense?" Sharpclaw gave the man a commiserating look.

"Yes." The tone used to answer him was one of suffering. Even though the solicitor made a living to mess with the snobbish purebloods to help those like him, Jeremiah was still astounded at times by those who seemed to believe that the sun would shine out of their arses by virtue of their blood and money. It was mind boggling to say the least. "I am making them an example for those trying to do the same or continue their nonsense."

"Do you know their names?" Sharpclaw asked while grabbing a folder. "I have been looking into the list of people with access to deeds or properties without permissions, and there are a good number I want to penalise for being too loose with their living in properties not meant for them."

"Hold on." A quick check with his briefcase and Jeremiah brought a piece of paper out for Sharpclaw to peruse. "Any of them match yours?"

"Yes." The grin appearing on the goblin's face would have people running for the hills. "Looks like I get the chance to penalise them heavily with interest."

"My only request is to have a recording of their expressions." Jeremiah made his bid.

"Deal." The two shook on the deal with the type of energy that would make their targets cry in financial agony, complete with blood thirsty intent for their suffering.

"How is the foundation doing if I may ask?" Sharpclaw asked in genuine curiosity.

"Pretty well actually." Jeremiah answered with a happy smile now that the main source of stress was removed. "We are getting a good number of new bloods and half-bloods joining this year, and there are a few pure bloods being considered for the scholarships. We have run a few checks on them and they are safe." The goblin nodded at that.

"This is a very profitable group to say the least. And it is just as well that you consider the purebloods because there have been a few voices making noises about the foundation." Sharpclaw talked before looking Jeremiah in the eye. "A certain toad for one has been doing a lot of checks."

"Umbridge." Jeremiah's eyes were narrowed in slight disgust from the name. He had a good number of reasons to hate the woman who was essentially the bane of plenty of people, some of which being professional as she was the one that prevented him from doing his job and letting some of the accused go off with merely a slap on the wrist and his witnesses nearly sent to jail if not for some quick talking and DMLE contacts. The more personal reason came from the woman attacking a little girl because she was a muggleborn who apparently did not move out of the way for her better peers to walk past despite there being more than enough room to go about. The girl had to be hospitalised before getting out of the country, and was totally traumatised from the experience, while Umbridge walked off scot-free thanks to her buddies.

"I imagine that while you are open to helping purebloods, the woman would likely make comments about how your selections are not of the right sort." The goblin rolled his eyes while saying that, having heard that phrase so many times in the past. "With the foundation now more or less known to the public since Heir Potter's return, people will try to get inside the foundation to learn more of its secrets."

"What about Innovatio Alley? Is that safe?" Jeremiah asked.

"For now, but people have been taking notice." Sharpclaw admitted reluctantly to that bit. "Madam Malkins and some of the apothecaries have been noting the drop in numbers recently, and there are those from Knockturn Alley who have been asking questions on the new owners of certain spots or the reason for the alley getting smaller after absorbing some of the stores and bricking that end of the alley up."

"Anyone worth noting?" Jeremiah asked.

"We have Burkes asking a lot of questions, partially because one of the deeds we found in one of the vaults covers that store, meaning we could also get the store if we want to."

"That would definitely kick the hornet's nest over." Jeremiah mused at the idea of purchasing and otherwise usurping what was arguably the most infamous and oldest store of Knockturn Alley. Borgin and Burkes had been around for a long time, even when he was a firstie back in Hogwarts, and there was possibly no shady deal that had not been made in the family runned store since its conception. He also knew that the Aurors had been conducting random checks on the store in hopes of actually catching the current store owner in the act of selling illegal items, but the man was a cunning one to last so long under secrecy, and was a fan of using legal loopholes to trick any greenhorn Aurors to walk away empty-handed and ashamed for doing the attempts. This latest piece of news though was a possible route to take down not just the store, but a good portion of Knockturn Alley, they just need to do this properly.

"Lucius Malfoy and more recently Albus Dumbledore have been asking around. Seems like their various contacts have notified them of the recent purchases on both alleys. Lucius, through his friends, is making more noise in that area." Sharpclaw continued talking. "I do not know if they will do something soon, but I think we should be careful in case they decide to raise this in the Wizengamot session coming up."

"Noted." Jeremiah wrote that in his notepad. "We may need to bring up the security for Innovatio Alley."

"Done and upgraded." Sharpclaw nodded at that. "We can't touch Diagon or Knockturn, but we can still prepare the sensors for the areas we have absorbed for the purchases to ensure no one tries to blast their way through. We even prepared the underground sensors in case they tried to enter from below."

"Okay, that's good." Jeremiah nodded before snapping his fingers. "If I am allowed to ask, what of the big project that you are working on with Harry and the other goblins?" Sharpclaw smiled quite dangerously at that, a sign that he was very happy about the project in mind.

"Due to Dumbledore's efforts to get Heir Potter into Hogwarts and trying to keep him here, we have to accelerate the timeline for that particular project." Sharpclaw opened a drawer to find something. "You should have access to this, correct?"

"I am handling the paperwork, yes. But I have been out of the loop for a while, everyone keeps trying to get to Harry in different manners." Jeremiah let out a huff at that. Sharpclaw hummed as he brought out a stone bowl with etchings on it, followed by what appeared to be a glass bottle filled with silvery liquid. Uncorking the bottle, the goblin placed a fingertip to his forehead and pulled away a shiny thread that broke after a few centimetres, then placed it in the bottle and swirled the contents before pouring it into the bowl. Once the last drop hit the bowl, the markings glowed before the liquid started to rise up from the bowl and formed shapes spanning the width of the table. Within a minute, the process was complete.

"We are three quarters of the way done for that project, the majority of the buildings have been built and the dormitories are ready to be lived in." The goblin started talking while manipulating the liquid to show the supposed structures. "First batches of the lower groups and upper levels arrived last year and had given positive opinions." The liquid changed to show a solitary building of a very unique design. "The main building and the reason for this project is almost complete, best estimates put it towards the end of the year to be ready for intake."

"That is nice, and since I have prepared the paperwork on the sly two years ago," Jeremiah nodded while listening, "the probation period is long over so we don't have to worry about people interfering with the startup." He frowned at this point, "But we are definitely going to have problems once news of this comes out."

"It was going to come out one way or another, we should be thankful that we kept this under wraps for three years since its conception. That and Dumbledore's mistakes with Heir Potter got everyone distracted enough to get this done." Sharpclaw waved a hand to stop the presentation, the silver liquid dropping back into the bowl without spilling out of it. "And we are using the lands of different families for this."

"All of which are inherited by Harry now." Jeremiah nodded at that. "Given how many of them have been untouched for years, they won't know unless they do an in-depth review of their family lines."

"By which point, it would be too late to stop us." Sharpclaw had the type of grin to make the purebloods cry for their mommies. "It is rather fortunate that Dumbledore lost his positions with both the ICW and the Wizengamot. It would have been harder to get this done."

"He can still make things difficult for us and especially Harry. He still has a lot of support as the headmaster of Hogwarts." Jeremiah spoke with some caution in his words.

"If we can hold off for a few more months, we won't have to worry too much. And as it is, the man is more focused on keeping his position as headmaster due to all the incidents at Hogwarts, and to keep Heir Potter in his sights. That recent law had made it harder for the young man to leave even if he should have been allowed to do so after conducting the first year as his test year." Sharpclaw shook his head.

"At least he had gone for his OWLs last week." Jeremiah continued as the goblin raised his eyebrows. "Harry decided to get some of the core subjects over with so that he can get the wand rights for here and other countries. He should be able to pass them easily, and with that, he will be allowed to leave Hogwarts if he wants to."

"I think he will do so with Dumbledore staying there, but at the same time, he would want his friends to be safe." Jeremiah hummed as he pondered on the situation. "You said the primary building is close to completion?"

"We can get the letters ready for them to receive if that is what you wish." Sharpclaw made a notation of it. "We would need to have a word with Heir Potter so that we can agree on this. Shall we move on to other businesses?"

"Yes, we shall." Time waits for no one.

~ooOOoo~

"Experiment Log 5, dated on July 9 1992." Harry Potter spoke as he had a camera on him while walking about in the room meant for his magical training. That would have been a pretty boring video log if not for the six fireballs hovering above and behind Harry in a loose circle. "My tests on increasing the number of shots have been successful with six as the most stable, and seven being the maximum without losing control. Now I am attempting to mult-task on the types of flames to be used consecutively in this manner with the goal of using different attacks with one spell. I will begin with the splitting of gas molecules as my base test, being one that has been done previously." With a thought, the fireballs were moved to different boxes that had heat-treated thermometers attached to the sides and vents from the top to dispel the heat. Once locked in place, the fireballs suddenly grew larger and brighter as the gas molecules in the air were broken down with the different components being added to the different balls, giving rise to different colours and heat intensities that were being measured during the process. Harry watched them with an analytical eye while letting his mind wander about.

Harry had barely relaxed for a day before going to for his OWLs Exams at an ICW certified branch in France to get some of the subjects out of the way, with emphasis on Transfiguration, Charms, Potions and other main subjects found around the world along with European subjects like Muggle Studies. With the core subjects done, he just needed to wait, but he had done the revisions enough to know that he would be able to retain his wand rights and be able to get the option of doing the NEWTs exams earlier. More importantly, he can be allowed to leave Hogwarts earlier to undergo tutoring or transfer to another school, and just in case the old wizard tried that, Harry had Arcturus and Albert prepare the papers for that.

After five days of intensive exams and testing, Harry returned to his personal hideout to perform his experiments, as while he had done a lot of magical experimentation in Hogwarts, he was behind on the scientific aspects of his training, so he was making sure to refresh his knowledge on chemistry and physics. Harry was also wanting to increase his physical training as there was honestly a limit to what type of training he could do in Hogwarts unless he could commandeer another room for his own training, and he was already pushing his luck with the experimental ward room that got taken over by Hogwarts.

Though if he was being honest, Harry was also doing this to avoid meeting a certain man who popped up a day after he returned from Hogwarts and has been trying to visit a few times.

Remus Lupin, the fourth member of the Marauders, had apparently approached Sirius roughly a month before the end of the year after disappearing off-the-grid for many years. The man was the werewolf that his late father, Sirius and the unlamented Pettigrew went through the trouble of becoming Animagus for the school year, and supposedly sent abroad a few times to meet with the packs during the war. The man just popped up and appeared at the house that served as a meeting place for all of them to get together, evidently invited by Sirius without consulting Arcturus or Albert.

Needless to say, the former was not happy.

Harry spoke with the man briefly before dealing with his exams, and already felt something was off with the whole visit. Maybe Harry was being paranoid and a little resentful about the man who could have helped him in the past since he was free, but Lupin did not answer Sirius's letters in the past for a long while, and some of the answers he gave had the name Dumbledore dropped a few times. And the innocent commentary that Sirius gave after the man left had alarm bells ringing at how open he was to answering some questions made by Lupin, with a few thankfully covered by his oath to them. Arcturus and Albert certainly noted it and essentially reminded him to be mindful of what he would say.

There was also the coincidental timing that Dumbledore had attempted to contact Arcturus and Albert over Harry's decision to go to France for the exams. Coincidental since it was immediately after the talk Sirius had with Lupin. The old wizard had tried to argue that it was unwise for Harry to leave the country and that he was too young to take the OWLs exams, and that Harry should remain in the lower year groups to be with his friends with the added addendum to stay in Britain for his safety.

Arcturus told him off with a very colourful demonstration of Her Majesty's English, before cutting off the Floo network and putting up the barrier to stop remote ignition.

At any rate, it was clear that Lupin was a possible spy for Dumbledore, and they were just glad they enforced the rule about meeting in certain places, not to mention Albert using the wards to keep anyone not on the list out of his house. Harry just had to make sure that he was not caught unawares by Lupin or Dumbledore, and if required, he had his own set of properties that had been repaired, reinforced with new wards and protections, and made unplottable by the goblins.

Still he won't let them bother him or mess up his life. He was going to be visiting his friends during the summer while dealing with the foundation, and he was also going to help test some of the latest gadgets made by the store owners from Innovatio Alley to see if they can work in mana-rich environments like Hogwarts or the Ministry of Magic that he was heading to in a few days' time. And if they worked, Harry knew he would need a lot of padding in his clothes before announcing it to Hermione, Su and the other mundane-raised students.

Thinking about it briefly had Harry frowning about the odd issue that some of the others had experienced trying to send mail to him by owl post recently, and only bypassed using the Gringotts mail service boxes. Those like Hermione have his phone number to call so that was okay, but it was clear someone else was trying to interfere with her mail. Arcturus and Sirius were suspecting Dumbledore, but Jeremiah cautioned them to check first before accusing the old wizard since they could not afford to make a mistake that could set them back on some matters. Arcturus got it, and after some heavy convincing, Sirius understood too.

Harry still won't go near Lupin until he could get a confirmation on his loyalties, and he certainly would not have Dumbledore's pet werewolf near one of the foundation's more important projects; even if the old wizard no longer had the Chief Warlock position, he did have an honorary seat due to his Order of Merlin First Class, and with how many people still looking to Dumbledore for guidance despite the recent drop in popularity, Dumbledore could affect a lot of his work.

A light pinging sound interrupted his thoughts and he noted that his experiments had completed their tests, and he stopped the fireballs to check on the temperatures and to record any readings. He also recognized the sound as one coming from the Gringotts mailbox that meant someone had sent him mail. Harry first made sure the results were collected properly before making his way to the mailroom to get to the box. He smiled at the letters that came from his friends before pausing at a letter that made his eyes widen a little before widening his smile.

Looks like he got the chance to talk to a certain someone back in France while returning an object to them.

~ooOOoo~

A waitress was waiting to collect the order made a few minutes ago, her fingers lightly tapping on the countertop. Normally she would not be this impatient, but given the customer who ordered it, she wanted to get to him first before the other waitresses got it in their heads to get to him. She called dibs on him, damn it!

"Order up!" The young woman smiled at the order sliding to her end. She placed it in her tray, straightened out her uniform, and almost casually manipulated the top button of the shirt so that it would just hang on enough until she had to bend over, which would have the button released and to show the customer her goods to get him interested. The woman took a breath before confidently making her way past the group of waitresses wanting to go outside of the cafe to the table that had a young man in his late twenties dressed quite smartly with a grey suit with long pleated pants, the vest removed to show him wearing a white collar shirt with decorated cuff buttons. Curiously he was looking at an old gold watch one might associate with old bankers, but with how he looked at it fondly with a map on the table, it could be something belonging to a relative.

A possible family man, hmm?

"Here is your order, sir." The man looked up from the watch to greet her with a smile, and when it was accompanied by the youthful face with sharp features, neatly trimmed black hair that was a mix of combed and natural, and deep brown eyes, the combination of it all was enough to make her knees go weak.

"Thank you." He spoke while closing the watch and straightening himself in the chair as she placed his food and drink on the table, and as planned, the top button popped to show off her goods to him. She smiled at the brief glance from him before he looked back up, showing a great deal of restraint.

"Enjoy your food, Sir. Let me know if you need anything else." The woman straightened herself to turn and walk back to the counter with a light sway to her hips while smirking at the others glaring at her attempts. Unseen by them, the young man sipping the drink blinked with the brown eyes changing to a deep crimson red before changing back.

"Women. Always the same whether they are witches or muggles." Voldemort, or Tom Marvolo Riddle in this reluctant case, mused as he placed the cup down on the saucer and looked at the general landscape of the area he was in while letting his mind wander over what had happened the past month.

Once he had gotten his body checked over and his muscles working to get it loosen up, Voldemort immediately had to pack the necessities to move out before the Ministry's sensors picked up on the foreign energy that rushed out of the ritual even if it was conducted beneath the manor. After securing what he needed and placing the room under a lock ward, Voldemort walked out of the house on his own two feet for the first time in a long time, and he could not be any happier about it.

As much as he enjoyed having a new body at long last, Voldemort had to take it easy as his magic, while settling in nicely and working well, was still lower than he liked, and the body needed time to "solidify" just so it would not break down. And that also meant he needed actual food to sustain the body, a slight inconvenience but one he welcomed as he could taste actual food with his own tongue after so long.

Although he wished he did not take a sour orange for his first taste test.

He stuck around the magical world for a while just to keep up with the news, and then moved to the muggle world to stay low for a while, knowing the magicals' tendency to ignore the muggles and at the least taking advantage of the fact that no one outside of Dumbledore knew about his muggle roots. Perhaps in the past he would have baulked and likely cursed anyone suggesting such an action, but recombining the two pieces to his primary soul helped to stabilise it and in turn gave him much clarity that he might have lost from creating the Horcruxes in the first place.

Yes, he hated the muggles partially because of his 'dear old dad' rejecting him along with his experiences from the orphanage, but it was also thanks to the muggles that he was able to bring about the Death Eaters in the first place. Their clothes, the masks, even the tactics used for their raids and fights. All of which were inspirations from the muggle world like the Ku Klux Klan, yet the magicals kept insisting they were superior and whatever was done there had to belong to the magicals. Voldemort had to restrain rolling his eyes so many times in his old body while listening to the Death Eaters complain about the muggles and brag about their superiority in one breath.

True, magic made it easier to deal with small groups of muggles, but the muggles had more ways to annihilate each other from the two wars that came about, and that was why Voldemort insisted on gaining control of the ministry before anything else. Dumbledore, for all of his lies and hidden bigotry, knew the same thing about the muggles and if the rumours were true, the charter involving the ministry and the muggle government, specifically the British Monarchy. Even if the current one was just a few steps above ceremonial, they still wield power in regard to the safety of the country and would make sure the Ministry of Magic will listen to their words.

He should thank Dumbledore for his constant "second chance" policy as it allowed his men to take key roles in the ministry and was able to gain control from within. At the least, they would make the takeover easier as long as there was corruption in the ministry and they did not get careless performing their tasks. Even morons could tell that Fudge was merely a peacetime minister who preferred not having the boat rocked while lining his pockets with gold from his benefactors, and given the ICW having arrived to check on Hogwarts and proceedings regarding Sirius Black's trial, the man was likely to get thrown out sooner or later.

It was just a matter of how Fudge would be leaving the office once the ICW got through with him, either slightly disgraced or in chains.

Voldemort was betting on a bodybag.

In any case, Voldemort was laying low to let his magic settle while figuring out his next set of plans. One thing he definitely wanted to do was to break his more loyal Death Eaters out of Azkaban, especially Bellatrix. Oh, that woman was certainly in need of rescue from the clutches of the Dementors, and he would make sure to save her. But for that to happen, he needed helpers in his quest, and he was not willing to trust those who had pleaded the Imperious Curse to escape Azkaban and renounce his name. He would deal with them his own way.

Currently though, he was focused on finding his other Horcruxes to make sure they were safe and if needed to, take them back with him to reintegrate with his primary soul to stabilise it and to get back more of his memories, magic and sanity. Knowing what he did after his research and having his memories refreshed twice from the reattachment of the soul pieces, Voldemort had embedded a spell into the watch to act as a compass, again grateful for Dumbledore's desire to hoard information like a dragon and not give them up. This was a spell that allowed the user to find any souls in the general country, and with a little tweaking, it can be used to track his own Horcruxes.

Which led to his current dilemma.

He had gone to test the spell and with some triangulation, confirmed the locations of two that were where they were meant to be after leaving them with their assigned keepers, but when he went to check on the third, it showed that it was way off the correct direction. Voldemort briefly thought the spell went wrong after a few rounds of casting and tried it with a stolen wand, but he got the same results. He panicked a little and made his way to the location near the orphanage he used to live in, and checked on the spell once more, only to get confirmation that the item that he had placed there had somehow moved to a different spot. It had taken him the better part of a day to confirm the Horcrux was somewhere back in London, and he was confirming the last point on the map when he came to the store to get some food and drink in his body, the money courtesy of some muggles trying to mug him previously only to end up in a ditch.

Voldemort frowned as he drew the lines on the map and looked at the intersection. It appeared to be in the upper parts of old London, but he was drawing a blank on where that would be or whether anyone from his past could be involved. He would have to go there personally to see where it was before considering his next move. For now though, he should relax a little to prevent his magic from getting out of hand. He now had a definite spot to investigate his final Horcrux and had some time to do so before the start of the new school year at Hogwarts.

With that in mind, Voldemort took a sip of the tea and a bite of his treat before humming in content at the flavours he could taste with his own tongue once more.

Least the muggle world still had good food to appreciate, and the treacle tart was nice as well.

Author's Notes:

Finally entering second year of Hogwarts, let's see how this goes. And hope to get another out soon before the end of the year.

And I put my pen down for now...