FicWad

18: A SLYTHERIN ACTION
The attack on September 18 was followed up two days later with yet another attack, this one at London’s ‘Strand’ tube station during the afternoon rush hour. People reported seeing dark shapes seemingly materialize out of nowhere, unleash strange weapons against people, and then vanish again. 23 individuals, some of them women and children, were killed in the attack. Like the attack at Grimmauld Place, there was a similar message, directed at Harry, scrawled on one of the walls.

That particular attack left the Ministry of Magic scrambling, as so many people had witnessed the use of magic. The Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee was kept quite busy for several days after.

oOo
“Harry, why didn’t you TELL me you wanted to know about portkeys!” said Travis. “I’ve known how to do that since first year!” They were in the rec room, watching as My Chemical Romance ran through a rehearsal. The next tour date was coming up fast, an October 4th date in Monterrey, Mexico.
“Well, I mean, portkeys are restricted in England,” answered Harry.
“Not here, they aren’t,” answered Travis, snatching an empty butterbeer bottle off the coffee table. “Watch.” He made a gesture with his wand, then tapped the object and said, “Portus.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen that, I mean, Dumbledore made one in front of me at the end of June… but how do you, err, ‘program’ it?”
“Visualize the spot you want to go to. It’s almost exactly like apparation. In this case, I made it only teleport us to the common room.”
“And the wand movement?”
“Like this,” answered Travis, once again demonstrating, “Now. Grab hold and say ‘activate’.” Harry put a finger on the bottle, and said, “Activate!”

As expected, he got the familiar feeling of a hook around the naval, and was unceremoniously flung to the floor in the common room.
“Err, Harry? How…” asked Ron, who happened to be coming out of the dining room.
“Portkey,” answered Harry.
“But aren’t those illegal to make?”
“I thought so too, but Travis just showed me how to do it.”
“And it worked perfectly,” said Travis, appearing from the corridor, followed by Frank, who looked rather concerned.
“What happened… how did…?” he asked
“It’s all right, Frankie. Just experimenting,” Harry said with a grin. .
“Now. Let me see the bottle again,” said Travis. Harry handed over the bottle, and Travis again made a gesture with his wand, saying, “Portus Expunge!” The bottle shimmered for a moment.
“What did you do there?”
“Well, once the portkey has been used, it’s best to ‘clean’ it. I just removed the residue from the spell so it’s just a normal object again.”
“That’s some pretty advanced magic, Mr. Carter,” said Lily from her portrait.
“I’ve had to learn a lot of advanced magic, Mrs. Potter,” answered Travis, “It was either that or Bartlett kill me with his. He tried to use the A/K curse on me in May.”
“All right, how about this? Is it possible to make one that’s reusable? I meant to ask professor Flitwick about it, but, I just keep forgetting.”
“Why do you need it to be reusable?” asked Travis.
“I’d like to set something up as some sort of emergency portkey. So if any of us get into trouble somewhere, we can just activate it and end up here.”
“That makes sense. Hold on, let me get the book I studied from.” Travis left the room, and was gone for several minutes.
“It still surprises me how different things are here,” Harry stated, “I mean, portkeys are heavily regulated by the ministry.”
“That’s one of the ways the ministry makes money, dear,” answered Lily.
“Oh, so the bribes from the Malfoys isn’t enough I guess,” Harry snorted.
“A fucking mess, I really need to go through my stuff again,” Travis groaned, “Let’s go back into the rec room, I need a smoke.”
“I’ll just… right,” said Ron, stepping into the library. ‘Probably to bug Hermione’, guessed Harry.

“So which one did you learn how to do first?” asked Harry, as they again made themselves comfortable.
“Apparating actually came first, although it’s more difficult. See, you’re focusing the destination entirely on yourself when you apparate. When you create a portkey, you’re focusing the destination into the object…”
“And the object does the work of getting you there,” Harry finished.
“Exactly,” said Travis, as he lit a cigarette. He took a drag, and then started leafing through the book. “Yes, Ok. ‘Reprogrammable Portkey’… that’s what you’re looking for?”
“That would be useful, but no, I need one that could be set once and used over and over again,” said Harry. Travis nodded in understanding, and dog-eared the page.
“Don’t let Hermione see you do that, she’ll go spare.”
“Don’t worry, I only do it if the book’s mine.” He took another drag off his smoke and continued to thumb through the text.

This time, it was several minutes before Travis looked up again. “All right. This sounds closer to what you want. Permanent portkey…” said Travis, and read the description.
“That sounds like how we get into the trunk,” said Harry. Travis nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, I agree. Although that’s set up to always work by touch. In this instance, although we could definitely do that by the sounds of it, the item is activated by a secret word.”
“That’s exactly what I’m looking for,” said Harry, excitedly.
“Well, let’s try it, then…”

By the end of the day, Harry and Travis had made some significant progress with the ‘emergency portkeys’. They had programmed a second teleport pad and set it up in the main room of the cottage, ending the necessity to have Harry’s trunk there. It was then stowed in one of the rooms, out of sight. After testing that, it was on to setting up the individual portkeys.

Harry decided that it would be up to the individual what they would use as a portkey. For Harry, that was rather difficult, since the only piece of jewellery he wore was his signet ring. It could not be used as a portkey, as it was already enchanted.

Frank quickly solved it. They were again gathered in the rec room, sorting out the problem of what Harry could use.
“Here,” said Frank, pulling one of the leather bracelets off of his left arm. “I mean, take it as a gift, like, I haven’t really given you anything anyway, um…”
“Thanks. But you don’t need to give me anything, you’ve given me yourself as it is,” said Harry as he slipped the bracelet on. He found it a little loose, and so cast a shrinking charm on it with his wand. Travis then set up the charm on it, along with the activation phrase ‘Take me home’.
“Frank. You have something in mind for yours?”
“This,” answered Frank, pulling out a set of dog tags that hung around his neck on a chain.
“Perfect,” said Travis, casting the charm on it and setting the activation phrase.
“But couldn’t I accidentally activate it?” asked Frank.
“No. You have to be holding it in your fingers when you use the phrase. That’s another way this is different from a regular portkey.”
“You should set up a bunch of spare ones,” suggested Frank, “So if there’s someone who needs it…”
“That doesn’t already have one… that’s EXCELLENT! And I think I have just the thing… The DA uses fake galleons to announce the next meeting time. Hermione came up with it last year. So we could use something like that, except that it’s set up as an emergency portkey.”
“One hitch in the plan,” said Travis, “Is the access list.”
“What about having the portkey automatically program the person into the access list?” suggested Frank.
“Right, and Voldemort get hold of one… Nope, not a good idea,” answered Harry.
“What about having it so we can summon them? We wouldn’t carry them with us. That way, we can do as Frank suggests, and they’re only good once.”
“If that’s possible. I still worry about someone we don’t want getting in here getting their hands on one. It would be Christmas come early for someone like Bellatrix Lestrange, or Voldemort.” Just then, the door to the rec room opened, and Bill, along with Griphook, stepped into the room.
“What’s going on?” asked Travis.
“It seems Jeff’s been rather busy,” said Bill. “Come into the library, this is quite interesting, to say the least.”

Less than a minute later, they stepped into the library. Sure enough, Jeff was there, along with several assistants, and it looked like they had an entire box full of documents.
“Sorry it’s taken as long as it has to get any of this moving, Harry,” said Jeff.
“I’ll take anything you guys can do,” answered Harry as he took a seat at the table.
“Then you’re gonna like this,” said Jeff, producing one of the documents from the box, “We’ve obtained a judgement against the Lestranges.”
“You WHAT?” Harry was shocked.
“Punitive damages against the estate, as well as a judgement on the grounds that the estate has been using its money to provide funding for a terrorist organization. In short, Harry, signing a stack of documents here, you will seize at a minimum the Lestrange vault at Gringotts.”

An evil grin crossed Harry’s face as he quickly signed the stack of documents. Interestingly, they were printed copies, rather than parchments.
“Very well, Mr. Potter. You will now have access to 719(1) at our London branch… unless you would prefer to have their contents transferred here.”
“Yes, I think that would be the best thing, Griphook,” said Harry.
“Everything should be transferred by the opening of business tomorrow, then. There will be a 500 galleon fee levied, of course.”
“Harry, do you plan on going into it?” asked Sirius from his portrait.
“Of course, I mean, I’m curious to see what’s in there. Maybe something useful, you never know,” answered Harry.
“Probably best I come along, then,” said Bill. “There’s no telling WHAT might be lurking.”
“How do they move an entire vault anyway?” asked Frank.
“We have special charms and spells, of course, Mr. Iero,” answered Griphook. “And a reminder, you also have access to both your family vault and the Black vault.”
“I know.”
“Harry, you might want to take a look in the Black vault, there may be some materials worth looking over. I need not remind you our family has had some dark dealings in the past, some of which might be of use,” said Sirius.
“Maybe we might spend a morning or so, then,” said Harry. He thought for a moment. “What else did I just get control of?”
“Just the vault, Harry,” said Jeff. “We couldn’t get control of any properties, at least, not yet. Of course, the government is now watching closely, so if they sell any properties or whatever, we’ll gain a seizure on any monies from such a sale.”
“Either way, a bad day to have the last name Lestrange.” Travis grinned. “What kind of money are we dealing with, anyway?”
“About 250 thousand galleons, as was last inventoried from the vault,” answered Jeff. Just then, the floo fired, and, moments later, Severus stepped into the room, looking paler than normal (if that were possible). He glanced at the box sitting on the table, and then sat heavily in one of the seats.
“Severus?”
“Might anyone know as to why Bellatrix decided to go spare at this evening’s meeting?” he drawled, summoning a vial and uncorking it.
“Death eater meeting?” guessed Travis. Severus nodded.
“The Dark Lord was rather amused in the end, not having to curse us, as Bellatrix seemed to enjoy doing it herself.”
“There was a judgement issued against the Lestrange estate earlier today,” answered Jeff. “I have no doubt Mrs. Lestrange is not too happy about that.”
“She cursed half the attendees, holding several of us under the Cruciatus for several minutes, screaming almost as loud, if you can believe that.”
“Did she kill anyone?” asked Travis. That got a glare from Severus.
“Travis, this isn’t funny, Merlin’s balls!” Harry hissed, “They could retaliate… that’s the risky thing about this sort of thing.”
“Harry, you know you could also annul her marriage, right?” said Jeff.
“And what would I gain by doing that, other than pissing her off more than she is now?”
“The forced recall of any heirlooms Bellatrix might have in her possession, for one,” answered Sirius.
“I’m not worried about heirlooms,” said Harry.
Just then, Lisa stepped into the library, announcing, “Dinner is ready.”

The following morning, Harry, Frank, Travis, and Bill were shown to the newly acquired Lestrange vault, which had been moved to the Toronto branch of Gringotts. It was a disorganized heap of trinkets, gold pieces, money, and various other artifacts. It made Harry groan at the sight of it.
“Man, no organizational skills whatsoever,” Travis groaned.
“My thoughts exactly,” said Harry. “It’s a bloody disaster.”
“Looks like a twister ran through it,” Frank declared, poking at some of the items.
“Careful, some of this stuff could have nasty charms on it,” Bill warned. He had just gotten the words out when there was a loud bang, and the small box Travis had picked up dropped, instantly transforming into an Egyptian cobra.
“Motherfucker!” Frank exclaimed, leaping back out the vault door. Bill backed right up against the wall, as did Travis, not daring to move an inch, while the snake rose up, forming its infamous hood, hissing menacingly at those remaining in the vault.
“Be still!” Harry hissed. The snake snapped around to face Harry, who had produced his wand. “You will not hurt my friends!”
“You speak?” said the snake.
“Of course I do. Now look, we aren’t going to hurt you,” said Harry.
“Harry, what the fuck are you doing?” Frank was VERY concerned.
“It’s all right,” said Harry, “I’m talking to it.”
“He’s a parselmouth, he can talk to snakes,” said Travis.
“Too much noise,” the snake hissed.
“Let me see if I can help,” said Harry, then said, “We need a box or something to put it in.”
“Here.” Travis picked up a blank piece of parchment, moved it to an empty space on the floor, and then transfigured it into a large crate.
“Will this do?” asked Harry.
“Yes, that is sufficient,” answered the snake. It slithered over to the crate, and then climbed in.
“Harry. What the hell are you gonna do with a snake like that? Mum’s gonna freak!” said Travis.
“I don’t know, we’ll think of something. Maybe a zoo might like it.”
“It ain’t staying in our room,” said Frank, finally garnering the courage to step back into the vault.
“And I’ll second you on that. We’ll put it in the library for now, I think. Although, there is a certain RAT I’d love to feed to it beforehand.”

They spent the rest of the morning combing through the vault, looking for anything that might be of use. Anything worthwhile was put near the door, along with the box that now contained the snake. There were also several artifacts collected which seemed to be clean, but were worth researching. At least Travis and Bill thought so. There was one particular two-handled chalice that had a badger engraved on the side of it. Bill could tell that there were several enchantments and protections on it, but nothing that appeared dangerous, so it was added to the pile.

While Travis, Bill, and Harry messed around with books and other artifacts, Frank took more interest in some of the weapons and armour that the vault had. In fact, at one point, he had slid on a chain mail shirt he had found, along with a pair of boots.
“Oh, my knight in shining armour,” Harry teased.
“A dragon hide cuirass would be better, though.”
“You mean this stuff?” asked Frank, picking up something that looked like leather.
“That would be it. See, dragon hide is very tough. It can put up with many lesser curses and so on, even as armour. I’m not sure if the chain mail has any enchantments on it, but you’d be better to go with the dragon hide.”
“That stuff’s expensive, too,” Travis noted, “Since dragons don’t die too often, and so on.” Frank nodded, and quickly removed the chain mail. He then slipped on the heavier dragon hide cuirass.
“Damn, this shit’s heavy.”
“You would get used to it after a while. Thing is, that stuff just isn’t used anymore. At least not that style.”

Returning to the trunk early in the afternoon, Harry deposited the items recovered from the vault on the table in the library. As expected, Hermione pounced on the stack of books, causing Harry to smile. “Just be aware, some of the stuff in those probably won’t be sanctioned by either wizarding government,” Bill warned.
“If it’ll help us defeat Voldemort, I don’t care,” answered Harry.
“What are you gonna do with the snake, Harry?”
“What snake?” asked Hermione.
“This,” said Harry, sliding the lid off the box. Hermione looked inside, and gasped. “Harry! You can’t keep that here!”
“And we’re not,” said Harry. “I think a zoo might like to have it, or something.”
“Find anything interesting?” asked Remus, stepping into the library.
“A few things,” answered Harry.
“What did you grab all the cups for?”
“Well, I mean, the mantle piece on the fire places are rather bare, right? And this one, I think it’s special… err, at least Bill thinks so.” Harry indicated the two-handled cup with the badger engraved on it.
“Won’t these things only remind you of what Bellatrix did, though, Harry?” asked Hermione.
“No. I see it this way. It’s a reminder that I still hold power over her, that one day, she will answer for what she did to Sirius. That’s how I look at it,” answered Harry grimly.

oOo
The following morning, after some careful negotiations on the part of Jeff, the cobra was transported to the Toronto Zoo. The keepers of the reptile exhibit were thrilled to obtain such a specimen, as much as the zoo itself was also ecstatic to receive a donation of nearly 50 thousand dollars. When asked for a name, they were only informed the donor wished to remain anonymous.

oOo
October 4th was a date Harry both looked forward to and dreaded. My Chemical Romance was returning to their world tour; this date in particular, they were set up to play in Monterrey, Mexico. The equipment had already been sent there, and set up. A trailer had been modified to include a teleport pad linking it to the trunk.

Harry, Ron, Travis, and Bill had front row seats, although, for most of the event, they were unnecessary. The energy from the crowd was infectious, in fact, far more than spectators at a Quidditch match. Something Harry and Ron were familiar with.

The concert went entirely without issue, and shortly after midnight, while the crew began packing up the equipment, the group returned to the trunk, and quickly to the rec room. As had been planned earlier, there was a case of butterbeer on ice, along with a couple bottles of Firewhiskey.
“I’d say a toast is in order,” said Travis, quickly filling shot glasses with the amber liquid.
“I second that,” said Gerard, picking up one of the glasses. As the others did, he said, “To a successful European leg.” Glasses clinked together.
“Damn, that’s strong,” said Mikey. “Still can’t get used to that.”
“Well, guys, we have another date added in London,” Gerard announced. “We’re scheduled for a stripped-down show on October 31st, at Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre.”
“Awesome,” said Travis. “I mean, then we can get back here and have a Halloween party of our own.”
“Yeah, I like the sound of that,” said Frank.
“More like a Halloween party slash birthday party for someone,” Travis smirked.
“Don’t tell mum that,” said Ron. “She’ll make enough to feed an army.”
“Best not let mum see you drinking THAT either, she’ll hex all of us so bad our kids will feel it,” said Bill, gesturing to Ron. He and Travis then cuddled together on one of the short couches. Frank, seeing this, seized Harry about the waist and dragged him into one of the others.
“Kodak moment!” exclaimed Adam.
“Produce a camera and I’ll bust it,” Frank vowed, pulling out his pack of cigarettes.
“I had loads of fun tonight, guys,” said Harry.
“I’m glad,” said Frank. “All this serious stuff going on around you, and you’re still a teenager. You have a right to have fun now and then.”
“Humph. Tell that to Voldemort,” said Harry.
“No dark thoughts,” Travis scolded. “He’s thousands of miles away from here.”
Harry thought for a moment, then said, “You know, Hogwarts has a big Halloween feast… we could go there first. I mean, I don’t usually get excited about it because of, well, you know… but… I mean, it might be fun to go there, then back to London for the concert.”
“That sounds cool to me,” said Gerard. “You haven’t shown us this magical school of yours anyway.”
“Well, you only had to ask,” answered Harry.
“Probably might be best to clear it with professor McGonagall first, Harry,” said Bill.
“And I will. Not that I see her saying ‘no’.”
“Neither do I,” said Bill, “She might be a stern witch, but she likes you.”

As Harry snuggled up against Frank, his thoughts drifted away from the conversation. Halloween had always been difficult for him. It was the day that his life had been forever changed, 15 years prior. A day when Tom Riddle had marked him as his equal, and set in motion a prophecy. A day he had lost his parents. A day in which his life from then on, meant hardship for the most part.

Perhaps, this year, October 31 would be different. He now had his parents with him again, and just as important, the person who now meant the world to him was snuggled up beside him. Someone who also celebrated a birthday on that particular date. If Harry could help it, he would help his boyfriend celebrate properly.
======================================

AUTHOR NOTES: So, Harry gets back at Bellatrix a little here, at least financially. It just felt right to deal with her estate first, since she seems the most vulnerable to that kind of attack. And let’s face it, it’s something she would never expect. The others, now, won’t be as easy, I don’t think.

Of course, there is an interesting side effect in all of this, now, isn’t there? Harry has possession of two objects that well, Voldemort would NOT be pleased about that, right? smirk

(1) If anyone knows the CORRECT number of the Lestrange vault, give me a shout-out, so I can keep it canon. That would be much appreciated.