Chapter 14: Reactions

(October 13, 1991)

 (General POV)

 "HAHAHA!! That's hilarious!!" Godric cried out as he watched the video from the crystal which had recorded Sirius' trial. Savrin had felt it was in everyone's best interest to watch what happened the day before at the trial, though not for the reasons they were thinking.

"Enough. What did you notice about the trial?" Savrin asked the four mini founders. It being Sunday, they all had the day off to catch up on their studies or just relax, however Savrin decided that they would not be relaxing for the day, and not because they didn't have anything they needed to catch up on.

"The rat was killed and Black went free?" Salazar asked, not understanding what Savrin was hinting at. "The rat got what he deserved?" Godric chimed in, deciding that was the case here. "The Minister wanted Sirius to be guilty?" Helga asked, putting her guess forward. For herself, Rowena didn't answer right away, rather instead she remained lost in thought as she stared at the crystal.

Finally after a minute of not answering, she said, "Helga isn't wrong, the Minister did want Sirius to be found guilty. But so did a few other people." Here she paused as she looked at Savrin to gauge whether her answer was acceptable.

Seeing him give her a nod, she continued, "That man with the platinum blonde hair, if you look closely, he frowned whenever a point was made in Black's favor, and at the end when Black was cleared, you can see him whispering something to the blonde woman, who also doesn't look happy. A number of people present also shared his sentiment, which leads me to wonder why they weren't happy… They knew beforehand that Black was innocent, and were upset that he was cleared and Pettigrew was found guilty."

 "Ten points to Ravenclaw." Savrin said happily. "At least one of you was paying attention." He added as he looked at the four children. "I had Arcturus invite every pureblood family that he thought would come, not just because they could influence the trial, but because I wanted to see who among them was in league with the Death Eaters. I counted no less than fifteen heads of noble houses who I believe to be in league with Voldemort or had been in league with him at one point in time. Some of them weren't even in the Ministry's records of being potential Death Eaters, which means there are far more supporters of that cunt than I originally thought." Savrin explained with a frown.

"You got all of that based on their expressions? Or did you use Legilimency on them?" Godric asked curiously, wondering if there was more to it than Savrin was letting on.

"No. Reading their surface thoughts helped, but even some of those who seemed happy at the outcome were not genuinely happy. The narrowing of their eyes, their breathing, the beating of their hearts, the tenseness of their bodies, they all play a factor. Despite that moronic Minister trying to keep Sirius imprisoned, he isn't even a Death Eater, he just wanted to protect his image. He didn't want everyone to know he had messed up so terribly." Savrin explained, though he didn't go too much further into it.

 "You'd have thought he would have been asked to step down after that trial, but he's still hanging on by a thread. That speech he made yesterday probably saved his job." Salazar said while holding up this morning's issue of the Daily Prophet.

After yesterday's trial, Fudge had given a public speech, stating how even the Ministry was capable of making mistakes, then went on to throw the previous Minister of Magic, Millicent Bagnold under the bus, claiming that it had been under her direction that Sirius Black had been imprisoned.

In his defense, he had only arrested Sirius ten years ago, the trial and imprisonment had been decided by Barty Crouch Sr and Millicent Bagnold, so he was technically not at fault, despite not bothering to ask any questions at the time.

"I'm surprised Crouch didn't give a speech this morning. You'd think the reporters would have questioned him." Helga said, finding it odd that someone in the man's position wouldn't have been asked at least some questions.

 "Ah. I almost forgot." Savrin said with a smile. "Barty Crouch seemed to disappear last night. It's almost as if he was swallowed up into a pit of darkness." Savrin added, his smile only growing wider, and seeing that smile on Dumbledore's face, it looked completely inhuman.

"You killed him?" Rowena asked, though it was more of a statement. They all knew that Savrin was very much not against getting rid of those who he thought might cause a problem for him, though they weren't too sure why he singled out Crouch when there were others who seemed like they would be more problematic in the immediate future.

"Yes. I read his surface thoughts during the trial, and let's just say he wasn't entirely present. He was more focused on the breakout from Azkaban, and after a little digging, I found out Sirius was not the first person to break out of that prison." Savrin answered, surprising the four.

"He broke his son out of Azkaban, and has been keeping him under the Imperius Curse for the last decade. He was worried the Ministry would look into previous cases with Death Eaters, which is why he let his mind wander. Deciding he was irrelevant to the future, I simply got rid of him, his son, and that obsessive little wastrel watching over them." Savrin finished, though his smile seemed to disappear at the end when he mentioned "the wastrel".

 "*GASP!* You didn't?!" Helga cried out in surprise. Like the others, she knew exactly what Savrin was referring to when he mentioned "wastrel". It was a term he used specifically for House Elves, having decided, in his own opinion of course, that they were completely unnecessary to the wizarding world.

"Quiet, Helga. I don't want to hear your incessant blathering about those useless creatures. I've agreed to let the ones present here at the school remain, only because Elysia agreed to change them. You can add any others to her care, but in my opinion they are better off dead." Savrin stated, not feeling the slightest bit of remorse for killing the Crouch House Elf known as Winky.

There was a time where he spent more than a thousand years with an elf, and to see the one race he actually liked fall so low was sickening, and Savrin decided that he didn't want to see the ugly little creatures anymore than he needed to.

However, when he brought forth the idea to exterminate them all from the world, the spirit of Hogwarts had come to him on her hands and knees, begging him to spare their lives. Savrin had wanted to ignore the spirit, but he figured he could spare them to a degree, provided the spirit did something for him, but that wouldn't take affect until sometime in March during the spring equinox. 

 "So are you going to kill the families who you believe are or used to be allied with Voldemort?" Godric asked, hoping to get the topic back on track and hopefully onto something less depressing. He didn't particularly care about the lives of every House Elf like Helga did, but he hated seeing his friends upset, so he opted to change the subject as best he could.

"Not immediately, no." Savrin answered. "Though torturing and interrogating them to find out the identities of every Death Eater does sound fun, it is too much of a waste of time. Locating every known Death Eater would also take time, especially if they've fled the country. Trying to find them all by ritual would also take years depending on how many of them there are, so that is out. Instead, I'll think of a way to gather them all together, then kill them all at once. Save myself the headache of searching for them.' Savrin finished, finding that idea to be the more logical route.

 "Now, do any of you have anything you'd like to ask before we adjourn for the week?" Savrin asked, deciding it was almost time to wrap up this weekly meeting.

"I have a question. What are you going to do about Quirrell? You said it yourself that he is harboring Voldemort's spirit. Wouldn't now be the perfect opportunity to get rid of him?" Rowena asked.

She had to suffer with that moron teaching not only her, but students at her school. He was highly inept, and his stuttering and jumping at shadows was getting on her nerves. Honestly, she was surprised Godric had not been the one to broach the subject of dealing with the oaf, after all, Defensive Studies had been his specialty back in the day, though now they referred to it as Defense Against the Dark Arts. Which was just another stupid matter all together.

 "No. I've concluded the soul anchor keeping Voldemort's spirit bound to the mortal plane resides inside Harry Potter. I can't destroy it until the solstice, at least without killing the boy. On top of that, I don't believe that to be the only soul anchor." Savrin answered, surprising the four children.

"What do you mean? Why would he have more than one?" Salazar asked, not liking the idea that his descendant had somehow created more of the nefarious anchors.

"Think about it. Why would Voldemort go into a place where he could potentially be killed, then create his only anchor just as he was dying? If he had done it when other people were around, it would have guaranteed his death. My guess is he panicked, and whatever piece of his soul he attached onto the boy was a freak accident. My bet is there is at least one other fragment out there." Savrin answered, sounding a little annoyed at his own words.

"So you're saying we might never find what is binding him to the world and he could go on living forever?" Helga asked darkly, finding the subject of soul anchors to be completely disturbing.

"Not at all." Savrin answered quickly, bringing them all up short. "The soul can only live outside the body for about one-hundred and fifty to two-hundred years. Despite attempting to make himself immortal, the anchors will all lose their power in that time, then he will only last as long as whatever vessel currently contains his spirit. On top of that, I can use a ritual to locate the anchors, though it would probably be only one anchor a year and depending on how many times the idiot split his soul, it could take some time. However, no more than ten years, that I am certain."

Savrin knew from past experience that the soul of mortals, once removed from the body had a time limit of sorts. Some mages back on Genesis had tried to achieve immortality, but had ultimately earned themselves an early grave. It was funny, most people thought immortality was achieved through the soul, however that was completely wrong.

Reinforcing the body through rituals or magical exercises would be a better option than messing with one's own soul. With the right body training and rituals, Savrin knew a witch or wizard could survive well over a thousand years with a body that was in it's prime.

The oldest a mage had lived on Genesis had been almost two thousand years, and he only died because of the war, so it was entirely possible that he might have lived a whole lot longer had he died of natural causes. 

Another method of potential immortality was what Godric and the others had done, though it was heavily reliant on a mana vain or other mages. Even now Savrin was surprised at what they had managed to accomplish, even if they had no idea what they were doing at the time.

Their whole existence hinged on a spirit they helped create unintentionally, to guard and reinforce their own magic for over a thousand years. The odds of doing that again anywhere else would be less than a billion-to-one, and that was being generous. 

Looking at the four of them, Savrin absently wondered if the magic of this world knew it was in danger and had created the spirit of the school for this very reason. He was about to let his mind wander down the rabbit hole of 'what ifs' when he noticed the four children had digested his words. 

 The four children were dumbstruck at his words, and it was Rowena who came back to reality first. "If that's the case, how exactly are we here? I know we didn't put pieces of our soul into the school, but somehow we're here, and it's been a thousand years." She said, making an excellent point.

"Exactly. You didn't divide your souls. You simply placed your magic in a location that reinforced it over time." Savrin answered happily, while sounding a little impressed at the depth Rowena was thinking. 

"What you and everyone else in this world don't understand is, the soul and magic are intrinsically connected. Same with your blood. Which is of course why that blood test at the bank was able to identify you. Magic is infinite and can be reinforced by other magic. However one's soul is finite, meaning there is a limit in which it can withstand. The body of course can be reinforced to a degree, but that is a whole other matter altogether." Savrin explained, dropping the subject for the time being. He didn't want to go into a lesson that would take days or weeks for them to fully grasp.

 "So when are you going to get rid of Quirrell?" Godric asked, wanting to get to the answer sooner than later. "I was thinking sometime around the holidays after I remove the soul-piece from the Potter boy. Most of the students will be gone, and it wouldn't be the first time a family matter came up on a holiday that caused a teacher to quit his job. It will also give me some time to get a replacement. I'll have Arcturus broach the subject with Amelia Bones, see if we can't get an Auror to finish teaching out the year." Savrin answered, this time getting smiles all around. None of them liked Quirrell, and were all in agreement that he needed to go.

 With their meeting concluded, the four founders left to go finish out the rest of their day doing something they wanted. For his part, Godric decided the best course of action was to go back to his House Common room with the newest issue of the Daily Prophet under his arm.

The front page detailed everything about the trial, including the part where Pettigrew had been disguised as a pet rat to a certain wizard family. Godric had every intention to mock that biased little urchin to his face. 'Maybe I can even get the gold back.' He thought to himself with a smile.

 Breaking off from the others, Godric went to Gryffindor tower just as planned, and in the middle of the common room he saw the target he was looking for. "Hey, Weasley!" He shouted, gaining not just Ron's attention, but the attention of everyone present, including the twin Weasleys who were two years older than their brother.

"You sold me a bloody criminal!" Godric said loudly, making sure everyone heard him. "Are you mental? What are you on about?" Ron asked dumbly.

"That rat, Scabbers you called him, well it was actually a wizard disguised as a rat!" Godric explained, then threw the newspaper on Ron's lap.

As one, everyone gathered around to see just what Godric was going on about. It took a few minutes, but eventually they all got to the part about Peter Pettigrew being an illegal rat Animagus who had been hiding out as the pet rat to the Weasley family. On page 2 of the newspaper it even showed "Scabbers" transform into an ugly blonde man after a stern looking witch cast a spell on him.

 "You're joking!" Ron cried with a look of horror on his face after reading the paper. Reading about his father's reaction in the trial room was horrifying, and Ron wondered why his father hadn't come to tell him about it already.

"Nope. I want my money back!" Godric demanded in a tone that he hoped sounded angry, though inside he was anything but. He was struggling to keep from laughing his ass off, and the fact that he hadn't already was a credit to his mental fortitude.

"B-B-But- but…" Ron bumbled out stupidly, however more than a few people thought Godric wanting his money back was only fair, and some people mentioned how Ron should be glad to only have to return what Godric paid and not more.

"If you had sold me a Death Eater, I would've belted you in the nose." Dean Thomas chimed in, telling Ron he should pay while he could. Reluctantly, Ron went up to their room and returned with the bag of forty galleons. At least for a week he got to feel what it was like to be rich.

 With the gold now safely tucked away in his own bag, Godric turned his attention to Harry, who had the paper in his hands and was staring at it.

"Hey, I'm sorry Harry. I know he was a friend of your parents, and I know he got them killed. But at least he's gone now. And your godfather is free, so there's that to look forward to." Godric said, for once not trying to be a complete dick.

Snapping his eyes upward to meet Godric's, Harry asked, "My what?" Apparently Harry wasn't the only curious one because most of the common room was staring at him again, and Godric couldn't help but frown.

"Your godfather? It says so right there on page 4 that Sirius Black is your Godfather. Apparently he and your dad were best mates." Godric explained, then waited as Harry flipped to page 4 and read what he was talking about.

"I've got to meet him!" Harry suddenly exclaimed as he shot to his feet, surprising everyone at his outburst. For his whole life he wanted to know all about his mother and father, and now there was someone who didn't just know them, but was best friends with his dad and was his godfather to boot. Sure that had to count for something.

 "You probably don't want to meet him right now." Godric said, killing Harry's mood and bringing the kid back to reality. "Why not?!" Harry asked a little louder than he probably intended.

"The guy spent the last ten years in Azkaban prison being tortured by Dementors every single day. You can see how frail and gaunt he looks in the picture there. He's probably going to need a few days or even a few weeks to get to a state where his body isn't going to shut down on him." Godric explained, making quite a bit of sense.

"Oh." Was all Harry said as he sat back down. Deciding to throw the kid a bone, Godric continued, "That doesn't mean you can't write to him. Send him a letter about yourself and tell him that you want to meet him when he is able and see what his response is. You could even ask him for information about your dad."

When Godric finished, Harry seemed to regain some of the excitement from before and with a smile on his face he shot to his feet and ran up the stairs to do just as Godric had told him.

 Feeling as though he had done his good deed for the day, Godric decided he had earned himself a treat, so with that he made his way towards the kitchens.

 -------

 Elsewhere in the castle, unlike Godric, someone else was having a terrible day. "I'm s-sorry, Master! Please! Mercy please!" Cried Quirrell as the spirit of Voldemort punished him for failing his task.

"You were to find the stone and bring it to me, yet you failed!" Voldemort shouted angrily as he let what little magic he had gathered wrap around Quirrell's throat. "Dumbledore *Guhgk!* won't tell me where it is! He won't tell anyone!" Quirrell gasped out as he struggled to breath.

"If you cannot get to the stone as an agent, perhaps you might be able to get it through trade… Apprehend the Potter boy, then arrange for a swap." Voldemort suggested, though really it was more of a command.

"Yes master." Quirrell said when he was finally allowed to breathe again. He would take Dumbledore's pawn and if the man ever wished to see him alive again, he would give Quirrell the philosopher's stone.

 -------

 (Savrin POV)

 In his office, Savrin was looking over the number of documents that came in from Cornelius Fudge, wanting answers as to why he wasn't at the trial, and wanted to know what he could do to lessen the blow to his image. Sighing, Savrin picked up his A.C. Device and called Salazar.

"Come to my office, now!" Was all he said before he ended the call. Honestly, he was getting sick and tired of these idiots sending him letters. On top of that, they didn't think he was right in the head when he wrote them explaining about how stupid some of the laws were that needed changing, especially considering the fact that it apparently had been him to have written the laws.

'Stupid old bastard! I'd kill you again just for the stupid laws you put in place!' He growled internally, finding it frustrating how many moronic laws were enacted by Dumbledore. He couldn't even get them changed because everyone was too busy wondering what the hell was wrong with him instead of looking at the bigger pictures.

 It didn't take long for Salazar to enter the room, at which point Savrin tossed a stack of parchments at him. "Tell these idiots they can go rip out their intestines and stop sending me letters! What's the point of even holding these positions if they won't even listen to me?!" Savrin said, deciding that he was running out of patience with certain people.

"Why not simply resign then?" Salazar asked, finding that to be the simplest solution to the problem. The question had been simple, yet it had been enough to derail Savrin's train of thought as he thought over repercussions such an action would cause.

"I'll have to monitor whoever takes over for the Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwump positions, then deal with them if they cause too many problems…" Savrin said, more to himself as he paced around the room.

"I don't want to watch more humans than I already am, however…" Savrin finished with his eyes trained on Salazar, and that's when a better idea came to mind. "Congratulations, Salazar. You've been promoted." He said with a wide smile.

 "I hate to burst your bubble, but I'm eleven years old. I can't be the Chief Warlock or Supreme Mugwump." Salazar said. Though his age was just an excuse, he really didn't want to fill either of the two positions.

He really wasn't sure what he wanted to do once they finished school, but that didn't really matter if they couldn't complete the mission. However, if on the chance that they did succeed, Salazar wasn't sure he even wanted to come back to Hogwarts and be a teacher, which had been everything to him in the past.

But that was a different life, one that had cost him everything he held dear, and ruined his reputation on top of it. Apparently in this day and age he was known as a dark wizard, despite everything he had done for the wizarding world. One thing he did know for certain, he didn't want to get roped into politics. After they saved the world, he would go do something else with his life. He just wasn't sure what, yet.

 "Of course I know you can't. However that doesn't mean you can't monitor whoever takes over those positions. I'll have Arcturus gather information on whoever replaces me, then once a month I'll have him send it here. All you have to do is take one day out of the month and go over all of the information, and if you find them lacking, I'll get rid of them. If they are adequate, then they'll have kept their lives." Savrin explained, finding the idea to be perfect.

"You know…" Salazar started. "For someone who hates getting involved with people or worldly matters, you sure do have a lot of things to say on the matter. Not that I'm complaining or anything, but why are you going through all of this? Would it not be easier to just… get rid of everyone?"

The question was one that all of them wanted to know, but none dared asking for fear that Savrin would just end the bargain immediately and kill every witch and wizard in their world and start over, however Salazar didn't think Savrin would renege on the agreement he had with them. A monster he may be, but he did things that spoke of something else all together.

 "It would be much easier, actually. However, it would not be beneficial to magic for many years. If you succeed, you will have sped up the process by at least half a millennia. I simply lack the patience and knowledge to go about this by myself. But with the four of you making the majority of the decisions, I can mostly monitor the progress of the world." Savrin explained, deciding that that was all he was going to say on the matter.

"Right then!" He said loudly as he grabbed the papers from Salazar, then incinerated them in a ball of flames. "Forget these. Draw up my resignation letters. You don't even have to be nice about it. "Dumbledore" won't be around for much longer. In fact, with how much progress Arcturus is making on the Board of Governors, I may just get rid of this body around the holidays, then have Arcturus "appoint" me as the next Headmaster." Savrin stated, sounding far too happy.

"Don't you think it would be too much to have both Dumbledore and Quirrell disappear at the same time? I know we could probably just write it off, but the reputation of the school is on the line here. How will other potential teachers feel when they look at the fact that three teachers are going to suddenly disappear in one year? I know you plan to make Dumbledore's death public, but others will probably look into Quirrell and Snape." Salazar explained, bringing to light some potential problems.

"You're thinking about this too much, Salazar. Arcturus can explain everything away. People will see it as the Governors taking action. Sure, Dumbledore will be dying, which is inevitable for everyone. However, we can simply have it be spread around that Arcturus fired Quirrell during the holidays, and Snape at the end of the year. What happens to them after they leave Hogwarts is none of our concern." Savrin said, not sounding the least bit concerned with the whole matter.

 It didn't take long for Salazar to write the letters, at which point Savrin grabbed the one addressed to the Ministry of Magic to give it a once over.

{To whomever it may concern,

I, Albus Percival Wolfric Brian Dumbledore do feel as though I am too old and mentally unstable to deal with your incessant problems any longer. Perhaps in my absence you will learn to eat and breathe on your own or in the most likely event, you will all fail miserably and meet your ends in less than a decade. I myself wish that I could be here to see it, but I fear that my time is running short. Regardless, to sum up this letter, I do hereby resign from my position of Chief Warlock.

 P.S. Should Cornelius or any member of the Ministry of Magic try to meet with me in the near future, you will learn very quickly why I was given five names and you all were only given three.}

After reading over the letter, Savrin couldn't help the smirk that appeared on his face. "I must say, Salazar, the ending was a good touch." Savrin complimented, finding the letter to be more than satisfactory.

"Thanks. It was nice to say that after giving them advice that was common knowledge even a thousand years ago." Salazar said with a smile. There was only so much that even he could tolerate from the Ministry, and this letter had felt as though it was coming right from his own heart.

The other letter to the I.C.W. was very similar to the first, so with a smile on his face, Savrin sealed the letters before sending them off, deciding that this was indeed the best course of action. For too long he had tried to play things the nice way, now it was time to play it his own way. 

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 Over the next few days the school was abuzz about the Trial of Sirius Black, and everyone couldn't believe that he had been innocent this whole time. What's more, people couldn't believe the real perpetrator had been hiding out as the pet rat of a wizarding family.

Ron had been mocked and ridiculed by most of Slytherin house, but the other two houses were rather supportive or at least didn't bother to bring it up.

One thing of note, Godric had to pay back the galleons to Salazar and the others after Neville let slip the fact that he got his gold back from Ron, though in his defense he hadn't known that Godric had wanted to keep that to himself. Salazar had been very pleased with Neville, and Helga had gone so far as to give him a hug and a kiss on the cheek before she tried to strangle her red-headed friend.

 It wasn't until a little more than two weeks after the trial on October 31st that something out of the ordinary happened. With it being Halloween, everyone was excited for the big feast this coming evening, and some were more excited than others.

Despite how sad the day was for Harry Potter, he found himself laughing and enjoying the day with his friends, that is at least until a voice called to him from down the hall. "Mr. Potter! A w-w-w-word-d!" Came the stuttering voice from the Defense against the Dark Arts professor.

Ron, who had been a right prat that day, simply shrugged his shoulders before telling Harry that he would see him later at the feast.

 As Harry moved down the hall after professor Quirrell, neither he nor the defense teacher noticed the light of a certain being retreating inside the wall.