Scene 9 – Taking Control
It took only a fraction of a minute in real time for Harry to complete his daily exercises in the Room of Requirement. He was now setting up privacy wards around Hermione's bed, still disguised in his malnourished body with glasses.
This was the first time he saw Hermione since his first transformation to the Royal Phoenix in this life, thus this was the first time he saw her with a natural mage sight gifted by his Royal Phoenix. Harry used it to check over Hermione, and was relieved that the only foreign magic on her was from the Basilisk's gaze and a couple of memory charms with Dumbledore's magic signature; however, it looked like neither the MOB nor the red-headed weasel had gotten around to potion her yet. Harry knew the memory charms would dissolve themselves as Hermione's Occlumency training progressed.
Getting comfortable on a conjured chair, Harry took hold of one of Hermione's petrified hands. He spoke softly, "Hey, Hermione. How are you? How is your Occlumency training coming along? I missed you so much and I can't wait to hear your voice again."
After a moment of silence, Harry continued, "I have decided to speed up the timetable on waking you up to tomorrow at the latest. I have arranged to purchase the necessary ingredients, and have a certified Potion Master to brew the draughts for everyone."
Harry didn't let on that he was the certified Potion Master; it was one of the many Masteries he had acquired during his four centuries of life. However, Potions was still one of his least favourite subjects. He would have to get re-certified again sometime.
"There are a couple reasons for this new plan, the main one being that I missed you terribly and I can't wait to see your smile again; I will explain the second reason when you wake up.
"I am sure you already have a long list of questions you want to ask me, and you most likely will have more when you wake up, but please only ask me when we find somewhere private. I would like to apologize that I won't be able to answer all of your questions until you are able to protect my secrets, but I refuse to ever to lie to you. So please bear with me, and trust me that I will tell you everything as soon as it is safe to do so."
After a moment of silence, Harry got up and kissed her gently on the forehead. He whispered, "I love you, my beautiful bookworm."
Harry headed towards the central ward room using the shadows as he thought about his progress since he came back to his twelve-year-old body. His overall plan was simple yet complicated at the same time.
Harry had retrained himself first, so that if push came to shove, Harry could confront the MOB directly, and win. Harry then worked on cutting off the MOB's information network, so that the MOB wouldn't learn he was losing control of him in the first place.
But Harry knew the MOB would eventually learn that he had lost control of his main pawn, namely Harry himself; the MOB would then target those he cared about, in order to regain said control. It was why Harry had stayed away from his girls other than Hermione, whom Dumbledore already knew Harry cared about. After all, the bastard couldn't target them if he didn't know Harry cared about them.
The other reason Harry had stayed away from the other girls so far was that he knew the MOB would see him initiating contacts with Slytherins as a sign of losing control of him, given that Ronald was given the mission to isolate him from anyone other than himself, and Daphne could inform him of his rightful inheritance.
So Harry had decided that only when he was sure he could control the information going back to the MOB, would he start to contact the girls. He would then provide the girls with the necessary political and legal protection as well as teach them how to physically protect themselves. This way, when the MOB eventually did learn of those close to his heart, they would no longer be his weakness, but his strength.
Messing with the MOB's mind and creating trouble for him would help both in destruction of the old goat as well as keeping his attention away from Harry himself. If everything went according to Harry's plan, the MOB would only learn of his loss of control of Harry when Harry wanted him to, which was when the old goat was already politically and publicly destroyed, charged with multiple crimes, as Harry delivered the final blow.
It had been nearly half a year in Harry's perspective since his came back, and regrettably, he had barely contacted any of his girls; he had missed them all terribly. Oh, how he wished to start developing his relationships with them right away, but Harry had learned to have patience; it was something he had to do in his long life of battles during his previous timeline.
Besides, it was nearly four centuries in his perspective since he had lost Hermione and Luna; two and half in Susan's case; nearly three centuries in cases of Daphne, Astoria and Tracy; Fleur was lost before either of them knew she was lost due to the MOB's meddling. So what was six months compared to all that if his patience would grant him an eternity with his girls?
And now, he was at the last step of his plan before he could start contacting the rest of his girls. After taking control of the castle's wards, Cassie would be able to help him control any outgoing information regarding himself.
At precisely five o'clock, Harry arrived at the central ward room of the castle. The ward room was located on the lowest level of the castle, excluding the Chamber of Secrets; it would only reveal its entrance to the Headmaster and any heir of the Founders. The entrance could recognize the current Headmaster by magic or the heir by the Headship ring and thus allow his or her entry.
As Harry entered the ward room, he could literally feel the anticipation from Cassie.
Inside the ward room, there were a series of ward stones scattered around the floor; the Headmasters could adjust the castle's ward by modifying the ward stones, or even adding additional ward stones.
There was also a blue crystal-like stone supported by a silver pedestal in the very centre of the room, which Harry knew was the main ward stone. Harry referred to it as the Heartstone, because that was where Cassie's soul and the Founders' essences were housed.
The pedestal actually went much deeper into the ground and was made completely from Goblin's silver; thus it was almost indestructible. It was also hollow in the centre, which allowed the network of ley lines to feed raw magic into the Heartstone; Harry knew that if it wasn't for the Deathstick, Dumbledore, even as powerful as he was, would have never been able cut off the connection between the Heartstone and the ley lines.
The Founders had added so much protection to the Heartstone that even the Headmaster couldn't access it. A Founder's heir wearing a Headship ring could partially access the Heartstone, and the Marauder's Map was made using that partial access; full access was only granted when the heir or heirs present could claim the majority of Hogwarts and its surrounding grounds.
If Harry only had Gryffindor's and Slytherin's Headship rings, Harry wouldn't be granted full access; but given he also had Ravenclaw's heir ring, the ward stone deemed Harry the majority owner of Hogwarts, and granted him full access.
Harry immediately felt the castle. With the aid of his AIs, a 3D hologram showing every inch of the castle was constructed in his Mind World. He could now sense every ward, every charm, and every piece of active or passive magic that existed within limit of the Heartstone, which included the castle and its surrounding grounds; if he wished, he could also find any living soul within that limit, tell what they were doing and sense their intentions.
"Hello Daddy! So you finally took control of my wards!" Harry heard a cheerful voice, immediately followed by Cassie manifesting in front of him. "Now I will be able to talk to you using our mental link anytime!"
"Great, I will never get a moment of peace from now on with your incessant chatting in my head all the time!" Harry put on a show of mock fear, which only caused Cassie to giggle.
She asked him in her innocent little girl's voice, still using their newly-established mental link. "Do you not want to hear my voice all the time, Daddy?" Cassie finished with a pout.
Harry sighed in resignation, he was never going to win a teasing-contest against Cassie, and one would think with seventy years of experience with her in the future, he would have learned that fact by then.
Seeing her Daddy sighing in not a little frustration, Cassie giggled. She enveloped him in a big hug and continued what she wanted to say out aloud, "You are now in full control of every ward in the castle, the old goat can't do anything to me anymore!"
Harry hugged her back tightly and whispered, "Make that no one would do anything to you anymore! I will make sure of that. No one hurts my princess!"
"Thank you Daddy!" Cassie gushed.
Harry eventually released Cassie and started giving Cassie instruction as they planned; despite being free and all, Cassie was still bound by the Founders' will, and still required Harry's instructions to make the changes. Harry made it up to Cassie by always discussing things with her before giving his instructions.
"Let the old goat think he still has the same control of the wards, and let him sense what he expects to sense. There are a number of monitoring charms around the castle tied to him; keep them active for now, but don't let them report anything out of place."
Cassie happily nodded, and Harry felt her take care of her connection to the old goat. Harry continued, "Good job, my princess. Now that is done, we can make some real changes without the old goat knowing. Can you get those seven crystals you helped me make, please?"
"Sure, Daddy!" Cassie answered before disappearing.
When she came back a minute later, Harry was already busy working with the rest of the wards, so Cassie stayed silent to observe her daddy; she loved watching her daddy concentrate and hard at work: his green eyes were blazing with determination, his movement was graceful and confident, not to mention how he was easy on the eyes, especially now that he had dropped his glamour. Just because she thought of Harry as her daddy didn't mean Cassie didn't appreciate the view.
Although Harry could now activate and deactivate any existing ward using his mind link with Cassie, he still needed to permanently remove or add a new ward manually.
Each past Headmaster had added their own wards on top of the existing wards, and thus many wards were redundant. For instant, there were nineteen separate Anti-Apparition wards cast by seventeen different Headmasters; the repetitive wards didn't make it harder for someone to Apparate, they just drew excess magic from Cassie's core which could be used for something else.
As he already had a copy of every unique ward from his last timeline, Harry permanently removed any ward or ward stone not placed by the Founders. This left only four ward stones behind in addition to the Heartstone, one of which controlled all of the suits of armour.
Harry then marked seven points on the ground around the pedestal; the points would form a regular heptagon if they were connected together.
Harry called for the Elder Wand, which he had blood bonded to him, from its hiding place; the Deathstick appeared in his right hand in an instant. His holly-and-phoenix wand wouldn't be able to survive the amount of magic he was about to cast. Seven short motions later, a seemingly bottomless hole appeared on each of the seven points Harry had marked.
Harry then drew out a knife he made that could mark Goblin's silver and started using the knife to carve out runes on the stem of the pedestal. Harry cast a few charms on the Heartstone when he finished carving; only then did he look up and motioned Cassie for the crystals he asked for.
Cassie was watching her daddy working work with fascination, and immediately handed the crystals to Harry.
The surface of each crystal was covered with a unique set of rune arrays; each crystal was attached to a three-metre-long hollowed cylinder which also had a unique set of rune arrays etched on the surface. The cylinder was made from a synthetic material of Harry's own invention with enchantments modified from those used on Goblin's silver, but the details were a story for another day.
Harry smiled in thanks but noticed Cassie was pouting slightly. "What's wrong, Princess?"
Cassie's pout became more prominent and she whined in a way that particularly suited her current form, "You just carved another rune array I don't understand, cast a charm or a number of charms on the Heartstone I couldn't recognize as all of your spell-work was non-verbal with barely any wand movement, and you still haven't explained what some of the runes on the crystals, not to mention the runes on those thrice-damned hollowed cylinders are for. And these bottomless holes, what are they for? I don't understand!"
Cassie sighed in not a little frustration. She had helped Harry carve most of the runes on the crystals as well as watched him enchant the crystals; Harry had explained almost everything he did, but he was very tight-lipped about the functions of some of the rune arrays and enchantments.
Harry chuckled at his daughter's antics and gathered her in his strong arms after placing the crystals down on the ground. Cassie immediately relaxed against him.
"Aww! My poor princess," Harry cooed to his daughter, who wanted to punch Harry in mock rage, but she was too comfortable to move. "It's a surprise present I prepared for you. I wanted to surprise you this once, as it would be much harder to surprise you after I key you into my Mind World as soon as our work is done here."
Cassie had a hard time suppressing her grin; she had such a wonderful daddy. She was also looking forward to access her daddy's Mind World, especially the library; despite disabling the active defences temporarily for her in the Room of Requirement, Cassie was still having trouble navigating her way to Ravenclaw's Castle in Harry's Mind World on her own.
Cassie looked up at her daddy with her bright green eyes, and gave him a big smile. "Thank you, Daddy!" Before Harry could react, Cassie put on her puppy dog eyes in the blink of an eye, complete with tremoring bottom lip; she pleaded, "But I still want to know, please, please explain to me, Daddy!"
There wasn't anything Harry could do except to sigh in defeat, "Alright, alright. Put those eyes away, they are going to be the death of me one day. I will explain everything to you while we work, OK?"
Cassie immediately jumped up and wrapped around Harry with her arms and legs. "Daddy is the best!" She then climbed down and looked at Harry expectantly.
Harry picked up a crystal and motioned for Cassie to copy his actions with another crystal.
"In the last timeline, I strengthened your magical core enough that you could roam freely anywhere within the ward boundary, not just in the magic concentrated areas of the castle like the Room of Requirement and this room. I am doing it again, but with some upgrades."
Cassie was bouncing up and down as she listened to her daddy's explanation. While she could always sense everywhere in the Castle, it would be so much fun if she could run around freely on the Castle's grounds. Maybe she could go flying outside with her daddy.
"As you know the ley lines are metaphysical; these holes might seem bottomless, but they lead directly to the metaphysical plane of the ley lines. You can see that the diameter of each hole is the same as that of these cylinders."
Cassie nodded as realisations dawned upon her; it should have been obvious. With that said, Harry planted a crystal; its cylinder disappeared completely into a hole. Cassie did the same with another crystal.
"There is a rune array on the inside surface of each of the hollowed cylinders; they were configured so each cylinder would draw raw magic from three different ley lines. Another rune array was etched on the inside to prevent any tampering to the connections."
By now, all seven crystals were planted. Harry approached the Heartstone, drew his knife again and made a cut on his right index finger.
"We placed different wards on the crystals together, I am guessing you assumed the crystals are just some special ward stones?"
Cassie remained silent but nodded in agreement.
"Well, you were partially right. They were modified from the magical batteries used to power the time compression chamber in the Department of Mysteries. You should be proud of these, as we had designed these together in the future; these crystals can anchor wards, store magic and house a magical core. These properties combined together gave us a ward stone that could house a magical core with a functional magical reserve." Harry had just finished tracing the runes he carved on the pedestal using his blood.
Cassie watched in fascination as the originally white semi-opaque crystals started lighting up, but each with different colours.
"As you can see, the magical core in each of these crystals are already charging, albeit very slowly. We are going to speed up the process by releasing another layer of binding on my magical core, just like we did when we first met in your perspective.
"But that isn't the interesting part; the interesting part is that all seven of these magical cores will fuse with the magical core in the Heartstone." Harry finished his sentence while pointing at the stone housing Cassie's soul.
Cassie was shocked and looked Harry in a wide eyed expression. Eventually she recovered her wit and said, "But, Daddy, given what you had shown me about those magical batteries in the Department of Mysteries, and the size of these crystals, each of these crystals could house a magical core nearly half the size of my current core!"
Harry chuckled at Cassie's expression and answered and a teasing fashion. "Actually, with the way we redesigned the molecular lattice structure to increase efficiency and the shrinking charm we applied to the crystals after we finished carving the runes, the capacity of an individual crystal should be much bigger.
"However given how a magical core stores magic differently in a less efficient manner and don't forget we are sharing the capacity of each crystal between a core and a reserve; in addition, I had configured the crystals to only charge to two thirds of their capacity leaving a third empty for emergencies. So only a third of the total capacity of each crystal would be used to house the magical core, which still should be about the size equal to your current core. But regardless, so what?" Harry asked almost too nonchalantly, knowing it would probably frustrate Cassie somewhat.
"So what! What do you mean so what? With a core that size, I have enough power to protect the entire Hogsmeade Village and still leave enough for me to manifest in said village!" Cassie exclaimed in exasperation, she didn't understand why her daddy wouldn't realise the ramifications of his changes. Then she saw Harry's mouth curling up a bit to form a smile, and his eyes seemed to sparkle with happiness.
"Unless that was exactly what you had in mind!" Cassie whispered when she realised this was exactly what her daddy had in mind; her expression started to switch from exasperation to excitement. She saw her daddy's smile got even bigger, his eyes full of love and pride at making his daughter happy; Cassie found herself couldn't be happier nor could she love her daddy more if she tried.
Cassie squealed and launched herself at her daddy, who caught her with his now much sturdier frame. She buried her face in her Daddy's chest to conceal the happy tears threatening to pour out.
Harry felt another piece of his soul being healed as he watched how happy he had made his daughter; however, he had one more surprise for Cassie.
When Cassie finally climbed off him, Harry saw a grin threatening to split Cassie's face in halves, and that made him happy. Mentally making sure the ward room was sealed, Harry started to draw the runes for the core unbinding ritual using Transfiguration. As this was happening, Cassie asked him a question Harry had thought she had forgotten in her excitement.
"Daddy, could you explain to me what kind of emergencies you were preparing for to leave a third of each crystal uncharged?"
By now Harry had finished transfiguring the ritual circle and he turned to Cassie. "Tell me Cassie, do you know what a nuclear weapon is?"
Cassie being the smart girl she was, immediately guessed the direction this conversation was heading, but she still didn't have enough knowledge regarding this matter. "I have only heard some first generations talking about it, including your mum. All I have gathered definitively so far is that it can cause devastation beyond any witch or wizard's imagination."
Harry nodded, and decided that was all she needed to know for now. "That is good enough for now, but please bring up the subject again when all the girls are gathered together; the existence of weapons of this type is one of the key reasons that I need to do what I am planning to do. And it is one of those situations where I need all the help I can get.
"In a really short version, it is a weapon that could destroy a big city in the blink of an eye. I found out the intelligence agencies around the world were not as ignorant about the magical world as the Wizarding World believed, and I won't be able to disable these weapons for a while yet; thus I need to make sure you, my beloved daughter, are protected in case one of those bombs was dropped on the castle.
"I developed a way to convert heat generated by radiation as well as said radiation to magic, but the magic still needed to go somewhere, and that is why I wanted such a large proportion of the crystals uncharged. I still need to place some wards around the grounds for the conversion, which I planned to do as I upgrade the wards around the castle in the next few weeks before the term ends.
"When I finish doing that, you should be able to take ten direct hits from such weapons without any damage to the Castle and its surrounding grounds, but you would need a day or so to leech off the excess magic. I am still working on the solution counter the unlikely event where more than ten nuclear bombs were dropped on Hogwarts.
"And if that does occur before I am ready, I would just have to do what I did in my previous timeline to stop the Third World War, which was going back in time to tamper with all the bombs in existence. I would rather not do that now, as that would mean to go back into the Cold War to do the tampering, and I might actually trigger the Third World War; also, I would have physically aged to my prime by the time I came back, and I don't want to spend a decade with a glamour on."
Cassie nodded in understanding as she contemplated everything Harry told her and she realised that her daddy must have experienced the aftermath of one of those nuclear weapons before; she now had a new appreciation of what her daddy had been through and why her daddy always seemed to be preparing for things.
"Come on, let's get this ritual over with, I have another surprise for you!" Harry said joyfully, trying to return his daughter to her previous excited state.
Cassie came out of her thoughts and saw her daddy was already charging the runes, and she braced herself to help her daddy redirect the magical backlash. She knew this one would be even bigger than the previous three backlashes combined, as a bigger portion of her daddy's magic would be released.
A bright flash later, Harry stood up from where the centre of the ritual circle was; the runes had already disappeared as Harry had only used a temporary transfiguration spell.
Both Harry's and Cassie's eyes were drawn to the crystals surrounding the Heartstone. Visible golden lines of magic connected each crystal to their neighbouring crystals and the Heartstone, forming a heptagonal pyramid with the Heartstone as the apex. Each of the seven crystals themselves was shining brightly in different colours, pulsing in unison not unlike heartbeats.
Cassie was already feeling the power coursing through her and watched the crystals, now parts of her magical core, pulsing in fascination. "Why are they in different colours, Daddy?" asked Cassie absentmindedly.
"That my dear princess, is what the rest of the runes and enchantments are for," answered Harry cryptically.
Cassie retorted, "What, to make different coloured crystals? I thought you were supposed to be old!"
Harry glared Cassie in indignation, causing the girl to giggle and blow a raspberry at her daddy.
Harry thought it was unfair for someone to be so cute, and conceded to carry on his explanation. "You saw me draw the blood runes on the pedestal; I did similar things to the cylinders of different crystals. Basically, I opened a connection between our magical cores in a way similar to that of a familiar bond; however, I did it in such a way that a tiny fraction of my elemental magic was donated to your magical core; the colour of each crystal represents the element you could now control. I am sure this would be handy in the future; hint, pranking Snape."
Cassie's expression was getting brighter by the moment as she listened to her daddy's explanation, but she wasn't prepared for her daddy's next statement.
Seeing Cassie's happy expression let Harry know he had done the right thing, so he continued, "But that is just a side benefit. The real benefit is that now our magical cores are connected, and given your physical form is a magical construct, you could now manifest anywhere within two hundred meters of my location, regardless of where I would be at that time. I plan to take you travelling around the world, so you could see its beauty through your own eyes."
Cassie didn't know what to say, so she just wrapped herself around her daddy as tightly as she could and cried in happiness. Having been stuck in the castle for a millennium, Cassie never imagined she would get to see the rest of the world.
Freedom was something she craved but had buried so deep in her psyche she had forgotten she wanted it. That was until her daddy gave her this wonderful surprise present; sure, it wasn't absolute freedom, but it was more than Cassie had ever hoped for.
In his previous timeline, Harry had seen how Cassie had always been fascinated by the stories of his travels; he was glad he was perceptive enough to correctly assume what his princess had always wanted: to see the world. Now, he was finally able to give that to Cassie; he felt like the proudest father in the world to make his little girl's dream come true.
Harry checked the time using his Occlumency when Cassie had finally calmed down and released her death grip over him. It was seven o'clock already, which meant there was only half an hour left until breakfast; it would be for the best if he could get back to the dorm before that.
"Come on, Cassie. Let's finish configuring your wards so I can get back to my bed before people start to notice I am missing," said Harry gently.
"First, castle perimeters. Turn all functioning security wards to maximum. Monitor and control the entry and exit of anyone and anything through the perimeter; stop and report any attempted entry by anyone who is not invited directly to me and Professor McGonagall; confiscate any item entering through the perimeter you deem dangerous and store the item under stasis for evidence as well as record the item's sender and its intended recipient.
"Until the time I finish remarking your ward boundaries to cover the entirety of Hogsmeade Village, all secret pathways are closed; I will let you know when I finish that particular project.
"Next, the well-being of the residents. Turn on the full functionality of the suits of armour, and have ten extra moved to the Slytherin Common Room for protection against unwanted sexual advances; I will not have my castle become a training ground for rapists. You are to intervene directly if the suits of armour are not persuasive enough. I will work on creating more suits next year.
"Now that you can manifest anywhere within the castle, you are also authorized to intervene directly if anyone was to be harmed. Wait a minute, scratch that, make that anyone other than Ronald Weasley, Draco Malfoy and his cronies; they need to have a taste of their own medicine," said Harry thoughtfully, and he smirked, "Besides, it's quite amusing to watch them beating each other up not knowing why they were doing it."
Pure of heart he may have been, Harry could still be particularly vindictive when it came to the red-headed weasel; he would not forget his role in the attempted murder of his Hermione in their first year and the actual murder of his Hermione in his previous timeline.
"Back on topic, for anyone else, shield the victim from any curses and transport him or her directly to Madam Pomfrey if needed; disarm and stun the offender; again, alert both Professor McGonagall and myself; I will then contact the DMLE if needed and the professors have not already done so.
"Let's try our best to prevent the need for anyone to be sent to the hospital, but we both know that we can't do anything without any evidence; so use your passive telepathy to monitor for any harmful intentions and alert me and the closest professor available; hopefully this way, we can catch any offenders in the act without anyone being seriously harmed.
"Stay invisible to the rest of Hogwarts for now; I will make an announcement at the Leaving Feast to introduce you and the Founders as well as to give everyone a fair warning. From the next term on, you will be authorised to do more: up to castration for any sexual offenders. We will work out the details later once I have a discussion with the girls. Speaking of sexual offenders, can you provide me a list of all those who have committed or tried to commit sexual assault in the past fifty years and the Pensieve memories of the events for evidence?"
Cassie nodded affirmatively.
Harry's expression hardened and he growled, "Good, it's time for those sick bastards to learn that their actions have consequences."
Cassie again nodded, this time in agreement. She knew what happened in the last timeline and she agreed with her daddy's firm stance against these foul acts; Cassie was glad that this time Harry would help her to spare those girls those horrifying experiences.
Harry's expression returned to normal. He said gently, "Now that we have taken care of the protection of the Castle and its residents, let's work on information control.
"I have permanently disabled anything cast by the old goat other than those that could alert him of the change. But you are now in control of the Castle, so you can now control what information goes through his monitoring charms, can't you?"
At Cassie's affirmative nod, Harry continued, "Good. I don't want to invade other students' privacy, but we are at a critical time taking the old goat down. I have configured your ward so that even communication mirrors could be intercepted. I want you to scan any outgoing message for any reference to me; if it looks like someone was reporting about me to anyone, intercept the message, and I will check it personally and decide what to do.
"Check carefully especially for anything sent by the Weasleys and Snape, but don't get too fixated on them; I might be paranoid, but knowing what I do know about the manipulative old goat, there will be someone else observing me from afar reporting to him, someone unexpected. That's what I would do if I was to use human intelligence for information gathering."
Cassie nodded contemplatively; her daddy was nothing if not thorough and she wondered what else had her daddy experienced in his previous life to make him this paranoid.
"Speaking of Snape, like I promised you, you can prank him however you want, especially to keep him away from any of my girls. I am going to establish my contacts with them starting today, and I don't want the greasy bat mind-raping them for information. In fact, I want you to prevent him from going anywhere except for his room and his fifth and seventh year classes."
"Sure, Daddy! This will be fun!" Cassie had a certain gleam in her eyes Harry wasn't sure if he should be excited or terrified about.
"Could you also check if any elf still bonded to Dumbledore is left in the castle?" asked Harry. He wasn't quite sure what to do yet if there was still an elf spying on him for the old goat; he knew very well how the old goat could inspire some fierce blind loyalty using his grandfatherly demeanour. Harry had already configured the ward so that only Hogwarts elves, Potter elves and unbonded elves could enter or exit Hogwarts freely; he hoped there wouldn't be any elves trapped in Hogwarts.
Harry wasn't worried about any of Dumbledore's elves trying to enter though; the old goat would be too busy contemplating about his encounter with "Ariana" to deal with trivial matters as why his elf suddenly couldn't enter the ward, and he just might chalk that up to the physical changes of the now free elves.
Harry relaxed when Cassie reported to him that there was only one elf who used to spy for the old goat left in the castle, but was now bonded to the castle instead of the old goat.
"Good. Last thing regarding information: now that the mail redirection ward on me is gone, there will be a lot more mail arriving for me than usual; my sudden increase in the number of letters received could raise a few eyebrows. So, redirect them all to the Room of Requirement, and I will answer them all privately.
Cassie nodded affirmatively, indicating she was done. Harry smiled proudly at his daughter and hugged her tightly. "Well done, my princess. As you well know, I still have a lot to do around the castle and the grounds to finish upgrading your defences. I will let you know of my progress. I will require the help of Hogwarts elves though."
Cassie nodded affirmatively, "Thank you, Daddy! For doing this for me. I saw most of the plans you made for my defences; they are quite scary! The castle will be a fortress by the time you are done; I am sure nothing short of an army could get anywhere near me." Cassie hugged her daddy tightly and appreciatively. "And I am really looking forward to travelling to world with you!"
Harry just smiled. It would take more than an army to get anywhere near the castle; when he finished, the castle would be able to defend itself against the full capability of the entire US armed forces in the 2090s and deal with all the existing warheads, approximately 100,000 of them, dropped directly on top of the castle.
So unless there was an alien invasion coming, Cassie would be safe no matter what; but Harry would find a way to deal with that potential as well in the future. He still had quite some time to deal with that; in his previous timeline, humans only got their first extra-terrestrial contact at the end of the twenty-first century.
"Believe me, Cassie, I am looking forward to travelling with you, too. I am thinking of taking you, my parents, the girls and their parents to America sometime this summer, but we can finish that discussion later. Now let me key you into my Mind World, so I can get back to the dorm."
Cassie couldn't believe her daddy just teased her like that; she would have pestered him for more detail if she wasn't so anxious to see her daddy's library in his Mind World.
Scene 10 – Luna and Letters
Gryffindor Tower, Hogwarts Castle
11th May, 1993
Harry Shifted back to his still-warded bed right after he keyed Cassie into his Mind World. He could feel Cassie roaming around the library in the Ravenclaw Castle happily and Harry couldn't be happier to be secure in the knowledge that he had made his daughter happy.
Having had a shower, Harry decided to make his way to breakfast. That was when he saw the rat Peter Pettigrew. Using his new mental link to Cassie, Harry saw that the weasel had somehow landed in the Hospital Wing again after he sent him to the Slytherin Dungeon; he made a snap decision. Harry quickly stunned the animagus form of Peter Pettigrew, put him under a stasis charm and sent him to a safe place.
It looked like he needed to reconstruct the letter he'd prepared for Amelia Bones; he would do that after breakfast as he was rather looking forward to starting to meet his girls that day. He would approach Luna first, as Harry wanted to introduce the delightful, if not a little strange, girl to a friend she could rely on.
Great Hall, Hogwarts Castle
11th May, 1993
When he arrived at the Great Hall, Harry noted it was still relatively empty; it was as expected as breakfast had only started fifteen minutes before. Harry immediately spotted the little lithe girl with dirty blonde hair sitting alone at the Ravenclaw table.
In his previous timeline, Harry had only realised his feelings for the strange blonde girl after he learned Occlumency from Croaker; by then Luna had already committed suicide because of all that she had suffered through while being held captive by those rabid animals in Malfoy Manor. Harry never had the chance to let Luna know how much she was loved. This time, it would be different, Harry promised himself.
Cassie had informed him that the elves had returned all her stolen items, and were constantly monitoring for any harmful pranks directed at Luna. However, Harry had only returned for less than two days in real time, and he wasn't sure to what extent the Ravenclaws had bullied Luna, so he decided to use his mage sight to check her over for any injuries as he approached her.
Harry had detected a number of old injuries which thankfully had already fully healed and he was relieved that she was physically healthy; he would still go over the record to find out anyone who had previously bullied Luna and make sure they understood that their actions have consequences.
"Hi, I'm Harry. Do you mind if I sit next to you?" asked Harry gently.
Luna looked up in surprise and she regarded Harry with her spaced-out grey eyes for a moment.
Luna Lovegood had not had a good time since she came to Hogwarts. No one in her house wanted to be friends with her, and she was teased and bullied constantly for her strange behaviour with the professors doing nothing to stop it. Therefore, it was quite a surprise for her when the famous Harry Potter approached her.
Like her childhood best friend, Ginny, who sadly wasn't talking to her this year, Luna grew up hearing the stories of the Boy-Who-Lived; but unlike Ginny, she wasn't obsessive and knew those stories were just that, stories. That didn't stop her wanting to meet and get to know the real Harry Potter though.
When she arrived at Hogwarts, she could instantly tell that Harry Potter was nothing like anything she expected. He was timid and nice, but hidden behind that, Luna could tell Harry had a certain strength within him that was unbreakable. When the attacks had started and people started to foolishly blame their hero for the attacks, Luna had vehemently defended Harry in her house, which had fallen on deaf ears and made herself a bigger target.
She also noticed that there were many strange creatures, many of which even she couldn't identify, that had made themselves at home around Harry; one particular species was clearly evil and feeding off from Harry's magic, and some others were clearly restricting Harry's enormous magical core.
When she looked up to see Harry right then, there were many things about him were different: for instance, many creatures were no long congregated around him, but there was a new species surrounding him hiding his true appearance. She decided to spend some time later to decipher all these strange changes; Luna did wonder if these sudden changes and her possessions miraculously reappearing around the same time was a coincidence. Luna did not believe in coincidences.
For now she would greet back to him, as he clearly held no ill intent towards her. "Hello Harry Potter. I don't mind you sitting next to me," Harry proceeded to sit himself down, and Luna introduced herself, "My name is Luna, Luna Lovegood, but most people call me Loony," finished Luna sadly.
Harry suppressed the rage at the callousness of those people, and gently put on hand on Luna's shoulder, so he could turn her to look him in the eyes. He said sincerely, "Luna is a lovely name. Ignore those who call you names; they are not worth listening to." Having said that, Harry was not going to take his own advice; anyone who had hurt his little moon, either emotionally or physically, would suffer his wrath.
Luna saw the sincerity in his eyes and she couldn't help but to trust him. "Thank you, Harry. No one had treated me this nicely since I arrived at Hogwarts. Nobody wanted to be friends with me because I can see the creatures that they don't believe existed."
"You shouldn't be treated badly because you are different. I would like to be your friend if you'd let me," said Harry gently.
Luna's eyes lost their spaced-out quality for a second; she reaffirmed that this wasn't a cruel prank. Moments later, a bright smile broke out from her face and Harry couldn't help but to smile back. "I would like to be your friend, Harry Potter."
"Thank you for giving me this chance, Luna. I understand how hard it is for you to make this leap of faith, and I promise you that you won't regret that you did." With that said, Harry started to pile breakfast on his plate while getting to know Luna again.
Suddenly, Luna asked, "Harry, how come you suddenly became much taller even though you don't look like it, and so much more powerful magically?"
If Harry was surprised by Luna's question, he didn't show it. Harry turned to her with a big grin on his face; Luna had just confirmed one of his suspicions about her. "You are truly a special girl, don't let anyone tell you differently." Luna blushed at Harry's praise, even though she didn't know what she did to deserve it; however, Harry proceeded to explain to her. "I think I can explain why you can see the creatures that others can't." Luna wondered how that got to do with Harry's changes, but she let him continue his explanation. "I have a glamour on to hide my true appearance, and only those gifted with a natural mage sight could see through the glamour I used. Perhaps some of those creatures you can see actually exist; in fact, I know the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks exist; you should tell your father to search for them in Norway. But I believe many other creatures you can see are actually magic; they represent different charms and enchantments, and you haven't learned how to interpret them properly yet."
Luna's eyes widened at Harry's explanation, if that was still possible on her already unusually wide eyes; Harry's explanation made so much sense. That was not to mention how Harry believed in Crumple-Horned Snorkacks and had told her where to find them. Given it was her mother who taught her about these creatures, Luna immediately came to the conclusion that her mother had the gift as well.
Harry noticed Luna had a sad smile on her face, and asked, "Are you thinking about your mother?"
Luna nodded, "How do you know?"
"I see the exact same expression in the mirror when I am reminiscing about lost loved ones. Sometimes I wonder which is worse: not having memories of them at all or having all those happy memories but knowing you won't make any new ones anymore."
"Have you decided yet?" asked Luna, curious about Harry's opinion on this.
Harry thought about it for a moment, trying to compare how he felt about losing his parents to losing Hermione and his other girls in his previous timeline. "I think in the short term, the latter is worse. But once you get over the grieving stage, I would rather have some of those happy memories than not at all. It is those happy memories that keeps me going, drives me to do better, so that I can live for them and when my time eventually comes, I shall be able to face them again with pride."
Luna could tell Harry was speaking from experience; initially, she thought 'them' was Harry's parents, but then she remembered how young Harry was when they died and therefore he would very unlikely to have any memories of them; she wondered who else Harry had lost in his short life.
Nevertheless, what Harry had just told her made a lot of sense; from now on, Luna would live for her mother's memories after nearly three years mourning for her.
Luna gave Harry a bright and teary smile. "Thank you, Harry!"
Harry didn't need to ask to know why she was thanking him; he gently took one of her hands in his own, and said softly, "Anytime, Luna."
Moments later, Luna recovered and decided to return to their previous topic. Being a true Ravenclaw despite what the others in her house thought, Luna asked, "Do you know where I can find the books on how to use my gift?"
"Yes and no," answered Harry cryptically, "Curse-Breakers use different spells to visualise magic, and they have an introductory book on how to interpret the visualisation. However, the full capability of the natural mage sight cannot be replicated by any charms, enchantments or rituals, and the gift is so rare in magical humans; none of the existing books on magic visualisation are really comprehensive. Besides, experience is a major factor in learning to use the gift.
"Given that there wasn't any good book on how to use the full capability of mage sight, after receiving the gift myself from one of my animagus forms, I wrote a guide myself that should be able to get you started. I will give you a copy of it later."
"Thank you, Harry!" said Luna gratefully. She was also wondering about the casual way that Harry had mentioned his animagus forms. She didn't know anyone could have more than one form, with at least one form clearly being a magical creature, let alone becoming an animagus at such a young age. Luna wondered if Harry could teach her how to become an animagus; she had always wanted to run around the forest as an animal. She was broken out of her musing by Harry.
"Don't thank me yet. As I said, the book could only be a guide; it would be good if someone experienced could teach you. While I have no problem teaching you about your gift myself, I know a friend who could do a better job. He is in the castle at the moment; how about I introduce you to him sometime later today? If it doesn't work out between you two, I am more than willing to teach you myself."
Luna nodded happily at Harry's suggestion; she could possibly gain another friend.
Just then, Harry saw a clearly irate Professor McGonagall march into the Great Hall.
By that time, the Great Hall was filled with students eating breakfast. Harry had noticed a number of people giving him strange looks, either for sitting next to Luna or because they were still of the opinion that Harry was behind the attacks. Harry just ignored them and carried on talking to Luna.
Nobody other than Harry seemed to notice the distinct lack of professors at the High Table. Harry's link to Cassie showed him that most of the staff were being checked over by Healers in the Hospital Wing, and Cassie had trapped the greasy bat in one of the staircases. It seemed that Poppy didn't want to waste any time.
Professor McGonagall stood on the raised platform for the High Table, and very effectively silenced the Great Hall.
"Students, your classes for today are cancelled," Some students cheered; the professor immediately cast a stern gaze at them to shut them up. "Use your time wisely to study for your end-of-year exams. And do not wander in the corridors alone, as the culprit for the attacks is still at large." The cheerfulness died immediately at that statement; some students cast their eyes towards Harry again, who just ignored the sheep.
When McGonagall stepped down and exited the Great Hall to return to the Hospital Wing for more scans, Harry turned to Luna again.
"Given you no longer have classes, how about we visit my friend now?"
Luna finished the last of her pudding, and answered enthusiastically, "Sure, Harry. Let's go!"
"My Lady," Harry stood up and offered Luna his arm.
Luna giggled, and looped her arm around Harry's, "Milord," returned Luna almost jokingly; she had seen Harry's disillusioned Lordship rings with her mage sight, but she couldn't decipher the exact shape of the rings yet.
As they left the Great Hall together, many people stared after them with a frown, but one particular pair of icy-blue eyes followed them brimming with curiosity.
Gringotts
11th May, 1993
High King Ragnuk the Seventh, Chief of the Goblin Nation had just finished his morning exercise; as the leader of a warrior race, and despite being well over a hundred years of age, the High King showed his subjects why he was worthy of his title every day.
At eight thirty, the High King returned to his luxurious office to deal with the affairs of the global bank. The moment he settled down behind his desk, he was surprised by a flash of white flame. The High King was ready to swing his axe, but stopped immediately when he saw the white flame had left behind a pure-white phoenix.
Out of the few things the wand-wavers got right, one was the recognition of phoenixes as a species that should be revered; other sentient magical species recognized this even more than the wand-wavers.
Ragnuk immediately stayed his axe and returned it to safety. He gave the beautiful phoenix a small but respective bow, knowing despite the magnificence of such a creature, phoenixes did not seek to be worshiped.
The High King took the envelope offered by the white phoenix with its beak, and he wondered who owned this majestic creature; he knew White Phoenixes were even rarer than normal phoenixes, and should be held in even higher regard.
The first thing he noticed on the envelope was that his name and title were written in Gobbledegook. This was definitely a surprise. The High King knew only a few wizards ever bothered to learn how to speak their language, but he didn't know any who could write it.
Being the leader of a nation, Ragnuk took the precaution to scan the letter despite the fact that it was delivered by a creature that was the ultimate representation of good. He proceeded to open the letter after the scan came back clean, knowing it would tell him the identity of this individual. Again he was surprised that the whole letter was written in Gobbledegook.
Greetings, Director Ragnuk,
I apologize for contacting you directly. However, I believe this matter warrants the precautions I took to ensure this letter does not fall into the wrong hands.
First, let me introduce myself. My name is Harry Potter.
I have reason to suspect that Albus Dumbledore has conspired with some of your subjects to keep me and steal from my rightful inheritance. I would like to make an appointment with you to discuss these reasons in person, as I would like to give you a chance to do your own investigations.
To point you in the right direction, please investigate the goblin who replaced my family's old account manager as well as the one who authorised the replacement. I believe these two goblins are from the same clan, a member of which was the teller who greeted me during my first visit to Gringotts, who failed to point out that I should have my key.
Please let me know when we can meet at your convenience; as you can see, I have the means to get away from Hogwarts at any time. Hedwig will wait for your response.
May your enemies tremble at your feet,
Harry James Potter,
Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Gryffindor and Slytherin, Heir Apparent of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter and Peverell, Heir Apparent of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Gaunt, Heir Apparent of the Most Ancient Clan of Therion, Heir Presumptive of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Ravenclaw, Heir Presumptive of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.
Having read the letter, Ragnuk knew immediately this matter required his utmost attention. For one, the young lord was clearly powerful, at least politically, and knew so himself; yet, he was respectful and lacked any sense of bigotry most wand-wavers had. By the way he addressed the letter, the young lord clearly showed that he knew and understood Goblins' customs very well. That was not to mention the young lord had a white phoenix.
If what the letter said was true, and the High King had no reason to doubt the young lord, Dumbledore's phoenix did not stay with the fool willingly, and that was even more criminal than stealing in his eyes.
It was also clear to Ragnuk that the young lord knew exactly what was going on and which houses he would inherit from. He did wonder how he knew about the houses other than House Potter and House Gryffindor.
The Founders didn't have any vaults in Gringotts as the bank was established half a millennium after Hogwarts, but Goblin magic still allowed them to trace anyone's lineage back to much further than the Founders' time. Unlike other houses, the bank had no role in the passage of headship of any of the Founders' houses; how one received the headship ring of a Founder's house was only known by the holders of said rings. But, the bank was tasked to confirm anyone who claimed the headship of any Founders' houses using their magic. Ragnuk was there when they confirmed Lord Charlus Potter's claim to the headship of House Gryffindor.
Clearly, young Harry Potter had followed his grandfather's footsteps. But Ragnuk was clueless about how he would inherit from the other houses, and a clan apparently.
The High King did know that if the young lord was able to claim the headship of House Peverell, it meant he had reunited the three separate Peverell bloodlines, and that was a very powerful house in its own right, both politically and financially. And someone in the Goblin Nation had to anger this clearly extremely powerful and wealthy young lord, who could probably bankrupt Gringotts. Luckily for him, the young lord seemed fair; the Chief of the Goblin Nation was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and would thoroughly investigate this matter personally.
The High King quickly wrote a letter back to invite the young lord for a meeting that afternoon, and he would start his investigations immediately.
Room of Requirement, Hogwarts Castle
11th May, 1993
Meanwhile, Harry had led Luna to the Room of Requirement, having made sure they weren't followed. The door appeared as he approached to Luna's amazement.
The pair were immediately greeted by Fawkes.
"Luna, may I introduce you to my friend, Fawkes."
"It's beautiful, Harry!" answered Luna in wonderment, she proceeded to introduce herself, "Hello, I'm Luna Lovegood."
"Fawkes is a he," corrected Harry.
"Sorry, Fawkes."
The phoenix just trilled and allowed Luna to pet him. Fawkes seemed to enjoy Luna's attention.
[Harry, thank you for bringing her here. She has a pure but lonely heart. I can tell you are already starting to drive away the loneliness from her. I like her and I wish to bond with her and help driving away her loneliness,] trilled the phoenix. Although Luna couldn't understand Fawkes yet, but his trills still brought joy to her.
"No problem, Fawkes. I am glad to help. I will let her know," answered Harry aloud.
By now Luna had turned to Harry; she carried on petting the phoenix. Luna asked, "You can understand him?"
"Yes," answered Harry simply.
"How?"
"It was my phoenix animagus form that gifted me with my mage sight; the spirit of my phoenix form helped me understand Fawkes," explained Harry. Luna just stared him in awe, she supposed only Harry could become a phoenix animagus by the age of twelve.
Harry continued, "I brought you here because I thought you might be interested to bond with Fawkes; he just informed me that he would like to bond with you. He would then be able to teach you how to use your mage sight."
Fawkes was surprised by Harry's last statement, but he definitely wouldn't mind teaching her.
Luna was definitely enthused to bond with Fawkes, "I would like that, Fawkes. Thank you for choosing me. But why wouldn't you bond with him?"
Harry chuckled, "Couple of reasons: one, I already have my beautiful Hedwig who probably would fight with Fawkes all day if I bond with both of them."
"I can hear you, Harry. I am not sure whether to smack you or thank you for that. You have a habit of praising me and insulting me in the same sentence," thought Hedwig to Harry indignantly.
"Please forgive me, girl. I have bacon for you when you get back,"said Harry which seemed to successfully appease Hedwig. It amused Harry to no end that Hedwig's transformation to a white phoenix didn't seem to do much for her addiction to bacon.
"Two, I thought you could use another friend. I will always be your friend, Luna, but having Fawkes able to talk to you telepathically any time would cover those times that I can't be around," continued Harry gently.
Luna started to tear up, she hadn't experienced this much kindness since her mother died; even her father wasn't as thoughtful, as he was lost in his own grief. She enveloped her arms tightly around Harry's waist to bury her tear-stricken face in Harry's broad chest; Harry immediately returned the hug and rubbed his hand up and down her back soothingly.
Harry could feel her tears soaking his shirt. As Luna's breathing calmed down somewhat, he brought her head up gently, but didn't let go of her. Harry brought his slightly calloused hand to her cheek, and rubbed her tears away with his thumb; he stared into her eyes and said, "Hey, I'm here now. I'm sorry I wasn't here for you since the beginning of the year. But I promise you from now on, I will always be here for you. No matter what."
Looking into his emerald-green eyes, Luna couldn't help but to lose herself in them; especially since he had dropped his glamour upon entering this room, she could see his gorgeous eyes without his glasses. She then did something that surprised both of them, she kissed him.
Despite not using his active Legilimency, Luna was projecting her thoughts so loudly, his near-telepathic passive Legilimency skill was picking up her thoughts anyway. Harry smiled internally as he thought that if it was anyone else who had tried to read Luna's mind, they would get a massive headache. But even with his super-advanced Mind Arts automatically unscrambling Luna's thoughts, he didn't see the kiss coming.
Surprised he was, but nevertheless, Harry returned the tender kiss and pushed all the feelings he had developed for her but never got the chance to express in his previous timeline into the kiss. Another layer of sorrow was lifted from his soul, and he could feel his soul reaching for her.
The kiss didn't last that long; they were only twelve after all, well at least physically for Harry, but they both felt the connection and the longing for each other.
Harry asked a question he thought he already knew the answer to. "I'm not regretting the kiss at all, but why did you kiss me, Luna?"
"The Blibbering Humdingers had been telling me to since you started talking to me today. I guess now that I know about my mage sight, I suppose the correct explanation is that your magic had been telling me to. But Blibbering Humdinger is just so much better an explanation," deadpanned Luna a little disappointedly.
Harry smiled fondly at her, "Yes, it is. And you can keep calling it that if you want. You know, to honour your mother's memory."
Luna smiled brightly at Harry's idea, "Thank you, Harry. I will do that." After a pause, she continued, "The Blibbering Humdingers are also telling me that you will kiss six other witches, and I don't mind, Harry. I am happy to share you."
Harry didn't know what to say to that, Luna had always been blunt. So he gathered her in his arms again and mumbled, "Never change, Luna."
Luna just smiled into his chest, feeling so safe in his arms that she never wanted to let go.
"Now, let's get back to what we came here for," said Harry while still holding Luna against him. "If Fawkes initiates the familiar bond with you, do you think you can finalise it?"
Luna finally let go of Harry and turned her attention back to Fawkes. "I'm not sure, but I would like to try."
"Go on then, I will be able to see your progress with my mage sight, and I shall give you some assistance if you are struggling. But I'm sure you can do it on your own."
It turned out Luna didn't need Harry's assistance. Without the old goat interfering, a magical person with sufficient power, especially one who grew up in the magical world, could easily sense a familiar bond forming and instinctively finalise the bond.
Seeing Luna happily chatting with her new familiar, Harry discreetly went to a separate room in the corner provided by the Room of Requirement to check on his godfather.
Diagon Alley,
11th May, 1993
Rita Skeeter walked into her office at the Daily Prophet; her attention was immediately drawn to a rather thick envelope on her table. She wondered how the envelope got into her office, as the editor had all incoming owls to the Daily Prophet redirected to a mail sorting centre.
She knew she had made her share of enemies, so she did her customary scan for curses before she broke the seal. The seal was one she didn't recognize, and she had made sure she memorized the family crest of all the important families.
There were a number of things in the envelope, including a letter addressed to her.
Miss Skeeter,
I am sure you are wondering who I am at the moment, but who I really am doesn't matter. What does matter is the job offer I have for you. You see, my employers have a number of people they would like to see publicly destroyed; and despite your inability to report anything truthfully, you do have a way with words.
I would like to hire you to report a number of questionable deeds done by certain people using your position at the Daily Prophet. However, instead of making things up, my employers want you to report facts that can be backed up by evidence, evidence either I will provide you with or you will collect yourself using your special talent. Maybe one day you will learn how truths are so much more powerful than lies when used correctly.
In the envelope, you should find certified copies of academic records of several major magical schools around the world for the past fifty years. I am sure you can see the clear decline in the standards of magical education at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry since Albus Dumbledore became the Headmaster. That's right, the first person we would like you to target is Albus Dumbledore. (Hint: these records were supposed to be public, so why were they locked inside a cabinet in the Ministry?)
Consider this your audition. If my employers are satisfied with your work, we will make this a long term arrangement and you will be well compensated according to the preliminary contract included in the envelope. I don't expect you to completely destroy Dumbledore's reputation with this little information, but I do expect you to get your readers to start questioning everything Dumbledore has done or claimed he has done.
You have till this Thursday (13th May) to publish your article before this generous offer is made to someone else.
Sincerely,
The Informant,
P.S. Remember, only report something as fact if you can back it up with evidence; if you have to speculate, make it clear in your articles that it is your opinion.
If your editor refuses to publish your article, you should owl me. Address the letter to 'The Informant' and the owls will find me.
Do NOT try to uncover my employers' or my identity, as you will not like the consequences; being an illegal animagus will be the least of your worries.