Harry Potter and the Memories of a Sociopath, Ch 19: Recklessness, pt. 2

Here's how it is:

During his second year at Hogwarts, Harry is still concerned about the fate of the world and, though Hermione has obtained a phoenix and destroyed Azkaban's dementors, work on the Philosopher's Stone based hospital at Hogwarts has stalled due to ward incompatibilities and the temporary hospital in Azkaban tower has been shut down after being compromised by Bellatrix. Many aurors were killed or fatally injured and are in transfiguration-based stasis awaiting treatment.

Moody detected evidence of horcrux possession on Hermione and probably on Sprout. Draco and other students demonstrated unusual behavior and were later found to have been memory charmed. Harry thought of potential countermeasures Voldemort could have used against parseltongue and obliviation and suspects that Voldemort survived, that his plan had been to pretend to lose while preparing a powerful and immortal host for himself who Harry would trust implicitly (and explicitly, given the unbreakable vow). Unfortunately, that same vow prevented Harry from sharing his suspicions, until Moody revealed that he'd been thinking similar things. Thus far, efforts to locate a horcrux at Hogwarts have been unsuccessful.

Luna demonstrates uncanny knowledge even though she's obviously not a real seer. Moody has hypothesized that Defense professor Gilderoy Lockhart is incompetent and relying on liquid luck for his accomplishments. And obviously plotting something.

Harry has a relatively long list of things he intends to investigate, including big picture items like Merlin's Interdict, prophecy, time-turner paradoxes, magic-technology interactions, and rescuing Dumbledore, as well as smaller scale things like looking into Ravenclaw's Diadem or whether the potion liquid luck is a real thing or a cover story. Magical interferences with technology are proving more difficult to pin down than he had hoped, so he has focused more strongly on learning arithmancy, which involves putting spells together to achieve novel functions.

If you think hard enough you can do the impossible.

(It had always been an article of faith with Harry. There'd been a time when he'd acknowledged the laws of physics as ultimate limitations, and now he suspected there were no true limits at all.)

If you think fast enough you can sometimes do the impossible quickly...

...sometimes.

Only sometimes.

Not always.

Not reliably.

With Professor Flitwick gone, Harry had asked Professor Vector if there was any way to detect damage to the wards around the crystal cases, verify the residue that a real duel should have left behind. Harry had raced through the Hogwarts library looking for spells to tell the difference between old fingerprints and new fingerprints, or to detect lingering exhalations in a room. And all those attempts at playing detective had failed.

There were no clues, none that he was smart enough to find.

Professor Snape had said that the portkey led to an empty house in London, with no sign of anyone or anything else.

Professor Snape hadn't found any notes in Hermione's dorm.

Headmaster Dumbledore had said that Voldemort's spirit was probably hiding out in the Chamber of Secrets where the Hogwarts security system couldn't find him. Harry had snuck into the Slytherin dungeons under the Cloak of Invisibility and spent the rest of the afternoon looking through all the obvious places, but he hadn't found anything snaky that answered back when spoken to. The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, it seemed, hadn't been meant to be found in a day.

Harry had talked to all of Hermione's friends that would still talk to him, and none of them had remembered Hermione saying anything specific about why she'd believed that Draco was plotting against her.

Harry had used up all six hours from his Time-Turner, and there were still no clues, and he had to go to sleep now if he wanted to be functional at Hermione's trial the next day.

The Boy-Who-Destroyed-A-Dementor was standing in the middle of the Hogwarts trophy room, his wand dropped at his feet.

He was crying.

Sometimes you call your brain and it doesn't answer.

After awaking, Harry sighed softly, then stunned himself back to sleep.

Harry stated, "Headmistress, I have a meeting with Arthur Weasley at the Ministry this morning, so I won't be in the castle for a while."

She nodded, "You think he can help you study how muggle artifacts work with magic?"

"Maybe, but I doubt it. I mostly wanted an excuse to see the Ministry of Magic without the Acting Chief Warlock thinking I'm checking up on her or something."

Sometime later, he flooed into the Ministry atrium. Harry had nothing to compare it to, but it looked to him like business as usual was occurring. Some people were standing around talking while others appeared to be in a hurry to go in various directions. A receptionist asked Harry why he was there and then provided directions to the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office. Harry thanked him and walked away.

And then began exploring.

Harry walked through random hallway after random hallway. Harry quickly noted that the layout was more sensible than Hogwarts, the automatically supplied the phrase "damned with faint praise". Occasionally a doorway was labeled with a name he recognized from a newspaper or a conversation, but mostly the building was a large collection of anonymous offices. Harry had decided against walking into the Department of Mysteries without an appointment, but he couldn't resist visiting the Wizengamot chamber, that symbol of current political power and lost magical power, which was likely the reason why the Ministry of Magic was located in a densely populated muggle city. After standing behind the Chief Warlock's podium and looking down at the chamber, Harry paused for a moment, then checked his watch and moved toward the exit, backtracking and navigating the the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office.

Harry knocked on the door of Arthur's office, and was quickly invited in, "Oh, Hello Harry. Sorry about the mess, I had to move everything in here so the DMLE could use my department's other rooms."

"Oh. I didn't notice anything wrong at all with the building, so I kind of assumed they'd already repaired everything."

"No, they just put up illusions in some hallways to hide the damaged areas. It's good enough to fool anyone who doesn't come here often; they don't want to look weak to representatives of foreign governments. Anyway, I've been looking forward to talking with you. I heard some things about how you were using muggle devices in those dueling sessions last year. Can you tell me a little more about that?"

Harry suppressed a sigh and began answering questions.

Sometime later, Arthur added, "It's too bad they made you stop. That's exactly the kind of thinking we need in the Department of Misuse of Muggle Artifacts. I don't suppose you've given any thought to your future career?"

"Actually... I'm not really sure what your department does."

"Yeah, the mission statement is pretty vague, but it's intentional. Originally 'Misuse of Muggle Artifacts' was intended to prevent wizard culture from becoming more like muggle culture. Dumbledore couldn't get rid of the department entirely, so he changed it to be about preventing wizards from making magical objects that muggles might stumble across."

"And you have staff?"

"Not... currently. When I need help with something important, I've been able to get a few aurors on temporary assignment. Assuming the DMLE isn't busy... Anyway, I also heard you have a... radio working at Hogwarts? So muggle studies can listen to actual muggle news reports and such?"

"Yeah, it's just a simple crystal radio. It picks up strong AM broadcasts. Though if a calculator works here, you can probably use a normal AM/FM radio, or even a TV. That will pick up a lot more stations."

Arthur looked at him with blank expression.

Harry clarified, "Just get some muggle money from Gringotts and buy stuff in London."

Arthur nodded, then exclaimed, "Oh, I think you wanted to see my calculator. This thing is a life save when I have to do accounting." Arthur frowned.

Harry leaned forward and saw that the calculator was not functioning. He retrieved his own, with the same result. He was disappointed, but not particularly surprised by this result.

Arthur shrugged, "Sometimes it doesn't work here. I don't know why, but it usually fixes itself within a week or so. Almost always works at home, though, so if you want we can try there."

"Perhaps another time. I do have classes to attend."

"A new bright star mysteriously appeared? You'd think we'd have read about that in the news", Terry smirked.

Luna explained patiently, "It didn't just appear; it's been there for years. It's just not there during astronomy class. Or whenever I look at the sky above Hogwarts. Maybe there's a ward here to hide it for some reason."

Hermione suggested, "Astronomical objects bright enough to be seen without magic or technology have been pretty well mapped for centuries. Maybe you saw a plane or a satellite? Though I'm not sure why you'd always see them in Gemini"

Terry exclaimed, "That's what I'm saying. A mystery star is crazy."

Ginny looked up, "Who appointed you arbiter of sanity?"

Terry rolled his eyes, "This is the Ravenclaw table. Go eat dinner with the other Gryffindors."

Ginny smirked, "Who put you in charge of assigning seats?"

Hermione shrugged, "Anyway, I have to get back to work on something." She got up and left.

Without turning her head, Luna's expression had changed and it was clear she was no longer following the conversation.

Harry sat down/partially collapsed into a seat nearby and began absently piling food onto a plate.

"Hey Harry?", Harry looked up from the plate. Terry continued, "How would you explain it if someone claimed they saw a really bright star that no one else knows about and isn't always there?"

Harry shrugged and returned to gathering food, "Venus and Jupiter are the brightest objects in the night sky, and I've read that they're frequently misidentified by people who don't pay much attention to the sky. And planets change position relative to the stars; it's actually how they were named. Why?"

Terry smirked at Luna, "No reason."

A group of Slytherins had Neville surrounded and disarmed. Peregrine Derrick laughed then cast hover charm, "How high do you guys think he'll bounce?"

Across the Great Hall, Harry sighed and rhetorically asked the nearby Ravenclaws, "Do any of you ever think of something you *know* is a bad idea, but it's just so awesome that you have to go through with it anyway?"

Padma frowned, "No. Knowing something is a bad idea is what happens before the decisions you don't make."

Harry nodded, removing his glasses and casting luminos onto both lenses, "Solid point."

Luna smiled, "If I didn't act on bad ideas, I'd never get anything done."

Harry chuckled, "Interesting perspective". He replaced his glasses, tapped them with his wand and muttered a sticking charm.

Anthony shook his head, "There might be a reason for that. What exactly are you planning Harry..."

Harry wasn't paying attention then because he was already in the air. A wave of silence spread out around him.

At the Slytherin table, Lesath gasped, "My lord!", and fell to his knees. Those around him glanced around at each other nervously. More than a few followed Lesath's example.

Fred whispered to George, "Marauder Junior's really got us this time."

George whispered back, "Seriously. We're never going to top this one."

Padma whispered to Anthony, "Invisible broom?"

Anthony whispered back, "That's got to be it."

Derrick's voice carried easily through the quiet hall, "You think you're so great, Longbottom. I wonder, can you fly?"

Harry drifted over and put Neville's arm over his shoulder, preparing to support his weight, "I actually haven't taught him that yet. But trust me, it's on my list." He forced a maniacal laugh.

Derrick released the hover charm and cast a stupify at Harry. It reflected off of his robe and stunned Derrick.

One of the others slowly put his wand away, then raised his hands, "Lord, forgive me, please show mercy." The rest hesitated, then followed suite.

Harry snapped, "Just get out of my sight. And get that out of here." He gestured at Derrick's body.

Harry brought Neville safely to the ground, then canceled the sticking charm and red glow on his glasses, laughing (normally this time).

Ron leveled his wand at Harry, hand visibly shaking, "Drop your wand and surrender."

Harry continued laughing.

Fred and George quickly approached Ron, "Hey, put that down." "What on earth do you think you're doing?"

"He can fly. No one can do that other than Voldemort. Didn't you see his eyes glow red? What else are we supposed to believe?"

Percy stood and casually hurdled the nearby tables, bouncing up from his landing and hanging in the air looking down at Ron. "If that's all it takes, you can address me as Dark Lord Weasley."

Fred and George laughed, allowing themselves to fall to the floor and roll back and forth.

"Too much... Too much..."

"Just imagine... Percy..."

"A dark lord..."

"And Ron... the dark wizard hunter..."

"Imagine if someone made that a play..."

"We should write that... Imagine how many tickets we could sell."

Ron opened his mouth to reply, then paused. He looked around the room at the other students. Some were laughing. Others had their wands out and shields in place. Yet others were on their knees. All were staring at Harry.

McGonagall's voice blasted through the tension, "Everyone go back to your common rooms. Mr. Potter, to my office now."

McGonagall shook her head sadly, "How are you able to be so smart and yet so dumb?".

Harry sighed, "After failing to get the hospital running for so long, after... everything... I just really needed a win somewhere. Permanently ending the bullying at this school seemed like a good thing to try. I know it wasn't the most well-reasoned idea, but all I really did was hover around a bit with my glasses glowing red; how bad could it possibly turn out?"

McGonagall shook her head, "I know you've been putting a lot of pressure on yourself. Go back to your room and try to get a full night's sleep. I'm sure you'll feel better in the morning."

Harry nodded and walked to the door, whispering to himself, "Yeah, I'm sure that will happen."

And of course, it didn't.

A young Hufflepuff whose name he couldn't remember smiled brightly, "Thank you so much for walking us back to the common room, Cedric. We wouldn't have wanted to lose points getting caught out past curfew on our own."

Cedric shrugged, "It's no problem. And I'm sure no one would have a problem with the group of you being out a few minutes late. And you were coming straight from the library. Studying magic is pretty much the point of this school."

Another shuddered, "Not to mention the other people who might be out here at night."

Cedric nodded, "Yeah, that can be a problem. It's good to keep safety in numbers."

"Did you hear that?"

"No? What was it?"

"I... I'm not sure. Maybe someone breathing?"

"Only if it was really loudly and slowly."

Cedric held a finger to his lips, and listened while the group stopped talking. After a moment, he concluded, "I don't hear- Okay, I heard that."

"It sounds like there's someone nearby."

"It didn't sound like footsteps."

"No, it was more like shuffling or dragging."

"Over there! ...I saw something move down that hallway."

"Something like what?"

"I don't know, just a dark shape. But it was pretty short, not like a person or anything."

"Is someone over there?", Cedric called out.

There was no response.

"Fair warning: if you attack us, I will have to hurt you", he added.

There was no response.

"How could anything bad happen to us with Cedric around?", someone asked, attempting a casual smile.

Cedric smiled back, stoically trying to hide his nervousness.

Cedric released a breath, "Stay here. I'll check it out." He cast a light from the end of his wand and strode forward...