Harry Potter and the Armies of the Dark Future Chapter 8: Halloween

The next morning the group of adventurers met in the common room before heading down for breakfast. On the walk they talked in hushed tones.

"So, what do you think that giant dog was guarding?" Hermione asked.

"Probably has something to do with that Gringotts break in over the summer." Fred said.

"Just about the only place harder to get into would be Hogwarts." George said.

"But the vault that was broken into was already empty." Neville added.

"Yeah." Harry said."But it was the same vault Hagrid visited that day we went to Diagon Alley."

"Did you get a look at what was in there?" Ron asked."

"Nah. We took a separate car." Neville answered.

"But Hagrid handed over a letter from Dumbledore to get access to the vault. So it has something to do with the Headmaster." Harry said as though he was just
thinking out loud.

"Well that narrows it down." George snorted.

"Spot on mate. Dumbledore only had a hand in almost every major event for the last half century." Fred said.

Hermione decided to speak up,"But most of those events were settled to the point where there would be no need to hide anything."

"So we just have to find something that he was involved in where he might need to hide something." He turned his head to look at Hermione."Does the information
font have any idea where to start?"

Hermione looked thoughtful for a moment,"There are at least a dozen possible items. Is there any way we could narrow it down?"

"Maybe we could get something out of Hagrid." Everyone looked at Neville,"He was the one who picked up whatever it is."

"Maybe we could go down to see him tomorrow after lunch. Does that agree with everyone?" They all nodded at Harry's suggestion."Good, then let's get some
breakfast."

ooo000OOO000ooo

The next morning started with Hermione bursting into the first year boy's dorm and rushing over to hug Harry."Thanks for the gift!" She squealed as she let him go.
"But how did you know which one?"

Harry slipped his glasses on before answering."You seemed to be favoring the Eldar after you finished reading all the books. Besides, they do seem to fit your
personality."

"Oy!" Ron shouted indignantly."This is the boy's dorm."

"Oh, grow up." Hermione dismissed Ron's objection. As she headed out she turned back to Harry."I can't wait to start painting them. Which craft-world should I
choose?" She asked aerially as the door closed.

"What was that about mate?" Ron asked as he started dressing.

"I bought her an Eldar army for her birthday." Harry answered, following suit with Ron and Neville. After eating they all adjourned to the gaming room where Hermione immediately pulled out her army and started joining the pieces together with her wand. As she continued the others set up some small games to enjoy the time.

After about an hour they all looked up at the sound of something scraping across the table Hermione was at. What they found was a four foot tall pewter Avatar with
it's three foot sword held over it's head. Hermione was bustling around with her wand, carefully coloring various parts of the huge 'miniature'.

"Hey! No fair using titans." Neville yelled.

The whole group, except Harry who snorted at the comment, looked at him curiously. "Warhammer Epic. Uses an even larger scale and has these giant killing machines called titans. Just one of them would wipe out both Harry and my armies combined." He explained.

"Sounds nasty." Fred said.

"Right up there with a muggle nuke." George said.

"Don't worry guys,"Hermione said."I just wanted to get the details right. I'll shrink it back down when I'm done."

ooo000OOO000ooo

After lunch they all headed down to Hagrid's hut, the twins with extra provisions. They had heard horror stories about Hagrid's cooking from Charlie.

The afternoon went nominally well, with Harry figuring out that if you put enough sugar in the tea and then let a rock cake soak in the pseudo-syrup you got a
barely edible pudding.

Finally they worked the conversation around to what was under the three headed dog. Hagrid looked shocked,"How do you know about Fluffy?"

"We heard him whining from behind a door while we were exploring the castle one afternoon." Harry answered."When we went to investigate he was just as
happy as could be to have company."

"Really, Hagrid." Fred started. "You should visit him more often."

"He seems so lonely."

"And to just shut him up like that,"

"Seems just down right cruel."

"He's such a nice dog too. George finally finished.

"That's wha' I said. But for some reason Dumbledore thought he would make a good guard dog." Hagrid answered."Besides, you kids shouldn' have been anywhere
near there. Tha' whole area is off limits."

"But we just want to know what's under there Hagrid." Hermione said in such a sweet and innocent voice that Harry could feel his teeth dissolving.

"It's none o' your business. What's down there is between Dumbledore an Nicholas Flamel." Hagrid realized what he had said a moment too late.

Hermione grabbed his arm and hugged it,"Thanks so much Hagrid. That really narrows it down." She turned to the others,"Should we be going. I think I can finish
painting my guardian squad before dinner if we hurry."

"Sure thing."Harry said as they all stood."Thanks for the tea Hagrid. Later."

Hagrid sat there with a blank expression on his face, wondering how they had managed to get so much out of him.

ooo000OOO000ooo

When they were back in the room of requirement they all rounded on Hermione. Harry said."First of all, please never do that uber-sweet thing to me. I don't think my teeth would survive it." This earned him a round of chuckles from the whole group."But seriously. Who is Nicholas Flamel?"

"I don't really know." If this were an anime, the boys would have face faulted at this admission. As it was they looked at the girl with such incredulity painted on their faces that a company should have patented it. "What? I was just playing it so we could get away before Hagrid made us promise to forget it."

"Looked convincing to us." George said.

"Along with that tooth roting look, you could make a dangerous prankster." Fred said.

Hermione grinned evilly at them before pulling a paving stone out of her bag and letting it thump on the table. She then opened the book and started flipping pages.

"What are you looking for?" Ron asked.

"Nicholas Flamel of course. I checked out a Dumbledore biography from the library. Figured it might come in handy." The brown haired witch-in-training answered.

After five minutes the boys started talking about the various Warhammer armies while they waited. Fred and George were going on about the brutal joy of the Orks.
Ron was examining the strengths of the Space Marines which earned him a moan from Neville,"Another Hummie."

Harry snorted,"At least with five armies we should all be able to refine our styles a lot more. And we also should be able to go for some truly awesome scale battles."

"Oh, yeah." Hermione said. "I may have figured out a way to apply the charms of a Wizards chess set to an army. I just need to work all the rules into the ritual."

"That would be over the top." Fred said.

"Just order the army around and have them go and fight."

"Even shoot at each other."

"And the damage is repaired before the next game." George said.

"We might need to get some kind of shield around the table." Neville interrupted the pseudo-monologue."Some of the weapons could do some serious harm."

"Do you think you could work that into the spell as well Hermione?" Harry asked.

"Shouldn't be a problem." She said absentmindedly before shouting,"Here it is!" She set the book flat and paraphrased,"Looks like Flamel and Dumbledore were working on the Sorcerer's Stone. It's an artifact that can produce unlimited amounts of gold and Elixir of Life."

"Bollix." Ron muttered.

He got elbowed in the ribs by one of the twins while the other said,"Language, Ron. We are in the presence of a lady."

"And besides, mum would be just shocked."

"That's why your not going to tell her." Ron shot back," And I'm sorry Hermione. It just slipped."

"That's okay." She replied before continuing,"So it looks like the Sorcerer's stone is hidden under Fluffy."

"Now we just need one more piece of information." Harry said.

"And that would be?" Neville asked.

"Who is after the stone? Who would be both powerful and desperate enough to break into Gringotts? And then who would require such nasty security as a Cerberus
wanna-be to deter them?"

"Who else?" Fred and George asked together. They looked at each other with identical looks that said 'It was my turn'. They shrugged and decided to drop it.

"Who?" Ron asked.

"Voldemort." Harry said. The looks of shocked horror on all his friend's faces made his heart sore. 'Being cruel is so easy when they attach so much fear to a name.' He thought.

"Don't say that name." Ron and Neville hissed.

Harry continued as though they had not said anything,"He's the only one that actually fits all the conditions. Now we just need to figure out how he plans to get into
the castle."

"I don't see how he could." Hermione said."I mean, he's the most wanted dark wizard on the planet. On top of that, he would be recognized by all the staff."

"Not necessarily." Harry countered thoughtfully."We don't really know the extent of his powers. He's been out of sight for almost a decade. He could have picked up
a few tricks since then."

"Like what?" Ron asked.

"I have no idea." Harry replied. "But for all we know he could be hiding inside someone. Maybe a teacher."

"A teacher!" They all exclaimed. Then Hermione spoke." Why would you think that?"

"My scar starts hurting whenever I'm around Quirrell."

"But how could it be Quirrell." George said.

"Yeah. It's more likely to be Snape, mate." Fred said.

"That would just be too cliche. True Snape is a bastard. But he would be the obvious place to look. While Quirrell would be the perfect place to hide. No one would suspect that stuttering little shit of hiding Voldemort." Harry said.

Everyone but Hermione gasped, which gave her the lead to refute first."That's pretty circumstantial Harry. All we know is that Voldemort probably wants the stone. For all we know your scar hurting is just normal for it."

"It doesn't happen at any regular interval. Just when Quirrell is too close, or when he turns his back on me." Harry said.

"Let's assume that it is Quirrell." Neville said."What can we do to stop him?"

"If we could get our hands on the stone first." George said.

"That would put a real damper on his plans." Fred said.

"Then what?" Ron asked."We can't give it to any of the teachers. They'll just put it back and give us detention."

"We could play a little shell game with it." Hermione suggested.

"Or we could keep it in here." Harry put in. "I can't think of a better place, or even a different form of the room."

"We could use the junk room." Fred said.

"He could search for years and not find it." George said.

"But what about a summoning spell." Fred argued.

"The room doesn't exist unless the right door is there." George countered.

"So we hide it in the junk room." Harry said."We can try for it over Christmas break. I think that's probably the best chance we'll have." They all agreed and quickly got back on the subject of which army was the best as Hermione returned to her painting.

ooo000OOO000ooo

The following week, all the first years started to settle into the routine of school life as the last few got the basics down and found the going easier. The group that had formed around Harry came together at every chance they got, usually meals, to rehash one detail or another of the plan. Neville wanted to just take Quirrell out of the equation, violently if necessary. Hermione wasn't sure that Quirrell was the right target. Ron wanted to destroy the stone on sight, just to be sure. Finally the twins wanted to use the stone to produce heap loads of gold.

Harry could see where all of them were coming from, and different parts of him wanted the same. But using the stone was too dangerous. Ditto on destroying it, as they had no idea what that would involve. There was a nagging suspicion, in the back of his mind, that he was wrong about Quirrell. But the facts fit too well, and Snape was a long term teacher at the school. While Quirrell was a new acquisition, and almost an unknown to most of the students. That doubt was all that kept him from backing his best friend in the 'neutralize' train of thought.

The other problem was that they doubted Fluffy was the only security between them and the stone. Assuming that all the major forms of magic were present, that would leave herbology, potions, enchantment, transfiguration, and the dark arts. Also assuming that the teachers for these subjects had set up there own challenge, that would mean some very different styles.

Snape would be sneaky and underhanded. Harry expressed that Snape would make an almost perfect follower of Tzeentch. McGonagall would be straight forward, but very difficult. Flitwick loved to make them think through any major problems, so probably a puzzle. Sprout could be almost anything to do with herbology. Same for Quirrell and the dark arts.

"That just leaves Dumbledore." Harry said one night in the common room.

"Why Dumbledore?" Ron asked.

"I doubt he is going to leave the protection of a powerful artifact, which belong to his good friend, just to other people." Harry answered."And I'll bet you Galleons to Knuts that his is going to be the hardest."

None of the group took the bet as they all agreed, even if for different reasons. The twins respected Dumbledore enough not to bet against him on this one. The rest were in a form of awe where the headmaster was concerned.

"Okay, we all need to brush up on all the subjects, just in case one of us doesn't make it. I would hate to fail, or die, because our herbology expert didn't make it to that part. Each of us needs to be able to go on even if all the rest of us are taken out." They all nodded at Harry, which brought them to assigning individual areas of intensive study.

ooo000OOO000ooo

Saturday was a welcome relief from the routine, and Harry's first chance to play all week. He was looking forward to a perfect day of everyone doing their best to slaughter each other. Especially with the addition of Hermione's army to lend some much needed variety to the games. The morning post quickly derailed his train of thought.

Glancing up out of habit, he noticed a long, thin package being carried by several owls coming straight toward him. They released the parcel and he stood to catch it before it could disrupt anyones breakfast. A letter was dropped before him as he returned to his seat with the object stored next to him.

Reading the contents of the short note confirmed that it was indeed a broom, the fastest model currently on the market, and that the professor apparently felt it necessary to tell him not to open it at the table. Honestly, Harry suspected that trying to deny what it was would be very difficult due to the tight wrapping.

He finished his breakfast and went with the rest up to the Gryffindor dorms. Just long enough to secure the broom and they were off again to the gaming room.

When they reached the corridor with the painting of the idiot wizard being beaten to death by his students, they found Professor Dumbledore walking in the other direction.

He nodded toward them,"Not getting into any trouble, are you boys?" He asked the twins.

"Not at all Professor."

"Just going to play a game."

"What could you be playing up here?" The twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes held a hint of curiosity.

"Would you care to join us Professor?" Harry asked. He thought that if the Headmaster approved their use of the room, no one else could say otherwise. It had been bugging him that if one of the anal retentive teachers found them it could put an 'official' end to their use of the facilities.

"Certainly, Harry. It is a dreary day outside, so perhaps a little diversion would be in order." Dumbledore answered.

Neville stepped up to the wall and activated the spell to bring the door into existence. When he was done he opened the door for the rest of them."Professor Dumbledore. Welcome to the Room of Requirement."

ooo000OOO000ooo

Harry had no choice but to admit that Dumbledore was a master tactician. He had trounced them all every game but the first two. As soon as he got a feeling for the game, he could turn any force into a deadly weapon that would slice through the opposition easily.

Harry had enjoyed himself immensely, mainly because he now had a new opponent to challenge him. He had missed playing against someone like Neville's cousin on a regular basis. Now he had a new goal, trounce Dumbledore.

Heading out from dinner toward the Quidditch pitch, he kept reviewing several of the headmasters more briliant moves.

Wood was waiting for him when he walked through the gates. The explanations of the various team positions and balls took about fifteen minutes. After all this Wood had Harry take off and threw golf balls for him to catch.

When the shadows finally got too deep, they packed up and headed back to the castle.

ooo000OOO000ooo

Once the routine was established the days seemed to fly by. September was over before Harry realized. Then Halloween was looming on the horizon.

To open the week before the morbid holiday the twins unveiled their newest method for spreading chaos. As the group made their way back to the room after lunch on Sunday, they encountered Draco's gang.

"So, Potter. I see you still haven't improved your company any." Draco called." I'm not sure which is worse, the blood traitors or the mudblood."

Six wands acted as one, though the exact spells were lost in the mixed calls. The end result was Crabbe and Goyle laid out from two hexes each. The effects interacted slightly to give Crabbe a violently purple shade of hair, and Goyle's skin turned puce. Draco, on the other hand, found himself stripped bare, his skin and hair a sparkling gold, while a half foot crater exploded out of the stone wall behind him.

Draco stood in shock for a moment before bolting in the other direction.

"Quickly," Hermione said. "Cast a levitation spell before he can come back."

"Why?" Ron asked.

"Because the teachers can figure out the last spell cast by a wand." Harry replied. They all complied, Ron with some difficulty. Hermione had been helping him practice the levitation spell for class, but he still had problems. They all then hurried away from the site, with Fred checking the map they had used many times since that first night with Fluffy.

When they reached their retreat Harry turned to the twins."What was that spell you two used?"

"A little something we've been working on."

"Got the inspiration from the orks."

"They have a work, Dakka."

"It means either a big boom,"

"Or gold, depending on context."

"So if it hits an inanimate object,"

"It goes boom. But if it something living,"

"It gets stripped naked and turned gold."

"Bloody brilliant mate." The twins finished with a high five for their successful spell creation.

The other four could only stare in shock, until Harry gathered enough sense to speak."How do you two do that?"

The twins looked at each other, then back at the group,"We found a spell years ago."

"A kind of family magic."

"Only works on twins."

"But it lets us communicate telepathically,"

"So we use it to pull this."

"Really throws people off."

"That sounds like a pretty complicated spell." Hermione said.

"It is. We would have to preform the ritual once a day,"

"Except we found a shortcut."

That was all they said, returning to the game they had left. The others soon followed, assuming they would stand little chance of getting any more out of the pair.

ooo000OOO000ooo

Halloween greeted all the residents of Hogwarts with the smell of baking pumpkin pies wafting up from the kitchens. The classrooms had orange, red, and brown
decorations strewn throughout them. Jack 'o lanterns replaced the usual floating candles in the great hall. Some of the more festive teachers even went so far as to
dress in appropriate colors.

At the same time some of the others seemed to think that they had to make up for the leniency of there fellows by being even harsher than usual. Snape grilled his classes like he might not get another chance, setting new standers for sadism.

That evening the great hall had swarms of live bats circling above the tables. Everyone was just getting ready to dig in when the massive doors opened. Professor Quirrell ran the length of the hall between the tables, coming to a screeching halt before the head table.

Harry could see worry on his face, but no real fear as he shouted,"Troll ...in the dungeon ...thought you oughtta know!" He then proceeded to collapse.

Most of the students panicked, sending off a series of terrified shrieks. Dumbledore stood and bellowed for silence while setting off small explosions with his wand. Harry felt rather disgruntled by the sudden end to the fearful sound around him, but still basked in the glow of the pure emotion radiating from the student body. The headmaster gave quick instructions for the students to proceed to their dorms, then he led the teachers on the troll hunt.

Harry and his group hung back slightly and managed to separate themselves from the rest of the group. Fred checked the map and found the troll not in the dungeon, but headed for one of the upper floors. They also noticed Quirrell moving toward the stairs with Snape following at a discreet distance. Deciding to have some fun with their two least favorite teachers, they set off to find the troll.

It didn't take long before they got close enough to catch the smell of a creature with no sense of personal hygiene. They got it's attention with a few light hexes and ran, leading it up to the third floor.

They quickly ducked into the out of bounds corridor and Fluffy bowed before those it recognized as scarier than itself. The whole group stepped back from the door as it shook from a massive impact. The banded wood rocked several times before a loud yelp was heard. Harry was picturing Quirrell jumping in real fear as he found his distraction blocking the way to the stone. They all watched on the map as the troll charged the teacher, just to stop dead as Snape came around the corner and cast a spell. The troll flew back and landed on the floor, motionless.

Neville led the group in a hasty retreat into the darker shadows at the back of the chamber. They all waited patiently, wands poised to stun the first person to come through the door.

After ten minutes it was decided that no one was coming. A check of the map confirmed this, showing the teachers levitating the troll out of the castle. With the coast clear they exited the off limits section and made their way quickly to Gryffindor tower. Using the excuse of getting lost during one of the many class crossings, they explained how they had gotten separated from the rest of their house. Harry and the rest then joined in the meal that had been delivered to the common room.

After finding a private place the twins cast a silencing spell, shutting out the noise of the other students and limiting their own.

"Does anyone else need more proof that Quirrell is the one after the stone?" Harry asked. He was met with shaking heads, so continued,"We need to make sure we can do whatever it takes to get their first. We know we can get past Fluffy, but he is probably the easiest challenge." He started turning to each in turn."Neville, how's the study of herbology coming?"

"Bloody slowly. There are a lot of possible plants that could be used for guard duty. The only thing they really have in common is that they usually retreat from fire."

"Good to know. How's it coming with you two?" He said to Ron and Hermione.

Ron answered,"Riddles and logic puzzles and a pain, mate. But we're getting their."

"We've also been going over some of the basic tactics and strategy books we can get our hands on." Hermione added.

Harry nodded and turned to the twins,"And you guys?"

"This incident shows us that Quirrell seems to prefer the direct approach."

"His challenge is most likely going to involve combat."

"Which is, of course, no problem for us."

"But Dumbledore is still a mystery."

"No telling what he's going to pull out for this kind of job."

"Okay." Harry said."Keep at it, and start comparing notes. We still have over a month before Christmas break and we should be able to improve all of our skills by then." With that Harry signaled from the zone of privacy to be dropped, allowing them to join the festive spirit around them.

ooo000OOO000ooo

Thanks for the idea on enlarging spell Reflections. Had already thought of the wizard chess idea, but using the other spells to get better detail is a cool idea.

Thanks to my wife for reviewing for me.