Chapter 5

'Left corridor on the seventh floor, opposite the tapestry of the dancing Trolls, who'd want to teach Trolls to dance?!'

Harry eyed the blank wall. The book in his hand was dug out from the furthest corner of the restricted section, and he only dug it out because it had "Secrets of Hogwarts" on the title and he hoped it would tell him about the junk room. Luckily it did.

'Ok, the book says I need to pace and think about what I want. Seems easy enough'.

He walked back and forth, the urge to find the junk room in his mind. On his third pace a door just bled out the stone, and a little cautiously he cracked it open and peeked inside, prepared to flee to his dorm room and hide under the bed if something jumped out at him (there was nothing wrong with being a little cautious). Thankfully Professor Snape's eviler brother didn't jump out at him (now wasn't that a terrifying thought?!) but if someone wanted lots of stuff, then this was the room for them, the place was full from top to bottom! Smiling Harry entered, sure he could find plenty of equipment he could borrow for his school years.

'Still weird why it was hidden' he mused, idly picking random things up to examine.

Spotting stuff he could use he headed over and gathered it into a random trunk that someone either abandoned or forgot, although how someone could forget a whole trunk was beyond him. More likely the owner got a new one and dumped the old. Still, it worked for Harry, and since none of the stuff belonged to him he wasn't bothered about the extra weight. Shrinking the trunk he slipped it into his pocked and decided to look around a bit longer, goodness knows what he could uncover that the school could actually use rather than it gathering dust in a secret room.

It was as he was exploring that he stumbled into a pile of stuff and sent the thing on top smashing onto the ground. He hadn't the foggiest how he managed to stumble, there was nothing in his path, his laces were tied tight and he was only walking.

'Ahh! I didn't mean that! Oh what do I do?!'

He knelt to pick up the pieces of what was once an elaborate bust. Just because he didn't feel the need to own such an item, didn't mean he wanted to break something belonging to someone else, especially when it looked really expensive.

'Repairo!'

It didn't work. He chewed his lip when he realised most of the pieces were far too small to use a standard repair spell on, plus some of the finer pieces were hard to see lying in the remains of the pile of junk.

'I need to put it back together!' he unconsciously exclaimed out loud.

And just at that a book appeared in front of him. It was old, really old, almost falling apart, but it was held open at a page, and when Harry looked he immediately found a spell, well two but they could be done one after another in a kind of chant, that should put the bust together.

'Ok, ok calm down, this should work, I just need to practice the incantation and the wand movements'.

It was harder than the spells he'd already learned, but he supposed it wasn't really magic for a first year judging by the book. Nevertheless, he didn't want to leave the bust broken.

'Alright, here goes'.

Taking a breath Harry practiced the wand movements, over and over, he was pretty sure he took almost thirty minutes on them, then once he was happy he'd got them as right as he could he began to practice the spells, and forty minutes later he felt he was ready to try. The book said that the spells needed to be spoken more than once, and that the amount depended on the pieces. There were seven large pieces, the rest being far too small, Harry only hoped that would work. He spoke the spells once more to get them right in his head, then stood and lifted his wand.

'Extracto restoreatus, extracto restoreatus, extracto restoreatus, Extracto Restoreatus, Extracto Restoreatus, Extracto Restoreatus, EXTRACTO RESTOREATUS!'

He didn't think it would work the first time he tried it, although for the life of him he couldn't figure out where the sudden wind came from. Maybe there was a window open, it was a pretty breezy day today. He thought he should try the chant again, just to be sure.

'Extracto restoreatus, extracto restoreatus, extracto restoreatus, Extracto Restoreatus, Extracto Restoreatus, EXTRACTO RESTOREATUS, EXTRACTO RESTOREATUS!'

Ok now that wind was NOT coming from outside, and the distraction it caused prevented Harry from seeing a fancy looking tiara start to float up from a box to his left. Harry huddled down as the icy chill whipped round him, idly noting that the bust STILL hadn't been repaired. Well the book did say he might need to repeat himself if he wanted it to be stronger, maybe the wind was part of the magic, though if it was it seemed like a pretty extreme reaction for a simple repair. But the wind wasn't doing anything, besides whipping around him, so perhaps he needed to chant again, like the book mentioned.

'EXTRACTO RESTOREATUS, EXTRACTO RESTOREATUS, EXTRACTO RESTOREATUS, EXTRACTO RESTOREATUS, EXTRACTO RESTOREATUS, EXTRACTO RESTOREATUS, EXTRACTO RESTOREATUS!'

His scar suddenly exploded in pain, and Harry collapsed screaming, clutching his head. In his agony, he didn't notice the black shadow seeping out the bloody lightning bolt, nor did he notice similar shadows being pulled into the room, and one coming from the tiara. After a while, he blacked out, and thus completely missed the banshee like wails and the explosion that rocked the castle as a once evil wizard was blasted into the afterlife.

OOO

Up in the Headmaster's office Albus Dumbledore gripped his desk tightly as the castle shook.

'Fawkes, what have I told you about playing with the powers of the universe?!'

The Phoenix squawked in protest, but as usual he was ignored as the man rushed out the office. Huffing the bird ruffled his feathers and flew out the window, he got blamed for everything round here, just because he fooled around with the cosmos that ONE time and hit the replay button on life.

The sorting hat just laughed. And laughed and laughed and laughed.

'Ah my Lady, up to mischief again!'

OOO

'Amelia! Amelia you need to see this!'

Madam Bones jerked up as Kingsley Shacklebolt rushed into her office.

'What's wrong?!'

He grinned.

'Oh you're going to love this! Not five minutes ago people left right and centre all over Britain started clutching their left arm and collapsing in pain!'

She jumped up, following him out the door.

'You don't think…?!'

'Oh I'm sure of it! Each and every one of them served You-Know-Who, and for some reason those dark marks are going haywire! And I don't mean in a way that suggests he's coming back either!'

Amelia had long since been under the notion that the Dark Lord wasn't gone for good, something she shared with her most trusted aurors. The lack of body and many other factors led to this suspicion, and to hear that Deatheaters were reacting in such a manner only confirmed her thoughts. The pair entered the lobby where people were being laid out on stretchers. Going on a hunch she strode over to one Lucius Malfoy, who had just popped out for an innocent visit to the Minister, and yanked back his left sleeve. The man didn't put up much of a fight, and there, on his wrist, was a rapidly fading dark mark.

'Auror Shacklebolt I want each and every person who reacted in this way to be taken to a ministry cell. Bring in every auror we have! We're going to be busy for a while'.

'Yes Ma'am!' and off he rushed to gather reinforcement.

Amelia herself hunted down the Minister, they were going to have a nice long chat about the use of veritaserum on each and every person who reacted that day. She'd been waiting a long time for this moment.

OOO

Sirius wasn't sure what had just happened. One minute he was lying half asleep in his cell, the next he was being dragged forward to appear on trial. The reason behind this sudden change in accommodation appeared to have something to do with Deatheaters around the country grabbing their arms and collapsing in pain, and in doing so forced the Minister (more like Madam Bones forced the Minister) to call for trials for all of Voldemort's followers, even those in prison, just to be on the safe side. After being told this, and handed a decent set of clothes (those in the stands didn't want smelly prisoners sharing their space) and a good meal for the first time in years (well he counted soup and bread better than whatever it was they'd been feeding him in Azkaban), Sirius found himself in front of the Wizengamot. As an Auror approached to administer the truth serum, he finally found his voice.

'About bloody time people!'

OOO

When Harry woke it was to throbbing pain. Groaning he heaved himself to his feet, or at least to his knees, finding his wand from where he'd dropped it, thankfully not broken. He thanked the heavens that the potions shop keeper had convinced him to buy a set of vials, vials that he'd just recently filled with a pain relief potion. He downed one, too exhausted to even make a face at the taste, and fished out his wet wipes to remove the blood dripping down from his scar.

'What the heck happened?! Did a shard catch me?!'

He glanced at the bust, and it was STILL in pieces.

'OH COME ON!'

There was no way he was trying that again, heck he was too exhausted to even bother with another basic repair spell. It was like his whole body was drained, and his hand looked a little burnt, something he just couldn't explain, like his bleeding scar. He would need to return at one point and try to fix the bust again, but not using that god awful spell in the book!

Staggering a bit, Harry managed to bring himself to his feet and left the room, heading towards the Gryffindor common room. He would have gone to Madam Pomfrey, but really all he wanted was sleep and she'd probably fuss over him and ask him questions. Nurses tended to do that.

It wasn't until the next day that he realised just how big a thing his little repair spell was. Coming down to breakfast, after another pain potion and plenty of rest, he was accosted by Ron and Hermione.

'Harry where were you?!'

'There was this huge bang yesterday! The whole castle shook!'

'Really?' he asked.

'Yeah, none of the teachers could figure out where it came from!'

'They had us all return to our common rooms, but you weren't there!'

He gulped slightly under Hermione's glare.

'Sorry, I was exploring. I did feel something, and it was pretty big…'

Understatement of the century.

'But I hadn't realised it was that bad. Is everyone ok?'

'Everyone's fine' Ron assured him.

'No Ronald not everyone!' Hermione huffed.

'Professor Quirrell was sent to St Mungo's. We don't really know what happened to him, but some of the students said he just started screaming and collapsed. And Professor Snape was affected as well, though not as badly as Professor Quirrell. He's in the hospital wing' she then explained.

'Oh…I hope they're ok' Harry said quietly, and he really did mean it, even if Professor Snape hated him, and Professor Quirrell was a horrible teacher. He hadn't meant to hurt anyone, he was just trying to fix something that was broken.

The hall hushed as the Headmaster stood.

'I'm sure rumours are running rife over the strange occurrence heard and felt last night. Unfortunately I am unable to give you any answers….'

The man wasn't going to tell his students his Phoenix did it, it would ruin his reputation.

'The staff have checked the school from top to bottom and have found no sign of danger, I assure you the school is perfectly safe…'

Well now it was, since he didn't need to have things guarding the stone. Well at least now he could be rid of the mirror, since young Harry hadn't seemed at all interested in it. He couldn't figure out why, it was such a lovely thing, always showing him surrounded by socks and lemon drops.

'As most of you may know, Professor Quirrell will be unable to teach any longer, therefore the rest of the staff will take shifts to cover his position, and next year there will be a new defense against the dark arts professor….'

He really hated interviewing people, it took so long and there was so much paperwork. That was why he'd been picking the first person to walk through the door ever since they discovered the curse on the position. He supposed he could let Severus have the job, but then he'd have to find a potions professor and they were even harder to come by! Being a Headmaster was a real pain sometimes. At least he had his lemon drops.

'As for Professor Snape, Madam Pomfrey assures me that he will recover within the next few days, so I shall cover his classes for the time being…'

The man's mark had gone nuts, then thankfully calmed down. Albus didn't know what to make of it, but the first thing he would do was find a horcrux or two and see if they were still active. And then he'd contemplate over the issue with some lemon drops.

'I know many of you will have had a terrific scare from all this, therefore I have decided to cancel classes for the day, to allow you to recover. Anyone who requires a calming potion please see Madam Pomfrey, and anyone who needs to talk can come to any member of staff. I'm sorry I haven't got the answers you want, I can only hope that this has not damaged your experience at Hogwarts. Please, return to your meal'.

Had he mentioned how much he enjoyed a nice lemon drop? It was a pity the others didn't share his fondness for the sweets.

'Yes! No classes!'

'Ronald Weasley! That's a horrible thing to say when two members of staff were hurt!'

The red head held up his hands with a glare.

'Hey they're not the only ones, I found poor Scabbers dead when I woke up!'

'Sorry Ron, he was pretty cool, even if he was lazy' Harry offered, swallowing his first response which was to send a cry of gratitude to the heavens. Ruddy perverted rat always sneaking into his bed! He didn't know how Ron coped with the thing curling up next to his face. Didn't rats pee everywhere? Bleh!

His friend grinned.

'Yeah, he lived a good long life. I don't think he suffered, I think it was just old age'.

Hearing about his deceased familiar had calmed Hermione and she offered him her condolences. Slowly talk moved onto other matters.

'Hey Harry?'

'Yeah Lee?'

'Think, if we gave you some money, you could get us some of those pens and notepads?'

Harry grinned.

'Sure! They really don't cost much, a galleon would get five packs of ten pens or five packs of four A5 notepads'.

'Hey that's really cheap!'

'If you could do that you'd be the bestest pal ever!'

Harry laughed at the twins antics, agreeing to buy up as many pens and notepads as he could. Others who had overheard also asked about things like calculators, and between Harry and others who were familiar with the muggle world they were able to take a fair sized order. His trunk would be crammed full come the next school year, but since it was for others, he didn't mind, since he wasn't coming back with it. He wondered how his relatives would cope with a super cool magical yielding Harry Potter come the summer. The first thing he'd do is take out all that junk from his room (Duddykins' toy room), and dump it into Dudley's bedroom, ha!

Lost in his musing, he was unaware of the slight shift in the dynamics of the world around him.

Something as small as a few students deciding to try pens over quills, would in turn make other magical raised want to see what was so special about the things, and realise that they were much easier to use than quills, which would then make them curious about other things, and that would lead them to look for other ways to make their lives easier, and make them curious about the other cultures they live alongside. Pens and calculators would lead to electric lights and computers (which would make people realise that magic and technology worked fine together, and why was it that they'd ever thought otherwise), and then to planes and even space ships (the idea of muggles walking on the moon fascinated just about everyone who'd heard of the incredible feat, and of course they wanted to copy it for themselves), and slowly but surely the magical world would realise just how intelligent and ahead of them the non magical world was, and adapt to match. This in turn would make them far more aware of other beings in the world, and how much everyone could learn from each other, leading to better acceptance of beings like Goblins and Centaurs. Sure, there would be protests, fighting, even death over the change, but overall the Wizard population would be dragged kicking and screaming into the modern age, until even the more traditional purebloods would understand that there is more to life than magic, and start telling their children and their children's children that they agreed with the change all along (credit hogs) and that acceptance and tolerance was their way of life.

And thus, without even trying, or realising it, Harry Potter began something that would rock the wizarding world right to their core.

And for all of you who thought this was far too easy, that it should have been more drawn out with epic battles and adventures…well, no one ever told Harry he had to be the hero of the story, and if they had, he probably wouldn't have bothered to listen.

OOO

Lady Hogwarts was quite pleased with herself, all the child needed was a little push in the right direction, and since the headmaster was becoming senile (it must be the lemon drops) and not lifting a finger until "the time was right", she was quite happy to give Harry that push. The destruction of a rare bust was more than worth the price of the health and welfare of the world.