d

by b.banana123

not mine please don't read!

4. 22-30

Chapter 23: The Dream

Chapter Text

Harry was standing on a beach that he had only Seen in a vision. There was no crowd of magical people around this time. The beach was deserted.

The sky was darkened, but Harry knew it was midday. It was quiet.

He tried to find something, someone to tell him what was going on.

Further up the beach was a man feeding a bonfire. When Harry approached, he realized the man was levitating bodies onto the fire. This wasn't a funeral pyre though. It was a mass burning. There were so many bodies around that there was nothing for it, but to burn them all. Harry saw Sirius and Remus in the bodies. They looked like they had died violent deaths. Blood and gashes and burns.

Harry's stomach dropped out. How did this happen? When did this happen? The man looked at him. Harry hadn't realized he was speaking aloud. The man responded in French, "how do you not know?"

Then the man's eyes widened, and he dropped the body he was currently levitating. He turned and ran. Before Harry could call out to him, he heard it. THUD. THUD. THUD. He had heard that before. He turned to confirm what he thought, and to his horror, the giants were right beside him. They sounded so far away, but now they were here.

What was going on? The giant raised its club.

"Well, that didn't work out for you, did it? What did you learn?"

Harry was back in Max's office. He was still blinking. He was just on the beach. What the hell was happening? Clearly, he died again, but he didn't remember it. The giant raised its club to strike… oh, ok.

"Don't get close to giants."

Max blinked. Was that number six for blinks Harry had seen? He had the strangest thoughts when he was in Max's office.

Max shook his head. "Obviously. What important lesson did you learn that you didn't know beforehand?"

Harry stopped. He was in Max's office. He had all the time in the world. What did he learn?

Situational awareness? He theoretically knew that already. Constant Vigilance. Run when someone else runs? Sometimes that was right. He hadn't even known what was happening, other than the obvious giants and dead bodies. Maybe that was the lesson.

"Don't let yourself get so far into a situation that you don't even know what's happening anymore. Take it slower. When things get out of control, take a step back. Stop charging in blindly." Harry was proud of that bit of intuition.

Max just nodded. "Good enough."

Harry was on the beach again. What the fuck? Max didn't say goodbye. They didn't discuss where Harry would be reappearing. He was just here. He looked for the giants. As fast as they were on him last time, he should have been able to see them, but there were nowhere around.

The man with the bonfire/funeral pyre wasn't there either, and the sky wasn't dark in the middle of the day. He must have gone further back in time.

There still weren't any people around. Where were Sirius and Remus?

He headed into Toliara. He had no idea where the magicals were. His earlier vision said they were in this city, but it wasn't a small city. There wasn't anyone around, so he took a small risk and pulled out his wand.

Point Me magical district.

His wand pointed towards the airport. Wait. How did he know where the airport was? He had no idea, but he did know. In what could have been hours or maybe moments, Harry was standing in front of the Aéroport de Tuléar. As Harry reached for the doors, the living shadow entity with the red eyes that may or may not be the dark lord Nicolas Randria came screaming towards him from inside the airport. Their eyes connected, and his world exploded. Literally.

The airport blew up.

….

"Well, that didn't work out for you, did it? What did you learn?"

Harry was standing on the beach.

What was going on?

No giants. Sky clear. Right, that means getting to the airport faster. He's been there now, sort of. Portus. Portkeys, the cheat codes to the universe. Harry was instantly at the airport. He rushed inside and looked for a bathroom or an alcove to hide behind to draw his wand.

Point Me magical community.

There was a small administrative office on the south side of the building that no one went near. People seemed to unconsciously walk a wide berth around it. Even Harry's eyes wanted to slide past it. If he wasn't using his wand to point towards it, he would never have noticed.

Trying to open the door to the office ended with his hand just passing through the door. It was an illusion like the entrance to Platform 9 . Harry walked in, right into the human form of Nicolas Randria setting up muggle explosives around the entrance.

Their eyes met.

Harry raised his wand.

The dark lord burst out into shadow. The shadow charged at Harry, but Harry had stared down dark lords before.

Reducto. Incendio. Diffindo.

The shadow man ignored the blasting and severing curses. The fire seemed to at least make him flinch a little, but the shadows still charged Harry.

They slammed into him like a traffic accident. Harry was knocked back out of the invisible barrier. The muggles were noticing now. A man made of shadow was sometimes shaped like a man and sometimes expanded his own self to be the size of the room, like a bat extending its wings. The shadows stretched and reached for anything they could grasp. The shadows started picking up chairs and things off the walls and started throwing them at Harry.

Protego.

He threw the makeshift projectiles like an Olympic shot-putter, slamming into Harry's shield. Harry was no magical weakling. His shield held, but he couldn't just sit here behind a shield and expect to win. He dropped his shield and rolled to the left.

Incendio. Incendio. Sectumsempra.

The thing, Harry couldn't think of it as a man in this shadow form, screamed when Snape's special spell sliced through the shadows.

It started picking up people and throwing them.

Harry was starting to panic now. He couldn't protect the people, protect himself, and attack this thing. He didn't need to worry however, because the shadows surged forward into him.

….

"Well, that didn't work out for you, did it? What did you learn?"

Harry just sighed. "Letting a shadow man, thing, inside you is bad."

Max's eye twitched. "Clearly. Do you have any way to defend against that?"

"No."

Max slammed his fist on the table. "STOP. What are you doing? Are you giving up? You can't give up. We've been through this. Get your damn head in the game, Potter!"

Harry tried to back up into the chair. Max almost never yelled at him. They talked. The worked it out. They brainstormed. Right. Think. Breathe. That's a bit weird, isn't it? Thinking about breathing when you are dead? Focus.

Shadow Nic (He just came up with that right now. He liked it. He needed something to refer to that… form.) can ostensibly enter your body. Voldemort did that in fifth year. Not the same, but amounts to the same thing, right? Possession? Was he possessed? Is that what happened?

Think. Remember.

No. He didn't' get possessed. The shadows went in him through his nose or mouth or something, and then expanded. He had burst from the inside when Shadow Nic expanded his form inside Harry's body.

Gross.

How could he defend against that? Keep his mouth shut, sure. What about his nostrils? "Max."

"Yes, Harry."

"Did Shadow Nic get in through my mouth or nose?" Harry still wasn't looking at him. He was afraid Max would still be mad. He may be a mass murdering psychopath, but he was kind of Harry's friend. Also, you just don't want a mass murdering psychopath mad at you.

"Does it matter?"

"Doesn't it? I have to stop him from getting inside my body in that form."

"Yes indeed. If only there was a spell to prevent such a thing that you already knew." Max was sometimes condescending, but it helped Harry focus.

He thought for a while, but he was lost. He told Max.

"The shadow moves like a liquid. When have you been in a situation where you didn't want mass amounts of liquids to enter your nose and mouth?"

Harry knew what he meant immediately. The Tri-Wizard tournament. The Great Lake. "You think I should use gillyweed?"

Max started taking deep breaths. He was counting backwards from twenty. In French. Harry knew Max was frustrated when he slipped back into French.

Harry took that to mean he should start engaging his brain, and not blurting out the first thing on his mind. Obviously gillyweed wouldn't work. It didn't stop the water getting into his body. It only let him make use of it. He had no desire to breathe in shadows. Fleur and Cedric had used the Bubblehead charm… oh.

"The bubblehead charm. That will keep him out of my mouth and nose?"

Max stopped counting. "Yes, Harry, it should."

Harry didn't wake up on the beach this time. He was at the mouth of a cave.

"Well, this is new."

A roar sounded from inside the cave.

"Stupid fucking Potter. Shut your damn mouth, Harry." As soon as he finished scolding himself, he investigated the cave and saw a 25-foot-tall giant charging towards him swinging its club.

….

"Already?!" Max took a deep breath. "Well, what did you learn?"

While Harry Dreamed, Albus Dumbledore sat in the Great Hall at Hogwarts. The Daily Prophet had another headline about Harry Potter:

Boy-Who-Lived, Triple Master!

It was a sensationalist headline to be sure. Harry wasn't a Triple Master. Not yet. He was a candidate. An apprentice. Albus shook his head. Even further than what he wanted for the boy. He told Sirius that Harry needed a childhood, but did he listen? Of course not.

Everyone always thinks they know better than those that have the experience. It was understandable in someone Harry's age. Most teenagers thought they knew better than anyone. Sirius though, should be wise enough to listen to others.

Harry should be at Hogwarts, making friends, learning about Boggarts and Confusing Concoctions. He could be playing Quidditch. He wished he had better contact information for Sirius and Remus. Remus is even one of the boy's Masters for Defense! He thought Remus would listen to him. He might have if he had been able to talk to him alone for a bit.

Mistakes. In retrospect, using legilimency on the boy was a mistake. How was he to know? Sure, it was illegal, but it was harmless. He needed to know what was going on with Harry Potter. Was he corrupted by the dark magic in his scar? The need to know outweighed the legal and moral implications. Of course, in the end, it only drove them further and farther away.

He needed to get in contact with them. There were rumors. Tom was on the move. Harry had a destiny, and Albus intended to see it through. He would not allow Tom Riddle to destroy Britain. He just needed to get the little makeshift family to see reason.

Minerva McGonagall, as always, was next to him reading the same article. "I'm assuming you are still not impressed with Mr. Potter's educational tract. I can see your frown through the beard."

Albus had to chuckle. Minerva's sense of humor was dry and rare, like a good wine, but it was there when he needed pulled out of his own head. "You are correct as usual Minerva. I thought after completing his NEWTs young Mr. Potter might take some time to relax and enjoy life. This is clearly the opposite."

"Yes well, what do you know of these Masters? Obviously, I know Remus, but I'm not familiar with the other two. Have you heard of them?"

Albus nodded, "I know Professor Mendoza. I do not know this Potions Mistress Arakaki. I would assume she was trained in Castelobruxo because of the location, but she may be from Mahoutokoro if her name is anything to go by."

"And what do you know of this Professor Mendoza?" Minerva gave him a look, the same look she gave to unruly children when they tried to avoid topics. Albus had intentionally side stepped saying anything about this Mendoza.

Albus sighed. "Eunice Mendoza. She was a professor of History at Castelobruxo for many years. She attended several educational world conferences that I also attended. She is not my biggest fan."

"Oh, why would she not like you? Your politics are polarizing, but you are quite respected in the educational world." Minerva was confused. Being Headmaster of Hogwarts came with its own measure of respect innately.

"She has heard of Cuthbert."

Minerva knew immediately what he meant. Cuthbert Binns was the history professor at Hogwarts. He was also a ghost. He tended to drone on about goblin wars, but he still covered relevant topics for OWLs and NEWTs. It wasn't anyone's favorite class, but it got the job done. It was incredibly boring, however. She could see how a living professor would be offended at a ghost doing the equivalent of her job.

Minerva tried to make her mentor look on the bright side, "Well. Maybe when Mr. Potter completes his mastery, he might be willing to come teach history here."

Albus gave a noncommittal grunt. He wasn't sure he would even be interested in that. Cuthbert did an adequate job, and they didn't have to pay him. If that was the only way to get Harry here to fulfill his destiny, however, that may be an option.

He didn't understand why the boy was doing a history mastery anyway. Hardly anyone did such a thing. It didn't really give a lot of job prospects. There were only so many teaching positions. Defense was an excellent choice, and he approved of that to help him defeat Tom. Even if he wanted the boy to relax a little more, at least Defense was relevant. A potions mastery was acceptable. It was a skill in high demand, and they could always use another potions expert on the war front. History was supremely unhelpful. Even if the boy focused on military history (which he knew wouldn't happen with Mendoza as his Mistress), it wouldn't necessarily translate to Tom's style of warfare.

Perhaps history was just young Harry's passion. It was hard to begrudge him if it were true.

Three masteries though… Albus shook his head and headed for his office. There was a meeting happening shortly about the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

Harry had learned that the giants were surprisingly resistant to HYPNOTIC PATTERN. He thought they were completely stupid and would fall prey to the mind illusion.

That cost him another death.

FIREBALL hurt them, but they were so hearty that it wasn't nearly enough.

LIGHTNING BOLT was great at staying at of range of their huge clubs, but then they just threw boulders at him. That's what landed him in front of Max this time.

"What did you learn?" Max always asked that.

"I learned that I can't fucking take on giants! There's five of them. How am I supposed to do anything?" Harry was practically fuming. Four times he had died to the giants. Four times Max asked him what he learned. And he did learn things. Just not enough.

Max, blank faced, just nodded in that infuriating way like nothing would ever bother him, "So, what do you need?"

Harry started to yell again but stopped to think. There was obviously something he needed. It was clearly possible to succeed if he thought about it. The last time he had this much trouble, he was able to get Max to give Sirius and Remus their own HUDs. It would be great if they…

Harry groaned. "I need Sirius and Remus with me. We're a team. We need to fight together."

"Sometimes, yes. Lesson learned then. Take backup if you can. I thought you knew that already, but you kept attacking the giants by yourself. I didn't understand why."

Harry closed his eyes and started focusing on his breathing. He was going to murder Max. He didn't know how to kill a dead guy, but he would figure it out. "Max. I didn't have a choice. You kept putting me there by myself."

"Why didn't you ask me to put you somewhere where they could join you?" Max was asking Harry this. Max didn't do rhetorical questions.

"I don't know Max. Please just send me somewhere I can grab Sirius and Remus so we can team up against the giants."

….

Harry was standing outside the same cave. He wanted to scream at Max, but he had learned that lesson after the first death. These giants had good hearing. He turned to walk away and saw Sirius and Remus there. He froze. They looked at him, but he quickly put his finger to his mouth to indicate quiet.

Harry started smiling. They had plans to make.

The New Marauders were standing outside Iavoloha Palace. The dark lord was in there with the President. They had all died several times trying to get in and kill the dark lord. They had learned where most of the defenses in the palace were, but taking down any dark lord was a tricky job.

This one was demon powered.

None of them wanted to go back in for another go. Come to think of it, Harry didn't know how they remembered all their previous attempts. They were never in Max's office with him.

He asked them. They shrugged. In unison.

Harry was starting to think this wasn't real. Maybe his brain had snapped from all the dying. Max once told him that could happen. There were more important things to worry about right now than his potential insanity.

They had been sitting on this bridge for some unknown time, or maybe an unknowable time if this was a delusion. They were all trying to come up with ideas for an assault, but it was Remus to get one first. "Maybe go in and kill him in his sleep?"

Sirius chimed in, "Yeah, didn't one of the teacups or the tarot cards tell you to assassinate someone?"

Harry looked at both. They shrugged.

Harry pulled out his invisibility cloak. Death's Invisibility Cloak.

Wait.

He didn't have the Cloak. How did he get it? Dumbledore never gave it to him in this life. Granted that was something that needed correcting, but why did he have it now? He looked at the other marauders. They didn't seem too worried. They were just waiting for him to use it.

"This isn't real."

Sirius and Remus looked at him and said nothing.

Harry was talking to himself now, "I don't think I'm insane. How did I get on this path? Sirius and Remus were adamant that I don't scout the island by dying, but that's what I've been doing for the last… God… who knows how long."

He started pacing.

"What was I doing before I started. Before the beach… What happened before that?"

Sirius said something about teacups and tarot…

The Divination Rituals. He was doing 13. Which ones did he do? He ran through them in his mind. He remembered most of them. He thought of the lamb. He thought of the one he designed from scratch, the crystal goblets… They exploded.

The last ritual was Dreaming.

This was a dream. Or rather, a Dream. This was part of the ritual. He thought about the voices in the goblets but pushed that right back into the darkest parts of his brain. He did not want to think about that right now.

He hadn't scouted any of this. He hadn't met with Max a dozen times while trying to deal with this quest.

He wasn't insane. But… if he remembered everything that happened here, did that mean his psyche would be fracturing from all the dying even if it wasn't real? It… he never remembered the pain of the actual death. He just woke up in Max's office. God, he hoped that was enough for him to keep himself together.

No time to think about that now. Time to assassinate a dark lord. He would have to try it without the Cloak. He wouldn't have it in the real world.

Sirius and Remus heard the goblets explode, and Harry screamed. Then there was nothing. That wasn't supposed to happen. They rushed into the room where Harry was working to find him unconscious, covered in shards of shattered goblet. He was bleeding from a dozen wounds.

Neither marauder was a healer by any stretch of the imagination, but they had suffered enough injuries in the war and with Harry's quests to be able to conduct basic first aid.

Sirius started vanishing the glass while Remus cleaned and closed the wounds. They moved Harry to his room to lay in his bed. They had all planned for Harry to finish the hydromancy and then get in bed to sleep and Dream.

It seemed Fate wasn't going to wait for him.

His breathing was steady and strong. Other than the exploded goblets, they didn't have any reason to worry about him yet. He was resting comfortably.

Twelve hours later, they were starting to feel the first stirrings of anxiety. Harry had slept long stretches after his divinations before, but they knew he was already exhausted. Magical exhaustion was not something to screw around with. It could permanently damage your ability to access your magic if you pushed it too far.

They weren't concerned yet, but if Harry didn't wake up at all today, they were calling a healer.

Harry had never seen a demon before, but sometimes expertise in Arcana just let him know things. It was part of the download of information he got when the HUD was installed. He didn't know that he knew, until he needed to know.

Two of the demons he knew. The third… was hazy. He couldn't focus on it. Each time he tried to look at it properly, it seemed to slip out of his view, fading away. If the magical population of Madagascar was under a Notice-Me-Not, then this must be the demon powered version.

When a wizard knows something is under Notice-Me-Not, they can focus and essentially break the spell. It still exists, but it no longer affected that person.

Harry knew there was something blocking his view of the third demon, but even that was not enough to look at it properly.

The other two were easy enough to identify. There was goat-crab thing with four arms and chitinous armor, a Glabrezu. The second demon looked like a melty tree thing with one giant eye, a Yochlol. This was not good. Harry couldn't even figure out what the third one was. He could barely even tell it existed. If he didn't already know there were three demons, he might not.

The two he did see were scary enough.

While he was looking at the demons, he saw a bolt of lightning coming towards him from the side.

…

He was in front of Max. Max didn't say anything. He didn't even acknowledge that Harry was there.

…

Harry was back with the marauders in front of the demons. He still only saw two.

Harry wasn't waiting around. He was Alert and faster than most anyone. He cast VITRIOLIC SPHERE. No one liked a big ball of acid in their face.

The Glabrezu responded with a single word in Infernal. He didn't know what it was, but he was stunned instantly, and his acid ball disappeared.

The Yochlol cast DOMINATE PERSON on Remus, and for the second time, Remus sent green light at Harry.

….

Max still wasn't aware of Harry's existence.

…

Harry was standing in front of the demons. He was sick of this. He cast the killing curse at the Glabrezu. He had never cast it before, but he already hated this demon plenty enough.

…

Harry found himself backing up away from Sirius and Remus. They were coming at him from either side. He glanced behind him. They were pushing him towards a cliff.

"You have to stop, Harry!"

"Please Harry. You can't stop Voldemort like this!"

What?

They had their wands out and were casting to hurt him. In their dueling practice, Harry had never been able to keep up against Remus and Sirius at the same time. They rarely tried except when Harry started getting a big head. It usually ended quickly.

Now, he was keeping up with them. Or at least, surviving. They were still pushing him back. He wasn't even conscious of the spells he was casting. It was like he was watching from outside his body.

"Why Harry?"

"You know why!"

He didn't say that. His mouth made the sounds, but he was sure he didn't say that.

"You can't keep killing!"

Harry was confused, but he didn't have time to think because he was at the edge of the cliff now. A blasting curse from Remus at the ground was the finishing touch as the force pushed him back. He started falling.

…

He was in front of Max. Max didn't see him.

…

He was in front of the demons.

After the first day, Harry's eyes had stopped rolling in the back of his head. They glowed faintly with power. Now, he was just unconscious. It had been three days since. A local healer visited. She told Sirius and Remus that it was severe magical exhaustion, and he needed rest.

Harry Potter

Divination Wizard (Level 8)

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 14

Constitution: 14

Intelligence: 20

Wisdom: 12

Charisma: 10

Feat(s): Alert, Prodigy

Ability: Mage Sight, Darkvision

Skills Proficiencies: Arcana, Deception, History, Insight, Investigation, Survival, Land Vehicles, Sleight of Hand, Potter's Tools

Expertise: Arcana

Languages: English, French, Parseltongue, Goblin, Spanish, Draconic

Cantrips: Fire Bolt, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Friends, Mending

Level 1 Spells: Charm Person, Disguise Self, Identify, Shield, Sleep, Unseen Servant, Chromatic Orb, Comprehend Languages, Speak with Animals, Detect Magic

Level 2 Spells: Hold Person, Invisibility, Acid Arrow, Suggestion

Level 3 Spells: Fireball, Remove Curse, Dispel Magic, Hypnotic Pattern, Lightning Bolt

Level 4 Spells: Locate Creature, Polymorph, Stone Shape, Vitriolic Sphere

Chapter 24: Speed Run

Chapter Text

Harry was confused. To his perceptions, he had spent the last several months on Madagascar, waking up in front of demons, giants, dark lords, and muggle explosives. Now, he was waking up in his bed. It was dark in the room, but he could see light under the door. He tried to sit up or rollover, but he wasn't moving as smoothly as he was used to.

Sirius and Remus came charging into the room.

"Take it easy, Harry. You've been out for three days." Remus was casting diagnostics on him. Sirius handed him his glasses and started conjuring a glass and some water.

Harry was trying to wrap his head around the fact that he was now in the real world. Even though he knew while he was in there that it was a dream (at least after the first month or so), it still was an odd transition. He Dreamed he had used death as a learning/scouting tool, that Max had continuously respawned him to help him overcome the obstacles. If it had really happened though, would he know the difference?

Dying that many times would leave you mentally scarred. Maybe scarred enough to think it was all a dream… no. That way lay madness. He would not think about that. Maybe just a little confirmation, though?

"Max." It came out hoarse. His throat was still dry and stiff from inactivity.

"Yes, Harry?"

"Max. Did I die over and over again for the past several months in Madagascar?" Harry's question was calm, but the underlying tone had a bit of fear.

Sirius and Remus froze. Harry was talking out loud to Max. It wasn't the first time, and it wasn't what had them on the edge of their nerves right now.

"No, Harry. You have been Dreaming. I do not know what about. We cannot see that. Though if you Dreamed about learning by dying, I must remind you that I said mortal human minds cannot handle that repeated strain."

"I know, Max. I didn't mean to. I didn't control what I saw." 'I don't think so…' The last bit was mumbled, but both the Grim and the former werewolf had excellent hearing. They demanded explanations.

Harry explained about 'waking up' on the beach. About the giants. Meeting Max. Repeating the same thing. Over and over. He told them about the bombs at the airport, and the dark lord who could turn into shadow. They all started referring to the form as Shadow Nic.

He explained the presidential palace and how every single room was booby trapped. He told them about the demons.

The old marauders were stunned. Sirius was the first to recover, "It's too bad we can't all remember it. It would be nice to know what we are walking into."

The response shocked Harry. He had expected… more. More yelling about all the deaths. More threats of packing him off back to Peru. More. He told him so.

Sirius gathered his thoughts before saying anything. He looked at Moony who was also a bit surprised. Finally, he spoke. "It doesn't matter. Not right now anyway. We must kill these things. You saw it in one of the earlier rituals. The world on fire. We can't let that happen. I know I want to pack you in cotton wool and protect you, but the world needs us. We have to do the right thing." He looked away, a bit embarrassed about getting up on a soap box like that.

Remus just nodded. Harry decided to move them along. "Right then. We need to plan. Let's get the pensieve, and I can show you guys what I saw. Or at least what worked. You don't need to see months of what didn't work. Or the results of it not working…"

"I have to fight the giants by myself?"

"Yes, Sirius."

"Fuck."

"You guys can do bubble head charms, right?"

"It's been a while."

"Let's practice."

"You can't go there alone!"

"Have to."

"This is shit…"

"You never killed the demons?"

"Well, I did one time."

"Show us that, then. I don't understand why you didn't show us before."

…..

"Ok. Now I see why."

The marauders spent the rest of the day planning their assault on the forces of the dark lord Nicolas Randria. Surprisingly, he didn't actually have a lot. He had incredible cunning and had effectively neutralized the rest of the magical population. Or perhaps the demons had done it for him.

What he did have was traps and shitty situations that someone would have to deal with. His hideout was trapped to hell, and it was the muggle palace. The muggle leaders were under the Imperius, so he effectively had an army. They were just muggles.

Harry didn't know how much time they had before Randria's plans went into effect, but he had to assume soon was in the scope of things.

The marauders would be splitting up. They couldn't take the risk that the dark lord's plan could succeed. Any of them could be devastating to the populace. They would be Portkeying around Madagascar. Harry had seen all of the locations in his Dream, and that was good enough to make the portkeys accurately. They would leave the next morning after a good night's sleep. Ideally, Harry would rest for a week, but that wasn't in the cards, so to speak.

Remus portkeyed to the airport. Harry placed him in a stall in the men's room. He had watched the airport scenes enough that it felt like he had been there before. He made his way across the atrium towards the illusionary entrance to the magical district. When he could feel that he was in range of the Muggle-Repelling wards, he cast a bubblehead charm. It was a sixth year charm so it was simple enough after they had all practiced a few times the day before.

This was one of the more uncertain steps they had planned. None of them wanted to see the airport blow up. There would be thousands of deaths, both muggle and magical. The problem was timing. If the dark lord hadn't set up the explosive yet, he had to wait.

If was still setting up the explosives, Remus was essentially alone with a dark lord.

He took a breath and centered himself. Decades as a werewolf had taught him to control his emotions and his breathing. One of the reasons he was such a good fighter was that he didn't panic. He controlled himself and he stayed as calm as a person could. That meant his hands were steady, and he could cast spells just as accurately as during practices.

He stepped through the barrier to see Randria setting up the explosives near the entrance.

"All right then. The hard way."

Sirius's first portkey was to the beach. The sky was not darkened, but he did hear the thud, thud, thud of the approaching giants.

Why the fuck did he have to fight three of the bastards on his own? Harry said he could do it. He said it was their best chance. Sirius just couldn't see it. He hadn't fought any giants in the first war. He had no experience with it. Neither did Moony, though. He just had to have faith in Harry. That was something he could do. Sometimes he was still shocked at his 13 year old godson who was actually 23 or something… but he had fought beside him too many times at this point not to trust him.

He was disillusioned. The goal was to distract and divert. The beach was still full of muggles. They weren't really part of the plan, but they could worry about obliviations later. None of them excpected the country-wide notice-me-not to be lifted until they killed the dark lord.

Until Harry killed the dark lord.

Sirius shuddered. He hated that Harry was responsible for that part of the plan, but Harry was the only one that would be able to improvise if shit hit the banishing charm. Harry had spent weeks (to his mind) exploring every inch of the presidential palace. If he couldn't get off an ambush on old Nicolas, then he would probably be fighting through all the traps.

The giants were close enough now. Sirius began casting:

ENEMIES ABOUND

Harry was disillusioned, silenced, and scent masked. He had arrived on the south-west corner of the Iavoloha palace. There was an unlocked window on this corner. One of the cleaning ladies slipped into a storage room to smoke cigarettes here. The window was closed, so a random stranger would never know to check it for being unlocked.

Afterall to a muggle, they would have to go through three different checkpoints to get back here anyway. Harry could potentially unlock a different window with an alohomora, but he didn't want to do anymore active magic than necessary. He had done all of his masking charms before he took the portkey.

Randria hadn't put up antiportkey wards around the entire palace. Harry could only theorize the reasons why: He didn't want a large magical footprint to be obvious to outsiders. Or, he didn't have wardstones available to make the permanent kind of protection a place this size would need. Or he was a cocky bastard who didn't think he needed to worry about it.

Whatever the reason, there were only wards on certain rooms in the palace. Most important to Harry was Nicolas's bedroom. Assuming he was out planting explosives at the airport, then Harry would be waiting for him when he got back.

Harry was making his way thought the palace room by room. The path to the residential wing without setting off any traps was mostly straightforward. There were two rooms he had to go around. If he had gone through them, he would set off demolition charges in the palace basement in the first room, or find himself stuck in an area statis ward, waiting for Randria to come interrogate him before disposing of his body.

He had learned that one the hard way in Dream land. Voldemort was better with the Cruciatus, but Harry still wasn't in a hurry to experience it.

He made it to the dark lord's bedroom. This was the tricky bit. Harry had no way to know if the guy was in his room, setting up explosives, or talking to demons. He listened at the door. Nothing.

Harry took a deep breath and opened the door.

Nothing.

There wasn't much furniture in the room. A bed, a wardrobe, and a small desk. A bit spartan actually for a presidential palace room. It was fine. He would wait in the corner. If Nicolas sat at the desk or on the bed, he would get a wordless stupefy in the back. Then he would die.

Remus had to make a split-second decision. He would be able to get one spell off unimpeded. He could send a spell at the dark lord's back, but if it didn't finish him, who knows how this scenario will go down. He didn't' think he had it in him to cast the killing curse, and Harry was already waiting back at his room at the palace to ambush him.

Remus had a mission. It was to get rid of the explosives.

Evanesco

Rage. It was palpable. The dark lord Nicolas Randria turned to look for who ever dared to interrupt his plan. When he saw Remus, all he could think about was murder. Not the fact that Remus was an unknown person. Not the fact that Remus had a bubblehead charm on, as if that were an everyday occurrence. Nor did he consider why Remus was even there to begin with or how he knew what muggle explosives were.

He only saw a target. He drew his wand and started casting.

Remus may have been less powerful than some other wizards, but he was quite skilled all the same. Luckily, Randria didn't have the power of Voldemort. He was closer to that of Lucius Malfoy or Rudolphus Lestrange. He could duel those guys, no problem.

The problem was the dark lord had been gifted abilities by his sponsors. After a frustrating minute dueling this random stranger who ruined his plan, he decided he had enough. He would move to his secondary target, the attack on the tourists on the beach.

He enacted his shadow powers and became formless. He charged straight at Remus. Harry had briefed Remus that the bubblehead would protect him from the shadows going inside him, but he still didn't want this thing near him. Beings of shadow often fear the light.

Expecto Patronum

A wolf came charging out of Moony's wand. The creature was huge and radiating power. Years with Sirius and Harry, with his family had helped Remus Lupin build a stable of incredibly happy memories. Including Harry curing his lycanthropy. Oh yes. Remus's patronus could match anyone's these days.

The wolf viciously attacked Shadow Nic, and the creature that was once a man screeched in pain. It tried to flee from Moony, but the wolf pursued, slashing and biting at him. Shadow Nic was already planning on retreating, but this just spurred him on. He shrunk the shadows in on themself to make a smaller target for the glowing predator and made for the door.

Moony checked to make sure all of the explosives were gone. He had done well with his vanishing charm. He saw people, witches and wizards, walking around the hidden magical district. None seemed to notice what had transpired. It was like they were wearing horse blinders.

They marauders could come back and figure that out later. He was headed to the beach to back up Sirius. He activated his second portkey.

Sirius was on the beach, still in disillusionment. There were three giants beating each other to death. It was kind of funny, but also kind of sad. Anytime one of the giants started to snap out of it, he would just cast the spell again. ENEMIES ABOUND.

He hadn't believed Harry when he said Sirius was best at dealing with giants, but Sirius was starting to see his point. At the very least, it was safest for Sirius to sit in hiding and make the giants kill each other. He heard the arrival of a portkey, and was greatly relieved to see Remus arrive on the beach.

Unfortunately, the giants noticed as well. They didn't immediately go after him. They were still seeing each other as enemies and another giant was a far greater threat than a tiny human. Sirius used his MESSAGE cantrip to tell Moony where he was hiding.

Remus was always quick at improvising. He saw that he couldn't see Padfoot, so he disillusioned himself and made his way over to where Sirius said he was hiding. He whispered when he got there, "how's it going so far?"

"You can see. It's working. It's a bit slow, but the safest I've ever heard of taking out a pack of giants. How did it go on your end?"

Remus started nodding before he realized they couldn't see each other. "Just as planned. The wanker was there, trying to set up the bombs. He didn't see me, so I vanished his shite right in front of him."

Sirius chortled, trying not to laugh too loud and draw the giant's attention. "sounds hilarious. But you're not hurt? What did he do?"

Remus recounted the quick, but ultimately fruitless duel. Then he told him about casting the Patronus.

"Grizz didn't tell us to use a Patronus against him."

"I improvised. I assume Harry didn't think of it. Worked surprisingly well."

Remus couldn't see Sirius's huge grin, but it was there nonetheless, "Of course you thought of something he didn't. You're brilliant my friend."

"Thank you Pads. Do you think we should help them along?"

Sirius hummed. "I dunno. It's safe this way, but how long does it take for a giant to kill another giant?"

Just as he said that two of the giants decided to gang up on the third. Twin bashes with their great clubs finished off the third. The two remaining were pretty beat up, but they seemed to stop trying to kill each other after that.

ENEMIES ABOUND

The giants started beating each other again. Both men started chuckling. Then the sky went dark. Or rather, the sun was blocked. Shadow Nic was not keeping himself tucked in at this point. He was stretching his shadow form for all it was worth, blotting out the light from the sun.

If there were any people besides marauders left on the beach, it would be intimidating as hell. With their new knowledge on the effectiveness of the Patronus, both men were ready to fight.

Sirius had one question though, "How did you think of casting a Patronus against Shadow Nic?"

"Lord of the Rings."

"Huh?"

"I'll explain later. Patronuses now."

Expecto Patronum. Expecto Patronum.

Harry was sitting in Nic's bedroom in the corner. He wasn't the model of vigilance (Moody would be disappointed). His mind wandered. He thought about the time in the Dream realm. He thought about the divination rituals that took him there. He thought about the fact that he was still exhausted. He had been exhausted before the last ritual and received no reprieve since.

He really hoped Nic could be caught off guard. If it devolved into a fight, he believed he could win, but that was only if the nascent dark lord stuck around. If he fled, Harry had no real way to follow.

The dual Patronus charms drove Nic off quite quickly. Moony's single wolf Patronus drove him off before. With the addition of Padfoot's Grim, the shadow man did not stick around.

They turned as they heard a massive crash. A second giant fell, killed by its confused tribemate. Sirius and Rem would have to finish off the last one.

They were on the same page as they both cast LIGHTNING BOLT.

Harry felt like he had been waiting for hours. Eventually, he had conjured an armchair and disillusioned it as well. He might as well be comfortable. He was entirely too calm to be waiting on a dark lord, but Nicolas Randria was no Tom Riddle.

His bigger concern was the three demons they would be dealing with later today. There was also another pack of giants in a cave. The New Marauders had discussed that scenario at length. The giants were… he didn't want to think they weren't a threat, but they weren't an immediate threat. They weren't attacking muggles. They were just hanging out in their cave.

Even if the marauders never went back for them, the magical Malagasy could deal with it. Dealing with something like giants was a normal government responsibility. Harry didn't have to fix everything.

He heard the screeching almost a minute before Shadow Nic burst into the room. Harry could tell he was pissed off. The shadows were roiling, churning like a sea in a storm. Then, they were gone, and Nicolas Randria was in his bedroom screaming. He was furious. He was also facing away from Harry.

Stupefy.

The Dark Lord of Madagascar, Nicolas Randria, defeated by a stunning spell. It was almost as funny as the Dark Lord Voldemort being defeated by a disarming charm. Which is to say, not funny at all. Because they were dark lords. And they killed a lot of people.

Diffindo.

An overpowered severing charm, just like Lucius Malfoy. Harry threw up again. Twice now, he had murdered a helpless vi… person. He almost called them victims. Lucius and Nic were not victims. They were evil.

Now they were dead.

Harry didn't plan for what to do after he killed Randria. He knew where he was going, but did he want to search the body? Search the room? Dispose of the body?

He remembered Barty Crouch Jr.'s method of body disposal and transfigured the head and body into bones. He stuck them in his pouch, vanished the blood, and headed back to the unlocked window he entered the building from. He just needed to get outside the building, and he could activate his portkey.

Harry arrived at the rendezvous point to find Sirius and Remus already there in good health. They all three investigated each other for injuries. They shared the results of their own parts of the plan.

Sirius and Remus hugged Harry when he told them he killed Nic. Harry would be spending time with Dr. Moony, talking about his feelings. But really, trying to work through it to keep from any more nightmares. He had enough as it was.

Sirius wanted to talk about their plan, "I have an idea."

The other two looked at him and waited.

"From Harry's memories, three demons is way too much to handle. We don't even know what the one looks like. We need to take at least one out as quickly as we can." Sirius was hemming an hawing.

Harry tried to draw the idea out of him, "What did you have in mind Padfoot?"

"I can cast the killing curse."

Remus and Harry were in perfect sync, "No!"

"Just listen. They aren't humans, so technically not illegal. We know it kills them, because Harry did it in his Dream…" Sirius paused, collecting his thoughts.

"Sirius, don't you remember the memory where you and Remus were trying to kill me? I used the killing curse and couldn't stop." Harry was trying to be gentle, but also firm. He didn't know if it came across that way.

"I'm not you Harry. I've been exposed to dark magic all my life. I'm a Black. I can cast the spell. I can conjure the hate for it. And I won't be overwhelmed by it. You've never really done any really dark shite, Harry. The euphoria from an Avada Kedavra… you aren't prepared for that. That's why you got hooked in your Dream."

Neither Harry nor Remus had a response.

The portkey dropped the New Marauders in an old growth of trees that had somehow grown around a perfect circle of open space. Everything around them was lush and green, except the circle where the ground was blackened and dead.

In that dead space, and the leading candidate for cause of the death of the ground, stood three figures. One was easily recognizable from Harry's memories as the Glabrezu, a horrific looking hybrid creature with a chitinous carapace, claws on two of its four hands, and goat head.

The other two figures were not recognizable from the Dream, but Harry knew the creature that resembled a anthropomorphic fox was an Arcanaloth. That must be the one that he could never See during the Dream. The confusing member of the little trio was not a slimy, sludgy tree demon with one eye, but a dark elf.

Harry barely had time to register the difference when Sirius let loose.

Avada Kedavra!

The dark elf dropped dead.

Later conversations between the family would reveal that Sirius wanted to target the spell caster that unleashed lightning against Harry in the Dream, but he had two unrecognizable targets. He mentally flipped a coin and chose the one that was closest to human. Maybe it was arrogance about humanity. Maybe it was bad luck, but Sirius chose the Yochlol.

OF course, at the time none of them knew it was the Yochlol. They didn't know the sludge demons were shapeshifters. That would come from later research (asking Max).

No, the only thing the marauders could think about was not dying horrific deaths from the two remaining demons.

Harry was still faster than they were and started casting VITRIOLIC SPHERE. He had learned in the Dream that these things were resistant to a lot of spells, but acid seemed to work just fine.

Just as he was about to release a ball of melting death, the Arcanaloth had its say: COUNTERSPELL.

Harry was stunned. Not from the Glabrezu's infernal Power Word: Stun, but the fact that this fox demon had access to other wizardry. They were fucked.

Speaking of the POWER WORD: STUN, the Glabrezu judged Sirius to be a risk and cast the unstoppable stunning spell at him. Killing a Yochlol with one spell moves you up the threat list. The fight was now two versus two and those odds were not something Harry wanted any part of.

All of the activity between Harry and the demons left Remus practically ignored which suited the mild-mannered man just fine. He used the preparation time to cast POLYMORPH and finally his trip to Belgium paid off.

Once again, the Tyrannosaurus Rex walked the earth.

T-Rex Remus bellowed. Everyone in the fight stopped what they were doing to stare at the super predator. The T-Rex charged.

The apex predator went straight for the Arcanaloth, but its sheer size allowed it to simultaneously smash into the Glabrezu with its tail. The crab demon went flying back into a tree. Remus bit the Arcanaloth and actually grabbed it up in his mouth while he bit down on the demon.

Harry was mesmerized by the destructive power of the dinosaur. "That's so fucking cool. Dinosaurs are fucking cool!" He turned his attention back to the Glabrezu, hoping to capitalize on its misfortune in meeting a tree so abruptly. He cast ACID ARROW at the demon, but the thing was fast, and recovered from getting smashed far quicker than anyone would expect.

The Arcanaloth was not concerned about its predicament. The ancient predator may have it in its jaws, but that just meant it was easier not to miss. The fox demon smirked and cast FINGER OF DEATH directly into Remus's mouth.

The T-Rex roared in agony, dropping the Arcanaloth. The pain was too much and Remus started reverting to his human form.

The Glabrezu was ancient evil and understood how humans worked. It had never been a human so it didn't know why they were the way they were, but it had a pretty good idea how they reacted in certain situations.

It didn't charge to attack Harry. It attacked Sirius. Sirius was magically stunned, unable to mount the most basic of defenses. The Glabrezu's pincer claws clamped down on Sirius's stunned form. Blood flowed. Sirius couldn't even cry out, but it had to be excruciating.

Harry didn't know what to do. He didn't want to hit Sirius… unless he did. POWER WORD: STUN was a very powerful spell, very high level. Removing the effects were difficult at best. Harry was desperate.

He cast DISPEL MAGIC, and he twisted the Portents of Fate.

Harry demanded, and the universe answered.

Sirius was released from the spell. Now he was screaming. Only half of it was pain. The other half was fury.

Remus was currently doing everything in his power to delay, divert, and distract the Arcanaloth. He only really had time for defensive measures.

WALL OF WATER

WATERY SPHERE

SLEET STORM

Anything he could think of to corral and hold off the demon. So far, he was alive. The demon seemed to be having the time of its life… existence.

The Glabrezu was momentarily confused. The man-boy had not reacted as it expected. He should have cried or begged for mercy or something. Even attacking it would have made sense. Dispelling the Glabrezu's magic was… concerning for the demon.

It had intended to use its other two hands to smash the captured human to further torture the man-boy, but this called for alternative measures. It began to cast CONFUSION. Then it stopped. Why had it stopped? Then it experienced excruciating pain in its head.

Sirius had cast PSYCHIC LANCE right in its face. It released him and grabbed at its head with his human-like appendages. Sirius's eyes never left the crab demon, but he told Harry to go help Remus.

The Arcanaloth saw Harry running towards it and its prey. It had enjoyed the little game with the puny mortals, but it was time to end this. Having two targets made spell choice easier. CHAIN LIGHTNING.

Chain Lightning was a spell that had killed Harry and the marauders many times in the Dream world. He never really came up with any countermeasures for the devastating attack.

Remus was in full defensive mode already, and cast ABSORB ELEMENTS as he threw himself on the ground. He was still hit, but he was also still breathing. Beggars and Choosers.

Harry threw himself on the ground, but took a great blast of the lightning. Like the Arcanaloth, he was tired of this. The longer it went on, the more it favored the demons. He hoped this counted as a 'needs must' situation for Max.

Pestis Incendium

The Arcanaloth's eyes practically bugged out of its head. It knew exactly what the hell that fire was. And Hell was the right term. Demons may resist most fire, even magical fire, but nothing was resistant to pure Hellfire. It cast COUNTERSPELL. The hellfire didn't even notice. Fiendfyre was surely higher than a third level spell.

The Arcanaloth was not stupid. DIMENSION DOOR. Then Teleport. It was gone.

Harry's control over the hellfire was shaky at best. He managed to direct over to the Glabrezu that Sirius was keeping locked down, but it was more of a nudge than a direct order.

The Glabrezu did not have the ability to teleport and was consumed by the fire.

Harry did not have much control left, and could only get one word out, "Help!"

Between all three marauders, exhausted as they were, the fire was brought to heel. Harry struggled against the fire a year ago, but he had a year more of magical experience now, and the addition of Remus and Sirius made things much easier.

They were a family. They loved each other. No matter what, they were stronger together than just the sum of their parts.

Quest Complete: Stop the Dark Lord of Madagascar

Unique reward received: Universal Language Translator

Bonus: Destroy the Demonic Triad behind the dark lord:

(1/3) Unique Reward: 2 to all stats

(2/3) Unique Reward: Free Feat selection

LEVEL UP!

Harry Potter

Divination Wizard (Level 9)

Strength: 12

Dexterity: 16

Constitution: 16

Intelligence: 22

Wisdom: 14

Charisma: 12

Feat(s): Alert, Prodigy, Metamagic Adept (Subtle Spell, Distant Spell)

Ability: Mage Sight, Darkvision

Skills Proficiencies: Arcana, Deception, History, Insight, Investigation, Survival, Land Vehicles, Sleight of Hand, Potter's Tools

Expertise: Arcana

Languages: English, French, Parseltongue, Goblin, Spanish, Draconic

Cantrips: Fire Bolt, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Friends, Mending

Level 1 Spells: Charm Person, Disguise Self, Identify, Shield, Sleep, Unseen Servant, Chromatic Orb, Comprehend Languages, Speak with Animals, Detect Magic

Level 2 Spells: Hold Person, Invisibility, Acid Arrow, Suggestion

Level 3 Spells: Fireball, Remove Curse, Dispel Magic, Hypnotic Pattern, Lightning Bolt

Level 4 Spells: Locate Creature, Polymorph, Stone Shape, Vitriolic Sphere

Level 5 Spells: Transmute Rock, Passwall

Chapter 25: Testimony

Chapter Text

Harry was collecting ingredients at Terra Messis. Spring would end soon, and Summer would be upon them. Summer was typically when the New Marauders worked on stocking up supplies for Terra Messis in case they ever needed a bolt hole in the winter. Harry was early because he wanted to collect ingredients that would die before Summer arrived. Or at least, he wanted to document their wild habitat and growing conditions. He had a little stocked away in stasis that he could experiment with, but Mistress Arakaki wanted to know about soil and wind and… Christ she might as well be a herbologist.

It was easy work, though. It let his mind wander while he took notes on well-practiced techniques for harvest.

Madagascar had happened almost two months ago at this point. He still thought about the whole situation at least every other day. It could have gone so horribly wrong. It should have. Divination of all the things allowed the New Marauders to win without a protracted war.

That's what it would have been, too. War.

Randria had the President under the Imperius Curse. None of the Marauders had any clue how to break the 'don't question anything, don't notice what's going on, don't think' curse or whatever that seemed to affect the entire magical Malagasy population.

If their plan hadn't worked, their only recourse would have been to appeal to the ICW. The ICW would have had to debate, then vote. If they voted to intervene, they would have to ask each nation to provide troops, aurors. Then the disparate groups would have to figure out how to work together. Then they could invade.

And fight a damned war.

A huge invasion like that would spur Nic to respond with force. He would get the muggles involved. God knows what would have happened at that point.

Stopping the demons seemed to break the spell over the island nation. Stopping was the key word there. They weren't technically dead. According to Max anyway. They just get sent back to the Abyss where they reform over decades or centuries. At least Harry wouldn't have to worry about them. Two of them.

The Arcanaloth was still out there.

The New Marauders had gone back to the airport to find the magicals coming out of their state of… well sleepwalking was the best way to describe it. They found some people who might be in charge or might have been in charge at one point and told them about Nicolas and the demons. They told them about the giants on the beach, the possible breech of the Statue of Secrecy. They told them about the giants that were still in a cave.

It was a lot to take in from the former bureaucrats and aurors, but they were glad to even have the chance to be overwhelmed right now. They remembered the sleepwalking. They did not want to experience that again.

Sirius told them that they could contact them further through diplomatic channels to Peru.

Then the marauders went home to Nueva Vida. Their injuries were minimal, all things considered, but the mental and emotional strain of the assault piled on top of the weeks of divination rituals that wore them all down was too much.

They didn't want to quest anymore. Not this winter anyway.

When they arrived back at their Peruvian home, they sent a missive off to Alejandro Mendoza's office requesting a meeting. Technically, they had invaded a country. No one would blame them. Not really. Probably. But it was better if the Peruvian government was aware.

They spent the next month just relaxing. Recovering. Harry spent time with Professor Mendoza discussing various topics related to his mastery. He spent time with Mistress Arakaki, actually learning potions. He understood potions theory just fine with his expertise in Arcana, but this was different. It took the theory from theoretical to practical.

Just reading a book doesn't teach you. He learned that from knitting. Knowing potions theory may be great for OWL and NEWT testing, but the practical experience was completely different. Elena, as she insisted he call her when not in public, was strict, but not mean. No nonsense was the term.

It was… nice. It made Harry think that potions might be something he would actually consider doing versus just signing up for the apprenticeship because it was something to do.

He wasn't certain, but he was willing to keep his options open.

Moony documented everything. He thought the whole Madagascar incident was a great story in retrospect, not in the moment, and was considering that for a first novel.

Harry refused to let him go into any detail about the divination rituals. He agreed.

Harry caught up on his correspondence with Hermione. Just as he predicted, she had a lot to say about three masteries. A lot. Three pages, per mastery in fact.

Elena had experimented with the potions ingredients Harry had given her as part of the apprenticeship payment, and now wanted him to document a lot of the supplies in their natural habitat. That's what found him at Terra Messis now, too early for summer preparations.

While he was drawing a sketch of common fireweed, he heard Fred barking at him from a tree. Fireweed was an invasive species in South America, so Elena was familiar with it, but was curious about its natural habitat.

Fred barked again.

Harry looked up at him exasperated, "Yes, King Fred? Do you need something?"

The owl flew down from its perch and did a fly-by. He barked again as he flew up to a new branch. It seemed he wanted Harry to follow. Harry packed up his stuff and gestured to the great horned owl, telling him to lead the way.

Fred led Harry back to the enclosure that he had built for the owl. It was quite cozy. It had runes for warmth and wind and snow blocking. It was quite the ostentatious nest for an owl.

As Harry leaned in to look inside the nest, he got the most delightful surprise. Fred's girlfriend (Mate?) was there, along with two owlets.

"Fred! You're a dad! That's so awesome, mate. I'm really happy for you and your lovely mate."

The lady owl didn't bother looking at him. She was probably too exhausted dealing with the chicks.

"Do you need anything? More food?"

Fred barked again and shook his head. He seemed offended that Harry would suggest he couldn't provide for his family.

"Ok. I was just trying to help. Do you want me to move the water trough closer to the nest or is that dangerous for the owlets?"

Fred shook again.

"Ok, ok. I won't do anything. I'm happy for you mate. Well done."

Fred puffed up. He was a proud papa.

Peru was four hours ahead of Alaska. Portkeys around the world were always a bit disorienting, and changing time zones didn't help. Harry left midafternoon but arrived at supper time. There was a note on the table stating the marauders had gone to Mrs. Mendoza's for dinner. Alejandro was expected.

When Harry arrived, the two marauders and the two Mendozas were having alfajores. Mrs. Mendoza was not going to let Harry go straight to dessert though. She made him eat his soup first. While Harry devoured Mrs. Mendoza's delicious cooking, Alejandro let them in on the purpose of his visit.

"There's to be an inquiry."

Everyone stopped what they were doing. Sirius took the lead, "Who's inquiring about what?"

"The ICW, and your little vacation on Madagascar, of course." Alejandro didn't reveal any anxiety about the topic, but neither did he give off the impression of good feelings. "The Malagasy wants the ICW to give you all medals. Of course, the ICW wants to know what happened. No one even knew there was a dark lord, and you three go and take him out. According the President Pro Tempore of Magical Madagascar, you prevented a serious breech of the Statute of Secrecy, and possibly a major international war."

No one said anything. Harry went back to his soup. Remus and Sirius drank their coffee. Both were born and bred Englishmen, so they preferred tea, but they had gotten a taste for coffee after their time in Peru.

Harry broke the silence. "Can we get in trouble?"

Alejandro smiled at him kindly. "Unlikely. Technically possible, if the new government of Madagascar wanted to press the issue, but they would most likely take that up with me, country to country. Then if they didn't get results, they might go to the ICW. But they are happy with what you did. This Randria somehow took over an entire country without having any followers of his own. He was extremely dangerous. The most that will happen is that some countries will seek to admonish you for interfering with a country's private business. It will be hard to press the issue, considering the threat to the Statute. It's political posturing."

They all took in what he said, feeling better about the idea already. Harry really didn't want to have to get a medal and make a big deal, but he thought it might insult the people he saved to refuse. He did want to go back someday to study the local flora and fauna.

"What should we tell them?" Harry was speaking only intermittently. He had gone back for more soup.

Alejandro gave him an odd look, "The truth, of course. Is there a reason not to?"

Sirius stuck up for Harry's thought, "I think he means how much of the truth. The reason we knew about the situation was because of divination rituals that Harry designed from scratch. He wants to keep those private."

Alejandro looked a little relieved. "Oh. That's fine then. Just tell them that. There will be some moaning about it, but that's just greed on the members' part. They will want to know about whatever you did so they can use it. You don't have to reveal any magic that you invented."

The next ICW meeting was in June. There was a prescheduled break in the Quidditch World Cup matches so no one missed anything. You could never predict which teams would be playing when, based on qualifiers (Unless you were Harry).

Alejandro was planning to attend the meeting. Country leaders didn't typically attend the meetings. That's what ambassadors were for. When important issues were being discussed that were vitally important to a nation, it was not completely unusual for the President or Chancellor or whomever was in charge to put in a personal appearance.

Dumbledore was the Supreme Mugwump, and officially, he was Britain's representative to the ICW. Fudge's attendance of the meeting about 'the Harry Potter situation' was one of those 'vitally important to a nation' issues. At least according to the British.

As Alejandro explained last time, the agenda was preset. That meant that everyone in the world would know going in that Harry Potter had stopped a dark lord in Madagascar. Purportedly.

It was going to be a media circus.

They would potentially ask for memories. The New Marauders really didn't want to comply with that, but it wasn't the end of the world either. Max had no opinion on it either way. They didn't want anyone to see their other worldly powers, but it wasn't like someone could copy it by watching.

The Président Intérimaire would be speaking for Madagascar.

Harry was writing to Hermione to see if she could attend the meeting. It was something the societal-conscious girl would love to see in action, and she wouldn't get many opportunities. The ICW meetings weren't exactly an open invitation to anyone.

At the time of the meeting, she would technically still be in school. It was the end of term, exams complete, but they hadn't left the school yet. She would have to get permission from Madame Maxime and her parents. Sirius volunteered to visit the elder Grangers and explain.

"You utter prat!" Once Hermione had seen him, she grabbed him like a python and started squeezing the life out of him. "How could you do something so ridiculous and stupid!?" She let loose her squeezing, grabbed him about the collar and started shaking him. "What. Were. You. Thinking!?"

Harry just laughed. He wrapped his arms around Hermione and started hugging her. He couldn't hug her while she had him wrapped up like prey. "I'm fine now Hermione. No problems. We're safe. Healthy."

Hermione growled at him. Growled. Harry just laughed at her again. "it's good to see you too. How was school this year? Anything exciting?"

Hermione just stared at him in disbelief. "You're asking about my perfectly normal classes while you were out hunting dark lords? Oh No, Mr. Potter. You will not deflect. You will be telling me everything."

"Of course, Hermione. But we don't have a lot of time. Let's head to the chamber." Harry led them towards the main amphitheater where the ambassadors met. He had met her at the main entrance, jut past security. She was on the list as part of his party. That technically meant she was here representing Peru. "Did your headmistress give you any problems about attending?"

"Oh no. She thought it was a wonderful chance to see the government in action. It's not an opportunity that comes up often, especially for a student. She was a bit surprised that I know you though." Hermione smirked at him. "I guess you're famous or something…"

Harry laughed. It was good to see Hermione again.

Président Intérimaire Felana Rabetsitonta was the woman in Harry's divination that showed him where to find the magical Malagasy. He hadn't really given much thought to the woman from the vision who drew their location on the beach. He thought he might run into her when the marauders went back to the airport to the magical district to check on everyone. They ended up spending most of their time with the aurors.

Rabetsitonta was a bureaucrat. She wasn't the leader of the country before; he was dead. She was chosen to lead until they got the government back running to its pre-dark lord days. Harry could see why she was chosen to lead, at least temporarily.

She was quite striking. Tall, regal bearing, gorgeous, and one hell of an orator. She was practically born to be a politician. She had been wasting her life in the historical records department of their ministry. She was in charge of historical precedence and was consulted frequently when new laws were considered. It was an important job, but in no way a path to national leadership.

Now, she was running the country. If she did a decent job, she had a chance to make it not a temporary gig.

When she greeted their party, she was warm and grateful. And flirting. With Sirius. Harry just rolled his eyes and looked at Hermione. She was struggling not to break into giggles as well.

They hadn't seen Dumbledore. Harry was surprised he hadn't come to scold them before the meeting. 'Harry my boy, you can't take such risks.' Beard stroking. 'You need to be playing on monkey bars and reading children's books.' Harry just shook his head. Albus Dumbledore was not his concern anymore.

Président Intérimaire Rabetsitonta was finishing her presentation. She explained the past year that her people had been in a state of sleep-living, never speaking to other people, like drones, just existing. They didn't remember it happening at the time, but remembered the effects after the fact.

It was just as insidious as the Imperius curse. The Malagasy government still didn't know how it was accomplished over an entire country. She briefed the world's ambassadors on the bomb at the airport that would have decimated the magical population and killed hundreds of non-magique as well.

She told them how Remus Lupin came in and vanished the explosives and then dueled the dark lord single handedly, but he escaped.

She told them of the giant attack on the beach, the major breech of the Statue of Secrecy, and how Sirius Black distracted the giants forcing them to only fight each other, and how not a single non-magique was killed.

She told them Harry Potter killed the dark lord inside the non-magique President's palace without a single mundane person coming to any harm, nor was there any breech of the Statue in the process.

She told them about the demons.

That led to an uproar. Most westerners didn't really believe demons were real. They were children's stories to scare children into behaving. They weren't real. Several eastern nations and many African countries just nodded their heads at the idea of demons. They knew there were things in the dark that you didn't provoke.

It took Dumbledore several minutes to regain control of the proceedings. The entire time Hermione was trying to break Harry's hand, she was squeezing so hard. When the demons were mentioned, she just raised her brow in question, is that true? Harry was grim as he gave her a single nod.

Hermione gasped. She had no idea demons were real. Of course, she believed him. He was Harry.

When order was restored in the amphitheater, there were many many questions. Felana Rabetsitonta had few answers. That meant it was time for the marauders to testify. Or answer questions, really. The President Pro Tempore had done a fine job relaying the events.

Sirius was practically a bard before he got supernatural DD bardic powers. He took the lead. He briefed that everything PI Rabetsitonta said was true. Their family didn't have anything to add, but they would answer questions.

Dozens of country's speaker podiums lit up. In situations like this traditionally the big 5 were called on first. They weren't a security council, but they had massive magical populations, huge economic power, and usually long histories. The United States being one of the big 5 was the only exception to the last qualifier. India, China, Indonesia and Brazil rounded out the big 5.

Dumbledore called on the ambassador for India.

An man who had to be older than Dumbledore slowly raised to the India podium, "I see many of my colleagues have things to say or ask. Perhaps it would be a prudent idea to have our new heroes share their memories of the events. It might save us a lot of time when no one believes their words."

There was quite a stir at that last jab. The Indian ambassador didn't betray his thoughts whether this was all nonsense or not, but it wasn't a bad plan. Memories were incredibly difficult to fake, and it was clearly obvious when someone did.

Dumbledore turned to the Peruvian delegation and asked if they were willing. The New Marauders had previously discussed the topic ad nauseum and finally agreed that it didn't matter if they did. They might as well to make it easier and quicker to get them out of here.

Sirius spoke for the group, "We have no issue sharing, though our experience in doing so is limited."

Albus just nodded, "That is no issue. If you consent, the ICW Maester Scribe can retrieve the memories."

This was a calculated move suggested by Alejandro. It would lessen the suspicion that the memories were faked. It was all show. If the memories were faked, it would be obvious, but this would be a psychological tactic.

The first memory to play was Remus's assault on the airport. It started with him arriving in the bathroom. It clearly showed him testing the notice-me-nots before he cast a bubblehead charm. When he went through the barrier, he paused only a second before vanishing the explosives. Then the real action started.

There were many appropriate oohs and ahhs during the duel, and then there was gasps of surprise and concern when Randria turned into a being of shadow. Remus's Patronus got cheers. It truly was a beautiful sight.

Then next memory was Sirius on the beach. Sirius had a tendency to talk out loud and garnered several chuckles at his comments on fighting giants alone. The laughing stopped when the actual giants showed up.

The room was silent. The only sound was from the memory of Sirius casting ENEMIES ABOUND over and over and the giants smashing each other.

When Remus showed up things escalated quickly, and again everyone cheered at the dual Patronuses that drove off the dark lord Shadow Nic.

The next memory was Harry arriving at the back corner of the Palace. Harry was long past moralizing over taking a life. Evil people needed to be stopped. He had no issue stopping them. He still threw up when he did it, but he head learned to move past the guilt of taking a life.

So, he wasn't concerned about most of the world seeing this memory with one exception. He was worried about Hermione. She was only 14 years old. She was going to watch him murder a man. He hoped she wasn't scarred.

The ICW chambers were quiet as they watched Harry pick his way through all the trapped rooms, silently disarming any number of deadly things. It was actually quite impressive if you didn't know he had spent weeks working out how to do it in his Dream.

When he got to Nic's room, the memory faded and a second one picked up in the same spot. Harry lit up the speaker's podium.

"This is a second memory because I spent almost two hours waiting in that room. I figured you all don't want to watch me daydream for that long."

There was quite a bit of chuckling in the room at that pronouncement. No one had any issues and the second memory continued with Shadow Nic bursting into the room. It seemed like everyone was holding their breath. Remus had dueled him to a standstill, but here was Harry Potter, alone with a madman.

The shadows drew into themselves and Nicolas Randria was back, pacing, furious. The memory showed Harry stand up and walk up to Nicolas's back and stun him.

The ICW was stunned.

Then memory Harry cast Diffindo.

The ICW chambers were awash in sound now. Everyone had something to say about that, but Dumbledore wasn't calling on anyone to speak. He was watching Harry. The real Harry with a disappointed look on his face. Harry just stared back at him.

He gestured towards the pensieve. Dumbledore finally understood what he meant and got the room under control.

There was one more memory to see.

It showed the marauders meeting back up and checking each other over. Then it showed them portkey to the clearing with the demons.

If the noise level at Harry's killing the dark lord was loud, this was an uproar. These were clearly not human. And clearly not any known magical creature.

Sirius cast the killing curse, dropping the drow/Yochlol. Harry was sure that would be questioned later. Then the rest of the fight. It was odd watching it back. Detached.

The ICW almost lost it when Remus turned into a T-Rex. That would be another question.

When Harry unleashed fiendfyre, the room was quiet again. Shocked. Terrified. Horrified. Many ambassadors kept looking back at the Peruvian podium to see that Harry really was still alive and here with them today.

There were going to be a lot of questions.

The ambassador for China was called on first. "I would like to know what caused these men to go to Madagascar to begin with. How did they know what was going on and where to go?"

Sirius was their designated spokesman unless someone asked a specific person a question. "Harry has an affinity for divination. He received a… divining I guess…a Sight… that something was wrong in Madagascar. He didn't know all the details, or any details really. Just that they needed help. So, he designed a huge divination ritual to get intelligence on the state of things in the country. All the actions we took were in response to the visions that Harry received from his ritual."

There was a lot of yelling again. Harry looked towards Hermione. She just smiled at him and nodded. When he first wrote a letter to her years ago, he told her he had had a dream-like vision about a girl named Hermione in England that led him to write to her.

It took her a while, but she finally accepted that it was true. After she learned about magic, she realized that Harry was a Seer. She didn't care for divination herself, but she appreciated that it was a real magical art.

Cornelius Fudge was in attendance. Harry shuddered when he got up to speak. He really still hated Fudge. "Rituals are dark magic. You can't allow a child to do such dark acts. The boy should be sent back to England before he becomes a dark lord himself…"

Fudge was drowned out by the chambers. Albus had to quiet everyone again. "Minister, I understand that in our country these things are viewed that way, but many other nations do not follow that prescription for ritual magic. I'm afraid that British laws do not apply here."

Albus had to walk a line here. He was British and was technically their rep to the ICW, but he was also Supreme Mugwump. Even if he believed ritual magic was dark, there wasn't anything he could do about it.

The representative from China was called again since this was originally his question, "I wish to know the details about this ritual."

Everyone looked towards Peru. Sirius started to speak, but Harry grabbed his arm and stopped him. He stepped up to the podium himself. "I designed this ritual myself. It is my proprietary magic. I will not share it."

That got a reaction. First of all, a 13-year-old designed a divination ritual. Second, he refused to answer a question by the ICW. He was standing up to the ambassador of China, one of the most powerful men in the world.

Harry could see that the rep from China wanted to say more, but he knew it was no use. No one would force a boy to reveal magic he invented like that, not here anyway. If he wanted to know, he would have to negotiate for it. Selling magical inventions was a way some made a living after all.

There were several questions about the ambush of the dark lord, which were all answered honestly. The man was a threat. Harry knew how to get to him. He didn't want a protracted fight with a dark lord. Someone did ask about the body.

"Oh. Erm… well. I forgot about that." He turned and grabbed his rucksack with the undetectable extension charms and pulled out two bones. "Here you go."

That took some sorting out.

They had all seen Harry transfigure the body into bones. It was shocking he had been carrying them around.

Technically the man was Malagasy, so his remains belonged to them for disposition. They didn't want them. They didn't want his spirit to have reason to corrupt their nation anymore. The ICW took custody, but not before someone called for them to be reverted to their natural form.

The Maester Scribe undid the transfiguration. The body and head of Nicolas Randria landed on the floor of the ICW headquarters. Albus suggested that representatives from the ICW study the body to see if the demons had any adverse effects. It was agreed to quickly.

There were questions about Remus being an unregistered animagus and by-the-way, 'how the hell are you a dinosaur animagus?' That took some explaining. No one believed he wasn't an animagus until they did the spell to reveal animagus on the Peruvian delegation. Only Sirius and Harry glowed in faint blue light. They were both registered.

Remus's transformation was attributed to human transfiguration that did not become animagus. Like what Krum did in the Tri-Wizard tournament, only way better. Albus was impressed, and speculative.

There were lots of questions about the demons themselves, but the marauders didn't know where they came from or where the Arcanaloth fled to.

In the end, most people believed the things that happened. Whether they wanted to give the marauders medals for it was a different question. That would be debated the next day when they weren't present.

The marauders weren't too fussed either way. They did their duty. They stopped a dark lord. Now they had answered the world's questions. If they didn't think they deserved medals, so be it. The ICW version of the Order of Merlin were not common. Dumbledore had one for Grindelwald. You never heard about it in Britain.

Most people didn't even realize there were country-level Orders of Merlin and the ICW version. No one would conflate Cornelius Fudge's Order of Merlin with Albus Dumbledore's.

That night at dinner had Hermione bombarding Harry with questions. She was mostly interested in the new magic. The magic they had used in the fight with the demons, and the magic rituals he had designed.

He offered to let her read his notes on the divination ritual, but only if she swore never to reveal it to another person.

"But Harry, everyone should have access to that. Shouldn't information be free?"

Harry, ever the model of patience with his best friend replied, "Hermione, should everyone have access to the knowledge of how to build a nuclear weapon?"

She just sputtered in response, "Don't be ridiculous Harry. Its not the same thing at all…"

"Hermione, stop and think please. I used those rituals to invade a country and overthrow the ruler of that country, even if he was a dark lord. Especially because he was a dark lord. Think about that information on how to do that available to anyone."

Her shoulders sagged. You're right. I just hate when I don't know something."

"I offered to let you use it. You just have to swear not to let anyone else see. I trust you, Hermione."

Like the Grinch's heart, her smile grew three sizes that day.

"Besides, you're pants at divination anyway. You probably couldn't get any of it to work." Harry realized his mistake as her smile instantly flipped to a scowl and she started hitting him with a breadstick.

The next day, the marauders received word to present themselves at the afternoon session. They figured they were getting medals.

They arrived a few minutes early to find the woman who conducted Harry's Divination NEWT testing.

"Mr. Potter, I am Xiuying Thon. I tested you for your NEWT in Divination. Might I have a word?"

"Sure, Professor Xiuying." Harry followed the old woman into an alcove a few doors down from the main amphitheater.

When they arrived, she cut straight to it. "Would you share your ritual with me?"

Harry wasn't going to mince words either. "Why?"

"I am curious. Designing rituals so young is impressive. And dangerous."

"Yes, it was a bit… shaky. I had severe magical exhaustion when I was done."

She was even more curious now, "Oh really, it was so large a ritual that you were exhausted? How long did it take?"

"Thirteen days."

Professor Xiuying Thon, Mistress of Divination, and ICW expert on the subject that had testified in many proceedings, and NEWT tester for the last 75 years was dumbstruck. "how… how many people were involved in the ritual?"

"Oh. Well. Remus and Sirius participated in one, but they helped a lot with the setup for most of the others. I did all the rest."

"I am very confused. Please. Please tell me everything" Professor Xiuying seemed very concerned.

"Erm… Look. I meant what I said in the inquiry. I don't want to share it with anyone. It's dangerous."

She interrupted him, "I know. Believe me, I know how dangerous this information is."

"Would you swear not to share it with anyone else?" Harry was curious. He had given Hermione an enchanted copy of his notes that only she could read after she swore not to share it with anyone.

He didn't know this woman except that she tested him for his NEWT.

"I will swear an oath if you wish."

Harry, Sirius and Remus all received Orders of Merlin. The ICW didn't have 'classes' (1st Class, 2nd Class, etc.). They just had the Order of Merlin. Receiving it from the ICW was the equivalent of a 1st Class in countries that did that (Britain and others). The country's (Britain and others) version was not necessarily the same as the ICW.

In short, if the marauders ever went back to Britain, they could claim to have OoM, 1st Class.

The marauders escorted Hermione back to her parents' house and spent a few days with the Grangers.

Harry Potter

Divination Wizard (Level 9)

Strength: 12

Dexterity: 16

Constitution: 16

Intelligence: 22

Wisdom: 14

Charisma: 12

Feat(s): Alert, Prodigy, Metamagic Adept (Subtle Spell, Distant Spell)

Ability: Mage Sight, Darkvision

Skills Proficiencies: Arcana, Deception, History, Insight, Investigation, Survival, Land Vehicles, Sleight of Hand, Potter's Tools

Expertise: Arcana

Languages: English, French, Parseltongue, Goblin, Spanish, Draconic, Universal Language Translator

Cantrips: Fire Bolt, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Friends, Mending

Level 1 Spells: Charm Person, Disguise Self, Identify, Shield, Sleep, Unseen Servant, Chromatic Orb, Comprehend Languages, Speak with Animals, Detect Magic

Level 2 Spells: Hold Person, Invisibility, Acid Arrow, Suggestion

Level 3 Spells: Fireball, Remove Curse, Dispel Magic, Hypnotic Pattern, Lightning Bolt

Level 4 Spells: Locate Creature, Polymorph, Stone Shape, Vitriolic Sphere

Level 5 Spells: Transmute Rock, Passwall

Titles and Awards: Order of Merlin (ICW)

Chapter 26: Back to Britain

Chapter Text

"Max."

"Yes, Harry?"

"Why do I keep forgetting about Voldemort and my main mission? Is that something your team is doing? Is it the HUD?"

"We're not doing anything to your mind Harry."

"So why do I keep getting focused on other quests and shit? I know we have horcruxes we can grab. There are people we could… take care of… We aren't preparing at all. And there's other stuff too. Like, I know I've questioned this kind of thing before, but I forget or just don't do anything."

…

"Harry, what do you know of Physics?"

"Huh?"

"Physics, Harry. The study of the universe."

"What do you know about physics? You've been dead for 200 years."

"This July, it will be exactly 200 years. Well calculated. That's a lot of time to read. I know a lot about the universe. Have you ever heard of the Laws of Conservation?"

"Erm. You can't destroy energy?"

"Yes, exactly. Or mass or charge or various other things. There are several. There are also several that mortal humans have not discovered. And they may not ever. Who's to say."

"So, I'm guessing there is a Law that we don't know about that applies here?"

"Yes. That bonus to intelligence is really paying off. The Law of Conservation of Time, and the related but less known corollary The Law of Conservation of Fate."

"Would that be why I keep kept getting snapped back in time to fulfill my destiny or fate or whatever?"

"Yes, precisely. That's why Prophecy Delivery Teams exist at all. Otherwise, the universe would implode on itself, and why Free Will is only for other people. That's the Conservation of Fate anyway. The Time Law is the cause of your memory problems. I think."

Harry grumbled "You think? Please explain Time to me."

"That's a rather large topic, but the Conservation of Time and Fate combined basically mean that certain things are meant to happen. The universe wants them to occur. Time by itself wants certain things to be. Fate requires certain things to be."

"So…. Time wants things to go a certain way, so I keep forgetting. It what? Wants me to fight Tom is some epic duel or something instead of assassinating him. And Fate just requires me to beat him."

"Essentially."

"But time is only a want, right? I can still fuck things up if I focus on it, right?"

"Yes, if you complete your prophecy and fulfill your fate, you are safe. Of course, there may be consequences to meddling with Time. Time is one of the Powers. I've told you that much."

"Is Voldemort a victim of fate too, then?"

"Oh, certainly."

"Is he going to end up a processing agent after he dies?"

"No."

"I thought it was a punishment. And you mentioned all my other agents, they were all bad people, Nero, Stalin, you, whoever else…"

"Under other circumstances, you would probably be right. He is quite devious. He would make an excellent agent, but he broke one of the Laws. What we do with the PDTs is a penance. There is no penance for what he has done. He profaned his soul.

It was still early Summer when Harry talked to Sirius and Remus. "We need to talk about Voldie."

"You're not sinking Azkaban." Remus was rubbing his temples already. This argument was an old one.

Harry pressed forward, "I'm not talking about that, or not that specifically. I mean that we need to do something. Or at least plan something. The Quidditch World Cup is soon. If we're going to stop Crouch, that's the best time to do it."

Sirius hummed. Remus went to grab the whiskey.

After they all settled down, Sirius got the conversation rolling again, "Why do you think the Cup is the time and place? We know he'll attack Moody. We know he'll be at Hogwarts."

"I don't know when he attacks Mad-Eye so we can't plan for that. Once he's at Hogwarts, we have to deal with Dumbledore." Harry thought it was logical.

Remus had concerns, "Grabbing someone from the World Cup seems difficult. There will be thousands of people around. There will be wards."

Harry waved him off, "Last time he disappeared, probably with apparition. I don't think he had anyone helping him at that point. We wait for him to cast the dark mark, or right before he does it, stun him and portkey away. Probably to a secondary portkey, maybe even a third."

Sirius piped in, "you think he'll be in the same spot? We can look in the pensieve to find it, but it's easy enough for him go somewhere else."

Harry waggled his hand, "I'm assuming there will be apparition wards. He'll have to move outside them. I doubt he had a portkey. We should watch the memory to be sure."

The three marauders dove into the pensieve to watch the whole situation after Harry was woken up in the Weasley tent until he was back at the Burrow. There were lots of options that they could change. Should they derail the Death Eaters' party? Should they try to save the family that was attacked? Do they let Barty cast the Dark Mark?

"If we let him cast the mark, maybe we can get Winky to work for us." Harry mused.

"You really think we need a house elf?" Remus was confused. Their home was clean. They traveled all the time. They all could cook, at least a little.

Harry shrugged, "It's just an idea. House elves are useful. Besides, she doesn't take it well being free. Turns into a drunk."

"If we don't let Junior cast the mark, there's no reason for the elder Crouch to free Winky. She would stay happy." Remus thought the window of grabbing Barty Jr. was too small.

Sirius disagreed though, "Two points. One, making Crouch free his elf will piss off Crouch and I hate him. Two, we don't want a house elf coming after us to find Barty Jr. She might be able to pop right to us and fuck up our day."

"Does Grimmauld Place have dungeons we could use to interrogate him?" Harry had never really explored the depths of the dark townhouse.

"It does… what do you want to interrogate him for? Isn't it better to just off him?" Sirius didn't see the point.

"Just to make sure there aren't anymore surprises with Voldie. I don't know. This is a war, right? Aren't you supposed to interrogate prisoners?" Harry wanted to plan this better than his snatch and grab of Lucius.

Sirius just shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so. I know he's a piece of shit murdering psycho, but do we really have to kill him? Why not give him to the DMLE? That would also make dear old Daddy Crouch get his own room in Azkaban."

Remus was glad he brought up a non-murder option, "I agree, though we would have to figure out how to get him to the DMLE without it getting traced back to us."

"We should get horcruxes while we're back in country." Harry was still upset about his memory gaps and had taken to writing things down again. He made lists when he first got put back into the timeline but had fallen out of practice since he got his godfather and pseudo-uncle back in his life. He now had a to-do list for the war. Parts one to seven were horcruxes. Two were crossed out. "Probably not all of them. I want to be out of the country when the Goblet happens."

"Why? I thought Max said you were fucked if your name came out no matter which country you were in," Remus said.

"Plausible deniability. I want to be with Professor Mendoza or Alejandro or anyone really in a country far the fuck away from Scotland."

Sirius was surprised, "You still think your name will be entered if we grab Barty?"

Harry just looked at him. He didn't need to say anything. He had relayed the conversation with Max about Conservation of Time.

"Right."

Sirius was back at Grimmauld place preparing the dungeon, refreshing the wards on the room, and telling Kreacher what was going to happen. Kreacher was quite pleased that 'blood traitor Master' was acting like a proper Black. By that he meant kidnapping and interrogation, preferably by torture.

Sirius had to fight very hard not to just behead the little beast, but Harry had a soft spot for house elves.

Harry and Remus would be snatching Barty Jr. Harry wanted to do it himself, but that was a nonstarter with the older marauders.

They had watched the memory of Harry's last life at least a dozen times. Timing was everything. There was very little time between the casting of the dark mark, stunning Winky, and the apparition escape. They had to let him do the first two but grab him before the third.

When Harry and Remus arrived on the campgrounds of the Quidditch World Cup, a ton of new quests popped up for them. They planned to ignore them all.

Save the Family from the Death Eaters!

Kill 10 Death Eaters!

Win at least 1000 Galleons from Betting on the Cup!

Pretend to be a Player and Sneak into the World Cup to Play!

Stop Barty Crouch Jr. Protect Alastor Moody from Capture!

They might get credit for the last one, but they weren't worried about it regardless.

Harry and Remus found what was probably the area late in the evening, and Harry cast INVISIBILITY on both. It was more effective than a disillusionment charm. They silenced their footsteps and waited. They only waited an hour or so before they heard the screams far off signifying that Conservation of Time was working in their favor this time around. They didn't want to see people made into victims of the death eaters, but they needed some consistency to knab Barty.

They heard him before they saw him in the low light. When he came into sight, Winky the house elf was also there, pleading with her master to be good boy and go home. Barty Jr. was having none of it however and promptly stunned her. That saved the two of them having to do it.

Morsmordre

The Dark Mark. Barty was still mumbling to himself when Remus's stupefy hit him in the back. Harry ran over and grabbed the wand and threw it at the stunned form of Winky. It was perhaps cruel to set her up like that, but Barty Sr. freeing her might help them to evade her in the future. House elves were still so misunderstood. No one truly knew how much power they had.

If Winky was free, Barty Jr. would not be her master and… theoretically… she would have a tougher time finding him. Assuming she even looked during her depression.

Everything was a what if.

Remus grabbed Barty and quietly, but not whispering said "Ready."

Harry grabbed Barty as well and repeated "Ready." And activated his first portkey. The first portkey took them to the hut on the rock that Harry's uncle tried to hide on when Harry was receiving Hogwarts letters. That didn't happen this time line so it wouldn't have any connection to Harry Potter.

Remus repeated "Ready."

Harry also said "Ready" and this time Remus activated his portkey to a wooded area he had once transformed in in a pinch.

Finally, after a repeat of the 'ready' designation, Remus activated a third portkey that took them inside Number 12, Grimmauld Place. Harry immediately dropped the invisibility and re-stunned Barty.

Harry hadn't been here in this timeline, and it had been almost six years since he last set foot inside. Some of the details were hazy. He couldn't remember if it always felt this overbearing, but he remembered the troll leg. He remembered the portrait of Walburga Black. And he remembered Kreacher who was now staring at the three men in the entry way.

"Nasty blood traitor Master is ready in dungeon. Follow Kreacher."

The ancient house elf brooked no dissent, and started walking towards a china cabinet that Harry didn't remember at all. It could have been cursed for all he knew, and he had avoided or been told to avoid it.

Kreacher snapped his fingers and the possibly cursed china cabinet slid away from the wall revealing a dark passageway down.

There were literal dungeons beneath 12 Grimmauld Place. Harry had no idea. Sure, Padfoot said there were, but that was different than actually seeing the chains on the walls and torture implements. The New Marauders didn't have any plans to torture Barty, but it was quite surreal for Harry.

They had him chained to the wall before Harry remembered to search him.

Accio wands. Accio money. Accio papers. Accio portkeys.

They didn't expect any of those things, but it was good practice. They were fighting a war, even if the other side didn't realize operations had picked back up. Sure, they had their little masquerade party at the Quidditch World Cup, but that was hardly a wartime strike. Maybe a psychological attack.

Sirius had chalked a line on the stone flooring that was 15 feet from the wall. He cast ZONE OF TRUTH. As he did that, Harry pulled on the Portents of Fate to ensure Barty Jr. would be affected by the spell.

Sirius nodded, indicating it had taken hold. He then cast CHARM PERSON and DETECT THOUGHTS. When Sirius first received the HUD, he listed the spells that the PDT had chosen for him. He didn't know anything about them. Harry explained each one. None of the marauders knew why he had been given ZONE OF TRUTH. It seemed like such an odd choice at the time.

Now it made sense. There was no need to brew veritaserum. Not for today's activities anyway. They might need the quicker potion in the future.

Harry and Remus back around the corner so Barty wouldn't see them. He should be friendly with Sirius at this point. Sirius woke him up. Renervate.

"Barty! How ya doing? It's been so long since Azkaban. Look at us. The only two people to ever escape."

"Sirius Black? Right. Right. Why am I chained to the wall?" Barty was definitely confused. As far as he knew, he and Sirius had always been friends.

"Your piece of shit father had you under the Imperius Curse. We have to make sure you're all clear of it before I let you go. Then we can go see to the dark lord." Sirius had a very high skill in Deception. He had that before he became a bard. Now it was better.

"Right. Makes sense. Wouldn't want to run afoul of some trigger and end up back at home." Barty's eyes were completely glazed. His mind was clearly weakened from the years of abuse by his father.

"Right, where are we to meet the dark lord? Little Hangleton?"

"I don't' know. I just got free. I was going to follow the mark to our Lord."

"Of course, of course. Let me just get you a chair to be more comfortable while we make sure the Imperius is truly gone." Sirius walked back around the corner to Remus and Harry. "What the fuck else am I supposed to ask him? He just woke up from an Imperius nap. He not going to know shit."

Remus and Harry looked at each other. They hadn't planned this very well. They planned the snatch and grab extremely well. They even set up for the interrogation in a way that they all thought was very clever.

They never considered the victim would be useless.

Harry put up a Muffliato sound blocking charm. "This is pointless. We need to just eliminate him."

Remus and Sirius both groaned. "No. We're dumping him through the floo. We talked about this." Harry just grumbled it was a mistake, but didn't argue.

"Well… get rid of him then." Harry pouted.

Sirius went back into the room with Barty and before he could ask where the chair was, he was stunned again. "You know, the World Cup just happened. The aurors are going to be busy all night. Maybe we should do something more than just stun him."

Remus was the first to reply, "What do you have in mind Padfoot?"

"Draught of Living Death"

Harry was their potioneer, "Draught of Living Death takes four hours to make unless you have some laying around."

Sirius didn't, of course, and any potions left in Grimmauld Place were long past spoiling. Harry went to start brewing. It was a NEWT level potion, so he would have no problem with it. It would just take time.

Sirius and Remus took turns stunning Barty Jr. They set timers to re-stun him every 30 minutes. It was probably overkill, but they weren't exactly concerned with his health. They may not want to kill him, but that was more to protect Harry from any more killing than necessary.

Four hours later, Sirius performed a perfect switching spell to spell the Draught directly into Barty's stomach.

Harry just wanted to be done with this bust of a mission. "Are you going to toss him through the floo now? I'm tired."

"We'll have to take him somewhere else for a departure point. The Floo Network Authority would be able to track him if they know what time he arrived at the ministry." Sirius was a Black, and Black's knew how to get away with shady shite.

Some glamour charms on Sirius and Remus, an Obliviate and an INVISIBILITY spell on Barty, and a public Floo station in Cardiff, and the New Marauders were prisoner free.

Quest Complete: Stop Barty Crouch Jr. Protect Alastor Moody from Capture!

You have learned the spell: Phantasmal Killer

"How many of the Horcruxes do you want to go after?" It was breakfast (it was midday, but they were eating eggs so it still counted) the next day. Remus was leading the planning discussion this morning as he seemed the least tired. Since the curing of his Lycanthropy, he seemed to just have tons of energy.

"The locket is here. That's easy. The ring is in the Gaunt house in Little Hangleton. That should be doable. The only issue is doing it without Voldie not realizing it. We just have to be careful when we break in." Harry wasn't too concerned about it. He thought Parseltongue might get him through a lot of it. "The cup is in Bellatrix's vault. No idea how to get that. The diadem is in Hogwarts. Probably have to wait for Dumbledore to leave for something before we can sneak in."

Sirius and Remus agreed with his assessment. Two horcruxes would make the trip not feel like a waste. They had stopped Barty Jr., so it wasn't really a waste, but their inability to pry any intelligence from him made it feel like a failure.

Remus asked about timing. Sirius had the answer, "If we go today, in the daylight it should be good. If we went at night, we would have to make lights which would draw attention in the dark, and we can assume that whoever replaced Wormtail is briefing the dark wanker on the events at the Cup last night. That should be a good distraction for him."

All three agreed.

Dumbledore had told Harry in his last life that retrieving the ring had been a little adventure or something like that. Harry couldn't remember exactly what he said, because he didn't feel like any of the headmaster's advice about Horcruxes was worth remembering. He had sent three teenagers out on a world-saving mission with a snitch, a lighter, and a book of fairy tales.

Harry still had some unresolved anger with Albus.

They watched a pensieve memory of Harry watching the pensieve memory of Bob Ogden. It wasn't completely clear. A memory of a memory made things… uncertain. They had enough to start with however. Remus could cast LOCATE OBJECT.

Little Hangleton was not a large borough, so it took less than an hour of apparating around under notice-me-not charms to find the shack.

There was a malevolence that emanated from the area. It was hard to pinpoint if it was from the horcrux, or just some kind of repelling ward. They didn't want to tear down the wards if they could help it. Harry could potentially cast DISPEL MAGIC and rid the shack of protections, but then they would be entrusting their mission to luck.

It would be lucky if Voldemort didn't check on the shack. He wouldn't send a minion. These secrets would not be revealed by his paranoia. As a counter argument, none of them were curse-breakers or ward masters. They were all experts in magical theory. They could wing it.

Both were a risk.

Harry opened his Magesight to look at the protections. He hadn't used the is ability much since he received it, but he had messed around with it enough to have a basic understanding of what it was showing him.

The protections around the Gaunt hovel were amazing. There were layers upon layers of wards, traps, and guardians. If Voldemort did this as a teenager, he might be the most brilliant mind the wizarding world had ever seen. The other option was that he had come back later and added some of these protections after he had been around in the world.

No matter how scary the protections were, there were ways around and through. It would be useless to a dark lord to have a horcrux that none of your disciples could access to revive you.

The scariest protections were on the shack itself, but those were the protections Harry was least concerned with. If they could get safely to the shack through the outer wards, Harry could just cheat inside the building with PASSWALL, his new fifth level spell.

He originally chose that spell to eventually help rob Gringotts, but it would be useful for this Horcrux as well.

"What if we took down the outer protections, but put them back up after we're done?" Harry wanted a quick and easy solution.

Sirius had the most experience with wards, even if they were all experts in magical theory. "It wouldn't matter. He's brilliant enough to realize the wards are by someone else. You might as well just take them down and not replace them for all the good replacing them will do in hiding what we did."

That gave Remus an idea, "What if we took down the outer protections, and Harry left the house protections on like he said, and left it like that? It might look like the outer protections faded over time, but the house's stayed anchored?"

No one was sure if that would work, but they also didn't have any better ideas. They decided to go for it. Harry would have loved to just DISPEL MAGIC on the outer protections but it targeted creatures or objects, not undefined 'areas'. If they were destroying the protections on the shack, he could target the building.

These wards weren't anchored to anything. It made them substantially weaker, but harder to interact with, even in the normal practice of ward breaking. It would be great if he could just target the ground as an object…

Could he?

Could he dispel the ground?

Harry shrugged and cast DISPEL MAGIC. For a moment nothing happened. Then something roared. Yep, he definitely couldn't dispel the ground. The wards were still there, and now something was awake.

A giant earthen serpent burst out of the ground directly in front of them. It was easily twice the size of the basilisk. It immediately dove at Harry.

Harry, however, was Alert and could not be surprised. He apparated 30 feet away and started firing blasting curses at the dirt monster.

Remus and Sirius scattered shortly after. Spreading out was a good tactic when faced with a single powerful enemy. They could only focus on one person while the other two marauders could attack freely.

The snake went after Sirius who started conjuring walls and transfiguring the earth to try to slow it down. It wasn't much help due to the sheer size of the beast. It was bursting through every barricade Sirius put up.

Harry's blasting curses were having no effect. Chunks of dirt would be thrown off, but it would just fill back in from other parts of the snake. It picked up dirt from the ground, essentially healing itself as it moved. He tried to DISPEL MAGIC on the beast to remove the source of the enchantment. It blinked at the effort, then switched targets from Padfoot to Harry.

Now Harry was on the defensive, and Padfoot could start unleashing with dark curses from the Black family.

Remus was trying to slow it down with ice and cold. Snakes hate the cold. This snake wasn't cold blooded, however. It wasn't blooded at all. All Remus's efforts did give Harry an idea though.

"Water! Moony, soak the thing!" Harry was still on the defensive, switching between conjured walls like Sirius and casting SHIELD when the thing got too close.

Remus didn't question the order in the battle situation. He cast WATERY SPHERE. The dirt snake was far too large to be captured by the spell, but it did make a lot of water. He started alternating between that and WALL OF WATER. He didn't see Harry's plan, but the water was slowing the creature down.

It was a lot harder to move that amount of mass when its soaked in water.

When Harry thought the thing was significantly a mud monster instead of an earthen one, he cast TRANSMUTE ROCK.

All of the mud in the construct snake's body instantly solidified into solid rock. It wasn't a creature restrained by hardened mud. It was completely made of it, and now it was solid all the way through.

"Blasting Curses!"

The marauders all launched Confringos. The snake exploded in showers of rock.

They still had to get through the wards.

It took another hour to get through the outer ward through trial and error, even with their expertise in all things Arcana. After that, getting to the horcrux was incredibly easy with PASSWALL.

The incredibly powerful compulsions on the ring were severely dampened by the fact that the horcrux couldn't legilimize the marauders to see their fears and desires. Dumbledore had fallen prey to his greatest desire to get the Resurrection Stone. It made the horcrux's job easy. The marauders were immune to legilimency.

It took almost as long to restore the grounds and surrounding area to normal as it did to get in. The snake really did a number on the garden.

Dumbledore had been right about one thing: this was a little adventure.

The marauder family went back to Terra Messis with plans to destroy the horcruxes in the same cave Harry had used before. First, they needed a good night's sleep. They hadn't stuck around in England after they got the locket from Kreacher.

They were all reading their mail back log, sitting by the fire. Padfoot was updating them on Narcissa's efforts to clean up Knockturn Alley when Harry found a letter with an ICW seal.

Groaning about what they could possibly want now, Harry cracked it open. It was from Xiuying Thon, the ICW's Mistress of Divination. She wanted to inform him that she had personally seen his Divination NEWT score upgraded to Outstanding based on the Quidditch World Cup. (The outcome of the match was exactly the same with Krum and the snitch, but Bulgaria still losing).

She also wanted permission to share his major ritual with the Guild of Oracles.

Harry groaned again.

The three marauders were back in the mountain cave where Harry had first cast fiendfyre to destroy the diary.

Nothing had grown here. No animals had moved in, not even insects. The cave was for all intents and purposes, dead.

Harry had nearly died here last time, but he had twice as much experience with the cursed flames now, and it was much easier to control with Sirius and Remus fight it back as well.

They placed the horcruxes in the back of the cave. Harry had the most raw power so he would cast the spell. Once the cursed objects were destroyed, the other two would join in fighting the fire back to extinguish it.

Pestis Incendium

Hellfire versions of griffons, thestrals, and phoenixes charged at the horcruxes. The object tried to fight back, but they had no mental manipulations to use on the marauders. The ring was destroyed quickly. The locket took a few seconds longer. They hadn't bothered to open it. They were just going to destroy the entire thing.

After two trauma-inducing screams from the ring and the locket, all three marauders started fighting the fire. It was getting easier each time.

Once the flames were out, the three went back to the mouth of the cave to rest. Harry wanted to check that things were completely destroyed. He had a hunch that the Stone might have survived. While they waited to recover their strength, and to let the cave cool down, Harry received notifications that the quests were complete.

Quest Complete: Soul Quest 2: Destroy the Locket!

Unique Reward Received

Quest Complete: Soul Quest 5: Destroy the Ring!

Unique Reward Received

Harry selected the locket quest. He received some amount of XP, but he was more interested in the Unique Reward.

You have received a Beast Master Bond

Huh. Like a ranger? That was fucking cool. He didn't feel different though. Maybe he needed to go find something to bond with. Maybe he could bond with Fred? Ranger beast master's companions were combat companions though. Fred seemed more of a lover than a fighter. It was something to look into later.

He selected the ring quest. Some more XP…

LEVEL UP!

Oh! He didn't' realize they were that close. That's awesome. The unique reward…

You have received the ability TURN UNDEAD

Interesting. If he ever ran into any inferi, that would be useful.

Harry thought it was probably cool enough by now to go check on the stone, and sure enough, there sat the Resurrection Stone. He just shook his head. He would have to find somewhere safe to store it.

When he picked it up, he received a new quest:

Quest Received: Become the Master of Death!

Unique Rewards

Status: Deathly Hallows owned (1/3)

That was not a quest he intended to finish. Although with the PDT and the Conservation of Time (and maybe Fate?) who the fuck knows what will happen. He was still too tired from fighting the fiendfyre to worry right now.

Harry was so focused on his internal monologue, that he didn't notice the other presence in the cave.

§ Master? §

Harry practically jumped. He didn't, because he was Alert, but it still shook him out of his thoughts. He turned to find a juvenile snake. He immediately felt his Ranger Companion Bond solidify. It was dark in the cave. He had Darkvision, but it was like seeing in greyscale. So, he had no clue what type of snake it was.

Once the bond formed, he knew.

It was a goddamned basilisk.

Harry Potter

Divination Wizard (Level 10)

Strength: 12

Dexterity: 16

Constitution: 16

Intelligence: 22

Wisdom: 14

Charisma: 12

Feat(s): Alert, Prodigy, Metamagic Adept (Subtle Spell, Distant Spell)

Ability: Mage Sight, Darkvision, Beast Master Bond, Turn Undead, Third Eye

Skills Proficiencies: Arcana, Deception, History, Insight, Investigation, Survival, Land Vehicles, Sleight of Hand, Potter's Tools

Expertise: Arcana

Languages: English, French, Parseltongue, Goblin, Spanish, Draconic, Universal Language Translator

Cantrips: Fire Bolt, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Friends, Mending, Shape Water

Level 1 Spells: Charm Person, Disguise Self, Identify, Shield, Sleep, Unseen Servant, Chromatic Orb, Comprehend Languages, Speak with Animals, Detect Magic

Level 2 Spells: Hold Person, Invisibility, Acid Arrow, Suggestion

Level 3 Spells: Fireball, Remove Curse, Dispel Magic, Hypnotic Pattern, Lightning Bolt

Level 4 Spells: Locate Creature, Polymorph, Stone Shape, Vitriolic Sphere, Phantasmal Killer

Level 5 Spells: Transmute Rock, Passwall, Dream, Cone of Cold

Titles and Awards: Order of Merlin (ICW)

Chapter 27: Mastery

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

"HERMIONE JEAN GRANGER!" Was followed by random screaming noises.

Hermione herself was in the common room catching up with her housemates in La Maison de la Rivière. Hearing the screams just resulted in an eye roll to her fellow students. Olivia was always a bit dramatic.

To emphasize that thought, Olivia came stomping out to the common room with pictures. Pictures that Hermione never showed to anyone, but she must have forgotten to put away in her wardrobe when she was unpacking this evening.

Olivia seemed a tad cross, gritting her teeth as she questioned her roommate, "Hermione, darling. Why didn't you tell anyone you knew Harry Potter?" And she threw the pictures down on the table. Pictures of her and Harry at his family's cottage in Greece. That had been their families' coordinated holiday this year.

Her parents had been more than pleased to have a free stay on a beach in Greece. Hermione was happy to show Harry her new assortment of bikinis. She was pretty sure she got some kind of reaction. He hid it well, but he definitely noticed. She would keep working on him. He was 14 now. Not that she would hold up her whole life, but when they were together, well, why not try.

The rest of her dorm mates were fighting over the pictures and yelling and demanding answers. "Why didn't you tell us?" "What's he like?" "How long have you known him?" "Where did you take these pictures?" "Have you had sex with him?" Etc., etc.

Hermione just closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Merde. She hoped Harry wouldn't be cross. It was doubtful. Harry never seemed to get upset by anything.

She held up her hand for quiet, and it seemed like the entire common room held their breath. Harry Potter. "I've known Harry since before I started school here. Our families have been friends for years. Those pictures are from his family beach house on the Mediterranean. We did a joint holiday this year."

She would not tell them they did a joint holiday every year. They would all want to go. She also tried to keep it generic: the Mediterranean instead of Greece. Greece was hardly a tiny country, but even a simple change of phrase could help to protect Harry's privacy.

Her statement just spurred a hundred more questions. It was going to be a long night.

The New Marauders were back in South Africa. They had almost two months before the Goblet of Fire would condemn… erm… choose its champions. That was plenty of time to get some quality questing in.

Harry was negotiating with a hydra. When the marauders started the quest that said, 'Help the Hydra', they thought it was a system bug or a joke, but no. The hydra was the good guy in this situation. She had protected the village beyond Laughing Wood for generations. She was bonded to the family line of the chieftain of the village. The chief's family produced Parselmouths.

The current chief was young to be in charge, in his 20s, but his father had been killed in an accident. The hydra, called Zanyani, did not think it was an accident. Shortly after the father's death, she came.

Kazi.

Kazi claimed she heard the chief was looking for a wife. The hydra Zanyani was convinced that Kazi had enthralled the chief because Kazi was a vampire.

Harry felt pretty good about this quest. A nice, easy vampire removal was a good way to get back in the swing of questing after their summer break and World Cup kidnapping. Harry could Turn Undead now, and he was pretty sure Remus could solo a vampire with his powerset.

It was nice talking to the hydra though. Zanyani may have had 5 heads, but they weren't constantly fighting like a runespoor's heads were. And she loved Harry's new basilisk companion. She kept cooing at it. Sure, it was a young thing, but cooing? It sounded so weird in Parseltongue.

Luckily, the basilisk's eyes hadn't developed their death glare yet. It made venom though. Hooray.

He still called the basilisk it because he couldn't think of a name. Sirius wanted to call it Basil. Remus and Harry both vetoed that. Harry asked the basilisk, and it didn't know either. It just assumed Harry would name it. Harry asked it to stop calling him Master, so it started referring to him as Father.

It was better than anything Dobby had ever called him, but both Remus and Sirius found it hilarious. Universal Language Translator truly meant universal so both older men now understood the snake's language. Speaking it was possible as well, but it tended to come out heavily accented.

As a stalling tactic, Harry told the basilisk it would get a name after it earned it in a great deed.

Stopping Kazi should have been straightforward. Remus casts DAYLIGHT, and turns into a water elemental, Bing bang boom, dead vampire. Erm... Mist-form vampire at least. Sadly, the axiom of no plan surviving first contact with the enemy held true.

Kazi wasn't just a vampire. She was a vampire lord. She built an entire complex underneath the chief's cabin, filled with magical protections, monster minions and human thralls. They were fighting a vampire lord in her lair.

That was troublesome.

When they cornered her and started bombarding her with magic, she shapeshifted into black mist and escaped through a crack in the wall. By the time they tracked her down again, she had regenerated all of the damage they had done.

She was shrugging off Sirius's PSYCHIC LANCE spells which the New Marauders had come to rely on. Harry's new ability to Turn Undead was less than useful because she was still regenerating when she ran away. Her own frequent casting of FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT prevented her from being trapped.

Being a vampire lord, she had her own divine magic. Or maybe otherworldly would be more accurate. Harry doubted the divine he was working for was also blessing this vampire.

Sirius switched to Avada Kedavra, but they learned the Killing Curse doesn't work on undead. Remus focused on trying to control her movements with WALL OF WATER and WATERY SPHERE and it somewhat corralled the vampire lord… lady. Harry's tendency to throw area spells helped with all of the swarms of bats and wolves.

Eventually they slowed her down enough with Harry's ACID ARROWS and Sirius's ANIMATE OBJECTS. The length of the fight had ensured there was plenty of debris around to turn into weapons against the lair master.

They followed her in her misty form back towards her coffin and final resting place. It was a beautiful hand-carved stone sarcophagus that was probably a priceless historical artifact if you asked a museum curator.

Harry cast TRANSMUTE ROCK on it to turn it to mud. Squishy, wet, watery mud. Kazi would get no chance to re-corporate inside that mess. The mist-form was furious, but impotent. After two hours, it dissolved, and the Vampire Lady was gone.

Sirius and Harry were rewarded with the spell ANTILIFE SHELL. Remus already knew it. Harry had no idea how to use it but learning more never hurt. Better to have it and not need it.

After the clusterfuck of a fight against the vampire lord Kazi, the family decided to take a few days of downtime. Sirius was going back to England to coordinate with Narcissa on their Knockturn Alley renovations. Remus was going to talk to a publisher about possibly putting out his first novel, and Harry was heading back to Zürich to talk to Xiuying Thon.

She hadn't stopped after the first letter. She wanted to share his ritual with her associates. He wanted to keep ignoring her, but she was persistent. He thought that meeting these people might get them to leave him alone. He had no intention of sharing with random people.

Zürich was the meeting location because it was easy enough for everyone to get to Bern to the ICW headquarters, but they didn't want to meet in ICW HQ as this wasn't ICW business.

They were meeting at the Marriott hotel, which surprised Harry, but he didn't really have a problem with it. Professor Xiuying led him out to the balcony overlooking the river. He could feel it as he passed through privacy warding. Whoever these three colleagues were, they didn't lack magical power.

Professor Xiuying began introducing everyone. There was a middle-aged Turkish man named Baris Özel and a Greek woman, Lydia Panagos. When she introduced a Zuni man who just went by John, Harry could have sworn he had heard of him, but the old man just mumbled something about fucking Huxley and ignored Harry's query.

After the introductions, the three new faces all looked at Harry expectantly.

"What?" Harry had no idea what they wanted him to say. He didn't even want to be here.

Xiuying jumped in, "well, yes. Harry. Lydia, Baris, and John are all members of the Guild of Oracles." When she saw his confusion and lack of recognition she pressed on, "it's an old name. They… we… are not all Oracles. That's very specific to people who make prophecies. But it is a guild of master practitioners of divination."

"Okay…" Harry drew out the word, confusion still clearly evident."

"Hell's sake Thon, did you not even tell the boy what we're doing here?" Despite the harsh language, there was humor underneath Lydia Panagos's comments. She realized what Xiuying had done before anyone else. "You brought him here without telling him why."

"Well, he's a practitioner. He should be able to find out for himself." Xiuying did not see anything wrong with what she had done.

Harry just quirked his brow at her. "OK. Obviously, there's something that I don't understand, but I don't really care. I just came to tell you that I'm not letting my ritual get out in the world. Please stop sending me letters about it."

Lydia couldn't take it anymore. She started laughing quite heartily.

John the Zuni tried to get the meeting back on track, "Young man, how are we supposed to evaluate you for admittance if we can't see your work?"

Harry finally understood what was happening, and what Xiuying Thon had set up without telling him "This is an interview? For your guild of seers or whatever? Well, no thanks. I didn't even know you existed. I didn't apply. I'll be leaving now."

Xiuying Thon realized her little joke or surprise or whatever it was wasn't going the way she wanted. "Harry, please, wait. I'm sorry." She took a deep breath. "I requested an admittance interview for the guild for you. I am sponsoring you. Recommending you join. No one applies. You get asked. Please let them see your work."

"Why would I even want to join?"

Xiuying gathered herself and said, "The guild protects its members. You have shown a gift and shown it in front of the entirety of the ICW. You told me that you didn't want your ritual getting out because you were afraid people would use it for nefarious purposes, right?"

Harry nodded.

"Well, you can be used for nefarious purposes as well. The guild looks out for each other. We don't allow governments to use us. Yes, I work for the ICW, but that's by choice, and its as a representative of the Guild to help try to find new members."

Harry paused. That made sense. He had spent a lot of his previous years doing things to protect himself. From Dumbledore and from Magical Britain. Constant Vigilance. If these people would further protect him… Alejandro was great, but he wouldn't always oversee Peru. He didn't want to end up a test subject for Peru's version of the Department of Mysteries.

"And you have to see my ritual? I stand by what I said, its dangerous information. We took down a dark lord that was in complete control of a country in less than a day." Harry was watching the three newcomers closely for their reaction.

His Insight skill was telling him they were amused. Of course they would be. They were all three masters of the art, and he was a 14-year-old telling them that divination was dangerous.

"I made Professor Xiuying swear an oath not to reveal anything about it."

All three looks swung to Xiuying Thon's face. She just nodded and said, "It's worth the oath."

They were hesitant, but finally agreed, and swore the same oath that Thon did.

There was just one problem: Harry didn't have the ritual notes with him. "I'll be right back. Keep the notice-me-nots going." He pulled his wand, turned a water glass into a portkey, and activated it.

Two minutes later, Harry Potter reappeared with three copies of his notes. There were almost 20 pages in each copy.

The three masters were a bit surprised, but Lydia responded first, "how long is this ritual?"

Harry just said, "13 days."

That stopped all three from reading. They looked at him and started reevaluating their initial assessment of the boy.

The Greek, Baris weighed in, "Did all the ritualists have to swear the oath we did?"

Xiuying just stifled a laugh. Harry was confused, "What ritualists?"

Baris gave him an unamused look, "The other people who conducted the other parts of the ritual. I assume, based on a quick skim of these notes, it was one a day, so the other 12 people. Or did you try to get by with 7?"

"What? No. Remus and Sirius helped with the set-up, but I did everything else. Well except the tea ceremony which we all did together, but I did the rest."

Now they all stopped reading and looked at him. Baris was incredulous, "You did a 13-part ritual… yourself? In 13 consecutive days?"

"Yeah, it was awful. Professor Xiuying already yelled at me about it though, so please save your scolding." Harry was starting to get into a mood. They started to speak again, but Harry cut them off "I suffered severe magical exhaustion. Lesson learned."

The three masters looked Xiuying who just nodded.

"And you designed this yourself? From nothing?" John got the conversation going again.

"Yeah, I mean, it was mostly just straightforward stuff, crystal balls and tarot cards, but I did try to use ritual methods to get a little more out of each one." Harry paused, wondering if he should say more. "I did design the second hydromancy though. I don't think I ever read about using sound from water glasses before, but that one came out weird anyway."

They asked several more questions about that one in particular. All in all, they spent another hour asking for details about the ritual. Harry left annoyed at the whole thing, but he did leave them with his notes to review later. Those were covered under the oaths, so he wasn't too worried they would be negligent with them.

He was told to come back at the same time tomorrow.

He met them the next day on the same balcony. It was a beautiful September day in Zürich. They had several more questions about choices he made. He thought it was obvious stuff, but they really wanted to dig into the theory behind it with him. It didn't feel like a teacher quizzing a student, however. It was more like a peer in a study group.

They were learning from him. Sure, a lot of it was personal, particularly the symbology used, but the intent that went into it was very interesting and the background on why he did certain things were theories they could take away for themselves.

After, they decided to have a light lunch at the hotel. Harry excused himself to the toilet, and when he got back, they had a statement to make.

Baris took the lead, "Mr. Potter," He was oddly formal, "The Guild of Oracles wishes to bestow upon you the rank of Master of Divinations and invite you to join our guild."

Professor Xiuying was beaming, as was Lydia. John looked like he was trying not to roll his eyes at the pomp, but he was smiling lightly.

Harry wasn't expecting anything like that so quickly. All he could do was say, "Thank you?"

They all laughed.

Professor Xiuying told him she would update the ICW records with both his Mastery and his membership in the guild. He may not have heard of the Guild, but all the member governments were at least aware of it.

She reminded him about his OWL and NEWT scores getting leaked. She wouldn't do that of course, but that the ICW staff could be bribed the same as any other government.

Harry just nodded in resignation. At least he had a mastery now. It was not one he ever planned on getting, but nothing in his life ever seemed to go to plan anyway.

A week later, Albus Dumbledore was spitting out his morning tea as he read the headline of the Daily Prophet:

Boy-Who-Lived Harry Potter Receives First Mastery

Youngest In History

Minerva McGonagall just shot him an amused glance. She was long past asking Albus what he thought about Harry Potter's accomplishments. He never seemed to approve. She doubted he would approve of anything short of 'Harry Potter, Hogwarts Student'.

She glanced around the Great Hall. This would be the topic of gossip for the day at least. Harry Potter headlines always caused a bit of a disturbance.

She was curious about Harry getting a Divination mastery though. She remembered the last article on his education that said he was doing three masteries, none of which was divination. She wasn't a fan of the subject to begin with, but she had to confess that if he had used the skills to take down a dark lord, there must be something to it.

She would make a point to stop up in Sybil Trelawney's tower with a copy of the paper and get her take on it.

Hermione Granger's housemates were bombarding her with questions about the relevant article in La Vérité à Temps. They wanted to know if she knew about it in advance. She was the Harry Potter expert in the school, and her foreknowledge of this somehow proved her friendship with him. Or something like that.

She just rolled her eyes in her mind.

Harry had written to her about it. He tried to do that when something big happened, so she wasn't caught off guard by the newspapers. It was sweet.

Once Harry had learned that Beauxbatons didn't practice the same disgusting habits as they did at Hogwarts (Owls in the dining area? Gross!), and all the mail was collected by house elves before being delivered to the student, he understood that he could just turn the letter itself into a portkey to deliver itself to the house elves.

She received more frequent updates this way. So, yes, she knew about his mastery as of yesterday. That little tidbit really set off her house mates, and unfortunately for her, led to many more Harry Potter questions.

The New Marauders were back in Center Village in Peru. After their downtime, they went back to South Africa to do a few more quests. Nothing was as exciting as the vampire lord, but it was good honest work. They got to help people, and they received XP in return.

When they got back to Peru, they started the process to get approval to keep Basil. Harry hated that the snake took to the name. Sirius just would not shut up calling him Basil. Now he wouldn't answer to anything else.

Getting approval for a basilisk was quite interesting. It was only even possible for two reasons. Well, three, if you count Harry's fame, Harry didn't. The first was that Basil was bonded as a familiar. Technically he was a Ranger companion, but all the Peruvian official's tests showed up as familiar bond.

The second reason it was allowed was because Harry was a Parselmouth. Having the ability to control the serpent with speech went a long way to easing fears with the bureaucrats.

Unofficially, Harry was the boy-who-lived, an Order of Merlin recipient (for destroying another dark lord, no less), and he had the President's ear. President Mendoza would never force his people to approve something like that for any show of nepotism, but the lower-level staffs didn't know that. They just didn't want to piss off the President.

It was October 31st now. Harry had invited Professor Eunice Mendoza over for coffee and cake (that he had baked) to discuss his progress towards his mastery.

It was late afternoon in Peru when Harry got a pop-up in the HUD for several new quests. They all revolved around one thing however:

Quest Received: Win the Triwizard Tournament

Quest Received: Beat the first task in a new way.

Quest Received: Beat the first task without harming the dragon.

Quest Received.

Quest Received.

Quest Received.

Quest

Quest

Quest

On and on. Quest after quest. It looked like the PDT had been planning for this eventuality for a while. Some of them were clearly mutually exclusive, like the quest to kill the dragon in the first task clearly conflicted with not harming the thing.

He assumed there were different rewards for each of the conflicting ones. Most had a unique reward.

He knew this was coming. He felt it. Even though they stopped Barty Jr. Stupid fucking Conservation of Time.

At least Mad-Eye wouldn't be stuck in a trunk for a year.

Alejandro Mendoza's team was in an uproar. The British Ministry of Magic had contacted his staff through diplomatic channels to let them know about a malfunction with an ancient magical artifact. That malfunction had bound one Harry Potter in a magical contract, while he was half a world away.

It didn't help that the person the British chose to make contact was one toad-faced tiny little… witch named Umbridge.

They had previously had infrequent, but cordial communications with a man named Bartemius Crouch. Now he had been sent to jail for some reason. The details were sketchy, but he was replaced as the Head of the Department of International Cooperation by a man named Thaddeus Nott.

Mr. Nott didn't seem to care about interacting with his counterparts in other countries and was happy to pass this duty on to the Minister's Undersecretary. Umbridge.

On Peru's side, the Magical Minister of Foreign Affairs Diego Soto had one conversation with Umbridge before he wanted to talk to Alejandro about declaring war. Not really, but it felt good to think about it.

The news from Britain was… not good. And that was the best thing to be said about it. Their Ambassador to the ICW had spoken quite clearly in ICW session that Peru was prepared to offer lethal response to anyone attempting to abduct Harry Potter. Did this count?

Soto currently set his team to find out whatever they could about this tournament and the artifact that can supposedly bind someone in a magical contract when they are on a different continent. It sounded like a weapon of war.

They needed information and quickly. Alejandro would have questions. Harry Potter was a national hero of Peru now. He may have been born British, but he was Peruvian now. He was the youngest person to ever complete their NEWTS. He was the youngest person in history to receive a Mastery. He killed a dark lord at 13. He brought a lot of goodwill and good publicity towards their nation. They would do whatever they could to protect him.

Alejandro Mendoza, President of Peru, and Diego Soto, Minister of Foreign Affairs, knocked on the door to Nueva Vida with drawn faces.

The newspapers had the story out before they had a chance to inform Harry and Sirius (and Remus). They had hoped they had at least one day, but on November 1st, headlines around the world proclaimed what happened at Hogwarts School with the Goblet of Fire.

Remus answered the door and immediately invited them in. They were served coffee and cake and shown every courtesy. The paper was on the table, so it was clear that the family already knew. They were far calmer than Soto would have expected, but he preferred civil discussion to yelling any day.

Mendoza knew this family and expected nothing less. They just wanted to know what the response would be.

As the President, he led the meeting. "I'm asking Diego to go to Scotland and find out what the fuck happened, and if there is any way out of this."

Diego Soto was a man who always tried to have a plan, even in the strangest situations. That is why he made it to a Minister's position. "I will be taking several lawyers, artificers, and enchanters. I want to see what this contract is and what can be done with the goblet, if anything."

Harry thought that was a reasonable response, "What do you want us to do?"

"For now, take it easy. Whatever you do, do not go to Scotland. Don't acknowledge the competition or your name being supposedly bound. Just stay away from the situation until we are certain there is no other choice."

Sirius Black, sneaky marauder, and son of sneak politicians said, "Until, not unless?"

Mendoza broke back into the conversation, "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst."

They all agreed. They were all reasonable men, even Harry who was physically and legally only fourteen. He would have to write to Hermione. God knows she would be losing her mind right now.

Harry Potter

Divination Wizard (Level 10)

Strength: 12

Dexterity: 16

Constitution: 16

Intelligence: 22

Wisdom: 14

Charisma: 12

Feat(s): Alert, Prodigy, Metamagic Adept (Subtle Spell, Distant Spell)

Ability: Mage Sight, Darkvision, Beast Master Bond, Turn Undead, Third Eye

Skills Proficiencies: Arcana, Deception, History, Insight, Investigation, Survival, Land Vehicles, Sleight of Hand, Potter's Tools

Expertise: Arcana

Languages: English, French, Parseltongue, Goblin, Spanish, Draconic, Universal Language Translator

Cantrips: Fire Bolt, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Friends, Mending, Shape Water

Level 1 Spells: Charm Person, Disguise Self, Identify, Shield, Sleep, Unseen Servant, Chromatic Orb, Comprehend Languages, Speak with Animals, Detect Magic

Level 2 Spells: Hold Person, Invisibility, Acid Arrow, Suggestion

Level 3 Spells: Fireball, Remove Curse, Dispel Magic, Hypnotic Pattern, Lightning Bolt

Level 4 Spells: Locate Creature, Polymorph, Stone Shape, Vitriolic Sphere, Phantasmal Killer

Level 5 Spells: Transmute Rock, Passwall, Dream, Cone of Cold, Antilife Shell

Titles and Awards: Order of Merlin (ICW), Master of Divination

Chapter 28: The Triwizard Begins

Chapter Text

Diego Soto's team spent five days investigating the situation that led to Harry Potter's name coming out of the Goblet of Fire. They spent a further three days determining the extent of the contract that now bound their citizen. What were the minimum requirements? What were the penalties? What accommodations would be made for a fourth champion? Who would he represent?

Team Peru got fierce resistance when they insisted that Harry Potter have a judge to represent him the same way that Krum, Delacour, and Diggory had a school representative on the panel. Karkaroff and Umbridge (representing International Magical Cooperation) were staunchly opposed. Dumbledore was mildly opposed.

Then Team Peru demanded instead that each judge take a vow of fairness in their judging. It was clear that some people had a less than favorable view of their citizen. They weren't asking for preferential treatment, just fairness.

It was difficult for anyone to argue against that, but Karkaroff and Umbridge tried. In the end, an agreement was reached (by majority vote) that the judges had to score fairly.

When Peru wished to clarify the minimum requirements that would allow Harry to keep his magic, the ministry contingent looked like someone stuck a lemon in their mouth. They had several events planned to coincide with the tournament that all champions were expected to participate in, including several press conferences and a ball.

It took quite a bit of arguing to determine that those events weren't requirements to the magical contract, just expectations. Afterall, why wouldn't someone want to go to a ball or tell their story?

When Team Peru wanted to talk about legal ramifications of visiting personnel, Karkaroff nearly lost it, "We have been here for hours. How much do you need to understand? Just bring the boy and let him compete. Durmstrang and Beauxbatons did not have any of these issues. What is so special about your little celebrity?" He had quite the sneer going at this point.

Diego Soto was used to dealing with people who thought more of themselves than they deserved, "Are any of your or Madame Maxime's students former residents of Great Britain that left claiming political asylum? I need to know that my people will be protected. I'm surprised that you, Highmaster, did not ask for some sort of diplomatic immunity yourself."

There were several people nervously shifting around the room now. Dumbledore was the one to break the silence, "Igor did receive diplomatic immunity for his time here, under standard ICW diplomatic accords."

Soto looked around the room, "Then why are any of you worried about Harry Potter receiving the same consideration?"

Dumbledore soldiered on, "You must understand, Señor Soto, that these things were the result of months of negotiations. We're all tired. We don't have a lot of time before the Weighing of the Wands. We just want to get young Harry here and settled in. We can work out the details after."

Soto figured it was as good a time as any to drop this small bombshell. "Mr. Potter will not be 'settled' here. He will arrive for the task, and then leave after it is complete. He will not stay the year at Hogwarts."

That led to a lot of yelling. The Peruvian Minister of Foreign Affairs had not asked Harry Potter or his guardians if that was what they wanted, but he didn't become a Minister from being passive. Sometimes you have to make executive decisions and worry about the fallout later.

In the end, the Goblet's contract had no provisos for staying at the host school. It was tradition to do so, but not affected by the Loss of Magic Clause.

Dumbledore was flustered. "Why would Harry not want to stay here? Surely, the opportunity is too good to pass up. We have incredible resources, and he would be around students his own age."

Soto had some sympathy for Dumbledore. It was probably being taken as a slight against his school, but there were other considerations. "Headmaster, Mr. Potter is currently working on three different masteries. He needs access to his Masters for that. As an educator with many masteries yourself, surely you understand that?"

Dumbledore understood and nodded. He didn't like it. He didn't think the boy should be doing any masteries, but he understood the need to have access to your mentors when deep in the study of a demanding field. "Accommodations could be made. If they are willing, of course, Hogwarts would welcome Harry's tutors and masters. I daresay we would benefit from their presence as well."

Diego thought that was a fair offer. When he and Mendoza had met with the displaced family, they all expressed some measure of unhappiness with being at Hogwarts at all, so he wouldn't force the boy back here if he could help it.

"That is a fair offer, Headmaster. I will have to talk to all the parties involved to see if it can be accomplished. I think for now, we could agree to the Peruvian contingent arriving… let's say three days before each task. That would give the organizers and the British ministry the opportunity to do their press conferences, or what have you. You could move the Wand Weighing to that time as well."

For now, it was the best compromise that could be reached.

Harry was reading the latest letter from Hermione. She had already done a great deal of research on the Triwizard tournament after it was announced at the beginning of the year at Beauxbatons. She was underage and didn't have any desire to compete anyway but was fascinated by the Goblet as a student of enchanting.

She didn't know many of the people selected to go for the chance to compete. She knew of Fleur Delacour of course. Everyone in the school knew who she was. Hermione had supplied him with many historical precedents and legal studies conducted on the tournament. She was outraged that an enchanted object could be used to condemn someone on another continent.

Harry started penning a reply immediately. The last thing the world needed was Hermione Granger getting a head of steam and storming off to Scotland to lay into some tournament officials. It was touching that she was so put upon for his sake, but he had a nation's lawyers looking into the situation. She would have to trust the adults.

Remus had traveled to Boston for a few days. His first novel, The Dark Lord and the Great Red Island, was being released in several countries. He could only be present in one place and chose the MACUSA city.

The novel was somewhat historically accurate with minor embellishments for storytelling. In the novel, Harry's fight with the dark lord was much more involved than Stupefy, Diffindo. That was hardly a climactic battle. All the fights were juiced up actually. The battle with the demons showed the New Marauders succeeding in stopping all three. The fight on the beach with the giants involved actual fighting and not just tricking them.

The entire novel also spanned several weeks, instead of a single day of action. Harry's two weeks of divination rituals were changed to the Marauders conducting investigations for two weeks.

Sirius wanted him to add love interests for all of them, but Remus just rolled his eyes at his old friend. In the end, Harry approved, and that was good enough for Remus.

"What are we going to do with Basil?" Sirius seemed to take on some sort of connection with the youthful basilisk since he came up with his name. Basil was Harry's bonded companion, but the serpent often spent evenings curled up in Sirius's lap.

Harry was busy trying to plan all the things he needed to get done during the brief window they would be at Hogwarts, "What do you mean?"

"Are we just going to take a basilisk to Hogwarts? If someone recognizes what he is, they'll probably arrest us for having a dark creature." Sirius was petting Basil now.

"We could lie and call him a Peruvian Battle Snake. How many people there are smart enough to realize what he is? Dumbledore, maybe?" Harry didn't seem too concerned. "Or we could just leave him here. It's only three days."

"You can't leave him here for that long!" Sirius was practically growling.

Harry just shook his head, "We feed him before we go. He won't need to eat for a week. He'll sleep most of the time. He would hate the cold anyway."

Sirius decided to ask Basil what he wanted to do. The baby killing machine didn't want to go to a cold country, but he was more worried about being away from Harry.

Sirius smiled, "Peruvian Battle Snake, it is."

Harry was reminded of another basilisk however, "Should we do the quest for the Chamber of Secrets basilisk? There're two quests: one to kill it, and one to relocate it."

"Where would we relocate it to? Alejandro isn't going to let a 1000-year-old basilisk into the country. Basil is your familiar. That monster is just a… monster." Sirius was contemplative.

Harry was thinking out loud, "We could leave it, I suppose. It's got to be hibernating now since it wasn't woken up in '92. Though that leaves a potential weapon for Voldemort when he eventually rises again."

The only other place they thought they could hide the thing was Terra Messis, and there was no way the basilisk would take to the Alaskan tundra.

"We'll have to get some rosters then and keep Basil away from them."

Neither Elena Arakaki nor Eunice Mendoza had any desire to go to Scotland, especially at such short notice.

So, early on the morning of the 21st of November, the New Marauders took an international portkey to Hogsmeade in Scotland. Alejandro Mendoza, President of Peru, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Diego Soto planned to attend the day of the task.

For Harry, seeing the gates of Hogwarts was a bit emotional. From his perspective, the last time he was here was seven years ago, and that was during a war. Voldemort was assaulting the castle. This is where he died. Since then, Harry had become more friendly with the idea of death. He had died several more times.

Remus and Sirius seemed to realize something was going on and gave him a minute. Finaly, Harry nodded to himself and to the older Marauders.

The gates were open.

Waiting just inside the gates was someone Harry hadn't thought about in years, but who he instantly missed: Hagrid. It took every ounce of self-control to not throw himself at the half-giant in the biggest hug he could manage. He had to wait for introductions.

Ever affable Rubeus Hagrid saw the three arrive. He saw the young lad that had to be Harry Potter look at the gates and the castle and steady himself. It was surely an emotional moment for the young man. His parents had a history here. He's probably heard tons of stories from Sirius and Remus. Now he's entered into this tournament against his will. No one would blame him for a moment of getting ahold of himself.

Hagrid may have a reputation for loose lips, but he watched generations of young'uns go through the school and saw more than most.

"Sirius. Remus. And this must be Harry Potter." He stuck out his shovel sized hand for a shake. "Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. Welcome." Hagrid pulled a small owl out of his pocket. It already had a note attached to its leg. "Go to Professor Dumbledore straightaway." And he threw the owl into the air. It promptly headed off towards the castle. "Have to let the headmaster know you all arrived. I've got a carriage to take you up to the castle proper."

Harry couldn't keep the grin off his face, "It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Hagrid. Thank you for meeting us here."

"Ah, just call me Hagrid. Everyone does."

Sirius and Remus were both shaking his hand now, offering their own greetings. Harry walked up to the thestral pulling the carriage to greet it. Hagrid got a sad look on his face at that.

"I'm sure Sirius and Remus have told you about your parents, but I might have some stories myself if you're interested. You're all welcome to come around my cabin for tea anytime."

Harry beamed at his first friend, "Thanks Hagrid, I'd love to."

Hagrid looked pleased at that, "Erm. Well, yes. Professor Dumbledore should be waiting for you at the castle. Welcome to Hogwarts."

The carriage ride took about 15 minutes. Sirius and Remus pointed out on the grounds where interesting things happened when they were students. It was a sedate ride. None of them wanted to think about the coming interaction with Dumbledore.

As the carriage pulled up to the castle, the doors were opened and Albus Dumbledore stepped into the entryway. He was wearing amethyst robes with phoenixes on the sleeves. His hat looked starched, and his beard was shiny. It cut quite the impressive sight.

"Gentlemen, welcome to Hogwarts." He was using his politician voice, firm, full, clear, yet non-aggressive. Confident. "I would like to show you your accommodations straightaway, however it is lunch time. If you choose, you may join us for a meal in the Great Hall first. It is your choice."

Sirius and Remus looked at Harry. He was the one that might have issues when he started seeing people he knew. It wouldn't do for him to have to explain why he started crying when he 'met' Ron Weasley or anyone else.

Harry was feeling pretty confident in his emotional state after meeting Hagrid, so he thought they might as well rip the plaster off, "Thank you for the hospitality, Headmaster, a meal would be lovely."

The headmaster seemed to relax slightly at the response. "It may do to make a small announcement. The situation with your entry into the tournament caused quite a stir. It would be helpful to my students to curb rumors…"

Harry hated any recognition when he was growing up, but he had matured quite a bit. He was 24 or 25 now. Mentally, anyway. He understood that a statement now could save a headache later. Plus, he had real achievements to his name now, not just as the 'boy-who-lived'. "If you think that's best headmaster, we have no issue with it."

Albus Dumbledore just nodded to the young lad. He expected Sirius or Remus to take the lead in the conversation whether for their experience or just to help with the boy's temper, but they seemed to be deferring to him. It wasn't a critical point, but it was interesting.

Lunch had started several minutes ago, and the Great Hall was full. The delegations from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons were all present. Harry thought maybe they had all been told he was arriving that day.

Whatever issues Harry had with Albus Dumbledore, he had to give the man credit where it was due. Yes, he was a great and powerful wizard, but he was also an incredible orator. He commanded the room even just stepping into the hall.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, may I have your attention please. Weeks ago, during the choosing ceremony for the Triwizard tournament, a situation occurred that has never happened in the hundreds of years of the tournament's existence. A fourth name was selected by the Goblet of Fire. Not just any name, but the name of a young man who is not a member of any of the participating schools, nor even a citizen of any of the countries represented. In fact, he was not even on the same continent at the time. Now he is here to compete in the tournament to fulfill the magically binding contract with the Goblet of Fire. I invite you to join me in welcoming Harry Potter to Hogwarts."

Harry stepped into the Great Hall from the entryway and waved. Most of the room was clapping, albeit subdued. No one really knew how to react. He was a celebrity. He had an Order of Merlin. He was also here to compete against their champions. And he was wearing muggle clothing.

Harry decided it would be better to say something than just let people think whatever they want of him. "Thank you. I am sorry that this has happened to mar the prestige of this tournament. Even though I had nothing to do with my entry, I offer my apologies to each of the champions in particular. You were each chosen as the best amongst your schools, and it feels like my participation is taking something away from each of you. You deserve better than this. Anyway, thank you all, and I look forward to my time here."

There. That was a non-offensive statement. There was a mutter throughout the hall. Harry just looked at Remus and Sirius who shrugged. Good enough.

Harry turned to Albus, "Thank you for that opportunity, headmaster."

Albus had a more genuine smile now, "You're most welcome Mr. Potter. I appreciate what you said. Please enjoy your meal. I or someone from my staff will show you to your quarters after. I would like to meet with you all in my office today if possible."

The marauder family all agreed amicably. They all turned towards the Gryffindor table Old habits.

Harry immediately spotted who he most wanted to see. There were four Weasleys at Hogwarts currently, but Ron was surrounded by the other fourth years. Everyone seemed to be watching where Harry would go sit, but no one really made room for the family.

They grabbed a seat at the end of the Gryffindor table. No one was close enough to have a full conversation, but this was the table of the brave.

Fred and George Weasley, pranksters extraordinaire (in their minds anyway), got up from their seats by the Flying Foxes, and moved down to the end of the table with the New Marauders.

They introduced themselves as Gred and Forge, Magical Mischief Makers. Sirius's eyes lit up and he launched into an in-depth conversation with the spiritual successors to the original Marauders.

Remus groaned. Harry shook his head, and quietly listened in. None of them noticed, but at the staff table, Minerva McGonagall's eye started twitching at the sight. She didn't like the implications of this development one bit.

Minerva quickly finished her meal. Albus asked her to show the Peruvian contingent to their guest quarters, and she wanted to be able to pull their new guests away from the Weasley Twins as soon as they were finished with their meal. The less time spent with those groups collaborating, the longer Hogwarts would continue standing.

When they were finishing up, Minerva made her way down to talk to the son of two of her favorite students. The table quieted down as the head of the house of lions approached their celebrity guest.

"Mr. Potter, I am Minerva McGonagall. Headmaster Dumbledore asked me to show you all to your quarters."

Harry smiled and offered his hand to her, "Harry Potter, pleasure to meet you Professor."

"You as well. If you and your… entourage would follow me." Minerva gave an imperious look to Sirius in particular.

The New Marauders made their way to Dumbledore's office, password provided by the deputy headmistress.

Harry expected a lot more anger seeing Dumbledore again before lunch, but it didn't manifest. Whether he was overloaded with emotion seeing Hagrid and the future possibility of seeing Ron, or whether he had just started to forgive the old man, he didn't know.

Whatever the reason, it made him a lot calmer heading into this meeting.

Walking into Albus Dumbledore's office brought back so many memories, good and bad. He saw Fawkes and couldn't help but smile. He started to head towards him, but the fire bird started squawking and giving him dirty looks.

Harry was brought up short as he realized what was going on. Basil was wrapped around his waist. He started writhing when Fawkes started squawking. It didn't look like they were going to get along.

Dumbledore started eyeing him quite suspiciously, "Fawkes doesn't usually have such a reaction to strangers."

The old man was quite good at not asking questions. Harry decided to indulge him anyway. He knew the game. "I think he's probably uncomfortable with my familiar. Basil is squirming like crazy as well."

"And what is your familiar?" His blue eyes were intently focused now.

Harry pulled Basil's head out from under his shirt. He didn't want to start speaking Parseltongue here and now.

"I… see." Dumbledore took a step back. It was clear he knew what Basil was immediately.

Harry tried to reassure the old man, "He's quite young. His eyes aren't' dangerous or anything yet. I found him in a cave in America and we formed a familiar bond immediately. I didn't really have much choice. He's registered with the Peruvian government."

"Well. Probably best to keep him out of sight as much as possible. We wouldn't want to cause a panic…" Albus finally found his seat.

The marauders nodded and took their seats as well.

Albus started his prewritten speech for the tournament. It was almost identical to the one Harry received in the last timeline: 'courage in the face of the unknown, blah blah blah.' He told them the Weighing of the Wands would take place the next morning, followed by press interviews. Originally, The Daily Prophet was the only publication invited, but with the unexpected addition of Harry, several international reporters would be present as well.

Harry thought that could only improve the situation. Rita Skeeter would have a tougher time making up lies with the international press covering the events.

Albus switched gears once the official part was complete, "On a personal note, I fear I owe you quite the apology Mr. Potter. Our interaction during your NEWT testing was not how I would have wanted that to go… I had been looking for you for many years, and to find out… well. It's no excuse. I had a great many ideas in my head about how things should have been, and you were not what I was expecting."

"Thank you, Headmaster. I accept your apology. I apologize as well. I had just finished a literal month of writing exams. I was exhausted and irritated before I even met you. It was not the best situation."

"Indeed. Completely understandable. I hope we can move on from this with a better relationship in the future."

Sirius and Remus were a bit surprised. They had come into this meeting expecting to have to do battle with the most powerful wizard alive, at least verbally. Now everyone was apologizing. It wasn't bad, just unexpected.

Harry wanted to press this moment, however. He had a plan, or a hope really, depending on how this conversation went that he could use this. "Perhaps in the interest of moving forward, you can return my family's invisibility cloak."

Albus was shocked, "How do you know about that?"

"Perhaps Sirius and Remus told me. Maybe I have a journal from my dad. Or maybe because I'm a master of divination. Or whatever. Does it really matter how I know? It's a family heirloom, and I would like it back."

This was completely unexpected. Albus was considering watching the boy over the course of the tournament, and if he proved to be trustworthy, he would give him the cloak at the end of the year. And yes, it did matter how the boy knew, at least to Albus it mattered. Nothing about the boy made sense.

Well, there was nothing for it now. He knew and wanted it back. Albus would be fired from every major position he held if it was found he was concealing a family heirloom from the boy-who-lived. He pulled out his wand and began casting spells to remove the wards on the lowest desk drawer. He hadn't left Death's Invisibility Cloak unprotected.

When Albus handed him the cloak, Harry didn't even have to use Subtle Spell to cast IDENTIFY because his quest counter updated automatically:

Quest Updated: Become the Master of Death!

Unique Rewards

Status: Deathly Hallows owned (2/3)

Harry tucked it away in his expanded pocket and said, "Thank you for looking after it Headmaster."

The New Marauders went to breakfast early the next morning. Harry wanted to get a chance to talk to Ron and being there before him seemed like as good a plan as any. The Weighing of the Wands would happen after breakfast, after a short break to set up the hall, followed by a full-on press conference. The extra press coverage wouldn't allow the ceremony to fit in the same unused classroom.

Fred and George were the first Weasleys down to breakfast and sat with their new guests. They were immediately back into the flow of conversation on mischief. Remus even joined in this morning. It stopped when one of the twins, the one Harry usually associated with Fred, spotted their youngest brother enter the hall.

"Ronniekins! Come say hello to these fine gentlemen."

Ron looked like he would rather do anything else. Yesterday at lunch, surrounded by his year mates, Ron looked confident and happy. Now he looked quite nervous. The marauders had gone to visit Hagrid for tea last night, so they didn't have anything to compare it to until now.

Harry stuck out his hand, "Harry Potter, nice to meet you."

Ron seemed a little star struck, and it was breaking Harry's heart. He cleared his throat, "Why don't you have a seat, join us for breakfast?"

Ron just nodded and sat down. He did manage to fill his plate and start eating, but he rarely looked up to join in the conversation.

Eventually some of the other fourth years filtered in. Seeing Ron sitting with Harry Potter, they took it as an open invitation and started filling in the seats around them. After that, Ron seemed to loosen up a bit. It might take a little time, but Harry would get his friend back.

Breakfast officially ended at 9, and the ceremony would take place at 10. That gave the house elves time to set everything up under the careful eye of Mr. Filch.

The press started arriving at half past. Harry Potter was big news.

The champions and their school representatives, Karkaroff, Maxime, and Sprout were waiting in the side chamber that Harry remembered from the original Goblet choosing. Dumbledore was out greeting Mr. Ollivander as the VIP guest. Remus accompanied Harry since he was technically his teacher. Also, Sirius didn't want to sit in the boring side-chamber.

When McGonagall led them back out into the Great Hall, harry was stunned at the coverage this would be getting. He expected a French reporter, maybe someone from Peru, but there were at least twenty journalists present, as well as Minister Fudge, Delores Umbridge, Ludo Bagman, and Thaddeus Nott, who Harry had only seen pictures of during the briefing with Diego.

After some introductory remarks by Cornelius Fudge where he said absolutely nothing of substance and Ludo Bagman explained the purpose of the event, Mr. Ollivander got down to business.

Fleur didn't seem nearly as haughty. Harry wasn't sure what change caused the attitude shift. Perhaps it was the fact that it was obvious he didn't enter the tournament, or maybe it was the much larger press contingent.

"Mademoiselle Delacour, could we have you first, please?" Mr. Ollivander wasn't doing the creepy old man routine today.

Fleur's wand inspection went just about exactly how it did in the last timeline. There were several pictures and scratching quills at the mention of the Veela hair being her grandmother's, but nothing was outwardly said.

Diggory's and Krum's wand inspection went the same as well, though there was lot more writing going on for the famous quidditch player than the humble Hufflepuff.

Finally…

"And Mr. Potter. I must say I was a little disappointed that you did not show up for a wand from me when you were eleven." Ollivander was giving him the disappointed grandfather look. It was almost as good as Dumbledore's.

"Perhaps in the future, Sir. I was told I may outgrow my wand at some point." Harry handed over the wand that had seen him through almost as much as his original holly wand had.

"Interesting. Yes. I see. Not a perfect fit, but a good fit for now. I can see that. It's quite taken with you Mr. Potter. Maple and Dragon Heartstring, 10 and inches, a learning wand, for travelers and explorers. Yes, I can see why they told you that. Hm. Who made this? I don't recognize the crafter."

"Ah. Just a hobbyist, Sir. He prefers to remain anonymous." Harry didn't want to sell out Pablo from the Herb Shop. French aurors would not look kindly on the situation.

"Hm. Well, it is functional and should see you through this tournament quite well." Mr. Ollivander clearly didn't like the idea of a hobbyist making wands people regularly use. He was a master though, so what could you do?

"La República Mágica, Question for Mr. Potter, How do you like your chances in the competition? Do you think you will win?"

Harry paused for a moment and looked at his fellow champions, "I think the question should be, should I try to win." There was a bit of muttering from the press from that answer, but Harry held up his hand to continue, "My fellow champions here volunteered for this. They wanted this opportunity to compete for galleons and glory. They deserve that chance. So, should I try my best to win and lower their chances at victory or should I do the bare minimum to get by so they can compete fairly? I don't necessarily have a desire to win, but if I don't try, am I insulting the tournament and the other champions? Would that look like I was showing disdain or that this is beneath me? I don't want to seem that way, but it would give them each a better chance to win. So, what's the right answer? Do nothing and be insulting or try my best to steal their glory?"

No one answered. There wasn't a good answer to give. Harry thought it might help his reputation a bit no matter what he did.

The questions continued for another hour. Rita Skeeter asked him if he had a girlfriend. "No, and I'm not looking. I'm far too invested in my education at this time." Having so many other reporters seemed to keep Rita on her leash, and no follow-up questions came. Harry assumed a beetle would be following him around while he was at the castle.

At least the other champions got a few questions each.

Harry Potter

Divination Wizard (Level 10)

Strength: 12

Dexterity: 16

Constitution: 16

Intelligence: 22

Wisdom: 14

Charisma: 12

Feat(s): Alert, Prodigy, Metamagic Adept (Subtle Spell, Distant Spell)

Ability: Mage Sight, Darkvision, Beast Master Bond, Turn Undead, Third Eye

Skills Proficiencies: Arcana, Deception, History, Insight, Investigation, Survival, Land Vehicles, Sleight of Hand, Potter's Tools

Expertise: Arcana

Languages: English, French, Parseltongue, Goblin, Spanish, Draconic, Universal Language Translator

Cantrips: Fire Bolt, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Friends, Mending, Shape Water

Level 1 Spells: Charm Person, Disguise Self, Identify, Shield, Sleep, Unseen Servant, Chromatic Orb, Comprehend Languages, Speak with Animals, Detect Magic

Level 2 Spells: Hold Person, Invisibility, Acid Arrow, Suggestion

Level 3 Spells: Fireball, Remove Curse, Dispel Magic, Hypnotic Pattern, Lightning Bolt

Level 4 Spells: Locate Creature, Polymorph, Stone Shape, Vitriolic Sphere, Phantasmal Killer

Level 5 Spells: Transmute Rock, Passwall, Dream, Cone of Cold, Antilife Shell

Titles and Awards: Order of Merlin (ICW), Master of Divination

Chapter 29: Dragon Ball P

Chapter Text

After the press conference, Harry invited the other champions to the marauder suite for dinner that evening. He wanted to find out if they knew about the dragons. He assumed Fleur and Krum knew, but he was the one to tell Diggory in the last timeline. He was going to head into the forest that afternoon to verify nothing had changed before he told them anything.

Now that he had his invisibility cloak he was considering using it to sneak out to see the dragons. It would just be for nostalgia, though. His INVISIBILITY spell was just as effective and one less thing to keep track of. He wouldn't be bringing the cloak back to Scotland for the second task.

Remus and Sirius had initially been shocked at Harry's mild-mannered disposition when they met with Dumbledore. They knew Harry still had a lot of anger towards the old man. Harry knew that Albus wouldn't give him the cloak if he thought Harry was 'dark'. If that wasn't an eye-roll worthy excuse, he didn't know what was. Like Dumbledore was some saint.

He paid attention to all of Dumbledore's little ticks and tones though since they arrived. Being calm and respectful had put Albus off balance. By the time they got to the meeting, Albus would be starting to relax. He wanted to believe in the best in people. Once Harry demanded the cloak as a family heirloom, the venerable old wizard would be getting whiplash from the change in tone. Or at least that's how Harry thought it would go. Whether it was his skill in Insight, or the little bit of him that the Sorting Hat wanted in Slytherin, Harry had played Albus.

After he explained his reasoning, they were impressed with his reasoning and more impressed that it worked. Albus Dumbledore shouldn't have fallen for that. Maybe he didn't. Perhaps he was just too stressed about the tournament.

Whatever the reason, they had the cloak.

Between Harry's INVISIBILITY spell powered up to cover all three of them, and Remus's LOCATE CREATURE spell, they were at the dragons' location in no time. It was almost exactly the same. The same four breeds were there. Charlie Weasley was there too.

It was comforting in a way, to know it was the same. It gave them something to plan around. Even the idea of facing off against a dragon was a lot less scary in the comfort of the familiar. The organizers weren't wrong when they said the task tested courage in the face of the unknown.

Harry headed to the kitchens to ask the elves for supplies to cook for the champions.

The elves were insulted.

When he explained that he was having a small dinner party for the champions, they were happy to make something special. Harry hadn't wanted to put them out by asking for a special dish, but if they were offering…

He asked Sirius to go to Hogsmeade to get him some wine, mead, and butterbeer. For some reason, they wouldn't sell the mead to a fourteen-year-old.

Krum arrived first. It was a bit awkward at first. Harry knew too well what being a celebrity was like, so he didn't really want to ask about quidditch per se. They ended up talking about different brooms.

Krum had never seen the Golpe de Víbora that Harry used. It wasn't the fastest broom around, but it was a durable broom that could take a beating. It was perfect for the insane situations that the Marauders found themselves in sometimes. Taking a Firebolt into something like the Amazon Jungle was a good way to throw away galleons.

Eventually, Fleur and Cedric showed up. He offered everyone drinks. Sirius had sprung for the good stuff as Fleur actually complemented the wine.

Harry didn't know where the elves learned to cook Peruvian foods, but as soon as he said ceviche, they started pulling out the fish to marinade. Elves really were a bigger cheat code than portkeys.

The competitors all made small talk throughout dinner. Harry tried to steer the conversation to lighter topics for the most part, but eventually they would have to talk about the tournament. He figured it was time to rip off the plaster.

"So, do you all know about the dragons?"

Fleur stiffened and deliberately did not look at anyone. Krum grunted and nodded. Diggory's head snapped toward Harry. "Dragons!?"

"Yeah, I went out into the forest this afternoon to verify they were there."

Diggory got pale, "You mean for the tournament, don't you? Of course, you do. Why else would you be talking to us. Fuck! Dragons? Wait, you said verify? You already heard about them. And Krum knew, and I'm guessing Delacour did as well since she won't look at anyone. Was I the only one who didn't know? Who told you?"

Harry just nodded. "I only sort of knew or had an idea really. I have a small gift for divination. That's how I got the idea, and why I invited you all here, to make sure we all knew. Dragons are far too dangerous to go into the situation blind. I went out in the forest to verify my… divining."

Delacour snorted when he started talking. When he finished, she finally looked at him, "A small gift at divination? I have seen the ICW reports my father brings home. He is a diplomat. Your saying 'small gift' is like me saying 'I'm somewhat attractive'."

Harry laughed at her. Fleur was part-Veela, and very pretty.

She gave him quite a discerning look and asked, "What else do your divinings tell you? If you want us all on the same page?"

Both Krum and Diggory looked at him expectantly.

Harry blew out his breath. "Look, you need to understand that divination is not a guarantee…"

Fleur wasn't going to let him prevaricate. "Non. Of course not, but what do you See?"

"Well, as I said, keep in mind that things can change, but if they don't… Diggory will be the first to compete against the Swedish Short snout. Delacour, you would go second against the Welsh Green. Krum gets the Fireball. And I would end the show with the Hungarian Horntail."

Delacour and Krum seemed to relax a bit. It looked like they even knew the breeds and were relieved to not have to face the horntail. Diggory went even paler.

"A horntail? Holy fuck. Why did I sign up for this?" Diggory might need a calming draught.

Harry snapped his fingers at Cedric, "Relax, you won't be facing the horntail if my Seeing was True."

The third day held a second press event, this time with photos. The champions spent the morning getting fitted for uniforms, followed by staged photos. Solo shots. Group shots. Action shots. It was ridiculous. Harry hated every minute of it, and it reinforced his determination to skip the ball.

He wanted to skip all this nonsense, but Soto had gone to a lot of trouble to negotiate him only being present for three days before the event. He was essentially gritting his teeth and bearing with it for Foreign Minister's efforts.

That night they retrieved the Diadem horcrux from the Room of Lost Things. They transfigured a lead box to seal it in for transport. They weren't risking destroying the thing here. Sirius took the cursed tiara outside the wards and portkeyed the soul anchor to Terra Messis. The protections in their Alaskan bolt hole were strong, and only the goblins and Elena Arakaki even had an idea where it was. The diadem would be safe there for a day or two until they could get back and destroy it.

The uniform they had given Harry was in red and white and had the country's crest on the front. He looked like a giant Peruvian flag. A Peruvian flag of the non-magical government. Harry rolled his eyes. At least they tried a little. It was better than sticking him in Gryffindor robes.

Alejandro laughed when he saw him. Harry could tell he wanted to say more, but Mendoza was nothing if not a politician. He arrived just after breakfast with Diego Soto, four aurors, and a surprise. Mama Mendoza made the trip! She said she wasn't going to let her first apprentice in 25 years get killed in some foreign country and not be there to support him. Then she hugged him.

Team Peru had deliberately not told their British contacts when they would be arriving to avoid any kind of press nonsense. Alejandro really didn't want to do a photo op with Fudge. It would happen later, but for now they just wanted to see how their people were doing.

The marauders took them on a tour of the grounds and the school. Professor Mendoza was appropriately impressed with the library. Less so with the nonsense like moving staircases or pranking poltergeists.

As the time for the first task drew near, they made their way back to the entry way. Dumbledore was there, and he didn't look happy. He greeted the country leaders and Eunice as colleagues. Then he turned on the marauders, "Gentlemen, I generally appreciate it when I know when there are visitors to my school. Do you mind telling me how your guests got on the grounds well before the gates were open to visitors?"

The three marauders all shrugged and said in unison, "Hagrid."

Dumbledore sighed. He could hardly be mad at them for that. Hagrid was a member of his staff after all. "Thank you. Please head towards the champion's tent, Mr. Potter. President Mendoza, Minister, Professor. There is a VIP section on the east side of the arena if you would like to make your way there."

Harry was the last to arrive in the champion's tent. The other three looked quite nervous. Some nerves were good. Excessive nervousness was not. "Everyone have a plan for your dragon? I don't mind giving you all ideas with what little time we have left."

Fleur and Krum both waved him off. They had more time to prepare than Diggory, though. He still looked extremely pale.

"Alright, Cedric?"

Cedric looked at him like he was insane. Perhaps he was, but that didn't matter right now.

"Do you need help refining your plan, Cedric? You've had less time to prepare than anyone else. I would hate to see you at a disadvantage." Cedric still didn't say anything. Harry didn't know if it was because he didn't trust him, or because he was too terrified. "If you are planning to transfigure a dog or something to distract the dragon, I would suggest doing more than one. The more distractions the better." With that, Harry slapped him on the shoulder and went to a different side of the tent to wait.

Diggory just stared at him.

The only thing to break up the staring was the arrival of Ludo Bagman with the bag to draw the dragons, and with him came Delores Umbridge. Just seeing the toad-woman made Harry want to throw up. He would have to come up with a plan for her at some point. She was far too vile to be left alone, and Sirius and Remus were on a morality kick about not murdering people.

The three school heads were all there, and Remus once again stood in as Harry's representative.

The draw went just like last time. Just like he told his fellow champions it would go. They all stared at him in wonder.

Umbridge sneered at him. Openly. No one said anything about it. He would be moving her up on his priority list after this little dragon obstacle.

Harry didn't really pay attention after that. The other champions were being called to compete, but Harry didn't know if it was going fast or slow. He was too focused on Umbridge's comeuppance. He had a plan now. There was nothing that could be traced to him to be found. He doubted Sirius or Remus would be able to figure it out either.

By the time he was called out to face his dragon, he was feeling pretty good. Having a plan always made him feel better. His plan was for Umbridge, though, not the dragon. Now that he was staring at it, he realized he probably should have planned something.

Bagman was talking a mile a minute, but Harry had him completely tuned out. He was looking over at the dragon and her nest. The golden egg was perched right at the top of the pile of real dragon eggs. The dragon was hyperaware of him. She was not a happy mum.

Harry thought maybe he should have actually done some divination for this task instead of pretending to do it with his previous timeline's knowledge. He remembered how effective it was in helping fight a dark lord.

Something in his mind clicked when he thought about that. The divination rituals. Some of them were done in the draconic language. He could speak to dragons.

Ð "Greetings dragon, my name is Harry Potter."

Ð "The monkey can speak? How interesting."

Harry was trying hard not to take offense. He didn't want to have to complete the quest for killing the dragon. He was perfectly happy doing the quest to do no harm instead.

Ð "Yes, I speak. The other… humans have brought you here as part of a wizard sport." Harry nearly called them all monkeys as well. It was easy to start using words incorrectly like that when you were not a native speaker.

Ð "I am aware."

Ð "You speak English?" Harry was surprised at that revelation.

Ð "NO!" She was practically roaring at that suggestion. Ð "I understand your primitive language. I would never lower myself to speak it though."

Ð "Right, well I was entered into this contest against my will. I don't want to be here anymore than you, but I have to compete, or I lose my magic."

Ð "What do I care of the concerns of apes?"

Ð "The competition has seen to it to put a golden egg in your nest. It is my task to take the golden egg. If you would allow me to take it, I promise to do no harm to your eggs or nest."

Ð "Again, what do I care of the concerns of apes? If the monkeys want to gift me with a golden egg, I shall consider it a tribute to my eternal greatness. You shall not take it from me."

Well. It seemed it was time for plan B. He hadn't even made a plan A, so he was doing well.

The crowd was silent. When Harry first started speaking in draconic, there were more than a few people outright laughing at him. No one could talk to dragons. It sounded to them like he was just grunting and groaning at the dragon.

But then the dragon seemed to respond. She even looked over at her nest at one point. They were starting to think that the Boy-Who-Lived could actually talk to dragons. That was… earthshattering.

When Harry sighed in defeat of his plan to just ask for the egg, the crowd was on the edge of their seats. Not even Bagman was talking. If anyone could have pulled their face away from whatever Harry was going to do and looked at the judges, they would have seen Umbridge's face turning purple. She didn't seem to like whatever Harry was doing.

Harry tested the wards to see if he could make a portkey. He thought he might be able to turn a rock into a portkey with a sticking charm to attach to the egg. Unfortunately, the competition area was still under Hogwarts's wards, so that idea was dead.

If he was closer to the egg, he would cast IDENTIFY to find out what protections were on it. Then he could just break them down and summon it… he rolled his eyes at his own oversight. There was every chance that the judges were morons and didn't protect the egg.

He pointed his wand at the egg. Accio Golden Egg. The judges obviously recognized the wand movement because Bagman taunted him saying that Madame Maxime and Headmaster Dumbledore had collaborated on protections on the eggs to ward against summoning or levitation or any other forced movement.

That annoyed Harry. Not that they had protected the egg that way, but that Bagman was practically giddy about it. He clearly wanted to see what the famous Harry Potter could do.

Harry didn't want to show them anything at this point. He already revealed too much by speaking to the dragon and not even getting the egg. If he had succeeded, it would have been worth it. If he could get to the protections, he would show Maxime and Dumbledore what he thought of their protections as he ripped them down.

Hang a second. He didn't need to figure out what they had done. It didn't matter what they did. When Harry had started this adventure six years ago, he tried being a sorcerer for the sole purpose of having subtle spell. Now he had that anyway.

He accessed his Metamagic to use Subtle Spell to cast DISPEL MAGIC. There were no wand movements, no sounds, and no components. The magic just happened. And the golden egg was no longer protected by anything.

A stray thought made him wonder if he had also just erased the Mermish clue inside, but whatever. It didn't really matter.

He raised his wand again and cast Accio Golden Egg. This time, the egg flew out of the nest, past the horntails grasping claw and right into Harry Potter's waiting hand. The dragon was furious. She was shouting and spewing fire, but Harry had never gone anywhere near her.

He took his egg and left the arena. The audience and the judges were all stunned. Bagman just said that the heads of two schools, including the famous Albus Dumbledore had made it impossible to summon that egg. And Harry had done it anyway.

While Harry waited for them to clear the dragon out of the enclosure to get his scores with the other champions, he checked his quests.

Quest Complete: Beat the first task in a new way.

Unique Reward: Mass Suggestion

Quest Complete: Beat the first task without harming the dragon.

Unique Reward: 2 Charisma

The first quest rewarded him with the spell MASS SUGGESTION. He didn't even have 6th level spells yet. Holy shit. Could he cast that before he leveled up to 11? That bared looking into. The second quest rewarded him with 2 Charisma. Holy shit times two. That was a good reward.

Overall, it was well worth the effort to not fight the stupid dragon who was clearly less stupid than he thought.

Harry couldn't remember exactly how many points each of the other champions got in the last timeline, but he got less this time for sure.

Dumbledore wanted to know how he had broken the protection on the egg. When Harry refused to tell him, the old man sighed and said the only thing he could judge him on then was a summoning charm and gave Harry a 5.

Maxime followed suit. It was clear they both wanted to give him less, but agreements had been made and contracts signed that said they would judge him fairly. Their justification was… reasonable from a certain point of view.

Bagman was a bit disappointed in the lack of excitement and gave a 4. Karkaroff also gave him a 4 but didn't explain why.

Umbridge. Well, she went on a tirade about how he used obviously dark magic to speak to the beast. She tried to order aurors to arrest him for blatant use of dark spells. It nearly started an international incident right there.

She must have forgotten that the President and Minister of Foreign Affairs was present. There was a lot of shouting between Umbridge and Soto. Eventually Dumbledore got her to shut up before she started a war right then. She gave Harry a 2. She must have thought it was fair because the contract wouldn't have allowed it if she didn't believe in it.

Twenty points for the only champion to not be injured in any way. He retrieved his egg without harming the dragon or the real eggs. It was nearly perfect, except it wasn't entertaining. Harry just shook his head and went to grab his bags with Sirius and Remus. They would be leaving directly.

The marauders agreed to meet with Diego the following day at the ministry in Lima. They currently had other plans.

They arrived in Terra Messis by portkey. They wouldn't be going to the fiendfyre cave for this one. Now that they had access to basilisk venom, they could avoid the literal hellfire that Max and the team didn't want him using. Plus, it was hard to control.

Basil was glad to help. He had been disappointed to have to sit out the dragon task with Sirius. As much as he liked the Grim Marauder, his father was battling a giant lizard, and snakes were far superior to lizards.

Now he would get to help. Basil released some venom into a crystal vial. They didn't want him biting the horcrux directly.

Remus had the best control of the three of them, so he levitated the vial of venom over the diadem and tipped it over.

It screamed.

And that was it. This was so much easier than fiendfyre.

Quest Complete! Soul Quest 4: Destroy the Diadem!

Unique Reward: Infusions

Artificer Infusions. Huh. That would take some time to think about.

One more horcrux down. Only two left.

He felt like they were probably close to level eleven at this point. Why else would the team give him a 6th level spell? Well, Max was the answer to that. 'What do I always say, Harry? Cheat!'

Yeah, that felt like Max. Maybe they weren't as close as Harry thought.

That night, Harry took his first step towards dealing with Delores Umbridge. England was several hours ahead of Peru, so he was pretty sure Umbridge would be asleep when he went to bed that night. Harry wasn't going to sleep yet, though. He was casting DREAM.

Delores Umbridge would experience horrifying dreams of being surrounded by monstrous half-breeds coming after her. Harry planned to do this every night. She would not feel the effects of a good nights sleep for a long time.

It wasn't long before Christmas was upon them again. The marauder family was going back to the Tonks residence to stay in a tent in their backyard. They would once again be under the fidelius. That was more for convenience than fear this time. They had interacted with Dumbledore enough to not really have to hide, but Diego had told the tournament organizers Harry would not be in the country for the ball.

The run-up to the holiday was a lot busier than anyone would have liked. The fallout from the world finding out that Harry could talk to dragons was immense. It was world news. Every dragon reserve in the world wanted him to come work for them. They were all refused obviously, but the family did make time to visit the Peruvian reserve just to help out.

The dragon handlers were awed and offering anything he could imagine to get him to work there. He politely declined, but he did talk to their dragons to find out what they wanted and how the handlers could improve the dragons' lives.

It seemed the horntail was not the only arrogant bitch in dragon kind. They were pretty much all haughty. They saw themselves as allowing the handlers to keep them and serve them. But Harry did get some feedback, and the dragons' lives would improve.

Nymphadora 'Call Me Tonks' was quite happy to fill the marauders in on all the bullshit coming out of the British Ministry. Apparently, Delores Umbridge had to be admitted to Saint Mungo's. She couldn't get any sleep unless she used Dreamless Sleep Potion which was highly addictive and could cause serious complications if taken long term.

She had to take it though because she was dying from exhaustion.

Harry had to use every ounce of self-control he ever imagined having to not smirk or laugh outright at the bitch's fate. Finally, he cracked and started laughing so hard he couldn't breathe. Everyone was disturbed that Harry would find that so funny.

"You don't understand how horrible that woman was. I've Seen it." That was his code when he was with people not in the know about his time travel / resurrection. He Saw things. All the Tonks knew he was a skilled diviner. "She would go on to put muggleborn in camps. Like the fucking Nazis. Couldn't happen to a nicer person I say."

Sirius and Remus were giving him the evil eye. They knew he did something, but they had no idea what. They weren't too upset. Harry didn't kill her after all, and she was a horrendous twat. She would gladly execute Moony for being a werewolf even though he wasn't one anymore.

They would question Harry later.

On Boxing Day, the Marauders headed to the Grangers' house. Originally, Harry tried to invite them and the Tonks family down to Peru for a Peruvian Christmas celebration, but Mr. Doctor Granger's mother was in the hospital. He didn't want to travel when she wasn't well.

Of course, Hermione smashed into him in the tightest hug in history before she inspected every inch of him to verify he hadn't lied in his letter about suffering no injuries from his dragon. A dragon! Who the hell puts children up against a dragon? She still ranted about it.

Harry had given Hermione two books and a shawl. The shawl was hand-knitted. She loved it, but Remus and Sirius were struggling not to laugh.

"What's wrong with my present that you jokers are giggling over there? I think it's lovely."

Remus took the lead in answering that one, "There is nothing wrong with it Hermione. Harry did make it, and he didn't prank it or anything. We're laughing because of all the attempts Harry made at trying to make a sweater before settling for the shawl. They were… humorous at best."

Harry's face was bright red now. He turned to his godfathers, "I will get you back for this."

Hermione didn't think he had anything to be embarrassed about. She thought it incredibly sweet that he would go to so much effort, and it was kind of nice to find something that Harry Potter wasn't a savant at. The fact that he kept trying, just for her, made her feel all kinds of warm.

She hugged him, "Thank you Harry."

He mumbled into her hair, "Your welcome."

"Now, explain these books to me?" She was purposely changing the subject, and everyone knew it. Harry appreciated it greatly. She really was his best friend.

He was working on Ron. He sent a Christmas present to all the Weasleys he met at Hogwarts. Nothing extravagant of course, just some sweets for Ron, and some muggle prank and joke books for Fred and George. He wanted to ease them into the idea of friendship, and not come off as a creepy stalker.

"What would you like me to explain Hermione?" Harry was over the embarrassment now and smiling.

"Well, I don't even understand the language on this one, and that one looks like you handwrote it yourself."

"Ah. Well, that's because I did."

"Explain." Hermione did not mess around when it came to books.

"Well, that book," He pointed towards the one in the language she didn't know. "Is written in Xhosa. It's one of the languages spoken in South Africa. We've been doing some traveling down there; you know how it is."

Hermione just rolled her eyes at him.

"Anyway, it's a book on enchanting. Which I thought was a field of interest to you?"

"Get to the point, Potter."

"Ouch, last name. Ok." The adults in the room were laughing at him. "Well, it's a book on techniques developed in the southern regions of the continent, and I thought you would like it. But obviously you don't know Xhosa, so the second book is my translation of it."

Hermione was dumbfounded. Harry had translated an entire book for her for a language she didn't even know existed, let alone could hope to learn in a reasonable time. Now she had access to this incredible resource. She started crying.

"Hey, hey. It's ok. I promise I was very meticulous with the translation. It is guaranteed accurate."

"That's not why I'm crying, you git." Then she threw herself at him and didn't let go.

When she finally settled down and broke away from him, she had to ask, "But Harry, how do you know Xhosa? There's no way you could learn it that fast."

That was the question he hoped she wouldn't ask, but of course she did. She was Hermione.

"Well. You see. You might not believe me."

Sirius and Remus stiffened. They had an idea that Harry might be verging on telling her the truth. There was no rule against it as far as they knew, but it was risky.

"Harry Potter, you do the most ridiculous things, and they are all true. Of course, I'll believe you."

"You know about Madagascar. Do your parents know?" He looked over at the good Doctors Granger. They both nodded.

Mrs. Doctor Granger replied, "She told us you fought an evil dark lord? Like Darth Vader, right?"

"Yes, but magic. That's about right. Supreme evil kind of jerk. But did Hermione tell you how the wannabe Vader got his power? About the demons?"

The two non-magicals in the house shifted uncomfortably. Yes, Hermione had told them that. They were not happy about it. They weren't super devout, but they were both raised C of E. "Yes." Was the only reply.

"Right. Well. Here's the thing… demons are real and sometimes come to earth to do evil things. There's another side of that though. There's… divine? I guess? I don't have a good name for it. The other side. I hesitate to say anything about God because I don't know anything about that. I know there are greater Powers than just humans out there in the universe, and some of them want to fight the darkness."

Harry reached for his glass of water. This conversation was a lot harder than he thought it would be. How do you explain this stuff?

"So these Powers, they don't like it when demons interfere on earth. They're not supposed to be here. So, when a few mortals…" He pointed to Sirius, Remus, and himself, "go out of their way to help fight this darkness at great personal risk… well they like to reward that sort of action."

Harry looked at Sirius. He was the one that usually did the talking. Sirius just shrugged at him. He seemed to think Harry was doing fine for whatever this conversation turned into.

"So the reward that Sirius, Remus and I got was the ability to speak and understand any language."

The three Grangers all gasped. That was an incredible gift.

"Harry, are you telling me that you can speak any language in the world?" Hermione's eyes were practically bugging out of her head now.

"Yes."

"You are translating so many books for me now."

The laughter following that statement seemed to clear the oppressive tension that had built up in the room. Talking about demons on earth was scary. Especially if you were a non-magical person with no real means to protect yourself. It would take a while for the full implications of the things Harry said to sink in with all the Grangers.

After that heavy conversation, the two families decided to watch a Christmas movie. It was Boxing Day, but a goofy feel-good movie was just what they all needed.

As they were sitting down to watch, Hermione just had to ask a question that had been burning in her mind all holiday. "Harry, why didn't you go to the Yule Ball for the Triwizard tournament?"

"Well two reasons really. One, it's for the Triwizard tournament and Minister Soto already told them I wouldn't be there. That was Peru sticking it to the British Ministry for this fiasco."

"That's a good reason. What's the second?" Hermione was very keen on this answer.

"Why would I want to go to a ball anyway?"

Hermione and Harry were sitting on the sofa next to each other so they weren't really looking at each other, but at this pronouncement, she pulled back a bit so she could turn and look at him properly. "Why wouldn't you want to go?"

"It doesn't interest me?" Hermione crossed her arms over her chest. Harry would have to explain better than that. "I don't think I would enjoy it. I don't fancy dress up. I hate dancing. The music is terrible. I would be a spectacle being famous Harry Potter. Oh, and who would I even go with? I don't even know anyone at those schools. I was only there for three days."

The elder Grangers turned to look at each other at that statement. Clearly, Harry was not in the same headspace as Hermione. They knew exactly what she was getting at with these questions: why didn't you ask me?

"Harry Potter, how can you not like dancing? Everyone likes dancing." Hermione was in lecture mode now and trying to ease around to what she really wanted to ask.

"Erm. No. I don't. I don't see the point."

She was starting to get annoyed. "The point is the dancing. It is fun. Have you ever even danced before? Or are you assuming?"

"I have attended one ball before. I hated it. I danced once. I hated it. No thank you."

Hermione blew out her breath that she didn't realize she was holding and spoke in a much softer voice, "Harry, just so you know, if you had been forced to go to the ball, you could have asked me, and I would have gladly gone with you."

All of the adults were making an effort to not look at the two teens, but also desperately listening. It wasn't hard. They were all in the same room. The marauders knew Harry wasn't looking for romance with a teenager because he counted himself as being around 24 years old.

The good Doctors Granger were waiting to see if this was the moment that the two started snogging. They completely expected Hermione to one day have the name Potter. Assuming Harry ever figured out girls existed.

"Thank you, Hermione. Its really nice having a friend to count on."

"A friend." Hermione's tone was flat. Hermione was walking the line here. She had a huge crush on Harry, but also realized he never once showed any romantic feelings towards her. Or anyone really. Maybe he was asexual… maybe it was better to get this out in the open. (In another life, she was a Gryffindor).

"Harry. I was offering to go as your date. Like a romantic date."

Every adult in the room held their breath.

"What?" Harry was stunned.

"What, what?" Now Hermione was confused. Did Harry not understand this simple concept?

"Hermione… but…"

"What's wrong Harry? Slow down and use your words." This was patient Hermione. She was going to pull his feelings out of him if it killed her.

"I… I don't think this conversation should be had in front of everyone."

"Harry, it's fine. They've heard everything so far. I don't have any secrets from my parents. Whatever you tell me, I'll tell them anyway."

"Erm. Ok. Um. Well. I'm just a bit confused based on the letter you sent me last year from school." Harry was fidgeting now. He was nervous.

"Which letter Harry? I write you all the time."

If she wanted this conversation out there, it wasn't his fault. He hoped she really didn't have any secrets with her parents. "Hermione, why would you have romantic interest in me? I thought you were gay."

There was a stunned silence in the room. Then a shriek "WHAT? Why would you think I was gay? What could I have possibly said in a letter to make you think that?"

The plaster was off now, so Harry just barreled forward, "You were asking all those questions about gay rights and in particular how magical society viewed gay people. What were the social stigmas, that sort of thing."

Hermione slapped herself in the forehead, "And you thought what? That was me coming out to you? That I was a lesbian?"

"Yeah."

Hermione started laughing hysterically. Her parents were laughing as well. Hermione told them about Olivia flirting with her.

Finally, Hermione got control of herself. "I asked you those questions because my roommate got drunk and started chatting me up. We had a good laugh about it later, but I realized I didn't know anything about the subject in the magical world. I checked the law and there weren't any, but I didn't know if that was because it was accepted or because no one would dare so they don't need laws. So I asked about social conventions. That doesn't make me a lesbian, Harry."

"Right. Ok then. Confusion solved."

The ball and dating were not brought up again.

Harry Potter

Divination Wizard (Level 10)

Strength: 12

Dexterity: 16

Constitution: 16

Intelligence: 22

Wisdom: 14

Charisma: 14

Feat(s): Alert, Prodigy, Metamagic Adept (Subtle Spell, Distant Spell)

Ability: Mage Sight, Darkvision, Beast Master Bond, Turn Undead, Third Eye, Infusions

Skills Proficiencies: Arcana, Deception, History, Insight, Investigation, Survival, Land Vehicles, Sleight of Hand, Potter's Tools

Expertise: Arcana

Languages: English, French, Parseltongue, Goblin, Spanish, Draconic, Universal Language Translator

Cantrips: Fire Bolt, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Friends, Mending, Shape Water

Level 1 Spells: Charm Person, Disguise Self, Identify, Shield, Sleep, Unseen Servant, Chromatic Orb, Comprehend Languages, Speak with Animals, Detect Magic

Level 2 Spells: Hold Person, Invisibility, Acid Arrow, Suggestion

Level 3 Spells: Fireball, Remove Curse, Dispel Magic, Hypnotic Pattern, Lightning Bolt

Level 4 Spells: Locate Creature, Polymorph, Stone Shape, Vitriolic Sphere, Phantasmal Killer

Level 5 Spells: Transmute Rock, Passwall, Dream, Cone of Cold, Antilife Shell

Level 6 Spells: Mass Suggestion

Titles and Awards: Order of Merlin (ICW), Master of Divination