AN: Here's the next chapter, and under a month! So, I'm feeling pretty proud of that. Special thanks to my beta for this chapter, Thrivean. As always, thanks for the support and let me know what you think.
Mando-Vet -Thanks!
GreengrassRebel -Yeah, Voldemort took a loss at the Ministry and he's learned from that. He also has no interest to become a wraith again, so even though he thinks he's immortal, he doesn't want to lose a fight to Dumbledore or others. Yeah, the teenagers will still 100% be all over the place, and some of them really are just horrible. It was nice to give Trixie and Angie some bonding time, and glad you liked the twist with Emmeline and Madame Bones surviving here. Also glad you like Dora's hound, Cocoa.
WinkingSkeever - Thanks!
scrappy8 - Thanks!
Sunshinetexan -Thanks! And as requested:
Requirements for Magehood: Mastery of Element associated with deity. Mastery of magehood duties, which fluctuate based on deity. Create/Forge/Obtain elemental weapons/equipment.
10 Elements: Earth, Fire, Water, Air, Lightning, Ice, Shadow, Light, Time, Sound. Various deities associated with various elements. Example: Water could be Poseidon or Thalassa or Oceanus. Effectively any Greek/Roman diety associated with one of these concepts could be a patron for that element.
Chapter 72
ATTACK ON THE DMLE!
Last night, the Dark Lord Voldemort and his followers launched a massive offensive on the magical community, specifically targeting the homes of members of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement as well as their families and some family businesses.
Nearly forty different attacks occurred, resulting in the death of fourteen people, and the injury or torture of nearly twenty-four others. Seventeen properties were destroyed in the fighting, leaving many survivors displaced. Over forty people were apprehended last night when the DMLE responded with nearly a dozen of those being identified as possible victims of the Imperius Curse.
Voldemort himself was seen at four different sites: notably the homes of Lady Amelia Bones, Head of the Department of Law Enforcement, Lady Emmeline Vane, Head Hitwitch, Pius Thicknesse, Head of the new Office of Inspector General and Internal Affairs, and Rufus Scrimgeor, Head Auror. Only through the timely arrival of Lord Harry Potter and Grand Sorcerer Albus Dumbledore were deaths prevented. Both Lady Bones and Lady Vance had to be admitted to St. Mungos, with Lady Vance's condition being listed as critical. Head Auror Scrimgeour only sustained minor injuries. Inspector Thicknesse managed to avoid any injury due to his home being the last site attacked by the Dark Lord, and Albus Dumbledore along with Lord and Lady Tonks Potter arriving right on his heels to fight him off once again.
"It's amazing that the Chronicle uses his name," Fred said. "The Prophet is certainly still calling him 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.'"
"Old Voldie won't be happy reading this," George remarked. "This basically says that Voldemort was chased off by you and Dumbledore four times, implying he either lost the fight that many times or had to flee. Considering none of his targets died, it's hard to argue with the implications."
They were all studiously ignoring a large portion of the student body that was glancing at them, either with awe, derision, and every other emotion in between.
"He was chased off by Dumbledore," Harry replied flatly, getting a snort from Angelina and Alicia. He smiled at his two sisters, but both looked away from him. "It wasn't my fault you were both busy last night!" Harry protested, pouting slightly.
"Do you hear something, Leash?" Angelina asked, buttering some toast.
"I think I hear the whispers of someone who could have summoned Ash and Myst, sent us a patronus, sent Astra, or found us himself to take us with him," Alicia replied conversationally, speaking the names of her and Angie's familiars, both of whom appeared on their respective shoulders. Ash the phoenix trilled, and hopped down to eat some fruit while Myst the raven, cawed and went for some oats. Astra, the traitor, barked in agreement from where she was lying at Harry's feet. "Then again, I could be wrong."
"There wasn't time," Harry muttered weakly. "Do I at least earn some forgiveness for helping to save Dora and Mad-Eye?" He gave them a pleading look, making his bright green eyes a bit wider, and trying to give them an innocent look.
"You do," Angelina conceded, giving him a wan smile, "however, the Council of Elder Sisters did rule that we are mad at you. So, you must accept us being mad at you for today."
"The Council of Elder Sisters?" Harry asked, bemused, and to his shock Alicia pulled out a piece of parchment.
"Yep, we have Jamie, Dora, myself, and Angelina all agreeing we were a bit irked with you," Alicia explained casually, showing the letter with agreement from all four. "Also got some additional outside votes of approval from Chiara, Penny, Lexie, and Fleur. Plus, of course, Alexis, Siobhan, Bella, and Molly. So, yes, plenty of approval."
"Well, damn," Harry muttered, surprised, and George and Fred howled with laughter.
"Poor Harry is finally in the dog house," Fred said with a grin. "Finally pissed off your siblings properly. It took long enough!"
"Oh, I've pissed them all off plenty before," Harry said sheepishly.
"Because you're a proper ickle little brudder," George said teasingly.
"You know, I don't need to take this lying down," Harry said with a scowl. "I can go visit Marina, Katie, Ron, and Hermione in the hospital wing instead!"
Fred and George laughed as Harry, with his head up in a mock-affronted manner, got up from the table and walked out of the Great Hall.
"So, you really going to keep him in the doghouse for a whole day?" George asked Angelina with a grin. "Even though he did pretty good?"
Angelina snorted. "Yes. We're mad at him. He could have and should have taken us with him."
"He had Dumbledore," Fred pointed out. "We're no slackers . . . well you lot aren't, we are, but still, none of us hold a candle to Dumbledore."
"True, but he still could have taken us with him," Angelina replied, stubbornly.
"I guess that's fair," George agreed with a chuckle. "Poor Harry. I thought I had it bad having so many brothers, but can you imagine, Gred, having four Ginny's?"
Fred shivered. "I admire Harry for dating her and Katie at the same time. Mental that boy, don't you think Forge? Glutton for punishment."
"Indeed, but perhaps that courage has helped him with old Tommy?" George queried jokingly. "I mean, once you've faced an irate Ginny and Katie . . . then you add on Angie, Leash, dear old Nymmy, and Jamie! It's too much for any person other than Harry Potter."
"The Chosen One," Fred agreed in a mourning tone. "A terrible fate."
"Oh shut it you two," Alicia scolded with a slight grin, while Angelina laughed.
"Come on, let's finish up and then go study a bit," Angelina said. "We have Bella's first class later today. We gotta make sure we're prepared for it."
"Fair point," Fred and George agreed together. "She's scary."
**HP**
Harry walked into the hospital wing, and smiled hearing his girlfriend's laugh, and his smile widened as he saw that Katie was talking to Ron and Hermione, who were both finally awake. Her hellhound, Pepper, yipped and jumped up to run at him and Astra. Harry grinned and gave the dog a quick head scratch before moving on to let the two hellhounds play.
Harry moved over and planted a quick kiss on Katie who beamed at him, and he grinned at her before turning to his two friends.
"Look who finally woke up," Harry teased, only a hint of relief in his voice, happy to see a sign of them truly recovering.
"Look who finally visited us today," Ron retorted. "Some best mate and boyfriend you are. Katie and I have had to deal with Hermione fretting about missing homework this whole time when you could have allayed her fears."
"Allayed her fears?" Harry questioned, surprised. "You might have been hanging around Hermione too much, mate."
"Harry!" Hermione scolded, blushing slightly, while Ron flipped him off, causing him to chuckle.
"It's nice to see you both awake. You had me worried there," Harry admitted. "And here I thought you both knew better than to get yourselves cursed."
"Get ourselves cursed!" Ron exclaimed in outrage, while Katie cackled, and Hermione sighed in exasperation.
"Katie's been filling us in a bit on what's been happening over the past couple days," Hermione said, trying to steer the conversation to more serious matters. "Sounds like you've been busy."
"Yes, we have been," Harry agreed with a sigh. "Dora and Sirius even more so. The Ministry is still a mess, as is the whole wizarding world right now. Voldemort's been attacking a fair amount, people are scared, and half of the British wizarding world can't seem to decide whether its time to fight or whether they just want to yell at the Ministry or whoever they feel like they blame for the situation, which still does include Dumbledore and I. As of yesterday, there have been demonstrations or attacks worldwide in support of Voldemort. On the brightside, that means the ICW will likely send support quicker, but on the downside, Voldemort will likely gain more followers, and the ICW might send less than they would have, with so many countries having to worry about attacks in their own lands."
"You-Know-Who has that many supporters abroad?" Ron asked, aghast and troubled.
"Unfortunately, there are plenty of others out in the world who approve of Voldemort, and right now he has power," Harry replied grimly.
"Well, Katie was telling us about all the support from the deities, and now we can add our names to the list of people that have work to do towards magehood," Hermione said, and she shifted up her shirt to reveal the tattoo on her arm: the Mark of Khione. She gestured to a tome at her bedside. "Though I'm not sure how my mum will like this tattoo," she said a bit sadly. "She's never liked them."
"She's your mum," Harry responded dryly. "Once you tell her it's the mark of a goddess, an ancient being from outside our dimension, she'll just think it's fascinating. You'll spend enough time explaining it and before you know it, she'll have no issues."
Ron snorted, and Hermione grinned, despite herself. "Maybe you're right," she conceded. "Dad will think it's cool too. He once told me he wanted to get one, but mum would never approve."
Harry and Ron snorted.
Ron too had a tattoo on his arm, Hephaestus's symbol. However, with his own tome for the fire element and magehood under the god, Ron had also been gifted a hammer.
"Told me everyone needed a good hammer if they wanted to start creating," Ron murmured, looking at the gift in reverence and awe. "I've definitely got some work to do, but while that includes elemental magic, I also need to start learning about forging."
"Well, I can help with that," Harry responded thoughtfully, "though I think it would be better to set you up with my teacher. He's a curmudgeonly goblin, but you'll learn far more from him than from me, especially since I really only know how to forge weapons."
Ron grimaced. "Not sure I can afford that, Harry. I guess it depends on how much he charges. I do still have that gold from the basilisk, I guess."
"We can worry about that later," Harry said, thinking that if a god was telling Ron to work on learning how to forge, then Harry would ensure Ron learned what he needed, price be damned. He knew Sirius would be of the same opinion. "For now, our focus is just getting everyone back on their feet and continuing on." He smiled at Hermione. "We do have OWLs coming up, you know."
That of course set Hermione off on fretting about exams, while Harry, Ron, and Katie attempted to comfort her.
"I think I'm going to see about taking my NEWT in defense when we do our OWLs," Harry admitted as the conversation turned to Katie and Harry on the subject. "You, Kat?"
"I think we'll be ready," Katie agreed slowly. "We've been studying a lot, and with the extra work with Dora, Mad-Eye, and Remus, and having avoided all of Umbridge's useless homework during the year, I think we can push hard in the last couple months. It's only one NEWT."
"That would be impressive, Harry, Katie," Hermione said, a bit jealously. "It's not very common to take certain exams early."
"I don't get why you haven't done so," Katie admitted, glancing at the girl in question. "I'm sure you could have taken half your OWLs last year . . . and that's half of your OWLs, which would be a full set for most other people. Maybe you aren't ready for any NEWTs right now, but I bet you could have been taking half your NEWTs by the end of next year, and if you'd taken a couple OWLs early, you might have been able to take one or two this year."
"My matron kind of scolded me on that," Hermione admitted hesitantly. "She warned me about my perfectionist attitude. It's a bit late now for me to do any of my OWLs early, but I think I'll try and do some of the NEWTs early next year, assuming I think I'm ready . . . honestly think I'm ready. I think I'm close for Charms, and probably Runes and Arithmancy."
"I'd agree," Harry said. "You're incredible at all three."
"You compete with me in Arithmancy," Hermione pointed out.
"Perhaps," Harry conceded. "Maybe we push hard and both take our NEWT in that next year together then."
Hermione smiled, pleased with the offer, and nodded.
"Well, we have to start studying soon," Hermione said. "OWLs are around the corner! They're very important!"
Harry and Katie snorted, while Ron sighed.
"We can talk about that later, Hermione," Harry humored her. "For now, I'm going to go check on Marina."
"She's got some family here, and Bella is over there too," Katie said, eyes filled with mischief. "I guess Marina's mum knew Bella and was friendly with her. She's been teasing her hard."
"This I've got to see," Harry said with a smirk, and he moved further into the hospital wing to where Marina was still in a bed, surrounded by seven people, while Aunt Trixie was grudgingly seated in a chair near them, arguing with one of the adult women, dressed in a more formal set of robes than he'd seen of her lately. He assumed it was what she was going to teach in.
Marina still looked terrible. She was a bit better, after all the medicine and healing magic, but her veins were still bulging greatly on her skin, and she was still very, very thin and weak looking.
She was still bedridden, and was taking an astronomical amount of potions each day, along with a lot of focus from Pomfrey's healing magic to try and undo the damage that the mummification curse had done to her.
Her eyes, though, reflected contentness and mirth, and she had a wide smile as she seemed to chat with her family and enjoy the byplay created by Bellatrix.
"Hiya, Harry," Marina greeted with a friendly smile. "Nice of you to visit."
"I'd never miss out on a chance to visit my favorite Witcher," Harry replied, and some of the adults laughed.
"I've heard that before," the oldest woman muttered fondly, and Harry glanced at her curiously. "From your grandfather."
Harry's eyes widened and the woman and the old man next to her laughed.
"Oh, yes, old Monty used that exact phrase to each Witcher he met, whenever he needed something," the man continued, his eyes clouded with memory.
"Harry, let me introduce you to the English branch of my family," Marina said. "Next to me is my mum, Susan."
Marina shared her blonde hair with her mother, but Marina's grey eyes must have come from her father. Marina shared her mother's athletic frame, though Marina already seemed a bit taller than her mother.
"These are my grandparents, Anna and Jonathan," Marina continued, introducing the old couple. "That's my Aunt Lucy, Uncle Kane's wife." A bigger-boned brunette with a warm face. "Lastly is my sister, Sofia, her husband Marcus, and their adorable baby, Isabelle. They brought Isabelle because I'm her favorite aunt."
Sofia laughed. "I'm sure the rest of the family would contest that statement."
"The rest of the family would be wrong," Marina replied confidently. "Besides, they can't disagree with me right now. Bad for my health."
Her grandparents snorted in amusement, while her mother groaned, and Lucy and Marcus laughed. Harry grinned and glanced at Sofia.
Sofia looked much as she had when he'd seen her at the dueling tournament so long ago. Her husband, Marcus, was a thin man, wearing glasses, and rather average height, but with a good natured disposition. Their baby was blonde haired like her mother with pretty blue eyes, and a cute smile.
"I remember you from the dueling tournament," Harry said, looking at Sofia Witcher-Cortez. "Dora still moans about that victory. She was not happy with it."
Sofia laughed joyously. "I wasn't happy about it either. Granted, I think she would have won that year as is, but neither of us wanted it to be like that. Still, I never begrudged her the victory. She certainly earned it that year."
"So, you know my Aunt Trixie?" Harry asked, looking at Marina's mother.
"Oh, yeah, Bella and I go way back," Susan responded with a chuckle. "I was a Slytherin with her, the year above her. So, I knew your folks as well, Harry. Not as well as dear Bella here, but I knew them well enough. James had no fears about getting to know people, including Slytherins, though he ended up in fights with at least half of my housemates. I knew him better after he joined the Aurors with my husband. Your mother was better about making friends, though many in my House didn't want to admit that, and she and I collaborated on some charms research together after Hogwarts."
"Oh, so you must have some great stories for me to hear about Aunt Trixie," Harry eagerly responded.
"You will not tell him a damn thing!" Bella hissed, pointing a finger at Susan and glaring. "Sirius is bad enough!"
Susan laughed. "Oh, Bella, you don't scare me. I still remember the cute first year who accidentally came into my dorm room while she was looking for her big sister," Susan teased.
"Aww," Harry crooned, smiling at Bella, who's lips twitched.
"Two can play at this game," Bella retorted. "I can tell your daughter about your disastrous date with Mark Higgs at the Three Broomsticks."
"Ha! I've already told her about that!" Susan retorted gleefully.
"That would have been pretty good blackmail," Marina agreed, her lips twitching.
Bella pouted, and Harry chuckled, summoning a chair to sit down next to his godmother and join them all. He had a feeling this was going to be an enjoyable afternoon up until Aunt Trixie had to run off to teach.
**HP**
Angelina, Alicia, Fred, and George all hurried into the classroom, grabbing seats near the front. They weren't the only ones to arrive early, as more students flowed into the room, grabbing seats and both eagerly and warily awaiting the arrival of Professor Bellatrix Black.
The seventh year group was back to its normal size, since the beginning of the school year. Many, including Fred, George, Alicia, and Angelina, had dropped the course with how Umbridge had been, in favor of self-study. However, once the Scamander's had gotten involved, most had rejoined. The four of them had been allowed to rejoin once Bellatrix was announced as the Professor, even if at this point it was only to help with preparation for the NEWTs that were coming up soon.
All four had originally just planned to stick with Harry, but the chance to get to know Bellatrix a bit more and learn from her was too good a chance to pass up. She was only a year or two younger than when she'd been one of Voldemort's most dangerous servants and had gone to Azkaban. This was a woman that had pulled off a Mastery in Offensive and Defensive Magic by the time she graduated Hogwarts, and had been the under eighteen dueling champion twice, and the under sixteen dueling champion once. Yes, missing the chance to learn from her would have been a very poor decision indeed.
Finally, Bella walked in, wearing black robes with the House Black, and surprisingly, House Potter, crests stitched on the right of her chest. Her hair was down, flowing freely, which was a major contrast from how the rest of the female professors wore their hair. Then again, she was the only one who wasn't even twenty years old, so her age and her beauty already set her apart.
Her features were set in a neutral, almost aristocratic expression, which fit with how Angelina knew that Bellatrix had been raised. She gazed out at her roughly three dozen students before moving to the front of the classroom.
"Good morning," Bella greeted politely, and half the class chimed back a greeting. "I'm sure you all know why you are here, at least I would hope so, this being your NEWT year. Compared to some of your other years, you have had a stronger finish with competent professors compared to how you started, correct?"
"Excluding this year, Professor," Alicia agreed, and Bella nodded.
"With your foundation for advanced offensive and defensive magic coming from the likes of Mad-Eye Moody, and your OWL year being under the guidance of Remus Lupin, yes, I have high hopes for the scores, and will be displeased should any of you do poorly." Bella's voice was a bit low, and several people shivered or nervously shuffled in their seats. "Beyond your scores, you are about to enter the real world. Some of you might be interested in the DMLE or entering another field heavy with offensive or defensive magic, like curse breaking or warding, and it is my job to help get you prepared for the next step of your journey in life."
Bella started pacing slowly at the front of the room, commanding everyone's eyes.
"I don't particularly like the title of this class: Defense Against the Dark Arts," Bella said. "I prefer to think of it how it is in reality: offensive and defensive magic. The Dark Arts are not the only thing in the world to fear, nor are they even the most dangerous. There are dark magics out there that would scar you for the rest of your lives, and yet some of the worst tyrants in the world's history never even used dark magic, or at least not what is really dark magic."
Bellatrix paused.
"Magic is intent. What you intend says more about you than what the magic does. To me, offensive and defensive magic is about strength. Not just magical strength, but the strength to fight for what you believe. The strength to not bow to your fears, to the unknown; the strength to fight that which comes in many forms and is ever changing. I believe true darkness is not a thing. It's a concept. You can't slay the dark arts, banish, conjure, or curse them. They aren't a shadow you can chase away with the light. Many dark creatures are merely reflections of this–Boggarts, Dementors–merely fear and despair made real. You can fight the creature, but this subject does not teach you to fight the root cause."
"We will not be focusing on theory in this class," Bella continued, staring out at all of them, meeting each of their eyes. "Theory is important, and I will help if needed, but if you haven't figured out how to learn theory on your own at this point in your education, you have bigger issues. What I will teach you is how to fight, how to protect what is yours, and how to adapt to situations. If you can do all of that, your NEWT will be easy, but more importantly, you will have the tools to survive should you ever find yourself needing to defend yourself or others."
Angelina, Alicia, Fred, and George all exchanged somewhat excited looks. All they could wish was that Bella had been their professor the whole year.
"I've got three months to work with you before we'll spend your last month focused on NEWTs. I'm a demanding instructor, and if you don't want to put in the effort, I advise you to drop the course now. For those who stay, I will teach you how to survive. How far you go with what I teach you will be up to you. You have real power and it is time you realize that," Bella finished. "Now, what initial questions do you have for me?"
**HP**
Justin Travers was walking through the Auror Department at the Ministry, eager to leave for the day. With the Dark Lord back, he found it hard to maintain the facade needed to work with all the blood traitors and mudbloods that had infested the Ministry.
Unfortunately, his position was too important to risk losing. Jacobs and Ross had both made their moves prematurely, and they were dead because of it. There were only three loyal Death Eaters left in the Auror Office, and it was important that they remained, to gather intel, to feed bad information, and to occasionally ensure a few Aurors never returned home. This also meant he generally had to avoid interacting with them during the work day, lest they compromise each other.
The Dark Lord would be extremely unhappy with any of them if they lost their position in the office simply because they had been unwilling to continue working with their enemies. The Dark Lord had warriors. He needed more spies. Too many had died in the Ministry trying to obtain the Prophecy. They needed more, but who to recruit was harder to figure out.
Some might have had the inclination, but now didn't want to take the risk that was now associated with being a Death Eater, or they were too lazy, or too stupid to play the game. Others carefully kept their opinions quiet, not wanting to seem anti-mudblood, lest it come back to bite them. These were the ones that needed to be found, but anyone that he might find now were ones who had hidden their ideology for the entire time he'd known them. How likely was he –
His thought process ended as he noticed one of the supply closets had a silencing ward placed over it. It was very subtle, not something the less skilled Aurors in this department, and those of lesser magical ability would pick up on, but something he could see. That intrigued him.
He glanced about, seeing he was in the clear, so he pulled out his wand, and cast the spell that would allow him to burrow through the ward, without alerting the caster that their ward had been penetrated.
His interest rose as he recognized the voice that was ranting, and it only grew as he listened to what she was saying.
"Those fucking mudblood bastards! Those absolute hypocritical weaklings!" Lexie Greene ranted. "I'm so fucking tired of this, and I just got back! If I had known it would have been this bad, I would have requested to transfer elsewhere. Now I'm stuck working with that bitch, Tonks, who is so much more insufferable now that she's a stupid Potter, and I still have to watch out for that fucking incompetent traitor, Kingsley!"
Travers snorted. The bitch was delusional, but she could be useful. He knew Greene was at least capable . . . and the fact that she was gorgeous and he could probably take advantage of that up through when he was done with her was also a bonus.
She was very close to Savage, Kingsley, Montgomery, and Potter. Clearly she was just the type of manipulative bitch that he needed. She'd been hiding her true feelings for years, ingratiating herself with those she hated simply because she saw a path to power. He could work with that. Plus, unless she proved to be a major asset, the Dark Lord would probably happily give her to him when she had outlived her usefulness. Then he could really break her and have fun.
He glanced about again, and saw nobody, so he unlocked the closet door and swiftly moved inside. Greene reached for her wand, her eyes wide and a bit panicked, but Travers quickly moved forward and pinned her wrist to her side, preventing her from drawing her wand.
"Relax, Greene," Travers said silkily. "I just noticed your little trick and was curious. Seems like you could use someone to vent to."
"Oh, like you?" Lexie responded caustically. "Did we become friends while I was gone, Travers?"
"No, but maybe we should have been," Travers returned curiously. "Based on what I was hearing, why are you friends with Savage, Shacklebolt, Montgomery, and Potter? They'd be the opposite of what you believe."
"What other options do I have?" Lexie said with an exasperated sigh. "I don't have the family name and wealth to just do what I want like you, Yaxley, and Jackson can. Hell, most everyone doesn't like any of you. Jacobs and Carlson were arseholes, and nobody is sad they're dead, even if some mourn the loss of a pureblood. I can't just be unlikable and hope to have any chance of promotion. Greene isn't a Noble or Ancient House."
"The second option is cozying up to someone like Scrimgeour, Williams, or Robards and be like them, but I still have the same issue. If I'm loyal and useful, I might make lieutenant, but if anything goes wrong, I'm their fall person." Lexie shook her head. "Short term gains, long term destruction. The last option was getting in good with Savage, Shacklebolt, and Montgomery. Those like them make up 60% of the Auror Corps, and prior to the Dark Lord's return, that would have only gone up. My chance of actually making Auror Captain might have been possible."
"Generally well thought out," Travers conceded, "though I think you discounted too quickly making yourself useful to someone like me. I'm sure we could have a . . . profitable relationship."
Lexie snorted, and Travers smirked.
"So, how do you handle being close to your normal lot? Aren't you like the favored aunt to Savage's brat? And didn't you date Potter? Shacklebolt's protege and all that."
"If you can ignore Kingsley's prattling about working with muggles, he's fine in small doses," Lexie admitted, with a roll of his eyes. "He was getting worse over the years, but if I played my cards right, I wouldn't have been on his team forever. He has gotten much worse since the Dark Lord's return though. I'm so glad I wasn't here during that whole mess with Potter." Lexie shuddered before continuing. "Rick isn't as bad as you think, and at least he and his kid are pureblood. He and Kingsley are just so close that Rick follows. Rick doesn't care that much. If Kingsley were to get hit by a muggle car, which would be wonderful, Rick would be just like most other purebloods."
'Interesting,' Travers thought. 'That was very interesting and provided a possible situation to exploit. Frame muggles, kill Kingsley, and get Savage off their backs. Wins all around. The Dark Lord would be very happy with that. It wouldn't be easy, but the rewards . . .'
"What about Potter?" Travers asked, now quite invested.
"Airheaded," Lexie said with a roll of her eyes. "Everyone thinks she plays up that clumsiness and the joking, playful personality. She doesn't. That's really what she is. She's generally a fool that just got lucky that Mad-Eye Moody was willing to devote a lot of time to making her capable. As for dating? I'm sure you've thought about what it would be like to be with a metamorphmagus." Lexie gave him a smirk. "Well, I pulled it off, and let me tell you, personality aside, it was worth it. If I could just use her as I wanted, she'd be the perfect little slave."
"Well, now you're making me jealous," Travers admitted. "Perhaps you'd like to share some of the tales? Not like I'd want to try and take her now that she beds a filthy werewolf."
"Please, you'd still bed her," Lexie said scornfully, with a roll of her eyes, "and it would be worth it. You just wouldn't want to breed with her."
"Perhaps," Travers conceded. "Well, maybe we could work together to find out? Surely she would be easy to break, if she's like you say she is."
"What, join you Death Eaters?" Lexie asked with a scornful snort. "While the cause might not be bad, I'm not sure the rewards outweigh the costs."
"Who said I'm a Death Eater?" Travers queried, with a shrug. "Never said I was. Just said we could work together. I have no love of Potter. She's a talentless whore who's gotten by with her body, and joining herself to a teenage boy."
"Perhaps," Lexie conceded. "Still seems like a lot of risk just for a plaything. Harry Potter is starting to get strong, so I hear, and taking care of Tonks would bring on his wrath. Not sure I want to piss off the Lord of the Dead by tangling with his champion."
"The gods may not be a problem in our reality for much longer," Travers said, thinking of the Dark Lord's grand ambitions. The Dark Lord had already cheated Death, and now he sought greater power, and Travers believed he would get it. "You don't have to fear Death if you can learn how to cheat him. It's been done before."
"That's true," Lexie agreed, looking thoughtful. "If such power could be gained . . . then a different path could be . . . worth it."
Travers smiled eagerly. He'd revealed more now than he'd intended, but what he'd learned had been worth the risk. Still, he couldn't get too greedy, too impetuous.
"Well, then perhaps we can talk again, Greene," Travers said, and Lexie nodded hesitantly at him, and he turned and walked out of the closet, leaving the girl to her thoughts.
New plans were in his mind. Lexie Greene might be the key to killing Kingsley Shacklebolt, Alexis Montgomery, and even Rick Savage, and if the bitch could be his plaything along with Potter in the end . . . well, he would enjoy his rewards greatly.
So caught up in his musings, he'd never noticed the extendable ear under the door during the whole conversion, nor saw it disappear after his final words. He never noticed somebody else enter the closet after he left the hallway.
**HP**
"I never realized you were such a good little actor," Dora teased her friend. "He was eating out of the palm of your hand."
"He took the bait," Lexie agreed. "At least a little. He's still cautious, and we're not out of the woods yet, but hopefully this can be the start." Lexie grinned. "Kingsley's going to have to watch out for muggle cars though."
Dora laughed. "Imagine Kingsley getting hit by a muggle car. If he died that way, I'd have to resurrect him just to mock him."
Lexie laughed, wiping away a tear. "Imagine his funeral if that was how he died. We'd all just be laughing about one of the strongest wizards we know dying because he wasn't paying attention."
"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Lexie and Dora both cheered together and laughed.
"By the way, you're going to pay for calling me an airhead," Dora said, glaring at Lexie.
"You are an airhead, Nymphadora," Lexie retorted, already blocking the stinging hex that Dora sent at her, and she grinned triumphantly as Dora pouted.
"I'm telling Harry and Aisling that you're mean," Dora muttered petulantly.
"You will do no such thing!" Lexie exclaimed heatedly, and Dora smirked, before it faded to a grin.
It was really, really nice to have Lexie back. She had really missed her friend.
**HP**
"Welcome," Bellatrix greeted confidently. "I'm sure you all are wondering why the first meeting of our school's after-hours offensive and defensive magic lessons is being done alongside Mr. Potter's Consortium. This was done, partially due to convenience, but also as a way to provide clarification en masse on a number of questions or worries we've been alerted to."
Bellatrix paused, glancing about the Great Hall, which had to have been filled with nearly half of all the students at Hogwarts. Noticeably absent were the sixth and seventh years that were participating in the DMLE training program, and many of the remaining sixth and seventh years also seemed to be generally absent. This was likely because they were the students who either had no real interest in offensive and defensive magic, believed they had little talent, or believed they would be fine and didn't need the lessons for whatever reasons. About a quarter of the fifth years also seemed to be absent, likely wanting to spend all excess time studying for their OWLs, rather than taking these lessons now.
That mindset was foolish in Ginny's opinion, but there were a lot of people that thought the war would never affect them, whether it was because they were purebloods of note, they generally traveled abroad, they had political or Ministry protection, or they just generally thought they were beneath the Death Eaters' notice. Ginny knew they were all wrong, but sadly, for many, it would take something close to home for them to realize that. She just hoped it didn't cost them everything.
"As Professor Black was saying," Flitwick continued, "we wish to clarify what each group will be about and what we will be focusing on, so that you all have the best idea of what group would work best for you. We also needed to see how much interest there was for this group. With this many students, we are going to have to create times, likely by year group, subject focus, or ability in order to give you all the dedicated time you will need. Now, Mr. Potter."
Harry nodded. "There is a common misconception that the Grim Consortium requires you to swear allegiance to myself or Hades, or that you must be prepared to follow me into combat, like many of its members did at the Ministry. This is not the case. The focus of the Consortium is teaching offensive and defensive magic, with a focus on the skills you need in order to survive dangerous situations. We were founded simply on the idea that we weren't learning what we needed in our class under Umbridge. We wanted to prepare for our exams and to develop the basic or more advanced skills one would need to defend oneself or others in real life."
Harry paused, and looked out at the crowd, making eye contact with some current members of the Consortium.
"For new members, the focus will be on ensuring you have all the basic skills to duel an opponent and either win or escape, whether we're talking about someone in the National Dueling Circuit or a Death Eater trying to harm you. Eventually you'll move to more advanced offensive and defensive magic, like you would see in your NEWTs or in the DMLE, including advanced shields and the Patronus Charm. Generally, in each lesson, we focus on learning the theory and attempt to practice one spell and then work on one dueling technique. How many spells you learn will depend on how fast you learn."
"For our scheduled lessons," Bella interjected, "we will rotate, biweekly, between active and passive offensive and defensive magic. For our first section, we'll focus on basic defensive wards that you can put on your homes or the homes of your neighbors and friends. Then we'll transition to basic defensive magic and methods to help escape if you and your family are attacked. We'll keep transitioning back and forth between increasingly more advanced wards and offensive spells and strategies until the end of the year."
"Now, for those who wish to join or at least audit Mr. Potter's Consortium, please follow him out," Flitwick said.
Ginny got up, and noticed roughly a quarter of the room standing as well. Both more and less than she would have expected, considering Harry's reputation and experience. Still, she glanced over at Bella and Flitwick a bit mournfully. She had a very full schedule, but she might still try to talk Harry into offsetting Consortium meetings with Bella and Flitwick's meetings, just so she could maybe do both at times.
The Consortium never did anything on warding or curses breaking, and while she wouldn't trade the Consortium meetings for anything, especially with her plans to try and take her DADA OWL this year, she did want to learn more about the other facets of defensive magic.
With almost forty percent of the school still sitting in the Great Hall, Ginny knew that Bella's schedule had just filled up quite a bit. She was going to be spending a fair amount of time teaching several sessions of this afterschool class each day.
"Alright, for the rest of you," Bella called out, "we're going to work with you on the Salvia Hexia ward, and how to apply it to a building. Once we're done, we will divide out groups for further sessions. Savlia Hexia –"
Bella's voice was cut off as Ginny exited the Great Hall, following those for the Consortium. She wondered how this would go, looking at the many new faces along with almost all of the original ones. She noticed that Marietta had finally bailed, though whether that was because she felt it wasn't needed or she just finally quit out of shame, Ginny didn't know . . . nor did she care all that much. Good riddance in her opinion. Only Cho would miss her.
Still, Ginny suspected things would be fine for this initial introduction, but going forward, the tension that was already present in the Consortium was going to rise.
The question was only who would start the fire and why.
**HP**
Harry dodged the shadow bolt that flew at his head, rolling forward and raising a shield, which was quickly blasted away. Harry couldn't even see his attackers, only surviving mostly by sensing the shadow elemental magic that was being sent at him.
Harry fired off a volley of stunners, which missed his targets, and instead the response he heard was a sigh.
"Elemental magic only, champion," a now familiar female voice ordered. "You need to be able to beat us using only your primary element before we throw in other branches of magic. The foundations must be built first if you want to truly become a duelist unrivaled on your plane of existence."
"What does only using Shadow have to do with becoming an unrivaled duelist?" Harry asked, and two figures appeared: the auburn-haired, bearded man, and his partner, the fierce blonde haired women.
"It's easier to defeat an opponent when you have tools they don't," the woman responded. "In order to beat someone while limited, you need to be more creative, to be faster, or stronger, or more skilled. If you can figure out which of those applies here, then when you're not limited, you can apply the same strategies and truly overwhelm opponents that others falter before. You will know you have mastered mixing forms of magic when you don't have to consciously think about using a curse compared to an elemental sleeping spell."
"So, basically building up to variety drills," Harry clarified.
"For now," the man agreed with a smile. "We'll return to normal dueling soon next. Then my dear wife can help you with lightning under the same conditions as now."
"Fantastic," Harry remarked sarcastically, and the woman chuckled.
Harry barely got his guard up as both champions of Hades started firing spells at him, forcing him to shield, duck, and dodge.
He knew they were taking it somewhat easy on him. He'd been destroyed by both, individually, and as a team they were even better. They were however very good at holding back just the perfect amount to challenge him, and he assumed his other family members as well.
"Stop relying on your endurance!" The man scolded. "You're wasting energy when you could be using the environment's! Your endurance has a place, but if it is the key to your dueling, then you will forever be at a disadvantage should you be restricted in movement in any number of ways."
"Use animation more," the woman added. "If you can use it more here, you can start using transfiguration more when unrestricted. You need to break your habit of relying on shielding and evasion, when conjuration and animation can be better depending on the circumstances, and can be used offensively while being defensive in other times, instead of using a hex, curse, or jinx."
Harry spun and then did as advised, bringing shadows to bare, which took the spells fired at him. Then he manipulated the shadows to attack the pair, while he then fired an additional volley of bolts.
"Good!" the man praised, his defense as impenetrable as ever, as he redirected the animations to attack Harry, while he and his wife deflected or absorbed his bolts of darkness.
Harry started getting into a rhythm without really thinking about it, firing spells, raising shieldings, animating the shadows to block for him, attack for him, to change the environment, like Dora, Mad-Eye, Sirius, and Remus had done to him numerous times, and soon he could see the approving smiles on his instructors' faces.
The pace of the duel picked up, as did the skill level of his opponents, as they started shadow traveling around, striking at him, forcing him to do the same, while still doing his best to mix what spells he used.
"Start using whatever you can!" the man ordered.
Harry switched it up, firing the occasional jinx, hex, curse, or charm intermixed with his shadow element.
"Don't forget transfiguration!" the man advised. "Conjuration! Vanishment! Use charms and illusions!"
"You have another element!" the woman tagged on. "Let's see some lightning and hear some thunder!"
Harry started trying to mix it up more, throwing different spells, intermixing elemental magic, and trying to use charms and transfiguration more, but thinking about it slowed him down at times, and he certainly felt like he was fighting his instinct at times, which was the point and the problem.
"What is another weapon you have at your disposal that you forget about?" the woman demanded as she sent four vicious cutting curses at his chest.
Harry frowned in confusion, his mind focused hard on just trying to keep up with the two incredible duelists, let alone thinking about other things, when the man answered the question for him. He appeared right in front of Harry and swung at him with a sword. Harry swiftly stepped back, but then had to throw himself backwards onto the ground to avoid the spell the man fired right at Harry's chest, taking advantage of Harry's panicked movements and the close range.
Harry rolled on the ground and jumped back to his feet, having to swiftly raise a shield to block several spells, and then with his left hand, he drew his sword, and used it to deflect two more spells before returning a few spells and regaining his footing.
Both of them appeared before him and slashed at him with their swords, and engaged them, his sword blocking the strikes before he slashed with his wand, trying to strike first.
His attacks missed, as they disappeared again, appearing directly opposite of him.
"Better, Potter," the woman said with a smirk, "but not good enough. We're not done yet!"
It was a good thing that this was all happening in his mind. It was still going to be a long night.