Hogwarts: A Theme Park? by Zen
Summary: "Bucking Broncos" and block-expelling walls wasn't really what Harry had signed up for. But with a pillow-fighting, Doxy Powder sneaking Hermione standing over him, he has no choice but to get the job done.
Rating: PG
Categories: Reconstruction Challenge (2007-5)
Characters: None
Genres: None
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Published: 2007.10.05
Updated: 2007.10.25
Index
Chapter 1: Chapter 1
Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Chapter 3: Chapter 3
Chapter 4: Chapter 4
Chapter 5: Chapter 5
Chapter 6: Chapter 6
Chapter 1: Chapter 1
Author's Notes: This just was the best challenge, I wrote the whole thing in about three days, and had a blast writing it. Many many thanks to my dear friend, Mojomig, who beta read this for me in a one hour deadline!
Chapter One:
None of it seemed real; not this broken pillar, not that smashed up staircase, not those lop-sided portraits whose occupants were trying hard not to slide out of their frames, or these wrecked statues. Nearly everything was covered with a thick layer of dust, and the rubble was still there where chunks of rock were blasted off by stray hexes or errant curses. It felt as if it was all a part of highly graphic and vivid nightmare.
The outside of the castle didn’t look any better either. Along its exterior you could find several empty gaps where walls had been, and large black areas to signify where the castle had been scorched. Some towers were missing, and others had their tops blasted off and brought down to the grounds, which were now bare and cluttered with debris and rocks.
As Harry walked through the hallways and corridors, twirling his two wands between his fingers, he found it difficult to believe that the castle that had been his home for the past six years had played host to the final battle between him and Voldemort. He had always thought that it would be out in some clearing or maybe in the old graveyard where he had first met his nemesis…but not at Hogwarts.
Bittersweet memories clouded over him — this was the corner were he and Ginny had stolen a private moment between classes, this was the corridor where they found the petrified Hermione, this was where a dwarf tackled him and gave him his first Valentine…and that was where Fred had died.
He stopped before a huge gap that had once been a wall, and felt a lump rising in his throat. He still remembered the incident ever so clearly, even though about three months had passed since that terrible night. He didn’t think he’d ever forget his final laugh.
“Harry, I finally found you!” came Hermione’s brisk voice from behind him. “I was talking to Kingsley, and he’s really asking for a lot! Can you believe he wants us to mend the whole school in just…ohh?”
Hermione came to a stop a few feet away from where Harry was standing, and he looked around at her to see that she was holding a piece of parchment, which she was now slowly trying to roll up with as little rustling as possible. Managing a small smile, he held up one of the wands. “Well, that’s why he asked me to use the Elder wand, right?” he told her.
Hermione shifted uneasily. “I’m still not sure about you using this wand, Harry,” she said dubiously. “I mean, it’s the Elder wand, the most powerful wand in all the history of wand lore. It could be very dangerous to use that kind of power to rebuild a school which students are going to attend. What if the castle suffers from repercussions?”
Harry couldn’t help but smile at her logic. “Hermione, Hogwarts is going to be fine,” he reassured her. “Why, by using the Elder wand, the whole structure of the castle will probably be a whole lot stronger.”
He knew he probably sounded like the voice of confidence at the moment, but when Kingsley and the chief engineer, cornered him with the whole reconstruction deal using the Elder wand, he had repeatedly said no. In fact, the situation had become so tense even Kingsley’s cracks about how killing Harry in order to become the true owner of the wand would be too messy and would cost him a lot of paperwork, ceased to be funny. Kingsley had managed to win him over by dropping so much guilt on him; he was actually starting to feel its weight.
“Well, if you’re so sure…” she murmured, still sounding highly uncertain.
“Where’s Ron?”
Ron and Hermione had been asked to assist Harry on the building site, if not to actually help him with the building. Kingsley probably thought that having his two best friends around would help him stay focused on his work, and Harry had to admit that was a smart move; he might’ve walked back home if it weren’t for Ron’s funny cracks and Hermione’s earnest willingness to do the job. Ginny had been brought along on a personal request on his side, but she was no where to be seen at the moment.
At the moment though, Hermione looked relieved at the change of subject. “He’s down with the other engineers,” she said, and laughed. “Since he’s a close friend to you, they thought that they could get him to tell you what they want to do with the castle. I can honestly say I’ve never seen Ron’s ears become any more red that that.”
Harry laughed as well. “I guess I’d better rescue him, then,” he remarked. “Do you have the slightest idea what they have in store for me?”
She promptly pulled open her roll of parchment. “Well, there’s the basic repairing for everything that was damaged, of course,” she said, and he nodded. “Then they want to renovate…an official ballroom for any future events, some kind of student lounge…ooh! You won’t like this, Harry, but they might have to remove the Quidditch pitch due to all the expansions.”
“WHAT?!”
Hermione rolled her eyes. “Kidding. Gee, Harry, grow up; Quidditch is not everything,” she told him, as she started to turn away.
“Hermione, if the students attack you, I’ll be just watching from the stands.”
-
This had to be his favourite place in the whole of Hogwarts. The large green pitch and the three golden hoops at each end just seemed to fill him with a blissful feeling that even drowned out the words of the engineers that had been ringing in his ears for the last hour. Harry had taken the childish approach and had escaped the engineers when they weren’t looking, and was now hiding in the comfort of the sun-washed stands.
He heard footsteps behind him, and groaned audibly; he had been counting on gaining at least ten minutes of peace before they finally found him again.
“Okay, okay, I’ll help you build an extra tower, just stop hassling me!” he said in exasperation.
Ginny plopped down next to him. “Well, a tower seems a bit extravagant for me, but if you insist,” she said, grinning at him. Harry’s face relaxed into a smile when he saw her, and they exchanged a quick kiss. She handed him a bottle of Butterbeer. “I’ve been at the Hog’s Head. Aberforth said you might need a drink, and I guess he was right.”
Harry took a swig out of the warm, honey-coloured liquid and immediately felt a whole lot better. The effect was increased as Ginny’s delicate fingers closed around his.
“So, what’s bothering you?” she prompted him.
Harry didn’t say anything for a moment. “You know, I always thought that after I defeated Voldemort, I would finally be able to relax...go on vacation or something,” he said, rather wistfully. “But everyone wants things from me now, whether it’s an interview, or a photo shoot, or simply an autograph...and now they want me to help them rebuild Hogwarts? Can’t they give me a bit of a break?”
“That’s a bit selfish of you, Harry, don’t you think?” Ginny said, frowning a little. “Don’t you realise how wonderful it would be for the students to come back and find out that you’ve actually helped fix the castle? They’ll be delighted!”
“Oh, don’t you try and make me feel guilty, too! Have you been talking to Kingsley?” he demanded, and she gave him a blank look. “Gin, it’s not like I don’t want to help. I’d love to help, but those guys want me to do everything. They’re just drawing out the plans, and they just expect me to wave my wand around and fix the whole castle in a jiffy.”
“Isn’t that what’s going to happen?”
“No!”
She laughed. “I know; I was just pulling your leg,” she said. She linked an arm through his and leaned against him. “So, I was wondering, could your little Elder wand do something for me?”
“Ginny,” he said warningly. “We talked about this; I’m not going to use it to transform your bedroom into a full, magically-expanded apartment. You keep it up and I might need a longer break.”
“I’m not talking about that!” she said indignantly. “Look, I’ve been talking to many of the kids at Hogwarts; I wanted to see how they were doing, and then I told them that you were going to help rebuild Hogwarts, and...well, they want you to build something extra for them. Will you hear me out?”
Harry nodded slowly. “Go ahead,” he told her, and listened intently to her description of the thing the students wanted him to build, making occasional remarks. He thought the idea was brilliant, and was certainly worth every bit of effort. He smiled and nodded when he finished talking. “I think I can do it.”
Ginny beamed at him, and hugged him. “You’re awesome, you know that?” she said happily, and he chuckled. “Now, about my bedroom...”
“No.”
Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Author's Notes: Many thanks again for Mojomig for editting this chapter!
Chapter 2:
As the days passed, Harry began to fully appreciate how difficult a builder’s job was. He and the chief engineer had spent the first couple of days doing a complete sum-up of the damages that were made to the castle, which were quite extensive - they needed three rolls of parchment to contain them. Then they had to come up with solutions for each case, and that wasn’t easy either. Harry had become so tired, he started to come up with more and more wild solutions, causing the engineer to finally snap when he suggested they replace the gargoyles that guarded the headmaster’s office with statues of two scantily-clad women.
Harry was also given the difficult task of determining the nature of the enchantments that had been placed on the castle, with which Hermione was only too glad to help. She dragged him and Ron both to the library, which had surprisingly survived the battle, and handed them both a copy of Hogwarts: A History.
She smiled triumphantly at their perplexed expressions. “I knew I would get you two to read this book one day, and this is the perfect opportunity,” she declared. “If you’d read it earlier, Harry, you would’ve been able to know exactly what sort of magic had been used to build Hogwarts, whether it was mobility charms on the staircases, or the displacement charms on those doors you always complained about them always changing positions. Now read.”
“Hermione,” Ron whined. “Why do we have to read this when you’ve already memorised it like the back of your hand?”
“I’m not going to do your homework for you all the time, Ron,” she said haughtily. She opened the book for him. “If I can do it, then I can’t see any reason why you shouldn’t be able to read a proper book. I think I’ve been with you long enough for my cleverness to rub off.”
“You’re mean.”
Hogwarts: A History proved to be everything Harry had imagined it to be; packed with information, and yet dreadfully boring. His thoughts kept straying away from the text to the window, through which he was able to see Ginny, who had decided to do a few laps on her broomstick on this glorious, sunny morning, looking amazing with her red hair gleaming in the sun and flying behind her. Ron obviously saw her as well, because he pointed it out to Hermione, and she threatened to hex him with something that would force him to read the book till its end without even putting it down once.
There was no Madam Pince breathing down their necks today, and her absence was quite welcome, as they were able to have something to eat while reading. In fact, no one else apart from them and the engineers was to be found on the castle grounds. Kingsley had ordered everyone to leave and not come back until the construction works were over. Trelawney had seemed a little more than agitated at the thought of having to leave the comfort of her tower, but when she found out that there was no tower to begin with, she reluctantly agreed.
It was apparent that some of the enchantments had to go, like that hex placed on one of the toilet seats in the girls’ bathroom, which tried to suck in everything around it when some one flushed it, and those doors which Hermione discussed earlier, along with those walls which pretended to be doors. Harry was considering removing the whole barrier which prevented boys from going into the girls’ dormitories, but Hermione immediately put her foot down. The moving staircases were to be left alone, but the vanishing steps had to be dealt with.
“I was thinking,” Ron suddenly said, looking up from his book, and gave Hermione a sharp look when she opened her mouth to tease him about it. “What about the Chamber of Secrets, Harry? What will you do about that?”
Harry didn’t need to think about this twice. “It’s definitely going,” he said firmly. “If Hogwarts and everyone else are to be granted a fresh start, then every trace of Voldemort and his evil deeds have to be completely wiped out from existence.”
“Precisely, Mr. Potter,” came a voice from behind them, and they turned in their seats to find Professor McGonagall standing in the doorway, quickly peeling off her gloves and shrugging off her travelling cloak. Her face seemed to have gained a bit of colour, and her expression looked even tauter than ever before. Oddly, there was even a bit of snow in her hair.
“Professor McGonagall!”
Harry could honestly say that he felt really happy to see his Head of House again, looking so well and so...real. It gave him a huge sense of comfort to see this person, who had been his teacher ever since he came to Hogwarts, right there in front of him. He didn’t think he’d laid eyes on her for the last month, and now vaguely wondered where she had been all this time.
Ron took the question right out of his mouth. “Professor, where’ve you been?” he exclaimed.
The corners of the old woman’s lips twitched. “Missed me, Mr. Weasley?” she said with a raised eyebrow, and Ron started to say something, but she cut him off, “I’ve been visiting my sister, in the Hebrides. She had been terribly frightened to know that I was involved in the fight against the Dark Lord, and she insisted that I come and stay over for a while.”
“That sounds nice, Professor,” Hermione remarked.
“Miss Granger, I wouldn’t call trying to talk me out of resuming my position at Hogwarts by throwing a misaimed curse at me nice,” she replied, giving her an odd look. She now turned to Harry. “Mr. Potter, could I have a word with you?”
“Sure.”
Giving his friends a clueless shrug, he left the library and went after the Professor, thinking that she was probably leading him to her office. He could hear her tutting at every sign of destruction she saw, and he could distinctly hear her cursing under her breath. However, she led him right past her office, and through the corridor which took one to the Headmaster’s office. The gargoyles at the door didn’t demand a password out of her, and she pushed the door open and went inside, beckoning him to follow her.
This office was one place Harry wished he could stay away from, for it only carried memories he would rather forget. It seemed that this place had opened a whole lot of horrible revelations before him; wasn’t it in here that he found out about his destiny? Wasn’t it in here that he had delved into Snape’s memories, and unlocked the answers to many questions? Wasn’t it in here that a certain Headmaster used to sit, peering at him behind half-moon spectacles, while he threw a tantrum, destroying many of his properties in the process? Harry sighed; without Dumbledore sitting there at the desk, this place just seemed foreboding, however familiar it looked to him.
The occupants of the portraits hung on the walls stirred, and looked with interest at the pair of them. It had been a while since anyone had walked into this room, and visitors sure were welcome.
“Good evening, Albus,” Professor McGonagall said briskly.
The old man with the long white beard stirred out of his slumber. He straightened up his glasses, and his eyes twinkled when he saw them. “Minerva, you look well,” he said, smiling. “How were the Hebrides?"
“Cold.”
“And Harry! How are you, my boy?”
“I’m fine, Professor,” he said awkwardly; it still felt odd to be able to talk to Dumbledore even though he was dead. “What about you?”
“Well, I’m rather irked by the fact that I can’t see my broomstick-patterned socks,” he said, and looked down as if to demonstrate his point — after all, his portrait just captured his upper body. “But aside from that, I’m doing well.”
Professor McGonagall sat down at the desk, and gestured for Harry to sit down as well. “Harry has been asked to help reconstruct Hogwarts, but I’ve supposed you’ve heard all about it, Albus?” she asked, without even looking at him.
“Harry’s bow and apology when he came to take the wand from the office sort of gave it all away,” Dumbledore said cheerfully, and Harry blushed — he had been under the impression that the Headmaster had been sleeping. “But it’s wonderful news, Harry! Why, you will be able to add your own personal touch.”
“Pardon?”
Professor McGonagall redirected his attention to her with a quick snap of her fingers. “The Board of Governors probably wouldn’t approve of me telling you this, being the new headmistress and all, but you should know that every master builder who has ever worked on Hogwarts had left his own personal imprint on the castle,” she explained. “Whether it was the Room of Requirements, or the Chamber of Secrets, or the Enchanted Ceiling...they all did it, and I think it’s only fair that you get to leave your imprint, too. Albus did.”
Harry stared at the portrait. “You built something in Hogwarts, Professor?” he asked in surprise.
“Well, it was just some basic repairs, nothing compared to what you have to do now,” Dumbledore answered with a smile.
“What was your imprint?”
“The moving staircases, of course!” Dumbledore said, beaming with pride.
Professor McGonagall sighed when Harry made no attempt to retort. “You don’t have to follow Dumbledore’s lead, Mr. Potter; he only got those staircases to move because he thought it was fun,” she said, pronouncing the last word with slight vehemence. “You should’ve seen how many students were sent to the hospital ward during the first few weeks because of broken bones and dislocated ribs. He himself fell off once while trying to jump off the staircase while it was still moving. It’s a good thing he thought of adding the cushioning charms shortly before that happened.”
“It looked easy the first time,” the old Professor said meekly, and Harry laughed.
“So, Mr. Potter, what is it going to be?”
Harry smiled. “This needs to be given some thought, Professor,” he said, to her disappointment. “But it will be good, I promise.”
Chapter 3: Chapter 3
Author's Notes: Many thanks again to Mojomig, who has never stopped being such an awesome help to me! ^_^
Chapter 3:
Homework was over, and the field work had just begun. Harry and his friends had moved into their old dormitories, as the builders had given them a heads-up that they might need to work day and night to get everything done before the school doors opened on the first of September. McGonagall was no longer gracing them with her presence; it seemed that she’d locked herself up in the headmistress’s office, no doubt sending out letters as Hermione had suggested. It felt strange, imaging her sitting there, because it always seemed as if that office will belong to Dumbledore, no matter who came and sat behind the desk.
Harry was woken up early in the morning by some one pulling the curtains around his four-poster bed. Rays of sunlight poured directly over his face, and he had to pull the bed sheets above his head to block them.
“Harry, wake up! We have work to do!” Hermione said, trying to pull the sheets out of his grip, but he just held on, so she went for Ron instead. “You too, Ron; get up!”
In the next few minutes, and after several cries of protest and flying pillows, Hermione had managed to get the two boys out of bed and changed into their regular clothes. She then dragged them down to the common room where they found Ginny sitting at one of the tables, which was laden with food, looking as if she might drop face-down into her cereal bowl at any moment.
“What did she do to get you up?” she said drowsily after Harry gave her a morning kiss. “Put Doxy Powder in your beds?”
“Erm…no; she attacked us with pillows,” Harry said, watching Hermione warily out of the corner of his eye. He sat down and picked a piece of toast off the plate. “So, what’s the schedule for today?”
Hermione looked pleased that they were finally getting to business, and didn’t notice that Ron was slumped over the table, sleeping. “Well, I’ve been up since a couple of hours ago, and I went down to check on how things were going,” she told them. “They’ve done a lot of repair work to the outside structure of the castle; there were rocks flying everywhere. It was really incredible to see how they would all fit into their proper places.”
Harry made a gesture that meant for her to skip over the details, and she gave him a scathing look.
“However, there’s this wall which just refuses to accept any new blocks,” she said. “Whenever they’d try to place a block in the gap, it’d just shoot back out at them. Three men have already been sent to St Mungo’s with broken noses. They tried permanent sticking charms, but I don’t think their charms were powerful enough.”
“I guess that’s where I come in then,” Harry said, before taking a bite out of his toast.
Hermione nodded. “There’s also a staircase that’s gone awry. Whenever someone tries to climb onto it, it simply throws them off,” she added.
“A Bucking Bronco, eh?”
She gave him a quick smile. “Sort of,” she agreed.
“Anything else?”
Her brow furrowed for a moment. “Well, there’s the thing with the Common Rooms,” she replied. “All the people in the portraits have abandoned their positions, and…erm, Peeves seems to have replaced them, and he won’t let anyone past.”
“Oh, hell.”
-
The first thing Harry did when he stepped out of the great oak doors was duck to avoid the zooming block of rock that was aiming for his face. However, Ron wasn’t so lucky; he was still feeling really sleepy, and his reflexes were still too slow to be able to steer him out of harm’s way. The next block hit him right in the stomach and he was hurled back against the wall.
“Ron, are you okay?” Hermione squealed, hurrying towards him.
Ron looked rather woozy. Under their concerned gazes, he took a couple of deep breaths and then clamped a hand to his mouth. The three of them scattered as he puked out the breakfast Hermione had fed him while half-asleep.
“Alright, hold up!” Harry called out, as two builders tried to fit two blocks into the expelling wall. Ron made a retching noise from behind him, and he added, “We really don’t need any more cases like that at the moment.”
The chief engineer, Cuthbert, hastened over towards him. He was a balding, pudgy little man with small watery eyes that seemed more watery at the moment. “Thank goodness you’re finally up, Mr. Potter,” he said, looking relieved. “We just can’t seem to fix some of these walls. It’s a disaster; you have to do something about it. We have a week’s deadline! I told the Minister we should start working on the castle right away, but he insisted we repair those darn floating bridges up in London first, and they just kept sinking, and…!”
Harry stared at the man in alarm. “Mr. Cuthbert, calm down. I’ll…I’ll fix this, okay?” he stammered. He pulled out his Elder wand. “Erm…I’ll see what I can do.”
Shooting a clueless glance back at Hermione and Ginny, he walked closer to the wall. He could sense all the builders’ gazes on him. He could tell they were expecting something extraordinary from him, and he was sure he would be a complete disappointment; after all, the only spell that fixed things was Reparo, and he didn't even perform it well. He rolled up his sleeves to buy himself some thinking time, and then he directed the wand at one block and slowly levitated it and directed it to the gap in the wall. It settled for a moment there, and then it shot back out at them.
“Sorry about that!” he said, hearing some angry curses from the builders. He turned to Mr. Cuthbert. “Maybe you should try to place it there, and I’ll place the sticking charm on it?”
“We already tried that,” the man said wearily. “How do you know that block won’t shoot back out when you attempt it?”
“Do you have any other idea?” Harry asked irritably, and Cuthbert shook his head. “Alright then, help me out.”
Everyone seemed to take cover as Harry and the chief engineer stepped forward again. Looking extremely cautious, Cuthbert sent the block zooming back to the gap, and once it settled in its position, Harry quickly muttered the incantation under his breath and aimed it at it. Everyone watched as the block wriggled a bit in its position, before finally falling still completely. While everyone whooped and cheered, Harry sighed in relief — one problem down.
Fixing those gaps took all morning and most of the afternoon, and by the time they were done, Harry’s throat was parched, and his wand arm was feeling a bit cramped. Looking pleased, Cuthbert led them inside the castle and towards the moving set of staircases. He pointed at an innocent-looking one.
“That one literally tried to kill me this morning,” he said vehemently. “It just won’t hold still. I don’t know if it’s been hexed on purpose or not, but it’s certainly not funny, and I can’t seem to figure out what’s wrong with it. I’m afraid I might do something that will cancel out the mobility charms altogether.”
“Right,” Harry said, nodding. “Hermione?”
“I really don’t know, Harry,” she replied, shaking her head. “Maybe it is like a Bucking Bronco, and you can’t cause it to stop throwing people off, until you win the ride.”
“You want me to ride on that thing?!” he said in shock.
She gave a helpless gesture. “You don’t expect me or Ginny to ride it, do you?” she demanded, and Ginny nodded her agreement. “And Ron’s in no state to do that, either.”
Harry looked around at Ron, who was looking pale and was using the wall as a support. He sighed. “Well, how do I go about clinging onto it while it tries to throw me off?” he said, feeling anxious. He had seen those things on TV before, during those precious few hours when the Dursleys went out and he got some alone time with the huge TV, and they had looked really dangerous, so what if it were a mechanical staircase?
“Well, you could use the Elder wand to create a strong binding charm, and attach yourself to the staircase,” Ginny suggested.
“Ooh, yes! That’s a good idea, Ginny!” Hermione said, grinning.
“You’re mental. Both of you.”
However mental he though they were, their ideas actually worked. After thrashing helplessly on the staircase for about an hour, Harry staggered down from the defeated staircase, tripping when he reached the bottom steps and falling flat on his face on the landing. This had to be one of the most horrible experiences of his life; being tied to a staircase which was totally out of control really wasn’t his idea of fun, and it didn’t help that the bloody staircase wasn’t an easy quitter. It had been shaking and moving so violently, he had felt like he was going to fly right off and crash through one of those painted windows on the wall.
“Harry, that was incredible!” Ginny exclaimed, as she helped him up to his feet along with Hermione. “I really didn’t think you could make it!”
“Me neither.”
Hermione beamed at him. “Well done, Harry!” she said, while Ron gave him a feeble thumbs-up. “You’ve got two problems sorted out in one day! That’s excellent!”
Cuthbert looked just as pleased, too — only after he’d personally examined the staircase, that is. “Ah, Mr. Potter, I’m so grateful to you,” he said, smiling. “Now, we still have the problem concerning the poltergeist...”
Harry stared at him. “You have to be joking!!” he cried out. “Cut me some slack, Mr. Cuthbert! I just finished wrestling a block-expelling wall and a deranged staircase! If I laid eyes on Peeves right now I’d probably murder him!”
“Please do.”
Harry looked exasperated. “Dinner. Bed. No more work,” he stated, and when they looked ready to protest, he said sharply, “Else I’ll snap the wand in two. I will do it. Don’t test me.”
Cuthbert looked intimidated. “Y-yes, sir,” he said in a small voice.
"Good. Now where's the custard?"
Chapter 4: Chapter 4
Author's Notes: Many thanks again to Mojomig for going through this chapter for me!!
Chapter 4:
The next day arrived to find Harry still lying in bed, feeling utterly puzzled by the fact that it was nearly noon, and no Hermione had come barging in to wake him up. In fact, he found that so strange, he couldn’t lull himself back to sleep, even though he was still feeling rather exhausted and sore from yesterday’s work.
“Ron?” he called out. “Ron!”
But when his friend wouldn’t stir awake, Harry scrambled out of his bed and shuffled over to his best friend’s bed, and pulled the curtains apart. “Ron, wake...up?” he said, and his voice trailed off when he saw that the bed was empty. He felt a bit alarmed; Hermione wasn’t waking him up and Ron wasn’t in bed?
“Ron!”
He heard footsteps along the stair case and he started for the door, only to see Ginny coming up, still in her night dress. “Looking for Ron, are you?” she asked. “Hermione’s missing, too.”
Harry was too busy looking at the long legs that were showing underneath the rather short dress, to focus on what the owner of these legs was actually saying. “Uh...really?” he said absently.
She reached up to where he was standing and folded her arms against her chest. She frowned. “Do you reckon they’ve...gone off somewhere together?” she asked. “Hermione never said anything to me about it, though. She always told me she wasn’t ready yet.”
Harry only just realised what his girlfriend was saying. “What?” he yelped.
Ginny smiled mischievously. “Oh, you know,” she said, sidling up to him. “They’ve had feelings for each other for seven years now; it was bound to happen some time soon. This is probably the perfect opportunity for them...no parents, no restrictions...”
She was standing really close to him now, he could count the freckles on her nose. His heart hammered against his chest, as he realised that this was probably the first time he had been this alone with Ginny before. She was right...there was nothing to stop them now. Just as they leaned forward towards each other, footsteps came thundering down the staircase next to them.
“Good morning!!”
Ron stood at the top of the staircase, looking slightly foreboding. Ginny groaned and stepped away from Harry, who felt a sense of disappointment mingled with relief. Ron approached them and they could see that his hair was tousled and his clothes were rather unkempt. Hermione followed him shortly afterwards, looking as dishevelled as he was. Harry noticed that there were feathers sticking out of their hair.
Harry tried not to snicker. “Good morning, Ron, Hermione,” he said casually, and they both flushed. “I missed you this morning. You weren’t in bed, either of you.”
Ron looked exceptionally flustered. “We woke up early, me and Hermione, and we went to find somewhere private to...talk, yes,” he murmured.
Ginny rolled her eyes. “I’m not buying that,” she deadpanned. She nudged Hermione with her elbow. “What happened to all that crap about you not being ready yet?”
Hermione turned beetroot-red. “I am not ready yet!” she said indignantly. “You didn’t think Ron and I...oh, for God’s sake! Be sensible! We did not do anything!”
“I wouldn’t call it nothing,” Ron said, appearing hurt.
Hermione smacked the back of his head. “Ron, you prat! You make me disgusted!” she snapped. She straightened her attire and started down the stairs that led to the common room. “Now go get dressed, the lot of you! We have to deal with Peeves! It’s already getting late!”
Giggling, Ginny hurried after her, no doubt to gather all the juicy details, and Harry turned to Ron, who was still looking a bit hurt.
“Mate, honestly, what happened?” he asked, still trying to control that snicker.
“You’ll laugh.”
“I promise not to.”
Ron sighed, resigned. “Well, at first Hermione just wanted me to accompany her while she checked for damages in all the dormitories, and then we realised we were alone, and...” he murmured, and broke off, apparently trying to figure out how to rephrase his words. “...we’d just started to kiss and we sort of stumbled back on the bed, and...erm, it crashed down on us.”
Harry stared at him, aghast. “It...crashed on you?” he said, perplexed.
“Well, yes.”
Harry couldn’t hold that snicker back any longer.
“I knew you’d laugh! Bloody hell, Harry; I just wrestled my way out of drapery, be more sensitive, will you?!”
-
Breakfast wasn’t a successful event. Both Ron and Hermione looked rather disgruntled by the humiliation of what had happened to them, and seemed to take offense every time either Harry or Ginny smiled. They now led the way to the Slytherin Common Room, with Harry and Ginny trailing dutifully after them. Every once in a while they’d exchange a quick glance and let out a snort of laughter, which only subsided when Ron and Hermione cleared their throats significantly.
Cuthbert wasn’t accompanying them this morning because he claimed that Peeves had threatened to hang him up by the ankles from the ceiling if he ever saw him again, and the proof was soon heard.
“Cuthbert is a bloody fool
He thinks I’m just a pretty tool
And he huffed and puffed
And became no more than the buffoon he...”
The foursome made their way cautiously down the broken stone steps that led to the corridor were the Slytherin’s Common Room entrance was.
“And he became no more than the buffoon he...he...”
Peeves was floating inside the canvas that was hung on the wall on the furthest end of the corridor, looking out of place in the dreariness of the dungeons, with his bright colours and his loud voice. He seemed to be deep in thought, something which they never saw before; he was sitting cross-legged and had a look of utmost concentration on his face. Upon hearing them approaching, though, he looked up, and his eyes glinted with malice.
“It’s Potty and the Weasel!” he said cheerfully. “And Miss Know-it-All, and Weasel Girl!”
“Hello, Peeves,” Harry said warily. “What are you doing here?”
The poltergeist gave them an impish grin. “Well, you see, I was trying to find a word that rhymed with puffed,” he told them. “But I’m afraid I wasn’t able to make any progress. Could you help?”
“We’ll help you if you help us, Peeves,” Hermione ventured.
“Ooh, bargains!” Peeves squealed in delight. “What can little ol’ me assist you with, Miss Know-it-All?”
Hermione looked more than a little annoyed that she was being called a Know-it-all, but she didn’t say anything about it. “We need to get into the common rooms, Peeves, but we can’t do that since you’ve taken charge of all the portrait holes, and won’t let anyone past,” she explained. “As you well know, Hogwarts sustained a lot of damage during our battle against Voldemort, and we’re trying our very best to finish repairing the whole castle before the school year starts. We want everyone to have a clean and fresh start, see?”
Peeves nodded, his eyes brimming with tears. “That is indeed very noble of you, young lady,” he said softly. “I’m touched.”
Hermione blinked. “Really?”
“No! Are you daft?” he screeched at her, and Hermione succumbed into silence, and Ron rolled his eyes at her in a gesture of ‘serves you right for being so stupid’.
“So you aren’t going to help us?” Harry asked.
“Nope.”
“You leave me no choice.”
Harry took out both his wands. Gripping one in each hand, he flapped his arms like a bird, the wands emitting gold and red sparks as they rose up and down. He then brought his arms before him and started juggling the wands from one hand to the other, sending up twirling into the air as he did. Peeves watched in fascination as Harry then moved both wands to one hand, and started turning his arm round and round, so that the sparks emitted down made a brilliant circle of red and gold. Harry did all this while muttering something under his breath.
While Harry’s friends thought that he had probably gone bonkers, Peeves considered this whole act very intimidating. His eyes followed the wands as they went round and round, his eyes seeming to go out of focus. He then brought his hands to his eyes in an attempt to stop himself from looking.
“Stop this evilness!” he pleaded, peering at Harry from between his fingers. “I’ll give you access to the common rooms, but stop the spinning and those awful sparks! You were planning to send me to another dimension, weren’t you? You’ve always wanted to do that. Everybody wants to. That circle of sparks...it’s a portal, isn’t it?”
Harry grinned. “Sure it is,” he replied.
“I knew it! I knew you were a rotten egg! You are no better than the others!” Peeves wailed. The portrait door swung open and he flew out of the canvas. “I’ll go and open the other doors, but you must promise not to tell anyone of this ritual!”
“Okay.”
Peeves gave them all one beady look, before disappearing with a noisy pop, and was heard chanting “Potty is a rotten egg” somewhere in a distance. The threesome didn’t say anything, and Harry grinned cheerfully at them.
“Well, that was easy,” he remarked.
“Did you learn some form of extraordinary magic and didn’t tell me about it?”
“Where you really going to send Peeves to another dimension?”
“What was that you did?”
Harry smiled. “No, no and I don’t know,” he replied, nodding at each of them in turn. “I just improvised. It was Peeves who decided I was going to banish him. Now...shall we go common room discovering?”
By the end of the day, Harry and the others had toured all three of the common rooms, and had marked places where repairs and enchantment-scrapping needed to be made. After reporting what they had done back to Cuthbert, the engineer clung on to Harry for a few moments, mopping tears of gratitude and joy that Harry was with them on the construction site, and only stopped when Ron whispered a strong imitation of Peeves’s “Cuthbert is a bloody fool”.
As Harry lay in bed that night, he finally was able to find time to focus on his two special projects: the students' request, and his personal imprint on Hogwarts.
Chapter 5: Chapter 5
Author's Notes: Once again, I'd like to thank Mojomig for beta reading this chapter for me. Thanks!!
Chapter 5:
Harry could hardly remember the last time he’d been this busy. He hadn’t been so over-worked during his OWLs, or even during his search for the Horcuxes and the Hallows. But now, he hardly had a single spare moment. He’d barely sit when someone called him to do some sort of task for him. Cuthbert, especially, seemed to have taken a liking to asking for his help each time a problem, never mind how small it was, occurred.
It didn’t help that teachers started flooding in towards the end of the week, and that they were all curious to see how the repair works was going. Several professors had actually come up to him, asking to have a look at the Elder wand — Harry found that rather intimidating, especially after knowing after the wand’s bloody history. They also weren’t giving him the privacy he needed to work on his projects. He didn’t know how powerful the Elder wand’s magic was, and how long would the Invisibility shield he’d created around his work area would last. Furthermore, Hermione was getting suspicious because he was spending a lot of time in the library.
“What’s that?” she asked casually, as he quickly withdrew his working plans inside the pocket of his robes.
“Nothing, nothing,” he replied a little too quickly. “Just a list of…what I’m planning to do once all this work is over.”
He knew it didn’t make sense to hide this from his friends, but he was sure that Hermione would probably try to stop him. Even though it wouldn’t be harmful to tell Ron, he was sure that Hermione would probably wheedle the plans out of him, either by threatening or seducing him — Ron was pretty easy to convince. Ginny wasn’t asking any questions; as far as she was concerned, her boyfriend was working on the thing she had asked of him, and seemed to be totally clueless about his legacy to Hogwarts.
The one person who did know what Harry was working on was Professor McGonagall, and she certainly didn't take up Ginny’s approach. She kept tailing him in the corridors, pestering him with questions and making suggestions. It was clear that she didn’t want him to build something which would create chaos while she reigned as a headmistress. In the end, Harry found it so difficult to escape from her, he had to resort to using his Invisibility Cloak.
Stepping around tiny Professor Flitwick, who was busy repairing window panes, Harry took a staircase and climbed to the third floor. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t though of it sooner, but the Room of Requirements would make the ideal spot for him to work in private. Wondering whether it was still working after the cursed fire Crabbe had produced in it, he started walking past the wall, concentrating on what he needed.
‘I need a place to work in private. I need a place to work in private.’
Suddenly, a door materialised before him. He cautiously reached for the door handle and pushed it open. He poked his head inside, expecting to see a state of chaos in there, but to his surprise, the room looked perfectly alright, as if nothing had happened in there.
There was a large wooden desk, which was covered with rolls of parchments, bottles of ink and quills. Behind the desk was a large bookcase, and upon further inspection, he found that it was filled with books concerned with construction and wizards’ imprints on famous architectural sites, and books with charms and incantations useful for his tasks. There was also a small cabinet, which Harry opened to find it filled with refreshments and snacks.
Grinning happily, he shrugged off the Cloak, sank down on the comfortable chair behind the desk and pulled out his plans from his pocket. He laid them on the desk and started working.
-
The 31st of August finally came around. All around the castle, professors, engineers and builders were making the final touches. There was always that forgotten window, or that door which had squeaky hinges. In other words, Hogwarts was buzzing with life, which could only be definite proof that life always rises where destruction struck.
Hermione was getting edgy. Harry had left them yesterday night, saying that there was something he needed to get finished, and hadn’t returned since. She rounded on Ron and Ginny, who were both having a peaceful breakfast. The three of them were sitting at the one of the four tables in the Great Hall, and had been joined shortly after they’d sat by Professor McGonagall, who also looked edgy.
“Doesn’t anyone know where he is?” Hermione asked quietly, while prodding the pancake on her plate.
“That’s what I’d like to know, Miss Granger,” Professor McGonagall put in. “I desire a word with Mr. Potter before term starts. Miss Weasley, Mr. Weasley, do you happen to know of his whereabouts?”
Ginny shook her head, but Ron’s response wasn’t as graceful. Forgetting that it was full with food, he’d opened his mouth to talk, and accidentally sprayed bits of food on the table. As one, the three females pushed their plates away from them, and he hung his head, embarrassed.
Hermione had just opened her mouth to rebuke him, but was cut off as Harry squeezed into the empty space between her and Ginny, and started hauling food onto his plate, but not before giving a cheery, “Good morning!” to everyone. He began eating, all too aware that everyone was watching him, if not for the same reasons.
“Good food,” he finally said, after demolishing his breakfast and leaving his plate empty.
“So, does that mean we could finally get some answers?” Hermione said reproachfully.
Harry smiled at her. “Yes, although I don’t suppose I could get a tiny little nap first?” he said, rather meekly.
“No!” Hermione and Professor McGonagall intoned.
“Yes, I thought not,” he said, nodding. He draped an arm around Ginny’s shoulders, and looked around at them. “Well, shall we proceed to the Entrance Hall, then?”
Intrigued, they all got up from the table and followed Harry, who was probably feeling more excited that any of them, out to the Entrance Hall. It was fairly empty now — most of the builders were in the castle’s upper floors, hunting for minor spell damage and cracks in the walls. It also looked pretty normal, just like any other day. There was nothing remotely different about it.
“Well?” Hermione said impatiently.
“Those past few days I’ve been working on two different things, and I’ve been doing it in secret so that no one would interfere with what I’m doing,” he said, smiling graciously at Hermione and his Headmistress. “There were records to go through, spells to be looked up, and consequences to be considered, but I finally nailed what I was looking for. I present to you my first piece,” he added, and with a wave of his wand, the Invisibility shield vanished, revealing what was hidden.
To any Muggle, this would’ve looked like a simple monument. It was a simple rectangular shape, made of white marble, and had the following words engraved on it:
We wouldn’t be here without you
And following was a list of names of all the wizards and witches who have fought and died in the battle against Voldemort.
But to a wizard’s eye, to each individual eye, it was something different. Harry looked around at the others. Ginny and Ron were staring at the monument, their eyes filled with tears. Ginny caught Harry looking at her, and she managed a small smile, before turning to cry into her brother’s shoulder. Hermione looked somewhere between a sob and laugh, and he couldn’t imagine why, whereas Professor McGonagall had taken out a handkerchief, and was dabbing at her eyes.
The students’ request Ginny had informed him of was just having a simple monument built to remind them all of the sacrifices that have been made during the final battle, but he strongly believed that those sacrifices deemed worthy of more than just a “simple monument”. Using the basic idea of showing what one desired, from the Mirror of Erised, and the switching concept of the memorial that had been built in the town’s square in Godric’s Hollow, Harry had constructed a monument which showed each wizard the person he most desired to see.
He guessed that Ron and Ginny were now watching Fred, who was undoubtedly sticking out a tongue at them now for being so tearful. Professor McGonagall was probably looking at Dumbledore, and Hermione...well, he had no idea who she was seeing. And when he looked, his saw his parents, both beaming proudly down at him.
At that moment, Hermione chuckled, and they all stared at her. She smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry, it’s just...Tonks,” she explained helplessly, and wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. “She just made the pig-snout nose at me.”
McGonagall had suddenly clasped his hands. “My dear boy, this is just so incredible,” she said earnestly, and Harry took a moment to consider whether he should be more shocked by the fact that she had called him ‘dear boy’, or by the fact that she’d given him a compliment. “Was this it, then? This was your imprint?”
Harry grinned. “Oh, no, Professor,” he replied. “I made this based on the students’ request.”
“There’s something else?” Ron asked, patting his sister on the back.
“Sure there is,” he said, and once again, he brandished his wand. He glanced at them, and added, “I wouldn’t stand there if I was you.”
-
A/N: I didn't know how to do Monotype Corsiva for the monument's quote. *grins sheepishly* One more chapter left to go! Please review!
Chapter 6: Chapter 6
Author's Notes: Thanks again to Mojomig, who without him, this story would have a very odd ending!
Chapter 6:
"I wouldn't stand there if I was you."
At once, they all backed away from the monument and continued to walk away until Harry told them to stop. Then, he murmured an incantation under his breath and pointed his wand in the direction of the floor. A bolt of pure, white energy seemed to hit the stony floor, and started to produce what appeared to be a deep hole, which then stretched out in width and length. It stretched up to three metres in width, but it seemed to elongate endlessly, forming a canal from the point where Harry’s spell had hit the ground out through the great oak doors of the entrance hall and onto the castle grounds beyond. Then, in the other direction it circled around the new, white marble monument and proceeded into the Great Hall.
At that point, Professor McGonagall seemed to break out of the trance which the formation of the canal had rendered her in. “Potter!! What on Earth do you think you’re doing?” she screeched. “You’re desecrating the castle! We’ve brought you here to help fix the place, and not dig up holes in it! Stop right this instance!”
“Professor!” he cried desperately, when he saw that she was pulling out her wand. “Didn’t I promise you this will be good? Can’t you just give me the benefit of the doubt for a few minutes?”
McGonagall hesitated, but then she lowered her wand and watched him intensely.
As Harry continued “digging up holes”, the sound of gushing water was soon heard. His four companions turned to look towards the oak doors, and gasped as water filled up the canal and the circle around the monument, before proceeding to fill up the canals in the Great Hall, which had wound its way between the four House tables.
Just as suddenly as it had started, the gushing effect ceased and the water became still. Harry pocketed his wand and beamed proudly at his handiwork, while waiting for applause from his friends. However, they all still seemed too shocked to be able to say anything. It was again, Professor McGonagall, who made the first attempt at speech.
“Care to explain, Mr. Potter?”
Harry nodded eagerly. “See, what I’ve done is create a canal that reaches to the Lake, and hence the source of the water, and stretches to form little ducts between the House tables,” he explained. “The canal is about four feet in depth, so there’s really no danger of anyone drowning in it…unless they fall face-down, that is.”
McGonagall’s face remained impassive. “And the point behind all this?” she demanded.
Harry sighed; he had expected this. “Professor McGonagall, please listen to me,” he said. “Professor Dumbledore was obviously thinking of something when he made those moving staircases.”
“Yes. He was thinking of using up our entire stock of Skele-Grow.”
“No, Professor; he wanted to make the whole learning experience fun,” he told her. “So did all the other builders. They all added something to Hogwarts in the hope that it would make the students’ stay more exciting and enjoyable...all aside from Salazar Slytherin, of course. I mean, take the Room of Requirements for example! Do you know who built that? Godric Gryffindor. Yes, Hermione, it’s true; I’ll lend you the book later on,” he added at Hermione’s surprised expression. “The point is: he built it to spark up Hogwarts. They all did. And how will a little water canal harm anyone?”
“It won’t; I just can’t see the use of it, Mr. Potter,” she retorted. “Unlike you, all the other builders actually had a purpose behind their work. The Enchanted Ceiling was to inform the inhabitants of the castle about the form of weather of outside, or the time of day. The Room of Requirements had multiple uses, including providing a meeting place for illicit Defence Against the Dark Arts classes.”
All four Gryffindors cleared their throats significantly.
“And much as I hate to admit it, the moving staircases save a lot of time which otherwise would be spent wandering about in corridors and passageways,” she continued. “But, and unless I’m so near-sighted, I can’t see the canal providing any particular benefit.”
Harry was getting agitated, and was about to open his mouth in protest, when Ginny spoke up in his favour. “It’s so that the First-Years can enter the Great Hall in a grand fashion, and be made to feel welcome, isn’t it, Harry?” she said, smiling at him.
He started to voice his agreement, when Hermione decided to add her two cents. “And during winter, it would turn into ice, and everyone would be able to skate on it, isn’t that right, Harry?” she offered.
He beamed at the two girls. “Yes!” he exclaimed.
“And...erm...” Ron ventured, determined to make a contribution, as well. “When Filch runs of water to clean the castle, he can always fill up buckets from the canal.”
They all stared at him, bewildered.
“Yes, my thoughts, exactly. Thank you, Ron,” Harry said uncertainly, before turning his attention to the Headmistress. “My friends were able to see the uses of my canal, and I’m sure there are many more. What do you think, Professor McGonagall?”
There was a momentary silence where McGonagall seemed to be having an inner debate with herself, all too aware of the expectant gazes on her. Finally, she cleared her throat and tried to maintain a solemn expression. “I must be out of my mind, but...the canal stays,” she announced, and allowed herself a tiny smile when the youngsters burst into cheers and applause.
-
The next day was a complete blur, as everyone struggled to finish the construction work and preparations for the beginning of a new school year, a new beginning in the long history of Hogwarts.
Teachers and builders ran up and down the corridors, mending cracks, repairing torn drapery, oiling suits of armour. Many house-elves were actually spotted that day, too, as they scurried around, trying to provide clean bed sheets and pillows for the dormitories, lighting up fires in the fireplaces, and away from all eyes, down in the kitchens, preparing for the Start of Term feast.
Harry and his friends tried to offer help wherever possible, whether it was by rearranging library books, taste-testing food in the kitchens — Ron in particular volunteered his services for this, or by helping calm down an overly-frantic Cuthbert who kept being chased by a certain poltergeist.
By the end of the day, Harry, Ron and Hermione were tired and dirty and hungry, but as they stood by to observe the students — first the old ones, who marvelled at all the work that had been made over the summer, and took pleasure in splashing each other with water as the boats guided them to their respective House tables, and then the First-Years, cramped up in little boats, as they floated along the water canal, with happy and excited faces — they all understood why they had been doing this.
They had declined the offer to stay and dine with the rest of the students, for the thought of going back to the Burrow’s warm kitchen was more inviting. Their trunks were packed and sent to the Hogwarts Express, and Ron and Hermione were soon standing just outside the doors of the Entrance Hall, bickering about something.
Harry, on the other hand, had already bid good-bye to Ginny, with the promise that he would come and see her on the first Hogsmeade trip. He was now standing next to the monument, gazing up at his proud parents, while listening to Professor McGonagall’s speech at the same time. She went over all the work that had been done to the castle, and how hard everyone tried to make Hogwarts feel like home again.
“The war against Lord Voldemort has cost each and every one of us dearly, but we’ve been given a chance to start over, to rise up from the rubble and the ashes that had been left behind after the battle,” she said, with a slight tremor to her voice. “Do not take your presence here for granted. You, or you, or even you...the one snoring...could’ve been dead, but it’s due to the sacrifices that were made that we’re all in this room together now. Make the best of it.”
Then she carried on with some new rules, some of which declared that the Ballroom was off-limits to all students, unless there was a special occasion at hand, and that the Student Lounge was not a place for inappropriate behaviour, and...no swimming in the canal after curfew hours, which made Harry laugh.
“Harry Potter, sir.”
Harry looked around at the sound of the squeaky voice, and looked around for a moment before finally locating the source of the voice. He couldn’t believe it; it was Winky. The little house elf looked the same as before, with the exception that she was wearing a uniform which was surprisingly clean.
Harry knelt down, and she shuffled awkwardly towards him. “Hello, Winky,” he said gently. “How are you doing?”
“I is alive and well, thanks to you, Harry Potter,” she said softly. Tears brimmed in her eyes, and she covered her face with her hands. “You...got...statue...Dobby!”
Even though her speech was rather incoherent, Harry knew what she meant. He gently patted the top of her head and offered her his handkerchief, which she gratefully accepted, blowing her nose on it loudly. He could guess what her cause of grief was; when looking at the monument, Winky probably saw Dobby.
“Harry Potter is great to have remembered Dobby,” she whimpered.
Harry smiled at her. “I would never forget Dobby, Winky,” he told her firmly. “He fought as bravely as any witch or wizard. He deserves to be remembered.”
Winky sobbed loudly again, leaving Harry patting her head once more. She quieted down after a few minutes, and excused herself to the kitchen, to help the other elves with dinner. Sighing, Harry straightened up and, after taking one last look through the doors leading to the Great Hall, he turned and walked towards his friends, who stopped bickering once they saw him approaching.
“Shall we go now?” he asked tiredly, and they both nodded.
A boat floated down their way, and they clambered aboard. The boat turned on the spot, and drifted down the canal to the lake, which was now a shimmering blanket of gold, as the setting sun cast its warm glow upon it.
Hermione looked around at her two friends. “Well, we've seen off every obstacle, monster, and evil wizard the world could throw at us,” she said.
Harry nodded. “That we have,” he agreed. “And I shall be eternally grateful that we did it all together. That we're still together, at the end of this chapter in our lives.”
Hermione smiled at him. “Well said, Harry."
“So, guys,” Harry said. “The world is rid of all evils, and we seem to have a lot of time on our hands. What shall we do now?”
Ron was right on queue. "Let's go get dinner!"
-
A/N: So, like? Hate? Please review!