Dobby was nervous, and understandably, so as he walked through one of the many halls that lined the interior of Gringotts. It wasn't that he was nervous about the Goblins, or of being in Gringotts, it was that he carried a message of some importance to Miss Delacour, in a part of the bank he had never been to before, surrounded by armed Goblins who had every right to kill if they deemed it necessary. When he arrived at Fleur's office, he knocked and waited a moment before entering.
Fleur's office was small, cramped and she shared it with a wizard and two Goblins. Fortunately, only Fleur was present as Dobby bowed slightly, "Letter from Mr…. Harry, Miss Delacour."
Fleur raised a finger condescendingly, "Dobby," she sighed dramatically, "How many times have I asked you not to call me Ms. Delacour, but just Fleur?'"
Dobby smiled ever so slightly, "As always, you will have to ask me at least once more, Ms. Delacour."
"Well then, why do you call Harry, Harry?" she challenged.
He shrugged, "He is my master, and he told me to." Fleur took the envelope from Dobby's outstretched hand and opened it. It contained only two words that brought a smile to her face and Dobby felt the wave of energy coming off her. It was good, pleasure, no… happiness, "Ms. Delacour, if I may ask," he hesitated as she frowned which gave way to a shrug as she nodded, "Not guilty?" her smile broadened, "That is good news," he said, "Will there be anything else?"
She shook her head and he retreated, bowing once as he did so. Leaving the office behind him, he made his way through the bank and then vanished with a pop. It was late in the morning and he still had more than a dozen notices to deliver. Winky would need his help, considering the preparations required at the Manor.
It was only when Fleur returned… home, for lack of a better word, did she realize that something was going on, "Throwing dinner parties without me Harry?" she teased.
"Yeah," he said airily, "I just invited a few of the Malfoys, and Fudges, thought I'd have a few Centaurs along to give horse rides… " he deadpanned with a smile, "Just a small thing, you know? Have not had all of my friends in the same place for a long time, and figured it would be nice."
She smiled before heading upstairs, "Any advice on what I should wear?"
"Yeah," he replied, "Don't ask me. I'm hopeless!" she laughed as he came up the stairs, "But I think… its time," he said seriously, "The others should know."
"You are ready to tell them?" he shrugged, "Ah… they already know and you just want to get it out there?" again he shrugged, "Then what is it?"
"They are my friends, and I care about them, I care about what they think on many things, but my personal… our personal lives, is nobody's business but our own." He grinned at her, "And I'm sure that there is a betting pool going on the when and the how." She smiled and privately agreed, it sounded like a typically Weasely thing to do. True enough, Harry conceded the point, but there is more than one thing that could qualify as typically Weasely.
The party was set to start at seven that night, and it was not long before the guests started to arrive. His friends were the first to arrive: Three Weasely's, their parents, and Charlie and Bill as well as it would have been a little unfair not to include Bill who worked at Gringotts, and Charlie who was back on leave from Romania. Although Percy and Ron were invited, neither had bothered to respond to the invitation for their own reasons. Percy, Harry had learned was a sycophantic ministry boot licker, and Ron was… Ron. Luna and her father were next with Colin in tow, followed by Neville and his grandmother.
Harry had gone with Blake's advice and opted for cocktails, drinks, and snacks before a sit-down dinner where the seating arrangement deliberately mixed the teenagers with the adults. The presence of Amelia Bones raised a number of eyebrows, and the atmosphere cooled slightly, but it was not long before conversation was snaking its way amongst the adults. Griphook and Marinashka were present as well, along with several of Hogwarts professors. Twenty-odd people in attendance, with two abstentions. Not too shabby thought Harry. He had honestly not expected Percy to attend or Ron but had invited both partly to keep the peace and partly as an olive branch.
Talk ranged across a variety of topics as Harry made the rounds, spending as much time as he could with all of his guests. Of course, the word was out that Harry and Fleur had come together as a couple and he had to deal with an extensive amount of leg-pulling especially from the twins, "Don't make unleash my Veela," he said playfully. The twins who had started to laugh abruptly fell silent. "What?" he groaned, "She's standing behind me isn't she?"
"Unleash your Veela Mr. Potter?" she said quietly, that French accent slipping through, "Remind me to have Dobby and Winky add some ice cubes to the sofa, where you will be spending the night."
"She's already got him whipped!" whispered Fred gleefully only to realize that Fleur had heard every word, and was giving him a thoughtful stare, that for some reason turned his blood cold.
"I can have more than my boyfriend whipped," she replied, "I'll just have the house elves set up the whipping post in the backyard and, if I recall, you are ticklish…an eagle feather would be more useful…" Laughter filled the room and Harry was certain that even the Matriarch of the Longbottom clan had cracked the barest hint of a smile.
Cocktails gave way to dinner, where everyone found themselves seated next to someone they were not overly familiar with. As he had hoped, the almost randomly assigned seating forced everyone to make new acquaintances and hopefully new friends as he listened in on snippets of conversation.
"… still underfunded, and there has been no progress on the Dementor investigation," said Amelia…
"…I know, little about the new defense against the dark arts professor," said Professor McGonagall.
"…Do you reckon it is… you know… jinxed?" asked Fred as he thanked Winky for refilling his butterbeer.
"How do you mean?" asked Griphook as he took another sip from his fire whiskey.
"Well… in four years, one has died…" said Fred
"The second is in St. Mungos…" continued George.
"The third, and only competent one was forced to resign when it was leaked he was a werewolf," put in Ginny.
"The fourth was a Death Eater in disguise," added Neville, "I see your point, about the position being jinxed."
"Shame Hagrid couldn't make it," said Luna, "I did want to ask him a few questions."
"He is in France, as far as I am aware," replied Augusta Longbottom, who seemed to have taken a bit of a shine to the somewhat eccentric young witch who was, to Harry's amusement, still wearing her radish earrings, "Visiting the Headmistress of Beauxbattons. Madame Maxime and Hagrid have become, rather close."
"Don't worry about Percy," said Arthur, "He'll come around eventually…." Molly was unsurprisingly silent on the subject as Remus comforted her across the table. Blake was lost in a discussion with Flitwick about some charm or another. Harry felt a sudden pang of sadness: Everyone seated at this table had lost someone or several someones to Voldemort.
Harry had done his homework, all heroes, all forgotten, as if they no longer mattered: Marlene McKinnon: killed along with her entire family. Frank and Alice Longbottom, tortured into insanity. Emmeline Vance had used the Hellfire Tempest Curse and deliberately lost control of the curse to kill herself, the pack of Death eaters, and burned her home to the ground rather than be captured. Benjy Fenwick…only a charred wand was found in his home. Edger Bones and his wife vanished without a trace and were never found. The Prewett Brothers Gideon and Fabian had killed five Death Eaters before Voldemort killed them both. Dorcas Meadowes, was tortured and executed by Voldemort. His parents, Cedric… Hermione….those were the few that he could remember from the catalog of the dead.
Harry blinked. Fortunately, he had not missed much, just a few minutes of dinner and his house-elves clearing away the plates from the main course. Dobby's cooking was fantastic, and if the Elf would have accepted, Harry would have given him a raise: The steaks were cooked to perfection, as were the potatoes, and with everything about the meal had gone perfectly thus far. He would yet to see any glass fall below the half-empty mark before being refilled.
It was almost eleven in the evening when everyone was done with not only the cheese but also dessert and was making ready to leave. As arranged, Blake along with Dobby and Winky diverted the teenagers, leaving Harry alone with a roomful of adults, "Good Evening, and thank you all for coming. I apologize for giving very short notice of this event, but I felt it was a necessary precaution," he paused and looked around the room, at the faces of the men and women before him, "Albus Dumbledore, and I have had a parting of ways. Some of you have already paid too high a price in the first war and a second war is coming. I am asking for all of you to consider carefully where you will stand before the hammer falls." He turned to the Weasleys and Remus first, "I hope, that all of you will stand with me and your sons and daughters, as brothers and sisters." He turned to the Professors from Hogwarts, "I hope I can count upon the educators, to stand for what is right," he hesitated, knowing that Madame Bones was perhaps the wild card in the room, "And should it be deemed necessary, bringing down those in authority who refuse to acknowledge the truth."
"Choose your next words carefully, Mr. Potter," warned Amelia Bones, "I am still sworn to uphold wizarding law."
"All I say," he replied, repeating what Marinashka had told him "is the opinion of one member of Britain's magical community. I am entitled to the opinion that the government has and continues to fail and that it needs to change. Consider where you stand, because the storm that approaches can plunge our world into darkness, and our enemies, will be legion." Harry nodded towards the door, "Your children already know where they stand. They know what they face; they know what they fight. Will you stand with them?" He gestured to the pensive, "Madam Bones, you already know what it shows. All of you should see it before you decide."
Not long after, the floo network received a work out as a number of shocked and shaken adults departed, leaving the teens to a party of their own. Given that Blake and Remus were present, along with two house elves, the parents felt comfortable enough leaving their children to spend the night… if only they knew.
"Been practicing?" he asked quietly as they gathered in the training room. They nodded, all of them had been reviewed charms, transfiguration, and what they knew of defense and whatever they have learned, "Then let's see where we stand." They were in good shape, able to defend and fight but what worried Harry was how they would do in a real fight, where it was death or victory, where killing was the only option.
He prayed that they would never find out. Harry had never consciously thought about that night in the graveyard of how he had killed using the Void Shadow Curse. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel about that… he should, feel something… not be completely indifferent to it. It was a sudden realization that there was a massive hole in what he was planning: They could defend themselves, and do so well, but their minds were still open to attack. "Winky!" the elf appeared a moment later and bowed slightly, "Contact Marinashka, and see if she is willing to meet me tomorrow." With a pop, the elf vanished.
He looked at his gathered and somewhat battered friends, "I've overlooked something," he said, "Something important," they stared at him, "Any of you know how to defend your minds from intrusion? From Legilimency?" the blanks looks he received were not encouraging as he set about explaining the mind arts as best he could. While his own training was complete, he was far from being a true master of either, "I will arrange lessons with my instructor, for all of you, but I can promise you this. You are going to have a massive headache before it's over."
True to his word, the following weeks were a crash course in Occulemency, and Harry not only paid for the lessons, but also arranged for additional training, for those who wanted. Everything for dueling, hand-to-hand combat, tactics, Herbology for Neville, even Ancient Runes and Arithmancy for Luna. Three weeks of daily mind, body, spell and physical training with the Goblins set him back almost twenty-five thousand Galleons. "If you want the best, you need to be prepared to pay for the best," Marinashka had explained with a chuckle. He could not fault the simple logic of that, as August became a boot camp for Harry's new recruits…. To whatever it was he was building and had yet to name.
The real program was closer to three months in length, but this was a good start and they were all the better for it, when they met up on Platform 9¾. Harry was the last to arrive, having been rather unwilling to leave Fleur, who had been just as unwilling to let him go. The result was Harry getting more than his fair share of teasing about how he was directly under this girlfriend's thumb, especially from Blake and Remus who had come to see Harry off. "No Fleur, Harry?"
"Nope," he said, "If she'd shown up, I might not have gotten on the Express." They clambered aboard, and Harry noted that none of his friends had to lug a heavy trunk around as they piled in to the last compartment of the train. Harry set to work, enlarging the space and setting up a battery of charms and basic wards before yanking open the window to wave good-bye to the gaggle of platform bound parents as the train pulled out of the station.
"Guess what Gran got me for my birthday," said Neville as he leaned back on his seat.
"Another Remembrall?" said Harry, remembering the marble-like device Neville's grandmother had sent him in an effort to improve his abysmal memory back in their first year.
He chuckled "Nope, don't need one anymore… even though I did lose that one an age ago," he rummaged in his bag for a moment, and pulled out a small cactus-like plant, except that in place of spines where round nodules, that looked a lot like boils. "Mimbulus Mimbletonia," he said proudly. The plant pulsed, more than a little and it made Harry nervous, especially since it suddenly looked like a diseased infected organ. "They are really rare. The greenhouses at Hogwarts don't have one." Harry whistled in surprise. Considering that the greenhouses stocked just about everything.
"What does it… do?" asked Fred.
"Eat people?" added George.
Neville adopted a slightly hurt expression, "Loads of stuff, but it doesn't eat people. If it did, I would have fed it, Snape, a long time ago." He grinned, "Snape as plant food, nourishing his oh so precious potions ingredients." He grabbed a quill from his bag, "It's got a great defense mechanism to. Watch this!" he held the stunted-looking plant up to his eye and gave it a sharp prod with the tip of its quill.
For something so tiny, it produced an incredible wave of thick, stinking dark green jets of viscous fluid that painted the windows and ceiling and everyone caught it its volatile path smelling like rancid manure, "S-sorry!" gasped Neville, "Feth! I didn't think it would do! It's not poisonous or anything!" Harry spat out a mouthful of the vile fluid and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand as the door to their compartment slid open. Despite the vile taste, Harry could not help but wonder when, or from who Neville had heard that Goblin curse.
"Uh… hi," said a very nervous voice, "… bad time?" Harry wiped the slime out of his eyes and glanced at the door. He made a note about those exclusion wards: either he had set them wrong, or they would only keep the targeted foursome out of their carriage. He stared for a moment at the raven-haired former seeker of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, "Cho," Harry said levelly, "Fraid things are a bit of a mess right now, perhaps you could come back later?" It was a straight, unequivocal shut out if there ever was one and she retreated without another word.
The train ride was peaceful and without incident, except for one when Harry twitched rather suddenly, upsetting a napping Hedwig who collapsed his shoulder atop Crookshanks. There were ruffled feathers and unsheathed claws but the pain subsided after an apologetic hoot from Hedwig. "Seems his animal magnetism is still intact," remarked Fred.
"Something tripped your wards?" asked Luna quietly. Harry eyed her for a moment, "I felt and saw the magic as you were casting earlier," and his raised eyebrow did not escape her attention either, "It's a rare ability," she explained, "Doesn't have a name but Dad thinks I got it from my mother because he says it didn't come from him. It lets me see the flow of magic, for spells and other such things." She smiled at him, "It's also the reason that I seem a little…"
"Unusual?" supplied Harry. That made sense considering the way Luna was Luna. Seeing magic all the time would skew one's perspective of just about everything, slightly.
The smile broadened and she shrugged, "You could say that." The conversation had attracted everyone's attention, "So what wards did you use?"
"More a charm scheme than wards actually," Harry gestured to the twins, "Something those two helped me put together. For the moment, it was just an alert that someone passed outside. But given the rattling, it was just the witch with the tea trolley." Harry shrugged.
It was not long before the train began to slow and the usual racket erupted as everyone struggled out into the corridor with their various pieces of luggage. Fortunately, there was no need for Harry and his associates to rush, what with their shrunken trucks, they only had to grab their various pets - one cat, one owl, one toad - and were amongst the last to disembark. Their first breath of the cold night air was a pine scented slap in the face that lined the path down to the lake.
A brisk female voice called out, "Any more first years? First years, to me please!" The lantern normally borne by Hagrid instead illuminated the prominent chin and severe haircut of Professor Grubbly-Plank. His dinner party had prepared all of them for Hagrid's temporary disappearance, courtesy of Professor McGonagall and Flitwick.
They arrived at the usual place, awaiting the horseless carriages and stared. The carriages were no longer horseless. There were creatures that did not hesitate to stare right back at Harry. They stared at each other for a few long moments as if they were assessing each other. They were fleshless, black coats clinging to them, outlining every bone in their bodies. Their heads were dragonish and their pupil-less eyes were snow white and stared. They had massive black leather-like wings folded along their backs
Harry's gaze caught sight of Draco Malfoy, pushing his way through a gaggle of timid looking second years, just so they could get ahead in the rush for one of the coaches. The gaze of the two rivals met and Malfoy changed course. Harry barely suppressed a smirk, "Contact forward." His honor guard fanned out behind him, giving them all enough room to act. Harry was not in the least bit surprised at one of that group, "Ron's with them," he said in warning.
"He's picked his side," growled Colin, "I've picked mine."
"So Potter," it was the same old "upper crust" mocking Malfoy drawl, "You brought your gang of scar head worshippers back to Hogwarts, did you?"
"My friends," corrected Harry casually, "came back to complete their education. But what I can't fathom," said Harry, "Is why Death Eater scum like you would bother coming to school for an education. Surely," Harry leaned casually against the wall, "Avada Kedevra, Crucio and Imperius are the only spells purebloods of your inbred caliber need to know?" Harry flexed his wrist and the wand sprang from its wrist holster, "How about it Malfoy?" Harry took a sudden step forward, putting his face within inches of Malfoys. Their confrontation had drawn a crowd of spectators, "Come on ferret, just like in first year." Harry's face broke into a malicious grin, "I'll give you a duel, wands only, no contact. Who's your second?"
There was a nervous shuffling of feet behind Malfoy and the blonde haired wizard could not see his cronies taking small steps back away from their "leader." Malfoy flinched ever so slightly, unnerved by Harry's unblinking stare, "A duel, wands only, no contact," Harry said aloud, "I need a second." It took place in the blink of an eye. The six teens suddenly had their wands as they took a step forward, their feet crashing down upon the paving stones.
"Alternatively ferret," said Harry, "Seven wizards plus an Oathbreaker versus me and my friends." Malfoy had not even drawn his wand when Harry raised his and dropped in to a duelist stance, and let a spell build, gathering energy upon his wand, "It's a nice, dark green isn't it?" said Harry conversationally, "And you know of precious few spells of this color don't you?"
Malfoy balked and took a step back, nearly tripping over his robes as he fled towards the carriages, taking his cronies with him. Harry pointed his wand at a nearby wall and let the spell fly. The spell struck and covered the lower portion of the wall in olive green paint, "Color change charm," said Harry with a chuckle to the watching crowd, "I can't help but wonder what that idiot thought I was going to do."
The crowd of gaping onlookers stared for a moment and then began to dissipate as Harry turned to his friends, "Now that the ferret is gone, does anybody know what the hell that," he pointed in between the carriage shafts, "is?"
His friends looked at him, confused for a long moment, "what are you talking about?" asked Fred.
Harry rounded on his friends, and he noted that all of them were staring at him, blankly and grabbed Fred who happened to be the closest, and planted his face to the closest of the horse-like creatures. Fred stared forward for a long moment and then looked back at Harry, "Uh… mate, what am I supposed to be looking at?"
"Right there, between the shafts, harnessed to the coach," replied Harry evenly, "It's right there in front of your…" a strange thought occurred to Harry, "You can't see them can you?" Fred shook his head, "Never mind. Let's just, get… going." Harry clambered aboard the coach as Luna joined him in the first coach and nodded to Ginny who took the hint and directed the others to take different coaches.
Luna plonked herself down on the bench opposite him and met his gaze directly, "You're not going mad or anything. I can see them too." Harry's eyes widened fractionally in surprise, "I've been able to see them since my first day here. They have always pulled the carriages," she hesitated and smiled, "You are as sane as I am." Harry smiled at what would have once been a backhanded compliment less than a year ago from Loony Lovegood, the butt of every joke in Ravenclaw House.