More acknowledgements to Visionaries - Knights of the Magical Light for a few of the ideas used in this chapter.
As usual, we don't own Harry Potter, the excellent JK Rowling does. The only thing we do own is the plot, Heinzl and his followers.
Chapter Twenty
Aftermath
The papers were full of the same articles the following day following the announcement of Harry and Hermione's deaths. This particular one was published in The Quibbler.
THE BOY WHO LIVED IS DEAD!
By Anna Jesse
It was announced by the British Ministry of Magic late last night that Boy-Who-Lived Harry Potter was found dead in his home along with his Muggle-born girlfriend Hermione Granger. Both seemed to be victims of the ancient ghost Heinzl. His home, Potter Manor, was discovered to be a burned out shell. The cause of the deaths and the destruction of the house is still being investigated although Mr. Potter's house-elf Dobby reported seeing the ghost Heinzl in the house and he, along with Mr. Potter and Miss Granger, tried to prevent the ghost from destroying the Manor's ward crystal, the destruction of which apparently destroyed the house.
Harry James Potter was the only son of James and Lily Potter, a Pureblood and Muggle-born couple. Following their deaths at Halloween in 1981, which also saw the demise of Lord Voldemort, Harry was sent by the late Albus Dumbledore to Lily Potter's Muggle sister and brother-in-law, where Harry spent 12 years being treated worse than any Pureblood treats their house-elves. The Dursleys constantly told Harry that his parents were worthless drunks who died in a car crash (a Muggle machine to take people places fast) and hid the fact he was a wizard, the truth only coming out when Hogwarts gamekeeper Rubeus Hagrid delivered his Hogwarts letter, the Dursleys being determined to prevent him from attending Hogwarts. He was sorted into Gryffindor and later achieved fame by becoming the youngest student to join the house Quidditch team in over a century. Harry never lost a game despite jinxed brooms and rogue Bludgers, only losing a game in his third year because of a Dementor attack. During his third year, his godfather Sirius Black cleared his name and became Harry's guardian. During his fourth year, he was entered into the Triwizard Tournament, which he later won.
I have discovered that his Muggle relations were found dead on the first day of term - apparently murdered by Vernon Dursley's sister Marge who is now in jail awaiting trial.
Harry was named Gryffindor Prefect and Quidditch Captain just before his fifth year...
There were a few words of tribute by his friends and people who knew him. There was also a small tribute to Hermione.
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Ron Weasley looked at the Ministry-produced leaflet which also announced Harry's death with sorrow on his face. Despite the way he had treated his former best friend since Harry had started dating Hermione, he had hoped to become proper friends again. But those thoughts lead to even more thoughts. He shook the look of sorrow off his face and thought of something. Thanks to his father's obsession with Muggle items, he had seen their newspapers which featured former boyfriends and girlfriends of celebrities and famous people sell so-called `kiss-and-tell' stories and make some money out of it. He began to consider what the Ministry's new version of The Daily Prophet would pay him for a detailed account of what it was like to be the sidekick of the Boy-Who-Lived for two and a half years. He would need to speak to Percy. Maybe there could be extra money if he was to alter a few things.
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Sirius proved to be the bane of the Ministry over the next couple of days. He asserted his authority as Harry's godfather to arrange his burial. He decided to bury Harry next to his parents in Godric's Hollow. To add to the Ministry's anger, he only allowed a select few to attend - in his words, no `press-lackeys' or `pompous Ministry officials.' Insult over injury was added when Sirius allowed the Grangers to attend and there was even greater offence when Sirius allowed Hermione to be buried next to Harry. Mr. And Mrs. Granger were inconsolable at the news of their daughter's death. Both turned to drinking large amounts of alcohol. Neither wanted to work in their surgery.
One day, they were just sitting in the living room with the TV on a random channel when a familiar name could be heard.
"Today, Marge Dursley was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for three counts of murder. On September 1st, this year, she brutally stabbed her brother Vernon to death, along with her sister-in-law Petunia and nephew Dudley. Police theorize that since Mr. Dursley was made redundant, his constant demands for money so he and his family could continue to live their lavish lifestyles drove her mad.
"Ms. Dursley first claimed that the nephew of her sister-in-law was responsible but the claims were thrown out when police discovered that at the time of the murders, he was on the train to attend his boarding school. It has since been discovered that the boy, whose name is being kept secret, lived with the Dursleys since his parents were murdered back in 1991. According to neighbors, the Dursleys treated the boy like a slave and the results of beatings were obvious but Mr. Dursley had bribed the police and social services to look the other way. A former neighbor has told the BBC that a year ago, the boy was placed with the family illegally and that his rightful guardian - Sirius Black - was able to claim custody. Viewers might remember his name from two years ago. He escaped from a prison, apparently where he was still awaiting trial for murdering thirteen people. He was since cleared of all charges when the person who actually did it was caught. It has come to our attention that the boy was found dead in his home two weeks ago. Inquiries into it are ongoing.
"Marge Dursley was today sentenced to life in prison. She was a former bulldog breeder, who faced investigations many times for alleged cruelty to her animals. This is Anna Marter, outside the Old Bailey."
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People flocked to Gringotts when a human working for them leaked the news that Harry's will was due to be read three days after the burial.
"I'm afraid the Potter estate is in limbo," the chief goblin said to everyone.
"Why is that?" someone asked.
"It appears that Mr. Potter made Hermione Granger the main beneficiary in a will dictated to us at the beginning of the year. Miss Granger died without leaving a will. Unfortunately, Miss Granger's parents are muggles and therefore can't inherit Wizarding assets. Therefore, the Potter estate's fate rests with the head of the Goblin council. It is most likely that Sirius Black will become the executor of the estate and will be able to distribute any assets he sees fit."
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Sirius spent a lot of time thinking about things and he finally made a decision. There was to be a meeting at Hogwarts to discuss the future. He was half listening when one of the Governors made a proposal.
"I therefore propose that the Hogwarts Quidditch stadium be renamed the Harry Potter Memorial Stadium in recognition of his talents in the game and the school library be renamed the Hermione Granger Memorial Library because of her academic achievements along with the fact the two tried to protect us from the ghost Heinzl," the Governor declared. Sirius finally snapped.
"I don't believe you lot! You have been sprouting anti-Muggle-born crap for weeks now - you forced Hermione to lose her Prefects badge when she had done nothing wrong except have the wrong sort of parentage and now you wish to honor her? I tell you this, she would be turning in her grave and I can also tell you that her parents would never agree to allow you to do this and I refuse to let you use my godson's name to make you lot look good!" he shouted.
"We must be glad then that as Muggles, Miss Granger's parents can't give approval for this to happen. The library name change will be done as soon as possible. Now, with regards to reopening the school, I suggest that all teacher assignments be the same as before, although a new Transfiguration teacher is required now that Minerva McGonagall has assumed full headmistress duties," the governor continued.
"I've got something else to say," Sirius interrupted. "As of this moment, I am tendering my resignation from Hogwarts. I thought long and hard about whether to stay or not, but in the end, decided that there were too many reminders of James, Lily and Harry. I would recommend trying to convince Slughorn to come out of retirement."
He got up to leave. Remus followed him.
"Why didn't you tell me about this, Padfoot?" he asked.
"Because, Moony, I only just came to the decision. I'd been thinking about it ever since it happened. I only took the job because both Harry and Hermione convinced me I would be able to do some good involving the Slytherins, making sure they didn't turn out to be junior Death Eaters like most of their parents and under the influence of Draco Malfoy."
"But you did a really good job, Sirius," Remus countered. "I heard Slytherins talking and they said because of your positive influence, they were going to turn their backs on the Dark Arts and Draco Malfoy, despite what he might get his father to do and they were going to convince their parents to do the same. So some good has come out of your job. Granted, Malfoy was never going to convert but unlike Snape, you showed him that he is not going to be treated like a prince who can get away with whatever he wants all the time. You made him work for his marks. You weren't here when I first started teaching - Snape would deduct points from Gryffindor just for raising their hand to ask a question, he would award points of Malfoy for bullying."
"Even so, Remus," continued Sirius. "Our friendship means a lot to me, even though it was mainly mine and James' fault you ended up in detention with us, but there's nothing left for me now. The other reason I took the job was so I could be close to Harry, make up for the years I missed out on raising him because I was stupid enough to go after Peter for what he did and ended up in Azkaban because I underestimated him."
"Where will you go?" Remus asked. Over the last couple of days, Remus and Tonks had been staying at his parents' old house while Sirius and Adriana had stayed with the Grangers. The two had been discussing things and she decided to resign if Sirius did.
"We don't really know," answered Sirius. "I wouldn't mind finding a teaching job elsewhere or starting some sort of business."
"Do this for me, Padfoot," Remus asked. "Stay here until they find new staff members. It is very important to find the right person for the job, especially for the job of Head of Slytherin. If they are rushed into finding someone, then it might be the wrong person - they might hire someone who is one of the anti-Muggle-born crowd. With you still here for now, then McGonagall and Flitwick will have time to find a more suitable replacement."
"Alright, Moony," Sirius finally answered. "I will stay here for the time being. But as soon as McGonagall and Flitwick find someone else, I'm off."
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Neville Longbottom spent most of his time at either St. Mungo's visiting his parents or with Ginny at the Burrow. Gone was the confident teen who had flourished over the last year and a sad teen was in his place. He felt very guilty - at the time of Heinzl's attack on Potter Manor, he was at the Burrow with Ginny. He told her he felt he should have been there - maybe he could have helped.
"It was not your fault, Neville Longbottom," she would say to him, "Even if you were there, you wouldn't have been able to do anything - you would have died, too."
But despite her comforting words, he still blamed himself for not being able to help. He was sure Sirius blamed him for Harry's death. That's why he spent most of his time with his parents - they couldn't blame him for what happened.
To cheer him up, Ginny contacted Luna Lovegood who then convinced her dad to allow Neville to take over the latest issue of The Quibbler to write very lengthy personal tributes to Harry, Hermione and his parents.
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Ollivander was boxing up the last of the latest wands he had just finished making. He would stack them up later - there was always a student who would need a new wand for some reason. The bell rang and he went to the front of the store to find a tall man standing there.
"I've been expecting you, Eldrad Heinzl," Ollivander said.
"So you know of me then?" Heinzl asked.
"Yes. My ancestors left warnings that if awoken, you might come to our shop to get hold of the Staffs of Power."
"You assume correctly," Heinzl said. "It would avoid bloodshed if you were to hand them over now."
"Sadly, I don't have them, Heinzl," the wand maker replied. "The power of the staffs was transferred to a wand core eight hundred years ago and will only work if implanted in a wand. Then you will need to know the magical code words in order to activate the power." Without Heinzl noticing, Ollivander reached under the counter for a particular wand. "You're welcome to have a look if you like."
Heinzl walked towards the back of the shop. Ollivander picked up the wand and pointed it at the old Dark Lord.
"Three suns aligned pour forth their light..." But Ollivander never got the chance to finish casting the ancient power of strength for Heinzl turned around and cast a powerful stunner which sent the old man flying. Heinzl walked over to him and picked up the wand. Using a spell, he extracted the core - a phoenix feather - and merged it with his wand. He had recovered it from the place he had hidden it just over nine hundred years ago. Heinzl felt the power flowing - he already knew how to cast the eight ancient spells.
"Thank you old man. And now, to pay the price for attempting to kill me. By nature's hand, by craft, by arts. What once was one - now fly apart!"
A creature flew out of the wand and as Heinzl left, it began to smash the store to pieces, destroying everything in its path.
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The Ministry had a final trump card to play involving Harry - they could now award him a posthumous First Class Order of Merlin for his tireless work in helping defeat Heinzl, defending many people in the process. It was also decided to award Hermione one. Percy Weasley (who got on well with her) told the Minister that it would not be right to give Harry one and not her, mainly because the ghost seriously harmed her during the attack in which Dumbledore was killed.
The ceremony was held in Diagon Alley with great publicity. Lots of people attended, to hear a ton of crap about Harry (which was given to the Minister by Rita Skeeter, who had conducted the interview with Ron). The main people who knew Harry well knew it was a ton of crap because they knew the truth (for instance, Harry did not bribe anyone, especially Dumbledore and McGonagall with large amounts of Galleons to be put on to the Gryffindor Quidditch team; Ron was NOT his personal Quidditch coach; Lavender Brown and the Patil sisters were not his press officers and the one which bent the camels back was the report that Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet were his official mistresses (it was even reported that Alicia was expecting Harry's firstborn)!) and would have corrected him if they could have gotten away with it.
Ron was smiling during this, while the interview was being read out. He had been paid 150 galleons for his insights into the life of the Boy-Who-Lived. He knew most of what he said was lies but who was going to notice? The main people who would notice were dead.
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Ron was not smiling the next day. It appeared that people who knew the truth had spread the story that it was lies. Rita Skeeter was quick to point out that Ron said everything that went into the article.
The first thing came when he went into Quality Quidditch Supplies to buy a new broom. The shopkeeper said it would be disrespectful to Harry's memory for him to allow Ron to buy a broom using the blood money he was paid for the worthless pack of lies he told the papers.
Susan Bones refused to speak to him and had her aunt put a charm on her which prevented owl post sent by him from being delivered to her.
Fred and George refused to speak to him. With the permission of Angelina and Alicia (also including Katie), they planned a major prank to be played on him.
Lavender Brown and the Patil sisters sent him very loud Howlers with pranks of their own - exploding make-up kits (their own invention, nothing to do with Fred and George, although they planned to make some good money by selling them the idea).
Oliver Wood decided to convince most of the Quidditch teams in England not to give Ron the chance to try out for their teams should he apply. They agreed with Oliver, especially since he revealed via Pensieve memories and Veritaserum that HE taught Harry a lot regarding Quidditch, not Ron.
McGonagall was also one to send him a Howler, because of the claims he made in the interview that Harry bribed both her and Dumbledore to allow him to join the team when first years weren't normally permitted to join it.
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The Ministry was sitting in a closed session to decide what to do with the Muggle-borns. With a loud bang, the door opened and Heinzl marched in. Everyone looked at him with defiance.
"What are you doing here, parasite?" Minister Reekon asked.
"I am here to make my demands known, Minister," said Heinzl.
"Why should we listen to any demands a terrorist like you make?" someone asked.
"Because if you do not listen, then you will die. I have gained the power of the famous staffs of power and will use them," replied Heinzl.
"Very well, what do you want?" Reekon asked.
"I want full rights for Muggle-borns. I want them to have the same rights and privileges as you blood-heads."
"Impossible!" one person shouted.
"I don't care what you have," Reekon declared, "I am not going to grant equal rights to the Muggle-borns just because you say so. If I had my way, I'd exterminate the whole lot of them!"
A few Ministry workers then realized that Reekon had gone too far. Heinzl took out a wand and pointed it at the Minister.
"DO NOT INSULT MY KIND AGAIN, MINISTER!" he said in a loud voice.
"I WILL NOT BE INTIMIDATED!"
"By what creeps, what crawls, by what does not, let all that grows recede and rot!" A beam of light fired from Heinzl's wand and before anyone could do anything, it hit the Minister. Before everyone's eyes, he began to decay.
"You've killed him!" someone said.
"No, he is not dead. He will remain like that until he dies. I can reverse his condition - if given an incentive to," Heinzl said.
"I will not bow down to terrorist demands!" Reekon shouted as loud as he could but his vocal cords were also decayed. Heinzl turned to leave.
"You have three days in which to accept my demands otherwise the Minister will decay to death. Just send a message confirming acceptance of them by owl. They will find me." He began to leave.
"Wait!" a Ministry official called, "Is Harry Potter really dead?"
Heinzl stopped. "Yes, he is dead. He and his mate thought they could challenge me and paid the ultimate price." He walked away. "One final thing - Finite Incantatum cannot reverse the spell." Heinzl left the room.
The following day, the Ministry propaganda parchment reported the attack and quoted Percy Weasley as saying that new laws were being discussed that day. The International Confederation of Wizards was not permitted to be in on the talks - their representatives being expelled from the country.
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Two weeks later, Annabeth Furlong was slowly walking along a field at her home. She had just laid some flowers on her younger sister's grave and was on her way back to the house. Not looking where she was going, she tripped over something. As she got up, she saw two people lying on the ground.... one of them sported the traces of a familiar lightning bolt scar.
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