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Chapter Thirty Two: Welcome Home Harry

“The teacher’s are trying to kill us,” whined Daphne after Defense Against the Dark Arts as she was walking through the halls with Theodore and Harry less than a week before the Easter holiday.

“I know,” said Harry in a tired tone of voice. “Two essays for McGonagall, two for Snape, and a whole twenty pages of reading from Moody. I know they are preparing us for the OWLs…”

“It only gets worse from what I hear,” said Theodore darkly. “Just wait to fifth year; it’ll end up driving nearly all of us to a nervous breakdown.”

“The only peopled it won’t effect is the one’s that are already not all there due to various reasons,” said Harry.

“Like you Harry,” said Daphne.

“Yeah like me,” said Harry before realizing. “Hey!”

“Sorry, couldn’t resist,” remarked Daphne.

“Seriously Harry, hopefully everything slows down by next year, as all the attempts on your life are starting to become rather tiresome,” said Theodore.

“Indeed, you don’t know the half of it,” said Harry, believing that his life would not be completely peaceful until Voldemort was taken out of the equation. “I’m focusing on surviving the third task.”

“Yes, I gathered that from all the time you spent practicing and studying spells,” said Daphne. “Still, nothing out of the ordinary has happened yet.”

“Except for the fact that Harry got his name put in the Goblet of Fire,” said Theodore.

“Yes, the fact that no one has done anything is more bothersome than any homicidal attempt on my life,” said Harry. “This Third Task is there last chance and I have a few surprises up my sleeve that I prefer not to mention just in case the person who is going to do me in his watching.”

Harry’s mind focused on what was coming in the Third Task since Darthmorth had been silenced for the time meaning. He knew that might not last and Darthmorth might lay low for a couple of months, but for the time being Harry felt he wouldn’t worry about Darthmorth. He would be kept at bay for a time as Harry still had that incident with Draco being used for leverage to keep Darthmorth out.

In New York, Lily Potter looked through her pensieve, deep in thought. The house she was now living in was mostly Muggle with her wand, this pensieve, and the book she managed to swipe about Horcruxes. She had just double checked the security wards on the house, as she didn’t want any uninvited visitors to come, especially when her children came home to visit. Harry especially had more than enough to worry about. Still, Lily dreaded the day when she had to tell Harry both the false prophecy Dumbledore concocted and the real prophecy that caused Dumbledore to create the fake one that provoked Voldemort into going after Harry.

Lily sighed, going through her memories for something she might not recalled without the aide of the pensieve that might point her to one or more of Voldemort’s Horcruxes. Voldemort seemed to be hiding his safeguards for his soul well.

Lily closed her eyes as she recalled the night her parents died. The night that completely destroyed her already strained relationship with her sister Petunia. On this night, what had been jealously on Lily’s abilities had turned into pure hatred of anything magical whatsoever. Still, Lily watched the aftermath, despite all the pain it had caused in the long run.

Petunia lay on her side on the ground, looking not too good after what Bellatrix Lestrange did to her. Bellatrix only had the Cruciatus Curse on her for a couple of minutes but it caused her severe pain and anguish. Lily looked around to make sure Bellatrix had left, wincing in pain at her bloodied lip and her burnt hand that she suffered during the duel with Bellatrix. Thankfully, she managed to alert her Unspeakable friends at the Department of Mysteries which at their arrival caused Bellatrix to flee.

Lily raised her wand ready to defend herself. She had told Dumbledore something like this might happen due to her status as one of the top Muggleborn students at Hogwarts and had outclassed many of the junior Death Eaters in many classes. She didn’t like to flaunt her knowledge and most times she excelled without studying too much but it annoyed the pureblood supremacists to no end and she received threats daily. Dumbledore brushed it off as merely a prank and told Lily it was nothing to worry about. Dumbledore didn’t do anything to protect her family and as a result, Lily felt she lost any trust she ever had in the old man on this night.

“Petunia,” whispered Lily, attempting to help her sister up, but Petunia angrily shoved her away causing Lily to stare at Petunia.

“They’re dead,” said Petunia coldly.

Lily did not like the tone of voice that her sister was using.

“Lily, they’re dead and you know why they’re dead,” whispered Petunia cruelly. “Mum and Dad are dead because of those freaks that you mix up with. It’s your fault Lily, you…”

“I couldn’t save them but my status in the Magical world has nothing to do with…” started Lily.

“Damn you, it was your fault, completely your fault, you killed them,” said Petunia. “From the minute you went off to that school, you sealed their fates. I hope your happy, Lily. Both Mum and Dad are dead thanks to you.”

Lily had tears in her eyes, she knew her sister was partially right but not for the reasons she was stating.

“Stay away from me Lily and stay away from Vernon when I marry him,” said Petunia in a quiet voice. “Don’t you ever come near my family ever because you’ll kill them like you did our parents. I HATE YOUR BLOODY GUTS AND HOPE YOU DIE!”

“Petunia, you don’t know what you’re saying,” said Lily attempting to keep her voice calm. “To your own sister…”

“I have no sister,” said Petunia coldly. “I tried to tolerate you for years, but you’ve changed ever since you went to that school and not for the better. Anything you’ve ever gotten, you didn’t deserve it.”

“You know Petunia, I’m extremely disappointed with you,” said Lily quietly. “Our parents were killed tonight and the only thing you can think about is yourself. Your jealously will end up causing you to live a bitter lonely life.”

“Better a lonely life than dead,” said Petunia. “That’s where you’re going to end up if you remain mixed up with these freaks. That Voldemort character that your lot keeps blathering on about will kill you all and I don’t want to be around when it happens.”

“There are things that are worse than death, Petunia,” said Lily quietly. “Voldemort will kill anyone, whether they are connected to the Magical world or not.”

“I don’t believe it,” said Petunia skeptically. “Good bye Lily, have a nice life, I know I will since I don’t have to see you again.”

“Fine Petunia, if you want to be childish about this,” said Lily calmly as if she was talking with a three year old. “If you ever need my help, I won’t turn you away but I hope there hope left from you getting over your jealously for everything.”

Petunia didn’t even acknowledge these last words from Lily before walking off.

In the Pensieve, Lily viewed Petunia walking away and as it turned out, this was the last time Lily had talked to Petunia. The fact that Lily never patched up her differences with her sister to this date was one of the regrets she had in her life. Make no mistake about it Lily made every effort to be polite to her sister, but Petunia’s jealously severely strained the relationship between both of them. Of course, when Petunia met that Dursley character, her jealously slowly turned into hatred.

After about twenty more minutes of browsing her memories, Lily found something that looked like it might be a help in searching for Voldemort’s Horcruxes.

Twenty year old Lily Potter, a couple of months after young Harry was born, sat in one of the many rooms of the mysterious and illusive Department of Mysterious. Her shift would be ending in twenty minutes, with only working a few hours early in the morning due to her reduced schedule from her son being born. Still, the few hours that she did work had very few dull moments, as the Department of Mysteries were smack in the middle of researching something big, something that might bring Voldemort closer to defeat than he ever was throughout his life.

A crashing hissing sound jerked the past version of Lily’s attention from her thoughts and also caused the present version who was viewing the memory to take attention. One of the many fire places in that section of the Department of Mysteries had an incoming Floo call. Lily cautiously stepped into the next room, with her wand raised in the air. The Department of Mysteries had great amounts of security wards around the perimeter but it wasn’t completely foolproof and unwelcome guests may slip in to the less important parts of the Department of Mysteries.

In the next room, Lily heard the transmission over the Floo connection and raised her wand.

“Agent .19?” asked a tentative voice on the other end of the Floo Connection.

Through communication sequences, Unspeakables were referred to numbers as opposed to their names. Of course, from agent to agent, the numbers stood for different things. Sometimes last names, sometimes first names, other times middle names, and there were other times where to really throw the outside world off, there was code names using initials.

“Yes, this is .19,” said Lily. “What is the nature of your call?”

“Oh good, this is Agent 18.01.02, a new lead has been discovered for project: soul search but I have unfortunately been discovered by a group of Death Eaters that were stationed outside of where the item was located,” said Agent 18.01.02. “I managed to get the item without them seeing me steal it but it’s only a matter of time before they catch up to me. Rest assure, I have managed to throw them off long enough to stash the item somewhere else.”

“Where?” asked Lily.

The Floo connection was breaking up as there seemed to be footsteps drawing closer.

“The locket is hidden at the place where the Dark Lord will least suspect,” said Agent 18.01.02 quickly before the Floo Connection went dead.

Lily pulled herself out of the memory; one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes was definitely a locket of some sort. Her memories were still a bit scrambled from when they all came back to her at once less than a year ago at the TCRI Building.

Unfortunately, a few small fragments of various memories were still missing, like the five minutes in between using that spell against Voldemort on Halloween night and her showing up in New York. Also, the identity of Agent 18.01.02 was troubling her. The numbers came out to R.A.B. and were definitely initials, but Lily couldn’t quite puzzle together what it all meant. She felt confident that if she pieced the identity of this R.A.B. person, then she might have a shot of gathering at least one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes if it was still at the location that it was stashed fourteen years ago.

It was getting late and Lily put away her Pensieve for the evening. At least she was a bit closer into tracking down at least one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes.

A couple of days before the Easter holidays, many of the students were struggling to get their homework done. Harry managed to just get everything done for this evening, until the teachers piled on even more Homework that is, and was now enjoying some much earned downtime with Ginny walking the grounds of Hogwarts.

“I can’t wait to get out of this school for a couple of weeks,” said Ginny.

“Tell me about it,” said Harry in a tired voice. “This has been an extremely stressful year so far, and funnily enough I wanted a normal year. I’m not allowed to even have that apparently.”

Ginny opened her mouth to respond but before she could say anything a loud thumping sound was heard from just outside the Forbidden forest. Harry whipped out his wand instinctively, pointing it towards the direction of the nose.

“Harry, maybe we should go inside,” suggest Ginny tentatively.

Harry turned but another sound brought him out of his attention. Looking over his shoulder, he saw a body lying on the ground.

“Ginny, cover me with your wand, I’m going to check on this person but be prepared to attack at a second’s notice,” said Harry.

“Right, Harry,” said Ginny nervously as Harry approached the broken, battered body.

Harry turned the man over, looking into his pale face and bloodshot eyes. He recognized him immediately.

“Crouch,” muttered Harry.

“How?” asked Ginny. “He’s been out of public since November and he just decides to show up here. Why after all this time would he do something like that?

Harry prepared to ask Crouch this as Crouch moaned in agony.

“Mr. Crouch, this is Harry Potter, are you able to respond?” asked Harry.

“Yes, not good, all dark, darkness coming back, all my fault. Dark Lord, my son, Mad Eye,” babbled Crouch.

“He’s not making a lick of sense Harry,” said Ginny.

“No I think I understand him,” said Harry slowly. “He has a son and he’s in the league with Voldemort. Am I correct Mr. Crouch?”

“Yes Mr. Potter, my son, still alive, thought dead, polyjuice, Moody,” muttered Mr. Crouch.

Harry paused; something was clicking in his mind.

“Your son kidnapped Mad Eye Moody and is using Polyjuice Potion to impersonate him,” said Harry slowly. “That means…he put my name in the Goblet of Fire.”

Ginny nodded in understand but a familiar clunking of a wooden leg brought both Harry and Ginny back to reality.

“Yes, you are extremely bright Potter, a bit too bright for your own good but nothing can be allowed to compromise my Master’s plans so you will find that you are about to forget about this little fact,” growled a voice behind both Harry and Ginny. “Obliviate!”

Barty Crouch Junior, under the guise of Mad Eye Moody, turned his wand towards his father as the two teenagers were dazed from the memory charm.

“Avada Kedavra,” said Crouch Junior coldly, blasting his father in the chest with a jet of green light, causing him to slump to the ground dead and then transfigured Crouch’s body into a bone. He then implanted false memories into the heads of Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley before sending them on their way.

The morning of the first day before the Easter holiday, Harry, Ginny, and Hailey were in the Slytherin library. Harry couldn’t shake the fact that he seemed to have forgotten something important but he was confident that in due time it would come back to him.

“Okay, you two got everything you need, any homework that you have left over that is due after the holiday,” said Harry.

“Yes,” said Hailey. “Unlike some people, we don’t have super intelligence and aren’t able to complete our homework quickly while still gaining an achievable grade. “

“So yes we do,” said Ginny. “I probably we spend a good bit of my trip catching up on homework that the teacher’s have forced upon us for what is supposed to be a time of relaxation”

“Right, hang on,” said Harry, tapping his wand to his Portus-Amulet and pulling himself along with Hailey and Ginny to New York.

“Home sweet hell,” said Hailey quietly. “Of course, I’ve spent most of my time cooped up in some stupid government building last time and didn’t really have a chance to explore the sights.”

“Well you do need to get your homework done first, Hailey,” said Harry.

“Yes, mother,” said Hailey in an irritated voice, rolling her eyes at her brother.

“This is the house, right Harry?” asked Ginny, pointing out to a standard, run of the mill house with nothing amazing to it.

“According to Mum, yes it is,” said Harry.

“Amazing, it looks like a normal house,” said Hailey.

“That’s because it is a normal house,” said Lily Potter who had walked outside. “Hello, you three, it’s nice to see you again.”

Lily opened up the door and the three walked inside.

“Dad would have a hay day here, looking at all the Muggle appliances,” said Ginny.

“It’s just an average run of the mill Muggle house,” said Lily. “No different than most of the houses in this area, but I didn’t really want to attract attention. There are security wards preventing anyone uninvited from crashing the house.”

“Excellent, I think I deserved a couple of days off from attempts on my life,” said Harry.

“Harry, I really should say something for you having that attitude, but I’m afraid you’re completely right,” said Lily. “I can’t count the amount of times during my job as Unspeakable I was near death.”

“I knew something like that would have to run in the family,” said Hailey darkly.

“Indeed,” said Lily. “So, I’m sure you three are hungry, and I’ve got breakfast made in the kitchen already.”

Ginny, Hailey, and Harry nodded eagerly as they hadn’t eaten since the previous night and Portkey travel tends to make one a bit hungry sometimes. Harry figured tonight he’d go and visit his brothers and Master Splinter so he could leave his sister and his girlfriend in peace so they can catch up on their homework that they had leftover.

During the night, down at the lair, the Turtles and Master Splinter were just finishing up a training session when the lights in the lair were shut off.

“Ah man, what’s that?” asked Raph.

“I don’t know, the lights just got turned off,” said Don before he felt someone’s feet kick the back of him. Don went flying through the lair, flipping over the couch from the impact of that blow.

“I’ll get the lights,” said Mikey but he found a figure in front of him. “Hah, creepy shadow guy, now you’re going to get it.”

Mikey swung his nunchucks up but he felt them blocked and the turtle was flipped over.

“My turn,” said Raph, swinging his Sais but the person was not there. Raph felt himself being punched and kicked in the face and chest before flying back.

Leo drew his swords but the swords were quickly knocked from his hands with a pair of swipe. A wild swing from Leo but his arm was grabbed and flipped over onto his shell.

With a sigh, Master Splinter used his walking stick to turn off the light to reveal their mysterious attacker. It was Harry standing in the middle of the lair with a sadistic smirk.

“Lesson for this evening my students, be prepared for an attack at any time, in any medium of light,” said Master Splinter. “Harry, I thank you for assisting me in this exhibition.”

“No thank you Master Splinter,” said Harry before turning to his brothers, who were grumbling as they pulled themselves off the floor.

“Next time Harry, I think a, “hey how are you doing” would be fine,” said Mikey, rubbing his shell in pain

“I’m doing fine actually, since I got out of the death maze that is Hogwarts,” said Harry.

“Yes, some crazy whacked out assassin attacking you in Hogsmeade, what’s up with this!” exclaimed Raph angrily.

“I wish I knew, he blew himself up before I could get any information out of him,” said Harry. “So, what’s been going on here?”

“Harry, you’ve got see my latest invention,” said Don, before motioning for Harry to come over and showing Harry a group of five sled light objects. “I present to you, the sewer sleds!”

“Yes, he modified a couple of snow mobiles,” said Raph.

“You know what they say, one man’s trash, is another man’s treasure,” said Don.

“I agree,” said Leo. “So since all five of us are here, why don’t we go and take these sewer sleds out for a test spin?”

“Wicked!” yelled Mikey.

Harry, Mikey, Leo, Raph, and Don each took a sewer sled, before going outside the lair.

“Kids,” said Master Splinter, shaking his head in amusement.

Meanwhile on voyage across the Atlantic Ocean on the ship that now served at the temporary Foot Headquarters, Karai walked up to a secret panel, pressing a few buttons. A secret room revealed the location of her master, The Shredder in a container of fluid. The Utrom had worms clinging to his face but after a few more seconds, they swam away.

“You summoned me Master,” said Karai.

“I did Karai,” said the Shredder. “My recovery is finally at an end. The worms have done their work. It is now time for the Shredder to be reborn.

“As you command, my Lord,” said Karai, pressing a series of buttons, causing an opening to manifest in the container of fluid.

Karai reached in, putting the Utrom form of the Shredder on a disc shaped platform. She walked him over to the new and improved Shredder exosuit against the wall. This suit was a hundred times more durable and resistant to physical assaults. Carefully, she placed the Utrom in the stomach cavity. The Utrom reached his tentacle over, pressing a series of buttons. The red eyes on the helmet lit up and the fingers on the metal hands briefly curled before become relaxed.

“So now, I stand before the world,” said the Shredder, before pressing a few more buttons, closing the opening of the stomach cavity. “REBORN!”