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Chapter 12: Of Allies and Schemes.
🕑 Added 2024-12-22 04:21:43 +0000 UTCAuthor's Note: Hey, everyone! As I mentioned in my messages, someone offered to beta-read my chapters, starting with chapter 9. I'll be updating it shortly, and I would really appreciate your feedback. Let me know if you prefer the beta-read version or just my original writing. Your input would be super helpful! I'll update it in about 30 minutes after I check it over.
Celestial Ascendancy.
Chapter 12: Of Allies and Schemes.
Elias Blake.
Hogwarts.
Walking outside the headmaster's office, I took a deep breath to calm myself. At the very least, this meeting with the man showed me what I believed was correct. Dumbledore truly cared, and I did not doubt that he was doing everything he could to help Iris, but for now, it appeared that he had not found anything to fix the Horcrux in her scar.
After that scene in his office, I genuinely believed that he cared. I did not believe that he would go out of his way to deceive me, so I was thankful for that.
He would not approve of many of my plans; honestly, I was okay with that. I did not need his complete support, just enough to act unimpeded under his umbrella until I was strong enough to protect everyone I cared for.
I had a lot of complex emotions after that meeting, but at least I got something out of it. If he cared about Iris enough to shed tears about what could happen, I could use that to my advantage. He was a well of knowledge and when Voldemort's return was official, I was sure that we could learn something from him.
Hogwarts Great Hall.
Walking into the great hall with Iris and Hermione, I smiled at Ginny, who was waiting for us at the Gryffindor's table. She had been smitten with Ash ever since she met my little phoenix and tried to play with her whenever she could.
If I were to be honest, it was pretty cute, and it's not like I could fault her; my baby was the best, after all.
The scene almost made it worth it to endure Ron's jealous looks, thanks to the attention I received from everyone. It was easy to ignore him since I did not care about him at all.
"I'm famished," Iris grumbled to my left, leaning into my shoulder. I was particularly tall for my age, barely passing 5'11, but I would probably be left in the dust compared to the lanky bastard Ron. He would be taller than me, but I had muscles thanks to all my physical training, something he did not touch with a ten-foot pole if he could help it. It was quite a difference compared to my past life; I had abs, for god's sake, abs. I was a lazy person in my first life, but knowing everything that would happen in the future worked amazingly to push me past that.
I trained like a man possessed whenever I could, and I took Iris and Hermione when we had free time. That was one of the reasons we were so advanced for our age: We were all fit, and our magical training wasn't left behind.
"We all are," I laughed, rubbing her hand in mine, "Hermione had you running out of steam in that room until I saved you."
Hermione huffed to my right, but I could see the pink tint on her cheek. "It's not my fault; there's a lot of cool things to learn in there."
Iris snorted, looking at Hermione with a quirked eyebrow, "Name one place where there are not cool things to learn for you."
Hermione just huffed in her spot and took a seat that Ginny had gracefully saved for us. The little redhead smiled shyly until her eyes widened, seeing Iris's hand in mine.
"So it's true?" Ginny gasped, part happy and part disappointed. She obviously was not that good at hiding her true feelings.
If I were to be honest, I liked Ginny a lot as a friend and even a companion to the future. While I did not like her relationship with Harry in the original story, very few people were as loyal and supportive as her.
I would love to have her at my side in the future, and she was a perfect friend to join our group when the war started. She was good at magic and surprisingly vicious when she wanted to, probably because she was the youngest of a big family like hers.
Thinking about it, that was it. I knew the twins, joked with them sometimes, and even in that short time, I sometimes felt that they deserved a good curse. I could not imagine living with them every day for so many years. Ginny's attitude made sense when you think about that.
"Something like that," I grinned somewhat shyly, "Things happened, and we will see where it takes us."
Iris smirked, "He was already ours; now it's just official."
Hermione squeaked at that, but she did not deny it, something that filled me with an excitement I could not explain. It was somewhat of a relief, if I were to be honest since there was no way I could choose only one between them. Call me greedy all you want, but I just cared for both equally.
"Ours?" Ginny murmured so softly I could barely hear it before shaking her head with a wry smile. "I'm so happy for you guys. I hope it works out, whatever that is." She laughed and waved her hand in our general direction.
Smiling at her in thanks, I ruffled her head, earning a squawk and a slap on my hand, but I just laughed, along with Iris. Hermione was still hiding her head on her plate.
"Where is Ash?" Ginny asked in a whisper to avoid attracting attention. It did not work, though, since I could feel multiple eyes looking at me from around the table, the girls specifically. Not even the Slytherins avoided falling for Ash's charm, even if they did not dare approach me publicly.
"She is asleep on my robe," Iris admitted, "We were playing all day long after classes, and the birdie was tired after all that."
"Oh," Ginny sighed.
It was pretty funny seeing the excitement disappear from her face that fast.
"You can play with her tomorrow, don't worry," I assured her with a nod, "I know she can be quite irresistible."
"At what time?" Ginny asked with a grin, her sadness forgotten.
Thinking for a moment, I did not know an exact answer since Newt Scamander was scheduled to arrive tomorrow to teach me how to take care of Ash, and I did not know how long that would take. It would take a while since I expected that taking care of such mystical creatures was complicated, to say the least, at least while they were young.
Since Ash was a gift from the Celestial Grimoire, I expected she was a genuinely baby bird, not one from the wild that had gone through multiple rebirth cycles, so I needed to help her along the way.
Hermione had been quite busy investigating everything she could during her free time about the history of phoenixes, but there weren't many books about them, thanks to their rarity.
"I don't know," I shook my head thoughtfully, "We have plans for tomorrow, and I don't know how long that will take."
"What plans?" Iris asked with a lifted eyebrow.
"Newt Scamander is coming to the school tomorrow," I admitted, just to jump in surprise at hearing the cutlery falling from Hermione's hand onto the floor with a clank.
"What!?" She squeaked, "Is he the friend the Headmaster was talking about?"
Snorting at her reaction, I just nodded. "Yeah, he told me he had grown quite convincing at an advanced age."
"I bet," Iris snorted, knowing firsthand how manipulative he could be when he wanted, even if he did it for a "good" reason.
Before we could continue with the conversation, a particularly recognizable "Hoot" alerted us of the arrival of the queen of owls, Hedwig, in all her white splendor. She was not happy from the looks of things.
Hedwig flew directly to Iris's position, perched on her shoulder, barking at Iris's ear and nipping her whenever she could manage.
"Ow!" Iris whined, "Hed, What's gotten into you?"
Hedwig ignored her, and we just watched in shock as the owl continued to attack her owner with a surprising amount of feelings.
Hedwig nipped Iris's ear for a final time before hooting loudly enough to wake Ash and puffed her feathers out in a show no one had ever seen before, and that was when we realized why the usually tamed Hedwig was acting like that.
Ash peered her little head from Iris's robes, and Hedwig continued her tirade, scaring my baby back inside.
Unable to control myself, I burst out laughing at the scene. I had no idea Owls could get jealous, and thinking that the way Hedwig acted was somewhat similar to when Iris got jealous about me checking out Lavender, I could not help but wheeze with laughter.
"Oh, Merlin, that's hilarious," I continued laughing while everyone else watched the scene with awkward faces, gazing between the irate owl and me.
"What's going on?" Ginny asked, dumbfounded.
"Hed is jealous," I smirked, finally getting my laugh controlled enough to speak.
"She is brilliant for an owl, and she might be able to sense that Iris had been spending a lot of time with another bird while she was delivering messages." I continued, grinning from ear to ear.
"Oh," Hermione whispered before blocking her mouth with a hand, trying to stop her laugh. "She looks like Iris the first night back," she wheezed.
"I know, right?!" I laughed, "She is just like Iris, hahaha."
"You guys suck," Iris pouted, finally understanding the situation.
"Come on, Hed, it's not like that," Iris tried to explain and caress the irate owl, but Hedwig just pecked her finger when it got too close, earning a squawk from Iris. It was not hard enough to draw blood, but it was noticeable.
"Hed, it's not like that," Iris repeated firmly, "She is Eli's phoenix, and I was taking care of her while he did some of his business. She is just a baby, and you are her aunt… You need to protect her, not get jealous of her."
Hedwig, showing a surprising amount of intelligence in her eyes, cocked her head to the side before cooing softly.
Ash peeked her head out again before thrilling with her beautiful voice and lifting our spirits with her presence.
As we watched in silence, both birds started talking, and Hedwig showed her maturity by bumping her head with Ash and cooing softly next to her.
After a moment, Hedwig's eyes found Iris again, and she bobbed her head in something resembling a nod.
Surprised but happy seeing them getting along, Iris grabbed a piece of bacon before approaching her hand slowly to Hedwig's beak, with the owl nipping softly on it.
"I would never change you, Hed," Iris whispered, caressing her owl with love, "You are mine, now and forever."
Hedwig hooted before turning back to her "conversation" with Ash.
"That was something," I smiled, "She will be a wonderful aunty."
"He's the best," Iris nodded proudly.
"She has a note on her leg," I noted with a wave of my hand. "It's probably Padfoot's."
Iris perked out at that and jumped excitedly on her seat. She always got like that when she heard of her only remaining relative, and it made me smile to see her so happy.
She rapidly untied the message before reading it, her eyebrows raising more every second she read.
"Huh," Iris remarked, "He wants to talk to us in his presence."
"How can we do that?" Hermione asked, "He is still wanted, after all. I don't think coming back to school is a good idea."
"I know," Iris sighed, "But he says it's quite urgent. He is staying in his family home, but we cannot leave the school without permission, and I don't think Dumbledore will allow us to go."
"Eh… he might, if we plan it right," I said thoughtfully, "It's not like he doesn't know the truth, and if he prefers to come here, the shrieking shack is always a good spot to meet."
"True," Hermione nodded, biting her lower lip like she always did when she was thinking hard about something, "And now that we have Hogsmead weekend every single week we will have a lot of opportunities to meet."
"That's a good idea," Iris mused, "I'll send him another message tonight, probably after Astronomy."
"We will go with you," I nodded, "Speaking of that, I need to do something."
With a discreet gaze, I saw that everyone was looking away from me for the moment, so I capitalized on the opportunity to check the Map.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," I murmured, tapping the Map with my wand. I could see from the corner of my eye that Moody was sitting at the professor's table, so this was the perfect moment to make sure he was an imposter.
Looking at the hundreds of names in the great hall, I searched for the DADA classroom and sighed, seeing that the name Moody appeared in the same spot as when I checked the map hours ago.
Moving my gaze to the professor's table, I saw the name Barty Crouch, which showed that at least that was the same as I imagined, even if I would have preferred the other option.
"Fuck," I murmured, but not low enough to go unnoticed.
"What's wrong, Eli?" Iris asked, her eyes sharp while looking at me.
Sighing again, I pointed to the professor's table, "See anything wrong with that?"
"Huh," Iris asked, reading the names individually until she noticed the discrepancy.
"Fuck," she murmured, the same as me.
"Fucking hell, not a single year without some bullshit," she snarled, grabbing her wand.
As quickly as I could, I grabbed her hand and pulled her toward me, "Calm down, Iris. Now it's not the time."
"Just think of the collateral damage it would cause if we fight him here," I murmured to her ear. "Let's plan first and foremost. We need to be careful. We can even go to Dumbledore and tell him the problem after dinner. We need to go to his office either way."
Hermione, who was looking at us equally seriously, nodded her head, "Eli is right, Iris. A single spell can kill multiple students; we must learn more before acting."
Iris took a deep breath to control her temper. She was always quick to anger, but at least we learned a long time ago how to calm her down whenever it happened.
"All right, all right," she scowled. "We will learn more before doing anything. I'm still not sure about going to Dumbledore about this."
"He is the headmaster, Iris," Hermione said firmly. "For all his faults, I don't think he will allow someone to impersonate a professor without investigating. I just wonder what Barty Crouch is doing here in school impersonating Professor Moody. Isn't he in trouble with the Ministry for the World Cup?"
"He is," murmured Ginny, who was quite pale but listening with rapt attention. "The day we left the burrow, Amos Diggory, Cedric's dad, was telling Dad everything about it. The Minister put all the blame on him, so he should not get the time to be here."
"That's strange," I said thoughtfully, even if I knew the truth. I just had to find a way to make it believable that he was not the Senior, instead, his long-dead son. I could either wait until Barty Crouch Sr. showed up as he did in canon or find some old newspaper about his son's incarceration and give the idea he might still be alive.
I needed time for that, but thankfully, the girls, now that they were calm enough, were not in a hurry to act. We had to be careful about this, but I did not plan to let him stay here long.
After dinner, Iris, Hermione, and I walked toward the professor's table.
"Act as normal; remember that he has that magical eye of his. Don't do anything to show we are up to him," I murmured softly, taking advantage of having them really close to me as we had been in the last few days.
They both nodded firmly before schooling their features. After we stood up, Hedwig had left for the owlery, and Ash was back into Iris's robes. If I didn't know better, I would think that she preferred Iris more than me.
The bond helped me assuage those nonsensical worries, and I could feel nothing more than unconditional love toward me.
"Headmaster," I greeted the old professor with a dip of my head, "Since dinner is over, I thought we could follow you to wait for the ministry representative."
"Ah, Elias, my boy. Of course, you are more than welcome to come with me. We can have some dessert while we wait," Dumbledore smiled giddily. "I don't get many visits besides for important meetings, so it's a nice change of pace."
"We would like that," Iris smiled softly, "Thanks for the invitation."
"It's no problem, no problem at all, my dear," Dumbledore replied with a complicated gaze toward us before shaking himself. His eyes, which I was looking at carefully, showed something akin to determination. "You are more than welcome to. Now, let's go."
Headmaster's office.
Dumbledore sat serenely in his chair. The office was filled with all his trinket sounds and the soft light of the moonlight. The sky was clear, something we would take advantage of during our Astrology classes.
Fawkes was thrilling from his perch, calling out Ash, who was perched on my head just as she preferred. With her trying to fly and failing, I shook my head with a smile and walked toward the older phoenix.
"You can play together with Fawkes while we wait," I said softly to my baby, taking her off my head.
Ash thrilled softly before prattling toward the other phoenix with a chirp of joy.
I swear, I would kill anyone who even thought I could take her away from me; she was just so precious.
Returning to my seat, I observed Iris looking at the pair of phoenixes with joy and amusement in her eyes while watching Ash run on top of Fawkes' body whenever she could.
The older phoenix squawked, but he was surprisingly gentle, grabbing her by her neck before putting her back in front of him.
"They get along," Hermione mumbled with a smile.
"Indeed they do, Ms. Granger." Dumbledore smiled grandfatherly like he always did. "It's good to see Fawkes with a friend. He usually spends most of his time outside the castle by himself since it can get quite boring in here."
"I can imagine," I noted with a shake of my head, thinking what Dumbledore's schedule might typically be. With three critical and political jobs, he must be swamped enough to not have free time. It would not surprise me that even his enemies approved those jobs since that meant he was always busy.
"It must be quite tiresome to deal with wizards' fuckups," Iris said, shaking her head before slapping her mouth out of surprise.
"Language, Ms. Potter," Dumbledore chuckled. "But you are right. It can be time-consuming like you would not imagine."
"Why did you take all of those jobs, headmaster Dumbledore?" Hermione asked while tilting her head, looking at Dumbledore critically.
"At that time I thought it was the best way to move forward, Ms. Granger," He sighed, looking his age for once in his life, "The wizarding world was in shambles after the war with Grindelwald, and the Non-magical world was catching up to magic's existence thanks to some of the actions the enemy side took during the battles.
He looked out of the window, his eyes filled with sorrow and a mix of complicated emotions, "Someone had to spear a cycle of peace after all that bloodshed, and after my victory against the Dark Lord, I was pushed toward them without a hitch."
"Do you regret it?" Iris asked, and I could understand her curiosity since her situation was similar to his. The only difference was their ages when that happened. Dumbledore was old after the war, and she was just a baby, but knowing the wizardkind, after the second victory over Voldemort, they would start pushing for her to be part of the politics of Britain at the very least.
And deep down, everyone here knew that she was the one who was going to defeat Voldemort once and for all. Dumbledore was not getting any younger, and his aversion to any type of ritualistic magic and dark arts left him behind Voldemort a while back.
Yes, he could match him spell for spell, but a single mistake on his part in a battle between them would mean Dumbledore's end. Voldemort did not play when he fought, at least with Dumbledore, so any spell connected with his body would make it almost impossible for Dumbledore to win in the long term.
No. The next generation, mine to be specific, was the one who would end this farce, and we all knew it.
But Dumbledore was afraid of power. We should be getting training to end Voldemort once and for all, but he, in his old wisdom and sentimentality, preferred for us to still be kids, to be naive of the problems the world faced.
He ignored that all of our innocence died in our first year thanks to the events surrounding the philosopher's stone. Thanks to my future knowledge, I did my best to prepare us to face the future, but the knowledge that we had access to was small compared to what we needed.
"Sometimes I do," Dumbledore admitted with a sigh, "But I believe it was the only solution available to us at that moment."
The room fell into a tense silence, but it was broken when Dumbledore shook his head firmly.
"Enough of that. I offered treats before coming here, and I intend to provide them." He smiled softly, but a hint of sadness remained in his voice.
Dumbledore clapped his hands firmly, "Twinkle, can you come here, please,"
With a soft pop, an older house elf appeared before us. He was old, the oldest one I've ever seen. He was dressed formally, like a butler, with the school crest on his vest.
"Headmaster Dumbles called for Twinkle, Twinkle is here, sir!" His professional appearance disappeared with that greeting, leaving me dumbfounded. I had expected that since he was dressed like that and clearly had years of experience, he would speak slightly differently than a typical house elf, but I was clearly wrong.
"Oh, headmaster Dumbles has visited! How can Twinkle help?" The house elf continued with his excited greetings.
Dumbledore inclined his head kindly, ignoring his butchered name with something akin to experience, "Yes, I called for you, Twinkle. We would greatly appreciate some tea and a selection of desserts. Perhaps some scones, biscuits, or anything you can think of that would delight us this fine night."
"It would be Twinkle's pleasure, Headmaster Sir." The house elf smiled. "Twinkle will be back in a bit," and disappeared with another almost inaudible pop.
Hermione looked at the scene with complicated emotions, but she did not speak out loud about them. "Twinkle was quite well dressed," she said softly.
"Indeed," Dumbledore smiled, "We at Hogwarts try to care for everyone in the castle, and Hogwarts provides."
Before we could continue, the floo in the headmaster's office came alive with a green flame, and a recognizable face appeared on it.
"Ah, Amos. Just in time, my old friend," Dumbledore greeted.
"Headmaster," Amos Diggory nodded with a smile, "I have everything we need here. We just need some signatures, and you know what else."
"Come on in; you have my permission to enter the castle." Dumbledore waved his hand, and I could feel his magic moving toward the floo network, "You came just in time; the refreshments will come in a bit."
"Oh, that's excellent," Amos laughed, patting his belly hard enough to make it jiggle, "I'm quite famished, and food from Hogwarts will always be welcomed by me."
"Hello, Mr. Diggory. It's a pleasure to see you again." I nodded at him and stood up to offer my hand in a firm handshake. "How have you been since the World Cup?"
"Ah, it's you!" Amos gasped. "What was your name again, young man? You were with the Weasleys, right? Oh, and Merlin balls, Iris Potter." He continued, finally realizing that more people than he expected were here.
Iris just nodded and waved in greetings, with Hermione doing the same.
"My name is Elias Blake," I smiled at him, "And yes, I'm the one who bonded with the baby phoenix."
"You must be quite something, young man," He smiled softly, "Phoenixes are quite prickly with whom they bond, and as you may know, the only one bonded with a phoenix to our knowledge is the headmaster."
"I was quite lucky," I said humbly, gazing at Ash, who was looking at the scene with her head tilted. "I just want to get everything done before someone can try to take her away from me."
After that, Twinkle appeared again with a soft pop and started plating the multiple desserts and cups in front of us.
"Thanks, Twinkle," I smiled at the old elf.
"You have my thanks; you can go now, Twinkle," Dumbledore smiled and waved at the old elf.
"I can understand that," Amos nodded thoughtfully, sipping his tea and munching on some eclairs, "You have no idea how much trouble this has started in the ministry when the news reached us."
"Oh, I can imagine," I snorted with rolled eyes, "A pompous Mudblood stealing something that should be from a pureblood."
Amos Diggory was struck speechless by my expression, and Dumbledore sighed in defeat, hearing my cynicism and dropping his shoulders.
"I would not put it like that," Mr. Diggory shook his head slowly, "But there had been a couple of visits from high up in the Ministry to my Department in the last couple of days, and a lot of money has changed hands."
"I can imagine one who has been interested in my situation," I rolled my eyes. "Has Mr. Malfoy been one of those?"
"He was," Amos Diggory nodded slowly, "You are quite perceptive, young man."
"I try," I smirked, "Be frank with me, Mr. Diggory. Will we be having trouble with Ash staying with me?"
"No, the headmaster used his significant influence in the ministry to block the worst offenders," Amos smiled brightly, "It was quite a complicated affair, but he managed to help me do my work without many hurdles. You would not imagine the papers they wanted you to sign before the headmaster interfered."
"That's good; let's get it finished then. I'll sleep comfortably if we can end this today." I said seriously before looking at the headmaster, "I don't have enough words to say how thankful I am for this, headmaster."
"You are a student here, my boy. It's the least I could do. I could not imagine what I would have done if someone tried to take Fawkes away from me." Dumbledore said softly, nodding with Iris, who was mouthing her thanks.
"Then let's get started, young man." Mr. Diggory nodded, took his trunk out of his robe, and tapped it with his wand, "I have all the needed documentation here, as well as a book with useful spells needed for you to hide, Ash, was it? Existence in the muggle world."
"That's going to be useful," Iris nodded, "Considering that Eli stays in an orphanage during vacations."
"That will not be a problem this year since you all will stay in school the whole time," Dumbledore said slowly. "Young Elias will have enough time to master these spells before leaving for the muggle world."
"Good," Amos nodded seriously. "I need you to read this carefully and sign your name under the marked spots. When you have finished, Ash will be allowed to stay here with you without the Ministry involving themselves anymore. I fear that I cannot say the same thing to other people in our country or even outside of it. Ash can be targeted, and being a fourth-year student, you will give some people the nerve to act."
Dumbledore nodded seriously, "Nothing will happen while you are in the school, Elias. You have my word of that, but outside, some people can and will try to take her away from you."
"I want to see them try," I scowled, feeling the anger pool in my stomach. "No one will take her away from me; it doesn't matter if it's Voldemort himself."
Ignoring Amos's shivering when he heard the name, I locked eyes with Dumbledore, showing my seriousness, and he just sighed in defeat.
Iris, next to me, was nodding along, "They won't dare to do so again after we finish with the first ones."
Taking the papers from the shivering man's hands, I carefully read every single line in the document. It was written to be as confusing as possible, probably to ensure people did not understand what they were signing. But thanks to my latest roll, it was a piece of cake.
It was acceptable, but I did not like a couple of clauses that were a little damaging in the grand scheme of things, but they were easy enough to ignore. There was nothing hidden, nor anything they could use to take Ash away from me unless I fucked everything up, like breaking the Statue of Secrecy.
Signing my name with a flourish, I felt how the parchment sucked a tiny amount of my magic before it duplicated in front of me.
"You can keep the copy, young man," Amos smiled softly, "And please, take care of her. They are a protected species, after all. If you need any help, feel free to contact me. Send Cedric my regards."
"Thanks for the help," Iris smiled sweetly, "We really appreciate it, Mr. Diggory."
"It was my pleasure, Ms. Potter," He bowed a bit, "Now, I must go. Farewells."
"Thanks for the help, headmaster." Hermione smiled brightly, "I can imagine the trouble you went through to make this possible."
"It was nothing, my dear. It's the least I could do." Dumbledore nodded, "Be ready for tomorrow, I will send Twinkle to you when Newt arrives."
Comments
thevolunteer
Feel like the conversation about moody probably should have happened this chapter, but I guess its all gonna be in the next one. Really enjoyed this though, cant wait for 13
Alkole
Thanks for the chapter
