Scene 7 – Retraining and Phoenixes
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,
10th May, 1993
Harry spent exactly five months in the Room of Requirement in time compression, which was just under two hours in real time.
For every day in those five months, Harry did three sets of five-hour training periods, a period of three hours of doing various projects and a period of six hours in deep meditation.
Each of the five-hour training periods consisted of magical training then physical training for a total of four hours, and an hour to eat and rest. Harry scheduled his training this way so he wouldn't do physical training right after eating to avoid upsetting his stomach.
The food was provided by Hogwarts' house-elves, and was always on time.
The six hours of deep meditation would negate Harry's need for sleep. Harry usually only needed four hours of deep meditation per day, but he allocated two additional hours during his retraining to allow his body to recover from the day's more-intense-than-usual training.
The deep meditation technique was taught to him by the Vampire Elders who were even more paranoid than Moody and nearly as paranoid as him. Harry had modified the technique to be compatible with his Mind World. It allowed Harry to completely shut down his mind except for two AIs: one would monitor any alert wards he had set up, the other would scan for any danger in the vicinity of him and his bonded. This way, he could keep his brain at an extremely low activity while still aware of and be able to react to any potential attacks.
Harry magical training served to get his younger body to be able to command magic like he used to before his rebirth, as he already had more than enough magical knowledge stored in his virtual library.
So to start off his magical training, Harry needed to open the magical channels around his body, and the best way to start on that was meditation. Once his magical channels were open again, it would be much easier for him to fill his being with magic with just a thought; thus it would be easier to call upon his Animagus forms, cast Patronuses, as well as teleport using various methods.
Diving into his magical core, Harry pushed his magic into what was available in the currently very narrow magical channels around his body; when they were all filled up, he pushed some more magic in, before drawing magic back to his core; he then repeated that process over and over again. Two hours later, Harry came out of his meditation, soaked in sweat. With the help of his Mind Magic, Harry had made significant progress in those two hours, but it was still tiring to constantly manipulate his magic like that.
Harry did this during the time allocated for magical training for two days before moving on to the next stage.
This time, instead of pushing out and pulling in his magic, Harry continued to push magic out after he filled his magical channels, and used the magic pushed to the surface of his body to form a simple shield charm all around him. This allowed a continuous flow of magic through the magical channels, albeit not very fast as the Protego Shield Charm was relatively low powered.
Harry then amped the shield up to an Aegis Shield Charm, which could block much higher powered curses, including Reductos.
Harry held the charm for half an hour before pushing more magic into it and cast an Aegis Firmus Shield, which looked like a solid layer around Harry; Harry pushed further, and the layer got thicker. This shield was strong enough to stop a weakly-cast unforgivable. Harry only held this shield for ten minutes before he was exhausted, as he still didn't have the use of his full core.
Harry followed this principle using charms with increasing power requirement for a week; the last charm he used was a modified version of the Patronus Charm that could destroy a Dementor completely. On his tenth day in the Room of Requirement, Harry was satisfied with the state of his magical channels, and started his retraining for his animagus transformations.
As planned, Harry focused on his Royal Phoenix form first.
Although Animagus Transformation was taught in Transfiguration, under Self-Transfiguration, the process between transfiguring oneself and transforming to one's animagus form were nothing alike.
Nearly everything taught about Animagus Transformation in any magical school was wrong, although each institute seemed to get different parts of it right, and used different potions to help with the rest of the transformation; but the end result was, no one had more than one animagus form, and it took the wizard or witch years to achieve transformation.
Harry was taught by one of the many magical Native American tribes he had met during his travels; needless to say, they were much more in touch with their inner spirits.
Spirit was the key word for Animagus Transformation. An animagus form was an animal spirit representing the person's true-self: his personalities, desires and characteristics. However, a person's true-self was subject to change as they aged, especially by traumatic events. Harry had experienced more traumatic events than he cared to count in his four centuries of life; it was also the reason why Harry had many animagus forms.
As a magical human, all one needed to do to achieve the transformation, was to find their animal spirit, accept it, fill their body with magic, and allow the spirit to take over said body; the magic would do the work of the transformation.
Care had to be taken to not let their mind to be completely overtaken by the spirit, as then they wouldn't be able to transform back. Thus, a mastery over Mind Arts would very much help with Animagus Transformation.
Given this was Harry's first transformation to this particular form in this body, Harry decided to take it nice and slow. The spirit of the Royal Phoenix was a special case among Harry's other animagus forms, in that the Royal Phoenix had its own life before coming to join Harry in spirit. Nevertheless, the process for the transformation was the same.
Harry dived into his Mind World, and found the Royal Phoenix in the ecosystem Harry had created for all of his animagus spirits. Harry let himself join with the Royal Phoenix, and flew around his Mind World to relearn every detail about his Royal Phoenix form. Once Harry was satisfied, Harry separated himself from the Royal Phoenix, but asked it to stay with him.
Harry then reached in his magical core, allowed his magic to fill every part of his body, including the clothes he was wearing, and allowed himself to merge with the Royal Phoenix again. As he did that, his physical body and any items on him disappeared; in his place was a Royal Phoenix. He had a golden head, with the rest of his feathers mixed between red and black.
Harry felt his own mind as well as the Royal Phoenix spiritual mind, and instantly knew what to do to force a burning day for Hedwig and Fawkes.
Harry also knew if he went through a burning day in this form, her human body would be healed as well; all his scars would disappear, except for the lightning bolt of course, all the incorrectly healed bones would be good as new, and the only thing he would need to take care of was his malnutrition.
Harry also realised, while going through burning day, if he wished, any of his blood being used for magic, whether it was inside his body or not, could burn with him. So in one fell scoop, Harry could destroy all of the MOB's blood monitoring devices, as well as the blood ward around 4 Privet Drive. Because to set up blood ward based on his blood, his blood was needed to power the runes on the ward stones.
With all these positives, the only downside was that Harry would have to stay in his Royal Phoenix form for 72 hours, to allow the Royal Phoenix's body to grow back. But that point was moot, as 72 hours in the Room would be barely over two minutes outside in real time.
Making his mind up, Harry initiated a burning day for himself. He allowed the Royal Phoenix spirit to do the work; a flash of golden flame later, a beautiful phoenix was gone, and a half-plucked turkey was left behind.
The following three days were very boring for Harry, as there wasn't much he could do in his half-plucked turkey form; he did chat with and learn from the Royal Phoenix spirit though.
The wait was worth it for Harry. When he transformed back to his human body again from a beautiful and fully-grown Royal Phoenix, Harry was surprised by how healthy he felt; he could tell all his scars except the lightning bolt were gone, and there were pains he didn't remember being there that had disappeared; all in all, Harry felt great.
And just like in the last timeline, the mage sight ability from the Royal Phoenix was transferred to his human form after his first transformation.
Harry dived into his magical core again, and saw all the blood monitoring branches were gone, and there was no longer a blood ward draining from his magical core. So except for the eleven layers of bindings leaving him with 0.05% of his magical core, the third draining to keep his parents and sisters alive, and the quarter draining to supply his mother's sacrificial protection, the rest, which was just over 0.02% of his magical core, was all his to use.
Harry immediately collected a vial of his tears from his Royal Phoenix form, and added a drop to each dose of his growth/nutrient potion mixtures; only then did Harry start taking his daily two doses of potion mixtures.
Harry knew from experiments in his past life, the phoenix tears would make the potion mixtures much more potent, and his recovery from malnutrition much more pleasant. He could still remember the pain he had suffered in the time chamber in the Department of Mysteries, during his recovery from malnutrition in the last timeline.
After three days of rest, Harry restarted his training as rigorously as ever. Up to this point, Harry's physical training was mostly endurance based: running, cycling, swimming and so on. For Harry, who had been keeping up with his physical fitness for four centuries, he had to force himself to remember that his younger malnourished body needed to be built up slowly. So Harry did just that.
Most Pure-bloods neglected to do any physical training. They didn't seem to understand that being physically fit meant there was more magic available to use for casting. Besides, the best defence to any offensive spell was to not be there. By dodging instead of shielding, you freed up magic for offensive spells. Getting physically fit was the first step to get better at dodging spells.
On the third week of his training, Harry added resistance training, circuits, assault courses and started to practice martial arts katas. Having spent a decade in the muggle side of the US Army, and another decade in the British Army, Harry knew precisely how to condition his body.
By the third month of his training, Harry had re-mastered all of his old animagus forms as well as mastered his two new animagus forms during his magical training. Harry had also mastered all of his teleportation techniques; the only thing left to do for pure magical training was to make sure he could cast anything he had learned wandlessly. For physical training, Harry had started to fight dummies using hand-to-hand, knives and swords.
It was the fourth month in the Room of Requirement; Harry had changed from a barely five-foot skinny little boy to a five-foot-six lean-muscled young man, as his powerful magic forced his height towards the top five percentile of his age.
Harry had stopped his magical training as he had re-mastered every spell he had learned in his previous life. His physical training had come along nicely; picking up how to fight again wasn't that hard once his body could keep up with the exertion, as all of his fighting experiences were safely stored in his Mind World.
It was time to combine his physical training with magical training. Harry adjusted his schedule to training, project, training, training and meditation. For the first hour in the last training period each day, Harry would review all his fights during that day, then analyse and build new strategies, spell chains and etc.; he would then spend the rest of that training period conditioning his body.
Again, this new training schedule allowed him to avoid any physical exertion right after a meal.
The Founders and Cassie had also joined him during the last two months of his training. Cassie especially was a formidable opponent, as she could copy everything Harry did as well as develop her own strategies. In addition, her magical core was much larger than Harry's bound core, and her physical manifestation could become any shape and any material, including the material used in that killing-curse-proof-bullet-proof full-body battle suit Cassie was helping Harry to make during his project period.
Harry could have cursed himself for showing Cassie the molecular structure of the material used for his battle suit, but if anything, Harry enjoyed a challenge.
With his intuition and creativity, Harry could somehow keep up with Cassie, just barely.
Soon, Harry's five months of retraining was concluded. They were five very productive months for Harry: he had recovered from his malnutrition, and was now five-foot-seven with a perfect athletic build; he was now a better fighter than even before his rebirth, both magically and physically; and with the help from Cassie, the Founders and the Room of Requirement, he had completed many side projects, but that was a story for another time.
Harry had not released any more bindings on his magical core; this allowed him to reach close to magical exhaustion during training and thus allowed his already enormous magical core to grow even bigger. This worked for him as he knew he would be able to share his magic with his girls and familiars once he bonded with them. This magical boost would allow them to better protect themselves. Harry was all for protection of his bonded by whatever means necessary without excessively coddling them.
Harry wondered if he should give the old goat a chance to bind his magical core again at the end of this year to aid further expansion of his core, but Harry wasn't sure if the MOB could if he tried. Given how much more powerful he was now compared to the old coot, even with eleven layers of bindings around his magical core, Harry doubted any new bindings could take hold.
To prevent any of the MOB's spying charms or illegal Legilimency probes from finding out about his new body before the right time, before leaving the Room of Requirement, Harry applied a glamour he learned from the High Elves, a glamour even that magical eye of Moody's couldn't see through. Harry wanted to surprise the MOB when he started to present evidence against the old goat in court.
Checking the time, it was already nine o'clock in the evening, but Harry still had much to do. Harry planned to take away the MOB's phoenix next, and he planned to initiate Hedwig's and Fawkes' burning days together. It was time to visit his beloved owl/would-be-White-Phoenix, another dear friend he had lost in the last timeline and could place the blame on the MOB.
Harry Shifted to the Owlery. Shifting was his primary method of magical transportation to known places; the principles were very similar to Apparition. After learning House-Elf Apparition (Popping) by accident (Popping Ron to Voldemort's cave), Harry decided to develop his own method of magical transportation, so that he couldn't be trapped by any Anti-Apparition and Anti-Portkey wards. Shifting was the first of a number of transportation methods he invented, and was also used most by him.
Like Apparition, mental discipline was the key, but unlike Apparition, Shifting was much more natural and less forced. Harry pushed his magic to fill every part of him, which came as a second nature now due to his retraining. Then, Harry simply imagined himself standing in the middle of the Owlery, and let his magic do the work. There wasn't any squeezing through the tube feeling, nor was there any cracking sound; he was simply in the Room of Requirement one second, and standing in the Owlery in the next.
Immediately, Hedwig dropped onto his right shoulder, and nipped his ear affectionately. Harry looked into her expressive eyes, and muttered, "Hi, girl." He started stroking her feathers, and it wasn't long before he collapsed on to the ground against a wall and let the tears drop. Harry didn't realise how much he missed Hedwig until he saw her. For six years, Hedwig was his constant companion; even Hermione wasn't there with him during the long and lonely summers.
"I missed you so much. Don't ever leave me again, ok, girl?"
Hedwig had felt the change in his human; she had been waiting for him to visit her to find out what was going on, but she didn't expect him to become this emotional. Hedwig could understand everything her human said, but her human wasn't exactly being eloquent at the moment. For now she would try to comfort him as much as she could.
Harry chuckled to himself as he felt Hedwig trying to wipe his tears off with her wings, and felt yet another burden lifted from his soul. He smiled at her, kissed the beautiful bird on the top of her head, and started talking to her.
"Thank you, Hedwig. I know you initiated a familiar bond with me, but I never finalised it. I am sorry about that; I didn't mean to not accept your bond, I just didn't know."
Harry paused for a second to see Hedwig staring at him intently, as if to say, "Took you long enough."
Harry chuckled again at his owl's antics; he seemed to attract hard-headed females. "Hey, I said I am sorry; how about we complete the bond now?" Hedwig hooted affirmatively, complete with bobbing her head up and down. Harry smiled and stared into her eyes. He reached into his magical core, allowed a branch to come out, and willed the branch towards Hedwig.
Seconds later, Harry saw both of them were enveloped in a soft white glow, before the glow faded. Being ultra-aware of his body, Harry felt a tattoo forming on his chest. Loosening the top few buttons on his shirt, Harry found an animated tattoo, about the size of his fist, in the image of his beautiful owl. Harry smiled approvingly at his new tattoo.
Buttoning up his shirt again, Harry checked on his magical core and his soul; his parents and sisters were all safe and sound, frozen peacefully. A branch of his magic reached towards Hedwig, and he could tell it was a symbiotic relationship. Harry could also tell there was a tiny connection between their souls; it wasn't an anchoring bond, more of a communication bond.
Harry had learned from the Native Americans that the familiar bond would allow the familiar and the master to share their magic; usually the familiar had the most to gain. The sharing of magic included sharing of mind protections, meaning, if the master had impenetrable Occlumency, the familiar's mind would be protected too. Thus, Harry decided to bring the communication bond in towards his Mind World, and went to his control centre, to key in Hedwig, so she would have access to his memories and thoughts.
Hedwig saw the bond form, felt her human's powerful magic, and her access to it. She then felt her human expand the bond, and saw her human's mind. It was a beautiful and scary place; who knew her human could have such a developed mind? Maybe he was good for more than feeding her bacon after all.
Hedwig felt her human give her the information on how to access his memories; now she would know how to navigate through the scary place that was her human's mind. Maybe now she could find out why her human had become so emotional suddenly. Hedwig then watched the highlights of everything her human had been through; he had had such a long and lonely life without her. She now understood why her human had cried over her.
She felt proud to have saved her human's life in the future, and knew she wouldn't hesitate to do it again, but she hoped it wouldn't come to that. Then she saw her human's conversation with Death, and Hedwig became excited knowing she would soon be able to show up that red flaming chicken; she would be more beautiful than ever.
Unknown to Hedwig, some of her stray thoughts were heard by Harry, who just shook his head in amusement at Hedwig's vanity.
Harry mentally reached out to Hedwig, and asked.
"I am going to fetch Fawkes, so I can free him from the MOB's enslavement. Would you like to wait outside the Room of Requirement, and we will see if you could experience your first burning day then?"
Hedwig just looked at her human with an expression clearly says 'Do you even have to ask?' except for the first time, Harry could hear his companion in his head. Harry kissed the beautiful bird again on the top of her head, thought to her "See you soon!" and transformed into his Royal Phoenix form, before Flaming into the Headmaster's Office.
The Headmaster's office was empty at the time, except for Fawkes and Alistair the Sorting Hat.
Harry saw the whole area where the MOB had left the silver trinkets/monitoring devices was burnt, and all that left was ashes and burn marks. Harry was quite satisfied with the result, and turned his attention to Fawkes.
Fawkes was woken by something burning in the whiskered wanker's office; he recognized everything that had burned was used to monitor the Chosen One. Fawkes was ecstatic that one of the whiskered wanker's plans for the boy was literally in ashes, but dreading what the whiskered wanker would do to him. It was evident that a phoenix fire had destroyed the silver trinkets; oh how he wished he had chosen to go through a burning day somewhere else all those years ago, somewhere the whiskered wanker wouldn't happen upon him and enslave him when he was at his weakest.
Just as Fawkes started to sulk, he was surprised to see another phoenix Flaming in; even more surprising, it was the Royal Phoenix, his King. The Royal Phoenix was even bigger than his swan-sized body. Fawkes knew his salvation had come, and couldn't wait to get away from the whiskered wanker's control.
Fawkes immediately started to trill, and started to communicate with Harry. Harry flew to Fawkes and Flamed him back to the Room of Requirement, where Hedwig was anxiously waiting for him.
The three birds entered the Room of Requirement. Harry told both Hedwig and Fawkes to perch next to him, and initiated a burning day for both of them. A flash of golden flame enveloped all three birds. After the flame had died down, Harry retained his fully grown Royal Phoenix form, but both Hedwig and Fawkes climbed out of their ashes looking like half-plucked chickens.
Needless to say, Hedwig did not enjoy the process, and started ranting to Harry. "Harry, I look like a half-plucked turkey; I want my beautiful white feathers back. This is not even funny."
To which, Fawkes retorted, "So do I, but you don't see me complaining about it. I am stuck in this form just as you are for three full days. Sit tight, you will get all your feathers back in less than two days, and grow to full size in three, then you won't need to go through this again for another year."
Hedwig just mentally huffed, and carried on muttering about her poor feathers.
Harry transformed to his base form, and immediately sensed a change to his Hedwig tattoo. Harry then checked the tattoo, and noticed it had changed to that of a White Phoenix. He wasn't really surprised to be honest.
Harry knelt down, cradled both new-born phoenixes in his arms, and carried them to the perches provided by the Room.
Harry called out for Cassie, who immediately appeared next to her daddy and started cooing to the new-born phoenixes.
"Cassie, could you look after these two, please? I need to head back to the Gryffindor Tower; I don't want a search party to start looking for me," asked Harry gently while watching his daughter playing with Hedwig and Fawkes.
"Sure, Daddy!" Cassie was still gushing around the phoenixes, so she answered without a backward glance.
Harry then turned to Hedwig. "Don't be too hard on Fawkes, girl; he had a few decades of hard life imprisoned by the old goat. I sure know that doesn't feel good."
"Sure, Harry, no need to guilt trip me."
Harry chuckled at Hedwig's wit. "Wasn't trying to, girl." He then turned to Fawkes. "You will be safe here for now Fawkes. I am not sure where you are going to go afterward, but please don't leave without saying goodbye."
Fawkes trilled as the spirit of the Royal Phoenix helped him to understand the new-born phoenix. [Although I do wish to bond with you, Harry, I don't think Her Highness Hedwig would be happy about it.] Harry chuckled at Fawkes' sarcastic remark for Hedwig. [I can sense the difference in you since you last visited, not to mention you have somehow gained the allegiance from the spirit of the Royal Phoenix. Whatever your plans are, I plan to stay and help you and my King. Your plan has got to be better than the whiskered wanker's Greater Good. I would like to see you destroy the whiskered wanker for enslaving me for nearly seven decades,] Fawkes finished that with some agitation.
Harry nodded in agreement; being a phoenix didn't mean he didn't want justice done. That wasn't what being light meant, contrary to the MOB's belief.
Harry replied, "I am honoured that you choose to help; I promise you the old goat will get what he deserves. I plan to destroy him little by little, as he watches all his plans for his 'Greater Good' falling apart, but can do nothing about it.
"I am also honoured that you think I am worthy to bond with you, but you are also correct that Hedwig would probably have a fit."
"Hey, I am here, you know."
Harry chuckled at his beautiful companion, and continued. "While I cannot predict what he would be willing to do when he gets desperate, I do know a familiar bond would protect you from the old goat. And I might just have the right person for you to bond with; she is a delightful girl and has had a hard life so far. Her experience of Hogwarts until now wasn't really pleasant, and I will rectify that soon. But either way, I think she would be a good companion for you. I will bring her here soon, and you can make the decision of whether to bond with her then. How does that sound, Fawkes?" asked Harry as he stroked both Hedwig and Fawkes' feathers.
Fawkes trilled positively.
"Good, I need to leave now. The time compression will last for 72 inside hours, so when I return, the both of you should be fully grown, now play nice you two."
Both Phoenixes trilled. Harry kissed the phoenixes and Cassie of top of their heads, and left the Room of Requirement.
Miles away in one of the few Potter properties that weren't sealed off during the First Wizarding War, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot plotted his next step.
While he wasn't expecting to be temporarily suspended as the Headmaster, all the other pieces of his chessboard were moving according to his plan. Especially the main pawn, Harry Potter; the boy had turned up just as he expected: beaten, selfless and completely unaware of his inheritance.
He was rather miffed that he still couldn't get rid of that mudblood, Granger. She had escaped the troll and ended up being much closer to the pawn. The incident had created a lot of work for him, as he had to remove all the books that could potentially affect his plan from the library. And just recently, she even managed to narrowly avoid being killed by the Basilisk.
Oh yes, he knew it was a Basilisk. He was Albus Dumbledore, the greatest wizard since Merlin, of course he knew it was a Basilisk; he was even aware of who was controlling the Basilisk. While he didn't plant Tom's diary on the youngest Weasley, the situation was surely helping with his plan for the pawn. Who cares if someone might get killed by the Basilisk? It was all for the Greater Good!
Meanwhile, he needed to find a way to deal with the Board of Governors; they were obviously leveraged by Malfoy, and thus it shouldn't take long for him the leverage things back in his favour. He was Albus Dumbledore after all.
Suddenly, his musing was interrupted by a feeling; Albus Dumbledore felt weakened, and he wasn't sure why. He could tell his magical core was fine, so he shook the feeling off, he was sure he would be fine after a good night sleep in this relatively small but still luxurious Potter property.
Unknown to the self-proclaimed 'Leader of Light', that feeling was caused by the severing of his connection with Fawkes. His magical core had been augmented by Fawkes' powerful magic since he enslaved Fawkes until now for about seventy years; and the so-called greatest wizard since Merlin forgot his own lesson: almost all rituals have a price.
In his case, Dumbledore's own magical core had been slowly reducing in size without him realising it; and every year when Dumbledore re-enslaved Fawkes after a burning day, a bigger proportion of his magic reserve was replaced by Fawkes' magic. Soon, the manipulative fool would start to feel all 112 years of his age.
Scene 8 – Midnight Adventures
The moment Harry entered Gryffindor Tower, an obviously furious weasel stomped towards him. Harry didn't even need to use Legilimency to read Ronald's thoughts; he was furious that Harry didn't back him up for the two fights occurred earlier that day, but Harry did use a Legilimency probe to send the weasel away from him, before the weasel was able to say a single word.
Harry had sent the red-headed weasel to bother Malfoy again, despite it was nearly curfew. They both knew how to find the Slytherin Dungeon, and Harry was hoping the weasel would start banging on the entrance and suffer the wrath of the Slytherin students as well as Snape. An almost sadistic part of Harry was really enjoying setting his enemies against each other; but really, it was a very useful strategy, a strategy Harry had used and would carry on using for a long time.
Harry acknowledged a few of his house-mates and headed towards the dormitory; he still had much to do that night.
Harry came out from his deep meditation at exactly two o'clock in the morning, and got ready for his midnight activities. His battle suit wasn't ready yet, and despite having perfected his wandless invisibility charm, Harry wasn't one to rely on his magical abilities nor would he rely on magical artefacts. So Harry opted for a black non-descriptive cloak very similar to the one he wore just before he stepped through the Veil; it was made during one of his project periods. The cloak would allow Harry to keep his anonymity, even if the notice-me-not runes failed somehow.
The first stop was Azkaban, as Harry didn't want his godfather to stay in that hell-hole for a minute longer. Harry also didn't want to risk his godfather trying to escape again; just because he was successful in the previous timeline, it didn't mean he could pull it off again with his life intact.
After he activated the privacy wards around his bed, Harry transformed into a six-foot long black wolf. It used to be even bigger; Harry assumed that was because with him returning to his twelve-year-old body, his animagus forms also reverted back to their respective adolescent sizes.
This was one of Harry's most aggressive animagus forms; it was also one of his two animal spirits with shadow elemental abilities. Harry first discovered this form while serving with the Special Air Service (SAS) of the British Army after he got promoted to lead a team of his own. It was rather fitting as he and his team were specialised at operating in the shadows, and hunting their targets behind the enemy lines; just like his form, who was an alpha of the pack, able to stalk his enemies using the shadows.
Harry chose this form for two reasons: one, the Dementors had a natural fear/respect towards shadow elementals, and Harry wasn't about to expose his identity by casting Patronuses; two, it would make Sirius happy that his godson was also a canine animagus.
Azkaban Prison,
11 May, 1993
Sirius Black curled against a wall in his cell as Padfoot. What was the date? And was the time? Sirius didn't know. He had long ago lost the track of time he had spent in this hell on earth.
Sirius still mourned the death of his best friend James Potter and his wife Lily. He regretted ever trusting Peter which led to his best friend's death; he regretted going after Peter in a blind rage which led to him being set up to be thrown in prison without a trial; but most of all, Sirius regretted not being there for his godson.
Sirius loved Harry as his own; even with all the mischief he got up to, his happiest memory was still being named Harry's godfather. It was that memory which had kept him relatively sane in this hell-hole; but it was also that memory, and knowing that he had let James, Lily and most importantly, his pup down made Sirius feel that he deserved to be punished.
Another Dementor drifted by and Padfoot shivered. For the millionth time, Sirius thanked his friendship with Remus; he was the reason Sirius had become an animagus, which helped him to stave off the worst effects of the Dementors. But still, even as Padfoot, being close to a Dementor was never pleasant.
Just as Padfoot was about to drift off to sleep, a large and clearly well-built black wolf appeared out of nowhere; it surveyed him carefully for a moment, and let out a long howl.
The howl lasted for nearly a minute, sending fear down the spines of the prisoners and the guards alike; even the Dementors tripped over themselves to clear away from the cell.
Padfoot thought he had finally lost his sanity, and was backing as far into the corner as he could in fear. That was when the wolf turned its attention to him again, and Padfoot's demeanour changed gradually from fear, to curiosity, to recognition and finally, to joy.
It was its eyes that caused Padfoot's change; he would recognize Lily's and Harry's eyes anywhere. Padfoot wasn't sure what was going on, he was just happy to see something familiar in this cold and dark cell he had been living in for Merlin-knows-how-long; he didn't care if those eyes were Lily's or Harry's, he didn't care if he had finally lost it or he had met his maker, all he cared was seeing the emotions in those emerald-coloured eyes that reminded him of home.
Padfoot noticed the wolf had gently put a paw on his shoulder, and the next thing he knew, he was lying on something much warmer and much more comfortable with soothing songs being sung. Immediately Padfoot was put at ease and drifted off to sleep.
Harry was still silently seething as he cared for his godfather. Padfoot was in a worse state than Harry had ever seen him in his past life; it had invoked such rage in him, his HUD had red-lined for a moment. Luckily, his Occlumency was able to stave off his worst impulses, which were to hunt down and maim every single bastard responsible for his godfather's imprisonment; some of his shadow wolf's instincts still took over though as he howled in anguish as a promise to the pain to come.
Harry had Shadow-Walked Padfoot immediately to the Room of Requirement, where his beautiful White Phoenix Hedwig had instantly stopped preening her new feathers and started singing soothing songs for both himself and Padfoot with Fawkes joining in.
Harry had not finished constructing a Sorcerer's Stone of his own yet, but he already had a healing potion made with his own Phoenix tears ready. He gently fed the potent healing potion to the sleeping dog form of Sirius, and then carefully levitated the Grim to a warm bath provided by the Room.
After an hour in time compression, Harry finally tucked a freshly bathed Padfoot in on a fluffy dog bed.
Harry still needed someone to look after Padfoot for when he left for the rest of his missions tonight; while he trusted Cassie completely, she wasn't equipped to cook for and clean after Sirius. Luckily, Harry's next mission would provide the best man suited for that job.
Harry cast a monitoring charm in Padfoot's room, sound-proofed it, and left the Phoenixes still singing soothing songs in the room. He then asked the Room to expand to a much bigger room.
Harry called out, "Elves of House Potter, this is Harry James Potter, report to my location, please."
Instantly, dozens and dozens of house-elves Popped into the Room and started to chant 'Master Harry!' It took two minutes before elves stopped Popping in, and Harry waited for another minute in case any other odd elves got left behind.
Harry observed the elves, his AIs immediately did a head count and displayed the total number of elves on his HUD. 328, there were a lot more elves than he expected.
Flashback
Harry learned of the existence of his family manors after mastering Occlumency in the time compression chamber and regained the memories of his childhood before that fateful Halloween night. But he didn't have time to deal with it as Harry was worried about Hermione.
After hunting down the Weasleys, Harry devoted himself to finishing the Third Wizarding War. It took another two years for Harry to hunt down the new dark lord, Erik Gelinger, who was a high ranking officer in Grindelwald's army, and was sent to England to lead a sleeper cell of Magical SS operatives.
Gelinger used Voldemort's Death Eaters as front runner/cannon fodder for the war, and secretly gathered all that was left of Grindelwald's army, who were much better trained, to do the real work. It was this group, especially the operatives of the Magical SS, who gave Harry the most trouble.
By the time Harry killed Gelinger, it was already late 2007, and Harry finally had some time to look into his own affairs.
The first order of business was to visit his family properties, but the problem was that Harry didn't know where they were, and he still couldn't visit Gringotts in fear of retribution for his break-in nearly a decade ago.
Therefore, Harry called out for any Potter elves, hoping they were able to take him to his family properties.
Harry was surprised by the appearance of nearly a hundred elves; apparently, Harry's mother learned of the abuse many house-elves had suffered, and made James to acquire as many house-elves as he could so Lily could ensure they were all treated like family.
Harry also learned there were even more Potter elves before, but many had died due to the lack of bond with a master or a mistress for such a long time; the 96 left only survived due their bond to House Potter, the ambient magic in the properties and because they were the youngest; and even then, they were barely hanging on.
After bonding with the elves and being taken to the Potter elves' gravesite, Harry had personally built a monument for all the elves who died serving House Potter.
The elves also explained how they, for some reason, couldn't find him unless he called out for them, so they had tried both 4 Privet Drive and Hogwarts. But both places seemed to have wards specifically designed to prevent house-elves employed by House Potter from getting in; they had only given up after twenty years of trying and failing.
Flashback Ends
Harry was still mourning for Hermione when he built that monument for Potter elves, he didn't pay much attention to how many elves were lost; he was expecting somewhere between fifty to a hundred, definitely not over two hundred as he now realised; those were another 232 lives lost he could blame on the manipulative old bastard.
Harry was initially worried that the ward put in place by the MOB would keep his family elves out, but evidently, he shouldn't be, as the Room of Requirement would grant the elves access as he required.
Harry silently observed his family elves while they got over their excitement on seeing 'Master Harry' again. They were all dressed in uniform with the Potter Family Crest just like he remembered; they all spoke in a clear and correct form of English reminding Harry of the school Lily had set up for the elves on the family ground in Wales; really, Harry shouldn't have expected any less from his brilliant mother.
However, while they carried themselves in a confident and respectable manner, Harry's Occlumency alerted him of the subtle signs indicating the elves' weakened state.
Eventually, Harry raised his right hand, and the elves quietened down immediately. Harry asked, "Is that all of you?"
"Yes, Master Harry," replied the elves in unison.
Harry had learned his lesson after trying and failing to get his elves to call him 'Harry' for decades. So he smiled warmly at the elves and continued his enquiry. "Who is the head elf?"
An elderly looking male elf stepped forward, and answered, "My name is Eddie, I am the Potter Family's head elf, Sir."
Harry knelt down to the little elf's level to address Eddie, which was much harder to do with his increased height. Harry noticed in the corner of his eyes that his first action was already causing the elves to swoon, and it took a considerable amount of his Occlumency for Harry to not roll his eyes; all he wanted to do was to treat his family like, well, family.
"How are you, Eddie?" asked Harry.
"I am good, Master Harry," answered Eddie who was bouncing up and down. "Master Harry is as great as Mistress Lily, always asking us elves how we are."
In the corner of his eyes, Harry noticed all the elves were nodding their heads rapidly in agreement. "Why shouldn't we ask? You are family after all," Harry carried on before the elves got excited again. "I can tell all of you are weakened somewhat, shouldn't mum and dad's magic prevent that?"
"Master Harry knew about Master James and Mistress Lily?" asked Eddie with hope in his eyes; and in his excitable state, he forgot to answer Harry's question.
"Yes, I do," answered Harry. "I only learned that they are still alive yesterday."
"Then I should take Master Harry to Master James and Mistress Lily, so you can revive them!"
Harry shook his head sadly, he really wanted to do just what Eddie had suggested, but he knew it wasn't the right time yet. "Not yet, Eddie. I need to get everything in place before doing that to prevent the Ministry from prosecuting our family for practicing Necromancy." Seeing the elves' disappointed expressions, Harry continued. "It shouldn't take more than two weeks for me to get everything in place. Meanwhile, you haven't answered my question. Why are you all weakened?"
"Our bond with Master James and Mistress Lily kept us grounded for a long time, but their magic is in stasis just like their bodies. We can tell the magic kept them alive is from another source, and there was just enough magic to keep Master James, Mistress Lily and the little ones alive, so we tried to draw as little magic as possible from them.
"But the source of that magic suddenly became much stronger yesterday, and the excess is allowing us to recover from nearly eleven years of not enough magic, and we have not finished recovering yet. But with you returning to the family, we should recover in no time."
Hearing Eddie's explanation, Harry made the speculation that the source of magic was likely himself. Harry immediately hugged the little elf, and said in gratitude. "Thank you all for doing everything you could to keep my parents and sisters alive, I am forever in your debt. If anyone of you need anything, please do not hesitate to ask. We haven't lost anyone since mum and dad were put in stasis, have we?"
Eddie answered, "No, we haven't, Master Harry!"
Harry sighed in relief, and released Eddie from his hug. "That's good. I would like to get to know the each of you individually sometime in the future, but now I would like to do something for you."
Harry stepped back and called out. "Cassie!"
Cassie immediately appeared in front of her daddy and hugged him tightly. Harry hugged her back before asking her. "Could you bring all the Hogwarts elves here, please? And could you then change the Room for the ritual we talked about?"
"Of course, Daddy!" was Cassie's reply.
Moments later, another 435 house-elves Popped into the Room and the Room changed all around them. Sirius' room was moved to a corner, and there was an observation room Cassie had created for herself and the Founders; they didn't want to miss the opportunity to witness this historical event.
There were runes etched all around the room; most prominently, there was a large rune circle enclosing 766 identical smaller rune circles, and a unique rune circle at the very centre where Harry was standing. Harry asked all of the elves to find a small ritual circle for themselves and stand at the centre of their respective circles.
There was one empty circle left in front of Harry and he called out. "Dobby!"
A small elf wearing a pillow case appeared in front of Harry who immediately hugged Dobby for all he was worth; tears dropped out from Harry's eyes as he remembered how Dobby sacrificed himself to save him.
A minute later, Harry released a somewhat shocked Dobby and placed him in the centre of the empty circle. "I will explain everything to you later, Dobby. For now, could you please stay here for me while I perform a ritual?"
Dobby nodded numbly, but still answered, "Anything for the Great Harry Potter, Sir!"
Harry stepped back into his own circle and started chanting in the High Elven tongue while the elves watched in awe; they couldn't believe they were hearing the ancient and lost language of High Elves.
During his time studying with the High Elves, they had helped Harry to find a way to break the curse that had enslaved the House-Elves; it was one of many things he did in memory of his Hermione.
Harry had found out that the House-Elves were related to the High Elves, and were a race created to serve. They used to be just over four-feet tall with much greater control of their magic before the enslavement, which had also affected their mentality.
While the House-Elves before the enslavement still needed to bond to a magical user, they could choose to break the bond and retreat to a safe haven where they could survive without a bond while looking for a new family to serve. The bond was like a contract between the master or mistress and the elf; it ensured the elves would keep their past and present employer's secrets, unless the master or mistress broke the contract by mistreating the elf.
After being freed from their enslavement, Harry found the elves' mentality had changed. They no longer wanted to punish themselves, and they no longer saw themselves as inferior beings; but they still wanted to do a good job serving their family, and they still couldn't stay idle for long.
It was said that almost all rituals have a price. This was the case because most rituals were used to gain something such as power and abilities, thus magic asked payments for these kinds of rituals. However, both the ritual Harry was performing now, and the core unbinding ritual Harry performed earlier were both used to free magic in one sense or another. Therefore, there wasn't any long term price to be paid, just enough magic to power the ritual.
Harry had been chanting for nearly half an hour as the runes were gradually charged. Suddenly, a very powerful magical backlash washed across the room and powered up every single rune array in the Room of Requirement; Harry had just released another binding on his magical core, and used the magical backlash to activate the ritual.
A bright golden dome surrounded each of the 766 house-elves in the room. Another fifteen minutes later, the domes started to fade, leaving behind taller and healthier-looking elves behind.
The elves were inspecting their new bodies in awe; to be fair, it had been nearly two millennia since the house-elves were first enslaved.
It was Dobby who broke out of his daze first and gushed, as he realised his contract with the House of Malfoy was broken. "Oh, I always knew the Great Harry Potter, Sir is the greatest wizard ever. Dobby is free from the bad masters! Dobby is free from the bad masters!" He then rushed forward to hug Harry, which had become slightly harder: he still wasn't tall enough to hug Harry properly, but he was also no longer so short that he could comfortably hug Harry's leg. Harry took pity on the excitable little elf, got on one knee, and gave Dobby a proper hug.
Harry released Dobby but stayed on his knee, and he asked, "Dobby, would you like to become my personal elf?" Harry asked because he had figured out this was what Dobby had wanted in the previous timeline.
Dobby bobbed his head up and down rapidly, and answered, "Yes, Dobby will be the Great Harry Potter's elf! Dobby will be the bestest elf for the Great Harry Potter, Sir!" He then proceeded to try to strangle Harry with a hug, forgetting his new strength.
Harry's years of training allowed him to reflexively tuck his chin in to avoid being choked by Dobby. A small silver flash appeared for a second, signifying the new bond. Dobby instantly looked slightly stronger due to Harry's powerful magic.
Eventually Dobby released Harry allowing him to speak. "I am going to speak to the rest of the elves now. I will speak to you later, ok?"
"Of course! Master Harry Potter, Sir!" answered Dobby.
Harry chuckled. "Harry would be fine, Dobby. You are my friend. By the way, don't worry about Lucy Malfoy's plan, it has already been dealt with."
Harry stood up and saw all 766 elves had their attention on him with clear awe-struck expressions on their faces. Harry groaned internally, he hoped the elves would not build another giant statue of him like they did in the previous timeline in the safe haven Harry had built for them, but Harry doubted he could stop them.
Harry started speaking and the elves immediately quieted down. "I am sure you have figured out what I just did. The curse that had enslaved the house-elves has been broken. The ritual I performed will allow this 'cure' to spread from one elf to the next just by skin contact; any elf with the 'cure' could free any elf still under enslavement. This cure will stay with you until magic recognizes that all house-elves are free from enslavement.
"There is a copy of the original version of House-Elf Laws in this room, also known to you as the Come and Go Room; it describes how this affects you. Eddie, I will also make a copy for you to put in the school."
"Yes, Master Harry!"
Harry continued, "No one deserves to be treated like slaves, and no one deserves to be abused. So please spread the cure to the other elves, but please don't let anyone other than elves find out it was me who broke the curse. If you find any elves without a family to serve or who want to leave an abusive family, I would be happy for them to join the Potter Family until they find a new family to serve or decide to stay with the Potters permanently.
"I am sorry to say the Safe Haven is now forever lost, but I am creating a new safe haven for any elves who wish to find a new family to serve; the new safe haven should be ready in less than two months.
"Now do any of you have any questions?" asked Harry.
A Potter elf spoke up timidly. "Master Harry, was that the High Elven tongue you were chanting? We though they were lost in time. How come you can speak the noble language?"
Harry recognized her as one of the elves who survived in the previous timeline. "Tippy, right?" asked Harry gently.
Tippy nodded with a slight blush, she was surprised this clearly great wizard knew her by name.
"Yes, that was the High Elven tongue; again, this secret should be kept among the elves. The High Elves still live in their self-imposed exile. I found them and they were the ones who helped me to find the way to break the enslavement curse cast on your race. However, I cannot expose their location to you without their consent."
To Harry's frustration, that information only made the elves to become more awe-struck. But Harry also realised, these house-elves would never betray him.
Harry was worried for an instant if he was doing the same thing Dumbledore did to Hagrid, but he reminded himself that the MOB manipulated things so Hagrid and others needed to be rescued in the first place; whereas he only did the rescuing without any ulterior motive, and it was just by chance he got something in return for doing a good deed.
When there were no more questions, Harry sent the now free house-elves back to their work, except for Dobby, Eddie and Rory, who was the Hogwarts' head elf. Harry knelt down again to speak to the three elves.
"Eddie, could you get Dobby a uniform ready and arrange elf schooling for him? He will be my personal elf from now on," requested Harry.
"Yes, Master Harry!" was Eddie's reply.
"Could you also help Rory design a uniform for the Hogwarts elves? Use the vault mum arranged for Potter elves for now to make the uniforms. I will replenish the vaults when I next visit Gringotts."
"Yes, Master Harry!"
"Thank you, Eddie. Both you and Rory can go now, I will get everything arranged for mum and dad's revival as soon as I can." With that, Rory and Eddie Popped away.
"Dobby, can you look after my godfather for me, please? I just broke him out of Azkaban, he doesn't look too good," asked Harry solemnly; he was still feeling the anguish at seeing Padfoot's condition.
Dobby nodded, "Dobby will look after the Great Master Harry Potter, Sir's dogfather!"
Harry nearly-face palmed; he hoped Dobby's title for him would not get any longer than it was already. "Thank you, Dobby. I will show you to his room."
After showing Dobby to Sirius' room, Harry gave Dobby a list of instructions, and left for his next mission.
Harry had only spent a minute in real time caring for his godfather and dealing with the elves; with his godfather in good hands, Harry was now ready to move on to his other missions for the night.
Harry conjured a mannequin, transfigured it to look like Sirius in filthy prisoner robes and added a few animation charms to it; this time staying in his human form, Harry Shadow-Walked the Sirius-mannequin back into his cell, and left the decoy there to delay the news of Sirius' escape. It wouldn't do to draw Dumbledore's attention to Harry yet.
Harry Shifted into the Time Room in the Department of Mysteries at quarter past two. The room was deserted at this time of the night; the objective of Harry's visit was resting on the shelves inside a large glass-fronted case standing against the wall at the far end of the main chamber: the time turners.
In his previous timeline, Harry had never retired as an Unspeakable; in fact, he had taken over as the Head of the Department of Mysteries in the 2050s, and had kept that position until he walked through the Veil.
During all that time, Harry had learned many secrets of the Department. For instance, Level Nine of the Ministry of Magic was only the official headquarters of the Department; the real headquarters was only accessible to employees of the Department, and its location was only known to the Head of the Department as well as his two deputies. A charm not unlike the Fidelius Charm was used so that the existence of the Department outside Level Nine of the Ministry of Magic couldn't be told to anyone not working for the Department.
The work they did on Level Nine was still real, mostly to maintain appearance, but also because the other departments in the Ministry of Magic may have required the assistance of the Department of Mysteries from time to time; for instance, the use of the Veil of Death for execution, a more favoured method for execution until Fudge came into office.
The security on Level Nine wasn't as tight; still, the only reason Harry and his friends managed to get in was because of the manipulations on both Dumbledore's and Rookwood's parts; it wouldn't stop a trained wizard/witch though. However, none of the artefacts they had on Level Nine were really dangerous, and each of the artefacts there had a special tracking charm that couldn't be dispelled by any means other than the destruction of said artefact.
However, the substance contained by some of the artefacts could not be tracked, as the magical properties of said substance could react badly with other magic. One of these substances was the sand in the time turners; luckily for Harry, that was all he needed, he knew how to make the rest of the time turner better and more efficient.
Harry transferred a portion of sand from some of the time turners on display into an unbreakable jar he had conjured; the portions were small enough that it wouldn't affect the function of those time turners on display. When Harry saw that he had enough for what he needed, he left the rest of the timer turners alone.
Harry shrunk the jar and stored it in one of his inside pockets. He then Shifted to his next destination.
At half past two, Harry Shifted to a secluded corner in the Department of Magical Education. After making sure there wasn't anyone in the office, Harry set off to search for the records office.
Harry Shadow-Walked into the record office, and summoned the academic records of the past seven decades; they contained more than enough evidence to show the decline in the standards of magical education since the MOB started teaching at Hogwarts.
He spent nearly half an hour making certified copies of the records he needed. These records were supposed to be public in the first place, not locked inside a cabinet; well, Harry would make sure they did find their way to the Daily Prophet, and the MOB would have a lot of fires to put out while Harry was getting his ducks in a row.
When he was done, a simple wave sent all the originals back to where they came from. Harry then Shifted away.
Harry would never invade his friends' privacy; however, he had no problem spying on his enemies. It was called intelligence gathering.
That being said, Harry Shifted into the middle of the Minister's office, and planted two bugs that were directly monitored by one of his AIs in his Mind World; the AI would notify him of anything important.
The bugs were heavily modified from the Extendable Ears using inspirations from the mundane intelligence services, and only Harry had the knowledge at the current time on how to detect them; the decades he had worked with Military Intelligence, Section 5 (MI5) hand-in-hand as an Unspeakable had taught him more than he could imagine.
After making sure the bugs were active and concealed, Harry Shifted back to Hogwarts.
After storing the items he'd acquired from the Ministry in a safe place, Harry left Hogwarts again. One last mission for tonight.
Harry's extensive experience with war had taught him the importance of psychological warfare (PSYOP); now, he was going to use it to make the old goat sweat a little as well as take some revenge for himself. But first, he needed to find the MOB.
Using his knowledge from the previous timeline, Harry knew about the nine Potter properties that had been warded against Potter elves; three of them were located on the British Isles. Harry had realised that the MOB had been using his properties for years while denying him what was rightfully his. Given the cheapest Potter property was much more luxurious than anything owned by the Ancient House of Dumbledore, it wasn't hard for Harry to speculate where the MOB was staying during his temporary, but soon-to-be permanent exile from the magnificent Castle of Hogwarts.
Harry decided to check the property in England first, and bingo; looked like it was his lucky day. Tightening down his Occlumency, Harry prepared for his first confrontation against the man who ruined his life and many others' for centuries.
It was just before four o'clock in the morning, still pitch black outside. In an estate fifty miles north of Cambridge, an old wizard was sleeping under a set of colourful duvets that matched his equally colourful robes, dead to the world; that was until a loud bang broke the peaceful silence surrounding the remote estate.
The old wizard shot up faster than it should have been possible for someone his age, and reached for his wand. Despite presenting himself as a peace-loving grandfatherly person, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore knew he had made his fair share of enemies, and had taken Mad-Eye's teaching of 'Constant Vigilance' to heart.
He didn't know who could breach the impressive number of wards he had set up around this property as well as 'his' bedroom, but he would shoot first and ask questions later.
Well, that was Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, the Greatest Wizard since Merlin's intent; but one did not always get what he wanted: for the moment his hand touched his faithful Elder Wand, to the old goat's shock, the Deathstick flew away from him into the hand of a figure in the room, a figure the so called 'Greatest Wizard since Merlin' just noticed.
The figure's appearance came into focus without the aid of his glasses, something the figure took note of discreetly. The old goat was shocked to the core by the figure's appearance, he forgot to reach for his backup wand; in fact he forgot to speak completely as colour drained from his face.
The figure made a show of observing the room before a young feminine voice came out. "After all these years, Albus, you are still as selfish as I remember."
After a moment silence, the figure continued, "But even I didn't know you could sink so low, manipulating a young boy to be abused while you are enjoying what is rightfully his, you disgust me."
The old goat finally found his voice. "Ariana?"
The brown eyes of the girl known as Ariana glared at him with the utmost loathing. "Glad to see you still remember the sister YOU killed."
The old wizard cringed at that, and refuted venomously, "No, no, no, it was Gellert, it wasn't me. It was his spell that killed you."
To Dumbledore's surprise, Ariana started laughing, and she didn't stop for a minute. "Oh, Albus. Was that what you kept telling yourself? That wasn't the story you told the others; well, not that you told many others in the first place. So I guess the version 'I-don't-know-which-one-of-us-fired-the-killing-spell' is to preach your 'forgive-and-forget' agenda.
"You were more delusional than I thought. IT WAS YOU, ALBUS WULFRIC DUMBLEDORE!" Ariana suddenly raised her voice, making Dumbledore shuffle back in fear. "IT WAS YOU, who harboured unreturned romantic feelings towards Gellert; IT WAS YOU, who was jealous that Gellert showed more interest in me than your Greater Good; IT WAS YOU, who started firing curses at us in a jealous rage; IT WAS YOU, who through pure luck, managed to get a spell through Gellert's and Abe's shields and KILLED ME; and IT WAS YOU, who modified Abe's memory to make him believe that he was partially responsible for my death."
Seeing the old goat wasn't going to respond, Ariana continued, "I guess you lied to yourself so often to ease your own conscience that you started believing in your own lies. I wonder how often you did that for your so called Greater Good.
"Give it up, Albus. Confess to your crimes. Or I will haunt you for the rest of your short and miserable life."
With that said, Ariana stepped back and slowly faded into the shadows; before she faded completely, she waved the Elder Wand at the old goat, and said, "Oh, Death wanted me to keep this as a souvenir."
When Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore came out from his shock, he realised he had lost his faithful Elder Wand. He slumped back down to the bed, and started to worry about his Greater Good. Twiddling with his original wand, the old wizard was lost at what to do; his own wand just didn't feel the same after using the Deathstick for so long. How am I supposed to conquer the world for the Greater Good now?
Ariana came out of a shadow in the Room of Requirement with a satisfied grin on her face. A moment later, her glamour was dropped to reveal the features of a well-built Harry Potter.
The Grand Battle Mage had achieved much in this mission: he had acquired the Elder Wand, which would be stored in a safe location; he had planted a Trojan horse in the old goat's mind during his panicked state; he had learned the old goat didn't need his glasses to see, which meant the glasses were most likely charmed to function like Moody's magical eye; and finally, he had rattled the old goat's cage enough to affect his mind-set – the old goat would likely become more paranoid and start to second guess his every move, slowing himself down further as Harry would create more fires for him to put out.
But Harry knew from staying behind in the Shadow Realm, passively reading the old goat's mind, the MOB wasn't anywhere near giving up his Greater Good. Well, 'Ariana' would be happy to visit her least favourite brother every now and then.
Harry had no idea what really happened in that duel; maybe one day he would find out from Grindelwald. While he wouldn't lie to the public, despite concealing a lot of the truth, Harry had no problem using lies to mess with the old goat's mind. And as the saying went, 'seeing is believing'; Harry had tasked one of his AIs to construct a detailed scenario where Ariana was killed by the old goat in a jealous rage.
Having safely stored the Deathstick, Harry started his daily three-hour mental and physical exercises, as he firmly believed that there would always be room for improvement. He would visit Hermione right after that; it had been a while in his perspective since he last visited her.