Chapter Seven – Post Incident

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter universe belongs to JK Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, Warner Bros and some other high falutin' companies. Me, I'm just a PR professional. I don't profess to own - and would never dream of making any money off - JKR's wonderful world. However, its her sandbox and she's left the gate unlatched so we can go in and play a bit. Which, I've done.

Chapter Seven – Post Incident

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That morning, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore rose from his bed in his private quarters almost gleefully. Today was the day Harry Potter was arriving for his first day at Hogwarts. After almost twelve years of planning, stage two of his Greater Good Plan was about to commence. Stage one, of course, was the boy being raised in safety by his mother's sister's family.

It was almost six weeks ago his deputy, Deputy Headmistress Professor Minerva McGonagall, entered his office with a smile. Grasped in her off-hand was a piece of muggle paper. She approached his desk and offered it to him.

"He's coming, Albus," she said with a smile.

Dumbledore accepted the slip of paper and turned it right way up. Written upon it with a muggle pen was the simple statement:

I accept

Harry Potter

Offering the slip back to the tall witch before him, he said, "Quite concise, but effective in its communication. Thank you for showing it to me, Minerva."

Taking back the slip of paper McGonagall said, "I find myself quite looking forward to young Mister Potter coming to Hogwarts. I wonder if he'll be anything like his father, or his mother, before him."

"I suspect we won't know the answer to that until well after he's settled into life here," replied Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I find myself mired in many hours of parchmentwork through which to wade ere I can say I'm done for the day."

Hesitating just a moment, McGonagall said, "Of course, Albus. I just find myself wanting to share this news with everyone." Then she turned about and walked back out the office.

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The little red-headed First Year Hufflepuff, Susan Bones, was as stunned as everyone else what Harry Potter said when he was standing next to the stool with the Sorting Hat upon it. She was still stunned when he stormed off the platform and stormed back up between the tables. And was just as stunned when he began to disrobe as he suddenly mounted the Hufflepuff table about two thirds of the way down it's length.

However, when she saw the scars, the marks, and the faded, yellowing bruises on the boy's chest, back and arms, she was horrified. She knew what she had to do. She needed to get her aunt - fast.

She climbed back up from the table and ran out of the room as fast as she could. As she ran she pulled the charm on her necklace chain out from under he robes. She grabbed hold of the charm and yanked on it.

Her aunt had told her it was an emergency contact charm. If Susan was in trouble, she was to activate it. Her aunt would come running.

Susan knew Aunt Amelia could not apparate onto the grounds of Hogwarts, so she ran as fast as she could towards where her aunt would appear. That spot was directly outside the main gates to the grounds. She did not notice the flash of magic behind her, or see the windows of the Great Hall blow outwards in shattered glass.

Susan ran as fast as she could. But, being a crying young girl, wasn't as fast as her aunt and a couple of aurors could arrive outside the main gate and come running towards the castle.

Susan ran into the arms of her aunt while the two aurors stopped either side and scanned the surrounds looking for threats.

Still sobbing, Susan bawled, "It's Harry, Aunt Ami! He's been horribly beaten!"

Trying to calm her niece Madam Bones paused in shock before her training kicked in. 'The Boy-Who-Lived? Beaten?' she thought. 'Sweet Merlin!'

"Where is he, Susan?" she implored.

Backing away from her aunt, Susan sobbingly replied, "He's in the Great Hall!"

Looking at both her aurors Madam Bones snapped at them, "Go!"

They got. Together, they ran the rest of the way to the castle; ran in through the main doors and into the Great Hall with wands drawn.

They were met with what could only be described as chaos.

The Hall was poorly lit. Most of the floating candles had been knocked down. Most of the ones still lit were hovering over and behind the head table.

They found a bare-chested young boy was lying sprawled out on his back on the Hufflepuff table. Blood covered his face. There were crying children everywhere and shouting was going on up at the head table. Golden crockery and cutlery was strewn across the floor mixed in with extinguished candles and table decorations. Little remained on most of the tables.

Children were milling around - some sitting at benches, others standing. They were crying, sobbing or just looking around in a daze.

Both aurors barked out, "Aurors!"

The school healer, Poppy Pomfrey, was attempting to attend the boy on the table while clearing the area of other, clearly distressed, children. She ignored the aurors. However, so did everyone else.

After a few moments, Pomfrey looked up at them and snapped out, "Go to the fireplace in the infirmary and call Saint Mungo's. Tell them I've got many multiple trauma victims here and need any and all assistance they can send."

When neither auror moved with the alacrity she expected, she barked at them, "Go!"

Again, they got. A few moments later one returned and said to her, "My partner will place that call. I'm a trained battle medic. What do you need?"

Hesitating just a moment she said, "Go to the head table. One of the professors was attacked by what appeared to be a malevolent spirit. He's the one in the lilac coloured robes and turban."

The battle medic healer ran towards the head table just as his boss, Madam Bones, entered the Hall with young Susan in tow. Just as she cleared the doors she stopped, just as stunned as her two aurors first were.

Susan was first to recover. She ran into the chaos looking for her friend, Hannah Abbott.

Feeling her niece run past her, Madam Bones snapped to and strode over to Pomfrey. "Poppy!" she cried. "What in Merlin's name happened here?"

Just glancing over her shoulder at the head of the DMLE, Pomfrey snapped, "I don't have time to answer your questions, Amelia. I'm trying to save this young man's life! Go see if you can get any sense out of Minerva or Filius. That's when she noticed Harry lying on the table."

Madam Bones just nodded with a grim look, drew her auror's badge from underneath her robes and tapped it with the tip of her wand. Speaking into it, she barked, "I want all on duty aurors not otherwise engaged to hustle their bums to the Great Hall in Hogwarts now! We've got an emergency here, people!"

Tapping the badge again she dropped it back into her robes and carefully made her way through the chaos to the head table. She wanted answers, and she wanted them now.

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Clearing the last of the students, she was confronted with Minerva McGonagall clearly berating Albus Dumbledore at the top of her lungs behind a privacy bubble. The woman was also clearly apoplectic with rage.

Not wanting to spend her time trying to calm either verbal combatant, Aunt Amelia simply fired stunners at them both, knocking both out. Checking to ensure there would be no one about to hex her back she spun on her heel, stuck her finger and thumb just inside her mouth and let blast with a loud whistle.

The students were startled enough to quieten down and look back at her.

"Right!" she called. "I'm Madam Amelia Bones, Head of the DMLE. I'm taking charge here, so listen up."

When she was sure she had their attention she continued, "I want all students who are uninjured to take seat at either the Gryffindor or Slytherin tables, or standing along the wall on the other side of them. I do not care what your normal houses are, you will do this. I want this passage up the middle..." indicating the space between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables, "... cleared immediately. Those students who have been injured in any way, I want you sitting at either the Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff tables."

Waiting a few moments to ensure everyone had heard, she again continued, "Well? Move!"

Once she saw the children were beginning to move she turned back to the staff table. Glaring at the remaining conscious staff she snapped out, " What the bloody Hell are you lot doing just sitting there? You have clearly injured and distressed students to deal with! Professors Snape, Sprout and Flitwick check on the students for injuries. The rest of you, assist them. Now!"

The staff, finally, began to move.

"Potter just had to come in and make a big scene, didn't he?" snarled a tall, greasy haired man wearing black robes. "Waltzed right in and..."

"Shut up; right now, Professor Snape!" barked Madam Bones. "If I want your opinion I'll give it to you! Now, go and do your job and look after the students."

Rounding on her battle medic auror she asked, "Well?"

Approaching her, the battle medic auror cast his own privacy shield before telling her, "The man's dead. It looks like he was suffering a recent possession, but that possession has now ended. I've nothing else that explains it."

Frowning at her auror Madam Bones sighed and said, "Cast a Notice-Me-Not field over the body but don't move it. This is clearly now a crime scene. We'll begin our investigations once we sort out the children."

As she turned back to look down the tables she saw the children had almost finished sorting themselves out with the exception of a few small groups of crying girls. That's when a group of medi-witches and -wizards rapidly walked into the Hall from the Entry Hall.

She watched as the school's healer, Poppy Pomfrey, grabbed one of the senior healers that had just entered, and was gesticulating wildly over the prone form of the boy on the Hufflepuff table. The new healer motioned for a third to join them. The others began seeing to the few minor injuries of a few students who appeared to have minor cuts and abrasions.

Bones called the diminutive Professor Filius Flitwick to join her from where he had being using his skill in charms to heal some of the minor injuries of the students.

"Alright, Filius," she began. "Now that the team of healers from Saint Mungo's is here - What the bloody Hell happened?"

Flitwick began to describe how the sorting started out as it always did each year. Then what happened when young Harry Potter's name was called and he walked up to the stool. He told her how the boy looked quite angry and how some of the other First Years appeared afraid of him. And how, when he reached the stool, his face developed a mien of fury. He told how the boy then looked up at the face of the Deputy Headmistress, where she stood alongside the stool with the Sorting Hat in her hand, and said, 'No.'

He described how the boy then berated the Headmaster and the Deputy Headmistress before he started to storm out of the Hall unwilling to be sorted, or even attend the school.

He described how the boy then stopped and climbed onto the Hufflepuff table stripping himself to the waist as he did, before screaming at and berating, pretty much, most of the school.

Then he explained how the boy finally let out a blood curdling scream towards the ceiling before his face seemed to burst open with blood. He described how an evil spirit seemed to have been ejected out of the boy's forehead as the boy appeared to expend a massive burst of accidental magic - which is how the mess around the hall occurred and some of the children were injured - before he collapsed where he stood.

Flitwick then described how the spirit ejected from the head of the young Mister Potter seemed to hesitate for a few moments before it sped towards Professor Quirinus Quirrell. It struck the professor in the head; where it seemed to rip out a kindred spirit. The Professor then collapsed onto the table; apparently, dead. The two spirits merged into a larger entity before it flew out one of the blown out windows of the Hall into the night. It was not too long afterwards that the aurors burst into the Hall.

Madam Bones listened carefully to the testimony of the diminutive professor before her before she turned back to the demi-carnage amongst the house tables.

She turned back to the Professor before reaching into her robes and pulling out a stoppered phial. She asked, "Alright, Filius; may I have a copy of the memory, please?"

"Certainly," the Professor replied. He stood there for a moment or two clearly thinking hard before pressing the tip of his wand to his right temple. Carefully drawing the wand away there was a silvery misty strand pulled with it from his temple.

As he drew his wand away Madam Bones opened the phial and held it out. The professor carefully allowed the strand to drop into the phial before allowing it to release and pulling his wand away. Madam Bones restoppered the phial and replaced it within her robes.

"Thank you, Professor," she said. "I'm sure that's going to greatly help. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to see if I can get an update on the health of young Mister Potter."

"Certainly," he replied. "But, do you mind if I revive Albus and Minerva?"

Hesitating for only a moment she said, "Wake them. However, I don't want to see them getting into another argument, either. And tell them both I want to have words with them after I talk to the healers."

"Certainly," the professor, again, replied.

With the students now sitting back down, and the centre passageway cleared, Madam Bones was able to walk back down to where Madam Pomfrey and the other healer were still working on who she now knew to be Harry Potter.

Calmly stepping up to them she asked, "How is he?"

Without looking around, Pomfrey replied, "His magic is still unstable but we're getting a handle on it. We think it was an unreleased infant lock that shattered."

Madam Bones hissed in shock.

The second healer took it up from there. "As for his forehead it appears there was a soul fragment buried behind it."

On hearing that Madam Bones hissed in shock, again. "It's gone?" she asked.

The healer replied, "We think the release of the lock on his magic forcefully expelled it. There was residual dark energy emanating from it, but I think I've now cleared it away. As you can see, his scar is now practically gone. We've placed him in an induced somnulus state while we get his magic stabilised.

"After that, we'll get him to Saint Mungo's to work on the rest of his injuries."

"There's more?" asked Madam Bones, shocked.

The two healers glanced up at each other for a few moments before Pomfrey replied, "A great deal more, I'm afraid. Too much to list here. And not for younger ears to hear."

Madam Bones knew she was referring to the children nearby.

"Right," said Pomfrey, suddenly. Calling out, she barked, "We need a stretcher over here ready to transport the patient directly to Saint Mungo's."

One of the other nearby healers was just packing up from applying Essence of Dittany to the cut on the forehead of a young witch. He looked up and said, "I've one in my bag. Just a moment."

Vanishing the remains of the swabs he was using on the young witch he reached into his bag, drew forth a shrunken wizarding stretcher and unshrunk it. The stretcher hovered about four feet above the floor.

Pomfrey and the other healer working on Harry then backed away, before she levitated the boy off the table and onto the stretcher. He was quickly strapped to it.

Knowing they were about to whiz the boy away, Madam Bones turned to another auror and commanded, "I want statements from at least a half dozen of those students calm enough to give one, plus one from each of the staff that were here when what happened - happened.

"I've also secured a memory from Professor Flitwick but I also want one from a student from the opposite end of the hall who's over the age of consent. This happened in the middle of the sorting so I want the children taken to their common rooms as soon as possible. They need to eat and this Hall is still a crime scene."

"What about the unsorted First Years?" one of the aurors asked.

Thinking for a moment, Madam Bones replied, "Ask Professor Flitwick and Sprout to spread them out amongst the Houses for tonight. They can be properly sorted later. I'll be at Saint Mungo's - and tell Professor Flitwick that, too. If Mister Potter wakes up I want to be there when he does."

"Yes, Ma'am!" the auror responded.

Madam Bones then chased after the stretcher bearing Harry. It was already out the door and on the way up the stairs to the second floor and the Infirmary.

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As soon as Madam Pomfrey and the other healer had Harry stabilised enough to move, he was floo'ed through the fireplace in the Hogwarts Infirmary directly to Casualty at Saint Mungo's. Madam Bones, joined by one of her aurors, stepped through immediately after.

With young Harry still unconscious, she and her auror followed the floating gurney directly into the treatment room.

When one of the medi-witches saw her, she turned to the monocle-wearing Head of the DMLE and said, "I'm sorry, Ma'am, you cannot be in here."

Glaring back, Madam Bones said, "Too bad. I'm not letting that boy out of my sight until I have answers as to what happened in the Hogwarts Great Hall tonight."

Madam Pomfrey was relaying medical information and conditions about her young patient to the others who had now joined them in the treatment room and ignored the presence of the two senior aurors now in the room.

When she wrapped up her snappish report to the other healers she backed away to let them get to work.

Madam Bones saw that the medi-witch was done and caught her attention.

"Madam Pomfrey," she called. "A word, if I may?"

The medi-witch looked back and gave her head a short nod. "Outside, please," and gestured to the hallway outside the door.

Madam Bones turned to her auror and said, "Stay with the boy," before following the medi-witch outside.

In the hallway, she asked, "Okay, Poppy; in the words of an experienced healer, what the hell happened tonight?"

The medi-witch sighed and said, "The sorting was going as per usual..."

"Skip that," interrupted Madam Bones, "Just pick it up from when Mister Potter stepped up onto the Hufflepuff table."

Nodding, the medi-witch replied, "He was angry. No, he was livid. I've never seen a young man of his age in a rage like that before, and I've seen a lot. Amongst other things, he was ranting about how Dumbledore and Minerva apparently ruined his life by abandoning him on a doorstep immediately after that fateful night.

"That's when he stepped up onto the table and ripped off his robes baring his torso to the entire school. We were all completely shocked with what we were witnessing - what we saw. He was also flaring his magic, though I don't think he was aware of it. He was practically glowing.

"Suddenly he looked like he was struggling to breathe. He threw his head back and screamed. That's when he emitted an almighty pulse of magic. It was a visible wave of magical energy that knocked people and items over within close proximity to him. It also caused, for example, the failure of the enchantments that keep the candles floating above the tables. And it blew out the windows in the Hall.

"He collapsed onto the table on his back and, amongst the screams of the students, there was a much more feral scream that came from him. It appeared that - whatever happened - caused a partial possession to be forced out of his head. By that time, the boy appeared to be unconscious; thank goodness!

"The partial possession - or, whatever it was - coalesced in the air above his head. It hesitated for a moment before it appeared to be dragged through the air straight at Professor Quirrell. Professor Quirrell, by this time, was also screaming and clutching his head.

"The - spirit - slammed into Professor Quirrell's head and appeared to knock another partial possession out of the Professor. The Professor slumped forward onto the table while the two spirits merged into one above his - body."

Hesitating for a moment, the medi-witch appeared horrified when she said, "The spirit had a face, Amelia. It was He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named!"

"Oh, sweet Merlin!" gasped the Head of the DMLE.

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