Chapter 16

Albus Dumbledore did not get a wink of sleep that night. He had been worrying about Harry Potter and Stephanie Edgley, who had disappeared after the Great Hall had been destroyed. He hoped they were safe somewhere hidden within the castle. He wished now that he had not done all the rotten things he had done to Harry; as long as he was safe and returned, Albus would simply leave him to his own devices. The young lad had already proven he could defeat Voldemort when he had destroyed Quirinus Philosopher's Stone.

Dumbledore stopped suddenly when he saw a large crowd of students standing as though in shock in the Great Hall doorway. Albus hoped that Harry and Stephanie hadn't destroyed the Great Hall again; therefore, he pushed his way through to the front of the crowd and stood next to the other teachers, looking on in shock.

He had found Harry and Stephanie sleeping, heads resting on one of the tables within the hall snuggled up together. But that was not what was shocking. All the house tables and chairs had been replaced. Instead of four huge long tables as before, at least fifty large round tables scattered about the hall. They were perfectly varnished in green, blue, yellow, or red, with either the school's, or a house's coat of arms engraved perfectly on them. Or as he took note of some of them, smaller coats of arms of all four houses scattered about them. Instead of benches, the students would now have their own chair as many were surrounding the tables, done in a similar fashion to the tables, in all four school colours.

He blinked owlishly as he looked down to see that the floor was varnished red wood with the Hogwarts coat of arms engraved all over under the varnish as well. He looked up to the head table. It was similar to the old one, except it mimicked the style of the new tables, though it faded from red to yellow to green to blue from left to right. He saw four huge Hogwarts banners behind it. Even Albus could tell they had replaced the hourglasses with newer, more modern-looking ones. He chuckled a little to himself.

They had digital counters, in house colors so one could see who was in the lead to the exact point. Though all read one hundred now, as that's the number they started at each year. He wondered how they were powered, but thought it best to leave it be.

The walls had the same design as the floor, with a rainbow of lights running down them, and four huge House banners on each side. He then looked up at the walls to see crystals running down from the edges of the ceiling, creating the illusion of rainbows. When he gazed upward, his jaw dropped in shock; it seemed as if the Great Hall were orbiting the Earth. It was the most beautiful thing he had seen in a very long time.

Albus then looked at the sleeping children, who obviously had done this, but how they managed such a feat, Albus doubted they would tell him. He was awestruck. It was a perfect replacement for what they had destroyed. He could not quite work out how they got the ceiling to look as though it literally opened up into space. Even with the old ceiling, you could see the support beams if you looked closely. He thought they might have completely replaced the ceiling and roof of the Great Hall. How they did that without anyone noticing or within such a short span of time, he wondered whether he would ever find out.

"Wow, Albus," McGonagall whispered. "This is very beautiful. I never thought the hall would be renovated so quickly."

Albus nodded. "It is spectacular," he agreed in a whisper. "And with the tables like this, the houses won't have as much separation from each other. Maybe they'll all get along better."

She nodded her agreement. "Quite. It's spectacular."

"Nonsense!" Lockhart shouted loudly, causing the teachers to scowl angrily at him. "I could have done better."

McGonagall snorted in disbelief. "Shut up," she said sternly. He did, gulping.

Harry and Stephanie suddenly opened their eyes and sat up, both pointing their wands at the intruders before sighing and putting them down.

"So," Harry began nervously. "What do you think?" he asked, gesturing around him. No one seemed to notice his use of old English mixed with modern words. A few things had slipped into their vocabulary, spending all that time in the past would do that to a person.

Well," said Albus. "I think I can speak for everyone here when I say it's a perfect replacement."

Harry and Stephanie sighed in relief. "Good," Stephanie said. "The ceiling is exactly what we believed it would be if the wizarding world had moved with the times and allowed things to change. Additionally, the tables allow all the students to sit with whomever they wish, rather than just their house. We... have given the ceiling the name, Astromirror." The two grinned with pride.

Albus had, of course, noticed their accents had changed in ways he could not explain, and he doubted they would tell him why they sounded so posh and royal, even with Stephanie's Irish accent, and they seemed to be struggling to combine words like we've or haven't.

Albus just smiled nervously. "It's a very good name. It's a very nice ceiling."

Harry smirked smugly as he pulled out some kind of remote control from his pocket. "This isn't all it does," he said as Stephanie giggled as he pressed a button and the hall gasped as the Earth faded away and in its stead they were orbiting a beautiful red planet.

Albus' eyes widened impossibly as he looked up at Mars. It was a sight to behold. The planet beautifully illuminated the hall in red as every eye looked up in wonderment. Then that image suddenly faded away to be replaced by bright oranges, blues, reds, whites, and yellows. Gasses flowing and exploding, alive with power. Stars of all sizes hung in a void of beautiful colors, bringing a new life to the hall.

He started as Harry placed the controller in his hand and looked down in surprise. Harry grinned smugly. "It's a star nursery, if you were wondering," he said. "It's about thirty-two thousand light years from Earth."

Albus just stared at him in shock. How could that be? Could that be possible? Did Harry just tell him this scene was actually happening and not just images? That kind of magic sounded too impossible to be true.

Is this really real? Is that thing really showing us a star nursery? He had to ask.

Indeed, he replied with a shrug. "It is not as complicated as it sounds, and real time is rather subjective when dealing with vast distances like light years. As though, yes, this scene is happening in real time, this scene also happened thirty-two thousand years ago."

"Uh-huh," agreed Stephanie with a nod. "The view will change every three days to something new within a range of one hundred thousand light years. Unless you use the controller to change it yourself. But you will need coordinates if what you wish to see is not one of the pre-set views."

Albus just nodded dumbly, unable to speak for a moment as he looked up at the beautiful sight. Then shaking his head clear, he returned his attention back to the two kids. No, he corrected himself in his mind, they were geniuses, not kids. He had to keep from thinking of the harsh words spoken by a woman who was normally just a fraud.

"It's marvelous!" he exclaimed in awe, a huge grin spreading across his face. His eyes once again twinkled with newfound vitality. He shook his head, as he looked around at all the other teachers and students who were slowly coming to grips with the new ceiling's magnificence. "Well, I think we should let everyone in for breakfast, since classes start today."

They all laughed a little, and everyone seemed to take a moment to start, blinking owlishly as they regained their senses. They had never seen anything so awesome before. Some of them were even wowed by the ceiling when they first entered through the Great Hall doors. Now, though, they figured that the new first-years would be so awed it would take a while for them to get sorted into houses.

Harry nodded. "That is a good idea, sir. We do not wish to postpone our first classes of this year."

"Of course not, Harry," Albus replied nervously, looking at McGonagall who also seemed to notice his new accent, which made him sound like he should be a Knight in King Arthur's court or something.

It took about ten minutes to get the students into the hall and settled, and Harry and Stephanie grinned impishly when Hermione came over and hugged them both before sitting down next to them at a table to the side.

"So this thing really shows real-time?" she asked them after a few moments, looking up at the ceiling, as she shyly took their hands, each of them, and then sliding her fingers gently through theirs.

Indeed it does, Hermione," agreed Stephanie smugly. "We felt guilty about annihilating the previous one, so we replaced it."

It does not mean we shall be torturing Dumbledore though," said Harry amusedly.

Hermione giggled with a roll of her eyes. "So how does it work? You said it's simple, but... some of it sounds a bit confusing?"

"Oh, it's simple, Hermione," agreed Stephanie with a nod. "It actually uses the same principles as Apparition. With Apparition, we can squeeze ourselves through microscopic wormholes that actually exist everywhere in the universe. However, we cannot actually use these to Apparate off the Earth because the gravitational atmosphere pulls us back. Fortunately, we can bypass this with the use of other magics and technologies."

Hermione's eyes widened in shock and awe. "So you're both telling me you've invented wormhole technology using magic?"

"Pretty much," agreed Harry with a shrug. "We can isolate interesting… or potentially interesting locations by using a high-dimensional computer that runs the whole system from what you would likely call a pocket dimension it uses as its core, mainframe, memory, and storage, since we tossed out the concept of microchips or such."

An inofficious? That could be the greatest scientific breakthrough of the century. Maybe even the greatest ever. No one could possibly beat that, but then you tell me this monstrous computer system can control wormholes, and show you the other side.

Harry and Stephanie just shrugged. "You may possibly be correct," they said. "However, that concerns us not. As of now, we have no need for interstellar space travel."

Hermione gulped before shaking her head and clearing it. She decided to change the subject before her head exploded or something. "Well, anyway," she said, with a tint of red to her dark cheeks. "Where were you two, yesterday? I was worried something had happened to you."

Harry and Stephanie giggled at the subject change. "Do not fret, Hermione," Harry began. She was startled once again by how posh he sounded, but it also seemed oddly old-fashioned, very old. "My Lady and I have been perfectly fine."

"Okay," Hermione replied nervously. "Why are you talking so weird? Your accents are also different from yesterday... well, not different, I suppose... as Steph is still Irish, but it's just strange... upper class, kind of... it's hard to explain."

Stephanie asked, "Are they?" She looked concerned and continued, "Why didn't we notice? Are you sure?"

Hermione giggled again. "You really haven't noticed?" she asked. They both shook their heads. "You're speaking as if you were raised to be King and Queen five hundred years ago or something."

Are you serious? Because if you are, I cannot help it, Harry said, slightly worried.

Hermione giggled again. "Where did you find a spell to make you talk like that?"

Stephanie sighed. "This isn't a spell, Hermione," she said. "It's us, having spent many years at Hogwarts with our founders, and then further with our dear friends Myrddin and Morgan in Camelot. We have studied magics of which Albus Dumbledore doesn't even know, and Harry, as it turns out, is Mordred Pendragon's father."

Hermione was gawking at them. That would explain their weird accents and speech patterns; it would also explain how they had managed to redesign the Great Hall and build the amazingly advanced, yet completely unheard of, ceiling for humans to possess in such a short period of time.

"You had a son with Morgana le Fay?" Hermione asked, getting hung up on that point, as everything else seemed insignificant when compared to that revelation.

Harry and Stephanie shrugged. "We loved her," Stephanie said with a gentle sigh, while Harry nodded. "History can sometimes be subjective, Hermione. Morgan was an amazing woman and doesn't deserve the bad rap she got."

"Okay," Hermione finally said in awe, as she could see they really were in love with Morgana le Fay, and smiled sadly as she squeezed their hands in a show of support before trying to change the topic. "That must have been amazing, meeting the founders and Merlin, and Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and everything."

Harry laughed. "Yes, our adventures in the past were fun. You should also know that Arthur wasn't like how he is portrayed in our history classes. It is my belief that wizards changed the truth because he was just a Muggle, like they lied about Morgan because she was a woman, and our son was a Dark Wizard."

Hermione nodded thoughtfully, and wanted to hug her friend, but refrained. "So I'm curious... was Salazar as evil as they say in the books, or is that just a lie?"

Harry chuckled while Stephanie looked amused. "He was a good man, and was more how I pictured Godric to be honestly," Harry said thoughtfully. "He did not hate muggleborns, but in that time, he feared for them, and after he left the school to the teachers with his fellow founders; they scored the land looking for magic, and creating spells… it was… eventually from this that erased the mythical beings into mere fairytales for the muggles."

Hermione smiled sadly, and blushed as they both kissed her hands each and looked sad, but content.

"I guess history isn't ever perfect," Hermione said, embarrassed, but delighted at her beloved friends affections, and saw a few tables away as Daphne Greengrass smirked at her and winked, as she encouraged Hermione towards them too. "But anyway," she said shaking that off as Astoria and Tracey who sat with her were laughing. "People are going to be so confused with your new mannerisms."

Harry and Stephanie laughed cheekily. "We are sorry Lady Granger… we cannot help it. We have had to adjust for all the years we have been away."

Hermione giggled. "Do you even know what you called me?"

Harry blushed while grinning. "I am sorry if my politeness offends you, our beloved Hermione."

Stephanie giggled. "You should feel honoured our lord shows such courtesy. He has missed you greatly… I have missed you too… as I have missed my dear Tori," she said looking over at Astoria, and blowing the blonde a kiss, which she returned with a grin as they laughed, and Harry rolled his eyes.

Hermione blushed with a small smile. "I'm sorry."

Harry smiled. "Please do not be. You did nothing to feel the need to apologise, and we did miss you… me especially."

Hermione smiled, embarrassed but excited. "Thanks. It's going to be one weird year."

Harry and Stephanie laughed. "This is Hogwarts School of Magic. All our years are going to be weird."

McGonagall interrupted at that moment and handed Harry, Stephanie and Hermione their school timetables, since everyone was just scattered about they used some magic to stack them by the table students sat at, and gave a few tables to each teacher, and she just got lucky.

"Thank you, Lady… Professor. I cannot wait to begin our classes." McGonagall gave Harry a strange look at that.

"Our beloved is correct," Stephanie agreed. "Our classes shall be most fun." McGonagall walked off without a word looking at the strange couple. She had no doubt her classes with them would be interesting.

"What class do you have first?" Harry asked Stephanie, curiously.

Stephanie looked at her timetable. "My first class is Charms. What of you, my love?"

Harry looked at his timetable and grinned like a Cheshire cat. "My first class is defence with our weakling Lockhart."

Hermione giggled. "What evil thing do you plan for him?"

Harry grinned. "I have not yet decided. I shall do whatever comes to mind during class," he said, kissing Stephanie quickly on the lips, before Hermione on the forehead, and then with that, Stephanie kissed Hermione's cheek and headed off to grab Astoria as Harry took an embarrassed and lovesick, Hermione by the hand to their first class.

Ten minutes later Harry and Hermione had parted company from Stephanie and Astoria, after Harry had kissed Astoria, Daphne, and Tracey on the cheek each, as the Slytherins both feared and revered Harry and Stephanie, so all was right on that front, so hopefully, those Slytherins could lead better lives than their parents. Ron had joined them to walk to class. Harry was confusing Ron by just talking, and Hermione found it hilarious.

Harry, Ron and Hermione had opted to sit at the back of the classroom, when all of the students had arrived, Lockhart finally entered. He then told them he had a questionnaire on his books that he handed out.

Harry looked at his questions and wondered why they were all about Lockhart and not defence, but he filled it out anyway. Though, he put ludicrously stupid answers, and most of which were quite rude and offensive, which meant extremely funny. Like question 52: What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition? Harry put for his answer: to shag all the boys' in school, starting with the first years and working his way up to the seventh years.

When Lockhart was reading them he suddenly looked up at Harry with a look of utmost horror, and Harry dived into his mind with the use of Legilimency he had learnt from Salazar. He had already known the skill, though very crudely. However, now was certain he could breach most peoples shields with enough force or cunning. Though, Lockhart's mind was simple and unprotected. Harry was not surprised to see he was a fraud taking credit from other people, and erasing their memories so they could not remember, and accuse Lockhart of being a glory thief. Harry was surprised that Lockhart wasn't actually a pervert, and had no interest in the younger boys, but he was gay, and refused to admit it while avoiding any opportunities he may have had with women, mostly older women, and he had had many opportunities, and a lot of the women were rather fit too. Harry almost felt sorry for the pathetic arsehole for what would soon happen.

"Okay then boys' and girls'," Lockhart finally said standing up. He put a cage on his desk that was rattling and covered with a sheet. "I must ask you to all stay calm," he continued, making a few students nervous. "What I'm going to show you are some of the vilest creatures' known to wizard kind." He then removed the sheet to reveal a dozen pixies in a cage. Nobody looked at all worried about them now. "Who can tell me what these little things are?"

Harry and Hermione's hands were up, as well a couple of other students. "Yes Mr. Potter," he asked rather rudely. Harry saw he did not believe he knew what they were. Harry also saw he intended to release them and did not have a spell to stop them.

Harry chuckled. "They are Cornish pixies."

Harry then stood up and grabbed his school bag and put it on his back smiling brightly to the surprise of Lockhart and the other students. He walked up to the cage and looked in. The pixies all stopped rattling the cage to stare at him.

Harry then opened the cage and let them out. To everyone's surprise the pixies flew out and hovered around Harry's head, and one girl pixy landed on his shoulder and smiled brightly as he whispered something to the others in a strangely sing-song language who all nodded eagerly. Harry then walked to the door a pixy on his shoulder, leaving the other pixies watching him with cheeky smiles until he left the classroom.

The moment Harry left the class and shut the door it was pandemonium. Hermione could not believe what she was witnessing. The kids were left alone, but Lockhart was attacked with inkwells, books, and even the many pictures of him on the walls were smashed and thrown at him. Lockhart tried to use a spell that failed, and then he resorted to screaming at them in panic and begging the stupefied students for help, which did not come, as he cowered in the foetal position on the floor as he was attacked.

The bell signalling next class rang so Hermione got up, grabbed her bag and left the amusing chaos behind, followed slowly by the rest of the class. Hermione found Harry sitting in the empty transfiguration classroom with a cheeky smile. He still had the little Pixy on his shoulder that was smiling brightly and seemed to be snuggling up to Harry.

"There you are, Hermy, darling," Harry said cheerfully, kissing her nose as she sat with him, her dark cheeks red. "Did my pixy friends teach our professor it is not such a good idea to release pixies on unsuspecting classmates, especially if you don't speak the language to broker some kind of deal with them first?"

Hermione giggled and sat next to him as the rest of the class entered, and he smiled as she cuddled his arm close to her, playing with his fingers. "Is that what he was planning?" she asked. Harry nodded. "Well, I don't think he'll make that mistake again," she said as the rest of their classmates finally started filling into seats. "But… can you really speak pixy or something?" she asked in awe.

"It is Arcadian, the language of pixies and fairies," Harry agreed. "However, Lockhart is not very bright, as Cornish Pixies can be rather troublesome for the weak, but the pathetic? So I wonder. If our founders knew the Headmaster hired such a man of incompetence, they would be turning in their graves – or, well, Rowena did have a penchant for taking the piss out of idiots when they did something truly ridiculous. Though, with the possibility of the job being jinxed, perhaps Lockhart was all he could get this year?"

Hermione giggled. Hearing Harry talk like this was funny, and learning a few extra bits about the Founders from someone she knew not only knew them personally, but was a close friend was ecstatic. McGonagall finally walked into the class looking bad tempered and stopped before Harry eyeing his pixy with disgust.

"Mr. Potter," she began. "Why is it that you realised, and then ordered a bunch of pixies to attack Professor Lockhart?"

"Apologies My Lady," Harry gave a bow of his head. "But any competent defence teacher could have stopped the adorably mischievous pixies. Since our defence teacher could not, I must believe he should be removed from such an important position, as to one that deals with our future."

McGonagall sighed, trying not to blush too much at such politeness and courtesy. The boy had a point. If the moron could not stop a few prankster-type-pixies that were mostly harmless, how was he supposed to get OWL and NEWT students through their exams?

She sighed. "You're probably right, but that is for the Headmaster to decide, not us."

Harry shrugged as she walked to the front of the class. "Today class," she began. "We're going to start some animal transfiguration, and turn Hedgehogs into pincushions." She then explained how to work the spell, and watched as the class began, with the exception of Harry who seemed uninterested and was talking to his pixy, and she almost forgot to reprimand him, as spoken by a human, Arcadian always sounded rather beautiful.

"Mr. Potter!" she began, but he just waved his wand unconcerned at the hedgehog and it changed into a pincushion in all the Hogwarts colours with the coat of arms. He did not even look at it or stop chatting to the pixy who was whispering in his ear. She smiled slightly. "Twenty points, Mr. Potter." She had to hand them to the boy. He was incredibly gifted. In addition, she rather liked what happened to Lockhart.

Later that evening before dinner, Albus Dumbledore and several of his teachers were in his office for a small meeting. He was glad to see Lockhart was not there. He guessed the other teachers did not tell him to come.

"Well," Albus began. "We're all here to discuss the mysteries that are Harry Potter and Stephanie Edgley."

"Yes," McGonagall agreed. "I had an interesting lesson with Mr. Potter where he transfigured a hedgehog into a pincushion without even paying attention on his first try." She pulled the pincushion out of her pocket for everyone to see, as none of them really understood the implication of the new ceiling, so they thought that was impressive.

"Wow," Professor Sprout said. "That is a nice piece of transfiguration."

McGonagall nodded in agreement. "Also he had somehow persuaded some Cornish Pixies that Lockhart planned to unleash on his class to attack only the professor."

Professor Flitwick chuckled. "Yes. I heard about that. When young Harry came to my class he had one sitting on his shoulder."

McGonagall nodded. "He had her with him in my class too."

"Yes," Snape interrupted. "He had her in my class as well. And then he made a potion so perfect I was tempted to praise him." The other teachers gasped. Snape just nodded sadly.

"Miss Edgley was also shocking in my class," Flitwick said before Snape started crying or something. "She wasn't paying me any attention, but I didn't have the guts to scold her. She was doing things with her wand that I had never dreamed of while I was a student here. She was doing it while looking board. She had all her schoolbooks, bag, quills and inkwells flying around the classroom having some kind of aerial battle.

"Mr. Potter," Flitwick continued. "While in my class had conjured a load of miniature winged Gargoyles - animated them and had them fighting each other in an all against all fight above the class. Nobody managed to get any work done. We were all too busy watching the little stone creature fight," he chuckled nervously. "He even narrated the battle with voices and plot and… it was rather good to be honest… a lot better than any play I've ever been too."

Albus chuckled with a small gulp. He was sure Harry still planned more revenge for him, and an army of tiny stone creatures seemed rather horrifying. "What about the way they talk. Did you all notice anything unusual?"

McGonagall laughed. "If you mean do they speak with courtesy, as though they were royalty or had lived with royalty for most of their lives, I would say yes."

"I actually think it is nice," Flitwick piped in. "I think they might have messed up a spell to speak like that."

"I don't think there is a spell," Snape said. "Did any of you know Potter and Miss Edgley can speak French, and Spanish? I heard them at lunch talking in both languages fluently. Though my French is a bit rusty they seemed to be using an old dialect, and then Arcadian on top of that?"

The other teachers looked surprised. "I heard them speaking Japanese after lunch when Mr. Potter walked Miss Edgley to my class on the way to his," McGonagall said with a confused frown. "What are we to do?" she asked. "Because from the little I've seen and heard, it sounds as if they could probably take their OWL's, and pass with perfect scores in every class."

Dumbledore then smiled, as a plan formed in his mind to gain a little favor with Harry. Sure, he was being completely ignorant of the fact that Harry shouldn't have been able to do the things he had done. But he was desperate. And the magical world needed Harry when Voldemort finally returned, and Stephanie would be an added bonus.

"Why don't we let them take their OWLs then?" he finally asked after a few moments of silence.

The other teachers looked at him in surprise. "In what classes?" McGonagall asked. She and everyone else had grown complacent in arguing with the old man in recent years, as he always got his own way anyway. So she was just going along with the flow, like the other teachers. Damn the old man was an idiot. She doubted very much that this would make Harry like him... even a little, but if pity was his end goal, it was possible.

Albus Dumbledore looked thoughtful for a few moments. "Whatever classes they wish to take," he said. "I'm sure they probably know some Runes, and Arithmancy. And since Mr. Potter managed to gain the obedience of pixies, they probably have extensive knowledge of magical creatures. I am curious to see how skilled they are." Dumbledore paused, then continued. "Minerva, if you could ask them if they would like to take their OWLS? Tell them if they pass them all with grades they are satisfied with, they can study for their NEWTS." He then sighed and closed his eyes before opening them and continuing. "Inform them even when they have passed in both grading systems, they are welcome to stay at the school until they are of age as students of self-study. And that the school library will be at their full disposal. In addition, they will still be allowed to join school clubs and teams."

McGonagall nodded, a little amused. The old man really was off his rocker. He had the perfect excuse to get rid of them from school for good, and he offered to let them stay. Ah well, it had been entertaining to watch the Great Albus Dumbledore get trounced by a kid.

She asked curiously when the exams would take place.

Albus took a deep breath. He could not believe he had two such brilliant students, one eleven and the other twelve. They were making him look bad. "Two weeks from now," he said.

to be continued...