Chapter 8: Up Go the Wards
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Another short one.
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As Harry and Dobby approached the Room of Requirements, they noticed that there was a door already there. It was a decorative door that was light in color. It was large and instinctive. There were carvings on it that looked like a master craftsman had done, or a magical. For only one or the other could have done something so exquisite.
"Oh dear," said Dobby, wringing his long spindly hands, "there is being somebody already there." He had been hoping to show Harry Potter the Room of Lost Things, but now that wasn't going to happen.
"How do you know that, Dobby?" asked Harry. He had no idea how the room worked, so he took his friend's word for it.
"There is being a door," said Dobby, waving in that direction.
"Oh, maybe we should knock," the boy wonder said, going to do just that.
"Oh no, Harry Potter, sir, this is being a most secretive place. That is meaning somebody is trying to be keeping a secret," the little elf said, stopping his friend from making that mistake.
"Oh," said Harry, glad Dobby had stopped him, and he turned to walk away. Just then, a burst of magic poured out of the room, and it touched Harry and beckoned him backward. "I think, I need to go into that room," he said, turning back towards the door.
"Yes, I think you need to be," said Dobby and the two approached the room.
Harry opened the door and went inside.
Dobby saw that there was someone there and went to the side of the room to observe.
Harry saw Professor Flitwick communing with a large crystal. "Professor, I felt the call," the teenager said, moving forward and coming to the diminutive man's side.
"Come in, come in," said Filius as he laid a hand on the crystal. "We will be joined in just a few more minutes. I sent a call to other people too. They will be joining us soon." He was all but bouncing on his feet. He was super excited, and his voice was almost to the point that dogs could hear it, it squeaked so high.
"What's this all about, Professor?" asked Harry, peering at the crystal with fascination. He had no clue as to what it was or what it did, but it was huge. It was white and pulsing with power. There seemed to be a sentience about it. Like it was trying to communicate, but it lacked the voice to do so. Harry felt emotions coming from it, and right now he felt an urgency.
"We are going to be raising the war wards. To do that, the castle had to promote people among the student body to staff," Flitwick said, removing his hand from the crystal, and turning to the teenager. He spied the house elf and said, "Dobby, you may go. Harry will be fine here." He thought it was great that the elf was making sure the boy was safe, but he didn't want anyone that didn't belong to the ceremony around.
"Yes, Professor Flitwicky, sir," Dobby said, and popped away. He knew that Harry Potter was safe in the half-goblin's hands.
"You mean I'm now part of the Hogwarts staff? What part am I?" Harry said, after Dobby left. He felt confused and concerned. He was too young to be part of the staff. He hadn't even taken his OWLs yet.
"I do believe, my good sir, that you have been promoted to Deputy Headmaster," Filius stated, like he was pronouncing him King.
"But I'm only fifteen years old," protested Harry. He didn't want that kind of responsibility. He was too young, and he had things he had to do. Then again, it did give him some kind of credibility that he didn't have before. People would have to listen to him. He thought.
"Don't fret, son, it's only a ceremonial position at this time. More of an apprenticeship," Flitwick stated, trying to relieve the boy of some of the stress he was feeling. "I will teach you everything you need to know," he assured the boy. "We'll make sure that you get your education and that you understand your position."
"I see," said Harry. He didn't know how this would interfere with his plans to go to the continent. He wondered if he could take a vacation so soon after he was appointed.
Just then, three more people came through the door. Claire Borealis, Pete Twigs, and Fred Weasley, entered with confused looks on their faces. Claire and Pete were the Head Boy and Head Girl this year and it had been a miracle that they both survived. Claire had been one of those that had gone home this year, she was the sole survivor of her family, and she had just arrived back at the school. She had been alone in her house when Poppy Pomfrey had called her and all but demanded she return.
"Professor, what's this all about?" asked Fred, going to Harry's side. He put a hand on the other teen's shoulder. He could feel a lot of tension there and wondered what had the boy in such a twist. He had been in such a good mood when he had left the Great Hall.
"Ah yes, I see that Hogwarts has chosen well. Mr. Twigs, you will be the new Head of Ravenclaw. Miss Borealis, you are to be the new Head of Slytherin. Which means, unfortunately, that Severus is dead. Mr. Weasley, you are to be the new head of Gryffindor. I am to be the new Headmaster," Professor Flitwick explained, clapping his hands in glee. He was very excited to be the new head of the school. He had a lot of plans for protecting it. Even if that meant training the students to fight. He knew that meant keeping the goblins out of the castle, and that was a bit of a conflict for him, but to protect the students, he'd do it.
"What's Harry here for?" asked Fred, wondering what the boy had gotten into now. It didn't seem that a year didn't go by that the other teen wasn't in some sort of trouble.
"He's the new Deputy Headmaster," the new headmaster stated, preening a bit.
"But he's only fifteen/too young," protested all three of the newcomers, looking aghast. Fred looked outraged on Harry's behalf.
"And he has protected this school since he was eleven years old," said Professor Flitwick, having learned this from the crystal. He had heard the rumors of course but had put them off as just that, gossip. The castle put him straight and let him know that Harry Potter had been doing things that most adults hadn't and wouldn't do to protect the school.
"I must protest too," said Professor Dumbledore as he came floating into the room. It was as if he had been waiting in the walls.
"You don't have a say in it, I'm afraid," said Professor Flitwick astonished to see the ghost, but standing firm. "The school has spoken." To him there was no greater voice in Hogwarts than… Hogwarts.
"Yeah, so bugger off, old man," said Harry, folding his arms over his chest and glaring at the old man. He was still bitter.
"Mr. Potter!" said Professor Flitwick with his mouth wide open in shock at such language.
"I am most wroth with the old man," said Harry, speaking much more maturely than he usually did. "We had some disagreements that we must go over before I am to understand anything that he has done to me. I am very unhappy with him." Oh yeah, he was still very upset.
"Still, such language is unbecoming the Deputy Headmaster. You must set an example," the smaller man stated, wagging a finger.
"I'm fifteen years old," Harry said, smirking. "I think you should expect such language from me for some time in the future." He wasn't one to cuss, overly much. However, for the ex-headmaster, he'd make an exception.
"Please refrain from doing so in my presence," Flitwick stated, looking down his nose at him.
"I'll do my best," Harry sighed, knowing it was a futile battle.
"Be that as it may," Filius said, waving the argument away, "we must get the wards up. I need to go and get Pomona." He moved to leave the room when Fred stopped him.
"Wouldn't she have heard your call when you called the rest of us?" Fred asked, confused as to why she wasn't there.
"Oh dear, I don't understand. Maybe I should call her again," said Professor Flitwick, rubbing his chin in thought, and then he laid his hands on the crystal and called Pomona. "We'll give her a couple of minutes and see if she comes." He moved to where Dumbledore was floating to try and get the spirit to leave. He didn't want the old man's ghost to interfere.
"Until then, I must protest once more that Harry cannot be Deputy Headmaster of this school," said Professor Dumbledore, running his ghostly hand down his beard.
"And again, I say you do not have a say in this," Filius stated, raising his wand to banish the ghost from the room. He didn't want to do it, but he really didn't want the man here. He respected the old man, but he was an interfering old coot.
"I am the headmaster of the school," said Dumbledore, erecting himself to his full height. Which was easy because he was floating.
"You're dead. You're not the headmaster of anything," said Harry, laughing at him.
"That's right," said Fred, though he really had no idea what was going on. He thought Harry loved the headmaster. "You're dead. You can't protest anything."
"I don't know what's going on right now," said Filius, raising his wand, "but, you really don't have a say what's happening right now, Dumbledore. We need to get the wards up and we don't have time to argue with a ghost." He was readying a wand to get the spirit out of the room when Dumbledore protested one more time.
"Surely there must be a better candidate than Harry Potter to be the Deputy Headmaster. He is unprepared, untrained and far too young," Albus stated, floating towards the wall before he could be banished.
"He can be trained, and you know as well as I do that the Deputy Headmaster can be as young as twelve years old. It is an apprenticeship situation. He will be apprenticing under me," Flitwick stated, leveling his wand and pointing it at the ghost's nose.
"That has not happened in well over 200 years," once more protesting.
"Well, it is happening now. With the population as depleted as it is, there are going to be a lot of apprenticeships going on," the diminutive professor said, casting the spell and the ghost flew out of the room yelling all the way.
That's when Pomona came through the door. "Is it time?" she asked as she came bustling over to where Professor Flitwick stood.
"Yes, it is time. We are going to put the wards up," he said, looking from where Dumbledore had disappeared. He would have to ask Harry what was going on but now was not the time.
"Can we do it from here, or must we go outside?" she asked, wanting to get it done as soon as possible.
"We are going to teach the students what needs to be done here, and then we must go outside to do it. We must do it from the four corners of the school, with me and Harry in the center," Filius stated, going over the logistics. "That and being on the grounds puts us closer to the ley lines."
"Very well, let us continue."
With that, Pomona and Filius went about showing the children how to set up the war wards. It took a better part of an hour, and then they went to the grounds.
Under the guidance of Professors Flitwick and Sprout, Clair, Pete, Fred and Harry learned what was needed. Then Pomona and the new Heads gathered at the designated points around the castle grounds. Each corner was essential to the integrity of the warding system. The atmosphere was tense yet brimming with determination.
Once in position, with Flitwick, in the center of the castle, Harry took a deep breath and began to chant the incantations taught to him. Flitwick's voice rose in synchrony, weaving ancient magic into the fabric of their environment. The air shimmered briefly, tinged with the glow of protective spells, as the wards began to take hold.
The new and old Heads, focusing intently on their task, repeated the chants and added their own energy to the growing shield. Sweat beaded on their foreheads, but they pushed on, motivated by the urgent need to safeguard their haven.
Finally, with the combined efforts of everyone involved, the wards solidified around the castle, giving off a faint, comforting hum. The ancient stones seemed to sigh in relief, enveloped in the renewed protection.
As they regrouped, faces lit up with accomplishment, knowing their hard work had created a sanctuary against the dark forces outside. The castle stood as a beacon of hope amidst the encroaching shadows.
Now that everyone was safe, Claire, Pete, Fred and Harry, along with Pomona and Filius, retired back to the castle and went to the Room of Requirements. They fed the crystal some magic to charge her.
Once the crystal was charged, they were done. The wards were completely fulfilled and would hold against the Death Eaters and werewolves. They would only have to worry if they were under siege for days. They would need to be diligent.
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While Harry and the new and old staff were discussing the wards, Amelia, Sirius, Tonks and Andi, along with any other able-bodied adult, went about picking up the muggleborn and half-bloods that were living in the muggle world that were still alive. They had received letters back from the owls from the living, when they sent them out. Like the wizarding population, they were very few. There were only around seventy-five left.
They brought them back to the castle with all their belongings and set them up in the empty dorms or suites. Where they were sent depending on whether they were adults or children. Children went into the dorms; adults went into the suites.
"It's horrible out there," said Andi to Pomona later that night, when the two of them were sitting swapping information. They both sat in Sprout's room with cups of tea. "I'm glad you got the wards up because there are a lot of unsavory characters out there just looting everything."
It had been terrible, there were plenty of people running about just ransacking and trashing everything. There was no law to stop them, and they were not being mindful of anyone or anything. It was madness. There were fires and explosions from where people tried to open places that had been locked up. Cars were on fire, buildings were in ruin, and there was trash everywhere. It was chaos.
"Oh, how do you know that? I thought you were just there to pick up the muggleborn and half-bloods," Pomona said, sipping her tea. How could they have seen what was going on outside of the houses?
"Sirius got the bright idea to pick off a couple of the grocery stores. We decided to go see if there were any groceries left, and when we got there, there were a bunch of people fighting over what little canned goods there were," Mrs. Tonks stated, shuddering over the sight that she had seen. It was not a good one to go to bed too.
"Fighting? Oh dear, that's not good. Whatever did you do?" she asked, leaning forward to hear the story.
"Yes, it was terrible. It was as if a riot was breaking out between what few people were left. It was a horrible sight to see. There were children biting on adults and adults beating up small children, and all ages in between. We had to cast a spell on them to get them to stop," Andi stated, setting her cup on the elegant table next to her chair.
There was a fire burning in the fireplace near their chairs and she was warm for the first time that evening. It had been a long day, and she was more than happy to see the end of it. She was going to curl up with a good book for an hour and then go to sleep.
"Were you able to get any food?" Sprout asked, hoping they had. There were a lot of mouths to feed here.
"No, we left it to them. We simply made them stop fighting and then divided it up amongst the survivors," she explained, knowing that that had been the correct thing to do.
"So, you were able to make a peaceful solution about it? Well, bully for you," Pomona stated, giving her a winning smile.
"But it won't last. They'll be out fighting once more on a later date. We can't go back every day and make them be diplomatic to one another, and we can't bring them here," Andi said with a frustrated sigh. She wanted to grab the children, but Sirius stopped her. They were almost feral and had run off with the food when they were given it.
"I don't understand why not, we have plenty of room," Sprout said. She too thought that the children should have been brought to the castle.
"I don't think, uh, most of the people here will go for it," Andi said, thinking the government officials and the remaining purebloods would have protested.
"I see your reasoning. Too many people here fear what the muggles will do," Sprout stated, though she couldn't see what a bunch of scared kids could accomplish.
"Sirius wants to go see what's in the warehouses tomorrow. They might not have been hit like the grocery stores," Andi said, changing the subject. She was going to go and get those kids. Or at the very least, check on them. She might assign a house elf to them. She would bring it up with the rest of the adults. If they couldn't save the adults, they could at least grab the children.
"How does Sirius even know these things?" the Herbology Professor asked, still unsure what to think about Black. So far, he had been helpful and courteous, but he was still a wanted man. Just a few hours ago, she thought of him as a mass murderer.
"He had a lot of time to think about nothing in the last two years," Andromeda explained, trying to express the man had been bored while on the run.
"Yes, but grocery stores and warehouses in the muggle world? How does he even know these things?" It didn't make sense to her. The Blacks were purebloods. They hated all things muggle.
Andi looked away and picked up her cooling tea and warmed it with her wand. "Let's just say he spent a lot of time walking around in his dog form when he wasn't supposed to be," she said, giving away that Sirius had an Animagus form without realizing it.
Pomona smiled at that and wondered if anyone else knew the man had a dog form. "That still doesn't really answer the question, but okay."
"I know, but that's what Nymphadora told me," Andi said, looking back at the teacher. "She said he went into a lot of unsavory neighborhoods where he didn't think he would be recognized, and they wouldn't chase him off with rocks and sticks. He is a rather large dog."
"Still."
"I know, I know. I'm just letting you know what they told me," she said, finishing off her tea and putting her cup back down. "Well, I'm off to bed. We'll discuss with Sirius tomorrow about his meandering through rough neighborhoods in the morning." She was very ready to hit the hay and sleep until late in the afternoon.
"Very well, I suppose I will go to bed too," Pomona said, yawning and standing to show the woman out of her rooms. She was tired after erecting the wards. It had taken a lot out of her. ""Goodnight, my dear." She walked Andi to the door.
"Yes, goodnight," Andi said, leaving the room. Tomorrow will hopefully be a slow day.