Harry crossed the compound of the manor and entered the main hall of the manor through the hallway. The hall was in the shape of a square, around twenty meters in length.
A giant glass chandelier adorned with beautiful stones hung from the ceiling. With the chandelier as the centre, beautiful and intricate patterns had been carved on the ceiling, giving it an aristocratic feeling.
At one end of the hall, near the wall, a fireplace had been constructed. Surrounding the fireplace on two sides were beautiful wooden sofas.
On the wall directly above the fireplace, a massive skull had been nailed. It was the skull of a magical lion, one of the most powerful magical animals to ever walk the earth. The bones of the skull encapsulated a deep gash running from its forehead across its right eye. The magical lion, as per the ancient Potter texts, was said to have been killed by one of the Potter ancestors, not using magic but in physical combat, and the deep gash on the forehead was the result of this combat.
Harry's gaze lingered on the skull for a brief period before he sighed. Unfortunately, the magical lion was now an extinct species.
Harry took a stroll around the hall, looking at various different decors, extensive and precious artworks, and portraits of various Potters hanging on the wall.
While Harry took the stroll, the wards of Potter Manor started to come back to life. The manor had been in a state of lockdown since the death of his grandparents, which was now being lifted.
With magic now running through the wards and then to the magical lamps hanging on the walls, the slightly dark manor started to be illuminated.
Harry walked towards another end of the wall and pushed open the large wooden gates of the window. The window opened, and a fresh breeze carrying a slight chill greeted Harry's face.
Outside the window, Harry could see the vast expanse of greenery and the small stream running not far away from him.
Harry spent a few minutes gazing outside the window while he planned his next course of action.
His next course of action was to save Bertha Jorkins. She was a witch, currently working in the Department of Magical Games and Sports in the Ministry of Magic under Ludo Bagman. She had been a few years senior to Harry's parents at Hogwarts and a lot of people believed her to be a stupid and idiot person.
Before working in the Department of Magical Games and Sports, she worked in the Department of International Magical Co-operation under Barty Crouch Senior.
Bertha had the misfortune of visiting the house of Crouch Snr with some papers for him to sign, where she discovered the Crouch family secret- that they were hiding their convicted death eater son, Barty Crouch Jnr.
When Bertha confronted Crouch Snr, he to hide this secret and keep his son safe places a powerful Memory Charm on Bertha. This charm was aimed to alter her memory and removed all what she had seen at his house.
However, Barty Crouch Snr was not very proficient in mind arts and the Memory Charm did permanent brain damage to Bertha. This caused Bertha to become extremely forgetful for which she had become quite known.
Well in his previous life this had not been end of the misfortune for her. In his previous life, while taking a holiday in Albania, she ran into Peter Pettigrew, who had captured her.
Later, the rat brought her to Voldemort, where he read her mind and found out about Barty Crouch Jnr being alive and the Triwizard Tournament.
Harry was not sure when Bertha would encounter Peter.
Although he could have used various other methods to save her, he decided she would be a good way to lead him to Peter. This would save him the effort of scouring through the whole of Albania.
He just hoped that his mere presence would not alter this fateful encounter that was about to happen in the future between Peter Pettigrew and Bertha Jorkins.
When Harry came out of his reverie, it was already late at night, and he was not willing to return to Privet Drive yet. Thus, he decided to spend the night in the manor itself.
Even so, he did not use the only room available to him in the manor and used the sofa to take a nap.
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Early the next morning, Harry left the manor and arrived outside the wards of the manor. He sighed in frustration at this. Only after taking the Potter Lordship, he would be able to apparate freely from inside the wards or use the floo network of Potter Manor.
Harry waved his fingers, and his entire body structure, along with his facial features, changed dramatically. In place of the youth of eighteen years, now stood a middle-aged man with average features. His face resembled one of those characters who would be easily forgotten.
This was one of the spells that had been invented by Harry in the future. Now, to change his facial features, he would not need Polyjuice Potion, but a wave of his hand was enough.
With a thought, Harry vanished with a twist of space.
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When Harry reappeared next, he was standing outside the Ministry atrium. With confident strides, he walked inside the Ministry building.
Crossing a few floors, he finally reached the Department of Magical Games and Sports.
Outside the gate, a young girl around twenty-five years old was sitting behind a desk.
Harry approached her. "Good morning, young lady."
The girl looked up only to be disappointed by the average features of the middle-aged man.
"Good morning," she replied dryly.
Harry smiled. "I have an appointment scheduled with Miss Bertha Jorkins."
The lady frowned, "But I do not have an appointment scheduled for Miss Jorkins. I do not think that she left any such information."
Harry also frowned, his face deepening in seriousness, "Maybe she forgot about it."
"Maybe," the lady muttered, while Harry slightly leaned in and whispered, "It is about some preparation for the big event at Hogwarts…"
The eyes of the woman widened slightly in shock. This was the kind of information that was known to very few people, only the higher-ups in the Ministry.
She had also come to know of this information only because of Bertha's forgetfulness.
Afterwards, she had been strictly advised to keep her mouth shut until the Ministry made a formal proclamation.
"You can go in," not willing to hinder someone possessing knowledge about the tournament, she barely muttered.
Harry gave a small smile and walked inside the door.
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