CHAPTER 58: SURVIVING THE STORM

The Great Hall buzzed with murmurs, an undercurrent of speculation running through the air like an electric charge. The towering ceiling, a vivid replica of the stormy skies outside, added an eerie backdrop to the whispers. With each teacher who made their way to the staff table, the hushed conversations in the hall intensified, conspicuously absent of the distinct click of Professor Umbridge's pink heels.

Seamus leaned in, his voice barely above a whisper, "I heard the curse got her."

Dean chimed in, a note of conspiracy in his tone, "Maybe someone pushed her off the moving staircases, just like what happened to Sally-Anne Perks."

Hermione interjected with a sigh, her knowledge of the situation apparent, "Sally-Anne left because of Umbridge. The aurors were bound to come after her when she started using veritaserum on students." She glanced at Harry, concern etching her features, "Being administered too much of that stuff can have dire consequences. I read about it last night..."

Katie, her hand gently clasping Harry's wrist, inquired softly, "How much did she make you drink?"

Harry reassured her, patting her hand lightly, "Just three drops. I'm alright."

Katie's lips curved into a worried expression, "I'm keeping an eye on you."

Harry teased, a playful glint in his eyes, "You just want an excuse to ogle me. I'm onto you."

Katie's reaction was swift, a sly grin playing on her lips, "Oh, do I?" She reached for a jug and accidentally tipped her goblet, which clattered against the table, drawing a few amused glances.

Harry continued, his grin unwavering, "Definitely. All those jokes... The teasing… You're an incorrigible flirt."

Katie laughed, readjusting her goblet, "Congratulations, Harry. You've seen right through me."

Lavender, not missing a beat, contributed to the light-hearted chatter, tucking her lip gloss into her cleavage with a cheeky giggle, relishing in Ron's wandering eyes, "I think Professor Umbridge left her office to meet up in the greenhouses with Filch for a midnight tryst, only to be snatched and consumed by the Venomous Tentacula."

Katie leaned in closer to Harry's ear, her words a suggestive whisper, "Some girls are into that sort of thing. All those snaky green vines everywhere. Could be a lot of fun..."

Harry, trying to grasp the fascination, inquired skeptically, "Doesn't it digest things while they're still alive? Can't imagine that's fun."

Katie shrugged nonchalantly, "No idea. I hate herbology."

As the speculative conversations continued to fill the hall, Professor McGonagall rose to her feet, a pillar of authority and assurance, "As you are all aware, Professor Umbridge is no longer at the school. She is unlikely to be returning, so I will be stepping in as headmistress until the summer." Her voice resonated with an air of determination, offering a glimmer of hope to the students who had endured so much under Umbridge's oppressive regime.

A triumphant roar erupted from all four house tables, wands shooting sparks into the air, creating a dazzling display that illuminated the Great Hall. Amid the jubilation, Katie's overenthusiastic gesture sent her goblet careening, and it splashed water over Harry's breakfast, prompting a playful protest.

"What deep-seated issue do you have with goblets?" Harry quipped, his tone teasing.

Katie, grinning mischievously, responded, "None." She swiftly stole the one remaining slice of bacon, the only item on her plate that had escaped her previous watery assault. "I'm all about daddy issues."

Harry chuckled, "Is that why you're such a tomboy? Trying to be the son he never got?"

Katie considered it for a moment, her head tilting slightly. "You know, that might actually be true. He did want a boy to begin with."

Harry's expression turned apologetic, "Sorry."

Katie offered a reassuring smile, "What're best friends for, if not diagnosing psychological issues?" She extended the toast rack toward him, inviting him to indulge.

Harry declined with a shake of his head, "I don't think I have any."

Katie's eyes lingered on him for a moment before she plucked a slice of toast. "Harry, my love, you have loads."

"My love?" Harry arched an eyebrow with a hint of amusement, "Shall I call you darling, Katie dearest?"

Katie blushed ever so slightly and dropped her voice to a whisper, "Not if Frenchie won't set you on fire for it." She took a generous bite of her toast and chewed thoughtfully, "And who's going to tell her, me? Nope. My lips are sealed. I'm your best friend, not hers."

Harry grinned in response, "Fair enough." He playfully poked her on the cheek. "You have butter on your nose, Katie darling."

Meanwhile, Ron leaned in, curiosity etched across his features, "So, what do you think happened, Harry?"

Harry considered the question for a moment, then answered thoughtfully, "Hermione's usually right. The use of veritaserum on children would've probably earned her a long and unpleasant holiday in Azkaban once Magical Law Enforcement heard about it."

Ron, his grip on his fork visibly tightening, muttered, "It's no less than she deserves. If scum like her weren't corrupting the Ministry..."

Harry's thoughts wandered to Dumbledore and the mysteries surrounding his decisions. With a heavy sigh, he thought, 'And if Dumbledore hadn't sent me into danger for no reason. He doesn't want or need my pity; it changes nothing.'

Katie, leaning in with a playful gleam in her eyes, asked, "What are you up to today? Want to make use of your sudden freedom and come to Hogsmeade with me? I need someone to carry stuff for me since Alicia and Angelina are ditching me for their boyfriends."

Harry chuckled, "So I'm your stand-in?"

Katie laughed, her grin growing wider, "No, I'm going to dust off my reputation as a dark wizard and do some creepy ritual magic."

Katie's eyes lit up with curiosity, "Can I come?"

Harry tapped his fingers on the table, deep in thought. "It's a date... No, I think I might nip off elsewhere today."

She pouted playfully, "I just can't win, can I?"

Harry reassured her, "Next time."

As Katie shoved the last of her toast into her mouth and swung her legs over the bench, heading off to her own plans, Harry couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt. He promised himself, "I'll make it up to her by going next weekend."

With a clear destination in mind, Harry made his way towards the chamber in the depths of Hogwarts.

Inside, Myrtle drifted in aimless circles through the cubicles, her ghostly presence reflecting her restless nature. Her hands were pressed to her temples, and she whispered to herself, "Don't keep a lady waiting."

Harry frowned for a moment, trying to understand Myrtle's cryptic words, then shook his head and continued his descent into the chamber. "Salazar, I'm back."

Salazar's voice, filled with intensity and a hint of impatience, reached Harry's ears, "How is the illustrious headmistress?"

Harry recalled the image of Professor Umbridge, her tear-streaked face peeking out through a cocoon of webbing as she had been hauled up into the trees, "She's a little tied up. Very tied up."

Salazar scowled in response, his disapproval evident, "Not dead? That woman ought to be dead. A spiteful, slimy creature like that will only stick a knife in your back if you show her mercy, and even if she never gets the chance to hurt you, she'll manage to hurt someone else."

"Acromantula keep their prey alive while they eat," Harry explained. "Aragog and his family will leave little more than bones and that lurid pink cardigan."

Salazar nodded in reluctant acceptance, "Good. Now there's no obstacle between you and the Department of Mysteries."

Harry affirmed his intentions, "I intend to complete the next ritual before going. I'll speak to Sirius, too."

Salazar, always one to offer caution, spoke solemnly, "Come to make another small sacrifice... Remember, Harry, to measure the price of victory before you commit to paying it."

Harry couldn't help but roll his eyes, "You recommended this ritual, you senile self-portrait." He levitated the ingredients for the ritual off the desk and grabbed the time-turner. "I can start to recover from the ritual before I even do it."

Salazar agreed, "Take me with you, too. I can't help you with the runes, but if you have questions..."

Harry gently lifted Salazar off the wall and carried him over the bridge into the main chamber, the jar of salamander's blood, the griffin's claw, and the shimmering unicorn tail hair floating alongside him.

"Three triangles," Salazar instructed, guiding Harry in the first steps of the ritual. "Draw them so each triangle has two points shared with the other triangles. That way your three triangles form another triangle between them at the center."

Harry carefully inscribed the intricate design on the chamber floor using vivid purple flames, the geometric pattern taking form under his precise guidance. With a hint of curiosity, he inquired, "Simpler than the other one?"

Salazar, his tone reflecting approval, responded, "It's actually a less complex ritual. You're improving the existing template of your body by increasing what's already there. It's like having a number, then tripling it. The other ritual required you to rewrite the template of your body to fix your eyes. You had to erase the number and make a new one."

Harry nodded, the explanation making sense to him. He contemplated the upcoming task and pondered, "Before I do this, can you teach me how to heal myself? I don't want to stagger down to see Madam Pomfrey again. She might start to worry if I keep turning up with the same injury on my forearm all the time."

Salazar acknowledged the request, albeit with a hint of regret, "Of course. I should've made sure you could do this a long time ago."

Harry, eager to learn, asked, "Where do I begin?"

Salazar began to share his knowledge, "The first thing you need to know is the better your grasp of human biology, the better your healing spell will be. You can intend to heal someone, but the more you know about what you actually want your magic to do, the better your focus will be and the more efficient the spell."

Harry instinctively reached for his wand, but Salazar advised against it, "No point practicing now, you're about to injure yourself anyway. The incantation you want to heal cuts or lacerations is vulnera sanentur, for bones, use ossio sanentur."

Harry, always eager for more information, asked, "What are they capable of healing?"

Salazar explained, "For you, probably all but the worst cuts or breaks. You have strong intent and focus, but I'd still suggest reading up on anatomy. These spells won't do much for burns, though, nor injuries that are resistant to magic."

Harry concurred, reflecting on the best course of action, "Best to avoid them all in the first place, really."

Salazar nodded in agreement, providing further insights, "Exactly. And I'd suggest improving your knowledge of human biology if you want to be able to competently heal anyone other than yourself. Your mind and magic have a subconscious, inherent image of how you should be, which can act as a focus, so strong intent is often enough. It's a lot less effective on others without that subliminal source of focus to direct your magic."

Harry, considering his immediate needs, concluded, "For now, I'm happy just being able to fix myself after this ritual."

Armed with this newfound knowledge, Harry prepared himself for the ritual, the geometric design on the chamber floor awaiting his activation.

Top of Form

Harry continued to etch the intricate runes for the ritual in three concentric circles around the central triangle, scrutinizing the pages of the ancient book to ensure accuracy. He couldn't help but notice discrepancies between the meanings of some runes in this book and the ones he had learned previously.

Harry pondered the numbers involved in the ritual, commenting, "There are a lot of threes for this ritual, but no sevens."

Salazar provided insight, "Three threes is a very powerful magical combination. It's one of the most powerful combinations feasible, exceeded only by seven threes, three sevens, and seven sevens in that order."

Harry absorbed this information, prompting further curiosity, "Feasible?"

Stepping back to examine his handiwork, Harry couldn't resist correcting a few less-than-perfectly-drawn glyphs. Salazar, his voice carrying a hint of amusement, explained, "Every time you increase the number combinations, the effects are also improved. Having three threes of three would be more powerful than three threes, but the difference quickly becomes negligible when compared to your objective."

Harry contemplated the notion, musing, "So if I were to draw another three triangles around this, then it would be more powerful."

Salazar's smile widened as he recounted a daring experience, "That would be six threes. You'd have to create a three-sided pyramid by drawing those runes in the air around you and levitating your blood. I tried it once. Took me a fair few days to recover, but I was never hungover again. The look on Godric's face the next morning after I woke up as usual was patronus-worthy."

Harry inquired further, his curiosity unquenched, "Is it worth doing for this ritual?"

Salazar offered consolation, "No. There aren't many rituals where the end result needs it. Maybe next time."

A faint sense of disappointment crossed Harry's mind, "Maybe."

Determined to proceed, Harry set his ingredients at the apex of every triangle, the components of the ritual neatly arranged. He placed the time-turner, a small, golden hourglass, on the floor well out of the way, then drew his wand.

Salazar, showing genuine concern, advised, "And you should speak to your godfather before doing this, just in case you collapse afterward."

Harry, growing somewhat impatient, inquired, "Any other suggestions, or would you like to wait and list them one at a time to annoy me as much as possible?"

Salazar, with a playful touch, teased, "Ungrateful child. If you weren't family, I'd have half a mind to let you carry out the ritual with a time-turner on you to see what happened."

Harry, with a hint of playful optimism, quipped, "I'd probably end up in my eleven-year-old body, forewarned and vastly more powerful than I was before. Voldemort wouldn't stand a chance."

Salazar snorted, urging him to focus, "Get on with it, you don't have all day."

Harry summoned the mirror with a grin, and it appeared in his hand. He angled it away from Salazar's portrait to speak privately with Sirius.

Sirius's gray eyes appeared on the mirror, revealing signs of exhaustion with dark bags hanging beneath them. He greeted Harry with a concerned expression, "Harry, you're okay. We were all worried."

Harry seemed genuinely surprised, "You were?"

Sirius replied with a nod, "Of course! With Dumbledore gone, nobody's been able to keep Dolores Umbridge in check."

Harry updated Sirius on the situation at Hogwarts, explaining, "She's gone. McGonagall didn't say why, but she openly used veritaserum on children, and even Fudge can't condone or ignore that."

Sirius, his anger evident, remarked with disdain, "What Fudge does or doesn't condone scarcely matters now. The Wizengamot is fighting over who will take his place according to our sources." His lips curled into a sneer. "If I ever find myself near that absolute ****, I will rip his lungs out with my bare teeth."

Harry blinked in surprise, "Are you okay?"

Sirius let out a sharp sigh, revealing a painful truth, "My cousin and her husband were killed a few days ago. It was covered up as an accident by the Ministry, but even without the Dark Mark, we all ****ing know what happened. Little Nym puts on a brave face, but she's falling apart."

Harry grimaced, expressing his growing disillusionment, "I don't know if Dumbledore doesn't realize that putting people in harm's way gets them killed, or if he just doesn't care."

Sirius, pushing past his grief, explained the plan for their trip to the Ministry, "I've planned our trip to the Ministry, Harry. You'll come to Grimmauld Place. If Umbridge is really gone, then you can just Floo here. I can apparate us to the entrance of the Ministry, and then we can go in with me under James's cloak. The door probably isn't easy to get past, but I'm sure we'll manage something."

Harry, concerned about the guard from the Order, asked, "What about the guard from the Order?"

Sirius clarified, "Old Mundungus has the evening shift. It stops him from getting into trouble in bars or down Knockturn Alley after dark. We wouldn't use him for important stuff normally, but we're low on members."

Harry concluded, "So any evening."

The plan for their visit to the Ministry was set, and Harry couldn't help but feel a sense of determination building within him as he faced the impending challenges that lay ahead.

Sirius and Harry discussed the plan for their visit to the Ministry, and Sirius made his eagerness clear, saying, "As long as it's after six. It's Emmeline Vance before then, and I can't bribe her. But the sooner, the better. Arthur, Ted, Andi... The longer Voldemort's left to slither about in hiding, the more of us will start disappearing again."

Harry, committed to the cause, inquired, "Sooner? So if I came tomorrow, you'd be ready?"

Sirius, his distaste for Grimmauld Place evident, confessed, "I would leave now if I could, Harry. I hate this place. I grew up here, and my childhood is the only period of my life comparable to my time in Azkaban. The only thing Grimmauld Place needs to equal that place is dementors, and my mother's portrait is most of the way to being one."

Harry empathized with Sirius's desire to escape, "You want to get out."

Sirius emphasized, "I need to get out. I can't stay here and let everyone else fight."

Harry expressed his understanding, "I know you do. You were right about Dumbledore. I feel more and more that he tells us only what he thinks we need to know when he thinks we need to know it. He's buggered off without telling us anything." Sirius's determination to act independently shone through, and he said, "I make my own decisions and my own mistakes, I have since the day I was burnt off my family tree, and I won't stop now."

Sirius approved of Harry's plan, saying, "The sooner, the better."

Harry considered their communication method, "Should I use the mirror to warn you?"

Sirius, with a hint of whimsy, preferred surprises, "I like surprises. Nobody will be here except Kreacher and my mother's portrait. Nobody listens to my mother; they didn't listen when she was alive, either, and I'll order Kreacher not to speak about your visit."

With their plan in motion, Harry and Sirius said their goodbyes. Harry placed the mirror outside the runes and was left with his thoughts.

The red sunset flashed in his mind, along with memories of Fleur. The thought of seeing her again filled him with determination and resolve. He couldn't afford to lose. He couldn't afford to fail.

With a firm resolve, he drew his wand and pressed it against his wrist, then drew a line of fire across his forearm. The searing pain was momentarily eclipsed by his determination, and he pulled a ribbon of blood from the wound, draping it across the intricate pattern of purple flames.

Now, Harry prepared for the most challenging part of the ritual, ready to make his perfect wish, no matter the pain it would entail.

As Harry activated the runes of the ritual, they flared bright and seared his vision. White sparks erupted from the triangles at his feet, and he felt tiny pinpricks of heat welling up in his toes and fingertips. The pain was so subtle that he wasn't entirely sure if it hurt. The sensation grew and spread, as if tiny needles were being driven into his fingers and toes, gradually penetrating deeper into his body.

He clenched his teeth and bit down on his lip, tasting the coppery tang of blood filling his mouth. The sensation of heat crept along his limbs, spreading needle-like pain throughout his body. It pierced his chest, thighs, face, and even his tongue. Then, a fluid warmth washed through him and receded like a retreating tide.

With the purple flames fading, Harry opened his eyes, and Salazar inquired, 'You didn't collapse. How do you feel?'

Harry watched the runes and considered the unusual sensation, 'Strange... Everything's moving normally, but a part of me knows I can go faster.'

Salazar found amusement in Harry's observation, 'Odd feeling, isn't it? Give it a test.'

Harry flicked his wand into his palm and cast a jinx with remarkable speed, striking an effigy opposite him almost instantly. Salazar was clearly impressed, and Harry sensed a hint of pride in his mentor's expression. Overwhelmed with emotion, he simply replied, 'Thanks.'

Salazar pointed out, 'You should heal your arm.'

As Harry inspected the wound, he noticed the edges of the cut drawing back together. He marveled at the healing process and told Salazar, 'I'm healing already.'

Salazar examined the runes and Harry's arm, his curiosity piqued, 'Really? I can't see anything wrong with the runes...'

Harry had an insight into the cause, 'I think I might know why. That rune at the tip of a triangle means "strength" in your book, but it means "resilience" in my new one, which I read first. I guess my intent was a bit off.'

Salazar nodded, reminding Harry to be cautious, 'Be more careful, Harry. Time will tell if this is a boon or not. Next time, you might not be so lucky.'

Harry, aware of the potential risks, assured Salazar, 'I will see you five hours ago to take a nice nap.' He picked up the time-turner and spun it, watching as events blurred and he closed his eyes, a small, tired smile on his face.

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