Chapter Text
Looking in the mirror, Harry couldn’t help but do a double take at his chest, where his left pec held the mark of the druid, while his right pec sported his family crest tattoo surrounded by what Harry learned was Ghukliak script with a small flag at the bottom center. Harry was still getting used to seeing it. Pulling on the loose shirt, Harry knocked Ron’s foot so that he would wake up within the next twenty minutes. Heading down the stairs, Harry smirked when he saw Hermione absorbed in a familiar book. Slowly sneaking up on her, Harry grinned as he covered her eyes, causing her to freeze up before she heard him speak.
“You know, I thought you promised you wouldn’t read ahead without me and Daph.” Giving her neck a quick kiss, Harry uncovered her eyes while grinning at the soft smile on her face.
“Morning love, you know I am only rereading the section from last night since I didn’t get to finish it. Also, a certain someone is hanging out with me.” Harry suddenly saw a quick movement as Ari slithered out from the shawl on Hermione’s lap.
‘DARLING, tell Sweety thank you for warming the shawl .’ Harry smirked and scrubbed Ari's chin while telling Hermione what Ari said.
‘ Ari, how was your adventure?’ Ari had been exploring Hogwarts since she had woken from her brumation. Harry had a monitoring charm tied to a rune stone that Dobby held onto. Dobby would have popped to her and then to him if she had gotten in danger.
‘The castle is fun to explore; I found several lost rooms and even found a large chamber with swords like yours, darling.’ Reaching down, Harry took Ari from Hermione and lifted her to be level with his eyes.
‘ Do you think you could guide me to the room?’ Ari might have found Gryffindor's armory. Seeing Ari shimmy, Harry smirked as he knew what he would be doing after he sent off the letter.
“My love, how would you and our darling Daphne like to go on an adventure?” Hermione’s smile was all the answer he needed before Harry leaned down and kissed her. Hearing Hermione hum into his mouth made Harry chuckle as he broke the kiss to see Hermione slightly stunned at him.
“Don’t you have to send that letter to the ICW today?” Harry nodded at Hermione; he was a bit sad that he wouldn’t see the girls this summer, but Sirius and his dad wanted him to do this when he was fourteen. The ICW trials were mysterious; not even Hermione and Daphne's research had turned up any info on it, other than that Harry, if he was accepted, would have to travel to Switzerland with Dumbledore. Not even Sirius was allowed to go since he had undertaken the trials himself.
“I already have it written up. I figured Hedwig would show up for bacon at breakfast, and she could take it for me. So want to get down there.” Hissing suddenly came from Ari; looking at her, Harry nodded and let her crawl up his sleeve to rest on his neck. It seems no matter what, Harry was going to have Ari with him today. Taking Hermione’s hand, they left the common room as Ron descended the stairs.
Shutting down the forge, Harry placed his tools back in the leather wrap and rolled it up before setting them to the table on the left. Picking up the books and placing markers inside, Harry stacked them next to the leather wrap. Closing the cases of caster ammo, Harry checked to make sure the casters themselves were unloaded before loading a spread stunner round into the original caster, twirling it on his finger before stopping, pulling his cloak back, and placing it in the holster mounted on an angle on his lower back. Letting his cloak fall back in place, Harry next stuck one knife in his boot before placing the rest in a bright red leather case and, rolling it up, laying it beside the books and the caster ammo on the other table. Double-checking to make sure he had cleaned everything up, Harry called for Dobby.
“Great Defender Harry calls for Dobby; how can Dobby help?” Harry smirked at the shirt Dobby was wearing, a picture of his face with Triwizard champion nineteen-ninety-four wrapped around; Merlin knew where Dobby found that.
“Yes, Dobby, if you wouldn't mind taking all the stuff on that table back home, I need to have a word with the founders.” Getting a rapid head nod from Dobby, Harry moved to where the entrance to the founder's chamber was. Walking through the short hallway, Harry stepped into the main room to see the four founders looking in his direction.
“Well, another year is done. I had Dobby transport the things to the estate so that I could speak with you all. You all once mentioned that you had a task for me. So far, I have removed the Horcrux from Hogwarts, and I have found Gyrffindor’s old armory-”
“MY ARMORY IS IN SHAMBLES, THE SWORDS AND ARMOR ARE RUSTED, THERE WAS A PIGEON NEST IN MY BEDROOM AND YOU-” Casting a muffling charm at Gyrffindor’s painting, Harry watched as he ranted for several minutes before realizing he was muted.
“Hahaha, oh lad, thank you for that; the man hasn’t shut up about the state of his armory since you and your snake found it. As for Horcrux, thank you for bringing peace to my daughter and me.” Harry nodded at Rowena and turned to the last two Founders. Salazar was already grateful that they had found his locket and was helping Dumbledore figure out how to remove the Horcrux without damaging it.
“Oh, fine; I guess since the year is over, I might as well tell you my task. I want you to uncover and activate my painting in the kitchen. I miss watching over the elves.” Harry looked at Lady Hufflepuff with a bit of confusion on his face. That was it; that was all she wanted, and all because of the fact that Harry had been selected as Champion, she had refused to talk to him all year.
“Come on, Helga; clearly, he doesn’t believe you; look, what Helga isn’t saying is that by giving her kitchen access again, she can instruct the elves in working on the lost areas of Hogwarts and bringing out the old war defenses.” Harry was stunned for a second at Salazar's statement before remembering the last part.
“Wait, what war defenses?” At that, Harry saw Godric gesturing wildly and waving his hands. Ending the charm, Gryffindor started talking.
“It’s a Castle; of course, we have defenses; you think all those statues and suits of armor are for show? Hell Raven over there set the Room up so you can make it an actual war room; it has a map of England and everything. Helga and I were the ones who had the physical army defenses covered, while Sally had the forest and the underground covered. Look, you get Helga into the kitchen, and I will make sure the elves repair and rebuild the armory. By the time you return next year, we should have everything ready.
Harry nodded at that while also making a mental note to inform Dumbledore of the founder's plan.
Harry sat underneath the invisibility cloak, watching as Cedric approached the students gathered on the seventh floor. As he checked the map, he listened in to the conversation.
“So, now I'm curious. It seems to me that Harry has invited people from every house, but does anyone know exactly what for?” Closing the map as Susan finished her question, he removed the cloak and stepped up behind them.
“Because each of you has potential, and you have either suffered from Tom's first reign or will suffer under his new attempt,” Harry smirked as people literally jumped away from him; walking through the now parted crowd, he saw Dean, Seamus, Luna, and Ginny with Colin off to one side; Cedric, Susan, and Hannah were near the back. He had seen Susan draw her wand the moment he spoke, which was a good instinct. On the other side, he saw Padma, Parvati, George, and Fred alongside Blaise Zabini, Tracey, Astoria, and Neville.
“So, what exactly did you wish to meet for?” Stepping up to the seemingly blank wall, Harry turned and looked at the faces of the fellow students in front of him.
“Before I reveal everything, I will say this, I invited everyone here because I trust you. The people I see before me have potential; not only are you future allies, but I also wish to see you be able to protect yourself; if you wish to learn how to protect yourself, how to protect your family, then stay; if you don't want to get involved in what will eventually be a direct conflict with the dark, then you can learn too. However, if you stay, a magic parchment will enforce the secret. It's not as binding as the cup was for me and Cedric, but it will out you as a traitor. Now, does anyone wish to leave?” Looking around the hallway, not a person moved, not even a flicker of hesitation on their faces; some even hardened their gazes at the mention of fighting the dark. Nodding at each person, Harry flicked his wand and revealed the disillusioned door of the Room of Requirement.
“Follow me.” Stepping through the door, Harry heard the gasp from the group of students as they filed into the room. It was Ron who actually created the room after the founders had pointed Harry in this direction.
The door opened into a large central room on the raised dais with a map of the British Isles on a table; off to the left was a small library with mainly combat-related spells, alongside a small potion and alchemy station, Daphne and Hermione had cleaned up the now spoiled ingredients and were working on adding new ingredients and books to the shelves. To the right of the center dais was a warded dueling pit, maybe a quarter the size of the Quidditch pitch; it was big enough for six on six fighting. Some dummies that could be animated with a spell lined the wall, unlike the Potter training room dummies that used runes.
At the back of the room was a lounging area, with several loveseats, couches, and fluffy chairs. Above the lounging area was an enchanted ceiling that showed what it was like outside. Since it was close to dusk right now, they could see the dying embers of the sun to the left and the beginnings of the moon to the right.
“Potter, what exactly is this?” Turning to look at Neville's face, Harry went to answer when he was interrupted by Ron.
“In March of Nineteen-thirty-eight, the Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, formed a section known as Section D under Major Lawrence Grand. Lawrence Grand was a squib who saw Grindelwald's influence spread across Europe and knew he had to use the mundane to fight. He created Section M alongside Section D to fight Grindelwald's wizards, who had enslaved the mundane troop leaders. Lawrence Grant found other squibs who could see magic and took the fight to those wizards through the use of runes, potions, and mundane weapons; one of those squibs was a Weasley. When Voldemort returned, I received a letter from my squib uncle informing me of our family history, and together, Harry, Daphne, Hermione, and I have decided to create an all-wizard version of Section M. While Harry is the leader, I am the one who commands.” Harry was impressed with Ron’s speech. Harry didn’t want any of the ones they had invited to fight on the battlefield with him, but if they could develop ideas to help, then that would be more than enough. Looking at the people gathered before them, Harry watched as suddenly Neville stepped forward.
“You know my parents are in Saint Mungos, permanently disabled from the Cruciatus Curse. Every other month, I go see them and wish that my mother would recognize me. Voldemort’s followers did that to them; if being here and learning from you means I can prevent that from happening to someone else's parents, then where do I sign.” Squaring his shoulders, Harry nodded at Neville before gesturing to the parchment sitting on the pedestal, watching as people signed the parchment one by one before moving deeper into the room to explore. Harry knew this was going to work. Between the people in the room and the Founder's plan, there would be more help than just the teachers if anything happened at Hogwarts.
Amalia carried the coffee and briefs into the conference room, sat beside Alessio of the Auror department, and waited for the Section head to arrive. If her intel from the mail department was correct, then this summer would be enjoyable.
“Good, everyone’s here; let's begin the trial selection process; as you know, the German aurors and their mundane counterparts have agreed to our outline. The Aurors know this is for the ICWs, and the mundanes have been told that this is a specialist branch training for a classified unit. What?” Amalia saw Isabella had raised her hand. Considering Isabella worked in the mail department filtering messages for their section, it made sense that she had the same intel she did.
“I see a potential issue with one of the applicants.” Isabella pressed a rune on the conference table, the room darkened, and the orb displayed a now famous image of Harry Potter holding the caster pointed at Voldermort.
“It seems Potter has submitted his application, and under the essay section, he mentioned that both his father and godfather requested he do this since they had done the same; I can confirm that both James Potter and Sirius Black did, in fact, take part in the trials,” Amalia smirked at the look on Claus, the section head, face. Claus had been out of contact during the third task and returned from the Maldives to pandemonium, hearing and seeing Harry Potter’s name and face plastered all over the news and ICW memos.
“So you’re telling me that we are going to be playing host to him, a budding warrior mage, Alessio do you think that the Germans would be able to track and trap him?” Seeing Alessio shake his head no, Amalia smirked as Claus turned to Igor, their liaison to the courts.
“Igor, is there anything that we have planned that might stand a chance against him? This is supposed to test the standard fourteen- and fifteen-year-old wizard or witches' skills. From the replays and the collected memories that Dumbledore shared with me, Harry Potter is not standard by any means.” Amalia had to keep her mouth closed to keep from drolling at the fact that Claus had seen Potter's memories directly.
“So what do you suggest we do?” Amalia smirked and reached for the briefs she had brought with her. Holding up her hand, she saw Claus startled as he realized who was requesting to speak.
Taking the chance to stand up, she reached into her pocket and slipped the metal plate onto the reactive runes built into the table, switching the orb from showing Harry Potter to showing a large, mostly obscured landmass.
“Since we can’t test Mr. Potter with the standard test, I have a plan to send him on a test that most adult wizards and witches would find challenging. Here, Isabella duplicate this.” Passing the outline Amalia created with her team to Isabella, Amalia pressed the runes again, revealing that the landmass in question was Africa.
Landing with his knees slightly bent, Harry straightened up to stare at his home. It was good to be back, even if it was for a short while. Harry knew that the letter from the ICW would arrive sometime during the week, so he had time to relax and fly his broom around the property. First, however, he had to unpack. Dobby had taken care of his clothes already but Harry had requested that Dobby leave his equipment to him. Waving to Sirius, Elizabeth, and Remus, Harry took a right and went into the tower. Harry found several trunks stacked to one side and a small mountain of letters and parcels inside the door. Calling for Dobby, Harry pointed at the parcels.
“Dobby, what exactly is with this stack?” Picking up the top most letter, Harry saw it was transferred from Gringotts to him.
“That be offers, Great master Potter impressed many with his skills. Dobby has checked, and there be no bad magic attached to them.” Harry grabbed the top one and, focusing his magic, sliced it open with his finger. He didn’t have to focus as much as he did before. Opening the letter, Harry was surprised to watch as the letters began to self-translate.
Dear Mr. Potter,
My name is Rohit Pal; I serve the Singh family and am writing this letter with the request that once your time at Hogwarts ends if, you would come to India and help us deal with a lost relic; we believe your power in both parseltongue-
Opening the following letter, Harry saw it was in English.
Dear Mr. Potter,
Look, I’ll shoot straight from the hip; I’ll offer you full employment if you come to help us build that gun you got; I run a little business out of Texas that could benefit in the growth of defense tools-
Tossing that one to the side, Harry opened the next one.
I’ll give you thirty thousand gold stags for the rights to your-
Harry stopped reading letters at the point and grabbed two of the chests that he knew held gear. He would let Sirius and Elizabeth go through the letters and keep the more interesting offer. He especially liked the one from India.
Walking into the main room, Harry placed the chest on the recently cleared tables. Opening one, Harry heard one of his ancestors cough. Looking over, he saw that it was Harwin.
“Well?” Harry knew what he was asking; there was no way his ancestors hadn’t heard what he had done in the third task. Harry knew that Dobby had to place a newspaper on a stand in the main house so they could read it.
“I met the enemy, and I sent him running.” Harry looked up to see his ancestor smirking.
“You did more than that; Charleus won’t shut up about how much you're like him. It's driving your ancestor Mabel mad.” Harry chuckled at the fact that Mabel had been at the siege of Kiev and was already a bit mad, to begin with. Placing a couple of books onto the stone plate, Harry watched as they hovered before shooting off to their respective positions in the library. Any new book was added to the empty shelves that were in the void space between the tower and the Potter Hold. Setting the library trunk to the side, Harry pulled off his belt and set it on the table for Dobby to take to his vault. He would sort that out later.
“So, what's your next move? You know that this Riddle will hide for the summer, so will you gather your allies and take the fight to him?” Harry shook his head at his ancestor's question. While that was how they might have done things back during his time, it wasn’t what Harry could do now.
“No, right now, Dumbledore is gathering allies and ensuring his recruitment drive is hindered. I will be busy with my own challenge, the ICW trials.” Seeing his ancestor nod, Harry walked over to the glass display case, noticing several actual firearms inside it. Looking at the metal plates below them, Harry picked up the old revolver from the First World War, before a cough from the entrance drew his attention away. Turning, Harry saw Remus standing near the entrance.
“Dumbledore’s called a meeting of the Order; you were requested Prongslet.” Harry nodded before placing the Webley revolver back in the glass case and leaving the tower.
Leaving the meeting hall, Harry and Sirius detoured toward Grimmauld’s Display room while the rest of the order members headed to the Floo room with Mad-eye.
“So Dumbledore never really clarified what he ended up doing with Crouch Jr,” Sirius smirked as he opened the hinged painting and pressed the button, causing the hallway to crack open.
“Dumbledore didn’t want Fudge or Bones to reveal that we have a source accidentally, so he turned him over to Mad-eye and Severus.” Harry frowned at the thought of Snape; he had moaned and bitched at the sight of Harry in the meeting, trying to claim he was too young and full of himself to be involved with the order. Walking through the passageway, Harry and Sirius emerged in a room filled with wands, swords, old suits of armor, and several paintings, along with more than a few human heads on display. Turning away from the heads, Harry and Sirius looked toward the display of both Nazi and Grindlewald war trophies.
“I didn’t want to say this in front of Dumbledore and the others, but how sure are we that we can trust Severus?” Sirius sighed. While he understood Harry's perspective, he also knew that Dumbledore had Severus under a few soul-binding charms. If he ever betrayed Dumbledore willingly, his life was forfeit.
“We can trust him with the general order meeting information; Dumbledore tends to keep him out of the mission-specific planning meetings. Now, let's get what we came for.” With that, Sirius popped open the display case and took out the brass plaque; underneath it was another button; this one caused Sirius to wince as he pressed it; removing his finger, he sucked on his bloody thumb as the wall cracked in half revealing a room full of old World War two weapons.
“Okay, you’re going to have to explain why exactly your family, who hated mundane, have a room full of guns and ammo,” Sirius smirked as he moved the case of ammo for the sten to the side and wiped the dust off the outside of the crate.
“Because they liked stealing things more, also because the lock would only accept male blood, which meant my bitch of a mother could never get into this room and destroy it. Now, Dumbledore says we need a peace offering, and well, I figured this would smooth some ruffled Polish feathers.” Cracking the wooden crate, Sirius grabbed the frame and pulled up the oil painting; Harry caught a glimpse of a man. Grinning, Sirius put it back in the wooden crate and sealed it back shut; grabbing the crate, Harry noticed the iron eagle with the swastika inside it stamped on the wood crate as Sirius lifted it.
“What’s so special about the painting anyway?” Sirius smirked as they left the room and watched as it was sealed behind him. Sirius's answer confused Harry a bit more as they left the room.
“It's a Raphael.”
BANG!
Hearing the round smash through the illusionary vase, Harry lowered the Webley revolver before pressing the small lever at the top and letting the barrel and cylinder hinge forward. Ejecting the spent shells, Harry set the empty revolver down on the table. Removing the foam ear protection, he turned to see Remus standing next to Mad-eye.
“So, where exactly did you say you managed to find ammo for all the guns we have in the tower?” Mad-eye smirked and turned to look at Remus as well. Remus suddenly questioned, looked down at the ground, and sighed before shaking his head.
“I may or may not know a couple of mundane-borns that use their ability to do magic to move things for the Irish.” Harry and Mad-eye just stared at Remus till he felt extremely uncomfortable.
“Potter, you keep working with the revolver. Remus and I need to have a discussion.” Harry watched as Mad-eye led Remus away. Shrugging, Harry grabbed the shells from the case and loaded the revolver. Closing the revolver, Harry turned sideways and, extending his right arm straight outward, took aim at the vase and fired.
Eventually, Harry finished off the case of ammo and put the gun back in the soft case. Harry removed the earbuds and placed them in their own case before calling for Dobby. With a pop, Dobby arrived and took the gun and the ammo with him as he left. With another pop, Dobby reappeared, holding a box.
“For you, Great Master Harry Potter.” Taking the box, Harry thanked Dobby before spotting the ICW logo. Grinning, Harry headed inside to find Sirius and Remus; it was a box that meant it wouldn’t be a rejection letter, so Harry would have to prepare for the trials.
Sitting on the throne, Voldemort stared out over the gathered men. A quick check revealed that he had roughly ten men and two women in his inner circle who had avoided being caught during the last war. He had already struck fear into them by culling the weakest among their number. Catching a flash of silver out of the corner of his eye, he grimaced as he saw his replacement lower arm. Suddenly, the door opened, revealing that his man, Harlow, was entering the room. Straightening up, Voldemort stared as the man rushed forward and kneeled at the bottom of the stairs.
“Well?” Voldemort lightly played with his wand, making both Harlow and the others in the room nervous.
“I have found a tribe of ten and a tribe of fifteen trolls that will join our cause; I’ve sent envoys to the giants and have yet to hear back from the various packs. I also have envoys out with former loyalist bands, but considering that one of the envoy’s heads was returned to me, I doubt they will join our side.” Voldemort considered whether it was worth it to put Harlow under the curse just to keep the others on edge. Deciding it wasn’t worth it to lose one of his better underworld contacts, Voldemort waved the man back.
“Thankfully, before Macnair’s demise, he was able to gather information on the ward structure of Azakaban. Gibbon, I want you to take a team and begin work on the wards; I will be annoyed if it isn’t handled at an acceptable pace .” Letting a bit of anger flare on his face, Voldemort watched as Gibbon bowed before rushing to leave the room. With that, Voldemort waved and watched as the rest of his followers hurried to leave the room; he smirked as he saw fear on their faces. He would have kept smirking if he suddenly felt a dull ache from his arm as the silver hand twitched. Bringing his wand to the arm, he hissed.
“
Damn, Potter, I’ll have his head for him making me use this damned curse hand on myself.”