Demons and Botched Rituals Part 29 (Patreon)

Harry woke up with a jolt when he landed on a mattress. He sighed in frustration when he caught sight of Fawkes flying out of the open door to his room in Grimmauld Place. "So much for having a relaxing morning."

Hermione yawned as she woke up the rest of the way and glanced around the familiar room, not sure how they'd gotten back. "How did we get back?"

"Fawkes or at least I saw him leaving," Harry replied as hit himself with a cleaning spell, getting rid of the odor and the dried sweat from their adventure in the library. He opened his inventory and dropped a robe on his equipment doll, not seeing a point in dealing with awkward questions like why he'd been naked when Fawkes grabbed him.

Hermione activated her lesser shape changing ability, changing her skin back to something approaching her previous appearance. "At least he didn't drop us in the middle of the kitchen," she said, trying to keep the frustration out of her voice.

Harry let his gaze trail over Hermione for a couple of seconds then sighed when he heard someone coming up the stairs. "As much as I don't want to say this, you should probably get dressed."

"Sadly," Hermione agreed as she grabbed a robe from her inventory and dropped it on her equipment doll, going from just wearing her loincloth and bracers to dressed enough to deal with people. "You should fix your skin."

"Right," Harry replied as fixed his appearance. "How long do you think we have before we get summoned back?" he asked as he equipped his bracers and loincloth, wanting the extra protection for when Snape tried to get into his head.

"At least a couple of hours," Hermione replied as she rolled off the bed and started cleaning herself up with a cleaning charm, not seeing a point in giving people a heads up about things that were none of their business.

Harry yawned as he headed towards the door. "Hey Tonks," he offered when she walked over.

"Wotcher," Tonks replied as she glanced between Harry and Hermione. "Nice prank on Dumbledore."

"Prank?" Harry asked, trying for innocent and missing by a mile.

Tonks laughed at the look on Harry's face. "The curse breaking elixir restored his youth."

"Old age is a curse? That's good to know," Harry replied with amusement.

"Snape is going to grill you about the elixir," Tonks warned him.

"I can't give him what I don't have," Harry replied with a grin, knowing it would frustrate the bastard. "I'd probably have a better idea what was in the potion if I didn't have an incompetent Potions professor for the first five years I was at Hogwarts."

"He wasn't the best, was he?" Tonks asked, wishing she'd had Slughorn since he was a much better instructor from what she'd heard.

"No," Hermione stated, more annoyed with Snape since she realized he was actually a decent Defense teacher.

Harry looked at Hermione. "Library?"

"What about it?" Hermione asked, trying not to blush as she thought about their recent activities.

"Research," Harry replied with a grin as he started walking towards the stairs.

"Before you vanish, Dumbledore would like a word about the elixir and your adventures," Tonks said with a grin as she poked his shoulder with her finger, making sure he was actually solid.

Harry started walking down the hallway. "Adventures? What makes you think we had adventures?"

Tonks laughed at his half hearted deflection. "You're a Potter."

"Would you believe me if I told you we had a nice relaxing vacation?" Harry asked hopefully, not particularly interested in explaining the ritual or the fact that he had a summoner that was going to summon him when she realized he was missing.

"Nope," Tonks replied with a smirk.

"Good to know," Harry replied as they headed down the stairs.

"So?" Tonks asked, curious where he'd been.

"If you're not going to believe me, there's no point explaining, is there?" Harry teased.

Tonks laughed. "That's the spirit."

"Did anyone tell my parents about my disappearance?" Hermione asked, wanting to make sure she didn't need to find a payphone and enough change to call her folks.

"No, we were waiting until we had something to tell them," Tonks replied, glad that the situation was resolved.

"Good," Hermione replied, a bit frustrated that Dumbledore hadn't told her parents but relieved that they hadn't spent the last couple of days worrying about her and that she didn't have to explain the last couple of days.

"Any news about Voldemort?" Harry asked, trying to change the subject.

Tonks hesitated for a second, torn between wanting to avoid one of Molly's rants about 'protecting' the children and her desire to treat Harry like a person. "He ambushed a group of aurors yesterday then vanished before backup arrived. Sadly, none of the pureblood idiots were part of that particular group."

"Inside information or bad luck?" Harry asked thoughtfully as they walked down the hallway, heading for the library.

"Probably a bit of both," Tonks complained. "I'm not saying we have Death Eaters in the ranks though it wouldn't surprise me but a couple of the idiots wouldn't think twice about telling their friends inside information over a drink and we know he had a couple of aurors working for him during the last war."

"Which means he knows how to work the system," Hermione complained.

"Especially since no one could get Fudge or his replacement to sign off on shaking things up and shifting things around enough to matter," Tonks said, wishing Moody was still in the department even if he was more than a little paranoid. "The call was just important enough that someone wanted it done right but not important enough that the purebloods would jump on it."

"Lovely," Hermione muttered.

Harry shook his head. "I'm surprised you haven't quit."

"I've thought about it," Tonks admitted, not particularly happy with the ministry's current or previous direction but unwilling to leave her friends in a lurch or to stop trying. "But I don't want to leave Kingsley on his own and the Death Eaters are trying to break the system so they can run rampant."

"Are you-" Harry stopped talking when Mrs Weasley burst out of the drawing room and pulled him into a crushing hug.

"You're back!" Mrs Weasley said, relieved that they didn't seem any worse for their adventure.

"I need to breathe." Harry gave Mrs Weasley another two seconds to let go then apparated past her and walked into the drawing room, trying to act like teleporting out of a hug was perfectly a normal and reasonable response. 'I like hugs but honestly, I don't need to be crushed or smothered.' He glanced around the room then focused on the unfamiliar and yet familiar man in his twenties standing next to Snape and a table filled with books. "I don't suppose you know where the headmaster is, Tonks mentioned that he wanted a word."

"That depends, where did you find the curse breaking elixir?" Snape asked.

"Would you believe me if I told you I got it from a version of Merlin?" Harry asked as Hermione and Tonks walked into the drawing room.

Snape studied Harry, fairly sure he was lying his ass off. "No."

"Probably for the best," Harry admitted as Mrs Weasley walked in behind Tonks. "Did you have any luck reverse engineering the glove?"

"Not as much as I'd like," Snape admitted. "Where did you find it?"

Harry turned to look at Hermione, slightly surprised that Snape sounded almost pleasant or at least neutral, which was a nice change. "Would the Second Chalice count as a secondhand shop or just a low end magic shop?"

Hermione considered the question for a couple of seconds. "A bit of both, considering they buy from apprentice enchanters and people that want to sell magic items."

"It's a nice shop," Harry said as he walked over so he could look at the books on the table. "Alchemy research?"

"We're trying to recreate the curse breaking elixir," Albus explained, wondering if it would work on the Longbottoms.

"Makes sense," Harry agreed, doing his best to pretend like he didn't recognize Dumbledore's voice or his beard.

"Where were you?" Mrs Weasley asked in a tone that was just short of a demand.

"No clue," Harry replied as he turned to look at Mrs Weasley. "I've spent the last couple of days making sure my new friends didn't get themselves killed by homicidal ghosts. Once I got out of that death trap, I tracked Hermione down and we spent the last couple of hours in a library doing research."

"We woke up when Fawkes dropped us on Harry's bed," Hermione added, not seeing a reason to explain about the game-like system or give them any real details unless she had to.

Snape raised his eyebrows. "Rather convenient."

"Simple chance," Hermione replied with a shrug. "On average, people sleep about a third of their lives."

"See, I knew you had an adventure," Tonks teased.

Harry smiled as he turned to look at Tonks. "You can tell Dumbledore I'll be in the library if he wants to discuss something, I want to research ways to deal with Voldemort without getting in range so he can take me apart in a duel."

'At least he has some sense,' Snape thought. "I doubt you'll find anything that Bellatrix hasn't already shared with him."

"It's worth looking," Harry replied as he headed for the door.

"Most of the library is cursed and or dark," Mrs Weasley cut in. "Sirius should have binned the books."

Hermione glared at Mrs Weasley, her eyes glowing with blue flames as she thought about someone willingly burning books.

Tonks shivered as the temperature suddenly dropped at least fifteen degrees, "What the hell?!"

Harry turned to look at Mrs Weasley, trying to defuse things before someone noticed Hermione's reaction to the idea of someone destroying books. "I shouldn't need to remind you but Sirius left the house to me in his will, that includes the books and the random trinkets and if I find Dung or anyone else stealing or destroying my property I'm going to have Kreacher make their lives miserable until the property is recovered or replaced if they can't recover it."

"Those books are dangerous," Mrs Weasley argued, missing the look of rage on Hermione's face and the fact that the room was growing colder.

"That's why we have curse breakers!" Harry snapped then left, knowing that would give Hermione an excuse to leave before she did something she'd regret when she calmed down.

Tonks watched Hermione storm out of the room. "That went about as well as I was expecting."

"I'm just trying to keep them safe," Mrs Weasley complained, not sure why Harry couldn't see that.

Snape snorted. "Safe? If you wanted them to be safe, you'd talk to Bill about giving them lessons on breaking curses, you want them wrapped in cotton and stuffed in a closet."

"Kreacher is happy, Kreacher has orders," Kreacher said cheerfully before he vanished from the vents where he'd been hiding.

Tonks glanced up at the vent. "Shit, we need to warn Mundungus."

"I'll take care of it," Albus assured her. "It's past time that I remind Mundungus that just because Sirius didn't care about his family's possessions doesn't mean that Harry feels the same way."

Molly scowled at Snape as he went back to looking at his notes, completely unconcerned about the children. "What are you going to do about the library?"

"Nothing, Sirius already dealt with the worst of the books," Albus assured her. "The mild curses that remain should give them some valuable experience with breaking curses, especially if Tonks swings by to give them some helpful suggestions."

"I'll take care of it." Tonks smiled as she left, glad she didn't have to listen to Molly rant about safety or dark arts.

Molly scowled at the idea of the children being anywhere near curses. "I'll work on dinner."

"Dinner sounds good," Albus said cheerfully, knowing her heart was in the right place, even if she'd made a tense situation worse.

'They're probably just hungry,' Molly thought as she left the room.

"How much do you think Harry knows about the elixir?" Snape asked thoughtfully once Molly left.

"More than he's telling," Albus replied with an actual smile, looking forward to comparing notes after he cracked the formula or at least made a good attempt. "Is there a reason you were almost pleasant? I would have expected at least one cutting comment about his temper."

"No scar, no point," Snape replied, happy that he could drop the act away from the school or at least cut back on being a complete bastard since something had improved Harry's mental defenses to the point where he couldn't sneak a peek, at least not casually and without him noticing. "Besides, he didn't lose his temper, he raised his voice to distract people from Miss Granger's reaction to burning books, she was probably ten seconds away from setting Molly on fire."

"Can you blame her?" Albus asked, not surprised that Severus had noticed the rage coming off the girl as the temperature had dropped at least fifteen degrees.

"Not particularly," Snape replied as he turned his attention to Albus' notes. "The library has a number of rare books that Hogwarts doesn't."

"I'm aware," Albus admitted, making a mental note to reserve time to break the copy protection spells on the ancient books so that he could make copies now that he wasn't worried about politics as much and had more energy. "Her heart is in the right place but sometimes you need to know what you're fighting."

"Any thoughts on their bracers?" Snape asked, wondering where they'd found the enchanted bracers he'd seen when they'd moved their arms just right.

"I didn't get a good look but I'd wager a bottle of fire whiskey that they're enchanted rather than charmed, same with their rings," Albus mused, fairly sure he would have gotten different results from his detection spells if they were merely charmed.

"Same," Snape agreed. "That brings up a question."

"Just one?" Albus asked, knowing he had a list of questions he wanted to ask.

"I have several but I'm curious, if I was studying with an alchemist or had access to an enchanter that owed me a few favors, I would be pissed about coming back to deal with the wizarding world, why isn't he more annoyed about being kidnapped?" Snape asked, knowing he'd be pissed if someone dragged him back to deal with the wizarding world when he had a chance to learn alchemy from people that could brew the curse breaking and youth restoring elixir.

"He's not an alchemist and he mentioned that they weren't able to join the Enchanting Guild for reasons he didn't go into," Albus pointed out.

"Potter I could understand but Granger? What type of organization wouldn't want her helping with research?" Snape asked.

"No one in their right mind," Albus admitted.

"Exactly," Snape agreed. "Which makes me curious where they ended up and why they're not more annoyed to leave."

"His friends?" Albus asked.

Snape shook his head. "I could count them on one hand and have fingers left over and Granger was with him, try again."

"If we assume it has nothing to do with Quidditch or his friends, he might have a way back," Albus mused.

"Some type of dimensional portkey?" Snape mused, wondering what they'd brought back with them. "Can Fawkes bring us there?"

"Considering how long it took to find them, I doubt it," Albus admitted, not sure why it had taken Fawkes a couple of hours to find them.

"Shall we get back to comparing notes on the potion?" Snape asked, trying to avoid thinking about the Death Eater meeting he was supposed to show up for in a couple of hours.

"Of course," Albus replied, wondering if he should send Fudge a thank you card for getting him out of his position on the Wizengamot so that he had more time for research and to take care of Hogwarts.

0o0o0

Harry glanced over at where Hermione was talking with Tonks about holiday stuff, wanting to make sure Tonks wasn't paying attention. He pulled his crystal ball out of his inventory and set it on the chair next to him where Tonks wouldn't see it.

'I'll just have to be quick,' he thought as he touched the crystal ball and checked on Umbridge, surprised that it worked and rather relieved when the crystal ball cleared and she was up to her neck in soap bubbles in a bathtub, keeping him from seeing anything that would require alcohol or an obliviate spell to deal with.

Harry opened his inventory and the chest that contained the junk that he'd fished out of the swamp, knowing that he had the perfect way to deal with the sadistic monster. 'Sorry Arthur,' he thought, knowing the murder weapon would probably end up on his desk.

He double checked to make sure Tonks was still distracted then projected himself into the bathroom behind Umbridge, happy that he'd upgraded the crystal ball on the off chance that Dumbledore managed to 'rescue' him unexpectedly and he needed to talk to Ruby and Jade.

'Rest in peace,' he thought as he reached out over the bathtub and pulled the cursed hair dryer out of his inventory. He watched as the bright pink electronic device fell into the water and arced with lightning, causing Umbridge to scream once before she was too busy convulsing from the continuous bolts of lightning. 'This would be easier if I could put things back in my inventory.'

He jumped when the hair dryer exploded with one last blast of lightning that sent bubbles and soapy water everywhere, forgetting for a second that he was just projecting into the room and nothing in there could hurt him.

Harry let himself snap back to the real world, relieved to notice that Tonks was still focused on Hermione and hadn't noticed him drifting off. He put the crystal ball back into his inventory then closed the book and stood up. "Shouldn't Ron or Ginny have stopped by?"

"They're probably doing homework…" Tonks trailed off as she realized that they'd probably already completed their homework or were going to leave it until the last minute, most likely the latter in Ron's case. "I haven't seen either of them since before the Order meeting, we might want to check."

"Kreacher," Harry called out, causing the house elf to appear two seconds later.

"What does Bad Master want?" Kreacher asked in a whining tone.

"Where are Ron and Ginny?" Harry asked, knowing he'd be able to find them.

"Not here," Kreacher replied smugly, his entire twisted face lighting up in delight.

"What do you mean not here?" Hermione asked, getting a bad feeling about things.

Kreacher smirked at Hermione. "The boy was stupid enough to use your ritual, I took care of the bitch, Bad Master told me to clean the place up and everyone knows blood traitors are trash," he said smugly, figuring if this didn't get his master to cut off his head, nothing would.

Tonks raised her eyebrows. "Ritual?"

"I don't suppose I can talk you into ignoring that?" Harry asked hopefully.

Tonks frowned as she considered some of the rituals she knew about. "That depends on the ritual, spill."

"They used an old Black empowerment ritual, Bad Master and the mudblood are the first people to come back in ages," Kreacher explained.

"Never call Hermione a mudblood again," Harry ordered, tired of the little monster's shit but knowing Hermione would take it badly if he killed him. "We tried for power and knowledge, we were in the process of picking up some training when we got 'rescued' by Fawkes."

Tonks glanced between Harry and Hermione. "Any urges to set people on fire and or laugh maniacally?"

"Besides Kreacher, Voldemort and the Death Eaters? Not particularly," Harry assured her.

Tonks focused on Hermione. "What about you?"

"Just people that burn books or dog ear the pages," Hermione offered, managing to keep a straight face for a couple of seconds with Tonks and Harry staring at her. "Relax, I'm joking about the dog eared pages, you can fix them with a repair charm."

Tonks gave Hermione a worried look, not sure if she was joking about the first part or just angry about having to deal with Mrs Weasley's suggestions about the library. "We should tell Dumbledore so he can send Fawkes after them."

"Yeah," Harry agreed. "Kreacher, people aren't trash, no throwing them out unless I've given you permission or they're Death Eaters."

"Does this mean I can throw Snape out?" Kreacher asked with a smirk.

"I doubt you'd enjoy the attempt," Harry replied then headed for the door, figuring he might as well take the chance to ask Dumbledore a couple of alchemy related questions while he could slide them into the conversation.

Hermione glared at Kreacher on the way out, not remotely happy about his attempt to kill Ginny.

0o0o0