Harry and the Botched Cult Ritual

A Derivative idea for this fic: instead of Harry getting the Medusas, he gets all of the Grand Order Elizabeths. Or the Artorias. But I think It'll be cuter with the Elizabeths. Probably not going to do it, but I had to get it off my chest.

Special Reviewer Thanks: Dragon Man 180, for the idea on who the next DADA professor will be!

AN: I'm shocked that nobody complained about chamber battle!

AN2: remember Harry is being snubbed by his house, so he's not going to get on the team, especially not a year below the minimum age. Unless something changes, that's going to still be the case for a while.

Chapter 11: Aftermath.

Narcissa Malfoy was sitting on the ground in shock. Her husband was dead, that she had already known, but now she knew her son was as well, and what really put the finish on her crappy day was that she was being evicted from her home.

Evicted because her husband made it clear in his will that she was not to inherit the estate, and it passed to her son, who is now dead.

She was allowed to collect her jewelry and money so she had some for the road, as well as clothes, and other necessities. Unfortunately, she had no real place to go, she didn't have many friends, and none that would put her up on a semi-permanent basis while she got her feet under her, she didn't have permission from the head of the black family to return to her families ancestral home.

She needed to find a place to live, and some work, and perhaps a husband later, she was, after all, a pureblood woman, who had been widowed by circumstances beyond her control.

Apparating to Diagon she wandered the alley for a while to calm her nerves, not shopping since she had to conserve her funds.

Frowning she considered her options and realized she had few. She could check with the ministry, and perhaps get a job there, but last she heard they were pretty filled up, and she felt she deserved better than a low ranked position.

She paused in her thought suddenly, as the front page of a daily prophet caught her eye.

DADA PROFESSOR DIES AT HOGWARTS!

Smirking she used a few knuts to buy the paper, and read it, after she was done she smirked. She now had a job to apply for, and she had never heard of the curse killing two professors in one year, in fact, in the last forty years, there have only been two or three deaths at all.

And the replacement professor, the last time it happened near the middle of the year, lasted both the remaining part of that year, and the whole of the next one, which would give her free room, board, a paycheck for a year and a half, and a chance to find out how her son had been killed in 'the safest place in England.'

Or, if she could somehow bypass the curse, longer. She did have an outstanding in the subject after all.

Plan set, she went back to the Leaky Cauldron to make a floo call.

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Dumbledore was sitting back in his chair thinking. So many plots have been derailed by the fact that Harry got engaged and is living with the three females, and in the Dursley house to boot.

He paused a second, why were they living there? The place would be cramped beyond belief with six people living there, after all, there were only four bedrooms and one bathroom.

Frowning he picked up a piece of paper that he was debating sending. It was to start court proceedings to get Harry away from those women, at least until he was old enough to marry them. He could at least get Harry away from them during the summer. The problem with this strategy is that it is heavy-handed, Harry would be angry at him, possibly for years.

This would make attempts to influence Harry for the greater good nearly impossible.

The other problem with the plan was that the chances of it working is slim. He would be essentially asking the courts to get rid of three live in magical guardians for one that wouldn't live with him.

That complicated things greatly.

The fact that he was engaged to the three was another obstacle, and he had no right to interfere with the engagement.

Then his fireplace turned green, which indicated an incoming floo call.

He was shocked to see Narcissa Malfoy's head appear in his fireplace.

"Mrs. Malfoy, a pleasure to see you, what do I owe the pleasure?" Dumbledore asked politely.

"May I come through? I have a solution to a problem you have, as well as one I have."

After adjusting the connection to allow the woman to get through, he asked, "and what is this solution to our mutual problem?"

"I need a job after I was kicked out of the Malfoy Manor, you need a Defense professor, I had an outstanding in the subject, and kept in practice. Given how the DADA curse has acted so far, I should be able to stay for a year and a half," Mrs. Malfoy stated bluntly.

Dumbledore thought for a second, to tell the truth, the only downside was that she was both born to, and married into, a dark family.

On the other hand, he needed a replacement and getting one a mere day after the situation arose was a godsend. Taking his time he picked up a book that was on his desk, it was the ledger for the schools finances, which due to his frugal nature, and the fact that he had cut classes from the students, meant that there was plenty of excess money, enough to buy whatever books the new DADA professor needed the students to have.

"What books will you need, and how soon can you start?" Dumbledore asked.

Narcissa blinked, and replied, "Give me a day to look through Flourish and Blotts to decide on the proper books, and then I can start immediately."

Dumbledore quickly wrote something out, and then gave the letter to the woman, and replied, "Find the books, and give this, along with the titles for each year, they will deliver enough for the students to Hogwarts. I will have Quarrels rooms cleared out in an hour for you to move in, anything else you need?" (EN)

"Yes, how the hell did my son die in what you call 'the safest place in England?'" she asked with narrowed eyes.

Dumbledore reordered his thoughts and decided to give a mostly true account of what happened.

"Your son came to school with a cursed book, it started to eat his life force, and also unleashed a basilisk in the school. The people who stopped the book did so too late to save your son."

"May I see the book?" Narcissa asked tersely.

The old man hesitated for a second, then pulled out a book, the second he did the woman screamed in fury.

"That unmitigated bastard, how dare he give that to my husband!"

"What do you mean?" Dumbledore asked with narrowed eyes.

"My husband was a death eater, you know this. He came home one day and gloated that his master gave him that to protect."

"It will not affect your employment, but are you marked?" Dumbledore asked.

"No, and I wasn't asked."

Dumbledore smiled and said, I hope you will have a nice year teaching, I don't suppose you know anything else he gave his followers to protect?"

"Actually... yes, my sister got some sort of cup or chalice she put in her vault," with that comment she returned to the Leaky Cauldron, to pack and choose her books.

Dumbledore frowned, he hoped he was wrong about what the book was, and that Tom wasn't insane enough to make more than one, but if he was, he at least had an idea on where the second would be.

Time to do some research, and find out if there was some law or other that he could use to get the cup.

That was later, now he had to decide on whether or not to send the damn document.

A few minutes later he shook his head and decided to decide later.

He had several other cards he could play, some that would have less of an impact on the relationship with the boy than bringing them to court, when he only had a slim chance of winning.

Perhaps he should get Sirius out of prison, he wondered why the man was there in the first place, he didn't recall a trial for him at all, and he missed out on many of the papers during that time due to the fact he was too busy with the trials taking place and setting up the now destroyed protections on Harry, the marriage contract that he apparently screwed up on, helping his supporters get back on their feet, and various other government and school-related issues.

He had been, for those first six months running on between three and five hours of sleep a night, nutrient potions, pepper up potions, and a good meal every other day, so he lost track of many things. The fact that the man hadn't reclaimed Harry was due to, in his mind, a rather neat spell to repel Mr. Black from the area.

Shaking his head he made a note to track the man down, as Harry's godfather, he had full rights to take care of him.

Sighing he made a note to add the book purchases to the schools budget and turned his attention to a law that the new leader of the dark faction had proposed, his work is never done.

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Harry was reading a book on magic, not the school magics, but the book on the animagis transformation.

It looked like an interesting ability, one that if mastered could be used for fun or defense.

Fun if he gets something harmless or fun to do, defense if it's dangerous, small enough to hide with, and/or venomous.

He would have to ask professor McGonagall about the steps, as he didn't want to perform the steps without help unless he couldn't get help.

Shaking his head he decided that, since the meditation step was, according to the book, completely safe, he would at least start that step.

Closing his eyes, he felt inside himself.

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Three hours later Lancer came in, and noting how he was still meditating, and put her hand on his shoulder.

Startled out of his meditation he took a swing at the person grabbing a hold of him, only to become sheepish when he saw it was lancer.

"Sorry," Harry mumbled.

"It's fine, what were you working on?" Lancer asked, "It's dinner time and since you haven't shown up, I came to get you."

"Animagis transformation, well the meditation step at least," Harry answered while gesturing to the book near him, he then started, "Dinner time? I've been meditating for three hours already?"

His rumbling stomach gave him the answer, so he stood up with Lancer's help since he was stiff from sitting in a meditative pose for the last three hours. "Thanks for coming to get me, Lancer. By the way, do you know what Avenger and Rider were up to yesterday? I had a feeling they were doing something just not what."

"Just taking care of what was causing the deaths and petrifactions," the young-looking servant answered off offhandedly. Noting the look on her master's face, lancer quickly added, "they were in no danger, and solved the issue."

Harry sighed and rubbed his head. He didn't want to treat them as actual servants, but he wanted to at least be informed about their actions if only to be prepared for the fallout, so he sent through his mental connection to all three of them, "Could you please tell me when you are going to take action? I promise to not get involved when there isn't any other choice, but I would rather know what you do, so I can be prepared for the fallout. On the other hand, good job on being proactive!"

"Sorry master," Rider sent back, "I'll tell you the next time there's an issue we are moving against."

"Is this a bad tie to mention I visited the third-floor corridor and took what was there, behind some rather easy protections?" Avenger asked.

"When?" Harry asked.

"During your first potion lesson. I wanted to make sure what was there isn't a threat, and wouldn't become one. The good news is that I have something to help heal you if mortally wounded, a way to make money, and an enhanced lifespan if you want it."

"What the hell was in that corridor" Lancer, Rider, and Harry asked almost simultaneously.

"The philosopher's stone," came Avenger's blunt reply.

…

…

…

silence...

That was the response.

"WHAT?!" Came the simultaneous response, the mental yell was loud enough to rattle Avenger's brain.

"Not so 'loud' please, I have a headache now."

"Sorry, we were just shocked, do you know how to use it?" Harry asked.

"Mostly, I know how to make the Elixir of Life, but I haven't yet made it, and making gold is slow. At least right now."

"I don't care that you took it, something like that shouldn't have been in the school in the first place, now I'm heading to supper," the male in the relationship said.

And so he and Lancer headed down, amicably chatting with all three servants.

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In many dimensions, Draco's death would have caused a major upheaval in Slytherin, as he would be considered a major power due to his father's power.

Fortunately for that house, he had already been regulated into a nonentity, so with the exception of a handful of souls, his death meant nearly nothing, and so life went on for the majority of that house.

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In Gryffindor a young redhead was being snubbed by the majority of his house, he had acted excited to hear that a 'slimy snake' had perished, even though he was still a child, few among his house agreed with him that it was something to celebrate.

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The rest of the houses didn't really care at all beyond being sad at the death of a fellow student, and some had to dig deep to get even that much sympathy.

At the head table, most of the professors were morose, while one was angry, he had an out to protect his godson, but he had failed. It probably wasn't his fault, but he felt that he should have noticed something earlier.

It was too late for regrets, although he wondered how he will deal with Narcissa Malfoy when she tracks him down after the school year was over.

Unknown to him, he would have less than a day to prepare his response.

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End chapter.

EN: I am having the school cover the cost of the new books because I couldn't see them demanding the students buy new ones in the middle of the school year.