Chapter Text
Chapter 25
“I cannot believe you attacked a teacher.” Hermione stated for what had to be the tenth time.
Alex rolled his eyes. He really shouldn’t be surprised; Hermione always did start out with an unholy reverence to authority figures.
It had been two days since the potions incident and nothing had changed. Snape wasn’t punished nor had he apologised. It wasn’t that Alex had expected Dumbledore to do anything about his pet Deatheater but it was still disappointing. Still, Hedwig had been sent off last night when it was clear that Dumbledore wasn’t going to take any action; so hopefully today would see something happen.
“Technically, I only defended myself. He attacked first.” Alex replied. Again.
“But surely, he didn’t really try to read you mind, professor Dumbledore wouldn’t hire someone like that?
Alex was going to try and explain it all again but was interrupted by Lapis dropping her books on the table with a thump.
“Shhh!” Alex hissed at her. “We’ve already been given the glare by Pince.”
Alice put her books down more gently. “Don’t worry about Pince, we passed her yelling at the Weasley twins about defacing books, she’s not going to notice.”
Alex let out a relieved sigh while Lapis glared at Hermione. “Are you still trying to defend Snape?”
Hermione shrank a little into herself yet nodded, which caused Alex to softly kick Lapis under the table. The bookworm was poorly socialised and needed to be handled with care.
“Well, don’t. The greasy git tried to pressure us into staying away from the two of you to ‘maintain respectful interhouse boundaries.’” Lapis imitated Snapes slow drawl with a scowl. “There’s no way I’m letting a creep like that tell me who I can and can’t be friends with.” Her words, despite her chill tone, got Hermione to smile.
“You’re not going to have problems in Slytherin are you?” Alex asked.
Lapis gave a derisive snort. “Hardly, there’s been a few comments but problems within the house are sorted out in the duelling pit,” Lapis gave a vicious smile, “and the first session is on Friday.”
Alex relaxed. “Be sure to save us a memory.”
Hermione though was scandalised. “But that’s barbaric!”
Lapis shrugged. “It’s certainly an archaic tradition but it works out nicely for us. I’d be more worried about the more subtle attacks and powerplays but Slytherin seems to have lowed its standards somewhat. Still, Ali- Tracey and I never go anywhere without the other to watch our back.”
“Hermione,” Alex regained the outraged girl’s attention. “Snape truly attempted to read my mind and was rebuffed by my glasses, not only that but he started the lesson by insulting a dead war hero to the man’s orphaned child. Is that really the actions you would expect of a respectable teacher?”
Hermione looked like she was going to argue yet paused and released her breath with a sigh. “No, no it’s not.”
“And have I been anything other than respectful to any of the other professors?”
“No, you’ve been a model student. Professor Flitwick seemed delighted with you last class.”
Alex smiled. “That’s because I got the Lumos charm first try, that and the man was impressed with the rune cluster I made in class to replicate the Lumos.”
“I still can’t believe you’re so good runes.” Hermione grumbled, her hand unconsciously stoking the beginner’s Rune book she had added to her pile of books to check out.
“Professor Babbling said I’m a runic savant.” Alex admitted.
If anything, good had come from the whole Snape affair it was that he had gotten to meet Professor Babbling earlier than Halloween. The two had talked shop as Alex walked with her to her office where she had given him an impromptu test of ability by having him identify the purpose of various clusters, braids and shields. She had been ecstatic to find that runes came to him with unnatural ease and had already invited him to meet with her every few days to exchange ideas and for him to ask any questions he might have with his experiments. She had already impressed upon him the importance of safety and the dangers of Runic experimentation yet Alex had been a step ahead and shown off the various safety measures he was already implementing.
Additionally, they had worked together and improved the rune-protected glasses by adding a disillusionment cluster to the frame which rendered the eyewear invisible at the touch of a wand-tip. Babbling had also signed off on the design, adding her credentials to the work of a first year thus legitimised the quality of the work and allowing him to pass the design around without any possible blow-back.
“Speaking of which.” Alex pulled out a series of eyeglass cases and passed them to each of the girls.
“What’s this?” Alice asked, opening her case to reveal a pair of glasses with a silver frame. She looked up confusedly at Alex knowing that he knew that bother Lapis and herself were already protected.
“These are copies of my glasses, with plain glass lenses of course.” Alex said while Lapis and Hermione opened their cases to reveal a round lensed pair with tortoise shell frames for Lapis and slimmer square lensed pair with black frames for Hermione.
“But I don’t need glasses?” Hermione asked as she inspected the glasses in the light through the nearby window.
Alex rolled his eyes. “These aren’t for reading, though I’m sure we can add features to help with reading by candlelight later, no these have the protections against legilimency on them as well as a new extra feature.”
“Oh! That’s cleaver.” Lapis noticed the runic cluster on the frame then put on the lenses. “How do I look?”
Surprisingly the overly large round lenses suited her narrow face.
“Good.” Alex told her. Hermione and Alice nodded in agreement.
“And how about now?” Lapis tapped the side of the glasses with her wand causing them to shimmer out of sight.
“Still good.” Alex chuckled.
“They’re gone!” Hermione exclaimed.
Alice peered closely at her pair, noting the extra runes on the frames. “Are these… sight and a negative modifier, a sticking rune and… light?”
“It’s the disillusionment cluster Professor Babbling helped me with last night. They’ll make the glasses invisible.” Alex clarified.
“But who would want to read my mind?” Hermione asked completely baffled that someone would want to be insider her head.
“If Snape can’t get inside my head, he’ll try my friends.” Alex told her. “I’d be very grateful if you would wear the glasses for me.”
Hermione bit her lower lip between her teeth as she considered what to say. A small part of her thought they were being silly, that no teacher would ever try such an action. Yet a larger part of her was flattered that Harry wanted to protect her mind, that he considered her a friend. And beneath those two parts of her mind was an even larger, more often silenced part of her mind that pragmatically agreed with Harry. It was the part of her that knew that authority figures couldn’t always be trusted, that knew that bad people existed, and that was willing to do almost anything to protect herself and… tentatively, those she considered hers.
“Alright.” She agreed and put on the glasses and vanished them from sight with a tap of her wand. Once disillusioned, she could hardly even feel that the glasses where there at all, the disillusionment cluster including sticking and comfort runes to keep the glasses in place and help the wearer not even notice their presence.
“Thanks.” Alex said.
Hermione was about to reply when her stomach growled, interrupting her words and causing her to blush while the others giggled.
Alex made a show of checking his watch. “It’s about lunch time, let’s go eat.”
The group nodded and gathered their belongings before slinking out of the library without drawing attention from Madam Pince who was still muttering something fierce about the school’s identical pranksters. They passed the two red-heads a few corridors away from the library, the two quietly sorting the books they had no doubt snatched from the restricted section during their distraction of the library’s guardian.
Alex perked up as he noticed that one of the two was routinely checking on a old piece of parchment as they worked.
“I’ll meet you guys down in the hall. I think I forgot something in the library.” Alex told the girls then doubled back.
Once he was out of sight of the girls, any students and any of the portraits, Alex went both incorporeal and invisible then floated through the empty classrooms that lined the hall.
Going ghost at Hogwarts was different than going ghost anywhere else so far. Each time he passed through the stone walls felt like a tingle that flowed through his entire form as the sheer amount of magic within the stonework of the castle touched on him as he passe through. It didn’t feel bad or ominous in any way, yet it was a stark reminder that some magics would likely be able to affect him even while in ghost form.
Checking his own MMA HUD he snuck up behind the two terror twins.
“George! C’mere an look at this.” Presumable Fred whispered.
“Wazzit?” George stuffed the filched copy of Potions of Change and Chaos into his book bag.
“Someone’s here!” Fred announced in a hushed voice.
Before George could enquire further, Alex stuck his head through the wall into the hallway and just behind the twins. Two silent Stunning charms later and the two had collapsed against each other. While still invisible, Alex checked the corridor was still clear and then quickly yanked the two boys and their stolen books back through the wall and into the empty classroom.
Alex plucked the Marauder’s Map from Fred’s stiff fingers and inspected the original magical map of the school.
It really was a work of a magical art. The care and time that had put into the seemingly innocuous piece of parchment was simply astounding. The lines of the corridors and classrooms where carefully penned in and the neat yet spidery crawl of letters and names as marked dots scurried about on the page were enthralling.
Alex paused his admiration of the work of the original marauder’s when he quickly found his current location. ‘Fred Weasley’ and ‘George Weasley’ were clear but the dot next to them was a messy scribble of names piled on top of each other. Peering closely, Alex could make out a letter here and loop there and came to the conclusion that the map marked his name as each off his prior names printed one on top of the other. ‘Alexander Blake,’ ‘Grey Diamond,’ and ‘Harry Potter,’ each written in the same space. A quick glance at the route to the great hall found two others with similarly overlapping names: ‘Lapis Lazuli / Daphne Greengrass’ and ‘Alice Blake / Tracey Davis.’
I’m glad I got the map before they noticed the issue. Alex thought to himself as he regarded the chaos that could have happened if the twins had thought there was a secret to uncover.
He erased the map with a quiet “Mischief managed,” and then turned to consider the unconscious twins. They weren’t bad people when you got down to it. A little rough around the edges yet in the Runestone Path fic they were actually very good friends to Harry. It wouldn’t be fair to deprive them of the map completely, and who knew, maybe he could eventually bring the pair into his confidence at a later date.
Discission made, Alex pulled a pair of spare Pearls from his P-comm and got to work reprograming the crystal computers.
An hour later Fred groaned and stretched himself out on the uncomfortable stone floor. His eyes snapped open as he realised, he was not in a comfy bed but sprawled out in an empty classroom. Well, empty but for his equally unconscious brother.
“George! George! Wake up! We’ve been had!”
“Ge’off, five more minutes.” George tried to shake his brother off him.
“George! The f*ckers took the Merlin bedamned map!”
That seemed to pull George out of his slumber.
“What!?”
“The map’s gone!” Fred repeated.
George scrambled to his knees and started searching the floor and their small pile of possessions. “Are you sure? All our stuff is still here.”
“Of course, I’m sure.” Fred grumbled. “I was holding the bloody thing when they cursed us in the back.
“Then how did they sneak up on us?” Fred asked, obviously confused. That was the whole point in keeping a look out with the map that revealed the location of other people.
“I was watching the corridor so didn’t notice someone had somehow entered the classroom next to us.” Fred admitted.
“Who?!”
“I dunno.”
“How do you not know?! Their name would have been right there!”
Fred threw his hands up in the air in frustration. “I dunno! Their name was weird, it was all one big scribble!”
“Damnit!” George cursed then sighed defeatedly. Someone had really gotten the drop on them. He reached up to a nearby desk and hurled himself to his feet, the action causing something on the desktop to rattle. He glanced at the surface of the desk and there, sitting innocent as could be, were a pair of silver pocket watches each with an intricate moulding of a stag, a wolf, a dog and a crow on the closed covers.
“What’s this?” George asked as he picked up on the heavy timepieces.
“What’s what?” Fred asked and peered at the silver watch in his brother’s hands.
George pressed the button that opened up the watch revealing a clockface made of pearl with dark silver numerals around the edges and three clock hands of similarly dark metal.
“There’s writing.” Fred pointed to the inside of the cover were written in a neat hand were the words: ‘Swear the oath, brother.’
George frowned at the watch as something about the design on the front nagged at his memory, he knew he had seen a collection of similar animals drawn out somewhere… like the map! The memory of the decorative design around the title of the marauder’s map sprang out in his mind.
“I solemnly swear I am up to no good.” George said confidently to the watch.
“What you say tha-” Fred’s question was cut short as the pearl clockface glimmered and glowing writing drew itself in the air above the watch as if written by an invisible hand.
Greeting fellow pranksters and makers of mischief.
I thank you dearly for holding on to and taking care of my father’s map for me.
Miser’s Padfoot, Prong’s and Moony would be proud of your continued work at keeping the memory of the marauder’s alive within the halls of Hogwarts.
Unfortunately, I simply could not allow the map to remain in your hands any longer at this point in time.
As an expression of my sincere regret of depriving two inheritors of the Marauder’s spirit of such a useful tool, I present to you the Marauder’s Map mk.II
Each watch contains a copy of the original map within, only speak the password to reveal the map and either speak the second password to clear it or simply close the cover.
This map has additional features: saying ‘find me’ followed by an individual’s full name will cause the map to zero in on the target if they are within the boundaries of the map.
Saying ‘Who watches the watcher?’ while the watch is open will allow you to add or remove names from a list which will cause the watch to silently vibrate should the named individual approach within a set distance of the user. Again, closing the cover will take you out of this option.
Lastly, with the cover open, state: ‘Speak to me, Brother’ and you will be able to communicate directly with the other watch. Again, closing the lid will end this function.
I sincerely hope you are both able to continue your good work with these fine timepieces, and think that one day soon we may be able to speak in person.
With thanks,
Spook.
Son of Prongs and Dogson of Padfoot.
PS: the watches and their functions have a targeted Notice-me-not charm that will make other’s not pay attention to them but for the those who have touched the watches. Try not to let any Professor handle them, boys.
PPS: Wormtail has been struck from the annals of the Marauder’s. May the traitorous Rat suffer for all of eternity for his betrayal of his Brothers.
George turned to Fred who had already picked up the second watch from the table and opened it to find the same message within. “I’m not sure if I’m angry or impressed?”
“Let’s go with impressed. We can always be angry later if the message turns out to be fake.” Fred replied.
“A son of the marauders.” George mused. “Wonder who it could be.”
“Harry Potter.” Fred replied instantly.
“Why on earth would it be Potter?” George asked bewildered.
“Because he’s Harry ‘Flipping’ Potter, he cursed Snape on his first day here and wasn’t expelled or even punished. If that doesn’t scream Marauder then I don’t know what does.”
George nodded to that logic. “He also seems to know his way about; Ron was complaining that he and that bushy-haired girl seemed to know some of the secret passages.”
Fred had opened the map function of the watches and whistled as a three-dimensional map traced itself in the air above the clockface, complete with tagged individuals moving throughout the corridor.
Fred squinted at the map. “Secret passages like these?” He poked the glowing tracery and the almost dropped the watch as the map zoomed in on where he had touched and outlined the area in finer detail which only highlighted a secret passage that both knew was not listed on the original map.
“Damn, these are fancy.” George said as he brought up his own map and experimented zooming in and out with simple and intuitive flicks and pinches of his fingers. If either had been muggles and a dozen or so years in the future, they would have recognised the simple gestures as those used with modern touchscreen phones.
“So shall we confront him?” Fred asked.
“Nah, let’s just watch. He’ll talk to us when he’s ready.” George decided as Fred nodded along.
⦖⋄⦕
Alex caught up to the girls just as they were sitting down together at the Gryffindor table and quickly joined them, taking a seat next to the brainy, brunette. He smiled to himself as just before he dismissed the overlay map, he was using to watch the twins, he received a notification of new arrivals on the school grounds. Thing’s were going to get interesting.
“Oi! Wha’ do ‘ou slimy snakes think yer doin’? This ‘s the Gryffindor table.” Ron attempted to sneer at Alice and Lapis but it was ruined by the flecks for roast beef sandwiches that had spluttered out of his mouth.
Alice, Hermione and Lapis each recoiled at the complete lack of table manners.
“They’re with me, Ron. We’re friends.” Alex told the obnoxious red-head.
“What do you mean by friends?!” Ron puffed up a shade of rude.
“Well, friends are when two or more people find companionship and enjoyment in the company of each other.” Lapis snarked.
Ron turned an even deeper shade of Gryffindor’s primary colour.
“I know what friends are! I mean, what are you doing being friends with Slytherins like them.”
“Honestly Ron, house divides do not mean that we cannot maintain interhouse friendships.” Hermione said in her most pompous of voices. “In fact, the school handbook encourages interhouse cooperation and as such students are encouraged to sit together during meals, only being required to sit at their own tables during feasts.”
Alex didn’t know if that was true or not because he hadn’t actually read the student handbook… in fact, he wasn’t sure it was still given out at all. The third day at Hogwarts and somehow Hermione had ferreted one out of somewhere and read and memorised the thing. Or at least that’s what he’ll choose to believe and back the bookworm to the hilt if she was just pulling it out her ass.
Ron was about to say more before he was interrupted by the dulcet tones of a dickhe*d.
“Miss Davis, Miss Greengrass, just what are you doing? Return to the Slytherin table at once.” Severus Snape had slunk down from the professor’s table.
A quick glance had confirmed that McGonagall was not currently in the great hall but was likely greeting the incoming guests at the gate, and that Dumbledore was carefully watching with his damned twinkling eyes. That said the other professors present were giving Snape the stink eye so it was likely they didn’t agree with his actions.
“Whatever for, professor?” Lapis asked the greasy bat in her most even toned voice.
“Students are to sit at their assigned tables, Miss Greengrass.” Snape snapped. It was fun watching him struggled not to take points from the Slytherin girl, but the action would only have reduced his own house.
“As Miss Granger was just telling young Mister Weasley here, according to the student handbook; students are encouraged to mingle during meals with the exception of feasts.” Butter would not melt in her mouth.
Snape looked like he was having a minor aneurism, so it seemed the best thing Alex could do would be to keep pushing.
“I’m not sure what the problem is, professor.” Alex held back the desire to spit at referring to Snape with the title. “Why, didn’t you, yourself, maintain a Gryffindor-Slytherin friendship with my mother? You know, before you ruined the one good thing you had going for you in your life.”
Taunting Snape would never not be fun, especially since his face could shift between so many interesting colours and everyone was watching him to see how he would react. Which meant that Alex could use his metamorphmagus abilities to shift his eye colour from green to brown while staring at the man, heightening his resemblance to his father.
“POTTER!” Snape snarled, “How, you? How DARE you!”
Veins were bulging on the poor man’s neck and his eyes were bloodshot and wide with fury. So, it was all the more satisfying that this was the moment that the doors to the great hall were thrown open and in strode two wizards and a witch in deep red robes followed by a terse faced Professor McGonagall.
“Severus Snape! You are under arrest for suspected use of the mind arts on a minor without consent and attempted assault on a minor.” The broader of the two wizards proclaimed arrogantly much to the apparent exasperation of the others; a taller, dark-skinned male who seemed to take a fortifying breath while certainly not rolling his eyes and matronly older woman with grey hair who pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration.
“Amelia, may I ask as to what you are doing here?” Dumbledore had scurried down from the head table as quick as he knobbly old legs could carry him.
Dumbledore’s appearance broke the tense atmosphere that had been spreading around Snape at the auror’s words. A shift in the man’s shoulders, in the way he had been holding himself, let the possibility of curses suddenly flying lessen.
Still, the elder woman’s brows furrowed. “That’s Madam Bones, Headmaster Dumbledore. We have received evidence that your potion’s professor did attempt an illegal legillimens attack on a student as well as a following attempted assault.” Her sharp grey eyes turned on the colourful, older wizard. “We were also told that you were informed of the incident but choose not to contact the aurors.”
That seemed to trigger Snape’s ire again. “Whatever you have been told is lie. Likely, but ill-bred miscreants that should know to respect their betters.” Though his words were to Madam Bones, his eyes drilled into Alex who was still seated nearby.
“Ame- Madam Bones. I assure you that the incident was looked into and rightfully dismissed, I saw no need to bother the busy aurors with needless accusations.”
“That is not your call to make.” Bones glared at the man.
Dumbledore still maintained his jovial smile even under the woman’s impressive glare. “Perhaps we could take this somewhere more private? My office would be appropriate.”
Madam Bones acquiesced to the headmaster’s suggestion and they all left the hall amid the whispering of the students. McGonagall followed behind the pair and the two other aurors took positions to corral Snape into joining them despite the man following after the headmaster with a dramatic flair of his robes.
Alex made sure to shift his eyes back to their normal green hue before turning back to the others. “Well… that happened.”
Speculations of Snapes possible arrest and hopeful, though unlikely, execution ran rampant through the school during the following afternoon classes. The droning recitation of the History of Magic by Professor Binns was lost under the quiet murmur of Alex’s classmates, much to Hermione’s chagrin. The class’s unrest stilled momentarily when Professor McGonagall interrupted Professor Binns’ lecture to pull Alex out of class.
“Mr Potter, it is a pleasure to meet you in person.” The older, yet still attractive, woman said when Alex entered the room off the main entry hall, which appeared to be tailored to private meetings with a round table surrounded by four chairs being the centrepiece of the room. “I’m Amelia Bones; Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.”
“It’s great to meet you, Ma’am.” Alex nodded his head respectfully and took a seat across from her. He might have both introduced himself as Heir Potter and acknowledged her position as Regent Bones but she had defined their roles in this meeting by her own introduction.
“I was quite surprised when I received your owl detailing the confrontation you had with Mr. Snape, along with a vialed memory. I am also quite interested in these glasses you have described.”
Alex smiled. “I’m quite proud of them myself and have recently started talking with Professor Babbling about improvements and streamlining creation for possible sale.”
Amelia and McGonagall both looked impressed by his statement given their near identical arched eyebrows.
“I will likely submit a request for a set for the Department when you start producing. Legilimens aren’t altogether common but the ability to shield the mind of untrained aurors would be prudent.”
“I’ll be sure to include a discount for the Auror Department, your lot are often underappreciated in what they do and I’ve heard you’re quite criminally underfunded.”
Amelia grimaced at his words. “I’ll happily accept any discount for the force. Though, I must apologise Mr. Potter, as my department was not able to do ‘it’s fine work’ to standard today.”
“Please, call me Harry.” Alex smiled then gave a considering frown. “I’m guessing by that, that you mean that Snape wont being seeing the inside of a cell any time soon?”
“That would be correct, Harry.” Amelia said his name with a slight smile. “Despite your account and provided memory we were unable to fully prosecute Snape.”
“Why not?”
“The evidence you provided would never have been enough for a conviction but it would have been enough to bring the man in for questioning and, even with his supposed support from Dumbledore, his past associations and blood-status,” Amelia said the term with a slight huff, “would have ensured the use of veritaserum during questioning. Unfortunately, Headmaster Dumbledore was able to shut down any investigation by exercising his right to dismiss the complaint on your behalf as your magical guardian.”
“Blasted old codger.” McGonagall grumbled from where she had stood by the door as a chaperone of the meeting.
Alex blinked. “Wait- What?”
“As your magical guardian, Headmaster Dumbledore has the right to grant or deny permissions of your behalf. Though not in as many words, he made it clear that he was revoking your complaint to the Aurors as well as implying that nothing illegal could take place as he could retroactively provide permission on your behalf for any attempted mind-reading.” Amelia seemed incised at the thought of a guardian acting as such.
“As I mentioned in a meeting with the Headmaster and Professor McGonagall the other day, I’ve never seen so much as a whisker of the man until I arrived for the opening feast on September first, how on earth did he become my magical guardian and how do I remove him from the role?”
“I’m sorry, Harry. I’m not altogether sure if he can be removed or if it’s the wisest course to do so anyway.” Amelia said with a hint of tired resignation.
“Whyever not?” Alex huffed.
“Magical Guardians’ have a lot of protections legally so long as they cannot be conclusively proven to be actively harming their charge.” Amelia explained. “And before you say anything, neglect or inaction does not necessarily qualify. So long as he ensured that you had a roof over your head, access to a magical education and were not directly injured by their actions, then for all intents and purposes, a guardian is fulfilling their duties.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Alex exclaimed.
“It’s a holdover from a period of time where children were more so seen as property than individuals in their own rights and traditionally the role was one taken up as a last request of the parents of the child involved. Despite the Headmaster appointing himself under his authority as the Chief Warlock, the expectation is to respect the actions of a Magical Guardian as though those were the wishes of the parents and this society is one which places a lot of emphasis on the rights of the parent to determine how they would raise their own children, the lack of change in the current marriage contract laws reflect this. There are measures you could take to have his actions reviewed by the Wizengamot but even if they were to support your request of a change in Magical Guardian, they would insist on appointing one themselves; and current politics as they are, there would be no guarantee who would be appointed in the Headmaster’s stead.”
Left unsaid was that the was a good likelihood that someone like Malfoy would be able to affect the appointment to either himself or someone else of the Dark. Which would likely see Alex married off to a loyal daughter of the traditionalists and once she was with child, either willingly or not, his assists redistributed and his life forfeit.
Alex let out a deep sigh. “I understand.”
“Still, do not hesitate to call on me in the future. Though, Dumbledore has stymied us this instance he cannot protect Snape from every action he might make.” Amelia told him.
“Not that he should have much opertunity.” McGonagall piped in. “He has been reprimanded within the school, you do not have to attend any classes or detentions with the man and his point deductions will be reviewed by myself. I will soon have a potion’s tutor for you, I am simply waiting on her reply.”
“Thank you, professor.” Alex smiled warmly at the old Scott. This was a head of Gryffindor he could honestly respect.
⦖⋄⦕
The rest of the first week of classes passed relatively quickly. Alex had now attended each of the available classes and found them all to be fun and interesting except of course for History of Magic. Don’t get him wrong; the subject matter was fascinating, if perhaps censored, but the delivery was dreadful. So far though, he would have to say that his favourite class was charms. The spells were useful and Flitwick was one of those teachers that everyone’s had at some point that just make classwork fun. The only class Alex hadn’t attended, bar that one eventful class on the first day was Potions. McGonagall still hadn’t introduced him to his new potions tutor yet the fact that he was excused from potion’s class had gotten him quite a few looks of envy.
Still, classes were not all that Alex was up to in this time. While not working on the classwork or homework or exploring related subjects with Hermione in the library, Alex was still working away on personal projects. Runes was coming along nicely, especially with his informal meetings with Babbling were giving him a great excuse to work ahead in the field. They had finalised their new version of the commercially available reflect-lenses by adding a disillusionment rune cluster and a comfort rune braid along the nose pads and the bridges. When activated it was easy to forget they were being worn at all.
Alex had already ensured all the girls had each received a pair, though Alice, Lapis and Lyn had already fused with a proper pair of InSpecs for extra protection. He had also handed out a pair to Neville and Susan Bones; the latter of which, while surprised, had been informed of the glasses from her aunt, Amelia Bones. Babbling had provided him the paperwork to trademark the designs and rune schemes and with Babbling acting a guarantor, he had gotten in contact with a series of Owl Order Rune workshops and had a contract formed whereby they would engrave his runes on muggle produced glasses with simple glass lenses for a nominal fee then mail out the glasses for delivery. The first batch had gone to Amelia Bones to outfit her aurors at a substantial discount.
“Good morning, Hermione.” Alex smiled as the bushy haired girl descended the stairs from the girl’s dormitory. “And Happy Birthday.”
Hermione’s face lit up at Alex’s words and she nearly skipped down the last few steps to give him a hug.
It was strange to think about but Hermione was a very tactile young girl who was almost as touch starved as cannon Harry might have been. Obviously not to the same degree as Alex had not picked up any indication that her parents were neglectful or abusive or anything. But maybe they were a bit too British in that overt displays of affection weren’t as common as some other cultures. No, it was likely that her significant lack of friends throughout her childhood had contributed most to her need for physical reassurance.
Obviously, the Hermione in the books and in Runestone Path had held back her overly familiar physical contact as she, perhaps only subconsciously at first, picked up on how uncomfortable it made Harry. With Alex however, she was able to initiate hugs freely and was equally reciprocated.
“You remembered.” Hermione mumbled into his shoulder.
“Of course, I did.” Alex replied. “And I have presents!”
Hermione pulled herself back with a smile and Alex studiously ignored her quickly wiping away the small moisture of her eyes.
“You didn’t need to get me anything.” She told him as he pulled down on to a nearby couch where a large box wrapped in periwinkle wrapping paper with small white flowers and tied with a solid periwinkle silk ribbon was waiting for her. If you don’t use your inside knowledge to pick out the right colours of something then you’re not doing it right.
“Happy Birthday, Hermione.” Alex repeated as he presented her the box.
Hermione took the package and admired it for a moment before carefully undoing the bow and removing the top of the box. Her soft exclamation of appreciation let Alex know that she liked what she found within.
“It’s gorgeous.” Hermione breathed and pulled out the leather messenger bag.
The bag was retro style messenger bag about the size to fit a modern laptop. It was a rich dark leather that had been dyed a deep maroon which practically glowed with a red lustre where the light reflected of the leather grain. Contrasting against the leather were the initials HJG embossed in gold on the front of the front flap, the buckle holding the flap closed was also a bright gold that matched with the various rivets and zips that ensured the bag was sturdy and strong. In addition to the zippered pocked along the back, the bag contained multiple compartments within for various papers, books and knick-knacks, including a secured and sealed pocket for jars of ink that would insure nothing else was damaged should the ink spill. The interior was also lined with a periwinkle suede that perhaps didn’t quite match the Gryffindor aesthetic but lighted the interior and seemed to meet with Hermione’s approval.
“It’s enchanted with quite a few spells and some rune’s that I added myself.” Alex told her as she inspected the various pockets and compartments. She ran her fingers over where a runic cluster was burnt into the leather just within the upper edge of the bags opening.
“That’s Uruz and Ehwaz but I don’t recognise the rest.” Hermione muttered.
I arched an eyebrow at her. “Someone’s been studying runes?”
Hermione’s cheeks blushed softly red. “Well, you seemed to be very interested in them so I made sure to read some of the primer material for the Ancient runes class.”
Alex smirked. “You’re right. Uruz for strength and Ehwaz for travel are two of the runes that make up what is known as the traveller’s cluster. There’s also Fehu for abundance and then the rest of the runes are modifying runes that don’t really have a meaning in as much as they modify and direct the meaning of the others. Anyway, it’s a mix of material strengthening, undetectable expansion, and feather-light runes that work in conjunction with the charms to enhance their effects and prevent the charms fading. You should be able to fit the entire syllabus of books from first to seventh year in there.”
What Alex hadn’t mentioned, at least not yet, was that the bag was also ecto-enchanted with a concept of reliability, security and loyalty. The ecto-enchantment would see the bag resisting anyone no authorised from accessing the content by moving the interior around so that people couldn’t reach them. The bag would also stick to Hermione’s side and would follow her surreptitiously if she accidently left it behind. As an ecto-enchant, the protections should be completely undetectable to any magical examining the bag.
Security spells did exist but the school rules prevented them being applied on personal bags. Their dorm trunks were allowed to be enchanted with various security measures but bookbags could not have anything overly dangerous applied on them to prevent injury to professors or students. Which did make sense. A student’s trunk wasn’t going to be accidently left anywhere where another might accidently stumble upon them and professors might have a legitimate reason to search a student’s possessions if they were walking around with them. Alex didn’t want to give Snape any reason to take Hermione’s gift from her so had used alternate methods of protection.
Lastly, the bag contained a small diamond gemstone hidden within the lining. The Gemtech device would deploy an advanced energy shield around the holder of the bag should its limited intelligence pick up a threat to the owner. The shield wasn’t perfect but Alex had tested it against multiple spells and various other attacks. It did best against physical attacks but did fairly well against almost all the spells that Alex threw at it.
It didn’t outright stop any spell more powerful than a second-year prank curse like the slug-vomiting curse that Ron hit himself with in second year, but it did drastically reduce the effect. Cutting curses that would slice through a limb would instead leave a nasty cut, bone breakers would create fractures rather than breaks and dangerous curses like the blood boiling curse would cause a dangerous fever that would still allow time for the counter-curse to be applied or treated with other charms. It would likely not stop an unforgivable though Alex hadn’t been able to test how much, if any, it would dampen the curse seeing as he had not been able to perform the curses yet. They required a mindset that he was having difficulty achieving. Hopefully, Alex would be able to improve the tech in the future as he familiarised himself with his Magitech perk and the theory behind how various spells worked.
“Thank you, Harry!” Hermione once again threw her arms around Alex.
“You’re welcome, Hermione.” Alex returned the hug warmly. “Though we should get to breakfast, I’m sure Daphne and Tracey want to wish you a happy birthday too.”
The girls did want to wish Hermione a happy birthday yet could only give her a quick hug and congratulations during the loud bustle of the morning meal. It wasn’t until Alex pulled Hermione out onto the grounds rather than toward the great for lunch that the other two girls were able to give Hermione their gifts.
Alex had led them all to the shore of the lake and when Hermione wasn’t looking in his direction had conjured a picnic basket (using his Picnic Basket Perk) filled with various easy to eat foods and a large chocolate cake. He struggled to keep a straight face when Hermione questioned him on where it had come from and he had simply responded “Magic.” Unfortunately, she hadn’t yet familiarised herself with Gamps Laws of transfiguration and had simply accepted the answer. A moment of shock and awe wasted. What was the point of breaking known laws of magic if people didn’t even realise?
During the picnic, Lapis gave Hermione a collection of first-year text books from the various other magical schools. It said something that she truly had come to understand the bookworm as Hermione had been ecstatic at the gift and quickly added them to her new book bag.
“I’ll be able to compare the difference between the various magical education institutions. There’s likely to be unique and subtle methods of approach that will be truly fascinating to compare” Hermione gushed and hugged Lapis.
Alice, the cheating cheater, had presented Hermione with a smaller picnic basket of her own that she had seemingly pulled from under her skirt. A unique application of the undetectable expansion charm or maybe just a use of their Shadow Mage abilities. Hermione had curiously looked into the basket only to squeal, actually squeal, in joy.
“HE’S SO CUTE!” She exclaimed while holding up a squashed-face orange kitten who regarded her back with grumpy, superiority. As cats are wont to do.
Alex tipped his metaphorical hat at the young maid skeleton turned magical schoolgirl. If you’re not using your inside knowledge for birthday gifts then you’re not doing it right.
⦖⋄⦕
Over a month passed quickly and Alex found himself actually enjoying the experience of being at school again. It certainly helped that Hogwarts seemed to encourage self-sufficiency to a large degree. There were large periods of time where they were left to their own devices to either explore, study or hang out with their peers.
Given his already advanced abilities with magic and his prowess with the mental arts; Alex was able to quickly complete any homework he received and even help his fellow students. It wasn’t uncommon to find Daphne, Hermione, Tracey and himself together competing homework or studying ahead in the library. Oftentimes, various other students would join them: Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones and Neville Longbottom being the most common but others would occasionally seek them out for help with their studies.
This meant that Alex had plenty of time to keep doing his own research and experimenting with magic and his various skills and perks. He had already broken down the arithmancy of the protean charm and was working on applying it to Gemtech communication technology. He suspected it caused some sort of quantum entanglement and if he was right, might be able to produce a communication device that would relay information instantly between two points regardless of the distance, possibly even across dimensions as well.
He was also steadily producing a new series of smaller Spectre’s that made use of undetectable expansion charms to fit in more tech and scanners. These new Spectres, the size of a baseball, were being released into the halls of Hogwarts and were acting as his eyes around the school giving him real time monitoring of persons of interest such as Dumbledore, Quirrellmort and Snape. The Spectres were truly amazing in how undetectable they were as so far no one had noticed they were being constantly observed. Soon, nothing would happen within the school that Alex was unaware off, from the muttering of the potions professor to two sixth years having vigorous sex within one of the abandoned classrooms. Alex had to use a Spectre knocking over a suit of armour to divert Filch away from discovering the pair, never let it be said that he never helped a brother out.
Another task of the Spectres was information gathering as each night a set of Spectre’s scanned various books within the forbidden section of the library and added their content to Alex’s ever grown library of knowledge. Not every book was able to be completely downloaded due to various enchantments and curses on the texts preventing the observation but Alex was content to flag their location for later collection in person.
Alex wasn’t the only one working on his own projects. Lapis and Alice were happily doing their own research. Lapis was delving deeply into potions and attempting to either expand or simplify the various reactions tables of ingredients to mixed effect. Potions were a strange mixture of chemistry and symbology that seemed to obtusely defy categorisation yet Lapis claimed she was making progress, if slowly.
Alice didn’t seem to be utilising the resources of the school for her study but was instead testing the limits of some of the perks they had picked up that had less than stella descriptions. So far, her work on the Shadow Mage abilities had shown that there was more to the skill than simply traveling through shadow or sympathising with creature of the Dark. No, Alice had already shown off various other skills such as shadow storage, negative emotion manipulation and a strange ability to animate her shadow though that didn’t seem to actually do anything yet.
The three at Hogwarts weren’t the only ones putting their time to good use. Lyn seemed to be up to something as she had occasionally called to ask various questions specifically about squibs or Hedge Mages as Alex preferred to call them. He had to assure her that, yes, all hedge mages had an innate ability for magic but not all of them knew how to use it. Hedge magic was much more subtle than the magic used in the wizarding world and required ritual, repetition and symbolism to softly affect the world around them. He wasn’t sure what she was up to but his did know she was updating the advanced scanners on the Gemtech ships with modern medical equipment they had downloaded the schematics for from their Chronical jump. How she made the time while either spending time with Luna or suffering under the thumb of Molly Weasley, Alex didn’t know but he expected that she was making copious use of ghost duplicates.
Alex really shouldn’t be spending so much time lost in thought as today was an important one. It was currently Halloween and today was the day that Hermione would have been attacked by the released Mountain Troll. Given that it was currently the Halloween feast and Hermione was sitting next to him enjoying the meal, it was unlikely that she would be so targeted this time.
Her close friendship with Alex and the girls meant that she was much less affected by Ron’s words following charms class and while upset she didn’t run off on in tears. Alex had been able to pull her aside and comfort the emotionally fragile girl and she quickly recovered as she was reminded that she actually did have friends. If Ron had soon after fallen down half a flight of stairs and broken his arm resulting in being confined to the infirmary and missing the Halloween feast… well, no would be able to prove it was Alex.
Alex paused in taking a bite of roast pork as the Spectre watching Quirrellmort sent a video stream to his InSpects. While his peers chatted and ate around him, he watched as the defence teacher led a Mountain Troll through one of the secret tunnels that didn’t appear on the Marauder’s map. Bringing up his own version of the MMA he compared the tunnels position. While his father and his friends had mapped about ninety percent of the school, they had missed some tunnels, rooms and passages. In this case it really wasn’t their fault as this tunnel was noted on the MMA to be only accessible when the headmaster lowers a series of wards against large magical beasts. It must have been used to allow entry for both Fluffy and the Troll being used to protect the stone and while lowering wards with the correct permissions was usually quick and easy, bringing them back up took time and so the passage was still accessible even now.
Quirrellmort lead the troll upwards to the fourth floor before send a series of unknown spells down the hallway that had the troll sniffing at the air and then wandering off of its own accords. Alex could only shake his head in wonder; what was the point of this whole thing? If Voldemort really wanted a diversion during which to make a proper attempt at the stone, then releasing the Basilisk from the chamber of Secrets into the Great Hall would have been both easier and more likely to be successful. Perhaps Voldy was unable to use parseltongue with this particular method of possession, or perhaps he didn’t want to risk alienating his own followers by putting their spawn in danger?
Alex’s musing was interrupted as Quirrellmort threw open the large doors and half-stumbled, half ran into the hall. “Troll! Troll in the dungeons. Just thought you ‘ought to know.”
If you weren’t watching for it, you might have actually believed the man had fainted. But the way his legs buckled and he more slumped to the hard flagstones to prevent injury gave away the lie. Actually, fainting from a standing position was dangerous and likely to result in head trauma from the fall as the body doesn’t take action to lessen the impact.
“QUIET!” Dumbledore’s enhanced voiced cut through the growing panic of the students. “Prefects are to escort the students to their common rooms. Professors, with me as we search for the troll.”
Which really had to be a dick move to the Slytherins and the Hufflepuffs as both their commons were in the dungeons. Not that were in any danger as Alex had kept a Spectre following the troll and it was still meandering the fourth floor near the infirmary. Both Gryffindor and Ravenclaw would be passing the floor but so long as their kept to the most expedient route to their respective commons then they should give it a wide berth, actually skipping the floor entirely in the case of the Ravenclaws and the school’s non-Euclidean geometry.
“This way, all together now, don’t tarry.” Percy herded the wild cats that were a collection of Gryffindors through the Hallways.
“How one earth did a troll get into the school?” Hermione asked, more to herself than me as I was quite distracted keeping track of the beast through the Spectres.
I had the positions of everyone of importance noted. Dumbledore and the head of houses were searching the dungeons, Babbling was inspecting some of the wardstone relays for damage or sabotage, Quirrell and Snape were both heading to the third floor and the troll was meandering on the west-side of the fourth floor. The Ravens had already passed the fourth floor yet now had to walk the entire length of the fifth floor to get to their tower. The Puffs and the Snakes were actually together while slowly moving through the upper levels of the dungeons, safety in numbers perhaps as their prefects seemed to be coordinating their movements. We, the Gryffs, were on the main stairs and just approaching the fourth floor now, in just a few moments the lot of us would be passed the floor and the danger and then just a short walk to the Fat Lady portrait. So, obviously, that’s when it all went to sh*t.
“ARGGHHH! WHAT THE f*ck IS THAT!?” A frightened scream cut through the quite murmuring of the group of students.
“Ron?” Percy stopped causing the following group to have to suddenly stumble to halt on the stairs.
Alex quickly pulled up the MMA, he had been watching the spectres not the map and he did not have one following Ron of all people. The dot indicating Ron’s position was backing away from the dot labelling the troll. The Spectre following the troll shifted around to get a clear image of Ron slowly moving backwards, his wand outstretched and pointed at the mountain of muscle that was the troll. From what he could tell, Ron had to have been heading towards the stairs from the infirmary only to turn a corner and almost stumble into the troll. The Spectre had been following behind the beast like a third person view and the creature’s bulk had blocked it’s view of the approaching firstie.
Alex could only watch as the troll lunged at Ron with its club causing the redhead to duck and roll out of the way and, in a surprising fluid move, roll back to his feet and dash away from the troll which lumbered after him. Ron was fast but the troll’s legs were much longer and so, despite the awkwardness of the creature’s size within the hallway, it was gaining on the boy… the boy who was running towards the stairs… the stairs they were all still standing on… f*ck.
