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Chapter 20
Harry was expecting the rest of the time before the half term break to be fairly uneventful. He was planning on focusing on his homework, his inventions, and of course Quidditch practice. With the parents being invited to the school this half term for a parent teacher conference they were invited to watch the Quidditch match as well. Harry didn't know if it was on purpose or if it had just worked out that way but Gryffindor would be playing Hufflepuff. That left Ravenclaw with Slytherin.
These were the least exciting games Hogwarts played. Which didn't sound like a good thing until Hermione pointed out that at least this way her parents wouldn't have to see the Slytherin beaters single out Harry. So they were the games the parents were least likely to get worked up over.
However Harry's expected quiet time was killed before it started with the arrival of the morning post. Harry was just munching away at some scrambled eggs on toast, thinking about something nice he and Hermione could do for Fleur, as despite being in the country and getting to have Harry step himself and Hermione over every evening for a good night kiss she was still the one separated from them. The owls came and delivered their post, there was nothing for Harry and Hermione only received their copy of the daily prophet.
Harry was contemplating the effectiveness of two dozen red roses when he noticed a huge upturn in the background noise of the hall. He looked over at Hermione and she was transfixed by what she was reading in the paper. Harry leaned in to read the headline
MALFOY MANOR UP IN FLAMES
THE POTTER ALLIANCE STRIKES
There was also a large wizarding photo of a large manor being attacked by what was obviously fiend fire. Harry's first thought was 'Oh that explains why everyone is so excited.' His second thought and the one he verbalised was "Wait what?"
How was he being blamed for the Malfoy manor burning down? He hadn't even left the castle. And what was this stuff about a Potter alliance? He wanted to snatch the paper from Hermione and read it himself, Instead, he asked her what was going on.
"One sec Harry I'm still reading it." It took Hermione a few minutes to finish with the front page and then open the next two. The story apparently took up the entire first three pages. "Okay let's see, first the Malfoys home was completely destroyed last night a group of witches and wizards calling themselves the Potter alliance brought down the wards and cast multiple fiend fire spells before disapparating away." Hermione explained. "According to the paper, Madam Longbottom organised the whole thing. She gathered up the individuals who signed on when you declared the feud and paid someone to teach them combat magic." Hermione explained.
"And because of the feud laws, it was all completely legal." Harry realised.
"More not illegal really, or outside the jurisdiction of law enforcement. Anyway, they are calling themselves the Potter alliance in honour of you kick-starting the feud but are stressing that you had no role or knowledge of the operation."
"Well, that's good. Not everyone will believe it, mind you." Harry pointed out.
"Let's see, what exactly did it say again, ah here it is. 'Madam Longbottom said she is a little disappointed in the lack of casualties of any of the Malfoys or the death eaters they associate with however given that there are also zero casualties in the Potter alliance and the Malfoy family have lost north of ten million galleons in assets we consider the operation a success.'"
"Fuck the goblins won't be happy about this. I bet that the Malfoys had plenty of goblin-made artefacts in their home." worried Harry quietly.
"I doubt it." Hermione said, quiet enough that no one would overhear their conversation. "Harry, stuff like that is valuable enough you don't leave it lying around your house. Either they would be in Gringotts or a vault on the property that probably survived the attack. Also the goblins probably understood that things like this could happen. Your only obligation is the items they own at the time of surrender. Anything that happens before that is irrelevant. There was always the possibility that some of them would sell their goblin-made artefacts to fund their war efforts."
Harry was just calming down when there was an enraged shout from across the hall. "Longbottom! You will pay for this." And with that Draco Malfoy came storming across the great hall making a beeline for Neville. Harry had a split second to decide what he was going to do. On one hand, if Draco actually attacked Neville, a member of a House he was officially feuding with on the neutral ground that was Hogwarts then he was done. Immediate expulsion, you're going directly out of the school, do not visit your common room, do not collect 200 House points. The problem was there was no predicting just how Malfoy would attack Neville or how much of an injury he would receive. Hell, Malfoy might have been angry enough to actually kill Neville.
So Harry acted. He jumped to his feet and quickly stood himself between Malfoy and a very shocked-looking Neville. "Hey Malfoy you know you're still bound to neutral ground right?"
"Get out of my way Potter!" Malfoy's wand flicked out and slashed at Harry. Fortunately for Harry he was both expecting this and was wearing the prototype for his shield vambrace. All it took from Harry was a little pulse of power and Malfoys spell hit a large metal disc instead of Harry. The spell was too much for the shield and it was pushed to the side.
Neville and a bunch of other Gryffindors were all on their feet now wands pointed at Malfoy. Harry could actually feel the air becoming charged with magical energy as so many witches and wizards around him prepared for violence.
"Mr Malfoy return to your seat at once. You are perilously close to finding yourself expelled." The shout came from Professor Vector.
Harry snorted in disbelief. Here Malfoy was breaking the laws of neutral ground and he was still only being given a warning. Okay technically what Malfoy had done was try to shove Harry out of the way with magic. Not really an attack as meant in law regarding neutral ground. Still here he was getting off with just a warning. It should at least have cost him a load of points or a detention.
Malfoy strode out of the hall. Harry watched him leave and a number of Slytherins over at their table got up and followed him. Harry noticed that the carrow twins remained in their seats and had a worried look on their faces. If Harry guessed right their plan A had just gone up in smoke.
Neville turned to Harry and as he tucked his wand back into his pocket he said. "Nice one Harry. You will have to teach me that conjured shield trick. Though perhaps you should have let him hit me. It would get him kicked out of the school."
Harry shook his head. "I thought about it but nah. Too much chance he would have done something that madam Pomfrey wouldn't be able to fix. You know, like death. As to the shield it's not a spell but a rune thing I'm working on. Trust me when it's done you will be one of the first people to get one."
Harry watched as Neville's skin grew pale. It was obvious that Neville hadn't considered that. Not surprising they were in Hogwarts, neutral ground. For Neville that made things like the feud more distant. Sure he was worried about his gran, about his home. Himself however was not something Neville was worried about all he had to do was stay in the castle during Hogsmeade weekends. He hadn't even considered that he would be able to push Malfoy enough to consider killing him. At least not in school where there would be consequences.
"So Nev, how come you never mentioned what your grandmother was planning?" Asked Harry.
"She never told me. I only got a letter this morning. I was halfway through reading it when Malfoy came storming over."
"Ah, fair enough. Just watch your back for the next few days. You know what Malfoy is like."
"Petty, vindictive, and totally incapable of dropping an issue." Neville agreed.
Harry nodded to Neville who went back to his letter and his breakfast. Harry went and collected the shield that was currently laying between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff table. A quick inspection showed that the shield was a little bent but nothing a quick spell or two couldn't fix. So Harry shrunk it down and pocketed it.
-ϟϟϟ-
Most of the morning Harry was only able to half focus on his lessons. With Draco currently upset Harry and his friends were all making sure that no one was going anywhere alone. The last thing Harry wanted was for an enraged Malfoy to curse someone in the back. There were two main thoughts distracting Harry. The first was should he write to madam Longbottom and if so what should he say. The second was his shield. If there was now a force that was actually attacking the death eaters should he fast track the development and send them some as well?
Hermione couldn't help but notice how distracted he was and she decided they all: she, Harry, and all their friends, needed to sit down and talk so she arranged for them all to meet up in the room or Requirement as soon as classes let out.
Most of them arrived at the same time as Harry, Hermione, Ron, Neville, Daphne and Tracey had Charms right before the end of day so they were together. Charms though was one of the few newt classes that was split as it was still an incredibly popular subject so Susan and Hannah were a little behind everyone else and Luna came dancing in on her own almost five minutes later.
Hermione had set the room so it was like a cross between a coffee house and a bord room. That is to say all the seats were incredibly comfy sofas and armchairs but they were all in a circle with a table in the middle.
"So this is about Malfoy?" Asked Susan. "We all saw the Prophet this morning."
Hermione nodded. "Yeah. We need a better solution than just trying not to go anywhere alone. Because without a system in place someone is going to be missed at some point and I would rather not leave it to luck that that person isn't found by Malfoy or one of his cronies. They will want to make an example of someone after what just happened."
"We could disappear the slimy git." Suggested Ron. "Some of you may have to follow the neutral ground rules but I and some of the others don't."
"Ron, that's just called kidnapping. All neutral ground means is that the laws of the feud don't apply at Hogwarts. Even the rule that you get expelled for breaking the feud is Hogwarts policy not a law. So if you make Malfoy disappear then the Aurors will be here investigating a kidnapping and if you're caught you go to Azkaban." Susan said.
"Yeah but what if I only lure him from the school then the rest of you capture him? Then all I will have done is lure him off of the neutral ground. Then you can legitimately capture him and ship him off to that prison of yours. Then if anyone asks you can legitimately say under a vow of truth that you caught him outside of the school. And you had nothing to do with getting him there." Ron countered.
That had some of them thinking. "Would that be legal?" Harry asked, looking at Hermione. He may have read the laws in preparation for the feud, but she was the one with the better memory.
She let out a sigh. "No it wouldn't be. If it was entirely separate and none of us knew nothing about it then it would be fine. However because we know about it we would all be considered one group and if any part of the plan starts on neutral ground, including baiting Malfoy out of school, then we would all be facing a kidnapping charge. Worse, a kidnapping of the last hair of an established house." Hermione explained.
"Yeah, that's the sort of case Aurors take seriously. Even if most of them agree with you there are enough who don't and solving the kidnapping of that sort is the sort of thing that gets you a fast promotion." Susan explained.
"So that's a no on leading the blond ponce out of the castle." Said Ron.
"Unfortunately, yeah. It's different if we catch him leaving on his own though." Said Susan.
"But what are we going to do about Malfoy in the meantime he is bound to try something. There is no way he won't be targeting Neville." Hannah asked.
"I was thinking about that that." Said Harry. "And the best I can come up with is fast tracking this." And he pulled up his left sleeve and showed everyone the shield vambrace he was wearing. "This is something I am still developing but I was able to use it today to block Dracos' spell. The advantage this has over the shield spell is that it's faster to use, leaves your wand free and it should work on the Unforgivable curses. The disadvantages are you can't see though it and the shields are actual physical shields you need to make beforehand. They aren't conjured. So the expanded space to hold them can only hold so many. I propose you all help me make enough for everyone. That way when we combine that with going nowhere alone we have a solid way to block anything Malfoy and the others may try."
"Not all of us took runes, mate. I doubt I could help with that." Ron said.
"Not all of it is rune work. A lot of it is Charms and Transfiguration work, there is even some sewing. All the leather needs to be cut to size to fit the person who is wearing it, I have a pile of scrap metal that needs Transfiguring into shields and rings. Sure a lot of that stuff then needs to have runes etched into it but there are plenty of jobs for everyone." Harry told them all.
Tracy nodded with everyone else and said. "That seems workable, but two questions: how long do you think this will take and how are we going to make sure nobody goes anywhere alone? Susan and Hannah are in Hufflepuff and they don't have every class together and Luna is not only our only Ravenclaw but she is also a year younger than us so she doesn't share classes with any of us.
"I will see what I can do about that." Said Hermione. "If everyone gives me a copy of their timetable then I will map everything out for example I'm sure Ron and Susan are both taking the same classes." They nodded they both wanted to join the Aurors after school and had focused on those subjects. Though they were still split for a couple of classes like Charms that everyone took and they needed more than one class. "We can always have classes ending in a similar area meet, then join up as a group and split into groups going to similar parts of the castle. And I'm sure if we explain it to Headmistress McGonagall she would much rather we be late to a few classes a week than having a fight break out in the school corridors. Leave it to me to sort out. Oh and if anyone can get me the timetables of the junior deatheaters I will try to factor that in as well."
"What about a warning system if one of them skips a class?" Asked Luna. "Isn't one of you in every class all the death eaters kids are in?"
"Not all of them, some are in different years but the main ones like Malfoy and Nott yeah. Maybe we could set up something. If we can set up a signal I could check my father's map and see if they are setting up an ambush." Harry mused out loud. Then he had to explain to a few of them about the Marauders map, what it could do and who made it.
"So we need to send you a signal somehow, you will check the map and see if someone is setting up an ambush and then signal back to us if there is trouble? But how are we going to signal each other?" Asked Hannah.
What about the signal bracelets you made for us for the tournament." Hermione asked. "Could you do something like that? But for all of us?"
Harry thought about it for a moment. "Yeah we can do something like that, a bracelet with two coins in it. It would be a very simple system though. One to ask if there is a problem and one to say if there is a problem. It wouldn't let me say who is in danger."
"Couldn't you use Dobby for that?" Suggested Daphne. "When we are told there is a problem we will stay in our classroom or with our professors until Harry sends Dobby with more information probably at the end of class. I'm sure he would do it if you asked."
"Why would you ask an elf? Don't you just order them?" Asked Ron.
For the next ten minutes the conversation became one on elf rights and if Harry was crazy to actually pay his elf. That conversation wasn't going anywhere though and it wasn't why they were there so Harry pulled them back on topic. "So is it agreed that we are going to do this?" He asked and when everyone agreed he set out their plan. "Okay it's too late in the day to start a project now so I reckon we are best staying here until dinner and getting some homework done. I will write up some rune arrays and some detailed plans on what we need to build tonight so they will be ready tomorrow. Hermione, can you work out the buddy system for tomorrow as well. Luna, Ron, Neville, Hermione and I will walk you back to your common room after dinner and we will collect you and take you down to breakfast together in the mornings from now on. Does anyone need to get anything from their common rooms now?"
Nobody needed anything that someone didn't already have or the room couldn't provide so they all got to work. By the time dinner came Hermione had the first day of solutions ready and Harry had all the rune arrays written down and a detailed sketch of the parts he needed for the shield vambraces. He was going to ask Dobby to get everything he needed after dinner.
A lot of it Harry already had laying around in a trunk at the house from when he was working on his one as he plans for multiple versions before he had a final version and because he was planning to use a lot of the scrap he had collected to make himself a magical air compressor. Now he had finalised the design. Oh well, his drying doorways could wait. Keeping his friends alive was far more important.
The stuff he didn't have was easily picked up for cheap. No witch or wizard shopkeeper would bat an eye at a house elf being sent to buy a bolt of cloth or a few leather hides.
-ϟϟϟ-
"Harry I was thinking." Hermione said over the mirrors as they each, Harry, Hermione, and Fleur lay in bed. "How are the parents arriving for the parent-teacher meeting over the half-term break?"
Harry was already half asleep but answered anyway. "I assume they will arrive by portkey just outside the front gate like they did for the Triwizard Tournament. why?"
"That's what I thought too. Doesn't that mean we will have a time and location where we know a number of our targets will be? Shouldn't we try to grab a few?"
"That may not be a bad idea." Fleur said. "It would be a good opportunity to grab a high-value target and actually get the goblins something for their investment."
"It's worth thinking about at least." Harry agreed. "Let's see if we can find out how they are arriving. If they come by floo then it would all be for nothing. Also Fleur have you heard anything from Tonks today? I was wondering how the minister is reacting to Madam Longbottom taking it upon herself to target the Malfoys."
"I spoke to her briefly. Bones is over the moon. Not just because it was the Malfoys who were targeted but because there aren't any children involved in the fighting this time. Also Madam Longbottom has apparently been talking to Minister Bones. She chose the Malfoys because she is sure they were harbouring Bellatrix Lestrange at that manor. Apparently there is a family grudge there?"
"That makes sense. Bellatrix tortured her son and his wife into insanity at the end of the first Blood War. Understandably Madam Longbottom holds a grudge." Hermione explained.
Fleur winced at the information. "On a different topic my parents have invited us to France this Christmas." Fleur got a conflicted look on her face. "Apparently they have redone my room into a guest room so we would stay at Harry's Chateau while Hermione, your parents would have the guest room." it was obvious that Fleur felt conflicted about the loss of her space in the home she grew up in.
Harry and Hermione offered what little comfort they could. Unfortunately this was mostly on Hermione. Harry hadn't ever felt like a space in the Dursleys home was his. And while he was given a space both in the Grangers home and in Sirius home he had never been at either place long enough to form a truly deep connection to it. Sure the Grangers felt like home, but that was the people not the room.
"I know it must be hard Fleur but I bet that will still be your space if you need it. It may not be the same furniture but it's still your family." Hermione said.
"I know. I'm being ridiculous, getting possessive over a room there is a good chance I will never use again but it feels weird." Fleur admitted. "So are we going to France this Christmas? She asked.
"Sounds like a plan to me." Said Harry "We did the British Christmas last year so this year we do the French. Though I don't think we can be there for long. If the death eaters hear we are out of the country then they are sure to destroy the house when it's unattended. And there are few things we need to do over the holiday remember." Harry added enough emphasis on the last word to say more than he actually said reminding the two about discussions they had had previously. They both agreed and after chatting some more they eventually fell asleep.
-ϟϟϟ-
Over the next few days they met in the Room of Requirement after classes. Despite how serious the situation they were dealing with it was also surprisingly fun. They were working sure, but they were also all friends and the jobs everyone had were simple enough that they didn't require too much concentration.
"You know Harry these are a lot simpler than I thought they would be. It's mostly just runic versions of switching spells, space expansion, and hover Charms. We could have done this at the end of third year yet somehow no one has done this before." Daphne said as she worked on etching the hover charm runes into the back of a shield.
"Most people don't need something like this. A shield charm is simpler and works against things that they are likely to face. I mean think about the average witch or wizard. The worst they need to worry about is a few stinging hexes from a pissed off lover or family member. Maybe a few low level curses if they frequent places like Knockturn Alley. You only really need stuff like this if you're likely to be involved in a real fight. For that they mostly just teach you not to get hit. And Aurors don't tend to have rune O.W.L's or N.E.W.T's, combine that with the fact that most people aren't inventors. Whereas I do have to worry about people trying to kill me and I am a magical inventor. It's just the right conditions for it to be now." Harry explained his thoughts on the subject.
Everyone was also making little improvements to things Harry hadn't thought about. Ron was putting a rounded edge on the shields to make them more resistant to bending. Luna, who was working on measuring everyone's arms and cutting the leather for each vambrace took it upon herself to add a wand pocket and to back the leather with a few layers of excess cloth to make them more comfortable. Daphne added unbreaking runes and a rune set to return the used shields to the expanded pouch, to the shields. Something Harry hadn't thought of because he thought of the shields as disposable.
While everyone else worked on the vambraces Harry worked on the warning coins. They were also going to be incorporated into the vambrace so that they were easy to use and keep track of. The coins were just two inch rounds of the same steel they were using to make the shields. One of them was simple: if anyone fed a little power into their coin all of them would vibrate for a solid minute warning all of them that something was going on. The other worked similarly but instead of just a solid vibration the person sending the message sent a pattern that would repeat for a minute. They had three simple signals, all clear, danger and situation unclear.
Then Hermione had the idea of adding a protean charm to the coins. This meant that if someone transfigured the master coin then the same thing would happen to all the other linked coins. It wasn't much but it meant that once Harry checked the map he could send the initials of the people who were in trouble.
It took them two days to get everything done but they all felt a lot safer once they did. Sure there was grumbling about students being a little late to class when people made sure no one went to class alone, and there was some muttering about paranoia from some of the other students. However none of them were bothered by that. Just hoped that nothing was going to happen
-ϟϟϟ-
"You think this will work?" Draco asked the seventh-year Slytherin girl who had just handed him a book.
"Of course it will work. As long as you follow the instructions to the letter then you will be able to destroy Longbottom and Potter. Just remember if you get caught doing that in school then you will be in more trouble than your daddy can bail you out of but if you do it outside of the school then it's completely legal." She put some emphasis on the word caught but Draco didn't react to it. Still it was no skin off her nose if the fool failed. How this Malfoy had been sorted into Slytherin was a mystery for the ages as far as they were concerned. The boy charged in without thinking, like a Gryffindor, way too much for their liking. Still he would make a useful catspaw to assess Potter's defences and who knows, he might be successful.
A/N
As always comments and energy drinks fule my fics and one of those is free