Disclaimer: It's JKR's not mine.

Chapter 16: Rise of The Wardens

Hogwarts, Northern Scotland

Harry watched as several students shivered in the cold November air out on the grounds. Fortunately, the charms on all of Gabrielle's and his own clothes keep them perfectly comfortable as the weather quickly became increasingly cold with the onset of winter.

The Forbidden Forest was darker and eerier than ever, as the leaves had fallen for the winter, giving the trees a dark, dead look. The lake had a chilled appearance and the mountains lining the valley surrounding Hogwarts were capped with snow, giving an icy grey, eerie look.

Into this atmosphere, the Quidditch season had begun, with the Emrys vs: Slytherin game leading the charge. There would be no Gryffindor team this year, as it had been mostly gutted when several of it's players had been transferred to Emrys. The Wardens would be taking Gryffindor's place on the schedule for the year, in the hopes that Gryffindor would find a way to recover and rebuild a team for the next year's season.

On Saturday, Emrys would play it's first match as a team vs: Slytherin. Harry would, of course, be playing as Seeker and Captain. The twins would continue to rain hell as the beaters. Katie, Angelina, and Alicia would continue working together as the chasers. Finally, Tonks would be showing how graceful she was in the air as the Keeper.

The Emrys team had been training hard for weeks, and Harry was confident that Slytherin wouldn't stand a chance, even without counting his own experience and abilities.

Speaking of Slytherin, Draco had been eerily calm since their duel. Nearly all of Slytherin had turned against the boy, even going so far as to break their silent rule of standing united outside of the Slytherin dorms. Still, while Harry was easily able to detect the lingering fear and rage from the blond, Draco seemed to have finally begun enacting on the tenets of his House. He appeared cool and collected towards everyone, only speaking when needed, not really socializing at all, and had even halted his normal taunts towards others.

Harry wasn't sure if Malfoy had decided to play it cool, allowing his rage to build while planning his revenge on Harry, as well as those who continued to taunt and berate him for being an honor-less, impotent, fool who had killed his own family line, or if Malfoy was taking the time to collect and reevaluate himself. Only time would tell. Harry could, of course, pick the boy's mind with ease, but what fun would that be? It would make no difference, after all, except to sate Harry's curiosity. Harry would still wait for Draco to make his own decisions and move before he acted.

Quidditch Pitch, Hogwarts, Northern Scotland

By eleven o'clock Saturday morning the entire school appeared to be already situated out in the stands surrounding the Quidditch pitch. A great many of them were eager to see the new Emrys team in action, and were eagerly awaiting what promised to be an amazing game. Harry Potter would be playing as Captain starting the first game of the Quidditch season as a first year! Had that ever occurred before in Hogwarts history?

A great many of the students had sent home for omnioculars for the occasion. Not only was it still sometimes difficult to see what was going on sometimes, even with the seats being raised so high in the air, many of them had the same idea of recording this historic moment.

Meanwhile, in the locker room, Harry was going over last minute plans with his team as they changed into their Quidditch robes.

Harry cleared his throat for silence as he finished getting ready.

"Alright people," Harry said, "this is it. Today Ermys House makes its debut as the finest Quidditch team ever assembled at Hogwarts. We've trained hard together, and this is our chance to shine, to show them all that Emrys has what it takes to be great. We are not going to just win today. We are going to outfly them. We are going to cut off their every throw, cut them off at every corner with a bludger to the head if needed. We are going to give them a show they'll never forget as we fly circles around Slytherin and flatten them. Now let's start our reign with a bang!"

"Emrys!"

Yells and cheering erupted as the team grabbed their brooms and raced onto the field to loud cheers from most of the school.

Madam Hooch already stood in the center waiting for the two teams, broom in hand. "Now I want a fair game, all of you," she said, once they were all gathered around her. She was looking the Slytherin Captain, Marcus Flint, sternly in the eye as she said this. "Captains, shake hands."

Flint smirked and took Harry's extended hand, immediately applying as much pressure as he could, and was surprised when the first year grinned before nearly crushing every bone in Flint's hand within the space of a second.

Harry mounted his newly minted Supernova X, and watched as Flint painfully mounted his own broom, carefully cradling his right hand.

Designed, crafted, and enchanted by himself, it was capable of feats far beyond his old Firebolt. It was able to go safely from nought to nearly 350 miles per hour within 7 seconds. With an experienced rider that had a body able to withstand it, however, they could disable the safety charms that Harry built in, enabling it to go beyond the current 5% capability range that Harry currently had it locked at. It was a masterpiece in every sense of the term. This seemingly impossible speed and acceleration, however, far exceeded any human ability to either withstand such force, or process information, no matter what enchantments Harry cast on the broom itself. It simply surpassed all limitations that a human rider could ever set upon it.

Harry had built in several stabilizing charms to negate the effects of such acceleration on himself, as well as several weather dampening runes that drew off the rider's ambient magical aura to create a small field around the broom and rider, enabling said acceleration without the effects of the wind, g forces, or gravity being felt by the rider. This also allowed for much higher acceleration and maximum speeds as the broom and rider effectively sliced through the air with zero resistance whatsoever, also allowing for much tighter turns and maneuvers.

Normally, such enchantments would simply cause any wind or outside forces to curb around the outside of a barrier, while the barrier itself nullified the effects on the broom and rider, which would create an unstable field of wind drafts all around the field of effect, possibly giving other riders a very powerful backdraft to use to boost themselves, or, more likely, causing anyone within range of the 'sonic boom' effect to lose control from the shockwave. Harry, however, had used his enchantments to draw in the energy created from the drafts and, using runes, channeled that energy back and out in a narrow cone through the backend of his broomstick, as well as in a tight interwoven pattern spiraling closely around the length of the barrier around his broomstick. This provided a much narrower danger area, as well as even further enhanced boost as well as providing the outside support and possible resistance required for rolls and twists through the air as the redirected energy allowed his broom to fly in the most streamlined formations possible.

His seat had numerous cushioning charms, as well as charms to prevent him falling off or being thrown off. The entire handle of the broom was coated in the same runes and charms as his gloves, allowing for unbeatable balance, precision, grip, and response timing.

Incorporating an unbreakable braking charm, as well as what Harry dubbed as the "Feint Charm", his own creation, the safety standards of the broom were nigh unreachable by any other. Harry's own creation, the Feint Charm nullified any human error in high risk feints by detecting altitude and speed at all times, granting assistance to the rider on rolls, exceedingly high speed and/or sharp turns, and was even able to override the rider's commands to allow the broom to force the broom to straighten out at the barest minimum altitude, based off of the height and weight detection charms for the rider. The Feint Charm's sensory perception was the true masterpiece of the charm, as it's perception of altitude was not defined as distance from the ground, but distance from any and every object outside the field of the barrier the broom projected. In a sense, the rider was the center of the sphere of the charm's perception and 'altitude' was perceived by the charm to be the distance from the rider and any other object, be it the ground, another player, or even a wall. Of course, this would disable the rider being able to get too close to other players for possible maneuvers, if Harry hadn't incorporated a type of ping emitted by the Feint Charm, in order to determine speed, density, and organic or composite makeup of any object that entered it's field of perception. Harry had, of course, built his to his exact specifications, and no speed would be lost.

The same as his Firebolt, the handle of the Supernova X was made of highly enchanted ebony. Harry had also inlaid the runes with mythril forged in his own phoenix fire, giving the handle a silvery sheen from the very thin filaments, and helping to give the broom enhanced stability, power and response to himself if he was the rider. The mythril also allowed Harry to enchant the entire broom to be indestructible, even to the point of a single twig being unable to be bent. The seat of the broom and foot grips were also of the same mythril, enabling the charms to last nigh unto forever as the mythril absorbed ambient magic from the ley lines themselves to power the runs and enchantments.

The twigs were made of polished white elder, each cut, and trimmed to streamlined, and aerodynamic perfection, and each hollow with a tail feather from Harry's own Royal phoenix animagus form. This gave the broom unparalleled smoothness when flying, speed, power, and acceleration, as well as control during even the tightest of maneuvers. The Royal phoenix tail feathers also magnified the strength of the enchantments on the broom to impossible heights, as well as empowering the broom to carry cargo beyond the weight of several tons, without even the slightest indication of strain, even without the weightless enchantments that enfolded the broom and anyone or anything attached to or riding it. The mythril inlay on each twig, and circling each group of twigs only enhanced this further. The mythril and Royal phoenix tail feathers, combined with the effects of the weather dampening and acceleration charms gave the broom the appearance of either blazing through the sky or moving and maneuvering at such speeds that it seemingly flashed across the sky the way a phoenix would across the battlefield.

Of course, there were various other charms included, able to be enabled or disabled by the rider at any given time. The runes used to enchant the broom, of course, gave the possibility of a great many spells that simply could not be created or used otherwise, simply because of their formation or power draw. These included weather charms of many sorts, temperature charms, invisibility charms, navigation charms, and even communication charms able to tap into virtually any communication network that broadcasted within a 15 mile range of any ley line the Supernova X's enchantments were currently drawing off of, or any Ley Lines connected to the current one. Simply put, a world wide web of communication that the rider could tap into at any time, provided they were able to provide the passcode and spell to enable that particular enchantment. Harry had no plans on this ever happening, since it was simply far too dangerous an ability to allow fall into enemy hands.

After all the work he put into it, Harry loved his broom. It was perfect in every possible way he could think of. He had only ridden it once, and Gabby had told him that as he flew, the tail of his broom looked like blue, green, and silver fire blazing behind him through the sky. Whilst his old Firebolt had cost Sirius a small fortune, the materials for the Supernova X alone had cost Harry nearly 500 times that, with a great deal of the cost being the raw mythril. That was, of course not counting the royal phoenix tail feathers, which were priceless, or the cost Harry would have incurred to have someone else draw up all the runes, cast all the enchantments, and assemble the broom itself.

Shaking himself from his musings, Harry rose up high into the air at the sound of Madam Hooch giving a loud, sharp blast with her silver whistle.

They were off.

"Angelina Johnson of Emrys immediately takes possession of the Quaffle, showing what an excellent chaser she is, and rather attractive, too-"

"Jordan!"

"I stand by my statement, Professor."

Grinning, Harry looked down at McGonagall's look of disbelief at Lee Jordan, who was doing commentary for the match.

"The Emrys chasers have drawn into a tight Harpies Arrow formation belting down the line- Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint attempts to fly between them from underneath, but is shot off elbowed off course by Emrys Captain Harry Potter- Spinnet shoots, Emrys score! Flint now with the quaffle belts down the pitch- pass back to Pucey, who drops the quaffle after having a bludger smash into his wrist and forearm, courtesy of Fred or George Weasley, can't tell which- Potter seemingly appears out of nowhere below and uses the tail of his broom to send the quaffle streaking into Bell's hands as she tears down the pitch, followed closely by bell with no one between her and Keeper Bletchley- she shoots- Bletchley dives- misses- Emrys score!"

On and on it went. Aided by, and working in tandem with Harry, the Emrys chasers continued to intercept every pass or dropped quaffle flying straight through, and around the Slytherin team, whose defenses were seemingly unapparent. Both Slytherin beaters were knocked unconscious within the first half hour of play and the twins were taking a sadistic pleasure in battering and bruising the Slytherins, while Harry worked in tandem with them to disrupt every possible play the Slytherin team could try.

By now, the Slytherins were howling and moaning with anger as the rest of the school cheered.

"He should be making his move soon," Sirius said, never removing his eyes from the game as he moved to sit behind Gabby and Susan.

"Make sure to keep an eye on him," Gabby replied, again raising her omnioculars and peering skyward at the speck that was Harry as he climbed high into the sky to search for the snitch.

Again, Katie scored, and Harry noted Terence Higgs was marking him. Smirking inwardly, Harry continued looking around before 'spotting' the snitch near the wall of the stands.

Pushing his Supernova X, Harry quickly descended at incredible speed, corkscrewing directly at the enchantment enhanced, wooden wall, although he was careful to allow the Slytherin seeker to stay within close range of him. The moment Harry was within the minimal distance, his broom turned sharply upwards without even a hint of slowing as Harry's feet brushed the wall lightly and comfortably while the other seeker plowed directly into the wall at top speed. So focused was he at following Harry, he hadn't noticed how close he was to collision until far too late. Within seconds he was being levitated onto a stretcher and off the field.

Emrys now had a 7-4 player advantage, as the Slytherin team had no reserves. Even with an already 210-0 commanding lead, Emrys took full advantage of it. It had been decades since such an advantage had been fielded, and even longer since the advantage hadn't been to Slytherin's favor from their team's tactics.

Even as Flint raged, the rest of the Slytherin team had lost their moral. They were now aiming to injure and maim in any possible way, and had already granted Emrys 13 penalty shots in the seemingly very short time it took for Harry to spot the Snitch fluttering near the floor of the middle goalpost on the Slytherin side.

"There!" Sirius spotted Quirrell growing ever more red in the face as he attempted to covertly curse Harry's broom, although they needn't have worried. As Harry had told them before heading down to the Great Hall for breakfast, his enchantments would easily hold against any possible pirating, thievery, jinxes, and even the unforgivable curses, as he had built in the runes outlying the magical series for his Ambrosca Aegis charm, tied to magical signature and intent detection charm as a final defense. If Harry's other enchantments were actually pushed that far, or an unforgivable cast in his general direction, the shield would activate the instant the curse was within 15 yards of the broom.

In the meantime, over half the people in the stands were on their feet as Harry dove steeply at nearly 200 miles per hour, straight for the snitch, which was still glittering near the bottom of the middle goalpost.

Harry focused on the snitch below him, his heart racing with glee at his speed. He could feel the wind whip his face, blowing his robes around him as he touched the master rune to disable the weather dampening charms; it was brilliant! He had almost gotten to it. Harry had dove over 600 feet in under 3 seconds, but it felt like forever to him as he focused on keeping his eye on the snitch, exhilarated at the speed and risk of his dive, knowing how close he would be pushing himself to his death if he plowed into the hard Quidditch pitch floor at this speed.

'Five feet to go, there!' Harry felt his hand wrap around the snitch with inches to spare from the ground. Pulling up immediately, he brought his broom to a dead stop within several yards, smoothly dropping off as if braking from such high speed within such a short distance was nothing spectacular.

"I've got the snitch!" Harry shouted, waving his clenched fist above his head, the gleaming golden snitch heal tightly within. The stands erupted in cheers.

"Emrys wins!" Lee's voice called out. "Astounding! Did you all see that catch? What an outstanding opening match for the new Emrys House team! If they wanted to start their legacy with a bang, they did it with a never before seen 710-0 total shutout!"

As Harry and Gabrielle made their way back up to the castle he overheard Ron.

"I'm telling you Snape is evil Sally!" Ron insisted. "Remember Halloween, when he was levitating Professor Black out of the room in the forbidden corridor with that three-headed dog?"

Harry stopped in his tracks. Snape and Sirius had been seen?

"How do you know about Fluffy?" Harry heard Hagrid ask as the gamekeeper walked up to Ron, only having overheard the last part about the three-headed dog.

"Snape tried to get past him on Halloween," Ron said. "He even forced Professor Black to help him. We think he was trying to steal whatever it's guarding. We saw him levitating Professor Black away after he failed. Professor Black had scratches and claw marks all over him."

"Rubbish," Hagrid scoffed. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher, he'd do nothin' of the sort."

"Fluffy?" Sally-Ann inquired. "That thing has a name?"

"Well o' course he does," Hagrid scoffed, puffing his chest out proudly. "After all, he's mine. Bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year – I leant him to Dumbledore to guard the –"

"Yes?" Ron said eagerly.

"Now, don't ask me anymore," said Hagrid gruffly. "That's top secret, that is.

"We're trying to tell you that Snape is trying to figure out how to steal it!" Ron exclaimed, looking furious at Hagrid's dismissal.

"Rubbish," Hagrid said again. "Snape is one of the teachers who helped protect it, he's no' about ta' try an' steal it. Now, listen to me, both of yeh — yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel —"

"Nicolas Flamel?" Sally-Ann asked. "The famous alchemist is involved? Hagrid, please tell me that there is not a philosopher's stone hidden somewhere beneath that trap door on the forbidden corridor?"

"Ugh!" Hagrid groaned, sounding furious with himself. "Now see hear, and listen good. Yeh forget about everything you heard, and forget about the stone. It's safe, Professor Dumbledore made sure of it. Shouldn't yeh be getting to lunch anyways?"

At the mention of food, Harry heard Ron's stomach give a loud rumble and watched as he and Sally- Ann Perkes ran away from Hagrid, towards the Great Hall.

"They are getting too close," Harry stated as he and Gabrielle walked up behind Hagrid.

"Aye," Hagrid confirmed, staring off. "Tha' Miss Perks is a sharp one."

Harry silently agreed. Even worse, Ron had chosen a dangerous place to confront Hagrid about Fluffy. Seriously, out in the open in front of the castle, where there were still dozens of students loitering about? Harry's old friend needed to learn to think. The ability to think strategically was all well and good, but without the cunning required to keep plans or knowledge from falling into the wrong hands? Harry shook the thought from his mind.

Hogwarts, Northern Scotland

Christmas was nearly upon them. Already, nearly the entire fall term had pass them by, and Harry still couldn't help but wonder on how much had changed since his first time around. No longer was he a Gryffindor, but Harry still felt more at home in Emrys than ever before.

His friendships with those among his betrothed were progressing, each at their own pace. Of course, no feelings further than that, which Harry expected from himself and them, taking their age and overall maturity into account. His relationship with Gabby, of course, was the exception. Everything happened in it's own time, Harry was sure. He would push nothing on any of them, but always be there for support or anything else his girl's required, even if it were to curse him, yet again, for the predicament they found themselves in. Seriously, did any fool have the absurd idea that Harry was in an easy spot to handle, having so many girls that he was supposed to marry and keep happy? Harry had an ideal body switching charm for the moron, as well as silencing charms, and of course a charm to possibly make said transfer permanent. Ah… possibilities.

Being already halfway into December, students woke to find Hogwarts and the surrounding area covered in several feet of snow. The lake was frozen solid and the Weasley twins refused to walk anywhere onto the grounds after Harry had enchanted a few dozen snowballs to follow them around, pelting them in numerable spots, changing the color, transparency, and even visibility of any article of clothing or hair they hit. The twins had to know that only Harry could have pulled it off, but they had yet to prove it, or even figure out how Harry managed it.

No matter how gloomy the weather, the student's and staff's spirits were high, save possibly Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy. No one could wait for the Holidays to start, even Harry.

Earlier that week, one of the few owls that managed to battle their way through the stormy sky had brought a letter from Gabrielle's parents, requesting that Harry join them for Yuletide. Harry had immediately had Sirius take his name off the list of students that would be staying at Hogwarts for the holidays.

Gabrielle was really excited. This would be their first Christmas together and Harry was going to be spending it with her family!

"Hi, Hagrid, want any help?" Ron asked, sticking his head through the branches of the large fir tree blocking the corridor up ahead.

"Nah, I'm all right, thanks, Ron."

"Would you mind moving out of the way?" came Malfoy's cold drawl from behind Harry and Gabrielle. "Are you trying to get some early training for when you take over as gamekeeper? Ha! Are you hoping to get a palace as grand as Hagrid's hut? Maybe your entire family could each have their own bed in the room."

Ron's face and ears grew alarmingly red and he dove at Malfoy just as Snape came up the stairs.

"WEASLEY!"

Ron let go of the front of Malfoy's robes.

"He was provoked, Professor Snape," said Hagrid, sticking his huge hairy face out from behind the tree. "Malfoy was insultin' his family."

"Be that as it may, fighting is against Hogwarts rules, Hagrid," said Snape silkily. "Five points from Gryffindor, Weasley, and be grateful it isn't more. Move along, all of you."

Malfoy's cool glare, but silence surprised Harry as Malfoy smoothly disappeared without a word.

"I'll get him," said Ron, grinding his teeth at Malfoy's back, "one of these days, I'll get him —"

"Maybe," said Harry, "you should focus on what your family has, and what Malfoy's clearly lacks."

Ron looked confused at Harry, before bursting into a grin. "That's right!" He yelled joyfully. "Malfoy's entire fortune is gone, and his dad is a laughingstock!" Ron ran ahead laughing the entire way until he disappeared from view.

"Not exactly what I meant," Harry muttered softly, "Why is it that people only hear or conclude something that matters to them, be it misunderstanding or not?"

"Because love," Gabby whispered softly to him, "It is human nature to desire and seek self-satisfaction, no matter the cost to others."

"Such a self-absorbed path is already leading this world to the verge of it's own destruction," Harry responded darkly. "What makes it worse is that people don't even care, so deluded in their own minds that their happiness is what governs right and wrong. You can't change the truth to fit what the world wants, the world must change to fit the truth, or all is lost."

"Do you think such a thing is truly possible, Harry?"

"The way so many societies are today?" Harry asked. "Not a chance. You saw how Ron reacted when faced with an assumption he desired, even if his logic was flawed. As long as personal happiness and acceptance are more important to people than doing what is right, this world will continue on it's dark path."

Gabby smirked and grabbed Harry's arm before pulling him along. "Come on, cheer up, it's nearly Christmas," she said. "Let go of your worries and let's just enjoy being together for the holidays!"

Harry smiled at the glow in Gabby's eyes. She was so full of life! She was right. This was a time to celebrate and give thanks.

Great Hall, Hogwarts, Northern Scotland

Harry and Gabrielle ended up following Hagrid to the great hall.

The great hall looked amazing. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls, and no less than twelve towering Christmas trees stood around the room, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some glittering with hundreds of candles.

"How many days you got left until yer holidays?" Hagrid asked.

"Just one," said Hermione, coming up from off to the side

"Harry is going to be spending Christmas in France with my family," Gabby exclaimed happily, watching Professor Flitwick, who had golden bubbles blossoming out of his wand and was trailing them over the branches of the new tree.

"France?" said Hagrid. "Ah! I'm happy fer yeh. Be sure ter enjoy yerselves, yeh hear? "

"Of course," Gabby giggled. Harry smiled.

Author's Notes:

As a note on Harry's broom, I simply couldn't resist attempting to craft the ultimate broom, as many authors have before. What do you, my valued readers think of it? What I wouldn't give to have the actual thing in my hands!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I know I mentioned something about Fiendfyre in the Forbidden forest during this chapter, but I decided to change it up a bit. For all those fluff lovers, I am, as of yet, undecided on whether to actually include a chapter for Harry's Christmas in France, or to just give details on it.

For some reason, I've had many people ask me about the situation between Lucius and Narcissa, where he passes her around. Has anyone read any of the information on how the magic behind the marriage vows and marriage binding ceremony works and able to understand the answer to this question from what I've already described in the story?

Please allow me to clarify.

Point 1. Narcissa is a pureblood woman, and as such, has been raised with propriety to honor her husband and his will. This means that when Lucius told her to spread her legs for another man, she allowed it. Ergo, she was not raped.
(Honor doesn't necessarily mean follow, which modern society has used as a common misunderstanding, allowing people to use false preconceptions of this meaning in order to further their own selfish desires, which has definitely helped to spread disease amongst the morals of modern society to it's current state. Then again, which people in the history of the world have not purposely misinterpreted things and used these things as loopholes to change customs that should have remained the same, all in the name of personal satisfaction and happiness? This is human nature.)

Point 2. Lucius meant no actual harm to his wife when telling her to sleep with his friends, which protected him from any possible backlash. He is a pureblood man, and has been raised to believe that wives follow their husband's will no matter what. (Although this is only true to a certain level, even in such a society. Again, misunderstanding and false preconceptions, which definitely gave rise to hatred and more than enough backlash throughout history.) But it gives logic behind his reasoning that he was not harming his wife.

Point 3. Lucius told Narcissa to do it, which protected her from the backlash of sleeping with one that wasn't her husband, since it was Lucius' intent and the intent behind the magic of their marriage bond interpreted the act as mutually consented on both sides.

This is the point that closes the entire deal. If Narcissa had been strong enough to say no, then not a single one of them would have touched her. Also, Lucius would not have been able to threaten to dissolve their marriage based on her following his will, because this request would very likely have been strictly forbidden by contract, as well as throwing her out because of the common clause that he provide her the same standard of living as she was used to. Again, he could not disgrace her by saying that she refused her duties as a wife, providing him an heir, as he made sure this was done beforehand. The most he would have been able to do is confine her and ignore her, and even this would very likely have toed the line of any contract clauses.

Ergo, loopholes were exploited. Get it now? This is logic. I purposely wrote it in this way, simply because of relationships between old pureblood Lords and their wives.