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(Enchanting Melodies) Chapter 431: Square Vault
🕑 Added 2025-02-23 14:00:40 +0000 UTCChapter 431: Square Vault
30 May 1995, Hogwarts
Harry walked back to the Slytherin common room, feeling far angrier than he had ever expected when he woke up that morning. He knew that the ICW representatives were coming and that Dumbledore was likely to have been one of them, but the sheer fury he experienced when he saw him, was beyond anything he felt for the man before.
He’d been having such a good week too. After their pretty heavy conversation regarding their possible future fates, Harry and Daphne had actually gone on their date. Yeah, shocker.
Somehow, the prospect of dying soon made them appreciate the time they had with one another even more. Daphne started to hang out when he was still putting the kinks in his plans for Ragnarök. Most of it was far beyond her expertise, but she did have some very nice insights whenever the notion of sacrifice came up. Her tutelage under Lily had made her far more knowledgeable in the subject than Harry, and he really grew to appreciate her insight more than a few times.
Sure, Harry had prepared more than a dozen different plans to save themselves from their coming fate, but Time tended to be unforgiving, which it had proven when Harry tried to do something it disapproved of. There was a very high chance that something would go wrong, and Harry wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. The thought made every single moment matter. He enjoyed the small things, something as simple as just sitting in the shade of his favourite tree near the Black Lake, with Daphne resting on his shoulder, felt far more important than racing around trying to deal with Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s machinations. It was weird, but for the first time, Harry and Daphne started to act like a normal couple. Yeah, it was weird, with the whole End of the World being so close, the frankly terrifying magic, and insanity that seemed to govern their lives, but there was some beauty in the normality of being in a relationship.
Don’t get him wrong, Harry was fighting tooth and nail, coming up with one plan after another, just in the hope that one of them would work, that they would survive what was coming, but there was only so much he could do. His fight against Time had shown him that some things are set in stone, that some things will happen regardless of his actions, and Ragnarök was the ultimate uncertainty. For all his plans, the End of Days was something that he couldn’t predict, no matter how hard he tried.
And yet, this realization came with a boon. Somehow, the idea of dying made everything else feel so small. He was already planning on visiting Arcturus for a bit. He hadn’t really spent a lot of time with the Black Patriarch in the previous year; he had to deal with one crisis after another. Daphne was much the same. If she wasn’t hanging out with Harry, she was with Astoria. For a week, Harry lived in an odd peace, in a small little world of safety, until Dumbledore came knocking back, and brought him back to reality.
For some reason, seeing the man return to Hogwarts, as if nothing happened, as if he had never tried to kill Harry when he was still headmaster, just made him so frustrated. It had taken Harry almost dying, being imprisoned in a living hell and escaping using his own ingenuity, for Dumbledore to finally be ousted from the castle. As much as he didn't like to think about it, his time in the Gardens of Avalon did leave a mark on Harry.
And yet, for all the unpleasantness, it was also the first time Harry had ever managed to hurt Dumbledore. Sure, Harry knew that he hurt him a lot more recently, when he had taken the Elder Wand and vapourised his hand – not that there were any traces of injury of course – but Dumbledore being kicked out of Hogwarts just felt like the bigger victory, the chink in the man’s armour that proved that, Champion of Light or not, he could be hurt, he wasn’t invincible.
And now, Fudge not only let him back but literally gave him free reign over the castle in the name of ‘security’. There was an irony in the ICW appointing Dumbledore, one of the main perpetrators of Mount Olympus’ destruction, the architect behind Cedric Diggory’s death, to be in charge of security, to avoid another crisis like those.
Well, bad news for them, what Dumbledore and Grindelwald were planning, would probably result in more deaths than what happened in Greece. A plan that was decades in the making, was going to be unleashed, and Harry still had no idea what it was.
To be perfectly honest, he didn’t really care, not anymore. He now had a viable plan for Ragnarök, and well, let’s just say that the two Champions are really going to be surprised. Still, Dumbledore being there meant that Harry had to be more discreet. The whole speech about security was essentially about letting the entire school know that Dumbledore could do whatever he wanted, ask to take a look at anything, and it was very obviously aimed at Harry.
If Nimue was right, if Grindelwald knew about his plan of poisoning the Light and Dark, then it was perfectly feasible that Dumbledore would try to make things difficult for Harry while they were still in the castle. He had expected something like this and moved his entire lab to a hidden bunker he created in the forest of Dean. If it could hide an entire realm of fae, it could hide a heavily warded workshop without too much trouble.
Still, all in all, Harry expected his time in Hogwarts to get more complicated with the former headmaster hovering over his every move. To be fair, even McGonagall was taken off-guard by the move, given the way she was glaring at the man after his speech. She had ever wrapped up the progression early, saying something about security checks for the delegations and whatnot. Harry didn’t particularly care for the specifics.
Either way, they were essentially asked to wait around for the rest of the delegations in their common rooms. She hadn’t even announced the task as she was supposed to, not that Harry couldn’t make his own guesses. The fact that she asked the students to build an arena and the fact that a lot of students would have to participate, notably, the younger students, it was probably going to be some kind of magical battle royale, or something similar. It seemed to be the safest and easiest way to move forward, and McGonagall obviously didn’t want to make a big deal out of the whole thing. Harry also would have wanted to get the whole thing over. That tournament had been nothing more than a clusterfuck, even with Hogwarts being in second place. And that’s without even considering the whole Dumbledore and Grindelwald mess.
To be honest, Harry expected McGonagall to fight Dumbledore on essentially taking over the castle, but it probably wouldn’t really amount to anything. The man had obviously conspired with both the ICW and the ministry, and he wasn’t about to change his mind.
His musings were broken by Daphne speaking up once they were alone in the common room, “Are you alright, Harry?”
“Yeah,” he muttered, “I guess I didn’t expect to feel this angry seeing him in Hogwarts.”
There was also the fact that the man was probably the architect of their deaths. Without Dumbledore and Grindelwald pushing for things, Ragnarök wouldn’t have happened so soon. Sure, Harry had played his part as well, starting with the death of the World Serpent, but he was barely more than a pawn in a larger game, a game that the Light and Dark had been playing for thousands of years.
Daphne held his hand, “We’ll get through this. We always do.”
Harry gave her a smile, one that didn’t reach his eyes, and nodded. Still, Daphne did calm him down. This wasn’t the time to be impulsive. He was as ready as he was going to be. Champion of the Light or not, Dumbledore would die before the school year ended, of that, he was certain.
Of course, that moment of tranquillity was broken by a letter with a green seal levitating towards him. He recognized its origin immediately and suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. He just grasped the letter casually and read it.
Seconds later, Daphne asked him, “What is it?”
“It seems like the Court of Slytherin is summoning me.”
Daphne raised an eyebrow at that, “Seriously? I thought that Tracy and Blaise were doing their best to stop them from interfering in our affairs.”
Harry grinned slightly; sure, Tracy and Blaise probably ran interference, acting like his representatives in the court, but to be perfectly honest, it was probably the fact that almost everyone in the house was scared shitless of him that got them to keep their distance.
Instead of making a joke, he gave the blonde a serious look, “Either the Court decided to bypass them entirely, or they just didn’t have time to warn us and couldn’t stall them.”
He couldn’t see Blaise or Tracy agreeing to let them be summoned like this. It was obvious that a lot of their authority in their house came from being friends with Harry and Daphne. They wouldn’t jeopardize their position for no reason.
Wanting to get this whole thing over with so that he’d focus on actually important stuff, Harry started to walk towards the Court’s ‘secret’ entrance, motioning Daphne to follow him through it.
A couple of minutes later, some guy in a snake mask stood by the entrance and spoke up, “I’m afraid that I can’t let her enter. The Court has summoned you and only you, Potter.”
Harry gave the guy an unimpressed look and Daphne just rolled her eyes, pointed her wand at the wall, and it opened, bypassing the protection enchantments entirely. The blonde gave him a cheeky smile, “What? We both know you’d have done it yourself first.”
He returned her smile and just stepped through, ignoring the dumbstruck teenager who probably thought that the protections were absolute or something. Still, Harry, with Daphne walking next to him, walked towards the middle of a room, surrounded by people in snake masks.
Honestly, now that he was seeing it with renewed eyes, he couldn’t take them seriously. It was like they were trying too hard to be intimidating and mysterious, and Harry didn’t really have the patience to entertain them.
Finally, after what seemed like a minute of silence, the ‘King’ of the Court spoke up, “You were asked to come here alone.”
The last Potter simply shrugged, “And yet, here she is. So, can we get on with this already? I do have other things to do. Why did you ask to see me? I was under the impression that you wouldn’t contact me directly.”
The teenagers in snake cosplay shifted around, either through confusion or anger. Harry didn’t care enough to check with his Arcane Hearing. That was how little he thought of this waste of time.
The King nodded, probably hoping to placate the rest of the Court, “Your disrespect is noted. If you feel more comfortable with Greengrass with you, then I suppose you can stay.”
He rolled his eyes at the small dig at his pride. Seriously, did he look like he needed protection from them of all people? Either way, this insult seemed to satisfy the guy’s underlings, and the King continued, “The Court was more than happy to keep its distance from your affairs, Potter, but Dumbledore’s speech has concerned us, and so we acted swiftly to have some answers.”
“Yeah, I’m not happy about it either.”
“We believe that it was aimed at you. Your history with Dumbledore is known to us.”
Harry rolled his eyes. These guys barely knew anything about Dumbledore in the first place. Seriously, what the hell were they planning on asking him, “I can’t say that I know his motivations for this move, but it wouldn’t surprise me. What of it?”
“We believe that your presence in House Slytherin would cause higher scrutiny in our affairs, Potter,” the King continued with hesitation in his tone, “And so, we have come to a decision that you are no longer welcome in the common room or the dormitory of House Slytherin.”
Harry raised an eyebrow at that, “Seriously? You’re banishing me because you’re afraid of Dumbledore looking into your shit.”
“It isn’t a decision we made lightly, but the majority of the Court voted for it. You are an asset to our house, but you currently are a liability, one that we cannot tolerate.”
Daphne looked like she wanted to say something, but Harry stopped her and stepped forward, “Look, normally, I’d have entertained this farce if only out of curiosity to see where this would be going, but I have a lot on my plate so, I’ll have to deal with it another way. Do you honestly think I give a shit about you and your vote? Do you think I care about your silly little power games as if they mean anything? Do you think I respect your delusions of authority over this house, over me?”
As he kept talking, Harry discreetly increased the gravity in the entire room. He could feel the members of the court shivering in fear, trembling and resisting the pressure they were suddenly feeling. He suppressed a smile and continued, “I have fought things that would make you piss yourselves; I performed feats of magic that you wouldn’t be able to believe. Do you seriously think you can force me to do anything when stronger men than you have failed?”
And just like that the pressure lifted, but there was this ominous feeling in the air, the threat that it would return a thousand times stronger. The King, his voice trembling, answered his question, “Of course not. I was just a suggestion, Potter, a request for your help to stop Dumbledore from involving himself in our affairs.”
Seriously, he made it sound like he was running a criminal empire or something. Those affairs were probably nothing more than a few banned books, potions, and maybe a couple of artefacts, hardly something that Dumbledore would even care about.
Still, Harry gave the teenager an amused smile, “Then your request is denied.”
He motioned to turn and leave but stopped himself, “One word of advice, don’t mess with me ever again. This was me being reasonable. You don’t want to know what happens when someone pisses me off.”
With that said, he made his way back to the common room, before he and Daphne burst into laughter at that, “Tracy and Blaise are going to be so mad at us.”
Harry snorted, “It was satisfying though. I still have no idea what they were hoping to accomplish with this meeting.”
“Well, you’re certainly in a better mood than before.”
Harry grinned, not having noticed that he wasn’t as stressed as he used to be about Dumbledore’s presence near him, “I guess I am. I suppose that fancy school club was finally good for something.”
They snickered at that, and Daphne suddenly gave him a wide smile, “We’ll get through this, huh? Together until the end?”
“Together until the end,” Harry replied, holding her hand, feeling the warmth of her fingers against his own. For all the chaos, for all the power struggles and prophecies looming over them, this was real. And if fate thought it could take that from them, it would learn just how much fire burned in the two of them. Together, until the end.
AN: I know that this is another relatively slow chapter, but I felt like I wanted some more interactions between Harry and Daphne, as well as the consequences of the reveal from the future. I’m not sure if I handled that reaction in a good way or how the Court tried to push Harry around. I thought about making the whole thing more elaborate, but it didn’t feel right. They were never going to be a credible threat and so, I guess I thought they didn’t deserve more than half a chapter. Don’t worry, things will pick up a bit in the next chapter. As usual, I don’t mind rewriting this depending on your feedback, so, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
Comments
Kelevra
Just read your other story as well. It’s amazing how much you’ve evolved as a writer from that to this story. Keep up the good work 🤝 I sincerely hope you’ll one day try your hand with the Naruto verse or at least a cross over.
Garri Sarkisov
Delusional of grandeur by children playing power games
Callum Runchman
Children playing at power. Honestly I'd forgotten they even existed as they're so irrelevant it's unreal. Can't wait for the climax of this storyline as it's gonna be awesome.
MonolithV
Love what you're doing with the Daphne scenes. We never did get a scene with Harry at a piano, I hope we get one before this fic comes to an end.
