When one individual panics in the spring of 1992, he triggers a cascade of changes to the events of Harry Potter's second year. The results are tragic for Magical Britain.
DISCLAIMER! This Harry Potter story was written for fun. All rights belong to the wonderful lady (JK Rowling) who gave the world Harry Potter to read and enjoy.
~~~*** Author's Note: Children are dying in the Middle East. The world has moments of great pain. I think that's where the darkness in this story originated.
~~~*** CHANGE SCENE
Hermione Granger Begins to Wake UpIt was the end of June and Hermione was bored. Her parents refused her requests to go to Diagon Alley for books and they received the Daily Prophet through a squib service offered in London. The small office accumulated the newspapers for five days before they mailed them to the dental office where the Grangers worked. Emma and Daniel left the papers in the mailing envelope until they returned home.
Hermione could only read the newspaper with her parents in the room – often seated beside her and gauging her reaction to the news stories about Hogwarts. The potions to repair the slight damage to her liver were complete before the end of May but Daniel kept his loaded shotgun behind the door to blast any wizard that dared show his face in Crawley.
"I can't believe the stories about Professor Dumbledore," Hermione said repeatedly. When the articles about the missing headmaster faded from the newspaper, the Grangers stopped insisting their daughter think more critically about the adults in Magical Britain.
One evening the Grangers came home with a large mailer on a day that was not scheduled for delivery of the Daily Prophet. The family gathered in the kitchen for a take-away supper of curry. When finished, they investigated the contents of the mailer carefully.
"It's a magazine called the Quibbler," Emma explained, looking at the first one. She read the cover article and gazed intently at three small photos on the cover before turning the page and reading the inside stories with larger pictures.
Hermione rose to stand beside her mother, read over her shoulder and exclaimed, "That's Professor Snape!"
Emma said, "The magazine article reports your professor died fighting that monster and allowed some children to escape."
"He was super strict professor and was terrible to many students," Hermione added.
"But he fought to save them when he was needed!" her father pointed out.
Looking at the next page Hermione was surprised to find the picture to be Professor Sybill Trelawny, the resident seer.
"If she could see the future, why was she in the room where all the children died?" asked her father.
Emma read the article and explained, "She used herself as a distraction to turn the Baskerville around to allow the Snape fellow to destroy one eye. That saved more lives."
"Basilisk," Hermione corrected her mother. "The professor gave her life to help fight it."
"So, it appears," Emma said. When she turned the page, the woman exclaimed, "Oh my! There was giant at Hogwarts. Hermione, you never mentioned giants."
"Hagrid was only half-giant," the young witch told her mother. "What did he do in the fight? He can't even use magic!"
After reading that article, Daniel frowned and told his daughter, "Read the story."
Very carefully, Hermione read aloud, "Rubeus Hagrid delivered the killing blow to the basilisk. He wielded the giant spear transfigured from the staff table by Professor Minerva McGonagall. The surviving staff united their magic and lifted the large half-giant into the magical ceiling of the Great Hall. They all died immediately afterwards except for Professor Flitwick."
"But Hagrid stayed true and plunged from the ceiling to drive the spear into the head of the basilisk even as it killed him with its gaze."
Emma said, "There's a photo on the next page of the giant snake pinned to the wall by the spear with the giant's body draped across it."
"And there are warriors among them," Daniel said as he pointed to another photo. "This one shows the giant man's corpse laid out reverently on the floor of the Great Hall with his weapon laid across his chest. Just like any warrior."
"The photos are attributed to the memories of several people – Cedric Diggory, Professor Filius Flitwick, and Head Auror Alastor Moody." Daniel looked sceptical for a moment and then shrugged. "People stepping out of the fireplace can't be any stranger than being able to capture photographs from memories."
The family spent many hours that evening looking at the many editions of the magazine with photos of the many children killed. Each profile listed the child's name, family and year at Hogwarts. After viewing the very nice picture of Draco Malfoy and his profile, Hermione went back and looked at the other pictures and profiles.
"How very strange," the girl remarked.
Her mother inquired about what was strange and Hermione explained, "None of the profiles mention what house the person belonged to at Hogwarts. That was always so important before…"
Daniel nodded and replied, "I guess it's not so important anymore."
~~~*** CHANGE SCENE
A Simple RitualThe following event occurs ten days after the catastrophe at Hogwarts. The funerals for the children and staff are complete but no one can move forward. Saul Croaker had returned with the cube containing the tiny bit of soul contained within the scar on Harry Potter's forehead that first night. With the diary and the cube, the Unspeakables plotted and planned.
This afternoon, Unspeakable #23 stared at the two pieces of Tom Riddle's soul. The objects – the bits of soul within each object – rejected and objected to being close to each other. Like magnets, they repelled each other. And since the red-pulsing cube had been placed on the same table as the diary, both items pulsed – other Unspeakables thought they were communicating with each other, but Croaker remembered the magic that Lilly Potter left on her son.
The diary contained a half of the wizard's soul and the cube that had sucked the remanent from the scar on Harry Potter's forehead was 1/64 of a complete soul. Croaker believed the small bit of Tom Riddle's soul in the cube shared the pain with the larger piece in the diary and that was why they repulsed each other.
'This means the soul does not heal – never heals – when it is cleaved,' Croaker concluded. 'Little Riddle shared the pain with Big Riddle. Good.'
With a full coven of Unspeakables, #23 performed the 'find child' charm that would identify other objects with the same contents. The spell had been created a century earlier to find all bottles of terrible poison created by an angry witch who discovered her faithless husband in bed with another witch. The wife dosed her husband and his mistress with a poison that tortured them for days before they died.
First, the parchment created by the charm listed the two pieces of Tom Riddle's soul present in the Department of Mysteries and then it listed the other soul jars.
The second container was a jinxed ring buried in the dilapidated shack that had been home to Riddle's magical relatives, the Gaunt family. That ring contained ¼ of the wizard's soul.
The third container was Salazar Slytherin's locket holding 1/8 of the dark lord's soul. This object was hidden in a townhouse in London and protected by a loyal house elf.
The fourth container was Helga Hufflepuff's magical cup that held only 1/16 of Riddles soul and was hidden in a vault in Gringotts.
There was a fifth container – another hallowed object from Hogwarts history – the diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw. This item contained 1/32 of Riddle's soul and was hidden in a trans-dimensional pocket of space associated with Hogwarts.
'Did Riddle mean to make a horcrux that Halloween night?' Croaker wondered. The lure of investigating the mystery was attractive for a moment but then the evil of the catastrophe reminded him of his purpose today.
The Unspeakables supported each other to resist the temptations of discovery and began the ritual of 'completion.' They would call all the bits of Tom Riddle's soul to this spot in the Department of Mysteries where a thirteen-level pentagram with a twenty-seven-layer confinement runic cluster would pull each piece of Riddle's soul into hell.
They had no intention of trying to harvest his magic as he passed – Mother Magic could do what she wished with the power he returned to the world with his final passing.
As the coven of Unspeakables began, the spirits in the diary and cube grew quiet – they felt the call of oblivion at last – freedom from the pain! The tiny piece from the cube melted away quickly while the diary's spirit resisted.
The spirit in the shadowy shape of the diadem arrived and was confined inside the shield and pentagram. It touched the diary and then pulled back as the red pain spread quickly through the image of the jewelled head piece.
Quicker than expected, the spirit located in Hufflepuff's cup appeared – Gringotts was only four kilometres from the Ministry. Again, the spirit attempted to reunite but was repelled by the pain of Lily Potter's curse.
The spirit contained inside the locket appeared within the confinement and began to pulse with pain. The spirit contained in the diadem faded away as the ghostly image of an ancient ring appeared, touched the other spirits and became contaminated by the same protective magic.
Then the image of Hufflepuff's cup faded away – another piece of Riddle's soul had found oblivion. And a final, ragged piece of Tom Riddle's soul appeared – the 1/64 that had roamed the world since that night in 1981.
This spirit, not confined within an object, raged with anger against the walls of the shield and pentagram, pulsed with greater pain as fear and anger joined with the curse.
The image of the Gaunt family ring faded away while the Unspeakables continued with their ritual – the diary and the last remnant remained to dispel.
Desperate to survive, the final remnant leaped into the diary which flipped over on the table. The movement of the object surprised the Unspeakables, but they concentrated on the task of containment and allowed the pentagram to suck the magic from the book.
A new image rose above the diary – a teenage boy physically grappling with an elderly, disfigured man.
"What are you? A monster?" shouted the image of the boy.
"I am Lord Voldemort! Give me your power and we shall live again!"
"No! You're not alive! What did you do? Why is there pain – constant pain?" demanded the boy as he threw the other figure away from him.
"I'll kill you!" shouted the disfigured wizard's spirit as it dived forward and slid inside the teenager. The image of the teenage boy screamed in agony for a moment and then faded away.
The diary itself turned to dust and then vanished as the pentagram pulled the last pieces of Tom Riddle into oblivion.
~~~*** CHANGE SCENE
A Step ForwardIn early July, Pomona Sprout began working through the Hufflepuff network to determine how the education for the surviving children of Magical Britain would continue. The immediate reaction was that none of the survivors from the Great Hall could be expected to ever return to the castle.
Astoria Greengrass began to recover finally after the memorial service for her sister and her parents were not willing to even consider allowing their daughter to hear the word 'Hogwarts' let alone allow her to think she had to set foot on the path that led to the castle.
Millicent Bulstrode was released by Saint Mungo's and swept up by her mother to return home while her father visited Ted Tonks to add his family name to those filing suit against Albus Perceval Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.
Lady Marchbanks agreed with Professor Sprout that education had to continue but she was unable to see a path through the forest because all she knew was 'Hogwarts.' Meeting with Marchbanks, Lady Longbottom, and Marie Abbot (mother of Hannah Abbot), Pomona listed using tutors through the floos, tutors in person, portkeys for the muggleborn students, and empty chambers at the Ministry for Magic.
The ladies rejected each notion and turned to Mrs Abbot for information on how the muggles educated their children. Her muggle roots were well hidden after years of working within Magical Britain, but she also knew that Augusta Longbottom, the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot was a half-blood, and would support a reasonable idea.
After discussing primary schools and secondary schools for the older children, Pomona grew distressed hearing about the finances needed and the time required to locate or build a facility, hire qualified teachers, and a thousand other problems.
But then Pomona remembered Flitwick's memory of the battle in the Great Hall. Knowing they were going die, Severus Snape and Sybill Trelawny fought on. To save the children, Minerva McGonagall used every jewel of magic in her core to transfigure an impossibly huge spear and then lift the half giant above the floor and send him into battle to kill the monster.
"We must find a solution!" Sprout demanded of the other witches. "The professors died to save children and we can't – we won't let anything – stop us from finding a solution!"
Augusta smiled, thinking of things she'd found in the Potter estate in meetings with the goblins, and said, "Perhaps there is a manor sitting empty that will provide a location for classes."
"But where would the children sleep?"
"We'll provide a day school," Mrs Abbot replied. "The children arrive in the morning and then go home in the evening."
"That is not how we educate magical children!" insisted Marchbanks.
"This is 1993 not 1893," Pomona stated without caring that Lady Marchbanks was sensitive about her age – 160 years. "The world has changed a great deal, and you choose not to see that. Dumbledore – who you taught and tested at Hogwarts – allowed 300 children to be killed in less than an hour!"
"None of them will go back there!" Sprout yelled. "Get over yourself Griselda Marchbanks! History is not a blueprint for the next garden! Think about what is best for the children!"
Seeing the ancient witch about to explode in anger, Pomona took her sharpest clippers and cut off the rose bud viciously! "Your great-great granddaughter starts school this year! What if there's another basilisk waiting in the castle?"
Lady Marchbanks blinked, gaped and then sat back. She was horrified at the idea of losing another great-great grandchild! While Lady Longbottom saw to her friend's comfort and called for a mild calming potion, Mrs Abbot handed over a sheet of parchment that Augusta had shared with her while Professor Sprout verbally attacked Griselda.
Looking up after a moment, Sprout asked, "What is Fleamont Retreat?"
~~~*** CHANGE SCENE