Playing With Magic

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Chapter 37: Goodbyes and Cloak of Invisibility

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Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry - April 1992

Jonathan Grey

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I was having such a great morning, too. I woke up well rested and refreshed, did my morning exercise, and even had enough extra time to create a handful of more [Golems] to add to the Hoard. I should have known something - or someone - would dampen my mood at some point, and I have a feeling that the specific something or someone has red hair.

"So, let me get this straight," I looked up from The Hidden Magical Communities of China I was reading to look at Harry and Hermione. "You went to Dumbledore, told him about the whole secret situation we have with a flying lizard, and he told you to go and tell another first year so he can get in contact with his relative about it?"

"You make it sound bad when you say it like that," Hermione said through furrowed brows. "It was your idea to tell in the first place, if I remember correctly."

"Yeah," Harry chimed in. "This is your plan."

"My plan," I shook my head with a sigh. "Was to inform a government official who just so happens to be our Headmaster so that he would be able to resolve the problem without passing the information to people who could very well spread the secret and get our Grounds-Keeper in legal trouble. That was my plan. This is a recipe for disaster."

They both looked at me for a short while before Harry tilted his head and spoke through squirted eyes, "You don't like Ron."

It wasn't a question. But it also wasn't true. I was indifferent, I just saw him as another kid. Prone to dumb decisions and mistakes. It didn't help that he has a track record of being kind of a dick.

"You mean the boy who went around insulting anything and everything he doesn't like or understand to the point almost indirectly got someone killed?" I raised an eyebrow as I spoke from my spot on the bench. We had decided to sit outside in the court yard today to enjoy the sun. Being inside all the time for months on end started to get boring over time. Magical building or not.

They both winced, probably remembering the troll incident. Hermione thinned her lips but said nothing. Harry, though, tried to counter, "He apologised for that, he made a mistake."

"He still insults people, even now." Daphne chimed in from beside me, looking up from her own book. "Even Malfoy has caused less trouble than Ron these past few weeks, and he doesn't seem to like anyone but himself. There is also the possibility of making the mistake of telling others to show off. He seems like the type."

"Ugh, we don't really have to like him, though." Hermione groaned. "We need to ask for his help so that we can help Hagrid."

"You may not have to like him," Tracey, swinging her feet back and forth off the edge of her seat, absentmindedly chimed in while flipping through a magazine, not even paying attention. "But, you do have to trust him. If he blabs, well, you trying to help might be the very thing that causes more damage."

Sensing us giving her a look, she looked up from her magazine as she stopped swinging her feet back and forth. "What?" She asked, but neither of us answered as we continued to stare, which only caused her to roll her eyes. "I am in Slytherin for a reason. I can be all Polytics-ish too, y'know." 

"It's a real shame you choose not to use your head much," Daphne muttered playfully with a smirk on her face.

"Well, I'll have you know I use it all the time," Tracy shot back haughty as she flicked her hair, going back to her magazine while once again swinging her feet back and forth. "Maybe you just hadn't earned my highly useful words of advice."

"Aww, don't listen to Daphne, Tracey. We find your advice highly useful." I gave Tracey a small playful nudge, making her sit straighter in her seat as she gave Daphne one last fake haughty glance before focusing on her 'highly educational piece of literature'. Daphne merely chuckled, leaving the girl to her devices.

It took a while for them to get comfortable enough to tease each other like that in front of people other than me, but I guess they had gotten used to Harry and Hermione these past few months.

"We have Dumbledore's official letter," Harry held up an envelope with the official Hogwarts seal. "All we have to do is get him to send it off, and we'll be all set."

"Yeah, we get that, Harry," Daphne said with a nod. "But Dumbledore could have easily sent off that letter with one of the school owls, mabe even used his phoenix if he wanted it to be quick. This whole thing seems like he just wants you or probably Hermione to talk to Weasley. This all seems like some way for you guys to kiss and make up for what he did, and not just the 'fake be friends' that people do to not get in trouble."

Harry and Hermione knitted their brows but didn't deny it. Sagging his shoulders a little, Harry then gave us a look as he spoke, "Well, you guys coming or not?"

Shutting my book, I stood. Daphne and Tracey stood with me.

"Shall we."

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"What the bloody hell is a bunch of snakes doing here then?"

That was the first thing the lanky redhead blurted out after twisting his face as soon as he laid eyes on Daphne and Tracey. He wore the standard Hogwarts robes that were a bit too big for him, with sleeves that hung slightly past his wrists and a hem that nearly brushed the tops of his scuffed shoes. I could see a smudge of ink-stained on the side of the hand he used to point at the girls from his rush to finish his essay.

The fact that it was due tomorrow, it was an hour until curfew and he still chose not to do it properly had me shaking my head. But, Daphne, Tracey and I just gave the boy blank stares. We already knew he would be like this and as much as it would be easy to just leave the Smartest-Witch-Of-Her-Age and Boy-Who-Lived to do this, it just wouldn't do to miss out on any potential points I could earn from the system.

There was a brief pause and uncomfortable silence - at least for Ron - which seemed to make him brittle under our collective gazes. Before the tension could escalate, Harry intervened. "Ronald, can you help us or not? We just need you to send this letter to Charlie. Dumbledore signed it, and it's the best way to make sure everything works out."

"Come on, Ronald. We'd really appreciate it." Hermione added.

Ron looked at the letter before his eyes flicked between Hermione and Harry. After a moment, he sighed and crossed his arms. "Alright, I'll do it. But you lot owe me one for this."

Daphne, Tracey, and I didn't respond, instead choosing to continue our blank stares. Harry, seeing that we were not going to answer, let out a resigned sigh and muttered, "Fine. We'll owe you one."

Now that I think about it, this had me thinking about all those Slytherin Harry fanfictions I read that had him actually able to use his head. Granted, some involve slowly gaining the mindset after spending so much time in the house, but still. This Harry may not have made it like they did. There were so many more ways to solve this whole problem that didn't involve owing anyone anything, and yet here he was making promises to someone like Ron.

Ron grinned as he took the letter from Harry. "I'll get a letter done now and get it to Charlie. Shouldn't take too long to get a reply."

"Thank you, Ronald," Hermione said.

"Yeah, cheers mate," Harry added. The boy gave them both a nod before sending us a wary look as he walked back to his table to put quill to parchment.

We didn't bother giving the boy a response as he passed us.

"That went about as well as expected," Tracey muttered dryly when he was out of earshot.

"Well, I'm gonna go get some rest," I looked toward where Ron had walked off to. "You guys should probably make sure he doesn't break the seal of the letter and actually sends it off today. He seems like the forgetful type."

"That…doesn't seem like a bad idea, actually," Hermione 

With that, I cast [Muffle] and [Invisibility], and I was gone quicker than Daphne could put a word in about walking the corridors alone or something.

I had [Golems] to make. 

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Daphne Greengrass

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As soon as John disappeared, Daphne's expression darkened. Turning toward Harry and Hermione and seeing their carefree expression, she glared at the two. "You two don't even realise it, do you?"

"What?" Harry blinked before glancing at Hermione for some kind of explanation, only to see she was as taken aback as he was. "What are you talking about? What don't we get this time?"

"You're being terrible friends to John," Daphne continued. "All you ever do is ask him for help. He's constantly giving, helping you with spells and homework, dealing with your problems, and you don't even notice when he's exhausted. Did you see the bags under his eyes yesterday? Today was supposed to be one of the few days we could get him to just relax and all you keep doing is giving him more work to do. He's overworked, and you don't even care."

Hermione opened her mouth to respond, but no words came out. Flicking her eyes to Tracey, who was standing beside Daphne with a sheepish grimace, she got a confirmation of Daphne's words through a sad smile that made its way to Tracey's face when they made eye contact.

"I… I didn't realise," Hermione said quietly as her shoulders dropped. "I didn't mean to make things harder for him. I didn't even think about his extra NEWTs work."

Daphne's glare didn't soften even a little as she firmly continued. "He's been pushing himself too hard. We don't see him nearly as much as we used to, and with how tired he is, it's clear he's barely sleeping. You two are supposed to be his friends, but you just keep piling things on him without even thinking about how much he's already carrying. That's the real reason we didn't want to come all the way here to give a letter to a boy you could have given it to yourself, seeing that you are in the same dorm."

Harry shifted uncomfortably as the girls spoke before running a hand through his hair. "He could have just said-" He took a breath before muttering. "He's the smartest person we know, we just wanted him to see a baby dragon. We can't exactly read minds."

"Read minds?" Daphne shook her head as she let out an uncharacteristic snort. "You don't need to read a person's mind to know that doing seven years of work in one means a lot of work. And he's literally always willing to help, so it's very unlikely he will refuse if you ask—hell, even if you didn't, he'd still be there. Just because he can handle it doesn't mean he should have to. You need to start looking out for him, too. Your friendship is too one-sided."

There was a brief, heavy silence.

Hermione looked down, shame creeping over her. "You're right, Daphne," she admitted. "I should've noticed. I've been so focused on everything else that I didn't even think about how much John was doing."

"We'll lay off," Harry said with a sigh as he grimaced, not used to Daphne being this angry at, well, anything really. She normally just frowns a little, or says something Slytheriny. "But wouldn't it be good to get him to see Norberta off? It would be kind of inconsiderate not to invite him at this point, right?"

Daphne's expression finally softened as she nodded. "Yeah. It can't be good to be cooped up indoors all day like he normally is. That's why we suggested doing some light reading outside for once. 'Touch grass' as he put it. It seems like he got enough sleep last night, so that was good. Just…think about things like that next time."

Both Gryffindors nodded guiltyly. There was a brief, heavy silence, and then Tracey added gently, "Er, don't you guys need to go make sure Ron doesn't balls this up?"

Bringing the two out of their thoughts, they both snapped to attention in the direction Ron had gone off to and rushed off after the redhead.

Once they were out of earshot, Daphne noticed Tracy giving her a look in the corner of her eye.

"What?"

Tracey raised an eyebrow. "Oh, don't mind me." She shrugged as she spoke. "I just thought I saw something for a moment there. Y'know, something fierce. Like a big scary snake trying to eat her some lions for lunch."

Daphne just gave her a blank look as they started to walk away. "Maybe you've just been reading too many magazines. I dealt with that rather well."

"You know frowning that much isn't good for you, right? You'll get old too quick."

Daphne glared at her long-time friend. "Do you want me to give to a talking-to as well?"

Tracey immediately put her hands up in surrender before miming, zipping her mouth shut and throwing away the key.

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Jonathan Grey

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A few days later, Charlie's friends arrived to take Norberta away to the dragon sanctuary. I have no idea why the guy chose not to come himself, but I suppose the sanctuary has people who specialise in capture and transport and all that. Unlike the original timeline that had them sneaking around, Charlie's friends were able to turn up in broad daylight to do their work.

While I spent most of the time talking to the Dragonkeepers about what it feels like in my [Animagus] form, Harry and Hermione spent that time consoling Hagrid as he cried his eyes out. At some point, after hearing how much they love dragons, I conceded to their request to change into my [Alduin] form just for a short while, which they really appreciated. Though they could figure out which type of Dragon I was, they assumed it might just be an extinct species and said they would look into it with some historians and let me know.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, while everyone was focused on my Animagus form, Ron decided to be a little rough with his care of Norberta, which earned him a nice baby Dragon bite to the pinky finger. Noticing the students making their way out of the castle to see the massive Dragon outside, I decided to change back to my human form to avoid the constant requests to give them a ride.

It didn't take long to get Ron to the Hospital wing after we said our goodbyes. I knew Ron ended up in the Hospital wing even in the original so it didn't surprise me when the Dragonkeepers said that 'dragon bites, even baby ones, can be nasty if they're not treated properly'.

I did promise to visit the sanctuary at some point in the future, though. It was already on the list of places to visit when I went on my world tour after Hogwarts.

As we were making some small talk while Ron waited for his turn to be attended to, the door to the hospital wing creaked open, and Malfoy sauntered in with his usual smug grin plastered across his face, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle. "Well, well, well," Malfoy drawled. "What do we have here? The heroic Weasley, laid up in the hospital wing. What happened? Did you trip over your own feet trying to feed your pet rat?"

Harry scowled from the side of the hospital bed as Ron's face turned red. "Mind your own business, Malfoy."

But Malfoy wasn't done. His eyes flicked to John and the rest of the group, and his grin widened. "Honestly, Weasley, it's no surprise. You can't seem to do anything right, can you?---"

"Out!" Madam Pomphrey snapped, making her way over to us with her footsteps echoing on the stone floor, having just finished with another patient. She was a stout, middle-aged woman. She was greying just a bit at the temples, wearing white Healer's robes, apron included. "This is a hospital, not a common room! Out, all of you, now! I'll not have you making all this noise while I'm trying to run a ward!"

The golden trio, Daphne and Tracey, immediately started glaring at Malfoy, who tried to make it look like it didn't bother him as Madam Pomfrey waved her hands toward the door, ushering us out with no room for argument. As we were ushered out of the hospital wing, I immediately cast [Invisibility] and [Muffle] to skip what I already guessed was Malfoy's attempt to get something from me. The boy was too easy to read.

Seeing that I was nowhere to be seen, Malfoy's brows furrowed as he scanned the corridor for any trace of me. Harry, Hermione, Daphne, and Tracey were already used to my disappearing like that by now, so they didn't think much of it. I waited a little to hear what Malfoy wanted, though, but the boy had completely lost interest.

"Come on," Malfoy muttered with a huff as he turned to Crabbe and Goyle, gesturing for them to follow him down one of the corridors, while the group just shook their head and went in the opposite direction.

Deciding to actually do something productive for the day, I went to continue with my army building.

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[Knight Golem - Magical Object] x4,932

[Description: A magical Golem created by Johnathan Grey using techniques learned from previous ancient magic users. Enchanted with Ancient magic to do his bidding, Johnathan Grey also added Self-Repair and Self-Cleaning Charms. Created using Enchanted Stone and Metal for increased durability.]

My time spent making Golems was too boring, so I left Poppy to do some of the things that didn't need my input while I worked on something else. She would do the leg work of putting the Golem together for me to easily enchant it when I had some free time. I could have made them completely out of metal, or even just their armour. But it was just too time-consuming for the amount I wanted, so I decided to make those as a sort of king's Guard batch later when I had time.

These foot soldier Knight Golems were 2-metre tall, humanoid stone Golems in full stone armour with metal bone structures on the inside, each equipped with a steel 2-handed sword and shield. Despite its hulking build, it moved surprisingly fast when I tested it out. Not [Dremora] fast, but definitely 'trained human' fast.

For now, well, I had…repossessed Harry's Cloak and replaced it with one I created just like it with Ancient magic. Technically, it wasn't stealing, seeing that it actually belonged to Death, so it didn't bother me.

The one I replaced it with didn't have the same perks, but it would allow him to be invisible like they are all designed to be, and unlike most others, it wouldn't run out of magic with the way I enchanted it. Well, if he used it for more than a week straight, then it would stop working and need to recharge, but it charges with abient magic, so it should be fine.

I get that the Cloak was his family heirloom and everything, but for fuck sake, it was way too easy to steal. He really should have left it at home….actually, that wouldn't have stopped me, but still, it was the principle of the matter.

[The Cloak of Invisibility - Magical Artifact]

[Description - The Cloak of Invisibility is one of three Deathly Hallows, along with the Resurrection Stone and the Elder Wand. The Cloak of Invisibility, the third and final Hallow, was created by Death and given to the Peverell brothers after they completed a ritual for magical artefacts to defeat Herpo the Foul.]

[+Turns the wearer and the objects or people covered by it invisible to those outside of the Cloak's covering.]

[+ Decrease magical presence by 90%]

[+ Does not fade with age.]

[- Allows the user to become 'Master of Death' when in possession of the other Hallows]

It was time to steal from House Lestrange, and not just a Horcrux either.

Fuck the Goblins, and Fuck Bellatrix too.

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"Death's got an Invisibility Cloak?"

—Harry Potter

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Hello There

Is it theft if it never belonged to his family in the first place?

Only Death can answer, and she will ... at some point.

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