Chapter 8

"Whatever do you mean, 'no', Dumbledore?"

A very irate man in a bowler hat practically yelled in frustration at the venerable Headmaster of Hogwarts and Supreme Mugwump.

"I mean the very word, Cornelius. I would also remind you of the decorum one of your station should hold himself to." A sharp glance and the Minister of Magic's anger wilted and turned to whining.

"But, Dumbledore! We simply must know where he has been. The people want to know!"

"Fortuitously, that is not my concern. The boy's education, however, is. It is my belief that Mr. Potter's education would be adversely affected should I let him leave the premises." Albus Dumbledore turned back to the paperwork on his desk and ignored the next minute of the Minister of Magic's blustering. Having satisfied the requisite time for listening to foolishness without appearing overtly rude, Dumbledore moved to end the conversation.

"Cornelius, I understand the position you are in. I have, however, made my decision. You can owl Mr. Potter and if he so chooses, he can meet up with you during a Hogsmede weekend or Winter Break. I will hear nothing further on this." A brief pause. "Now, if there is nothing else?"

The dismissal was obvious. Nevertheless, Cornelius almost fought it. Dumbledore cut the floo connection with a smile and "Good day" right as the man with the bowler was about to speak again.


Harry's first few weeks at Hogwarts were busier than he had expected they would be. Between his seven total classes and the time he took to explore the castle, even his long waking hours hardly seemed enough.

As he wandered the library rows Harry reflected upon his last week of classes. Charms was unremarkable other than the professor. Flitwick, a rare half-goblin, was amongst the most accomplished charms masters in the world. His command of magic was effortless, as was warranted by one in his position. Harry aspired to that same level of control in everything he did.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was far less interesting than Harry had been prepared for. It seemed that the curse affecting the position had really left the institution with a dearth of leaders there. While Harry was not prepared to write the class off, he did not feel that the level of that class was on par with the practical studies he had received back at Potter Manor. That of course made some sense, Remus and Sirius had both been accomplished in the combat magics and had done everything they could to pass along their knowledge. Harry vowed to spend extra time of his own on that particular subject.

Transfiguration was impressive. Sirius had been no slouch in the subject, but Wendy Meadowcroft, the NEWT Transfiguration professor, was something else. They were primarily focusing on human transfigurations this semester, and Harry was already conspiring using it in his next set of duels with Remus. There were of course dangers, but mastering human transfiguration was the first step to making progress with the animagus transformation. Harry had every intention of pursuing that skill.

Warding and Curse-Breaking went hand in hand. There was only one class for the two skills, despite that they were two entire disciplines of magic. The class was taught mostly at the entry level of the subject and time was spent making and breaking warding structures. It was here that Harry learned much about how runic structures accessed power and funneled it into a warding scheme.

Harry's favorite set of classes, however, were Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. As he looked more and more into ancient runes, he saw the similarities between them. Each of them was a simplistic structure based around three primary points. His mind often wandered back to the rune doodled by Rothschild and his mind categorized the differences that a four primary point rune could entail. He knew there was progress to be made, but was having trouble making the leap.

Arithmancy was incredible. And Septima Vector, no less so. Questions that Remus could not begin to explain the answers to, Septima could make sense of. As weeks went by, Harry formed a close friendship with his teacher, who was much younger than most professors at the school.

Septima, in Harry's opinion, had the misfortune of being a pure-blooded wizard. Her level of mathematics suffered for that, but she was brilliantly able to put the math she did know to use. Conversations on the topic of Calculus as it applied to magic led into her area of research, mapping the ley lines mathematically. She hoped that the pattern of the lines would in fact open up a new form of runic structures to be studied.

In relation to this, Harry engaged her on the topic of integrals, only to find that arithmancy hadn't advanced to the concept of limits yet. He decided this would be something worth looking into and had forwarded the information onto Remus.

His last pair of subjects were Law and Government. Like warding and curse-breaking, these two subjects were taught as a single class. Harry's main motivation in taking these courses was in his future on the Wizengamot. Despite the subject being taught by a ghost, Harry found the lessons invigorating. He also found this was not a feeling shared by the majority of his classmates, who often did not attend the lectures.

Harry's mind briefly drifted back to a day after Wizarding Law and Government class. He had stayed late to discuss the finer points of a certain legal precedent with the haunting professor, and Courtney Ellickson had lingered too. Their conversation had stretched long past class, leading them to a quiet corner near the enchanted window that looked out over the lake. There, amidst a multitude of books, Courtney had confessed her own aspirations in the world of magical governance. It was a simple moment of companionship, and it ended with a chaste kiss that had not been pursued further by either, but the experience helped Harry to realize he valued a genuine relationship over any strategic alliance.

Picking out a book from the shelf he wandered by, 'The Goblin Corps,' he shook his head at his fellow students disregard for history. Making his way to Irma Pince, the librarian, he checked the book out and pushed the massive doors open to exit the library. As he walked down the hall he suddenly found himself blocked by six students. The one clearly leading had platinum blonde hair.

"Potter," he greeted succinctly. Harry did not respond and an almost imperceptible snarl turned the blonde-haired boy's upper lip.

"Do you think you're too good for others? I've merely wanted to introduce myself, but it appears my effort is wasted."

"I know who you are, Malfoy," Harry spoke. His tone kept even as to not betray his itchy trigger finger.

"As you should. It has come to my attention that you do not have a team for the challenges. Since you seem to be performing moderately well in classes, I thought I would offer you a place on one of mine." Malfoy gave a gregarious smile.

"It is a tempting offer," Harry began. "However, I simply haven't had time to meet all of our classmates and I would not want to make such a decision without exploring all of my options."

Draco's minions shifted, uncomfortable with the denial. Malfoy and his posse were clearly used to getting what they wanted. Draco responded tersely, "Okay, let's level. I know that you have only recently come back to the Wizarding world, so you may not have an idea of how great of an offer you're getting here. I am willing to help integrate you back into this world in exchange for basically nothing. Seeing as my family is one of the premier wizarding families in Great Britain, I cannot see how you could do any better."

"If you are truly a premier wizarding family, why is it that your father spent so much time serving below his station?" Harry almost winced as he let that bit of wit fly. A couple of Draco's posse did wince at his reference to Draco's father being a Death Eater. Damage already done, Harry continued. "If that is what is expected then perhaps I need to change my aspirations."

Draco was unable to control his mask of geniality and let it slip into anger as he responded, "Look here, you feckless muggle. My father was ruthlessly put under the Imperius by a madman due to his social station, preventing him from his desire to improve the wizarding world."

Readying his draw, and knowing the likely results, Harry let loose his final barb. "Your father claimed to have been held under the Imperius for years, bruv. He's straight moist, and it seems that's the same for his sprog."

In a society that valued power as the primary piece of spellcasting, accusing weakness was a mortal insult. Wands were pulled. Spells were fired.


"Take the non-infinite cube and extrude it in yet another direction perpendicular to the first three. But how can we do this? It is impossible to do within the restrictions of the third dimension. However, within the fourth dimension, it is possible."

Something about the passage tickled in Remus' mind. He re-read it and pondered. He re-re-read it and it clicked. He suddenly shot out of the chair he was sitting in with excitement. This was it! This was what was special about Rothschild's rune. The doodle had been imprecise, but perhaps it was a rune that could be modified into a fourth dimension rune set.

Remus' mind went into overdrive. What were the implications?

The field of warding had not had any major innovations since the ability to expand wards to encircle an object or place, rather than just protect against one direction. Was that not a perfect description of wards moving from a second dimension to a third dimension coverage? Racking his brain, Remus was quickly able to apply that the reason for the change was the difference between inscribing second dimension and third dimension runes.

It was so clear! How could he and Harry have missed it? It was fairly obvious how others in the Wizarding world had missed it – the theory of the fourth dimension was only widely expanded upon in the late 1800s. Given the relative lethargy regarding muggle progress by wizards, there were so few that would even have looked into the more recent mathematics. It was frustrating that he had not made the obvious conclusion earlier.

If one wanted a mobile ward, it was only natural that the runes would have to account for movement of the protected object across space-time – the fourth dimension. Only then could the ward travel with an object throughout its 'life.' He smiled. Mathematics had even provided the perfect solution for coming up with the wards to be drawn. He simply needed to take the integral of an existing third dimension ward scheme to convert it to a fourth dimension scheme.

The problem, of course, would be inscribing fourth dimension runes. He had to converse with Harry; maybe the boy would have ideas on that. Until he was able to speak to his friend's son, however, he needed to find out more about fourth dimensional objects and how they could be visualized.

A trip to the local library was in order.


"Harry."

The voice seemed very far away.

"Harry Potter." The voice changed slightly and Harry suddenly became aware he was being shaken. His head was cloudy but pieces quickly started coming back. It had been a long time since he had lost a fight so badly.

Given the odds, it was expected. He was only glad he had been able to get a good hit or two in before being taken down. His breathing was shallow, and each intake was marred with pain. He suspected a broken rib or two.

He looked up and found Blaise and an Indian girl he had yet to meet.

The girl ran her wand over Harry and her eyebrows pinched. "There are a lot of injuries here, Blaise. He needs Pomfrey."

The Italian boy nodded and waved his wand, which lifted Harry into the air as if on a stretcher. The feeling was odd, but not uncomfortable. Harry instinctively wondered if this was what astronauts felt like in micro-gravity.

Feeling as though he could get a few words out, he tried speaking. Both Blaise and the unknown girl turned to him as a series of unrecognizable sounds exited his mouth.

"Your jaw is badly broken, Potter," Zabini said. I suggest you not try talking until we get you to the healer. You have a long night in front of you, I suspect.

The pain hit almost as soon as he had tried speaking. Funny that he had not felt the pain prior to trying to use those muscles. He tried to give a thankful look at the two and allowed himself to be brought to the hospital wing.


Dumbledore was once again in the place of honor at Lord Townsend's manor and knew that it would soon be his turn to speak on the issue of the Black inheritance and Harry Potter.

"To tie it up – the Wizengamot is more united than ever against the administration and I feel that come the Winter sessions there may be budget problems for certain divisions in the Ministry of Magic. That said, the claimant for the Black seats remains unknown to us. I'll turn it over the Dumbledore, as I understand that Harry Potter has recently come to Hogwarts. Have you any progress on that theory of yours from our last meeting?" Leo Trigg spoke confidently, a consummate spokesman.

He would make a good Minister, Dumbledore mused as he prepared to speak.

"I must admit that I had erred in my estimation of the Potter boy as the claimant to the Black inheritance. While he does stand as a potential claimant, there is nothing to indicate at this time that he has done so. Thus, it must be another."

Elon Bath cut in, "How can you be sure of such, Dumbledore? Did you speak with the boy?"

"I have not," came the reply.

"Then what has changed?"

"I was able to find some new information regarding Harry Potter's movements over the last year. I'm afraid that the information I came across precludes the child from being able to claim the Black titles and seats."

"What was this information?" Bath pushed.

"I'm afraid that for the boy's own security I will hold that from this forum. You understand, of course." One of Elon Bath's children had been murdered in the last war while living at a safe house. The leaker was never found. There were several winces around the table as Dumbledore's point was made with pinpoint accuracy.

Bath nodded his assent.

"So it seems we are back at square one," Augustine Townsend summed up.

"So it seems," came the agreement from Dumbledore.

"Well it must be someone in the Conservative faction…" the arguments started anew.


It had been a few days since the attack, and Harry was still mulling it over as he explored the castle. It had been a bit brash of him, he supposed, taunting a vastly superior hostile force. However, there had been a point to make. Harry Potter was not meek. He was not unwilling to antagonize. When push came to shove, he would shove above his weight class.

Dueling outside of a sanctioned event, of course, was very much frowned upon at Hogwarts. Harry had refused to speak to the teachers about the event. There was a point to be made there too – he would be dealing with his own problems. Of course, it was highly doubtful that Draco had picked up on many of the lessons Harry had intended to impart. Harry knew his type. Until something happened to the boy himself, Draco would purely scoff at Harry's actions.

Draco, it seemed, had since taken offense to his very existence. It seemed to be those things that were muggle that offended him most. Harry made a point to emphasize his muggle heritage around the blonde bigot, but was careful to not bring the antagonism to the same level of blows.

The recovery had been miraculously quick. It was not the first time Harry had broken a bone or two. It was the first time the broken bones had been mended overnight. The miracle of magic consistently found new ways of surprising him.

Harry found himself on the sixth floor of the Eastern wall as he wandered, which overlooked the bluff and the Black Lake below it. The train station and Hogsmede were lit up in the distance both by their own lights and the full moon above. Harry's thoughts turned to Remus, who at this moment had lost the one thing he prided himself upon most, his mind and sanity. Every full moon those things were viciously taken from him. In response, during the rest of the lunar cycle, Remus appreciated both more than any other Harry had encountered.

As he continued to meander down the hall, Harry came across a door that shone with silver. That, in itself, was not horribly odd in Hogwarts. What was odd was that this door was placed on the exterior wall of the castle. A glance out the nearest window showed no overhanging room. Magic, Harry supposed, was responsible. He reached for the door and opened it.

Inside, he was greeted by what looked as though it were the entrance to a hedge maze. The hedges, however, were in full bloom with a beautiful bouquet of flowers of all colors. The smell of lathyrus, in particular, was intoxicating, and Harry stepped into the room, shutting the door behind him. Conjuring a ball of yarn, Harry began to make his way into the maze, spooling the yarn out behind him.

Each dead end Harry encountered had some sort of feature: a topiary elephant, a gazebo, a small fountain. Ten minutes in and Harry suddenly noticed he could hear someone singing in the distance. He couldn't make out the words through the hedges but the voice was pleasant, if somewhat off key at times, and definitely female.

With his wand out – prudence first – Harry rounded a final corner and was greeted by a small pond, on which floated a hundred or so water lilies. A familiar face sat on a bench near the pond, singing softly and weaving flowers together. Harry was unfamiliar with the tune, but the melody was pleasing.

"Hello, Luna," Harry spoke, putting his wand in his pocket.

The sudden entrance of his voice into the relative silence caused the blonde girl to jump in surprise, before a brilliant smile lit her face.

"Harry!" she exclaimed joyfully. "You surprised me!"

"And here I thought I'd never be able to," he responded.

She laughed, and Harry was struck by how child-like she seemed in that moment. Luna, to Harry, seemed to be without a care in the world, completely in the present moment. He gave her a wide smile in return.

"So what is this place?"

"This?" Luna gestured around. "I should have thought you'd recognize a hedge maze."

Harry rolled his eyes at her deliberate evasion.

"This is your secret garden then, Luna?"

"I always wanted one!" she said with a smile as she approached Harry at the entrance to the pond. "But now it seems it is not so secret anymore."

"I'm sorry –"Harry began, but Luna cut it off.

"I guess it will just have to be our secret garden," she spoke with authority, nodding her head at the decision made. As she reached Harry she embraced him. An embrace he returned.

After fifteen seconds of just holding her, Harry released the embrace. "If it meant a lot to you, Luna, I'm happy to leave this place just to you. I simply saw a door on the exterior wall of the castle and had to know where it led."

She nodded. "Absolutely not," she spoke. "This is now our secret garden. It only is accessible during the full moon, so I've found. We shall simply have to share it now. Honestly, it would be nice to have another person to speak with while I sit in here."

Harry reflected. It made sense why the Marauders had not found the place. Their full moons were pre-occupied with other activities. It seems that his father had not found all of Hogwarts' secrets. Harry guessed that he had not even scratched the surface.

"How long have you known of this place, Luna?" He asked the younger girl.

"I've been coming here since my third year. I'm surprised no one else has found it before you, but I suppose that most of the curiosity here is aimed at education, not the secrets of the castle."

Based on his wanderings of the last few weeks, Harry felt she was correct. It was extremely rare that he came across another while exploring the castle. And then, it was often someone who was taking a walk just to clear their head or someone looking for a private place to study.

Luna spoke again. "I'm somewhat surprised you found this place so quickly." She looked at him and Harry was drawn into her eyes once again, like the day he first met her. She turned her head away and shook it, as if clearing cobwebs. "It makes sense, after all," she declared. "You have exploration in your blood."

Harry shook his own head in amazement. He did not know exactly how she knew these things, but he was determined to find out. He led her back to the bench and picked up some flowers of his own.

"It seemed you were having quite a lot of fun here, Luna. Could you teach me how you weave these together?"


The cottage sat untouched to this very day. The western wall and the roof of the small two story had mostly collapsed, leaving only the bare bones of a structure. Nature had worked its own magic over the last decade of disuse, and had begun to claim back what wizards had taken from it many years previous.

Two men stood before the dilapidation.

"I failed them, Moony." Sirius Black stared bleakly at the structure, Remus Lupin by his side. "How did I bollocks it all up this badly?"

"You acted exactly as you always have, Sirius. It was your personality that led James to name you Godfather. He would not blame you for acting on the very reason for his choice."

Sirius shook his head. "James made a mistake, Moony. He should have chosen you. You at least tried to be there for Harry. Me? I simply sought my revenge and it damned me." The words rang true, and Remus did not dispute them. The two men simply stood there, silently, for quite some time before Sirius wiped his eyes clear of the tears he shed and turned back to his oldest remaining friend.

"I'm glad you're here to help me get back on track. I need you to keep me in line, Moony. With your help, I can still deliver on the promise I made to Lily and Prongs."

"You will have my help for as long as it is needed, Sirius."

The two embraced in a quick, but desperate hug and then pulled apart. A new sense of determination hung between them.

"We will need to bring Harry here, someday," Remus spoke with authority.

"Yes," Sirius agreed. "He should see this place." Silence hung for a moment before Sirius continued. "We came here for a reason, Remus. Let's search for anything that would give a clue as to what happened that night or where Pettigrew may have gone and get going. I cannot stay here much longer."

Remus nodded his head in agreement. Picking at scars could only re-open healed wounds.


Since rejoining the wizarding world at Hogwarts, Harry had received a depressingly large amount of correspondence. Now that his location was not warded against such, it was not unusual for him to receive several missives a week with invites to social functions or for interviews. There were even several entreaties towards commercial endeavors.

The boy had dutifully read each piece of mail sent him, and so it was that when letters from Remus or Sirius arrived, he aroused absolutely no suspicion. Harry's mind wandered briefly as he reached for the most recent missive from his godfather. He thought of the entreaties by both Cornelius Fudge and Lady Amelia Bones to meet with him and debrief about his rejoining the wizarding world. Fudge had offered his veiled promises of political protection and influence. Lady Bones, had been perhaps more genuine with her offer of support within the Ministry's ranks. So far, Harry had ignored them all. He couldn't exactly bring himself to trust any Ministry official at the moment, especially those that were likely involved with Sirius' escape fiasco.

Beyond that, the number of introductions from Wizengamot members who offered the services of their children at Hogwarts made Harry's head spin. Each one was a calculated move, an attempt to forge alliances or curry favor. The whole situation felt like a chess game, and Harry wasn't sure he had the patience to play.

Sirius' letter had been coded, of course. Remus, at least, was intelligent enough to see the need. Harry had, as he always did, pocketed the parchment and spoken to no one about its contents. Having been the normal process for several weeks at this point, people had stopped asking.

Upon having a moment to himself he reached back for the letter and re-opened it. Tapping it with his wand, he spoke, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good," and the real message revealed itself.

Harry,

We have considered many possible avenues for Peter to have remained incognito all this time. Neither of us believes that he could last within the muggle world without using magic on a regular basis. As our friend, he could not abide being left out.

It is our belief that he has likely taken residence in the house of a wizarding family, potentially even as their pet. Given that he is missing a finger as a human, he should be missing a toe in his rat form. At this point, he would have an unusually long life for a rat, so keep an ear out for anything suspicious.

We both think it highly likely that Peter would have attempted to target a pureblooded family – which frankly are more likely to keep a rat than a half-blood or muggleborn.

If you hear anything, please let us know at the earliest possible moment. We will keep searching on our end.

As for the Lovegoods, they are a family of tragedy. Xenophilius Lovegood lost his wife in an accident of some sort in their family home a little over a decade ago and was left to raise his daughter alone. The man has gone a bit round the bend since that moment. He runs a tabloid called the Quibbler. I don't know anything about the daughter.

All the best,

Moony and Padfoot


A/N: Some descriptions of the fourth dimension are taken directly from the following website: hi dot gher dot space slash classic slash introduction dot htm