29

Chapter 29: Master of the Ring (oh, and of Death obviously)Notes:

Good morning everyone. Hope you'll enjoy this week's chapter, with a little bit of a reunion in it ;)

Have fun

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

A few days after the big movie night, Minerva and Filius flooed to Potter Manor with a plan. They had spent the time since the end of term to scout the Gaunt residence in Little Hangleton and find out what protections Riddle had set up. Neither of them was a professional curse breaker, yes, but together they were skilled enough. They would need Harry's help though.

"Harry?"

"Minnie, Filius. Good to see you. What brings you here today?"

"We're finally ready to go for the last horcrux, but we're in need of a parselmouth for some of the protective wards."

"Oh, that's great news. Wanna get going now?"

As they nodded, he called Hermione over. There was no way she'd let him do that without her, and - just as he had expected - she insisted on accompanying them.

Filius had created a portkey for them, and once they landed just outside of the…shack, one might just call it, Hermione asked if they should go for Tom Riddle Sr.'s bones. Minerva had the same idea a week back and asked Severus to do the calculations on the outcome of the potion, if Riddle would do it with another set of bones. Result of that was that it would still work and it could actually end worse for them. Tom would then undoubtedly use the bones of a magical, and if that person's magical core was a match to his magical core, then that could boost his core strength. Since Riddle Sr. had been a muggle, Tom could "only" reach his previous core strength. Manipulating necromancy rituals was always dangerous and not advisable. 

Filius deactivated the alarm wards around the property, then they slowly moved towards the house, carefully dispelling every jinx, curse and ward on the path to the front door. Some of those were outright nasty, for example a bone liquifying curse or an organ vanishing curse, carefully hidden behind a tripping jinx. 

The front door responded to a simple "open" in Parseltongue, then Minerva dispelled the alarm ward on the shack's floor, so they could enter. Inside there was not much left, just some broken furniture and a lot of dust. The detection spell only showed a damn strong protective ward on the one floorboard where the ring should be hidden under.

It took Harry and Filius, the two with the strongest magical cores of the four, about ten minutes to break the ward with sheer force, but once it shattered they could simply lift the floorboard up and Minerva grabbed the little wooden box. Neither of them really dared opening it, but they had to. Minnie placed the box on the ground, ready to open the lid magically, while Filius and Mione prepared themselves to cast anti-compulsions. Harry held both of his wands in his hands, ready to banish the horcrux.

Once he signalled Minerva to start, she flicked her wand and opened the box, instantly moving forward. Then the anti-compulsion charmes hit all of them.

Neither of the four had any desire to touch the ring now, and Harry was able to banish the horcrux without any real trouble. The spells on the ring stayed intact for the time being, they would dispel those at home in a safe environment. 

But before that they needed to celebrate, because - and the horcrux map from the goblins confirmed that - they had destroyed every single one of Tom's horcruxes. Without Harry's cursed scar and without the snake being one already, it hadn't been that hard. Now they only needed to get rid of the spirit of the Dark Lord.

Dinner that evening was a very lively event, because now the downfall of Tom Riddle wasn't so far away anymore. Sirius and Remus were the most enthusiastic ones and got so wasted that Harry asked one of his elves to pop them into their respective rooms and bring them some of Severus' sobering potion in the morning. The others continued to eat, listen to music and listen to tales until way after midnight. Not all of them, especially not Filius, had heard about all their future adventures, and in turn they got to hear stories from the marauder era and from the professors' youth. 

At some point Hermione, who had been sitting next to Harry on one of the couches, curled up next to him and fell asleep, her head on his shoulder. Minerva just smiled at the sight of that and, once they were all sure that Mione was actually asleep, said to Harry:

"You know, one of these days you've got to ask her out, Harry. You can't claim that it's because of the timeline or because of Riddle and all the dangers."

"I know, and I'm planning on doing it, definitely before school starts again."

At some point Harry then decided to head to bed, but then he realised that Mione was still leaning against him and the last thing he wanted to do now was wake her up. Without thinking much about it, he slowly got up so he could lift her up and carry her upstairs. Sure, he could have asked an elf, but they were hopefully all asleep by now and for him it was no big deal to do it himself.

Thankfully Mione's door wasn't completely closed, he could simply push it open with his foot. Without really thinking about it he proceeded to place her on the bed and tuck her in. For a moment he thought she was in the process of waking up, but he just quietly told her to continue sleeping and the girl just did that. Carefully he made his way out of the room, closed the door and entered his room, the one directly next to Mione's room. He too was damn tired.

The next morning, when Harry came down for breakfast, the first thing he saw was a blushing Hermione. Apparently she was well aware of how she got into bed.

He just smiled at her and then tried to follow the debate between Minnie and Sirius. It appeared to be about the question, where to break all the curses on the Gaunt ring. Minerva was well acquainted with the Potter ritual room and trusted its protective enchantments while Sirius' line of reasoning was that the Black family regularly handled abnormally dark curses and so their ritual chamber was much more ideal.

After a while Harry chimed in the discussion and supported Sirius, adding the point that if something should go wrong, Grimmauld Place was currently empty and no one else would be endangered by any potential mishap. And since Minerva had to agree with that, the final decision wasn't hard. Minerva would be assisted by Remus and Sirius, both having some experience with cursed objects, and if necessary Harry would support with magical power. His core was by far the strongest, no point in denying that. 

Mione would stay at Potter Manor and continue her research on horcrux spirits and how they could be killed. Harry's reaper had told him that unfortunately Voldemort wouldn't simply cease to exist. Normally, if a wizard with a horcrux got killed, then their remaining spirit would be in the vessel, and just in the vessel. Since Voldy never really got killed but - due to the rebounding but weakened killing curse - just separated from his body, his free spirit would stay alive. They'd need to kill him inside a host body or a manufactured body to really get rid of him, or at least that's what their research said up until now. Maybe there was a way to kill such a spirit, maybe not. That's why Hermione was researching.

By noon Minnie was pretty happy that they had decided to do the ritual here at Grimmauld Place, and not the Manor. They were still fighting against some of those curses and the amount of ambient magic literally shook the house and all the bursts of magic that the chamber's shield's struggled to contain destroyed various parts of the furniture and left burn marks on the walls.

They had dismantled the withering curse and a torture curse not unlike the cruciatus, but the strong compulsion charm on it was pretty tough to break, or at least it was until Harry put his hands on Sirius and Minnie's shoulders so he could push his magic through them and feed their spells.

With a loud explosion the last of the spells on the ring got dismantled, and while it threw all four of them backwards, it didn't do any harm. The Black ritual chamber was equipped with personal protection charms to contain exactly this kind of energy and shield the users.

Without properly thinking about it Harry walked forward, mainly out of curiosity, and grabbed the ring. The symbol of the Deathly Hallows was engraved on the back of it and it was shimmering. He didn't know why, but he just felt the need to put it on. For a second he hesitated, checking that it wasn't another compulsion, and it wasn't. It was something else.

What Harry didn't realise was that the Elder Wand suddenly appeared out of nowhere, tucked into his holster next to Ignatus' wand. He also didn't realise the invisibility cloak appearing on his back, causing Minerva, Remus and Sirius to stare at the boy with wide eyes. 

Once the ring touched Harry's finger, something…clicked into place, one could say. It just felt correct. The room got cold and dark, causing Minnie and Remus to draw their wands. Sirius wanted to rush forward, but a strong wind or wave of magical energy, it was hard to describe, pushed him back.

A soft tune, though dark and mystic, started to play as Harry drew the Elder Wand and looked at it. The wind swirled around his hair and cloak and the ambient magic was so strong that one could literally feel the energy tingling. 

And out of the shadows stepped a figure in a long grey cloak, grinning at the boy-who-lived.

"Harry! Been a while, hasn't it? Death sends his regards, he's currently busy. There's a situation in Japan keeping him occupied, something horrid apparently. Haven't gotten the memo though, your assignment is top priority. Let me tell you, you're doing a good job at defeating Riddle, the boss is happy with you."

"Uhm, hey John. That's good to hear. So no escalation of the timeline or what? Salazar's worries were totally unfounded then." 

The reaper grimaced and shook his head.

"Maybe, maybe not. We're not sure yet, but there is a potential for an even worse situation, but I can't tell you anything about it. Well, I can at least bend my orders so far and tell you to check if the prophecy orb is still glowing after Riddle. There might be a situation. But anyway…"

"Wait what? Don't tell me that I've got to face another Dark Lord. Ugh. Seriously?"

"Maybe. But as I said, it's just a possibility and I can't tell you more about it."

"Then why are you here?"

"Because you are now the Master of Death and I'm here to tell you all about it. Not that it'd be much. You can use the hallows, they can't be taken from you, even the wand. Your core should get a bit stronger, you could use advanced necromancy and can take over or destroy inferi without problem. You can travel through the shadows, you'll find some information in the Peverell Grimoire, that even works within Hogwarts. Summoning the dead is not advised, that could weaken their spirits so they fade away, that's what truly happened to Cadmus. His fiancé's spirit ceased to exist. Oh and you might realise that ghosts will fear you, you can command them now."

Harry tried to memorise the things John just recited in a Hermione kind of way, before John continued speaking.

"By the way, Death sends you a present. I can give you and your friends two minutes with your parents. But that's a one-time deal."

Harry smiled, while Sirius, Remus and Minerva, all still very shocked, stared at the reaper in surprise.

"Would it be too much to ask if you could bring Mione and Severus here before you summon them? I want them to be here too."

John sighed and then snapped with his fingers, causing Mione and Severus to appear out of nowhere. Both were about to start swearing and complaining about what the hell just happened, but once they saw the reaper and Harry standing there, they shut up instantly.

"Two minutes, then their spirits will get recalled into afterlife. Oh and before I forget it Harry, if things go horribly wrong, you know what Merlin told you. See you around, guys."

And with that he stepped into the shadows and was gone, just as James and Lily appeared.

Harry, who had spent quite some time with his parents in the afterlife just smiled at them, and they smiled back. He got their approval and he knew that they loved him. Then he took a step back and allowed all the others to talk to them. Sirius begged James for forgiveness for his stupidity and recklessness, Remus because of him leaving Harry alone. The spirit of the marauder just grinned at his old friends and forgave them.

Lily told Severus that he had redeemed himself and she forgave him.

About half of their time was over by now so both James and Lily went over to Minnie and thanked her for everything, leaving the headmistress of Hogwarts in tears.

Lily chided the two marauders for their stupidity before smiling at them and saying "thank you" while Severus and James nodded at each other. James was happy that at least someone had done something for his boy, and Severus had really redeemed himself.

Then the two spirits came up to Harry and Hermione.

"Hey, Prongslet. You're doing good, I'm proud. Especially because you seem to follow the tradition I started. Brightest witch of your age, huh? Good job!"

If Lily would have had a body, she probably would have smacked James playfully, but she indeed agreed.

"Nice meeting you, Hermione. Look after Harry, he can be a bit reckless and stupid. But you already know that, don't you?"

The two women laughed and just smiled at each other before looking at Harry. They both adored the boy.

James, who damn well knew how lucky his little boy was, just winked at him, as they slowly started to fade away. Every single person had teary eyes and together they stared quietly at the spot where the two spirits had been just a moment ago. 

After that incident with the Gaunt ring things started to calm down for them. Harry started developing some legislation to give werewolves more rights and recognise the goblins and others as intelligent species (currently those topics were handled by the department for magical creatures). 

It was, to be honest, surprisingly simple to recognise goblins, merpeople and centaurs as intelligent beings. Up until now the wizards and witches had ignored the topic, but now, as it was being brought up they couldn't publicly say that they didn't consider goblins as intelligent people instead of creatures. The press would undoubtedly destroy them with that.

And so they established a diplomatic office for each of those races, and a joint department to represent their interests within magical Britain. Bill Weasley was one of the top delegates by the goblins (and the only non-goblin of their delegation).

Werewolf rights were a completely different topic, even within the Potter alliance, because enough people on all sides of the spectrum had lost someone to people like Greyback or an accidental attack. And while Harry had to make some modifications to get it through the Wizengamot, he did manage it. People with lycanthropy would still have to register their affliction, but - at least from a legal point of view - they'd still be wizards and witches first. A variety of the Lords created a fund to pay for the wolfsbane potion and discrimination against werewolves was just as forbidden as discrimination by blood status. Arthur Greengrass somehow even managed to bargain for a sick day on the day of and the day after the full moon. And Harry had to admit, Arthur Greengrass was nearly as impressive and intimidating as Augusta Longbottom - and that woman could be one hell of a scary witch once you started debating and arguing with her.

Another interesting thing in the Wizengamot was the constant - and to be honest pretty annoying - call for pardons by the minister. Be it for Dumbles because he was old or one of the Death Eaters because they were being framed, but Amy and the rest of the Wizengamot were blocking every single attempt.

At home things were good too, they had several "movie evenings" and other fun activities, but what hadn't happened until now was Harry asking out Hermione.

It took Harry quite a while to force himself to do that, but after he came back from the family meeting with Andi Tonks. While they had seen Nyphadora and Andromeda at the trials, they hadn't talked to them, and Sirius was insistent on offering them a place in the family again. Yes, his mother's "burning her off the tapestry" hadn't done that and was a mere symbolic act, but running off with Ted and breaking the betrothal contract the Black Family had with the Malfoy Family automatically did that.

Kreacher and Sirius had worked together to clean up the mess from the breaking of the curses on the ring so the Black home would look acceptable for an official family meeting.

Once Andromeda knocked, Kreacher led the trio into the sitting room he had prepared for them. Sirius and Harry both got up, trying to look as stoic and cold as possible to keep the formal setting. 

Andi bowed her head, and both her husband and her daughter followed suit.

"Lord Black. I come to apologise for my actions against the House of Black and ask for forgiveness."

"Mrs. Tonks. Please take a seat, all of you. We, the Lord Black and my Heir, will hear you."

Nymphadora was looking like she wanted to complain, but her mother had promised her that all of it would be an act. Ted looked damn uncomfortable with the whole thing, since he was absolutely unfamiliar with the pureblood rites.

Sirius offered them some tea, before starting to list the actions Andromeda had done against the House of Black. Then he smiled.

"Are you ready to acknowledge those actions and face the retribution?"

"Yes, I am."

"Good. My offer would be that you and your family join the House of Black again, with every right and duty, and that you shall take the interim position as Professor for wizarding traditions at Hogwarts until a suitable and willing person is found for the job. I know that you have been taught in the traditions more than anyone else in our family."

To be fair, that was not a bad offer. Bringing her back into the family would give all of them a monthly stipend and Andromeda was currently not working. She was brilliant, but not really a respected member of society. So all in all it was not really a punishment, but a gift.

"I accept that, Lord Black. Do you want us to take the vow right now?"

"That would be appreciated."

All five of them got up together and Sirius introduced them into the House of Black. It was no big deal, just a formal vow, and once that whole thing was done, Sirius and Andi started grinning and hugged each other, finally dropping the stoic behaviour. Harry now got - again - introduced to "don't call me Nympha…you-know-what" Tonks and Ted Tonks, after Sirius had introduced him to his favourite cousin. 

After a long lunch Harry flooed back to Potter Manor, being in a particular good mood. Seeing Tonks again was great and Sirius had truly missed Andi (and vice versa), meaning the reunion was particularly nice. 

He went looking for Mione right away, finding her at the pool. Well, rather in the pool. Upon seeing him she went out of the water and greeted him, asking Harry to tell her how the meeting went.

Just a while later they were sunbathing at the pool and eating ice cream, when Harry finally decided to ask Mione.

"Hey Mione?"

She responded with a simple "Hm?" since she currently had a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth. Harry smiled at her, wondering how he could have been so blind the last time around.

"Uhm…you know, since we can go to Hogsmeade once we're back at school, would you go…uhm…go out with me?"

It was truly fabulous how much Hermione's eyes were shining upon hearing that and she nodded enthusiastically. For a moment they both just grinned, before Mione asked:

"I take it you want to wait until we're back at school to avoid something coming from Padfoot?"

"Damn right. Remus once told me what Padfoot had tried to do at my parents' first date. Nothing I wanna imagine, believe me. But well, the old dog didn't succeed and it took Madame Pomfrey two hours to reverse all the spells dad put on him."

Mione laughed, and Harry realised how beautiful that actually sounded. 

And this feeling, that happiness, was much more intense than anything that he ever felt with Ginny. It was true, strong and profound. He was happy.

With that thought in mind, Harry enjoyed the rest of the holidays with his family. This time around there was truly no real danger. Riddle had no body, Parkinson was out of the country and Dumbles and Molly were in Azkaban. Daphne and Neville came over several times, and so did Susan. The latter even stayed at Potter Manor for a week when Sirius and Amelia decided to take a vacation. Under the wards of the Manor they could even use magic undetected (that only really mattered for Susan, Nev and Daph, Harry was long emancipated and Mione, under Potter protection, was legally an adult too) and trained for school. 

They even invited Luna over a few times, together with her father. Sure, Harry and Hermione were still a little bit upset about his betrayal, but he did it for Luna so it was understandable. Remus and Xeno had some very interesting discussions, and Mione realised that not all of Luna's creatures were an imagination, Remus had encountered some of them in the Americas during his mastery.

The birthday party for Harry and Neville was quite a success, with most of their yearmates and some from other years in attendance. They held it at Potter Manor, but Augusta did most of the planning. In the end it was not only a celebration, but also a big event for wizarding Britain's high society. Most Lords and Ladies were invited and attended, a good way for Harry and Sirius to make alliances and promote their agendas. 

Not that all of that really mattered for Harry on this day. He allowed himself for this day to ignore his wishes to make improvements to their society, but enjoyed the party. After a bit of socialising he and his friends gathered in one of the more secluded sitting rooms to have a proper birthday party. 

Aside from some ancient books and advanced magical equipment (for example for runes or herbology), he did get a handful of more personal presents, like photo albums or like from Luna a self made necklace (to keep the wrackspurts away). Mione had tried to utilise her mediocre drawing and painting skills and had painted a watercolour picture of Potter Manor. 

It was by all means not a masterpiece, but it was lovely. And even better, she managed to enchant it. Time passed in the picture, with a rising sun and moon. Whenever it was night, the picture depicted just that. For that lovely present the girl even got a small peck on her cheek, causing both to blush and Neville to grin.

Definitely a very successful birthday party.

Notes:

So, that's it for this week. For those that think the scene with James&Lily's spirits was too short, I just wanted to give the other characters a chance to forgive themselves, in a grand scheme that was absolutely unimportant.

As always, looking forward to your comments, see ya all next week