1994 Pt.3

"No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution."– Nicollo Machiavelli.

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She walked through the castle grounds towards the quidditch pitch where she knew her friends would be. She could see the Gryffindor team flying around. Probably trying to make up for the missed quidditch matches for the year. She didn't like or want to bother Harry during his flight but the information she had found out in the contemporary history club was too important and relevant to not tell her friend. She reckoned that he would want to tell Mr Black about it too.

Hermione quickly climbed up the stands before sending out sparks from her wand to gain the attention of the players who were flying around the stadium at speeds faster than a hundred kilometres per hour.

"Potter!!" She heard Katie shout as she nodded towards Hermione.

Nary a second passed before Hermione's wild brown hair was blown away by her friend landing beside her. She turned around and found him standing there.

Hermione studied her friend who was drenched in sweat. Harry Potter was taller than all the boys in their year. Hermione reckoned that only her other friend Ron was close to matching her raven-haired friend when it came to height. Though unlike Ron, who was lanky, Harry was extremely muscular. Hermione still remembered how her friend had single-handedly dismantled Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle together in a matter of moments in their second year when Malfoy had made the mistake of calling Hermione a 'mudblood'.

"Need something 'mione?" Harry asked cheerfully.

"I wanted to talk to you and Barath about something important," Hermione shook her head at his expecting look and added, "In private."

Harry sent her a confused look before his face hardened a little and he said, "Okay, let us get out of here." He threw his broom on his shoulder before waving to Wood with a hand sign that only the Gryffindor team members knew.

They walked slowly on the wet grass of the castle grounds, moving towards the school's border with the forbidden forest. Harry and Hermione walked very close to the place where the school's enchantments ended in the forbidden forest before Harry carefully pulled his wand out and incanted, "Recuso Deducticus."

Hermione felt proud at the successful casting of the charm she had taught her friend before she remembered the reason why they had walked all the way to the edge of the school.

Hermione quickly started searching her pockets before she finally pulled out a piece of parchment from the pocket of her robes and handed it to Harry who looked at her in confused inquiry.

"Read it. These are my notes from today's contemporary history club's first meeting." Harry gave Hermione a flat look at her last statement before unfolding the piece of parchment and starting to read it.

Harry read the writing on the parchment and the more of it he read the harder his expression got. Finally, when he finished reading, he looked Hermione in the eyes and said, "Well that was an enlightening read. Robert feels the same."

Hermione nodded as she glanced at the ring Harry always wore. A smooth black signet ring with the sigil of a golden stag engraved on its top, the ring that contained Harry's first friend within itself was a feat of magical enchanting only equalled by the sorting hat. Artificially created sapience that mimicked human life to an absolutely absurd degree.

Hermione liked Robert. The few times they talked, she found the boastful and cheerful man quite entertaining and surprisingly wise, but she also knew that she could not trust him. Not because of any faults of Robert. No, it was the nature of how Harry had found the ring and the intentions of its owner that made her wary of the thing. An owner who could enchant things like Rowena Ravenclaw was way above their ability to contend with if their intentions were bad.

She had advised Harry multiple times about the risk of trusting the ring blindly, but he had shrugged her off. It had been really tempting to just go to Professor McGonagall and tell her about the ring, but Hermione hadn't done that. She knew Harry would hate her if she told anybody and Hermione did not have enough friends that she could afford to lose them willy-nilly due to bad decisions.

So Hermione did what she normally did in times of great moral conflict. She researched. She tested the ring for any and every curse she could think of or find in the library. It became almost a ritual for her to try to find the enchantments placed upon the ring every few days. And while she hadn't found anything damning, it had become a matter of pride for her to understand everything she could about the ring. She had to make sure that it was safe after all! She wasn't jealous of the creator's skill as her two friends always accused her teasingly.

"Yes. You should have seen the faces of some of the Slytherins in attendance. Their jaws were practically touching the floor."

"Yeah, imagine when Malfoy finds out. Hell imagine when he tells his father all about it," Harry couldn't help but shake his head at the image within his mind. It would be so funny when his death eater father found out that he had been serving the same type of guy whose precious ideals decry as the root of all the problems that plague magical society. Ferret senior's rage would be a sight to behold.

And that was just Malfoy's reaction. Harry imagined Voldemort finding out about his dirty little secrets being aired throughout the muggle world. He would be so furious, he would snarl and sneer as he tried to come up with the greatest tortu–

Harry froze. The implications of Niklaus Grey spreading Voldemort's dearly hidden secrets to the masses hit him at once. The bloke probably did not know that Voldemort was still haunting the mortal coil and would definitely come for revenge if he ever got the chance. Harry needed to inform him about the danger he could be in.

He was about to ask more about the bloke from Hermione before he felt Robert sending his thoughts to him on the matter, 'You don't need to do anything. Dumbledore will probably find out soon anyway. The portraits will tell Dumbledore about the matter. It's better if you don't risk getting called a nutjob for proclaiming the return of a long-dead terrorist. Let the man better suited for the job do it.'

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Author Notes:

Actions have consequences. You can mitigate them but you will never truly get rid of them. This chapter has Niklaus make an enemy out of Voldemort and his ilk with what he has disclosed to the Hogwarts population. The only question that remains now is if the consequences of his actions are beneficial or detrimental.

Harry as most of you would have already noticed is different from his canon counterpart. That is also merely a consequence of the actions taken by Niklaus. I am not going to go into too much detail but the idea of a Hogwarts hat-style companion for Harry is something I have always found appealing. Niklaus gifting Robert to Harry as a soft apology for not helping him with his abusive relatives seemed like a good idea to me.

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