Hogwarts 5th Year Part 1

Hogwarts

"Harry!" A voice called out from behind him, and Harry turned just in time to have a running mass of Helena collide with him and wrap him in a surprisingly bearish hug for a person of her size. "I am so happy you are ok!"

Harry struggled to get a response out before a voice from behind called her out.

"Good Merlin, woman. Let the boy breathe." A stern female voice sounded from behind the obscuring mass of Helena. Harry could feel the hugging woman petulantly pout and reluctantly let go of him.

"Hello to you too, Helena." Harry greeted the woman before turning to Dorea Black standing behind them with arms on her hips. "Dorea. You look lovely as ever."

Dorea snorted and while Helena stomped on the ground and said, "And what? Don't I look lovely?"

Harry tactfully changed the topic, "I see both of you are already acquainted with each other. Funny, I never knew."

"We have similar interests, and you simply aren't all that-" Dorea started but was immediately cut off by Helena.

"We met and became friends during a bird-watching event," Helena exclaimed while Harry stared at her in confusion. Taking her cue Helena continued, "It's when all us girls take a field trip to watch the boys. It's a fu -" Helena said but Dorea interrupted her.

"Nonsense. I never engage in perverse and immoral behaviors. It is very un-ladylike." Dorea stated while slapping her hand on Helena's mouth as the girl struggled to contain her giggles. "We were simply part of common study groups before and bonded closer when I knew she hung out with you. Simply that."

Helena broke free from her captor's restraints and exclaimed, "She was ogling Charlus like a slab of meat when you boys were playing your little game last year!"

Dorea mouth widened in horror as a deep red blush engulfed her while Helena giggled away like Peeves during the first-year initiation. Before Harry could intervene, Dorea had already whipped out her wand and started lobbing spells at a crazed Helena and chasing her deeper into the compartments. Harry stared after them in bewilderment before he shook his head and marched towards the dungeons.

.

These friends of mine. I suppose catching up will have to wait. Harry thought.

The Beginning

"Amazing. Simply amazing." Helena said as she admired the zoom of the muggle tech, he showed her. She gently aimed the cyborg's head towards the star and stared in astonishment at the retinas zoomed in on the stars and output constellations marked out on the map. "I have never seen anything like this before."

Beside her, Harry leaned in, his eyes gleaming with an eagerness to explain. "Impressive, isn't it? Those features like zoom and image blur, they're what muggles deal with in their devices. But this tech," he gestured towards the cyborg, "it eradicates those flaws, and delivers perfection in every picture."

"Yes, fascinating all. But when we planned this curfew-breaking escapade from Hogwarts, I was anticipating a night of greater fun and merriment." Dorea drily commented.

"Is breaking curfew ladylike?" Helena cheekily said but Dorea merely blew a raspberry at her in response before taking a mighty swing of her beer. Harry realized Dorea might be miffed because he hadn't brought something intriguing for her. So, with a mischievous glint, he delved into Helena's bag and retrieved the cyborg's body, levitating it towards Dorea's line of sight.

Dorea merely raised her shoulders in a so-what response before Harry demonstrated. He fired a string of spells from his wand. He fired off spells towards it. The cyborg effortlessly dodged the onslaught with swift and precise movements, evading the magical assault with an almost dance-like finesse. A string of spells followed, some grazing the robot's body, singing it lightly but leaving it otherwise unscathed. Dorea's astonishment grew, her mouth slightly agape as she witnessed the cyborg's seamless defense against the magic.

Dorea sat up straight at the display of such prowess, all traces of alcohol gone from her being as she peered at the creation. Her analytical brain pieced together the cyborg's form and composition. Their final year project proposal was a somewhat similar concept. They wanted to create body armor for aurors that could protect in close-quarter combat environments. However, it could only tank a few spells before the magical shield shattered on itself. Unlike the cyborg which had a far greater endurance. Dorea turned to him and simply said,

"How?"

"I don't know." Harry simply replied.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Helena exclaimed. "You sneak us off from bed to show us a bunch of incredible stuff and you don't even know how?"

"Yep," Harry said.

"Well? What is this all about then?" Helena asked.

"To figure out how this stuff works. I wager there is a fair bit of market for this if we can get things going." Harry said. "Its not like between all of us, we lack the wits to do it."

"What is the endgame here?" Dorea asked, a lifetime experience of facing down Dursley's tonal shifts alerted Harry that Dorea was now fully alert.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked as a feeler.

"This stuff" Dorea gestured around herself, "I have a very good idea of where it came from. It was my aunt who got abducted, Harry. Don't you think Uncle Sirius would have done a better job of alerting the rest of the family?"

Harry gently tapped around the table's surface to force himself not to panic or stiffen. This was one of the moments of truth he needed to overcome.

"What are you both talking about" Helena chimed in.

Harry let out a sigh and started to explain the same story he had spun to both Morrigan and Charlus. The expression of the two girls went from highly skeptical to abject horror and then finally settled on sympathetic. Dorea still remained skeptical, but her emotions won over her rationality as Helena went in for a hug with Dorea joining much later. In another life, Harry knew he would have much more guilty feelings for blatantly lying like this, but for now, he couldn't help but marvel at his masterstroke.

Harry briefly wondered if in his bid to influence Morrigan for his own ends, had he truly started into the abyss too deeply and for far too long?

He pushed the thought out of his mind, he had to focus on the task ahead.

"We have everything we need right here in Hogwarts. If I took this to anyone outside, they would never believe the threat of Technocracy or Muggle cults. Even if we got someone to take this seriously, we will never be able to afford their services. I would rather not get our families involved in all of this, no disrespect of course." Harry had said with a knowing look to Dorea. "Worst of all, there is a war coming to our isles. Grindelwald will never be content with losing Stalingrad. He will strike back hard once he rallies his forces. With the way things are, lots of people will die."

People I will need to fight greater wars.

"If we can harness even 1% of the defensive measures of these things with our own magical measures, we can save the lives of a lot of soldiers. Just imagine for a moment…" Harry trailed off dramatically and looked at each of them. Their eyes glued to his face, mesmerized by his vivid world-building.

"Families reunited with their sons and daughters; torn homes being built in a jiffy. No societal collapse due to the great bloodshed of the war. An era of peace and superiority." Harry said.

"And if that doesn't interest you – this will buy us our independence beyond our wildest dreams. If we can get this working, the ministry and noble families will pay their weight in gold to protect their people. We will be rich enough to do whatever we want. No longer will the two of you be beholden to your patriarchs to marry of their choice. Choose a carrier of their choice – you can do whatever you want, whenever you want it." Harry said.

He glanced towards Helena who looked almost sold on the idea, "Think of it, Helena, you will be able to pursue astronomy to your wildest dreams. Dorea, you will not be limited by the ever-present threat of being disowned by House Black if any madman ever inherits the position. These are just the basics that I can foresee. I am confident the two of you can see much more when the time comes."

The two remained silent for a while.

"Well, when you put it that way… It makes a lot of rational sense." Helena trailed off.

"I'll do it," Dorea said with a lot more confidence. "Anything that gets me on my own two feet right now is a welcome distraction."

"It is settled then." Helena jumped up from her spot and dangerously wobbled as she held her bottle up in a toast. "To- to -to … uh…. What do we call this?"

"Good question. Any good venture requires an appropriate title. Such beginnings are reflected in magic itself, so it must be special." Dorea said.

"How about Harry Inc," Harry suggested, and Dorea snorted.

"Heyyy!" Helena protested, "We are in this just as much as you."

"I came up with it!" Harry said.

"No, you didn't."

"Yes, I did."

"Nuh uh"

"All right enough!" Dorea interrupted the two. The trio went silent and thought about what they should come up with.

"MystiTech Ventures." Harry suggested and the rest nodded in affirmative.

The trio then spent the rest of the huddle gossiping and catching up on each other's summer shenanigans. None of them ever noticed a garden snake quickly slipping away from its tree perch and slithering away into the many deep roots of the forest. A pensive Morrigan stood staring at the night sky above as the snake slithered up her robes and wrapped around her hand. It gently bit her and Morrigan responded by smiling madly. Things were taking a very interesting turn.

Morrigan Gaunt.

"Let's face it, she has found an enabler in Petrov," Adam remarked as he walked with Cassie along the Herbology fields. "The man somehow enables her worst impulses without any regard for long-term consequences."

"He is problematic," she remarked.

"Problematic. That's putting it lightly dear. He is fucking replacing us!" Adam grumbled. "Our parents were wrong about taking things slowly with Morrigan. It should have been us exchanging tomes and money in exchange for favors from her. Not some pissant from Russia with no regard to British way of doing things."

"Yes, let's clearly empower someone without maneuvering ourselves in a better position. What could possibly go wrong." Cassie said.

Adam was about to fire a rebuttal before a cheerful "Hi Guys!" interrupted them. For a moment Cassie's heartbeat quickened before Adam gently squeezed her hand in a reassuring manner. Without too great a lag, Cassie smiled and turned to greet the newcomer.

"Morrigan! So nice to see you so up and early!" Cassie said.

"Morrigan." Adam simply greeted.

"Oh well, I decided the day was too lovely to spend lying in bed," Morrigan said and stretched like a cat. "Why don't you join me for a walk? That way you lot can tell me what you have been gossiping about."

"Just homework," Adam said.

"Oh really?" Morrigan pouted. "From my vantage point, it looked like an awfully heated discussion."

"Just Cassie trying to get into my transfiguration notes again," Adam said to which Cassie threw a mighty scowl his way. Morrigan merely snorted, "Oh well. Follow me, children. I, at least, have loads to share with you."

Morrigan didn't wait for a reply as she simply turned about and marched. Cassiopeia Black & Adam Lestrange exchanged bewildered looks between themselves as they slowly walked behind Morrigan. Whereas on ordinary days she would thunder ahead, shoving people aside, and march relentlessly till she found her quarry – now she walked with a serene pace. Cassie had asked Braved to ask her if she was ok, to which Morrigan had simply replied, "Why worry about haste? I have all the time in the world."

Both Cassie and Adam deeply suspected that something had changed over the holiday. Morrigan didn't reply to any of their letters, nor did she make any of her usual overbearing demands. Since the last year Morrigan has begun to spend an increasing amount of time with the foreign transfer student. Both Cassie and Adam had grown up in households with a very liberal view of magic. A liberal view of magic that was complemented by liberal practice away from the prying hands of the ministry. As such, their abilities to gauge if something was off was a bit more fine-tuned than the rest of their contemporaries. Judging by the queer energy radiating off Morrigan, magical and mundane, Cassie knew Morrigan had undertaken something involving significant magic. Dark magic to be precise. Frankly speaking, Morrigan's girly joy was becoming creepy.

"Morrigan" Adam said.

"Yes, Adam?" Morrigan replied.

"This is the girl's bathroom."

"Astute observation, Adam. Were you getting to a point here or are you merely showing off your astute powers of observation?" Morrigan said.

"Not sure I would like to be in trouble just when the year starts by being where I am not supposed to be," Adam said.

"It stinks in here and isn't this where Myrtle di-" Cassie continued

OPEN! At Morrigan's command, the basins grumbled and moved apart to reveal a slide down into an abyssal hole below.

"What" Adam said but was too shocked to complete his sentence.

"You're a parselmouth," Cassie commented with a beginning of a panic attack upon her. "Oh dear Merlin…. Oh, dear Merlin."

Morrigan impishly grinned at their panicked states and with a flick of her wands both students were flung down the hole. Morrigan transfigured herself into a dark mist and followed suit. The two tumbled out of the sliding tunnel covered in grime and looking lost for forwards. Adam helped Cassie up and lit his wand to see the Morrigan already waiting for them below.

The duo, covered in grime, found themselves in darkness. Adam and Cassie quickly pointed down their wands with Lumos, revealing a disturbing sight – the floor beneath them was composed of hundreds of bones, some clearly human.

"Human bones," Adam muttered fearfully, eyes wide. Cassie nodded grimly, her panic escalating. The two stumbled out of the tunnel, disoriented and dirty. Adam helped Cassie up, and together, they gazed at Morrigan, already waiting below.

"No time to waste my dears." Morrigan chimed in and turned about. "Follow me!"

Morrigan, with an air of authority, ordered them to follow. As she spoke a series of incantations, a grand gate swung open, revealing a vast, cold chamber with a polished floor. Gargoyles adorned the rooftop, and an eerie green light bathed the surroundings.

"Welcome to the Chamber of Secrets," Morrigan declared, conjuring fine green velvety grand chairs with a wave of her wand.

The duo looked around at their surroundings like lost children. Both Adam and Cassie are stunned at the sudden revelation of the existence of the Chamber of Secrets. Obviously, such things were taught to all pureblood families but even the most fanatic family members deemed the existence of such a chamber to be mere myth.

But to have such a holy artifact of their lives in front of them without any warning was morbid. The fact that it was under Morrigan's command had them drastically reevaluate their choices considering their prior attempts to influence her. Cassie and Adam are visually slumped. This put an incredible damper on their plan to manipulate Morrigan for their own ends. The two took their respective chairs marked by the embroidery of their house crests.

Cassie's fear was palpable as she stuttered towards Morrigan, "W-what... what happens now?"

Morrigan, still wearing a cheerfully wicked smile, responded, "Oh, whatever do you mean, dear Cassie? I just thought I'd share a bit of magic with my friends."

Adam, trying to mask his own apprehension, asked, "Have you discovered anything worthwhile in here?"

Morrigan's eyes sparkled with mystery as she replied, "Many secrets, my dear Adam, previously hidden from even the keenest eyes, are now revealed before me."

Adam furrowed his brow, "What do you mean?"

Before Morrigan could answer, a deep rumbling echoed from the darkness behind her. Ignoring their inquiries, she simply advised, "Close your eyes if you wish to leave this chamber alive."

Adam spluttered in response, "What does that mean?"

But Cassie's eyes widened with realization. Remembering old family lore, she screamed, "Basilisk!" and instinctively placed her hands in front of her eyes.

Adam, catching on, hastily closed his own eyes. Fear gripped them both as they felt the massive, slithering form behind them. A damp stench filled the air, and a growing sense of dread enveloped the pair.

The colossal serpent moved above them, its hisses reverberating malevolently through the chamber. The darkness intensified, and the two friends braced themselves for the unknown horrors that awaited them in the depths of the Chamber of Secrets.

"It would appear that neither the Blacks nor the Lestrange have been wholly dedicated in their oaths of fealty to Salazar's children." Morrigan chirped. "The beast looks angry. Oh, dear oh dear. Children. What did you do?"

"Morrigan we are your friends! We always have been!" Adam hysterically yelled out.

"Damned straight!" Cassie yelled.

"Lies" Morrigan snapped. The merry demeanor that she had been carrying since the afternoon immediately evaporated.

There's the old girl. Adam thought.

"Morrigan – what?!" Cassie began but was interrupted when her mouth snapped shut on her own accord and her body stiffened.

"Lie to me again, girl, and you will learn the dire consequences firsthand," Morrigan said. A dripping sound sounded off and the marble beneath her sizzled. "It looks like the serpent is hungry. He is practically drooling all over you, Cassie."

"Please Morrigan, please." Adam whimpered. "Just tell us what we did and how can we make it up to you."

"I had a chat with our dearly departed senior, Abraxas Malfoy. He had fascinating things to reveal about your lot. Of course, I had to loosen a few nuts from him." Morrigan said. "But when all was said and done, the revelation was good for Abraxas. It made him as light as a feather."

She waves her wand, and the chairs vanish from beneath the duo. They stumbled around in the dark on the cold floor, trying to reach for their wands but couldn't find anything. Morrigan swished her wand again and both were forced into a kneeling position with their wrists bared to her.

"This is your first and last chance to redeem yourself. Confess and you will be spared and brought into my fold." Morrigan said.

Adam was the first to break. With a weepy face he told Morrigan about how Abraxas Malfoy had recognized her talents when during his prefect patrols, he saw Morrigan perfectly disguise herself and launch a skin rash jinx at her third-year bully. The guy scratched his skin raw in agony and had to be stunned by his mates. Since then, Abraxas, being tasked by their Lestrange and Black parents to mentor young Cassie and Adam, had groomed them to befriend Morrigan. The idea was to see just how good Morrigan was at magic. If needed one of the male participants would befriend her and try to get her into a marriage contact. A brief silence followed when Adam paused to catch his breath. Cassie took over and spoke up. Many of Morrigan's initial belongings and gifts given to her were all designed to enamor her. Abraxas had suspected Morrigan to be a parselmouth but never could find definitive proof.

"What was the end goal here?" Morrigan demanded.

"I swear we don't know!" Cassie cried out.

"On my mother's eyes, our parents never fully trusted us to whatever schemes they were playing at," Adam said.

"And with mama missing since summer, the scheme is dead," Cassie said.

"It's true. Irma Black was the one who came up with it in the first place." Adam said.

Morrigan's eyes narrowed in fury at such a blatant display of treachery, and she spat out several curses in parseltongue. They two would join her fold but first, they needed to appropriately repent of their sins against her.

She smiled sadistically and leveled her wand at the duo, "Crucio!"

Neither Cassie nor Adam knew for how long they writhed or cried, their throats hoarse, but when they woke up from their repentance, their bodies were miraculously healed of their ordeal. The only noticeable change was a strange symbol etched in the darkest black on their wrists.

It was a skull with stars surrounding it and a skull protruding from its mouth like a tongue.

Author's notes: Hi folks thank you for reading the new chapter. I really really apologize for not posting in such a long while. Stuff is just straight bad rn. Will try to post the next chapter on time where we further explore the Dumbledores.