Innovator; Chapter 14: A Declaration of War (Patreon)

Author’s Note: Hello my dear patron family. Here’s chapter fourteenth of Innovator. Hope you like it! Do tell how it was in the comments. Also, Chapters 1-11 are on my fanfiction and ao3 profile.

Author Out!

“I am Talking.”

‘I am Thinking’

Spells

§Parseltongue§

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Good sir, Life should be big, not long.

~Movie Quote: Anand (1971)

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INNOVATOR

-Dev Sagittarius Black

~~Chapter 14: A Declaration of War~~

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The first thing that Harry noticed when he entered the Great Hall was the apparent lack of usual hubbub that was found behind the doors of the Hogwarts’ food corner. It was completely different from how it had been for the last week.

Harry had been quite busy for the last week. He was actively working on the project that he got from Dumbledore and the potion part was finished. The only thing left was the spell creation which he was going to start today.

Other than that, his last week had been a hell for him because of all the brand endorsements and parties he had to attend. They were the ones where sending Sirius as his representative would have been detrimental for the business.

Therefore, his week had been a circle of political parties, followed by work, then classes, half-of-which were boring and useless to him, and then fall on the bed or the couch or the work table, whichever was closer.

Surprisingly enough, Greengrass hadn’t bothered him at all. The Greengrass he knew before would have at least visited him once after she came back, but it had been a week since she came and all she had done was look at him during their shared classes or in the corridors and usually once or twice in the great hall.

On the other hand, he had been running away from the girls who had made it their mission to ask him for the Yule Ball. Blaise had said that he was lucky that he was being asked out by girls, obviously other boys thought so too.

Then Harry had reminded him that he was going with Fleur, so there wasn’t anything he could say. Yeah, it was mean of him to pull that over him because he knew that they were going as friends, and that Fleur was happy that at least someone would be able to handle her allure, even if it’s with a charmed pendant.

Davies had been the only one who had been capable of asking her without becoming a drooling mess, but Cho had told her friend about Davies beforehand, so that hadn’t worked out well for the Captain of Ravenclaw Quidditch team.

Speaking of Cho, she was already going with Diggory. Something that was obvious, but was sweet too in Harry’s opinion. Even a blind man could see that the two were obviously harboring really strong feelings for each other. And that they would probably be engaged and married once Cho graduated.

Harry took his seat at the Ravenclaw table and immediately felt the somber mood that was around him. He looked towards the staff table and noticed that Dumbledore and most of the Hogwarts’ professors weren’t there either.

It was clear that something major had happened.

“Blaise?” He called out his friend who had his eyes glued to the newspaper just like the rest of the great hall.

“G’morning Harry,” The Zabini heir greeted him as he absentmindedly buttered his toast.

“Morning to you too, are you alright?”

Blaise shook his head and forwarded him the paper, “Take a look, you won’t like what’s in the news.”

Harry frowned at that and took the day’s Daily Prophet. There was a photograph of a destroyed building that was on an isle in a thundering sea, and the headline made his blood run cold.

!!AZKABAN PRISON–RAVAGED!!

-Joseph Goldstien

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Yes my dear readers, you read that absolutely correctly. The unbreakable, unbeatable, and unconquerable wizarding prison, Azkaban, has been ravaged again! And this time, there was a mass breakout. A total of NINE prisoners have escaped the prison’s high security cells, and are now roaming freely in the country.

All of these prisoners are reputed Death Eaters who were found guilty during the previous wizarding war, and were given life imprisonment because of that. This morning, the convicts, along with the Dementors, escaped the prison and are currently being searched for throughout the country.

They are all just as dangerous as the former Azkaban escapee, Bellatrix LeStrange, who escaped from the prison three years ago by killing four guards and a squib. She is still on the run and has not yet been captured.

According to one of the active guards on duty, Guard Jang, they had noticed that something was suspicious when the guards that were previously on-post didn’t report for the change of shift. Guard Jang along with other guards then reached the prison and were shocked to see a chunk of the prison’s top floors, as well as the dementors, all gone.

The guards and the Warden, who were in the prison, were later discovered by Guard Jang and his comrades in a veritable ocean of blood on the starting three levels of the prison, with a random guard’s dead body on every other corner.

No one had any idea as to how long the prison had been unsupervised, but it was clear from the state of the bodies that the attack had occurred dead in the night.

The escapees are some of the most dangerous and highly guarded convicts due to the plethora of crimes under their names. Therefore, they were being held at the highest security cells at the topmost floor of the prison fortress. They are:

Antonin Dolohov

Augustus Rookwood

Armand Rosier

Corvus Yaxley

Gibbon

Travers

Mulciber II

Rodolphhus LeStrange

Rabastan LeStrange

The nine are reportedly missing and the Ministry has already deployed aurors to search for these deranged convicts and bring them back to justice. A battalion of trained aurors have already been dispatched to the prison to prevent any more escapes from Azkaban.

Our Minister for Magic chose The Prophet for delivering his word of caution to Britain’s magical community;

“We find ourselves, most unfortunately, in the same position we were two and a half years ago when the murderer Bellatrix LeStrange escaped. It is the opinion of the Ministry that the two breakouts are related. An escape of this magnitude suggests outside help, and we must remember that LeStrange, as the first person ever to break out of Azkaban, would be ideally placed for others to follow in her footsteps.

We think it likely that these individuals, who include LeStrange’s husband, Rodolphus, and brother-in-law, Rabastan, have rallied around her as their leader. We are, however, doing all we can to round up the criminals and beg the magical community to remain alert and cautious. On no account should any of these individuals be approached. Rest assured, we will soon have all of them including LeStrange herself behind the bars along with the dementors.”

~ Minister Cornelius Oswald Fudge

British Minister for Magic

Who is the mastermind behind these attacks? What do they want? Is Britain going under another war?

We at the Prophet are continuously trying to get in contact with other members but we have largely been unsuccessful. But you don’t have to worry as our reporters around the nation are continuously working to provide us with any snippet of information that could be used in favor of the Ministry. We also urge the citizens of our nation to stay alert, be cautious, to not step out of your homes alone, especially at night.

For more regarding the Azkaban prison…..page-4

For more on the escapee Death Eaters and their crimes….page-5 and page-6

For more on Bellatrix LeStrange and her previous escape…page-9

Harry read the news twice more before his mind finally registered what this incident actually was. This was nothing short of a declaration of war from the person who was currently sitting somewhere and was gaining more and more strength as they breathed.

He looked back at the teachers’ table and knew that the reason professor Dumbledore wasn’t here was because the man would probably be working on stopping Voldemort’s advancement that had proved detrimental to Wizarding Britain.

“Who do you think is after this, Harry?” Marietta asked the innovator who didn’t voice his thoughts.

“Who else, it’s LeStrange of course, that woman took her time to get her strength back and planned this escape to get her comrades back,” Blaise spat, “Poor Neville was shaking like a leaf before Madam Pomfrey took him to the hospital, he will likely stay in his dorm today.”

“Yeah, but what about the dementors? Why would they help…”

Harry tuned Marietta’s voice out as the duo along with Fleur indulged in a discussion of what and what not. Something that he didn’t need to waste his mind on. His mind was focused on other matters as it is.

Neville Longbottom, heir to the Ancient and Most Noble House of Longbottom, was their batchmate who had suffered the loss of both his parents at the hands of four of the most notorious Death Eaters when the Dark Lord had been defeated.

The Longbottom boy’s parents were still in St Mungo’s permanent damage ward, and, though Harry wouldn’t tell the boy to give him false hope, he had been working on a cure for the Longbottoms for some time. It was in the beginning stages and would likely be finished by the time they entered their sixth year.

‘If we enter our Sixth year..’ Harry thought. His mind was going a-mile-a-minute as he tried to think of a few things that needed to be done. His mental list, which used to be completely planned, had been a complete wreck for the last two weeks.

Harry looked toward the Gryffindor table and sighed when he saw that Ronald Weasley was sitting there with Granger, Finnigan, and Thomas. There was no sign of his brother, and it didn’t seem like his former friends were missing him too much either.

He needed to contact his brother too. There were a few things that had been worrying the innovator, and a few of them included his brother. Don’t get him wrong, there was no love lost between the two Potters. But still, it was his duty to ensure that his younger sibling, and a member of his House, was okay at the very least.

When he thought about it, the last time Harry had even seen Alandale was two days ago. The boy had come to have dinner. His appearance was no better than haggard, sunken eyes, pale skin, and his hair had lost the usual red vibrance it used to have, instead, it was more like a dull matte burgundy color, and Harry could swear the boy looked thinner than he had a few weeks ago.

Unfortunately, the boy had entered, finished his dinner while he sat at the corner of Gryffindor table as fast as he could, and then left the hall just as soon as he came. Harry had even tried asking about the boy, subtly of course, only to learn that the Gryffindors had destroyed his belongings in his dorm following his defeat in the first task, and that the boy had not been seen in the tower ever since.

The only person who had some sort of contact with the boy was the youngest Weasley male who had been paired up with him in the few classes he actually attended. Other than that, even the Weasey boy had no idea where Alandale slept or where he went off to.

Harry did, but the innovator was sure that his brother wasn’t actually foolish enough to go to that place ever again. Well, he certainly hoped that his brother wasn’t foolish enough, still, it was probably a delusive contentment on his part.

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‘Looks like we are all set’ Dumbledore thought as he looked around the room that he had been given for what he was going to do. This was also a necessary step in his opinion, something which he should’ve done a few weeks ago, and had planned to do in a few weeks.

But the recent works of Voldemort with the mass breakout, because he was sure it was Voldemort who did that, had pushed his hand forward and now here he was, sitting at the head table as he waited for people to join him.

They would be confused, no doubt. There might be some who might not want to stand by his side again, and it was completely fine with him. After all, not everyone has the same will after twenty years. All he could do was wait and watch, to see how many would actually join him, and how many would need more convincing.

There was a knock on the door and Dumbledore turned to look at the man who had graciously provided the place, he dipped his head as the man took his seat at Dumbledore’s left, his right was already booked by his long time colleague and friend, Minerva McGonagall. The headmaster knew that the Transfiguration mistress would definitely join again.

There was a green flare and the sound of someone arriving in the house. Dumbledore smiled when the person entered the room and greeted the two men before him.

“Good Evening to you too, Dedalus,” Dumbledore greeted their first member of the day, “I hope my letter found you in good health? Good,” He motioned towards one of the seats, “Please take one of the seats, we are waiting for others to join us too before we start.”

Dedalus clearly had questions and so will many others who would join them today. Dumbldore would divulge the news at the exact moment and people would only know what they have to know. This time, he won’t be taking risks like Pettigrew, no, this time he would do it the correct way.

No risks, no more pains, no poor planning, and absolutely no bloodshed from his side. After all, he neither has the allegiance of the Wand of Destiny nor did he have his previous strength. If push came to shove, Dumbledore was pretty sure that Tom would win it this time.

And then there would be no one who he would be afraid of. Which meant the lives of hundreds of students at Hogwarts, and thousands of magicals outside of it, would be in danger. Something that Dumbledore couldn’t risk. Not now.

The arrivals kept joining them in the room and took their seats, they even started talking among themselves. Questions like ‘What is happening?’, ‘Did you read the news?’, ‘Who could be behind it?’, ‘Are the dark ages coming again?’, and ‘Are we going to start it again?’ frequented around the table.

But Dumbledore didn’t say anything. His mind was busy on something or, more accurately, someone else. The Boy-Who-Lived, Alandale Potter.

Dumbledore didn’t know what the boy’s problem was. The boy was a horcrux, that much was quite clear. But what wasn’t clear, was the boy’s apparent lack of talent in any of the fields that he participated in.

At first, Dumbledore had wanted to drop the boy at his muggle relatives’ home. The wizarding homes weren’t safe for the ‘boy-who-lived’, and the ones he knew were already suffering from irreparable loss. But then, he remembered how Petunia Dursley was as a person and even his own professor told him that the family was the worst sort of Muggles.

Dumbledore debated it and, at that moment, he decided to take care of things himself. The boy would have suffered some at the hands of the Dursleys, but at least he would have grown away from the Wizarding World. Therefore, it was a strong probability that he wouldn't have turned out the way he did.

Unfortunately, Dumbledore went through with the second plan and asked his loyal friends, the Weasleys, to take him. He was happy that the boy had a happy childhood, and that he was sure that at least one Potter would turn out well.

But that didn’t happen.

Alandale Potter ended up getting an overly inflated ego because of all the stories, fan-mail, and the youngest two Weasley kids who idolized him in his own mind. On the other hand, the elder Potter who he–and the entire world–had presumed dead, arrived at Hogwarts one year before Alandale did.

Dumbledore would admit it unabashedly, he was in one word ‘shocked’. He was shocked when his deputy had announced the name ‘Potter, Harry’ and he was even more shocked when his eyes fell on the thin, lanky, bespectacled boy wearing cheap first hand Hogwarts robes.

Harry Potter was the same Harry-the-Little of Diagon Alley. The same boy who he might have crossed paths with a hundred times. He remembered the boy quite well, and he knew that anyone who would have visited the alley more than twice would have seen him working in one of the numerous shops around the alley.

The boy was said to be a prodigy, improving anything that caught his fancy, the boy was also said to be a recluse; so much so that he never gave his last name to anyone in the eight years that he had worked around the alley.

Just Harry.

This is why all the shopkeepers in Diagon Alley referred to him as Little Harry or Harry the Little, a moniker that the boy didn’t like once he came to learn what it actually meant. Dumbledore didn’t remember that he had any interaction with the boy, it wasn’t needed either. The boy prioritized his work more than anything, and Dumbldore didn’t want to disrupt the concentration of a young mind.

‘And now, I am the one responsible for taking away his youth…’ Dumbledore thought somberly. He wouldn’t lie, he would forever curse himself for what he did to the Potter heir, and the way he was responsible for pulling the boy in the mess that was Horcruxes and Voldemort. Still, he was thankful for it because Harry’s input had proved very much helpful and had accelerated the tak manifold.

The Warlock looked at the table that was finally full, every member who was alive, and could join, was here. They were anxious, their minds full with queries, queries that would be answered soon. But before that, it was time to begin.

Dumbledore stood from his chair, “Welcome everyone,” He began, “I am happy to see that all of us are here tonight, and very thankful that you answered my call with such urgency.” The assembled members acquiesced as they waited for him.

“Unfortunately, the reason that has each of us under the same roof again is not as wonderful as the occasion. I wish that our reunion didn’t have to occur because of such a daunting task and a sad cause.”

“What happened, Albus?” Marian Dolby, a muggleborn witch, and fellow member, asked him, “Are we here because of the breakout? Do you know something about it other than what The Prophet is spewing?”

Dumbledore nodded, “Yes Marian, the breakout is one of the reasons why we are assembled again, but I am afraid that I will have to ask all of you to give an oath that whatever we discuss here tonight won’t leave this room.”

Hushed silence welcomed his words. He looked at the members and saw them hesitate. It was normal too, how could they simply join something after two decades, and then give an oath first thing in the meeting? It was understandable, but the oaths were necessary because the information was too sensitive to be passed outright now.

“Albus?” Minerva looked at him, confusion and trepidation clear in her eyes.

“It’s important, my friend, or I wouldn't have asked for it in the first place,” Dumbledore told her, his tone was serious which was quite unlike her jovial boss that she had been working with.

“If it’s troubling to you all,” Sirius began from Dumbledore’s left, “Then, I’ll go first.” The Black of the Blacks gave his oath to not divulge anything that will be discussed in the room until the end of this particular meeting.

Seeing someone as strong and as powerful as Sirius take the oath, the rest of the members caved in and slowly, one-by-one they gave their oaths of secrecy too. Dumbldore hummed once as Emelline Vance, the last witch, gave her oath.

“I am sure most of us present here are curious as to why we had to assemble here tonight after all these years since we were disbanded,” His blue eyes watched the faces as some of them agreed while others chose silence.

“There is no easy way to break this heart wrenching news, therefore, I will go with the easiest way possible,” Dumbledore took a deep breath, “I am restarting the Order of the Phoenix because, I can say this with complete certainty, that….” He looked at every face, “...The Dark Lord, better known as Lord Voldemort, is back.”

There was silence for three whole seconds before the room fell under a cacophony of loud voices.

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A week had passed since Azkaban breakout, and the date for his next visit to the guild was coming closer. He had been working non-stop for the last month. Ever since the first task, his body had been in a constant state of exertion, something that was slowly taking toll on his mental prowess.

Harry knew that there was no one else who could do the work that he was doing. Literally no one. He had scoured through a plethora of old and new texts, both from the Hogwarts Library, and the Guild libraries. There was progress in the secret project that the headmaster had given him but it was slow, and very-very frustrating.

At times, he had thought about throwing it all to the winds and simply telling the headmaster that it couldn’t be done, to give-up on the boy and to forget that he ever existed. But then his mind would bring the handful of memories that he had of the person and those would stop him from doing what he just thought.

The only good thing was, his Runes of Potentia were now filled again. They took much less time to fill this time, it was as if there was another force that was slowly filling the runes and egging the process to completion. He knew it was the Deathstick’s magic that was now slowly getting mixed with his own. It would take another two-three months along with guidance from the Guildmaster to completely conquer the Wand of Destiny.

Right now, Harry had just moved out from his Transfiguration lesson and cursed himself for losing his brother again. It was getting quite tough and surprisingly enough, his brother had become really sneaky. Harry cursed himself for forgetting the map, it would have proved to be extremely helpful right now.

The problem wasn’t following his brother, it was not alerting him. The past week had been tedious, and Harry had noticed that somehow the boy got a feeling that he was being followed, and he got the feeling everytime. Then he would change the path and go somewhere else like the Courtyard or some other open place.

Talking to him proved as useful as talking to a bull. Alandale hadn’t uttered a single word, preferring to use grunts as an intelligent method of communication instead of the wonderful English language.

Now following the boy would have been an easy task, especially since by now Harry had roughly got an idea as to where the boy was going every time he went missing, but he still needed to check it before he took any action over that.

But there was also this daunting task of avoiding females. Usually Cho, Marietta, or Fleur, whoever was with him, was enough to stall the upcoming members of the opposite gender and halt their questions of asking him to the Ball.

Harry had tried to fend off the girls, but it was a daunting task. Something that doesn't ease when his, supposed, best friend would tease him about it.

Blaise had, for obvious reasons, taken to learning the names of all the girls that asked him out. And then the git would tease him about the girls during their shared classes. Things like who asked them out, and what they said, and whether they are going with their new yule partner or still waiting for Harry to say yes to them.

Harry hadn’t. He knew that his work was much more important than balls. And since he had already attended more than a few balls and award ceremonies for his ‘feat’ with the dragoness, a children’s ball to celebrate the happiness of indulging in frivolous celebration wasn’t something he was actually excited about.

He felt himself to be quite lucky that the three girls who had shown signs of interest in him had been unable to meet him. Greengrass and Petrovia had tried a few times but his instructions to Dobby had been quite clear and his friend hadn’t allowed the girls in his suite. The diminutive creature had been quite adamant that no one, no matter who they were, should be able to approach him without an actual reason.

Surprisingly enough, Dobby had reported many girls except the craziest one: Angelique Beaufort. In fact, as far as Harry had learned from Fleur during one of their dinner talks, the French diva had decided to attend the ball with Roger Davies. Something that the boy was extremely happy about, so much that he was borderline gloating about it.

Thankfully, the boy had enough sense to not throw the fact in Harry’s face, knowing full well that he might lose both his reputation and his date if the innovator just asked the French diva even once.

But Harry was quite thankful for this, in fact, the Yule Ball was the least of his worries. He knew both the girls and knew that none would stay silent for a long time. If he had to place his bet, then he would place it on the one that he had known for a few years.

Harry had just turned the corner when all of a sudden a door opened behind him, and just as he flicked his wand, someone grabbed him by the collar and pulled him. If he wanted to, he could have easily resisted it, but this time he didn’t. He knew that this meeting had been on hold for sometime and he didn’t want to postpone it any more than it already had.

The inside was a lot cramped, his kidnaper was standing with her body almost pressed with his own. The door was snapped shut and his vision was plundered into darkness. The smell of old brooms and moldy racks wafted around him. But so did the lavender fragrance that he was quite familiar with.

Especially since he had been helping her with her project for the last few months.

“A broom cupboard, Greengrass?” Harry asked her, “What happened to the classroom?” He flicked his wand and the space was bathed with light from the tip of his wand. The light showed the girl who was standing just half-a-foot away from him.

Her eyes were squinted, probably because their lenses had adapted for the low light that was present in the dark cupboard. And Harry took the time to closely see the girl. This wasn’t the first time that he had seen her this close, in fact he was quite sure that the only time he had visited Hogsmeade, Greengrass had manipulated his time in the village and was practically sitting in his lap.

“Missing the room already, Harry? You could have pulled me into one, you know.” Daphne immediately replied with a small smile.

Harry shook his head. Trust Greengrass to still try to indulge him in a banter. Sometimes he wondered how simple his life would have been if he wasn’t the famed innovator. No guilds, no Voldemort, no Dumbledore, no hallows, no destinies to fulfill.

The most he would have been stressed about would be homework and dating, instead of rituals, saving lives, and fighting dark lords like he was right now. It would have been a simple and peaceful life, the normal school life of a student with homework, fun, and a beautiful girlfriend who had literally been throwing herself at him for years now. And was too stubborn to see to reason.

But then, Harry knew that he would be bored out of his bones because it would have been a pretty basic and boring existence.

“What do you want, Greengrass? Can’t get enough with one kidnapping moment in one year?” Harry asked her, even though he knew what the girl had on her mind.

“Can’t help it,” She smiled, “You don’t give me any other way to get to talk to you because you’re too busy avoiding me now,” Her tone was accusatory and he knew that she was right.

“I’ve been busy, the last few weeks haven’t been easy on my mind or body, even now I have work to do.”

“Work-work-work,” She grumbled, “Sometimes I think even a personification of work would have more free time than you.”

Harry didn’t try to refute her statement, preferring to stay quiet instead as it always worked when he was with the Greengrass heiress. It was how it usually went between them anyways.

“How are you?”

Harry blinked at that, that wasn’t something he expected from the girl as it had never come between their conversations, “What?”

Daphne shook her head, her blonde hair slowly moving as she gave a tired sigh, “I know you Harry. I can say that I might be the one person who has seen you since before Hogwarts. Remember the ice-cream parlor? That was where we met,”

He did, he remembered all of their interactions. From the ice-cream parlor to the train to the Astronomy tower, everything. He easily blamed his eidetic memory for that, after all, there was no other reason he could remember them, right?  Obviously.

“You always had a force inside you. I admired the way you seemed to tackle life and not let it give you any crap, it was both inspiring and mesmerizing,” Daphne explained, “It was one of the main reasons that I wanted to be your friend and later..well, you know..” A faint dusting of pink appeared on her cheeks.

Harry frowned a bit, where was she going with this? This was quite an experience for him, mostly because he had never seen the girl both serious and serene at the same time. Yes, she had acted like a love-sick one at times when they were alone and a focused girl when they worked on her project in the library.

This was the first time she shared her thoughts and, for some reason, they scared him.

“But these past few weeks, ever since I came back from my home, I haven’t seen the boy I admired, respected, and adored. You still score well in classes, you still answer teachers, and you are still you, but for some reason, there was no conviction behind your actions,” She murmured, “It was as if you were doing everything out of a sense of duty. Like it was a burden and not something you would do if you had been offered a choice to escape it all.”

Harry frowned at that, true he hadn’t been feeling much of a motivation lately, but was it that visible or was Daphne just too perceptive? He readily admitted that he had been stretched thin because of the number of things on his plate, and that he was trying his best to keep it all in so that it doesn’t spill out and end up as a mess. Maybe it was taking more from him than he initially suspected?

“I know that you don’t share anything that goes on with you, and especially not with someone like me who had done nothing but almost forced you into doing things you would rather skip, still, I would like you to know that there are others, like Zabini and Delacour. They do worry about you and care for you.”

Daphne slowly touched his shoulder and looked straight in his eyes, “And if you are okay with it, then I too am here. We might not be as smart or as genius as you, hell I am sure we might not even understand what’s actually going on, but one thing is for sure,” She gave a small encouraging smile, the same that did weird things to him which he brutally suppressed, “We are here to listen to you, we will listen and who knows, we might suggest something that might help you even?”

Harry couldn’t help but give a small smile which he quickly hid, his mind still betrayed him by conjuring thoughts that had Daphne and Blaise helping him complete his project and kill Voldemort. It was a funny thought, something that would never become a reality but funny nonetheless.

Even though he had tried to suppress it as soon as it had appeared, Daphne did notice the small uplifting of his lips which made her grin with no small amount of pride, “So, are you going to tell me what happened or are you going to bottle it up, again?”

Harry shook his head, “There are many things, Greengrass,” He told her as he released a tired sigh, “They are all interconnected. You won’t understand one unless you understand the other completely, and I am not going to endanger your life because of a moment of stupidity on my part.”

Daphne shook her head, “It won’t harm me. There isn’t anyone except Tracey who knows that I am quite fond of you. To everyone out there, I am the cold emotionless girl who they can only dream of surpassing one day, nothing less and nothing more,” She told him before she smirked, “Also, who is to say that I have been sitting idle all this time, hmm? I found a good…instructor of my own and they have already helped me quite a lot with dueling and teaching me how to protect myself.”

“What?”

Daphne just gave a mysterious smile and shook her head, “No, I will only tell you when you tell me what’s eating you from inside.”

Harry sighed and denied telling her anything. He knew he couldn’t tell her about Voldemort, the wand and its whispers that were eating his mind, the horcruxes, and the rituals that he was going to attend in the guild on the Winter Solstice.

He couldn’t tell her any of that, not unless he wanted Voldemort or his ilk chasing after the girl.

“Since you won’t tell me the cause, I want you to talk to one of your friends. Any of them will be glad to hear you,” She smiled, “Just don’t burn yourself out and be back to yourself as soon as you can.”

Harry hummed in agreement, even when he knew that he wouldn't be able to tell his friends anything about it, “I will,” Still, maybe he should talk to them and just do normal chit-chat with Blaise like they did before all of this mess started? Probably a good idea too.

Once Daphne noticed that Harry had agreed to her words, her smile turned a bit mischievous as she placed her hand on his chest, “Now, it’s time to discuss more important matters.”

The Innovator raised his eyebrows at that, “More important matters?”

The Ice Queen bobbed her head as she narrowed her eyes and folded her hands under her bust, accentuating it a bit more than usual, “When are you going to ask me to the Yule Ball?”

Harry groaned as Daphne grinned victoriously.

.

Dark brown eyes took in their surroundings as they checked the corridor once more. It had been quite a hassle for the last few days and he didn’t know why he was suddenly the prime interest of his blood relative. So much, that his relative often ended up following him and had taken to looking at him during classes and dinner.

It would have been considered a sweet gesture. Only if Alanale Potter didn’t know his brother Harry.

The boy had never once bothered with Alan’s life, neither before, and definitely not during, their stay at Hogwarts. In fact, his brother had made it quite clear that as long as Alan stayed out of deadly crap, and didn’t antagonize him purposefully, the elder Potter would leave the younger one to his own devices and never bother the redhead.

Then why now?! Why the sudden interest in his life? Why all these cloak and dagger games? Why follow him around? Going as far as to ask about him even?! What did Harry Potter want now? After spoiling his life!! What more could he want?

Alan shook his head, those thoughts were coming again, and he didn’t want to let them inside his mind for any amount of time. They had been plaguing his dreams and The Whisperer had all but settled in his mind for some reason. Whispering insidious thoughts that were malicious in nature and highly dubious in understanding.

The boy-who-lived cleared his eyes when his mind started to feel heavy again and his vision started to blur, it was neither the right place nor the right time to let that happen. He looked around himself once more before he stepped inside the abandoned bathroom.

§Open§

The mirrors on the huge central sink collapsed inwards and, the next second, the large central sink began to move. The sink, in fact, sank, right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into.

§Stairs§

There was some noise from the open pipe and the walls rumbled a bit before stairs formed from the wall of the pipe, spiraling down towards the bottomless pit. Alan smirked at the structure before he stepped on the first stair and descended down the pipe. He flicked his wand and light flooded the endless darkness as the sink started to close.

Alan stepped down on the last level and extinguished the light of his wand. He moved towards the long pathway, his shoes clacking on regular intervals. He ignored the huge snake skin that was hanging by the doorway of the actual chamber.

§Open§ Alandale muttered once more and the large snakes twisted before the door opened and he stepped inside the actual chamber that was actually a lot cleaner than how he had witnessed it for the first time when he had entered with his brother to save Ginny.

Thoughts of his brother again made his mind heavy as his vision blurred for a second, he controlled himself again. Perhaps he needed rest? Maybe that would help his tired mind and body? It confused him a bit that he was almost always tired even when he hadn’t done much work and his body ached as if he had worked a lot.

Alandale looked at the great bust that was used as a gateway to the king of the serpents. It was a good thing that no one knew that the Chamber had much more to it than just the King of the Serpents.

$Open$ He smiled when he remembered how Riddle had used a long drawn out pompous line to open the mouth of the bust, it was completely unnecessary because just a single word in Parseltongue would have done the same thing that the entire line did.

Alan was about to step inside the open mouth of the bust when almost immediately the hairs on the back of his neck stood out and he ducked, only for the bright red stunner to smash on the founder’s bust.

“I don’t know what’s gotten into you Alan,” Harry said as he removed his invisibility cloak, “But I am not letting you waste your life like this by going inside that,” The innovator was surprised that his brother had side-stepped the stunner and was therefore frowning suspiciously at his brother’s rigid back, his wand at the ready.

But however much Harry could have readied himself, he was absolutely horrified when his brother turned to look at him. Because it wasn’t his brother’s chocolate brown eyes that glared at him, no.

It was the blood red eyes of Dark Lord Voldemort.

Alandale Potter had succumbed to the Horcrux in his scar, and now, Voldemort possessed the body of the youngest Potter.

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Ending note: There you have it fellas, chapter Fourteenth of Innovator, hope you liked it.

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