div id="feedback" class="feedback" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'GNU Unifont'; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px auto; padding: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: #ffffff; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" /div
div class="work" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'GNU Unifont'; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: #ffffff; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"
div id="workskin" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.08em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: auto; padding: 0px 0.25em; max-width: 72em; overflow: auto hidden; position: relative;"
div id="chapters" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"
div id="chapter-2" class="chapter" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"
div class="userstuff module" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 1088.64px; float: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;" role="article"
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry shrieked in delight as he careened off another wall. Dumbledore watched in amusement as the recently two-year-old toddler zoomed around his office. Dumbledore had spent almost an hour covering every possible surface with cushioning and rebound charms, with double for the floor and sticking charms on anything delicate. With a rustle of feathers Fawkes leaped from his perch to soar alongside Harry on his toy broom. Harry giggled and reached out with one hand to touch Fawke's feathers, and for several moments Dumbledore was transfixed by toddler and phoenix flying side-by-side. Then the moment passed and the headmaster returned to the important duty of approving funds for students./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Hogwarts was tuition blind, meaning that families were charged however much they could reasonably afford, with considerations taken into account for number of children. Muggleborns and some half bloods rarely had to pay a knut, while some half bloods and poorer purebloods paid a small amount, and most purebloods paid up to a thousand galleons a year. The education of the black cousins Sirius, Regulus, Andromeda, Narcissa, and Bellatrix had each been three thousand galleons a year. Currently, Dumbledore was approving the funding for each muggleborn that would attend Hogwarts the next year./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Pureblood factions in the Wizengamot over the centuries had tried to overturn the law, saying either that it was unfair that the rich were forced to pay for the tuition of mudbloods, or that the interest generated by Hogwarts's accounts alone should be enough and tuition should be free for all. But every time, half blood, Bones, Longbottom, or Potter led coalitions had stopped the motions, or campaigns seeking to overturn the law had been too openly racist for voters to support./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Dumbledore had meant his words when he said that he would do more of his work at his house instead of Hogwarts, but Dumbledore loved Hogwarts and so did Harry. The very stone and mortar of the ancient castle were imbued with magic, and the more powerful an individual was, the more they could feel it. To those raised in a magical household, it reminds them of home. So many powerful witches and wizards return to teach at Hogwarts, working within its comforting walls. Dumbledore still remembers when Tom Riddle first entered the castle, looking around in wide-eyed wonder and not just because of the enchantments on the ceiling of the Great Hall. Despite all the boy who became Voldemort did and became, he always loved Hogwarts./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry was the same way. He ran faster, shouted louder, and laughed constantly when at the castle. He loved to fly down the hallway on his toy broomstick, surprising Flitwick in his office and flying in circles around a laughing McGonagall. Hagrid would watch as his old boarhound Sniffer would chase Harry around the grounds, and Sirius would beam with pride. If he wasn't flying, then chances were Harry was running after something on his chubby little legs. Harry was a child always on the move./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Sirius actually had Harry more often than Dumbledore did, but now that Sirius was working again that would likely change. After the fiasco of the Pettigrew massacre and a short trial in which Dumbledore had cleared the man's innocence, with only a nine month leave of absence for confronting a suspect while off-duty. What should have been a happy moment was saddened when Dumbledore and Sirius walked into Hagrid's hut, who had been watching Harry that day. Harry had run to the door, shouting "Momma!" and "Daddy!" and stopped crestfallen when they failed to appear. The boy's godfather had fallen to the floor and started weeping uncontrollably, which had set off Harry as well./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Nowadays Sirius was doing better, though he and Remus both grew melancholy at times. Remus was considering taking a soul-searching trek across Europe, visiting werewolf communities along the way. Sirius was trying to stop him from going, but Dumbledore knew that his heart wasn't into trying. The infamous gang of Hogwarts troublemakers was already shattered./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"When Dumbledore was done he stood. "Harry, we're going to Hagrids," he said to the airborne toddler./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Surprisingly, he pouted. Harry usually loved Hagrid and Sniffer. "I wanna stay," he said./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I have to be somewhere important," Dumbledore said patiently. "You can't stay here."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry shook his head. "No." Lily had once told Dumbledore that 'no' had been his second word, after 'momma.' "I wanna fly with Fawkes."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Dumbledore was surprised. Harry always liked Fawkes, but he had never shown any particular attachment to the bird before. Fawkes landed on Dumbledore's shoulder and preened, soundly quite full of himself. Phoenix's could often be quite vain sometimes. "Fawkes will go where he wants to," Dumbledore said. "You need to go play with Hagrid."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry just continued to pout, so Dumbledore sighed and levitated him off his broomstick. Harry started to cry as Dumbledore gently sat him on the ground. "Fawkes can go with you if he wants." The phoenix ruffled his feathers but didn't move from Dumbledore's shoulders. The old man was grateful, even if it did make dealing with Harry harder. He would need his old friend that day./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Dumbledore summoned a Snickers; a muggle favorite of his, and held it out to Harry. "I'll give you a treat if you go play with Hagrid." That eventually got young Harry moving, even if he was grumpy about it. After the walk down to the gamekeeper's hut, in which the bright sun cheered Harry up a little bit, Dumbledore took his leave and Fawkes transported him to the beech forests of Czechoslovakia. This forest appeared on no muggle maps, because the entire five thousand acres was unplottable. The beech and mushroom dominated forest was home to not only continental Europe's largest bowtruckle colony, but its largest herd of mooncalves as well./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Park rangers had reported about a malicious spirit that had moved into the area recently, slaughtering several mooncalves but not using any part of the body. Dumbledore had several prospective leads on Voldemort, but this was the most promising one./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Fawkes took to the sky and soared high above as Dumbledore walked the short distance to the coordinates where one of the mooncalves had been found murdered. The weather, like in Scotland, was sunny that day. Several birds chirped in the distance, and something else rustled the undergrowth to his left, but otherwise Dumbledore was left alone in nature. The undergrowth crunched as he walked. It had been several days at least since the first rain./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Despite the pleasant weather, Dumbledore had the Elder Wand in his hand as he scanned his surroundings. He was certain that Tom had survived in some form, despite the overwhelming evidence that his body had been destroyed in the blast that remarkably left Harry unharmed. He had always been one of Hogwarts's best students, but he was too ambitious, looked to learn too much. Dumbledore had often wondered if he should have taken the genius under his personal wing, given him personal advice and assistance beyond Hogwarts. Dumbledore had been a teacher for too long not to recognize Tom for what he was; a member of that bitter caste that plagued so many nations. Tom was a young man bitter at the unfairness of the world and a weapon in his hand./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Dumbledore brought his mind back to the present as he arrived at his destination. In the middle of a clearing where mooncalves used to run and prance was a decomposing body. A slash had nearly severed the mooncalf's head from its body and flies and maggots covered the gaping wound. Wards had been placed to keep the corpse undisturbed but otherwise it had been left alone./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Dumbledore could already feel a curse upon the body. He recognized it as one of the Death Eater's favorites, a curse that would sap the energy of anything living it contacted until the curse killed its unsuspecting victim. Upon closer examination, all the corpse feeders on the body were motionless and dead. The smell was overwhelming./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Dumbledore quickly and silently dispelled the curse and went to get even closer when it suddenly jerked. Dumbledore froze and waited for any more movement. There was a rustling sound from all around and it appeared like all the bark on the nearby trees suddenly became fluid. Fawkes screeched in warning as Dumbledore swore./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"The real trap hadn't been the curse placed upon the mooncalf body. It was the necromancy and anti-Apparition wards activated by the removal of the curse. Dumbledore stuck the mooncalf's feet to the ground as it was struggling to stand, but the real issue was the sea of bowtruckles he was suddenly surrounded by. Instead of vibrant greens and warm browns, these were a sickly grey color and Dumbledore had a feeling that if any got close he would be able to tell they were dead. This was a form of black magic similar to Inferi./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"The simplest way to deal with Inferi was fire, but he was currently in a dry forest with plenty of brown leaves on the floor. Any blaze he whipped up could end up burning half the forest down. Thinking fast, Dumbledore quickly cast a jet stream of water out of the tip of his wand and turned in a circle to blast the bowtruckles away and prevent any from managing to reach him. Bowtruckles were tiny and relatively harmless on their own, but thousands like this would tear him apart bit by bit with their long fingers if he allowed them to cover him. Dumbledore kept this up for almost a minute, blasting dead bowtruckles away with jets of water. The front line of the Bowtruckles kept managing to inch closer in closer, until Dumbledore judged the ground was wet enough. He burned the ground in a circle around him, killing hundreds of Inferi bowtruckles. Still they came, crawling over the burned husks of their cursed comrades. Dumbledore summoned branches and set them on fire before banishing the burning brands into the middle of the horde, killing large swathes of the inferi at a time. The gaps in the line would always be filled by more, the stream never ending. Deciding to gamble a little, Dumbledore switched from regular flames to black cursed flames that would never be put out except for magic. Technically it was borderline dark magic, but Dumbledore was desperate. He surrounded himself with a circle of the cursed flames. Bowtruckles continued to obediently march into the fire, but only a few charred corpses penetrated the Headmaster's protection. The heat was so intense Now that Dumbledore had a few seconds to spare, Fawkes dove to his old friend and the two disappeared in a flash./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"They reappeared several miles away on a hill that had fewer trees on it than most in the area. Dumbledore could clearly see the smoke from his fire rising over the treetops. Hopefully the park rangers wouldn't notice until after Dumbledore had left. Pulling a pair of omnioculars out of an inside pocket, he zoomed in until he was able to see the clearing clearly./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"The inferi bowtruckles did not possess the intelligence to realize that Dumbledore was not still behind the black flames and were obediently marching to their deaths. Already the ring of charred corpses was beginning to pile up but still there was no visible end. Somehow Voldemort must have killed and converted an entire colony./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"For over thirty minutes Dumbledore watched the procession march into the flames, until finally only a few stranglers were appearing, and then none at all. After waiting another ten minutes to ensure the coast was actually clear, Fawkes transported him back to the clearing./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Dumbledore put out the black flames and bent to observe the burned corpses and saw that every single miniature tree guardian had its tiny eyes gouged out. If this was truly Voldemort's shade, then he had more power than Dumbledore had hoped. The question was, why leave this trap? Perhaps Tom was looking to get a lucky shot against whoever came snooping after him. Or perhaps there was some clue as to where he was hiding that Tom was trying to cover up./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Several revelios cast on the clearing revealed nothing, and Dumbledore could sense no more spells that had been cast recently in the clearing. The bowtruckles looked only like burnt out zombies, and an inspection of the mooncalf revealed nothing either. That was, until he looked at the red specks scattered around the clearing in the dirt, revealed by the burning of the undergrowth. The old Headmaster smiled. There wasn't a clue as to where Tom was going, but there was a hint of where he'd been. The magical caves of Valencia./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Later that week/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Sirius walked over to the bookshelf in his living room where he kept all his most important books. Next to an ancient and mighty tome were three children's books titled The Adventures of Harry Potter. A publishing company had reached out to Dumbledore, who as Harry's legal guardian and the regent of House Potter until Harry reached seventeen, had negotiated a deal. The publishing company got to use Harry's name and likeness, including the famous scar, and a royalty was paid to the House Potter account at Gringotts for every sale made. Harry would inherit a tidy fortune from those royalties alone in fifteen years./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"But Sirius ignored the silly books for the moment and grabbed the great book beside them. When the blast blew up half of James and Lilys' cottage, the family grimoire was thankfully unharmed. Each pureblood house had a grimoire in which it passed down stories of family members and family spells and magic. Sirius would inherit the Black family grimoire after his bitch of a mother and sod of an uncle would finally do the world a favor and die, but for the moment he was just the keeper of the Potter's grimoire, formally given the duty by Dumbledore. Anybody who tried to steal the book off the bookshelf would find a few nasty surprises./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Someday Harry would be old enough to learn the magic and write his own deeds into the book, which was over two thousand years old. But for the moment, little two year old Harry couldn't read, and Sirius just wanted to show him the pictures. Sirius may have hated most of his family, but some messages still got ingrained in his brain. Family history was important./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Sirius levitated the tome over to a curious looking Harry. "This is a record of your family," Sirius said, knowing that Harry didn't really understand him yet. "From your House's founding in Germany to your mom and dad, it's all here. Someday you'll write in it too." Thinking about James and Lily still made Sirius sad. There should be far more in the grimoire to write about them. I need you to put your hand on the cover to open it."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry looked at Sirius blankly. "No." That was his favorite word. He turned around and went back to playing with his toy dragons./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Sirius sighed, picked Harry up, and put him in front of the book. "If I put your hand on the cover, it won't work. Here." He put his own hand on to show Harry. "Like this."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry looked up at his godfather and put a chubby toddler hand on the cover. The locks keeping the cover shut opened./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Sirius opened to a random page halfway through. What looked like regular English to Harry was only random scribbles to anyone not in the family, but the pictures were the same. Some many-times great grandfather of Harry's was leading a battle against a goblin rebellion. Probably when boring old Professor Bins was still alive./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"The moving scenes of duels, battles, and magical achievements and innovations kept Harry interested for a few minutes, but soon enough he was back to his toy dragons. Sirius let him go and closed up the book. It would still be waiting when Harry got older./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Hope this was interesting to you guys. The story will really pick up when Harry hits like 14-15 so I'll try to speedrun as much as I can to get there./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Some news, I've decided on the final pairings. There's going to be three marriages because of politics. Daphne (an English pureblood), Fleur (quarter veela, half French pureblood) and an OC from somewhere, I'm thinking the Middle East. In the magical world the division of the Ottoman Empire wasn't decided by the French and the British, and the magical Ottomans kinda just fell apart because of the pressure the muggle world exerts on the magical world. So, with no Sykes and Picot ensuring wars are forever guaranteed, and with no oil to fight over either, there are a collection of much more stable magical Arab states that could send aid and support Harry./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry will probably have at least one failed relationship along the way. I was thinking about having Hermione as a legal concubine or something, but four just feels excessive. So yeah, don't worry if Harry starts flirting with Susan Bones or something, she's not getting added into the mix./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"I was thinking about sometime writing a companion piece to this that is purely all of the lore and worldbuilding unique to this fanfiction, for your convenience and mine. If you want to see that, let me know. Also, if you want to take any of my lore and write your own piece with it, go ahead. Just let me know so I can read your piece./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Don't ask me for an update schedule. I have no idea if I'll always write super long Author's Notes. If you want to give me extra motivation, commenting is the best way to do that. See y'all./p
/div
/div
/div
/div
/div
div class="work" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'GNU Unifont'; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: #ffffff; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"
div id="workskin" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.08em; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: auto; padding: 0px 0.25em; max-width: 72em; overflow: auto hidden; position: relative;"
div id="chapters" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"
div id="chapter-2" class="chapter" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"
div class="userstuff module" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 1088.64px; float: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;" role="article"
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry shrieked in delight as he careened off another wall. Dumbledore watched in amusement as the recently two-year-old toddler zoomed around his office. Dumbledore had spent almost an hour covering every possible surface with cushioning and rebound charms, with double for the floor and sticking charms on anything delicate. With a rustle of feathers Fawkes leaped from his perch to soar alongside Harry on his toy broom. Harry giggled and reached out with one hand to touch Fawke's feathers, and for several moments Dumbledore was transfixed by toddler and phoenix flying side-by-side. Then the moment passed and the headmaster returned to the important duty of approving funds for students./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Hogwarts was tuition blind, meaning that families were charged however much they could reasonably afford, with considerations taken into account for number of children. Muggleborns and some half bloods rarely had to pay a knut, while some half bloods and poorer purebloods paid a small amount, and most purebloods paid up to a thousand galleons a year. The education of the black cousins Sirius, Regulus, Andromeda, Narcissa, and Bellatrix had each been three thousand galleons a year. Currently, Dumbledore was approving the funding for each muggleborn that would attend Hogwarts the next year./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Pureblood factions in the Wizengamot over the centuries had tried to overturn the law, saying either that it was unfair that the rich were forced to pay for the tuition of mudbloods, or that the interest generated by Hogwarts's accounts alone should be enough and tuition should be free for all. But every time, half blood, Bones, Longbottom, or Potter led coalitions had stopped the motions, or campaigns seeking to overturn the law had been too openly racist for voters to support./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Dumbledore had meant his words when he said that he would do more of his work at his house instead of Hogwarts, but Dumbledore loved Hogwarts and so did Harry. The very stone and mortar of the ancient castle were imbued with magic, and the more powerful an individual was, the more they could feel it. To those raised in a magical household, it reminds them of home. So many powerful witches and wizards return to teach at Hogwarts, working within its comforting walls. Dumbledore still remembers when Tom Riddle first entered the castle, looking around in wide-eyed wonder and not just because of the enchantments on the ceiling of the Great Hall. Despite all the boy who became Voldemort did and became, he always loved Hogwarts./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry was the same way. He ran faster, shouted louder, and laughed constantly when at the castle. He loved to fly down the hallway on his toy broomstick, surprising Flitwick in his office and flying in circles around a laughing McGonagall. Hagrid would watch as his old boarhound Sniffer would chase Harry around the grounds, and Sirius would beam with pride. If he wasn't flying, then chances were Harry was running after something on his chubby little legs. Harry was a child always on the move./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Sirius actually had Harry more often than Dumbledore did, but now that Sirius was working again that would likely change. After the fiasco of the Pettigrew massacre and a short trial in which Dumbledore had cleared the man's innocence, with only a nine month leave of absence for confronting a suspect while off-duty. What should have been a happy moment was saddened when Dumbledore and Sirius walked into Hagrid's hut, who had been watching Harry that day. Harry had run to the door, shouting "Momma!" and "Daddy!" and stopped crestfallen when they failed to appear. The boy's godfather had fallen to the floor and started weeping uncontrollably, which had set off Harry as well./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Nowadays Sirius was doing better, though he and Remus both grew melancholy at times. Remus was considering taking a soul-searching trek across Europe, visiting werewolf communities along the way. Sirius was trying to stop him from going, but Dumbledore knew that his heart wasn't into trying. The infamous gang of Hogwarts troublemakers was already shattered./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"When Dumbledore was done he stood. "Harry, we're going to Hagrids," he said to the airborne toddler./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Surprisingly, he pouted. Harry usually loved Hagrid and Sniffer. "I wanna stay," he said./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I have to be somewhere important," Dumbledore said patiently. "You can't stay here."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry shook his head. "No." Lily had once told Dumbledore that 'no' had been his second word, after 'momma.' "I wanna fly with Fawkes."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Dumbledore was surprised. Harry always liked Fawkes, but he had never shown any particular attachment to the bird before. Fawkes landed on Dumbledore's shoulder and preened, soundly quite full of himself. Phoenix's could often be quite vain sometimes. "Fawkes will go where he wants to," Dumbledore said. "You need to go play with Hagrid."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry just continued to pout, so Dumbledore sighed and levitated him off his broomstick. Harry started to cry as Dumbledore gently sat him on the ground. "Fawkes can go with you if he wants." The phoenix ruffled his feathers but didn't move from Dumbledore's shoulders. The old man was grateful, even if it did make dealing with Harry harder. He would need his old friend that day./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Dumbledore summoned a Snickers; a muggle favorite of his, and held it out to Harry. "I'll give you a treat if you go play with Hagrid." That eventually got young Harry moving, even if he was grumpy about it. After the walk down to the gamekeeper's hut, in which the bright sun cheered Harry up a little bit, Dumbledore took his leave and Fawkes transported him to the beech forests of Czechoslovakia. This forest appeared on no muggle maps, because the entire five thousand acres was unplottable. The beech and mushroom dominated forest was home to not only continental Europe's largest bowtruckle colony, but its largest herd of mooncalves as well./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Park rangers had reported about a malicious spirit that had moved into the area recently, slaughtering several mooncalves but not using any part of the body. Dumbledore had several prospective leads on Voldemort, but this was the most promising one./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Fawkes took to the sky and soared high above as Dumbledore walked the short distance to the coordinates where one of the mooncalves had been found murdered. The weather, like in Scotland, was sunny that day. Several birds chirped in the distance, and something else rustled the undergrowth to his left, but otherwise Dumbledore was left alone in nature. The undergrowth crunched as he walked. It had been several days at least since the first rain./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Despite the pleasant weather, Dumbledore had the Elder Wand in his hand as he scanned his surroundings. He was certain that Tom had survived in some form, despite the overwhelming evidence that his body had been destroyed in the blast that remarkably left Harry unharmed. He had always been one of Hogwarts's best students, but he was too ambitious, looked to learn too much. Dumbledore had often wondered if he should have taken the genius under his personal wing, given him personal advice and assistance beyond Hogwarts. Dumbledore had been a teacher for too long not to recognize Tom for what he was; a member of that bitter caste that plagued so many nations. Tom was a young man bitter at the unfairness of the world and a weapon in his hand./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Dumbledore brought his mind back to the present as he arrived at his destination. In the middle of a clearing where mooncalves used to run and prance was a decomposing body. A slash had nearly severed the mooncalf's head from its body and flies and maggots covered the gaping wound. Wards had been placed to keep the corpse undisturbed but otherwise it had been left alone./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Dumbledore could already feel a curse upon the body. He recognized it as one of the Death Eater's favorites, a curse that would sap the energy of anything living it contacted until the curse killed its unsuspecting victim. Upon closer examination, all the corpse feeders on the body were motionless and dead. The smell was overwhelming./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Dumbledore quickly and silently dispelled the curse and went to get even closer when it suddenly jerked. Dumbledore froze and waited for any more movement. There was a rustling sound from all around and it appeared like all the bark on the nearby trees suddenly became fluid. Fawkes screeched in warning as Dumbledore swore./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"The real trap hadn't been the curse placed upon the mooncalf body. It was the necromancy and anti-Apparition wards activated by the removal of the curse. Dumbledore stuck the mooncalf's feet to the ground as it was struggling to stand, but the real issue was the sea of bowtruckles he was suddenly surrounded by. Instead of vibrant greens and warm browns, these were a sickly grey color and Dumbledore had a feeling that if any got close he would be able to tell they were dead. This was a form of black magic similar to Inferi./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"The simplest way to deal with Inferi was fire, but he was currently in a dry forest with plenty of brown leaves on the floor. Any blaze he whipped up could end up burning half the forest down. Thinking fast, Dumbledore quickly cast a jet stream of water out of the tip of his wand and turned in a circle to blast the bowtruckles away and prevent any from managing to reach him. Bowtruckles were tiny and relatively harmless on their own, but thousands like this would tear him apart bit by bit with their long fingers if he allowed them to cover him. Dumbledore kept this up for almost a minute, blasting dead bowtruckles away with jets of water. The front line of the Bowtruckles kept managing to inch closer in closer, until Dumbledore judged the ground was wet enough. He burned the ground in a circle around him, killing hundreds of Inferi bowtruckles. Still they came, crawling over the burned husks of their cursed comrades. Dumbledore summoned branches and set them on fire before banishing the burning brands into the middle of the horde, killing large swathes of the inferi at a time. The gaps in the line would always be filled by more, the stream never ending. Deciding to gamble a little, Dumbledore switched from regular flames to black cursed flames that would never be put out except for magic. Technically it was borderline dark magic, but Dumbledore was desperate. He surrounded himself with a circle of the cursed flames. Bowtruckles continued to obediently march into the fire, but only a few charred corpses penetrated the Headmaster's protection. The heat was so intense Now that Dumbledore had a few seconds to spare, Fawkes dove to his old friend and the two disappeared in a flash./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"They reappeared several miles away on a hill that had fewer trees on it than most in the area. Dumbledore could clearly see the smoke from his fire rising over the treetops. Hopefully the park rangers wouldn't notice until after Dumbledore had left. Pulling a pair of omnioculars out of an inside pocket, he zoomed in until he was able to see the clearing clearly./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"The inferi bowtruckles did not possess the intelligence to realize that Dumbledore was not still behind the black flames and were obediently marching to their deaths. Already the ring of charred corpses was beginning to pile up but still there was no visible end. Somehow Voldemort must have killed and converted an entire colony./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"For over thirty minutes Dumbledore watched the procession march into the flames, until finally only a few stranglers were appearing, and then none at all. After waiting another ten minutes to ensure the coast was actually clear, Fawkes transported him back to the clearing./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Dumbledore put out the black flames and bent to observe the burned corpses and saw that every single miniature tree guardian had its tiny eyes gouged out. If this was truly Voldemort's shade, then he had more power than Dumbledore had hoped. The question was, why leave this trap? Perhaps Tom was looking to get a lucky shot against whoever came snooping after him. Or perhaps there was some clue as to where he was hiding that Tom was trying to cover up./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Several revelios cast on the clearing revealed nothing, and Dumbledore could sense no more spells that had been cast recently in the clearing. The bowtruckles looked only like burnt out zombies, and an inspection of the mooncalf revealed nothing either. That was, until he looked at the red specks scattered around the clearing in the dirt, revealed by the burning of the undergrowth. The old Headmaster smiled. There wasn't a clue as to where Tom was going, but there was a hint of where he'd been. The magical caves of Valencia./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Later that week/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Sirius walked over to the bookshelf in his living room where he kept all his most important books. Next to an ancient and mighty tome were three children's books titled The Adventures of Harry Potter. A publishing company had reached out to Dumbledore, who as Harry's legal guardian and the regent of House Potter until Harry reached seventeen, had negotiated a deal. The publishing company got to use Harry's name and likeness, including the famous scar, and a royalty was paid to the House Potter account at Gringotts for every sale made. Harry would inherit a tidy fortune from those royalties alone in fifteen years./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"But Sirius ignored the silly books for the moment and grabbed the great book beside them. When the blast blew up half of James and Lilys' cottage, the family grimoire was thankfully unharmed. Each pureblood house had a grimoire in which it passed down stories of family members and family spells and magic. Sirius would inherit the Black family grimoire after his bitch of a mother and sod of an uncle would finally do the world a favor and die, but for the moment he was just the keeper of the Potter's grimoire, formally given the duty by Dumbledore. Anybody who tried to steal the book off the bookshelf would find a few nasty surprises./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Someday Harry would be old enough to learn the magic and write his own deeds into the book, which was over two thousand years old. But for the moment, little two year old Harry couldn't read, and Sirius just wanted to show him the pictures. Sirius may have hated most of his family, but some messages still got ingrained in his brain. Family history was important./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Sirius levitated the tome over to a curious looking Harry. "This is a record of your family," Sirius said, knowing that Harry didn't really understand him yet. "From your House's founding in Germany to your mom and dad, it's all here. Someday you'll write in it too." Thinking about James and Lily still made Sirius sad. There should be far more in the grimoire to write about them. I need you to put your hand on the cover to open it."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry looked at Sirius blankly. "No." That was his favorite word. He turned around and went back to playing with his toy dragons./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Sirius sighed, picked Harry up, and put him in front of the book. "If I put your hand on the cover, it won't work. Here." He put his own hand on to show Harry. "Like this."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry looked up at his godfather and put a chubby toddler hand on the cover. The locks keeping the cover shut opened./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Sirius opened to a random page halfway through. What looked like regular English to Harry was only random scribbles to anyone not in the family, but the pictures were the same. Some many-times great grandfather of Harry's was leading a battle against a goblin rebellion. Probably when boring old Professor Bins was still alive./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"The moving scenes of duels, battles, and magical achievements and innovations kept Harry interested for a few minutes, but soon enough he was back to his toy dragons. Sirius let him go and closed up the book. It would still be waiting when Harry got older./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Hope this was interesting to you guys. The story will really pick up when Harry hits like 14-15 so I'll try to speedrun as much as I can to get there./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Some news, I've decided on the final pairings. There's going to be three marriages because of politics. Daphne (an English pureblood), Fleur (quarter veela, half French pureblood) and an OC from somewhere, I'm thinking the Middle East. In the magical world the division of the Ottoman Empire wasn't decided by the French and the British, and the magical Ottomans kinda just fell apart because of the pressure the muggle world exerts on the magical world. So, with no Sykes and Picot ensuring wars are forever guaranteed, and with no oil to fight over either, there are a collection of much more stable magical Arab states that could send aid and support Harry./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Harry will probably have at least one failed relationship along the way. I was thinking about having Hermione as a legal concubine or something, but four just feels excessive. So yeah, don't worry if Harry starts flirting with Susan Bones or something, she's not getting added into the mix./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"I was thinking about sometime writing a companion piece to this that is purely all of the lore and worldbuilding unique to this fanfiction, for your convenience and mine. If you want to see that, let me know. Also, if you want to take any of my lore and write your own piece with it, go ahead. Just let me know so I can read your piece./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Don't ask me for an update schedule. I have no idea if I'll always write super long Author's Notes. If you want to give me extra motivation, commenting is the best way to do that. See y'all./p
/div
/div
/div
/div
/div