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Growing Up Royal: After TTTC	By : ladyedgecombe Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Snape Views: 10373 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own or have interest in any of the Harry Potter universe. I admire J. K. Rowling for entertaining us with her world of make believe and do not make any money from writing this story

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
Growing up Royal: After TTTC

Posted: 07/21/12

Chapter 16: Warding Preparations

Salazar studied the floor for a few minutes before looking up and telling the others in the room. "I know what is wrong with the wards."

Sev, who had been speaking with his son, suddenly looked up and asked in a louder than normal voice, “What?” at the same time as Grandpa Severus. “What do you mean you know what is wrong with the wards?”

“First, let me explain. This drawing on the floor is a map of Hogwarts and it’s grounds. Everything here is precisely measured out to the exact replica of the entire property. If you look at the star points, you will see a nine pointed star with a rune at each tip. These are in exact correlation to stones placed at the same point on the property with the same runes in place.”

Sal paused for a moment to see if everyone was keeping up with his conversation. “Now, as you look at the map you can also see the four corners, north, south, east, and west is also marked with runes. It looks to me as if some of the runes have been changed or moved to weaken the wards. I don’t know exactly how but it could only have been a past headmaster as the runes are only visible to the ones in charge with their protection.”

“If you look at all the runes, you will see how some of them glow and the others do not. There are four runes that are dull and you almost can’t see. If we go out on the property to find the correlating runes you will probably find out they have either been moved, changed or destroyed altogether. Between this and the fact that the castle has not been empty for the magic to adjust itself and settle, we have our weakened wards.”

Harry was listening carefully to what the older man was saying. “I thought that was something Dumbledore made up. When I asked him if I could stay here instead of going home, he said I couldn’t because the wards had to replenish. I thought it was just an excuse to send me back to my aunt and uncle.”

“Well Harry,” Salazar responded, “that would be a yes and no. Dumbledore was correct in that the wards need an empty castle, but he needed a completely empty castle including the teachers. Hogwarts has another property just outside the wards for the teachers and students that wanted to do summer studies. I haven’t had time to look into it yet, but from what I gather, it hasn’t been used in a very long time. I haven’t found reference to it in the financial records, but we have had other pressing matters. It is probably under a fidelis charm and no one knows where it is.”

Sal was watching Harry and just knew he was gearing up for one of his famous rants. He was going to have to distract him back to the most pressing topic. "Harry!" the founder said sharply, "focus. We will get to Hogwarts House eventually, but right now the wards is the most pressing matter.

"Sorry, Sal. I just really would like to find out what happened to the other."

"Yes, Becca has been after me about the same thing. But these things take time. We had to get the school in order first." Sal responded as an acceptance to Harry's apology.

“Now everyone, as you can see from the diagram on the floor, some of the runes have a slight glow indicating that the marked rocks on the grounds are in the exact place as the map indicates. The others that are not giving off a soft glow, are runes that need to be fixed. It could be the rock was moved or someone changed the rune on it so that it no longer matches exactly. It could also mean that the rune was destroyed in some manner, whether it is by natural forces or human. They have to be reset before the solstice so we have to get moving."

Grandpa Harry asked the same question a few others were wondering about, "So why does the castle need to be completely empty? I don't understand."

Sal went into teacher mode for a minute to explain to everyone the complexities of the warding system.

"Magic that is left over, residual magic, from the students and teachers floats around the school. Most magic returns to the creator of the spell. As you know, sometimes you can tell who has been in an area just by the residual magical signature of a person. The stronger the person's magic, the stronger the signal."

Everyone nodded that they understood so far.

"Magic that does not return to the user starts to seek for a place to settle. It doesn't just sit there and dissipate. It will first look for the one that cast it; it will then look for another that has a close signature. When that doesn't work it will then settle into the building that surrounds it. This is how Hogwarts over the years became sentient. When the building is empty the left over magic settles into the foundations. Hence, making the castle stronger and thus the wards stay strong as well."

"So, do the professors that stay get stronger? Perhaps that's why they didn't want to leave." Grandfather Severus said.

"Well, they wouldn't get stronger per se, if they didn't know about it. If they did know about it, they would be able to borrow on the magic like some of you were taught to. Mostly the power continues to fly around without direction because the human presence confuses it. If no humans are around then it would do what it normally would and seep into the earth or foundations of the school in this case. Magic never ceases, it just continues in another form, much like life itself."

"Then is our being here going to do the same?" Lucius asked.

"Not really, because we are not going to be here that much longer. Regardless of these theories, we have to be here to set new wards."

"How does this type of warding differ from our homes?" James Potter asked. He still wasn't sure why he was still alive, but was not going to ask. He was happy with the outcome.

"It works very much the same. Our family homes, especially those that have been handed down through generations have the same on a much smaller scale. When the family goes on vacation, it allows residual magic to renew itself in the earth or the foundations of the home or manor. That is why it is so fashionable to have summer homes. One replenishes while the other is being used. The same for Hogwarts House, the live-in teachers would stay there as well as all the elves to let Hogwarts school replenish and settle before the new school year."

Harry was carefully listening to what Sal had said and it suddenly all made sense. Even the wards on his aunt and uncle's house; he had to be there for at least two weeks in the summer because he was the only magical being there to replenish the wards. It was too bad that there hadn't been wards to protect said magical being on the inside.

“So where do we go from here?” someone else in the room asked.

Sal answered, “I think if the Grandpas go and fly around the south area you can find the missing or damaged runes. We will probably have to replace the rocks or if the boulders are intact, move them back to their original place. After we find out what the problem is, we can make our plans from there.

Well, the two Grandpas, after studying the map to see exactly what was going on, morphed into their phoenix form and flashed immediately to the trouble spots. In the meantime, everyone else made their way back to the Great Hall to eat and get the kids to settle down a bit. It had been a long day, so the adults had the elves bring some sleeping pads for the kids as several of them had been yawning for a while. Once they were all settled Sal discussed several plans with the other adults so that a strategy was already formed when the two Grandpas arrived back after their little adventure. But they didn’t arrive alone, several strangers were with them and no one looked happy.

It was Grandpa Sev that addressed the group. “We have a problem, one of the boulders has been destroyed and the area it was sitting on, collapsed down a ledge so that unless we build the ground back up and create another ledge, it will not even support a new rock. I don’t know how we would fix it. The others look like they have been tampered with. Two merely have to be moved back into place but the other has been cracked in half.”

“Could you tell what caused the changes?” Sal asked. He still was suspicious since there were charms around the boulders and there should have been no reason for this to have happened.

“No, the ledge could have been hit by lightening or a strong Reducto. It is too overgrown and too long ago to tell for sure. The two runes that were moved definitely look as if some one just picked them up and moved them about ten meters. The last one looks to have been more recent and could have been lightening or magic. It has some magical residue but there is no way to tell if it is because the rock was magical or it was hit with a curse. The magic was not dark,” Grandpa Sev answered.

Salazar Slytherin sighed. This was worse than he had imagined. They would have to replace two of the huge stones and etch in the runes before the rituals could be used to set the wards.

“Anyone have an idea how we can obtain two rocks about seventy stones each from Phoenix Mountain ?” Salazar placed his hands on his face for a minute in exasperation as he contemplated the situation. He had been hoping for better news when he had sent the men out.

“ Phoenix Mountain ?” Harry queried. “I have never heard of it.”

“It’s the nesting place of phoenixes. When it is time for them to lay eggs and nurse their chicks, they leave their bonded wizard or witch and go to the Mountain of the Phoenix . Only a true phoenix knows where it is. Well, except the founders. We had originally moved thirteen large rocks from there weighing approximately seventy stones each and placed them on the property. The runes cut into the rocks are within a circle of a meter in circumference so you need a really large foundation for the magic to settle into. It took us nearly six months to get them situated.” Sal slumped onto one of the chairs, again passing his hands over his face. There were too many problems that needed to be resolved and only a few days to do it.

“So who are the men with you?” Severs asked the two older men. Three men had stayed silent in the background while the others discussed the warding stones. If Severs were to guess, they looked like they could be vampires.

“Ah, yes, I knew we were forgetting something,” Grandpa Harry said. “These men were on their way here when we intercepted them. They have some other information for us.”

One of the men stepped forward and said, “Forgive the intrusion. My name is Thomas and I am an associate of Michael Tepes and am one that was posted in Hogsmeade. We have information for you. A member of the staff here has informed Aberforth Dumbledore about the rewarding of the school. It was an older man; I think you have him as the caretaker.”

Silence was the only thing that could be heard after the stranger’s proclamation. Salazar could hear the breathing of the future generations in the background. He was in tune with the different sounds coming within the castle but still the silence was deafening, increasing the thrum of his own heart as his blood boiled in his veins. He started to question himself, what could he have done differently? All of his careful planning to keep this as private as possible, all of the promises and oaths he extracted from everyone involved, only to be thwarted by some stupid, glorified janitor.

Sal shifted in his chair as he was thinking and then announced to the others in the room, “I think that Albus Dumbledore is trying to hinder my efforts from his grave. I am almost beginning to feel that this man has sabotaged the school.” When the man died, Sal and the others thought they could make the changes in the school, increase and better the curriculum, and have a better place of education for future witches and wizards. But even then, they were under suspicion, thwarted by Dumbledore supporters. It took several years and replacing some of the school governors to get this far. Damn that Albus Dumbledore and what was his brother hanging around for? Did he blame the group for his brother’s death? Is that why he was hanging around so much?

Sal heaved a huge sigh and finally broke the silence saying “I am at a loss as how to get everything done. I could use some help here, so if one of you have an idea, please say something.”

Little Harry, had been listening to everything the adults were saying. He knew they thought he wouldn’t understand, but he did. The school protection wards had to be replaced, they needed some biiiiiigigggg rocks, and someone named Dumbadoor was giving them some problems. Well, he didn’t know about the Dumbadoor man but he knew about rocks.

“Uncle Sev,” the youngster said to the man who was currently holding him on his lap. “I have an idea.”

“That’s nice little Harry, but we need to be quiet so Uncle Salazar can concentrate on what he wants to do.”

“But, Uncle SSSseeeevvvvv, I know something we could do.” The little boy insisted.

Now the child was pulling on the front of the man’s robes to get his attention. Severs showed immense patience when he pulled the child’s hands from his clothes and quietly told him, “Hush, child, Uncle Sal is trying to concentrate.”

Little Harry started wiggling to get down, so without even thinking about it Severs put him down so he could go play with his cousins. Only the child didn’t go play, he then climbed onto another uncle’s lap to see if he could get his attention.

“Uncle Harry, I have an idea how to help,” the child said as he pulled on the man’s robes. He was going to get someone’s attention until they at least listened to his idea. “Uncle Haaaarrrryyyyy!”

Now Harry, being a little more patient than his other half; looked down into the verdant eyes that were so like his own and asked, “What is your idea Harry?”

“You remember when we were camping last summer? All of us kids were building a fort? When we tried to move some of the rocks around, some of them were really heavy, and Fawkes helped us. We tied ropes around the rocks and he pulled on the ropes until the rocks were lifted then he flashed them to the spot we wanted them in.” The little boy was so excited about his idea; he was talking so fast Uncle Harry barely understood what the child was saying.

“I see, you think we could call Fawkes and ask him for help. I believe you have a very good idea, little one. Let’s go talk to Uncle Sal about it.”

So it was decided, with Little Harry’s suggestion, the Grandpas and the two Fawkes left for Phoenix Mountain to get the two boulders needed for the new wards. They only had two days to get them as they still would need to prepare them after getting them back to the castle.

It was soon that Sirius, Remus with Tonks, and Regulus and Snape had arrived and the work finally began in earnest. The rune on the one rock that had been changed and moved was soon put back into place but there was still the problem of the one rune that was supposed to be on the cliff that was no longer there.

That is until Evan suggested they change the map instead of trying to rebuild the cliff. His Uncle Remus said “Out of the mouths of babes,” and then set to work on fixing the map.

The truth was that the map was one centimeter for every meter of property and the star was not in exact proportions, meaning that the star points were not all the same length. They were in exact proportions to the land, so if the land moved, moving the star point to reflect that worked just as well as repositioning one of the rocks. Now all they have to do is wait.

However, in Hogsmeade there was a totally different conversation going on…

Filch was already at the Hog’s Head Inn drinking at the counter watching the strangers seated at a corner table in the shadows. He had never seen them before and he wondered if they were there to extract punishment for telling Dumbledore about the school’s warding, although he didn’t know how they might have found out.

It was no secret that Salazar Slytherin was every bit as powerful as his ancestor was purported to be. Even as a squib he could feel the energy surrounding him. Filch actually made it a practice to stay out of his way whenever he was around. Dumbledore had made some promises; promises that had been made by the former Headmaster also. It had had been about fifty years since the torture racks had been used. Filch had quite enjoyed taking out his discontent when he was first hired. A discontent born out of the ridicule he had been forced to endure all his life for being a squib in a magical world. He had quite enjoyed his revenge.

It wasn’t until some of the muggle born children started to attend on a more regular basis that he had to abstain from his punishment practices. As more and more muggle born students started to come, they would complain to their parents who would then contact the headmaster. Not long after, one of the parents that worked for the palace of the queen complained to the Ministry of Magic, they then realized they had to discontinue the practice completely. Filch briefly thought about all this as he continued watching the strangers for any hint of confirmation to his suspicions. It would not surprise him to find out that the strangers had something to do with the bane of his existence , Salazar Slytherin.

The three men just sat at the table seemingly nonchalant as they took in every word and movement from their surroundings. Cataloging anything that they thought their leader might want to know. The slightest movement could be important if it were a signal to someone else in the room. Fortunately they had excellent memories and observation skills honed from centuries of practice.

Filch turned back to Dumbledore and asked, “Don’t you have a manor around here that we could stay in? I don’t find the accommodations at The Three Broomsticks all that comfortable.”

“I can’t access the place right now, someone may find out. No we will bide our time and wait for just the right moment to regain access to the castle. It won’t be long; we will just let them do what they want and then go into the castle through one of the secret passages. They won’t be able to fix the wards completely; they won’t be able to work out what is wrong with them in the first place.

On Phoenix Mountain the Grandpas in their phoenix forms and the two Fawkes flew through the air. It was crisp and clean and the Grandpas knew they had never experienced such clean refreshing air in their entire lives. Here there were no people, no evil and it was untouched by human hands and so isolated. Grandpa Harry held back his tears as the wonder touched his head and heart as he mourned that such a place so splendorous was unavailable to others. But the sad thing was, if it were available to others, it would lose it’s special splendor.

The Fawkes from this time line cried out as they flew over the mountain. Soon they were encased within a flock of phoenixes and all of them were looking over the area for the perfect stones. The lead phoenix flew over to a peak on the mountain that was not used as a nesting ground. It was more flat and with few footholds for the nesting birds to have even the basic protection from the elements and other would be predators. The leader of the phoenixes gave instructions in flashes of pictures and sounds. The wizards were to transform to their human form and cut the rock at a certain point to slice off a portion of the mountain that would be the perfect rock to use.

It turned out that the leader phoenix named Apollo was the same phoenix that had helped the founders over a thousand years ago. No one knew exactly how old the phoenix was, not even the phoenix, but from what they could tell, he was the leader for generations before the founders got together.

After seeing the phoenix’s memory of how Gryffindor sliced the rock before, it was short work for Grandpa Harry to levitate the rock as Grandpa Sev cut through it where the phoenix showed him. It was quick work to get the needed boulders at just the correct size then perform the Incarcerous spell to tie them up. One Fawkes took the one rock with Grandpa Harry while the other one took the other stone with Grandpa Sev. With a quick thanks to the flock of birds they flashed off of the mountain top directly to where the rocks needed to be placed.

Two well placed patronuses let the others know they were back. As the Grandpas carefully placed the stones as close as possible to the exact place they needed to be; in alignment with the warding map in the dungeons.

To save time, Sirius and his brother Regulus had enlarged two sheets of parchment and carefully copied the runes which were needed onto the paper before the rock arrived. It was to save time in case they couldn’t find the rocks right away and time was short. The parchment was specially treated so that when the rune was set, the paper would be burned and the rune would remain etched into the stone. If this was done correctly, the rock would flash a white light letting everyone know that it was a success.

It wasn't long before everything was set and it was just a few hours before the evening of the summer solstice.

In Hogsmeade...

If Dumbledore had been frustrated about his guests, his ire rose times ten with the large influx of people that came into the small village. Not only were there a few of the professors from the school, but several strangers were staying at the Three Broomsticks as well. Unbeknownst to the old man, several of the Prince employees as well as the Hogwarts coven were staying close to Hogwarts without living in the castle. The house elves had all been moved and the castle was now empty, as it was supposed to be.

This left the castle very vulnerable right now. Of course there was no dark wizard to worry about, but still there were some people that would want to harm the children. Just as in the muggle society, not everyone in the wizarding society was the best sort of person. Hence the influx of people in Hogsmeade. While the covens worked on replacing the wards, the area needed to be protected. Every time Aberforth Dumbledore tried to take a stroll, he could feel eyes were out there watching him.

He was correct in the assumption that he was being watched. So were the other residents of Hogsmeade. Some of the Prince employees were stationed around the school perimeter in warded tents to make sure that no one entered the castle grounds. The Centars were stationed throughout the forest as well as many of the acromantula to protect that area and even the fairies were stationed at the cliffs and other more precarious rocky areas. The Seven had been posted on the perimeter to patrol the area and let's not forget our cute vampire friends. Their night time vision was invaluable in a situation like this. Everyone would be posted for at least a week while the magic of the wards settled into the very core of the castle and worked it's way out through the surrounding school lands.

Back at the castle on the eve of solstice...

Twelve witches and wizards were gathered together around the map of the castle and grounds. As one body they each stood on their assigned part of the diagram in anticipation and raised their wands in unison and started chanting the words they had been taught by Salazar. With the wand tips lit and touching each other they started the ritual of the wards and slowly brought down their wands to touch the floor and slowly moved them to the rune points on the map.

Ancient Magic, Mother Earth hear our cry

The founders four we call from high

Protect these walls and those within

Protect these lands from those of sin

Release your magic Hogwarts four

For those that enter in your doors

To set upon those young one's ears

That which you have taught for years

Release your magic Hogwarts four

For those that enter in your doors

Repel those that wish to abate

Your protections at the gate

Ancient Magic, Mother Earth hear our cry

The founders four we call from high

Protect these walls and those within

Protect these lands from those of sin

As the group finished their chant three times, a power surge went through their wands and the magic pulsed around them. They looked at each other in understanding, so they silently and in single file made their way through the castle and off the grounds. It was not until they quietly walked through the gate that they grouped together to talk about what had just happened.

"Wow!" Harry remarked as soon as they made their way through the gate to the castle grounds. "Was it like that the first time you did that?" he asked Salazar.

"Not quite, the wards we are setting are a little different. We needed something that would hold better. The first wards should never have been compromised. We called on more ancient magic to better protect the surrounding grounds."

Severus interjected into the conversation, "So what is our next step?"

"No one should enter the grounds for the next seven days. Next it will only be the Vampire coven that will enter and they already know what they are going to do. We, on the other hand, are going to find Hogwarts House," the founder smiled at Harry and continued, "I have made a promise to Harry to find out what happened to it."
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Growing Up Royal: After TTTC

"Wow!" Harry remarked as soon as they made their way through the gate to the castle grounds. "Was it like that the first time you did that?" he asked Salazar.

"Not quite, the wards we are setting are a little different. We needed something that would hold better. The first wards should never have been compromised. We called on more ancient magic to better protect the surrounding grounds."

Severus interjected into the conversation, "So what is our next step?"