Chapter 159: Rebellion
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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.
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31 October 1993, Hogsmeade
It was Samhain, the day he dreaded for over two months. The weather was rather good for a late October day, which contrasted starkly with the ominous knowledge that had been gnawing at Harry. He looked out at the bustling streets of Hogsmeade, the quaint village that lay in the shadow of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and it was as if he was seeing it through a different lens. The shops, brimming with students and villagers, painted a picture of normalcy, with children laughing and playing, and the general atmosphere exuded cheerfulness that usually enveloped the village during this time of year. However, Harry knew that this would all change soon.
They had taken the carriage to the village at early in the morning to put up some finishing touches on their plans for the incoming Hogsmeade attack. There were a few good ideas and modifications that they implemented at the last minute. For example, they now marked any underaged wizard or witch the moment they entered the village, as well as any student or staff members. It was Daphne's idea and he kicked himself to not have thought about it himself.
Although, it was odd to travel to the village openly in the school carriages; every time he visited Hogsmeade, he went there using one of the secret passages. Not walking for an hour to get to the village was far more relaxing.
They spent a couple of hours adding their modifications to their arrays. It wasn't really that difficult, just time-consuming. They were done by the time other students started to come.
Everything was in place. Harry managed to create his magically infused darkness fog potion, and Daphne was easily able to adapt her plants to distribute his potion. It worked splendidly during their testing in the Room of Requirements. Blaise ended up procuring the hand of glory, a loathsome little artefact that probably had a horrible history. As far as he could tell, it was made up of the hand of an old centaur that some blood mage used to be able to have a limited form of clairvoyance. It allowed you to see through illusions and in the dark. Harry wasn't able to replicate the enchantment on it because it was fueled by some kind of blood magic that he had no experience in.
What he was able to do was allow other items to absorb its properties using jewel craft. It was temporary and needed to be recharged every couple of days, but he was able to charm the modified Omnioculars that Tracy was able to trace so that they could see through the darkness potion. It was also why they had to come to the village to set them up.
The Omnioculars were connected to an enchanted mirror that would display the image seen using a high-frequency Protean charm. It wasn't perfect; it looked like a low-resolution video that updated five times a second since the enchantments of the Omnioculars and the revealing charms tended to contradict themselves and the protean charm could only send enough information. Still, it was enough to get an overview of what happened in the village.
Harry also gave everyone a small bracelet with the Hand of Glory charm on them to let them see in case they had to go to the village for any reason. The attack was going to happen at night, but he wanted to be thorough.
The petrification rune and the marking enchantment were ready and working. The only issue was the fact that the rune took a little while to charge up fully. It wasn't something he could avoid. He needed to use roots to build the rune and they could only hold that much magic without it being dispersed, so he couldn't store the magic in the rune itself. He ended up buying a lot of gems to act as a power source, but the magic needed to be evenly distributed around the rune before it was activated, which took some time. He made calculations to make that time as small as possible, and he got it down to a couple of minutes. But in a battle, two minutes was a long time. Thankfully, the darkness potion should mitigate the damage of the attackers.
Harry had run drills with his friends using the Room of Requirements as a basis. The magic would work, but things were rarely certain in life.
It was nice to finally make plans with his friends, even if they weren't taking things seriously. Oh, they made the effort to humour him, but Harry could tell that they were just doing this as a favour to him, not because they believed in his visions.
Which was why it was so frustrating to see them ignore his warnings so easily, "Guys, this is a bad idea. We should head out now."
Tracy gave him a pointed look, "Harry, we did what you asked. Everything is going to be fine. And your vision was at night, wasn't it? We're already here and it's the first time that all three of us are here together. So, relax, and let us have some fun already!"
She had a point, in a way, even if he didn't like it. His vision was during the night, but he didn't like pushing it for no reason. He could understand their perspective, they haven't really spent time to have fun this school year, with Harry focused on protecting Hogsmeade. He could understand their hesitation, but did they really have to do it on the day he predicted an attack would occur?
Still, he tried to look to Daphne for support, but she just looked away. He turned to Blaise who shrugged, "We've been doing things your way for months, we're due a free day and we're already here anyway. We literally spent every evening where we were not studying, planning for your vision. I'm not saying that it didn't help us, because it did, but we deserve a day of rest. Tracy is having a lot of fun with those Omniocular mirrors you enchanted, and your requests, odd as they might be, are really helping me with my smuggling network."
"I don't know why you're even doing any of this stuff. It's really weird," Harry said.
Blaise's response was to roll his eyes, "We all need the Court to announce us as candidates and my smuggling network and Tracy's information network are good ways to guarantee this. Daphne's family is influential enough in Britain to be recruited immediately, and you're the ward of Arcturus Black, so your candidature is a given."
"But why do we need to join the Court in the first place? If you look past the formalities, it's just a school club."
Tracy rolled her eyes, "It's just a school club where anyone remarkable is joined. Countless generations of Slytherins have joined this club and it's a point of pride. People will take you more seriously if you are a member, and the connections you make there could last a lifetime. It's also a good way to make connections with influential upper years since we don't tend to socialize much outside our year."
Blaise scoffed, "Save your words, Tracy, he's not going to get it."
Harry's retort was interrupted by Blaise, "Look, we're not blaming you or anything, but the truth of the matter is that my future and Tracy's aren't as certain as yours. We need to build connections to rise. We're not magical prodigies like you, Harry, which could guarantee they would listen to your words like gospel. We don't have influential families in Britain, like you and Daphne. And before you protest the fact that the Potter family isn't that impressive, you have the backing of the Black family head and let's not kid ourselves, he's probably going to leave everything to you.
"Tracy is just a normal half-blood and the Zabini family used to be influential in Italy before my father died and my mother liquidated everything he owned. As far as the world knows, I'm the son of the woman who they think is a serial killer. They're always going to distrust me. The truth of the matter is that we don't have the same advantages that you two have and we have to do things we don't like to make our way."
Damn, he must have been holding this for a while, hasn't he? Tracy responded by holding his hand to comfort him, but both Harry's and Daphne's eyes widened.
Harry looked down, "I'm sorry Blaise. I don't know how much things have been for you two. And I can understand why you would want to join the Court of Slytherin, but this doesn't change the fact that us staying here is a bad idea."
Blaise glared at Harry, and he made his way to retort, only for Daphne to speak up instead, "Come on, Harry, we all deserve a little break. And didn't you already drill us for plans in case we're here during the attack? We practised dozens of times. We're ready, so can you let go? Please."
His first instinct was to deny it, but the blonde gave him a look that told him that he would regret if he tried to push things further. Damn it, Daphne was supposed to be on his side.
He could tell that it was a bad idea. Every instinct Harry had was telling him to get back to the castle. He was tempted to just do it and leave them out of spite, but unfortunately, they were his friends. They were obviously frustrated with him and the fact that he's been essentially in charge for two months. Was this what teenage rebellion is supposed to be like? No wonder parents often suppressed the urge to scream at their faces at that age. Harry definitely thought about just stunning them and bringing them back to the castle, but after Blaise's outburst, he didn't know how they would react to it.
It was maddening just how illogical their decision was. They could sneak to Hogsmeade any time. There were other opportunities to have fun, but all it would take was a stray spell for them to lose their life.
If they were these rebellious kids, was it his role to be the logical parent so that they wouldn't get themselves killed? Blaise's and Tracy's expressions did remind him of stubborn students who wouldn't take no for an answer. Hell, if he had forced the issue, he could see them sneak out of the castle at night out of stubbornness.
Alas, they were his friends, and he wanted them to be safe and so, he just released a deep sigh, Fine, but I reserve to gloat and say that I told you so if we end up getting attacked."
Tracy whooped and pulled Blaise towards the Three Broomsticks. Harry rolled his eyes only for Daphne to give him a soft smile, "Thank you for not pushing."
"I still think this is stupid."
"I know."
"I think this is unnecessary," he continued.
"I know. But it was big of you to let go. I know that this isn't really your strong suit," she responded.
"You're buying though," he said.
She rolled her eyes, "You're the business tycoon but fine. It's on me."
They kept walking slowly towards the entrance of the three broomsticks, "So, how's your sister?"
The blonde looked down, "Still as hyper as ever but her episodes are just as bad. She's still on a heavy potion regimen."
The last Potter didn't like seeing that look on his friend, "You know, the Room of Hidden Things has been the dumping ground for students ever since the school was founded."
She gave him a confused look, "Where are you going with this?"
"Well, one of the biggest reasons you don't know much about your sister's condition is because knowledge of blood magic and curses isn't really around anymore, and if the very few times that might remain aren't public knowledge. But what if you had a repository of knowledge coming back a thousand years in the past, a place where no headmaster could remove the books? Like a place where lost things end up?"
"You think there might be books on Blood magic in the Room?"
Harry shrugged, "I've seen my share of old tomes in this place. What might be considered to be forbidden knowledge now wasn't always the case. If you want, you could come with me, after this whole mess with the attack is over. We could end up finding something that might help your sister in some way. The possibility is slim but it's better than doing nothing."
The hug he received easily meant that she liked the idea, "Thank you!"
Daphne was a complicated girl, but her motivation was simple. The truth is that she feels utterly helpless until she's allowed to start her healing training, which would take years to do anything. Harry gave her hope, something to busy her hand that might also help her sister would make her feel useful. After all, hope is a powerful thing.
They ended up joining Blaise and Tracy in the Three Broomsticks and for the first time in months, they didn't talk about attacks or teenaged dark lords. They just hung out and had fun, even if there was the constant threat of Death looming over Harry's head.
And that was, of course, when things went to hell.
At first, it was the screams and the spell fire. Harry grabbed his friends and ran out of the inn. He conjured a wall in front of him and stunned one of the attackers. Having taken a good look around, he saw dozens of men in Death-Eater regalia sending blasting curses around and attacking anything that moved.
Harry simply waved his wand and sent the activation pulse to start both the petrification rune and the darkness fog. The effects weren't immediate, but slowly, the morning sun started to get darker. He turned towards his friends and Tracy glared at him, "Don't you dare say it!"
He still said it, "I fucking told you so. See, this is what happens when you don't listen to me."
"How long till the runes are charged up?" Blaise yelled at him.
"A couple of minutes at most. The place should be completely dark in a few seconds so channel some magic in your bracelet. We're getting out of here."
"Which exit?" Daphne asked.
"The Shrieking Shack," he replied, "There are too many of them near Hogsmeade."
In less than ten seconds, not a single spark of light was lit in the entire village of Hogsmeade, yet Harry and his friends could easily see their way forward. They could hear the attackers desperately scrambling their wands to light their wands to no avail.
By the time, they arrived at the Shrieking shack, the petrifications had obviously started. People were yelling that they couldn't move and then stayed silent soon after. His plan seemed to have worked so far, he only hoped that not too many people were hurt during the two minutes it took for the petrification ward to work.
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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.