A/N: Here we go again, and another gets taken from the field. Thanks as usual to Lady Starlight for her outstanding work over...well a good long while. As usual I own nothing really/
Chapter 40: One More Pinprick
************************Ministry of Magic*******************************
May 10, 2016
11:25 pm
The trash-strewn alley outside of the Ministry of Magic's visitor entrance was as decrepit as ever, if not more so. The now positively obsolete phone box was a study in flaked paint, with every one of the glass panes cracked or missing. A maleficent stench filled the dim alley with a cloying order, which caused even the huge Thestral pawing at the cracked pavement to neigh bitterly.
It looked over at the disguised lift as it started to rattle and a tall wizard with a long, crooked nose and twinkling ice-blue eyes stepped into the alley adroitly. He paused as the door opened and he stepped out into the night, yawning slightly as he stepped to the spectral horse and lifted a long-fingered hand to stroke its nose. "Hello, my old friend," Albus Dumbledore said with a faint smile, "Are you ready for a flight? It is a truly wonderful night for flying."
The Thestral knickered and he laughed, and placed his hands on the main of the horse, started to swing upward with the ease of a twenty-year-old...And the world vanished in a flare of white, and a rush of sound.
*****************************Godric's Hollow*****************************
Harry watched as Hermione ran lightly on a treadmill, and took a sip from a bottle of water set in the console. She set it back down, and flicked a finger at the controls, causing the machine to speed up and her to speed up slightly into a long lope.
"So," she said glancing over at him as he floated in a lotus a good six inches above the mats covering the floor of the workout chamber in the cavern below the house. A brief flicker of appreciation crossed chocolate eyes as she let them pan down his bare torso, before she looked back up to his grinning face, "Did you read that invitation from Draco and Ginny we got today?"
"Yeah," he replied as he tapped his fingers on the flat of the Gryffindor Sword, which was resting across his lap, before he picked up a soft cloth from the floor next to him and started to polish it habitually. He looked down at his work-not that the sword, for which Cleaning Charms were the least of its intrinsic magic, needed it-and then back to her with a shrug. "Though I don't quite understand why we need to have a formal meeting about that. It's not like I would even think of keeping Nate from marrying Anna...After all I put with you..."
"Har har," Hermione said as she slowed to a stop, and let the treadmill drop her off the end. She stalked over to him, and dropped to the mat next to him, flopping backwards and rolling onto her side to face him. "No, but you are Head of House Black, Harry, and I'm sure that Draco or Ginny or both are wanting to make sure...They haven't shed everything from how they were raised."
"I suppose, Ron and Luna are to be there too?"
"Yeah, maybe Ginny is wanting to make a dinner party out of it, she always did like the whole noble family bit." Hermione rolled on her back and stretched, arching up off the mat and holding the pose. She laughed and collapsed back down as Harry reached over and tickled her bared belly, "Honestly, Harry...no fair."
He vanished the sword, and let himself float down to the mat before he rolled over to hang over her on hands and knees. Leaning down, he nuzzled her nose, before trailing his lips down behind one ear, tracing her pulse with the very tip of his tongue as she started to squirm.
Umm...she moaned, that's nice... Glancing down with half-lidded eyes that had started to glow, emerald flickers starting to fill from the outside in, as she felt the hem of her t-shirt being pulled free of the waistband of her workout pants. She sighed as his palm rested on her belly; You know that's kinda how we go to this juncture...
Yeah, he laughed as his hand slowly dropped down and she felt a faint tug as the knot holding her drawstring closed came undone, and the already loose pants slipped precariously lower. He started to draw idle, meaningless designs on her stomach, tracing the lower curve of her abs. You know, it's been a while since we've...used...this room.
Honestly, Harry, it was last Tuesday, Hermione snorted as she reached up to twist her fingers into his still-sweaty hair. I...
They rolled apart in the next second as a soft POP sounded from near the front of the room. A shimmering blue dome blossomed over the both of them as both of their eyes lit fully and a ball of full force materialized in Hermione's hand. She readsorbed it, and Harry dropped the shield in he next instant as they found Tonks standing before them, looking pale and drawn, with her hair hanging lankly down her back. "We need you...now, at the Ministry...it's Albus."
Tonks vanished without another word, and the Potters only wasted a single instant before they both vanished in dual blurs, racing for their kits.
*************************Ministry of Magic********************************
May 11, 2016
12:45 am
The faintly visible, at least to wizards of the Potter's power levels, line of a misdirection ward lit the sky to the left, as Harry slowly walked past a pair of response team members, silver-loaded subguns cradled in their arms, wands strapped to their thighs and the dull gleam of heavy dragonhide armor covering chests and various vital areas.
Hermione glanced over at him, from where she was kneeling next to a mass of seared meat, bone and gore. A large hole was shattered in the wall behind the tattered wreckage of the dumpster, and the few remaining shards of rusted steel were folded outwards. Anything down that way? Hermione asked and Harry just shook her head. Wendel said that it looks like, from the traces, that someone planted one of the Twins' big bangs in the dumpster, hid it under a rather strong dampening field, and set it off with a spell from remote.
Not a Muggle device, then?
No, not enough flash damage...that and we found a bit of focusing crystal a few dozen yards away. She stood somewhat shakily, and did not, quite, let herself be held up by him. I know now how Albus has accomplished so much...he's the luckiest wizard on the face of the Earth...the Thestral took almost all of the direct blast damage and concussion...and held together long enough to catch most of the shrapnel too.
I sent Remus and Tonks to watch over him at St. Mungo's, Harry muttered as he watched one of Wendell's techs pouring over something near the ruins of the call box.
A quiet urgency filled their actions, present more and more since the attempted assassination against Arthur and the disastrous consequences of that day. The entire staff of the Forensic department, that was in country at least, was swarming over the alley, even if Harry privately thought it was a waste of sleep for the ones that had been off duty. From experience, there was little that they would find.
An hour later, reluctantly playing on their fame as much as their badges, Harry and Hermione stood on the other side of a transparent wall, watching as a softly glowing orb pulsed slowly, almost reluctantly over the head of a comatose Albus Dumbledore. The neatly trimmed bead he had effected had been shaved away, to allow for the bandage covering half of his face, while more bandages were visible peaking out from under the starkly white hospital linens, whose shade only served to accentuate his near utter lack of color.
Harry took a long drink from a chipped coffee mug, his hand mostly steady, and closed his eyes. Shit.
Yeah, Hermione replied pithily and let her head fall to his shoulder. She snuggled closer to his side, and watched a healer slip in to check Dumbledore's vitals as they wrote themselves onto a clipboard at the foot of the bed. He noted something with a eagle feather quill and left with a nod towards the observation room. There was really nothing that anyone found to say if it were a hit attempt on him, or just a random thing...hell, if it were when we were growing up, they might have said it was the IRA and waved it off. They hired a few rogue elements to plant stuff in defended zones...
So, it's Filius at Hogwarts until Albus wakes up?
I guess, though when Minerva hears about this, they'll probably have to call one of us in to keep her from the school.
Harry turned his head to look at her, he let his eyes flick down her body and back up, before he looked back to the recovery room, We need to end this soon...real soon...we can't afford for this to draw out much longer.
Hermione looked, just for an instant, as if she were wanting to argue with him over some point before she sighed heavily. At least I can hold down the fort, I suppose, while you and Tonks and Remus go hunting. She stopped to nibble on the corner of her lower lip; Do you want to stay here, Harry?
No...I mean I do, but...
She nodded and squeezed his hand before the pair of them vanished without a sound, leaving behind the guards just outside the door to watch over the phoenix wizard for the night.
**************************Durmstrang********************************
"The old fool still lives?" a dark, slightly hissing voice snarled as he strode quickly down an outer hallway overlooking a large courtyard were at least thirty Death Eaters were practicing spells, though in truth, they were only practicing on unmoving targets. Several of his followers paced behind him, along with a small, brunette girl barely out of her teens, who watched him with something approaching adoration.
Bellatrix cuffed the girl behind the ear, "Incompetents couldn't even get it right. I should remind them of their failures. Let me, M'Lord, they will learn the price of..."
"No, Mother," he replied softly as he came to a halt to watch as more Death Eaters practiced dark spells in the courtyard, "they did their jobs well enough. The old fool is out of the game and with the Potters distracted by this and that...by the time he regains enough of his strength to challenge me, it will be too late, far too late for them."
****************************Hogwarts*********************************
7:30 am
The news that Albus Dumbledore was...indisposed had yet to be officially disseminated to the mass of students filling the Great Hall chattering amongst themselves. So of course, every single soul had known approximately ten minutes after they had woken up. Every few seconds, one or more of the students would look up furtively towards Dumbledore's empty golden throne, and then away.
Not so, of course for every student. Emilia, Sirius and the rest had learned that night, just in case, even though the castle defenses should have served to defend them. Instead, the extended Potter clan and allies sat quietly, eating their breakfasts, and if their schoolbags might emit a soft clank when they were picked up-it would not be the first time.
Instead, Emilia sat reading her transfiguration text, as Neville and Flitwick consulted on something near the front, even as Ron and Luna were sitting together with Luna slowly picking at Ron's plate as she read the Quibbler's daily. Emilia stood and bent back down to kiss the top of Xander's head, "See you in class, Love, I'm going to go to the loo." She grabbed her bag from under the table and slung it up onto her shoulder.
She held his gaze for a beat longer before Xander nodded as Harriet and Rain joined her and the trio slipped out of the main doors, heading upwards towards the Transfiguration classrooms.
"I don't suppose that we are going to touch up our makeup?" Rain asked wryly as she followed along behind Emilia. They stepped around a pack of second years late for breakfast, and Rain turned to watch them go without breaking stride with the other two.
"I rather need to pee," Harriet put in helpfully.
Emilia and Rain rolled their eyes as one, and they followed the redhead into the second floor bathroom. They waited as she vanished into a stall and reappeared a minute later, looking relieved. "Do you think we'll get hit here?" Rain asked and Emilia shrugged helplessly.
"I'd guess that Dumbledore was just a target of opportunity." Emilia watched as Harriet went to the sinks and looked closely into her own eyes in the mirrors hanging over them. Distantly a faint hissing sound reached her ear, I hate this loo. "He would have been fine if he had just Apparated or Floo'ed back."
"Are my eyes grey or more of a heather color?" Harriet asked without looking back towards them. She shrugged, "If they do, they do." Looking up towards a far corner of the bathroom, one empty to every eye, "No, Myrtle. I'm not going to share Sirius...No, you can't watch him in the shower."
Rain snorted, and pushed off from the wall she had been leaning against, "Let's go. You can get in a duel with Myrtle over Sirius later." Both Harriet and a newly appeared Myrtle appeared to pout as Rain dropped her arm around the redhead's shoulders and led her over to where Emilia was leaning next to a ornate sink.
{Open} Emilia whispered and a faint grinding sound filled the air as the sink sank out of sight, leaving a round opening in the floor. {Stairs} she added, and clean, marble treads appeared spiraling down into darkness. The opening vanished above them, leaving them in darkness before a soft, white light appeared floating at Emilia's shoulder.
"No," Emilia said, answering Rain's earlier question, "Virginia let me know earlier that the twins arranged to have Dobby drop off the newest gear. "She said that Uncle Fred managed to get the overheating problem more under control, so he sent the new suits for us to replace the ones he called back last month, so we have those back to play with."
"So did we get them all?" Harriet asked interestedly, her eyes sharpening again as she brought herself into focus, using the nearness of her 'sisters' and the constant flicker of being that connected her constantly to Sirius to ground herself.
Emilia shook her head and sighed, "No, after they had to reinscribe the runes on them, and then after having to rebalance my and Sirius' they were behind, plus they got that order for the Americans...and since ours aren't the mass produced ones..."
"How many did we get back?"
Em glanced over at Rain and muttered to the round door. Twin snakes slowly unwound and a heavy door ground open, letting them into a large chamber. These days, the Chamber of Secrets was much changed from the dark, red-lit cavern that Emilia's father had fought for his life in, and that was the entrance for the desperate assault to retake this castle so many years ago.
Emilia moved past tall, carved pillars down a path of perfectly dry flagstones, to a large table set with several boxes. A large empty space was off to her front where the statue of Slytherin once stood forebodingly over the chamber. Their steps echoed in the vast chamber as they closed on and then stopped before the table and Emilia pulled open a large duffle bag with her name on it, pulling out a baggy shadow suit. She nodded and refolded the light-adsorbing garment and slipped it into her school bag. "Looks like just mine, the pair of yours, Sirius'..." she tossed a bag back at Harriet, who caught it lightly, "Xander's...and Virginia's personal one. I guess the rest aren't back from being refurbished."
"Brilliant," Rain sighed, "I guess it's good that we have these, though I doubt well need them for other than jokes." Rain packed away her own into her bottomless pack and flicked her wand, vanishing the rest of the pile. "We should get to class. I don't want detention with Da...Professor Black again."
"But that was soo worth it last month when you turned Naomi's hair into snakes...it suited her."
*****************************London******************************
Harry slipped alone along a London street, his eyes slowly scanning from side to side under the brim of a battered leather hat. A dark leather duster flapped around his body, additional armor that Hermione had made him grab as he left this morning, many hours ago.
Catching sight of his reflection in a dirty plate glass window, he shook his head slightly and made a note to visit Chicago next time he and Hermione were in the States to catch up with an old friend before he shrugged deeper into the coat and continued on.
A long, drawn-out whistle came from up ahead and to the right, and his eyes tracked over to find a working girl negotiating with a client. He passed them at just past arm's reach, the hand in his right pocket tingling with arcane energies that he vanished as they receded in the distance. No sound of his steps carried off the buildings, as he moved eerily quietly to a dark, boarded up shop door and through it without breaking stride.
Thick, grey dust covered the interior of the shop, coating shelves half filled with bric-a-brac, old display cases whose glass was cloudy with age and the floor. A single set of tracks led through the dust towards the back of the store and he followed them, stepping around an old counter and through a moldy curtain that caused a quiet sneeze.
"Merlin bless you," a voice roughened with age growled and Harry looked over at a small workbench set against the back wall of the shop and lit with only a single flickering candle. The soft, reddish-yellow glow of the candle pushed back the darkness, stopping just shy of Harry, and though it lit his glasses up, two glowing discs hanging in midair.
"You had information?" Harry asked of the old man, who nodded and coughed once.
"You know, Mr. Potter," he began quietly, "I do remember every wand that I have ever sold," Ollivander said waiting until Harry gave him a quick nod. "These days, I am mostly retired, my grandchildren run the shop in Diagon Alley most days and I putter about, here and there. I still make a few wands, such as the ones I made for your own children, but I let the youngsters handle the ones for shall we say...the magic users that will be less likely to seriously push their wand's capabilities."
Harry crooked an eyebrow as Ollivander stood from the table and hobbled over to a teapot sitting on a table across the room. The ancient wandmaker flicked a wand at it, and steam erupted before he poured into a china cup set next to it. "Tea?"
Harry shook his head.
"Very well," Ollivander hobbled back over, and sat down at the worktable, and took a sip. His voice smoothed slightly as the tea took hold. "As I was saying, I remember every wand that I have ever sold, but not, I am afraid, every wand that I have ever stocked. Can't be helped, I suppose, as there are still probably a hundred thousand or so still in the shop in Diagon Alley and we have more in storage."
"Not to appear impatient..."
"Very well young man, though it seemed apropos to the story...In my shop, there are many wands that I have made that I am sure will remain unsold long after I have passed on. Likewise there are wands in the inventory that were made long, long ago, a few by my great-great-grandfather, and a few that are possibly even older than that." Harry's attention focused as the old wand maker went on.
"This last summer, when those ruffians attacked Diagon Alley, and stole several wands, they seemed to just take at random, mostly old stock that we had out on display, looking to sell to collectors and the like...and occasionally if we put the wands out front they call to a child looking for their first wand. I did not know that one of the wands that they took was...special."
"I thought that the Elder Wand had been accounted for?"
"It had, and even if it hadn't, I doubt that anyone would have gotten much use from it...That wand is powerful, yes, but it is the Wizard...or Witch that wields it that holds true power...not a wand. A wand, most times, is merely a conduit...However, occasionally, there are wands made for a specific purpose, that have only that purpose. And it seems that one of those was taken, though for what possible reason I can not envision."
Harry fought the urge to sigh, or to vaporize large city blocks in frustration. "And that would be?"
"About a hundred and fifty years ago, my Grandfather was approached by a woman named Elektra Pyre...in most ways she was an unimportant witch, she specialized in recovery of antiquities, much like Gringotts' recovery teams, or some of the Unspeakables more...pleasant operations. She commissioned him to build a wand, that would serve to channel certain energies, similar to those controlled by a Time Turner, though at that time the theory behind that particular device was still being debated."
"So the Death Eaters have a wand that acts as a Time Turner?"
"No," Ollivander corrected him quickly, "not quite, even if they really do, as there were many wands destroyed in the fire afterwards, and with that many wands burning at once, determining if a particular one was there is problematic. No, as you know a Time Turner's maximum is perhaps a year, even for the experimental ones in the Ministry, let alone the small ones that you're more familiar with that only work for perhaps a week at a time. But if they do, they will find that they have a problem..."
Harry only looked at him.
"The wand was mostly a failure. It could only serve to stabilize a temporal rift; it could not initiate one itself. It was made to specific instructions for the client, even though my Grandfather said it would not work as she had wanted, but she insisted and he produced it, even though it would not work. If you had something else to open the temporal rift it would work, and to lock it to a specific timeframe, I suppose, but a Time Turner would be more suitable. And even then the power to open a rift is enormous. That is the reason there are so few Time Turners in existence, after you and your wife destroyed so many of them, it has taken years for the Ministry to recreate the few that are in existence."
"If it is so useless, then why are you telling me about it, and why only now?"
"Because, we just now finished with the inventory, as several of the wands refused to be counted, and that perhaps, it will give you a clue as to their goals." Ollivander shrugged, "I suppose that if they had the Dagger of Time, they could use it for something, but as that particular artifact was destroyed by the founder of your line, I don't see how they would be able to use it. And even then there are certain tomes that also have been lost that would be necessary for it's use, wherever they might be, along with certain other...darker materials."
"Could they use it to bring back..."
"No," Ollivander shook his head, "you might want to ask Albus after he wakes, but I can not see a way they could use it to pass him through time, forward...and his death was a...focus point...I doubt that the universe would let him be saved from his death by manipulation. At least in this universe, though Temporal Mechanics is only a hobby of mine, not a profession. There should not be a way to let matter through. Even the Muggles have recognized that you can not jump forward through time readily."
"Thank you," Harry said pensively. Get that? he asked and got a mental nod in reply. "We'll think about it."
Harry took a step backwards and faded away, vanishing even as Ollivander finished his tea and returned to the intricately carved wand he had been working on here in his hobby shop, a gift to his great-great-great granddaughter who would be starting Hogwarts in September.
A/N: Hmmmm...............The clock is ticking. Next Chapter a conversation with Luna and other assorted
things.