Harry Potter and the Artificer Legacy Chapter 12 (Patreon)

Hey friends and fans! Kairomaru is bringing you another chapter of Harry Potter and the Artificer Legacy! Someone has been interrupting Harry’s mail! Well a certain owl and new House Elf may have something to say about that!

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So without further delay, please enjoy.

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Chapter 12 – A Warning of Danger

A loud crash just after breakfast alerted Harry and Sirius that something was going on at Wood End Cottage. Both wizards charged into the kitchen to see Hedwig screeching and clawing at an unfamiliar Elf while Tayla wrestled letters from the other Elf’s grip.

“What the bloody hell is going on?!” Sirius demanded loudly making both Elves freeze up while Hedwig flew over to Harry.

“Master, Tayla found this Elf trying to take Young Master Harry’s letters from Hedwig!” Tayla accused as she handed the three letters over to Harry. Looking them over Harry saw they were from his study buddies.

“Have you been taking all of my mail from my friends?” Harry asked the unknown Elf with a grimace.

“Dobby had to! Harry Potter must not return to Hogwarts this year!” The now named Dobby pleaded while wringing his hands.

“Who has ordered this?” Sirius demanded of the Elf.

“Nobody, Dobby is not supposed to be being here, sir.” Dobby nervously twisted his dirty pillowcase.

“What danger are you talking about?” Harry asked Dobby.

“Dobby cannot say, Great Harry Potter, sir.” Dobby replied twisting his large ears. “But horrible things are going to happen at Hogwarts this year. Dobby thought that if Harry Potter only received letters from people outside of Hogwarts he wouldn’t want to go back.”

“Dobby, I have to return to Hogwarts, I’m a student there.” Harry tried to console the Elf with a gentle tone.

“But Great Harry Potter sir mustn’t put himself in danger!” Dobby cried out fearfully.

“Thanks to your warning, Dobby, we’ll be able to inform the people that can prevent these bad things.” Sirius reassured the distraught Elf.

“Dobby has helped protect the Great Harry Potter?” Dobby asked his large eyes widening.

“You warned me ahead of time Dobby, so now I’ll have people that will look out for me and do everything they can to prevent these bad things.” Harry nodded with a smile to the trembling Elf.

“Oh Great Harry Potter sir is too kind to Dobby!” Dobby wailed as large tears of happiness ran down the Elf’s face. “Harry Potter is truly a Great Wizard!”

“Thank you for warning me Dobby, I truly appreciate it.” Harry thanked the crying Elf.

“Of course, Harry Potter sir!” Dobby nodded vigorously his large ears flapping. “Dobby must be going before he is missed. Please be safe Great Harry Potter sir.” With that and a pop Dobby disappeared from Wood End Cottage.

“Well this is bad news.” Harry sighed and Sirius had a frown across his face.

“I’ll Floo Dumbledore and tell him about this.” Sirius nodded as he headed towards the living room. “With any luck this forewarning will let Dumbledore put a stop to whatever these ‘bad things’ are before they start.”

“We can only hope.” Harry sighed as he hoped his school year wouldn’t be disrupted by whatever Dobby had tried to warn them about. But for now he had letters from his friends to read and respond to. Hopefully once he explained the situation his study buddies wouldn’t be cross with him.

-Diagon Alley ~ Near the End of August-

“We should have done the shopping earlier.” Harry grumbled as he and Sirius made their way through the crowded Alley.

“It’s not so bad Harry.” Sirius grinned catching all the eyes turning to look at his Godson.

“Speak for yourself, Sirius.” Harry grumbled feeling the crowd staring at him. “If Miss Reed hadn’t taken pity on you and agreed to a date last week we could have gotten this done then.”

“I just wanted to make sure she enjoyed herself!” Sirius defended his multi-day planning of his first date since Eighty One. “It worked too!”

“Yet you still refuse to admit that you’re doing exactly what I said you would if she showed any interest.” Harry shook his head with an exaggerated sigh.

“I am not following her like a puppy!” Sirius harrumphed with his arms crossed.

“You are, completely and totally.” Harry disagreed with a chuckle. “But she’s a wonderful woman so try to be a gentleman.”

“She is wonderful.” Sirius nodded his head. “Truly a beacon of kindness and care.”

“Explains why she’s giving you a chance, woman’s a saint.” Harry chortled while Sirius grumbled about him spending too much time with Andy and Dora.

“I just need my textbooks and we’ll be done.” Harry mentioned looking over his school list. “Why do I have to get one of every ‘Gilderoy Lockhart’ book? Is the teacher some rabid fan of the man?”

“Who knows?” Sirius shrugged as they walked towards Flourish and Blott’s. “Unfortunately it looks like today was the wrong day.” Looking up Harry was greeted by a long line outside of the bookstore and a large banner proclaiming that Gilderoy Lockhart would be signing copies of his new book ‘Magical Me’ today.

“Ugh…maybe I’ll be able to slip through the store unnoticed at least?” Harry asked with little hope.

“If anyone tries anything they’ll be dealing with me.” Sirius promised his hand patting his wrist. Harry knew that was where Sirius kept his wand holster and couldn’t help the small smile that formed on his face. It was nice to have someone looking out for him. The duo made their way through the crowd with little fanfare after assuring the clerk that they weren’t there for the book signing. Harry was able to collect his textbooks without much trouble, a few people greeted him a bit too enthusiastically and Sirius interjected himself to end the encounter when it happened. Making their way up to the counter Harry caught the attention of the ‘man of the hour’. Lockhart made his way over to Harry and actually reached out for him. Harry was already stepping back from the man when Sirius’ hand grabbed onto Lockhart’s wrist.

“Thanks Sirius.” Harry whispered getting a nod from his Godfather.

“Something I can help you with?” Sirius asked Lockhart with a glare and the blonde man retracted his arm.

“Just thought Harry would want to get on the front page of the Prophet with me.” Lockhart spoke up with his ‘famous’ smile.

“He doesn’t.” Sirius stated flatly. The flash of a large Wizarding Camera going off in their direction indicated that Harry would probably be on the front page tomorrow regardless. Lockhart quickly went back to the middle of the crowd and made the announcement that he would be the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts this year.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Harry grimaced as the blonde man posed like a peacock for the cameras after his announcement. A bit of mana to his glasses and Harry got a reading on his soon-to-be Professor. ‘What? Are you kidding me? 2,158? That’s it?’ He thought to himself at the low reading for an adult wizard. “He had to be the only one that applied. No way Dumbledore would hire him if he had ANY other options.” Harry muttered making Sirius chuckle.

“Maybe he’s the ‘terrible thing’ happening this year?” Sirius joked as he and Harry walked up to the counter and started getting the textbooks purchased.

“I wish that was the extent of it. But I somehow doubt it.” Harry sighed as Sirius paid for the books. Just as they were turning to leave a fight broke out amongst two of the customers in the shop. From the distinct hair colors it was easy for Sirius to tell who the fighters were. As they were close Sirius went to help separate his red-haired acquaintance from the Death Eater he was punching. Though not before giving some encouragement, of course.

“Hit him harder, Arthur!” Sirius crowed happily watching Arthur Weasley punch Lucius Malfoy while the two men tussled on the ground.

“Sirius?” Molly Weasley questioned before raising her voice. “Don’t encourage him! Stop this!”

“Come on you two, break it up!” Sirius hollered as he pulled Arthur off of Lucius. “Good punches there, Arthur.” He whispered to the man with a grin as the Malfoy Patriarch was standing from the floor.

“Black.” Lucius greeted stiffly.

“Not very polite of you Lucius, you forgot to address me with my title.” Sirius replied regally, though the undercurrent of amusement in his voice was impossible to miss.

“Lord Black.” Lucius greeted a second time his face carefully controlled but his eyes burning with rage.

“How are you today, Malfoy?” Sirius questioned as Molly fussed over Arthur.

“Fine thank you, come along Draco.” Lucius answered brusquely as he ushered his son out of the bookstore.

“Still a wanker.” Sirius chortled to himself seeing the man leave. “How’ve you been Arthur?” He greeted his acquaintance making the older redhead smile and shake his hand.

“Doing well Sirius; heard you’ve been healing. Molly and I were so pleased to hear about your recovery.” Arthur smiled even as a small bruise was forming on his jaw.

“Molly, how’re you? The kids doing well?” Sirius asked and the Matriarch of the Weasley Family smiled and confirmed that she and the kids were doing well. Sirius listened with a grin as Molly told him about her children. Bill and Charlie had graduated Hogwarts while he’d been in a coma so it was interesting to hear about what the two kids had grown up to become.

“Wicked, didn’t think we’d get to meet you here Harry.” Ron Weasley commented as he and the twins stood before Harry. The little red-haired girl next to them must have been their sister.

“Was honestly hoping to not have a spectacle made of just shopping for my school things, should have known better I suppose.” Harry shrugged with a polite smile.

“Hey, Harry, before mum notices or Percy gets back could you give us a little reading?” The twin on the right asked while the twin on the left acted as the lookout for Percy or their mother’s attention. Ron and Ginny’s eyes widened at the idea and Harry didn’t see the harm.

“Sure, why not?” Harry replied. “Your father is apparently friends with Sirius so I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.” With a little mana to his glasses Harry looked at the twin who asked and got the first reading. Changing his gaze over to the lookout twin Harry repeated the mana activation of his glasses’ Scouter function getting another reading, repeating this while looking at Ron and then the little sister gave Harry everything he needed.

“So what’s the reading like?” The first twin asked seeing Harry refocus on him.

“You…” Harry started but didn’t know which twin he was addressing.

“Fred.” Fred informed eagerly.

“Right, well Fred you have a mana reading of ‘2,688’.” Harry informed him. Getting the other twin’s attention Harry continued. “George, you have a reading of ‘2,694’ while Ron has a reading of ‘438’ and your sister has a reading of ‘106’.”

“Hear that Fred, I’m a wee bit stronger than you.” George chuckled at his twin.

“Not by much prat.” Fred remarked.

“How are the twins so much stronger than us?” Ron questioned looking at both of his brothers annoyed. The sister looked on shyly but also curious about what her reading meant when compared to others her age. She hadn’t even been to Hogwarts yet after all.

“Probably because we aren’t lazy prats.” Fred snarked while George nodded ‘sagely’ making Ron’s ears go red.

“What’re you at now days, Harry? We haven’t heard any updates since you showed us the Test Frame back at Hogwarts.” George inquired and Harry figured it wouldn’t hurt to tell them.

“I’ve been trying to keep up my practice while still working on my Enchanting. I’ve made some decent progress I think; last I checked I was at ‘1,312’.” Harry shrugged.

“Ready to go, Harry?” Sirius asked and Harry nodded before bidding the Weasleys goodbye. A short time later and the duo were once more in the comfort of Wood End Cottage.

“I’m thinking this year is going to be annoying with that peacock as a Professor.” Harry commented and Sirius chuckled at his Godson’s put upon expression.

“If he does anything stupid just let Dumbledore know.” Sirius advised. “I’m sure Dumbledore just had a lack of candidates like you thought.”

“I would hope so; the man seems like a bit of a joke so far.” Harry shook his head exasperated. The duo was interrupted in their conversation by the arrival of a happy Metamorph who practically pranced out of the Floo.

“You’re looking at the newest Auror Cadet with advanced placement directly under the Senior Auror, Alastor ‘Mad-Eye’ Moody himself!” Tonks cheered happily making Harry and Sirius clap for her.

“Congratulations Dora, I knew you’d make it in!” Sirius praised his second cousin, even though they mostly viewed each other with an uncle/niece type of relationship.

“Good job, Tonks!” Harry smiled widely. Tonks smiled back before moving over and sitting next to him quickly.

“It’s thanks to your Talisman, Harry! I even aced the stealth test since I didn’t trip even once!” Tonks exclaimed as she wrapped him in a hug which Harry returned. “So to say ‘thank you’ for your awesome gift you get a reward!”

“What?” Harry asked only for Tonks’ smile to turn into a devious grin. Before Harry could do anything the ecstatic Metamorph began raining kisses on his cheeks over and over again. “Tonks! Stop! Sirius is watching!” Said Godfather was happily laughing at his Godson’s ‘misfortune’ while Tonks continued to smother Harry’s cheeks with kisses. After a few minutes of embarrassing Harry in front of Sirius, Tonks stopped her kisses and just hugged Harry tightly.

“But Harry, I truly want to say thank you.” Tonks smiled brightly at him as they pulled away from each other. “I’ve gotten to achieve a place in my chosen career right out of Hogwarts thanks to your help. It means more than I can say, so thank you Harry.”

“I only made a Talisman to help you Tonks. You did all of the real work.” Harry smiled back. “Don’t sell all of your studying and practice short, you earned your position.”

“Yep, I’m keeping you!” Tonks smiled as she pulled Harry back into a hug. Sirius’ roaring laughter only made Harry annoyed, since he was kind of ruining what would be a heartfelt moment. At least he had gotten used to Tonks’ affections since they’d know each other. Tonks would leave a short time later to go share the news with Penny, leaving Sirius and Harry to get Harry’s school things packed into his trunk.

-September 1st-

Harry waved to Sirius and Remus as the Hogwarts Express pulled away from King’s Cross. He and Penny were sharing a compartment along with a small blonde girl called Luna Lovegood. The blonde was a bit spacey, or moon-brained, as Harry had heard others call it in the Magical World. But she was nice enough and Penny had taken a liking to the younger blonde. The trip was uneventful for the most part. Harry’s study buddies had stopped by for a bit to chat, the trolley lady had come and gone. As they approached the school Harry had exited the compartment and waited outside for the girls to change into their robes. Once they were done he had changed in the compartment while they waited outside.

“Firs’ Years! Firs’ Years over here!” Hagrid called as they stepped off the train. Luna smiled at Penny and Harry and thanked them for riding with her. The spacey blonde then skipped off towards the gentle giant.

“She’s a fun one.” Harry remarked as he followed Penny towards the carriages.

“A bit spacey, but she’s smart under it, probably a Ravenclaw.” Penny smiled and Harry considered it likely, that or a Hufflepuff with how friendly the little blonde was. A ride up to the school didn’t take long and soon the Sorting was underway.

“Told you.” Penny smiled as she clapped along with the rest of the Ravenclaw Table when Luna Lovegood was sorted into their House.

“I never said anything against it.” Harry replied as he waved Luna over to them and the small blonde skipped over to them and sat next to Penny. From there Harry and Penny both found that Luna was a bit of an ‘odd duck’ during meal times. She preferred to make her food into shapes or vague sculptures before she ate. Harry found it amusing while Penny sighed and encouraged Luna to eat faster so she got enough ‘real’ food before dessert. When dessert did come they discovered Luna had a love of pudding, the blonde happily partaking of every variety within reach.

It wasn’t long after that the students made their way to their dorms. Penny led the way for the Ravenclaws and Harry was looking forward to some reading before bed. Hopefully with a good night’s sleep he’d be prepared to deal with the first day of classes. He was already dreading getting his timetable tomorrow, if only because he didn’t want to know when he’d have to be in the presence of either Snape or Lockhart. The blonde peacock had already made a showing of himself at dinner when Dumbledore announced him. Harry really felt like the man was much more pomp than substance.

-First Defense Against the Dark Arts Class-

“I was right.” Harry huffed to himself watching Lockhart strut around the front of the classroom. Then the narcissist had the gall to make them take a test about himself! ‘Who the hell cares what this moron’s favorite color is?’ Harry raged in his own mind. The blonde idiot, as Harry now dubbed the man in his mind, then proceeded to unleash Cornish Pixies on the classroom. The troublemaking little sprites had quickly started tearing the classroom up after easily taking Lockhart’s wand and tossing it out of the window.

“Students! Use what you’ve learned from my books to stop the pixies!” Lockhart called out as the Pixies finished destroying the front of the room while Lockhart literally hid under the Professor’s desk.

“Absolutely useless.” Harry growled as the Pixies started zipping towards the students. “Stop!” He intoned and his voice echoed with power. A nifty little trick that Penny had found out was that verbally stating the intent of a Wandless spell gave a noticeable improvement. It didn’t even have to be a proper incantation, just the intent behind the Magic itself. Harry awed his entire class by demonstrating this with his command. The Cornish Pixies all froze in mid-air and hung there, stopped in whatever position they’d been in at the time. The Impedimenta Jinx slowed a target or targets down. Taking that spell a bit further resulted in the Immobulus Charm, which rendered said target or targets completely immobilized. It had been easy for Harry to refine his Wandless Impedimenta into a Wandless Immobulus over the summer. With a movement of his hands Harry made the floating Pixies gather into one area. Then he simply continued using Levitation to stuff the little troublemakers back into their cage. A Wandless Colloportus Charm had the caged door locked and only then did Harry release his first spell. The now free Pixies instantly went back to flitting about their cage but were clearly staying away from the cage door. Harry’s Magical display had frightened the little blighters into staying within their cage.

“Excellent Mr. Potter, simply excellent! I trust you remembered that from the time when I…” Lockhart began only to be cut off by Harry.

“Shut it you pompous windbag!” Harry growled at the incompetent man. “Do you have any idea what a swarm of Cornish Pixies could do unprepared students?! How the bloody hell did you think this was a good idea?! You’re so incompetent you make Professor Quirrel from last year look good! At the very least the man tried to teach even with his horrible stutter!” The young Artificer raged at the blonde twit. “Make no mistake I’ll be reporting this to both my Head of House and the Headmaster!” With that said Harry Wandlessly Summoned his bag to himself and stormed out of the room. He was going to do just what he said and see Flitwick and Dumbledore about that idiot.

“That is most troubling indeed, Mr. Potter.” Flitwick grumbled as he finished listening to Harry’s account of what happened in his first Defense Against the Dark Arts class of the year. In truth the part-Goblin Charms Master was tightly reigning in his emotions lest he storm into Lockhart’s office and tear strips from the man for endangering the students.

“Should I go to the Headmaster with this too, Professor?” Harry asked his Head of House.

“You should prepare for your next class, Mr. Potter.” Flitwick advised the Second Year. “I have a free period right now so I’ll personally see the Headmaster about what Professor Lockhart has done.”

“Alright Professor, thank you for seeing me so quickly.” Harry thanked the Charms Professor and Flitwick dismissed him from his office. Flitwick sat in his office for several minutes after Harry left, to cool his head, before he made his way to Dumbledore’s office. He wasn’t one to judge others but Lockhart was proving to be a less than competent teacher compared to his reputation.

-Dumbledore’s Office ~ Several Minutes Later-

“I see; that is most troubling Filius.” Dumbledore nodded as he mulled over what he’d just heard. “Perhaps Professor Lockhart will need some assistance with his first time teaching? I believe I can clear some time in my schedule to sit in on a few of his lessons. If I see anything else like this I’m afraid I’ll have to try and find a replacement. As it stands I think a Notice of Deficiency will serve to let Professor Lockhart know that his current methods are not up to Hogwarts’ Standards.”

“I believe that would be for the best.” Flitwick nodded. A ‘Notice of Deficiency’ was basically a warning to a Professor that their performance was currently unacceptable. It was the first step in the ‘Process of Dismissal’ for a Professor. Professor Snape had quite a few brought against him over his years as Potions Professor. But the man’s NEWT graduates were some of the best Potioneers in Magical Britain and even Magical Europe. So the Head of Slytherin had managed to retain his position at Hogwarts through the sheer competency he could produce in the students that did make it through his classes.

-After Classes-

Harry quickly made his way towards his hidden workshop with Penny in tow. Once there Harry tested that the Ward Lock was still working before the two entered. Harry checked over the workshop area before heading into the smithy. Everything was as Harry had left it at the beginning of summer, Penny checked over the Transfiguration that made up the forge and happily stated that the stone showed no signs of reverting. This was a testament to Tonks and Penny’s success with their Permanent Transfiguration. Of course it only worked because they were changing stone into a different shape of stone. They hadn’t transfigured it into another material or tried to expand or shrink it. The stone was still the same at the base level just in a different shape so Permanent Transfiguration was possible.

Harry was pleased that his set up at Hogwarts was still in good condition so that he could continue his work on forging an Artifact Sword. He had started to compile Runic Sequences for various effects and now had to work out which ones would go together and result in a functional Runic Array. He had a general idea of what he wanted the Sword to be capable of and now it was down to him to find a combination of sequences that would work. Harry set to work writing out various Runic Sequences at his desk while Penny practiced her Wandless Magic. The pretty blonde was making good headway on getting her entire spell repertoire Wandless. That fact made both Harry and Tonks a bit jealous of the Prefect. Penny seemed to have a knack for getting spells to work for her and had easily left Tonks and Harry in the dust with how many Wandless spells she had under her belt.

A couple of hours later and Harry sighed as he looked over his work so far. Several of the sequences he’d hoped to incorporate together wouldn’t work, even with Magical Circuits. The materials he had at his disposal simply couldn’t hold several of these properties at the same time. With some more time he may be able to make a low-grade Alchemical Metal that could, theoretically, hold some of them in a single Array but that was still a long shot. He’d have to work slowly and make some Arrays that were successful combinations of the various sequences he wanted for his final Sword. Then he’d potentially find a way to transmute a metal capable of holding the finished Array while also finding out how to make said final Array in the process. This was going to be a very long project and Harry could only sigh that his classes were going to take up so much of his time.

“Harry can I borrow the Test Frame?” Penny asked as she walked over to his desk.

“You don’t have to ask Penny.” Harry reassured the blonde as he handed her the Test Frame after pulling it out of the drawer he kept it in.

“Maybe not, but it is still polite to ask.” Penny smiled as she held the Talisman in her hands and fed her mana into it. When her reading popped up Penny grinned happily before turning to show Harry the ‘4762’ displayed.

“Yeah, yeah, rub it in why don’t you?” Harry huffed seeing how far he still had to go to even get close to Penny or Tonks’ mana levels. Harry chose to place the even higher numbers like Dumbledore, or the insane number that Flamel had, on the back burner for now. He’d grow stronger as he practiced and so far he was striking a good balance between his Wandless Magic and his Enchanting. Again he lamented at all the time he’d have to devote to his classes. That was time he could add to his Enchanting or Wandless practice, but even he realized that most of his courses still offered him new knowledge. For now it wasn’t wise or feasible to try and leave Hogwarts. ‘Maybe in the coming years though? No one ever said you couldn’t graduate early.’ He mused to himself as he and Penny left the workshop together and headed for Ravenclaw Tower.

-End Chapter-

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Hmm, a warning of something dire, but Sirius was able to pass on the message to Dumbledore. Will the forewarning help or will certain events still take place? It can be hard to prepare when you’re unsure of what you’re preparing for. But Harry has met everyone’s favorite moon-child! Luna will be a bit of a periphery character but Harry will still let her wander around with him. Tonks got accepted into the Aurors and is already apprenticed under Moody! That might gain her some clout in the Auror Corps. a little faster. Harry has also called out Lockhart for his incompetence, and showed off his Wandless skill a bit at the same time. Our young Artificer is also finding out just how hard it is to progress in the Artifact Creation process. So many Magical Branches have to be successfully brought together even for a Minor Artifact. This is only made harder when trying to make higher Grade Artifacts.

Keep reading to see how Harry’s Second Year progresses!

Current Mana Levels

Harry – 1,312

Tonks – 5,876 (Outdated)

Penelope – 4,762

Until I get your reviews, later!